Chapter Nine

He would have dashed out the double doors without a second thought had it not been for the sound of inhuman growling coming from the outside, and the fact that he still hadn't found what he had come to find. There was a moment of uncertainty as he stood in front of the double doors, panting hard. He didn't know if he was still coming after him, but he didn't want to linger around one place long enough to find out. He didn't want to leave the hospital- he was afraid of the things waiting for him outside, but at the same time he didn't want to stay, not when he was still around.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" he exclaimed with frustration. The words left for him in the hotel room were playing over and over again in his mind. His father had to be here. Somewhere.

Of course, this was assuming that Kyle was being truthful in this whole game. But even if he was lying, what other lead was there to follow?

His father had to have a workstation outside the morgue, or maybe he was in one of the hospital wards. Somewhere on the upper floors perhaps. Thinking quickly, he made his way into the reception office, to hide from him, and at the same time to do something he should have been smart enough to do from the start. His father spent time in the morgue, but was that the only thing he did here? Inside, Keith cursed himself for not knowing these minor details. But then, he'd been trying his best to forget his father, his whole life ever since he had left this town.

'Oh no.'

There was only one patient record in the metal drawers. Only one doctor was assigned to that patient.

The doctor was Kyle Rainell. The patient was Claire.

Not caring whether or not the thing was still outside looking for him, he dashed out of the office, running faster, if that was possible, than he had been running when it had been his own life he had feared for.

He ran up the stairs, literally cursing himself for feeling so tired now. He cursed the stairs, the wall, the whole fucking building, the entire fucked up town, and most of all, his insane brother.

Why, oh why had he had to come home to Silent Hill?

The room he was looking for was on the 3rd floor. One of the smaller wards compared to the ones on the 2nd floor. He would have yanked the door off its hinges had he been strong enough when he finally found it. And yet he hesitated to step in for a second, afraid of what he might find.

"Keith?"

The voice that greeted him, out of breath but relieved nonetheless was not Claire's- it was his father's.

Huddled up in the corner, his face covered with scratch marks and wounds, he stood up when Keith stepped in. From the looks of things, the town hadn't been any kinder towards him than it had been towards Keith. Although he wasn't the one he had been hoping to find, Keith gave a sigh of relief.

But the look on Alec's face…

"She…I…He…I tried to stop him! I tried!"

Keith's eyes narrowed. "Claire? Who? Dad, you're not making any sense!"

Then he noticed that the floor was stained with blood.

And on the bed, a jar waited innocently with the label, 'To Keith, with love.'

Inside the jar, was a human heart.

Keith fell to his knees.

'No.'

Alex pulled him up, an angry look on his face. "There's no time for this, Keith! Kyle is after you, and your other friend Leo. He will try to get to him next, if not me. And once your friends and I are out of the picture, he will kill you."

Keith wasn't listening. Tears were streaming freely down his cheeks as he suddenly regained his strength, as he grasped his father by the collar. "Tell me it's not hers, dad. TELL ME IT'S NOT HERS."

If anything, Keith's outburst only made his father angrier. "We have no time for this!" he shouted back, pushing his son back. "This town, this town is hell, and your brother is a part of it. He knows where everything is, he controls everything. You have to get out of here, Keith, or you are going to die."

Without waiting for Keith to respond, he made his way for the door. "Hurry up!"

Keith gave one last glance at the innocent-looking jar lying on the bed.

"Where is he?" Keith asked through gritted teeth.

That was when Keith saw, on his father's face, something he should have seen since he entered the room.

His father was hiding something.

"Where is Kyle?" Keith asked, shouting at the top of his lungs.

The old man hesitated for a while, before finally admitting, "He's at the church. He asked me to tell you that Leo would be there too. That's why he kept me alive."

The look in Keith's eyes hardened, and his father could see that he had already decided what he was going to do next.

"You don't have to go and save that last friend of yours," his father argued impatiently. "It's obviously a trap, and he's probably already dead for all we know. Let's just get out of this town!"

"No," Keith replied angrily. "If there's a chance that I can save Leo, I'm going. He would do the same for me. And there's no way that I'm letting Kyle get away with what he's done."

"He's almost a God in this town, Keith!" his father pointed out. "And he's already dead! What can you possibly do to him?"

"I'll kill him again," Keith said. "And I'll keep killing him again and again as long as he keeps getting back up again."

He had walked ahead a few steps before he noticed that his father wasn't coming walking behind him. He stopped and turned around to find his father staring apologetically at him.

"I'm not ready to throw my life away so easily," he said. "Please, son, follow me. We'll leave this town together."

Keith shook his head. His decision was final.

His father sighed sadly. "Then I'll be leaving alone."

Keith didn't look back a second time.