Chapter 2

Aaron bolted straight up, as if awakening from a terrible nightmare.

"Whoa, careful! If you sit up to fast, you'll get lightheaded and pass out again." A voice drifted to him from his right. He whipped his head around and found himself face to face with a mildly attractive, red-headed woman with a deeply freckled face. But it was from her eyes that Aaron found himself unable to pry his away. She had absolutely gorgeous, deep green eyes. However, the thing that drew him in was that they were the same eyes that looked out at him whenever he looked in the mirror. They held the same haunted look that his did.

She seemed to be about his age, if not a few years younger. She was smiling broadly at Aaron, and seemed to be incredibly glad that he was there with her. He smiled back, unsure of anything to say. Feeling the moment growing awkward, he pulled his eyes from the woman to take a look at his surroundings.

"So…what's your name?" the woman asked as Aaron took in the high, ornate ceiling.

"Aaron," he replied slowly as he noticed the high stained-glass windows. "What's your's?"

"Emily." She looked up as she said this, idly following the path of Aaron's eyes.

"How the hell did I get here?" Aaron asked, bringing his eyes back down to meet Emily's.

"I found you…passed out in front of the store two blocks from here. I couldn't just leave you there, so I brought you here."

"Then it must have been a dream…" he mumbled to himself. He reached up to rub his neck. Even though he knew it had to be a dream, he still felt the pain and horror he had felt then.

"Oh…" Emily began searching her pockets. She stopped for a second, apparently finding something, and pulled it out. "This fell from your pocket when I was getting you into the car. It was a bit harder than I thought."

Aaron's hand trembled a bit as he grabbed the small radio from Emily. He knew that what had happened before had to be a dream, but all the details of it came flooding back to him at the sight of the radio. He couldn't get that horrible shriek that had come from it out of his head. He shook his head, trying to jar the thoughts from his mind. He turned to Emily, somehow finding her face comforting. He found her looking back at him, a look of worry taking over her face.

"Have you seen them, too?" She asked quietly.

"Seen what?" Aaron asked, though he was afraid of her answer.

"The…the creatures that are lurking in this town. Like visions out of nightmares. Have you seen them?" A sad, almost pleading look came upon her face. She wanted him to say yes, and he knew it. He also knew what his answer would have to be even though he didn't want to believe it.

"I've seen—one. What the hell are they?"

"I don't know," Emily said, bringing her eyes to the ground as she did. "I was hoping you knew." She hugged her knees and rocked back and forth a bit. Tears slowly welled up in her eyes. "I'm scared," she practically whispered. "I've lived in Silent Hill all my life and always felt safe. Then, I wake up this morning…and…" Unexpectedly, she started crying. Aaron was caught off guard. He reached a hand over to comfort her, but wasn't sure if his touch would do any good.

"Hey, I'm scared too," Aaron said, surprised at his own vulnerability. "But we need to hold on to what little bit of courage we still have if were going to get out of this pla…Silent Hill." He said the name slowly, a flicker of a memory passing in front of his eyes. He knew this place, even if he could not figure out how he had got there from his job in Brahms. He remembered when he had been moving to Brahms, in hopes of turning his life around. The highway signs shined like bright green prophets, showing him the way to this place. He remembered that he had almost taken the exit for the town. He remembered the truck that kept him from it. He remembered that terrible, malevolent feeling.

Blinking his eyes, he pulled himself from his memories, and found Emily nestled in his arms, sobbing, a young daughter in her father's arms. He gently rubbed her back, and laid his head on hers.

"We'll make it out of here, Emily. I promise." He sat there for a second, almost expecting a response, but was met with her soft sobbing. He shifted slightly, signaling that he needed to stand up. She lifted herself up and looked at him with hope in her eyes.

"I know I will."

Aaron felt a shiver run down her spine at the way she said this. He wanted to correct her but didn't feel that the time was right. He turned and slowly started scanning the church.

"Alright, if we're going to get out of here, we'll probably run into more of those—monsters. So, we're going to need something to protect ourselves." As he said this, his eyes fell on a small metal cross that looked like it would make an excellent makeshift bat. The thought of using a cross like this felt wrong to him, but he felt that the situation he was in was wrong as well. Besides, religion wasn't that great of a thing to him. Everybody could hold their own beliefs, as long as he could hold onto his.

He crouched down to grab the cross. His fingers wrapped around it, and slowly picked it up feeling the weight of it. But he suddenly recoiled in pain. The cross hit the ground with a deafening clatter in the stark silence. Aaron looked down at his hand, holding it in pain. A large gash had appeared across his hand.

"I cut myself," he said staring at the gash, while his blood slowly oozed out of the large opening in his skin. Emily ran over to see, cringing a bit at the sight of blood.

"Uh…put some pressure on it to stop the bleeding. We need some kind of cloth to bandage it." Aaron nodded his head down at his sleeve, indicating the two layers of clothing he was wearing. Emily reached up and expertly ripped off a strip, which she then used to tightly cover the wound.

"What are you, a girl scout?" Aaron said jokingly. Emily chuckled a bit.

"I'm in nursing school at the University in Silent Hill. I've always enjoyed helping people and I figured a nurse was a great way to follow that passion." She stepped back a bit to admire her handy work. "That should do just fine for now."

"Thanks," he said, impressed. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. But her smile quickly turned to one of fear. Aaron didn't need to turn around to know why. A muffled, static shriek was slowly beginning to grow from his pocket, as a shadow fell into his line of vision. This time he knew not to wait around. He grabbed Emily's hand, and took off at a run towards a door at the other end of the church. The window behind them exploded in a shower of colored shards. Every bit of Aaron's common sense was screaming at him to just keep running and not to look back. But an unnaturally seductive urge was calling out to him from deep within his soul was telling him to look at the monstrosity that was chasing them.

He could not resist the pull. His head turned slowly and his eyes caught sight of what appeared to be a large dog—had the dog been turned inside out. It was covered in raw flesh that looked as if it would never stop bleeding. Large, grotesque claws protruded from the creature's paws. A horrible grin of sharp, foreboding teeth was plastered on the dog's lipless face.

Aaron snapped his head back forward to see where he was going. As fast as they were running, the dog's four long legs were carrying it ever closer. Aaron's outstretched hand reached the door first, frantically trying to pull it open. His hands trembled fiercely as he brought both forward to grasp the doorknob.

"Aaron!" Emily yelled, grabbing his shoulder, pure terror filling her voice. He knew that their only hope was the door. He knew that it was his fear that was keeping him from opening it.

He took a deep breath, turned the knob sharply and threw open the door as the creature took its final lunge.