"They say ignorance is bliss…they're wrong."
-Franz Kafka
13
All they could do was watch in terror as a gigantic, winged creature scooped up the woman by her shoulders and yanked her off the fence. She screamed and thrashed about so much that her shirt started to tear at the sleeves, but the thing kept its talons firmly wrapped around her. One of her shoes came off and hit the wall next to Teddy, and for a moment it seemed as though she was making herself heavy prey. She tore her fingernails into the creature's feet, causing the creature to drop down slightly. When this happened, Will ran forward and attempted to jump up and grab the woman's foot. He jumped again, but the woman was yanked by skyward.
The creature, which resembled a brown, hideously deformed pterodactyl, let out a shrill scream that drowned out the woman's own cries for help. The creature took off towards the building at an acceleration which seemed impossible and slammed the woman's body against the exterior wall of the theater. Her body made a sickening thud against the bricks and temporarily stopped her screaming. A steady stream of blood flowed down the right side of her face and frightened whimpers followed. The creature screamed out again, and again slammed the woman's entire body into the wall, then dragged it up and disappeared over the roof.
"Oh shit," Will whispered to himself, staring at the barely visible bloodstain and crack in the wall that was created by the woman's head. Looking back at Teddy, Will saw that he was still staring up towards the sky, mouth agape. He moved over to his roommate and shook him by the shoulder. "Hey man, we have to get out of here. The way out's back inside, c'mon."
Teddy finally looked back down at Will and swallowed hard. Before he could respond, they heard another piercing scream coming from the sky. All it took was spying the gigantic wingspan that was sweeping towards him and Will was opening the door. He practically shoved Teddy inside and closed the door behind them, forgetting all about what had caused them to go outside in the first place. Luckily for them, there was no monster waiting to greet them.
Will took his flashlight and swept the area. Most of the floor was cracked or raised up from whatever had chased them outside. There didn't seem to be any immediate threat. Will turned just in time to find that he had been shoved against the wall next to the door, and found himself staring down the barrel of a handgun.
"You know something," Teddy started, "and I want to know what it is."
"Huh, you did have a gun after all." Will remarked with a smirk. He swallowed hard when he saw that Teddy's serious expression didn't waver from his attempt at levity. He slowly raised his hands up to take a passive stance. "Hey man, I woke up here the same as you. Where'd you get that gun anyway?"
"Luke had it. You know, the kid who got eaten alive by a fucking wall. And what the fuck was that flying thing?!" Teddy exclaimed.
"I was there with you," Will said, "and yeah, that was messed up. But I didn't have anything to do with that, nor did I have anything to do with that lady getting scooped up. You saw me try to help them both, right?"
Teddy took a step back, looking around from side to side but keeping the gun leveled on Will. The thought of trying to take the gun flashed in Will's mind, but he didn't want to risk getting shot. The more he talked, the more he believed that he could reach Teddy, and they could work on getting out of here together.
"You asked that kid if he took Pure. Why'd you ask him that?" Teddy asked.
Will took a moment to gather his thoughts. In his mind, he was preparing what he should say without having to tell Teddy everything. The whole truth would have taken way too long to explain.
"It was a feeling I had," Will started, taking a breath, "you know my hometown, Silent Hill?"
Teddy nodded in response, waiting for Will to continue.
"Well, there was this flower that gave off hallucinogenic properties, a lot like you'd find in Pure. To prevent kids and well, everyone in general, from taking those flowers and getting high from them, there would be stories passed down about a terrible place that people would go to if they ingested the drugs. A place not unlike what you would imagine hell to be. Some people claimed that they took the drugs and went to a place like that, and from what I've seen so far, it sounds awfully familiar to where we are now."
Teddy's stare went from intense to incredulous the more that Will spoke. He scoffed and shook his head.
"That's the biggest bunch of crap I've ever heard." Teddy said with a chortle. "You expect me to believe that people that take Pure share the same kind of nightmare?"
"Have you taken any Pure lately?" Will asked.
"Have you?" Teddy retorted.
Will shook his head. He hadn't ever touched the stuff, but he was here. To a point, here actually existed. Will tried to push that to the back of his mind. The only thing that mattered was to get out of here. After that, he could reflect on how he got here and more importantly, speak to Horace about it.
"Look," Will began, aiming his light down both sides of the hall to find it still vacant, "you can choose to believe those stories or not. It doesn't really matter much, does it? We're here. I don't know exactly where here is, but I know there must be a way out. The people who said they went here, or somewhere like here, said that there was always a way out. We just have to find it."
Teddy lowered his gun, knowing that Will was right. Whatever it was that Will knew could wait. He had seen two people die in the last five or ten minutes. He never saw anybody die before that, and now there was a good chance that he was going to also. Teddy felt that Will wasn't telling him everything, but he also felt that Will knew enough to be the best chance he had in making it out of here.
Will backed off the wall as Teddy lowered the gun, and slowly dropped his arms to his side. "That kid Luke…did he say where he found that gun?"
"One of the theaters," Teddy responded while tucking the gun in his waistband, "he said it was just lying on the middle of the floor. To be honest I don't even know if it's loaded."
Will extended his hand out, and after a beat, Teddy extended his own hand.
"Gun for the flashlight. This way if you try to shoot me, I can blind you and hit you over the head."
They exchanged items and Will looked over the pistol. He ejected the clip, which appeared to hold ten rounds if he wasn't mistaken. There was just enough light on the side of the barrel for him to see that it was Beretta. He knew enough about handguns and firearms from home to know that it wasn't the most powerful of guns, but it was enough to put some distance between themselves and whatever roamed around here.
"How'd you know how to do that?" Teddy asked.
"I grew up around guns, unfortunately." Will stated, offering the gun back to Teddy and they traded items once more. "I don't like them too much. So, there was a gun in his theater, and a flashlight in mine…"
"Yeah my theater had a flashlight too. It was under a vent cover."
"I bet that vent cover came off pretty easily too." Will added, to which Teddy just nodded in response. "What about the woman…"
"Sandra." Teddy replied.
"Sandra," Will said with a nod, "what about her? Did she have anything on her, or say that she found anything?"
"Now that I remember, she said something about a book." Teddy responded while Will swept the flashlight from side to side again. "She said there wasn't enough light to see what it said and didn't think it was important enough to take."
"That book might be our ticket out of here," Will responded, "do you know which theater she came out of?"
Teddy motioned down the end of the hall and they both headed that way. Will continuously moved the flashlight in all directions, careful to identify any more of that pinkish substance that swallowed half of Luke earlier. Will couldn't help but look at the door to theater where he came from. If he sat back down inside and closed his eyes, would he open them to find himself back at the movies with Dawn? He still denied that he deserved being here. He had done what was asked of him. If this was the Other World that the ones back home spoke of, could he make it out alive? Horace was going to have to answer a lot of questions.
"I know you never liked to talk too much about your home, but if this is some kind of hallucination brought upon by a flower native there, then the more I understand the better." Teddy said, making more of a statement than he was asking a question. "There was some kind of cult that lived in Silent Hill, wasn't there? Were you and your family members of it?"
There was a loud thud above them, and some dust fell from the ceiling, causing Will to snap the flashlight up and both to stop. They looked up quietly with an ear turned up and waited for a moment. When nothing followed, they cautiously walked the extra feet to the theater that Teddy motioned to.
"Yeah," Will responded, reaching out and pulling on the handle, but it didn't budge. It gave him time to formulate a response. "Cult is a little derogatory though. Really the town was founded by a group of people who shared beliefs. There was no ritual sacrifice, women weren't forced to sleep with the town elders…there were no mass suicides or brainwashings going on. The best way to describe it is a religious sect I suppose."
Will pulled on the handle some more until Teddy stepped up, and tried his best to pull, but the door still didn't budge.
"The reason that the town and its people got a bad rep was due to, I guess what you can call a splinter group." Will continued, laying out a full story in anticipation of the next question. As he started, Teddy finally got the door opened and Will immediately shone his flashlight across the entryway. There was nothing there, but Teddy still scrambled to grab hold of the pistol. Teddy moved in first with Will right behind him, illuminating his path. One of the first things that Will noticed was that this theater still had all its rows intact. The walls and the floor were the same rusted metallic that was in Will's theater, and there were a couple of lights along the walls that cast a dim glow over everything.
Something that Will's theater did not have, however, was a metal cage hanging down from the ceiling right in the center of the massive room. It swung idly and creaked at the height of each swing. Will watched Teddy staring up at it with his mouth agape. He waved the light over the structure, and thankfully for both of them, he didn't see any body parts sticking out or blood dripping down. The cage was simply a part of the room.
"Anyway," Will started up again, sweeping the flashlight across the aisle and on the floor, "that splinter group took things literal and a little too far. There were old stories about the rebirth of God, and those stories lead them to recruit people that were…morally questionable."
"How morally questionable are we talking about?" Teddy asked while sticking closer to Will and his light source.
Will considered his wording before speaking, in the guise of trying to find that book. "People with a history of violence and other deviant behavior. People who very little or no family, or at least no contact with any. People that felt like society had rejected them. Outcasts, addicts, the mentally weak-minded…they created their own off-shoot of the town's religion and modified it to meet their own means. Those means were about collecting guns and spreading as much propaganda as they could. The end game was to find a woman, a virgin naturally, who would be the host and later give birth to this new God. And that God would lead everyone to a new Paradise, and all the wicked would be cast out and forced to roam the wastelands that would overrun the rest of society on Earth. Paradise is very exclusive, after all."
"Sounds like a dangerous cult to me." Teddy quipped. "You seem to know a lot about them. Were they living in the town with you?"
"For a while, until they were forced out." Will replied, spotting something on the ground down one of the end rows. He kept his eyes on the ground, half expecting to find some of that pinkish stuff somewhere, but it was solid everywhere. The book that the woman left behind was laying against the wall, so Will bent down to pick it up. "And I know so much because my father's a part of them."
They both let the comment hang there while Will examined the book. He looked at one of the seats behind him and unfolded it. After a quick look to see if he would be sitting in anything harmful or disgusting, he sat down and propped the flashlight in his lap. Teddy stood over him in the aisle, both looking at the front cover, which read 'THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS,' and had a picture of what appeared to be a small boy shining a flashlight towards a pitch-black area. The front cover's illustration makes it seem like a childrens book.
"That's cute." Will mutters.
He opens the book to find that the first page is blank. Will turns to the next page, which is also blank. Him and Teddy share a puzzled glance, so Will begins to quickly turn the pages in order to find some writing. About halfway in, he catches a glimpse of dark ink and stops on that page. He hands Teddy the flashlight, who holds it steady on the page as Will reads:
"But the boy was not afraid,
Even as the Darkness grew close.
He remembered what his Mother told him
'That his true light came from inside'.
All he need do was believe
And he could find his way back home.
If there was no clear way out
He could use his Light to create a door.
A door that could cut right through the Dark
A door in which it could not follow."
"That's a pretty shitty rhyming scheme." Teddy commented with a smirk, which drew the eyes of Will. He cleared his throat and took a breath. "I guess insulting someone's writing is a new coping mechanism."
Will just nodded in response, flipping through the rest of the book. There was nothing else written until he got to the back. The numbers '5/6 and 9/14' were written on the very back page. There was nothing else though, so Will set the book down and motioned to receive the flashlight back. He stood as Teddy handed it to him, and he started to sweep the light across the room again.
"I don't think it was supposed to rhyme," Will remarked, "I think it's supposed to give us a clue on how to get out of here. Using his light to create a door…create a door where though?"
Will moved around the room again as Teddy cautiously followed him, still trying to peer through the darkness for any threats. In the process of moving around the room, Will seemingly covers every surface, floor to ceiling, with his flashlight, but all he manages to accomplish is finding more metal and rust. This room didn't even have an emergency exit door like his room. Was there a way to get through that cage? Maybe if he flashed the light the cage would open, he thought to himself.
"How are you so sure that the book is some kind of riddle that'll get us out of here?" Teddy asked.
"It's here for a reason," Will responded quickly as he headed back to the middle of the room, "everything in this place is here for a reason. Think about it. The flashlights, the gun, the book…why else would they be here? And why only one object per room so far? There are two more theaters in here, so there must be…" Will stops in mid-sentence and goes back to grab the book. He flips to the back cover. "…5 out of 6. Theater number 5? Do you remember what theater number this was?"
"No idea," Teddy says with a shrug, "but I remember last night the movie I was seeing was in Theater 2. Maybe that's the one I came out of?"
"It's as good a start as any. Let's head over there." Will said as they walked to the door. Will pushed on the door and was greeted by a primordial scream that caused them both to jump backwards, followed by a head that resembled a demonic pterodactyl. The bird-like creature managed to squeeze in through the door and stood up to show its full height of about eight feet. It spread its impressive wingspan and let loose another shrill roar, lowering its head and leveling beady black eyes at Will. It stared at him for just a few seconds, but that was more than enough time.
Will raised his light directly at the thing's eyes, which caused another loud shriek and the creature to flap its wings. It was quickly airborne and hovering a good three feet off the ground. Will turned and darted back down the main aisle and the thing gave chase. Looking over his shoulder, he dove into the left aisle just as it swooped down to try and grab him. It grazed his shoulder with one of its talons, ripping through Will's t-shirt and causing a large gash which caused him to cry out in pain. He touched the gash gingerly as he frantically got up and saw that the creature had done a U-turn in mid-air. Will grabbed his flashlight off the floor and took off back towards the entrance, hearing the creature let out a murderous squeal that caused him to look behind and see it closing in on him. He couldn't have been far from the entrance, he thought to himself, but as he turned around, his eyes went wide, and he dove for the floor.
BOOM!
The sound reverberated through the theater, echoing off every surface. For a few brief moments, all was silent. Will looked up from the floor to see Teddy, pointing the gun at the stunned creature. Teddy's hands were trembling slightly as he tried his best to keep his composure, but it was clear that Teddy never fired a gun before. The shot didn't seem to wound the creature, however, who roared and spread its wings again.
"Shoot it again!" Will shouted.
Whether it was Will yelling at him or the creature approaching, Teddy snapped out of whatever fugue state he was in and fired the gun again. The shot missed and the creature continued to close in on Teddy, who fired again and missed again. From the floor, Will aimed the flashlight straight at the creature's eyes which caused it to shriek and stop moving forward. With the creature stopped, it gave Teddy the time to square up with the gun and fire another shot. Will could actually see the bullet penetrate the thing's head right above its left eye, and the force of the shot caused its head to snap back as it let out its final scream. It fell backwards on the floor in a heap. Will got up from the floor and stared at it, backing up towards his roommate.
"You good?" Will asked, although he got no response. He put his hand on Teddy's shoulder in a reassuring way. "Hey man, good shooting. You saved my ass."
"WOOOO!" Teddy exclaimed all the sudden as if he was releasing every ounce of adrenaline that had built up.
"For fuck's sake!" Will cried out, having been startled by Teddy's scream, but then started laughing. "Like I said, great shooting, but let's get out of here just in case that thing isn't really dead."
Will turned towards the door, which had remained thrown open and was about to cross the threshold when he heard another BOOM! He turned to see Teddy standing over the thing with his gun pointed downward.
"It's dead!" Teddy proclaimed with a smirk and headed back towards Will, who stepped aside with a hand gesture that told Teddy to lead the way. Will shut the theater door behind them and they headed towards Theater Five.
"I guess that's how it got in." Teddy said while pointing the barrel of the gun towards the ceiling. Will looked up to see a large hole with a starless, pitch black sky above them.
"Do me a favor Rango," Will started while carefully moving past the hole, "put that gun away before you accidentally fire off a round into me."
"Rango?" Teddy asks with some bewilderment. He lowers the gun to his side while chuckling. "You mean Rambo? Jesus, you really didn't have any movies growing up, did you?"
Will shook his head in response, using the flashlight to find their way to Theater 5. On the wall next to the large room was a section of that pinkish substance which could very well eat them alive. Will pointed it out to Teddy, and both stayed well away from it as Will pulled on the handle to the theater. The door swung open freely and both gun and flashlight were drawn. Will put his hand on the top of the pistol to lower it and entered the room first with the flashlight once they saw no immediate danger. In fact, this theater looked to be in pristine condition compared to the rest. All the rows of seats were intact, although they were folded down like they were being sat in. The ancient burgundy carpeting wasn't torn, and the walls were smooth and damage free. Even the curtains looked ironed. Most noticeably, there was a gigantic projector screen where it was supposed to be.
"This place is so fucking weird." Teddy muttered under his breath, walking towards the screen. He hopped onto the platform right below it and poked the screen with the barrel of his gun. Satisfied with the result, he started feeling the surface. "Seems legit. Why do you think this room's normal?"
"I don't know," Will responded, moving the light around the room, "but there's another door over here."
Teddy turned as Will headed for the door, which was singular with a normal knob that had a keyhole in it.
"Remember what happened last time you opened a door," Teddy warned, hopping down from the platform, "you want some backup?"
Will extended his hand to the knob before he could respond, trying to turn but it wouldn't budge. He pulled harder thinking that maybe it was stuck, but when the knob itself wouldn't turn, he gave up. Teddy came over and tried his luck, but he couldn't make any progress either. Will started to look around the theater, eyeing the rows of seats.
"Nine out of fourteen…" Will started, mentally counting the rows and how many seats per. Twelve rows, with sixteen seats in each, separated evenly by a middle aisle. He started down and counted to the ninth row, using the flashlight to see that the seats were numbered on the bottom of each right leg. He stopped on the seat marked fourteen and examined it. There was nothing out of the ordinary that he could see. He touched the cushion and compared it to the seat next to it, but he couldn't tell any difference.
"Got something?" Teddy asked.
"Don't know yet." Will responded as he crouched down next to the seat. He shone the light on the ground and checked around the chair, but couldn't find anything. With some apprehension, he moved his hand to the bottom of the chair and felt something metallic. He instinctively retracted his hand, then lay prone on the floor to aim his flashlight up at the bottom of the seat. A key was taped to the bottom of the seat. "I think I know how we get into that room."
Will rips the key out and heads back over to the door. He shows the key to Teddy before placing it in the keyhole. It fit perfectly. He twisted the doorknob and the door slowly opened inwards, creaking with every inch.
Inside, the room was well lit, with a staircase leading up. There were rolled up posters along the stairs, and as he made his way up, he could see various tools and equipment. An old radio sat amongst them, giving off a low hum of static.
"I'll stay down here and keep watch." Teddy said, drawing a nod from Will as he climbed further into the room.
At the top was a small room with various movie posters, film reels and unopened canisters. Like the theater below, this room seemed untouched by the darkness and horrors that dwelled within the building and outside. In the middle of the room was a film projector, which was plugged in to an electrical power strip. The projector was positioned in front of a small window overlooking the theater. As Will started to gloss over the machine, he could see a couple of different switches with labels.
He took a minute to go back over the book he found, which lead him to this theater, and to this room specifically. He could use light to create a door. It didn't work with his flashlight. It wouldn't have though, because the flashlights had served their purpose for navigation, and to momentarily stun that winged creature. Will reminded himself that this nightmarish place did have reason; everything was methodically created by some unknown force. That was what he was told as a child, and being here, it started to make sense. Why was this room untouched by the death and mayhem outside the doors? The conclusion that Will came to was that this projector's lamp was the light that he needed, and the screen would house the doorway.
Will spied a metallic switch and flipped it, turning the lamp on first, then flicking the black switch near the base of the device to start the motor. He had never worked a projector before, but despite how simple it seemed, he had an innate knowledge to work it. The motor whirled and hummed to life, and Will didn't have to look out the small window to feel the presence of an all-encompassing light.
"Holy shit! Whatever you did, can you turn off the sun?" Teddy exclaimed from downstairs.
Will rushed down to meet him while keeping a hand up to partially shield his eyes. Teddy was covering his eyes completely, but the light was slowly growing dimmer. He was able to put his hand down and see a light forming a shape on the screen. An outline of a doorway appeared, the light glowing brightest in the mass of its frame and wordlessly calling out to the two of them.
"Our door created by light," Will remarked while pointing at the screen, "there's our way out."
Teddy chuckled and Will smirked, both with much relief. Teddy clamped a hand down on Will's shoulder as a sign of appreciation, and they both turned back towards the illuminated exit. Before either man could take a step, a low rumble started to rise from beneath them, growing in sound by the second. It reverberated off the walls and the ground soon began to tremble as they both looked around the room.
"Now what the fuck is happening?!" Teddy shouted above the noise and keeping a firm grip on his gun.
"Don't know, but let's not stick around to find out." Will replied while hustling them both towards the doorway. "Come on!"
Halfway down the aisle, the ground split open in front of them, swallowing a row of chairs on either side. Without breaking stride or even thinking about it, Will hurdles the foot-wide crevice and lands safely on the other side. He looks back to Teddy, who slowly backs away from the crack and brings his gun up.
"Teddy, just jump it!" Will shouts. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Before Teddy could respond, Will saw a small, four-fingered hand grab the edge of the ground and slowly pull itself out. From behind, Will saw a chalky white figure emerge, appearing to be completely naked and having no discernable features. There was no hair on its head or its body, no lines or marks on its arms or legs and at its full height appeared to be no more than three feet tall. Looking up, Will saw a myriad of emotions wave over Teddy, from confusion to disgust to finally determination. Teddy raised the gun and fired, leveling the small humanoid with a shot between the eyes. That's where the bullet would have been, for as the thing lie motionless on its back, Will saw no eyes. It had no nose or ears either. It did have a mouth though, with tiny, pointed teeth in rows that reminded Will of a shark.
Suddenly, more sets of small hands gripped the edges of the ground and a half-dozen of those creatures began to emerge from the depths. They were all pulling themselves up on Teddy's side, who began to fire at them as soon as they appeared. Will looked for anything on his side of the crack that he could use to aid with the swarm. He grabbed at one of the chairs, but they were all bolted down solid. More creatures started to appear now, and Teddy kept firing, knocking them down one by one with one shot each.
Click. Click, click.
Will looked up to find Teddy also looking at his gun, now devoid of bullets. Those creatures were still coming at him, and even more were piling out. The two roommates locked eyes for a moment, as fear washed over Teddy's face.
"You have to jump, Teddy!" Will shouted, getting close to crack in the ground and extending his hand out. Looking down was a dark pit that was crawling with those creatures, including one that was about to pull itself out. Will kicked it in the head and watched the thing fall back down on top of about five or six others. "Come on!"
Teddy uses the butt end of his gun to smack one of those creatures in the head, causing it to topple over. He kicked at another, and yet another, trying to clear a path where he can hurdle the small pit. Finally, after knocking another down he takes a beat and charges forward. It's not a long run before he plants his foot and starts to leap, however one of the things on the ground lurches forward and sinks its tiny teeth into Teddy's shin, causing him to cry out in pain and stumble. Will's eyes widen as he sees Teddy unable to stop himself and flailing his arms. Teddy makes a weak hop and Will gets on his knees and grabs his hand to prevent him from falling into the pit. Will gets to his feet and starts to pull backwards, dragging Teddy towards his side. Just as Teddy is about to get his knees to the ground, the small creatures on the other side begin to hop towards him. Three of them have grabbed ahold and begin to crawl their way up his body. One of them sinks their teeth into his shoulder, as Teddy cries again and uses his free hand to smack it off. Another, however, bites into his ear, viciously ripping off the bottom of his earlobe. Teddy's eyes go wide, and Will frantically tries to continue pulling him, but the weight is getting too much. Another creature wraps its fingers around Teddy's wrist and bites down hard, causing a final yell and breaking the grip between the two. The leverage that Will was using makes him stumble backwards into the warm embrace of the lighted exit, and Will is forced to close his eyes from its brilliance.