Chapter 6
Reproba Rememdium
Follow me, down the road less traveled
Follow me on the road of old
Follow me to see the path
Follow me to the dark and cold.
-Windwalker
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Harry found himself set upon by one of the horror hounds that lurked in the town, it's jaws widening as it launched itself at him, burying them deep into Harry's shoulder. Harry cried out in pain and anger as it dug deep into his flesh, with a heavy shove he dislocated the creature from it's mauling but was only able to send it a short distance. The canine twisted mid air and landed on it's feet almost facing Harry again. It circled outwards then turned to leap again. Harry produced the handgun he possessed and shot the beast stopping it in the second assault. The dog shuddered but did not still, snarling and spitting blood as it shook off the bullet's penetration.
Sirius looked on in alarm as another hound that had been prowling about the hospital courtyard appeared from the shadowy depths at the back, attracted to either the sound of the gun or the smell of haemoglobin. Luckily Harry had seen it too, wasting no time in pummelling the first creature with bullets even as the other launched it's own attack. The gun was swung the other's way, a new flow of bullets hitting it whilst in mid air. The dog's momentum was reversed and it slid along the ground howling out in rage as it's life blood spread along the concrete. It attempted to rise but collapsed almost immediately afterwards reddening the ground further as the rattling of it's breath stilled.
By now the killing of such things was moot and Harry took no time in watching the corpses in shocked surprise, he was well passed that stage. Sirius however expected Harry to look around the courtyard instead of aiming straight for one of the doors leading into the hospital. A startled cry emanated from his beak as he flew after but he had paused too long. The door slammed shut behind Harry and Sirius in his rush could not veer in time. His trajectory sent him sprawling into the door, expecting to find himself delirious and disorientated on the ground but Sirius found it as a complete surprise when his path was not blocked. He went sprawling right through the wood his wings under the shock wobbling mightily as Sirius crashed into the wall inside the hospital and feeling the bumps and bruising he expected with the door.
Sirius sat stunned where he was , too dazed to really pay attention to Harry who looked bemused and warily into the reception area looking at the desk to his left rather then Sirius who could not have been more obvious sitting there in ruffled feathers and surprise. Sirius turned his head slowly to watch the man, his eyesight skewed and fuzzy. Harry did not appear to have noticed his rather shameful entrance nor felt the caress of interrupted air. Sirius in his fogged brain could not tell if the guy was dense or had truly been unaware of his clumsy arrival.
Sirius shook himself off quickly and dived under a nearby table when he saw Harry turning his way. He did not want to be seen especially while Harry had just been in shooting.
As he heard the man walking the sterile floor he considered his new skill. They had been turning up at an increasing frequency of late, at the earliest of his remembrance Sirius had been able to do very little beyond the normal skills of an ordinary bird. Admittedly he could still think as clearly as a human but beyond that, nothing. His eye's shine had grown in intensity over the course of his lifetime and as he flitted about the world his hidden self had grown more vocal giving him precognitive warnings among other things. Following on his hearing had grown but these had occurred over a century and more, while in mere decades he had discovered his ability to dim himself, had begun to see spirits more and more, began getting information pop into his head seemingly from nowhere, had a remote ability to hypnotize but never attempted on humans, a limited ability to read minds and now he could supposedly fly through doors. Sirius was getting more powerful and faster. If it was in culmination of his visiting Silent Hill he could never be sure.
Sirius did not know if he could repeat what he had just achieved but his sore collision with the wall gave him suspect that he would only ever achieve the ability to pass through at least doors rather then walls. Now however was not the time to test it, things were becoming far too important and serious for him to take risks but it was always an option if he became stuck, but until then he would continue to follow Harry and dim himself instead. Flying through doors was preferable but still, better a tried and tested solution then another sore head.
Harry turned the u-bend in reception and came to a crashing halt as the sound of gunshots filled the air. Sirius watched with his glowing eyes beneath the table, anticipating a run from Harry. A second later and Harry hastened from where he stood, jogging down the corridor, to a door, where beyond the source of the gunshots came from. Sirius dived from beneath the table and flew behind on his ever silent wings just as Harry stormed into the room.
On consideration rushing into a potentially volatile scenario was not such a clever idea. The corpse of one of the scaled flying creatures lay inert on the floor while a man whose face was hidden looked up from his kill, his gun hanging loosely in his hands. His face when it came into view was haggard and looked a little lost, his features of a man on the end of middle age.
The bad idea came to fruition when he suddenly rose from his seat and took shots at poor Harry. Sirius, still dimmed, flew off into the room to avoid being shot himself.
Harry ducked and covered his head as a shot was aimed his way. Luckily for him the other man's shot went wide of the mark
"Stop don't shoot"
Bit late for that, thought Sirius.
"Wait I'm not here to fight. My name is Harry Mason, I'm in town on vacation."
Sirius, despite the situation could not help but inwardly chuckle at the unintentional Rhyming from Harry. The older man, he noted had relaxed. His initial shot must have been a natural reaction and Sirius couldn't blame him for not taking any chances, not with all that was running about . By now for Sirius, meeting living people, as few as they were, was becoming a little easier to deal with. The older gentlemen here, was nowhere near as disturbing as either the younger or older child, or the old crone. He was just a man and Sirius felt no dark presence about him.
"Thank god, another human being"
Harry arose from his sheltered spot on the floor looking a little shaken but otherwise fine. He stared momentarily at the other before speaking carefully.
"Do you work here?"
"I'm doctor Michael Kaufmann . I work at this hospital."
The doctor's voice was husky and sounded far more tired then Sirius had ever heard.
"So maybe you can tell me what's going on?"
"I really can't say. I was taking a nap in the staff room, when I woke up it was like this. Everyone seems to have disappeared, and its snowing out, this time of year, something's gone seriously wrong."
"Did you see those monster? Have you ever seen such aberrations? Ever even heard of such things? You and I both know creatures like that don't exist."
"Yeah."
"Have you seen a little girl anywhere? I'm looking for my daughter. She's only seven, short black hair..."
"She's missing? I'm sorry, but with all those monsters around I highly doubt she's..."
Harry gasped. This Doctor Kauffman was not good at being sensitive to others, Sirius mused.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to alarm you. Your wife? She's here with you?"
"She died four years ago. Now it's just me and my daughter."
Good comeback. Sirius gathered the man, regardless of being a doctor, needed to work on his social skills. The baseball term three strikes and your out sprung to mind.
"I see, I'm sorry. Well I better be going, I can't just sit around here doing nothing."
"So long. Good luck out there."
Kauffman was not a threat if his conversation skills were anything to go by. He was not much different to the female cop Sirius had met. Running confused and questioning about the town.
Sirius followed Harry as he explored about, picking up a map while going through rooms that connected the reception area. Harry even found a newspaper, curiously with a missing article. Sirius took it as normal while Harry barely even gave it a thought.
Having exhausted all other rooms Harry and Sirius found themselves in another corridor. There were many doors to other rooms and even an elevator. Nothing of interest caught Harry's attention so he went to the first door that he could open.
More tables and equipment were strewn about, a map proclaiming itself as the map for the basement was quickly pocketed by Harry, and yet another whiteboard with inconsequential writing was hanging on the wall. However it was only when they entered the next room that something of real interest turned up.
Sitting central and taking most of the room was a table made of marble or a similar substance while leather chairs were haphazardly tucked under the tables mass. Those of the crow family such as Sirius were notorious gatherers of shiny things so it took mere seconds for Sirius to spot the key laying in the table's top. Harry , being human, took longer to find it, preferring a more meticulous approach to each room they entered. He picked up the key and read the label attached. It was the key to the basement no less so Sirius gathered that would be their next place to search.
The key had worked and both had descended the stairs to the actual basement where upon entering the unlit room little cockroach type monsters ran from the dark to take nibbles at Harry's feet but instead of wasting valuable bullets, he merely crushed the insects under foot, a satisfying crunch accompanying their demise.
Harry turned on his torch to give some light. More doors connected to other rooms and another elevator was just around a short bend. Sounds above had been fairly quiet but here under the hospital Sirius could hear a sounded like a multitude of screaming. If he had teeth they would have been ground together. It was creepy, it was though the dead were in pain, not quite in the realm that living creatures existed. It brought forth a recollection of the spirits that had watched the conversation in the church only they were not passive but in torment, that so gripped them they could not help but cry out.
The elevator was not working and there was only one other door in which Harry could enter. Nothing adorned the room except a large generator that supplied the power to the hospital. It was currently switched off. It rattled into life as Harry turned it on, shaking the foundations slightly and to Sirius's relief drowning out the melancholy cries.
Harry used the lift to return to the first floor so that he could search the rooms he had discarded while checking the basement. One contained the kitchen, polished and cleaned. Pots and pans were in their allotted place and empty bottles rested on the counters. There was no smell of food only the continued rotting smell that lingered about the town pervading the air.
In the only other unlocked room left they found clear signs of vandalism. The small secluded office the map declared as the Directors was in disarray. A large cupboard was wide open, the contents of books and papers scattered about the floor while those that remained within were torn and ripped and no longer organized.
"The shelves are all messed up. Who did this?"
Sirius had the same question in his head too. The town so far had appeared to just be deserted but this gave credence that someone had been here after the disappearing act by the townsfolk. Someone had been looking for something.
Harry walked behind a table and stared down in worry at the mess left there as well. Sirius looked down. The shattered remains of a glass container lay below, covered in some kind of red liquid. The feeling of having something walk on his grave came upon him at the sight of it. Even though the substance was still it also appeared to be moving of it's own violation. Sirius for that minute thought he could see the liquid at the sub atomic level. The atoms and particles moving under their physical limitations. Then the liquid was just as any other but the strange feeling as if he was still seeing it remained.
The door he perceived in his mind as the divider between himself and the other part of him was rapped by his hidden self just beyond it's boundaries and Sirius knew that the red substance below was of importance.
" I had better collect some of this."
Harry spoke and was gone. Sirius did not follow, he knew Harry was not going to be long. He looked back down and shivered another thought creeping in. The smashed vial must have been the work of the vandal. Kauffman's face came into profile and Sirius seriously considered it. The doctor was the most likely offender of the mess, after all he was in the hospital. The slow witted man was probably the guilty party but in comparison to the rest of the town a little reorganizing was minor, still, the contents of the smashed vial gave Sirius other ideas.
Harry came back into the room carrying a bottle he had taken from the kitchen. Sirius watched him as he filled it with the remains of red liquid. Kauffman he was sure was guilty of this but the main question he asked was why? Another look at the fluid and Sirius considered the thought that he was either looking for this or intending to get rid of it by smashing it on the floor, but the doctor was after all a doctor with plenty of opportunity to commit the offence before hand. Sirius gave up trying to work it and followed Harry out the door.
There was no where else to go so the next stop was up on the elevator
On level two the elevator lead into a square room with a set of double doors on one wall. Harry however was unable to open them, the rattling of the handle useless as the door appeared to be locked. They returned to the elevator and arose to level three. The square room was the same minor some details, walls bare but for some posters and seating lined up against the empty walls. Harry tried the set of doors that lead into the next room. Yet again though the doors would not budge. He stood for a while no doubt unsure what to do. The old woman's prediction to come here was wrong for there was no where else in which to go, Harry did not have the keys to open any other exits. Sirius if he dared could have attempted to pass through the door as he did on the ground level but leaving Harry seemed like a bad idea and besides he was not keen on adding a headache to the headache he had from second guessing everything and from the painful contact with the wall.
Harry a little dejectedly returned to the confines of the elevator. Sirius could understand if at least a little for his daughter was presumably here by the old woman's admission but there was nowhere left for which he could look. Suddenly his demeanour changed from dejection to curiosity when Harry looked upon the buttons that controlled the lift. Sirius hovered lower to look and he too was surprised for a button to another previously un guessed level was now visible.
3
2
1
B
Had changed to..
4
3
2
1
B
Sirius felt a chill. Harry was desperate to find his daughter and with doubts caused by the slow witted and potential vandal Kauffman's suggestion that something terrible had befallen her gave him no compunction to press the newly appeared button.
The doors opened to a new room, but this was far different to the previous ones, the walls were not sparse like the others instead grimy rust covered them head to foot, the floor bloodstained. Harry exited. All thoughts of examining the area was forgotten though as both man and bird stopped in fear and fascination. Walking through the open double doors was the girl last seen in the school basement. She wore the same dress and was seemingly unaware of her two watchers. She took light steps into the dark unknown corridor the doors falling shut behind her of their own power.
Without thought or assessment, Harry ran after her.