Cheryl hadn't gotten far before she stopped again- listening, making sure she was hearing what she thought she was hearing.

Singing. Someone- a child, it sounded like- was singing. She couldn't make out the words, and the tune wasn't familiar, but it was clear enough that she began smiling as she followed the sound. It was a hopeful sounding tune- and honestly, it had been creepy quiet before the kid had started singing. Nothing to hear but the sound of her own footsteps- at least, she thought they were only her own footsteps. Sometimes she'd stopped and listened just to make sure.

The fact that she'd been separated from her dad hadn't helped, especially since he'd been worrying about this place to begin with. She may not know why he'd been worrying, but she did know that her dad was a smart man. He might be a little over protective when it came to her safety- he certainly seemed that way compared to most of her friends' dads (although he and Ann's dad agreed on a lot of things- but her dad was a cop, so it was to be expected that he was that protective) but the point was that her dad wasn't paranoid- not really. There was always a reason for everything he did.

She was getting closer- her step quickened- and then she turned the corner and he was there. A boy, preteen or younger with dark blond hair, arms folded as he pulled himself back- he was sitting on the floor, studying a number of pieces of paper spread out around him. At first, she thought they were drawings- and then she realized they were maps.

He'd stopped singing now-was frowning seriously as he studied the papers. He was also separated from her by a wall that had a window set in it. She didn't really understand the point of that particular structural feature, but then she did try to avoid hospitals anyway.

Cheryl stepped up to the glass and knocked against it, smiling- she expected the boy to turn around and face her any minute. Instead, he reached down and began writing something on the map.

Cheryl knocked again, louder this time, but he still didn't respond.

Is he ignoring me? The thought was irritated, and she started knocking again, planning to see how loud she could make it- but then she realized that something had been bugging her- Cheryl pressed her hand almost flat against the glass as she realized what it was.

The glass beneath her hands was thick- and something about it felt…wrong.

Slimy. Cold. Supplied part of her mind, and Cheryl shook shook her head, even as the first part of her insisted that it was true.

The point was though, that it wasn't normal glass- so maybe it was soundproof, or at least sound resistant- maybe he couldn't hear her at all?

It was then that she saw the button. She looked at it a moment- it couldn't be that easy, could it? But she didn't have anything to lose, she might as well try it.

Cheryl hit the button. "Hello?" her voice oddly echoed over the intercom- made the boy jerk up so suddenly he almost fell over- his eyes met hers- for a moment her head swam and her lips moved, insisting that they knew what to say, but thankfully her throat choked up at that crazy suggestion.

"Hi," she said, forcing a smile despite the feeling in her stomach as he stood up, "I'm lost-"

"No, you're not. You're back- right back where you need to be-" He said eagerly, the words almost falling out of him as he scampered up to the window, and pressed his hand against it. "Watch out for Peter," he said, turning solemn- "you need to be careful- you should leave this place before they realize you're here."

"They who? And who's Peter?" One hand twitched but she kept it at her side. "And what do you mean I'm where I need to be?"

"I've been waiting for you. We've all been waiting for you." He smiled, sincere and sweet, but she could see worry flickering there too. "But now that you're back, they'll try to hurt you again. You need to find me."

"But you're here."

"Only because you are," he says as if that makes perfect sense. "You need to find the me who isn't here."

There was a loud crash- Cheryl jerked instinctively, just as it came again, and the door in the room with the boy bulged. he gave it a look, then turned to face her. "You need to leave," he said solemnly.

Cheryl looked back at the door as it shuddered, and then turned and scanned the room behind her. There was only the door she'd come in by, the room was just as empty as it'd been before. No weapons, nothing she could use.

"You need to leave," he said again, worry now leaking in, and she turned to face him, vaguely aware that she was glaring now but not caring.

"No way! Whatever is out there does not sound friendly, and there's no way I'm leaving you here!" For the first time in Cheryl's life, she drew her knife with the intention of using it. It was just a small switch blade, but it was only the weight she wanted at this moment anyway. Hefting it one hand, she smashed it into the glass.

It didn't even crack, completely untouched.

The door was beginning to bulge more and more - splinters were beginning to shoot off like bullets.

"This isn't something you can break." He sounds calm and sad and even as she glares at the room looking for something that could help- and then she realized that she hadn't been touching the intercom button for several minutes. And they'd still been able to hear each other just fine. But now wasn't the time to be worrying about that.

"No, I won't leave you here!"

"It's okay," he says. "You don't need to worry about me, I'm supposed to take care of you. I'm the oldest, remember?" A sad smile tugged at his lips. "I'm glad you're finally back."

Cheryl gave a half-hearted growl at the craziness coming out of the kid's mouth. "Listen to me, I'm not leaving you here!" Without thinking about it, she reached up and pressed her hand up against his.

There was just enough time to see the boy's face- surprised and happy- before the door burst open and the world began to shift around them. It felt almost like a strong wind battering her- instinctively Cheryl shut her eyes to protect them, then grunted when she felt a small warm body collide with hers, wrap his arms around her- she tried to do the same, only for him to disappear like a dream.

The wind stopped and Cheryl opened up her eyes. She was on the other side of the glass and she was alone.

The door was broken and shattered, and the maps the boy had been so focused on before were rotten and useless.

There was also a gun lying on the ground in front of her.

Cheryl didn't know what was going on, but it was not good. Whatever was going on, a gun could be a useful tool.

With a deep breath she reached over and picked it up, then stood up.

The click as she took off the safety was a very reassuring sound.

OoOoOoOo

"Why are all of these doors broken?" Travis wondered under his breath after yet another door with a broken lock.

The only door with a working lock was the bathroom, and he wasn't going to find anything useful in there…

"You can do that thing with the mirrors," Alessa had said.

Travis stared at the door for a moment. There was a chance that Alessa was mistaking him for someone else. That what was happening, yeah.

But she knows my name. And-and I can't remember my childhood, large chunks of it, anyway. Just flashes, voices and images- like staring at a door that I know-

Travis shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. The fact was that he was going nowhere fast, and he might as well see what he could find.

So Travis entered the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

A flicker of movement in the mirror closest to him-was Alessa behind him?

He turned to check. No, no one was there.

Travis turned back to the mirror. And froze.

There in the mirror was him-not him, a face that he barely recognized, only remembering it from photos that had crowned his grandparents' walls, one of the things he'd taken down and sent up to the attic-

The face of the child he'd been, years ago.

Travis slowed raised a hand. His child copy in the mirror did likewise.

Travis took a step closer to the mirror, so did his child clone. Travis examined the mirror closely. It looked like a normal mirror…the expression on the face of the child fit the way he was feeling.

The man waved his hand in the air. The child did the same.

And then the hand of the child began to move in the sir and Travis found himself copying him, not sure why. (Which one was the reflection again?)

And then their hands met on opposite sides of the glass and the things he saw began to blur.

And then, as if released, he fell back from the mirror, but into a different room, structured the same, with the same walls and the same stalls, but it was all rotten and rusty.

His child reflection was gone, Travis saw, glancing back at the mirror. All that he saw was him, the normal everyday, grown up one. But the room his reflection was standing was the normal bathroom he'd left behind.

"This isn't right." Travis muttered, hands moving to cover his eyes. Perhaps because of that, voices began ringing in his ears.

"We're going to get in so much trouble for this."

"It's not fair that you can get into places that we can't!"

He lowered his hands and opened his eyes.

Another crayon arrow at his feet, leading to the doors.

"Well, there's no point in staying here," Travis muttered, as he began to leave the room, "Might as well go back to following the arrows."

The hallway was the same as the bathroom. In structure, it was the twin of the other hallway, in all other ways though… the walls looked almost organic, almost… meat like. Empty stretchers and gurneys and wheelchairs littered the hallways.

And then came the noise. It made Travis jump, but then he remembered the radio he always carried in his pocket, and had to chuckle at himself. It was only playing static though. Travis frowned at it, then was about to shut it off when he noticed something.

It was dark, but Travis could see a figure at the end of the hallway. Whoever they were, they were twitching violently, standing in front of a large fan embedded in the wall, which cast a flickering light around.

"Hey, are you okay?" Travis asked, striding forward. No answer. "Miss?" it looked like a nurse, although that had to be the shortest skirt he'd ever seen on a nurse. "Are you okay?" he was closer now, about to reach out when she spun around and Travis stumbled backwards.

Nurse's outfit yes, but stained and bloodied and smeared- there was something wrong with her face and those were not noises that humans made- she was coming towards him and that was a very sharp looking scalpel she was holding-

Backing up, Travis's hand encounter a large, sturdy wooden handle and he grabbed it and swung out, crunching the monster nurse's head. She made a deep guttural noise that might have been the monster version of a shriek and stabbed out with her scalpel.

Travis stifled the cry of pain and focused on swinging out with the sledgehammer again.

After an intense couple of minutes the nurse collapsed.

Travis stood there a moment, breathing heavily.

What's going on? What is this thing?

But the monster at his feet offered no answers, so he moved on.

Checking the map, into the basement was a figure labeled "Lisa."

"That's good to know." Travis muttered out loud. She didn't look too far away.

He tucked the map away and started walking again. The sooner he got to Lisa, the sooner he could find out was going on with Alessa, and then he could help her-

-rescue her and hopefully, find a way to avoid getting into trouble with their parents.

Travis glanced behind him. Even the know it all Vincent looked scared and Claudia was hanging onto his arm and looking around with big eyes.

If it weren't for the fact that they were on a rescue mission, those two would be cute.

They'd taken Alessa away and hadn't let any of them see her, even telling them that she was dead. But they knew that was a lie. Vincent had heard them talking about it, Claudia had heard her, and Travis had seen her. They all knew she was alive.

And she had to be at the hospital, right? Because she was alive and because she was burned.

So the three of them crept in and began looking for her.

They'd searched the entire first floor but there was no sign of her.

Now they were going to try the basement because as Vincent put it "everyone knows that the best place to hide things is in the basement!"

So they were creeping down the hallway, and then they heard footsteps.

They hid, Travis under a gurney, the other two behind a medicine cart.

And it was Lisa who came walking down the hallway-

"Sir? What are you doing down here?" a confused but polite look was on her face as she walked towards him, absentmindedly tucking blonde strands of hair behind one ear.

Confusion about where and when he was and the thought that made no sense but kept repeating itself "wow, she looks just like I remember her!" made Travis open his mouth without thinking about it. "Sorry, I'm looking for someone."

"Well, we normally don't keep patients down here." Pretty Lisa with your pretty smile. The whole school loved you, did you know?

Travis shook away the unfamiliar memory. "Sorry, I thought- I thought I could find Alessa here."

"Alessa? I remember her. You know her too? She was such a solemn little girl, but sweet too." Lisa sighed. "I remember that a bully once chopped off her friend's hair, so Alessa spent the entire recess trying to comfort her friend. She was always coming in to see me too. She always had a lot of cuts and bruises." Lisa looked sad when she said this. "I don't think the other kids treat her very nicely. I'm not even sure her mother treats her very nicely." There was oddness in Lisa's movement-like she wasn't there half the time, an odd echo in her voice that came and went. "But she does have her friends. They're a small group, but close. Claudia worships the ground she walks on, and Vincent actually listens to what she says. And then there's Travis-" and she lifted a hand in the air but it vanished for a second before fading back in. "I wished I'd had a friend like him growing up," and she smiled, bittersweet, "it's like he's her shadow, her bodyguard. Every time he can, he comes to my office with her, sometimes with cuts and bruises of his own, sometimes not. He complains about how childish the others are, but when she cries, he runs to her side. It's so sweet." And Lisa laughed. "Do you know what Alessa told me? She said that when she grows up, she's going to marry Travis." and she began to fade in and out, laughing.

"Lisa."

"You know my name? Have we met?" and she was actually looking at him, thank goodness. Solidifying.

Slowly Travis reached out and took hold of her hand. Just as he expected, it was ice cold. He held the hand in both of his, wondering if it was possible to warm it up. "Yeah. Yeah we've met. Lisa, it's me, Travis."

And her eyes opened wide and she tried to back away but Travis kept hold of her hand. "Lisa. Look at me. No one else knew about the time Alessa found the drawing of her in a witch's outfit being burned at the stake right?"

"But-Travis is-"

"I used to be ten, Lisa," Travis said. She's just as trapped as Alessa is. He didn't stop, didn't question the thoughts that came from nowhere when when he knew they were right. "I grew up." I was in love with you. Except he wasn't, of course. He had been a child who didn't understand love. He doesn't say any of this. It doesn't matter any more. "I've been …gone. Lisa, what happened? What happened to Alessa?"

Staring at him as one would at an alien, she started talking. "There was a fire. She was burned, so badly burned. They took her here. I was just the one who took care of her. They didn't tell me a lot."

"Who didn't?"

"The Order. I managed to overhear a few things. There was a ritual that was interrupted and something about half of which had been lost. It was important, whatever it was. Without it, they couldn't complete the ritual. But she wouldn't heal and she wouldn't die and it didn't make any sense… she still responded though, sometimes. I brought her a journal, once. She smiled and it was the same solemn-sweet smile as always.

And then-" she looked away, frowning.

"And then?"

"Someone came. A man. He wanted to see Alessa. He said he was her father."

"Her father?" Alessa doesn't have a father! Everyone has a father.

"Yes." Lisa said, and shook her head. "That's …all I remember."

Travis sighed and looked away. Only a few answers, but many questions. But he knew one thing, more than that, actually. Alessa and him, they'd once known each other. That's why she'd called to him, because he'd always protected her before.

Travis let go of Lisa and covered his face with his hands.

"Travis?"

"Yeah?"

She was still looking at him like she couldn't quite believe it. "You-" she took her hand and traced the outline of his face. "You're all grown up."

"Yeah."

"You're looking for Alessa?"

"And I'm going to find her." I have to. Whether or not I can't leave the nightmare until I find her, whether or not I used to know her…it's just the right thing to do.

"That's good. I wish I could've protected her." She looked him up and down. "Maybe it was always meant to be you that rescued her." He wasn't sure what to say to that, but before he could respond, she pointed to the door at the end of the hall. "That's Alessa's room."

"What about you, Lisa?"

She stepped backward, smiling awkwardly. "Oh, I'll be fine, Travis. I'll wait here. You'll come tell me when you've rescued her, right?"

"Of course." Lisa…you're dead, aren't you? Alessa…are you dead too? You said you weren't…but Lisa clearly doesn't know she's dead. "I'll be back soon."

And he walked to the door, walked past her, heard her sigh… but he didn't look behind him. That's how these things worked, right?

He opened the door.

OoOoOo

Hey look, I'm not dead! Although I have wound up in a place that's almost as foggy as Silent Hill...(checks closet for the Bogyman)