Chapter 2b: Frank
St Elizabeths Hospital (no apostraphe) is a quick 15 minute drive from the hotel. It's entrance is hidden behind rows of 60's-era single-family homes, some in pristine shape, others having seen better days.
As you drive through the entrance, you notice first of all that the complex is huge, and under construction. The construction area off to the left is gated with a an armed guard huddled out of the rain in a small and featureless guard shack. Multiple signs in English and Spanish warn that all construction personnel must check in with the attendant and unauthorized access is strictly forbidden. Since the front of the main building is covered in scaffolding, there are makeshift traffic lanes which take you to the rear of the complex, towards the visitor's entrance.
On a good day, the main building would look old and decrepit; today the light mist makes it appear as if dirt and mortar are oozing from the building in sickly streaks. A faded wooden door with a temporary "Visitors use this entrance" sign tacked to it opens to reveal a poorly lit hallway, with another signboard directing you back through to the front of the building.
Along the way you immediately notice two things. The increased security at the construction zone has little to do with the mental hospital, as there's not even an aging Rent-A-Cop in sight to keep you from wandering into the wrong place. Secondly, the place seems largely deserted. Many of the rooms you pass seem like they were once patient rooms, but are now bare of anything not bolted down (which, in a mental hospital, actually leaves most of the furnishings still in the room). Entire wings are closed, with the lights off and entry doors chained and locked.
Eventually you make your way back to the front of the hospital, where you come into a waiting area. A large orderly dressed in rumpled scrubs looks up from the book he's reading to see who has entered. You notice immediately that he covered in short, thick brown fur, with pointy canine ears. He is not human, but a bugbear. You've seen his kind before, especially in positions where physical prowess is a boon (and where an occasional use of excessive force can go unnoticed), but it's still jarring and hard to hide your surprise.
You know, it's usually the patients who see me for who I really am, but they're all schizophrenic. He taps a big clumsy finger on his computer keyboard to remove the screensaver and asks, Well you aren't a delieveryman, and you aren't medical personal, and you came the back door so you're not one of the damn construction workers who can't read their own signs. You here to commit someone or complain about the conditions here?
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:38, Wed 08 Feb 2012.