In the summer of 2013 I visited the island of Poveglia. I will be changing my name and others mentioned since it is strictly forbidden to visit the island. The two nights we were there were the most terrifying experiences of my life. For those who aren't familiar with Poveglia island, it is a small-ish island among others tucked in the lagoon of Venice, Italy. For those who aren't local or don't know it's history, the island is quite beautiful with lots of green and beautiful buildings glistening off the shimmering shores. However, those that know it's history know that it is the island of horrors. It has a history of barbarians, the burning of Black Plague victims, which is said to have had at least 160,000 deaths on the island at that time. However, it is most famous for the asylum of a crazy doctor who wanted to find a cure for insanity using crude tools like a hand-drill, chisels, hammers, and torturing his patients. So now that you're somewhat up-to-date, let me start off by saying, the island is fucking evil. My hope is to share my story with others so they will heed my warning and STAY AWAY. It's very simple. Your curiosity will most certainly lead to your inevitably gruesome death.

Fresh out of college, my fiancé, Sebastian, my best friend, sahar, her husband, Michel, my brother, Anthony, and myself, Octavia, decided to check out Venice while vacationing in Europe. My brother had recently gotten out of rehab for reasons I won't mention, so we all thought (I thought) it would be great to go on an adventure and me being an art and culture fanatic, of course Venice had to be our last stop. When we arrived in Venice, the sites were amazing and the wine exquisite. The whole atmosphere was relaxing to say the least. Two days of site-seeing and Michel was already bored. We had never really spent time together but we never got along either. Nothing personal, no crazy backstory, we just never connected on a friend-to-friend level. So when he suggested we visit this crazy haunted island that's forbidden and if you're caught you spend time in a foreign jail, I obviously declined. So we continued site seeing, occasionally butting heads, and our loved ones having to intervene. Sahar must have gave him a stern talking to because the last free-day we had in Venice he talked about how he had paid a local fisherman to take us around the lagoon. I apologized for my behavior and he accepted and apologized as well. The day was great and the weather was perfect. The rays of the sun were warm on my skin and the misty breeze from the water was cool and refreshing. I looked at my brother's face and he was smiling. I hadn't seen him smile in a very long time. It wasn't until I turned to see my fiancé's face go pale, that I realized where the boat was going. Off in the distance was an island with tall buildings and a bell tower, and we were headed straight for it. Sahar's husband was a genuine asshole. I jumped up and almost losing my balance, punched Michel in the jaw. "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" I screamed. I was overwhelmed with anger. Even my brother was surprised. The boat came to a stop and the man started yelling at Michel in Italian and Michel was just nodding, his face grave. I cursed myself for taking French instead of Italian. The fisherman shooed us off of his boat onto the shore of the island, and took off. Leaving us behind. Sahar was in tears mumbling things like "should've never come to Italy" and "I don't want to go to jail". Michel turned to is with his head down, "I'm so sorry. He said he's not coming back for us because he doesn't like commotion that will attract police so he's going to have a friend pick us up soon." I couldn't believe my ears. We were going to be stuck here? For how long? I started to shiver from the cold. The sun was starting to set and it was getting colder. "Maybe there's someone staying on the island and that's why it's illegal, like trespassing private property." My fiancé said as he pulled me close to him, shielding me from the unforgiving wind. My brothers face lit up, his eyes burning with determination. "If that's the case, we can get off the island without getting in trouble if we explain we got dumped here. Were just tourists who got lost. Us citizens. They're not going to want any trouble" Anthony said as he started to make his way through the brush towards the buildings we saw earlier. I knew he was probably wrong but I would have much rather spent the night dealing with police issues than be stuck on an island we knew nothing about, with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

Making our way to the buildings we found cigarette butts, a few rappers of trash in Italian. Probably a bag of chips or something, and a random shirt that has been worn by the elements. These small things gave us all hope that we weren't the only ones on the island. Oh if I only knew how right we were. We were completely unprepared for the night to come. When we had finally crossed the canal separating us from the buildings, it was pitch black. I didn't think it took us long at all to get across but apparently we had taken up the rest of the sun-time we had. So here we were, finding ourselves using our cell phone flashlight apps to walk through the dense shrubbery. My hope of finding someone had evaporated into thin air as we found our first building. Rain had already started to trickle down from the sky and we all agreed that walking through the rain in the dark would serve us no good in a place we knew nothing about. This particular structure looked like some sort of church but it was apparent no one had used it in a very, very long time. We made our way inside and it was practically crumbling apart. After Sebastian, Michel, and Anthony scoped out the area, we decided to make a small area in the cleanest, driest part of the building. Sebastian, having been in Boy Scouts as a kid, was able to start a small fire despite the rain coming through the caved in roof. It was small, not enough for a reliable heat source, but enough to give us a piece of mind that we could somewhat see. Warn out from the day, we all huddled together in our makeshift sanctuary of sweaters and jackets, and tried our best to sleep through the storm. I hugged Sebastian and Anthony close to me, fearing they might disappear if I let go, and drifted off.

I awoke in a sense of panic. It was pitch black, and I have a severe anxiety regarding the dark. I couldn't see anything. It made no difference if my eyes were closed or open. I jolted upward only to be slammed back down. It was then I realized I was harnessed to a bed. My breathing escalated. Where was I? How did I end up here? I looked over to my left at a nearby window where the moonlight shone in. The rain had stopped just as quick as it came. That's when I saw it standing in the corner. The reason I say 'it' is because I'm not sure if it was male or female, or even human. It was in a black gown, and had on a mask similar to a bird, slits for eyes, and a very long beak. I didn't scream, or thrash about. I just laid there, my neck craned up. It moved awkwardly towards the door and disappeared into the darkness. A sudden feeling of hopelessness overcame me and I began to sob quietly, afraid it would hear me and come back. After what felt like an hour, I mustered up enough courage to try to free myself from the harnesses with my teeth. It tasted like dried blood, leather and dirt, but I kept at it, eventually freeing one arm, which I used to undo the other harnesses on my feet and other arm. I climbed out of the bed and fell to the floor immediately. Why were my legs so weak? I crawled over to the moonlight and noticed I was in a hospital gown. What the fuck? How had I not noticed that before? I began examining myself to make sure I was okay and my ankles and wrists were slightly bloody with embedments of the harnesses. I had been tied down so tight that I had bled from the harnesses cutting into my skin. I started sobbing again trying to rub the dried blood off of me. After obsessively cleaning the dried blood off of me, I began trying to stand up. Balancing my arm on the windowsill, I pulled myself up and forced myself to stand straight. I understood that the cuts were somewhat deep but it shouldn't have been affecting me this much. I felt like I had been drugged. What had I eaten that day? Did I even eat? I couldn't remember so I assumed I was faintish from hunger. At this point I was very slowly, very quietly, making my way across the dimly lit area to the hallway. By the time I has actually reached the doorway leading out into the darkness, I had regained my ability to hold myself up without staggering like a zombie. God it was so dark. That's when I heard it. It still haunts my dreams to this day. Down the hall into the darkness came the most blood-curdling scream that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and it didn't stop. Scream after scream after scream came from whatever was at the other end of the darkness. It wasn't really the scream that scared me. It was the fact that it sounded like my brother. My flight-or-fight kicked in and I jumped into the hallway, instantly regretting my decision. I. Couldn't. See. I had no sense of direction;completely and utterly exposed. I tried going in the direction of the screams, arms wide in front of me, feeling around for walls and obstacles. "Anthony" I whispered, afraid of what might hear me,"Anthony tell me where you are" I was crying and cringing at every scream. I was getting closer. I rounded a corner and the screams were hurting my eardrums at this point. My heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings can flap, and hard enough that it felt like it was going to burst through my chest and land on the ground in front of me. I thought I would never escape until I saw a dim light coming from a doorway. I couldn't breathe. That room was where Anthony's screams were coming from. The second I stepped into the room everything became silent.

There, strapped to an operating table, was a cut-open body surrounded by surgeons in the same bird mask as the one I saw, and the body on the table didn't belong to my brother. It was Michel. And he was staring me in the eyes along with all of the surgeons. I had walked in during their experimental surgery, and now they were staring me down with hand-drills, and scalpels in hand.

part 2 is up