Chapter 21: Crescendo

"We have to go." Cybil offered a hand to help Adrian up from the dirty floor, but Adrian refused. What he was trying to remember was more important.

"I can't yet," he mumbled back helplessly, "I need to figure this out now, before I lose it again."

As much as Cybil would be for that, she wasn't for it in the place they found themselves in. "You're not helping yourself any by staying here. We'll head back to the hotel room and we can talk about it there, while we get some actual rest. Come on.. this isn't doing you any good."

Adrian frowned and slowly nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah... yeah, you're right, I guess." He pushed off the floor and rose to his feet. "Some rest would do us both some good."

The drive back to the hotel was a quiet one. Cybil was too busy watching the fog and Adrian was too busy checking the photo, which left no room for either of them to say much of anything. The few words Adrian did mutter from his mouth, though, were to himself- as if by some chance, he could help sort things out if he went through every plausible theory aloud. In the end, however, there wasn't much for him to figure out.

When they arrived to the designated safe house, Adrian crashed onto the sort of comfortable bed he made his for the brief stay. Cybil sat on the edge of the other bed and untied her boots. "Ah, that's much better." She smiled softly and laid back on the bed, drifting off to sleep rather easily. Adrian gave her a glance, and tilted his head in confusion. He had no clue how she could sleep so easy after all that. Maybe next time she woke up he could ask her for advice on that, but until then Adrian was busy still looking over the photo.

'In or out? Up or down?
Never know, it's an illusion
'Round and 'round, on and on
Everyday spins my confusion'

'Not again, not again, not again
This dream, I can't awake
What is real, what is real, what is real?
It's getting hard for me to take
What I need, what I need, what I need
The little something I delight
And the white sugar gently hides me'

Adrian sang the song with the rest of his band providing the proper melody to back him up. The bar was pretty empty- Adrian and his band weren't exactly famous yet, but they never really were anyway. The few people that listened, though seemed to be having a good time. And that was all that was really needed. Afterall, a little less than a hundred people having fun was much better than drawing in thousands that were having a shitty time.

As the song drew to a close and the band took their bows to signal the end of their set, Adrian could notice someone over at the bar on his left. A young woman, who's back was to him. Still, she seemed familiar, in some odd manner.

The clapping of the people in the club seemed to take second place compared to the woman Adrian had his eye on. He dropped down from the small stage and calmly walked past people, people that slapped fives with him while they were in his reach.

"Hey, 'scuse me, miss.."

He stopped in his tracks as the woman turned around to face him, and she smiled at the sight of him.

"You sounded beautiful up there." The woman pushed her raven black hair from her face and gently smiled at the man dressed in black.

"Thanks..." he trailed off, making time to look over the woman he was talking to. It didn't take long for him to recognize her.

"It's been awhile," she said, "hasn't it?"

Adrian looked at her in silence for a moment, mouth agape, before he was able to make a reply. "Yeah, yeah it has. I see.. I see you got out of that place, too."

"Uh huh..." she trailed off, slowly releasing the grip on the glass she had been drinking from to show off her palms to him, "I sort of hurt my hands when I tried to leave, though."

There was a scar on each of her hands, and both of them were pretty big. "What happened?" Adrian asked at the sight of them, to which Raven replied somberly.

"They didn't want me to leave. They said I would be safer with them. But you and I know that that's not true, right?" She giggled softly, and Adrian nodded. He knew all too well what she meant, and she had it much worse than he did.

"Say, now that you're out of there also, you and I should celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Raven blinked in question. Adrian smiled, as if he thought she would never ask.

"Being free?" Raven thought about that, and her smile widened.

Little did Adrian know at the time, but vandalism- as illegal as it was, was rather fun. Liberating. The giddy pair broke a couple windows, scampered through backyards, and spray painted the sides of a few buildings.

"I never thought I could have so much fun like this!" Raven giggled, stopping her mischief momentarily to tend to adjusting her pink ribbon. Adrian laughed and led her further through the streets, until they stopped over a bridge. They both sat on the edge, legs dangling over the side, and peered down into Westford Creek beneath them. After a moment of talk, they both decided to climb down to the creek, and get a closer look.

And there they were. Raven skipped a pebble or two along the clear water, while Adrian painted something along the side of the bridge. 'Night of the Heavens' he wrote in a dark blue, and used black and white to illustrate a night sky to the best of his ability. "Whaddya think?" Raven turned around and looked at the masterpiece, and gave her good friend a thumbs up in appreciation.

The two teenagers then walked out into an open field. Nothing in sight. No people, no cars... just them and the grass that swayed to the nighttime winds. The two of them looked at eachother, and both of them grinned.

The teenagers ran full speed through the field, and loved every moment. It made them both feel incredibly at ease. There was no other care in the world but for that moment, which seemed to bring nothing but joy to them both.

"I can't believe I've missed having a life like this as a child." Raven outstreched her arms as she spun around freely through the open field.

Adrian smiled and jogged towards her. "Feels good, right?"

Raven nodded in return. "Yeah." Now standing practically inches away from eachother, Adrian couldn't help himself- he leaned in and kissed Raven gently on the lips.

They both pulled softly at eachother's clothes, but Adrian put a stop to it as he pointed into the distance. "Over there..." There, Raven saw a huge neon sign that looked as if it reached the sky. 'Lakeview Hotel', it read. All they had to do was walk around the lake that was in front of them.

They held hands all the way to the hotel, sneaking eachother quick pecks on the cheek as they went. When they got there, the place was as desolate as the other buildings that were near it. "No wonder they call the place Silent Hill," Adrian laughed, "come on, let's go."

He walked into the hotel, Raven following quickly behind him. The place was darkly lit, and wasn't exactly a place that the duo wouldn't have really went at it in, but neither one of them felt like walking all the way elsewhere. And it would prove to be an adventure...

Adrian backed Raven towards the closest door and they pushed themselves on in. Adrian could remember the number of the room distinctly.

'105'

Their clothes came off and they both fell to the bed, and before long it was morning.

When Adrian awoke, he looked at the woman that lay next to him under the covers of what was a rather cozy bed. He sat up and leaned over to grab his pants that were along the floor with the rest of his clothes that were strewn throughout the room. And it was while he threw his pants back on, that he gave Raven one more look- and a thought he didn't want to think had jogged his memory.

'Maria... dammit.'

They had been going out for months at the time. How could he have been so stupid to forget about something like that?

He moved over to a chair near the bed that Raven was sleeping comfortably in, and sat in it. "So stupid," he mumbled, "shit, what am I gonna do?"

The next time Adrian awoke, he looked up at the woman who had slightly nudged his shoulder. "You were having a bad dream, that's all." Cybil moved back over to her bed and sat down, and Adrian smiled in appreciation of being woken up. He remained wide awake the rest of the night, and he didn't dare try to sleep again.

Cybil was up at seven AM, and was somewhat alarmed to find that Adrian was up before her. He sat stoically on his bed, and upon noticing Cybil sitting up, he looked over and nodded. "Mornin'."

Cybil yawned and stood up. "Good morning." She grabbed her boots that were by her feet, and slipped them on. "Were you up all night?"

Adrian shrugged. "Sort of."

They both walked around the hotel room, getting freshened up. Cybil leaned over the bathroom sink, washing her hands as she called out to Adrian in the main room. "Any place we should try today?"

Adrian nodded his head, but when he realized that Cybil couldn't see him, he sounded off his reply. "Lakeview Hotel."

"The hotel? Why the hotel?"

"I had a dream about it. And I doubt that it was just a dream."

Adrian could hear the water in the bathroom stop running, and he turned only to see Cybil have her head stuck out into the doorway. The look on her face said it all. "What?" Adrian asked. Cybril frowned.

"Sorry."

Adrian shook his head. "It's okay. Let's just get ready and go, alright?"

Soon, they were off on their way to their destination. Over time, Cybil grew to know every shortcut to Silent Hill- studying every street to the spelling of every name. They would arrive at the hotel in ten minutes, give or take a minute or two. However, things would be deterred quickly.

A shadowy figure was spotted by Adrian, as it headed inside of a building. "Wait," Adrian said, getting Cybil's attention, "stop the car."

Adrian pointed to the building, and Cybil parked the police vehicle right out in front. It didn't take much more for Adrian to leave the car.

"Adrian?" Cybil climbed out after him, and they both approached the store. Adrian looked up and caught the sign over the door: 'Indian Runner'. Adrian's eyes trailed down to the doorknob, and he felt himself grow further annoyed. A large lock on the door barred entrance. That didn't stop Adrian from pulling out his gun and loading it, though.

"Don't even think about it!" Cybil's words fell on deaf ears as Adrian popped in the last bullet that would fit into the clip, slapped it into the weapon, and fired. Two bullets pierced the lock, and it fell to the pavement with a clank. Adrian looked at Cybil, and smirked before he shoved the door open.

He pointed his gun everywhere, surveying all of his surroundings, until he came upon the realization that the place was empty. "Goddammit..."

Cybil stood in the open front doorway, a humbled look on her face. "Adrian..."

Adrian turned and looked at his friend, speaking in protest. "I saw someone come in here, I'm sure." He continued to look through things, determined to find someone, even if it was pretty apparent that there was nothing.

It was by sheer curiousity that Adrian read one of the papers on the disheveled front counter. On it, was erratic handwriting in bold black marker.

'Girlfriend killed, found baby-

Kill her?'

Adrian stared at the paper, but he didn't have much time to think about it. "Adrian!" He turned around, and found Cybil running through the store to the back. She ran out of the back door, and she looked back at the young adult with an extreme sense of urgency. "Hurry up!" Adrian ran for the door, and looked out into the distance. Along the docks behind the store, a figure in black was undoing the rope keeping a large boat to the docks, before the figure climbed on.

"That's gotta be him!" He ran for the ship as it slowly began to pull away from the docks.

"Hold on!" Cybil yelled, but it was too late as Adrian ran full speed down the docks, and dove for a railing in reach- one which he just barely got. Cybil sighed and ran after him, and she managed to grab a railing as well.

'We shouldn't be doing this...'

When they both climbed safely over onto the boat, they looked back at the dry land at the same time, until there was nothing more than fog in its place.