I.

"They're not real," Trey confidently stated. Christine had her head buried in his shoulder afraid that if she looked at the eyes, they would stare back at her.

"They're not real?" Michael repeated, unsure of what Trey was getting at.

Trey stepped around Michael and leaned closer to the eyes. "They're definitely not real. Look at the roundness of the eyes. Our eyes are a bit more elongated than these. They're a perfect circle.

"What are they doing here then?" Christine stayed in the back of the group, still convinced that the eyes had a sinister gaze.

Michael stepped closer to the eyes and peered at them alongside Trey. "How do you know that? They look pretty real to me."

"Look at how shiny they are, Mike," Trey said, slightly little annoyed. "I'm a bio major. I know real eyes when I see them."

"That still doesn't explain why they're here, or where the priest is," Heather quickly responded. Her eyes moved slowly around the room, unsure if the eyes were a distraction for something much worse.

Christine moved in a little closer. "Do you think they're important?" she asked.

"They're sitting in the middle of a table like they were meant to be found for something. Maybe the priest put them here."

"Maybe," Heather ominously said.

Michael hesitated when picking up the eyes, so Trey scooped them up and put them in Michael's backpack.

"Who keeps writing on the wall?" Michael asked. It had only taken him a moment to realize that the same scrawled print on the wall was the same that he first saw in his room. He was convinced that someone was following them.

"It doesn't matter at this point," Heather sharply said. "We need to get going."

"What is it that you're not telling us? You've been pushy ever since we started looking around this place," Trey pointed out.

"Listen, the only person that helped me through all this is lying somewhere in the amusement park waiting for me. I have to go back there," Heather replied.

Trey suddenly understood. He realized that Heather had been through much more than they had dealing with whatever forces were driving the evil in this town. He felt as though there was something else she was not telling them.

"Where should we go now?" Christine asked.

Michael pulled the sketch of the church they had found earlier out of his bag. "Since we found these keys, maybe we can open the door we came across earlier. There are a few more rooms in this place that we haven't checked."

Christine wrinkled her nose. "Maybe we shouldn't check them then. I mean, what if we run into some monster?"

"If you think you're going to avoid monsters at this point, you're fooling yourself," Heather bluntly stated. She strode toward the door. "Are we leaving now?"

Michael nodded and placed the map back in his bag. Before following Trey and Heather, he gave the room one last glance. The writing was gone.

II.

The key slipped into the door perfectly, the lock opened with a muffled click. Michael pushed the dark oak door open and stared into a dark room.

"Could the priest have at least paid his electric bill?" Trey said from behind Michael's shoulder.

Michael pulled his flashlight out of his bag and aimed the light into the room. Following Heather's advice, he had his gun in his right hand, his left hand supporting it and holding the flashlight.

Heather was right behind him with her gun pointed in the opposite direction. Trey followed them carefully, keeping his wooden plank ready to swing down on any menacing creature that appeared. Christine, the only one without a weapon, stayed as close to Trey as humanly possible.

The bits of furniture in the large room had been overturned. From the look of the room, it could have been a large Sunday school room or something similar with the exception of the displays of swords on the walls. Michael shone his light toward the overturned desk, then on the chair that was overturned.

"What's that?" Heather asked, pointing to a sheet of paper sticking out from underneath the desk. Michael peered closely at it before pulling it from its hiding spot. He turned it over in his hands and read it out loud.

"When the holy man gazes upon the wicked, the path to darkness will open," Michael felt a chill run down his back as he finished.

"What does that mean?" Christine asked.

The other three teens had circled around Michael, peering at the note.

"Sounds weird," Trey said. "If by holy man, they mean the priest, I don't think we're going to find him."

"I don't know," Heather said. She looked around the room, the distinct feeling that they were not alone nagging at her.

The phone vibrating in his pocket told Michael everything he needed to know. He stood slowly, looking around the room.

"Something's here," he whispered. He couldn't see where their enemy was, but his phone hadn't been wrong yet.

The room suddenly seemed much larger than before and darker. Shadows melted into other shadows, hiding something fleeting in their eternal darkness. As they shone their lights into the dark corners, the shadows simply retreated into another part of the room, keeping their clandestine tenants well hidden.

When Christine screamed, Heather and Michael both pointed their flashlights and weapons in the direction Christine was looking.

"What the hell is that?" Trey kept Christine behind him as he positioned the wood plank like a bat, ready to swing at what stood before them. A large four legged creature blocked the doorway poised as if ready to attack.

It was something that looked like it had been pieced together by a blind Frankenstein copycat. The flesh was made of different shades of skin complexions and looked glossy in the light. Its overly wide mouth was accented with several rows of teeth, a long black tongue licking over them hungrily.

"Listen, when I give the word, Trey, take Christine and head for the door," Michael said as he backed up.

"What? I can help," Trey protested.

"Listen, Heather and I have guns. You don't and Christine doesn't have anything to protect herself."

Trey kept his eyes on the creature as it began to growl. "That thing. What if it moves too fast for us?"

"Let's hope that it's big and slow," Michael kept his eyes pinned on the creature.Heather kept her gun aimed on the new menace as well. She watched it with a keen eye, waiting for the first hint of movement. When it began to charge them, Heather was the first to fire, getting a clean shot right to its midsection.

Michael fired as well, but missed the creature completely. He fired again, but the bullet only seemed to graze the creature's body. "Trey, go now!"

Trey grabbed Christine's wrist with his left hand, and kept the wood plank in his right and dashed toward the door. Luckily, Christine was on the same page and ran behind him, making herself less of a drag.

They made it to the door, but when Trey wrenched on the door, he found it locked. "What the hell? We're locked in!" He spun back toward the room only to see the creature barrel into Michael, which threw him across the room.

Heather stood her ground and continued to fire at the creature. It immediately turned on Heather and leaped at her. She dodged the attack, rolling to the right behind the desk. The creature was faster than she thought...almost immediately after landing, it turned and leaped at her again. She was knocked off balance and her gun slid across the floor.

"Heather!" Christine yelled.

Her cry drew the creature's attention and it charged Trey and Christine.

"Get back!" Trey yelled over the pounding footsteps of the charging menace. He positioned the wood plank like a bat and when the creature was upon them, swung with all his might.

The creature was obviously smarter than Trey had given it credit for. It caught the plank in its mouth and used Trey's momentum to toss him across the room. He flailed mercilessly in the air until slamming into the wall. The entire time, all he could think about was if Christine was going to be okay.

When Trey flew across the room, Christine knew she was in trouble. She suddenly realized her vulnerability and weakness in light of this new danger. Even though she felt hopelessness wash over her, she wouldn't die here. No, there were still things she had to find out, questions that she needed answered.

Christine dodged a swipe from a claw then rolled toward the center of the room.

"Christine, watch out!" Michael yelled.

She looked toward him and saw he was in a kneeling position with his gun pointed right behind her. She immediately hit the floor and Michael opened fire. By this time, Heather had retrieved her gun as well and fired upon the creature. It staggered for a moment but then charged once again.

Christine tried to crawl away from the creature when her hand hit something. She looked down and found that an electric taser was lying on the ground. It was a model used by the police, one that she was quite familiar with. She turned as the creature hovered only a foot away from her face. It opened its mouth, ready to enjoy the tasty meat of its victim.

She shoved the taser toward its mouth and hit the trigger, sending shocks straight through the creature's body. Christine retracted the taser quickly, and rolled backwards, springing herself into a standing position, then back flipped out of the way.

"I've got it!" Trey said as he rushed the creature. He leaped into the air and came down on the creature's head, sword in hand. With a sickening crunching sound, the sword pierced through the skull of the creature, nailing it to the floor. Trey backed up as thick blood began to seep from the wound.

Everyone was silent at first, not sure of what to expect. The sudden click of the lock broke through the silence, snapping everyone back into what they now knew as reality.

"Is everyone okay?" Michael stood and looked at everyone. Christine nodded, still holding onto the taser. She stared at the unmoving creature with disbelief.

"Trey?" Michael asked.

"I think so. Nothing's broken."

"Heather?"

Heather simply stood and walked toward the creature. Just for insurance, Heather raised her foot in the air and came down on the creature's head, crushing a part of the skull.

Christine turned away, disgusted by the chunks of fleshy matter that now littered the floor.

"I'm good now," Heather announced. "The door's unlocked. We should probably get out of here."

There was no argument as the other three teens followed Heather out of the room, closing the door behind them.

III.

"I still don't understand this note," Michael said. He had slipped the note in his pocket after they had found it in an abandoned room in the church. As they walked down the hallway, he looked at it again, unsure of its cryptic meaning.

"Maybe the eyes that we found have something to do with it," Trey suggested.

"There's this last room to check," Heather said. "Maybe we'll find something in here."

The door opened easily. They walked in, but Trey stayed by the door to make sure they didn't get mysteriously locked in again.

"An art gallery?" Christine was surprised at such a room being in a church.

"It doesn't look like an ordinary art gallery," Heather commented as she gazed at a painting of a crowd enveloped in a fire, seemingly praising a large eye painted in the sky. Heather wasn't sure, but it almost seemed as if the flames were actually alive, flicking and lashing out toward anyone that may stare too long. She quickened her pace and kept investigating the rest of the room.

"With everything that's happened, I can definitely say that this isn't a normal church," Michael commented as he left a painting of a woman, dangling by her arms with blood seeping down her body. "What kind of religion did they practice here?"

"I've found that the people of this town worship some kind of god that's more like a devil in our eyes," Heather explained. "Somehow, this town has been saturated with its power, the people simply pawns in allowing it to gain more power."

Christine stopped walking. "Some sort of god trying to gain more power? For what and why this town?"

Heather shook her head. "I really don't know the answer to that. From what I've seen, many strange things have happened in this town for a couple hundred years. Even recently, there have been unexplained murders, serial killers, people just going insane, and other strange circumstances."

"This town...it isn't normal," Michael ominously said.

"What gave you the first clue?" Trey said from the door.

"I think that this god may be gaining more power and its spreading. What happened to me at the school is the exact same that's happening here in the church," Michael said, ignoring Trey's joke.

"I'm not surprised. It found a host body to exist in. There's no telling what it can do," Heather informed them.

"Ummm...guys, I think I found the holy man we were looking for," Christine said with trepidation.

Michael, Heather, and Trey, leaving the door propped open with a painting, rushed to where Christine stood.

"It's him," Michael said staggering back.

Father Tom, the priest they had encountered before now stood before them, frozen in a pose as if something were coming after him. He still had on his clergy outfit, his face though contorted and pale was still recognizable, but the only thing that really scared the four of them were the empty sockets that stared at some unknown horror.

Notes:

Cat: For right now, it seems the four of them are peas in a pod. However, things can always take a turn for the worse...

Rodarian: As many people have learned, when faced with those types of situations, it's always better to take everything that you come across, no matter how obscure, especially in the Silent Hill world.

Crimson Alessa: Thanks for the gushing and everything. I hope you like this chapter as well.

Kaworu85: Some of them will have their doubts about Heather's sanity very soon...

Slapdash: Thanks for all your reviews. As you can see, Father Tom didn't fare so well. Hopefully, Michael and Trey will wise up during their stay in Silent Hill.

Wrath: I appreciate the compliment. Hopefully, Trey's knack for humor will continue for a bit longer.

Fallen Angel-2099: Cool name by the way. The story has continued...

Windchaser90: Glad you like the story. Hopefully, all of your questions will be answered as the foursome makes their way through the muddled land of Silent Hill.