Dominique Sandusky

English 1109 M-W

9-13-16

The Ridges

            Ever since I was a little girl I’ve had a love for horror movies, horror books, and anything a little twisted. Last year my best friend, Macey and I drove down to Ohio University for the weekend to see my boyfriend, Isaac. It was the first time either of us had ever been to Athens Ohio, so we didn’t know what all this beautiful town had to offer. As Isaac was giving us a tour, he mentioned there was an old abandoned insane asylum called “The Ridges” just right outside of town. So of course we made him take us there!

As we were driving there Isaac thought it would be a little bit scarier if Macey and I knew some history on this place. The story he told us fastened with me, and actually creeped me out. He said, “A female patient with mental disabilities thought she was playing hide and seek with the guards so she locked herself up in the closed down left wing of the asylum. She disappeared on December 1, 1978 and wasn't found until January 12, 1979. She was dead, but the weird part was even though it was the middle of winter and it was freezing she took her clothes off, folded them and laid down on the concrete floor which is where they found her. When they tried to move her decomposing body they saw that it left a permanent stain in the shape of a body on the floor.” After hearing about that Macey and I asked ourselves, “Do we really want to go inside of a place with such messed up history.” Watching scary movies is one thing, but going inside an abandoned building where they performed shock therapy and many other horrific “treatments” made me instantly feel sick. Not to mention being worried that I was going to run into the women who died in that room all alone.

            Macey and I didn’t want to chicken out so we decided to suck it up, and go inside. One of the side doors was propped open so one by one we walked in. Walking in felt like I was walking on set to my own horror movie.  I told Isaac, “Make sure you stay in front of me... just in case!” I knew that made me look like a baby, but the inside of this place was even creepier than the outside. The paint was chipping off the walls, toys scattered on the floor, the windows even had bars on them like a prison cell. I remember Macey calling us over when she found this elevator with a medical table in it! To most people that would scare them off, but of course Macey said “This means there’s a basement! Let’s go check it out.”  As we walked down the stairs I kept hearing noises and was so paranoid something bad was going to happen like it does in the movies.

            When we eventually got down the stairs, we could see ten or fifteen tiny rooms along the sides where we assumed they performed all of their awful therapies. In one of the front rooms there was a creepy doll, and a broken chair, but the rest were completely empty. Thankfully after adventuring down in the basement for a few minutes we grew bored of walking around the same empty rooms. Macey and Isaac were finally on board with me about wanting to get out of that creepy, lifeless building.