When Lily woke up she had no sense of where she was, but she was relatively sure it was a dream. The world was painted white with a thick fog and the smell of stale air and rust stuffed up her nose. Looking around, it was impossible to see anything but the road under her feet. Without any better ideas, she decided to follow it.
It was cold- something Lily thought particularly unusual. Since when can you feel the weather in a dream? Her white nightgown and silk slip underneath definitely weren't keeping her warm. If only she could wake back up in her bed with her quilts and beloved shaggy dog.
She looked around, trying to see something, but the fog was just so thick you could've sliced it with a butter knife. Something floated out of the sky and landed on her cheek, surprising her. Lily reached up her hand to wipe it away and her fingers turned black. She looked at it confused before finally taking in that little snow-like flakes were falling down all around her. Holding out her hand, she managed to catch one, holding it up to her face to examine it closer. With her left index finger she smeared the flake along her palm, leaving a dusty streak in its wake. Ash, she thought.
Dusting her hands together she kept walking until finally she could see the outline of a sign on the side of the road. Sprinting towards it, she made out the aged letters that said "Silent Hill". It was silent. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard anything but the soft shuffling of her shoes on the concrete. She looked down. They were the small white shoes she kept by the bed, but when did she ever put them on? Or is she just dreaming that she did? Could she really be outside and not sleeping?
Lily shivered, but it wasn't just because of the cold. She crossed her arms and continued her pace, deciding that there was no way it could be anything but a dream. She'd never even heard of Silent Hill before. Maybe it was just one of those dreams you had to go through before you could wake up, so she simply followed the road.
Until there was no more road. Lily stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth open. Where the road should have been there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was like that part of the world had been ripped away. "What the…" she said to herself, peeking over the edge that was a straight drop that went who knew how far. The fog was so thick, there was no way of even knowing if there was another side.
Looking around, she found a few chucks of concrete and picked one of them up, chucking it into the fog. She threw them as far as she could, but was met with only silence as the white wall of fog swallowed up everything she gave it. For a moment she considered jumping. You always wake up after a fall in your dreams. But there was a very bad feeling deep in her chest and she immediately backed away.
"Okay Lilith, no big deal," she told herself, "we'll just go the other way."
She wasn't sure how long she had been walking when she finally reached the town. It was so quiet, so still, so dead that it sent shivers down her spine. "Hello!?" she called out, but there was no one. When she finally made her way into the heart of the town she stopped and wondered if she should look for someone inside somewhere. But glancing around at the ominous buildings that towered over her, she decided she didn't really want to go inside. So she squared her shoulders and took a step forward.
And then it happened.
Before her foot could even make contact with the ground and siren echoed loudly in her ears. She spun widely, the air raid alarm screaming in her ears. Her eyes went wide with disbelief and shock, as she watched in a panic the world began to peel away- erode into something dark and twisted and sinister. The sky went dark, the siren stopped but was replaced by sounds much more terrifying. Screeches and cries of things that could only be described as…inhuman.
She was frozen with terror, unable to move, as twisted shapes with jerky, unnatural movement and featureless faces began to emerge. The turned toward her and wailed. She found her feet then and ran into the nearest building, slamming the door shut behind her.
Rows of doors lined the hallways, but none of them would open. She leaned up against the side of the wall, panting in both panic and exhaustion until she heard a great scraping sound, like metal being dragged across metal. It grated her nerves and reverberated through her bones, jolting them. Lily watched as a huge something rounded the corner with a pyramid shaped metal contraption on its head, dragging a sword that was bigger than she was.
She tried the knob again, begging it to open. She threw her body against the door again and again until she felt it give way.
Bursting through the room she shut the door firmly behind her and shoved herself into a closet, pressing her body up against the far wall, pushing clothes out of the way. It wreaked. She covered her mouth and her nose with her hands, her eyes watering. She wanted to gag, but she could hear the scraping getting closer and closer until it was right outside the room.
But then it stopped. Lily listened for what felt like forever, but heard nothing. Finally, deeming it safe, she fumbled around the closet until she found a string. Pulling on it flooded the closet with a sick, yellow light.
She screamed and tripped out of the closet, scurrying backward across the floor. What she thought had been clothes were rotting, human skins hanging naked and bloody. She kept screaming as something dragged her back by her hair and threw her against the wall. A terrible looking creature with different flaps of skin stapled to its face opened its mouth wider than possible to reveal endless rows of jagged teeth. It dug its claw into her forearm and sliced her. The pain was unbearable
The creature kept slicing up her arm, peeling her flesh away. Lily screamed for someone, for anyone, but there was no one there.
Suddenly, the door burst open and the monster that had her shifted its attention, loosing his grip and she dropped to the floor, clutching her gushing arm to her chest. The creature she had seen in the hallway came staggering in with a huge sword. The monster that had her was hissing and snarling and reared to attack, but Pyramid Head swung his sword and sliced the creature in half.
He reached for her then, but she rolled to the side and jumped to her feet, dodging around his massive form and running back down the hallway and out onto the street. Lily had no idea where she was going, she was just running. She held her arm close. How could she feel so much pain in a dream? How could it seem so real!?
A woman darted out of an ally and ran ahead of her. "Wait!" Lily called. The woman turned back, shocked, "RUN!" she screamed. And she did. Lilith ran harder and faster until she caught up.
"Come on!" the woman breathed, "we have to get to the church!"
They ran far as they could until they were climbing stone steps up to a huge, black, gothic cathedral. Lily looked back to the see the Pyramid creature almost upon them; she didn't know how that was even possible. He looked up at them and she stopped. She could feel him staring at her.
"Let's go!" the woman grabbed her injured arm and Lily yelled out in pain, being dragged along. She saw the great doors open. The woman turned and screamed as Pyramid grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground, stabbing his sword up her dress.
Lilith felt hands on her, pulling her backward. She saw the woman drop to the ground before the doors slammed shut with a loud bang that echoed off the church walls.
"Let go of me! Let go! Let go!" she was suddenly hauled to her feet and was no longer restrained. She looked around between the dirty faces of the morbid, frightened refugees. "What the Hell is going on!?"
"This is a sanctuary. The words of the devil and his realm remain outside the walls." A woman with curling brown and gray hair stepped forward and everyone parted the way.
"Who are you?" Lily asked.
"My name is Christabella."
"Those…those things out there, what are they?" She demanded.
"Demons. Monsters of the darkness that seek to snuff out the light of the pure."
"They got Amy, Miss Christabella," a woman spoke up.
"A shame. But we must carry on as we always do."
"None of this is real," Lily said, more to herself than anyone else, pressing her hands against the sides of her head. Her arm bled still, but she could no longer feel the pain for shock, "I'm dreaming, it's all a dream."
"This is no dream. It is a nightmare. A very real nightmare. You are not asleep, you are in Silent Hill," Christabella told her.
She shook her head, her long copper red hair, now matted with blood and dirt and god knew what else, sticking to her face, "I was in bed," she gestured to her gown, now stained red, as evidence, "and then I was here."
"Perhaps you were brought here for a purpose," the older woman responded.
"Are you here to save us?" someone asked. "Maybe she's here to trick us!" said another. "We can't take any chances! Give her to the darkness!"
"Now, now," Christabella said, "what is your name, child?"
All eyes were on her now and she could feel her anxiety spike, "Lilith," she said, "Lilith Mason."
And the room exploded.
"Witch!"
"Devil!"
"Kill her!"
"Burn her!"
"My Sanctuary will not be defiled by those who serve evil!" Christabella roared.
"But, I-"
"Cast her into the darkness! Back into the Hell from which she came!"
"Wait! Please! Stop! I'm not a witch, I didn't do anything!" she begged as they seized her again. She kicked violently and something hard collided with the side of her face and her vision blurred. She could taste blood in her mouth and nausea overtook her, but she didn't stop kicking. Not even as she saw the great doors open.
They threw her out and she collided with the concrete. She tried to push herself up, but she just didn't have enough strength. Not even as she saw Pyramid Head above her, swinging his sword at the church doors, catching one man across the chest. They left him bleeding on the stone, just as they left her.
Pyramid Head raised his sword over the man on the ground, who screamed and pleaded for the creature not to take his life. The sword crashed down, stabbing him straight through the middle. He spasmed and then was still.
Lilith looked away, staring back at the gaping sky, the smell of blood thick in the air, the shadow of the church spike looming up into the darkness. She could feel herself being dragged down into unconsciousness.
She never heard him approach, but Pyramid Head stood over her, looking down at her bleeding, frail body. She didn't have the energy to run or scream or even cry. He vision faded and so too did the terrifying new world.
Pyramid Head scooped her off the ground with one arm with more intended gentleness than he had ever held anything. He held her against his chest with one arm and carried his sword in the other.
He knew she was important, that he wasn't supposed to harm her. Or fuck her. Or torture her. And killing her was definitely off the table. But, he couldn't help but examine the shape of her body through her thin, bloodstained nightgown.
Her hair was a bright copper and there were a few freckles that splashed across her nose and under her eyes. Occasionally, her eyelids would peel open to reveal bright green irises. They looked at him, but didn't really see anything.
He took her to a small room with a bed and rusty metal walls and cold, hard floors. He laid her on the bed as Alessa appeared. "She is here," the girl said, walking closer to the figure on the bed.
'I fail to see her significance,' he responded with his mind. Alessa, having a hand in his creation, was able to understand him telepathically.
"It goes beyond out current realm. We are to keep her until we are through here and take her back with us into the darkness permanently."
'But what good is she?'
"It is not for us to say. We simply follow direction," Alessa put her fingers to the girl's head for a moment as if trying to figure something out, then pulled them away with a displeased look. "Watch over her; we need her in one piece."
Lily just barely fluttered her eyes open, "Ghost?" she looked around for her big, white German Sheppard before she realized that she wasn't in her bedroom. At that moment, she became fully alert and tried to move, but found herself restrained to a chair. She was in a small room and when she saw Pyramid beside her with a cart, atop sitting a tray of various surgical items, her heart raced.
"Are you going to torture me?" her voice was shaky, frightened, "are you!?" He didn't answer her, he just kept fiddling with the things on the tray. Even with large fingers, he managed to thread a needled with what looked like relative ease.
"Look at me!" she screamed and finally, he stopped, looking down at her, "what do you want?"
He stood still for a moment as if he didn't know how to respond. She wondered if he could speak at all.
She pulled away as he crouched beside her chair, not that she could really move at all. But whatever he was going to do to her, she didn't want to see.
When his fingers touched her skin, she whimpered. She reckoned she ought to be strong, show no fear, but that wasn't her; she wasn't brave. He had her tied so that the insides of her arms were exposed. Lily bit her lip as he probed the gash in her arm.
And then she yelled when he started burning her. She couldn't look away then. He was pouring something out of a bottle into the gash and it burned and bubbled in her flesh. He held her arm firmly until the hissing stopped and it began pouring out. He took the needle he had threaded and poured the liquid over it before poking it roughly through her skin.
Lilith hissed, her eyes watering, watching him sew up her arm. She opened her mouth then. Was he helping her? She saw him kill those people, why would he stitch her up? She was so confused.
"Can you speak?" He didn't reply, "I'll take that as a no…" Pyramid Head may not speak, but she had to or she would certainly go crazy- if she hadn't already. "That woman, in the church, she said this place is called Silent Hill." To Lilith's surprise, he made a 'mmm' sound as if confirming what she said. "But I've never heard of this place…" a thought occurred to her that gripped her heart coldly, "am I dead? Is this Hell?" She thought she saw a flicker of movement behind the screen of his helmet. "That thing on your head…can you take it off?" He pulled the thread tight and tied it at the end before standing up and retrieving his sword from where it stood stuck into the floor. He pointed it at her, but surely he wouldn't bother stitching her up if he was going to kill her? She closed her eyes, anticipating pain, but instead felt herself being freed as he cut away her restraints.
She jumped out of the chair and he pointed to the bed. She didn't want to, but thought it unwise to disobey a seven foot tall beast who looked like he could crush her with one hand. Lily walked over, standing beside the mattress. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down. She laid down and folded her hands across her chest. Pyramid Head stared down at her for a moment before turning toward the door.
She sprung up then, "wait! Let me go with you!" He turned back to look at her once more, "I'm frightened," she begged, "please, don't leave me alone." Pyramid Head pointed to the bed and she complied unwillingly as he left, slamming the large iron door shut behind him.
