Chapter Three

"Sean, don't be a chicken," Leo sighed impatiently. He pointed the flashlight he'd withdrawn from the glove box straight at Sean's face and opened the car door. Behind him, Claire rolled her eyes, her arms folded in front of her chest. Their car was now parked outside the public washroom where they had left Keith earlier. The fog was almost gone now, only to be replaced by the darkness of the night. The forest path they had seen Keith disappear into didn't appear to have any lights, so they would have to rely on the single flashlight that they had. Of course, the slight problem now was Sean's fear of the dark. Even in the car, he had the lights turned on and the radio turned up to full blast.

"Get out of the car," Leo repeated, leaning inside the car to talk to Sean.

Shaking his head, Sean lowered the radio volume to talk to Leo. "I'm achluophobic, remember? Now you two run along, and I'll wait here in the car, in case he sees it and comes here."

Seeing the irritated look on Leo's face, Sean quickly added, "I'm the smart one, not the brave one. Now run along."

Rolling his eyes, Leo got out of the car before slamming the door shut. He turned around to face Claire, his annoyed look mirrored in hers. Shrugging, he walked ahead, saying, "Come on, let's get this over with quickly."

She walked by his side, sticking close. Regardless of not being as afraid of the dark as Sean possibly was, the darkness still unnerved her somewhat. Coupled with the fact that the incident in the bathroom was still fresh in her mind, she was suddenly wondering if coming out here in the middle of the night was such a good idea after all.

'Keith needs me,' she told herself. And she steeled herself to face whatever it would take to find him.

"Sure is cold out here," she murmured.

Beside her, Keith nodded in reply. "Ice cold," he agreed. "It's almost…unnatural." He was going to add that something didn't feel right about this town, but then he decided that it would make him sound paranoid. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Leo shone the flashlight ahead onto the dirt path.

"Footprints," Claire said. "I don't think he could have gotten lost out here. The path only leads one way."

"If these are his prints to begin with," Leo pointed out. "But I don't really think that there could be anyone else out here."

They didn't notice, however, as they walked ahead, that in the darkness behind them, someone was walking up the stairs towards the car park from which they had come from.

-

Meanwhile, in the car, Sean wasn't having much of a good time to begin with. As much as he hated being out there in the dark, he hated being alone. But with the loud music on to distract him, he decided that it beat being outside. Humming along to the heavy metal music, he grabbed a doughnut from the box he had left on the driver's seat and took one big bite, leaving a trace of strawberry jam trickling down his chin.

He peered over at the local newspaper lying in the seat beside him. Finishing off the doughnut and wiping his chin, he picked it up and started reading.

The front page article was about a series of murders from the neighboring city, South Ashfield. A woman had been found murdered in the subway, with the numbers 16121 carved into her corpse. Remembering the Walter Sullivan case from a year or so before sent a chill up his spine, and he set the article aside.

And that was when the car radio started causing problems.

It turned off on its own.

"What the…" Sean murmured, looking over at the radio. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it. Narrowing his eyes with confusion, he turned to radio on again. The music continued to play for a few seconds…

Before the radio turned off again.

Looking severely annoyed, Sean turned it on again. "Bloody hell," he whispered. "Not now."

When he turned it on again, however, it wasn't playing the cassette he had put inside it.

It wasn't even music. It sounded like a mass of people chanting something in some foreign tongue, with voices that sounded far from human. His eyes widening with fright, he tried switching the stations, to no avail. The chanting remained, steadily growing in volume until Sean couldn't hear his own voice as he shouted, "Fuck!" He tried turning it off, but it seemed that the thing had a life of its own now. Just as Sean was about to open the door and shout for Leo and Claire, the chanting stopped, replaced by the buzzing sound of radio static.

The sound hurt his ears, but it was more bearable at least than the horrid chanting. Still it made him uncomfortable, and he tried to turn the radio off.

The buzzing static gradually faded, replaced by the sound of actual music this time. Except that it sounded like something from an 80s TV show, or something you'd hear on an oldies station.

'Hiya folks, and welcome to another round of 'Three Choices'! Today's contestant is one Myra Hindley. As usual she'll be given a simple question, for which there will be three optional answers. If she chooses the right one, she wins a fabulous prize!'

Sean raised an eyebrow. What was this? The voice was that of a man from one of those radio commercials he felt that he'd heard too many times before, but he wasn't absolutely sure.

'Before we begin, I'll give you a simple warm-up question. Will that be okay, Myra?'

The voice that answered was the voice of a young woman. 'Alright.' The voice sounded rather shaky and uncertain.

'What is the name of the woman who was brutally murdered in South Ashfield early today? Is it, a) Donna Burke, b) Heather Morris or c) Cynthia Velasquez?'

'Cynthia…the answer is 'c',' the voice answered shakily.

'Correct!' the host exclaimed. 'Well it seems that you understand how this works. Now on to the real deal. Are you ready?'

'I…I guess,' the woman replied.

'In the outskirts of Silent Hill, a young teenager is waiting for his friends in the car. Someone is watching from the darkness outside. The question is, what is going to be the murder weapon for young Sean Depralvo's death?'

Sean's eyes widened with horror.

"What the fuck…"

'Is it a) a knife, b) a gun or c) an axe? Take your time, Myra and think it over carefully. While the first option would be a classic, the second option has its merits too. The third would be the crowd favorite, but is that what the killer has in mind?'

The sound of a ticking clock started playing, indicating the time Myra was allowed to make her decision. For Sean, every tick felt like an eternity, as he suddenly felt like the whole world around him was spinning. The sweat trickling down his face seemed to freeze in place, turned to ice by the cold that was overwhelming him now.

When the clock ticking ended, it was time for Myra to answer.

'I know! It's-

And the radio went dead.

"What the fuck is going on!"

Feeling his heart pound against his chest, Sean reached for the door, then hesitated.

'Someone is watching from the darkness outside.'

Then the lights died, along with the engine, leaving Sean in total darkness.

He screamed.

-

"Did you hear something?"

Claire shook her head, but Leo stopped anyway, his eyes narrowing. "I'm pretty sure I heard Sean's voice," Leo said.

Claire shrugged and said, "He's in the car, remember? I'm sure you're imagining things. Come on, Keith needs us." Tugging at his sleeve, she took the flashlight from him and led the way ahead.

At first Leo didn't follow immediately. He didn't mind being in the dark- if he could just run back to the car and check…

"Hurry up!" Claire snapped.

Pushing the though away, Leo ran after Claire, deciding that he probably was imagining things, and Sean would be waiting for them in the car when they returned, asleep and stuffed full of doughnuts.