Chapter 9
The Paradoxer
The doors slammed closed noisily behind them, Grabnar quickly grabbed a mop and slid it through the door handles so it couldn't be opened. The creatures outside tried to, but they couldn't get in. Vincent turned and looked around. The school was exactly as Roper had described it: creepy. It was as dark inside as it was outside, possibly worse. Lockers, and basically all surfaces of the place, were decaying and falling apart.
"There's other doors into this place," Roper said, "we gotta block them all!"
"Roper, you and Rossel go down the hall to the left," Grabnar said, "Vincent and I will go right. Hopefully we meet in the middle."
Roper and Rossel raised weapons and ran. Vincent and Grabnar did likewise.
They passed by more and more rows of dilapidated lockers and doors.
"Place could use a makeover," Grabnar muttered.
"It's going to take more than that I think," Vincent said.
"There, door!" Grabnar said suddenly.
Vincent saw the double doors just as they were pushed inward, a few of the Grey Children came walking in.
"Space is taken, kids!" Grabnar yelled and fired his battle rifle. The bullets blew away most of the creatures and Vincent successfully barred the rest outside.
"They're already trying other doors," Vincent growled.
He and Grabnar quickly shot off down the dark halls; they appeared to be staying ahead of the creatures outside.
They headed forward, hoping they had gotten all the doors. Vincent's mind was running on all cylinders, he was stuck between trying to figure out what the hell was happening and what to do next.
Vincent had never been scared in his life, and this was no different. But he sure as hell was overwhelmed, and confused, without a doubt.
"Vincent," Grabnar said, quietly, "door, on the left!"
It wasn't a door to the outside, it was a single decrepit door, and it was opening. Bugs seemed to crawl out of it, hundreds of little cockroach-type things that spread off in different directions.
Vincent raised his pistol, Grabnar his battle rifle.
Something else was coming through the door, it sounded like sliding, as if it was dragging itself.
"Whatever the fuck comes out that door," Grabnar said, "blow it away."
"I intend to," Vincent replied.
A hand appeared on the ground, the rest of the creature was still behind the door. A second hand appeared and seemed to try and find traction on the ground, as if attempting to pull itself forward with only its hands. Then they realized why.
The thing's legs were tied with barbed wire, up around its head.
"That's like some fucking barbed wire yoga shit, there," Grabnar muttered.
Wherever the thing's hands touched, the area around them seemed to decay even more, and those strange bugs seemed to spawn from the mess left behind.
Vincent took a moment to just try and fathom how something like this was created, but only a moment, and then he was emptying his clip into it. Grabnar fired away as well, rifle hitting the creature hard and sending it flailing around on the ground.
They both ran out of ammunition, the thing wasn't moving.
"The Janitor," Grabnar muttered.
"What?" asked Vincent.
"From the movie," Grabnar said, "Colin the mother fucking Janitor…the guy in the stall. Whatever the hell is happening here, it's imitating Silent Hill with us in it. How does something like this happen?"
Vincent reloaded the pistol, "This clearly spawned from something very wrong."
"A-fucking-men to that, brother," Grabnar growled, "we gotta find Roper and Rossel."
Vincent and Grabnar left the Janitor behind, stepping on a few of the strange bugs as they went. They found Rossel and Roper standing back at the doors where they had started from.
"Bastards almost got in on the last door, we got 'em locked out now, though," Roper reported.
"What're we supposed to freaking do now?" asked Rossel.
"Well, I think I'm starting to get this," Grabnar said, "if the pattern continues, this…whatever this is, will imitate Silent Hill. Which means either it's like the movie and the Darkness goes away after a while or it's like the game and we probably have to kill a boss of some kind."
"What a mess," muttered Roper.
"We have to consider there might be more creatures inside the school already, as well," Vincent added.
Grabnar nodded, "We killed one back down that hall, the Janitor."
"Like from the movie?" asked Roper.
"Yeah."
"Jesus Christ," Rossel muttered.
There was a sudden large bang, something that made the walls shudder around them.
"What now?" asked Roper, aiming his battle rifle down the dark hallway ahead.
Heavy footsteps, coming their way as far as they could tell.
"Everyone get ready," Grabnar ordered, "kill the bastard as soon as it gets here."
A figure was outlined in the darkness, huge in stature.
"Fire!" Grabnar yelled.
"There's another one! Right!" yelled Rossel.
Vincent turned; the Janitor was crawling toward them, almost in arm's length.
"Fuck that guy's quiet," Grabnar growled and turned on the Janitor, he emptied the rest of his battle rifle into it.
Vincent aimed at their other enemy.
Pyramid Head, the creature Sam had been fighting.
Where was Sam?
"Oh shit, that's that big thing," Rossel cried, "it got Sam, fuck, what are these fuckers?!"
Vincent aimed and loaded the huge creature with every last bullet in his pistol. He reloaded while walking and continued to fire, the thing took the bullets and staggered backward.
The pistol was empty.
Grey Children began to pile into the halls behind Pyramid Head.
"Jesus, those little kids are coming down the halls!" Roper yelled over the gunfire of his own rifle.
Vincent tossed his gun away and drove his golden claw into Pyramid Head's stomach.
"Even if you talked, I suppose you wouldn't tell me where Sam is anyways, would you?" asked Vincent.
Pyramid Head dropped his large sword and grabbed Vincent, lifting him off the ground and to eye level with the strange helmet he wore.
The big thing could have crushed Vincent into nothingness, but letting that kind of thing happen hadn't kept Vincent alive this long. Being indestructible helped his situation as well…
Vincent ripped out his golden clawed hand and drove it into one of Pyramid Head's arms, when that didn't change anything he brought it up and drove it straight into the thing's helmet. There was resistance but Vincent's powerful claw drove right through the thing's headgear and into something inside, probably a disfigured head as things usually went. Vincent didn't care what he hit, he liked the fact it seemed to hurt.
Pyramid Head dropped Vincent back on his feet and staggered backward. Vincent picked up Pyramid's huge sword, with some struggle.
"Here," Vincent yelled, "don't forget this!"
Vincent impaled Pyramid Head on his own sword; the huge creature fell backward and crushed some of the approaching Grey Children under him.
"Kill them," said a familiar female voice, they all turned to see the little girl from outside standing down the left hallway, surrounded by more of the strange children.
"Her again," Rossel muttered.
"Bitch, who the fuck are you?" yelled Roper.
She looked like she was about to answer, she was cut off by something sharp jutting through her back and out her stomach, she gasped.
"Yeah bitch," said Samael from behind her, head on her left shoulder, "who are you?"
"You're dead," she sputtered.
"You got that right, have been for quite a while, you've been out of the loop Alessa," Sam replied. "Let's let the sunshine back in, shall we?"
Sam ripped his staff out of her back and she disappeared, just gone. Apparently, along with everything else, the decaying lockers, the strange grey children, the severely wounded Pyramid Head, and the Janitor.
Light shone in from the windows, the school appeared normal, it looked like your average school now.
Sam stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall.
"Hey, kids," he said amiably, "have a nice time?"
"Yo man, you alright?" asked Roper.
"I'll live," Sam said smiling, "sort of."
"What happened?" asked Grabnar.
"It's a long story, Pyramid Head kicked my ass, so I decided to sneak up on him, caught his boss instead."
"That chick?" asked Grabnar.
"She's why everything goes black," Sam muttered.
"You called her Alessa," Roper commented.
"She likes Silent Hill a lot," Sam replied, walking toward them, "her mother's name isn't Dahlia, trust me, it's all purely fantasy for her."
"You look like hell," Rossel said.
"Thank you, you look like the Janitor on a good day, too," Sam retorted.
His face had a very visible scar along his left cheek and he was limping, favouring his left leg, and using his staff for support.
"Grabnar, you, Roper, and Rossel should go around the school and make sure there aren't any holes, if this shit starts up again we want this place barricaded," Sam said.
They nodded and were off.
"What is that girl?" asked Vincent.
"She's another example of a renegade Cetra," Sam replied leaning heavily against a wall across from Vincent.
"Another? How many bad apples do you have exactly?" asked Vincent.
"I know exactly what you mean, she's like me though. An existence jumper, she just found a little something that makes her more…unique."
"Unique how?" asked Vincent.
"Look, there's a whole other dynamic to existences. There are existences like the ones I go to, alternate realities so to speak. Alessa here is more in the world of alternate dimensions."
"What's the difference?" asked Vincent, almost not wanting to hear the answer.
"Well, realities have a certain set of rules, laws, like Centre Time and the artifacts and whatnot. Hence it can be manipulated only by following certain rules, like the Outcasts had to. Dimensions are considerably harder to find, and even harder to control. Alessa found a way. You see, dimensions aren't like existences in the way that they don't follow any rules. They aren't governed by the Lifestream, existences are like society, and dimensions would be more like a sort of organized crime syndicate, the Mafia if you will. If you learn to control a dimension, you can do anything from create instant debilitating paradoxes, to creating an army of creatures modeled after movies and video games. Like I said, Alessa really likes Silent Hill. She even changed her name to Alessa, in honour of the freaky chick in Silent Hill who controls all the crazy sit that goes on. We call people like her Paradoxers, because wherever they go they generally leave huge paradoxes. It's strange she'd surface like this, though, just create this mess and stick around."
"That's why she's so powerful?" asked Vincent.
"No my friend, worse," Sam muttered grimly, "that's why she's invincible."
