We are two who were meant to be one... A soul cut in half and put into two separate bodies as punishment. Never to be whole again…

Tess looked around the room as she slowly sat up, her mind fuzzy from unconsciousness. It was a dirty room with no windows; the only opening to the outside was a riveted door at the far end of the room directly in front of her. It looked like the kind of door you would find in the sewers or on a submarine, the kind that would hold up against large amounts of water. Old pillows and moth eaten lengths of cloth had been stuffed into the room as though for her own comfort; they didn't seem to belong there so she deduced that they were put here after the room had fallen into decay. There was water dripping from the walls, but it must have been escaping somewhere because for the most part the floor away from the walls was dry and the water didn't seem to be building up at all. Glancing to her right, she climbed over a pile of pillows to inspect the wall, indeed the water was escaping; there was a crack in the floor that seemed to lead to a dark precipice below the floor. She stared at it for a long time before suddenly an eye appeared on the other side of the crack, like some morbid reflection. A shrill scream escaped her, the eye closed and she scramble away from the wall to where she had previously been. Maybe if she didn't move it would all go away like some weirdly frightening dream. But it didn't.

The door opened and she jumped, not sure she was able to handle any more frightening surprises and saw possibly the most magnificently frightening creature in all creation looming in the doorway. He was a man-or maybe he was once-now he seemed to be nothing more than a great lumbering beast, thrusting himself through the door and dragging a large sword-like weapon behind him. Her eyes went wide and she backed as far as she could away without being able to look into the small precipice near the edge of the room. It was then that she was sure she was going to die.

.:&:.

"Tess!", Piper called through the empty town, getting nothing but her own echo in return; her twin sister had been missing for a month, it had been assumed that she was dead and the police had finally given up after not a single lead had presented itself. But she wasn't giving up, not on Tess...

The only place left that Piper knew that the police had not even had inkling to search for her sister was a place that even their parents had not known they had visited together. When they were small, the two of them would often play there, since it was barely a mile from their house. It was an abandoned city that the two of them had always pretended they were the royalty of… Silent Hill.

Now, stepping off of the bus and facing the sign that gave her welcome to the tiny, village, she tucked her hair back over her ear and sucked in a breath.

"TESS!" her feet began to move and she headed toward the town. If Tess was there, she would find her. There was no exception… and there was nowhere else to look anymore…

The only reply was her echo, this time accompanied by a chilly fog that seemed down to the bone and she sighed before heading into the desolate place.

.:&:.

The monster's weapon landed on the floor, half strewn over the crack through which the water was escaping the room. He didn't close the door and for a moment she wondered if there was some way she could dart around him and get away. As though he'd heard her thoughts, he turned towards her, the helmet on his head showing no face but somehow she could tell he was watching her.

He reached for her and she backed away, when she did, he took his hand back and lumbered to the door, pulling it shut before picking up his weapon from the floor. Tess swallowed hard and tried to calm down, however this was greatly hindered by a sudden hand snaking from the precipice and wrapping around her. She screamed again and more hands grabbed for her, trying to pull her down into the precipice. There was no way that she would fit through it, at least not in one piece; the hands seemed to understand this because they pulled harder, trying to rip her apart by the limbs.

The monster that had come into the room turned towards her as though curious as to what she was screaming at then advanced on her, dragging his weapon behind him. This only served to frighten the girl more and she started to cry in her fear, wrenching on her arms only to have the hands pull harder. The weapon was raised and Tess hunched down, closing her eyes and bracing herself for an attack.

But surprisingly none came, she heard a sound that seemed to be something of a roar quickly followed by a yowling and opened her eyes to see that the knife wasn't lashed through her, but instead behind her and into the precipice. The unknown owner or owners of the hands shrieked, immediately released her and vanished from whence they came.

Bringing her arms slowly around her front again, she rubbed them to get the ache away and looked up as the being above her pulled his knife free from the crack and carefully angled it around her before lumbering back towards the door. He'd just-...protected her…?

"Um… thank you?", she tried, the being only glanced at her and let out a growl before dropping the knife again and squatting down before the door. "Okay…", she mumbled, "not allowed to leave…"

.:&:.

The stillness and silence of the town around her reminded Piper why she had never really been a fan of haunted houses. It just had that sort of feeling lurking in the air that something of questionable nature would leap out at her at any moment. Her steps were slow and careful as she looked around herself, walking down the middle of the cracked ash-fault street, seeking some signal that her sister had passed by this way.

She was almost to the very heart of the town when a siren behind her blared and she turned around in time to see red lights flashing, coming up on her fast. It was a miracle that she had time enough to scurry to the sidewalk before the ambulance zoomed past and she blinked at it.

"Hey!" she screamed after it, realizing to the flutter of her own heart that a moving vehicle must have meant that there were others in Silent Hill. Other souls that might be able to help her locate Tess. Before she could think this all the way through, she was running after the ambulance, arms and legs pumping to carry her as fast as she could go down the street and toward an establishment named "Deluca Hospital" on the sign at the side of the gate.

Reaching the front, she panted as she stopped for half a second to look up at the enormous building. Still able to hear the sirens where the vehicle must have gone around back, she started running again, bursting through the doors of the lobby and looking around manically.

"Please! Someone... My sister..." she was forced to stop there because the lobby was as empty as the rest of the town, a light flickering behind the service desk where, on the counter a radio was playing some kind of static-ridden ditty and a utility flashlight was upright beside the sign-in sheet. Sighing to herself, Piper swept her hair out of her face and glanced around once more. "Hello?... Anyone?" no answer came but the echo of her voice and footsteps off of the wall as she crossed the room to pick up the flashlight, radio, and paperweight she thought might make a decent club if she needed it.

There was a note pasted to the wall above a drop tray that came out of the wall, it reminded her of an overly large candy dispenser's tray.

"Sign in to receive your guest pass." Piper read it a few times before going back to the counter and signing her name 'Piper Estison' with the pen that was chained to the counter. It was better to have an ID than to not have one and be thrown out of the hospital before she was able to find and ask anyone if they'd seen Tess or-better still-if she'd been checked in here at some point.

As she laid the pen down, there was a clinking noise from behind her and she returned to the drop tray to find a clip on ID with her name and picture on it as well as a folded up piece of paper that looked brand new. As it turned out, the paper was a map and it couldn't have been new, there was a large X over the part of the map that represented the roof of the building and a note in Tess's loopy cursive that read:

"Meet you here..."

Piper's heart gave a leap as she spied the familiar long-hand and she stuffed the note into her pocket hastily before she clicked on her flashlight and pointed it down a hallway murky with dust. Bravely, she took a step forward and tried every door down the hall. Every one was locked or jammed and she partly feared that the large, double doors that led into the rest of the building weren't blocked as well. They pushed open easily and when she had stepped into the long hallway that had another set of double doors on the opposing side and a plaque above them that read 'Intensive Care', she wished that she hadn't. Right before her was what looked to be some sort of creature made up of two separate women connected at the head. Their necks angled oddly and gave Piper the impression that one or both were broken.

Both were dressed in filthy, torn nurse uniforms and let out a popping noise when her flashlight hit them. Reeling back against the doors, Piper gasped in and stared at the thing before her as wails came from both of those warped, melted faces and they hobbled toward her, working somewhat against each other. Each nurse had a weapon in her outside arm; one holding an axe, the other a twisted pipe. The movements were jarring and shaky as they ambled toward Piper and she tried to push the double doors behind her open again.

They were locked now and she glanced behind herself, letting out a panicked sound. When they were almost within arms' reach, Piper's hand came up to cover the flashlight. The monster suddenly stopped and twitched, both inside arms reaching forward and coming within inches of her face and she closed her eyes.

Grimy hands didn't come in contact with her, though, and when Piper's eyes opened, she realized that the nurses were still before her. They twitched and made some sort of noise every few seconds, but otherwise nothing as she carefully started to try and creep around them. She had almost made it when she moved to run for the I.C.U. doors and tripped over the left leg of the right nurse. Upon falling, her hand dropped from her flashlight and the monster bent to look under the inside arms at her. The flashlight caught it full in the face and they let out a wail as Piper screamed.

The nurses lunged brokenly, their weapons clashing together and barely missing Piper. When they missed she scrambled for the other set of doors, pushing her way through them and slamming them behind her in time to escape the deformed monster that is chasing her. For a brief moment she thought she was safe, but when she opened her eyes-realizing that her flashlight was still in the other room and she would have to go back to get it-she saw that while nothing was attacking her, she was anything but safe.

Holding her breath she tried not to scream in fright. Before her was a jumble of nurses, all in pairs and all attached to their partner in some way though none of them shared a full body. The set before her struck her as particularly frightening; they were connected at the belly and chest, cleaved at the collarbone and pelvis. Each had their own set of legs and their own head. Again they seemed as though their necks were broken and their heads were angled so they were looking at her but they were at gnarled angles away from the body.

She waited for a long moment, nothing moved; she couldn't even hear the nurses on the other side of the door anymore. Another long moment passed and she decided it was safe to open the door behind her in an attempt to get her flashlight. To her surprise, when she slipped back into the middle room, the flashlight was just where she'd left it, but it was no longer turned on and the nurses were back in the middle of the small space.

She couldn't breathe easy as she made her way to and she could pick up her flashlight again; sliding it, by the handle, into her pocket for use later if she happened to need it. Then she sucked in a deep breath and pushed open the doors to the I.C.U. again and walked through them. The mass of nurses had not disappeared just as the first set had not and she sighed in disappointment as she started working at trying to get around them. The angles that they were standing was an odd one and ducking under limbs and around conjoined bodies was much like playing a sequence game. Repetitive and daunting. One misguided move could very well lead to her demise.

Somehow, though, she made it around the mob and had a choice of three doors. Two into wards and one elevator. The elevator, she guessed, would signal the nurses, so she made a dash to the door to her right which led to a ward. It was jammed. It was the same case with the second ward, the door across from it, and she let out a sigh. This meant that she would most likely have to try the elevator and all her sneaking had been for naught. Still, she swallowed her sighs and tiptoed toward the third door once more.

Pushing the button seemed to do nothing at first, but just as she was sighing a little easy in hopes that the mechanism was broken, a loud bell caused her heart to skip and she heard the simultaneous tromp of dozens of heels behind her and knew, instantly, that she was no longer unnoticed in the room.

The nurses all jarred to life at once, shrieking and wailing as though the elevator had woken them from some needed slumber. With each floor, the elevator dinged and lit up a different number on the display that showed the contraption's progress towards her. As the creatures slowly turned and veered towards her, she realized she had two choices. She could either fight and probably die due to her lack of an adequate weapon against their various axes, pipes and ice picks, or she could turn on the flashlight, throw it, and hope that they advanced on that instead of on her.

She chose the second option.

Flashing the nurse closest to her in the face, she backed back against the elevator doors as it shrieked at her; praying to whatever gods were out there to let this work. Then she reared back and let the source of light fly gingerly across the room. It hit the wall and blinked threateningly, bounced to the floor and blinked a few more times before it fixated its beam on the mob.

Much to Piper's relief, her idea seemed to work well. The nurses were attracted to the light like insects and all but swarmed the flashlight, giving the girl time enough to punch the buttons for both the next floor and to close the doors. As soon as the doors were shut, she fell back, sighing as she panted around the pounding of her heart. Instead of traveling upwards, though, the elevator rocked a little and started going downward to the basement. The action made Piper sit up and she punched the second floor button over and over before she tried to the emergency button. Nothing seemed to cause the elevator to change direction, though, and it was not long before she gave up and fell back onto the floor again.

It was upon hitting the floor again that she seemed to realize that there was no guarantee that there would not be something worse than the nurses waiting for her on the next floor. Before she could arm herself, though, the elevator screeched to a stop and she sat up half-way in time for the doors to open.

Nothing greeted her but the stale air of a decrepit building and she couldn't help but fall back onto her back, swearing under her breath before she heaved herself up and ventured out into the dark, boiler-ridden hallway warily.

She suddenly missed her flashlight, as she got a little ways away from the elevator it closed and started going up the floors. Why couldn't it have done that while she'd been on it? Taking a shaky breath, she sighed and tried to calm herself down; there was no going back now. So she pressed forward, inching down the soot covered hallway until she reached an atrium-like room.

The room itself-from what she could see of it-was a maze tables, chairs, boxes, one large boiler, and a gas heater. Pacing slowly into the atrium, she made her way around the boiler, it was the largest object and it was the closest to her so it was the one she could see the best. Her hands touched the dusty metal and she noted that there was a greasy, powder substance that covered the surface of it. Her hands kept groping as she paced, her hand touching something foreign on the smooth surface of the boiler before she wrenched away. Back she stepped, her ankle hitting something and this something robbing her of her balance; she landed on her but rather hard on the concrete floor.

.:&:.

Tess watched the being before her silently as he watched her, boredom officially setting in. As the moments ticked on he somehow seemed to grow less and less frightening; true she wouldn't have wanted him to attack her, but as he wasn't making any move to harm her, she really wasn't retaining any fear of him. Scooting closer to him she stopped when he moved and pretended to busy herself with toying with a pillow until he stilled again.

When he'd looked away, she inched closer, stopping dead every time her movement caught his attention; she repeated this a few times until she was at the very edge of the fabric and pillows, just close enough to him to get a good look. He looked something like a man, though not really, he was much larger than an average man and he was covered all over-from the flesh that she could see-in scars and dirt.

"So…are you here all alone?" she asked curiously; trying not to be afraid when he turned towards her and hissed. Was that a no? "I have a twin sister…" she said lightly, not really knowing if he could understand her and noting that she was probably just talking to keep herself company. "I haven't seen her in a long time; there was an accident you see and-I can't really remember it but-it separated us. I haven't been able to get home to see her since, I keep getting side tracked..."

The beast said nothing, she didn't expect him to, laying down in the mess of fabric and pillows she kept her eyes on him and thought of Piper for a long time before she fell asleep.

.:&:.

As she hit the floor, a pipe clanged and rolled a little beside her and she noted that she had tripped over it. Blinking at the object, she sighed to herself and ran a hand over her face before grabbing it and heaving herself up. Once on her feet, she turned around to see what it was that her hand had hit and green eyes widened. Chained around a valve of some sort on the boiler was a voodoo doll of some kind.

Veering back again, she ran into a table and a rattling came from behind her, running her hand along the top of the table, she found what had made the noise; a box of matches. Picking the little package up, she pulled one out and struck it and immediately light flooded around her.

The room that she'd managed to make her way to appeared to be a storage room, there were the tables that she'd seen, but the room was much larger than she'd originally thought; it was stacked back with boxes upon boxes that looked dirty and burned. The boiler and heater too looked burnt, but the little doll that was hanging from a valve on the boiler wasn't. It looked like it had been put there separately. Her match flickered and died but just as it did something glimmered and when she struck another match and held it aloft, she was surprised to see a little key hanging from a string around the doll's neck.

Again the key glimmered in the light and Piper raced to get it before her match went out and with it her light, after all she only had six matches to begin with, with two gone she was down to four and she didn't want to waste them in case she needed them later.

Tentative to touch the doll, Piper slowly wrapped her hand around the key, pinched her eyes shut, and pulled. The part of the girl that was addicted to Horror movies expected something to grab onto her hand in that moment, but when nothing did, she let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Her hand pulled back and she held the key very tightly in her palm. Turning right around, she darted across the room, as fast as she dared to go in the pitch black. She meant to go back to the elevator, but she must have veered in the dark, because before she knew it she had tripped and landed on what felt like stairs.

"Oh…" she whispered to herself and turned her gaze up to see that there were a few steps up where there was a door and a plate on the wall. Heaving herself up, she ignored any pain from her fall and scurried up the stairs. When she met it she squinted through the dark at the plaque and could barely make out the word 'stairs'. "Stairs!" she breathed frantically and reached for the knob, shaking it vigorously when she found it locked.

The key in her hand became very pronounced after a moment of fruitless attempts to open the door. Looking down at it for a minute, she turned the little, metal object over in her fingers before holding it up to the lock and sliding it into it. She smiled to herself when it turned and thank whatever deity was watching over her when the door came open easily.

The door opened outwards into a hallway and she sighed a sigh of relief when she found no sort of monster waiting for her there. Her heart remained pounding in her chest, though, as a reminder that she wasn't out of danger yet. On the floor in front of her, half-hidden by some sort of decorative dresser that had probably been shoved there for storage and had fallen down, was a hand-gun. It took no thought to grab at it and when she had she turned it over and over in her hands. In the debris as well, she found two packs of ammunition for the object and scooped them up as well.

Though she had never used any sort of firearm, even one so small as the one she had now, Piper decided that it was better to have it with her for safe keeping. Now she just had to find the stairs.