Chapter 12: Unreal
After a lengthy walk back up to the surface, Cybil and Adrian had managed to get back on the road where they both crashed. Both of them were battered beyond words, and it showed in both of their eyes. A police van was there to meet them with a rather muscular and imposing officer behind the wheel, shining a flashlight through the thick fog in an attempt to figure out what the two shadows coming towards him were. He smiled in relief to find it being some teenager and his superior Cybil Bennett approaching him, and quickly opened the doors to the van.
The two climbed in, Cybil in the front next to officer Atkins and Adrian quietly pulled himself into the back. He prayed the officer behind the wheel wouldn't ask him anything- he was too tired, sad, angry... every emotion he ever felt was coming out at that moment, tearing away at him.
Cybil looked in the rear view mirror to catch a glimpse of Adrian's teary, blood stained face. She frowned and looked over to Atkins before whispering something in his ear. Afterwards, she turned right back to Adrian. "You want us to save you the trip to the precinct and just take you home?" Adrian half smiled and nodded his head with the last ounce of strength he had left and melted into the surprising comfort of the seat he was slumped in. He was so out of it, so defeated, he almost didn't notice the police van turn and head back in the direction him and Cybil had came.
"Huh?" he stirred and looked around out of confusion. His eyes turned to gaze out the window next to him, and out of almost pure luck, he noticed only one thing through the fog- the rickety 'Welcome to Silent Hill' sign that the van soared past.
"What the hell are you doing? Take my ass home!"
And at that remark, Cybil turned around with a pair of cold eyes. Cold gray eyes. "This is your home."
"What the," Adrian said stunned, and a surge of primal fear rushed up his spine when he looked to his left to find a sickly pale corpse sitting next to him. His brother. And his jaw dropped when the corpse turned towards him right before his head started to move from side to side at practically a thousand miles an hour.
"GAH!"
Adrian shot up from the tabletop he fell asleep on. His eyes darted around frantically, and he exhaled when he realized where he was. The warm, secure precinct in Brahms. Adrian rubbed his forehead in pain and looked around in more comfortable manner, noticing he was alone in an office. He looked to his right side and through the glass windows and smiled at the sight of the numerous officers walking around just outside- Cybil and Atkins were two of them.
It was then that Adrian frowned slightly. He did want to go home, and was saddened that he'd be possibly be put through another few torturous hours of having to relive the horror he was forced to endure. All he wanted to do... all he could even think of doing at that for some reason, was call Maria. She had to have been worried, there was simply no way she couldn't have. That, and the fact that Adrian wanted to break the news about Cain himself before anyone else did, was making him suddenly wish he went home by himself.
"I know you're probably not feeling well enough to," Cybil said as she headed into her office and approached Adrian, extending a styrofoam cup to him, "but just try and drink this." Adrian nodded slightly and took a small sip of the coffee. He felt vulnerable sitting there, drenched in blood, sweat, and tears. It wasn't a feeling he enjoyed.
"This isn't going to take long, Adrian," she said assuringly, "I know you have to be feeling-"
"Don't..." Adrian cut her off coldly, yet in a surprisingly soft tone, "don't tell me how I'm feeling."
Cybil nodded and quickly apologized. "Yeah.. you're right, I'm sorry. I just want you to know though that I only need you here to answer a couple questions and you can go." Cybil then tilted her head in curiousity. "You don't have any way of getting back, do you?"
"Nope," Adrian shakily replied, "car got messed up earlier."
Cybil smiled warmly and nodded her head again. "That's alright, I'll give you a ride after this is finished, okay?" Adrian nodded his thanks in reply, but that dream... that nightmare he just had, was ringing clearly in his head. It was almost like the blaring sound of that radio, which he forgot he still had with him in his pocket. And quickly he reached into his pocket and smashed the square item on the floor, breaking it with one swift spike into the tiled ground.
Cybil eyed Adrian a bit oddly with her emerald green eyes before she shrugged and went on with the aforementioned questioning. "Okay. Starting out simple, who's closest to you and Cain? Anyone I can contact and report this to?"
Adrian thought about it for a moment. Maria was the only name that came to mind, but like before, he still wanted to be the one to comfort her first about the loss she would be going through, not some police officer she didn't know. Still, Adrian answered the question honestly. "Maria Constantine, her and Cain were engaged."
Cybil wrote the name down on a piece of paper before she looked back up at the person across from her. "And I can reach her at..."
Adrian winced. "I.. I'd like it if I got to tell Maria what happened before anyone else. I promised her to find her fiance, she'll be upset if I'm not the first one telling her what's happened."
Cybil stared blankly for a moment before she accepted what Adrian told her. "I understand. Anyway, next question, this guy who was in that storage room.. what did he look like? Got a name or anything to identify him with?"
Adrian shrugged as he tried to remember. Not much came back to him. He couldn't even remember catching one good glimpse of the man he was chasing. But he did have a name.
"Sam Nordiana," he said confidently as he took another sip of the coffee he was given. It tasted pretty good, not like the warm soda he forced himself to drink before. Cybil wrote the name down while Adrian poked at the styrofoam cup.
"And what does he look like?"
Adrian flinched at that question. "I couldn't.. get a good look at him. I can only tell you he's about my height, really."
"That's okay," Cybil replied calmly, "we got a name so it'll be a matter of time before we put a face to him." Adrian smiled on the inside. A faint glimmer of hope that justice would win was beginning to form- and to his knowledge it was the only good feeling he had all day.
"Just one more question and we'll be out of here."
Adrian smiled visibly for Cybil and voiced his approval. "Sure, what is it?"
"Well..." Cybil reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of piper, showing it to Adrian. And the happiness Adrian was feeling faded. His face went pale as he read the words on the crumpled letter that he discarded in Sam's store.
"I found this on the floor when I went inside to check on you. I don't need to get into the second part, but this anagram.. you know what he could mean?" Adrian knew what an anagram was. Taking a phrase and using the letters in that phrase to come up with something else. But what his name could have made, he had no idea. He never even tried it.
He took the paper from Cybil and looked at it, "I dunno," he shrugged as he sipped his coffee, "I honestly don't know."
Cybil seemed to debate something to herself before she slowly extended the black pen she was writing with, along with a clean sheet of paper. "Do you think you could just.." she trailed off. She felt guilty she was asking this question with what Adrian went through. And with that, she quickly pulled her hands back. "Sorry, nevermind." Adrian was upset at being asked to do such a thing as well, but he wasn't going to go and say anything about it. Cybil apologized anyway, so there wouldn't have been much of a point in debating it further. Besides, the words he wanted to hear were exactly what he heard next.
"Alright," Cybil said as she stood up out of her seat, "come on then, I'll take you home." Adrian stood up and followed Cybil out of the room, jamming the paper he had clutched in his hand into his pants pocket.
When Cybil stopped the police car outside of Adrian's house, it was about ten to midnight. The faint sound of a dog barking was all that sounded around them as Cybil reached into her pocket and pulled out a memo pad and pen. She jotted down a number, phone number to be exact, and handed the paper to Adrian. "If anything happens, just give me a call- day or night, rain or shine."
Adrian took the paper graciously. "I will, thanks." He climbed out of the car and turned to close the door when he noticed Cybil leaning towards the door to get his attention one more time.
"Tell Maria.." she paused for a moment, as if a bit uneasy by what she was going to say, "tell her I'm sorry. My job's to help people.. I can't honestly say that I helped much."
Adrian smiled. "It's okay. There's nothing else you could have done." Cybil looked down for a moment and nodded in agreement, although the sad look on her face was still there. Adrian sighed and pointed to his house. "Well, thanks.. for everything... I'm gonna go call Maria now.."
Cybil nodded and looked back out to the road. "Alright.." she said softly, "just, take care of yourself. I don't want that town to beat someone else, okay?"
"Yeah," Adrian replied, "yeah.. I will." Adrian leaned to the open door and grabbed it, but not before saying one last thing. "Goodbye, Cybil." He then closed the door, and made his way into his house.
He could hear the roar of the car driving off as he stepped into the front door, as his shaggy, white haired Pekingese ran downstairs to greet its master. It hopped up and down, making cute barking and panting noises with its tongue hanging out. Adrian couldn't help but laugh as he squatted down to pet the dog before taking the crumpled note out of his pocket and taking it with him upstairs.
Howler noisily followed Adrian into his room. He neatly made his bed which he decided he was too lazy to do when he first woke up that morning, before he sat down and looked at the note some more. His name was an anagram... anagram of what, though.. and how would someone else know that?
Sighing, Adrian grabbed a pen from his dresser and wrote his name under the note.
'Adrian Mason'
Underneath that, he slowly began to take letters and piecing them together randomly.
'Maid An Arson'
"Now that makes sense." He sighed and tried again.
'A Main Road'
He eyed that for a moment, before he realized an s and an n were still not in use. "Shit..." He shook his head and tried for a third time.
'A Roadman Sin'
"Yeah, that could work," Adrian said still puzzled, "but what the fuck does that mean?" He looked to start again. A Roadman Sin wasn't exactly a phrase that made much sense, but he'd have been willing to fall back on it if he could figure out nothing else. He wrote an S first. He the went to write the second letter when..
"What am I doing?" He sighed and forced himself to stop. He then turned around and eyed the phone near his bed. "I should be talking to Maria." He put down his pen, and it was then he noticed how dirty and bloody his hands were. "Or maybe a shower first," he said, "yeah, a shower would be nice."
He closed his eyes as the warm water washed away all the blood and dirt that he collected from the horrors of Silent Hill. Crimson found its way out of Adrian's blonde hair and down the drain. The slashes on his arm numbed, the hole in his leg was cleaned and soon the pain would disappear to the back of Adrian's mind. Whether the memories of Silent Hill would drain with the blood and tears, was unknown at that point.
"Maria?" Adrian asked as he spoke into the phone, stretched out along his bed in exhaustion. His ex girlfriend's stressed out voice replied almost instantly.
"Adrian! God, are you and Cain alright?"
Adrian's eyes snapped shut. This was it. "Yes... and no."
It stayed quiet for a long while after that. Maria was too busy fighting back tears to try and speak. But when she did, her attempt to sound alright did not go successful. "You promised you'd bring him back, Adrian." Adrian shook his head. If he was going to be scolded about this...
"I know.. I'm sorry.." he tried his best not to be upset at the rage that suddenly began to surge in his veins. Maria was yelling at Adrian as if he hadn't tried at all to save her fiance.. as if he wouldn't even save his own brother, even.
"Don't make promises you can't fucking keep," she cut in, "I told you that before, but apparently you don't listen!" Adrian's anger meter was about three quarters filled at this point. "As if I could let you get away with recording with all your friends while I'm left by myself to deal with work and college? It's not like I have anything better to do than wait around for you to come around and decide you wanna fuck!"
And if Adrian's exhaustion meter didn't weigh out the anger meter ten times over, he would have wasted no time in fighting back with her. Instead, he was simply too taken back with sorrow and fatigue, and Maria hung up the phone before he could change his mind. The only thing that was in his mind that moment, was that things were not over. He still had something to do in Silent Hill, and it consisted of one word- revenge.
