Silent Hill 4: The Not-So Parody-(Of Life and Death)
Henry climbed out of the hole in the laundry room and rubbed his sore neck. He'd left Irene alone back on the stairwell in order to drop off one of the two swords he was carrying, and a few other little trinkets. The small, blue stone in his pocket still hummed dully, but since it wasn't really near Henry's crotch he wouldn't take any notice. He managed his inventory, decided to keep the sword he had discovered below Happy House with him, and was about to leave when he turned to the front door of Room 203.
"What now?" he asked exasperatedly, for there was a trail of more fruit punch running from the peephole. Henry stalked up to the door and looked out, only to see a girl scout on the other side.
She was the cutest little thing, with freckles and red ponytails and maybe a really mousy voice. Yeah, she had that, too.
"Um, I'm selling cookies." She rang the doorbell again, for Henry hadn't noticed her do it before. He scowled.
"I don't eat cookies, you little biotch! Get the hell off of my property!"
"Hello?"
"Leave!"
"Uh…"
"You're just as bad as Irene… oh, what the hell." Henry reached for the Post-It notes he left on the kitchen counter, took a pen, and scribbled a message quickly: Leave in front of door. He reached into his pocket, withdrew several dollar bills, and cupped them with the Post-It note. He slipped them both under the door and then noted the red page also sticking out.
The girl scout didn't seem to realize what he was doing at first, but then felt something brush up against her shoe. She reached down and picked up the money and note. After reading it, she frowned. "Someone might steal the cookies, sir…"
"I don't give a shit, just leave them!" He snatched up Joe's latest crimson memo and returned to the hole.
"…But, sir…" the girl squeaked. "You're short two dollars…"
HUUUUUUM… Intermission.
Now returning to your program.
A blistering wind rose from the depths of the stairwell, and Henry shielded his face as he joined Irene who was running around in-a-circle. "Irene, stop acting less stupid and get over here," he commanded flatly, and she frowned and went over to him.
"What is it, Henry…? Did you find my tampon…?"
"No. But I do have this. It's from Joe."
"…Who…?"
Henry sighed tiredly. "Who do you think, biotch? Joe! The guy who lived in Room 203 before me!"
"Oh yeah," Irene said before laughing stupidly. Ignoring her as best he could, Henry brought his gaze to the memo.
I… don't think this is a practical joke anymore…
I haven't felt like eating or sleeping or doing anything, actually. I think I'm losing what makes me human… What do you call that again? Hold on, I'll check my dictionary. Oh yeah, your "humanity". lol
Well, I don't know what's going on, but I think I may have an idea. Walter so-and-so didn't make this CRAAAZY place, his sock did. I think he's going to use the sock to change this place into his fabled "Happy Place". If that's true, all he has to do is kill all twenty-one people, and I think he's getting close… There was something on the news about a person being found dead with '1421' written on their back with purple ink. I'm pretty spooked, to tell you the truth.
Anyway… the apartment's been getting hazier and hazier. It must have something to do with all this CRAAAZINESS. TTYL-Joe S
"Doesn't make any sense… eh, whatever." Henry crumpled up the memo and threw it so that it conked Irene in the head. "Let's go." And so they departed to the base of the stairwell, where a door in the ground—Chibi-marked, of course—greeted them.
In the dirt just slightly above it was written, WATER PRISON WORLD—CAN YOU DIG IT?
"Yeah, whatever." Henry groaned and crouched down before the door. "Let's get this show on the road!" He swung it open and revealed a small, dingy, gray room. He jumped down and Irene followed.
They landed in the room, barely avoiding the great pillar in the center. Circling it, Henry saw that there was a door that led into the pillar, and he opened it. "Irene, could you go in and see what's in here?"
"…Uh, okay…" She wandered inside and, judging it was safe, Henry joined her.
"Okay, so—,"
The shaft shook and suddenly they were plummeting, the pillar's room turning out to be some sort of elevator. Their makeshift ride skidded and thumbed against its rusted, metallic channel of travel. Irene screamed joyously, laughing crazily, while Henry was wide-eyed, staring down at the tower as it speedily lanced up to greet them. He screamed too, just not in any type of feasible joy, and their transport collided with the top of Happy Tower before bursting through with so much inertia that they were not slowed down at all. They crashed through the tower, level after level, until they hit rock bottom and the transport exploded into the decrepit shower room, knocking some pipes out and bringing forth an onslaught of grimy water.
Irene skipped out, laughing and laughing, and she was soon followed by Henry, who grasped his stomach nauseatingly. "Goddamn motion sickness…" he muttered, and then he puked, his vomit spilling out onto the floor and mixing in with the ever-increasing pool of dirty water that was forming around them.
"Shit… Irene, we have to get out of here…"
"I'm a strawberry…!"
"Damn it, Irene!" Henry forced himself to his feet and shoved Irene out of the room before lurching out himself and slamming the rickety metal door shut. Soon, the force of the water would blow the door out, and already it was beginning to seep out of the cracks. "We have to move!" he yelled, and he grabbed Irene and made for the double-doors down the hall, which would take them to the interior stairwell of the tower. They burst through and Henry raced upwards, dragging Irene, who was having the time of her life, with him.
Finally, they made it to the room with the hole, which would lead them to the exterior stairwell. Henry stumbled to the wall and slumped down against it. "Damn, the fun just never freaking stops around here, does it?"
Irene, who was busy adjusting her nurse's cap(which had a great big pink heart painted on it), answered, "Nope."
Henry groaned for the umpteenth time and looked up to see that a note was hanging over his head, in the exact same spot the previous one had been. 'Not again…' he thought, and reached for it.
Wow, this sucks. That stupid intern had to get fried down at the "Weed Room", and now I have to clean up his shit. Fuck. Fuckitty-fuck-fuck. I'm not in a good mood. The code isn't even that hard to put in, but he cocked it up! Wonderful! ARRRGGGHHH!
Plus, he screwed up the generator down below. The whole tower's screwed. I have to restart it, but in order to do that I have to get the power back on, so I have to go fix the sluice gates and then open them… Some dope head couldn't open them right. It must've been the intern. AND HE HAD TO ALIGN ALL ROOMS! It'll take forever to rearrange them! HE COULDN'T EVEN TAKE THE STAIRS!
"The sluice gates…?" Henry whispered. "Not again…" He hung his head low and Irene giggled.
---
"Holy cow, they really did a number on the elevator-thingamajig," Walter commented as he, Jasper, and Mr. Sock appraised the damage from their place on the roof of the tower. The transport cylinder had been ruptured, and pieces of metal were scattered across the entire circular area of the roof.
"B-B-But, it, uh, means they're h-here, r-r-r-right?" Jasper queried, and Walter nodded.
"Yep. They, like, got here before us, though…" He sighed and wandered around the shaft as Jasper dawdled at the edge of the roof. Henry and Irene sure did have a way of eluding them, it seemed. Walter didn't doubt Mr. Sock's plans, but they had yet to have a successful confrontation with the duo, and he was worried that they could possibly cock the whole ritual up, despite Mr. Sock's reassurances that they were just lucky and that everything would work out in the end.
He ran his free left hand through his long, greasy hair and spotted something shiny and blue sticking out of the wreckage. He took it into his hand and saw that it was some sort of music player, with the earplugs still connected. "…This is cool…" he muttered, and he thumbed through the selection of songs aimlessly until finding one that truly piqued his interest. "Hey, Jasp, look what I found!" He took the earplugs, fixed them in, and pressed 'PLAY'. He heard the instrumentals, and soon his eyes began to water.
"W-W-What is it?" Jasper asked with mild interest, but Walter was already singing along.
"My life is dandy… My love is great… I saw an angel, of that I'm sure... Shem smiled at—,"
"..me on the metro, she was with another man, but I won't lose any—," Jasper continued,
"…sleep on that, 'cause I've got a plan…" Walter finished, and their eyes both widened in sudden awe.
"You're wondrous!" they sang together in chorus. "You're wondrous! You're wondrous, oh yes, it's true! I saw your face, in a crowded place, and I don't know what to do, because I'll never be with you… La-la-la… La-la-la… La-la-la-la…!
"You're wondrous! You're wondrous! You're wondrous, oh yes, it's true! There must be an angel, with a smile on her face, when she thought up that I should be with you!"
The two of them stopped for a moment, gathered their bearings, and turned to one another. "…But it's time to face the cold truth… I will never be with you…" they finished in unison, letting the final verse hang in the air.
---
"Did you hear that, Irene? Did you?" Henry shouted as he jogged up the exterior stairwell of the tower, the cold winds biting at his face. "That song… That godforsaken song… Jonathan Sun… Did you hear it? You had to have! It came from the top, it came from the top!"
And so, Henry ran with all the speed he could muster, hoping to get to the top before whoever was singing that accursed song could escape. Moths assaulted him from all sides, but he swatted them away with his sword and kept going. Irene was lagging behind him.
"Henry, my leg hurts!"
"SHUTUPIRENE!"
"Henry…!"
"SHUTUPIRENE!"
He hurried up a nearby ladder, and as he scrambled up it Irene decided to take a breather. Our hero finally reached the top of the tower, and was dismayed to see that no one was present. "Damn it, Irene! This is all your fault!"
"Henry… I can't climb up the ladder…"
"Shove it up your ass, you useless bimbo!" Henry screamed in retort, too frustrated to think clearly. Running a hand through his hair, he propped himself up against the wreckage and sighed. "I need a goddamn drink…"
Irene finally clambered up onto the roof and Henry recalled what the memo from before had said. Sluggishly, he turned to the valve that controlled the sluice gates. "Shit. Have to turn this bastard again…" Henry tapped his chin thoughtfully and glanced at Irene, who was sucking on her gloved thumb stupidly.
'Nope, she's too stupid, and I doubt she could even turn this thing anyway…' A dilemma. Before, Walter had been there to provide Henry with the necessary aid to turn the valve, but without him there was no hope. Then his eye caught something.
There was a panel above the valve, built into the wall. It had managed to escape destruction at the hands of the transport, and there was another memo clinging to it, which Henry peeled off and read.
Shit. Shitty-shit-SHIT. THE STUPID WARDEN COULDN'T HAVE JUST LUBRICATED THE GODDAMN VALVE, COULD HE?!?! NOW I HAVE TO DO THIS STUPID BLOCK PUZZLE TO OPEN THE DAMN GATES! SCREW IT! SCREW IT ALL! I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS SHIT! I'M QUITTING THIS DAMN JOB AND GOING TO WORK AT THE BAR LIKE EVERY OTHER DOPEY SHITHEAD DOES! THANKYOUVERYMUCH!
"Block puzzle…?" Henry moaned. His eyes lit up in silent horror. "No, no!" Irene licked her index finger. "Damn it…" Slouching, Henry approached the panel and inspected it.
There were three columns of colors: red, yellow, and blue. In each column there were present five squares, yet all of the squares were scrambled and out-of-order. It was painfully obvious, even to Henry, that one had to line up the squares perfectly via their respective colors. It wasn't so much a block puzzle as it was one of those unscrambling-picture puzzles. Henry hated those more than block puzzles.
"Alright, well, not going to get anywhere by just standing here… might as well start…" And he did.
---
Meanwhile, Walter, Jasper, and Mr. Sock were wandering through the dark depths of Happy Tower. "S-So, in order to g-g-get to the next l-level, we have to open up the b-b-basement, basement d-door, right? But that's, um, locked?"
"Yep," Walter answered cheerily as he hopped onto another step of the stairwell. "Henry will open up the sluice gates, right, Mr. Sock?" Walter's expression solidified. "Yes," he answered monotonously, and then his gleeful smile returned.
"For now, all we have to do is go and restart the generator." Jasper nodded and they continued their descent, until they heard what sounded like horrible, bloodcurdling screams.
"W-What was that?" Jasper inquired, disconcerted. Walter shrugged slowly.
"Nawp…"
"What?"
"Nawp…"
All of a sudden the screaming grew louder, and the three of them—well, two, really—waited in horrified awe for whatever was coming to come. At last, it did.
Walter and Jasper yelped, and because their yelp startled the fat, ghastly ghost as it rounded the corner, it yelped as well. After regaining their composure a moment later, Walter chuckled.
"Oh, you're a ghost! You, um, didn't happen to hear those agonizing screams, did you? They had me and my friend pretty freaked out right now."
"Screams?" The ghost, which was bald, shirtless, and wearing loose trousers, shook its head. "The only thing I heard was my singing. I've been practicing it a lot more ever since I found out I couldn't leave this place."
"Your… singing?" Walter laughed an incredibly stupid laugh while Jasper remained silent, failing to see the correlation. "Okey-doke, well, you look might familiar… I mean, those numbers on your stomach."
The ghost glanced down at the 1821 that was written on his bulging abdomen in violet ink. "Oh yes, that was there when I woke up. I don't know how they even got there."
"Beats me!" Walter answered honestly, having completely forgotten who Andrew DeSalvo was.
"Oh, well, it doesn't really matter, anyway," Andrew said. "What are you guys doing down here? This place is pretty drab. I'd much rather be eating some pie."
"Apple?"
"No, cherry."
"Oh, okay."
"W-We're, uh, going to restart the g-g-generator and, um, supply power to the tower," Jasper informed him, and Andrew nodded.
"I could take you guys down there, you know, if you want…"
"Yes, we do, and I suggest we hurry up," Mr. Sock said, his voice grave. Andrew gave him a nervous glance, but he managed a shaky smile and turned. "Okey-doke, let's go. It's not that far. You guys do know, though, that the generator won't work without the sluice gates opened, right?"
"Yes," Mr. Sock replied. "We already have someone on that, you needn't worry." And he grinned.
---
"Goddamn you!" Henry cried, bashing the panel with his fist. "I don't understand this! It's completely beyond me! This is why I hate puzzles, they stop all your progress!"
Irene was preoccupied with flopping on the ground like a fish out of water, and Henry glanced back at her, wondering faintly if she would have better luck. 'Nah, Irene's a bimbo. No brains, all bust.' He sighed, prepared to surrender and take a small break, when the intoxicating smell of fresh weed caressed his nostrils. His head lolled to the left, and he was about to float into merry bliss when he opened his eyes and saw the last person he wanted to see.
"Cynthia?" he yelled, flabbergasted. She raised her rather large weed for another drag.
"Looks like you're having a little trouble, Henry," she said, and he pursed his lips.
"Trouble? Don't be ridiculous. It's just a stupid little puzzle."
"The ones that were conveniently left out of the game proper?"
"Ye—Wait, what?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Cynthia said as she floated to the edge of the tower. "But if you really want to know, Henry, I've discovered that I possess the ability to break the fourth wall." She blew out a wisp of black smoke, and Henry frowned.
"Break the fourth wall, doesn't that mean…"
"Like how someone right now is reading our conversation as if it were some type of story, or how another is viewing it in the way they would view a movie. But I have also seen the past, the future, and even what you're about to say."
"Uh, Cynthia, that's—,"
"Completely ridiculous."
Henry cocked an eyebrow and stroked his chin. "You're starting to creep me out, Cynthia. I mean, more than you did before. But, that's not even important. What the hell are you doing—,"
"Henry!" Irene chirped. "I did it! I solved the puzzle!" Henry spun around and saw Irene hopping wildly before the panel, smiling furiously. "It was so easy, Henry!"
Henry groaned and sluggishly approached her. "Are you kidding me? You did it? How? I spent at least fifteen minutes on that damned thing…"
"I don't know, I just moved the little square where it needed to go…"
The brunet waved a hand at her nonsense and looked around. "Cynthia, she's gone. The biotch escaped me again! Ah, well, whatever! Come on, Irene, we need to go and restart that generator now."
"Okay!" she squealed with a sudden burst of energy. "Let's go!" She grabbed Henry's arm and dashed down the exterior stairwell of the tower, running extremely fast despite her injuries.
---
"Huh… it looks like we need some type of key thing-y to get this working…" Walter said while sucking his thumb periodically. Andrew and Jasper exchanged glances.
"You've got those numbers, too," the fat one noted, and Jasper glanced down at them before shrugging.
"Y-Yeah."
"Jasp, I think we're supposed to go find this key," Walter went on, squinting at the generator and the door beyond it. Jasper joined him and he turned to the sock over his right hand. "Mr. Sock, what do you think we should do?"
Before he could respond, Andrew interjected, "Wasn't that sock on your left hand earlier?"
"I t-t-think Mr. S-Sock likes to switch a l-lot," Jasper replied as the sock answered.
"The best course of action would be to split into three parties and search for this key. Walter and I shall go one route, Jasper the other, and our guide can involuntarily go a third way."
"Involuntarily?"
"Meaning you don't have a choice," Mr. Sock said, and then his grotesque smirk changed into Walter's cheery smile. "Okey-dokey-pony, we have a plan, and Mr. Sock just gave it to us! Jasp, you check the stairwell, Andrew, you go up to the body of the tower, and Mr. Sock and I will look around here, okay?"
His right index finger wandered up Jasper's nostril, and Andrew began whistling. "I take that as confirmation of our plan! I shall call it… Plan Go-Go-Go-Find-Our-Key!" He stuck out a finger for emphasis and posed. Jasper was awestruck while Andrew started clapping stupidly like a small child.
"Good job!"
"Thank you very much! Now, let's get started!"
---
"I know that hole was around here somewhere…" Henry said as he and Irene scoured one of the rooms of the third floor of Happy Tower. Irene was busy studying the movements of one of the slugs on the wall, and Henry hunkered down to peer under the bunk. "Holy shit, what's that?" He reached in and withdrew yet another sword with a piece of paper attached to it via a single strip of tape.
that fat blob is going to get what's coming to him. i have this super cool sword that i'm going to stick up his flabby buttocks and then i have that gun under the pillow with that weird bullet that i think is good against ghosties
'Gun under the pillow?' Henry checked and, lo and behold, a pistol similar to his previous model was under the flat pillow, and coupled with it was a golden shell: SPECIAL HAPPY ROUND #3
"It's like the one I found before… I can use it with this gun." Henry loaded it in and grinned while turning to Irene. "Irene, could you hold this sword?" he asked as he stuffed the gun beside Richard's revolver in his pants.
Irene eyed him strangely, and then groped for the weapon. Henry handed the blade to her, and she nearly stumbled due to its weight. As she recovered, he inspected its inscription. SWORD OF LUST, ENVY, AND WRATH, and on the tag, Number 3 of 5; collect them all!
"I've got three-out-five now," he mused, folding his arms. "Alright, enough. Come on, Irene, let's get a move on. Walter and Jasper might be wandering around this place still."
"Okay. Hey, Henry?"
"What?"
"Have you found my tampon yet…?"
"No, Irene, I haven't. Anyway, we need to find that hole, since it's the quickest way down."
She nodded and they left the room, killing some random monsters along the way into a few of the other rooms. At last, the fourth one they checked contained the hole in the floor and Henry cheered. "Now we're playing the game! I'll jump first, and then you, Irene."
"Okay. Hey, Henry?"
"What?"
"Do you think my tampon is down there…?"
"You'll have more important things to worry about than your tampon if you don't shut that damned mouth of yours, Irene." And without further ado, he leapt, and Irene followed.
---
"I w-w-wonder where that key could be…" Jasper muttered as he floated along one of Happy Tower's dank corridors. It was completely silent, save for the occasional fall of a water droplet or a clank in the structure.
He had been on his own for about ten minutes, and he had the uncanny feeling that he was being followed. He didn't know if he actually was, of course, but there was a chill in his chest and butterflies in his gut, even though he was dead. Something was here with him, and it was something different from the bucket, or Walter, or another ghost. It was a force.
"Um, is any, is anyone there?" he asked the darkness of the corridor, but no answer came. He was suddenly very frightened, and longed to get away, to find Walter and Andrew and get as from here as ghostly possible.
He gulped, turned, and then saw it out of the corner-of-his-eye. A floating blob of pure blackness, writhing and beginning to fill up the corridor. "W-W-What?"
Jasper's burst of excitement ignited him, and he combusted again, this time without anyway to douse the flames. "Oh no, oh no! Stay away from me!" The darkness spread around him, and he saw that it wasn't darkness at all. It was… It was…
He reached out to touch it, and then it consumed him.
---
"…Back in the "weed room"," Henry remarked, heaving his sword and noticing a shirt strewn in the center of the room where Andrew had met his end. Irene was sampling the water, and she giggled happily finding it was actually quite tasty. All those minerals, you see.
Henry picked up the shirt and saw that there was a faint message on its back, but it was impossible to read. He was pondering this when something I like to call a deus ex machina touched him. "If I wet this shirt, I should be able to see what it says! But not with just water… With cherry-flavored punch." Not even wondering where this enlightenment hailed from, Henry looked to Irene.
"Irene, we need to find a hole, and quickly!"
"Uh… what type of hole, Henry…?"
"A hole in the wall!"
"The walls have holes, too…?"
"Yeah, but only the ones in this crazy place! Come on, this is the clue we need to restart the generator, I know it is!" He rushed out of the chamber, frantically searched around, then found a hole.
HUUUUUUM… Intermission.
Now returning to your program.
Henry scrambled over to his restroom and turned the faucet on, disregarding the fact that his spare pair of shoes were parading around the apartment and leaving crimson footprints everywhere they landed.
Acting quickly, he rolled up his sleeves and turned the shower faucet on, hoping to whatever gods there were that his plumbing still sucked. It did. Punch shot out and the tub began to fill. Henry hurriedly dunked the shirt in, allowed it to soak for a moment, then turned off the shower. He pulled out the shirt and read its message.
The key for the generator is located on the ghost. I put it there because I'm feeling rather lazy right now.
"On the ghost? Who wrote this?" Henry looked upwards, wondering if perhaps the fates had intervened in his matters, but shrugged. "Whatever. At least I have an idea on what to do."
Feeling better, he left the restroom, but gasped as he witnessed his shoes stomping on his sofa, destroying it with fervor. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded, and then the shoes suddenly flew in his direction. Henry ducked and the first one collided with the back wall. "Ha, missed, you bastard!" The second nailed him in the crotch.
"Damn it!" he cried as he fell to the floor. "Why are the possessed-previously-inanimate-objects always hitting me in the nuts?"
The shoes prepared for another go at him, and Henry threw himself to the chest. He flung it open and dove inside, rummaging around for something to use against the hellspawn. He saw it. The candle he had discovered earlier, it could be substituted as a bomb of sorts, no?
"Alright, you pieces of shit, eat this!" He flopped onto his back, produced a lighter from his breast pocket, lit the flame, and threw it at the shoes. Hitting both of them, they went up in a blaze, but so did the carpet. "Oh, shit!"
Henry attempted to stamp out the flames, but they spread too quickly. "Oh, screw it! He threw off his shirt, revealing his tight, sweat-stained white undershirt, and used it to blanket the flames, and soon he finished the fire.
"Close one," he said while drawing a breath. "Alright. Now…" He dumped the sword in the chest, aware he could just use the one Irene had, and entered his bedroom to grab a clean, fresh shirt. After dressing himself appropriately, Henry returned to the hole.
HUUUUUUM… Intermission.
Now returning to your program.
"Yay, Henry, you're back!" Irene exclaimed. "Did you find my tampon while you were gone?" she asked eagerly.
"No, but I know what we have to do. Give me that sword." She complied and they continued on, walking out into interior stairwell of the tower. Protruding from the flooring were writhing, gangly stems of some sort, and Henry cut them down with ease. They descended, heading for the generator room, and then they heard the most horrid of screaming.
"What the hell is that?" Henry shouted, but Irene gave no answer, for she had begun to scream along with the seemingly disembodied voice.
"LALALALALA!"
"Irene, shut the hell up right now before I shove this sword up your ass!"
"Okay, Henry!" She quieted down and he sighed in relief when the screaming also ceased. Andrew DeSalvo rounded the corner of the stairwell, staring at them quizzically.
"Hey, I remember you…" he murmured, and Henry blinked.
"You. You're that fat bastard, Andrew." His expression grew grim. "I won't let you cheat me out of my weed again, goddamn it!"
"Wait, hold on now! Don't be hasty!" It was useless, though, for Henry was already aiming the newly found pistol at Andrew's head.
"Let's see what this little baby can do! I'll see you in hell, Andy boy!" Henry pulled the trigger and the shell soared into Andrew's forehead. It was a perfect headshot. Upon making contact, the bullet lit up within a magenta aura, and then it exploded, reducing Andrew's decomposing body to nothing but cinders.
"Holy shit…" Henry muttered as he inspected the pistol and the ashes remaining in awe. "That was awesome! Shitting overkill! Nine-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-nine damage, baby!"
As Henry went on about the awesomeness he had just witnessed, Irene staggered over to Andrew's remains. Lying in the ashes was a rusted key, which she took. "Henry, I found a key…"
"Really? I guess Andrew was the ghost the shirt was talking about!" Capering, Henry skipped down the remainder of the stairwell and Irene went after him. Soon, they found themselves in the waterwheel room, and beyond that was the generator room. They examined it from afar, and Henry saw a small slot present in the center of the mechanism. He approached it, stuck in the key, and rotated it.
The generator hummed to life, growing faster as its propellers spun to life. The lights of the tower flickered on, and Henry heard the door beyond the massive generator snap open, revealing an ominous darkness beyond.
"Alright, Irene, time to go on to the next level. You ready?"
"Yup!"
He nodded and they went on through the doorway.
---
"Jasp? Andrew? Anyone? Woo-hoo!" Try as he might, Walter could not find any of his companions. It had been awhile since they had split up, but he could not be sure of how long. However, as he advanced down this dark, cold corridor, he saw it—Jasper's still, lifeless corpse lying on the grating.
"Jasp!" Walter cried as he rushed over to his friend's side. He giggled. "Jasp, you silly pumpkin! What are you doing? I've been looking for you forever! Henry must've already started the generator! We can get going now! Jasp! Jasp, come on, wake up! Jasp?"
He bent closer and his lower lip trembled. "Come on, Jasper, this isn't funny… Get up…"
"He's not going to be getting up, Walter," Mr. Sock said, and the blond whimpered. "Why, why not…?" Mr. Sock sighed. "Isn't it obvious? Look closely. He's gone. Whatever life that resided within him has been stripped away."
"But… but… how?" Walter queried, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "Who would do something like this, something so horrible?" His voice was barely audible, and Mr. Sock shrugged metaphorically. "Henry?"
Walter shook his head. "No. Henry wouldn't do something like this…"
"But you saw it, Walter. His hatred for you otaku, and to him, you and Jasper are nothing but mindless otaku that need to exterminated. It's not enough to destroy the otaku so much as it is to make them suffer."
"…But this is just too cruel… He must have been so scared… Jasper…"
"Then stop crying and rise. You can find Henry, take vengeance for what he has done to Jasper. I can help you, lend you my power. In fact, I can do it for you, Walter, you know that. Allow me to make Henry suffer, to punish him for what he has done."
"…Yeah… Yeah, I'll let you do it… Jasper… He didn't deserve this…"
"No, of course he didn't."
Walter's hands shook, but he removed the sock from his hand. They firmed as he stretched the sock over his head and rose, smirking smugly. He brought out a bong pipe from the innards of his coat, and dragged silently.
"Finally, I have found you!" came a screech from behind him. Mr. Sock—Walter—turned slowly, eyeing Mr. Bucket's ragged form with disinterest and what could only be boredom. "I've been on your tail for some time, Walter! You've led me right to the others! Once I rip you to shreds, I will glut on your precious meat and then that of Henry and Irene's!"
"…You amuse me, bucket. Obviously you are not the one who has desecrated Jasper Gein here. There is another party in our midst."
"Fool, that is irrelevant! Once I have attained complete power I will eliminate any interferences!"
"Complete power? You are nothing but an object that is meant to be used, just like the sock. A medium to handle the grandiose powers that are granted from the ritual. You are absolutely nothing."
Mr. Bucket growled. "You are nothing, Walter! I will take great joy from killing you!" It lunged at him in a manner disturbingly similar to that of a spider, and Walter chuckled.
"As you please." His katana sailed out with deadly speed and accuracy, and Mr. Bucket never even managed to touch him. His limbs and body split into pieces, landing around Walter with sick thuds.
"…A mere flesh wound!" came the voice, and as it began to attempt to piece its body back together and regenerate, Walter kicked the bucket into the air and sliced it in half. He sheathed the sword and let the tin hit the floor.
"Pathetic toy. Now then, everything is as it should be. Nothing is left to impede me." He ginned and headed for the generator room.
To be continued…