Chapter 10: Hymn
A disturbing silence filled the dark and damp hallway as they walked around in the deserted hospital. Matt illuminated their surroundings with the flashlight while Daryl tried every door they found. Most of them had broken locks, some were just locked. About a minute after entering the quiet building, they finally discovered a door that could easily be opened and stepped into a cramped room.
A big quadratic piece of paper was lying on a desk. Matt picked up the paper and studied it. "Looks like a map of this place. So this room is the doctor's lounge …" He folded up the map and placed it in his pocket.
Daryl opened the refrigerator. "Weird. There's a newspaper in the fridge," she said and picked up an old-looking paper called "Silent Hill News". Frowning, she began to leaf through it. "Here's an interesting article: Odd death at Stepford Day Care Center - Robert Woodhouse (age: 5) passed away last month at the town's day care center. According to witnesses, blood suddenly began to ooze from his entire body and a few seconds later, he died. While some witnesses claim that Alessa Gillespie (age: 5) killed Robert because he was victimizing her, it is naturally an impossible and utterly ridiculous thought that a child like her could be the culprit. Furthermore, Dr. Michael Kaufmann from the Alchemilla Hospital has announced that the cause of Robert's untimely demise was undoubtedly a rare disease known as congutriasis. The funeral will take place on the 7th of this month," Daryl read aloud.
"Congutriasis? I've never heard of that disease," Matt said.
"Well, it does say it's a rare one," Daryl said and dropped the paper on a nearby table. "So what do we do now?"
Matt shrugged. "Explore the rest of the hospital, I guess."
---
"Great, this one's locked, too," Daryl declared after trying the door to room C4. Matt marked the door on the map with a red marker he had found in the meeting room. "Now we've tried all the doors on this floor. So, should we go to the second floor?" he suggested. "Why not?" Daryl said.
They were walking across the 1F hallway to the elevator when the white noise of the radio returned. "Shit, not another monster, not now …"
Daryl stared at the radio in Matt's pocket. "What's that?"
"It's a portable radio," Matt explained.
"But why is it playing static all of a sudden? Is it broken?"
"I guess. It doesn't play any normal stations …"
"…ly dark. I'm scared, and … here, to …" The radio suddenly emitted Amanda's voice. "No, get a … ease, hur … our, I'm in room C4 … ocked, I thi … key's in the bag in the electrical room, in the basement … urry, Matt …"
Silence.
"Who was that?" Daryl said.
"I, uh … I don't know," Matt said.
"But how did she know your name?"
"Beats me."
"She sounded really afraid. Poor girl … It was kinda hard to hear, but I think she said she was in room C4," Daryl said and pointed to the door at the other side of the hallway. "Right there."
"But it's locked."
"She said there was a key in the electrical room …"
"Yeah, but how are we gonna get there? The eastern elevator is the only one that goes down to the basement, but it isn't working, and the stairwell door's locked."
"So let's try it on the other floors," Daryl said.
They stepped into the elevator and ascended to the second floor.
---
Unfortunately, it turned out that the stairwell doors were also locked on the second and third floors. They were now searching for the key on the third floor. Daryl was convinced the key had to be somewhere in the hospital.
"Lock's broken," she muttered after trying the door to room S10. Matt marked the doorway with a wavy red line on the map and they moved on to S11. "Lock's broken," she droned. Matt marked the door and they continued to S12.
Their boring routine was broken when they discovered that this door could actually be opened. They stepped into a cramped room with a gross bed, one window and an old-fashioned, black phone seated on a small table.
A man with grey hair and blue eyes sat on the bed, staring at the fog drifting around outside the window. He looked like he was about 60 years old and wore a blue patient uniform. When they entered the room, he rose from the bed.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Matt, and this is Daryl," Matt informed him and held out his hand in a futile attempt to shake hands with the stranger. The latter just stood there and refused to touch Matt's hand. "What's your name?" Daryl asked the patient.
"Why do you want to know that?" he replied. "You're not so-called psychiatrists, are you? They usually visit me one at a time."
"Er … no, we're not psychiatrists," Matt said. "We just want to find a key to the stairwell. We need to get down to the basement."
"What's in the basement?" the patient asked.
"Another key, actually."
"Keys, keys, keys … That's what it's always about for you sinners. Doors to be opened, progress to be made," the patient muttered. "I don't know where you can find your silly key. I only care about one key, and that is the one to Paradise."
"Yay, another religious weirdo," Matt thought and ran his eyes over the room. A small, crumpled photo on the table got his attention. The smiling face of a little girl with long blonde hair was on it. A word had been scribbled on the bottom right corner. Matt picked up the photo. "Who's this?" he asked and began to read aloud: "Clau…"
"DON'T TOUCH THAT, YOU FILTHY UNBELIEVER!" the patient yelled and snatched the photo from Matt's hand. He then placed it back on the table, pushed Daryl and Matt out of the room with surprising force and slammed the door shut.
"I guess we should leave that guy alone. It's not as if he'll tell us something useful," Daryl said after they had stood up. "Amen to that," Matt said as they began to walk down the hallway again.
In room S14 at the end of the hallway, they found an open, empty box lying on a bed. On the wall, someone had written a few strange words in blood:
NO IT ISNT HAPENNING! HE STOULE MY LOUISE MY SWEET LOUISE HE STOULE HER! I HATE HIM I HATE THEM ALL
"What the …" Matt mumbled.
""What the …" indeed," Daryl said. She then crouched down to look under the bed, picked up a little key that had been hidden down there and stood. "The tag says "stairwell" … I told ya we would find it sooner or later," she said, smiling.
---
Daryl unlocked the door and they stepped into a dark stairwell. There was a cinnamon-ish smell in the air and small cobwebs were seated at the corners of the ceiling, their architects gone.
They walked down the stairs into an underground hallway, brightly lit by fluorescent tubes. Following the map, they stepped into the small "electrical room" next to the stairwell.
It contained several computers, TV's with black screens and a generator. A black bag was lying on a desk. Matt tried opening it, but it was locked. Four small golden wheels with symbols engraved on them constituted the lock: an hourglass, a hand, an eye and a sun. He could turn the tiny wheels all he liked, but he didn't know the correct combination. "Dammit."
Daryl was searching the pockets of a white coat hanging on a hall stand in the corner of the room. Her right hand emerged from one of the pockets with a strange little book. The words "Halo of the Sun" were written on the cover. She started to flick through it. "It's like a hymn book … but there's something weird about all these prayers and hymns. They're not … well, they're not Christian."
Matt was busy trying all kinds of random combinations to open the suitcase, when Daryl discovered a hymn with a red circle drawn around it. The hymn didn't seem very different from the other ones. It had five verses:
The pain and suffering so great
Happiness they could not find
Only terror, sorrow and hate
Desire in every mind
Just two people, salvation nigh,
Gave you life, gave the world life,
Only a tear fell from your eye,
Holy blood from the priest's knife
They all suddenly stop their fight
As you from the darkness rise
And your hand brings the divine light
Brings the road to Paradise
Now the eternal moment ends
Come the morning of night and day
Time is created, not a fiend,
It does forever what you say
Never will we forget what was
Never forget when, never who
You, the sun, shining on us,
We will forever wait for you
"What a crappy hymn," Daryl mumbled. Then she got it. An eye in the second verse, a hand in the third one, time in the fourth and the sun in the fifth. Eye – hand – time – sun …
---
"How the hell did you know the combination for that bag?" Matt said. They were making their way up the stairs to the first floor.
"It's a long story," Daryl replied. There hadn't been anything useful or interesting in the bag, except for a little key which was now resting in her pocket.
"Don't we have time for long stories?"
"No, we don't have time. Remember that little girl?" Daryl reminded her companion as they ran down the hallway to room C4.
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A/N: "TINW" (tune in next week) … Jake Blackthorn's right – Amamet is just talking backwards. And Karry: SH4 isn't out yet, but Konami have released a few details about the plot and characters, and even some great samples from the official soundtrack. –E.P.O.