Author's Note: Sorry 'bout the wait folks. I had a combination of errand running, tiredness from errand running, and a one-shot for my brother's birthday (it's a That 70s Show and Silent Hill crossover parody. Look for it on July 5th). Anyway, now you can expect the conclusion of the Apartment trilogy.

Silent Hill 2: Founded Fears Ch. 8

Gotta' Open That Door

The sight she beheld was appalling. What happened to the walls, the lights, the floor, everything? It was so dark, so cold. This was hell.
When Angela entered the room with the mirror, she swore that the apartment looked much nicer than this. The walls that were once white with paint were now dingy and bare, the floor had no rug like before and there was garbage strewn everywhere. The kitchen area was a total mess, and none of the lights were on. After looking around, Angela found out the reason why-the lights were nowhere to be found. No fixtures, no switch, no nothing. Did some super fast demon electrician just waltz in while she was spazzing and remove everything? Unfortunately, that wasn't the most disturbing part. The one part that was still the same was that damned teddy bear, right by the door where she just exited. Still bruised, still battered, still looked like it was fucked for all it was worth. Angela just grabbed her purse and ran out of the room, making sure that that man (James, his name is James) wasn't following her.
The hallway was just as bad as the room, if not worse. There were no lights, the floors, walls, and ceiling was bare. Everything was dirty, and some of the doors that were there before were now non-existent, now just white patches of wall in their place.

"What's going on? This can't be real..."

She didn't have time to think. All of a sudden her radio went off. Turning on her light she scanned to the left of the hallway and found a rather unsettling sight. It appeared that one of the Sightless had managed to escape the wrath of the Doorman and was shuffling her way towards her. The worst part was that in the dark, it actually looked, bigger, more frightening as the bandaged freak went on the offensive in its clumsy way. If it weren't for the lack of eyes, Angela would have sworn it was giving her a death glare.
Angela was about to get her bat ready, when she remembered something...there was no bat.

"OH SHIT!"

That's right. While she was struggling with the Doorman earlier, she dropped the bat and in the haste of getting to Mama' room, she forgot to pick it back up. And with James holding her knife, Angela was completely defenseless. The only thing she could do was do a 180 and run for her life towards the exit. The Sightless, seeming to sense her fear, went ambling towards her with more speed than Angela realized she had. No matter. Angela had just reached the exit, when the inevitable happened; it was realized that the door's handle was broken. Trying to think of another option while the Sightless was closing the distance between themselves, Angela knew the only escape route was the stairway behind the monstrosity. Sure, she could try room 105, but Angela had a feeling that that would just lead to a dead end while the thing could just follow her. Feeling just a little angry, Angela cursed to herself.
"Jesus fucking christ."
She swore her radio went a little louder in static, but she chose to ignore it. There was only one option; run past the creature and hope she could avoid it's long fingered, sharp nailed grasp.
Angela crouched into a runner's position.
Angela tensed with adrenaline.
Angela sprang forth in her dash of faith.
The Sightless was taken aback a little by her prey's sudden courage, allowing Angela to sidestep it and almost run past. However, the thing's reflexes and recovery was quick, and soon, in a blur of motion, had a rotten hand around Angela's throat, gripping with its nails and lifting her off the ground. Angela was struggling, but it was fruitless. She couldn't break free. Then she remembered. What she saw in that mirror. A Sightless posing as herself as though it was herself. Angela got an idea. It sickened her to the core, but if this creature was as much as Angela as she thought it was, then it would react accordingly. Grabbing hands reaching out, she clutched the bandages that covered the groin area of the monstrosity and pulled as hard as she could. What gave way was bandages attached to the skin so long that it was practically a second skin being pulled off. What was revealed was horrifying. With so much being pulled off, the vagina that was stuck to the bandage was being mutilated as the tissue started tearing. Instantly the Sightless let go, clutching its groin area in pain, screeching in an inhuman manner. Angela covered her ears, not wanting to go deaf from the sound. Then she saw it. Crouched down, huddling its legs together, and glaring at her in both contempt in fear, just like that fateful day where Daddy went to jail. A whispered voice came through the extra static on the radio.
"Oh my dear, dear buttercup. Jesus doesn't love you when you use his name like that."
Angela just kept staring at the mirror image of herself of when she was 13 years old.
"Don't you see. That's you on the inside. And that demon...that Devil... is your only lover."
Angela started to tense, her face going into an intense glare and her teeth clenching.
"Wait until you meet the kids. They can blame you for being the monsters they are. Their mommy was bad, and they had to suffer. Poor things. Well, at least you managed to reproduce like you're supposed to. So maybe God will love you a little, but only enough to send you to the second of last level of hell instead of the bottom." The transmission died out with a little chuckle, leaving only the static that the Sightless was giving off.
"AARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
With a terrible, human like version of the Sightless's screech, Angela lunged forward and grabbed the thing by the bandages wrapping its head. With all her strength she swung the creature into a nearby door, where its head was punctured with a sickening "thwuck" by the doorknob. For a strong creature, it sure was fragile. It died along with the radio.
No man was going to tell her what was right or wrong. They were all hypocrites anyway. They were the reason why she was in this mess, why she had been tortured for so long. They would all pay, yes they would. They all deserved to die. Besides, if she was truly was the demon that they said she was, it was their own fault.

"They created Frankenstein's monster. Well, I should thank them for my rebirth into this new woman."

Angela had a real malicious smile on her face. All of a sudden this place seemed to suit her. She headed towards the stairway. Why didn't she bother to try and kill James, you ask? It's simple. Although she wouldn't admit it, she was afraid of him, like that particular man was the alpha male. She saw it in the way he held that knife. The knife twice the size of herself. Why did she give that weapon back to him? Well, its best to retreat until later. Funny though, she could have sworn that knife was smaller.
Making her way up the stairs, she wasn't surprised to see that it looked the same as everywhere else. All falling apart. What did surprise her, however, was the fact that the stairs ended at the second floor instead of the third.

"Great, I can't even get my bat back now," a more amusing thought came to her, "Well, at least I know that that Eddie bastard is stuck up there. Fat pig."

Indeed, Eddie was trapped, but he would manage to escape. Unfortunately, this is a story for another time.
To make matters worse, the door that led to the second floor hallway was locked with a strange looking device. From the looks of it, it was a custom lock that was shaped like a door itself, only it seemed to resemble not just any door, but the greenish hued one that the demon from the ranch emerged from. Angela backed away, looking warily at the strange contraption, as though a miniature demon would pop out and attack her. Deciding there was nothing left but to try room 105 for a window she could climb out of, she was about to go into the first floor hall when she heard that violent static so much like when she tried to enter Mama's room. Whatever that thing was, it was back. Waiting patiently for it go away, she heard it pace around the hall a lot from the other side of the stairway door. It stopped moving when it reached the south end of the hall. Curious, Angela cautiously nudged the door open a little. The door wasn't budging to much, so she had to put some muscle into opening it.
She used too much and ended up falling into the hall.
At the end of the hall was the monster that was causing the static. Standing on two legs and looking green was the door that had disappeared at the ranch.

"My God. That's the thing that followed me in the forest."

Another realization hit.

"That thing was in Mama's room according to the radio! What could this mean?"

Did this thing get ahead of her and kill Mama? No, it couldn't be, it just couldn't.
Then it did the strangest thing. Instead of attacking when it noticed her, it approached what was room 102. That door didn't work. As it approached, it turned around and walked backwards towards the room. Once it touched the wall, the legs disappeared in smoke and the door part settled into the frame of the wall with green gas coming out of the seams. The door stood ajar then, and a grimy hand appeared and beckoned her to come inside.
Feeling a little foolish, but compelled, she let herself be led towards the room in question. When she got near enough, however, that same hand shot out at her wrist, grabbed it, and pulled her inside before she could react.
The inside was as dark as night, yet she could inexplicably see just fine. Turning around, Angela saw that her assailant wasn't to be found. What was going on?
This room was different from the others to say the least. First, there were the flames in the kitchen and bedroom area. Luckily, they didn't seem to want to spread towards the center of the room. In the middle was a table. On it was what looked like a bible. Taking a closer look, she found that the cross was upside down in the middle of the cover.

"At least I'm not the only pagan in this place," she thought humorously to herself.

Opening the book, she found it was actually hollow and made of wood and keeping something inside. Taking a look at it, she found a folded sheet of paper. Taking it up, she unfolded it and it read:

Don't deny your place, the Great One said unto his people. If one asks for tyranny than they shalt have some from me. Sin will only grant you my eternal animosity and wrath. Your power has no effect on my ways, although you possess it with your hands and feet as well as your calendar, but my power is divine, always two steps ahead of your scheming, and twice as deadly as any vagrant can be. Hearken unto my name and you will be forgiven. Do not seek to tangle with the Seedless who would end your lives and my reign, but cast the daemon out. Ignore the sign. Seedless is one step ahead, but the power can be broken by half with faith. Amen.

"..."

"What book did this come from?"

She then noticed the object that was underneath the paper. It was a key, but it had a special design to it. From the looks of it, it had that same green color as the padlock upstairs, and it also had little copper legs to go along with it. How cute.
Angela put the key, and after some thought, the scrap of paper in her purse and turned to leave. That was when hell broke loose. She heard some sound like a child's laughter, and turned around towards the source; the kitchen and bedroom area. The fire had just started exiting from the room.
In a panic, Angela started to run for the exit, but was dismayed by the sight before her. The fire had somehow teleported itself behind her and blocked her exit. Frightened, she stepped back as the flames began to fan out and circle her, leaving her in a ring of fire. One of the flames leapt out at her, startling Angela and causing her to fall on the table and tip it over. Thats when she noticed it; there was a random fire extinguisher underneath the table the whole time. More worried about whether it could be used rather than why it was there, Angela picked it up, aimed the nozzle towards the fire in front of the door, and blasted away. The flames quickly subsided, but only enough for Angela to make her escape.
As she dashed through the other side of the demonic door, she heard her radio go off. Looking around, she saw nothing but a dark hallway. Whatever it was was hidden in the shadows down the hall. Looking behind her to check on the rest of the fire, she was surprised to see that the door was once again gone, leaving only the broken door on the wall. Stepping forward, she felt the door for heat.
Nothing.
Did that...whatever it was take the fire inside with it? She felt a lot more comfortable with the thing gone.

"Okay, now onto more urgent matters."

Turning around, she readied her fire extinguisher (with nothing else on her, it was the best weapon she had), and crept slowly down the hallway. As the radio begin to increase in volume with the distance closed, she heard the flapping of wings. A Devil was coming towards her. Deciding to wait for it to come to her, she take a type of battle stance and readied the hose on the extinguisher. The Devil had just entered the light of her pocket flashlight. Turning the thing on, Angela hit it square in the eyes before it could react to her presence. It fell from the air clutching its face, screaming in anger. Not letting up, Angela charged towards it and after bringing her weapon up, she plunged it full force into the Devil's head, causing a huge clunk to emit from it. It fell to the ground, stunned, but still alive. Repeating the process over and over, she finally hit the head so many times that the skull cracked open, after which she stomped the remaining life out of it with her foot. The radio finally died out.
After recovering her breath from the exhaustion of what she was doing, Angela continued to walk until she reached the stairwell. Making her way up, she found the door that had the demon door padlock on it. Taking out the key, she proceeded to insert it when it got pulled into the hole, like something took it in by force on the other side. Angela swore she heard a little yelp come out of nowhere, but she chalked that up to her imagination. Taking the key in her palm, she attempted to turn it, but found resistance coming from the lock. Angela heard whimpering. She made a mental note to see a psychologist later about hearing things. Using all her strength, Angela finally turned the key, and was surprised to hear a sickening crack, like someone's neck being broken. The key and lock both tumbled to the floor and the door swung open just an inch.

"Is it just me, or did I just murder that key?"

Laughing nervously at the thought that she might have gone crazy, Angela opened the door and chose to leave that particular experience behind her.
She was immediately greeted by static, but the source was nowhere to be found. Making her way down the hall, she heard scurrying in the darkness. It seemed to be close to the floor. Making her way through and keeping her weapon ready, she scanned the darkness, but had found nothing so far. When she was halfway down, however, the scurrying noise made itself known as an insect coming towards her. It was a giant cockroach, about the size of a person's foot, and from the sound of the static, it had friends. Sure enough, more revealed themselves into the light. All of them had an aura of hunger around them, making Angela think of them as disease ridden land piranha. As they made their way towards her, Angela did what came natural to most people; she put up her shoe, and squashed the nearest one. This proved to be a costly mistake. The others rushed in while she raised up her foot for a second strike, and found her remaining leg being overwhelmed by 3 of the 5 remaining roaches. All bit down at once with exceptionally large and sharp pincers, the pain shocking Angela and causing her to lose her balance. She fell on one the roaches, that somehow got behind her, killing it. The remaining ones on her leg continued to nibble while the final one made its way into her hair. Now panicking, Angela stood up screaming and proceeded to try to bat the one on her head off. Its legs were to embedded into her hair, so finally she had to take her hand and squeeze it in her grip, finally forcing it off and squishing the life out of it at the same time. As for the last three, Angela took her fire extinguisher and proceeded to pound it on her leg where the roaches were. She probably ended up bruising herself, but anything was worth getting those things off of her.
She stood panting as she finished the job. So tired was she, but she couldn't afford to rest yet. She had to find a way out of the building. That was when she felt a draft, and she also noticed it was coming from her left. Looking there, she saw that her fight somehow took her to the end of the hall and in front of room 203, where the door was open. Curious (as always) about what was causing the breeze, she stepped inside the room.
There wasn't much to comment on; the bed was unmade, a horrible smell came from the bathroom, and there was an open safe. One item of interest was the broken window. That was where the breeze was coming from. Getting closer to it, she realized that the breeze wasn't from the wind, but from air conditioning, for you see, there was another building not 3 feet away from the one she was in, and it had an ajar fire escape door. It was the neighboring apartment, Woodside.
Angela stood there, pondering. Should she go to the other side?
What other option does she have?
Approaching the window, she put the extinguisher under her arm and used her other arm to grab purchase onto the other side. This made her have to carry the purse strap in her teeth, but it really wasn't a big deal.
The other side was the same as the other apartment, only the layout of the hallway was different. It went straight down and there were two adjacent hallways both leading to the left. That wasn't what Angela wanted though. Her main object of interest was the door to her right down the hall. If memory serves from visiting Mama's neighbors, that should be the stairwell.
When she tried it, the expected happened; the door wasn't working. This wasn't her day.
Cursing silently under her breath (she had calmed down much since the radio's last broadcast, but her words were no less harsh), she decided to try the stairs at the end of the first adjacent hallway. Making her way up, she found a metal gate barring her path towards the end of the hall.

"Great. Thats just nice."

It was then that she heard it.
Static, but not from her radio.
From room 208, the one she was next to.
There might be someone inside.
Getting her weapon ready just in case, she cautiously opened the door.
And wished she hadn't.
At the far end of the room was somebody alright. That somebody was dead in his chair, the back facing her. In front was a television showing nothing but snow (so that's where the static came from), and on the top blood was splattered, whoever this guy was, he was dead due to head trauma from the television.
Angela was about to leave when a voice, that same whispering voice from earlier, started to emit from the T.V.
"Who would take the way of the Seedless, and turn away from thine responsibility?"
Angela, frightened yet intrigued, approached the box. A shadow silhouette of a person emerged into the screen. The entity began to speak again.
"Blood is the root of all life, and the Lord prohibits the taking of life. Blood can only be repaid in blood."
Butterflies start fluttering around the screen, and a background comes in of another apartment room. The figure is still in shadow.
"Those who would run from punishment would always seek help of the Seedless, the unmaker of life, the anti-birth. Only hell awaits in that womb. But even the damned can be saved, if they take the Lord's guidance, and open the door to his forgiveness. Only by opening the door and letting his light in, can one be truly saved."
The screen began to emit static and became snowy again. Then a small boom sounded from the other side of the wall. Angela yelped and jumped a little at the sound.
"What was that?"
Wanting to check it out, she went back into the hallway and made a right at the end to continue further. Her radio emitted static as she did so. She moaned. She didn't want to deal with those creatures again. But then she remembered something. How the Devils had little eyesight in the fog, so how would they be in the dark? If this was a Sightless she was thinking about, it might be a different story, since they might be perpetually blind anyway. Taking in the information, she got an idea and turned off her flashlight. It was darker than she imagined, but she could still manage to see pretty well. Unusual for her being in a dimly lit place, but she could manage. The question was, could those demons? Making her way down, she reached the second hallway and took a peek around the corner.
There it was. A Devil down the hall, near the halfway point. Luckily, she didn't need to go past it. The smell of smoke came from the nearest door, signifying that it was the place of the explosion. Walking casually around the corner and opening the door, she paused, to see if it noticed. It still went along its mindless business. Relieved, and thrilled, about being right about this creature's weakness in the dark, Angela proceeded to enter the room.
The smell of smoke was intense, and it was all coming from the bedroom in the far left corner of the front room. Making her way there, she found a rather interesting sight. Scattered on the bed were dead butterflies, and there was a hole in the wall that looked slightly charred.

"Is this the room where that sermon was broadcast? And who would blow up a hole in the wall?"

Not really wanting to think about it, Angela looked on the bed for anything important. Her foot struck something underneath the bed. Angela looked down, puzzled, and picked up the hanging sheets which was concealing the object. There was a small box there with a combination lock. On the lid was the pagan cross.

"Another riddle huh? Well, let's crack this open and see what was left for me."

She took the little slip of paper out of her purse, and read the verse silently to herself for the first number. Upon reading about man's power being on feet, hands and calendar, it was obvious what the first number was.

"Five, the number of power, like in the book It."
She turned the dial once and let it settle on 5.
The said verse then talked of the power of the divine being two steps ahead of man, and twice as powerful.
"Fourteen. Seven is divine power, and two multiplied by seven is fourteen."
She turned the knob once again and set it on 14.
The final clue lay with the Seedless's power. Angela could only guess that the Seedless was another name for the Devil, so she knew the answer in a heartbeat.
"Three. Satan is the number six, and that divided is three."
Turning the dial twice and placing it on 3, the lock opened.
In the box was nothing but a matchbook and some abnormally sized firecrackers. Picking both up and studying them, Angela then looked at the hole in the wall.
"I guess I'm supposed to finish whatever was started," she said to herself. Taking the matches and the firecrackers, she placed the explosives in the hole and lit them. Standing back to avoid getting burned, she didn't expect them to have so much power. They went off, and the shock wave sent her into the wall, knocking her unconscience.
She came to. How long was she out? As her vision came back into focus, she noticed that where the hole was before, was not a glimmering white door. How could this be? Not only was there a door behind the wall, but it appeared undamaged from the explosion. Not even a scorch mark was left.

"Gotta' open that door."

"Jack...did you mean this the whole time?"
Not really thinking about the weirdness of it all (she was starting to pick up a knack for that), Angela approached the door, opened it, and proceeded down the hidden stairs.
At the end was a trap door. Opening it, she found a lower floor bathroom. Letting herself down, she exited out of the bathroom and apartment and into the hallway.
She had just emerged from room 101. Angela's hopes were getting up. She knew where the courtyard was, and that it eventually led to the exit. Making a right down into the hall, she eventually made it to a door on her left. Exiting, she ended up in the courtyard. She was surprised to see it was evening. It must have been a couple of hours since she was knocked out. Making her way towards a building to her right, she went into the door at the back and ended up in the lobby area of the Woodside apartments. Thrilled at finally being free, she made her way to the front door and exited into the cool air of the town.

Author's note: Sorry that was long in coming. First off, this was my first major "level" of the story, and I would really like comments on the following: were the events too symbolic or not symbolic enough? Is this keeping in track with Silent Hill's psychology thriller theme, or is it becoming another Resident Evil ripoff? Is Angela's mood to extreme in your opinion? Please let me know. Also, I found out the official name for the Doorman, and found it to be Abstract Daddy. However, since Doorman is commonly used, and I feel more comfortable with it, I would prefer to keep it that name. See you in a bit fans (whatever little I have).