The Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, One crazy epic day.

The Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital

And so today, after much agonizing anticipation, Dan and I finally made it to the Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital. This is going to be a long blog. I can tell you that now, because all the things that happened today were pretty much amazing. 

Madly, I rushed about the house gathering my things, constantly rechecking my mental list of supplies we would need for the "fishing trip" as my mother believed Dan and I were going on. My mother grew restless and shouted for me to hurry up. Jibbles watched me with mild interest as I scampered around throwing things into the big duffle bag. "HURRY UP LAA!" my mom shouted again from downstairs.

I hugged Jibbles goodbye, loaded up the car, and took off for Khomenko's at pull-over speed. I met him on his porch. All decked out in black, he looked pretty sexy. A few words were exchanged before we sped off. 

We reached our destination, and as my mom drove off, she waved us goodbye and told us to stay out of trouble. If only she knew. Making our way back to the end of the drainage pond near the outskirts of the hospital grounds, we passed big houses, and extremely landscaped properties. It was a strange, but welcoming, sight to see so close to such a harrowing place. I put down the duffle and suited up. After stashing it in the woods, I donned my camo jacket, and put my wallet, cell, fashlight, and video camera in the pockets. I slung on my camera bag, and took out the map to get our bearings. 

Khomenko and I worked our way through semi-dense forrest, before coming to a hole in the fence by the first cottage. We checked the surrounding area for any activity, and dashed across the open ground to where the entrance lay. The building itself was a Tudor Styled, 1930s-esque red brick building, exactly like one you'd see in Shutter Island. Back in it's hayday im sure it was an impressive sight. Time and nature, however, have managed to partially rob it of it's beauty, and susequently add to its eerieness.

Walking in was especially creepy. It was the first building we entered, and I had no idea what to 

expect. Actually, I had a little idea of some ghostly paitent still remaining within the confines of the condemned structure, dragging me down to the basement and and eating me alive. But thats beside the point. We inspected rooms with peeling paint, moss and mold growing everywhere. Every room we entered was eerier than the last, and I expected to see something ghastly in each of them.

We left the building, and after checking the map, altered our course through another patch of woods, where we came across some abandoned work sheds. They were long and narrower than most of the other buildings, and very short compared to the cottages. We entered the center shed to find farm equipment and mayonaise within the rusting remains of the tattered compound. An eerie feeling started to develop in the back of my head. I made sure Khomenko was close as we left and continued on.

We caught a glimpse of one of the really large cottages for the first time. After searching for a way in, we left and continued down a cracking, weed choked path on the border of the main courtyard. As we aproached the final large building, I noticed a New Jersey Emblem on it, as well as a pair of large mahogany doors. We had found the fabled main building. 

After much strain attempting to get the old bolted doors open, we abandoned the effort temporarily to inspect a nearby building which we discovered to be the gymnaisum. As I climbed through the broken door window, I caught my first glance of the gym itself, the first thing I noticed was the ceiling. Beautifully constructed with dark wood, it was the only thing that seemed to have maintained its color and manage to remain intact. It looked untouched. The walls inside were covered with grafiti, and amidst the crumbling floorboards, lay an impressive collection of trash and building refuse. Much of which would play a key role in helping us get into the heavily reinforced main building. A large metal fire extinguisher, and an old sign pole in particular.

Jason and Andy were making they're way towards us, and we walked back to the shed to meet up with them. With our party sufficiently more intimidating and secure, we headed back to the gym. Having a securer party was a good thing, and I felt much better as we descended the steps to the gym's basement. I have my doubts we would have even gone down there without them. Again grafiti covered much of the walls, and a dog skeleton lay at the base of the stairs. We searched around pretty thoroughly before leaving out a side door.

We returned to the main building. To its back lay a huge field hundreds of acres perhaps, now grown over with brush and small trees, and to the front faced the silghtly-less-huge courtyard. We made quite an effort trying to get in. Doors were kicked, and windows were probed, but to no avail. Frustrated and dejected I wondered if we would ever see its inside. Right then a thought occured to me. Andy was talking about a battering ram possessed by a friend of his, and I imediately pictured the fire extinguisher. I placed my camera bag down, and took off for the nearby gym. Entering alone was extremely scary, but I made it out alright, holding a street sign pole in one hand, and the extinguisher over my shoulder. After more frustration from failed attempts to use these new tools, I got ontop of Andy's shoulders and got onto a minature roof/ledge. Jason passed the extinguisher up and I used it like a battering ram to bust through a glass and wood window frame. Jason helped Andy up, and we went in.

Inside I found chilling the reminders of many previously viewed horror movies. Andy and I were the only ones in, and without adequate height, Jason and Khomenko were stranded outside until we could find a entry point for them. The room we came into was dark and extremely eerie. A sense of panic momentarily raced through my mind as Andy yelled out at truely grotesque discovery. He found a stairwell, and at it's base was the fur covered, decaying remains of a dead racoon. I winced as we passed, and as we entered the tiny room to descend to the first floor, a disgusting scent filled my nose, and I imediately held my breath. 

Through a hole in a door, Jason squeezed the extinguisher through, and Andy boldly carried it to the room which bore the window we tried busting through outside before. I seriously doubted the probability of success Andy's plan could yield, so I didnt even bother to video tape it. He picked up the extinguisher, yelled repeatedly to those outside to clear the area, and with a mighty heave, launched it with all his might directly at the board. Light exploded into the room as the board gave way, and flew with insane force and speed into the bright daylight. It was C R A Z Y. Jason recanted to us what he had witness on the outside, and described the event to us in detail. The board had suddenly, and with very high speed, exploded off the window still, with a torpedo like extinguisher directy behind it. They were in.

We rummaged through the bowels of the rotting structure. Grafiti was everywhere, more so however, were images that instilled great feelings of fear within us. We ascended back past the raccoon to the better illuminated second floor, and entered a corridor filled with hopefully empty rooms, we witnessed first hand a place which was once filled with tortured minds, and those who were deemed tpo insane to be littering society with their unsightly habits. A good number of the paitents at the hospital suffered from mild to extreme cases of schizophrenia. A disease which robs the mind of its ability to rationalize, and differentiate reality from imagination, as well as causing voices and hallucinations to ravage the diseased's mind. Knowing that they once occupied these rooms and corridors made me wonder if they're souls remained, trapped in the prison that withheld their unpleasant presence, from an ever pleasant society. Luckily, we encountered none, but I have few doubts that the thought of running into one ever left any of our minds as we made our way through the dark expanse.

One such room characterized these thoughts perfectly.

Leaving the darkness and climbing out into the light, I felt much relief. As awesome of an experience as it was, I still think about what might go on late at night, the whispers, the strange sounds of voices, the shadows moving quietly about, the screams of agony, the laughter of the insane, all deep within the darkness where no man dares to thread, and when no one is watching, at the old Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital.

-Chris