Chapter Eight: Losing Time
Footsteps clamored down the empty hall. Leah's mind raced and she struggled to pull up the memory, like one searching furiously through a jumbled file drawer. Before her was a seemingly endless hall with no light up ahead. Strips of bloodied cloth danced in the invisible wind as she ran, and the walls flew past her like a highway from a car window. She kept glancing back over her shoulder, her matted curls brushing against her face. "No can't look! Can't, can't, can't! Keep running!"
"Jon!!?" she called out in desperation. Where had he gone? What had happened? "What? What…what…WHAT?!! FUCK! Remember! Remember! Think!" her mind screamed.
Like cuts from an old black and white movie, images pervaded her mind. Jon held her close, his arms encircling her from behind and the look of bliss upon his face was something one would've never thought imaginable.
"Jon…"
Another memory came to her, one of him on top of her, kissing sensuously down her neck, taking his time and breathing her in.
"Jon…" Leah stopped in her tracks and put the palms of her hand against her temples, her mouth open and eyes shut in silent agony. Tears streamed down her face and she slowly shifted her hands so that they moved forward across her eyes. "Ohhh God…Jon. What …what did I…?"
Leah whimpered and felt her legs melt away from beneath her. She slumped down amidst the darkness, feeling more lost than ever. Another flashback occurred, this time she and Jon were yelling at each other. She was crying and seemingly pleading while he just looked pained, yet angry. "So angry," she whispered. "What happened…?"
A face. Tears. A mouth, open and screaming silent accusations.
A hand flying against the air. A strand of hair. Someone turned away. Leah moaned and felt her body quake. "If only you could have. If only-"
"You forgot about me."
Leah looked up, her hands slowly lowering from her face and her red, tear soaked eyes looked at the space out in front of her. She then screamed and fell back, scrambling back on her hands and feet. In front of her was the little boy she had seen before, though now he was very changed. Hideous hands reached up from within the floor, tearing away strips of flesh as though they were nothing more than stringy molding clay. He tilted his head and frowned a mangled frown. "Why…?"
Leah opened her mouth to speak but only air passed from it. There was the sound of chain scraping and Leah then slowly closed her mouth and her eyes went wide in horror and the feeling of pure fear engulfed her.
Behind the boy, silhouetted, stood the small girl with her stare as accusing as ever. Behind her a figure approached. Leah watched as the arms pulled down the boy, giving way like a human stage curtain to the horrific monstrosity behind it. The approaching figure was a looming mass that had to have easily topped six feet. Its head was like a human head, all flesh and no distinguishing facial features except for a mouth that appeared to have been severed open crudely with some sharp instrument. Its mouth was a gaping black abyss within itself, but no smile wrought its way upon its lips. It stared, eyeless, at Leah and Leah then put a hand to her mouth in silent realization; it was the statue she'd seen before, minus one body. From its lower chest crudely protruded a human body, stopping at the waist. The human appeared to be covered by a thick, dark, membrane and it screamed horrible, long drawn out moans of despair. It's arms flailed about the figure and Leah then realized it was chained. Heavy, burdensome chains dug at the flesh around the wrists and the chains connected to a cruel, iron collar around it's neck, tight and making it impossible for the being to move its arms too much further. The being appeared still for a moment, breathing heavily so that the membrane around it's mouth puffed in and out slightly. Then with a sudden and agonized moan it lunged as far forward for Leah as it could in a pitiful attempt to escape it's monster body prison. The thing itself stared eyeless at Leah and raised one hand. Its fingers were human like but its thumb and pointer finger was melded together by darkened flesh. It raised a single hand and pointed. Leah shook her head furiously then her voice decided to work. "No…no…"
She felt her legs rise and she stumbled back only to be greeted with a wall that had not been there moments ago. Leah felt her body jump spasmodically and she then looked forward, faced now to stare at her captor. The little girl didn't move, un-phased by the monster and perhaps it was her stare that made Leah's thoughts turn hateful and angry.
Another flashback more painful than the last stabbed into Leah's brain. Leah screamed and dug her fingers through her hair so they pressed against the sides of her skull.
"Leah…?"
She turned and gave Jon a look before they entered the tall doors to the lunchroom. "I love you, you know that right?"
Leah felt her heart clench. How long had she known Jon? An hour if best? "No, much longer. 8 years…"
"Eight years," she whispered and felt her eyes search the floor for some sort of reasoning. Then, unexpectedly Jon approached her and put his arms carefully around her as though she were a precious china doll. "I know you can't remember me."
"Jon –"
"Leah, give me say…just for this moment," he whispered painfully and Leah stared at the wall behind him, just resting her own body against his embrace though not returning it. "I don't want to lose you again."
Her eyes drifted over to him, only seeing his neck and the darker blonde hair that occupied it. "Jon, I…won't leave," she whispered. "Liar…"
"Leah, no matter what happens I love you. I'll protect you."
Leah just nodded numbly, suddenly feeling as though she was floating through a dream. "What's real anymore? I don't know. Is this place real? Is Jon real? I can feel him, I can touch him and I can hear him, but does that all make something, someone, real?""
"I don't know anymore," she whispered softly, brokenly, and buried her face against his shoulder, smelling his soft familiar scent that she just knew was him. She felt Jon hold her close and the pair stood that way for a moment before finally Leah pulled away. "Jon, we have to keep moving," she said confidently though she felt anything but. "I don't know why I feel this way, but if we stay here…" she trailed off. Jon gave her a nod of his head and put a hand against her face. "I know."
Leah nodded a bit and looked into his eyes. She saw nothing but adoration there but within herself Leah felt nothing but guilt. "Why?" she questioned mentally. The mere touch of his hand was so comforting and yet so nerve jolting. Leah looked down and laughed nervously. "Say anything," her mind screamed. "Look, let's just keep moving. Whatever's behind that door can't be as bad as that monster playing ceiling surprise, right?"
Jon gave her a little smile and Leah took that as a cue. She removed the key she had retrieved from the pyramid display into the classroom and fit it into the keyhole like a hand into a glove. Her hand trembled a little and Leah looked forward, struggling to see anything that lurked behind the big doors through the narrow strip of glass. There was nothing, or at least nothing that could be seen. Leah then unlocked the door with a soft, "click." She didn't look back at Jon as she pushed the doors open.
Leah screamed and screamed. She pressed her hands against her skull until she was positive she could crush her own head in and be done with it all. "STOP IT!!!!!"
Her voice echoed along the room and the echo brought Leah to stop screaming. She stood there, breathing heavily until finally, somewhere in her soul, she found the courage to open her eyes. She was in a lunchroom.
The lunchroom was empty much as the rest of the school had been. Long tables with little circular seats were lain out diagonally across the room. All of the tables looked old and rotted with age and forgot. Much further across the room, past the tables, was a shutter that was composed of wire, metal fencing. It was pulled down over the window where Leah assumed that children would've gone to get their lunch had this place ever actually been a real school.
Nowhere to be seen was the little girl and the hideous human/monster being and Leah felt herself mentally thankful for that. It then occurred to her that Jon was nowhere to be seen either. "Jon?!" she called out, getting the distinct feeling that there would be no answer. "Where did he go…?" she whispered softly and put a hand against her chest to calm her fifty-mile per hour heart beat. She slowly walked through the aisle between two tables, approaching the meshed off window. She made an observation that there appeared to be two halls leading out of the lunchroom but both were blocked off by an odd looking wall.
There was a soft "shh, shh" that made Leah freeze in her steps. Her eyes darted around but her body dared not move. Her ears perked up and she strained to hear anything else but there was nothing but calm silence. Leah felt her stomach clench and only then did she realize she was missing Henry, the stick. Her panic shot up about twenty levels and Leah swallowed hard to keep tears from erupting from her eyes. "Shh shh…"
Her ears caught the noise the second time and this time Leah was able to detect where it had come from. Her eyes followed her ears and rested upon the wire fencing over the window. Leah stood still and watched, like a child watching their closet for fear the closet monster would come forth. Silence ensued and Leah's nerves decided she'd had enough. Leah turned to leave. "Nothing is worth knowing what the hell made that noise," she thought honestly.
As her foot took one step, the noise came once more only this time it was accompanied by a loud bang that nearly made Leah's heart stop. She turned around to see a panel of the wire had fallen. She stared at it and then where it had been. Behind the window was nothing but a lunch area where the lunches were prepared. She kept her ground and still, now more determined than before to leave the lunchroom. It was then that a horrible groan tore through the room and the static of the radio blurred alive into Leah's ears. She jumped, having almost forgotten the radio entirely.
Leah searched for the direction from which the groan had come but it seemed to come from everywhere at once. Her eyes then caught sight of the fallen piece of fencing as it began to tremble slightly. Then suddenly something ripped forth from the floor beneath it. A human like figure, if one could call it that, shot upward, fighting against the fencing, which had now become thicker and apparently heavier. Leah watched in horror, clasping her hands over her mouth as a face formed on the being and continued to press forward against the fence.
Terrible visions of the creature's face being turned to gore from the force of the fence played with Leah's thoughts and Leah found that she couldn't move. The figure's groan turned into a sort of squeal as the grate-like fence actually began to mold around the figure's face. The corners slowly grew downward, digging within the flesh of the being's shoulders until the
humanish creature had become one with the grating. It's arms then pulled forward, free of the floor and it fell forward. Leah jumped back but as she did the thing clawed furiously at the floor in an attempt to pull itself free of the floor. It succeeded and Leah then came to notice that it had no legs. It ended in a sort of mass of flesh combined to the end of a spine. It's whole body seemed to writhe like a snake's and it's arms then became a flurry of grabbing motions at it made it's way towards her.
A/N: Thanks yet again to everyone who reviewed: Reverse-will, Rodarian and as always, Wrath. Glad you guys are still following this. For some reason that I cannot name I'm profoundly pleased with the chapter, yet I apologize if it's confusing. I know it leaves more than a few questions but I will let you know that being you saw with the little girl? That was indeed Agramon. That being will become much, much more significant to the story as it progresses. Also, I've fixed the link to the picture so be sure and take a look. Also, one last thing (then I'll shut up), but I noticed a lot of people like to listen to SH music as they write. I do as well so I will so I'll post the pieces of music that inspired each chapter at the end (so if you want some "atmosphere" while you read, just play these tracks and they'll give you just that.) Take care!
Music Pieces:
Silent Hill 2 – Red Pyramids (Beginning/Appearance of Agramon)
Silent Hill 1 – Not Tomorrow 1 (Flashback of Jon and Leah)
Silent Hill 1 – Half Day (Appearance of Grateface monster)