This begins the story of the first character of many: Isaac Lahey.

This fan story has been a work in progress for quite a time, I wrote myself into a corner but only recently unwedged myself from it. In a way This is my love letter to Silent Hill as a whole. I owe a lot to that series and the memories I have of it are some of the fondest memories I'll ever have where Legend Of Zelda may have been my childhood, Silent Hill was the series I'd say began my trek as a gamer. This is just my own take on the series, however it won't really involve puzzles because how are you going to translate a game puzzle to readers? There's no challenge to it so why do it?


A puff of grey smoke from a cigarette, something you could be seeing for your first time or even for the thousandth. What makes it different is that sigh when you blow that smoke from your lips after taking a drag on the calming embers flickering at the end. Just watching the stress float from your body as the nicotine charges into your brain is what we all need during a stressful day or just because we've nothing better to do. I was waiting out by the old city bridge for a reason, just looking out at the lower district on a dark and frigid night in February. The smoldering embers of my cigarette were really the only thing keeping me company at the moment until the man I was waiting for would show up. Derek was supposed to get my fix before the sunset but he was nowhere to be found yet. I looked at my watch, finding it was already past seven before I sighed, taking the last long drag before looking up to the starless city sky and letting out the last of my smoke. Just as I was beginning to leave the bridge a scrawny kid in a black hoodie was quickly walking towards me from his size he couldn't have been older than twenty. Great another mugger, that was my first thought. "You Isaac?" The frantic kid asked looking around to see if we were alone.

This was odd even for Derek to send someone else to deliver for him; he usually liked to handle it personally to not get ripped off. "Yeah, you have something for me? What's up with Derek?" I had asked a bit disappointed but reaching for my wallet. "Derek said things have been getting dicey so he told me to make this delivery, seems the fuzz is getting more active for once." The paranoid kid said still looking around as he held out a black drawstring bag taking the several twenties I held out. "In this city? I couldn't imagine it; the cops are about as lazy as some of these folks in the lower quarter." I had jabbed, I knew the state of the country was taking a dive and a big part of it was the laziness of its people. The kid nodded and quickly took off into the dark. I flicked my cigarette butt and went the opposite way towards home laughing to myself that the kid had used the word The Fuzz to refer to the cops, we haven't done that in ages, he seemed like an alright kid enough though.

I lived in a shitty apartment downtown. The place was as run down as a graveyard with no groundskeeper. Coincidentally I lived on the second floor on my own in room 206; the rest of the tenants lived on the other floors. The second floor was like my own personal fort. The landlord said I could use the other rooms for storage if I wanted but if he ever got guests he wanted the stuff moved. I liked Leonard, he was a pretty good landlord and just said to pay him whenever I could since I was the only tenant on the second floor and I didn't kick up a fuss or cause trouble, he was a sweet old man who knew people in this city were struggling enough as it was just to keep a roof over their heads. Little did he know how I spent most of my time after a drab minimum wage desk job…I lifted my doorknob and pushed the old door to my room open, the blue wallpaper was falling apart and the sink never stopped dripping but home sweet home.

I walked over to my couch and finally opened the drawstring. Five needles of heroin capped and ready for use, I never heated this crap up like those other losers, I feel like it took away the experience when I did. I undid my belt and wrapped it around my left arm after pulling my sleeve away pulling it tight before locking it and uncapping the first needle. "Here comes the sweet release…" I had groaned as I pushed the needle through my vein and felt the dark brown liquid being pushed into my bloodstream. I lay back after pulling the needle free and just chucked it to the garbage. It just bounced off and rolled somewhere on the tile. This numb feeling was my treat, to forget my troubles and my fucked up past and just float away in the high. The room felt hotter than normal but I shrugged it off since the heating system was always so jacked up. I closed the drawstring and put it in my coat pocket before letting my sleeve roll back down.

I sat in the high for a good long while, enjoying the bliss of numbness as my entire body went quiet. I only barely noticed that my left arm was in a lot more pain than usual but I couldn't figure out why. The room temperature was crazy hot even for the run down building. I stood up to try and go feel the heater. That's when the agonizing pain struck my chest like being hit full force with a metal bat. I gripped my chest and crashed onto the tile floor screaming. The pain was so immense all I could do was scream. Leonard came running up and pushed my door open, almost knocking it off the hinges but I could only hear my ears ringing and my heart beating like it wanted to explode out of my chest. I tried to reach out to him but I couldn't move. I saw him pick up the landline just before I faded out. Flashes of fire, rust, and blood filled my mind in the dream. I looked at my arms and they were full of holes the size of quarters. I screamed in fear as foam was oozing out of each bloodied hole and I tried to scrape it all away. More and more appeared on my arms and I held my head and screamed before I came to again.

A paramedic had revived me and we were on our way to a hospital, or at least I think we were. I could barely understand the man let alone know where I was. The moment I could hear again the paramedic looked at me. "Son, you are some kind of lucky surviving a laced dose of that junk is hard enough as it is and you were just hangin' by a thread." The man started explaining, I knew however that this was it. As soon as I was discharged from the hospital I was headed for prison for possession. I could still even feel the rest of the bag in my pocket. "Hey when did they close off this road?" The driver shouted from the front. The paramedic looked confused before he climbed up to the driver. "It wasn't supposed to be…Oh well I know another way, take the old road that goes into Silent Hill, there's a turn off just inside the town that'll get us to the hospital around this mess." The paramedic pointed a few times at the GPS explaining the directions. "Alright then, as much as I don't like that area I guess it's our only chance." The driver said before I felt the ambulance kick into reverse. "What? Are you scared of the ghost stories they'd tell about that town? It's just an abandoned coal town man. The mine caught fire so they moved everyone out Cuz of the fumes." The paramedic said slapping the driver on the arm as the ambulance lurched forward again. The ride was dead quiet aside from the two talking back and forth with each other.

I had to think of something quick if I was going to get out of this situation. I wasn't going to jail because I got screwed on my supply. What was Derek thinking giving me a laced batch? I knew he was a stickler for quality, something had to be wrong. After what felt like an hour I felt the ambulance suddenly lurch to a halt, I tried to look up and see what was going on but I could barely move my head. "Hey guys what's going on up there?" I had asked with nothing but silence in return. I strained to sit up and look for myself but they were both gone. The ambulance was still running but the two were just gone, I didn't even hear them leave it. I felt my strength return to my body a little and I sat up from the cart and walked over to look out the front of the windshield. The road was encased in thick grey fog; I could see ash raining down from the sky. We were near some sort of run off at the side of the road.

Part of me wanted to stay put because the paramedics were my only hope in saving my life if something went wrong. But I felt my strength was back in my body so I counted my blessings. The other part of me was screaming "Get out of there! Run!" sending danger signals up my spine. I remembered back to their conversation about the town we were cutting through. I remember studying about the town before. Silent Hill, an old coal mining town that one night the entire mine lit up in a burning blaze and nearly killed everyone there that didn't manage to make it out. Rescue from a lot of it took days. Others died from the poisoning of the coal fumes. The Neighboring town even suffered a bad case for a while before it all calmed down. But now I was stuck between the town and the fog in an ambulance where the paramedics were nowhere to be found.

I was going to take my chances to get help at the next town over so I looked around in the ambulance getting a bit of narcan if my body started reacting to the drugs again. I also picked up a flash light and a few dust masks putting one over my face and I hesitantly moved to the back door of the ambulance. I took a deep breath and opened the door slowly so it wouldn't make a lot of noise if the paramedics were just outside of the ambulance having a piss break or something. No one was here, I was now alone and that thought frightened me. They were just here moments before the ambulance slammed to a halt. I couldn't see much in either direction I tried to cut back to where we came in from to see if I could hitchhike on the main road I could bunk with a friend for a while until everything calmed down.

I ran for ten minutes, it felt like it was longer to when we came into the area. Why were we going so far out of the way just to get to the hospital? Were they told to not go to the one right in the city? I didn't know what their plan was or if they were even paramedics. The fog made my chest feel tight, I felt closed in and trapped as I kept running forward in what felt like an endless shroud of fog. Only a few minutes later when I tripped over rubble did I find I wasn't going to get out of here so easily. I looked out at the now destroyed road leading back to civilization; the entire path was gone with nothing but rubble around it and an endless void of fog. I couldn't see the bottom or anywhere beyond, I didn't even know how far the break in the road was and I wasn't about to take a leap of faith on the off chance it was small enough to jump. I decided to circle back towards the ambulance and head for the town. I was horrified to come upon the ambulance in half a minute of running back, like my progress earlier meant nothing. The ambulance was bloodied and dark when before it was idling there while it was pulled over clean as any ambulance. The back doors looked like they were ripped up like something had attacked it looking for something; they were held on by only a hinge. The driver and passenger doors were completely ripped free and strewn across the ground and in a ditch. Blood trailed down the road but it looked like it had been there a long time, dried and brown against the pale old road.

I didn't like it, but I had no choice but to follow the road forward and get into the town to that turn off the paramedic talked about. I followed the path down and came upon an old farm house on the road. I spotted the shed and decided to run up its dirt path towards the house. The house was crumbled to the ground, only part of the wall was still standing the rest was burnt and caved in. I poked my head into the farm shed looking for anything I could use to defend myself. Sitting at the end was a sledge hammer. I hesitated for a moment before seeing the work gloves on the shelf beside me putting them on and reaching for the hammer, "Fuck it, this is better than nothing…" I had said taking the heavy rusted sledge I slid the old wooden handle down my hand carefully and held it under the head so I could keep most of the weight close to me to run. I peeked from the shed but I could only see the empty road and the fog. I took a few deep breaths and quickly moved out of the shed and down the road again. I was following a trail of old browned blood up the road, it looked like it had been stained against the road for much longer than just today so I put the hope in the back of my mind it wasn't the paramedics blood.

I clipped the flashlight to my jacket and readied the sledgehammer as I followed the road. If I was following a blood trail I was going to find someone at the end of it but someone who was crazy enough to go to an old abandoned town wasn't looking for help. I remembered back to the old story about Walter Sullivan who kidnapped two kids bringing them to the town and killing them. The lunatic killed himself in his cell later with a soup spoon; he jammed it into his neck two inches. They said he had gone crazy and hallucinated something that was coming after him. From that point I didn't hide my guilt. I knew these drugs were a terrible thing, but I wasn't going to stop. I hate withdraw and I'm not going back to rehab, those doctors could burn in hell for all I care.

The road felt like it would wind forever before I finally came upon a sealed off tunnel into the town, beside it was a busted down gate; this was a walkway that led into the main street of the town it seemed. It looked run down, I don't know where the turn off road was they had talked about in the ambulance, I'm not even sure they would have gotten this far since the road was blocked off behind me. Every step echoed loudly and I could barely see through the dense fog. If I didn't know the town was abandoned I'd be afraid of getting slammed by a car like my trek back home from work. I didn't see the blood trail anywhere so I just started down the street for a while keeping the sledge hammer handy. It was a wonder these buildings still stood since the town burned in the sixties, the buildings still looked solid and only a few looked like they were worse for wear. The street lights still swung high above in the breeze though a few had been missing. It made me feel sorry in a way, so many were gone in a single night, some probably didn't even know it until it was too late.

I kept down the road looking for any kind of signs of an exit that would get me back to civilization. All I wanted to do was go home and fall into bed, anything better than this situation. Looking around was nauseating, the fog and ash really messed with my eyes; I assumed it was because I came out of an overdose but I'm no doctor to assume it was the reason. I thought I caught a glimpse of someone walking down an alley way. I sprinted for them thinking I could get some help but as soon as I looked down the alley they were gone. I felt the chill run up my spine, they weren't running and this alleyway went on for a while there was no humanly possible way they could get out of sight that quickly. I slowly made my way through the alley I got the sledge hammer ready and moved forward thinking I was in for a shock.

I wasn't wrong when I turned one of the corners to see a mangled corpse slumped against the wall, it looked like something stabbed into them several times with something round and thin and their body was blackened like it was charred, there was no blood but the smell was unmistakable. The body must have been here for a long time possibly months, it wasn't a skeleton just yet but its eyes were gone its lips were peeled back revealing the blackening teeth. Its outfit was almost like mine except it was redder than my black and brown ensemble. I should have been more freaked out, there was just a body laying here but for some reason I was oddly calm about it. I turned back down to the alley I was walking down and I thought I saw one of the paramedics from the ambulance running by.

I sprinted to catch up but it felt like every time I got closer he got further until we reached a dead end collapsed tunnel, I could see the shadow of the man inside the darkened broken down tunnel. "Hey man what happened? Why did you guys leave me alone back there?" I had asked, there was no response, just some the static from the radio he was carrying on his chest. "Hey asshole I'm talking to you! You guys left me back there it looks like I'd be dead if I stayed there!" I had shouted reaching out and suddenly the man turned with a twisted face, I had quickly jumped back as I saw his features were so twisted it was almost like his face was melded into one mass, the teeth were poked out from the mouth as if they were pincers on an ant that clicked as they moved. I could just see the mouth barely trying to open as it let out a guttural screech. It reached out for me with nails immensely long like needles before it suddenly started to flail and quickly started after me. I quickly got out of the tunnel as it was following me screaming and howling like some kind of beast swiping long needle like claws at me. I didn't know what to do, after I got a certain distance it seemed to stop and scan its head around as if I had gotten out of its range of view. I looked again at it and the creature only had the paramedics jacket on, there wasn't anything else, it's like it shape shifted earlier to lure me, for now it's body was almost completely bare, I could see its core was blood red and almost glowing as it sloshed around inside, its feet looked like they were stretched out, there was no heel to go by, only the balls of the feet remained, and the toes were nothing but a hook like set of claws that scraped the ground as they moved. The radio clipped on the jacket was driving the creature mad as the static noise made the creature whip its head around in a vain search for the source.

I took up the sledge hammer and slowly moved closer, taking steps to the side quietly to not alert it to my presence. When I knew I was in reach I moved my hand down the handle so I could get the most out of this swing. I took a breath and heaved the hammer and put everything into the swing closing my eyes. The sickening crunch was all I heard after that I opened my eyes to see I had hit the creature square. I turned away and coughed I felt like I was going to hurl, I knew I had no other choice then to quickly kill the beast or it would probably follow me all across town. Something was very wrong here, first the broken road, then things changing like the ambulance had before when I left it, the ambulance was running but when I came back to it, the whole thing was torn apart as if it was raided. The corpse I passed earlier in the alleyway and now this creature, it still looked too small to be responsible for the ambulance being torn to shreds but it could have made that corpse the way it is with those needle nails.

I took the radio from the jacket that was now completely silent and switched the volume lower before clipping the thing to my own jacket, it would come in handy later was my thought I could probably get in contact with someone later. I had to double take a few times as I walked away to make sure the creature remained where it was, I needed to know it was still dead. I turned to run back down the alleyway, if this thing had friends I wasn't about to stick around to find out. I came across the corpse again and everything in my body screamed as I had frozen looking at it. It was no longer a charred emptied corpse, but it was one of the paramedics with a frozen face of terror, his head was caved in but the stab marks were still there. Its wounds still slick as they oozed from the openings, but it didn't look like blood, it looked scarily more familiar than blood. My breathing quickened as I sprinted out of the alley way. I know I couldn't go back to the ambulance but I had to find somewhere to bunker down and collect myself. I ran down the street for what felt like forever before I came across a familiar sight. The blue creek apartments looked like an exact copy of my apartment back home. "Fuck it, what could be worse?" I asked myself as I quickly climbed the locked gate and pushed my way into the dark reception room slamming the door behind me.

I had slumped against the door and sat in the darkness for a minute catching my breath. "What the hell is going on around here?" I whispered clutching the hammer tighter, I don't know if out of fear or frustration that made me hold onto it so tightly. I collected myself with a few breaths before taking out the flashlight and shining it around the reception room, much like the town it was abandoned, but that didn't make sense why it looked exactly like my apartment complex. I saw the map on the poster board and got up to take a look at it. It may have looked like my apartment building but the layout was different according to the map. I wondered if the people that built my apartment took inspiration from it. I took the map and headed to the second flood out of some curiosity that maybe the rooms and floors would look the same. I kept the sledgehammer close to my body as I searched with the flash light to find the door to the second floor. I took a deep breath before I walked into the hallway of the second floor, only to be met by three walls, the door didn't go anywhere but an empty small room like a storage space. I looked at the map and I couldn't be wrong could I? This was supposed to lead to the second floor on the map, but here it was just a small room. The map said it branched in two ways with several rooms and corridors towards a fire escape at each end.

Confused I turned around and made for another floor up, I hoped it wasn't the same but maybe I was looking at the wrong map, I couldn't be certain but it didn't make sense why the wrong map would be in this building. I opened the door to the third floor to find the darkened hallways; it matched the map exactly as I matched the room number to that on the map. "This makes no damn sense…" I had grumbled trying the door; the knob wouldn't even budge like the door was broken. I went down the hall trying many of the doors, most of them locked or broken to a frustrating degree, I couldn't even pull the broken doors open, I knew I wouldn't have the strength to kick the door down either since they were heavier than the doors of my apartment. Finally after many of the rooms wouldn't open one of the doors quickly swung loose when I yanked on it expecting the same thing, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest when the door gave no resistance to being opened.

I walked into the room to see the decrepit state of the walls; the carpet looked like it had been damp and dried a hundred times, most likely leakage from rain. The kitchen had a duffle bag that was in the process of being packed but there had been a layer of cobwebs all over it telling me its owner was long gone. I walked over and emptied the bag out and decided it would be good to put all my stuff in it. I saw a note on the counter where the bag was once I lifted it. "Mark, I'm going to get out through the room on the second floor. I suggest doing the same thing whenever you wake up. I don't know why the military won't just get us out of here but I'm going to sneak by the blockade through our old walking path the room we can get out from is 206, I was able to clear the rubble away enough to get it open." Was what the note read, the military had a blockade here? Was it for the rescue efforts? I wasn't sure what this note implied that the military wasn't just getting people out of the town but keeping residents inside. I searched the room for a while for anything that might have been useful, the room looked like it had been vacant for a long time aside from the main room and kitchen. I looked into the bedroom to see notes nailed all over the wall. "Our Fault, Our Punishment!" written in a deep red ink the room smelled sickly and I was nauseated just being in there but I had to search the place.

There was a large human shaped imprint in the bed in that same ink, I looked into the imprint to see a key sitting in the center probably where the person's heart would be. I took the key and read that it went to room 200. I quickly retreated from the room going back out into the hallway and taking the mask off taking a few deep breaths. I realized it probably wasn't a good idea to have a mask off in the town at all given the age of everything so I only spent a second getting air before moving on trying to find one of the other rooms. But everything was different now, the hallway was longer than I remembered and doors were more damaged looking some were boarded over or had this barbed wire through them like it was sewn in. The emergency light was on and blaring red at the end of the hall behind me, I could just see the faint glow against the walls as I finally made it to the end to find one of the pathways was blocked by bars that looked like they had been haphazardly placed there, hammered in with rusted nails. I heard something scraping against the wall from the hallway I just came down. I turned to look to see the silhouette of something large crawling down the hallway, there was no hair from what I could tell it was bald, it was arched up a little as six long needle-like arms and legs stabbed into the wall as it climbed and crawled down the hall.

I wasted no time throwing the door to the stairs open and getting to the other side before slamming the heavy metal door shut. A metal bar was on the other side of the door and I jammed it into the frame and the handle to make sure the door wouldn't be pulled back open. I stood there quietly for a minute, I could still hear that Thing approaching with its feet stabbing into the walls and floor. Then it was silent again I just kept absolutely still thinking that maybe it was listening for me as well. When I was certain it wasn't going to open the door I tried to quietly creep down the stairs again. No going back that way, I thought to myself still hearing my heart in my ears and the sweat dripping down my back. But where else was I going to go? It's not like the second floor would lead anywhere key to a room or not. I walked down to look for the first floor room to find there was just a wall there with just the faint clues that it use to be a door. I walked over to the wall and knocked, it was stone behind the plaster, I didn't want to make any more noise than I needed to afraid I was going to draw whatever was upstairs down to me. I sighed and gave in walking back up to the second floor. "Maybe I can hide in the room up here till that thing fucks off." I said quietly to myself as I opened the door to the second floor.

The entire hallway had been there this time as I shined the flashlight around in complete confusion and frustration; however the bars were present on one side but not the other two branching paths. I brought up the map and found that room 200 was down the right hallway, I started down in that direction half jogging till I got to the end of the hall where the room was. I took the key I found earlier and turned it in the lock, the door loudly clicked open as I cautiously stepped into the room, I doubt that big thing could fit through doors but I don't even know how it got into the apartment in the first place. This room was damp and musty, every step made a squishing noise that sent a shiver up my spine, shining the flashlight around the room the carpet looked brown but my steps it would be a darker blackened hue, and suddenly I was glad I kept my shoes on when I was picked up in the ambulance even if I cursed them for putting me in this situation in the first place. The wall had long since peeled and showed signs of crumbling, I could see into the other room from the holes left by the rotted wood that crumbled away from years of water damage. Just like upstairs I looked through the room for anything useful, maybe the key to 206 would be there. I'm not even sure why I continued looking through the apartment I could just get out now and leave that big thing to wander the halls alone but I had a sinking feeling in my chest that it would lead to the outcome from earlier.

The bedroom had a lockbox sitting on the nightstand I instinctively went over to find a code lock on it but scribbled on the box it looked like the code was a certain year. I decided that maybe I could find a clue in one of the other rooms and I looked around further. I found several boxes of pistol ammo just sitting here and there, I don't know why but I put them in my bag in case I were to find a gun, maybe I could go upstairs and just blow a few holes in that big thing. The bathroom had a 62 written in blood on the mirror. "Oh that's great, as if my enjoyment of being here wasn't large enough!" I joked to myself the number was obviously part of the code and if I was as good at betting as I thought, it was the year the town burned. I took a rag from the cabinet and pushed the glass slider open and saw a few pill bottles there, pain killers. "Oh don't mind if I do!" I said to myself shoving the bottles in my bag.

I went back out to the lockbox to see something standing in the corner; I froze for a moment before I readied the hammer. "Turn around slowly, unless you're one of those things out there then in that case just don't move too fast I don't enjoy this but I want it to be quick." I had said aloud to it, I knew it was another of those creatures as its head twitched sideways and it turned around slowly, it seemed to ignore my voice as it just walked from the room before poking at the walls with pale fingers as if it was trying to fix the holes the needles on the fingers let out the black liquid I had seen from the corpse from the alleyway. It hobbled away from the wall as it seemed like it finished its job. It was just doing random things around the room, so I chose to ignore it and just spun the lockbox to the code quietly 1962, the click was louder than I would have liked it to be but it seems the creature didn't react.

I opened the box to find another key and as fate would have it a small pistol was in the box. I took up the gun and checked the magazine finding it full and the chamber loaded. "Isaac things are looking up from here on out." I had said to myself before turning and bumping right into the creature, it let out a shrill scream that shook my ears and without thinking I pushed the pistol to its head and fired. The body quickly flopped to the ground limp, and the room felt silent aside from the ringing in my ears from firing a gun inside a confined room. I looked at the tag for the room and read 205. "You're fucking with me…" I swore as I looked at the tag and just wanted to throw the damned key but I restrained myself and walked out of the room, still the same as it was a few minutes ago. I walked back down the hall to 205 and clicked the lock open. When I walked inside I found a burnt room full of rubble but there was an enormous hole in the wall that led to the next room. It was as if the town was saying "I'll let you have your way this time." I didn't argue as I quickly scanned the rubble filled room before climbing into room 206. It was a dead ringer for my room. "Home sweet home I guess." I joked looking around, I found it a little creepy that everything matched my own room exactly I even saw the same bed setup when I walked into the bedroom.

If I didn't know any better I would say something was stalking me. I saw the door said to lead to the balcony to the fire escape from the note upstairs. I opened the door and there was nothing but a brick wall. After what felt like a few minutes of soul breaking mental rage after I had shouted in frustration I looked at the sledge hammer and back at the wall and decided to leave it to chance. I put the gun away in the bag and took a decent grip on the sledge hammer before winding up for the swing. The hammer slammed into red brick and the wall crumbled opening up to another room inside. "Because this makes total sense." I said to myself pushing most of the bricks over to climb into the next room. The room looked completely clean other than the mess I just made from the wall into the bedroom but it looked like the place hadn't been used in an eternity like the room was sealed off here. I searched through the room and picked up a couple of med kits that had been sitting in the bathroom. It looked like there was nothing else in the room so I headed for its door on the far end, the knob wouldn't even budge. "Alright that's enough adventuring for me." I had said making my way back to the hole I created before making my way towards the door of the room, turning the lock and taking a breath before opening the door.

The same red glow that I had seen upstairs illuminated the hallway. I blinked a few times before I closed the door, waiting for a few seconds before opening it again, the glow remained. "Fuck." I whispered as I looked down both sides of the hallway. I didn't see anything in the darkness in either direction so I quietly stepped out and closed the door before getting the flashlight up. I started tip- toeing down the hall hoping it wasn't here. My fear however was confirmed when I heard it stepping not far from where I was. But like an idiot instead of just hauling ass, I instinctively shined the flashlight down at the direction of the noise and illuminated an enormous pale creature with six limbs each limb looked like a normal arm and leg but protruding from the ankles and wrists were needle appendages. Its face had two enormous slits on each side of the curved in center. It was holding onto one of the other creatures with its higher arms while the second set was jabbing needles into the body, I could see it injecting something black and red into the body before it let go of the oozing corpse letting it fall and sputter as the needles pulled free from it.

The creatures head twitched and the openings pulsated in a sickening noise like lips smacking together. Holes began appearing all over its body before the mouth ripped open and it let out a terrifying scream. I stumbled back on the floor and scrambled across to get back on my feet before I went full sprint towards the stairs again. This time the creature knew I was here and it was fast, I could hear it giving chase as its appendages stabbed into the floor and the walls, part of its body was scraping the ground as it scuttled behind me. I tried to open the stairs but the door wouldn't budge. "No, Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck COME ON!" I screamed to no avail looking back towards the direction of the creature to see it tearing itself from the hallway growling and gurgling as a foam started coming from the holes in its body. I started to run to the bars I had seen earlier. I was a skinny guy, I hoped like hell I could slip through. I shoved the bag through before I painfully pushed my body between the bars as the creature was now sprinting for me. I thought I slipped through before I felt something stab right into the center of my left arm. Burning pain shot through my body as I collapsed to the ground screaming, I felt like it had ripped my arm off. I looked down to see it still there but that black fluid was oozing from where it hit, the creature was desperately trying to pull itself closer to get the rest of its prey but the bars had stopped it, I used my other arm to pull myself around the corner away from it.

I could hear what sounded like an ambulance siren; my head began to spin as I had just watched the creature tilt its head up before it scurried away. And then my whole world was going dark as I fell back stuck staring at the ceiling


I Hope you enjoyed this first chapter of 10 They might be shorter than the Kotera story and WAYYY Less frequent but I'm definitely proud of it. and The monsters may not have names Officially (In the story) But they do have their own form of Symbolism to the characters just like the Old Silent Hill Days. For Isaac I'm trying to envision grotesque monsters and I hope this will be enjoyable for the foreseeable future of this little series.