Disquieted Days
Leitmotif: "Sickness Unto Foolish Death" — Silent Hill 3 soundtrack
-:-
Looking glass.
Dark cowlicked hair. Sallow complexion. Amber eyes.
Shift.
Shoulder-length chestnut hair, framing with bangs and goatee. Scraggly mustache. Umber eyes behind crimson shades.
Sinister smirk—
The plane lands, and he can't get off fast enough.
-:-
As far as hotels go, Makoto Itou can't complain about Hotel South Ashfield. Room 302's nothing special, but it does offer a decent view of the town… which is also nothing special, even with the Christmas lights.
Oh well. Not like he was here to sightsee, anyway. Come morning, he'd be on his way to Silent Hill.
Still, this hotel's no Sakakino Hills. He'd once overheard a couple from school discussing it: spending the holidays in a penthouse suite with a panoramic view of Sakakino Town Square at Christmas, all the trappings only a luxurious hotel could provide.
The boy of the couple had balked at the price, not that Makoto could blame the guy. 400,000 yen per night…!
All the same, it sounded like something that Kotonoha—
Makoto suddenly feels hungry.
Yep. No complaints about Hotel South Ashfield whatsoever.
-:-
The Restaurant Fuseli looks about as fancy as the Rhapsody. Just as expensive, too. So Makoto instead eats at Happy Burger, despite it reminding him of a certain other burger joint two more of his lovers frequent…
Waiting for his order, Makoto stops fighting his thoughts, and lets them wander.
Have they realized he's skipped town? At the very least, they must have noticed that he hasn't been answering his phone… Sekai especially must be flipping out…
He only hopes things cool down by the time he settles things in Silent Hill…
Then there's his mother. He hopes she isn't too worried, especially considering why he's going to Silent Hill in the first place. Even as a kid, Makoto knew his father was no good. His mother's kicked-puppy look says it all, as does her understanding of his refusal to visit his father.
So for him to accept his father's invitation now…
Makoto sighs. He'll have a lot of explaining to do once he returns to Sakakino…
His order arrives, and Makoto is grateful for the diversion.
-:-
Makoto sits on his bed, his hunger having given way to a creeping sense of unease. Who would've thought that before there was Happy Burger, there was a pet store where the owner and his animals were brutally slaughtered by a crazy serial killer?
He overheard some patrons talking about it. It turned out most of South Ashfield had once been a hunting grounds for this Walter Sullivan guy. That alone didn't bother Makoto so much and he would've tuned out the rest of the conversation… had Silent Hill not come up.
That town had to be cursed or something, to turn out a guy like Walter Sullivan. And not just him, but that creepy lake, that fucked-up orphanage, all those disappearances…
Makoto couldn't even touch his fries after hearing that.
What is Dad thinking, having him meet him in a town like that? Why not here, in Ashfield? Or somewhere that isn't straight out of Kotonoha's Stephen King novels?!
Maybe he should just go back to Sakakino, pretend he never got that stupid letter…
No.
He's come all this way already, hasn't he? What would be the point of going back now? Besides, what town doesn't have a dark secret or two? Japan certainly took the cake when it came to ghost stories…
He also doesn't want to face them again so soon…
Makoto sighs. Maybe that old newspaper would take his mind off things…
-:-
At the crosswalk, Makoto eyes the entrance of South Ashfield Station. According to the clerk, the Lynch Street Line was the quickest way to get to Silent Hill. That same clerk had given him a look the night before. Don't know why you'd wanna go there, son. Lot of bad history in that town…
Makoto had simply shrugged. Can't be helped. My dad asked me to meet him there. The clerk had then given a look that meant Your father must be out of his gourd…
No disputing that.
But whatever. Maybe once he got this "father-son thing" over with, that restless dream would stop. So vivid this time…
The light turns, and Makoto crosses the street.
Entering the subway, Makoto notices the dead silence. No trains, no people, nothing, and in the afternoon, no less. There were no signs saying that the subway's closed, and surely, the clerk wouldn't have directed him here if that was the case. So what gives?
The unease in his stomach wells. That article he'd read last night… Some poor girl around his age had been hit by a train at the very platform he'd be waiting at. Witnesses said she didn't look intoxicated, that she deliberately leaned into the train's path…
She'd been wearing a white sundress… Just like the one that Yuu-chan—
Focus, Makoto! Focus! Don't think about any of them right now…!
Something else catches his focus: a stray magazine.
The souls of those who died
suddenly by suicide or accident
don't realize they're dead.
Sometimes they stay put and
haunt that particular place.
These spirits have lost their human
senses and memories and can only
keep replaying the pain and sadness
of the moment they died.
The pain can get so bad that they
turn to humans for salvation… or
they begrudge humans their lives.
At such times, they can possess
humans.
Places known as "famous suicide
spots" or "high-accident areas"
are often to blame.
You should be careful when
approaching such locations,
especially on the day or at the
time the death occurred.
That is, if you don't want it
to happen to you, too…
Makoto tosses the magazine aside. What… what bullshit! Just like the Cellphone Charm…!
All the same, famous suicide spots… He remembers a documentary he once saw about Aokigahara, the "Suicide Forest". Over the years, the forest had gained such notoriety that people believed the place was haunted by past suicides, that there was all manner of yūrei and onryō miserable and desperate for company—
Where the hell is that train?! He stands closer to the edge of the platform to get a better look—
…is that a girl's sobbing behind him?
Makoto turns around. No one. Must be his imagination. Why isn't that damn train—?!
Shove on his back.
Face-first on cold rails and concrete.
Train whistle.
-:-
"Need a ride, son?"
Makoto weighs his options. Get into the stranger's semi, sketchy enough on its own, or keep walking in the downpour and succumb to the elements.
A question of his own. "You going past Silent Hill?"
Shock, and something akin to dread, flits across the trucker's face. "Silent Hill… There's a blast from the past…" He turns back. "Sure. Hop in."
Makoto complies, relieved to be out of the rain and far away from Ashfield. But he can't shake the feeling that he's dodged a pit only to fall into a well*.
-:-
Hope you like this, Overlord!
*Dodge a pit, fall into a well: the Japanese equivalent of "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Also seemed pretty apt for two of the endings planned for Silent Days.
School Days franchise, its characters and locations © 0verflow
Silent Hill franchise, its characters and locations © Konami
Silent Days © OverLord Wang-Yu
this story, Unquiet Days © me