Descent into Insanity

Chapter One

He watched as the brownish liquid made its way from bottle to glass, splashing as it fell downward towards the earth. Carefully he poured just enough to fill the glass halfway before placing the bottle aside. Taking the glass in his right hand he brought it up to his face for a moment and simply stared at it. As he stared he wondered if it was such a good idea to have another sip of the alcohol, lest he might tumble back into the abuse of the stuff he had gotten over so many years ago. Then the horrible scene flashed itself in his mind again and without realizing what he was doing he could already feel the burning liquid pass over his tongue and down his throat.

A month had passed since that day when the scene had been burned into his mind, that horrible scene that seemed to haunt him throughout both the day and night. In all the time that had passed, and in all the thought he had given to it, he still couldn't find logic in what had happened. She was shut tight in her room under lock and key. How could anything have happened to her, especially what did in fact happen to her? With a shudder Dr. Lewis once again tried to push the image of Cassie's dead and terrified face out of his mind, and once again he failed.

Sitting forward he thought about the private hell that he had been forced through since the day when Cassie had mysteriously died. Tough days had followed Dr. Lewis as everyone turned to him for answers as to what could have possibly happened to the girl. All he could say with terror masked just behind his eyes was that he didn't know. He wasn't the only one being questioned though.

In the wake of her death the whole of Brookhaven had suddenly come under intense scrutiny by both the local law enforcement and by the town's media. An unexplainable death, especially one as gruesome as what Cassie had faced, seemed to act as an irresistible bait in bringing an entire swarm of cameras and reporters to Brookhaven. With thoughts about the seemingly endless questions that had been posed he suddenly looked ahead and saw the newspaper article about the incident that was still tacked to the wall.

Unexplainable Death Claims Life of Brookhaven Resident

Written by Marcus Fayne

Death became the latest resident of Silent Hill's Brookhaven Hospital, a clinic for the mentally ill. At approximately 2 o'clock this morning one of Brookhaven's patients, identified only by the name of Cassie, was found brutally murdered in her small room. Reports state that the girl appeared as though she had been skewered to death. Onlookers went on to describe the scene as 'horrifying' and 'gruesome'.

"It has to be the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life," said one of the attending nurses. "That poor girl, to die in such a way is inhumane."

While this reporter was denied access to view the body the picture painted in the mind by accounts makes this reporter feel glad that he didn't have to witness it. Neither head officer on the scene John Simmons or Cassie's personal psychologist Dr. Terry Lewis chose to make a statement about what happened.

After downing the last remaining drops of alcohol from his glass Lewis stretched for a moment and laid back into the leather chair that had found its way into the doctor's lounge. Closing his eyes he tried to picture Cassie's last minutes alive, screaming for help and having those screams ignored by the guard. Despite the gruesome scene that played over and over in his mind he began to doze off. Everything that had happened in the past month had drained him so much physically as well as mentally that it seemed he would slip into unconsciousness any free chance that he got. Slowly his mind wandered away, only to have it quickly forced back on him as a knock came from the door.

Startled from near unconsciousness and half dazed Lewis suddenly shot forward in the chair, looking terrified for a moment as he looked to where the noise emanated from. Staring at the door his mind slowly untangled its way out of the jumble of thoughts and images it was slipping into moments before. It took yet another moment before he connected what was going on and got up to open the door. When he did so he found the young form of his assistant standing there looking a little concerned. "What is it Leslie?" he asked of her.

"There's a phone call for you Dr. Lewis."

"Oh is that all?" he asked with not even the slightest hint of interest in his voice. With his mind not quite back to reality he stood there blank faced for a moment and just stared at the blonde haired girl that stood before him.

"Dr Lewis?" she asked, wondering exactly what he was doing.

"Yeah I better answer that shouldn't I?" he barely muttered to no one in particular.

"That would be a good idea," Leslie said matter-of-factly. For a moment Dr. Lewis still stood there like some sort of soulless statue as he looked at his young assistant. She looked back at him with feelings of both being creeped out and confused. "Right this way Dr. Lewis," she gestured down the hallway, hoping to focus his mind back onto the phone call and away from wherever it had wandered off too.

"Of course," he said with a slight shake of his head as his mind came back to him.

As Leslie walked down the hallway Dr. Lewis followed her, wondering who might be calling him. He hoped that it wasn't another one of those damned reporters again. How many times did they have to hear the phrase 'I don't know' before they believed him? Just because he was Cassie's psychologist didn't mean he had some foresight into how she died. Couldn't they stop for a moment and realize that? There was absolutely no reason to believe that he knew how she died, and frankly he didn't want to know.

Making their way around a corner the two found themselves in the hospital's main entryway. Being just in the afternoon the small foyer should have been crowded with the hospital's staff, as well as anyone who might want to visit one of Brookhaven's patients. Instead though it was eerily quiet. It had been that way ever since the fateful night when Cassie's life had been taken. Evidently no one felt safe any longer within the confines of Brookhaven's concrete walls. To this Lewis could do nothing but silently agree.

Having finally arrived at the reception office Leslie walked through the open door and made her way back to her desk. Once Lewis had come in as well she casually pointed to a phone that was lying off the hook before she went about to some sort of work.

Slowly Dr. Lewis took the receiver in his hand and held it just away from his face as for one last moment he wondered who was on the other end. It seemed that even a common thing like a phone call was enough to cause tension and wary to course through his being. When he brought the receiver to his ear he carefully wetted his lips before saying anything. "This is Dr. Lewis," he said trying to cover any sign of emotion in his voice.

"Dr. Lewis? Yes, this is Officer Simmons down here at Silent Hill Police Department. I was just wondering if you had any openings at Brookhaven. We picked up another nut the other day and the chief wants him out of here soon as possible."

At hearing officer Simmons voice Dr. Lewis didn't know whether to let himself relax or to be even more distressed. He was glad that the voice belonged to someone he knew and someone that seemed to have remained grounded throughout everything, yet it was also the voice of someone he had a personal dislike of. "What's the patients condition?" Lewis asked going over the bases.

"Now doc, you're the one who gets paid the big dollars to figure that out, not me." Whether Simmons intended that to be a joke or not Lewis didn't find it funny at all. A cold silence from Lewis told Simmons exactly what he thought of the statement. "Okay, nothing to get bent out of shape about," the officer said before he began to rifle through a few papers. "Here it is. The guy's a shopkeeper that was picked up after brutally bludgeoning some tourist. Said he saw a monster or something like that."

At the word monster a memory suddenly flashed through Lewis' mind. In that memory the pale and fragile Cassie sat before him telling him of the Red Demon. He shook himself free of the memory as his mind reassured him that people saw monsters all the time, and that there was no reason to believe the instance between this man and Cassie could be in any way related. For some reason though deep in the pit of his being he couldn't help but to wonder if there was.

"So do you got a vacancy there, doc?" Officer Simmons suddenly asked, breaking into Lewis' thoughts.

"Yeah," Lewis muttered as his mind came back to the conversation. "Yeah we still haven't filled room S3 yet with anyone."

"Room S3?" Simmons asked with hesitation. "Isn't that the room where you had that girl last month?"

A scream rang out through Lewis' skull as he closed the door behind him. It was followed by a thump as Cassie threw herself against the metal door, pleading that she would die if he didn't let her out. "Yeah it is." Lewis said in answer to the officer's question. "Until recently we haven't gotten any new patients, and no one wants to be locked in that room anyway."

"Can't say that I blame them on that point, but it won't matter much to anyone where you stuff this nut job. That's the only place you got open though?"

With the receiver still in his hand Dr. Lewis walked over to a dry erase board that had a list of every patient room in the hospital and who was occupying it. After scrutinizing it for a moment he saw that S3 was indeed the only room without a patient. "Yeah, that's the only available room."

"Ah well, don't make a bit of difference in my book. This nut here probably didn't even hear about that girl. If he did, well either way that's where he's going to be."

"That's where he's going to be," Lewis quietly repeated as his mind wandered back to the scene of finding Cassie's dead body. Since that night he had done his best to avoid going near room S3. He pitied the man who would become its new resident.

"Well we still have to run him through a few checks and file a couple more long reports on the matter before he'll be ready to be locked up over there. I'll bring him by in a day or so once the matter's been all taken care of. That alright with you doc?"

"What? Oh yeah, that's fine. I'll make sure that the room is all ready then for when you bring him in."

"Alright then doc. I'll be seeing you in a couple of days." With that followed a soft click as Simmons hung up the phone.

As Lewis let his arm slowly fall to place the phone's receiver back he stared ahead at Leslie, and yet at the same moment he stared at nothing at all. The young assistant quickly picked up on the pair of eyes that were focused on her. "What did Officer Simmons want?" she asked thinking that the conversation between the police officer and the doctor might be important in some way to her.

"Oh, he just wanted to see if we had a room open. I guess they picked up someone new that they feel deserves a stay here." Lewis paused for a moment and watched as Leslie's eyes moved to the dry erase board and noticed that only one room remained open. She swallowed slightly as she knew what was coming next. "See to it that someone cleans out room S3. It needs to be ready when Officer Simmons bring in our latest patient."

"Yes, of course Dr. Lewis." At the mere mention of the room which had witnessed Cassie's final moments Leslie could feel a shiver run down her spine. As the shiver passed she looked back at Lewis. "Is there anything else you want me to do for you?"

For a moment Lewis stood there in complete silence as his mind picked apart Leslie's question and ran through everything to determine what his answer should be. "No," he said as his mind made one last check of everything. "That's all you can do for me."

With that the young assistant went back to her work, but Dr. Lewis remained still as he stared off into some abyss. Leslie took notice and was about to ask Lewis once again if there was anything he needed, but suddenly he said something.

"I'm going to go back to the doctor's lounge and relax. If there's anyone else that needs my attention tell them I'm busy." he said calmly as he walked out of the room.

Back in the hallway Dr. Lewis felt his being become a little more relaxed as the scene in front of him was more typical of what Brookhaven should be. Walking down a hallway that almost glowed in the fluorescent lighting he passed by two nurses that were spreading the latest gossip. Around the corner Lewis nearly stumbled into another doctor by the name of Brennerd. The two exchanged a quick greeting before heading off in opposite directions. When he reached the door to the doctor's lounge he felt the last of the tension from Simmons' call melt away.

Carefully he shut the door behind him and stood there for a moment, almost as if he were expecting Cassie to slam into it like she did with the door of her own room. The thought became silly to him as he shook his head and reminded himself that Cassie was dead.

It wasn't even a moment after he had entered the room did Lewis ease back down into the leather chair. During the day it seemed as though the only moment of peace he could find were in the small respites where he sat in this chair. Leaning back he closed his eyes and left his mind to wander off.

"The Red Demon? Who is that?" he asked as he stared at the pale and fragile girl that sat before him.

"He is the judge of the accused, the bringer of atonement, and the slayer of the damned." she responded in a nonchalant matter that seemed to defy the situation.

"Oh Cassie," Dr. Lewis quietly muttered to himself. "What really happened to you that night after I left? Could it really have been this Red Demon that you mentioned that killed you?" Even as he asked the question a voice somewhere in his mind screamed that it was impossible for that to be true. After all, demons are only a creation of a person's mind, aren't they?

Lewis suddenly jumped in his chair as a series of quick raps came from the lounge's door. As he sat up he cursed to himself at his assistant for bothering him once more. "Leslie, I thought I told you..." he began as he turned to look at the door. His words stopped though as he saw a small slip of paper slide in from under the door.

With nervous curiosity he got up from the leather chair and made his way over to the door. Bending over, he picked up the white slip of paper and examined it for a moment before he unfolded it and read what it contained. A confused terror came over the doctor as he read what was written on the note and suddenly he threw open the door, desperate to see who it was who had written the message. To his disappointment the hallway was deserted.

Once he made sure that there was no one that might tell him who had written the note he stopped in his search and looked down on the note again to make sure he had not misread it. He didn't even get past the first word before he knew there was no way he could have. On the slip of paper, written in what looked like red ink, was a barely legible message that had been scrawled out. Its poor spelling didn't help to make it any less harder to read. Though he knew what it said he couldn't help but to read it over once more:

i no wat hapend 2 the gurl. he wil cumm 4 u soon.