Where I end and you begin
Prologue- Meanwhile, far away.
'I hate this place.'
And that was the only thought to fill the nurse's head as she rounded the corner to find herself presented with yet another of Brook Haven's sterile, unremarkable hallways. With a flat grunt, she gave the lumbering metal trolley she'd been left charge of a vicious push, wrestling against it as the rickety wheels holding it inches above the floor which positively hummed with the sharp tang of disinfectant began their sharp yammering once more. Having stopped the cart from fulfilling its dream of ploughing straight into the pale, sickly green wall that fell away to her side as she turned, the nurse let her mind slip back into its former state of bitter stewing.
'I hate this job too…'
On she and the trolley rolled while the harsh over-head lamps beat on down, spewing their artificial light all over the cart's content, illuminating various capsules and boxes along with the menagerie of pills stored with in with a sickly, false hue.
'And of course,' the young nurse went on, her mental whining staying safely locked with in the confides of her skull. 'Let's not forget patient number S4's god damn reading material.' For a brief moment, the light flickered on in her eyes as they dropped down to the cart and cut through the clutter littering it's stainless steel top, the dull pupils coming to a rest on a hefty dog eared book. The nurse felt the muscles around her mouth tease her lips into a curl, giving her the appearance of someone who has just spied what the dog heaved up onto the carpet as her gaze lay upon the tome. It was one of those volumes that looked as though it could be classified as a lethal weapon if dropped from a reasonable height.
'I hate that, but not as much as I hate all these goddamn stiffs.' The un-heard rant raged on as she came to a halt outside a door that looked just like all the others that lined the corridor. The only thing that allowed it to stand somewhat apart from the rest of its brood was the small, metal plank nailed into it, adorned with the number four and letter 'S'. 'Vegetables, the lot of them. They don't know just how good they've got it.' Without even looking down at the forest of medicine containers, the nurse scooped up one of the little orange containers and that great big book as if she'd gone through the motion every day of her life. Sighing, she pulled a key from the front pocket of her uniform, unlocked the door before her and dragged herself inside room S4.
For a moment, she had to pull herself out of the haze that she'd submerged herself in and blinked. The atmosphere in here was so much heavier than that of the snaking hallways; even the rich, three o'clock sun seemed to be having difficulty wading through the air in here as it trickled through the single, barred window...
…But this sensation of blundering into another strange, alien world only held her with its magic for a moment. Almost mechanically, the Nurse cranked her self round and turned on the bed crammed up against the wall. That sunlight just caught the synthetic, scratchy blanket, setting the wool ablaze and leaving the nurse squinting as she tried to make out the tell-tale mound that indicated the bed's lone occupant.
"It's medication time." She drawled, watching half-heartedly for any indication of life from Mr. S4. "I brought that book you were hankering for too…" She trailed off, her listless voice evaporating into the sun-washed air.
There was no reaction.
Fantastic. Just fantastic. She'd managed to catch the lazy bastard having one of his 'little naps'. Going on past experience, rousing him would be no easy task (though not nearly as unpleasant as it had been to drag that Mr. Kaprow in M3 out of bed) and she couldn't just leave the pills here on the bed-side table on the assumption that the patient, upon waking, would put two and two together and pop the colourful little tablets. Oh no, some big wig and his friends had got together and decided that an act like that would qualify as negligence and if any young nurse was fool enough to entertain the notion of leaving these patience up to their own devices when it came to taking their medicine only to have something go wrong… well, they'd be up to their chin in law suites faster than you could say 'see you in court'.
With yet another of those 'what the hell did I do to end up here' sighs, she placed the assortment of pills and that loathsome book down on the little, spotless table that was huddled up against the mattress like the fretting relative that never came to visit the man occupying room S4.
"Come on, you need to take your medicine now." The nurse turned on the bed and the motionless lump inhabiting it. She lent over him, and was just about to give him a less than gentle shake when she looked down, caching his up-turned face just within the edge of her vision.
She froze; jerking her head round to make sure it hadn't been a trick of the dusky light.
It hadn't, and for the first time since she'd walked in through Brook Haven Hospital's entrance at five of the am, the look of sulky apathy buckled with emotion.
Fear and shock. The pair filled her as she watched the twisted, writhing face of the sandy-haired man, gurning as if some invisible force had decided it would be fun to open him up and give his insides a good stir with a hot poker. His eyes raced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, eye-lids yanked open to expose even the small nest of veins that traced the orbs' circumference. The muscles in his throat gave a sharp spasm as something rocketed up his throat and escaping from his wide lips as a small, wet, strangulated sound. The Nurse didn't even feel the warm, damp spray of saliva that escaped with it hit her face.
'A fit… oh god, he's having a fit and they'll say it's all my fault.' The thought blazed through her head at one hundred and twenty miles per hour and the nurse reeled back, yanking herself away from the choking, thrashing visage. She was about to tear herself from the bed as well, just to put even more distance between her and the man who seemed to be in the very grips of a death thro when it all stopped; the mouth clicked shut with a dry clack of teeth on teeth and eyes froze in their very sockets, the two black dots at their centre drilling into the nurse.
The room plummeted into silence.
"…" The Nurse opened her mouth to say something but whatever it was clung tenaciously to the walls of her throat like a bunch of swallowed fish-bones.
'Get someone in charge… you're not paid enough to deal with something like this.'
Right, yes. Good idea. Get a doctor, then you can share the blame when this sap goes and swallows his tongue.
The Nurse rose stiffly, straightened up and turned to bolt from the room. However, before she could take even one step towards the door, something warm and tight locked around her wrist.
"Help me."
The Nurse shot a glance over her shoulder as the piteous run of words breezed past her ear. The patient was still boring into her with a pair of wide eyes, chocked with rabid panic. "Help me!" The cry came again, a little louder while the hand snaking out from beneath the sheets wound tighter around the nurse's caught arm. If she'd been able to look down, she would have seen all the tendons and veins that ran across the appendage stand out like a bunch of iron chords under his paper thin skin as it gripped desperately onto her, biting down like a sprung bear trap.
But the nurse could do nothing but look into those fretful eyes and feel herself begin to lose herself within them.
"HE'S COMING!" Suddenly, the man was up on his two feet, both hands sinking themselves into any part of the nurse they could find as they scurried over her, hunting for something to cling to and save him from what ever nightmare he'd stumbled into while dozing on the now empty bed. "OH GOD, CAN'T YOU SEE?" He yanked the nurse towards him, her shoes slipping helplessly against the linioum floor as his arms snapped in. "HE'S GOING TO GET ME... HE'S GOING TO KILL, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO SOMETHING. PLE". He choked, the words tangling in his throat as his voice cut out. The only thing that now escaped from that wide, yawning mouth that hung open only inches from the nurse's face was empty silence that washed over her in ragged breaths. The pair stood like that for only a mere moment; utterly stock still as if some celestial viewer had chosen this exact moment to press the pause button on the whole ghastly scene before it got a chance to spiral any further out of control.
But it couldn't last forever. Ever so slowly, like a pieces of rusty old machinery on their final legs, the patient's hands began to sack, allowing the blood to flood back into the nurse's arms. The sensation of that warm torrent rushing back into her numb fingers was all it took to snap her from what ever ghastly , hypnotic charm that panicking gaze of his had cast over her. With a yelp she tore herself free from his already limp hands with enough gusto to send her staggering backwards, but that was just fine with her, it took her all the nearer to the open and waiting door. Without taking her eyes off the sagging man, she bolted for the hallway that lay beyond it and threw herself out of the tiny room as if the patient lurking with in it were already chasing after her, armed with all manner of sharp and pointy implements.
Her performance wasn't necessary. By the time her screams came echoing down the long and barren corridor, the spindly inhabitant of room S4 had already collapsed to his knees and was slowly sinking into nothing more than a dejected heap. Those arms, which had only moments ago been running high on adrenaline and just about ready to crush the poor nurse suspended between them, slipped around his torso, softly clutching at the wool of his hospital gown as if the cheap, flimsy material were the only thing holding him together.
Numbly, he sat in the soft rectangle of mellow, afternoon sun that came streaming in through the room's lone and tiny window, but even it's yellow touch couldn't warm him back into life as his quietly contemplated a spot on the wall with eyes that cut straight through it and into some dark, uncharted land.
8 8 8
AN- And so, after a very, very long interlude, I'm sitting down to write something longer than one chapter. Some of you people may recognise me as that poor speller who wrote that painfully long fic: Sin's of the Father, if so, I hope I can hold your attention with this new story. If not, then I'll just warn you now, despite grooming this with a spell checker, the occational fault may slip through so please, bear with me. Thanks again.
P.S- this story is basically what I though Silent Hill 4 was going to be, so there may be some ideas that seem a little like it. However, my pre-conception turned out to be nothing at all like the game.
Silent Hill is property of Konami, blah, blah, blah, excetera!