Chapter 3: The Horror Show

She had no more tears. They had made wet spots on her sweater and pants from streaming down her cheeks, but she was done. With her sleeve Julia dried her face, shuddering in the chill mountain air both because she was cold and she was shaking off despair that had taken her in its grip. She didn't know what was going on, but she would be damned if she was going down without a fight. So the town wouldn't let her go? She'll make it wish she never came.

"Get up." She ordered herself. Grudgingly her legs obeyed, hefting her up. She breathed deep and steady, enhancing her calm. Time to think straight, stay sharp, stay alive. First thing first, go back to the apartments and get your bag. There's no way around it, she needed what was in there. Second thing, find something to defend yourself with, even if its only a bat. It had been years since she last played softball, but one doesn't forget how to swing. Last, she would need some kind of light or lamp to take with her when it got dark, a hardware or department store would be perfect. But she had to get her pack first, had to go back into that apartment. Would whatever did that still be lurking inside the building? She didn't want to think about it, but finding a weapon just moved to the top of the list. She gathered up her courage and took the first step back to Silent Hill.

What had seemed simply creepy before now made her stomach tighten. Every corner had a threat behind it, every dark alley contained a creature just waiting for her to turn back. She searched the cars she came across cautiously, careful to check over her shoulder before much time had gone by. She didn't find anything useful in the cars unfortunately. One of them, a red two door Cadillac, had the keys still in the ignition. The turned the engine, but nothing, not even a cough. The battery was probably shot to hell, but on impulse she took the keys and opened the trunk. Inside was the usual trunk bric-a-brac, spare wheel, tire iron, couple bottles of oil, a jack. She could change the wheel on her car now, she mused, but that would only do so much good. There was nowhere to drive to now and gas wasn't an infinite supply. It would be satisfying to run something over that chased her, but what if in the thick fog she hit a person? Well, maybe not a person, but something in the road she couldn't see until it was too late. There was no other way other people were here.

She picked up the tire iron, feeling its weight in her hand. It had different fitting on each end, twisted in the middle to give the user more force when unscrewing bolts. It wasn't much, but she felt better already just having it. The apartment building was only a block away, at least now she was ready. Her heart beat faster as the building waited ahead of her, growing larger and the iron grew warm and slick in her hand from perspiration. No turning back now.

The door was still wide open from when she had come crashing through there not so long ago. She could see into the hallway and up the stairs a little from the street, sitting innocently and unperturbed. Gingerly and quietly as possible, she went inside. Nothing seemed to have changed, she could see her bag right where she left it and the lamp still on. She peeked into the office to make sure nothing was in there, then kept her eyes trained on the hallway while she grabbed her bag. She backed out the door and hurried into the street, eyeing the building suspiciously. Slinging the pack on, Julia moved away back towards the way she had originally come. She was about to turn around when some kind of movement from above caught her eye. Had on of the curtains on the second floor just moved? She scanned the windows carefully, but she didn't see any that were moving still. It could have been fatigue, but she wasn't going to trust that option again. Keeping herself in the middle of the street, she studied the building until she was almost out of its sight, then turned and jogged a couple blocks down. The pair of eyes watching her from the second floor waited until she disappeared around the corner to start moving again.

She relieved to be done with that task, as minor as it was. She still needed some equipment, a better weapon and somewhere to stick out the night. The thought of staying in her car crossed her mind, but no, that would be entirely unsafe. Whatever had attacked Room 312 wouldn't be stopped by thin panes of glass. She hadn't even thought about going to sleep yet, how could she? A room with no windows, no other rooms, heavy things to bar the door with and something to sleep on, that would be the only way to get some shut eye. She made a vow right then and there to never go out wandering at night, this place was bad enough during the day.

She passed by a number of stores that were of no use, an old ice cream parlor, barber shop, pharmacy. That sounded interesting, she would have to remember where that store was. They would likely have painkillers and medical supplies that might come in handy. It was an unsettling thought, but one she had to bear in mind. Further down the street only brought more stores, more useless items. Some apartments and city buildings starting to take shape after the shops.

"City records." she said aloud. No, police records even better. They might have something on what happened to her parents. Finding the station would be a chore, she badly needed a map of some kind of the area. The buildings were becoming more residential the farther she came from the area she was just in, so she turned back, heading up a different street. Six more blocks up the new street left her empty handed, and she turned down the last one, the road that connected to the mountains that led her here. On the right were grass and trees, a light railing running along some path. She didn't want to investigate there quite yet, although it did look fairly pretty despite the surroundings. Toluca Lake would be farther out that direction, she had seen it while she was still driving.

Another four blocks and her heat leapt. There was a small tourist store crammed in between a carpet store and a coffee shop. The large windows, though mostly too opaque too see through, showed trinkets and memorabilia on the inside. They were bound to have maps, they just had to. The glass door read "You're Home! Welcome to Silent Hill!" in bold red letters. To her dismay, the door had been locked. Julia looked around her, seeing nothing and no one. Shielding her face, she swung the tire iron into the front on the glass. It cracked and shuddered, but didn't break. She hit it again more forcefully and it imploded noisily, shards raining over the shop's floor. Reaching in, she unlocked the door and entered.

The place was loaded with buyable, overpriced items for the visiting city types that just screamed tacky to Julia. The kind of crap you find at the circus or carnivals that you pay extra for even though it was probably hand made by a pet monkey. Finally she spotted the maps behind the counter and almost gleefully rifled through them. The town was apparently divided into a few separate parts, she seemed to be in the south part of town, connected to Highway 73. She would have to go down Nathan street all the way and make it up to Sanford, then Bachman, then Bloch which would take her across the drawbridge and into the center of town. The police station was sitting on Sagan across the river. She felt like she had been here before, the names of the streets were oddly familiar. At least she knew how to get there, possibly where she could find some answers and probably a shotgun. She would feel much safer with a 12 gauge, even if firing it made her shoulder black and blue.

Stuffing the maps into her pack, Julia looked around for something else that might be of use. It took a bit of searching, but was delighted to find a box of flashlights. Batteries were also behind the counter - considerably marked up - both of which she packed away. Heading out the door, a positive feeling replaced the gloom she was feeling. An hour or two of walking would take her in the directions she needed to go. She was trekking peacefully down Nathan when she heard in the distance some kind of horn, almost like a mining horn when the workers changed shifts. It was coming from somewhere close by because it filled the air around her with the sound. The upbeat feeling she had stole away, the grip on the iron in her hand getting tight. All of a sudden, the sky began to darken considerably. It got darker and darker, much too fast to be sunset. She couldn't see the well very quickly, then she couldn't see at all. In pure darkness, she fumbled for the flashlight she'd just picked up, panicking. It felt like the street under her had moved somehow, she hurriedly flipped on the light.

If the canyon had confused and frightened her, this was something that words could not express. It was as if the entire town had been replaced right under her with a twisted, metal version of itself. Gone was the fog that dominated the town, replaced by an inky blackness the same as a moonless night. The buildings around her seemed to have aged dramatically, paint and windows cracked and falling apart or replaced by rusty bars. Everything was metal and rusted, even the street under her had been transformed into massive plates of chain link, supporting the entire ground over an endless abyss below. It was almost too much for her to take given the day's unsettling events. She pinched herself on the arm as hard as she could, but the images assaulting her remained. She reached down and checked the rusty metal under her feet, it was cold and unyielding, solid. It wasn't real. It can't be real. She noticed too, that it was vibrating slightly. Were they flying through space or…

She whirled around, pointing the flashlight around until she saw it. It was crawling along the ground, a gray, doll-like thing that seemed to be made of some gray material. It had no face or other discernable parts other then its freakish limbs, in its right…paw, it held a knife. A bloody knife.

Julia stuttered out a muffled scream, dropping her pack. It was coming straight at her, shambling along the best its little doll body could. Her eyes were wide with terror, one hand holding the flashlight, the other gripping the tire iron so hard it hurt. It came within five feet of her, stumbling over its own clumsy feet, trying to get at her. It swung at her legs and she backed up, almost tripping over her pack. It came still, swinging again but Julia just lifted up her foot and when she brought it down she swung the tire iron down with force added to by fear. It connected with the doll's head, a sickening crunching sound accompanying the creature's gray head splitting open. Blood spurted grotesquely from the wound, but the creature was still on its feet. She hit its hand with the knife next, knocking it away and kept hitting until it stopped moving.

It only took a few moments for the adrenaline to slow down and the sight of the broken doll body, its blood dripping through the grate below them for Julia to throw up. The vomit mostly passed right through, falling out of sight into the nothingness under her. She was in way over her head, in this crazy place that was worse then anything she had ever imagined. Something else was coming and she got up, scanning with her tiny light, wiping her mouth. Another doll creature was coming…and another behind it. A sound in a different direction caught her attention and she whipped the light over to see at least three more coming her way. She turned to run and shouted in shock, the chain link ground ending only twenty feet or so behind her, dropping off into the void beyond. She never thought in a million years it would end this way, but they weren't taking her down so easy. She turned back to face them, arm cocked back like a spring. Even with no eyes, they converged on her perfectly, drawing closer with every ragged step.

"C'mon you sons of bitches! I'll kill you all!' she shouted angrily.

Almost as if they could understand her, they stopped moving simultaneously. Julia blinked, uncertain if that had worked. Suddenly, they all shifted and turned away, shambling away from her in every direction. She was about to wonder why she didn't try that in the first place when she heard a different sound altogether. It was someone running across the chain link she realized, running towards her. She braced herself for what was coming.

From around the corner of the building came a bobbing light, shaking crazily. She trained hers on it and saw some kind of metal thing with a large blade for an arm and a wide circular one on the other side. Instead of charging at her though, the light on its head found the doll creatures trying to run away, and the metal thing proceeded to hack them to pieces. They were too short to overcome the metal monster's reach, it decimated the three on her left with quick, brutal strokes and reversed direction, chasing down the other two that had split up and cutting them down. It wasted no movements, each blow a killing one that tore the dolls in bloody halves. The grisly task done, it flicked its metal arm a couple of times rapidly. She had seen that in samurai movies once, it was a move to get the blood off a sword's surface. The creature's light switched back to her, blinding her like a deer caught in the headlights. She tried to keep from shaking but the metal thing drew nearer, its long arm out to the side menacingly. It stopped a few feet from her, and took off its sword arm, sliding it into its hip. It reached up with its hand to its head, and she heard a click and its light shut off.

Without the other light to interfere, she could see the creature quite clearly. It was outfitted in some shabby, dinged up looking, dull gray armor that didn't quite cover all of its body. On its other arm was a large, heavy looking disc of metal, well worn with blows and scratches. Around its neck was a thick metal ring, its head a curious looking helmet and some kind of face mask. It reached up with its free hand, which had a metal piece on the back of the hand and a black material covering the fingers, and removed the mask. Underneath was a man, a normal man. He was very pale, thin faced, his cheeks somewhat hollow. His eyes were sunken in slightly but they were soft and brown, calm despite what had just happened.

"Come with me." he said simply.

"Wh-who are you?" she stammered.

"Me? I'm…Nobody. You can call me Nobody. It would be better if you came with me before others come."

"Others?"

"More of them." he said, nodding towards the doll bodies.

Julia realized she was still holding the iron in the air and relaxed her arm, feeling foolish. This was a person, a real person, and he had just saved her life. "What's going on around here?"

"I can tell you what I know, but we need to get moving." he said urgently.

"Oh…okay…"

"Grab your bag, let's get into that building."

He turned away from her, clicking on the light on his head. Julia quickly picked up her pack and caught up, scanning the area for any more enemies.

"It's okay, there's none of them anywhere close by." he assured, opening the handle to the first building they came to. He walked right on in, not waiting to see if maybe there was something behind the door. It was another apartment building, but the inside was just like the outside, decrepit, decaying, disgusting. It looked like it was about to be destroyed by a wrecking ball, or maybe someone had come through with a sledgehammer and tried to do it themselves. The man in front of her was checking door handles, most were locked but he found and open one and beckoned her to enter. They checked the small one bedroom together, but it was mostly empty, a dirty couch and broken chairs in the bedroom the only furniture.

The man set down his shield and removed a small hatchet from behind it, then went to work on the chairs, smashing them up into smaller chunks and piling them in front of the couch. Julia absently sat down, not caring how filthy it was.

"Be right back." he promised, and she heard chopping and breaking sounds coming from somewhere else. He returned moments later, shutting the door behind him and locking it. With what he was carrying, a decent sized pile of wood was built up, and he fumbled around his pockets for a lighter, getting the blaze going.

"Not going to last." he observed, and made three more trips back out for more wood. Each time she wanted to say, screw the stupid fire and keep the door closed, but she kept her tongue. He built up a large stock of wood and tended to the fire, warming up his hands. The apartment was lighting up pretty well, and he switched off his helmet light, moving around to the other side of the fire, slumping down against the wall, looking at her. He sighed heavy, removing his helmet, letting his short, ragged dark hair out.

"I bet you have a lot of questions."

"Yeah…like…what the fuck…"

"I don't know where to begin so you'll just have to ask what you want to know." he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Okay…let's start with what the hell just happened outside."

"I don't really know myself exactly what makes it happen. You heard the siren didn't you?'

"Yeah."

"I just call it the Darkness. It comes every so often, not every day but enough for you to know its never far. It brings…the other Silent Hill, the one beneath the surface, the one that comes from somewhere evil."

"Why?"

"I've been looking for that answer for a long time. It has to do with this town, its origins, its history. And the people in it."

"What about it?'

"They used to call this town "The Place of the Silent Spirits", a long time before white men ever landed on this continent. This was where the holiest of ceremonies took place, perhaps the darkest as well. It was abandoned more then once for more then one reason. People are drawn here I guess, they have been for a long time."

"Well, I'm looking for someone. My brother, I haven't seen him since I was six. I thought maybe I could find something about him or about my parents…see I'm an orphan. I think I used to live in this town."

He nodded. " It's quite possible you'll find the truth here. No one comes to Silent Hill without a reason. The only problem is that the truth isn't always what they want to hear."

"What about you? Why are you here? Why are you dressed in armor?'

"I'm here by choice. I made the armor because bullets run out, but my arm won't fail me against the things that lurk here."

"What are they?'

He shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe its just a bad dream that we can't wake up from."

"How long have you been here?'

"Me? I…its been a while since I thought about that…what year is it?"

Julia tells him. Nobody looks slightly surprised, scratching his chin. "Wow that's…almost ten years now."

"My god…what have you been doing in this hell for that long?"

"It's story I don't want to tell at the moment. You were looking for your brother?"

"Yeah, his name's Jon Kaye…or maybe Alex Stormson."

"I'm sorry, I haven't met either of them. What's your name?"

"I'm Julia…I…I'm not sure if my last name is Kaye or Stormson."

"That's interesting."

She remembered the clipping in her pocket, and fished it out. "I can't remember my parents, all I know is that my brother took care of me, but he called himself Jon. That's him in the picture, he looks exactly like in my memory. I know its him."

"That's you?'

"The baby, I guess."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I just want to know what happened, I have to find him. I just figured I could find something here."

"I would tell you to get out of here and go back home, but I think it's a little too late for that isn't it?'

"Yeah…I can't leave now if I wanted to. There's this big crater where the highway should be."

Again, he nodded. "I've heard of that from the few people I've met."

"You know other people that live here?"

"Live isn't quite the right word. Most of the time they're like you, looking for something dear to them and they don't know what they've gotten themselves into. I try not to think how many have met their end in this place."

"Woulda been my end if you hadn't come…how did you know where to find me?'

"I've been following you since you came screaming out of that apartment building."

"I don't remember…" but she thought about and realized she had been screaming bloody murder most of the way out of the town. Why couldn't she remember that? "I saw…something horrible in one of the rooms."

"Yeah, I saw it too. Unspeakable things happen here even in the daylight. I've grown more or less accustomed to it."

Some warning flag triggered in her head and she was suddenly suspicious of this man. "Why were you following me?" she demanded.

"I don't usually see people much. Silent Hill…has a way of keeping people apart. I heard screaming so I was checking out the building when you came back."

"It was you watching me from the second floor."

"Yes. I was trailing you but I lost track when the Darkness came. Looks like I got there just in time."

"Thank you, by the way."

"Think nothing of it."

For a while the fire snapped and popped, dancing on the floor. Julia stared at it, the mesmerizing movements focusing her thoughts of what had happened today.

"I need to get to the police station on Sagan." she stated.

"That's across the lake. Why do you need to go there?'

"I'm hoping I can find some records of my parent's case. And maybe a gun or two, this tire iron doesn't really make me feel safe."

"Careful, you might be glad to have it. You did some nice work on the first doll with it."

"That was pure luck. I've never been so freaked out in my entire life." she admitted.

He chuckled softly, as if that wasn't anything to be worked up about. "It gets easier to deal with the more you see it. But enough of that, you'd better get some sleep."

"What? I can't go to sleep here!"

"Don't trust me?"

"No its just…its…I don't want to sleep in a place like this."

"I can go, just lock the door behind me." he offered.

"No, please stay. I just don't really feel like resting."

"I'm not going to be around to watch your back all the time. You should get some Z's in while you can."

"Can't you…come with me? I need help making it to the station and getting around."

"Sorry, I can't help you. Whatever you have gotten yourself mixed up in, no one can solve the problems for you. Besides, you might be here longer then you expected, you need to learn to fend for yourself."

"Then why are you here? How can you come to my rescue once if you're going to let me go out the next day and possibly killed?"

"I can't protect you Julia Stormson. I can't protect anyone. I suggest you get some sleep while you can."

She didn't like that response, but he had a point. It had been a long, stressful day, and although this place was horrible she was pretty tired. Julia slid off her pack and stretched out on the couch, and it felt good. Her eyes seemed to close on their own will, but she refused to sleep just yet.

"Hey Nobody…"

"Yeah?"

"Am I ever going to get out of here?"

"Once the town is down with you I imagine you'll be allowed to leave. Or more accurately, when you are done with yourself."

"I don't understand." she said, yawning.

"You will, someday."

She drifted off pleasantly, despite where she was and what had happened to her that day she didn't have a nightmare.