Robin Arkham Asylum Novels & Stories

The weight of the medical case in my left hand was a grounding, heavy reality. "Ruan," I whispered into my throat-comm, the static the only response. "Jax, talk to me." Nothing. The silence of the facility was absolute, broken only by the distant, low whine of a turbine spinning somewhere in the deeper sub-levels. I followed the trail of dark, milky fluid splattered across the concrete floor. It caught the pale beam of my tactical torch, a glistening track that led toward the central control room—the "Mastermind’s Asylum." This was the brain of the municipal grid, the place where Arthur Vance had once mapped out the veins of Blackridge before his empire turned to ash.

Ichabod could perceive the scent of dried herbs mixed with chemicals. “Is there no one here?” Ichabod asked quietly, peering into the darkness to see Adam;s wrinkled face but somehow, the whole place was brightened up for him to see they were in what looked like a very old pharmacy with shelves and chemicals, yet there was no one in sight. So who had put on the light? Adams walked to the sales counter which had a small bell on it, Adams tipped against it but no sound could be heard. He did it again but yet no sound. With a grown, he shouted. “Johnny get your wrinkly self over here, your stupid bell is not working again!”

He arrived at the villa's door through the mountain trail. The door was wide open like they were waiting for his arrival. Wilbur did not hesitate to walk in. Hugh and Silas stood there in the living room, but Robin was nowhere to be seen. Wilbur saw them and frowned. Robin was lurking in the dark. He used his remaining spiritual energy to activate his Dark Domain. His Dark Domain was only targeted on Wilbur alone. He had to hide somewhere in a dark corner to keep it that way, so he was not able to move.

“Come on, we’ll be late for Cryptobotany! Professor Thorne gets cranky when we don’t bow to her mandrakes.” Cryptobotany. Finally, something familiar. Something with thorns. The Cryptobotany greenhouse loomed ahead like a sleeping beast. Iron-framed and glass-walled, its panes were fogged from within, blurring the twisting silhouettes of carnivorous flora and venomous vines. Moss crept along the stone base, and a mushroom cluster near the door had bloomed into the distinct shape of a skull. Charming. Loralie babbled beside me, voice bright and breathless. “Did you know one of the corpse lilies once ate a squirrel? Professor Thorne said she had to bribe it with bloodroot extract for a week.”

Sometimes, people spend their lives thinking they have all the answers, only to realize later that the things they avoided were exactly what they needed. She tucked him in properly, admiring his handsome face one last time. *This man is really something. And he’s all mine.* Hearing a stir from the next room, she hurried over. Robin was finally awake. "Robin, you’re up." Robin looked around the room, confused. It didn't look like a typical hospital ward. If it weren't for Amanda’s voice, he would have asked, *Who am I? Where am I?* "Madam," Robin smiled weakly. He remembered now—he was in the high-tech lab in the basement of the villa.

Usually right before Damon did something spectacularly stupid. "No." Robin squared his shoulders. "Not until I get answers about what happened to Dr. Graham." "GET OUT!" Damon roared. "I'm not leaving without her! You arrested an innocent healer and now she's missing from your custody. That makes you responsible for whatever happens to her." "She's not missing - she escaped!" "From an impossible-to-escape room? Using what, magic?" Robin gestured at me. "Your own security expert says it can't be done without help. So either he's incompetent, lying, or complicit."

“You sure can, sugar. You can explain to me why Pam and Lincoln were fighting this morning and are now giving each other the silent treatment. And after that, you can explain why you look like your POS car ran over you repeatedly today.” I sputtered. “Well, that’s a lot to explain.” I’d heard Robin was a character, but I’d never had a front row seat to the crazy show. Well, I’d had a front row seat to the circus performer crazy show at the winery, but this was yet another level to the kind of crazy shows Solano Creek had to offer. Robin hustled over to the front door surprisingly fast for a woman with a huge knee brace, spun the sign to closed, and plopped down in a chair. “I got time. Start

Her hand kept rising to her throat, then dropping again, like she was trying to remember how to breathe. Robin’s chuckle cut through the silence. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said, voice thick with mockery. “She is not dead. Congratulations. You found your missing little tragedy, Ivy.” No one laughed. No one moved. Asher’s voice came low, controlled, each word pushed out through clenched teeth. “Leave.” Robin’s eyes slid over him like Asher was a piece of furniture. “I am not leaving until I speak to my daughter.”

It was a sprawling facility tucked into the mountains, a treatment complex that had an agreement with Arkham Hospital in Lovecraft County. Since the doctors who accompanied them in the middle of an ambulance were being accompanied by private cars, when they were driving through the hills to Baden-Württemberg up to these heights the journey is long, where it was too long, in fact, for a stay so short, being that they followed to the Dark Forest.

I eased the heating tension and straightened out in my seat, burying my face in my palm before reverting my gaze to the statue in front of me. “Forgive me.” I softened my tone for impact, but Miller stood rooted to the spot. “Miller?” “Sir?” “You can say something now. Sorry for the fright.” Miller harrumphed, gathering the pile in front of me into his briefcase. “I’d keep close tabs on all of them for now, since we’ve established a connection.” “Good.” “Regarding Robin’s blackmailers, we’ve established a cloned version of the original number. The location led us to a hospital.” I distorted my face.