Silent Hill: The Cruel Thesis

By Marcus Noble

This story takes place some time after the events in Silent Hill 4: The Room. This story will follow a psychology student named Shane Wilson, on his journey through the hellish town, while he is trying to complete his thesis. But he'll discover there's more to this town, and to what he sees going on, than even he can understand.


Chapter 1

Shane just couldn't believe how thick the fog had gotten on his drive up the hills. It was defying the laws of nature it seemed. It was the middle of July, yet the fog was getting thicker and thicker as he drove his 1992 Ford Thunderbird through the windy rural roads. The golden car's high beams lit up the road at first but after a while Shane couldn't see but a few feet in front of him. He pulled his car over to the right shoulder and killed the engine. He grabbed the map from the passenger seat and looked it over as he leaned against one of the car's two doors. As he opened the map, two words dominated the top of the paper "SILENT HILL".

Sure urban myths were abound these days. What with the Internet, cell phones, text messaging, and the "not so free" press. But one place no one seemed to know about was Silent Hill. And one thing was for certain, ; psychology student at "University of Maryland, College Park" wouldn't stand for it. Originally he was studying journalism, but after witnessing first hand the corruption involved with the media and large corporations, he decided to get into psychology. He told his parents, his academic advisor, and even his teachers that he just found psychology more interesting. But in actuality he wanted to figure out why it was people would become so corrupt, so foul, so evil. So when it came time for him to do his last assignment for the semester, his thesis he wanted to get information about "ghost towns".

One thing about ghost towns that got Shane's attention was the fact how that even when shrouded in mystery no one would want to find out more. The "Scooby Doo" syndrome as was what he called it. Which wasn't too far from the truth, since many times fugitives, runaway kids, and even gangs would take refuge in these towns to get away from the police. However, you could at least find out the history behind these towns; how they were founded, why they became abandoned, and even where the descendants of those town's citizens lived. But Silent Hill was different. Sure if you looked it up on Google you saw a few pictures, maybe a small blurb about the "town of endless fog" but these were all from fan sites, nothing reputable. He even checked through the websites for CNN, the BBC, even the Library of Congress, but he found nothing. It's as if the town never existed. So he knew this was what he was going to do his thesis on, Silent Hill, the town that doesn't exist. His professor just chuckled, but knowing Shane's stubborn nature, gave him permission and wished him luck.

Shane looked over the map and after doing a few calculations in his head figured he was about a quarter-mile from the town. But the way it seemed he wasn't going to be able to get anywhere in the thick fog. He couldn't even see the map if it weren't for the small flashlight he kept in the back pocket of his tan cargo shorts. He felt the air around him starting to get cold as well, and being the middle of July he figured his red and black U of MD Terrapins t-shirt would be just fine. His school shirt was a double extra large, which suited his somewhat chubby belly, though the rest of his body was somewhat thick, it was hardly obese. A middle ground that Shane was fine with. He didn't want to be overly muscular, or really thin. He didn't want the GQ body and was quite happy with his body, even being somewhat overweight.

He pressed the button on the keyless remote and opened the trunk, grabbing his navy blue jacket and draping it over his shoulders before closing it and getting back into the car. He took a deep breath and figured that since he was fairly close to the town anyway, he'd find a hotel up the road and stay the night. Hopefully the fog would clear by the next morning. As he continued driving his way up the fog-ridden, windy roads, he turned on the radio to see if he could get some local news or weather, or at the very least some old country music from a local station. But all he seemed to get was static, up and down the dial, AM and FM, nothing but static.

As he drove on, not only did the static coming from the radio grow louder but also Shane could feel something stirring deep inside him. As if something deep within his soul was being awakened as he got closer to the town. But that was impossible, Shane didn't believe in such a thing as a soul. It was probably just something he ate that was upsetting his stomach. In any case he continued to drive the car up the hills, pushing his foot down on the gas, as if he was being called there and needed to get there quickly. Then all of the sudden, the radio started emitting a loud screeching sound. Shane quickly put one hand to his ear to shield it from the noise, but then he realized he could just turn the radio off and reached his right hand to the volume control as he kept his left hand on the wheel. All of the sudden he heard something crash against the front of the car.

He shrugged it off at first, figuring it might have just been a bird or a squirrel. But then he heard it again, and again, and then he heard the scratching all around the car. He pulled over again and rolled down the window. He looked down and jumped back in his seat from what he saw. He saw a bunch of bat like creatures hanging off the door. But while they had a bat's wings, they had human legs and feet, and a human head too. They were blood red all over and seemed to be turned inside out, their bodies covered head to toe in muscle tissue. Though one by itself wouldn't be too much trouble since it was only about four inches tall, there were about ten of them hanging off the door. Then a few of them started climbing up the door, leaning their heads into the car through the open window. Shane quickly hit the button to roll up the window. Two of the bat creatures dropped off, but one of them got their arm caught, slicing off about half of a wing as the window rolled up completely. Then in less than three seconds, he shifted the car into drive, and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. He wasn't sure where the fuck these creatures came from, but he wasn't going to stick around to see what their eating habits were. He continued to drive down the road, but he heard more scratching against the car, it was more of those bat things, but now they covered all sides of the car. But he kept his foot on the gas to try to get away from them, several questions running through his head as he could feel himself losing control in the steering as the turns became more frequent as he drove up the hill. Then as a few of the bat creatures jumped up onto the front windshield he turned the car sharply to the left as he heard a loud screeching sound. He wasn't sure if it was from the bats, or the car's brakes but the next thing he knew, he felt an impact on the passenger side of the car. Bringing the car to a sudden stop by crashing it into a guardrail. The sudden drop in speed from 70 miles an hour to a stop threw his head against the driver's side window, shattering part of the glass. It cut part of his head and caused a concussion, knocking him out.

Everything was black, how did it get so dark all of the sudden? Shane rose to his feet and looked around, it was pitch black. All of the sudden, a sound came out of nowhere, it was soft, but he could hear it slowly getting louder. He looked frantically around, as the sound grew louder, it became clearer as well. It was laughter, someone was laughing at him. "Stop laughing at me!" Shane yelled out at the top of his lungs as he saw the things that were laughing at him step out of the shadows, it was those bat creatures that attacked his car. There were at least a hundred of them and they surrounded him as they slowly walked closer. Shane tried to find a weapon, something he could use to fight them, but there was no escape as the bat creatures ran at him and jumped onto his body. Shane struggled to pull them off, but for each bat that he pulled off his body, two more jumped on him and started clawing at him. "Get the fuck off of me!" He cried out as he felt their sharp claws tearing his clothes apart and cutting into his skin, then one of them reached his neck and with one swipe cut his jugular vein. After that, he felt his body go limp under him, falling to his knees, then onto his chest. Then, once again everything went black as the loud laughter filled his ears.

All of the sudden Shane woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as he pushed his oblong-framed glasses back up his nose and felt his head. He felt the dried blood on his forehead but luckily there was no glass in the cut. He groaned as he leaned back in the seat "How long was I out?" He took a deep breath, his head was still stinging, but he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could, he didn't want to see if those bat things were still around. So he turned the key in the ignition…and nothing happened. He tried it again, and nothing. He then tried it while pushing down on the gas, nothing again. He then grabbed his cell phone out of his pants pocket and tried it, no signal. He let out a frustrated sigh and stepped out of the car. Figuring that no one would come for him in an out of the way place like this, he decided to get his things and hike into town for some help. He opened the trunk, grabbed his duffle bag, and looked through the contents. There were three more sets of clothes, a liter bottle of water, a spiral bound notebook, several pens, a digital voice recorder, a pair of earphones, and his iPod. He zipped the bag up and slung it over his shoulder. Then, just as he was about to close the trunk he spotted the tire iron laying on the right side. Shane wasn't sure if any more of those bat creatures were around, but he didn't want to take any chances. So he opened the bag, slipped the tire iron inside, and closed the trunk before heading on his way toward the town of Silent Hill.