Hey my name is Joshua. I am an ordinary college student. Most people say that I'm a pretty nice guy and I would probably agree with them. Of course I have my inner demons but hey doesn't everybody?

I was chatting with one of my friends driving to this church retreat thing. I was mostly just going to see if there was any way I could help or if there was anybody I could counsel. My friend was at the helm of the wheel since I STILL can't drive. We had left really late, like most college students normally would and so my friend decided to take a detour. We probably shouldn't have.

There was a figure in the distance. My friend swerved to the right to avoid it. All of a sudden our surroundings changed. While we drove straight through a wall it changed into a fence. The houses and nearby landscape changed as well. It looked like we were in an alien town and our way back pretty much consisted of a huge forest, obviously not where we just came from.

We didn't realize all this at first as we were concentrating on the crash not what we crashed into. "Dude, what the heck? What was that for?" I asked somewhat angrily and completely oblivious to the world like normal. "Well I didn't want to run over that person" Sam, my friend said. "Just watch it next time maybe you could try the gas" I laughed. Sam however was a little more concerned with something else to give that comment a return address. "Sam, what's up?" I wondered when he didn't reply. "Um Josh look around…." It was then that I looked around and realized where I was, or rather that I didn't know where I was. "Where are we?" I asked. "I would guess Silent Hill." My friend answered matter-of-factly. "Oh, how do you know that?" I asked sarcastically trying to put some humor into the situation. "Maybe because of that sign."

"Ok let's get in the car and find someone to give directions." Sam said. "Hold on I'm going to call and tell our friends that we may be late." I said pulling out my phone, "Hmm that's weird it's turned off." Ordinarily when my phone turns off it is because the charge is gone. But when I turn on my phone without charging it, it will go through the companies that helped make the phone before saying "goodbye" and turning back off. Now it wouldn't even respond to the on/off button. I tried taking the battery out and then putting it back in, same response. Sam tried his while I was doing this. "My phones dead to, well maybe we can find a phone we can use in town, do you have their numbers?" "Yep" I replied happily. We hoped in the car, and tried starting the car only to find that it wasn't responding either. "Great, my cars dead, I really don't want to have to pay for this" Sam grumbled. "Well let's go find someone to help us then." I replied. With that we both began down a long and foggy street.

Wait foggy! Why is it foggy! "Um, Sam was it foggy before we got here?" I asked. "Nope, it was clear night." He replied. "I can't even see the sky right now. This place just gets weirder the longer we are here." I complained. "Let's just see if we can find someone to fix my car so we can get out of here." Sam reasoned. With that we proceeded to laugh and joke while we walked down the foggy road in search for anyone.

The first building we came across was a gas station. We both were overjoyed at the find. If this place couldn't fix the car, who could. "I'm going to go look for someone inside, you can check around outside." Sam said. "Wait Sam, I don't know if we should split up." I worriedly said. "Whys that you scared?" Sam taunted. "Actually yes." "Alright fine let's go you can come with me."

Inside the place looked like it could've been normal once. However this was not normal. All the shelves were completely empty. Not only that but they looked (and smelt) as if someone had let rotten food sit on the counter for ten years and then removed it and played a game of dominoes with the empty disgusting shelves. The counter also was barren except for a cash register which held absolutely nothing.

"I don't think we are going to find anyone here." I joked, "It looks like this place hasn't been touched in a decade." "Dude, I'm going to go to the restroom real fast, and then we can continue looking, do you still need to come with me?" My friend said. "No I think you can manage this without me." I deadpanned "I'll be waiting out here for my turn."

After waiting for some time, I got slightly worried. It's been ten minutes where is he? I went over to the door to check. I lightly tapped the door and it swung open. This was however not what I was surprised about. My friend was completely gone, and right in front of the toilet a huge chunk of the floor was missing. Right next to a corner of the room was a flashlight, which I grabbed and shined down the hole. Unlike most other electronics in this weird place this one worked fine

Looking down I noticed three immediate things about the hole. #1 it looked like it went on for a while. #2 its center looked to be about the same distance away from the toilet as a man would stand when he was using the toilet and it looked to be just wide enough to not be able to grab the end. #3 there was a fresh trail of pee marking the wall of the hole. It was almost, like those comedic trap holes you see in cartoons.

Immediately I ran out the restroom and tried to find stairs to a basement. If he fell somewhere, then there must be a place for him to have fallen right? That's the only thing that makes sense. Little did I know that this town doesn't exactly stick to the rules of physics that often.

After a time I located a door that looked like it led to stairs. I opened it only to find it locked. I grumbled in annoyance and shinned my flashlight to try to get a better view. Doing this I found a note however.

To anyone reading this

Something strange has happened to this place.

I have decided to go investigate. I'm sorry if I am not there to help you.

I have however left a map with my current destination marked.

I write this because I have gotten so lonely. After the fog set in everyone disappeared

If anybody reads this grab the map behind the counter and meet up with me

We can do this if we stick together.

A Friend

"So we aren't the only people here", I whispered to myself, "maybe if I meet up with them then I can find the key to the basement and he can fix our car." I went behind the counter to see what my "friend" had left me. There was two maps, two knives, two drinks that were labeled health drink, a blank piece of paper, and a pen. This was very curious. I assumed that the "friend" had stockpiled these for people so that they can meet up. I decided to follow his wise decision and leave my friend one of each. I grabbed the drink first, and looked at the knife. After a moment of thought, I decided it would come in handy in case there were any thick bushes or I had to cut down something. The map had a house circled on it. Since I am so bad at directions, I grabbed it as a reference for where I was going. Lastly before I left I wrote a note to Sam explaining the situation. I left this at the counter for easy finding.

I don't know why but this town feels bad. This is a real nightmare. And it seems like I'm going to have to brave it alone.