Chapter 19: Duality
Adrian tore the paper out of the book and stuffed it into his pocket. He now had something. An actual clue to where his answers would be. Room 105... sounded appealing, if only he was able to manage a way out of the basement he was in. He stood up and surveyed his surroundings once more.
He frowned at the sight of the darkness that covered everything. It was everywhere, just like the fog was outside. Except now he couldn't see at all, as the light coming from the stairwell above did not reach down to where he was. It was almost pure luck that his hand brushed against a cold metal doorknob.
His eyes narrowed and his head craned to the right, where his hand reached around for it again. And when he grabbed it, it was indeed a doorknob, although something was different about it. It felt wet, and rather sticky. The feeling of blood sticking to his skin had quickly come to mind, and he jammed the hand into a pant pocket, trying to dry it off. Too bad it didn't get rid of that rotten smell of decay.
When he felt satiated enough that his hand was clean enough, it grasped the doorknob once more, albeit in a more tentative manner. He flicked it counter-clockwise a bit, but then he faltered.
'What if the person whose blood is on this doorknob is on the other side? What if this person is still alive? What if this person... isn't really a person at all, and I'm walking into a trap?'
With that thought, he quickly raised his Walther with the other hand and pointed it at the door. Slowly, he creaked it open. More darkness.
"Oh for fuck's sake..." he said out of the tiresome squinting he had to do to see in every room. He really should have brought a flashlight with him; it was very irrational for him to head to Silent Hill empty handed. Even that stupid radio he had the last time would have helped.
He took a step forward, and his right hand felt along the wall next to him while his left hand coldly gripped his weapon. He took another bold step forward, then another, then BAM!
"Ouch!" He quickly hopped up and down on one foot, as he clutched his right foot in a measly attempt to console the pain in his stubbed toe. "Goddamn steps," he mumbled under his breath as he brought down his foot onto one of the stairs. Blindly, he made his way up- slowly but surely until he had finally reached the top and creaked open the door that met him there.
When he opened it, it took a couple steps for him to walk into the light that shined through the only window in a strangely empty room. No... there was something around, he just didn't sense it.
It wasn't until Adrian was in the middle of the square room that he turned to look back at the door he entered, and noticed the shadows that were moving in both corners adjacent to his entrance. When he raised his gun towards the corner to his left and leaned forward, he could see what it was- a pack of dogs, at least that's what they somewhat resembled, three to four in both corners. They were savagely tearing and gnawing at something, and each bite into the object at their feet brought a sickening mixture of meat being ripped from the bone and drops liquid smacking against the tiled floor with each tiny plop. Whatever it was they were eating, Adrian was sure he didn't want to know- he just hoped he wouldn't become their next snack.
Swiftly, he rushed over to the only other door in the room in the far left corner. He turned the doorknob, and immediately kicked the wood in frustration of running into a dead end. His leg quickly recoiled however, when he realized the stupid mistake he just made. Turning to see if any of the things had heard the noise, his fears were soon confirmed- one dog turned and opened its bloody maw at Adrian, drooling a bloody drool while it let out a ferocious growl. Its allies, taking notice to the growl, all turned as well and snarled at the frightened human across the room.
All Adrian could do was point his gun at one of the packs. And with the immediate threat, one of the dogs Adrian pointed to had charged from its corner at him.
For a moment, things slowed to a crawl. Adrian closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to remember the rule of thumb about firearms.
'Keep a tight hold on your weapon, keep an eye on the target, squeeze the trigger.. breathe deep-'
One eye winked open and a loud BLAM sounded, quickly followed by the muzzle blast that momentarily illuminated the room even more. The dog-like monster let out a yelp and leapt backwards before it stumbled to the floor. Adrian smirked when he found the hole he made- a large red splotch in the greyish skin of the creature's chest. The other monsters simply growled, before all at once, the six or seven of them lunged forward. Adrian gulped as he thought fast of what to do. He didn't have nearly enough ammo to take down all of them. So reflexively, he did the first thing he could think of. He rushed in between the two packs and dove for the door he had entered in. Before the monsters could turn and chase after him, he was out of the room and out of harm's way.
Adrian leaned back, pressing all of his weight against the door in the event that the dogs weren't going to be satiated with letting him go. But to his surprise, his ears perked at the sound of only several scratches on the other side of the door and nothing else. Not long after that did everything go quiet once more.
Adrian took a breath in relief before looking back down the stairwell he was sitting atop of. He was not liking the possibility of heading back downstairs, as the chances of finding another door that would so much as open for him was small. With how dark it was down there, he'd be surprised if he could even find a door at all. If he snuck back into the room he would have time to fire off one, maybe two shots at the lock on the door- but the chances of that working were slim. He'd also have to worry how much more alert the dogs would be after his first intrusion- but what else could he do?
"I know I'm going to hate myself for doing this.." he grumbled as he turned and slowly peeked out from the door. He could only see the corner to his right, but the dogs over there had gone back to eating; not one of them bothered to glance over at the door. Feeling bold, Adrian opened it slightly further, and smiled as there was still no reaction. Slowly pushing the door open so he could step through, he calmly walked on over to the door across the room and checked it again- it was indeed locked.
He initially put his gun against the door, but he was reluctant to fire. He looked around a little bit more- maybe there was a key, or something that he could use to break the door down with. He then shot a look in the direction of the two bloody heaps that were being destroyed by the rabid 'animals', and at the side of one of them was something shining, contrasting greatly against the blood puddled around it.
'Please be a key. Please.'
It was rather close to two of the dog-like monsters, but he'd have to grab it- it was his only chance at getting out anyway. Slowly, he creeped behind the two abominations, and pointed his Walther at one of them. And before it could know what was going to happen, a metal slug shot through its side before Adrian kicked it as hard as he possibly could, knocking it over. That gave him the opportunity to grab the item before the other monster could turn to react. When it did react, however, it didn't look happy.
The shot monster slowly limped up onto its four legs and let out a loud howl. The other monsters turned at this, and noticed Adrian just in time to see him run across the room for the locked door, key in hand.
He was running so hard that he nearly crashed into the door. He put on the breaks, and quickly thumbed the key into the slot. He turned it. Success.
'Fuck yeah!'
He had to pull the door open- in doing so, he backed up right into a diving dog which headbutted him right in the small of his back. It had also headbutted him through the doorway and out into the hall. He stumbled against the far wall and turned- the door he was sent through was still swinging open, and the abnormal thing that bashed into him had circled around to make another advance, while the others pushed and shoved to get through the small doorway.
Adrian glared at the monsters fighting to get towards him, but he was up and quickly reached for the door, pulling it closed- crushing the neck of one of the monsters that was unfortunate enough to be caught in between the slamming door and the wall.
"Come on," Adrian said through gritted teeth as he held the doorknob tight with one hand, "die already.."
He pocketed his weapon, and soon moved to both hands wrapped around the cold material. Slowly, he lifted a foot and pressed it against the monster's face. And with a gulp, Adrian let off the door for a moment only to slam it harshly against the thing's neck again.
"Die already, for fuck's sake!" He began to grow more and more impatient as he repeated this action, again and again, until finally it slumped backwards in defeat- allowing the door to close for good.
Adrian stepped back and breathed heavily, trying to regain his composure. He practically forgot about the jolt of pain to his back, which had been instantly overcome with adrenaline. He looked around for a moment, and smiled. He was back in the main hall. Just as he begun walking, CRASH! The sound of shattered glass echoed throughout the place.
"Ugh!" Adrian whirled around at the sound. "What the hell was that?" He stood paused, gun trained on the door down the hall- the one he just left, but no more sounds came.
"Adrian?"
Cybil found herself lost. She entered a stairwell, but upon turning to leave she found the door locked. She would wander up to the second floor which seemed incredibly dilapidated, even compared to the condition of the first floor. The tiles under her feet seemed to have taken water damage, and the walls were decorated with a dry crimson paint that obviously wasn't really paint.
She came across a couple doors, but with a room number on each, there was also some kind of word under each. Although they were tough to read and the words were spelled in a manner that made Cybil question to herself whether she was reading them right- but she was.
201
'Hagith'
202
'Phaleg'
203
'Ophiel'
204
'Bethor'
205
'Aratron'
206
'Och'
207
'Phul'
Cybil looked at each door, and frowned. Those weren't exactly things you would normally see on a hospital room door. And as if that wasn't bad enough, there was the sound of movement from behind one of the doors. Cybil glanced at them, and saw a shadow moving from the light on the other side of the source.
205
'Aratron'
"Adrian?" Cybil pushed the door open, and quickly backed up a step as she pulled her gun from her holster. A large pool of blood seeped out from the room and creeped towards Cybil's feet. As for the rest of the room, it was bathed in darkness. There was one light in the room, however- a small desklight that flickered over an open book. Next to the light was another item, its shadow the size of the average hand. All three items rested on a rickety wooden desk.
Cybil cautiously strafed over to it and peered at the writing on the page the journal was turned to.
8/11/89
'I put one of the needles to my wrist again last night, but like the nights before that I couldn't bring myself to actually use it. Even if the situation with Raven is hopeless, I can't give up. What if she's still alive? And what if she needs me?
I managed to get some of the medicine from a guy who seemed a little more than helpful in the creepy sense. What puts me on edge even more, though, is that he only gave it to me because I took a vase from him. And I thought I heard of every deal possible, but this guy didn't want money or anything valuable for it, instead he asked me to take something else off his hands. Never thought that would happen, but why do I feel that I just made some kind of mistake?'
8/18/89
'I don't consider myself in any way, shape or form unnerved by the paranormal. I am a firm believer in rationality over spirituality, but this certainly takes the cake. A week after having that stupid vase and now I cannot sleep. As if I couldn't sleep before, now I have nightmares of seeing Raven and finding that she's turned into something different, something far beyond the darkest thoughts imaginable. I never looked at her to be so evil, but this never happened until I took that vase... and after putting no flowers into it my house has been smelling like jasmine. I don't know what explanation to give for this, although I wish I had at least looked to see what was actually inside the vase when that guy gave it to me...'
That was the end of that page. Cybil slowly reached forward and turned to the next one, and only found one entry, which was an unsettingly brief one.
8/20/89
'Yesterday I took the vase to someone who I thought could help explain the items inside the vase and whether or not they correlated with these reoccuring nightmares. Surely enough, I was told that in Jewish folklore there was a monster called a Dibbuk, that could enter the body of a living person and'
That was it. It was from the same person who wrote the journal in the Director's Office downstairs, which was obvious through the same handwriting and the mentioning of his daughter. The last entry looked especially rushed from the gradually growing erratic words that were scrawled onto the paper.
"Intense..." Cybil muttered to herself, and it was the only word she could put it in. The whole ordeal she was in was simply intense for that matter, but things would soon get even more intense.
Looking to her right, she saw in item on the desk the wasn't brightened by the light next to it. She reached over and shined the light on it, and cringed- a small, innocent looking vase rested right in front of her.
She stared at it longingly- curiousity ended up winning the battle with her conscience, and she put her gun away for a moment so she could reach inside it.
'-although I wish I had at least looked to see what was actually inside the vase when that guy gave it to me.'
'-although I wish I had at least looked to see what was actually inside the vase when that guy gave it to me.'
'-althoughintheendiwishforoneandonlyoneholyspiritifindmyselftorninto-'
Cybil gasped as she quickly threw her hand back and caused the vase to fall over and shatter on the ground.
"Ugh!" Adrian whirled around at the sound. "What the hell was that?" He stood paused, gun trained on the door down the hall- the one he just left, but no more sounds came.
Cybil looked down after the broken vase, almost forgetting what she had clenched in her trembling fist. Unballing her right hand, she shuddered at the sight. Two locks of hair, one blonde, the other black. Before she could so much as drop the hair to the ground, something smashed against the back of her head and sent her stomach first against the desk, and had eventually caused her to crumble backwards to the floor.
