Recently I've taken a look back at my writing files. When I opened my 'Darkness of the Soul' files I remembered how much I enjoyed writing and how much I wanted to go back to it. But as I looked back at the reviews I realized that I had lost the essence of this story over time. This was based on raw human fear and paranoia at one point, but I fell into the Hollywood gore and supernatural horrorfest. I'm ready to reclaim its original spirit. I owe this all to Boogiepop Phantom.
The world was cold again, cold and uncaring. An icy grip on your heart that tried to twist and pull it from your chest. Yet you would always live on when this happened. The visions were gone, the room was gone, the world was gone, and the pain was gone. It should have ended there, but the heart continued to beat on. An unrelenting beat that wouldn't let the body die, even though the soul was ready to.
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A surge of pain rushed through Jeans' body and with an earth-shattering scream, she was once again awake. Her vision was blurry and her body burned at the sudden pain within in. Looking around she blinked several times to focus in on the room she was in. The room, where did it go? She was no longer in the room but in the lobby of the Hospital. Remembering what she had done she grabbed her wrist and looked at it. No cut, no blood, and no scar. Had it been some kind of twisted vision that the demon had conjured up in her mind? Perhaps, but then again this town had a strange way of messing with people's minds so it could have been a horrible illusion.
'Why are you here Jean? You should be in Paradise.'
Blinking again, Jean managed to focus in on a spot down the hall. Odd, the hall had a mist in it but she was sure the voice was coming from there.
"Adriel?" She stood and rubbed her chest; it still felt like somebody was trying to rip her heart out from the inside.
'Yes Jean. I am here, but you should not.'
The taste of blood was thick in her mouth as she licked her lips, barely able to make out the faintest outline of Adriel, "You… Adriel…"
The mist seemed to grow denser; blocking out any sign of Adriel as his voice became a haunting echo in the hospital.
Mustering up her courage she finally spoke to the Angel, "You lied to me!"
Silence.
"You lied to me Adriel. You said I would have paradise but there was nothing but darkness and cold."
Jeans' voice was once again met with silence.
"Aren't Angels supposed to protect people? No, you'll probably say that you were protecting me by having me kill myself. That doesn't make sense either since suicide is considered a sin, right?"
Silence echoed in her ears yet a third time. It was maddening. Then, like a bolt of lightning striking metal, she realized what was going on this entire time. Adriel… the Demon. They were the same; the same demented being that would be willing to say it was one of the purest entities ever created.
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Dr. Ashcroft stared at Jean like she was completely out of her mind. She looked at her clipboard again in silence to see if this kind of psychotic and paranoid behavior had been noted before.
With a heavy sigh, Jean continued on with her tale. Knowing quite well that she was most likely sealing herself in this room for the rest of her life with every word she spoke to the Doctor.
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Eyes opened wide in pain and fear; Jean struggled for breath as she was lifted off the floor. Her legs thrashing as she felt a massive hand holding her neck. Looking down she saw the twisted smile on the Demons face as it started squeezing the life out of her. Its maw covered in a fresh sheen of blood while its breath reeked like thousands of corpses left in the summer heat.
'You have seen through my trick little girl. That impresses me.'
Jean could only answer with a cough and a wheeze as she drew in a breath before the hand tightened around her neck again.
'So here we are again little girl. In the real world, and I use the term loosely.'
She wanted to speak, wanted to curse at the creature but she couldn't. His grip was tight and unrelenting. In a futile attempt to escape she thrashed her legs until she, by some form of blind luck, landed a solid blow on the beast. It obviously felt the blow as it grunted in surprise and took a step back but it did not release her. It hurt so much now, her throat was near the breaking point and her chest felt like it was going to explode from asphyxiation.
'Your friend was delicious little girl. I will enjoy devouring your skin as well.'
Coughing and sputtering, Jean tried to pry the hand open that was holding her off the ground. But for once, she stared the Demon right in the eye; well eye socket. Her mind raced with a thousand thoughts at once as she tried to sort out what the creature had just said and then it clicked, like a train track switching over. She had chased the Demon up to the second floor; no it was the third floor of the hospital. And when she looked down the hall she saw this… thing, this Demon consuming Eves' skin like it was some kind of demonic morsel. Yes, that was it. Everything after that had been some twisted mind fuck. She was in the creatures' grip for hour's maybe. Or it could have only been minutes or even seconds, she didn't know how long she had been there but that didn't matter right now.
"B-Bas…tard." Jean coughed after forcing the word.
The Demon sneered at her as a slimy, decaying tongue coiled out of its mouth and licked its jaw. It seemed to enjoy the taunt. Closing her eyes and taking one last breath, Jean went limp.
'That's a good little girl.'
The creatures tongue gently licked over Jeans' cheek leaving a putrid saliva trail behind it. The Demon licked its jaw again as it lowered its face towards Jeans', very intent on consuming her now. Opening its' muzzle it brought the limp girl closer to it before stopping. It closed its muzzle and stared at Jean for a few seconds before growling angrily at her. With a blurring motion the Demon threw her against a wall, causing her to gasp in pain before falling to the floor; the wind knocked out of her.
'Trying to play opossum little girl?'
Holding her stomach and coughing uncontrollably Jean stared up as the beast lumbered towards her, obviously angry at her little stunt. Its claws stretched out towards her, each claw looking like rusted scythes while its muzzle drooled hungrily.
"No!" Jean screamed in pure terror, her eyes wide and glazed over as she stared at the Demon.
Her chest burned with pain still from the lack of air while her back felt the same way from being thrown against a stone wall, making it hard to move when every muscle felt like it was attached to fishhooks and being pulled in every direction in a random order. Still, she managed to work through the pain and stumble away from the thing as its claws made a grab for her but grabbed air instead. Tears streamed down Jeans' face, but not because she was in unbearable pain. The air was very dry and stale in here, making her eyes burn like the rest of her body and blurring her vision. Blindly running down the hall her poor battered body connected with a metal door. The metal was coarse and rusted, smelling like it had been submerged in rotting meat for a few days but it cracked and gave way, letting her fall through a jagged hole in it. The metal groped at her body, gouging her body and tearing her shirt and pants before tumbling to the floor and sliding a few feet on nothing but dirt and glass. She screamed in pain, grabbing her shoulder as blood began to stain her shirt from a shard of glass that had lodged itself in her flesh.
'Little girl!' The beast reached a claw in through the door to grab at Jean. He was rewarded as he grabbed her foot and began dragging her back across the hospital room floor. His maw was open again, waiting for another feast of possibly the last living soul in Silent Hill. Eager to consume her body entirely unlike Eve.
Jean couldn't see straight with her watering eyes but she thrashed against the beast and blindly connected her free foot against his canine nose. Howling in pain the beast released her for a moment, giving her enough time to stand and look around the room for an escape.
It was a hospital room, just like all of the others in the screwed up place. This one had gurneys and wheelchairs piled up on all sides of the room. All covered in rust while the sheets on the gurneys where stained with old blood that had begun to turn a decaying and sickly brown. The air in here was hot and heavy, making it hard to breathe since every foul odor clung to Jeans' lungs and refused to let go. The only way out was through a window, a window that led out into the nightmarish streets of the town.
'Come back little girl!'
The beast had recovered from the blow and was pushing the door off its rusting hinges. Only a second to make a decision on this one. Biting the bullet, Jean ran for the window and jumped. Pushing off a gurney and sending it back at the beast she covered her face as the glass shattered around her arms. Some of the smaller shards cut into her as she fell.
"Oh hell…" Jean whispered to herself as she began to twist and spin on her way down from the way she pushed off the gurney. The fall was only a few feet to the second floor but it felt like an eternity, as time seemed to crawl for her. Expecting to here bones breaking against splintering tar and wood, Jean braced herself but met with the somewhat soft cushion of a hospital bed mattress. The wind was knocked out of her but at least the landing was softer than it was going to be.
"Ahh… damn it," She sat up and rubbed her back, feeling the warm liquid of blood again. Looking down she saw she landed on a rusty spring that had broken through the fabric.
"Great. If that thing doesn't get me, tetanus will."
A creaking sound was heard from below the mattress as it was shaken a bit and sagged. Jean gripped the bed as she looked up, seeing the beast sticking its head out the window and howling at her. This just wasn't her day. That thought crossed her mind as the roof gave away more before it finally buckled totally. Sending loud cracking sounds and splinters of wooden roofing material into the night air as she fell through. Covering her face from the falling debris, she curled up and was careful to avoid the spring on the mattress as she hit the second floor. Bouncing violently Jean was thrown a few feet onto the floor behind her, cracking her head on the wall. Letting out a loud groan, she felt the floor give again as she fell to the first floor and landed on a gurney this time.
Her body felt like it was in acid now, that is what the burning pain felt like now. She prayed the fiery sensation would come back to her now instead of the sharp, stinging pains as the padding on the gurney did little to cushion the blow from the metal frame. The gurney toppled to the side, spilling Jean amongst the debris of the roof and second floor. That familiar creak was heard again as the floor began to sink inwards, right where Jean was lying.
"Oh God… please don't let me…"
He voice was cut off as the floor did give away, despite her plea and she fell into an abyss of darkness as hospital shrapnel fell after her. Her landing was not a pleasant one as she landed on something and heard the disgusting crack and pop of bones breaking and dislocating. A final groan escaped her from her horrific fall as she looked up through the three holes she had created in this hospital of hell. Laying her head back she closed her eyes, letting herself pass out from the fall and into the darkness of this room.
Thank you all for reading this and putting up with my yearlong absence from writing fanfics. I will be writing more but at a slower pace to ensure my writing is up to my high level standards once again. I have at least one more chapter for this fic before I bring it too a close. Maybe two more chapters and an epilogue if I work things out right. Keep reading and please review my story or e-mail me.
-Kamui Asagi
P.S. Feel free to read my other fanfics as well. I'm hoping to get more feed back on my RE fanfic entitled 'Lab TS'. And try reading this fanfic while listening to the Heavy Metal 2000 soundtrack, it was my mood music when I was writing this.