"I don't think I like it here."

"I think it looks nice," Amanda said. She turned to her husband, but Greg looked like he agreed with his father, "The old architecture is beautiful."

"It's probably falling apart inside," Greg muttered.

Amanda pursed her lips and said nothing. This had been Greg's idea. She'd tried to talk him out of it, even, but it was too hard for him to watch his father slip away. And Amanda understood. They had a baby coming, and he had started wandering off, and while they had time now to police him like a child... well. Pretty soon they'd have an actual child.

Maybe the worst part was that he was still lucid enough to understand where they were taking him. And he was lucid enough to be excited to meet his grandchild. It broke both of their hearts, but even though Amanda was willing to try, Greg was being realistic about it. They could never leave him alone with the baby, and Mount Massive was offering to take on full care of him for free. State of the art facilities, twenty-four hour care, and a specialization in extreme mental illness.

"Oh, Gregory," Martin moaned, gripping his seatbelt and twisting it. Amanada looked back at him, and she could see the whites of his eyes plainly. He was staring at the mountains, "Oh, Gregory, I don't like this place. It whispers."

"New places are always a little scary, dad," Greg said gently. He exchanged some words at the security booth and pulled the car around. The grounds were well maintained, so that was a good sign. Amanda kept her eyes on Martin, who kept staring out at the mountains. He'd broken out into a sweat, "Let's get you checked in, okay?"

"Gregory, please," Martin leaned forward and gripped the driver's seat, "Please, son, I don't want to stay here. I don't... I don't like what the mountains are saying."

"Just try it, okay?" Greg looked as tired as he sounded, and he parked the car, "It'll be okay, dad. These people are gonna help you."

"I want to go home."

He started to cry, moaning softly and rocking, and Greg looked like he was going to cry, too. It'd be easier for them and the new baby, to not have to keep constant tabs on him, but what if he just withered away without his family? He hadn't been away from Greg since he'd come back from university. Greg and then herself a few years ago had been his primary caregivers. They couldn't afford anything cutting edge for him, and so sometimes it was a struggle. He'd been very good today, but now that they were in the shadow of the asylum, he was acting like he did on his more disconnected days.

"Hang on," Amanda said. She got out of the car, but got right back in, in the back seat with Martin. Gently, she undid her father-in-law's seatbelt and took his hand, placing it on her swollen belly, "Hey, dad."

"Mandy, I don't want to stay here," he said. He still managed a smile when the baby kicked for him. He almost always did, the little trooper, "I want to meet Jason. I want to hold him. The mountain won't let me do that."

"Well I say you'll get to do both of those things," Amanda said, gentle, always so gentle. Greg said she coddled him, but Amanda didn't know another way to be, "Who do you believe, hmn? Me or a silly old mountain?"

He lunged at her and grabbed her shoulders, his fingers digging in, bruising, making her cry out. Sometimes he had outbursts, but he had nevertaken it out on another person before.

"The bloody-winged angels will find me and they will make me their Prophet and I will do terrible things!" he shrieked at her. Gregory was shouting and scrambling out of his seat, but Amanda could only look into Martin's feverish, mad eyes. There were tears streaming down his face, "The Apostle will Become and I will burn! I WILL BURN!"

Gregory managed to haul him off, his arms under Martin's, and Amanda finally remembered to breathe, covering her mouth and nose with one hand to muffle a strangled sobbing noise. Oh, god, he was so sick. He was so much worse than they thought.

"GOD WILL PUNISH ALL OF YOU!" Martin shrieked. They were making a scene. Two men in suits were lingering near a car that was probably worth more than their rental home. The younger one nudged the older one. Both of them were smirking and Amanda wished she had it in her to be outraged, "YOU'LL ALL WITNESS THE BECOMING!"

Some men rushed outside, and they were quick to administer Martin a sedative and ease him into a wheelchair. They were gentle, so gentle with him, and Amanda refused to get out of the car. She couldn't stop crying. She couldn't watch this. She had come along to be strong for Greg, but she was so stupid. Greg had been dealing with this for all of his adult life. He looked ashen and resigned, and he wound up doing the paperwork for his father's intake right there in the parking lot while the men in suits looked on. They were smiling, and Amanda hated both of them even though they could've been talking about anything.

She knew it was about Martin. She knew it was about how Greg knelt next to the wheelchair and took his father's limp hand in both of his and squeezed. She knew they were snickering, not even behind their hands, at how Greg stroked his arm and got up to kiss him on the cheek. She knew they were laughing at how tightly Greg hugged him, and how he couldn't let go for a few minutes. The orderlies were patient, and they, at least, looked appropriately moved. He would be in good hands, here. It wasn't the awful men in suits that would be looking after him.

Amanda forced herself out of the car and to approach. She was shaken up, but she had to say goodbye. Amanda knew he hadn't meant it, that he'd regret it later, and god, she hated that glassy look in his eyes. She kissed his forehead and put one of his limp hands against her belly again, and told him that Jason was excited to meet him. He was drugged and he didn't respond, but she wanted to hope that he could hear and understand.

Greg put an arm around her, and they watched as they wheeled him towards the building.

When they went to visit him with newborn Jason, all he had to say was that such a vessel was too small and weak, and that they ought to leave.Quickly. Greg had screamed and threatened to sue, and a man Amanda was sure she remembered from a few months ago came to talk him down. And threaten to bill him for his father's stay if he even thought about a lawsuit. They blackmailed both of them into silence, and they were asked not to return to the asylum as it was 'disruptive' to Martin's therapy.

The next time they heard about Martin, it was an inquiry regarding his remains. They'd had to use dental records to identify him. Amanda had nightmares for weeks after the funeral, after seeing charred bones placed into a casket. He'd tried to warn them back then, and he screamed at her in her dreams now, his flesh cracking as she and Greg both turned their backs on him while he burned. She would wake up smelling it, feelingthe heat.

And the mountains whispered in her dreams. They whispered terrible things, about her husband and about her son and about her. Greg said he didn't dream at all, but she knew he was lying. They both knew.

He had tried to warn them. They hadn't listened.