Chapter Three: The Woodside Apartments
The surreal and eerie calm overshadowing Silent Hill had quickly been dispersed by the pounding of Makoto's shoes on the pavement, the roaring static from the radio, and the clicking sound of the monsters drawn to Makoto's steps. Seeking refuge at once, Makoto burst through the door of Neely's Bar and barricaded the door with her body before the demons could overcome her. How could she have missed all the monsters in Silent Hill! There were hundreds!
The faded green shirt she was wearing heaved up and down with her breaths. If the bar window hadn't been covered with newspapers, Mako would've looked outside to see if the patient demons were still present. However, the fading of the radio's static signaled that they were receding back into the mist. The brunette released a deep sigh of relief and tried to calm her racing heart. Adrenaline had kicked in when Makoto realized just how many monsters were chasing her and was beginning to leave her system. Calmer now, she could take in her surroundings more efficiently.
The dusty bar smelled of stale liquor and small pieces of rubbish littered the gray tiled floor. Splintered pieces of wood were sticking up from the bar counter. A wooden door behind the counter led in to the back of the bar, not that this interested Makoto. It was also completely barren of furniture. Enough light passed through the newspaper covered windows to allow Makoto to examine the map. Taking out a red pen from her breast pocket, she scribbled a large X on the path she had just come from. Each of the main routes to Rosewater Park had roadblocks to hinder passage.
"The intersection to Nathan Ave. is blocked, too… There has to be a way to get to Rosewater Park." The brunette griped irritably.
She had to fight off the hopeless sensation of never seeing her precious Ami again. The brunette knew all too well in her heart that she couldn't give up now otherwise she would be practically handing Mercury's princess over to the horrors of this town. Trying to plan her next move, the brunette leaned against the splintering bar counter and examined the dirty floor. Lifting her head slightly, a message written in bold black ink on the newspapers covering the windows came into view.
"A hole was once here but now it's gone…" She read aloud quietly. "Does it mean there was a hole in the window?" Shrugging off the meaning of the message, the brunette took up the map once more. The dim light illuminated the map again and there was one last possible route that Makoto had not yet explored. Behind the Woodside Apartments was an alleyway that opened up on to another main road, which in turn could lead her to Rosewater Park. Clutching the map firmly in her hand and the wooden plank in the other, Makoto exited the bar.
The brunette noticed on her way to the Woodside Apartments that if she moved quietly, the patient demons would not hear her. The top of the Woodside Apartment building was hidden in the mist but looked to be only three stories tall. The brick walls were faded with age and like other buildings in Silent Hill, the windows were boarded up heavily. A rusted lock connected the apartment's gate to the ten foot fence surrounding the perimeter.
Mako's temper was beginning to boil at yet another set-back. Makoto spat and kicked the locked fence in frustration, which rattled out of place a little before sliding back into its original position.
Placing the map back into a free pocket, Makoto threw the wooden plank over the fence to free her grasp and it clattered to the ground on the opposite side. Then she stepped back a few paces away from the fence, sprinted forward, forced her right tennis shoe into a gap in the wire fence, leaped up to grab the top of the fence, twisted and swung her body over, before landing on her feet with a dull thud.
There was just no time to search for a key or attempt to pick the lock.
Having picked up the wooden plank again, she pushed against the apartment door and it gave way easily into a dark lobby. Mailboxes on one wall were empty and missing in some places while a bulletin board on the opposite wall had a lop-sided map pinned to its surface unceremoniously. Taking the second map, Makoto squinted in the darkness but could barely make out the tiny print. The only thing she could tell was that this apartment building had three floors just like she had noticed outside. Folding the map into the same pocket as the map of Silent Hill, the brunette stepped towards the only door in the lobby which led out into the courtyard. It was locked and no matter how much she shook the handle of the door or tried to force it open with her shoulder, it wouldn't budge. Left of the door was a staircase leading to both levels above. The stairs were worn with many old footsteps and she could hear the wind whistling through a broken un-boarded up window on the third story.
Slipping inside the door on the second floor, Makoto noticed how several of the ceiling lights were out, leaving patches of darkness down the three separate corridors. Although with the few working lights that remained she could have read the map, but did not bother. It felt as if something was calling to her from the room down the right hallway labeled: 205. A bright light from within the small apartment's living room blinded Makoto's vision temporarily. It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the unexpected light, but when it did she saw that it was coming from a flashlight clipped onto the clothes of a fashion dummy. The brunette's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the fashion dummy wearing what looked like Mercury's sailor fuku. One of her pale fingers traced along the white and blue satin material longingly.
'Is this some kind of sick joke…?' Makoto asked herself in disgust.
Her hands slid up and unclipped the flashlight from the sailor fuku's brooch. When it was fastened onto her breast pocket, the light fell onto the opposite wall and a mannequin demon sprang to life. One of the legs attached to where normal arms would be, struck Makoto in the jaw. The force of the impact sent her reeling backwards onto the floor and the demon loomed over her. The demon had a normal torso with no head and four legs. It bent lower for another blow but Makoto sweep kicked it onto its back and kicked it ruthlessly in the side until a pool of blood formed beneath the motionless mannequin.
"I won't let any monster get in the way of me rescuing Ami!" Makoto panted, as if the monster could still hear her.
Perhaps if Makoto had remained in the room longer and calmed herself down, she would've realized that even if a mannequin was brought to life, it shouldn't bleed…
Most of the other doors on the second floor had broken locks, preventing Makoto from entering. Of the remaining doors, few of them were of any interest anyway; simple one bedroom apartments with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Down the center hallway, there were metal poles barring the rest of the hallway like a jail cell. The last apartment before this barricade seemed normal enough, but when Makoto explored the bedroom she noticed a riddle inscribed on the wall opposite of a grandfather clock. The riddle seemed to suggest something happening when the clock's hands were positioned a certain way, but the glass casing was locked. If Makoto had been more certain about this riddle she would have simply broken the glass with her wooden plank but she felt uneasy about breaking someone's property… even if they no longer inhabited the apartment. After checking the rest of the apartment thoroughly for useful items and seeing nothing else of interest on the second floor, she returned to the stairwell and headed up to the third story.
To her immediate right at the top of the stairs, another set of bars blocked the rest of the corridor. Wondering about these bars and their purpose, curiously; the brunette almost did not notice the light from her flashlight glint off a small metallic object on the other side of the bars on the dirty tile floors. It was a key! The brunette crouched down onto her knees and reached through the bars toward the tiny key, enthusiastically. However, the key was just out of her reach…
The air around her seemed to cool a couple of degrees, making Makoto cease in her effort to reach the key. A foot came out of the darkness and stepped on the metallic object, making Makoto jerk her arm back instinctively. "Who's there!" She demanded.
"So you were called to this town also…" A quiet young female voice answered calmly with a question of her own. "Why are you here?"
"To find someone…" The brunette answered hesitantly, trying to see the face of her encounter but she could only see a vague outline of the person. The light from her flashlight seemed to almost pass through the figure. 'What does she mean by I was called to this town..? Who else was called? Ami?'
"What if that person is better off not being found by you?" The person questioned mysteriously.
"What do you mean?" Makoto gritted her teeth, trying to hold back her temper. "Haven't you seen this town? How can someone be better off in this living hell?"
A tense silence stretched between them while they peered intently at each other, or in Makoto's case, attempted to peer. "You'll understand in time." The voice finally replied in a darkening tone while their foot pushed the key towards Makoto before walking away into the shadows of the corridor beyond.
"Wait! Come back!" The brunette ordered, wanting more answers to the figure's mysterious hidden meanings.
TO BE CONTINUED