I don't own Silent Hill. If I did, we'd be getting updated remakes of the older games.
And yes, I know I should be working on my HP fic, but this one was ready to see the light of day. Even if I have nothing for another chapter right now.
She awoke to mist. Well, more a heavy fog, and ashes that fell like snow. It took a few moments for her to fully awake, and then another moment to get to her feet. Looking around, she saw a two-lane mountain highway, which seemed to have violently ceased to exist not two feet from where she was, and what looked to be a sign. She walked up to it so that she could read it through the fog.
"Oh, shit."
'Welcome to Silent Hill' the sign read.
Keeping near the edge of the road, she checked her belongings.
Cricket bat- check
Two aluminum baseball bats- check
Head-mounted flashlight- check
Books- check
Pens and notebooks- check
Heavy-duty flashlight- check, but the batteries are dead
Food- check
Drinks- check
Lastly, the backpack- well, duh, check
She sighed. "Damnit, Laan, get yourself together. We wouldn't be here without a good reason." Laan repacked her bag, keeping one of the baseball bats out, and then gave herself a good once over. Her (probably) disturbing number of knives were in their correct locations, her music player was dead, her other head mounted flashlight was in good working order, and her almost shoulder-length hair was down, again. Cursing she fumbled for a hairband, and pulled it into a tight, low ponytail. Then, she shouldered her bag, tightening the straps so it sat properly, and picked up her bat.
Taking one last look over the precipice that was the end of the road, she then turned and started walking into town.
An hour of walking in the mist later, she finally entered town.
"Midwich Street. Joy. Ok, first the school, then churches, then hospital, then I stop and make a new plan. Meanwhile, pray for a map."
It was a good three blocks before she reached the school. Nothing had blocked her path. No monsters had attacked her. The offices held nothing useful for her, but as she further searched the school, things started troubling her.
All of the doors opened. Everything that could open, did. There was nothing useful, but they opened. Eventually, Laan made her way to the courtyard. Right smack-dab in the middle of the courtyard was a strange girl. Laan stopped a few feet away from her and crouched so their eye-levels matched.
"Who are you?" She didn't react. "Are you… Alessa?" The girl's eyebrow twitched. "Alessa, why am I here? Do you know?" Alessa shook her head. "Am I here in Silent Hill for a reason?"
"You should not have arrived here. You were not called."
"So, probably yes for reason, but no, not yours. Can I leave?"
"Another is here, seeking you. He wants you. But you are innocent, and he is not. He cannot be allowed to leave. He is evil. Silent Hill will keep you safe, but you must always move." Interesting…
"So, I can't even stop to rest?"
"You don't need to rest here."
"Oh, that's right, I forgot. How will I know when and where to go?"
"Just go, you will know when to stop. Rest can come there. The Darkness comes. When you cannot go anymore, it will open a new route, and escape. He cannot stand the change."
Laan nodded. "He comes now? I'll need The Darkness to escape from here?"
Alessa said nothing, but an air raid siren wailed. Laan smirked.
"If you want to use my image to fuck with him, go right ahead. So-" the world started changing, becoming metal, covered in blood "- Where do you want me to go from here?"
Alessa suddenly appeared right in front of Laan. "Thank you." She whispered into Laan's ear, and then, with surprising strength, pushed Laan.
Laan's less than stable posture allowed her to topple easily, but she didn't land on her butt. Instead, she fell through a hole in the ground that had opened up immediately behind her. She screamed, and blacked out.
Laan woke up in a room in Alchemilla Hospital. Above her towered a giant man with a pyramid shaped helmet. Laan whimpered. Pyramid grabbed her wrist and hauled her to her feet. When she had regained her footing, he adjusted his grip on her arm and started hauling her out of the room, treating her almost like his great knife. Laan managed to notice two things before her mind fell into incoherency. First, her flashlight and bat were gone. Second, so was her bag. Then there was nothing but Oh my god, he's touching me! He's actually touching me!
Laan wasn't actually allowed to remain incoherent for long. She vaguely recalled being pulled up a flight of stairs, and then suddenly she was alone in a blocked off room of a motel.
"Ah, damnit!" She sighed, and looked around her temporary accommodations. The Darkness had an interesting design concept for motel rooms. Very organo-metallic. The bathroom was normal, though. Odd. She searched it, and found a few rolls of compression bandages. "Sweet!"
Removing her shirt and bra was easy, but it took a good ten minutes to wrap her chest with the bandages. Once satisfied with the results, she put her shirt back on. A close at hand comb allowed her to properly put up her hair. She looked at the result in the mirror. Then she grimaced and tuned the water on, scrubbing the remains of make-up off of her face. Looking back at the mirror Laan resolutely turned the tap off. There, average, vaguely Asian, male. Much better.
"There we go, Laan. Back to normal. That should fuck with the 'Evil One'. No more scaredy chick Lana. She only existed in Dio and Tatya's heads anyway. And she died in their heads when I was five. Nope, we're back to being Laan, guy-" Laan sighed "-stuck in a chick's body."
"Who are you?" Laan squeaked and spun around to face the little girl who had appeared in the doorway.
"WHO ARE YOU?" Laan not-quite bellowed.
"I'm Priscilla. Are you a guy or a girl?" Priscilla was about eight years old, wearing a Catholic school uniform… That didn't fit right. It was probably not hers, because it was both too loose and too short.
"My name is Laan, and while I'm a girl right now, I'd really rather you pretend I'm a guy."
"Why?" Laan leaned against the counter and slid down until sh- he was sitting on the ground.
"Because up here-" Laan tapped he- his, damnit head "-I actually am a guy. I'm just stuck in a girl's body right now, and it will probably be a long time until that can be fixed."
"Why will it take a long time?"
"Well, first I need money for the surgery, but I also need to take horomo- Hmm. I need to take drugs that will cause my body to become more like I feel it should be."
"Oh. Are you hiding from the Bad Man too?" Laan grinned. He loved little kids; they were awesome.
"Yup. The Scary Guy brought me here. So, I suppose we're hiding together. But I was told I can't stay in one place for very long, so we're gonna need to leave here sooner or later. Would you happen to have a map?"
Priscilla mutely shook her head.
"Well, darn. I have no idea where we are."
"We're at the Greenfield Apartments."
"Good to know. Do you know where we should go next?" Priscilla shook her head again.
"Well, drat." The Darkness started to fade. Laan got up to check the door, but it was still blocked.
With The Darkness fully gone Laan searched the rest of the room. Nothing. He looked at the floor around large pieces of furniture. Ah, there. One of the chests of drawers moved. Laan pushed it. … Nothing. Again. Hmm…
After a while, when Laan was examining the window, the door opened again. Laan turned, and saw Pyramid Head in the doorway, but he quickly left.
"Priscilla! Time to go!" The little girl ran to Laan's side, and then they left the apartment. Going down a floor, they quickly left the building entirely. However, only a few yards from the building was a crevasse not unlike the one Laan woke up next to. Looking around, they found only two places they could access- the Artaud Theater and the docks.
"Let's check the theater first, maybe find you something better to wear. Ok?" Priscilla just nodded.
The doors opened easily. Actually, just like in the school, everything opened. And just like in the school, it was more than a little creepy. However, their search did prove fruitful. There was an excellently fitting Peter Pan costume for Priscilla in the women's dressing room, and Laan found a change of clothes he liked in the men's. He changed quickly, as his old one's were filthy. …Well, there was one good thing, Laan smirked as he counted his knives. He still had them all.
There was really nothing else in the theater. It was a good hour, and another round of The Darkness, before they had finished searching the place, and they had found nothing useful. The only thing left to do was head over to the docks.