The first two things Gray noticed about the room was that it was very large, and it
was very cold. The second was a huge mirror took up the entire far wall of the room – in
fact, the mirror WAS the wall, made of glass instead of the cold, dank stone that made up
the floor and walls.
And there was a woman in the center of the area – the same one Gray saw in the
school. She was holding a rope with a sign on the end of it. The sign said: HATE ME.
"No…I don't hate you. Mom, I'm sor-"
At this, Gray cut off and looked at what the rope led to. His eyes widened.
"No…don't…"
She pulled the rope.
Suddenly, a large guillotine that had been set into the ceiling whickered down and
sliced the woman cleanly in half. This was no doll – blood spurted out from the body,
splashing the walls and running down the mirror. The rope silently tumbled down,
having snapped from being pulled with such force. As Gray watched in horror, the
guillotine pulled back up and a small silver catch locked it back into place.
He slowly walked over and examined the remains. It HAD been a doll, he
discovered – there were no organs or anything to speak of. And yet the blood remained,
screaming that he was wrong, that it was alive.
He stepped over and stared into the mirror. He noticed the toll Silent Hill had
taken on him – his cheeks were deathly white, his body was skeletal and splashed with
grime, his features were drawn down into an expression of perfect misery.
But then…the reflection grinned.
Gray screamed and retreated to the other side of the room. Impossibly,
horrifyingly, his reflection began to speak, its tone mocking and babyish.
"You were pretty impressive to have gotten this far. So much pain for such a
young boy…you certainly are strong of spirit. I know! You should start a religion of
your own!" The reflection laughed and its teeth clamped down in hellish mirth. " 'This is
Reverend Gray presiding, telling you that if you hate everyone, you can hurt anyone!
Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH! HAL-EE-LOO-EE-YAH!!"
"Shut up!" Gray shrieked at the mirror. He couldn't understand what was
happening, but what this thing was saying cut deep. Every word it spoke seemed to
loosen another bolt on his overstressed mind.
The reflection stared at him. "But it's true, isn't it? You thought it was just fine
when you got away with it. You slapped a layer of hate over your mind and called it
good. But in the end, human emotions always win out. And that's good. Because that's
what we like! That's what we eat!!"
"Who are you talking about?"
"Why, the town of course. The town and all its inhabitants. People like you are
our breakfast, lunch and dinner…well, theirs anyway. You're MY entertainment. Even
with him," the reflection spat this word out, "trying to wreck everything. He thinks that
just because he serves our God, he has to meddle in all affairs that don't concern her.
"But that's besides the point, right? You felt pain, and you called us. You
wanted to be punished." It growled this last word with inhuman hunger.
"No…" Gray protested, but it was weak. "I wanted to…atone…"
"Oh, please, what's the difference? The last one who came here said that he
wanted that too. He squirmed around for a while – a lot more than usual, in fact – but the
town got him in the end. It always does."
Gray couldn't even respond to that one. He was so tired…and the reflection's
words made so much sense…
"You should be punished, don't you think?" the mirror taunted. "You did such a
bad thing. You're a bad boy, Gray. A VERY bad boy. Don't you think you should be
disciplined? Don't you believe you should die? Don't you? Don't you!?"
He was slipping…his mind had had it. This was the end…his eyes were
closing…
STAND.
Gray's eyes snapped open again. What was that? Some voice deep inside his
mind…and it sounded so familiar…so kind…
"I think you should die! Don't you think you should die!?"
Gray drew himself up to his full height.
"No."
"Are you still in deni…" The reflection's taunts trailed off as Gray looked up at
it. His eyes had recovered that same cool, impassive expression that he had in the
beginning, but now…they seemed to carry a new, more elemental power. And their stare
was enough to stop the thing dead.
Slowly, he raised the gun. The thing's eyes widened in surprise and…was that
other expression doubt?
He fired.
The thing screeched in a completely inhuman voice, as the bullet seemed to pass
right through the mirror and strike the reflection in the chest. It glared at Gray with
unutterable fury and blood began to pour out of the wound.
"You can't! You CAN'T hurt me! You're supposed to be scared of me!"
"Scared?" Gray scoffed. "Of you? Hardly. Why should I be scared of my own
reflection?"
"You came here to be punished! Why do you keep struggling!?" The blood was
actually encircling the reflection, covering it.
"I told you…I'm not here to be punished. I'm here to atone."
"There's no dif-"
"Yes, there is," Gray continued. He stared with revulsion at the blood-covered
creature. Was that thing supposed to have looked like him? Was it?
He went on. "With punishment, you've given up; there's nothing left for you to
do but feel pain. But I came here to find solace for my sins, not pain. I came here…for
an answer. And now, I found it.
"What sins you may have committed don't matter. There's always a second
chance, there's always a hope of salvation – as long as you want it badly enough. As
long as you desire to feel, to WANT. My mistake was to hate. It drowned out my
common judgment. Only true emotions can show the real answer – love, sorrow, joy,
and even anger every now and then."
"And what answer is that?" the creature spat.
"What you've done before doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're still
here, and still on your feet. You can always find redemption…as long as you stand."
There was a long silence.
Then the reflection started to chuckle. Then it started to laugh. Then it started to
howl. Its deafening, shrieking laughter echoed through the room.
"Oh, please! As long as you can stand? I've never heard something so pathetic!"
"You're scared of me," Gray said calmly, and that stopped the laughter dead.
"You're afraid because you don't want to find out if what I say is true."
The reflection stepped forward, almost coming into contact with its side of the
mirror. It was nothing but a mass of blood now – it obscured every feature but the
mouth.
"Wrong. It's my job to ruin stupid ideals like yours."
"What are you, anyway?"
The mouth grinned. "Ah…how quickly we forget. You recognized me just fine
when we met in the school."
Through his calm expression, Gray dimly felt his guts shrivel up and freeze into a
wrinkled sac of ice.
"It's time to die," the reflection said. It gently placed its hand onto the mirror.
"Speak…I am the Crimson One. The lies and the mist are not they, but I…"
Gray brought up the gun.
"Come on, Gray…can you give me hallelujah?"
The mirror was beginning to thump and beat like a giant glass heart
thump-thump
and with every thump, Gray could see the true identity of the reflection.
Thump-Thump
And oh my God, it was
THUMP-THUMP
It was
THUMP-THUMP!
It
SMASH!!
The mirror shattered and rocketed towards the other wall. Miraculously, every
shard missed Gray, though some passed close enough to slice open his skin. The glass
embedded itself in the wall, and the thing on the other side stood before him.
It was over seven feet tall, wearing a blood-and-pus stained robe and carrying a
huge knife in one hand, with a blade almost half as big as Gray himself. An enormous
rusted metal pyramid-shaped helmet rested on its shoulders, staring blankly at him.
It was the dark executioner of Silent Hill, the beast known only as "Pyramid
Head."
Oh well, Gray thought. It can't move too fast with that knife…
Suddenly, Pyramid Head hoisted the blade and began to dash toward him.
"Awww, HELL!" Gray screamed. He dived to the side just before Pyramid Head
brought the knife around in an arc that would have taken his head off. He dashed to one
of the walls with the executioner close behind.
Gray turned and saw it about to swing again, then quickly dropped to the ground.
The blade planted itself into the wall, and he found himself horribly close to the demon.
Its robe reeked of blood and puke and the dirt of the grave.
Pyramid Head wrenched the blade free and pointed it downwards. Gray rolled
away just before it pinned him like a bug, however as he got back up it swung again. The
blade only nicked him, but he screamed as the sheer force of the swing cause the nick to
become a gash in his side.
Gray ran again, firing the pistol at Pyramid Head. The bullets screamed off the
metal helmet, causing no visible damage whatsoever. He fired until the pistol started to
click, then reloaded the gun frantically as the monster closed in on him, dragging the
knife slowly with one arm. He smacked the clip in and jumped away again just before
the blade came up. He landed on the gash, sending another hot wave of pain through his
body.
The relentless monster started in on him again…
Gray was getting desperate. Noting he had could hurt Pyramid Head, he had one
clip left, and he was getting exhausted. The executioner couldn't even be killed in the
games; the only blind spot it had was under the helmet, and if Gray tried to get there he
would be killed for sure.
What could he do?
Gray's eyes happened upon the bloody remains of the doll just as the monster got
within range again. It backhanded him with its other arm, sending him flying into the
bloody mannequin. He saw stars.
When his vision cleared, Pyramid Head was over him again, knife raised high. It
meant to cleave him in two, and this time there was no escape…
Gray smiled.
This shocked the beast so deeply it held its position, and as it did, Gray spoke
hoarsely:
"This is the strongest of all human emotions, Pyramid Head: Belief. Belief in
your friends, belief in yourself, and belief in the fact that everything has a second chance.
Contemplate that down in Hell."
He raised the pistol high.
"Now, Pyramid Head…can you give me hallelujah?"
He fired off all ten rounds. One bullet hit the small catch on the guillotine and
sent the blade into Pyramid Head's helmet with a loud CHUNK.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Gray was terrified that he failed. But then,
slowly, the knife slipped from its hands and clattered to the ground. It arms hung limply
at its sides.
A voice emitted from the helmet, muffled and garbled as if it were bubbling up
from the excrement-splattered pits of Hell itself:
"HALLELUJAH."
The blade retracted, as a gusher of blood emitted from the contents of Pyramid
Head's helmet. Gray backed away as it collapsed to the ground.
Breathing heavily, Gray noticed yet more writing on the wall, a wall that had been
before obscured by the mirror:
WELL DONE
"But…" Gray said softly, "is there really a way…? It there really a path to
salvation, somewhere where I can feel happy again?"
THERE IS…IF YOU WANT THERE TO BE.
Gray began to cry a little. All of this had been so painful, but he had learned so
much…and maybe, just maybe, he could live with himself now. The voice repeated
itself, a voice which he now recognized as Julia's:
That's it, Gray. Keep going. Be brave, be strong, be true. Stand.
"Stand," he whispered.
With the screeching of valves, another wall lifted. And other the other side was
not a door, but a passage.
And…oh glorious, it was bright.
Still crying, Gray slowly walked into the passageway, though he did not know
where it led. His path to atonement had been long and painful, and how can we possibly
know if he is even finished yet? But surely you all don't care, for now you can return to
your beds, where comfort is king and pain is not allowed.
But please…
Take care, and remember the lesson held in this boy's words.
"Stand."
was very cold. The second was a huge mirror took up the entire far wall of the room – in
fact, the mirror WAS the wall, made of glass instead of the cold, dank stone that made up
the floor and walls.
And there was a woman in the center of the area – the same one Gray saw in the
school. She was holding a rope with a sign on the end of it. The sign said: HATE ME.
"No…I don't hate you. Mom, I'm sor-"
At this, Gray cut off and looked at what the rope led to. His eyes widened.
"No…don't…"
She pulled the rope.
Suddenly, a large guillotine that had been set into the ceiling whickered down and
sliced the woman cleanly in half. This was no doll – blood spurted out from the body,
splashing the walls and running down the mirror. The rope silently tumbled down,
having snapped from being pulled with such force. As Gray watched in horror, the
guillotine pulled back up and a small silver catch locked it back into place.
He slowly walked over and examined the remains. It HAD been a doll, he
discovered – there were no organs or anything to speak of. And yet the blood remained,
screaming that he was wrong, that it was alive.
He stepped over and stared into the mirror. He noticed the toll Silent Hill had
taken on him – his cheeks were deathly white, his body was skeletal and splashed with
grime, his features were drawn down into an expression of perfect misery.
But then…the reflection grinned.
Gray screamed and retreated to the other side of the room. Impossibly,
horrifyingly, his reflection began to speak, its tone mocking and babyish.
"You were pretty impressive to have gotten this far. So much pain for such a
young boy…you certainly are strong of spirit. I know! You should start a religion of
your own!" The reflection laughed and its teeth clamped down in hellish mirth. " 'This is
Reverend Gray presiding, telling you that if you hate everyone, you can hurt anyone!
Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH! HAL-EE-LOO-EE-YAH!!"
"Shut up!" Gray shrieked at the mirror. He couldn't understand what was
happening, but what this thing was saying cut deep. Every word it spoke seemed to
loosen another bolt on his overstressed mind.
The reflection stared at him. "But it's true, isn't it? You thought it was just fine
when you got away with it. You slapped a layer of hate over your mind and called it
good. But in the end, human emotions always win out. And that's good. Because that's
what we like! That's what we eat!!"
"Who are you talking about?"
"Why, the town of course. The town and all its inhabitants. People like you are
our breakfast, lunch and dinner…well, theirs anyway. You're MY entertainment. Even
with him," the reflection spat this word out, "trying to wreck everything. He thinks that
just because he serves our God, he has to meddle in all affairs that don't concern her.
"But that's besides the point, right? You felt pain, and you called us. You
wanted to be punished." It growled this last word with inhuman hunger.
"No…" Gray protested, but it was weak. "I wanted to…atone…"
"Oh, please, what's the difference? The last one who came here said that he
wanted that too. He squirmed around for a while – a lot more than usual, in fact – but the
town got him in the end. It always does."
Gray couldn't even respond to that one. He was so tired…and the reflection's
words made so much sense…
"You should be punished, don't you think?" the mirror taunted. "You did such a
bad thing. You're a bad boy, Gray. A VERY bad boy. Don't you think you should be
disciplined? Don't you believe you should die? Don't you? Don't you!?"
He was slipping…his mind had had it. This was the end…his eyes were
closing…
STAND.
Gray's eyes snapped open again. What was that? Some voice deep inside his
mind…and it sounded so familiar…so kind…
"I think you should die! Don't you think you should die!?"
Gray drew himself up to his full height.
"No."
"Are you still in deni…" The reflection's taunts trailed off as Gray looked up at
it. His eyes had recovered that same cool, impassive expression that he had in the
beginning, but now…they seemed to carry a new, more elemental power. And their stare
was enough to stop the thing dead.
Slowly, he raised the gun. The thing's eyes widened in surprise and…was that
other expression doubt?
He fired.
The thing screeched in a completely inhuman voice, as the bullet seemed to pass
right through the mirror and strike the reflection in the chest. It glared at Gray with
unutterable fury and blood began to pour out of the wound.
"You can't! You CAN'T hurt me! You're supposed to be scared of me!"
"Scared?" Gray scoffed. "Of you? Hardly. Why should I be scared of my own
reflection?"
"You came here to be punished! Why do you keep struggling!?" The blood was
actually encircling the reflection, covering it.
"I told you…I'm not here to be punished. I'm here to atone."
"There's no dif-"
"Yes, there is," Gray continued. He stared with revulsion at the blood-covered
creature. Was that thing supposed to have looked like him? Was it?
He went on. "With punishment, you've given up; there's nothing left for you to
do but feel pain. But I came here to find solace for my sins, not pain. I came here…for
an answer. And now, I found it.
"What sins you may have committed don't matter. There's always a second
chance, there's always a hope of salvation – as long as you want it badly enough. As
long as you desire to feel, to WANT. My mistake was to hate. It drowned out my
common judgment. Only true emotions can show the real answer – love, sorrow, joy,
and even anger every now and then."
"And what answer is that?" the creature spat.
"What you've done before doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're still
here, and still on your feet. You can always find redemption…as long as you stand."
There was a long silence.
Then the reflection started to chuckle. Then it started to laugh. Then it started to
howl. Its deafening, shrieking laughter echoed through the room.
"Oh, please! As long as you can stand? I've never heard something so pathetic!"
"You're scared of me," Gray said calmly, and that stopped the laughter dead.
"You're afraid because you don't want to find out if what I say is true."
The reflection stepped forward, almost coming into contact with its side of the
mirror. It was nothing but a mass of blood now – it obscured every feature but the
mouth.
"Wrong. It's my job to ruin stupid ideals like yours."
"What are you, anyway?"
The mouth grinned. "Ah…how quickly we forget. You recognized me just fine
when we met in the school."
Through his calm expression, Gray dimly felt his guts shrivel up and freeze into a
wrinkled sac of ice.
"It's time to die," the reflection said. It gently placed its hand onto the mirror.
"Speak…I am the Crimson One. The lies and the mist are not they, but I…"
Gray brought up the gun.
"Come on, Gray…can you give me hallelujah?"
The mirror was beginning to thump and beat like a giant glass heart
thump-thump
and with every thump, Gray could see the true identity of the reflection.
Thump-Thump
And oh my God, it was
THUMP-THUMP
It was
THUMP-THUMP!
It
SMASH!!
The mirror shattered and rocketed towards the other wall. Miraculously, every
shard missed Gray, though some passed close enough to slice open his skin. The glass
embedded itself in the wall, and the thing on the other side stood before him.
It was over seven feet tall, wearing a blood-and-pus stained robe and carrying a
huge knife in one hand, with a blade almost half as big as Gray himself. An enormous
rusted metal pyramid-shaped helmet rested on its shoulders, staring blankly at him.
It was the dark executioner of Silent Hill, the beast known only as "Pyramid
Head."
Oh well, Gray thought. It can't move too fast with that knife…
Suddenly, Pyramid Head hoisted the blade and began to dash toward him.
"Awww, HELL!" Gray screamed. He dived to the side just before Pyramid Head
brought the knife around in an arc that would have taken his head off. He dashed to one
of the walls with the executioner close behind.
Gray turned and saw it about to swing again, then quickly dropped to the ground.
The blade planted itself into the wall, and he found himself horribly close to the demon.
Its robe reeked of blood and puke and the dirt of the grave.
Pyramid Head wrenched the blade free and pointed it downwards. Gray rolled
away just before it pinned him like a bug, however as he got back up it swung again. The
blade only nicked him, but he screamed as the sheer force of the swing cause the nick to
become a gash in his side.
Gray ran again, firing the pistol at Pyramid Head. The bullets screamed off the
metal helmet, causing no visible damage whatsoever. He fired until the pistol started to
click, then reloaded the gun frantically as the monster closed in on him, dragging the
knife slowly with one arm. He smacked the clip in and jumped away again just before
the blade came up. He landed on the gash, sending another hot wave of pain through his
body.
The relentless monster started in on him again…
Gray was getting desperate. Noting he had could hurt Pyramid Head, he had one
clip left, and he was getting exhausted. The executioner couldn't even be killed in the
games; the only blind spot it had was under the helmet, and if Gray tried to get there he
would be killed for sure.
What could he do?
Gray's eyes happened upon the bloody remains of the doll just as the monster got
within range again. It backhanded him with its other arm, sending him flying into the
bloody mannequin. He saw stars.
When his vision cleared, Pyramid Head was over him again, knife raised high. It
meant to cleave him in two, and this time there was no escape…
Gray smiled.
This shocked the beast so deeply it held its position, and as it did, Gray spoke
hoarsely:
"This is the strongest of all human emotions, Pyramid Head: Belief. Belief in
your friends, belief in yourself, and belief in the fact that everything has a second chance.
Contemplate that down in Hell."
He raised the pistol high.
"Now, Pyramid Head…can you give me hallelujah?"
He fired off all ten rounds. One bullet hit the small catch on the guillotine and
sent the blade into Pyramid Head's helmet with a loud CHUNK.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Gray was terrified that he failed. But then,
slowly, the knife slipped from its hands and clattered to the ground. It arms hung limply
at its sides.
A voice emitted from the helmet, muffled and garbled as if it were bubbling up
from the excrement-splattered pits of Hell itself:
"HALLELUJAH."
The blade retracted, as a gusher of blood emitted from the contents of Pyramid
Head's helmet. Gray backed away as it collapsed to the ground.
Breathing heavily, Gray noticed yet more writing on the wall, a wall that had been
before obscured by the mirror:
WELL DONE
"But…" Gray said softly, "is there really a way…? It there really a path to
salvation, somewhere where I can feel happy again?"
THERE IS…IF YOU WANT THERE TO BE.
Gray began to cry a little. All of this had been so painful, but he had learned so
much…and maybe, just maybe, he could live with himself now. The voice repeated
itself, a voice which he now recognized as Julia's:
That's it, Gray. Keep going. Be brave, be strong, be true. Stand.
"Stand," he whispered.
With the screeching of valves, another wall lifted. And other the other side was
not a door, but a passage.
And…oh glorious, it was bright.
Still crying, Gray slowly walked into the passageway, though he did not know
where it led. His path to atonement had been long and painful, and how can we possibly
know if he is even finished yet? But surely you all don't care, for now you can return to
your beds, where comfort is king and pain is not allowed.
But please…
Take care, and remember the lesson held in this boy's words.
"Stand."