Author's note: I made sure to make this chapter sufficiently longer and more detailed than the previous one. I know there are some grammatical errors but my editor never finished editing so I decided to just post it as is. Sorry for the wait. Please review so I can see how I'm doing. Enjoy! :)
Chapter 2
June 7, 2007
Stephanie sat on her bed in the Home Sweet Home Hotel crying. Soon she got up and stumbled into the bathroom and splashed her face with the cold water. She stared into the mirror and deep into her dark brown eyes. "Why did I leave her that day?" she thought. Stephanie is 25 now. She has black hair that falls down to her shoulders in varying lengths. She knew that many boys thought her attractive from the way they looked at her back in high school and college, before she dropped out of course. She got angry with herself for leaving Naomi and punches the hotel mirror, smashing it. She looks down at her bleeding hand and thinks, "Well now I've done it." She cleans up the glass as best she can and finds some gauze to wrap her hand. She throws on a pair of black jeans and a punk rock concert t-shirt, she'd never quite got out of her Goth faze. She packs up her things and decides she'd just leave tonight. She throws down a couple extra bucks on the front desk in front of the sleeping employee behind it as she quickly leaves with her meager belongings. She packs her things into her small red compact car.
Stephanie climbed behind the wheel and tried turning on the engine. It doesn't start. She tries again to no avail. "Work God damn it!" she shouted. She smacked the steering wheel in frustration, breathing heavily. She rested her head against the wheel when suddenly somebody knocked on the window, startling her. She instinctively reached for the small switchblade she kept next to the seat. She flipped it out and backed up from the window. The figure at the window retreated quickly and fell over. Stephanie carefully rolled down the window and says, "Who the hell are you? You scared the shit out of me!" The man slowly gets up sputtering, "My name is Rick! Rick Slaton! I just wanted to see if you needed help starting the car! I didn't mean to scare you hun." "Don't call me hun," muttered Stephanie, "and be my guest." Stephanie popped up the hood. Rick tinkered around for a few minutes then looked up and tells her to try again. To her surprise the car starts on the first try and she hears a small whoop from up front as Rick celebrates his success. He was decent looking, short styled brown hair, and piercing blue eyes made his face something to look at. Well built, wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt showing an alien's face and the word "Believe". "So where you headin' hun?" he asked her with a sly grin on his face. "Shepard's Glen, and don't call me hun, it's Stephanie." she responded coldly. "Need directions or anything? I'd be happy to oblige." Rick responded with his best smile. "Nope. Thanks for fixing the car. Bye." Stephanie says completely unfazed by his flirting as she started pulling away. "See ya hun!" Rick yelled after her as she drives away. "Don't call me hun." Stephanie muttered under her breath as she makes her way onto the now empty road.
As she drove she realized that today is the anniversary of Naomi's disappearance. She decided that she would make a detour past Silent Hill to visit the woods where she lost her sister. She pulled up beside the woods and got out. She stood on the side of the road and stared deep into the dark trees. No one in her family had spoken to her since she dropped out of college. She knew that they blamed her for losing Naomi, though they didn't know what exactly happened. As she stood there, she began to cry. She wept for Naomi, for herself, and because she knew she couldn't land this job without a college degree, but she had to try. In the midst of her tears she heard a branch snap. She looked up and saw a glimmer of movement. "Hello?" she called into the woods. "Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie..." said a quiet whispery voice from the woods. Cautiously she stepped into the edge of the woods. She listened again, "Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie..." said the voice. She took a deep breath and thought, "I must be insane for doing this." She started walking deeper into the woods. She tripped several times but never fell. She kept moving towards the sound of the whispering. As she moved deeper in, a dense fog began gathering around her. She looked behind her and realized that she didn't know the way back to the road. She started panicking and reached into her pockets. She realized that she had accidentally pocketed her switchblade. Knowing this she continued forward. The farther into the woods she walked the denser and darker the fog got. A sudden wind swept around her, whipping leaves and twigs against her as she tried to protect herself. She fell to her knees in the whirlwind and covered her head. Suddenly the wind stopped. She sat there for a few minutes, covered in leaves and twigs until she regained her courage and got up to continue. All the while the whispering continued. She followed these whispers through the woods until the trees began thinning. She soon reached the edge of a lake. The shore was all gravel and pebbles and she stood there, gazing over the fog covered water in confusion. Why did the whispering lead her here? She heard a twig snap behind her and spun around, spilling gravel everywhere. What she saw confused her. It was a little girl. She was wearing an incredibly dirty summer dress, like the ones Naomi would always wear. She had long dirty black hair that hung down over her shoulders, with the bangs covering her hair. She was so thin Stephanie wondered if she had been starving in the woods. Stephanie, though scared, approached the small figure. "I'm not going to hurt you, okay? My name is Stephanie, I'll help you if you're lost." she said quietly as she slowly approached the girl. She knelt down in front of her and took the girl's dirt-covered shoulders in her hands. "Can you hear me?" Stephanie whispered. The little girl's response was but silence. Stephanie slowly lifted up her hand and brushed the hair out of the girls face. As soon as she saw the girl's face she cried out in fright and flew back. The little girl's eyes were gone, leaving bloody, empty sockets. Her nose was almost nonexistent, simply a raised area on her face with slits for nostrils. Her mouth was also sown shut very sloppily. "What the hell?! What the hell are you?!" screamed Stephanie. The horrific monster replied by stretching its mouth so several of the stitches broke, though some stretched without breaking. Her mouth tore open and she let out a screech that sounded as though a thousand chalkboards were being scratched at once. Stephanie screamed and scooted backwards through the rough gravel as fast as she could. The creature stumbled forward slowly, continuing to scream. Stephanie found herself pressed up against a log and reached around for a weapon while continuing to scream. Then she remembered her switchblade. She pulled it out and flipped it open. "Don't come any closer!" she yelled at the monster. The little girl only kept lurching forward. Stephanie let out a cry and ran up to the creature, swinging the knife wildly. She slashed the creature across the face and chest repeatedly, spilling thick black blood everywhere. She then stabbed it right where it's heart would be. The creature screamed one last time as slumped over, clearly dead. Stephanie stared down at the abomination and whispered to herself, "What the hell is going on? Am I going insane?" She then backed up and ran back into the forest as fast as she could. After running through the fog and trees for awhile she slumped up against a tree and cried herself to sleep.