Chapter 11: Torment
"So who's this guy locked in the store?" Cybil asked as her and Adrian walked through the town. The town had seemingly returned to normal; the night was gone, the mesh grating that was once the street, the town could almost pass for a regular looking one if it weren't for the thick fog. He had been so busy thinking about his past with the Mason family to notice however, and he would completely ignore Cybil's harmless question in the process.
"My uncle Harry wasn't very liked by the rest of the family.. everyone mentioned how sad they were when him and his daughter had gone missing, and yet when he got back without her and instead a newborn baby in his hands, everyone despised him... I think I could go as far as to say they feared him." Adrian chuckled softly to himself and pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes. "I can remember everyone at my elementary school used to make fun of me, too. People were like, 'oh hey Adrian you're cool it's just too bad your uncle's a psycho, y'know'.." Adrian stopped walking for a moment and looked down at his feet, a guilty look slowly forming on his face. "But all that he said... everything that he said was true.... and nobody wanted to believe him. I'm not even sure I did, either."
"This all just came back to you?" Cybil asked with a cocked eyebrow.
Adrian shrugged and flashed a half smile. "Well, take comfort in knowing that I'm sure as hell not making it up. I'm telling you everything as my mind gets it back. Sad that a little while I didn't know any of this and now I can remember the smallest details of my life in that house with my brother and my parents. Can remember Harry calling every other day asking my mom if I was alright.. her and my dad got into a fight and she threatened to leave cause her husband apparently left out the fact that his brother was a loon when they were dating."
Adrian chuckled at that memory, before Cybil rubbed her forehead and asked another question. "Whose side of the family were you born on?"
Adrian shrugged. "I... I was adopted."
"Oh..." Cybil frowned. "Sorry."
Adrian nodded in acknowledgment. It was then that he remembered that before he got onto rambling that Cybil asked him a question. "I'm sorry, did you ask me something earlier?"
"Oh," Cybil said with an exasperated sigh, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand to dry it of the forming sweat of the long walk they were both sharing, "about that guy you said is locked in the store. Who is it?" Adrian didn't answer- instead, he stepped outside the front door of the corner store and turned to Cybil, dangling the bronze key in front of her.
"About to find out."
"I'll stay here," Cybil said, "just in case something or someone shows up. I've been warning the people on my shifts about this place, so someone might come down here."
Adrian nodded in agreement as he opened the front door. "Gotcha. We won't be long anyways." As soon as he finished that sentence, the door swung closed behind him and he disappeared.
"Dude?" Adrian called, cautiously walking towards the storage room door, "I got your key."
The man on the other side audibly sighed with a sense of great relief before he replied. "Thank you so much. To show my thanks, I have something here for you that I wrote. Might help you find the answers you're seeking." Adrian smiled inside. Finally, the thing he had been looking for. But his joy would soon be short lived.
"Oh," the man said as if recalling something, "do me a favor, there's a small white box behind the counter, could you get it for me and leave it by the door and slide the key under to me?"
Adrian's eyes bugged for a second before he quietly gave in to the request. "Yeah... sure." He walked behind the counter and dropped to his knees, quickly spotting the white box and lifting it up onto the counter. The box was the size of a small cube, but whatever was in it was heavy and threatening to break the box apart- the sides and the top of it had jutted out slightly, the bottom keeping it from sitting properly on the counter, being pushed from the contents inside. On the top there was a small post-it note. Adrian squinted his eyes and tried to read the erratic writing of red pen on yellow paper.
'Found it hard to find this time. The people maintaining the Indian Runner can't get a shipment of this, so until they do, this will be the last we can sell. If this doesn't work, we'll have to postpone the surgery for another few months.' - Caleb
Adrian tilted his head and stepped back for a moment before he picked up the box, only to realize its contents were ever so slowly leaking out of the bottom, a small pile of it on the counter where it once rested. "Drugs... fucking drugs." Adrian mumbled. White powder continued to slowly leak out, and Adrian quickly brought it over to the door, setting it down and sliding the key under the door, and as he was looking down he was surprised to find a piece of paper on the floor for him, on it were red letters scrawled haphazardly on the paper, almost with the same consistency as blood.
Adrian quickly picked the paper up and walked away while the man's voice called back to him, "Thanks again." Adrian nodded and waved his hand as if the man could see as his eyes scanned the paper in midstride.
'YOur naMe Is an aNAgraM- aND yoUr BrotHer iS DEAD.'
In the shock of what the letter said, he failed to notice the storage room door slowly open and close before it was too late. The door slammed shut just as Adrian turned around in a bolt- his right fist clenched his steel pipe as his left crumpled up the frail paper and chucked it to the ground.
"What the fuck does that mean," Adrian growled, "my brother's dead? How the hell would you know that?" He banged on the door, but got no response. "Are you listening to me!? Come the fuck out so I can beat the living shit out of your sorry ass!" Again, no response. Adrian turned the doorknob, not expecting it to budge, but to his pleasant shock the door creaked open and Adrian stepped inside.
It was as plain as a storage room could be. Foods, soda cans, the works, but no man. Instead, Adrian only saw an open manhole cover in the center of the room. And there, Adrian was hit with it again. That sheer sense of frustration and helplessness that had the indecency to toy with his emotions throughout his torturous tenure in Silent Hill. And another sick, cruel joke quickly entered his mind.
'Those drugs... he could have got them himself if he could get out through that sewer. He was fucking with me... that whole time he was fucking with me.'
He didn't like the idea but it was the only one he came up with. He had been played for a fool all along. The horrors of the town and the people residing in it got another one up on the poor ill-fated Adrian Mason.
He peered down into the manhole where the man presumably went. The smell of decay and death hit Adrian hard as he dropped on all fours and shined his flashlight down into the sewer. A small stream flowed past, which was the only sound that was eminating from there. Silence filled Adrian's ears- afterall this wasn't a horror movie, and there wouldn't be a quick blast of music there to warn him if anything was behind him.
And at this thought he turned around out of reflex, half glad to see nothing behind him. The other half, meanwhile, was somewhat wishing Cybil was there to back him up. She was still waiting outside for him, keeping a watchful eye on the open street around her. Adrian stood up and looked back at the now open storage room door, looking to go back and get Cybil, but if he wanted his brother back he would have to remember what that note said, and try to figure out if it was a bluff- something to keep him out of the sewers, or was it the truth.. that his brother could not be helped and he'd have no choice but to backtrack.
He only glanced at the thought before he made up his mind, though- someone as brash as him didn't need time on their side to make up a choice decision.
'My brother's down there... and if he's dead.. I'll just make sure whoever killed him isn't following him too far behind.'
And with that, he quickly climbed down the rusted steel ladder and made his way into the sewers. The murky, pale greenish brown water was only ankle deep, but that meant quick discomfort as Adrian's large platform boots could still only provide all of three seconds of dry feet before they were taken up by the dirty water surrounding them. Adrian cringed at the cold, wet water seeping through his sneakers, but quickly snapped out of his feelings of light torture. He was sure his brother would quickly trade off the pain he was probably feeling for some water in his shoes.
He trudged through the water with haste and found the sewer to branch off into two paths, left and right. He glanced left, and just saw another twisting path heading off there. He then turned to his right, and smiled at the door not too far out of his reach at the end of the hall, only about ten paces. He ran for it.
"Cain?!" Adrian yelled as he banged on the door. The doorknob wouldn't budge because of how rusted it was, but Adrian forced it open with a slam of his shoulder into the center of the door. Empty. "Dammit!" He turned around and headed down to the left side, not much more of a choice. But as he crossed the intersection, a hulking figure approached him, a glimmering knife clenched in its right hand.
'Pyramid Head...'
He stumbled off in the direction he was headed and looked around frantically. There was a door on his left, which he promptly slammed in. "Cain?! Hello? HELLO!?" His eyes darted around the room, but there was no signs of life. He headed farther down the path and turned left, and found a sole door at the end of the hall, and nothing else. He ran up to it, the monster behind him in no immediate hurry as it slowly stalked the human with each eerie noise its feet made in the water. Adrian got to the door and had no luck turning the doorknob. "Shit!" He tried slamming into the door with his shoulder like the previous two rooms, but it was no go, as Pyramid Head slowly turned the corner... and stopped.
Adrian turned and stared at the monster, which simply did nothing but stare back. It slowly tilted its head at Adrian, and Adrian flashed a smile, before going right back to the door, just as Pyramid Head would go back to walking after its prey. He slammed his steel pipe into the doorknob, denting it. He slammed his pipe into it a second time. And a third. And a fourth. And on the fifth occasion the doorknob was cleanly ripped off. But in the time it took to do this, Pyramid Head closed in on over half the distance between the two of them. Adrian could feel the ripples in the water that the Pyramid Head's footsteps were making as he kicked ruthlessly at the door, water splashing up around him each time he picked up his foot. He glanced over his shoulder as he continued to kick, only to take a look at the monster only feet away from him as it wound up for a swing.
'No... no, not here...'
BAM, the door, gave in, the hinges finally unable to take any more punishment, and the door flew forward, as did Adrian who practically dove into the room, causing Pyramid Head to stop its wind up and stare at the door for a long moment before it lunged its huge knife through the door which was surprisingly still standing, impaling it with one clean thrust forward. Adrian turned around and looked at the knife that easily penetrated the steel door, and noticed that the only thing keeping Pyramid Head from going after him again was the fact that it was busy trying to push the door off of its blade. This was more than enough of an incentive to get Adrian running again, but after about two paces, he stopped. The room he was in was covered in dried blood, but that was the last thing Adrian noticed. In the room was also an open doorway... and a silhouette, about the same size as Adrian, looking back at him. And then...
"Shit..." he hit his flashlight a couple times, but it was no use. Nothing but darkness was around him now- the only light from the room through the doorway the figure was standing in the middle of. Adrian could still see it, not any of its features, but he knew enough that whatever it was had to be human. But before he could take another guess as to who it was, the figure ran off to its left, out of sight. And at that moment, only one thought flashed in Adrian Mason's mind.
'That fucker in the storage room..'
And he immediately charged after him, fear of Pyramid Head quickly substituted with rage for the person he was chasing. Pyramid Head was easily left in the dust as it finally pushed the door off its knife and looked longingly into the doorway Adrian darted into.
The man Adrian was after wasn't fast enough to beat him, but the fact that he seemed to know the sewers and every single turn they made would keep him from being caught. He slipped in and out of rooms so quickly Adrian almost wondered if he was simply be toyed with again. But no matter what, he was going to keep up with this man if it killed him. He'd have to. Room after room, Adrian was still on him, refusing to give in, even as the thoughts began to filter into his mind.
'Samsamsamsamsamsamsamsamsamsamsamsam.....'
Adrian didn't let it affect him at first; he couldn't let it, he wouldn't. But slowly, his head was beginning to hurt. His running motion turned into a jog, and then a stumble. This guy was going to get away. Sam... was going to get away. "No..." he fought against the thought of it, but the pain was too much. 'Sam' seemed to sense this and he stopped in the doorway to the next room and turned around. Adrian looked up at him helplessly, his breathing heavy and ragged. He could almost sense the man feeling pity for him as he turned back around and walked into the next room, closing the door behind him. Adrian was stunned for a moment, almost on the brink of just sprawling out on the floor right then and there... but he couldn't do that. "You're not getting away..." he said as he forced himself up. He held his now beyond cramped stomach with one hand and clenched his steel pipe tight with the other as he approached the door and turned the doorknob with little effort.
The door slowly opened, and the first thing he saw was an examination table in the middle of the room. An examination table with a body on it, illuminated by the dim lightbulb that swayed back and forth. Adrian's jaw dropped in a dumbfounded expression as he took one step forward in doe-eyed amazement, and immediately slipped and fell to the ground.
"Agh!" His eyes snapped shut as his flashlight came back on at this moment. When his eyes could take the light that flashed in his face, he adjusted it so it instead lit up the rest of the room, and it was then he realized what he slipped in.
"No way..." he said as he stood back up, looking at his hands which were now covered in blood. He dropped his steel pipe as he stepped forward, and looked at the body on the table. "NO.. FUCKING.... WAY!" He ran to his brother's side, and peered over him, looking into his lifeless blue eyes that were partially covered by his messy brown hair. "NO!" He screamed, so loud that Cybil could have probably heard him. He put both hands over his brother's heart and began to push down, trying miserably to bring Cain back to life- it wouldn't happen. "Come on, you fucker, breathe!" Cain was beyond saved- Adrian didn't notice it, but the wound was in the back of Cain's head, a wound the size of a fist. Not to mention the numerous bruises and gashes all over his face, the knife wound in his stomach, and the slashes on his wrists and ankles, there was nothing to be done. This, however, didn't keep Adrian from quitting. "Come on... you're not dead, you can't be... Now come on and fucking breathe!" The tears were inevitable- he leaned over his brother and cried into his chest, covering his head with his arms.
"Why?!" He asked in betweem sobs. "Why did you kill my brother?" He asked to no one at all. At least no 'Sam' was around to listen. The room was empty besides him. "He didn't do anything wrong... he didn't fucking hurt anybody!" He repeatedly slammed his fist into the bloodied examination table, refusing to believe that he fought all this time just to come to this. This just couldn't be real. This had to be a really bad Punk'd or something, it was all he could think of it being. Nothing like this was real... not even a kid could believe in this.
He remained there for so long Adrian lost all sense of time. In truth, he was there no longer than a half hour, but it felt like days to him. He just leaned over Cain's body, holding one of his cold hands and refusing to let go. It wasn't until a soft, soothing voice was there to console him. And the voice knew what was wrong the moment the person behind that voice saw Adrian clinging to a dead body.
"God..." Cybil said quietly as she slowly walked over to Adrian and looked down at his brother's face.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, "I am so.. so sorry.." She dared say nothing more than that. She simply waited for Adrian to say something.. anything.
And with tears in his eyes, he turned away from the horrific sight and turned somewhat towards Cybil, although not all the way. "Why?"
Cybil frowned, a look of pure sympathy etched in her face. If Adrian turned anymore, he probably would have noticed the tear that rolled down her cheek as well, which she quickly wiped away with the back of her right hand, before whispering, "I'll wait outside..." and doing just that.
And before Adrian left his brother's side, he kissed him on his bloodied forehead, leaned to an ear, and whispered, "I love you, brother.. I love you so fucking much..." and reluctantly released the grip he had on his hand before he backed himself up to the exit to meet with Cybil, who was immediately there to hug him.
"Everything will be great for you," Cybil said softly, "I promise one day.. everything is going to be just fine for you."
Adrian sniffled hard and rubbed feverishly at his eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep..."
