Disfigured and begging for mercy, he clings to my leg, screaming for me to end his life. They're coming for him. And he has no way of escaping. Only the cold grip of death can spare him from perishing in the hands of the monsters of Silent Hill.
"There, there Eileen. You'll be well enough to go home soon, darling. Soon." The nurses would say to me. For 3 years they said this to me. Everyday. For 3 years.
When would soon come? When would I be well enough to finally go home? To see my son. My beautiful boy. Oh how he must have grown. Oh how handsome he must be. He would be turning 7 this coming October. And instead of baking him a delicious birthday cake and wrapping his gifts, I would be here. Strapped to this bed frame, conjuring ideas on how to kill myself with an IV needle. Or. Maybe. I could just slip in the shower and burst into million water droplets and just… drain away.
That's why I'm here. I'm unstable.
I'm a burden on society.
On my husband.
On my son.
They hate me now. They threw me in here. They tossed me away and forgot me. I'm useless trash.
I can hear faint screaming coming from the room next to mine. That's what you have to listen to here. Screams. Terrified voices shouting to be saved. But there is no salvation for the feeble. No salvation for the broken. No salvation.
"Let me out! Let me out! I'll kill myself! Let me out!" The screams are saying. I can hear another voice. A familiar voice of one of the psyche ward nurses. She's trying to muffle the woman's screams, but they just get louder. "KILL ME. LET ME OUT. KILL ME."
That final agonizing shriek seemed to trigger something in the wiring of the building, because after that last muffled scream rang out, the whole ward went pitch black. The impossibly black room I was in fell silent. "What… w-what happened?" I said to myself. I could feel the straps that had been tying me to the railing of my bed slice into my flesh. I had to find a way of unbuckling them so I could reach the hallway and see what was happening. I tried to wriggle my arms free, but the straps only sunk in deeper. That's when I heard him. "I'll help you mommy." A tiny voice called to me. It was my darling, sweet little boy. "Oh… Jonathon. Where are you baby? What are you doing here? Where's your daddy?" I called back to him, but there was no reply. I could feel cold fingers work there way up my arm, searching for the strap buckles. I couldn't see a thing in this god forsaken dark, not a goddamn thing.
The belts slid down off my arms and I could once again move freely. I lunged into the dark trying to wrap my arms around my child, only to find myself grasping at air. Where could he have gone? I didn't hear the door open or close, so where could my child have gone? "I cant let him roam around in this dark… he might get hurt." I thought to myself. I climbed from my bed and searched around with one foot, trying to get a steady balance on the cold, spongy ground. They locked me in a padded room, and strapped me to my bed to keep me from killing myself.
At last I found my footing and placed my heels firmly on the floor.
"Mommy… they're coming to kill you, Mommy." Jonathon's voice beckoned.
"Jonathon? Where are you baby?" I called out again, groping around in thin air, trying to grab hold of his tiny body.
"They're coming to kill you mommy!" He shrieked. His scream was that of a dog that had just been shot between the eyes. A cry of a wounded animal who had just been given a bullet to the brain.
I felt a deep stab in my heart as I reached out to grab him. My arms fell against nothing but cold air.
"Where are you baby! Where!" I screamed as a mother does when she's heard the sound of her child in agony.
Silence.
Not even an echo.
And than a loud crash and a swift rush of cold air entered the room. The door had been opened with such ferocity that it sounded as if the hinges were breaking.
"Hello?" I called.
Again. Silence.
"H-hell -------"
I felt a strong grip tighten around my throat. I could feel the air being blocked inside my lungs, and it felt as if the hand was pulling my head from my shoulders like a bottle from a bottle cap. I let out but a single, garbled moan and pulled my IV from my arm. I plunged it deep into whatever it was that had me in it hands around my neck and it let out an ungodly howl. Its grip loosened and I felt my body sink to the ground. I was gasping for air so severely I thought my lungs would burst from pressure.
Whatever that was. It was not human.
I crawled around on the floor for a moment, feeling whatever it was that had grabbed me. Its body was cold and lifeless, and the curves of the body felt like that of a woman's. But what woman could have a grip like that? I climbed over the dead body and stumbled into the hallway. The hallway seemed like a dark crevice in the surface of hell. The only thing that illuminated the room even slightly was a flickering ceiling light far off in the distance. As I made my way toward the flickering light, I found my toes catch against something hard lying on the ground. I crouched to pick it up. "A flashlight?" I said to myself as I let my fingers skim the surface of the metallic tube, "One of the night nurses must have dropped it." I pressed the tiny rubber button on the side of the tube and the little flashlight lit up after a hesitant flicker. "Yes… now… I wont have to wander around… in the dark." I whispered to myself. I didn't want anyone to hear me speak. They'd find me quicker.
I rose once again to my feet and proceeded to make my way down the long corridor.
I took perhaps three steps when I felt a soft breath break across my neck. I violent spun around to find my face met with another's. A horribly disfigured face of a nurse, her face spotted with blood and her eyes had been forced from their sockets, leaving two deep impressions in her skull.
"Eeeeiilleeen…Eeeeiiilleeennn… you've been bad!" She shrieked as she swung a large blood splatter knife above my head, and as quickly as she rose it above my head, sent it crashing back down at my skull. With almost surgeon like precision, I rose my arm to meet hers and pulled the bloody weapon from her grip. I coiled my fingers around its handle and pushed the blade through her forehead. She didn't even bleed. I would have liked to see her bleed. She didn't make a noise as she dropped to the ground. Not even a dying groan. Nothing. Silence. My fingers tightened around the leather-bound handle. I bend over slightly to get a good look at the body, which was now bleeding rather heavily. Her mouth had been sewn shut, and her eyes were gouged out, leaving only large sockets where they should have been. She did have a sort of familiarity to her, but I couldn't place her anywhere. I simply shook it off and started down the hall again, holding the blade close to my chest. It wasn't long before I noticed that I was the only person left in my wing of the ward. I had checked many of the room on my way down the hall, but all of them were empty. Not a single person was left. But where could they all have gone? And without a single noise? It was impossible. There had to be someone left here…
(END CHAPTER 1)
TBC…