Chapter One

The room wasn't such a bad place. Well, at least Leo remembered seeing worse places. With Claire still in the toilet, enjoying her hot warm bath and Sean outside grabbing food from the local diner, Leo turned towards old sofa in front of the TV before settling down, his eyes on the television's blank screen. The distant sound of the cars outside, accompanied by the sound of rain falling on the roof could be heard, beating back the otherwise awkward silence of the room. He looked up at the clock set up above the TV, then at his wrist watch for conformation.

It was getting late, and there still wasn't any sign of Keith. He and Claire had sent a couple of messages to his phone over the past few hours, and still he had yet to reply. When Leo had voiced his concerns, Sean had simply replied, 'He's a big boy. He can take care of himself. What are you so worried about?'

Leo yawned. He put his feet up on the sofa before stretching lazily, prepared to lay back down and catch some much-needed 'z's which he had lost on the highway. He didn't care what Sean wanted to say tomorrow- it would be his turn to drive, and Leo's turn to laze out in the backseat.

'I need to go to Silent Hill. Do you think we could stop there?'

He remembered Keith's intense brown eyes staring into his with a sort of pleading expression. He had looked so tired then, like he would collapse at any given moment. That was what had worried him, that he couldn't ever remember Keith looking so worn out before. It looked as though he had been losing sleep. No, more than that. It looked as though he was sick, and needed help desperately.

'I'm fine, Leo. I just need to see my mother. It'll only be one day, I promise.'

Leo could feel his eyelids drooping. Realizing this, he forced himself upright again, and back onto his feet. Shaking his head slowly, he walked up towards the window and drew back the faded yellow curtains and looked out onto the street to see Sean coming out of the diner with a brown paper bag in his hands. The blue Hawaiian shirt he wore almost made him shine in the darkness outside, reflecting the lights from the shop house windows and the cars passing by.

Still there was no sign of Keith. Grabbing his cellphone from a nearby wooden table where the rest of the gang had left their luggage, he dialed Keith's number for the third time tonight.

-

'I won't tell.'

He looked at his brother's blood-smeared face, and his lips broke into a smile. He touched Kyle's face, and looked at his fingers to see if the blood was real. It was real enough. Real. Real.

His smile turned into a grin.

'Keep it a secret?'

Kyle put his left index finger to his lips.

'Shhh…'

-

'Shhh…'

It was dark. The fog had given way to total, absolute darkness. There was no moon above, no stars, nothing. But he was in town. Of that much, he was certain. He remembered the mart near the town exit- his mother used to take him and Kyle there as children. It was still there now. As he stood on its doorstep, he touched the painted blue walls of the shophouse as though to check if it was real.

It was real enough. But it was dark. Silent, like the rest of the town. The windows were all boarded up, and there weren't any lights turned on anywhere he could see.

He knocked on the front door.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is there anyone there?"

No answer.

He backed away, and tried the door next to the one he was at. He knocked at it harder, calling out louder. Still no answer came. His heart suddenly beating faster, he tried one door after another, convinced, somehow, that at least one of them would have someone inside.

Realizing, eventually, that his attempts were getting him nowhere, he fumbled for the cellphone in his pocket.

He dialed Claire's number. If the town was abandoned, they would probably be looking for him right now. They wouldn't turn around and just leave, would they? No, no it wasn't possible. They were his friends. Claire would have stopped them. Yes, yes, yes. She would have. Yes. Yes.

"Come on, come on, pick up," Keith murmured, pacing back and forth in front of a nearby gas station.

When he reached her answering machine, he swore and immediately started to dial Sean's number- but just as he was about to hit the 'call' button, his cellphone started to ring.

It was Leo.

Sighing with relief, Keith pressed the 'accept' button before raising the phone to his ears, expecting to hear a very angry Leo demanding to know where he was.

All he heard was a loud buzzing. Like static from a badly tuned radio. His eyes widening with surprise, he looked at his phone again, and saw that the call was still indeed made by Leo. He put the phone back to his ears and called out, "Leo? Hello? Leo, are you there?"

Still all he could hear was the buzzing.

'What the fuck is going on?'

He turned off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket, unaware of the dragging sound coming up behind him….

-

'It's only for a day, guys. What harm could it possibly do?'

Claire emerged from the water, catching her breath before lying back, humming a slow tune. She hoped that Leo and Sean weren't in a hurry to use the toilet, because right now she only felt like spending as much time in here as humanly possible.

The toilet wasn't all that fancy, like the rest of the room. The mirror was cracked, possibly by the previous guest and the motel owner hadn't had a chance to do anything about it yet. Some of the black and white tiles were cracked at the edge of the toilet, and water was dripping from the tap at the sink. Definitely not five-star service, but it was enough, considering they didn't have that much money to spend anyway. She'd heard that there was a larger, fancier hotel in the middle of the lake, but then she doubted that they'd be able to afford it. Unless Sean got in another one of his 'generous moods'. Regardless of being the 'rich kid', Sean had insisted on the journey being spent in the most normal way possible.

She respected him for that, somewhat.

'Thanks, Claire.'

Her mind drifted to Keith, and she wondered if he'd found his way to the motel yet, or if he'd at least responded to the messages she and Leo had sent. 'What could possibly be keeping him?' she wondered.

'Maybe he just has a lot to say to his mother. Probably has it all planned out on paper,' she mused.

She couldn't help but worry, though. Something just didn't feel right.

'I'm here for you, you understand? Don't you ever fucking try this again!'

The memory brought back a frown to her face. She couldn't remember being so scared in her entire life. Well, he had been normal enough for the past year or so, so she doubted…

'Thanks, Claire.'

And that was when she was forced underwater.

It happened so suddenly that at first, she didn't know how to react. Then panic kicked in and all she could do was struggle, push back against the hands holding her inside the tub. Breathe. All she needed to do was breathe. Breathe.

Goddamnit what the fuck is going on? No, no, no, no, no! Shit! NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS! FUCK!

Before she felt the hands withdraw, she thought she saw, as she rose from the water, Keith's face, smiling at her.