The asylum, from the outside, looked a lot like a prison. It was a tall building made out of painted white bricks, with steel bars defining every window. When they approached the building Amaya paled as she finally realized where it was they were going. She had seen the inside of an insane asylum once in her era while on the job and the conditions had been so horrifying that she'd had nightmares for weeks, as well as grown so lightheaded that Rex had needed to keep ahold on her as they left. Being now thirty-six years earlier she knew that whatever was inside was going to be even worse than what she had seen before.
"I'm going to stay out here," she declared as they reached the front entrance of the building, "And if any of you are faint hearted, you might want to too." She insisted when the team looked at her skeptically. Still, she didn't need to explain herself or her warning any further.
They had all been to high school, even Mick for some amount of time, and had taken a history class that covered this era. They knew that what was waiting for them on the inside would be far less than humane, and the fact that one of their mentally stronger members was opting not to go in only warned even further of how disturbing it could be.
"Why don't you stay and keep Ms. Jiwe company, Jefferson?" Stein suggested and, as expected, his younger partner look less than thrilled about the idea.
"Man how many times do I have to say it?" He demanded, "You do not need to shield me from history!"
"Alright," Sara interrupted, shutting down the age-old argument before it could truly begin. "Amaya's right, what we're about to walk into is going to be more depressing than anything we've seen yet, so nobody is going to think less of anyone who decides to stay behind." She declared but still no one else moved to stay outside, a move that they could all tell at least some of them would be regretting. But no one could be forced into staying behind and so the entire group, minus Amaya, walked into the building.
Only one word could be used to describe the inside of the asylum: chaos.
It was nothing but complete and utter chaos in the lobby of the building. There were patients huddled against the walls and in corners, some screaming out in pain despite no sight of anything to cause it. There were two who looked to be attempting to strangle each other as one nurse stood in between them and pushed them apart while two more pulled at them for the same effect. They were all clothed in hospital gowns with varying degrees of rips through the material ranging from a single small tear to the few patients who were completely naked. An overwhelmingly fowl odor was also resonating from practically everywhere in the building and although no one on the team could place exactly what it was they were sure it had more than one form of bodily fluid mixed in somewhere.
"I think," Stein said with a gulp, "That I'll go help Ms. Jiwe with keeping watch." He decided before turning tale and exiting the building.
"Me too," Jax decided, right on the heels of his older half.
So that left Sara, Nate, Ray, and Mick to approach the nurses station where a middle-aged woman who probably wanted to be anywhere other than here was already staring at them.
"Can I help you?" She asked when they approached.
"I hope so," Nate began, "We're detectives from San Francisco, we were asked to come and investigate the… unusual epidemic you folks seem to be facing." He lied and the woman eyed Sara skeptically, something that the blonde was used to by now.
"You should have come earlier," she finally snapped at Nate, "The sun will be setting soon, and when the sun sets is when it starts."
"Well it's a long journey from San Francisco, we got here as soon as we could." Ray assured her with a smile, though her sour face didn't ease up in the least.
"Hm," she huffed before coming out from behind her desk and setting off down the hallway, leaving the four Legends behind to glance at each other before following her.
"They're all either crazy or silent," she deadpanned while leading the group up a few cases of stairs until they emerged on the fourth and final floor of the building.
She said more, but nothing important, and nothing that Mick paid any attention to.
He tried, oh he tried desperately, but he was far too distracted. With each step they took down the hall it was more underfed people hunched over and screaming out at some invisible torture, or maybe not so invisible if they were aware of where they are. There were feces smeared on walls and blood spattered on some of the floors of the open rooms, which he wondered why some of them were open. The staircase offered a small reprieve to his disturbance, but just barely. It was still white brick walls, all around him. The screams were still echoing from the halls that they walked past and when they emerged on the fourth floor the heat of the building did nothing to help. The great stench only worsened and he hoped that he didn't look as pale as he felt. He wanted, needed, to get out of here. He couldn't be here, he couldn't. But his stupid pride practically screamed at him that he had already made the choice to come and refused to believe that the team wouldn't judge him for turning back now. He thought he would be able to handle it, thought that after all these years and all the shit he's been through that he would be able to face his worst fear dead in the eye and walk away unaffected; but he was wrong. Walking through the halls of the asylum he felt even more terrified than he had when he was fourteen and was first taught about these places from times gone by, not even a week after the fire that set him irreversibly on this path. This was what happened to people like him, and now he was standing among the nurse and the others as if he were one of them. But he wasn't. He had an overwhelming urge to reach for his lighter, to set this whole place ablaze and watch it burn. But if he did he wouldn't get out, so why in the hell was he thinking about it?
"You're going to crash and burn Mick," Oh God not now. He could hear that snarky voice behind him as they walked and it took everything in his power not to turn around and tell the ghost to shove it. "I told you to get out while you still had a chance," the voice continued as the other three entered a room and before Mick could the ghost stepped, not appeared, but freaking stepped between him and Haircut's backside as if it were actually there and alive and a person, incapable of just randomly appearing out of thin air. "But now, now you're screwed no matter what." The ghost waited for a reply but Mick wouldn't give one, he would NOT give himself away in the middle of a mental asylum of all places. "You're going to do one of three things," the ghost went on with a sadistic grin, "A: You're going to get a little too carried away when this inevitably all goes to hell and the nurses here will make sure you never see the light of day again. B: You're going to tell me to shut up and then, assuming you get out of here, you'll have to explain to the team that you've been having conversations with the voices inside your head. Or C: You'll just let all the panic of what could happen build until you finally pass out, or throw up. Meaning that when all is said and done you'll have to tell the team why, and I can't imagine they'll want you protecting history once they know EXACTLY how unstable you really are."
"Mick?" Nate's voice snapped the arsonist back to reality and prompted the vision of Snart to disappear without a trace. "You alright buddy?" The historian continued, now earning the attention of both Sara and Ray, as well as the nurse.
"Yeah," Mick assured them as he made his way into the room.
"Are you sure?" Ray questioned, taking in his friend's rather pale and shaken appearance. "You don't look too good."
"Yeah, do you want to go wait with the others outside?" Sara asked but Mick only shook his head and lowered himself into the wooden chair not far from the doorway.
"I'm fine," he insisted, lying of course. Five minutes ago he would've jumped at the chance to go, knowing the others would be ok with it, but now he needed to prove it to himself that he could handle this. Plus he wasn't entirely sure he would make it all the way outside without dropping first, and there was no way he wanted to pass out in this place.
Sara nodded wearily at his choice, as did Nate and Ray. The nurse didn't really seem to care.
"This is Mary," the nurse announced, "She was one of the first victims, good luck." She continued before walking out of the room, calling a warning back over her shoulder for the group not to stay too long if they know what's good for them.
Mary was… well actually the four time travelers couldn't really see Mary. In the center of the room was a rather large wooden chest; the sides reinforced with wire strung between the boards and the front a grated door. The branding on the top marked the odd chest as not a chest at all, but a dog cage. Getting onto her knees Sara peered through the grate of the door and not so much to her shock as to her horror she found herself staring at something that was clearly not a dog, but a human.
"Mary?" She asked and the girl looked up but said nothing. In the dim light, dimmed even more by the fact that there was no light in the cage, Sara could make out that Mary was probably a few years younger than Jax with dark hair and even darker eyes. She could also see a long scratch starting above the girl's left eye, running over her nose, and down her right cheek.
"Mary?" Ray echoed Sara, crouching down across from her and also looking into the cage. "We just want to talk, we can help you." He promised and those words seemed to at least peak the girl's curiosity.
She shifted her position from a huddled ball in the back of the cage to her hands and knees and leaned over, as there wasn't enough room for her to actually crawl anywhere. She looked directly at Ray, her face showing fear and desperation but also, likely due to his words, a new glimmer of hope in her brown eyes. She remained silent, waiting for him or any of the others to tell her exactly what it was that they wanted from her.
"We've heard," Ray began, nervously licking his lips when he realized that they might actually get somewhere with his girl. "We've heard that you were one of the first attacked… by your dad." He said and at that Mary nodded solemnly.
"I don't know what happened to him," she said in a small and quite frankly frightened voice. "I don't know if he was always like this or if something somehow turned him into it," she continued, stopping herself briefly in order to wipe away a few tears that were brimming in her eyes.
"We think something made him this way," Sara assured the girl gently, "We can help him too, but we need to know what happened to him." She said but Mary only shrugged, she honestly had no idea what had happened to her father.
"He went to work in the factory before I woke up, I was making dinner when he came home and he seemed fine. But then the sun set and…" She trailed off, a shudder passing through her body as it became all too obvious that she had no desire to think about the horrible night.
"Ok, factory. What factory does your dad work in?" Sara asked gently and Mary looked up, about to answer, when she froze.
"Mary?" Ray questioned but the girl gave no response, "Mary?" He tried again but still nothing.
"Oh no," Nate said, gaining the attention of Ray and Sara who turned to see that he was looking out the window at the now darkened sky.
A loud barking sound mixed with the sound of the wooden cage being rattled turned everyone's attention back to Mary, or what had been Mary just minutes before. In place of the timid girl was now a snarling wolf with black fur every bit matted as the teenager's hair. She was currently throwing her body against the grated door of her crate as well as clawing at it.
"Mary! Mary calm down!" Ray shouted as he and Sara jumped to their feet.
"I don't think she's going to listen Ray!" Nate announced,
"Run!" Sara ordered, taking note that the lock wasn't going to hold for much longer, not to mention that there were undoubtedly plenty of other wolves trying to break out of their cages in other areas of the building.
"Don't have to tell me twice," Mick muttered as he rose from his seat and followed his teammates out of the room, trying not to pay any attention to the way that the world was spinning around him even more now that he was standing again. Instead he was trying to focus on getting out of here. That's all his mind was thinking about, the exit. Not about the unknown number of freaking werewolves that currently populated the asylum. Not about the sound of metal clattering against broken metal somewhere behind him, or that by the time he felt the sharp pain of canine teeth sinking into his leg it was too late.