Chapter 14
No. No fucking way. I am getting out of this nightmare. I will. Ha! Just you watch me!
"Mr. Daniels?"
Fuck this! I'm getting the hell out of this town as soon as fucking possible. I'll-
"Mr. Daniels? It's time for you to wake up…"
-pack up Evelyn and the kids oh I want my family back my sweet children beautiful wife happy home not really happening not real not real wanna go home hug my family…
"Mr. Daniels?"
I woke up, shaking.
The nurse, a middle aged woman in teddy bear print scrubs, stepped towards me and placed a gentle hand on my forehead. "Oh my! That's quite a cold sweat you've broken out in."
As the nurse wasted a maternal smile on me, I could only stare mutely at her. I couldn't quite understand why, but Laura's little revelation had scared the holy old shit outta me. Even now, I had to fight the urge to just start screaming.
The nurse slipped a digital thermometer under my tongue, and within moments, it beeped. She pulled it out and stared at it for awhile. She seemed puzzled by whatever she saw.
"Hmm, let me try it again." She said. Repeating the process, her frown only deepened. I guess whatever happened before happened again.
She gave me another motherly smile and even fussed with my hair for a minute. Seemingly tense, she said, "Alright, Mr. Daniels, you just lay back and relax. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Why is it that whenever a hospital employee becomes sweet and compassionate, you just know it's bad news?
Exam Room 4, 3rd Floor, Brookhaven Hospital
I was well into an exam when an old, chubby nurse in pink scrubs (Oh good God, are those teddy bears?) came barging in the door, seemingly irate.
"Doctor Kaufman, I need to see you outside, sir." She spoke calmly, but I understood the body language of the nurses, and this…bovine… was in a foul mood.
Didn't she know who she was dealing with? She had no business interrupting my schedule!
Angrily, I snapped off my gloves, and followed her out the door, completely ignoring my patient in the process.
"What?" I snarled. I didn't tolerate any interruptions, I had to tend to my Special Girl.
Just as irritated, my tone didn't phase her. "How much did you skimp on the new equipment? I just took a patients' temperature- twice- and it was wrong! What kind of cheap, dollar store crap did you buy?" she snapped.
How dare she! "Excuse me?"
"You heard me! I was taking Garrett Daniels' temp- and it said 81.4!"
Garrett Daniels. I knew who he was instantly. He got falling-down drunk, and drove his car into the side of a Happy Burger. He suffered rather significant internal bleeding, but he was recovering well.
He was also one of the people that my Special Girl had taken an interest in. She whispers his name to me…
I froze. A fatal drop in body temperature, though he wasn't dead. Fear welled up in me.
It was starting…
Garrett's Room…
I began to tremble almost violently. I was so cold. I tried not to focus on it. I forced my mind to wander…
My thoughts turned to Delia, my friend. I've barely known the kid for a day, but I liked her. She was the aggravating little sister I never had.
And James Sunderland… I still think he's a major dumbass. Instead of running from the monsters like any other sane person; he kept running to them! But, God help me, I sort of respect the guy, too. And for the same reason. It took guts to fight against the things that were terrorizing the "Other World."
I found myself thinking of that nightmarish place. The things I saw there, the horrific creatures… it was as though some twisted mind had laid all that grotesque scenery out just to torture the people who were left behind…
I suddenly had what amounted to a really weird epiphany, like someone had flipped a switch in my brain or something.
(What if more than one person were behind all this? James is surviving, Delia might still be alive, and me…)
It made too much sense, which, to be honest, worried me. It takes several seriously disturbed minds to create shit this nightmarish.
My head began to tingle in a familiar way.
FUCK!
Flash!
It was the borders of Silent Hill, and a man was running out of the town, towards me. A blonde woman in a police uniform was running beside him. Both were filthy and bruised. Once they passed the "Welcome to…" sign, they stopped, and took the chance to catch their breath.
It took me a minute, but I finally realized that there was a newborn baby wrapped in the man's arms. They huddled under a street light, and the baby made fussy noises.
He gently ran a finger up and down the baby's face. The baby, with a wealth of black hair, and big, brown eyes, smiled up at him serenely. She began to coo softly.
She… I wondered how I knew it was a girl, but I did.
The police woman looked at him, an expression of soft wonderment on her face. "How'd you know she'd like that?" She asked.
He smiled sadly, unshed tears shining in his eyes. In a choked voice, he replied, "Because she's my baby girl. Aren't you, Cheryl?"
Flash!
James Fucking Sunderland… and that little shit, Laura!!
The fog was still there, but the sun was shining brightly through it, and it was beginning to lift.
James and Laura were walking through a cemetery. James looked like absolute, hammered shit. He was cut, bruised, battered, puffy, and there were odd, tiny welts all over his face and body. I quickly realized that they were insect bites. Big, mutant, insect bites.
Laura would skip off ahead of him for a bit, but she would stop, and wait for him to catch up. It took him a bit, too; he was pretty banged up. However, I was pretty shocked when Laura didn't belittle him in the least. Hell, she was positively mute until-
"Well?" She prodded, hands on her hips like a little dictator.
"Well, what?" James grunted.
"Aren't you gonna… you know…" she trailed off. She seemed shy all of a sudden.
James seemed to intuit that this was a rare occasion, but only gave a slightly bemused smile.
Things were quiet until they reached the parking lot. Then Laura popped a gasket again. "Aren't you gonna adopt me?" she almost bellowed.
James, leaning against his car, laughed almost hysterically at this.
"What?" she growled. Miss Barnett obviously couldn't take what she dished out.
"I was wondering how long you were gonna take to ask me that. Alright, you snotty little brat, get in the car, and we'll work this out when we get home."
Snotty little brat seemed to be a term of affection, because Laura giggled and climbed in the car. With a pained grimace, James slid into the driver's seat, and they took off.
I smiled. Good, at least I know that they're okay now…
Flash!
A teenaged girl with bleach blonde hair and big, brown doe eyes was slumped near a large creature that was very dead. She was sobbing, and I could hear her whimper softly, "Dad… Dad…" repeatedly.
She stood up, and looked back at the Big Dead Thing, and I realized that I knew her; she was that baby…
Then, the vision shifted forward.
It was Lakeside Amusement Park, which was just fucking creepy at night under the best of times, and this was not the best of times.
There was an old guy slumped over on one of the benches. He was probably as fucked up as a person could be- shy of a coma.
The girl crept up to him, a knife in her hand.
"Is it over?" he gasped.
"No…" she purred. "You're still alive…"
She lunged at him, and he gave a rather manly shriek.
She bounced away merrily. "Ha! Just a joke!"
He scowled. "That was in poor taste." He growled miserably.
There was a pause. Then, "So, now that it's over, are you going to back to your real name… what was it?"
She fairly glowed with pride. "Cheryl. The name my father gave me."
"And your hair, will it be it's natural color again?"
She smiled at him. "Nah, don't you think that blondes have more fun?" She joked, and flipped her hair.
The irony was so not lost on me…
Flash!
A man slowly walks out from an apartment complex. He flinches at the bright sunlight, but for some reason, it seems to make him smile.
Things shifted forward again…
I was standing in another fucking hospital, but I knew it wasn't Brookhaven. It was way better than that shithole.
The same man was sitting beside a bed with a lovely young woman lying on it. The woman looked as though she'd had a really sound beating. As a matter of fact, the guy did too.
I smirked. I was beginning to sense a theme…
As the conversation continued, I learned that the man was Henry Townshend, and the woman was Eileen Galvin.
And that they just escaped from the Order and Silent Hill.
They smiled at each other, and Eileen began to giggle girlishly.
"I should probably find a new place to live, shouldn't I?" she mused.
Together, the young couple burst out laughing.
Flash!
Emptiness…
"Hello, Garrett." purred a voice behind me. An annoyingly familiar voice. I jerked around to see her Whore-ness standing in the middle of the void, arm wrapped around Pyramid Head's massive, squishy bicep.
"Are you fucking that thing, or what? You're cuddling it, after all." I tried to make myself sound bad-ass, but it came out more like a wheeze. Fuck it. "Cuz seriously, the outfit's already trampy enough. Constantly caressing a nine foot sadist-monster is the cherry on the skank sundae." I still only rasped it out.
She just smiled serenely at me, not unlike Hannibal Lecter. "Oh now, that's neither here nor there." She mused cryptically. I hate that expression. "Anyway," she continued while I glared. "do you understand the way of things, yet?" she asked.
… "What?"
She tsked me like I was a retarded child.
"I hate you."
"Yes, I know." She commented. As she continued to give me that eerie, empty smile, I could swear I heard faint noise in the background that sounded vaguely like screaming. "Do you really think that all will be well? That this is all some sort of nightmare, or delusion? I'm sorry sweetheart, but this is no nightmare." She tilted her head at me like a bird watching a mouse. "Would you like to know why all this is happening to you? To Delia? To Silent Hill?"
"Fuck, no!"
She grinned, and began to chuckle. "Too bad."
As she advanced on me, I could swear I heard air-raid sirens.
I woke up, weeping. I knew what she wanted. I picked up my journal, and stared at the rain.
May 12th: Rain as usual. I don't want to cause any more trouble for anyone, but I'm a bother either way. Can it really be such a sin to run instead of fight?
Some people may say so, but they don't have to live in my shoes. It may be selfish, but it's what I want. It's too hard like this, it's just too hard.
I curled into a ball, and began to cry.
Crazy candy-striper Claudia strolled into my room. When she saw me, I caught sight of an odd sparkle in her eyes, like my pain was making her happy. Psycho bitch. "Guess what, Mr. Daniels?" she asked, chipper.
"What now?" I groaned.
"You're being released tomorrow!"