Chapter Nine: Different Destinations
Before Leah could tear her eyes away from the horrible abomination that now barreled towards, her legs began to back up. She felt a cry of complete horror slip free past her mouth as she struggled to run backwards. In her gut, she knew she would've done better to turn and flee, but Leah could not bring herself to look away from the monster for fear it would rush up behind her. The thing let out a horrible screech and shuddered, lifting it's head up and screaming in her direction. Leah screamed and then felt her legs connect with one of the small table seats. Before she knew it, she was on her back and scrambling to be upward once more. As she lowered her hands to push herself up, her palm fell flat against something cold and hard. She only gave her eyes a moment to recognize the gun that Jon had been carrying.
"Jon," she thought forlornly.
Shrrp. Shrrrp.
Leah looked up to see the creature scuttle quicker towards her, its legless body brushing against the grimy carpet as it struggled to move. "No time, no time!" her mind screamed and in a flash, Leah was on her feet, the gun aimed. The handle of the gun was hard and cold against the warmth clamminess of her palms. The monster reared its grated head upwards and Leah could see the contours of its mouth open in a flesh scream. Tiny strings of flesh, that caused the creature to struggle just to open its jaws, conjoined its lips. Leah raised the gun, locking her arms forward. "Don't know how to aim," she thought fearfully.
The thing then began to crawl at her with incredible speed. Leah screamed in terror and felt her finger click on the trigger time after time after time. Each click was followed by an obscenely loud burst of noise from the gun. Leah clenched her eyes shut momentarily, finding soon enough that the darkness that lurked there scared her as well. When she opened her eyes, she saw the creature shirk back from the entourage of bullets that ripped into areas of its exposed flesh. Her ears perked up as she heard one bullet bounce off the grate blocking its face.
"Click. Click."
The sound made no impact upon Leah. Her finger continued to squeeze the trigger, even as the creature ceased. The creature stood still and finally Leah stopped firing the non-existent bullets. For a moment, Leah could've sworn the creature was looking right back at her. It tilted its head as if mimicking a human gesture that one uses upon recognizing a familiar face. The gesture sent waves of disgust and fear across Leah's skin and with a final scream, she hurled the gun directly at the being. The gun clattered roughly against the things wire encased head and the creature shook, then began to writhe miserably. Leah watched, panting heavily, as the thing began it's twisted writhe back into the hole where the wire grating had been. It took a couple of minutes for Leah's heartbeat to return to a bearable speed. For those few minutes that had past, Leah kept on guard, staring at the black hole the creature had vanished against. She half expected it to come barreling forward once more now that she was vulnerable. After a long moment of nothing, Leah felt a long suppressed sigh escape her lungs. She felt her body double over in relief and she put a hand to her stomach for fear she may have thrown up. She clenched her eyes shut and let the experience wash over and upon her. Her chest heaved as she drew in large gulps of air to calm her nerves but her gasps soon turned to dry, torrid sobs. She straightened up and felt her rage release itself like steam from a hot surface. "Not…REAL," she grunted and lashed out, her foot kicking the defenseless table beside her. A scream of complete, raw helplessness freed itself from her throat and she brought her hands to the sides of her head. "This…can't be real…"
"It is."
"No! No, no, no!" she argued to herself and felt her hands drop, the gun still clutched within her palm. She looked down to it and felt a slight jolt of longing. "Jon…" she moaned. "Why do I miss him so much?" she asked sadly, lowering her self to sit upon a seat that was conjoined to the lunchroom table. She rested the empty weapon in her lap as though it was a small animal in need of care. Her eyes scanned over the gun's hard surface, taking in all the details.
"A memory of a dream," she muttered absently mindedly and found her mind drifting back. Small grainy fragments returned to her but it was as though she was reading a picture book that was foreign to her.
"JON!!"
Another piece; Jon held her securely in his arms. "I'll protect you."
"JON!", then some static. A scream violated the gentle silence and then there was firing that was frenzied and panicked. And then…
"I ran…" Leah whispered and remembered. "That hall," she remembered and vividly remembered the endless hallway that she had ran through. Tattered cloth wavered in an invisible wind against the black tunnel then turned to shapeless forms that only faintly resembled bodies. The bodies writhed and jerked in a passionate motion. More static fuzz pervaded Leah's ears. "That radio," she thought tiredly. "That…damn radio."
Another piece floated up from the dark waters of her mind.
"Little bitch!"
The little girl brutally fell against the brick siding of the cafeteria wall, scraping her arm as she did so. She clung to it as though it was her last line of defense. The child's brown eyes shined with large welts of tears as she faced three girls and a room full of staring eyes. One of the girls with short-cropped red hair stepped forward and slapped her roughly. "You piece of crap," she spat and Leah watched the girl flinch.
"Why don't you just go die, no one likes you –"
"She's too stupid. Don't bother," another girl said, tossing a milk carton at the girl and it exploded crudely on her pink, short sleeved shirt, drenching the girl in white liquid. Leah watched as the fragile dam holding back the girl's tears gave free. Leah glanced around and but all the other children stared like plastic mannequins frozen in place. The girls began to giggle as the girl attempted to wipe the milk from her shirt in vain. The girl, sobbing by now in little quiet gasps, didn't look at her attackers and her face was slightly red from the onrush of fresh tears.
Leah took a step forward and paused as a loud siren rang out. The girls scattered and all around her it was though a flock of birds took flight as the students stood up and emptied out of the vast room. The girl stared right at Leah with tear stained cheeks and then, like a serene painting morphing into the picture of hell itself, her face changed. Her teeth were bared in an animalistic fashion and the girl stood up, screaming soundlessly.
Leah stepped back expressionless and heard the sirens amplify. The girl moved in closer, small drops of milk splashing softly against the carpet. "I hate you!"
Leah stood still as the sirens became almost deafening but at the same time caused no pain to her ears. "I don't believe!"
"Is that…you speaking?" Leah asked the girl softly. She felt her voice speak the words but their sound never actually touched her ears. "GO AWAY!!" the girl screamed, her face pure red from the force of the words. The sirens filled Leah's skull and consumed it like water filling a glass. And then she collapsed only to awaken in a completely different state. She saw white ceiling and for a moment she was tempted to believe she'd died. She lifted her head as it had lifelessly lolled backwards. Leah took note that she was still sitting at the lunch table and shook her head slightly. A weak chuckle snuck past her mouth. "I guess I'm the only one, who would manage to fall asleep in the lunchroom from hell," she thought miserably then glanced around. Leah was momentarily taken aback.
All around her was the same lunchroom she had apparently fallen asleep in, but now it was restored, almost wholesome. Leah winced as the muscles in her neck screamed from its previous, unnatural, position. She brought herself to stand up and heard the empty gun patter to the carpet. She hurriedly grabbed it and looked around once more, feeling as though she had a horrible hangover. "None of this –" she began, looking up at the foggy windows. "None of this feels real but…" she trailed off and looked to the gun in her hand. Having it made her feel better somehow and it was a lot better than the stick, however many times "Henry" HAD bailed her out of bad situations. She sighed and tucked it into the waistline of her jeans, fearless that it would fire since it was unloaded.
She looked towards the double, large doors that were held open now, unlike before, and beyond it she could see the office. Apart of her naively hoped that Jon would be waiting out there. Apart of her needed to see his face but as her legs carried her out of the lunchroom she soon discovered she was alone as ever. The speck of hope inside of her died out as quickly as it had arrived and she cast her stare towards the office. It was the same as when she had first entered the school and now, a lot less foreboding after the abyss she'd just seen. The phone she had failed to replace on its receiver still hung, abandoned and still. She turned to look over her shoulder and saw no reason to return to any part of the school. She briefly considered still searching just to be safe, just in case Jon was within but her heart told her that he was truly gone.
A memory flashed of Jon screaming for her as his gun fell to the floor; it was brief.
"But where was I…?" she thought in response and looked to the doors, not completely sure what to feel. A few moments later Leah pushed the doors open and she was greeted with the same, heavy town air that had filled her lungs some time ago. She pursed her lips and looked around suddenly feeling more than lost.
"Do you always believe what your eyes see?"
Leah turned around and her mouth fell open halfway in surprise. "You –"
"Dan," the familiar, brown haired person corrected. Leah had to stop herself from rushing forward in greedy relief. "Dan, yeah…" she said softly and a small, very slight smile tugged at her lips but it quickly faded as questions stormed into her mind like a stampede. "Were you here when the school-"
"You never answered my question," Dan pointed out matter-of-factly and Leah paused for a moment, confused. "Do you always believe your eyes?" he asked, slightly annoyed at having to repeat him self. "What?" Leah asked, scrunching up her brows in confusion. Dan said nothing, awaiting her answer. Leah sighed and relaxed her features, nodding. "I…guess so."
"Guess?"
Leah looked into Dan's hazel eyes and nodded more confidently. "Yeah. You can't always trust your heart, so you have to trust the proof in front of your eyes, right?" she asked, feeling a little bit saddened. Dan looked taken back but the emotion was brief. "What do you think that means?"
Leah shook her head. "I don't know…to be honest, I'm not really sure why I say that. I wish I knew," she trailed off and silence passed between both people. "What about you?" Leah countered. "I need to know some things because not a lot makes sense to me and-" she hesitated. "I need to know something concrete. Something certain or I'm afraid I'm just going to lose it," she confessed. Dan stared into her but finally answered. "What about me?"
"Are you…" she struggled to find the right word, making a gesture with her hand. "Are you a, a … friend? Or are you in on this nightmare?"
"Like you said," Dan said, leaning to the side against a small railing that led up the school steps. "I'm not sure anymore. This place has that kind of effect on you, as I'm sure you're experiencing," he said and Leah swore she detected bitterness. "In any case, I guess I'll leave that up to you to decide."
"Great…thanks," Leah murmured to herself and her eyes looked away from Dan's. Dan straightened up and before Leah's very eyes he became dead serious. "The diary."
Leah looked back up at him, clueless momentarily. "The one you found in the school," Dan pressed and Leah remembered. She removed the backpack from her shoulders and pulled out the book she'd found with Dan. "Yeah…this. It only has one ent-"
"Doesn't matter what's in it now. There will be more there later. The pages fill up the more familiar it becomes."
Leah glanced at it then back up at Dan, suddenly looking at him as though she suspected he were hiding a knife. "How do you know that?"
"You'll need this too," Dan continued, ignoring her question. He stepped forward and Leah stepped back but Dan tossed something to her and Leah barely managed to catch it with her free hand. Before she could examine it Dan spoke again. "It's a map to the police station in this town."
Leah shook her head. "No."
"No?"
"I've had enough of this place. I know…that I was called here. I know there's something about me, my past maybe, in this town but I don't know…" she admitted, looking to the ground as though confessing a dirty secret. "Maybe…maybe I forgot this stuff for a reason."
Dan laughed, "That's all fine and dandy but I think you're searching for something still. Even if you somehow manage to get out of here, you'll still be searching for it."
"Jon…" she thought briefly.
"Go to the police station," Dan repeated and Leah's eyes fluttered down to the map.
"You need to trust your deceitful heart Leah," Dan said softly. That caught Leah's attention and she looked into his eyes once more. Dan moved past her and turned to look at her. "It's the only way you're going to get out of this town," he said, sounding a little sad. Leah watched him as he turned away and began to walk. She made no move to follow, but rather watched him until his form disappeared along the trees and into an ocean of fog that was just the sidewalk.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm so incredibly sorry this story was on hiatus for so long. I won't make excuses but I definitely plan on finishing this story. I have it laid out, I just need to put it into words now. Also, I did some artwork of Leah. Anyone who's interested can see it here: wwwdeviantartcom/view/6634959/ Obviously, add periods where needed ;)
Also, if things are confusing in this chapter and the last, I'm sorry. Something that may help you to figure events out is that a lot of the scene jumping is Leah's memories. When I referred to "pieces" in this chapter, you can assume she's recalling a memory. I promise things will make sense by the end ;)
Music Pieces:
Silent Hill 1 – My Heaven (Beginning/Fight with Grateface)
Silent Hill 2 – White Noiz (Leah Wakes Up in Normal School)
Silent Hill 4 – Fortunate Sleep (Dan and Leah Talk)