I.
One of the most well-known medical facilities in the region, Brookhaven Hospital had patrons from across the cities of Silent Hill, South Ashfield, Brahms, and all the small towns in between. Not only did the hospital treat severe injuries, they also had a 24-hour emergency room and a widely publicized mental illness treatment program. The most noteworthy quality of the hospital was the facility itself. Sanitary hallways, clean floors, gleaming walls, and plenty of lighting. Once any patient stepped through the door, there was no doubt they were in a hospital and they would get the best treatment possible.
However, as Trey Harrison scanned the hallways, he wondered what airborne diseases he was going to contract just from stepping foot in such a repulsive place. The hospital was no longer that premier facility that biology classes toured, newspapers wrote about, or that doctors were proud of. Instead, it was a dingy, dilapidated shell of a hospital, almost a mockery. It looked as though some plague had erupted from the basement and ate away everything, transforming it into some hellish form of its former self. Everything down to the tiniest scrap of paper overflowed with dark energy and pure evil.
"This is the hospital?" Michael said as he scanned the hallways, in as much disbelief as Trey. If somehow his newfound psychic flashes would allow him to fly, Michael surely would have floated through the disgusting hospital.
Trey shook his head, "This Samael is one sick demon. Why the hospital?"
Michael recalled the connection to the hospital earlier. Heather—actually it was Alessa—was in the hospital for some period of time. Maybe the incident tied the evil power to the hospital somehow. Regardless of the reason, Michael felt that with simply being there, the both of them were in grave danger.
Michael declined to answer, assuming Trey was asking a rhetorical question. Instead, his attention was focused on the light vibrations his cell phone gave off. He stopped abruptly and scanned the hallways. Shadows concealed corners and the end of the hallway, making a suitable hiding place for any monstrosity that decided to attack Trey and Michael.
"Something's here," Michael ominously said. He had his gun drawn and continued to scan the room, taking small steps backwards towards the wall to ensure he wasn't grabbed from behind.
Trey searched farther down the hallway, inching close to the shadows, mistrustful of the almost living ebon pathways. He kept his crossbow pointed forward at all times, ready to pincushion anything that even thought about being evil.
"Michael, you find anything?" Trey whispered.
Michael hesitated, still scanning the hallway. The vibrations were getting stronger, which meant something was getting closer. "No, but something's close. My phone's going crazy," his voice also a whisper.
Trey was ready to assert that maybe Michael's phone was as off as his predictions, but when he turned to Michael, Trey paused for a moment and watched the darkness behind Michael. Something didn't seem right, like it was moving toward him. Pale, ghostly arms emerged from the shadows toward Michael, intending on pulling him into the void.
"Michael, look out!" Trey yelled.
Michael immediately dropped to the ground as well-timed arrows whizzed over his head. He arced his head around to get a view of what had managed to sneak up behind him, what Trey had shot and hopefully killed.
A nurse lay on the ground, five arrows jutting out of her chest, and her appendages twitched frantically as she lay dying. At first, Michael thought Trey had overzealously shot a possible companion or another unwitting victim of Silent Hill. But upon closer inspection, Michael saw that the nurse was nothing more than another warped monster created by Silent Hill.
She was dressed in a pale pink, seventies-type nurse outfit, complete with the silly-looking nurse hat and the clunky, matching shoes. Black, bobbed hair framed an unnaturally pallid face. Her features were nothing special, except the raw area around her mouth. It appeared as though something had ripped her lips and adjoining skin away from around her mouth, leaving behind exposed teeth, muscle and nerves. Immensely unattractive.
Michael stood and brushed off his sweater, thankful that the nurse had fallen so easily and that Trey was an excellent shot. He felt his phone stop vibrating in his pocket. "Thanks. You're pretty good with that thing," Michael mentioned.
Trey grinned and shrugged. "I do what I can."
Michael inspected the nurse, who now lay completely still in a pool of crimson. Her slightly deformed body lay crumpled on the floor, her lifeless limbs unnaturally angled. Michael scrunched his face in disgust and commented, "They've all been changed into monsters, but they don't look like any of the others. They almost look human."
"I don't want to think about it like that," Trey replied. "If these people are serving some evil god, there's no humanity left in them."
His rationalization made complete sense to Michael, but then again, it seemed almost too black and white. Michael then realized that Trey had been through a lot since entering this nightmare, so he understood how Trey could rationalize it so easily. And Michael didn't want to think about these monsters actually being normal people once either.
"Where do you think Killian went?" Trey asked.
"I don't know," Michael replied and stopped walking. "Is there anyplace where he could imprison someone?"
Trey thought for a moment. "The third floor's the psychiatric ward. When we toured this place, they let us walk through the ward up there. All of the doors can lock from the outside and are supposed to be escape-proof. They said it was for the safety of the patients, but after everything we've seen, I sincerely doubt it."
"Then Christine could be up there. Let's—" Michael began, but stopped as his phone again vibrated in his pocket. Michael glanced up at Trey, but his eyes strayed fixed over Michael's shoulder.
"Mike, you might want to see this," Trey said, his voice hollow.
Reluctant to turn around, Michael moved slowly and hoped Trey was only joking. But when his eyes adjusted and he saw the figures that shambled toward him, Michael felt instantly overwhelmed.
More nurses, clones of the first, shambled down the hallway, their legs appearing to have trouble supporting their weight. They walked as if pigeon-toed and bowlegged at the same time. Some carried a rusty metal pipe while others intended to use their bare hands.
Michael turned on his heel and began to retreat from the nurses, but froze only after one step. More nurses approached from the opposite direction. Same walk, probably same intent, trapping Michael and Trey in the hallway. There were at least seven or eight coming down Trey's side of the hallway and about the same number from Michael's side. Trey saw what Michael saw and shrugged nonchalantly.
"Looks like we're not going to get out of here without a fight," Trey declared. "You got enough ammo to take care of this?"
Michael's eyes locked with Trey's. "No," he simply replied.
"No? Is that all you're going to say? I thought you were the fearless, know-it-all leader of the group. Aren't you supposed to have a plan?"
"I'm not the leader, Trey," Michael flatly replied. "But, I do have a plan. We have an advantage. They're slow. We can use hand-to-hand to take them down"
Trey's jaw went slack with disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Mike, in case you didn't notice, we're talking about flesh-eating, unholy, powered by something evil, demented creatures, not some punks or prostitutes roaming the streets looking to mug someone. Besides, you don't look like an ass-kicking machine. No offense."
"None taken. But it's your mistake, like so many others, underestimating me. I've taken martial arts for several years."
"Oh, really?" Trey did nothing to hide his doubt. "So, how many fights have you been in?"
"Well," Michael knew that he hadn't been in any fights. For the most part, he was a likable person. And for those that didn't like him, a simple quick witted insult or direct reprimand circumvented any sort of physical altercation. All of his fights had been in karate class, controlled physical bouts where no one really got hurt. This would be vastly different, but still, Michael's confidence didn't waver under Trey's scrutiny. "The number of fights isn't important. I can handle it." He hoped that would be enough to satisfy Trey. Now was the wrong time to start having doubts in each other's capabilities.
Trey seemed only half-placated with the answer. "So what's the plan?"
"No, plan, just fight."
"Well, shut up and duck!" Trey commanded.
Michael obeyed without hesitation as arrows sailed over his head into a nurse that had closed the gap between itself and Michael. The nurse reeled from the impact of each arrow—a total of seven—then fell to the ground. Michael lunged at a crazed nurse, barely dodging her icy reach. He landed a right straight punch to its face and followed with a kick to its chin.
Trey struck another nurse with the butt of his crossbow, turned around and hit another with the butt. He spun back and aimed quickly then fired several arrows into her chest. He whipped back around and repeated the action.
Michael planted his heel in another nurse's face. She flew back into another one and they toppled to the ground. He then spun around with a backhand that caught another nurse in the jaw. Yet, another nurse overtook Michael. It wrapped its arms around him from behind. Michael snapped his head back and caught the nurse in its nose, but the tight grip didn't loosen.
An arrow whizzed by and hit the nurse in the center of her forehead, inches from Michael's own head. The grip slipped off Michael, in time for him to ram a fist into another nurse's throat then bring her face to his knee. Another came at him from the side, but Michael simply used her momentum to keep her going past him into the wall. Arrows finished the job.
The fight continued until Trey and Michael stood back-to-back, surrounded by fallen nurses. Some still twitched sporadically as the lay dying, but soon they too were still.
Michael and Trey both breathed hard, their adrenaline rushing through their veins. Their bodies wanted more, but they were thankful the nurses weren't being birthed from some contraption that produced an endless supply of demonic nurses.
Trey smirked, "Well, Karate Kid, even though I saved your ass a few times, I'm impressed. You're well on your way to being a bad-ass like yours truly."
"Sweet," Michael sarcastically replied. Michael felt his breathing return to normal as they weaved through the maze of bodies toward the end of the hallway. They walked briskly but cautiously, eyes peeled for any lingering nurses ready to surprise them. But they reached the end of the hallway without further incident, now halted by a sturdy door with a keypad on the side.
"Maybe we should head to the third floor," Trey suggested. "We don't have the code for this door anyways, do we?"
"I don't have it. But there's obviously something important behind this door. Maybe we missed the clue for the code."
Trey adamantly disagreed. "Mike, we've solved a lot of puzzles and seen plenty of these code-type keypads and we haven't missed anything up to this point. I don't think this room is important, but if you insist, why don't you just try some random number."
"And set off some alarm and have this place swarming with more nurses?"
"Good point. What do you think is behind there?"
Michael shook his head. It was something he couldn't exactly pinpoint. The third floor and finding Christine should have been at the forefront of his mind, but he felt that she was safe, wherever she was. But this door, this is what would lead them toward the end—toward Samael.
"I don't know," he replied. "Let's just wait here for a minute. Someone else has the code to this door, and they'll open it for us."
Trey gave a cynical sigh in reply. "Look, Mr. Psychic, you've been acting all omniscient ever since five minutes ago. I don't think you've had this whole clairvoyant thing long enough to start making predictions like that."
Michael sighed as well. Trey was right to an extent. He couldn't explain why or how he knew the things that he did. Or why he kept getting flashes of information or predictions. It was strange, uncontrollable, and flighty. Maybe it wasn't as reliable as Michael wanted it to be. But still, the feeling was strong enough that he couldn't simply ignore it.
"Look, I can't really explain it. I don't understand it either. But I'm sure that—"
"Nine-eight-zero-one!" a frantic female voice, somewhat familiar, resounded down the hallway towards them.
"What was that?" Trey asked.
"Nine-eight-zero-one!" the voice sounded again, this time much closer. "The door! Open it! Hurry!"
"No f-ing way," Trey slapped his head. He realized that was the code to the door. "But how?"
Michael turned down the hallway and saw Christine in the front, hurdling fallen nurses, followed closely by Henry and Tina. They scrambled toward them, eyes laced with panic.
"Trey, open the door," Michael told him.
Trey paused for a moment, ready to ask why they were in such a hurry. But then he saw their pursuer. A girl's head, attached to a comically elongated neck, snaked around the corner and her deformed body crawled along the wall after them, two large pincers reaching for them.
"Dammit! Couldn't your psychic thing have detected a huge-ass monster lurking around the hospital? It's kind of hard to miss!" Trey raised his crossbow and aimed at the girl, but Michael gently pushed his crossbow down.
"Just open the door!" Michael shouted. He stepped toward Christine and the others and motioned them to hurry. The monster was quickly closing the gap between them. If they stumbled even slightly, there was no way they would escape the gruesome fate of being crushed or decapitated by those pincers.
Trey punched in the wrong sequence of numbers, but on the second try, a click signaled the door had been unlocked. Trey swung the door open and motioned frantically for Christine, Henry, and Tina to hurry.
Michael whipped out his gun and shot at an exposed pipe on the wall. Surprised that his shot was so accurate, he watched as a jet of steam erupted from a crack and blinded the monster temporarily. It screamed and staggered around on the wall then the floor, all the while howling and cursing.
Christine, Henry, and Tina rushed by Michael then by Trey into the confines of the office. They turned quickly to see the monster, Sara, had been distracted by the hot steam still rushing from the pipe with a menacing hiss.
"Guys, get in here!" Christine called.
Trey moved, but when Michael didn't he stepped back into the hallway. "What the hell are you doing, Mike? Get in here, now!" When Michael didn't move, he added, "Look, you don't have to prove you're a bad-ass, I was only kidding about that. Now would you move it so we can shut this door?"
Michael's head angled over his shoulder and he looked at Trey. Trey saw a deepness in his eyes, something dark and unrecognizable, and it surprised him. "Michael?" he said, not sure if his companion had now become a dangerous enemy.
"Michael, what are you doing?" Christine called. Henry and Tina stood behind her, their expressions relaying the same questions Trey and Christine were voicing.
Michael turned away and faced the monster, which had now recovered from the surprise attack and stood poised ready to charge. He closed his eyes and felt his mind expand, reaching for something in the past, something a long time ago. Ancient. An archaic verse to dispel the evil. No, this wasn't the first time this kind of evil had surfaced. But before, they believed in the internal power to defeat it, channeled through spells and crafts. The knowledge poured into Michael as a clear train of thought, like remembering something that he had learned before.
It made sense. This evil wasn't new, just in a different form. But the same methods used back then could work now. And somehow, Michael had faith that he could dispel the monster.
Michael opened his eyes and he knew what needed to be said. A Latin phrase poured from his lips, in a voice not quite his yet not so foreign.
The short chant echoed in the hallway, as if one hundred voices had shouted the words in an empty concert hall. Though he didn't know what the hell Michael had said, it sent chills up Trey's spine. He swore that the hallway dropped several degrees in temperature and the shadows writhed in gleeful anticipation for the results of Michael's foreign words.
At first, everything was still, like time had stopped. Then, Sara abruptly fell to the ground, writhing in excruciating pain. A primal bellow of pain escaped her lips as her skin bubbled and boiled. Then her appendages bloated, rising and falling like something was building up in them. Blood began to pour from her eyes, nose, mouth, and any other orifice that opened into her body. Her entire body thrashed about for some kind of reprieve from the awful pain it now endured.
"Trey, grab Michael!" Christine yelled.
Trey reached for Michael and grabbed him as he stumbled and almost fell. Trey guided him into the room and Henry slammed the door behind him, muffling the bellows that echoed through the hallway. Only seconds later, there was a loud explosion, like a balloon filled with wet meat. Henry looked at the crack at the bottom of the door and noticed green blood seeping underneath. It crept only a few inches into the room then stopped.
Trey sat Michael down in a chair and looked into his eyes. That thing—whatever it was—wasn't in his eyes anymore, just the brown friendly eyes Trey was used to. "Michael," he said, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he absently replied.
"What happened? What did you do?" Tina stammered. Fear and uncertainty punctuated every word, and when Michael saw the questionable looks Henry and Christine gave, Michael knew that they didn't trust him. They thought he was one of the evil people.
"I—I don't know," Michael quietly replied. It was the truth, he really didn't know. And the little bit that he thought he understood would seem so ludicrous that they wouldn't believe it anyways. But the next words just flowed out as Michael met Tina's inquisitive stare. "A spell. I don't know how, but I knew it. I used it against the monster. It was something old, used by priests before to battle Samael and this evil."
"But how did you know it?" Henry asked. The mistrust in his voice caught everyone's attention.
"Wait, Michael's not the bad guy here," Christine interrupted. "He just saved us from Sara. There have been a lot of strange things that have happened tonight. I finally remembered my past and how I'm connected to this place in a flash of clarity. There are a lot of things that we can't exactly explain. Let's just leave it be for now, okay?"
Michael met Christine's gaze and realized that just like Trey, she had witnessed something in Silent Hill too. Something meant just for her.
"Christine, we were looking for you. I, no we're glad you're okay," Trey changed the topic, sensing Michael's uneasy posture.
She knew what Trey was doing and secretly thanked him for it. Christine replied, "Yeah, I'm okay." Then directed her attention to both Trey and Michael. "I've thought about this over the past few minutes, but I don't think it was an accident that we were separated. We had to face our own trials or situations to realize why we are here. Somehow, I don't think it's an accident that the four of us—Heather, Trey, you, and I even Tina and Henry—are in Silent Hill. I found out the truth about myself and something tells me that you found something too, Michael. Trey, did you find something?"
Trey frowned. "Not really," then he remembered the desecrated corpse of Felicia. "Yeah," he corrected, "but it didn't tell me why I'm here. Maybe I'm just a victim of circumstance. I saw those people let themselves be turned into monsters. Maybe it's because of what I saw. I've just been a tag-along for most of this."
"I can say the same thing," Tina added. "I was simply caught up in all this. If not for Harry, I don't think I would even be alive right now. Dr. Killian was going to fire me, but instead, he went crazy and attacked me. Harry saved me. And even when we found ourselves lost in Silent Hill, Henry saved me again from that Pyramid Head thing."
Henry replied, "I've been trapped in my apartment for the past two days. It's really weird, but I don't see what it has to do with this."
Michael answered, "Christine's right. I've thought about this for a while now—all of us have been touched in one way or another by Silent Hill. You may not know it, or realize it, but that's the common thread between all of us. Trey and I go to college here, Christine was on her way to Silent Hill for a vacation, coincidentally with the son of Cybil Bennett a survivor of the horrors of Silent Hill a few years ago, Heather has been a target of Silent Hill all of her life. Tina, you work at the hospital, which I think has a significant role in Alessa's life after her accident."
"I've been to Silent Hill before, a few years back on a photo shoot," Henry realized.
"Trey witnessed everyone that lives in Silent Hill has pledged themselves to Samael, even at the college. But instead of submitting ourselves to Samael, we've chosen the harder path—we're fighting. We've made the conscious decision to see this through to the end and that's why we're here. I think we, in turn, have been chosen because of that," Michael finished.
"Chosen? By who?" Tina asked.
Michael shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe some other higher deity that represents good, one that wants to see Samael and all this evil destroyed. And we're the vessels to do that."
Henry frowned. He admitted that they had been immersed in a world of madness and evil. But to go so far as to say that they were nothing more than the pawns stuck in a battle between good and evil didn't sit right with Henry. He didn't like the idea of his life and his actions being controlled by some otherworldly forces that were too scared to confront one another that instead had to rely on them to decide that fate of not only themselves, but possibly of the world.
"Why doesn't this deity simply face Samael head-on then? Why use us?" Henry posed.
"I can't answer that," Michael said, his patience wearing down. "It's the same way with Samael though. We've been attacked by strange creatures and other devout cult members. We haven't been attacked directly, at least I don't think we have. Maybe there's some cosmic rule that keeps them from directly interfering. I don't know." He rubbed his chin in frustration and fatigue.
Henry replied, "Wait a minute, this sounds all too—"
"Crazy?" Michael finished. "Is it? How else could you explain being trapped in your apartment where no one can hear you or save you? How can you explain the notes, the writing on the walls, the deaths we've had seen, the strange characters we've encountered, the monsters we've battled? How could I, never having Latin before in my life, use some spell that totally eradicated a monster? No, it doesn't make any sense, but then again, we're in a world where sense doesn't matter. Evil is what prevails here and its spreading. I don't believe in fate and all that, but if this is the purpose of my existence, to face whatever's out there causing all this, then I'll accept it whether I like it or not. I'm not going to just give up. If someone has some better rationalization or idea, by all means, throw it out there."
An uneasy silence fell over the group. No one could come up with a better interpretation of the circumstances now surrounding them. No one wanted to. No matter how any of could rationalize it, the truth was undeniable. Some evil force was after them and if they didn't fight, they would simply be another victim. They knew Michael's explanation had faults and he knew that too, but they knew that on some fundamental level, he had a good grasp of what was going on. And that's what scared them the most.
"You're right." Trey announced, breaking the silence. Everyone waited to hear what he was going to say, but paused when he said, "It's crazy." Trey then added, "But I can't disagree with anything you've said. I trust you."
I trust you. Those three words had never meant so much to Michael as they did now. They didn't think he was another evil incarnation, well at least Trey didn't. Trey knew that whatever this situation was or wasn't he would have to rely on others to get through it. Trey and Michael had saved each other so many times during this whole thing, and now, Trey was thinking him for it, in his own way. Trey was no longer another person simply thrust into a precarious situation with him. Trey was a friend. A damn good one.
Henry stepped forward. "I know what I just said, but I trust you. I trust everyone in this room. I still haven't figured out why I'm here, but there's a reason, and I'll stick with it to the end."
Tina added, "I'm with Henry. We'll make it through this together, helping and trusting each other."
Tina Grey and Henry Townsend, two other lost souls trapped in Silent Hill. Yet, they were drawn together by unknown forces to face whatever lay ahead. Michael not only respected them, but he felt committed to them, like he would any other friend.
Christine smiled, "And I trust all of you too. All the way to the end." She made direct eye contact with Michael, her gaze relaying more than just her words. There was something in Christine's words seemed to foretell some sort of unavoidable tragedy that would test the trust they had for each other. Michael felt glad that they had bonded together, even for these few moments, not only as a team, but as friends.
"Okay, so I'm not going to hold hands with you guys and starting singing," Trey brought everyone back to the situation at hand. "So, what's the plan?"
"Going back that way is out," Christine replied matter-of-factly. She surveyed the office and stopped at the conspicuous curtain covering an entire wall of the four-walled room. "Guys, this office, it's inside the hospital, right?" When everyone responded with a strange look, she added, "What I mean is that there shouldn't be a window in here. It's inside the building."
Tina realized what she was saying. "Yeah, you're right. There are two other offices on either side and there's another office that used to be connected to this one, but they remodeled and built a wall between them. This wall that's covered with the curtain."
Henry walked to one side and Trey walked to the opposite end. With a quick tug, they pulled the curtain down to reveal a large hole, outlined with two red circles, one inside the other. Strange symbols and writing were etched into the inch of space created by the two circles. The hole was quite large, but disappeared into darkness. The light from the room didn't even shine into the hole, like the darkness simply absorbed it.
"What is it?" Tina stood and circled around to the front of the hole, but smartly kept her distance.
Michael stood and crossed the room, facing the circle. He peered into the deep darkness and replied, "Samael's decided to finally confront us."
"I thought you said they couldn't directly interfere," Henry mentioned.
Michael replied "Whoever said the bad guys play by the rules? This is it, everyone, the final confrontation. I don't know what will happen once we go through this passage. I hope that we will find Heather and the others, but if not, we'll be face to face with something inexplicably terrifying that could take our lives. Is everyone ready for that?" Michael turned to face everyone.
As Henry and Tina stood, Henry took Tina's delicate hand in his. She turned her gaze toward him and smiled.
"No matter what happens, we'll get through this," Henry said, not only to Tina, but as a reassurance to everyone.
Christine moved closer to Trey and squeezed his hand. "Whatever's on the other side, we'll fight it with all we have," she held Trey's gaze for a moment then locked eyes with Michael. "And we'll trust each other."
Again, Michael had the feeling that this battle wouldn't be without trials and somehow, trust in each other would play a huge part in the outcome. Michael didn't know what that situation would be, but he knew that all of them would not make it out of this battle. And he felt that Christine knew that too. Still, he only nodded in reply.
Michael stepped closest to the hole. As he neared, the darkness came to life, reaching and churning, longing to swallow new victims for its master. Michael took in a huge breath. His palms were sweaty, his backpack suddenly felt ten times as heavy, and his knees threatened to shake his entire body apart. But he stood his ground.
He checked his gun—it was full—and let it hang slack by his side, "It's time to end this."
Michael stepped into the darkness and his friends followed.
Notes:
Work, school, writer's block—but I finally got this chapter done. I got a wild, creative hair, and basically rewrote the chapter tonight (29 Jan). If you're at this part, feel free to leave me a review to let me know what you think.
Trey's statement about prostitutes and punks roaming the streets is a reference to the old school, beat-em-up game, Final Fight, by Capcom. I just love putting in all these little references to different games and movies!
Shortey: Thanks for the review. Actually, I really liked this chapter with Trey being a stand alone character. It really let him shine as a character—that same for Michael, Christine, and Heather. I do like Trey's scene the best though. I'm glad to see you liked the long overdue reunion between Heather and Harry. It's been my intention from the beginning to reunite them, but as the story went on, more and more things kept separating them. Let's just hope they stay together to the end.
DigiSim: Did you check out Richard B. Sampson's story? His story based on Shivers has been getting some good reviews. Check it out and let him know what you think.
DarknessinShadows: I'll be sure to check out your Silent Hill story sometime this week. I know you'll be busy with school, so review when you can. And thanks for the e-mail, you helped break through my writer's block and bit of procrastination (smile).
Rodarian: Glad you liked everything I threw at you guys in the last chapter. I'm still thinking of a song that will fit the finale, especially since it's going to start in the next chapter!
Duelist-17: Shame on you for taking so long to review (lol). Seriously though, thanks for reviewing just the same. Let me know what you think of this new chapter.