Down in the basement, Arelia insisted upon re-checking the storage room before proceeding. Inside the dark, rusty room Bishop found two boxes of shotgun shells and another Ampoule. The corpses behind the fenced area of the room did not seem to bother Arelia this time; to Bishop, it seemed as if her mind was absorbing the blows again until the breaking point. He wondered if there would come a time where she would shatter for good.

In the boiler room, they came across another puzzle that even Bishop had a difficult time with.

Two valve handles, one on either side of the room, controlled two rotating gates. The gates had been designed in such a way that they resembled two poles with two sets of spikes protruding from them, so that in order to pass through, one had to rotate them so that their spikes did not interlock and block the entry way.

"This doesn't make any sense," Arelia observed after five different combinations of valve-turning. "There was no mention of this sort of puzzle anywhere."

"I know," her companion sighed quietly. He turned the valve handles back to their original positions. "Watch the gates while I turn the handles, okay?" When she did not answer, Bishop took it for a "yes" and turned the right valve handle to the left once.

"Turn it again," Arelia said after a moment. Bishop turned it again to the left, and she walked over to the left valve handle. She turned it once to the right and cleared the passage.

"How did you know which way to turn it?"

"It was the most simple of answers to the puzzle," Arelia said. "And, often enough, the most simple answer is often the correct one." She entered the passage with her gun drawn, yelling back an all-clear for Bishop to follow. When she heard his gentle breathing next to her and felt his warmth, she pressed a button on the open-doored elevator and closed her eyes as they traveled down into the darkness.


The beating of my heart grows still

Yet, with salvation, only one determination is clear:
To suffer us the abominations inside

The walls of madness meant to fear


Deep breathing from two sources filled the silence made by the radio and made the groaning of the elevator cables easier to bear. Neither warrior reached out for the other; they made their progress alone in the darkness.


And though I do not know to what I venture

In the bleeding of the dark and stone

Still I can see the light of God

And know I never was alone


The elevator free-fell the last few feet in its shaft, amplifying the beating of Arelia's heart in her ears. She strained her eyes against the depth of the darkness ahead of her, but it was too thick to see through. There were no identifiable shapes for her eyes to settle on. There was just darkness. Overwhelming darkness, spreading over her body and staining it like the ink of an angry squid. She felt along the edges of the door and stepped out into the hallway, jumping as her boots made contact with the metal grates.

A fire suddenly ignited in the center of the room, smothering a corpse standing there with its head bowed. It illuminated the terrified expression on Arelia's face. And something else.

At the far end of the room, lit up behind the fire engulfing the body, was a massive giant of a deformed alligator. Its leathery green-brown skin separated where the indistinguishable head was to reveal a four-parted mouth, much resembling a flower. Rows of sharp teeth filled the petals of powerful skin until the oblivion of the throat, from which tore an ungodly roar of malice and hunger. The body turned, and the stumps serving for legs began a slow progression toward her.

The expanse of the room was not great, and had been designed in a tight circle, the flaming cadaver at its center. Arelia backed up to where the lizard had been as it approached and aimed her gun. It ignored her and turned its vaguely reptilian head toward the elevator shaft, where Bishop had not exited. It stuck its mouth into the narrow passage and slobbered mightily.

"Arelia!" Bishop yelled from the blocked elevator.
"What?"

"It's drooling on me!"

Arelia came up quickly behind the large specimen of gator and pummeled its hide with shots, none of which seemed to be doing any good. It swung its tail and knocked her unceremoniously into the circular fencing protecting her from the flames.

Bishop, who had backed up into the wall to avoid the deluge of saliva now pooled around the soles of his boots, was faced with the foul breath and dangerous maw of the beast. Convinced that Arelia could do very little for him outside of the space he had been contained in, he fired his shotgun into his aggressor's throat.

The alligator reared back and brought its head out of the offending passage, finding an easier meal in Arelia. It nudged her with its bulbous snout and pushed her into the flame-reflecting wall of the boiler room. Bishop began pumping shots into it from behind while it advanced on the stunned woman and engulfed her body in its mouth up to her waist.

Arelia was now revisiting the impregnable darkness and choking heat, forcefully thrust into the esophogus of the creature. There was very little oxygen, and very much stench, which soon would become her home. Her fading thoughts drifted to the end of the hunter in the story, which she had commented so sadly upon.

"Think it'll end that way for us?" Her diaphram screamed as it was constricted by the jaws of the lizard, and her lungs began to run out of air.

Bishop...

"Shoot it!" a terrified Bishop screamed from somewhere far away. "Shoot it in the mouth, Arelia!"

The blackness of the throat seemed so final and so unforgiving from where Arelia was.


Still I can see the light of God
And know I never was alone...


She manuevered her arms in the tight space and forced the cold gun into the warm, soft tissue of the trachea before firing an entire clip into it.

The force triggered the gag-reflex, and she tumbled wet and cold from the mouth that had held her captive. A terrible, pained death-roar filled the room, so great in pitch that the air swirled, shimmered, and trembled. Bishop covered his ears while the Lizard King died.

The fire ceased to be.

All light was taken from the room.

Sirens shrieked, louder than the death song, and then both faded eventually.

Slowly, Arelia opened her eyes, aware of a light source. The boiler room looked normal again, as it had the very first time she had ventured into it with Bishop. He was by her side, leaning over with his hands on his knees to see if she was breathing.

"Arelia? Are you all right?" When she did not answer, he looked up for assistance.

A beautiful young woman was leaning against some machinery in the room, dark hair cut short against her pale face. Her lavender dress with the white sailor collar seemed so out of place that Bishop had to look twice to assure himself that she really was there. The girl smiled at him gently, then faded into nothing. She left only a key behind.

Bishop crossed the room to where the key was, noting the temperature difference of about -20 degrees, and picked it up off the floor. K. Gordon, he read off the tag attached to it. He pocketed the key and rushed back to Arelia's side, attempting several more times to bring her around. Her eyes were open and staring, sometimes blinking, but she refused to answer.

Gently, he picked her up and held her as he fled the school and returned to the serenity of Silent Hill's daytime hours, where the snow melted in the icy-cold sun. He was not sure if he or Arelia would ever feel warm again.