CHAPTER TWO
Exspectata Ut Abyssus
I cannot see
Blind for all Eternity
My eyes are open
My mind is closed
Let me free
Let me go.
-Windwalker
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On speed of wing, Sirius flew through the stifled air of Silent Hill. He was heading towards the approximate location he suspected the bells were sounding from. As he closed in his opinion changed of them. They were more like a klaxon, a long, erroneous siren, that portended the coming of danger. He didn't like it one bit. Nothing about this place made him happy. These sirens were but the next in a line of trouble he expected coming his way. To find out why they were active was his top priority. If only in the hopes of getting some answers.
Suddenly a looming shadow banked across his path, out-sizing him by more then double. In desperation he veered from its oncoming path. The shock sent his heart reeling in his avian chest as he dove from his current path. At a glance he caught the briefest hint of some scaled body before his plummeting course took him further into the fog and away from what it was.
His heart thundering away he searched the air for any sign of the beast as he cowered under a street awning. Sirius was in no rush to meet it again. He waited and waited until he was satisfied the coast was clear. That was twice now in one day that he had been caught by surprise, a rarity. Silent Hill was definitely a place that set his nerves on edge, and it was not done with him yet.
As he preened his feathers for his next flight, a rumble and crash of noise came from up ahead. Startled in mid preen Sirius paused unsure of what he had just heard. He sat listening to see if he could catch a repeat of the sound but all he got was silence. That too shocked him. The sirens had ceased. Before or after the sound of crunching metal and smashing glass he did not know, but they rang no more.
Inside of his mind a sleeping connection suddenly awoke. Whatever was up ahead had set off his equivalent of the Spider-sense. Excitement surged up in him, tingling adrenaline through-out his body. There was no question, he had to go further and locate the source. Something long dead within had awoken and he wanted to know why.
He flew into the mist with renewed energy. As he approached his perception began to alter along with his body's reactions. Something was now tugging him in his spirit. As Sirius neared he felt like he had passed through an invisible net, much like a spider's web, subtly clinging. The falling snow changed it's tone to a cooler, clarity as well. Changes too subtle to the human eye were like great big sign-posts to him. Sirius knew though that it was not the world around him that had altered but something within himself.
From the impenetrable mist came forth a bright and care-free laugh. Stranger and stranger, he thought. That young innocent laugh was the first sign of a human presence in days. A child's voice no less. Children had been far and few between before the disappearances, a lot less for a town of this size. He had not seen many but there had been signs they existed and now this.
Sirius felt a little concerned. A child was waking the path of this dangerous place and by their laughter he knew they were unaware of the danger that lurked here. Despite his reticence towards human beings, he felt it was best to find the child and quickly before something other then himself came upon it. It didn't take him long to rethink his actions when he came across the source of the earlier crash. A battered car, beyond saving, was draped over a collapsed fence with its engine sputtering its last breath. It was nothing but a crumpled mess with glass strewn about. He alighted himself upon the roof feeling the hums of the engine beneath him.
Around him the snow was becoming thicker and harder to see, not helped by the already thick fog. Sirius was just able to make out with extreme concern that the road leading out of town was blocked by a strange wall before the snow blocked his vision completely. Now he had another mystery. How did the car get here if the road was blocked?
From within the confines of the car there was slight movement. Sirius almost leapt off the vehicle and away into the mist as soon as he heard it but by some deeper well of consciousness he was able to stave off the urge.
A man literally sprung from the car's interior, almost causing Sirius to go into flight again. Sirius watched carefully as the man ran from the car looking frantically about him, oblivious to the raven's presence. Soon he ran down the road, splitting the fog with his body before it reformed behind him and he disappeared from view. Sirius did not even bother pausing in contemplation before he once again launched himself into the now bitter cold air and in the direction in which the man had taken.
It did not take long for Sirius to catch up as the man had stopped in the middle of the road with a look of confusion. Sirius suspended above him, heard the man utter something. 'Cheryl'. The child perhaps? In his mind he cursed himself with various insults that would have made a sailor blush. In his distraction he had forgotten about her, and in failing his duty and decision to follow the child he felt sure that she would have fallen prey to the creatures by now. Not that he could have aided her in protection against them anyway.
Sirius was not able to communicate his knowledge to the distraught man below concerning the child's general direction. So that he may have been able to help her. Sirius felt like knocking his head against a brick wall. He was becoming sentimental over human beings. He never really had. Why should he be now all of a sudden? He had seen death and misery wrought down on them numerous times before and had not been bothered. He guessed the nature of the town made real life more precious to him then before. Life was so fragile here. Sirius shook his head and tried to detach his emotions.
The man meanwhile had gone off again farther into the mist and oddness of Silent Hill. As Sirius tracked him he heard the man speak again. 'footsteps?' Sirius listened intently and did indeed hear the patter of footsteps ahead. Man and Raven began to track down the source. They turned a corner and the man skidded to a halt. Obscured by the mist was a small figure, wearing a blue dress and sporting black hair.
'Cheryl?'
Sirius sensed something odd in the air as the little girl began to move. He felt …confused. He had little time to develop that thought when the man headed slowly towards the girl, calling out her name. Strangely though, she didn't respond, instead going deeper into the shroud. As if she did not hear him at all.
The man ran after her and the chase was on. Farther into the town they went dictated by the child. Past creepy empty buildings they went until they caught the barest glimpse of the girl disappearing into an alley. Sirius wanted to tell the man walking in there was a bad idea, and even if he could, he doubted the man would have listened anyway. Of course the human proved as predictable as the next. It came as absolutely no surprise when he went into the alley himself. Sirius, more curious then ever, and even though he knew it was a bad idea, followed. Lots of trashcans overflowing with waste dotted the alley, leftovers of the once, not thriving, but certainly populated town.
Just before they arrived to it there was a creaking of a gate. The gate pretty much stopping the alley. One half of the gate hung precariously on its hinge, on the other a rather uninviting 'beware of the dog' sign. Sirius silently begged the man to stop but to no avail, he entered into the other side as well.
The child seemed to know where it was going and this disturbed Sirius. He had been in the town for a while and he still did not fully understand it and yet this little girl, barely here five seconds and involved in a crash, and yet she was traipsing about the town as if she knew it by heart. After the experiences Sirius had had, this latest state of events and circumstances made him doubly nervous. Once more he cursed himself and flew over the gate and into god knew where.
Sirius cawed in indignant surprise. The last thing he expected to see was the remnant corpse of some unidentified animal. It lay on it's side festering away being eating inside-out by maggots and larvae. It was not the first badly dismembered body Sirius had come across but by the look of disgust and shock on the human male he guessed it was a first for him. That little girl had come through here only moments before and a sight like this would surely send such a child into a screaming fit. Yet there had been no scream, and no child. Sirius was not so keen to find her, if the sight before him was anything to go by.
The man by now was otherwise engaged, his body convulsing from unchecked revulsion as he heaved the contents of his stomach in a corner. Sirius found as usual he was glad he was a Raven and not a human. Ravens were notorious scavengers of such remains, not that Sirius ever partook on such meat himself, he preferred to dine on more palatable offerings.
Thankfully the man had finished, either through either pure tenacity or the complete removal of all the substances of his gut. He arose upon shaky legs, his face ashen and pasty as he involuntarily looked at the bloody mass that caused his violent reaction. That repeat performance was enough to send the man scurrying onwards and away from it. Sirius, his wings tiring, alighted from one side of the towering walls of the buildings, that overshadowed the walkway like two leaning giants, to the other. All around the darkness seemed to grow. To Sirius it was almost like drowning but without the water, to the man whose avenue of escape was slim it must have seemed like someone was slowly squeezing the very life out of him, sight dimming at every turning.
The next corner revealed another gate, taller and somehow more imposing then the first. Sirius tried to will the man through telepathy, a skill he evidently did not have, to avoid the second gate. The child was dead, or at least not here. There was no point going any further.
Sirius felt inextricably drawn to where the man was going, it was now beyond him to desert the man regardless, if he wanted to or not. There was a pull there connecting them like an invisible wire. Sirius was bound to follow and desperately did not want to follow him beyond these next gates. The gates felt like the edge of somewhere else, a doorway to darker things.
The man completely ignored or was unaware of Sirius's apprehension and proceeded on. The gate was much more aged in its creaking, vibrating the delicate bones of the raven. A weary, conceding sigh escape from his parted beak as the subconscious pull between bird and human became much stronger. On flustered and tiring wings, Sirius passed over the gate and into the twilight zone.
Darkness!
The black palate of colour had been heavily spread about here. Reality was dipped into pitch black. Sirius felt invisible. The man created some light to counter the looming shadows and stood bemused under its weak light. Sirius could see the twitching muscles on his face that looked ready to split into a scream. The Klaxons had begun again as the wretched dark took over, someway out of reach, but nonetheless Sirius shook at their arrival. The man had more pressing matters at hand, that of his missing daughter, who roamed beyond sight and sound of her increasingly worried father. Sirius did not hold out much luck for him. Little girls did not run and hide in places such as this without some crying or screaming. Her continued silence bode ill.
Inwards and onwards they went. The snow had turned to rain which no longer surprised Sirius. Sudden change was becoming the norm here. The man did not know this and to Sirius's frustration he went in deeper, the dark amazingly thicker then before. Secretive noise began to emerge from ahead, Sirius noticed them, the man apparently did not. Something or someone was going to once again alter the situation making the raven even more reticent and reluctant. He was pretty sure he was safe above the ground, the human was another matter. A little vindictive streak rose up within the raven, the human was on his way to possible endangerment and death. The man dying would release him from the bondage he had found himself to, and deeper still he felt the man deserved it for being so stupid and sentimental about his increasingly deranged appearing child. Sirius didn't like that thought, he felt sick at the fact he would even have considered it.
A disbanded wheelchair rested beside a wall, its wheel turning of its own accord. The former occupant missing. The unnamed man stood beside it, leaning in with his light source held in one sweaty grasp, looking more bemused then scared. It was an odd place to leave such an item. The secretive noises had now become more active and the man finally noticed it, turning away from the lone object, leaving it to the ink black, and peered into the unseen den opposite. Sirius took a risk and landed on the chairs padded seat, it was too dark to see from above now and that nasty streak in him was telling him that the man was the most likely target of the two of them.
The seat was warm to his dismay, like someone had only recently sat on it. Could the child have sat here? Setting the wheel turning through child-like interest? A shuffling from only yards away sent that idea fluttering off into the distant. The man shook violently where he stood but the look of determination in his eyes told the raven that he would still go on. Cheryl's safety a top priority. Just let it go, damn you, Sirius thought, but no the man was devoted to his suicide mission, more fool him.
The clicking of the wheel faded as they went on. Yet it was not the only thing that caught the eye. A gurney, covered in blood soaked sheets covered a familiar shape beneath. The man only took a cautionary glance, an urgency within him pulling him ever closer to the alleys end. Sirius was surprised him. Here Sirius was, a supernatural creature who had seen his fair share of the disturbing, ready to turn back while this man whose probable closest run in with anything of this sort was from television programs continued on. The human spirit was undervalued, Sirius thought, but it still made them do stupid things.
Sirius was in no doubt whatsoever now, that they had passed into something far darker and more mysterious then anyone had ever done before. The klaxon, Sirius noticed too, had changed subtly into something infinitely more nasty and bone shaking, altered into a musical diatribe, only possibly produced by the mentally disturbed or tone-deaf. An omen that the end of the route was near and the final horror of this monstrous funhouse of sick jokes was waiting. Sirius was holding out on someone jumping from behind a trash can and shouting 'boo'. A much more appropriate ending, he thought, to the other one he envisioned.
Blood spattered the ground trailing into the void. Ahead the clattering of footsteps. The human was finally showing signs of fear. His demeanour made it abundantly clear that he was terrified but those feet on cobbles gave him some hope. In looking for his daughter the man was beginning to delude himself, ignoring the blatant signs they had passed. A wire fence had replaced one side and more blood and visceral matter hung on it. The stench that had been lacking at the strewn carcass was abundant in this place.
The most gruesome sight of all though was only feet away. The next turning finally showed in itself the totality of the horror of this place. The tattered remains of what was once a man were strung up in a corner. Head down the man could have been considered merely sleeping but for the gaping hole of missing skin on his middle. The skeletal ribcage jutting out with lumps of rotting flesh hanging off. It was more then the man could bear.
He turned to run at that terrible sight only for the shadows to shift around him as deformed creatures came scuttling from out of the shadows. He vaulted back in absolute terror. Sirius, self-preservation kicking in stronger then it ever had fluttered in agitation to the highest reaches. The man below him had no such vantage. He took hesitant steps backwards as the creatures came towards him. The distance closing fast.
On short-bowed legs these monsters marched, their skin like the hanging corpse, as dried, brittle flesh. The heads were hunched over but kept track of the man, and on each of them they held razor sharp talons instead of fingers. They closed in fast.
A raised muscle and sinew arm was brought down upon the man, causing him to scream in pain as it tore him up and spurted the man's own blood. Again and again the beasts took their turns in dismantling the human. He crying out at each and every new wound inflicted. Sirius could do little but watch as they systematically chased the male down.
Bleeding profusely from a heavy tear down one side amongst other places, the man lurched almost drunkenly to get away. They merely followed him, striking out whenever one of them got close enough. Finally the human reached the safety of the gate he had entered this place, in a seizure of still born panic he banged uselessly against the caged door. For a split second a sense of intelligence broke through then man frantically grabbed the handle and turned. Nothing happened. He pushed and struggled with all his might but the gate did not budge. The handle useless he again resorted to attacking the gate head on, kicking and screaming at it in the hopes that it would open.
Eternally blocked all the human male could do was turn and face his doom. The monsters came faster sensing the futility of their prey, eager bodies swaying. A talon struck out forcing the man to his knee's as more blood streamed from a now badly torn leg. He screamed and grabbed it, trying to hold back the flow. Another attacked this time slicing away at the face forcing the man to grab for the pain there instead. The others quickly gathered, claws slashing and slicing. Flesh and limbs flew about in the chaos, the screams of the human dying out as his life was ripped away. Sirius creed in sympathy.
The connection he had shared with this man was abating, it lingered just. It was more then he could bear, along with the sight still going on below him. The man was lost, the child too no doubt. Sirius was not keen to find her. Alive or dead. He had to leave now, he just had too, this was all too much.
Darkness turned to snow.