Chapter 12: Offerings
The first thing he noticed about room M6 was Amamet.
The angel was sitting at the back of the room with his sword once more piercing his head and no longer burning. He sat in the classic meditating Buddha position, legs folded up beneath the torso. However, his arms were raised above his shoulders, and the head was turned slightly upwards to look at the painting in front of it.
The painting was the second thing Matt noticed about the room. It was fairly large and had a gilded frame. The woman from the ceiling of the alternative art exhibition hall was back, floating in the middle of the canvas, still wearing that long scarlet gown.
As Amamet sat there and stared into the lady's eyes, his voices whispered something Matt could barely hear …
"… I emoc htiw ytiralc morf no hgih, gnivird feirg morf rieht sluos dna gof morf rieht seye …"
Was it some sort of prayer? Was that thing actually worshipping the lady in the painting? There were even two lit candles placed on either side of the picture.
Suddenly, Amamet seemed to notice Matt's presence somehow. In one quick, fluid movement, the creature stood, grabbed the sword and ripped it out from his head, swung it through the flame of a candle, turned around and rose into the air, pointing the soon fiery weapon down at Matt. Then, the angel flew across the room, through the doorway and down the hall outside. Fortunately, Matt had time to jump away before the sword pierced his throat. He could hear the Doctors and Nurses in the hallway screaming (in awe?) as Amamet tore past them.
With shaking hands, he closed the door before examining the room. There wasn't much to examine – only the candles and the painting. The caption at the bottom of the frame said "Lord of Serpents and Reeds". Where had he heard that before?
The pale hands of the God were 3D, literally sticking out of the painting. It looked like they were supposed to be holding something.
There was something almost hypnotizing about the image. He stared it for quite a while before he decided to go explore the rest of the hospital. It wasn't that the lady was very beautiful or sexy – there was just something so otherworldly about her …
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Back in the elevator, he pressed the "1" button. That weird voice had told him he should go to the day room on this floor, and although Matt wasn't sure whether there would be anything useful there now, he thought he might as well check it out before going to the third floor.
It turned out that a strange box was now seated on the table where he had found the snake. The box was surprisingly heavy and a colourful array of gems were stuck to its sides. It looked very out of place, here in this hellish building. He tried to take a look at its contents, but the box was locked.
There were nine buttons on the lid, arranged in a square. Above the square, there were three numbers: 01, 02 and 03, each number placed above its vertical row of buttons. To the left of the square, there was a vertical row of three other numbers: 1, 2 and 3, each placed to the left of its horizontal row of buttons.
Matt figured the numbers to the left of the square represented the questions he had been asked and the numbers above represented the multiple answers. Now all he had to do was press the correct three buttons, and the box would surely open so he could snatch his prizes …
What was the first question again?
"… what's the name of this coal mine? 1. Silent Hill Coal Mine – 2. Gallo Coal Mine – 3. Wiltse Coal Mine …"
He hesitated a little, then pressed the button in the upper left corner. A coal mine in Silent Hill would of course be called Silent Hill Coal Mine, right?
The next question … about the church in the residential area, what was its name? He produced the map from his pocket and soon found out that it was called the Balkan Church. "Easy," he mumbled and pressed the 02 button in the second horizontal row of answers.
And the last one, about the kid who had died at the day care center. "What was the name of the poor boy who had to suffer this awful fate? 1. Robert Woodhouse …" Of course, that's what the newspaper article had said, it was Robert Woodhouse. He pressed the 01 button in the lowest row.
Suddenly, the lid flew open, hitting Matt's hand, and something hot, red and fluid sprayed out from the box and covered his face …
Blood.
Matt stumbled back and quickly wiped it off as thoroughly as possible. "Well, that was a crappy prize," he thought aloud.
"Oh, but that wasn't the prize. This is your punishment for not answering correctly. You shouldn't have participated, when you don't know the answers. Silly human …" It was the voice from the elevator. The uproarious applause and cheerful cries of the audience were back, too.
The blood was no longer spraying out of the box. It was slowly trickling down the sides. The red streaks reached the table top and crawled across the wood, spreading out from the box in a perfect symmetrical pattern. They were soon sliding down the table legs and continuing across the floor.
"Silent Hill's coal mine isn't called Silent Hill Coal Mine. It's called Wiltse Coal Mine. But you didn't know this, so you won't get your prize …"
Something was very wrong in here. The blood streaks defied gravity by crawling up the pillars and walls and venturing across the ceiling at snail's pace. The normal white walls were transforming into a blurred crimson ocean.
"Join the audience, Matt. We all look forward to having you here amongst us for the next editions …"
A headache popped up in his head and he began to feel dizzy.
The blood was covering the entire room now. Everything was crimson, except him.
But now, tiny streaks crawled up his legs, soaking his pants, absorbing him, swallowing up his body. He felt very dizzy, tired. Invisible fists pounded the inside of his skull. "Get out, get out of here, out, now, get out of here now, now, now, get out …" His feet refused to obey his mind. He watched in horror as they merely stayed there on the floor, blood pulsating on the shoes.
Finally, the right one left the floor, sailed through the air and landed on the floor again, a little closer to the exit. The left one lingered for what felt like several minutes, then followed suit. His head throbbed, his feet moved slowly towards the double doors, the blood creeped up across his waist. It was getting harder and harder to walk.
"Oh, you're not leaving already, are you? We'll have so much fun together, me and you and the rest of the audience. You've certainly been a most amusing contestant, but now the game is over, I'm afraid." The host uttered a short mirthless laugh as Matt staggered towards the exit. So close to it now …
His hand reached the handle and he knew it would be locked, he just knew it, but the door swung out and he stumbled into the hallway. He slammed the door back behind him and ran down the dark hall, suddenly feeling less tired, the tons of invisible lead vanishing from his legs and the headache from his head.
When he was back in the elevator, he looked down at his body.
No blood.
He laughed somewhat madly. The noise of the quiz show was gone. He swivelled his neck and pressed the "3" button. The elevator ascended to the third floor and he stepped into yet another dark, deserted hallway, with more dead infants hanging just below the ceiling. Odd, muffled grinding noises appeared to be coming from all around him.
When he entered S9, the size of the room surprised him. Then he saw the other door and realized that S9 and S10 had been combined by removing the wall between them. Rusty grill made up the floor; he could see a Nurse armed with a scalpel strolling around in M5 below him. A white refrigerator was seated on one of the two clammy beds in this room, #S9/10. There were shotgun shells, revolver bullets, two health drinks and a strange reddish container on top of it.
Matt reloaded the revolver and placed the remaining eight revolver bullets in his backpack. He did the same with the shotgun, placing four remaining shells in his pockets. He drank one of the health drinks on the spot and saved the other bottle for later, tucking it into his backpack. Then he examined the small container-like object. It turned out to be an ampoule with some sort of wholesome liquid inside. That would surely come in handy later, so he placed it in his pocket.
Inside the fridge, he discovered nothing but a single ordinary reed and three butterflies. They flew out as soon as he had opened the fridge, three dark shapes fluttering around freely. Disregarding that, he left the reed in the fridge and exited the room to try the other doors in the hallway.
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They all proved to be shut tight; the locks were broken.
Except the double doors to the office wing at the eastern end of the hallway. They were locked, but could be opened if you knew what four buttons to press and in what order, from amongst the nine digit buttons next to the doors. Since Matt didn't know the code at the moment, he walked away down the hallway.
All of a sudden, he understood it. "Lord of Serpents and Reeds …" That was what the 3D hands of the God painting were supposed to be holding, of course. He ran to room S9/10 to get the reed. When he got back, the refrigerator was closed and someone, a woman, was crying.
The sound was coming from inside the fridge.
Was that thing big enough to contain a human being? Or was there something else inside? Clutching the shotgun, he walked up to the bed, gripped the handle and pulled. The body of a human immediately fell out, rolled down from the mattress and landed on the grating.
It was Sophie. There was a hole in the flesh on the front of her body, between the neck and breasts. Someone had shot her there? Blood was still seeping out from the bullet wound … Even though she looked rather dead, Matt still attempted to feel her pulse.
Dead.
He stood and looked down at her pale face. He didn't feel enough for her to cry, he didn't even know her, but how could he remember her name, then?
"Why can't I remember who you were? Where and when did we meet, and why? Who the hell are you?" Too many questions …
The reed was still lying inside the fridge. He snatched it, opened the door and left the room. The three butterflies followed him out and fluttered away through the hallway.
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After backtracking to room M6, he placed the reed in God's left hand and the serpent figurine in her right hand. The painting swung aside, revealing a doorway in the wall behind it. Matt stepped through it, into a dark passage which he followed downwards until he reached a dead end with a typewritten memo on the wall. It was a fairy tale, probably about the code for the 3F doors to the office wing:
Once upon a time, there were four dragons guarding a beautiful princess in a dark cave in the middle of a mountain. The poor princess could not escape from the cave. She felt very sad and lonely.
When the brave and kind prince heard about the princess trapped in the cave inside the mountain, he left his castle and ventured out to save her, but the scaly fire-breathing dragons in the mountain wouldn't let the princess get away. The first dragon had four heads. The second dragon had one head less than the first one. The third dragon had twice as many heads as the first one. The fourth dragon had two heads more than the second one. They were very formidable and horrifying, but the brave prince cut off all their heads with his magic sword.
Then he and the princess made their way out of the cave and escaped from the mountain. Back at the castle, they got married and everyone lived happily ever after.
"Crappy story," he muttered and took the memo with him back to the locked doors on the third floor.
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"The first dragon had four heads." He pressed 4 … "The second dragon had one head less than the first one." … then 3 … "The third dragon had twice as many heads as the first one." … then 8 … "The fourth dragon had two heads more than the second one." … and lastly, 5.
Unlocked.
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