Forever

"Evil draws men together" - Aristotle

Alex collapsed on the dusty floor. What the hell was that thing? She sobbed into the granite, trying to make sense of what she had seen. She couldn't get the images out of her head, and the horrifying noise invaded her senses. She could feel every terrifying note reverberating through her soul, destroying the human within her.

It took her a while to find her feet, and she smoothed back her hair. She looked around at the room she was in. A low, filthy desk stood in one corner and it was the only furniture in the room. The whole room was wooden, apart from the granite floor which was littered with old notices about scheduled funigations and power outages, the likes. On the far wall were several rows of mail boxes, the contents of many spread out on the ground below. It was obvious that this was an apartment building.

Uneasily, Alex glanced back towards the closed door before jogging towards the mouldy wooden staircase beside the desk. Each step groaned under her light weight, and she could feel the wood bending beneath her foot. It made her uneasy, but the only alternative was to face the creature outside.


Constance Gellar sighed as she lit a cigarette and took a long, slow drag from it. It was just their luck.

"We should just walk back to Brahams," she told the others. "It's not that far." Dr. Goldwyn sighed as he exited the boutique.

"We are not going anywhere without Stanley," he insisted. Constance laughed.

"Terry, this place is a ghost town. The guy is free," she informed him. "He is no longer our responsibility. If he wanted us to escort him back home, he never would have ran off."

"Actually, until he is back home, he remains our reponsibility," Dr. Goldwyn insisted.

"Besides, Connie," said Matthew Raimes, "Aren't you even a little bit curious? About this place? As Stanley's hypnotherapist, you witnessed what he said first hand." Constance stubbed what was left of her cigarette out against a lamppost, taking a step towards Matthew once it had fell to the ground.

"Yes, I have witnessed his 'episodes' first hand," she told him, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke. "Which is exactly why I do not wish to remain in this place longer than I need to." Her intense gaze met Matthew's for a moment, and he saw the flicker of fear that passed across her brown eyes. She was a thirty-three year old woman, and Matthew knew that women of that age (and especially working within the mental health service) did not scare easily.

"If Stanley is on his own, he is in danger," Dr. Goldwyn informed them. "We need to find him. And I suggest that we start at the historical society. It is, after all, the place that he drew whilst under your hypnotherapy, Dr. Gellar.

Constance pulled herself together and nodded.

"Very well," she said, her voice stronger than it had been before. "But stay aware. There is something very wrong with this place."


"Mrs. Sanderson?" Officer Keel shouted. But there was no reply, save for his voice echoing throughout the empty streets. "Sir, I thought you said this was a tourist town?"

Thomas Anderson walked by his side, his unbelieving eyes roaming over every empty shop. Of course it was a tourist town. He had visited not too long ago, and the streets were filled with happy, laughing couples and the ever-smiling locals. Now, the whole town was deserted. Cars remained in driveways, and shops remained open, but there was no life. Nobody to greet them as they made their way downCarroll Street.

Officer Anderson felt a chill creep throughought his body as they passed Brookhaven Hospital. Anderson used to be interested in local history, and knew that the hospital had been built in 1880 in response to the great plague that swept the town. Many people died in there. But it wasn't just the hospital. Silent Hill had a dark history, onewhich was laced with death and religious zealously.

"She will be here somewhere," he assured Keel. "She must be."


Stanley did not enter the medicalclinic. Nor did he go anywhere near it. In fact, he left that area of the town well alone, opting instead to the apartment blocks. Blue Creek and Woodside apartments were in the center of this part of Silent Hill, and were no doubt big and contained many places to hide. There, he would be able to lie low until his doctors decided to give up their search and leave.

Stanley found the apartments with ease, thanks to a tourist map he had acquired from the Bureau. He was unnerved to see that this area of the town was as silent as the rest. But somehow, it didn't surprise him. He had been here before, he knew it, but he just didn't know what had happened then.

Katz street was very quiet. The apartment blocks were a little way down it, past the Lucky Jade restaurant. A tall, stell-link fence surrounded them, although it fell down at one point, allowing just enough room for a slender human to squeeze through. Stanley, whilst thin, was well built, so had to pull it back a little way to wriggle through.

He didn't notice the charred, bloody footprints that led up to the gate.


Alex climbed the stairs to the first floor of the Blue Creek apartment building. The building was dilapadated, although amazingly still intact. What was leftof a particularly hideous choise of wallpaper was peeling off the moist walls. The carpet squelched beneath Alex's feet, water pooling into her shoes. She looked up to see a gaping hole in the ceiling, granting her the unwanted view of someone's bathroom ceiling. Even that was stained with grime. How long had this place been deserted?

She continued on down the hall, thefloor gradually becoming less fluid as she progressed. She tugged on the handles of the apartment doors as she passed, but most of them were locked. She banged her palms against the warm, damp wood and shouted through the doors.

"Hello?" She knew that it was futile. Even if the town was not deserted, who would live in a run-down dump like this? It was uninhabitable. And had a terrible roach infestation. She screamed as she looked down to see one of the infernal creatures scurrying across her shoe. She had never liked cockroaches. It was strange how they were the only sign of life in this town.

Carrying on, she ran her hand along the wall, dirt and dust clinging to her fingers. Eventually she found a door that opened, and cautiously made her way inside.

The first sound to greet her eyes wasthe static fuzz of the television. It was a small box, and a crudearial protruded from the top of it's wooden frame. In front of the T.V. sat an empty armchair. It was in seemingly perfect condition; no stuffing falling out of the cushions, or discolouration from the damp. A simple remote lay on its arm, pointed towards the T.V. Behind the T.V. was a sliding glass door, covered by a net curtain. With the way the T.V. was positioned, Alex doubted that anyone ever used this door. Along from the door was a cabinet, the glass infront of its empty display case scattered in pieces over the lower section.

Alex removed her pocket light from her jacket pocket and shone it on the display case. There was an imprint in the shape of a gun on the backboard. By the looks of it, it was a shotgun. Decorative, probably. But whatever it was, it was nowhere to be found. And the empty boxes on the surface of the drawer section signalled that the bullets were missing too. Alex thought back to the police car. Why didn't she take the damn gun?

Slipping the torch back into her pocket, she opened the top drawer of the cabinet. Nothing except dust. In the second drawer lay a few papers, including a tourist booklet. She had no use for that. In the botton drawer lay more empty boxes of shotgun shells, and...a handgun. Alex smiled as her fingers wrapped around the cold, steel handle. She had no idea what type of gun it was, as she had never used a real gun before. Only the stupid ones they had at carnivals. But she did know how to use it. She ejected the clip and saw that it was full. A quick rummage in the back of the draw produced three more clips which she slid into her back pocket. She kept the gun in hand.

Alex smiled at the kind officer. His name was Anderson, apparantly.

"Is that gun real?" she asked, pointing to the officer's firearm. Anderson smiled and removed it from its holster.

"Yes it is," he replied, smiling. "Have you ever seen one before?" Alex shook her head. She was only fourteen for crying out loud!

"How do you use it?" She enquired curiously. Anderson showed her how to eject a clip.

"These are the bullets," he told her. "As long as they stay dry, the gun will fire them." He replaced the clip and pointed to the side of the gun. "This here is a safety button. The gun won't fire if it's on. That's to stop us accidentally shooting ourselves in the leg when we holster the weapon." Alex laughed and placed a finger on the side of the handle of the gun. Anderson smiled at her. She was too young for this, but anything to occupy her was worth doing. "To fire, you aim at whatever you want to shoot and then squeeze...don't pull...the trigger."

The apartment was very small. The kitchen was open, and there was a single bedrrom and tiny bathroom. Nothing of interest. She returned to the main room and placed a hand on the door handle when she heard a noise outside the room. It sounded like someone was attempting to open the doors previous to this room.

Alex backed up, walking into the armchair. The ominous sound drew closer. Whoever it was was only a few doors away now. Gripping the handle of her gun tightly, she ran over to the glass door and tugged on the handle. To her great surprise, the door slid open with ease, causing her to stumble slightly. She climbed onto the fire escape outside just as she heard the apartment door creak open. She didn't bother to close the door, but instead leapt to the fire escape of the opposite building. The flimsy metal scaffolding shook under her weight and she pulled herself through an open window.

She landed with a thud on the other side, the carpet barely breaking her fall. She crawled out of the way of the window.

"Hello?" A male voice shouted through the open door of the opposite building. "Is someone there?"

She heard footsteps on the fire escape and thena tremendous thud as the owner of the voice landed just outside the window. Terrified, Alex ran for the door, not wanting this...person...to find her. For all she knew, it could be another one of those creatures. She didn't stop running once she was out the door. Her footsteps echoed around the empty hallway. It was obvious that this was another apartment building. The layout was slightly different than the one she had just escaped, but the hallways were relatively easy to navigate.

There were no footsteps behind her, but another noise emanated from an unknown source. The sound was metallic, that was the only description she could think of for it. It sounded like machinery. The noise caused Alex to stop dead in her tracks, silent as the streets outside. The noise grew steadily louder, the metallic scraping irritating every nerve in Alexis' body. She clamped her hands over her ears and cried out in fear. As the noise grew, she realised that there was a steady beat to it, the tempo increasing as the volume grew. Then herradio began to hiss again, squealing and buzzing at her waist.

Without hesitating further, she ran. Her frantic footsteps were drowned out by the terrifying sound, and her breathing grew more erratic with every step she took. Her feet pounded against the dry, rough carpet. She didn't know where she was going. Anywhere but here, she told herself. Then she saw it...a red light emanating from the end of the hallway. It must be a way out, she thought, it must! The light grew as she drew closer to it, and she could make out a faint outline behind it. Her concentration momentarily evaporated, but that was all it took for her foot to catch on a loose piece of carpet and send her flying towards the light.

She remained on the floor fow a few seconds, breathing heavily. The light was gone. But there were metal bars infront of her, running vertically from ceiling to floor. She pushed herself up very carefully, reaching for her pocket light, which had been thrown aside with the force of her fall. She pointed the small light towards the bars, and it fell on a pair of boots. At least that's what she assumed they were. She realisedthat her radio was now hissing out of control. She was surprised that it was still working. Whoever those boots belonged to...they weren't human. She lifted the light, slowly standing as she did so. Just above where the 'boots' stopped, a strange garment began...or ended. Its edges were raggy and stained with what she hoped was simply dirt. The material had a leathery quality to it, and it was made up of several pieces of the same, leathery material crudely sewn together with what looked like hair. Alex did not want to see the rest of this monster, but curiosity and a morbid fascination overcame her. Besides, a metal gate seperated them both.

By slowly dragging the light further up she saw the skin of the creature. It was as pale as its clothing, and just as leathery. The arms were muscular, and veins throbbed on their surface. The hands gripped the handle of a large metal weapon.The weapon was rusting, and covered in the same brownish dye that covered the creature's clothes. She drew the light even further up and fell backwards, screaming. For the creature had no head. On its neck rested a giant, red, metal pyramid. It was rusting as much as the weapon was. The corners of the pyramid were sharp and again, stained with a brownish-red colouring. Huge bolts held the pyramis together, and there were widges along each side. No holes, though. There was no possible way that this thing could see or hear. Then why did Alex get the feeling that it was observing her.

She watched its chest rise and fall as its head dropped slightly. Alex realised for the first time that the strange noise had ceased. At that exact moment, a siren sounded in the distance, its deafining tone shattering the deadly silence. Then, Alex felt the carpet move beneath her hands. She looked down and screamed again. The whole floor appeared to be dissolving. Beneath the carpet lay a metal grate, and beneath that...Alex looked away. She never did have a head for heights. She slid the torch back into her pocjet and turned to look at the creature. Slowly, the metal bars began to dissolve, one by one. But the creature continued to point its hideous head in Alex's direction. She had seen enough. She grabbed onto the metal grate below her and violently pushed herself up, sprinting beforeshe was even upright. The whole world dissolved around her, wallpaper peeling off the walls, the plaster beneath disintegrating. Soon, the whole building consisted of metal grates and gangways. And the noise returned, coming from somewhere beneath her. And this time it was accompanied by thescraping sound of metal on metal. Alex spun around, still running backwards, and saw the pyramid-headed creature lurching towards her, heaving its giant knife behind it.Its red head remained fixed on her and is steadily made its way down her gangway.

Alex's feet shuffled slowly back, and then she felt the ground vanish. She was t the end of the path. But her foot had already overstepped the mark. Her arms flung wildly as she teetered on the dge. But there was nothing to hold onto. Nothing. Her remaining foot rocked precariously on the edge, before falling backwards off the metal, sending Alex plummeting into the unknown.


AN - Gah, I'm not too sure about that chapter. I hope my description of Pyramid Head was satisfactory, lol. I know I've only got 3 reviews so far (thank you to those of you who have reviewed :)), but I checked my stats, so I know that people are reading this. Enjoy :)

Review...you know you want to :).

Disclaimer - I own nothing but the story and the characters. But I don't own some of the characters who will be coming in soon.