Silent Inaba
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: Time and going over things
A/N: woah did I change up a few things here. Its funny how going over chapters again for beta work is making me expand on things more and more. Like the first run is the Persona 4 part, then the second run puts in the Silent Hill aspect. Its a shame that I can't get them both done at the same time though.
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For a moment the trio were blinded by light, though hopefully, not 'that' light. For a startling moment, the world was a jumble of light and myriad of sounds. Unless you were Yosuke, then it was just sight because those damn headphones were back on his head. It was a loud, jarring sound that after a few moments cleared up into the sounds of the Junes loudspeakers and televisions working all around them. The bright, varied and vivid lights of Junes were blinding after such a long time in fog and darkness.
A few women were together looking at televisions as a sales associate guided them talking about various television brands. He had gone from directing them to the far right of the section and let their eyes go across the room in a sweep only to take in this sight. The manager's son had a deer caught in headlights look as he quickly tugged the two teenagers with him up to their feet. The pair looked dazed and the teen had to wonder if Hanamura had managed to lose his ability to walk. As he had seemingly lost his ability to ride a bicycle without causing an accident.
But for the pair with Yosuke, all they knew was that he was suddenly dragging them to their feet and moving them further from the tv. Yosuke had Souji leaning against his shoulder and was arm in arm with Chie as he moved. He needed to get the pair to the restrooms, for Souji's sake, as he now had a great idea of the state Souji was in. Yosuke shrugged off his headphones as he moved along, seeing the hanging sign pointing towards the restrooms above him in the distance.
"I'm ok," Souji murmured as he struggled along, his eyes finally focusing on the space ahead of them. His limbs felt weighed down, as though he was wearing concrete shoes and gloves. While his brain was full of cobwebs capturing each thought and keeping him from focusing.
"No, I don't think you are," Yosuke corrected as he caught sight of concerned looks from strangers. All around them was the normality of a store that he normally hated with a passion for what it cost him in a regular life. But considering the wild ride he couldn't be happier then to see the same displays on either side of him. For once in his life he was grateful for the Junes jingle playing over his head and cookie cut out building design. Even if it meant a trek to the mens restroom with Seta looking as he did causing quiet ripples of disturbance.
Chie was exhausted, but between the two with him, exhaustion was a lot better than the other option so Yosuke let her sit on one of the benches outside the rest rooms. Meanwhile Yosuke towed Souji into the men's, since there would have to be more done for the teen.
The men's restroom was pretty generic, so Yosuke didn't have to really look before dumping Souji beside the sink. "I need to go find the janitors cart for some cleaning supplies, so try to get washed up and I'll be right back."
Souji, by now, could follow what was being said and found himself looking at the restroom at large as he was left. But after a few moments he lifted his hand to help support himself against the wall, wondering why it was 'now' that he felt so god awful. Despite being able to walk along pretty fine through out that Other World. The deep dark gray of his uniform was streaked and caked in dirt maybe, the white cuffs were smeared with an eerie shade of deep red and black. A shift of appearance that even his dulled senses 'had' to note.
He pushed himself from the wall and braced himself against the sink to his left to take a look in the mirror. He was pale, his face thin with exhaustion, but what would justify Yosuke acting like this? Then again he had some idea of what else went on in this town, perhaps the blond knew or thought he knew that this was serious. There were visceral slickness to the stains on his clothes, large patches that spread out like fingers wrapping around his arms. But the pair 'had' said that it seemed like something or someone had tried to drag Souji away from them, into the ground no less.
He watched as the vivid red stain on his cuff seemed to stain his wrist, then as he watched it just sank 'into' his skin. Like some bizarre form of tattooing where the skin absorbed the ink through touch, there was even pain that could be associated with that visual experience. If it was on his clothes though, had it been on his face as well? Was that why his brain was so muzzy since they had left that world? He didn't know so he lifted up his head despite the effort required, directing his tired gaze toward the mirror.
His face and hair was visibly clean of any blood, though his hair looked matted and stiff as though something sticky had dried in it. As he lifted his left hand to his hair, his eyes caught sight of movement from the lower left part of the mirror. Something wet and black seemed to crawl 'up' the stall behind him. He whirled around to see if it was real or if he had lost his mind, but the sudden movement sent him off balance. His right hand slipped on its grip on the sink as his left hand grasped futilely for the next sink. Leaving him slipping off his feet and helplessly to the ground, while what he saw in the mirror proved true.
There was only one set of foot prints in the rest room and they followed Souji, black stains that seemed to grow outward like fungi. Creeping rapidly outwards, and in the time that Souji had been brought in and managed to look at himself in the mirror it had taken over the entry way and door of the rest room. He desperately grabbed at the sink and tried to pull himself back up to his feet, only to have his fingers slip several times before he got it. Dragging himself up to his feet he couldn't help but see his reflection in the mirror as he rose up. Yet even as he stood up straighter, his reflection stopped just midway past his nose. Suddenly no longer a mirror reflecting what was before it, it was a mere picture of what had happened seconds before.
He fell back in mounting horror as the eyes on the 'picture' suddenly shifted to look 'up' at Souji, as the room in the growth in the picture consumed the background. Rotting its way through the wood, peeling away paint as something began to pour up from the drain in the sink. He looked around him in panic as the lights above his head seemingly started giving up providing light, the walls and floor were rotted filth while growing 'towards' him. He fell back more and more as he gave up on trying to look like a responsible person and tried to scream for help.
Only his voice was caught in a thick corded webbing in his voice box that caught his words and flung them back into his lungs. A hand shot out of the not mirror with the frozen image of Souji, a hand stained in blood, sheathed in a shirt and jacket as the arm followed the hand. Souji bumped into the wall behind him as he struggled to scream for help yet again. Yet the webbing in his throat suddenly closed up, leaving him without any oxygen to scream 'with'. He slid down the wall as he saw image of himself from that mirror starting to climb through. Made of blood it climbed out of the mirror perching itself awkwardly on the sink. But the sink couldn't handle the weight of a person or the rotting state of the rest room and began to fall, putrid water spewing out of the wall as the sink fell.
While Souji struggled to breath, bent over doubling as the water spilled as he tried to get the air in or out. Stars started to burst before his eyes, as his brain screamed its need for air, his free hand beating at his chest as though it might help.
"The hell?!" A guys' voice cut through the mental scream for all of a second when a sharp cold air suddenly pierced through the mucus in Souji's throat. Finally able to breath properly, the mucus was suctioned out of his throat into his mouth. His mouth dry from the ensuing panic suddenly was made wet by a putrid, thick liquid that covered his mouth.
He had no way to describe its taste, his brain didn't even want it in him much less a label for it. It was a slimy, wet, and yet ashen in texture yet he was unable to remove the sticky coating of ash in his mouth. It was either choked down his throat or pooled in his mouth and he seriously didn't want to swallow it. He didn't really look at his hand when he ran his hand across his nose. But the bloody trail was just more blood as Souji began to cough up that wet gagging feeling. His stomach felt oddly distended as though he had gone to an all-you-can-eat and gorged out. Until he found a disemboweled rat amid the food.
There was an absolutely hellish roll of his stomach that clenched his gut as the voice from before got closer, the gibberish that they were spouting slowly becoming words.
"Shit, are you vomiting blood?!"
'Yosuke', was the name that was attached to the voice of the person who was now pulling him to his feet. Somehow the teenager was able to enter the restroom and was dragging Souji to his feet, yet how could he not react to the rest of the room? The sickening mold crawling on everything, or the rotted water pouring out of the wall?
He once more found his left arm being draped over Yosuke's neck and being towed along.
He pushed himself away from Yosuke and towards the toilets. His mind sluggishly trying to deny what was in his mouth and spilling past his lips. He felt so tired, as though he had spent all night and day doing some form of insanely intense physical labor. Even as he tried to reach the stall door it felt like it was running away from him. Souji's vision began to tunnel out until he couldn't see the passive beige colored door.
His hand struck it in a clumsy parody of a push, while in the back of his mind he could register a strange sensation. Some distant part of himself thought it was what kittens and puppies went through when they were grabbed by the scuff of their necks. His skin felt like it was being pulled back from having him faceplant himself down into either the toilet, or onto the floor at the foot of it. His legs gave out and he sank down while that same tugging sensation lifted him up enough to dangle him over the toilet.
Which was just as well, because what came up his throat was far and away not a little bit of blood. It swelled up and pushed through his throat, sliding down his tongue and out past his teeth and lips like an inflated raft down a rapid. The mental image wasn't lost on him either as more came up and out of his stomach. Where did this pollution come from was a question he would think on further later, but at that moment the only thing that concerned him was the choking spewing taste in his mouth.
At some point, and he couldn't quite pinpoint when, he remembered the other presence. Hanamura was behind him, patting him firmly on the back, and his words were a jumble of comforting and disgusted sentences. Not that Souji was going to blame the guy, if he could even 'see' what was going on he was pretty sure that the graphic nature was note worthy. It even seemed therapeutic to have Hanamura beating on his back. It created a strange sense that the force getting this vile stuff out of him was intensified. For that? He was grateful.
His vision finally cleared enough that he could actually look down and 'see' what he had been doing, and nothing was pretty. The toilet was filled with large floating chunks of blood and matter, as though he had vomited up liver sized blood clots. The fact that it was 'that' big and got through his throat without killing him was impressive enough. It wasn't even really floating, rather it sank to the bottom of the bowl and piled up until it broke the surface water. The seat was coated in bloody hand prints, and Hanamura was shoving bunched up paper towels against Souji's face as though he wanted to get the blood off 'fast'.
But again, it made sense, no one would want a bloody teenager walking through a store. It was what caused people to call the ambulance to start with, and that was bad press for a store. He sank back against the stall wall and looked up at the blond to the right of him, casting a glance at the bowl to the left of him and gave a acidic flavored sigh.
"I have a new respect for women and their cycles."
"You dumb ass! Where the hell did that come from!?" Yosuke asked in amazement, pointedly trying 'not' to look at the toilet.
"Probably the same place as all that crap," Souji replied, giving a weak gesture towards the bowl beside him. Then he shifted his gaze towards the door that he couldn't really see.
"Here, get out of the stall and let me get some cleaning done. The cleaning crew will have kittens if they see this mess, and don't worry about strangers coming in. I got a sign outside the door and Chie's running interference." Strange that back in Junes Yosuke seemed to have suddenly grabbed the reins of the situations and took control.
But Souji wasn't in any condition to think of anything, instead allowing the teen to help him up and move him to the floor. Which he allowed himself to lay down on the cool tiles and let his thoughts drift along clouds of midnight black and royal blues. His stomach was settling down now that the vomiting session had finally come to an end. His throat was raw and his eyes painfully dry, but the sickness had left him with only exhaustion.
"How you holding up there Souji?" Yosuke asked, absent from sight due to his working on the toilet.
"'Souji'? When did we get so close?" Souji asked, turning his pained eyes towards the stall. The blond stuck his head out of the toilet and gave Souji this leveled look, one that hinted hard about what they had just went through.
"After everything we just went through?"
Souji would have nodded, but his head would have been bashing itself on the floor, at least that's how it felt to him at the moment. People who get sucked into a television, walk through an abandoned version of a town, then dealing with vomiting up blood? It was enough to upgrade from 'acquaintances' he decided. Instead he cracked a sardonic smile and a weak chuckle. "Yeah, you have a point there Yosuke. You have a point there..."
Yosuke nodded before going back to work, when the cellphone in Souji's pants pocket went off, both ringing and in vibration. He wanted to ignore it personally, but he was afraid that if he did he would forget about it later. He never received calls for social reasons, it was only used for emergencies so despite how he felt he figured he should answer it. Sluggishly he stuck his hand into the pocket, feeling the smooth firm curves of his cellphone. Pulling it out as it stopped ringing he gave the small outer screen a glance.
'1 Text Message: Igor'
How?
But even as he flipped open the phone, another message presented itself in the form of a new voice mail recording.
Your Tower is falling. How will you rebuild yourself?
The text made little to no sense. Then again it seemed to fit with Igor and his wild mad gaze.
He dialed out for his voice mail and typed in his password, wondering who or what left him this message.
"...gift... might help... be careful..." One would have thought that someone had made an attempt to scrub out the message. Scratchy tones that shook into incoherent hisses before returning gave a feeling that whatever help he might have had, couldn't reach into Inaba.
He went back to his text mail box, seeking out the message from Igor. Though there was no real purpose to that, after all he wasn't in any condition to actually understand. He had never been one to bother with mysticism, he had been busy with the physical world. But as he laid there, his thumb pressed against the keys to bring up his inbox, he found himself frowning. Igor's message was dissolving even as he watched. The pixels were dying out one at a time all over the name and subject head.
Souji hurriedly pressed to access the message, the message before had been cryptic, but with the body of the message dissolving like the rest...
..u. ….r .. …..in.. H.. …. … .e...l. …...l.
Souji shut his cellphone and looked up at the ceiling before him as he laid on the cool tiled floor in a Junes restroom. He thought about the warning his mom had given him, about the strange dreams he had, the headaches, the image of Yamano on the television only to have her life cut short. He thought about the sleeping pills, the accusations from Yosuke about the monsters, the television and the voice in his mind.
He was the one who would open the door?
The door to hell? Could that be possible?
He pushed himself up from the ground and sat slumped on the floor.
What would he do? He couldn't go anywhere for a year, and this was defying all that he understood of how reality worked. Would he run for a year? There was no where for him to run to, the Dojimas were 'literally' his only living family. So what could he do?
His fingers tightened their hold on his cellphone before he decided on his answer. Something tried to drag him to his death in that Other World, he couldn't accept death from such a thing. Defeated before he understood? Dead before he even knew what he was facing? No, he would fight. The future was what he would make of it, right or wrong, success or failure. Somehow someway, he wouldn't stick his head in the sand as Yosuke had, nor give in to this being the 'norm' as Chie apparently had.
Hell was for those who needed fear to motivate them to do the right thing.
Inaba wasn't going to be his hell.
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"Hey! Is Seta ok in there?" Chie's voice could be heard on the other side of the restroom door, her words punctured with a knock.
"I got it," Souji told Yosuke who was doing the finishing touches on getting the blood out of the stall. He walked to the door and pulled it open a bit, looking down at the honey blond girl staring up at him in naked concern. It was rather heart warming to see that look on her face and it caused him to soften his own expression. "We're almost done in here, are you ok Chie?"
"Oh," she began, clearly surprised at the less formal use of her name. Her lips quirked into a brave front as she mustered up a "just tired, but you..."
"I just need to go back to my uncle's, a nights' rest might do me some good."
He watched her eyebrow quirk into a 'yeah right' sort of way and he remembered all the blood he had hacked up. "Seriously?"
"Thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine. But there is the problem about leaving here without creating some concern. What with well," he tugged at the blood stained collar of his shirt.
"Oh no one will care about that," she dismissed with a wave of the hand, before it shifted into an apologetic look. "Actually, what Yosuke mentioned before plays into why no one would care."
He found himself leaning against the door frame of the restroom door, looking down at Chie with a frown clear on his face. His whole being expressed the question he wanted to ask, regretting his state of being where he couldn't just grill her for answers. "Ok, the monsters? What's that about then?"
"I'm telling you I don't know... We have a coming of age ceremony for children, when they reach that they start taking the sleeping pills, too. We've all tried not taking the pills and staying awake. But... for the most part, it's better to just go to sleep."
She was squirming where she stood, her arms began folding across her chest, her eyes turned away and her head lowered. Signs that something dark must have happened back then when she 'tried to stay awake'. He would have pressed further, but they weren't in any state that it would have had good results. Instead he sighed and accepted what he couldn't change, at least not for now.
