Authors Note: Thanks again for your reviews, I e-mailed each of you personally, who did, and if you didn't receive it forgive me. I know I said I would try to update every 2 weeks, but writers block strives to make liars of us all. Once again I don't own Silent Hill, or any canon characters, just the original ones contained within.

"It's just this town… There's something wrong with it."

-Angela Oroscoe-

The Brahms department police cruiser proceeded down the street leading into the northernmost area of Silent Hill.

Kara was intently watching the road ahead while moving at about only ten miles per hour.

"Tyrone wasn't kidding when he said that the fog here isn't conductive to a search. You can hardly see more than twenty feet in front of you at any given time." Rich stated.

Kara only nodded and continued to concentrate on the road in front of her, the bright fog light situated in between the flashing red and blue lights on the roof of the cruiser doing little to dispel the fog or illuminate their path.

Rich let out a brief grunt as the car stopped short suddenly.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"It's the road ahead, look for yourself."

Rich stepped out of the car and walked around to the front.

The road had ended in a sudden drop. Looking across the chasm he estimated it was a good fifteen to twenty feet wide.

Rich walked back and forth along the ridge, stopping to drop a stone down into it. When after a few minutes he still didn't hear the stone hit bottom he turned to Kara and said "Alright, climbing down this side and then up the other is out. It's way too deep, and it's obviously too far to jump"

"So how do we get across then?" Kara asked.

"It looks like there's enough room to sidestep across on that side if we keep our backs flat against the chain link fence there." Rich answered pointing to an old rusted fence bordering the rift in the road.

"I'm going to get some things from the trunk first, before we go any further." Kara stated.

After a few minutes Kara returned carrying a twelve-gauge shotgun and a beige coloured burlap satchel.

"What's in the bag?" Rich asked.

"First-aid kit, backup radio, flashlight, and some extra shells for the shotgun." She answered.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?" Rich asked sceptically.

"Look you, and the sergeant, and Max might not believe the stories about this place, but I do and I'm not taking any chances while I'm in there." Kara replied somewhat harshly.

"Alright, alright, relax. I'll go first and once I'm across you follow." Rich said.

Rich slowly began across, keeping flush with the fence as he moved, and, after a few harrowing minutes, was safely across on the other side.

"Okay, it's relatively safe. Come on across." Rich said.

Kara began sidling across, holding onto the links in the fence for support. She was almost to the other side of the chasm when the rusted links she was holding onto snapped suddenly and she fell forward into the hole.

Rich dove forward as soon as he saw Kara loose her balance, and just barely managed to grab hold of her right hand.

Kara hit the side of the cliff hard, slamming her shoulder into the protruding rock and letting out a loud "OW!! Goddammit!"

Rich hauled her up to safety and asked, "Are you okay?"

"No, I hit my shoulder hard against the rock" Kara replied wincing. "But I should be okay soon" she added.

"Okay, let's get moving." Rich started to say when Kara suddenly let out a cry of

"Oh crap! I lost the satchel with all of my extra gear in it! I must have dropped it when I fell."

"Nothing we can do about that now. If it's down there it's gone. How many shells so you have for the twelve-gauge?" Rich asked.

"It only carries six inside." Kara replied sounding very depressed.

"I guess that will have to do" Rich said.

As they walked down the fog-covered street, they kept on alert. Row upon row of seemingly abandoned houses, and neglected roads didn't help allay any of Kara's fears.

"They named this town well. It's nothing if not silent." Rich observed

"Yes, but it's not a good silence. It's like there's nothing-alive here, no birds, no crickets, nothing. Or if there is, it's afraid to make any noise, because it doesn't want to draw attention to itself." Kara replied.

Rich grabbed the radio he had in his pocket and switched it to the pre-determined frequency.

"Tyrone, this is Rich. How are things going in South Vale? Hello? Tyrone can you hear me? That's odd, I can't raise the others on my radio." Rich said.

"Here let me try mine, yours might just be malfunctioning." Kara said while fiddling with the settings on her radio.

After a few minutes of trying, Kara turned back to Rich and said, "Mine's not working either, and it's not just interference. It's like there's no-one there to receive the signal."

As they proceeded down the road Kara kept looking back and forth nervously as if something was going to jump out of the darkness at her.

"Hey what's that up ahead?" Rich asked.

"What!!" Kara exclaimed pointing the shotgun in the direction Rich had just indicated.

Off in the distance, obscured by the fog there was a figure running full speed from one of the alleyways.

"Come on! It may be Brixton!" Rich called back to Kara as he ran off in the direction the figure took.

Rich, already having a good head start on Kara quickly became a faded outline in the fog that she desperately tried to follow. Fortunately for her he soon stopped and she was able to begin to catch up with him.

"Damn it! I lost him." She heard Rich exclaim as she came jogging up to him.

"What do you mean we were right on his tail… Whoa!!" Kara cried out as the toe of her boot got caught in a crack in the pavement and sent her slamming down hard onto the road.

"Ow! For crying out loud, I hate this place! None of the monsters people said were here, but definitely all of the hazards." Kara said as she pushed herself up off the ground.

"Oh gross! Now what did I put my hand into?" Kara asked as she stood up, her hand covered in a sticky red fluid.

Rich bent down and examined the small puddle Kara had placed her hand in. "It's blood." He said after a few moments. "And there's more over there. It seems the guy we were following was injured somehow and has now left us a trail to follow. Come on, we may catch up with him yet"

The pair followed the blood trail to the opening of a narrow alley, created by two large oppressive looking buildings.

"I'll go in first, and you come after keeping my back covered." Rich told Kara.

Rich started down the alley, keeping his eyes open for anywhere someone might be able to leap out at him. It started to become harder to see as the overshadow from the buildings on either side blocked out what little light there was, casting the alley into near-total darkness.

Rich was unable to find any evidence of the person he was following until he reached the end of the alley.

"Um… Kara maybe you shouldn't come any further back here." Rich suggested.

"What, why not?" Kara asked moving around Rich to get a look at what he saw.

There at the end of the alley, propped up against a brick wall was the man the two officers had been following. His left leg was bent at three places, obviously broken. He had long deep gashes across his midsection from being eviscerated. His left arm had been completely torn from its socket and was currently missing. The front of his face was gone with jagged marks along the sides of the skull making it look like it had been bitten off. White steam rose from the wounds into the chill air.

"Oh good lord." Kara said running to the nearest garbage can. Seconds later the sound of vomiting echoed though the alley.

Rich knelt to get a better look at the body, covering his mouth and nose with his hand while thinking, "I've seen some bad murder scenes before but this one is by far the most brutal."

"Hello, what's this?" Rich asked as his attention was drawn to light glinting off of something held in the corpse's hand.

"What did you find?" Kara asked wiping her mouth on her sleeve, sounding and looking somewhat sickly.

"It's a key. I can only make out the last word on the tag the rest is too faded. Something café.

"Yeah well, I think we've spent enough time in this alley. Let's get out of here." Kara said

It was then that the radio clipped to the lapel of Kara's jacket began to emit a faint static, which grew increasingly louder with each passing second.

"What's up with your radio?" Rich asked Kara.

A few seconds later another noise joined the static. It resembled someone running his or her fingernails across a blackboard. It wasn't long before they saw what was making the noise.

The thing was humanoid, appeared to be completely devoid of any skin. It had long gangly arms with bony fingers and long fingernails, which were carving gouges into the brick wall it was dragging them across. Its head was split vertically with long sharp teeth on either side, and it made a gurgling noise as it shuffled toward them.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Kara screamed.

"Probably what killed our friend down the alley there. Shoot it!" Rich replied.

Both officers opened fire on the monstrosity barring their path, the muzzle flash from their guns illuminating the dark alley sporadically.

The creature was surprisingly nimble and was able to avoid the majority of the shots, the others gaining only ineffectual, glancing blows.

With a burst of speed the creature then launched itself into the air and landed directly beside Rich. Before he could react its jaws clamped down on his right forearm, drawing blood and forcing him to drop his gun, while screaming out in pain.

However Rich's instincts soon kicked in, and he came around with a vicious left hook to the creatures head, knocking it back against a wall.

Kara wasted no time monopolizing on this fortunate turn of events, pumping two shells from the shotgun directly into the things midsection, causing it to slump against the wall. Rich retrieved his handgun and took the opportunity to put a single round into the beasts head, causing it to fall to the ground, a pool of its own blood forming around it in a putrid black ichor. With the things death the static coming from the radio had fallen silent.

"Are you alright?" Kara asked Rich.

"No." Rich replied looking down at his blood stained forearm. "I'm going to need to get this bandaged."

After exiting the alley Kara pulled her map out of her pocket and said, "There's a café marked on this map about two blocks that way." Pointing in the direction the map showed. "Maybe that key we found is to it."

They headed toward the café, keeping their eyes peeled for any other nasty surprises along the way. Rich turned to Kara and said with a forced smile, "If it's any consolation I believe the stories about this place now too."

"Actually that's very little consolation at all." Kara said smiling.

"How many shells do you have left for the shotgun?" Rich asked.

"Only two. I used up four fighting that thing." Kara answered.

They arrived outside an old diner-style building about five minutes later, and sure enough the door was locked.

"Okay let's try the key." Rich said and inserted the old key into the lock. With a rusty sounding "Chack" and a loud creak the door to the café swung open.

All the tabletops and counters in the café were covered in a thin layer of dust. There was a broken old jukebox at one end and an old telephone at the other.

"I'm going to try to find something to bandage your arm with." Kara said as she headed toward the rear of the building.

"Right. I'll see if the phone's working. Maybe I can get us some backup, or a tactical air strike, or something." Rich replied.

He picked up the receiver and put it to his ear, after depressing the cradle several times he hung the phone back up and headed back to the counter just as Kara was coming out.

"Any luck with the phone?" Kara asked.

"No, it's dead. Just like everything else in this town" Rich answered.

"Well, I found some clean towels and some packing tape, so I can knock together a makeshift bandage for your arm. Please roll up your sleeve."

Kara spent the next five minutes patching up Richs' arm.

"I suppose we should get back to searching again." Rich began to say but was interrupted by the phone in the corner starting to ring.

"I thought you said it was dead." Kara said.

"It was." Rich answered as he walked over to it and lifted the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Why hello detective Ericson." A garbled voice said.

"I am so glad that you found your way here, it wouldn't have done for me to kill that mechanic, and then have you give up due to the stories surrounding this place."

"Brixton is that you?" Rich asked.

"Yes, that is what you know me as. It's nice to finally get to talk to you directly." The voice answered.

"What is it you want from me?" Rich asked sharply.

"Oh it has nothing to do with what I want from you. It's what the town wants from you. You see that's what it's really all about. Not your skill, or your cases, it was all done just to get you here." Brixton replied.

"What do you mean? Why did you bring me to this god-forsaken place?" Rich demanded.

"That's going to have to be a story for another time. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about your friends on the opposite side of town. Did they not answer your radio calls because they couldn't receive them, or did something like your friend in the alley get to them?" And with that ominous question looming over Rich's head the phone went as dead as it had been five minutes ago.