31 - Return to the Institute 2

After a tearful goodbye to our twins, Zhan and I were crying, the twins just wanted to see their grandpa, we went to the airport. We met Yanli, Leni, Missy and Meng Yao there. My brother and Cheng fly out directly from Shanghai and we meet there at the airport.

Zhan and I are very nervous. It's been five years since we were at the institute and we won't be alone either. There will be four soldiers with us to show us around. This morning we learned that we will be there when the institute will be blown up.

In a month they will also demolish the remains of the Crane Insane Asylum. They'll blow up the tunnels as soon as we get out of there.

*~*~*

Our group is reunited! It was nice to see everyone again. Too bad André can't come. He didn't get a vacation.

Since we all have two more days until we will meet up with the soldiers at the edge of the forest, we all decided together that we would go to Crane and take a look around ourselves. We want to take the same route as we did back then. Fortunately, my brother has kept the route maps. I can't wait to see what awaits us.

*~*~*

We are now in a hotel and it is already night. We arrived here only an hour ago. Much later than expected.

After we rented a minibus, we followed the route we took then too. We also found the village of Crane. But, it looked very different from what we remembered. The streets, the houses, at least what was left of them. Nothing matched what we saw then. We arrived there in the dark, but drove again in daylight.

It was Zhan who spotted a small error on our map. He pointed out a tiny turnoff that we didn't see before. So we all got back on the bus, drove to this fork on the map and actually, there was a road leading to the right. Well, more like a dirt road and very overgrown.

We followed the road for about 2 miles when we saw the first houses that looked familiar. Meng Yao immediately called out, hey that's Crane, there we were!

There was a small sign that said, "Welcome to Crane, Village 2." We immediately wondered what this Village 2 was all about. And that question was soon to be answered for us.

After we entered the village and we recognized all those ancient houses, we even found the hostel where we stayed. But it was closed. A seemingly ancient woman said that this hostel has been closed for many years already, and here it comes, since the owner passed away 7 years ago!

But we were here 5 years ago, not 7 years ago. The old woman showed us her best toothless laugh and said, "Well then, I guess you've met the ghost of the old one." And then she moved on.

Since the door of the hostel was not locked, we entered it and were amazed that it still looked the same as when we were there. Only that there was more dust and cobwebs. The rooms looked the same as when we were there and the beds were still as we left them. Even the dishes were still in the kitchen, just as my brother and the other two put them away.

Had we really seen and talked to a ghost here? Is there even such a thing? Well, I have a husband with special abilities, nothing should surprise me anymore. I wonder if our children have any abilities too. They are too young yet, but, could they have inherited these abilities from Zhan?

Anyway, we went out of the hostel again and met a few, very, very old people. They then told us their story of their village 2.

According to this story, the village 2, is actually the original village, in which the monks and nuns withdrew at that time, after they have left their churches. They lived among themselves and never disturbed anyone. However, when the first families were founded, soon the space was not enough.

Many of the other towns and cities, did not want to accept the families from Crane at that time. Because there were other rumors. Namely that they were among the few survivors of the Crane asylum. These lunatics and handicapped people, they did not want to have in their communities.

And as the space became more and more limited, it also came to a quarrel of several villagers. Two sides were formed. Again and again there were heated arguments, and at some point it was said that one of the groups had to leave.

So they set up two bins in the community center. Every man, woman and head of the family had to draw a piece of paper from one of the two pots. And either the person (alone or family) would then be allowed to stay, or they had to leave.

Those who had to leave were lucky in their misfortune. Because there was this village that had been abandoned for many years. There the residents of the surrounding villages let them move without any problems. And out of anger or boldness, because they were the ones who had to leave, they named their village "Crane".

The residents of the original Crane were then forced to rename their village "Crane, Village 2" because the village was smaller than the new village. At first they refused to do so, but then they gave in because at least they could stay in their Crane while the others had to leave.

Then one day when the new Crane burned down, there was again only one village with that name, but out of respect for the dead, they kept the "Village 2".

They also said that usually no one comes to them because no one really sees the road that leads to their village.

We then had tea at the old community center with the old, there are no people under 60 there at all, before heading back on our way.

On our onward journey, we stopped again in the village where we spent our second night then. We went to the boarding house of the old woman. She, however, passed away two years ago. Now one of her grandsons continues to run the pension for her.

I would have loved to tell her what happened to us, and most of all, I would have loved to introduce her to my Beautiful Husband. Her grandson said that she died in her sleep. Without pain and very peacefully.

And then on the way to the next town and to our hotel, we had a car breakdown. Suddenly the engine stopped and would not start again. It took three hours before a repair service came and they just told us they can tow us but the repair would take a few days.

So we had to call the car rental company of the minibus and they sent us a replacement car, which also took more than four hours. And so it happened that we arrived at the hotel only now. Hours later than planned.

Tomorrow we want to go to a memorial we learned about just a few months ago. A big businessman had found out about all the deaths at the Crane Asylum at that time. He had gathered all his employees and they went to the Crane Asylum and collected all the bones and remains of the dead.

They then dug a big hole in a beautiful place overlooking the sea and buried the remains and bones there. A priest even consecrated this place and said a prayer for the dead. Fearing that some people would come and destroy this place, the big businessman only had a small stone put up to indicate that the victims of the Crane asylum found their final resting place there. He has told only a few people about this place.

It became known only a few months ago when one of the descendants of the big businessman found old records about it. She wrote about it on the Internet and we got in touch with her. Tomorrow we will meet her and she will take us to this place.

Are we afraid that we might involuntarily run into the next horror adventure? No. This time we found out about her very, very carefully beforehand. And since she also told us where the monument was, we checked that out too. Because let's face it, I'm not going to put Zhan in any danger! He and our children are my life and if something happens to them just because I was careless, I could never forgive myself and I would never want to live on.

*~*~*

"For the poor souls whose desperate cries no one heard. May you finally have found your peace." - This is written on the small memorial stone.

At 10 am we met the young woman and she then took us to this memorial place. If I had to describe in one word what this place this final resting place looks like, I would call it "Breathtaking".

We stood there on this high cliff, could look out to sea, feel and smell the sea air. Around us green trees, meadows on which various wild flowers grow and above us the bright blue sky. Yes, this place is perfect for the final resting place.

Together we placed flowers at the memorial stone and silently we all said a prayer for the souls of the deceased. And we also thanked the big businessman who had so much heart and gave this final resting place to the dead.

The young woman said that her family owns this land we were standing on and that they will never sell it. They want to make sure that the dead are never disturbed in their rest.

*~*~*

On the way back from this secret place, we stopped at a museum that had many of the letters that were saved from the Crane Institute office building. There were also several pictures of the doctors from that time. Along with them was written, "These beasts promised to relieve people of their suffering, they promised cures and brought nothing but fear, terror, pain and death."

An employee of the museum told us that even a few descendants of these doctors and nurses came forward. They are said to have donated a lot of money to the museum so that they can process the letters and soon also other found objects, so that they can then be exhibited in memory of the victims.

After such a long time, such an incredible number of years, the victims are finally being remembered and their story told. Not only that of the doctors and nurses, or the doctor who wanted to save everyone and then, as we also learned, killed one patient after another himself when he realized that no help was coming.

In a farewell letter to his parents, he is said to have written that he knows the doctors will soon kill him too. But before that happened, he would help the patients, even if it meant killing them himself. He also wrote, among other things, that he planned to poison them so that their suffering would finally come to an end.

As it turned out, however, the poison was not enough for all the patients and so he suffocated several of them with their pillows, strangled them to death or cut their throats. Before he could finish, however, the doctors caught him and killed him. And, of course, in the cruelest possible way.

As for the time back then, there are still many gaps and unanswered questions, but they will probably never be answered. Unless some descendant finds something, like the young woman about her ancestor, the big businessman with the big heart.