Harry and Cybil ran for what seemed like ages, desperate to keep away from the monsters following them. Thankfully they didn't run into anything further as they created distance from the school, and they finally stopped, panting, in front of an apartment building a decent way away.

"I think… we should be… alright… for now…" Harry panted. Cybil nodded, hands on her knees as she caught her breath.

Once they'd both recovered Cybil looked at Harry questioningly. "Alright, so spill. What's a Fallen, and what does it have to do with this messed up town?"

Harry bit his lip. "By Fallen I mean a Fallen Angel." At her raised eyebrows he nodded. "Yes, really. They're known to constantly be trying to find a way onto out plane of existence, and any hint of something like that is taken extremely seriously by the magically aware governments of the world. Even some of the worst dictators would have no problem joining forces with the rest of the world to deal with something like that. Whatever cult those two loonies are part of, though, managed to not only worship a Fallen, but did something to let him through. That's… bad. Especially if he's been gathering power for twenty years without anybody noticing."

"Okay, I can see that." Cybil said with a nod, obviously trying to wrap her head around everything. "But he hasn't managed to spread his influence far, has he? We should be fine for now, right?"

"That would be true, but from what those two said, he's been biding time and gathering strength to extend himself again, this time to Brahms. If he gets another decent sized town, he might have enough power to make a grab for a major city. And if he's allowed to capture a large population in low millions, he'll spread that much faster. It's an exponential increase. Imagine him getting the population of, say, New York City, or Metropolis. Before long he'll have spread throughout the entire eastern coast of America." He explained.

"Oh…" Cybil said shortly, slightly paler. "Alright, so we definitely need to get out and warn somebody. Maybe evacuate nearby towns to keep him from getting any souls to feed himself."

Harry nodded. "At the very least. First thing's first, though, we need to get out. We can worry about that afterwards."

Cybil pulled out her map of Silent Hill and took a look at it. "Alright, looks like we've moved away from the cemetery. As much as I want to just sprint out of here, we'll need to be careful, so that means a relatively slow pace." She put the map away and readied her rifle. "Alright, ready to go?" Harry nodded, and they both began to head out. After a few steps, however, Cybil had to stop and shake her head.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Nothing. Just a bit of dizziness. I'll be fine. This place is just getting to me." Cybil responded.

Harry nodded and continued making his way along the silent, foggy streets. Cybil had reminded Harry of his own circumstances. He was incredibly thirsty, and his stomach was rumbling. However, he no longer felt as weak as he had at the police station. He was able to function well enough, and he was steady on his feet. He absently wondered what was going on with him. Something told him that, in a town under control of a Fallen, the unexplained was not a good thing. Unfortunately, he couldn't focus on that right now. His first priority was getting Cybil and himself out of the town.

As they continued walking, however, it became increasingly clear that something was wrong with Cybil. She'd began to sweat, and she swayed slightly on her feet while her skin had turned pale.

"Cybil, what's wrong." Harry asked once again.

Cybil shakily sank down to sit on the edge of the sidewalk with a groan. "I don't know. I was fine before. Now I feel weak…"

Harry stared down at her, wondering what could be wrong with her. Then his eyes widened in realization as he stepped toward her. "I think I know what's wrong." He grabbed the collar of her shirt, moving it aside, to expose an angry looking, swollen wound on her shoulder.

Cybil looked at the wound as best she could, looking confused. "Wha…?"

Harry looked at her. "The bug, remember? It bit you. It must have some sort of venom. This is why you're feeling sick."

Cybil groaned. "Acts fast, doesn't it?"

Harry nodded gravely. "Looks like it." He rooted around in his pack, looking at the supplies taken from the infirmary of the school. "I don't think any of this stuff is going to help much…" He said, hesitantly putting a large band aid on the wound.

Cybil let out another groan before struggling to her feet. "Then let's get moving. The faster we're out of this town, the faster I can get to a hospital."

Harry had ignored her, pulling out his own copy of the town map, studying it carefully. "There's a hospital, Alchemilla, about four blocks away. We might be able to find some antibiotics to help you there."

"Harry, it's too dangerous. Who knows what we'll run into in there. Our best option is to get out of the town as quickly as possible." Cybil said. In spite of her words, however, her face was shiny with sweat, and her body was trembling slightly.

"Cybill, look at yourself. You're barely standing upright. If we don't do something, you won't be able to get out at all. So let's carefully go to the hospital and take a quick look around." Harry said reasonably.

Cybil stared at him for a bit before groaning in defeat. "Yeah, alright kid. Let's get to the hospital. Which way?"

Harry began to lead them toward Alchemilla Hospital. They were two blocks from it when they heard the familiar sound of the radio crackling, followed by another sound of one of the flying monsters approaching. Harry and Cybil quickly ducked down just as the thing dived for them. Harry was able to get up quicker than the weakened Cybil and swiftly aimed his gun at the monstrosity. His first shot went wide, but the second hit it in the left wing, making it fall to the ground with an angry screech. Harry didn't give it a chance to get back up, easily double tapping it in its hideous head, making it stop moving.

He turned to find that Cybil was still on the ground, having trouble getting up. He hurriedly moved to help her up. Cybil was scowling at her own weakness, but Harry wisely kept silent, simply getting her to her feet and continuing to lead her to the hospital.

Soon enough they arrived at the large building of the hospital, which stood dark and ominous, just like all the other buildings in the accursed town. Slowly, carefully, they made their way into the building, weapons at the ready.

The entrance hall was silent and empty. The front desk was covered in papers. A small shop with gifts for patients stood nearby. Cybil absently looked at the gifts, picking up a postcard for the local amusement park, Lakeside, which was being sold there for some unfathomable reason.

"I remember this." She said with a small smile down at the purple rabbit mascot on the card. "My dad used to take me to the Lakeside Amusement Park when I was a little kid, before the fog came. I used to look forward to it so much…" She trailed off before looking around at the dilapidated interior of the hospital. "…God damn the people who did this…" She said softly. Harry laid a hand on her uninjured shoulder before moving on. Cybil absently pocketed the postcard and followed after him.

The radio was silent as they looked through the area for any threats. They were about to head to look into the patient rooms when Cybil stumbled, falling to her knees. Harry rushed to her side. "I'm… I'm fine." Cybil gasped.

"Right. And I'm Superman. Come on, let's find you someplace to rest while I search the hospital." Harry said, throwing her arm over his shoulders and carrying her to one of the patient rooms despite her protests. He set Cybil on one of the beds farthest from the door. "Alright, stay here and rest. I'll look through the hospital and find you some antibiotics. You should be safe here."

Cybil growled in frustration before holding her rifle out to Harry. "Here, take it."

"Cybil, you might need that., what if something shows up?" Harry protested.

"You're more likely to run into some nasty than I am, kid. Take it and stay safe. I'll be here, waiting for you." She told him, trying bravely to smile for him.

Harry hesitated before taking the rifle. He checked it just as she'd taught him before nodding to her and heading out. "I'll be back before you know it, and then you'll be all better." With one last smile at her he closed the door.

Harry looked around, adjusting his hold on the rifle, before making his way in the direction he thought it was most likely he would find medicine. He looked through every room, searching high and low for what he needed. All the while he remained tense. He hadn't run into anything nasty yet, but it was only a matter of time.

After the sixth room with nothing of use he growled. "Will nothing in this damned town give us a fucking break?" He scowled as he stalked back into the hallway. "Movies about these kind of things made it seem more bearable. I'd kill for some background music. It would preserve what's left of my fucking sanity."

Harry jumped when his radio, rather than emit static as he had been expecting, suddenly began to play music. It was some pop song that sounded vaguely familiar, but he didn't recognize. "What the…?" He unclipped the radio from his pocket and stared at it. "You can play music?" The song shifted briefly to what sounded like American Country music with a deep voiced man saying "You'd best believe I can!" before it switched back to pop.

Harry stared for a while longer before tentatively asking "Can you still warn me about any monsters?". In response the radio went to static, making Harry whirl around, searching for the threat, before the radio switched back to pop, which made him realize it was answering the question.

"There's something very odd about you, you know that?" Harry said, which the radio didn't respond to beyond continuing to play music. "…You know what? Fine. You've been the only thing besides Cybil on my side in this damn town. I'm not going to complain about you giving me some background music to help me deal." Then he frowned. "Could it not be pop though? I'm more of a rock/metal kind of guy." Immediately the music switched to what Harry recognized as Faint by Linkin Park. "Much better." He said with a smile, clipping the radio back to his pocket. Then he went back to his search, buoyed by the music, which chased away the maddening silence he'd had to deal with up till that point.

It was five minutes later, when the radio was playing a classic Metallica song as Harry was heading up the stairs to the second floor, that it suddenly switched to static, indicating his first monster encounter in the hospital. He prepared himself and made his way the rest of the way up the stairs carefully, his flashlight illuminating the way.

At the top of the stairs he looked around to see a group of figures standing not too far away. He carefully aimed the flashlight at them, wanting to get a look at what he was dealing with.

They appeared to be women. This was obvious by their curvaceous forms that were displayed by their outfits. It took Harry a second to realize they wore stereotypical nurses' uniforms, like the kind you'd see women dress as for Halloween. The outfits were more risqué than a real nurse's uniform would be, even when the type was still in use. They were tight against their forms, exposing impressive cleavage and revealing an indecent amount of leg.

However, the rest of them destroyed any semblance of attractiveness they had. Their skin was deathly pale, and was riddled with dark veins. It was their faces that demanded the most attention, however. They didn't have any. There was only a mass of warped flesh underneath a jaunty nurse's cap. The last thing of note was that in their hands they held very sharp looking scalpels.

Harry took all this in within a few seconds. That was all the time he had, as when the light shone on them they turned and began to make their way towards him. Their movements were awkward and jerky, like a puppet being controlled by a bad puppeteer. But it still brought them closer.

Harry quickly aimed his rifle at them and fired. The one in the lead fell back against one of its companions, a new hole in its stomach, but the others continued advancing, and eventually that one got up to continue as well. Harry continued to fire before the rifle clicked empty. One of the nurses lunged at him, ready to stab him with its scalpel, and Harry backpedaled out of range, kicking it back in the process. He quickly reloaded and resumed firing.

This was the pattern that was followed till finally the last of the nurse monsters fell to the ground, completely limp. Harry panted as the radio's static faded, to be replaced by, off all things, the victory theme from Final Fantasy. He couldn't help but chuckle. "Appropriate." He grinned, reloaded his weapon, and continued on his way.

For the next twenty minutes things continued in this vein. He'd go into a room, search it with mounting desperation, deal with the occasional nurse-thing, and move on. Of course, it wasn't only the nurses that inhabited the building. Twice Harry ran into the armless, acid spewing monsters. Thankfully he had grown used to fighting things by this point, and they weren't as much of a threat as he'd found them at first.

He absently wondered what it said about him that he'd gotten so used to fighting and killing monsters so quickly.

Harry was looking through the rooms on the third floor when he finally made some progress. One of the offices had vials of penicillin. Now he just needed some syringes in order to apply them to Cybil. He was getting worried though. He'd already spent nearly forty-five minutes searching, and Cybil had been deteriorating fast. So he resumed his search with greater fervor now that he'd made some tangible progress.

Five minutes later Harry smiled. He'd found several syringes in an opulent office, thankfully still in their sealed packaging. They were near a baggie of what Harry could only assume was something illegal. Not that he cared what a dead doctor had pumped into his body. All that mattered now was that he'd found what he needed.

He made to leave the office when he hesitated. Something had been nagging him since he entered the room. A feeling that he found somewhat familiar. So he began searching the room again, trying to figure out what it was.

He searched for almost five minutes before deciding to give up with a scowl. He hadn't found anything. He glared at a portrait hanging on the wall of a dour faced old man glaring out at everybody. "What are you looking at?" He grumbled, swiping at it to release some pent up frustration. To his surprise it swung open, revealing a wall mounted safe. He stared as the music turned to something celebratory. "Well… That was absurdly lucky." He muttered.

He approached the safe with a frown. Whatever was causing the feeling he was getting was coming from the safe. Now the issue was opening it. He considered using an Alohomora spell to force it open, but he really didn't want to go through that pain again any time soon. So he once more searched the room for any clues. When he didn't find anything he growled and glared at the portrait, which had swayed back towards the safe, letting him see it. His eyes absently ran over its form before landing on the small plaque at the bottom of the frame.

James E. Waters. November 22nd, 1947

Harry glared at the words. It couldn't possibly be that easy, could it? He approached the safe and turned the dial. Eleven. Twenty-two. Nineteen. Forty-seven. The safe clicked, and swung open slightly. Harry's eye twitched. "Whoever this guy was, he was a moron." He muttered before opening the safe.

Inside were a couple of bundles of hundred dollar bills, some important looking papers, and… an ornate vial full of a crimson substance.

Instantly Harry knew that the vial was what he'd been sensing. Whatever was inside it emitted power. He picked the vial up and examined it. He didn't recognize it from his potions lessons, but it was obviously magical in some way. Whatever it was, it made him feel slightly better by being near it, like being in a large room with a fire at the other end during a winter snowstorm. Not exactly warm, but not as chilled. He carefully put it in his bag. He didn't know what it could be used for, but it might wind up useful sometime.

Deciding that he had wasted enough time and that he should really get back to Cybil now that he had what she needed, Harry quickly started making his way towards the door. Before he could make it, however, he was once again stopped. This time, it was because a familiar siren began to sound. With a stab of pain behind his eyes Harry saw that the world began to once again decay rapidly, the plaster peeling from the walls, furniture becoming so much debris, metals corroding till they were blood red with rust. By the time the siren faded the place was a disaster.

Harry shook head to dispel the last of his headache before clutching his rifle tightly. His heart was beating fast in his chest. Now, more than ever, he needed to get back to Cybil. The radio, which had gone silent when the siren sounded, once again started playing, this time deciding on Princes Of The Universe by Queen. The dissonance that created with what had just happened made Harry calm down and look down at the machine sardonically. "Not really appropriate, you know?" But he smiled, calmer now, and made his way out of the room.

Just like in the police station the entire hospital was affected by whatever the change was. When Harry passed by a window he amended that to the entire town. It was pitch black outside whereas before there had been some light coming through the thick fog. His flashlight was the only light available, which meant he had to be extra careful now.

He quickly made his way towards the nearest stairs, but stopped suddenly as the radio swiftly switched to static. He lifted his rifle, looking around for his newest opponent, but it was only his reflexes that saved him when something darted at his shins down below. He jumped back and aimed the flashlight at whatever had attacked him. He gaped slightly.

It was a small, squat humanoid creature about the size of a medium sized dog. It had withered limbs, one hand missing several fingers, and a leg missing a foot entirely. It was completely hairless, and oddly wore what appeared to be a pair of white briefs. However, the most eye catching detail was the syringes. It had at least half a dozen very large syringes stuck in its back, which were full of some greenish liquid. The thing looked up at him, misshapen mouth open in a snarl, and Harry saw that its eyes were replaced by the needles of syringes pointing out.

It had tried to attack him with another of the syringes, and Harry was in no hurry to find out what the liquid inside it would do to him if it was injected, so he swiftly aimed his rifle down and blew the thing's head to so much offal with a shot.

However, the radio continued to spit out static, making him search for any more. He found one when it screeched and pounced at him, scrabbling on top of him, and grabbed a syringe before trying to stab it into his neck. Harry fell back, flailing as he tried to get it off before it stabbed the needle into his flesh. With a heave and a cry he managed to send it flying right before it broke skin with its weapon. He'd dropped his rifle as he'd struggled with the little monster and, rather than waste time picking it back up, he unholstered his pistol and quickly started firing at the scrabbling thing. Many of his shots missed, as the thing was moving erratically and throwing off his aim as he tried to kill it. Finally he managed to hit it in the back, making it screech, and he followed that up with four more shots, making it lie still at last.

Harry breathed heavily as he reloaded his pistol, ready for more, but the radio had gone back to the Final Fantasy victory music, letting him know he was safe for now. He picked up the rifle and reached into his bag for ammo, grimacing when he realized he was almost out of rifle ammo. He'd need to conserve it for bigger threats till he got back to Cybil, who should have more in her own bag. So he slung the rifle onto his back and readied the pistol. Once he was satisfied he continued on his way.

He went down the stairs, aiming to head straight for the first floor and thus Cybil, but scowled when he reached the second floor and found that the stairs heading further down were blocked by debris. That meant he'd have to make his way to the other side of the hospital and go down the stairs there.

"Well fuck." He growled, irritated. Not only was that more of an opportunity for things to attack him, but it delayed him getting back to Cybil, which was definitely a problem. Sighing, he began making his way through the empty hallways, the radio's music once again his sole companion.

He was halfway to the other end of the hospital when the radio once again began to hiss. Harry sighed. "Really?" He asked tiredly. "What now?" He once again looked around, expecting either more of the little syringe monsters or the nurses. He tensed in horror, however, when he heard the familiar scraping of a large, heavy blade approaching. "No… Oh come on!" He cried in anger and fear as the huge, pyramid headed monster appeared in the light of Harry's flashlight. "Leave me alone, you motherfucker!" He started shooting at the thing, which was completely ineffective, as the bullets ricocheted off the giant metal pyramid.

Slowly but surely it made its way closer. Then, to Harry's surprise, it managed to somehow lift its immense knife, thrusting it at him. Harry yelped and dodged back, barely keeping from being cut.

Harry was thinking furiously. He needed to get passed this thing. Going back was a no go, as the way down was blocked. He dodged back again as the knife was once more thrust at him. He took aim and shot at the thing's exposed leg, hoping to stagger it. The bullets impacted against it… and did nothing. It didn't seem to register any pain. It simply continued advancing.

There was only one option. The next time the monster thrust at him, Harry dodged to the side and forward, trying to rush past it. He thought he was going to make it, but suddenly the thing's arm was thrust out, clotheslining him. Harry dropped onto his back, choking. Its arm was like stone!

The monster turned to his prone form and lifted its weapon, ready to thrust it down at him. Harry's eyes widened and he just barely managed to roll away as the blade came down, slicing into the ground easily. He scrambled away on all fours, trying to get away. It swung down at him, but Harry once again dodged to the side and continued hurrying away. Once he felt he was far enough away he got to his feet and ran like hell.

He kept running even after the radio stopped emitting static and switched to a soothing song. He needed to put as much distance between that thing and himself as possible. He didn't stop till he reached the stairs leading down, which were thankfully clear. He made his way down before leaning against the wall, gasping for breath.

"That thing… is… unreal…" He panted. He quickly got a hold of himself. He needed to get Cybil and get them out of the hospital before that thing caught up to them. He hurriedly reloaded his pistol and headed on his way to the room he'd left her in. Thankfully he didn't run into anything further, at least for now.

He entered the room Cybil was in, the door screeching unpleasantly as it opened. "Cybil, I got the stuff. Let's dose you and get… going…" He finished slowly.

The room was empty. The only things in it were the rusted remains of the metal bedframes and several papers that had been there when he first came in. He slowly made his way to the bed he'd left her on, looking for any clue as to what happened. He saw that his first impression was wrong and that Cybil's bag was still there as well. His foot hit something, making it slide along the floor, and he looked down to see it was the postcard Cybil had picked up from the gift shop. He bent down to pick it up with a shaking hand and turned it over to find words written in what appeared to be blood.

'Help Me'

And scene. There we go, chapter five of Brightest in Shadow. Hope it satisfies.

I know some people are going to look askance at the radio suddenly playing music, but there is a purpose to and a story reason for it. I've actually hinted at it in the last chapter, if you look for it. It'll be explained eventually. For now, it's helping Harry maintain his sanity when he's alone. Silence can be horrible to one's psyche.

Probably two more chapters of the Silent Hill arc left. I'm looking forward to finishing it so we can get to more interesting prospects. Though it's still been entertaining, I hope.

I wrote this while listening to Linkin Park on Spotify. Was very sad to hear of Chester's death. I liked him. So this one's to him.

I had a story idea that I'm probably not going to develop any time soon, so I thought I'd post it here as a sort of challenge. It's a pseudo Harry Potter / Fate/stay night cross, though I don't intend for it to be set in the Nasuverse, mainly take elements and characters from it for use. It's an idea born of starting to play Fate/Grand Order.

Basically, Harry gets the ability to summon legendary heroes thanks to finding an item that does a sort of programmed version of the ritual for it. The idea is one of Harry's ancestors managed to find a way to connect to a legendary thing called The Throne of Heroes, and imbued an item with the power to form the connection and summon legendary heroes to assist him. He simply never let anybody know of this, so that even his family was unaware. But Harry somehow gets his hands on this item and accidentally summons one of the heroes.

The heroes are up to whoever is writing this. You could have Arturia be his primary, or Medea, or so on. But the idea is that he's able to summon anybody he wants, and enlists their help to fight Voldemort. From there it can go however you want. I would suggest you up the stakes though, cause otherwise it'll be a complete curbstomp, and that's not really fun long term.

If you want to write a story based on that, that's fine. All I ask is you let me know so I can check it out, and give me credit for the original idea.

Can't think of anything else to talk about. Hope everybody enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time. And of course, please review. It helps my self-esteem.