A DOOR IN TIME (REVISED)

A Supernatural story by: Silvertayl

Story Summary:

Sam and Dean investigate the deaths of 3 students at the Ohio State Campus, in Athens. Is the vengeful spirit of a former patient from the abandoned mental asylum responsible or is this something the brothers have never encountered before?

Set in season 1 after 1:13 Route 666.

Disclaimer:

All recognizable characters remain the property of their respective creators and owners.

Authors Notes:

This is being posted without a beta. So forgive grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Chapter 1

Thursday, Monroe, Louisiana

Dean had been unusually quiet after leaving Cassie and Cape Girardeau behind. Sam could tell that Cassie meant a lot to his brother and leaving her was harder for Dean than he was letting on.

But then they'd picked up the trail of a witch causing havoc in Louisiana and that was all it took to get Dean back to his usual self.

That was 10 days ago and it had been over a week since they'd sent that evil bitch of a witch back to the dark place she had crawled from, but it had been hard on them and not without consequences. She had banged them both around quite a bit; scratched up Sam's face pretty good and spewed her bodily fluids all over them and everything else in a 5 meter radius.

With that hunt over they were looking for a new gig. In the past they always managed to pick another hunt, usually straight away or within a couple of days, but nothing now was forthcoming and it had been a whole week, a whole week for the bumps, bruises and scratches to heal and still here they were stuck in this run-down motel on the outskirts of Louisiana.

And they were starting to get on each other's nerves... big time.

Dean lay stretched out on his bed arms locked behind his head, feet crossed at the ankles, staring at the damp patch on the ceiling, he had come to know that patch of ceiling quite well; the shape reminded him of an elephant with its trunk raised up.

Sam was sitting at the small Formica topped table with the laptop open, scanning for anything that might get them back on the road and outta this hole.

That's when Dean began to hum.

It sounded to Sam like AC/DC's Highway to Hell, but he couldn't be sure, because he was off key. Dean moved his foot in time with the beat only he could hear in his head.

"Dude, don't give up your day job." Sam observed sarcastically.

"Sorry Sammy, but I've had it with this place. I'm bored, oh and by the way we don't officially have a day job most of our work is in the dark, at night right? So it doesn't qualify as a day job," he paused turning his head towards Sam, "you'd better be seriously looking for a hunt, and not surfing the porn sites."

"Get your mind outta' the gutter, Dean."

Sam returned Dean's look from across the small room. His brother was so aggravating when he was bored, more aggravating than usual. I gotta find us a hunt before I commit fratricide.

Dean didn't answer, going back to his contemplation of the ceiling his full lips twitching with the beginnings of a smile.

Ten minutes later.

"Hey Dean."

"Umm."

"Maybe we could just see if we can pick up dad's trail again?"

Dean sat up. "Sam, you know I want to find dad as much as you do, but, man I gotta tell ya I don't think he wants to be found."

"Yeah I guess." Sam sounded disheartened as he went back to the computer.

Seeing Sam's crestfallen face Dean decided to lighten the mood. "Hey I've got an idea. While we're down this way maybe we could pop on over to Disney World?"

"Are you serious?" Sam said eyes going back to Dean.

"Absolutely."

"I don't think so." Sam said with shake of his head.

"Spoil sport." Dean said as he lay back down.

Another ten minutes later.

"Dean hey, you awake? I think I got something."

Dean lifted his head and looked at Sam, "Yeah I'm awake, thank god, what you got."

Sam's hazel eyes slid to Dean and then back to the screen.

Dean was looking at Sam intently, waiting for him to continue, the fading scratches on Sam's right cheek left by the witch, still visible, but healing nicely, he waited, and waited. Not a word from Sam. The silence was deafening.

Sam knew Dean was watching him, waiting for him to spill about this possible hunt, so Sam deliberately said nothing, waiting for Dean to lose his cool, he also knew it wouldn't take long. Sam started to count up from 1 in his head; he was only up to 7 before Dean said through gritted teeth.

"Sam, are you gonna spill it or do you wanna die before dinner time?"

"Well that didn't take long, I only got to 7," he chuckled at the irritated expression on Dean's face and the angry flash of Dean's green eyes, "you should see your face."

"So not funny Sam."

"Okay, okay don't get your boxers in a twist." Still smiling Sam turned back to the laptop.

Dean lowered his head, and went back to his friend the elephant, as Sam at long last began to read from the online newspaper from Ohio.

THIRD MYSTERIOUS DEATH ON ATHENS CAMPUS

The body of 19 year old Ian Collins was found on the upper level of the only unused building in the Athens Ohio State College Campus on Sunday, 7 days after he went missing from the abandoned building formerly the Athens Asylum for the Insane, Mr. Collins was taking part in a fraternity initiation, and was required to stay overnight in the old asylum to be accepted into the fraternity, a week later his body was found there. An autopsy revealed Mr. Collins died from some kind of brain damage, the coroner said he believed the cause of the damage was from a medical procedure called a Lobotomy that had been performed on Mr. Collins which led to Mr. Collins' death.

A month ago, 2 college students Sally Browning and Steven Ashton both 20 disappeared from the same building after a student organized party, the last time Miss Browning and Mr. Ashton were seen alive they were ascending the stairs to the upper level. After the party they could not be located, their bodies were found 7 days later near where they disappeared. The cause of death the same as Mr. Collins. The coroner's report said all three victims had only been deceased for a few hours before discovered.

Police are baffled as to the whereabouts of the victims between the time of disappearance and the time of death. Investigations are continuing into the mysterious deaths.

Lobotomies were performed as a treatment for people suffering with mental conditions such as depression and schizophrenia, a number of patients either died or were left in a catatonic or vegetative state by these procedures. Lobotomies have not been used on the mentally disabled for many decades.

The campus authorities have erected a steel security fence around the old Asylum to prevent anyone from entering, and to hopefully avoid and prevent any further disappearances and subsequent deaths.

Dean's curiosity was peeked, by the time Sam had finished reading he had sat up and swung his legs off the bed.

"Now that is a little weird, you think it might be something like Dr Ellicott and the Roosevelt Asylum?"

"Makes sense an angry spirit of a patient seeking revenge on some wacko doctor who used to enjoy using these so called treatments on people with sick brains." Sam answered looking over at his now serious brother.

"So these kids all went missing on a Saturday night, their bodies found after 7 days, on the Sunday, which means they died on the Saturday night exactly 1 week later."

"They must have been held somewhere for days before someone or something turned their brain to mush."

Dean stood, picked up his duffle bag and started to throw things into it.

Sam still sat at the table, watching Dean's sudden flurry of movement.

"So I guess this means we're outta here?"

Dean looked over his shoulder at Sam. "Yep finally, look lively dude we've got work to do."

15 minutes later, Dean pulled the door too on the elephant joined Sam at the trunk of the Impala throwing his duffle in next to Sam's. A minute later the big car peeled out of that lousy Monroe motel pointed in the direction of Athens Ohio.

Saturday Athens, Ohio

After dropping all their gear at the Ohio University Inn; a 3.5-star improvement from the last their last digs, they were back in the Impala.

Dean dropped Sam off outside the Athens library, noting the smile of anticipation on Sam's face at the idea of spending a few hours in a library doing research into the history of the old asylum. Dean drove on to the college campus with a fake state police ID in his pocket, to talk to the kids who had last seen the now deceased students before their disappearance.

Three hours later he looked at his watch, almost 4, Sam should be finished at the library by now. Flipping open his cell he connected to Sam's number, after 3 rings he heard Sam's hushed, tinny sounding voice. "Hey Dean."

"You finished Sam, or do you need more time to finish your love affair with those musty old books?" Dean knew how much Sam loved to do research, the ex college boy was in his element in some old damp smelling library, surrounded by old tomes and even older librarians, Sam could have the library, Dean much preferred to do what he considered the real work.

"Ha ha very funny, yeah I'm finished."

"Sam, why are you whispering?" Dean asked he knew the answer, but couldn't resist a chance to pull Sam's chain.

Sam almost hissed the answer down the phone. "Because I'm in a library jerk and I'm not supposed to have my cell turned on," Sam paused than added, "did you get anything outta those kids?"

Dean chuckled, before answering. "Nar not a lot but a couple of things that might be useful, what about you?"

"Well it turns out that old asylum building has quite a past, come pick me up, I'll tell you back at the motel."

"Okay, I'll be there in a few." Dean closed his phone and still smiling made his way towards his baby.

- ADIT -

"So what did you find out?" Dean asked loosening his tie and flopping down on the bed.

"You first."

"The two guys who were with the Collins kid left him there around 11 on the Saturday night, they went back the next morning, no sign of him, they thought he had chickened out and gone back to the dorm. When he hadn't been seen for 3 days, they notified the college, police were called in, they found his body the next Sunday when they went back to find more evidence, that's about it."

"It's not a lot, what about the couple before that went missing from the party, and did you find out anything there?"

"I talked to some of the kids that were at the party, apparently Sally and Steven went up to the top level around 11.30 to make out. I think Steven was hoping for a bit of action, if you know what I mean?" Dean said with an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah Dean I get it, and then what?"

"After the party broke up they couldn't be located, police were called in again, came up with nothing again. After that the campus put in security patrols morning and night, it was a security guard who found their bodies on the Sunday morning a week after they disappeared from the party, the rest we know, so what did you find out about the old building? " Dean asked.

"The college kids weren't the first deaths in that building. I found an article from 2 years ago, the body of a man was found in the old asylum. The body was badly decomposed and had been there for some time. The autopsy couldn't determine the cause or time of death. He was identified with dental records as a Joseph Mannering, a vagrant for many years, which is why no one missed him."

"So whatever killed whose kids is probably responsible for Mannering's death as well, a total of 4 that we know of." Dean was serious now "We don't know about Mannering but whatever is taking these kids is taking them on a Saturday night and it's only a matter of time before somebody gets back into that building on a Saturday night, and becomes another victim, we'll go tonight and see if whatever this thing is shows up."

Sam nodded. "Okay I'll go and get us something to eat and some coffee," Sam picked up a sheaf of papers and held them out to Dean, "here you should read this, it's the history of the asylum. They used to do some cruel stuff to those poor people."

Dean took the papers from Sam and began to read. Sam grabbed the car keys and headed to the door, his hand was turning the handle when Dean said "Hey Sam none of that healthy stuff, bring me a burger and fries."

Sam glanced over his shoulder at Dean. "Dude, ever heard of cholesterol and blocked arteries?"

"I'll have you know; my arteries are fine thanking you very much, Dr Winchester."

"Yeah sure they are, Dean."

Dean smiled as the door closed behind Sam and started to read.

The Athens Asylum for the Insane opened its doors on January 9, 1874. Giant asylums were going up all over America because of the number of Civil War veterans suffering from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder, the cemetery contains many veterans from the Civil War.

Listed below are some of the treatments administered to patient.

Water Treatment

Patients were submerged in ice-cold water for extended periods of time.

Sometimes they were wrapped in sheets which had been soaked in ice water and restrained.

Shock Therapy

Electric shocks were administered to patients submerged in water tanks or, more commonly, directly to the temples by the application of brine soaked electrodes. A patient held a rubber piece in his mouth to prevent him from biting off his tongue, during convulsions which followed a treatment.

Lobotomy(original)

Patients had their skulls opened and their neural passages separated midway through the brain. This difficult and arduous procedure killed many people - those who survived were brain damaged and like infants forgetting how to control everyday bodily functions, such as going to the toilet.

Lobotomy (Trans-Orbital)

Developed by Dr. William Franklin in the early 1950s, was widely used through the sixties. This method involved knocking the patient unconscious with electric shocks, then rolling the eyelid back and inserting a thin metal ice pick like instrument through a tear duct. A mallet was used to tap the instrument into the brain. Next it was moved back and forth in a sawing motion to sever the neural receptors. Sometimes this was done in both eyes. There is some evidence that this method helped some people with severe conditions, but more often the patient suffered side effects resulting in a catatonic state or in a lot of cases death.

The final patients left The Athens Asylumfor the Insane in 1993 and the building stood vacant for several years whilst Ohio University prepared to renovate it and other buildings on the soon to be campus. In 2001, the main building was opened to students as the Athens Ohio University Campus. However the old Asylum building is the only building on the campus that remains un-renovated.

This information had left Dean feeling sick to his stomach and his appetite had fled. Man, how could anyone do that to another human being?

He threw the papers on the bed beside him rubbing at his forehead with his fingertips.

Sam returned a few minutes later juggling a grease spotted paper bag a plastic tub of salad and two large take-out coffee cups.

Dean's appetite returned with a vengeance when he smelled the aroma of the take-out emanating from the bag Sam had placed on the table.

Dean stood and crossed to the table rubbing his hands together.

"Mmmm I smell fried food." He said with delight as he sat down, reached into the brown bag pulling out a large cheeseburger and large fries.

Sam sat down opposite his brother his brow furrowed as Dean took a bite from the burger and shoved a half dozen fries in his mouth.

"Dude, you are sick, how can you eat that?" He said as he opened up his container of garden salad and poked his plastic fork into the contents.

"It's easy Sam you just open your mouth, bite off a piece, chew and swallow.

"I'm laughing on the inside."

"Better eat your rabbit food Sammy before Bugs comes along and steals it." Dean replied as he took another huge bite from the burger.

"It's Sam."

Saturday evening at the Asylum

Using the bolt cutters Sam made short work of the padlock on the gates of the steel and mesh 10 foot high fence surrounding the asylum. They each had their handguns tucked into the waistband of the jeans and each carried a salt gun and a flash light. They shone the flash light onto the ground in front of them as they made their way up the steps and through the asylum entrance.

The floor was scattered with all kinds of debris - broken tables, chairs, wooden door frames, mouldy cushions, broken bottles and aluminium cans. Everywhere was covered with a thick layer of dirt and grime. A sliver of moonlight shone through the broken windows, illuminating various sections of the floor and walls.

Sam looked at Dean in the dim light. "Why would anyone want to party in here?" He asked.

"Beats me, you check around down here I'll go upstairs, yell if you find something."

Dean headed towards the stairs.

Sam had a strange feeling that something wasn't right as he watched him go.

"Dean." Sam called out.

Dean turned back shining the flash light in Sam's direction.

"What is it?"

"Be careful Dean."

"Yeah Sammy you know I will."

- ADIT-

Dean made his way up the uneven stairs shining his flash light on each step so he could avoid treading on something and either turning an ankle or tumbling back down the stairs and maybe breaking his neck. At the top of the stairs opposite was an elevator shaft a barricade that had once guarded the shaft lay to one side. To his left was a long corridor with a half dozen rusty metal doors evenly shaped out on each side. Every door had a small metal grill about 5 feet from the bottom and a number above the grill. He stepped up to the closest door, using the handle; he pulled the door towards him with a rusty squeal. In the torch light Dean could see a small cell-like room roughly 4 yards across by 4 yards deep the window on the outside wall was bricked in. Pushed up against one wall was an old bed frame with a very old, dirty mattress haphazardly resting half on the base, stuffing and springs protruding through rips in the stripy fabric.

He looked into two more of the rooms that appeared to him more like cells than a hospital room as he continued to the end of the corridor. To the left was a recessed area with a waist-high dust and dirt covered counter open at the far end to allow access. Above the counter a sign reading NURSES STATION hung lopsided from the ceiling by a short chain and one hook.

To the right opposite the nurse's station was another long corridor with two doors on each side. The first room on the left had a sign above reading WATER TREATMENT. Dean pushed the door open. The room was large. The 2 windows in here were also bricked in. It contained 5 tubs the size of the average man spaced evenly across the center, the tubs clawed feet still bolted firmly to the floor. Against the far wall were two deep square sinks with a rusty tap protruding from the wall above each of them.

Dean remembered the notes he had read earlier about this so called treatment.

"Water treatments huh, more like water torture, if you ask me." Dean said to himself.

Exiting the water room he went into the room opposite with a sign reading SHOCK THERAPY above it. This room was smaller than the water treatment room. The window in here wasn't bricked up, but the glass pane was long gone and there were rusting metal bars covering the opening. An older style gurney with huge wheels was tipped over on its side. Jutting from the wall were numbered lever type power switches with thick discolored conduit running from the switches up to the ceiling.

Dean couldn't think of being electrocuted as being therapeutic; he remembered all too clearly when he'd fired the tazer at the raw head; the current traveling through the foul-smelling ugly-assed creature into puddle of scummy water he was sprawled in. The feeling of electricity coursing through his body was something he would never forget. His brain felt like it was short circuiting his heart expanding to the point of exploding. The thought of having to endure that torment regularly as the patients here must have, sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. He made a hasty exit from the room.

The remaining rooms had signs proclaiming them to be - PROCEDURE ROOM – NO. 1 and PROCEDURE ROOM – NO. 2. Both rooms had the same power levers on the walls and were empty except for a another gurney in treatment room 2, the restraining straps still attached. Dean could almost see some poor soul lying prostrate and restrained on that gurney with an ice-pick protruding from his eye; rolling the eyelid back and inserting a thin metal ice pick like instrument through a tear duct.

Dean went back into the corridor; nothing up here, maybe Sam found something? At the end of the treatment room corridor he turned into the corridor of cells and stopped dead; something had changed, the temperature had dropped suddenly. He stopped and shone the flash light around to see if there was something to explain the change in temperature. The air in front of him began to shift and shimmer. He blinked his eyes a couple of times to make sure it wasn't his eyes, still there, this is different thenas suddenly as it had begun it stopped, the temperature had risen and air had stopped shifting, but now the corridor looked different, clean and bright no rubbish scattered around.

- ADIT -

Sam had finished on the ground floor. He had located a wing of largish rooms that had probably housed up to a dozen or patients in each; the kitchen area and what could have been a large communal dining area; the only remaining pieces of furniture in here were a couple of broken dining chairs tossed into the corner. A smaller room off the dining room looked to have been used as a lounge/recreational room with a bracket for a TV still attached to the wall.

Sam was beginning to think that whoever or whatever is responsible for the recent deaths was a no show tonight.

He glanced at his watch, the small beam of the flash light illuminating the watch face five after midnight, I wonder if Dean found anything upstairs?

Sam slowly made his way back through the empty rooms and stood at the bottom of the stairs listening for any sounds of Dean descending from the floor above.

"Dean you found anything? There's nothing down here. I think this is a waste of time." His voice echoing up the stairwell, there was no reply.

"Dean." Still there was silence. So Sam started up the stairs.

- ADIT -

Dean felt a hand grasp tightly onto his upper arm spinning him around a voice hissed in his ear. "How did you get out of your room?"

Dean found himself face-to-face with a white uniform. His eyes traveled up to the angry face that was attached to the uniform. To Dean, this guy looked like he had just stepped out of a wrestling ring. Everything about him was huge – his muscles were bulging through the material of his white coat and the veins in his neck looked ready to burst. Man! This is one ugly guy!

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked, "and you can get your hand off me dude!"

"Come on now. I don't wanna have to use force. Let me take you back to your room."

Dean tried to pry the huge man's sausage fingers from his arm. "You're not takin' me anywhere."

The big guy sighed saying. "Looks like we're gonna have to do this the hard way," with a smirk on his face, he called out, "Frank need you here, we've got a problem."

Dean lifted his free hand intending to jab the salt gun under the guy's jaw; but his hand was empty, yet he didn't remember putting it down or dropping it. Not good. Okay plan B.

Dean reached for the hand gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans. His pistol was gone and so were his jeans. He looked down the length of his body to see he was now wearing a pair of regulation hospital pajamas and his feet were bare.

"What the hell?" Dean felt the hand he had still hovering at his waist grasped and bent upwards. He glanced over his shoulder at a second man equally as large and as ugly as the first man.

Dean began to struggle to free himself from their grip only to have the

first guy twist his other arm back behind him so he was completely

incapacitated.

"Matron Reed sedative required for the patient from room 6." The guy named Frank shouted.

Dean's shocked eyes went to the portly older woman in a nurse's uniform approaching them brandishing a large hypodermic needle.

Dean began to struggle in earnest. "Nonono you ain't jabbing me with that lady!" Dean said as he fought to release himself from the ever tightening and painful grip of the thugs.

"Now, now. Just a little prick, won't hurt at all." Matron Reed lifted the syringe and squirted a small amount into the air. Then smiled as she lifted the sleeve of Dean's pajama top and roughly jabbed the needle into his upper arm injecting the clear fluid.

"This can't be happening." Dean said through clenched teeth at the sting from the needle.

Within a matter of seconds, Dean could feel the effects of the drug coursing through his bloodstream. The face of the matron standing in front of him started to waver and blur and his limbs felt heavy, knees felt weak and would no longer hold his own weight.

Moments later he was being half dragged half carried down the corridor his arms still twisted behind his back. "Sam… Sammy." He murmured weakly.

A doorway swam into view he was dragged unceremoniously through it. The pressure on his arms was released as he was roughly thrown down onto a cot and then he knew no more.

To be continued…

Thanks for reading please review.

Cheers

Silvertayl