((Ib setting and events and what not belong to Kouri. Silent Hill characters belong to Konami))
((Rating may change with upcoming chapters))
Chapter 1: Through the Deep Sea
In the early afternoon, under a gray sky, Alex Shepard and his parents were on their way to an art gallery.
"Did you remember everything, Alex?" Asked his mother. "Oh! Do you have your dog tags? You know, the ones you got for your birthday? Keep it safe in your pocket, okay? You wouldn't want to lose them!"
The three arrived at the art museum and strolled inside. The front entrance inside was large and white. A large poster hung on the wall behind the front desk. A man stood behind the desk to welcome guests. To the left of them stood a man in a brown jacket, looking outside. Just in front of them was a hallway that would probably lead to a part of the art exhibit. The three of them stopped just before the desk.
Alex's mother turned to him. "Well, we're here. This is you first time in an art gallery, right, Alex? We're here today to see an exhibition of art works by an artist named Dahlia Gillespie. And they don't just have paintings but also sculptures and others! I just know you'll enjoy this place, hun."
"Should we get to the reception desk?" Asked Alex's father in a gruff voice.
Alex's mother turned to his father. "Yes, we should pick up some pamphlets! Perhaps they'll be informational towards the different creations here."
With that, the family walked up to the front desk. Alex's father begins to talk with the greeter while his mother started flipping through the pamphlets. Alex tapped his mother's shoulder.
Turning her head towards him, she asked, "What's up, Alex?"
"Do you and dad mind if I go on ahead?" Asked Alex.
"Oh, alright. I guess you can go ahead. Just make sure you're quiet while wandering the gallery. It's not nice to disrupt others enjoyment of things." She gave Alex a weak smile before turning back to the pamphlets.
"Mom, I'm twenty-two. I'm not a kid anymore. I know the rules." Stated Alex before walking away from his parents to go explore the art gallery.
Alex wandered straight ahead and through the hallway that led to another area. The area he stepped into was large and filled with paintings. There was one painting that especially caught Alex's eye and that was of a significantly large floor painting. The painting was gated off by rope so that no one would walk across it. Alex walked up to the roped gate and looked at the painting. The painting was a dark blue ocean where a creepy, gray angler fish lurked. While it was just a painting, Alex felt uneasy looking at it. Although, that didn't surprise him since he wasn't very fond of large bodies of water anyways.
Alex moved away from the floor painting. He carefully dodged the other onlookers as he moved away. As he did so, Alex picked up on bits and pieces of people's conversations. Most of what they were saying was just how they felt about the painting. Alex walked around the floor painting and briefly looked at the large wall painting. It looked like a woman teaching a child how to play the piano.
Alex ignored that painting and drifted over to a sign that was attached to the archway of the area. He leaned in to read it. It read: "Welcome to the World of Gillespie" We truly thank you for participating today. We're currently holding an exhibit for the great artist, Dahlia Gillespie. We hope you deeply enjoy the art of the late Gillespie, whose creations carry both mystery and beauty.
Alex nodded and backed away from the sign. "Dahlia Gillespie, huh? What an odd name."
Alex walked further into the first floor display area. He entered another room to the right from where he came in and looked around. To the right of him was a large black rose statue with fallen rose petals. The statue nearly looked real. Alex spotted a young boy reaching out to touch on of the fallen petals.
"I want to touch those petals!" The little boy cried.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You might get caught and the gallery owners might get angry." Warned Alex.
"You're boooring!" The boy's face scrunched up with dislike.
Alex was taken aback by the little boy's odd statement. Was he supposed to encourage the boy to touch the petals? No, that wouldn't make much sense for an adult like him to do. Alex was about to retaliate when he noticed that the little boy had gone back to trying to reach the fake petals. Alex shrugged. The boy would have to learn things the hard way.
Leaving the young boy to do what he wants to do, Alex walked away to view the other paintings in the room. He passed by four paintings with odd names and came across a display case area. Alex looked into the glass cases to see some objects sparkling. The other observers in the area are 'ooo-ing' and 'aah-ing' while others are wishing they could buy the sparkling objects. Alex walked passed all the cases, uninterested. Just ahead of him was another wall with four paintings. Each of the paintings had different framing work and all were odd pictures that didn't make sense to why they artist titled them the way she did.
Alex walked away from those paintings and followed the room back to the room with the deep sea floor painting. He looked over to the large wall painting and noticed his mother and father examining it. Alex walked over to them and tapped his mother's shoulder.
She turned around. "Oh, Alex. How're you enjoying the art creations so far?"
Alex shrugged. "There're okay, I guess."
"Anything peek your interest? According to the pamphlet, the museum is even displaying some accessories today. Have you seen them yet? They're supposedly accessories with tiny little gems on them." His mother held up a few of the pamphlets she found.
"I just came from the area in which they are displayed. Just follow that passageway over there." Alex pointed to where he came from.
He withdrew his arm and looked back to his mother. She was smiling.
"Well, they sound beautiful! Your father and I will definitely have to go check those out then!" She turning back to the display, Alex's mother paused. "Oh! And remember not to touch the displays. You'll get into trouble if you do." With that, she turned fully back to the painting.
Alex sighed. "Mom, I'm not nine years old anymore. Don't treat me like a child."
He saw his mother shrug. "I've been anticipating this exhibition of Gillespie even though she's not that popular of an artist."
Alex nodded and walked passed his father.
"Alex, have you checked out the second floor? They've got a lot of displays that aren't paintings, up there." Stated his father, even though he didn't turn to face his son.
"I guess I'll go there next." Mumbled Alex before walking out the area.
Walking back into the entrance area of the museum, Alex looked to his right and saw the stairs that would lead to the second floor.
"I guess I'll go check upstairs now. I wish there was more to do than look at weirdly colored paintings."
Alex ascended the stairs and wound up in another large room. The second floor seemed larger than the first floor. He walked up to the window that was directly across the staircase. The outside seemed darker than the inside of the museum. However, that didn't really surprise Alex since his hometown of Shepherd's Glen was usually gray in color. Not to mention that the museum probably wanted the patrons to see the exhibits. Alex pushed away from the gray outside and turned back to the open area where a bunch of new art exhibits stood and hung.
Alex walked past a few paintings that were blocked by onlookers and continued to the artworks that no one were viewing at the moment. One of the paintings being viewed was completely blocked by a young girl in a cream colored vest jacket. She looked to be about seventeen and was staring intently on the painting in front of her. Alex shrugged and continued walking around.
Alex walked to a painting titled: "worry," it was just a picture of a large eye. It seemed a bit creepy so he walked away and towards an exhibit where three headless statues stood. The headless statues looked like women and one was wearing blue, another red, and the last was wearing yellow. The man standing next to the railed off exhibit was mumbling something about the statues defining a person's individuality or something more or less than that. Alex moved towards the sign that stood at the front of the display. It read "Death of the Individual." An odd name but understandable since the statues had no heads. Perhaps it did have something to do with what the man was talking about with individuality.
Alex walked further along and came across a white and red sofa. It had an indent in the middle of the sofa. He viewed the sign which read "Reserved Seat." It made sense once reading the title. Alex turned back around, walked past the headless statues and made a right into another hallway with hung up paintings. Alex walked up to a painting of a woman in a red nurse dress. The title read: "Lisa in Red". Alex shrugged away from the painting and moved past an old couple looking at another painting.
"Gillespie's kind of an obscure artist, you know? Probably only tiny art galleries like this could get away with an exhibition of his works… It'd be nice if more people knew about him, really…" Mentioned the old man. He seemed to be talking to no one in particular.
Alex walked down to the next area and passed by a tree looking statue with neon tubes hanging from its branches along with a pink ball statue that had objects stabbed into it, and a blue person who looks like he's melting. Alex rounded the corner, uninterested in the things he has passed. A child and her mother stand in front of an up close picture of a cat.
"It's a kitty! Mommy! There's a kitty picture!" Shouted the child with a wide smile.
Her mother tugged on her arm. "Yes, yes, I see it! Now be quiet; I told you not to shout!" The mother noticed Alex pause in movement and turns to him. "Oh, I apologize if my daughter is bothering you."
"Nah, it is fine, ma'am." Nodded Alex just before he walked away.
Alex continued to the last area of the gallery on the second floor. This area consisted of only one painting and not only was it large but it was very long. Alex walked up to the sign that hung underneath the middle of the painting. It read: "Other World." Immediately after Alex read the title of the painting, the lights of the museum flickered on and off.
Alex backed away from the painting. "What the hell?"
Walking away from the painting, Alex returned to the large area of the second floor. Looking around, Alex took notice that none of the other observers were around. He checked everywhere else on the second floor but found no one.
"Maybe there's a presentation of the artists history on the first floor. That's probably where everyone went. I should go check it out; my mother is probably waiting for me to arrive." Reasoned Alex
On his way to the stairs, Alex walked up to the painting that had been previously blocked by that teenager. Its' title read: "The Hanged Man." A gruesome title, even though the picture is just of a man being hung by his ankles. Alex shrugged and walked away from the painting. It's not like anything in this museum was bright and cheerful of displays.
Walking down the stairs, the lights flickered again but went out this time. This left Alex to roam in the dark, and leaving him quite confused as to what is going on.
"There's no way this museum could be closed right now. My mother would never leave me behind." Said Alex, trying not to panic. He ran over to the exit doors and twisted the knob. "Locked? How can this be locked?" Alex tried ramming into the door but it still wouldn't budge.
He sighed and went over to the window. It wasn't locked but it just would not open. Alex felt frustrated because he could not leave. He walked over to the other window to try. As he went to touch the framework, a weird red slime oozed down from behind window causing Alex to jump backwards. Alex's eyes were wide with fright and he ran upstairs from a fit of panic. At the top of the stairs, Alex caught his breath. He decided to check around the second floor one last time just in case there was anyone who could help him.
Alex walked past the window on the second floor but as he did so, a shadow figure walked passed just after him. This caused Alex to whirl around to look out the window. However, he knew it would not make much sense as to someone walking by since he was on the second floor. Alex attempted to ignore the weirdness and continue walking when suddenly he heard a loud banging. It was as if someone had knocked real hard on the window. Alex quickly went back to the window and found a smudge on the window. He sucked in a deep breath of air before letting it out and walking away. Once he did so, no more occurrences happened with that window.
Alex quickly walked around the bend, passing the kitty picture that seemed to 'mew' loudly as he did so. Eventually, he found himself at the enormous painting. He eyed the painting suspiciously. Nothing weird happened until after he checked out that painting and it couldn't have been a coincidence either. His eye caught sight of some blue liquid leaking from the behind the frame of the painting. As he went to go check it out, red letters appeared rapidly on the ground. Alex took a moment, after being thoroughly startled, to walk along the letters and find out what they spelt.
"Come, Alex? Wait what?" Alex raised an eyebrow but some blue writing on the wall from where the blue liquid had been, caught his eye. "Come down below, Alex? I'll show you someplace secret?" He read in confusion. "I don't understand what is going on here!"
Alex held his head in his hands as he tried to make sense of all the odd things that are happening. Nothing is making sense anymore and Alex just did not like it when he did not know what was going on. Alex took deep breaths before straightening himself up. All he needed to do was find a way out of the museum. That was all that mattered to him now.
Alex walked back to where he came from and walked past a picture that had a bowl of rotten fruit in it. Although, the moment he walked by, the red fruit fell out of the painting and onto the ground behind Alex. He flinched slightly and looked back to see the fruit. The place was getting weirder and weirder by the moment!
He ignored the fruit, however, and walked down to the first floor once again. Once on the first floor, Alex went behind the receptionist's desk and rummaged through the drawers. Upon opening one of the file cabinets, Alex found a lead pipe. He picked it up and went towards the doors. However, as he neared the door, Alex felt an odd twinge of curiosity. Inside he knew what the message meant and it meant having to explore the first floor gallery section. He did not really want to but it felt as if he was being forced to find out what would happen. Alex sighed and hooked the lead pipe onto his side belt loop before turning back towards the first floor gallery section.
Alex walked into the area and the first thing he noticed was that the railing gate to the large floor painting was open. He walked up to the opening and glanced down. Blue footprints sat at the edge of the painting. Perhaps it was telling his to walk onto the painting. However, Alex was skeptical about the whole ordeal. He didn't want to ruin the painting but he was curious to see what would happen.
Alex thought for a moment and took a risk.