Bad day at the office

"Work can kill"

Chapter 11: A Hot Time in the Old Town

Nate surveyed the destruction of the party with a wave of remorse. The bodies lay strewn, each with their own agonising expression. Their passing had not been peaceful, that much was plain. The only sound to be heard in the massacre was the odd drip of blood that continued to escape from the numerous gaping wounds. The door opened breaking the semi silence.

"Such devastation." Robert Corn said, his jaw agape as he surveyed the room.

"Now do you comprehend what we are up against? What did you do with him?"

"The doorman has him."

"Good. That will give us time to salvage some of this mess. Pass me that spine will you?"

"Why? One of your more important creations?" Nate took the bone column from Robert.

"Nope. Just thirsty is all." He smiled before he broke it in half and drained the fluid, his little tongue licking the insides to get every last drop. He looked up to see Corn smirking.

"What?"

"You have a little moustache."

"Oh." Nate said before wiping the fluid on his sleeve. "Thanks."

Nate closely examined a steaming pile of organs wandering for a fleeting moment who or what they belonged to before turning his attention back to Corn.

"Well don't just stand there. Help me."

Corn sighed and began to help Nate gather what he needed.


Jack woke up in a room that he knew couldn't exist. Pale blue paint reflected a bleak form of daylight. The blinds made it shine in slats giving the place an almost prison like atmosphere. The bed felt as uncomfortable as it always did. Even more so now as dark, forbidden memories started to seep into his consciousness. He looked left to see his partner in crime a bottle of Jack Daniels stood in silent accusation. Where had he been? Why did he leave for so long? Did he think he could hide forever? Questions screamed like white fire in his mind.

He couldn't remember what had happened but he knew that he would soon. A light melodic chiming started to play in a room not far from this one.

"How?" The question remained unanswered. It was just a way to interrupt the melody really. Jack didn't actually expect anyone to answer.

"Montrellan? Are you there? Is that you poking around in my head?" No answer. Unsure of what he might find Jack picked himself up off the bed and staggered through the doorway. Shadows danced in the strange twilight filling the hall. In that moment he knew that if he followed the sounds he would be scarred for life and that there would be no going back. The melody was "Frere Jacque". He began to sing it softly as he had done so many times in an age long past. The whiskey on the bedside table still seemed to glare at him from its usual resting spot. His voice became more broken as he got closer. Soft breathing noises came from the room. Noises that could only be those of a sleeping child.

Sure enough when Jack fully opened the door he found himself at the entrance of a nursery. A mobile span round with clouds and moons and stars. The "Frere Jacque" melody played loudly with high-pitched chimes. Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing. A large shadow kept watch over the child. He knew it was her, only from another time. A time he had tried so desperately to forget.

The shadow started to sing softly along with the mobile. The child began joining in except it couldn't get the words properly right and just kept saying.

"Fairer Jacka." The room began to spin as panic took hold.

"Impossible. This cannot be."

A dark voice within him chided. "Drink up boy. It'll ease the pain." It wasn't Montrellan, he knew who spoke in that horrid tone. Another shadow filled the doorway, bottle in hand and foulness on its breath.

"I got rid of you. I put you away."

"Not for good Jacky boy. You can't keep a good man down. Besides you need me. You need to blame someone for what's coming; and you know what's coming." The figure took another swig. Jack positioned himself in front of the cot.

"You can't have her this time. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know. You should have put down the bottle and taken care of her. That thing in your hand isn't your child, its poison. You knew and you still put it first."

The figure seemed not to hear him or simply ignored him. "She should have stayed quiet. She should have shut her goddamn mouth but no. The little whelp had to keep on with that incessant whining."

"Don't do it man."

"Of course I'm going to do it. I'll do what I've already done a hundred times in your mind. You can't stop what's already happened murderer."

"No."

"Yes. Demon Father. Failed guardian. The only thing you managed to protect was that goddamn bottle." Jack clenched his fist.

"All right hotshot. Lets go."

"Go where? I'm a shadow you idiot. I'm you." The scenery changed. He was now in the kitchen with a bottle in his hand, a five o'clock shadow and that rancid taste in his mouth. A small girl in a flowery dress sat on the edge of the kitchen table swinging her legs.

"Hello Daddy." She started chuckling darkly. Jack became furious.

"Bastard."


Patricia woke to the sound of wood tapping on metal. Whatever had her in its grasp seemed to be gliding rather then walking. She opened her eyes to see a rusty metal floor. Turning her head she came across two large red eyes and saw a lot of bony spikes.

"Don't move too much. Your kind seems to puncture easily. Allfather. Our guest is awake." The tapping stopped.

"Excellent. Set her down Matt."

The lumbering creature did so with surprising grace. "Love these tentacles." He remarked. Patricia shuddered a little at that.

"Now, now Miss. I do believe you should have a stronger constitution then that."

"What?"

"Let's drop the pretence shall we? I know you're a cold bitch under that shell. You only wear that front to try and prove you're not dead inside but I know different. Come. I want you to walk the factory floor with me."

Patricia was slightly stunned by Cobb's speech but kept pace with the old man as Matt fell in behind her.

"I brought you here because I think its time you learned your purpose. Tell me where do you come from?"

"I'm not local if that's what you mean."

"Be serious."

"I come from Tenson in New Downshire. It's a three hour drive from here." Cornelius made a soft tsk sound.

"My my no wonder your progress is so slow. You really don't know anything. Orphan I presume?"

"How did you know?"

"I know because I know you. You were made here. You are the result of years of planning and preparation."

"What?"

"It's true," Matt spoke up, "We were part of the same batch of creations."

Cornelius nodded. "This has been going on for a long time. Longer since before this building was constructed."

"Where are we?" Patricia asked, unsure if she really wanted to know as her world had already been shaken more than enough by coming to this tower.

"The inhabitants call it Nowhere. It has other names but that all relies on your belief system. This part is the factory in which you were made. You are one of a batch of adaptable flesh puppets. Matt for example used to resemble a human, yet as he lived mostly in this realm he has adapted and changed accordingly to make survival less of a fight. He is now suited for his purpose. As you shall be soon enough."

"What is it you have in store for me? Apart from traumatising me on several levels."

"You my dear are a gate keeper." Before he could explain much more a shriek of excruciating pain tore through the corridors.

"I take it that scream is where we are headed?"

"Very perceptive. Yes. As I was saying you are a gatekeeper. We needed a link between nowhere and the mundane plane of existence you have come to call home these days. You have met the other keeper already."

A look of revelation passed behind Patricia's eyes. "Jack."

"Precisely. You may not realise it but when you abandoned your daughter at his doorstep you sealed both your fates and gave us the connection we needed."

"Is he from here too?"

"No. He is from the world where the sun shines on the pathetic inhabitants below."

"Why the need for all this?"

"My wife. Josephine. She's dying and my methods will only keep her alive for so long. She needs the power that lies in Silent Hill to truly give her life. Nathaniel has helped so much with that. He's the son I could only have dreamed of."

They stopped outside a pair of swing doors with "Maternity" written on them.

"There is one other reason. We are in the middle of a war my dear. Now you have finally come back to us perhaps we have a chance of winning it with one effort instead of gaining one lost soul at a time."

"How?"

"With an army of course. Matt would you do the honours?" The old man stepped aside while Matt used his tentacles to open the doors to give both Patricia and Cornelius a good view of the room. The grinding noises of metal on flesh and the clanking of machinery made it almost impossible to hear themselves think. Patricia began to realise just how unexpected this place could be.

They had just moved from a narrow corridor to a huge factory floor that could easily have housed a block of flats. Conveyor belts ran in many directions and carried various things to their destinations. The ceiling was littered with umbilical cords and muscles as so much fleshy ivy. Along the walls with a good space between each one lay a marvel in its own right. Cornelius made a flourishing gesture.

"Let me introduce you. Patricia, meet the Mothers." Patricia gazed in fascination at the scene.

They were not so much women as large machines with the fleshy shells of women on beds. Conveyor belts ran beneath the bed and through the women. The women screamed every now and again as grinding cogs and wheels occasionally caught on their flesh. Nurses below worked hard to untangle flesh from machine making sure the Mothers ran smoothly. Small rat-faced creatures swung from ceiling cords and ran around the huge women to attend to their needs. They fed the woman lumps of meat, which they gobbled up greedily, licking hot fat and blood off their shrivelled lips. Cogs turned, making strange shapes in their throat and chest areas. The nurses set about working with mops and wrenches. Steam came out of the Mother's mouth as she threw back her head to scream.

More attendants swung from the ceiling with meat hooks, like nightmarish cherubs. They plunged their implements into the huge woman's belly and proceeded to peel her open. They dropped to the ground in a shower of gore before proceeding to work their way back up to the conveyor belt. A large steaming pot was manoeuvred into position above the cavity with the new child inside. The cherubs now entered a critical phase where they balanced the pot over the struggling machine woman and began carefully pouring a blue liquid over the child. Finally the lead cherub instructed the team and the nurses to close her back up again. Once happy with the task at hand the leader pulled a lever in the Mother's arm, making the conveyor move. A water bottle with a small child inside soon emerged from the womb and went into the ceiling via the conveyor belt.

Patricia saw this was the tip of the iceberg and became quite worried when she saw there were larger monsters being developed. Each Mother was different to deal with the different processes involved including steel plates with names and barcodes being embedded into the back of the heads of some of them. Complete with a team of cherubs acting like formula one mechanics with their screwdrivers. They were architectural marvels of the flesh. Cornelius brought them to a stop beside one of the larger, more grotesque examples of the patchwork women.

"Patricia. I would like you to meet your Mother." Patricia's mind went blank when she tried to process the information.

Before her lay a large Mother. Her mouth was sewn on and the eyes looked like they were newly placed into her face as blood seeped out of the edges. She stroked Cornelius' face when she saw him. She had a few conveyor belts running in and out of her. Some carried demons while others carried struggling figures in sackcloth that were strapped up and restrained by leather belts. Blood had dried through, leaving brown stains on the dirty cloth. A wall of flesh surrounded a large smelter with a fierce orange glow with the forge spilling out of the womb. The pieces of demon and human fell into the forge. After machinery moving and screaming a new creature fell out of the womb, one born of fire and pain. A look of fear and realisation crossed Patricia's face.

Matt saw this. "Now you see what you truly are. We are brother and sister born from the same flames. Your demons just haven't manifested yet."

"Why?"

Cornelius answered this time. "We need a link between both worlds to open the gate and being the creature you are provides us with. Your counterpart is much the same only he has fused a different way and with something far beyond his control."

"What is the significance of this link? I abandoned my child I admit but it was the hardest thing I ever did. I can't accept it was my demon side that did that."

"You're right. It wasn't. That was all you, however you had to nonetheless."

"What?"

"We don't play pointless games here Miss Heartwing. We follow prophecies. There is a destiny for everyone and yours intertwines with all of ours. You my dear can not only possess demons but you can control them as well. All you have to do is open yourself up to the demon inside." Patricia thought about this point for a little while before smiling.

"I can hear it."

"What is it telling you?"

"It is telling me to say hello to you both and that it's name is Sharon." Cobb went a bit wide-eyed at that. Not before one of Matt's tentacles plunged through Cornelius' skull.

"That was easier then I thought." Patricia said.

"Now to get out of here." She walked off towards the exit leaving Matt paralysed holding Cornelius like a lifeless meat puppet.


Nate and Robert hurried back down the stairs, each carrying an armful of demonic organs. Nate was particularly protective over one of the brains. The metal plate had somehow still stayed intact although the Spinefant serial number had been slightly marred.

"Uncle I need you to leave the organs at the reception desk in front of the blind one then go and call a lift. From the shouts I suspect we will need to be quick about this." Hearing voices, the woman in white hid under the desk. Robert set about his business while Nate began to carefully place the organs in the shape of a hexagon. At the top of which he stood in the gore holding the brain. He pictured the seventh floor and an almost sleeping receptionist jumped to life.

"Uhh yes sir?"

"Start the process."

"Small, regular or large?"

"Small."

"Right away Sir."

The receptionist swivelled round without moving her legs and pulled on a giant lever behind her. A huge steam whistle blew a deafening call. Gears and conveyor belts kicked into action above her. The receptionist jerked again before hearing Nate's voice.

"Oh and Mavis."

"Yes sir?"

"No bottles."

"Are…are you sure Sir?"

"Do it." The receptionist grabbed the same lever and flipped the top of it to reveal a red button. She pressed it. Doing so activated a rusted metal barrier, slamming it down all around the desk and video screens flipped up in front of her. She shook her head hardly believing what was about to happen.

"This is crazy. Even for this place." She did not have long to wait before the screams came. There were delivery tubes in the room and from one in particular she could hear a very prominent scuttling.

"Oh Crap."

Nate finished his incantation in the organ pile and a portal opened up linking the reception hall to the floor of the delivery room.

"Uncle Robert. Ready with the lift?"

"Yes Nate."

"Time to go I think." Mavis watched as a number of baby Nates poured through the chute and into the hole in the floor laughing wildly. Nate ran for the lift an bundled himself in. He hit the tenth floor button repeatedly. All the while babies flooded the small room. Robert made a gesture and the lift doors closed quickly.

"Funny."

"What?"

"Sharon is missing."

"Who cares she's only a …wait. Change the floor. We need to head to eighth."

Robert made another gesture and soon the lift sped towards their destination almost pinning them to the floor. Nate looked over at him.

"Overdo things much?"

"Give it a rest. It worked didn't it?"


Jack was having a hard time containing his rage. He knew the girl in front of him was just an apparition and he finally knew that he was in this hell because of what he did. Or rather didn't do. He was a failure.

"That's right daddy. A big fat failure. Couldn't even cook a meal properly without burning the house down. This is what I would have looked like you know if I'd have lived."

Jack gritted his teeth. "Why wait so long? I've had this job ever since. Why did you wait until now to haunt me?"

"You're not the only damned soul on the planet Daddy. Everything had to be in place and things like that take time."

"You're not talking sense. Hell, I know you're not even real."

"That may be Daddy but what you did and the danger you're now in most definitely is."

"Yes I should have turned off the oven before I left the place. It was the crying. I had to get out of the house. Get my head together."

"That's it? No I love you? No I'm sorry?"

"If you were real you would know I have already paid my penance for that. The guilt tortured me to breaking point. I was in an asylum with partial amnesia because of it."

The girl chuckled. "I am real. Just not in the way you think. You've been a very bad Daddy and it's time for you to pay."

The scene rippled to reveal what was really going on. His head was about to be devoured by a large spider creature on a silver web. Before it could take a bite it held back as if awaiting approval from something or someone. That's when Jack looked down and saw it. The reception hall was full of baby Nates.

"You?"

The small army laughed simultaneously sending icy shivers right down Jack's spine.

"Just how many of you are there?"

The woman in white popped up from behind the counter and began walking among the tiny bodies. "There are more then this small bunch before you."

"Who are you?"

"Call me Tess. Right now I'm one of the only friends you have. I need you to listen to me. You have to control your fear and anger no matter what comes. Otherwise there will be a lot more blood spilled before this is over."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are a gatekeeper. A special being that can connect two worlds and unfortunately there's an army waiting to come through this hellish world. You can do something about it by not fulfilling the prophecies and sparing these child soldiers before you."

"What the hell would I want to hurt them for?"

"Not them," she pointed at the giant spider, "that." As if Tess' pointing was an invitation the creature descended.

"It can't torture me anymore. It has already shown me what I am."

"Not what you can be though and that's next. Remember Jack don't let the fear get the best of you." Darkness descended once again.


Nate and Robert rushed to the factory after Nate got a frantic and garbled message from Matt about the Allfather being killed by his hand. There was an angry thought about the female gatekeeper as well. The two reached the fallen corpse of Cornelius. Nate became silent and thoughtful.

"What happened?" Corn asked, his eye twitching.

Matt was trying to stay calm but it was easy to tell he was on the verge of hysterics. "The awakening was going as planned. I sensed the change in her just as you said would happen. Something went wrong though. Just when she learned her powers she used me as her instrument of death to kill the Allfather. I don't know where she has gone. Her power forbade me from following her. I tried sending a cherub after her but I fear that didn't work as I heard squealing shortly after."

Nate looked up. "Matt pick Cornelius up and put him on that conveyor."

"What?" The question came from not only Matt but Robert as well.

"You heard me. We are down one gatekeeper. I intend to get back to Silent Hill as soon as possible. This can wait no longer. Place him on the conveyor and let us be about our business. There is much to be prepared now the fires are so close."

"How can we be sure about the other gatekeeper?" Robert asked.

Nate turned his head to the side a little. "You're right as ever I suppose Uncle. Matt, throw him on after you are finished with Father."

Robert looked at Matt. "Try it and even he will have a hard time putting you back together."

Matt looked apprehensive, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Nate sighed. "Oh dear. I had an inkling you may prove to be a problem. The power was just too good. Well I suppose good things must come to an end after all Uncle."

Nate looked mostly disappointed and to those watching close enough even a little bit sad. Robert had the hopeless look of a man determined to fight a battle already lost. He flicked his wrist to bring the wand to his hand but before his fingers could wrap around it they bent back until a cracking was heard followed by a scream that signified Robert's excruciating pain.

"Now Matt as you will see you are all tools in this design of mine so don't feel too bad about Father." Matt once again came under the control of an outside influence and he didn't like it one bit. He skewered Corn and Cobb together before dropping them onto the conveyor belt.

"You could have just said please."

"That wouldn't have proved anything and I wanted to get my point across."

"Oh I can honestly say you achieved that Sir." Matt remarked as he watched the two dead magicians take their last journey as humans up the conveyor belt.

Nate concentrated and two nurses came out of nowhere. Each one holding a spinefant however there was something different about them.

"They're beta versions." Nate explained to the gawking Matt. The henchman watched as the cherubs swung down the umbilical cords and tied the spinefants to the belt. The cogs whirred and the fires pumped up making Matt cover his eyes. Nate was still concentrating.

"Sir is something wrong?"

"I'm suppressing the betas. They can manipulate many things with their minds and I doubt they want to be thrown into a fiery grinder."

"Results should be interesting."

"Yes they should be, not to mention under my control a good slight more then those two lumps up there. Oh and I would stand back if I were you. In a minute Josephine will be no more." The squirming form of Nate's mother enveloped the machine. She looked a bit more lifeless then when she was in the ward. Matt scratched his chin with a free tentacle.

"Are you sure you should be creating something this powerful sir?"

"I am sick of failure and I need something that stands a chance against what's currently possessing the keeper in the web."

"Let's hope it works then."

"Agreed. Now bring me to a safe distance. I need to keep concentrating."

Matt grabbed Nate and started to run as Josephine began screaming louder and more painfully then usual. The cherubs scuttled back up into the ceiling sensing imminent death so close. There were screeching and tearing noises as Josephine ripped in two. A loud unearthly roar came from somewhere inside the cogs and flesh followed by a dark laughter.


Jack found himself bathed in flames yet unaffected by them. He was in the lobby with a lot of dead spinefants before him. There was the sound of a bell as the elevator doors opened and Patricia stood there.

"Follow me Jack. Our purpose is nearly complete, we're nearly out of here." Jack walked into the lift and Patricia hit the button for the thirteenth floor. The lift closed slowly and began its journey.

"What's happening Patricia? You look different. Something big is going down isn't it?"

"The biggest thing in our lives Jack. Destiny. You and I are bound to this place and are meant for big things. There is a war going on and we are to bring the armies to their appointed battlefield."

"What the hell are you talking about? We have to get out of here."

"We will. Come let me show you the way."

The door opened to show an open level. A white door stood in the middle of the room with red light streaming from the keyhole and the edges.

"Time to go home Jack." Patricia said as the door opened to show a forest with the ruins of many red cocoons.

"This isn't…" A hundred maniacal screams came from the trees as tentacled creatures surged towards the light. An army of teenage Nates poured through the doorway and off the edge of the building. They made a bridge about half a mile long. There was a fight breaking out when the rest got to the end of the bridge. Limbs were torn from bodies. An undead builder came through the door next with some rat-faced children whose barcodes read Cherub. The construction crew set about their task of building a gate quickly and merrily with the occasional debate about which piece went where. The builder soon settled these debates and in next to no time the gate was constructed. The crew walked back.

"You're up," the builder said as he passed the two.

"Come on. You wanted a way out. Now we have it. Just a little farther now." Patricia coaxed. Against his better judgement Jack followed. When he was halfway across the bridge he turned back to see Nate laughing.

"Who's that?"

"The master of this tower. It is his army we lead to Silent Hill."

"Silent Hill? I thought we were going home."

"Silent Hill will be our home after we do this."

"No. I can't. This is wrong."

"We have to." Patricia's eyes turned black as she gestured the left side of the gate to open. She was thrown into one of the bone spikes on the door. Her arms were outstretched, reaching for Jack as the door opened.

"Come on Jack. You have the same power within you. You can control them. It is your birthright. Do it." The bodies underneath Jack took up the last instruction as a chant.

"Do it." Hundreds of voices shouted into his mind. Jack clutched at his head, his skull bursting with pain.

"No," he shouted as he felt the fire within him coming to the surface.

"Nooooo."


Jack woke. He was still in the lobby. He had seemingly burnt himself out of the web and was on the floor almost breathless. Fire surrounded him as before yet he was not harmed and the lobby was untouched. Tess approached him.

"You did well Jack. It takes a lot of energy to control the demon inside."

Fire lit up in Jack's eyes and he spoke differently. "He has no control over me young one and I am no demon."

"What are you?"

"A guardian. One of the lost that must be freed and quickly at that. Hell's forces cannot be allowed to have the upper hand. I must make haste to Silent Hill."

"Seems a popular place these days."

"It is a holy battlefield where the darkness has been kept at bay. Should I not reach there soon there is a chance that the darkness will consume the world and that is not something even a spirit like you would like to see. You can't claw your eyes out when you are a ghost."

The lift "pinged" and the doors opened. It was Patricia and as Jack had seen before she looked different.

"Jack? What are you doing here with all these creatures? Oh God. You've come through your trial as well. Listen we have to get out of here." The army of Nates stirred a little at her presence. Yet they remained peaceful, still waiting on an unknown signal.

Jack took control again. "Patricia, you're right, we do need to leave here. What do you suggest?"

She gave him a funny look. "Take a car from the garage. Why? Did you have something else in mind?"

Jack looked relieved. "No. Garage is fine. Come on before something else happens." They rushed into the parking lot and started trying to break into cars.

Patricia watched Jack trying to break in.

"You know how to hotwire a car?"

"No."

"Me either."

"Damnit. Better start looking for one with keys."

Tess interrupted them. "Look quickly. Something big is coming."

The doors from the lobby burst off their hinges. A fiery glow lit the room as a lion with Cornelius Cobb's face entered the doorway. Its mane was pure flame and it seemed to be skinless with the odd rib showing like a giant mouth lay underneath. It roared at them before talking.

"Ahh. Nice to see you again. I think it is time to show the lot of you just what a true gatekeeper is made of." He roared again and flame burst from his mane to create a wall of fire that created a barrier between his head and the rest of his body. With his solid flame wall created he slowly advanced on the three.


End of Chapter. That was a good long one. The last two should be roughly the same but stick with it. Huge action sequences coming up. Please R&R.
Cheers
Wolf