Chapter 17: Pulse
Fortunately for Cybil and Adrian, it hadn't taken long before they found shelter. A nearby motel called the Haerbey Inn, in Silent Hill's resort area. The outside of the place looked as if it hadn't seen guests in years- everything was rather old and out of shape. Not that it wasn't still a fitting place to stay, however, as the rooms still had running water and were comfortably furnished. And considering they were the only two sane people in a town full of monsters, staying in a place that gave off some kind of comfort surely was welcome with open arms.
"So," Cybil questioned shyly, "got any ideas?" Adrian didn't answer, he was too busy standing over the bathroom sink. His time of being free from pain didn't last long afterall. "Do you need to go to a hospital or something?" Cybil headed over to see if Adrian was okay, but Adrian quickly slammed the once open bathroom door in response. He thought it obvious that he wasn't in a talkative mood with the pain coursing throughout his body, but it apparently wasn't that clear to Cybil.
He shook his head as he leaned forward, both hands firmly planted on the sides of the sink. He remained there for a long while, almost as if he were afraid the pain would only increase if he moved around. But after about five minutes of frustration just doing nothing when he was dead set on extracting revenge- something came to his mind. "What did you say?"
Cybil had groaned as a slight bit of frustration bothered her also when Adrian slammed that door in her face. And she felt a bit more annoyed when it took him so long to answer her, and answer her with a question of his own no less. "What did I say?" She reiterated. "I asked if you were okay."
"No," Adrian grumbled in reply, "after that."
"Do you need to go to a hospital?"
Yep, that hit home. Adrian thought about it for a brief moment however, to make sure his suspicions were reasonable enough. A couple of weeks before his initial drive into Silent Hill, he had went to the hospital for what was to get a shot he was long overdue for- tetanus shot, flu shot, he couldn't remember exactly what. But after he left this hospital, that was when the stomach aches began. He was fairly sure he had no scar on his stomach before that, and even more confident that the pain wasn't before that. And if the hospital was in Silent Hill all along, it would have been a big piece of the puzzle solved. If only he remembered the name.
'Come on... A.. started with an A... Allenheim? Alchemite? Alchemilla...'
Cybil's ears picked up the small sound of the bathroom doorknob beginning to turn. The door creaked open, and Adrian poked his head out. "Is there a hospital in Silent Hill called Alchemilla?" He asked this with the sound in his voice that he was going to have Cybil wondering where in the hell he got the name Alchemilla from. Which made him all the more surprised to find Cybil pause and actually give the question some thought.
Cybil knew for a fact that the name sounded familiar, but was it from Silent Hill? It didn't take long for her to make sure. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's in the central area... why?"
"I think that's where we want to go." The door opened completely, and Adrian stepped out into the main room. "Mind driving me?"
It took around a half hour, but they eventually found the place. It was shrouded in fog so much that it was amazing they spotted the sign on the front gate. Adrian turned to Cybil and frowned as she fiddled with the knob to her radio, but to no avail- the only thing amounting from that was the crackle of static. "Figures.. I can't radio in to Brahms, not even to South Ashfield, either.. we're on our own with this."
'As if there was no doubt to that,' Adrian thought.
"You have to be sure with me, Adrian," Cybil continued in as serious a voice she could muster, "you have to be sure that you're not going to have one of those problems with your stomach again. I need you to-"
"I'm fine," Adrian cut her off, "the less we worry about it, the better off I'll be. Trust me."
Cybil nodded in recognition. "I understand."
Adrian climbed out of the car. Cybil had begun to climb out as well, but sat back in her seat and fiddled with the key in the ignition.
"What are you doing?" Adrian mumbled out of impatience as he glanced back over his shoulder at Cybil, and she gave a speedy reply.
"I'm not taking any chances with this car. If we run into trouble in there, I'm going to keep the car running." The only problem was, however, surprise surprise- the car refused to start.
"Fu-" Cybil refrained from cursing- it didn't make much of a difference, though, because Adrian would blurt it out for her.
"Fuck!"
Cybil glanced at Adrian and narrowed her eyes. Adrian gazed back at her. "What? You expect me to be reciting poems?" He pulled out his Walther and held it tightly in his left hand. "Let's get this over with, if that's okay."
Cybil gritted her teeth in defeat before getting out, closing the driver door behind her. Both of them slowly, cautiously made their way to the large, and very imposing steel gates. Adrian pushed on the gates as Cybil withdrew her weapon from her holster. "This thing's locked," Adrian said with increasing annoyance. Cybil could see the chains and the lock around the steel bars. She pointed her weapon, looking to demolish the lock with a single shot, but lowered her gun instead.
"What are you doing?" Adrian asked, leaning against the gate and sucking his teeth. The more worried he got, the more anxious he was to get this trip in the hospital behind him.
"This isn't the movies," Cybil replied sternly, "a miss would probably have the bullet coming right back at me or you."
Adrian stretched out his left arm and pointed his pistol at the lock. "I'm willing to take that chance."
KA-SCHHINK! The bullet hit the lock, alright, but it did not give. Luckily neither him or Cybil were hurt, either.
"Really want to get hurt, don't you?" Cybil shook her head as she looked around for another way in- she didn't see one. A brick wall at least ten feet high surrounded the rest of the building.
Adrian looked up the gate, and shrugged his shoulders. Putting his weapon away, he began to scale the rusty steel. Cybil stared up at him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. But she was sure about one thing- once Adrian set his mind on something, he wasn't going to be denied. Cybil put her Beretta away and climbed up behind the young adult.
Adrian gripped a right hand around one of the top spikes that belonged to the top of the gate, and his left hand did the same. He began to hoist himself up, but as he did, something had got his attention- a small piece of paper, impaled by the spike next to Adrian's left hand. Adrian squinted to see if the paper had anything of importance on it, and was stunned to see what the erratic black ink spelled...
'DON'T SLIP'
"...What the hell?"
The very moment the last syllable of that sentence left his mouth, Adrian's right foot slipped and his left one had luckily only let Adrian fall an inch or two, landing on a piece of steel that stuck out from the gate. If his foot hadn't landed there, Adrian's head would have been just as shishkabobbed as that note. As it was, another inch and the spike under Adrian's chin would have been close enough to come in contact with the skin.
Cybil recoiled under Adrian as he fell that tiny bit, almost knocking her off as well. "What are you doing?" She asked. Adrian gave a simple shake of his head and climbed over the gate, dropping down to the concrete walkway on the other side. Cybil followed soon after, not seeming to have paid attention to the note stuck where she was scaling.
Adrian assisted her safely to the ground, and she nodded her head in thanks. "No problem," Adrian replied before he then let his attention fall back towards the front door.
Luckily for them it wasn't another steel gate- just a frail looking pair of doors with a see through window on each, and a curtain on the other side of them, keeping anyone on the outside from peering in. Cybil checked the doorknob, just as Adrian went for his gun again.
"Loc-" before Cybil could finish the worked, another bullet from Adrian's Walther shattered one of the glass windows. Cybil glared in disbelief as Adrian poked the remaining shards of glass with the barrel of his gun, sending the glass crunching to the tiled hospital floor inside. He then glanced to Cybil, assuming she would reach her hand inside and get the lock. Her glare was replaced for a jaw dropped expression. Adrian sighed and turned to the window.
"Fine, I'll do it.." Adrian put his gun away and rubbed his hands together. That cloth was still covering the window, and he wasn't about to stick his hand in there within reach of anything wanting to do some kind of harm.
Cybil noticed his hesitation, and smiled. "If something was back there, I think it would have came already. You've made enough noise as it is.." Adrian hushed her to silence, and he finally stuck his right hand into the window. He reached as far down as slack would allow, but the doorknob was just barely out of his reach.
"Give me a small boost," Adrian said as he lifted his left foot, "I can't reach it by myself." Cybil clasped her hands and put them underneath Adrian's sneaker, allowing him to push off and get that extra couple inches of leverage he needed to reach the lock and turn it. "Okay let go."
Adrian dropped back to the ground and stepped back from the door, and half smirked in triumph when the door creaked open on its own. He normally would have openly gloated about a successful B and E, but he hadn't forgotten why he was there in the first place. He had been deadly serious since they got into town. Hell, he was deadly serious a long while before that.
He peered into the open doorway and waited- after hearing nothing more than silence, he stepped inside. His sneakers crackled thanks to the broken pieces of glass underneath them, and they made Adrian's muscles stiffen in nervousness. He soon eased himself fully into the lobby, and Cybil trailed not too far behind him. She trained her weapon around the corner, which veered off left down the rest of the waiting room. There were tables and chairs overturned throughout the large space, and that made it difficult for the two of them to maneuver around. However it didn't take long to adjust to the positioning of everything, and it was much better that the small amount of light from outside had illuminated the lobby- just enough for Adrian and Cybil to find the room empty.
There were only two doors around the corner, and upon checking them only one lock was not broken. Adrian pushed it open while Cybil pointed her gun at the desolate room beyond it. It was simply a continuing of the waiting room which made another left turn. Cybil checked the doors next to her, but they did not budge. "These locks are broken, too. I'm not surprised... this place looks like it was abandoned long, long ago."
Adrian nodded and slowly pointed down the hall. "Yeah.. you check those two doors at the end of the hall, I'll check out what's around the corner."
"What are we looking for?"
"...Anything. Anything suspicious. Anything with Sam's name on it. Just, anything that looks important basically." How they were exactly going to see anything, however, never came across Adrian's mind. Cybil did have a small pen light to help, but it didn't work any wonders. In fact, after she walked into one of the rooms Adrian requested her to check, that light was long gone. Step by quiet step Adrian went by his lonesome down the long, dark hallway. The tiled floor and marble walls were not out of place but still seemed menacing in a hospital surrounded by what was undeniably enough, evil.
Cybil found herself in what looked to be the remains of a doctor's office. Yet this office, was not exactly in tip top shape. The one window in the room was shattered, and allowed a cold draft to ventilate the area, and a couple bookcases and tables were toppled over. However, Cybil spotted one thing untouched in the far left corner. A small desk with a book on it- a book that seemed to be a journal.
Cybil picked it up and filed through it, checking for recent entries- however, most entries dated back to 1989, the year after her and Harry had escaped Silent Hill.
6/21/89
'I stopped by the Hope House today to check on Raven, but I wasn't even allowed in when I was there with her medicine. Oh well, it's not exactly needed. Besides, if she happens to get violent she will lash out on those yoyos instead of her own father. At least she should know better. This medicine isn't even legal yet either way...'
6/24/89
'I do wish she would show some signs of progression. Sometimes I believe she's only pretending to be sick, but she doesn't have a reason to. People have gotten angry with me for using up their precious drug that still happens to await approval by the DEA. I guess I don't blame them, they need their rain to manufacture this medicine, but we've been on a drought for months. I'd probably be upset, too, but then again I'm not a fanatic over this cockamame White Claudia.'
6/30/89
'I've been starting to hear that the reason why everyone is so up in arms for it is because they still are trying to ressurect their silly occult through some child. I'd think they would learn by now, but I don't deal in spirituality, I deal in rationality. But still, a child used for ritualistic purposes...
That could be my daughter...'
7/2/89
'Tried several times to recover Raven from those loons at the Hope House, but they became more and more senile each time. This morning some freak with unkempt hair and a pair of reading glasses pulled out a gun on me! He said "If you talk of this or attempt to brainwash our child, I will put an end to you." THEIR child?! What the hell is this?! And what is wrong with the police?! I called them three times and their phone lines are out of service. If I am not allowed to see my daughter soon, I'm going to go insane...'
7/3/89
'Depression has finally set in. I don't know why it hadn't happened before, but it's better late than never I suppose. Maggie's death is too much for me at this point. If only she was here with me to help calm me down.. to assure me that we would have our daughter back and sleeping under the safety of our roof.. but she can't now. I still have her medicine with me, in the events I can at least have a look at my Raven.. but it is painfully clear that those religious types will never change. I think I'll just take her medicine for her and see what happens...'
The rest of the pages were blank. Cybil slowly closed the journal and placed it in one of her pants pockets where it barely fit. People still alive after her and Harry? People actually.. getting on with their lives? "That's.. not possible." Cybil looked down at her pocket where she stuffed the less than average sized book, and frowned. But it was possible. She had proof of it. She just read about it.
Wondering if there was anything else in the room of importance, she checked the desk's drawers. But upon sliding the top one open, she suddenly wished she hadn't. "Oh my God..."
Empty syringes. Dozens of them. All piled up in a tiny little drawer. Daring to further quench her curiousity, she picked one of them up and looked at the labeling. She had to squint to see the faded lettering, but what it said, was:
20cc WC
Dremora, Raven
Cybil shook her head, disgusted. She could understand someone being sick, but there were so many syringes- it wasn't possible all of them were for her. She picked up another syringe and read the labeling... same name, same amount of dosage. And the next one, and the next, and the next one after that.
"Hard to believe someone would have taken all of these..." What made it harder to believe such a thing, however, was the fact that the drug wasn't even legal. It didn't take any second thoughts or glances to know what the 'WC' on those labels stood for.
"Still awaiting approval from the DEA... they must have had a field day with this issue.." She kept that thought in her mind as she turned to leave, but felt her right foot momentarily slip underneath something on the floor. She remained upright and squatted down to see what it was. Another empty syringe.
"Must've fell out when I was looking through the drawers." She lifted it up, and checked it. She didn't know why, but she just felt compelled to read the label.
40cc WC
Nordiana, Sam
Cybil's eyes widened slightly. He was on an even larger dosage than Raven was... but she was sick supposedly. What was his excuse?
She turned to the door, eager to tell Adrian of what she had found, but was stunned to find him missing. "Adrian? Adrian where are you?" She recieved no answer.
