Nico's POV

     "Hey Thalia, want to visit my mom with me today?" I asked.

     "In the Asylum?" She asked. I nodded.

     Before you go 'Oh my word Nico's mom a psycho nutcase!' No. Well, kind of. She's kind of a spy, I guess. She got herself thrown in there on purpose. She tests the care that people are given in prisons, asylums, nursing homes, ecetera. (She pretended to be an old woman. It took a LOT of latex and tons of voice altering practice. And a wig.) Then she reports to the government if they need to shut them down. So today I was visiting her.

     "Sure. Why aren't you taking Hazel? She's your cousin, right? Isn't you mom her Aunt?" Thalia asked.

     "Hazel's with her boyfriend." I told her, leaning back in the couch.

     "Wait, she got a boyfriend?! Is it that Frank guy she's had a crush on since like third grade?!" Thalia asked, sitting upright.

     "Uh, yeah. Frank Zhang. He's like a football playing teddybear." I told her.

     "I know, it's kind of weird." Thalia admitted.

     "Well, we got to get going. You have to drive." I told her.

      She huffed. "Fine. Let's go." She stood up and streched, then headed for the door.

      "Dad! I'm leaving!" I called, throwing on my Aviators jacket.

      "Okay! Tell your mother I miss her!" He called back.

       "Kay!" I shut the door behind me and walked towards the car. I got in the passenger seat, Thalia getting in the drivers seat.

      "We're off to the Asylum, the wonderful asylum of love." Thalia sang in the tune of 'We're off to see the Wizard' as we drove. I rolled my eyes at her as we turned onto a dirt road that you wouldn't even notice if it wasn't your destination.

     We drove along that for about half an hour before we arived at the Asylum. One of the workers knew about what mom did, so she turned off the cameras in the room and let us help out around the Asylum. Mostly I come alone and look through files. It's an extremly large Asylum, and there are over two hundred people in it. Of course, most of the people were sent here instead of jail, so most of the people were just criminals, not actually insane. The files were in alphabetical order, and I had gone through all the files up to 'H'. There were only a few real crazies, and they weren't even that... Well, crazy. Above most, but bellow what interested me. Nothing beyond hallucinations or schizophrenia. Don't get me wrong, schizophrenia is horrifying, but not quite what I'm looking for.

(My Aunt had Schizophrenia, and she has to take a lot of pills to help her. If you don't know what Schizophrenia is, it's kind of a mind-altering mental disease. Try the simulator above with headphones. That's what a schizophrenic person has to deal with. It's like sub-consious voices in your head arguing with eachother and telling you what to do. It often tells you to kill yourself, then quickly changes its mind, then tells you not to do something, such as eat, and you feel obliged to do as they command. It's horrifying. And you also think that the voices are normal, so you don't know you have schizophrenia.)

     We walked up to the building entrance where a guard stood. I stopped in front of him and took a keycard out of my back pocket. I handed it to him and handed it to him. "Questa è Thalia Grace. Viene con me per vedere mia madre." I told him in Italian, my birth tongue.

       He nodded. "Vai avanti. Christy ti aspetta." He responded., handing my cark back. I nodded thanks and headed in.

      "I didn't know your Italian was so good." Thalia muttered as we walked into a lobby, which was designed like a school. The floors were marble, the walls painted white. There was a door behind the counter beside the front desk and two more doors on either side, both guarded with key-code passwords and padlocks.

     Behind the front desk was Christy, the one who knew my mom and I. "Hey! Here to see your mom?" She asked, looking up at us. She had brown hair pulled back into messy bun and big, bright brown eyes. Her nose seemed to big for her face, but overall she was pretty.

     "Yes please." I told her. "This is Thalia, by the way." I added, gesturing to Thalia. Christy smiled at her.

      "Nice to meet you Thalia." Thalia smiled in response and nodded.

      She typed something on her laptop, then got up from her seat. She walked around the counter and smiled. "Right this way." She headed for the door on the left and we followed. She swiped her keycard, then did a fingerprint scan.

     The door clicked, then swung open. She briskly headed inside, us following close behind. We walked past multiple iron-bar cells, some of them just huge iron doors with small iron fencing near the top. Some of the people inside of the cells smiled and waved. I returned it. "Dude, your friends are in jail." Thalia whispered.

      "Shut up." I whispered back, rolling my eyes. We stopped in front of a door cell. My moms cell.

      "Alright." Christy whispered turning around to face us. "The cameras are off, and the office is open. I'll come get you in five." She unlocked the door and walked off, winking.

      "You get permission to go in the office? What do you do?" Thalia asked as I shoved the door open.

       "Nothing much, just-" I cut myself off . "Hi mum."

       She smiled at me. She wore a white T-shirt and white yoga pants. "Hello Nico!" She got up to hug me and I shut the door behind us as we stepped in.

       We embraced. "Dad missing and loves you." I said, remembering his request. My mom smiled sadly, then noticed Thalia.

      "Hi." She smiled at her. "You must be Thalia." Thalia nodded and smiled.

     "Pleasure to meet you Mrs. di Angelo." She said.

     "You can just call me Maria." My mom told her. Thalia nodded and smiled again.

     "The cameras are off." I informed her. She let out a sigh of relief.

     "Good. I need you to do something for me." My mom said, plopping back down on a bench. "There's a new guy. I think he's the only truly insane person in here. Can you find out who it is?"

     "Yeah sure. What makes you think that he's insane?" I asked, truly curious.

     "I heard them talking about him outside my door. He wont eat, drink, or talk. And if he does make noise it's screaming when someone tries to talk to him." My mom told me.

     "Wow. That is weird." I agreed. "I'll tell you what I found next week, next visiting time."

     "Good. Trust me, my curiosity peaked right now." She told me.

     "So. Any updates from last time I saw you?" She asked me.

     "Uh... I-" I was cut of by Thalia.

     "He got a boyfriend." She said.

     "Thalia!" I hissed, turning red. My mom, on the other hand, laughed.

      "I like Thalia." She decided and I rolled my eyes. "What does he look like?"

       "Uh, it's that Will Solace kid?" I asked, hoping she knew him in some way. She simply shook her head no.

       "Uh.. Well, he's got blond hair and blue eyes, and he's the total polar opposite of me." I told her honestly.

        "It's weird. Nico's super gloomy and then there's Will, who's always smiling and laughing!" Thalia exclaimed.

        I punched her in the shoulder and she laughed, as well as my mom. I was about to say something, but there was an earsplitting scream. We covered all of our ears, closing our eyes. It lasted about thirty seconds, and when we took our hands away and opened our eyes Thalia and I were wide eyed. "That's the new guy." Mom said casually.

        "Oh..." Wow. That scream... "I'll ask Christy about him."

        "Yeah. I'm super interested in him." My mom admitted.

        "Sheesh, what kind of person can scream like that?" Thalia asked, looking pale. I sent her a confused look.

     "What do you mean?" I asked.

      "Didn't you hear it? The scream had emotions put into. Sorrow, pain, misery, anger. All that." Thalia responded. I pondered that for a minute. I was interrupted by the door opening, revealing Christy.

       "Five minutes is up." She looked more tired that before. Never the less, she smiled at us.

        "Okay. Love you mom." I hugged her one last time and Thalia smiled at her, then we started to follow Christy. She locked the door back up and started to walk down that hallways, but froze. I almost ran into her, but I managed to catch myself.

        "They're taking him out." She whispered, pointing to  door.

        "The new guy? Was he the one who just screamed?" I asked in a quiet tone. She nodded grimly. The door swung open, and walking through it was... A teenager?

      It was a teen, no older than me, accompanied by two guards holding an arm each. He had messy jet black hair and wide, bright green eyes. He thrashed, trying to escape. "Let me go!" He yelled. It looked like the guards were having trouble holding him. "Let me go! I need to see my mom!" He yelled again.

    "Kid, your mom's dead!" One of the guards shouted, desperately trying to keep hold of his thrashing arms.

     "No! No she's not! You're lying!" The kid screamed, wide eyed and pale. "She's not dead! They told me so!"

     "Kid, who's they?" The other guard asked.

     "The voices! She's not dead! She's not dead! She's not DEAD!" I was trembling in my spot from the scene.

     "He's no older than us..." Thalia whispered, her voice quivering slightly. I nodded weakly. Then he noticed us. He froze. His eyes narrowed.

      "I know you... I know you! T-Tell them my mom's not dead!" He yelled, a Cheshire cat grin spreading across his face. His teeth were red, I'm not even kidding.

      "Let's go." Christy whispered, her voice trembling as well.

      "No. I need more information." I whispered. She shook her head no but I ignored her.

      He seemed to have completely forgotten about me. "I need to see my mom! Let me see my mom! She needs me!"

        "Where is your mom?" One guard asked.

         "She's at home! She needs me!" He screamed, still thrashing.

        "Listen kid, your stepfather told us she went missing over a month ago. Her body was found last week." The guard told him.

        "He's lying! She's in the basement! Basement! The basement!" He just repeated basement over and over like a broken record.

        "Kid! We searched the entire house! She's not there!" A guard yelled, struggling to him on to his arm.

        "He's LYING!" He screamed again. "He doesn't do anything but lie!"

        "Hey kid! Calm down! We're gonna put you back in your room, okay?" A guard asked.

        "NO! He's beating her!" He screamed, tears running down her face. "He's slowly killing her! The basement! Basement basement BASEMENT!" He screamed, full out sobbing now.

        The guards exchanged nervous looks. "Listen, calm down. We'll search again, okay?" One guard soothed.

        "Now you're lying!" He screamed. "Everything is LIES! No one tells the truth anymore!" He was to busy crying to fight against the guards as they dragged him back into his cell, shutting the door once he was in. They both sighed, slumping against the wall.

     "It's time to go home..." Thalia whispered. I nodded weakly and Christy led us out of the building.