Silent Hill 3: The Fourth Wall, or Heather's Worst Day Ever
Chapter 14: Puzzled
"I should've given him my flashlight," I said, shaking my head.
"He'll be fine," Harry said. "He told me he gets around without one all the time. How do you think he gets past all those monsters?"
"Huh... Never really thought about it."
I looked over to the right and studied the panel for a moment. I was almost certain B1 would be the only working button, but I mashed the others just in case.
"Going down," I said, with a feeling of unease. I smacked the button and huddled into the corner next to my monster. The floor shook, and a low mechanical hum permeated throughout the cramped quarters. The elevator made its descent.
"What's wrong?" asked James. I glanced up and saw him peering down at me.
"I've had some bad luck with elevators today," I answered quietly.
"So? This one seems okay."
"Yeah, I guess so." I kept my head down, and thought about flipping up my hood for once.
"It beats jumping down holes..." said Henry.
"Eh, I wouldn't mind that either," said James.
The elevator began to slow, and the floor shook once more as we came to a gentle stop. Once again the doors parted with a strangely gleeful ding! Like a mockery, really. I was probably already well on my way to slipping off the deep end forever. I just found the noise extremely annoying.
Screw elevators.
I got back up to lead the way into the unknown area. I kept my flashlight in my hand and pointed it ahead while stepped out.
It was a new room, and fairly large. Harry moved forward and joined me as we scanned the unfamiliar surroundings. The air inside felt damp and gross, and a shiver ran down my spine. The temperature had taken a sudden dip. The walls and floor were old concrete, stained in large spots with green. Our footsteps fell without much of an echo. The ceiling was way up high, and the four fixtures above struggled to give off a pale light. We kept our flashlights on.
Straight ahead of us was a set of double doors, painted a chipped dark brown. That wasn't so special. More interesting was what lay on either side of them. I wandered up for a better look, breaking away from the group. The Double Head came with me.
There were colored tile squares built into the wall. Nine at a time in a perfect three by three square pattern, two sets on either side of the of the doors. The tiles looked like they were made out of some kind of semitransparent glass, and each was about the size of my hand. Every tile was a different color, and some of them were beautiful. I stopped and my gaze settled on the set just to the left of the doors. The first to grab my attention was a light cornflower blue, followed by a teal, and then a dark gray. The set above that was a pale green, followed by black, and then a light honey brown. The bottom row held a light amber tile and next to it was a much darker brown. The bottom right tile was dark red.
They stood out in this place, for sure.
"What's this," murmured Harry. He'd snuck up right behind me.
"It's a puzzle, obviously," said James impatiently, walking up.
"I know that," Harry snapped at him. "I'm trying to figure out what it means."
Henry stood back from us, resting his chin on the back of his hand.
I reached out to touch one of the tiles. It felt cool against my hand... and then it disappeared into the wall about half an inch.
Ka-thunk! went the double doors.
I glanced over to the side, then back at the others. "Ummm... oops."
"Dammit, Heather!" growled James, stomping angrily towards me. "Tell me you didn't just lock that thing!"
Harry stepped in between us, and Henry pulled back on the collar of James' jacket.
"Now, hold on," said Harry. "Take a look at this."
He pointed his flashlight beam at the door handles and we gathered around for a better look.
The doors looked beat to hell, to put it lightly. Like someone had gone absolutely crazy trying to open them. There were dings and scratches marring the paint, and that was only the beginning. They looked like they'd been kicked and smashed and burnt, even. The wood around the metal handles was scorched black, as if someone had taken a torch and gone to town. I bent and peered closer. There had been a silvery symbol carved into the wood, circular in shape and split between the two doors, but I could barely make out the lines anymore.
"Jeez..." I muttered.
Harry lowered his beam down to the floor, and then back up along the wall. "Yeah... looks like somebody got impatient."
"I didn't mean to mess with it... How would I know you can re-lock a puzzle?"
"I don't think you locked it," he said, and pointed off to the right. "There's another door over there, and I have a feeling..."
I walked over to it and pulled hard on the doorknob. It twisted just fine, but it was being held firmly closed.
"I knew it," chuckled Harry.
"What's it mean?" asked Henry.
"He made his own way through."
"He can't solve his own puzzles?" I snickered. "Man, what a loser." Then I almost let out a giggle as I imagined Vincent screaming and kicking the door, and trying to burn it down of all things. I would have given anything to see it.
James crossed his arms, but he looked much calmer now. "I don't think he made it..."
The Double Head arfed faintly. I hadn't even noticed that it had trotted off somewhere. I started towards the sound, but the monster came bounding back up to us. It dropped something on the ground and panted up at me in a doggy-like way.
"What is it?" I asked. I crouched down and picked it up. It was a wadded up sheet of paper, and it was pretty darn wet from being slobbered all over. I tried to unfold it, but it fell apart in my fingers.
It had been torn to shreds.
"That was supposed to be our clue, I think," said Harry.
"Wait a minute," I said, peeling apart a few of the slimy pieces and laying them on the ground. "I think we can still read some of it." I sat down against the wall and began trying to fit them back together.
"What a pain," muttered James. "I can't believe the Old Gods would pull a stunt like this... Aren't they supposed to be on our side?"
"I'm sure they have their reasons," Harry said absently. "We'll just have to see what happens."
James unleashed a long frustrated groan as he sank halfway down to the floor. "I'm so damn tired... Why don't we ever get to sleep?"
"I do," Henry said. "I guess... since I always wake up in my bed..."
I gulped and quickly went back to rearranging the torn papers. I didn't want anyone to know that I'd been zonked out in the motel room at Jacks Inn while James had braved the black waters of nighttime Toluca Lake. The Double Head and I shared a look. "Shh," I whispered. Then I remembered it was incapable of telling anyone much of anything.
Harry sat down next to me and laid his flashlight on the ground to help add some light.
"How are you holding up?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
"Yellow," he replied. "Stable."
I sighed. "I mean how do you feel?"
"Pretty drained, to be honest... and my shoulder's killing me." He rubbed his eyes with one hand, and then leaned forward to look at the pile of papers. "Let's try and figure this out," he said. Then he put an arm around me.
I froze, but tried to play it down.
'"Here are four paths... 'something' re... reversed...'" I said slowly, reading what I could. "Then... 'something'... right.'"
"Left to right," he said simply. He might have been beat, but he was still pretty sharp.
I had to hold the next two scraps together. "'The first will... 'something'... without the second...' It's ripped too much there."
"Okay."
"'The second will live without the first'."
"'Die'?"
"No, 'live'."
"Sorry, I was thinking about the first line. 'The first will die without the second'. The word there looks short, and it seems to make sense."
"Oh... okay." I picked up the next few pieces. "'The fourth'...'something'... 'the fate of' ...'something'... 'third.' That part's really torn up..."
He nodded. "Don't worry about it."
"'The third knows nothing of the others.' That's the last line, but it's the easiest to read."
Henry wandered over. He'd had enough of James' moping.
"This is what I've got," I said. "'The first will die without the second, the second will live without the first. The fourth ...'something'... the fate of the... third, probably. And the third knows nothing of the others.'" I started to huff. "Are they talking about us? Because I happen to know a lot."
"'The fourth 'knows' the fate'? I do know a lot about fates..." He looked grim.
We sat quietly for a minute or two, and I started piecing together the second half of the page.
Harry spoke up. "It's out of order. The first refers to me and the second refers to you."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Because you live on without... uh, 'me'... in this game..."
I felt my heart sink a little, but I tried not to make a huge deal of it. "So James and Henry are what?"
"Yeah... what am I?" asked James. He was sprawled out all over the ground in defeat, and his tone was resigned, bordering on miserable.
Henry turned his head back at him. "I'm fourth... I know what happens to you in my game."
"So it's one and three, then two and four," I said. "That's just the first part, though. At least we know who stands where." I stared bleakly up at the wall behind us. "Now we've gotta find out what the square things are for..."
James rolled over onto his side in a dark corner away from everyone. "Yeah, wake me up when you've got it," he muttered sarcastically.
Harry glowered a little in James' direction, and looked as though he might say something, but then simply shook his head. He looked back down at the leftover scraps. "Is the rest in red?" he asked.
"Yeah... looks like blood or red ink..." I said (and silently hoped it was the latter). "But it's all smeared... Now it's gonna be harder to read what it says."
The Double Head whined lowly from its spot on the floor.
"Yep, wonder whose fault that was," I said, giving it a soft thump on the side. "Give me a second." I set my flashlight down on the ground next to Harry's and repositioned them as close as my aching head could stand.
It got pretty quiet for a long while, but I didn't really mind.
T... ...se ...ulers ...ide... ... ... a mind as...d...r; the last loc...ed in ... ... ... ...e. Q...k to fl...ght, l... t... ... the elde... led th... ch...r... ... ... ... ... l... ... ...d ...f ... ...i...l...
... ... ... ... ... ... a...e ... c...se th... meant noth...ng, becau...e ... ... ... ... w... no... ...he y...g...s... C... ...ad ...s ...h...
L...k in t... ...ro... ...d wh... ... ... s... R... ... ... di... ... ... ...t ...a...s ... co...r ...oun...i... ... s...ry pools of e... ... ... ... ... ... l...o...king in...o ... ...s. Ea... ... ... ..., ... ...d th... pl...ce.
...d if ... ... en...h... ...m...s ...f ... l... ... c... ... ... to... ... ...d ... if ... ... ... ... ...e ...r c... ...e ... ...aring ... righ... ... ... ...ce.
...ne last ...ng before the r...ddl... is d...e. One f...r all, all b... on...
I read it over one more time and sighed, dropping the last crumpled scrap down onto the floor. There were too many ruined words, and even if the message hadn't been wrinkled and smeared to hell, it probably still would've read like stereo instructions.
I shot a sideways glance at Harry. He still had an arm draped around my shoulders, but his head was bent and his eyes were closed, resting back against the wall. I hated to have to move, because he was comforting, but after a minute or so I gently pulled away. I got up and turned around to examine the puzzle again.
Henry was lying idly on the floor in a semi-doze, both arms tucked back behind his head. He blinked and looked up at me. "Did you get it?" he asked softly.
I shrugged. "It's hard to make out," I whispered.
I reached up and gingerly poked the red tile.
Ka-thunk!
Harry jolted upright with a start. "I was thinking."
"Sure you were," I grinned, though I felt kind of sorry for him. "Who's the 'eldest' in here? I know I'm the uh... kid."
"I... uh... don't actually know how old I am," Henry admitted.
"That's strange... do you know how old James is?"
"Nope."
"See? This is why we can't be real people. We don't even have birthdays..." I paused with a frown. "But I know today's not mine..."
Harry pulled himself up, wincing and holding his left upper arm. "It wouldn't be far from Cheryl's."
"How come?"
"Because she 'just turned seven last month'. Not that I know what month it is... it's never really specified."
"People try to figure it out anyway," I sighed. "Okay, let's keep it simple. I think this says eldest to youngest? So maybe it's when the games came out?"
He stepped up to the first set of tiles. The same color scheme, but mismatched. I watched him touch the bottom center tile. It was teal.
Ka-thunk!
James turned over and sat up. "Stop doing that."
"Get over here, we need you," called Harry.
He dragged himself up and staggered over to the third set. "What do I do?" he asked crankily.
Henry got to his feet and made his way to set four.
I carefully flattened out the scraps on the floor. "Looks like... eldest to youngest. One for all, all but one... Pools of 'something'. Looking... 'something'." I leaned in and squinted at the last little bit. "'Staring right... in the face'? That's all I can really make of it..."
"Staring you right in the face? This must be Easy Riddle Mode," James scoffed.
"Huh?"
"Eyes, of course," he said. "I stare at mine all the time in the intro..." His next sentence came out almost boastful. "Sato did that one."
Henry and I met with a brief shared glance of mutual FMV envy. Sato had only stuck around for the first two Silent Hills.
"So... what?" I asked, turning back to the squared wall. "We just touch our colors?"
"That's straight forward," said Harry. "Eldest to youngest... one through four. I go first, James hits the third, Heather is the second, and Henry goes last." He raised his hand and pressed down on the dark brown tile.
Ka-thunk!
He touched it again.
Ka-thunk!
"Hmm... maybe it's not as easy as that."
"But you don't have brown eyes," I said.
"Yes I do."
"They're blue."
"What?"
"If I had a mirror I'd show ya... But I don't. You'll just have to take my word for it."
He stared blankly for a few seconds, then slowly shook his head. "They're so dark in the menu... I can't really tell what color they are."
"They're blue, trust me." I pointed my flashlight right at him. He squinted and raised his arm against the glare.
"Okay," he relented. "Maybe so. We'll see."
"James, you're green obviously, and Henry's is the amberish."
"What about you?" asked Henry. "Yours look 'amberish', too..."
"One for all, all but one," I said. "I've seen enough Alessa and Cheryl symbolism to know that means me."
"Cheryl's eyes are dark brown... almost black," said Harry wistfully.
"Mine were... uh..."
"Alessa's are blue."
"Really? 'Cause the game looks so dark I can barely..." I stopped. "Dammit."
He smiled at me, then turned back to his squares. "Ready?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this."
He went first, and must have actually selected the right color this time, because the doors did not Ka-thunk!
James swiped a hand down his face tiredly and touched his green tile.
I pressed down the blue and dark brown, simultaneously.
Henry went for the amber on the far right.
Click.