"This may sound weird, but I suggest we stay in this place for the night. It'd be a bit too dangerous to be wondering around aimlessly in the dark would it not?" Wesley asked.
"Well, it looks comfy..." Kim said as she looked around. She had to admit that the one bed caught her off guard. She was hesitant, of course, what girl wouldn't be? She had just met this boy and barely even knew anything about him, she had her doubts and was hesitant to follow his lead instead of her own, but honestly, nothing told her to be worried about him either. Her instincts haven't let her down yet, and she trusted they wouldn't now.
"Heh, you know, usually at this point the boy offers flowers or takes me on a date first, at least." she joked, with a bit of cautiousness yet playfulness in her voice. She might as well lighten the mood, for both of their sakes if nothing else.
Kim slipped off her black boots and took off her jacket, resting it on the back of the chair that sat in-front of the television where she would be sleeping. She let out a sigh of relief as she sat down on the edge of the bed with Wesley, on the side that was closest to the window.
"So, you're here looking for a friend?" she asked, trying to make some form of conversation to take both of their minds off of the current events.
Wesley nodded slightly. He was glad to see that she seemed accepting of the idea of settling down instead of heading back out into the dense fog with whatever monsters where out there. Though, it confused him that she'd take off her jacket, as it was the middle of November, and there wasn't really any heat-source other than what was radiating off of the lantern.
"Maybe she's warm enough?" He pondered. He was going to offer his vest to her, but decided not to, if she wanted one, he was sure she'd just grab her own. Wesley put his vest on the desk, took the iron pipe he had been holding onto and placed it against the wall next to the bed and layed back on the bed next to the girl. The whole town had a sort of Stephen King feel, and he wasn't very fond of it. He didn't like the idea of creatures in the fog. It made him wonder if in another three years they'd find themselves in a Darabont-styled zombie apocalypse. But with that aside, he just sat next to her, noticing that she had some scars on her. He could tell they were aged and purposely hidden, so they weren't from the monster's outside. Wesley's mind over-analyzed the details of everything he could remember since he arrived in town, but he mostly focused on Kimberly. Could've been in a bad relationship before? Did she had an abusive father or something of the sort? That would explain why she didn't seem all that open to him.
"Yeah, I came here looking for a friend - a friend who I was pretty sure had died. But the other day, I found a tape in some of their belongings. it told me come here, and here I am regretting that decision."
Kimberly sat on the bed, listening to his words, as she rummaged through the drawers next to the bed. Like a motel, there was a Holy Bible sitting along in the top drawer. Being raised by a Protestant mother and an Agnostic father, she was never one of the religious sort. Never had she gone to church, or prayed before dinner and sleeping. She shut the drawer, deciding not to pay any mind to it anymore than she had and opened up the small door below the drawer, seeing none other than a phone-book titled, "Toluca County Pages", and a smaller book placed underneath. Her mind was relieved, this meant that they were still in the general area where Shepherd's Glen was. She only knew a handful of the surrounding towns around Toluca Lake, but had never been to any of them besides Pleasant River where her college was.
She reached down into the drawer to lift up the large phone book and grab the one magazine that seemed to be hidden underneath. At first glance, it looked like a tourist magazine, something that one usually found when on vacation, but when she finally got a full view of the cover, her heart stopped and her lungs went empty.
"Welcome to Silent Hill. Where your memories will last forever..."
She had heard rumors, stories, tales of this town while growing up in the small town of Shepherd's Glen. Dark rumors of people going missing. The residents kidnapping and killing young girls. An old cult that prayed off of children. To her, it was only scary tales, meant to keep her away. She had never taken it to heart nor had she truly put any thought into it. Her whole life while growing up, her parents told her clearly to stay away from that town. She was never allowed to cross over into its borders for reasons unknown. She always figured it was because of the stories. There were times where her older brother, Kyle, had dared the two to go, to run off and see if the rumors were true, but every time they had they were always stopped by a passerby and taken back home. There was one time where a patrolling police officer stopped them, scolded them, and then escorted them home. They had never heard the end of it afterwards; both of them being grounded for a full two weeks. It only made her more curious. And yet, here she was, and it was living up to all those scary stories.
Wesley thought about Clarissa, he didn't want to go all out as to say that she was the love of his life or anything, because despite all his wishes, that seemed to be very far from true, but he was hoping maybe he could meet a few friends, find someone else and move on from Clarissa, despite how impossible it had seemed. Wesley wasn't quite certain how he felt about Kim, which was odd. He barely even knew this girl, but he felt like they were already friends. He was confused, maybe it's because these two seemed to be the only normal humans in the town, she was nice, compassionate, not really a talkative girl, but then again, more talkative than he had been, or at least he thought. or maybe it was because of his desperation and longing for love again that got him. If any case, he just wanted to know if she trusted him or not, so he reached his hand out and attempted to place it on her's just to see her reaction.
"Silent Hill..." her mind froze, still staring at the name in big bold letters at the top of the front cover. It practically sent her flying off the bed when the sudden touch of Wesley's hand brushed her shoulder. She was more startled than anything, not expecting him to do such an thing, yet after what was just going through her head, she was a bit spooked as well. Wesley was slightly surprised at her immediate reaction, he obviously expected some sort of reaction, but not that. The girl was about to apologize, hoping she hadn't scared him, but a loud crash from the hallway interrupted her and sent their attention elsewhere. She immediately grabbed her knife, but Wesley had already grabbed the iron pipe and headed towards the door, signaling to her to be quiet. She complied, staying on her side of the room, holding the handle of the knife tightly in both her hands as if her life depended on it. When he left the room, Wesley saw another door wide open that he didn't recognize before. He couldn't see into the dark room because the windows had been blacked out entirely but before he knew it, a strange creature emerged from the black of the room and lounged at him, knocking him to his feet.
"Wait!" Kimberly called out in a loud whisper as he left the room. A few curse words made their way through her mouth, slowly walking forward towards the door. She couldn't just let him go out there himself! Sure, he was a boy who looked like he could stand his ground all right, but it wasn't like her to just let others walk senselessly into danger.
The creature wasn't distinctly human at all, it looked like a ball of chewed bubblegum, only it was a pale brown and was without a doubt a monster. Wesley took the pipe, returning to his feet and swinging it above his head, bashing the front of the creature inwards with the pipe, spewing out a sickly and slightly acidic black goo that looked to be the creatures blood. Wesley looked at the creature as it writhed in pain, he decided for the sake of his and Kim's safety to put whatever the thing was out of it's misery and beat the thing to death with the pipe. It wasn't until Kim heard the grunts of the boy and the loud sounds of... something else, that she quickly ran into the hallway finding him on the floor bashing his pipe into what looked like a mound of flesh. She stood there, staring with wide eyes at the sight, not knowing what to make of it. Confused, scared, anxious, there were too many emotions flowing through her at this point. Wesley swung the pipe down repeatedly with all his might, splattering more of the creature's blood on his clothing and the pipe, each blow doing exceedingly more damage than the last. He prayed silently in this thoughts that Kimberly wasn't watching, maybe she'd turn away and ignore it. But that was all just his hopeful wishes.
"W-what..." words could barely make their way out, choking on her own breath as she felt her pulse increase and a chill making its way down her spine. No words that were able to make it out truly expressed how she was feeling right now. Her legs trembled underneath her as she stared at the body laying in a meaty lump on the floor. Despite the lack of the light in the hallway, she preferred it that way. The heavy amounts of light in hallways would have just made it that much worse. Having most of its features masked in the darkness was probably the only thing right now that kept her from passing out on the floor. From what she could see, however, she hoped that it was already like that before he started with his pipe. She hoped that whatever it was... it wasn't human, but she honestly couldn't piece together what she was staring at.
Wesley stared down at the creature. His heart was pounding, pins of sweat dripping down his face. His thoughts a repeated train of cursing. Stunned, he looked back to find Kimberly not far behind him staring at the monster he had just killed. Wesley wiped the sweat from his face and stumbled back into the room, passing Kimberly entirely and collapsed onto the bed, but Kim's eyes didn't once leave the fleshy body on the ground. Natural instincts told her to follow him, but her feet wouldn't allow her to do so. Her shaking legs and heavy feet kept her in her place, for fear of falling if she even moved a step. But she couldn't keep staring at it. He didn't know what he just saw so the first thing he did was close his eyes and open them again. Hoping that he'd be back at home - that maybe this was all a dream. The second she moved one of her feet, she fell towards the wall, her hands catching her and holding onto the side for dear life before turning around and pressing her back against it. Her breathing became heavier, and a lump was stuck in her throat making it even harder for her to breath. Until her stomach churned and sent half of what was inside upwards. She held her hand against her mouth in response, leaning forward to the ground below, but nothing happened. The longer she stood there, the more she felt it become harder to breath and the more she could feel her body temperature rise. Desperate to leave the sight behind her, she slowly and carefully walked back to the room, still relying on the wall to keep her steady. It was no surprise to see her new friend lying on the bed, probably trying just as hard as she was to just forget about what happened. She wanted to ask him what it was, but nothing brought her to do so. All she could do was reach her side of the bed and lay on it, just as he was, beside him. She was afraid to say anything at this point, scared of how the boy next to her would respond, but the truth was they couldn't lie on this bed forever. Something had to happen.
The knife that was still in her hand fell to the ground as her arm rested off the edge of the bed.
"Are you okay?" she asked. It was probably a silly question at this point, but she honestly couldn't think to say anything else at this point that would make the situation better, and if she tried, it would just prove to be useless. She actually wasn't expecting an answer from the one next to her. It just felt good to break the silence. Wesley turned on his side, still lying on the bed. Wesley didn't quite know what to say, heck he didn't know if this was real, or all one big dream. Maybe he had went off the far-end and this was all a hallucination. He was always able to tell real from fake, but everything around him seemed very real. He wasn't concerned about that at the moment anyways. He was just confused. He didn't care much for answers or logical explanations as to what was going on. He just wanted reassurance that something was right among all the wrong. Hearing Kim ask about the monster, and ask if he was okay. He didn't know if he was. With that thought he opened his mouth.
"I came here looking for my girlfriend, Clarissa. She died - someone killed her, five days ago. I guess I decided to travel all this way, because I really had nothing else for me there. She really was the only thing I had in life. I don't know. I know I won't find her here, but I still had to come for some stupid reason. If only I knew what I was running from." Wesley spoke, explaining the partial truth about his "friend" that not even four minutes earlier he told himself he wouldn't tell anybody about.
Kim's head turned to Wesley as he spoke. She couldn't even imagine how he was feeling at this time right now, losing the one you loved so much. It had to have been one of the worst feelings in the world. One of those times in life where you just wanted to rip your own heart out, lay down, and never love again. She was only thankful that she didn't know how that felt. Sure, she lived through her grandfather passing away, and that was hard in itself. She was always close to her grandparents while growing up, and her grandfather was pretty much like a second father to her. But there was no way she could compare that to someone losing the love of their life. It made her wonder if her ex would have ever cared if he were in that situation. If she was ever killed, would he have even given it a second thought? She looked over at the boy once more and took notice of the blood that began to drip down across the bed from his forehead.
"You're bleeding, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine it's nothing, it's just from earlier. I guess all the stress and adrenaline just pumped the blood into my head or something." Wesley shrugged it off, grabbing a nearby rag and pressing it to his head where the wound was. The pain still stung, but it wasn't unbearable. Kim nodded, her concern fading as she laid back onto the be and stared back up at the ceiling, her mind wandering off, looking back to all those memories of when her and her brother was younger. There were times where they even told scary ghost stories about the town of Silent Hill and Toluca Lake. She used to hear a common ghost story from her grandfather, that years ago a boat went missing in the middle of the lake. They were never able to find the remains of the boat, but it was believed that the dead bodies and spirits of the people on board still haunted the lake's bed. The part about the boat going missing was true, but the part about the dead bodies, of course, she didn't believe.
Growing up in Shepherd's Glen, you always heard dark rumors about this place; about Silent Hill. The scary stories, tales, secrets that were spread around town, we thought they were only there to keep us away, to scare us. I never actually listened to it, but my parents made it clear to stay far away from Silent Hill. There were times where my brother and I wouldn't listen, we'd decide to go anyways, but we'd never make it. Random people would pull over on the side of the road just to pick us up and take us back home because it was obvious what we were doing. Silent Hill used to a busy town, bustling with tourists. Until the disappearances started happening, people started going missing, and that was when the rumors started. I never put any stock into those stories, but now... Those stories didn't even come close...
Kim wanted to shake it out of her head now. There was no point to ponder those old stories anymore, it was clear now that there was more about this town than any of them predicted. She turned her head once again to Wesley who looked back at her. It was odd... that feeling of looking straight into someone's eyes. When she was with her ex, she learned to never to do that with him. For some reason, he believed that if she looked him in the eyes, it meant that she was trying to be offensive and hostel. That it meant she wasn't being submissive to him like he demanded. It made her get used to not looking at anyone in the eyes, but here she was looking into this boy's eyes. It didn't stop there though, within seconds she felt herself flinching once more when he wrapped his arm around her. She froze at the touch, it was the first time another of the opposite sex bothered to show such affection towards her. She wasn't used to it, not at all. But his touch was different. It was more gentle and warm than Chad's. The touch had a sort of emotion that his never did. It was strange when he leaned into her, pressing his lips against hers, even though she had just met him, she wasn't pushing away. Wesley's brain fired rapid thoughts, telling him that his actions were wrong and that the kiss was a mistake... The things outside, his dead ex-girlfriend... but at this point, Wesley wasn't focusing on his thoughts any longer and was just moving on instinct and basic motivation. For the last year, Kimberly swore up and down that she would force any boy away who tried such actions. She wouldn't let another get close to her again, especially this early, but deep down, she had longed for it too. She missed that sort of interaction with another, the feeling of being wanted. It startled her, but it wasn't exactly unwanted either. When they parted, the only thing she could really do was lay there and smile back at him.