Staring up at the hospital, Cheryl shivered.
"You okay?" Travis asked. If anyone bothered to ask, Travis would downplay it, but he was worried.
In almost any other situation, Travis would have protested against splitting up. It just wasn't a good idea. But in this case, they didn't have much of an option and it wasn't like they were leaving anyone alone. It made sense to go with Vincent's plan. He supposed that other things would work, like Cheryl could stay behind while Vincent went to the hospital with him. For some reason, he didn't like that plan as much though, so he hadn't protested.
And that was only one of the many things he had to worry about. But he shoved the worries and thoughts away as the girl at his side spoke.
"Fine," Cheryl answered quickly, "just… my head's killing me."
He gave her a wry smile. "Now you know how I feel. Want a heath drink?"
She shook her head, smiling a bit. "We should probably save them."
"Right." And then he felt his smile slip away. "There's something you should know. You remember Lisa, right?"
"She was the one who took care of me," Cheryl said slowly as she put a hand to her head. "And before that, she was… the school nurse, right?"
"Yeah."
"Dad said that Dr. Kaufmann killed her."
"But just before I met you- met you now, I mean- I ran into her. Talked to her even. She looked just the same but she acted... off. I don't think she knows she's dead."
Cheryl opened her mouth slightly as she searched for words to express her horror. And Travis nodded in response.
Lisa- like all human beings- had her flaws but she'd always been kind to them and she hadn't deserved what had happened to her. But at least she wasn't forgotten anymore.
"There's got to be something we can do." It was a statement as much as it was a question and her fists were tight as she stared at him hopefully.
Travis shrugged, a slight edge of helplessness to the motion. "I don't know. But I thought I should tell you."
"Right," she muttered thoughtfully before turning back to him with a half smile. "Thanks. For telling me."
He returned a half smile back. "Let's go."
Even though they were in the normal hospital, not the nightmare version, it was strangely empty. It didn't help that all sounds (mostly their footsteps) had an echoing quality.
"Where would Kaufmann have his office?" Travis asked in a voice that was half question, half thinking out loud.
"Probably somewhere on the first floor. Let's check the map."
"Good idea." Travis spread it on the floor and they bent down over it. "Let's see… here. Good, it's close by."
"Okay, I'll go first."
"No, let me go first, okay?" At the look she gave him, he added, "Imagine the look on your dad's face if he found out I let you go first."
Cheryl made a face, then nodded reluctantly. "Fine."
Part of Cheryl wanted to be irritated at the relief that crossed his face as he moved forward, but she shook her head as she followed.
This is just who Travis is, whispered a voice from deep inside her, it's who he's always been.
And there was reason number two why this was a little awkward, Cheryl thought as she adjusted the hat. She was making sure to stay only a couple of steps behind him, and while she was doing her best to pay attention to their surroundings, she couldn't watching him at the same time.
She knew him, but she didn't. But as they walked, she began to notice things which she stored in her brain. The fact that she liked the way he walked. It wasn't a stride, exactly, but there was no fear there. And he didn't slouch, like most of the guys at her school had.
Cheryl had taken his hat without thinking while Vincent had bandaged her dad's leg. She'd needed something to do, something to hold onto, something to take her mind off the fact that they almost died. She'd held onto it as the stories were exchanged- had gripped so tightly at some points a vague part of her mind was almost afraid she'd rip it.
Cheryl repressed a sigh as she followed Travis around a corner.
On some level, all of the stories had been familiar. Like she already knew them. Almost like the songs she had listened to some many times that she hummed them without thinking about it.
Vincent- he was such a man child. At times she almost thought he was crazy and at other times he was like an old friend, eccentric and teased for it and teasing in return. Sometimes irritating, but always loved. His gestures were as familiar as - well, they were almost as familiar as Ann and her other friends from school. But not as familiar as Travis's, which were practically as familiar as the sound of her own breath. But there was something else scratching at her brain- an emptiness, a gap in their group that was supposed to be filled.
And then they reached Kaufmann's office.
Travis knocked. When there was no answer, he opened the door. It was empty of people, but it was also a mess.
Papers almost carpeted on the floor and some smashed vials lay around as if someone wanted to add stinky polka-dots to the too white room.
"I hope that's not the stuff that we came to find," Travis said.
Cheryl carefully knelt down and examined it. "I don't think it is. These things are all various shades of green, and the stuff we're looking for is supposed to be red." She stood up and muttered, "smells gross too."
"Let's check this room over here," Travis said, gesturing to the door leading to the next room.
"Right," Cheryl said, stepping closer.
It was a mess too. It might have a examining room, once. Gurneys overturned, even a wheelchair shoved into a corner.
But what got Travis's attention was the mirror.
It wasn't reflecting the room that they were in, but a twisted version of it, just like the other room. Except this time, that was his reflection in the mirror, and that was Cheryl's and those were right, it was just the room that was wrong.
"It's not here either," Cheryl was saying, clearly irritated, when Travis interrupted, turning to face her.
"Do you see anything odd about that mirror?"
She glanced first at him, curiously, then at the mirror. "No. Do you see something?"
Nice that she said "Did you see something?" and not something along the lines of "Did you hit your head?" or "Do you feel alright?"
"Yeah, in the mirror, it's like the room we're in, but not. It's all… dark and rusted. And- the door's open. And there's a bottle of red liquid on the counter."
"Huh. Hey Travis, give me your hand."
He looked at her, not sure what she was think but giving her his hand anyway. She pulled him closer to the mirror and studied it intently. "Can you…?" she trailed off, but he knew what she meant.
Gingerly, as if it might burn him (for all he knew it could) he placed his hand on the mirror.
And the world turned to static and snow as they stumbled back from a mirror that reflected a cleaner world.
Cheryl glanced around before crossing it to grab the vial. "Should I drink it right now?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she examined it.
Travis turned from looking around to stare at it rather distrusting. "What if it's something else though?"
"I don't think so," Cheryl said, holding it up to the light. "It's the right color. And it's the only unbroken vial we've seen in this place, which has to mean something."
"It could be a trap."
"Yeah, but they need me alive, remember?"
"Yeah well, that doesn't mean it's not drugged to knock you out or make you high, or something else."
"Good point," Cheryl admitted as she lowered it down to face level. She stared at it a moment longer, before smiling at him. "Well, if I start acting crazy, stop me, okay?" and she quickly drank it. After a couple sips, she waited, before wincing and placing a hand on her abdomen.
"Are you okay?" Travis asked, stepping closer and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, I think it's working." And as she began chugging it down, Cheryl began to realize something. He was feeling just as she was, slightly unsure, but protective and fond. He stuck to her close, but not too close.
Even when she began throwing up pieces of something that vaguely, but twisted, looked like it was almost fetus shaped, he stayed close by.
After a while, both the medicine and her body was drained. She felt lighter though, lighter than she'd felt for a long time.
"I think it's gone."
He sighed of relief. "Good. Do you-"
"Sure." She held up her hands and he took them. She began to smile as he pulled her up, closer to him- but then the door banged open and a gun cocked.
"Who are you? What are -" and the voice trailed off they turned to look at him.
The gun was clenched in the hand of an older man- his suit were rumpled and there were dark circles under his bloodshot eyes and the way he held the gun-
Without thinking about it, they moved closer to each other.
He was staring at the remains of the thing that Cheryl had vomited up on the floor, lip curled. "I see. You're Dahlia's brat, aren't you?"
No response from either of them.
He re-aimed the gun. "Well, things have changed since you ran away. Your mother has completely lost her marbles, and as for your little friend, Claudia, well…" he shook his head.
"Claudia?" echoed Travis.
"What happened to Claudia?" demanded Cheryl.
Kaufmann stared at them. "It doesn't matter. You've drunk the Aglaophotis, but she still has the Flauros. With that, and with your pain, she'll have enough power to summon it. With you bound and the others dead it will have enough time and enough pain to grow and mature. And then it will be over. I never should have joined her, never should have helped her. But at least I can correct my mistake." He clicked the safety off. "If I kill you, the town will remain as it is, and no more of that other world will creep into this town."
"You don't have to do this," Travis said, trying to move in front of her but afraid that if he moved too much, Kaufmann would panic and start shooting crazily.
"Maybe not, but I don't want to live here permanently either."
Even as Kaufmann's finger moved, there was a crash outside the room- then a blur of white and red crashed into Kaufmann.
Travis hurriedly pulled Cheryl to her feet and both of them darted towards them.
Lisa had Kaufmann, pulling him halfway through the ground. But before they could continue to sink, Cheryl grabbed Lisa and Travis grabbed Kaufman, who was fairly gibbering with terror. Pulling then across the room from each other.
"But- but- she's dead."
"Shut up," Travis grunted, shoving the doctor against the wall and kicking his gun away, "I think we've all figured that out by now."
Lisa screamed on the other side of the room before bursting into sobs. Cheryl's voice layered itself over hers, trying to calm her down.
"Where's Dahlia?" Travis demanded, "where does she keep the Flauros? And where's Claudia?"
"She went after that man, the one who broke in and ran off with Alessa," Kaufmann said as he stared at Lisa, still in shock. "As for the Flauros and Claudia- she keeps them both with her at all times."
"She's after Dad?" Cheryl was moving next to Travis now, face as white as her vest.
"Alessa?" whispered Lisa, in sudden understanding, "you-" and she looked from Travis to Cheryl and back again.
"What are we going to do?" Cheryl took a step forward only to have her arm gripped by a now standing Lisa.
"Alessa, it is you, right?"
Slowly, she nodded.
"Oh, that's good, Travis did find you."
Cheryl and Travis exchanged a quick, amused glance but Lisa went on. "I was worried about you. The man that took you away- he said he was your father?"
"He adopted me," Cheryl said quietly, "and no daughter ever felt more loved."
"That's good. I'm glad you got out." Lisa's hand hovered about about the middle of her torso and she looked faintly puzzled before smiling and raising her hand and patting Cheryl on the head like she was still seven years old.
Cheryl blinked before giving Lisa a rueful smile. "Yeah, but Lisa, what about you?"
"Me?"
"I'm worried about you, Lisa."
"How sweet of you. But Lisa is a big girl who can take care of herself." And then she walked over to Travis and looked at him seriously. "Dr. Kaufmann is a bad man."
"I know," Travis said softly.
"You won't let him hurt anyone else will you?"
"No."
She smiled then, an odd serene smile that he'd never seen on anyone's face before. "That's good." Then she looked back at Cheryl. "You'll be okay now, right?"
"Of course I will," Cheryl said, folding her arms as she smiled.
"That's good." Lisa looked reassured as she smiled, then looked uncertain. "I suppose I should go now." She paused and looked around the room. "But where-"
"It's okay Lisa," Cheryl said, her smile so clearly forced that it hurt Travis just to look at it. Memories skittered around the back of his head (a far too serious and solemn seven year old promising him the bullies didn't bother her even as he stared at the tears lurked in her eyes) but Travis did his best to ignore it.
Kaufmann shifted and Travis tore his his gaze from Cheryl long enough to glare at the bad doctor and shove him back into the wall again. Kaufmann's shocked look was gone, replaced by a nervous but still hateful look.
"It's okay Lisa, we can figure it out," Cheryl was saying. "Let's start by walking this way..."
They began to circle the room, with Cheryl whispering constantly, in a voice so quiet only Lisa could hear her. They circled the room a couple of times before Lisa suddenly brightened and said "I see!" and tilting her head back. Her eyes slid shut with a peaceful look.
-a flash-
And then they were back in the ordinary hospital.
And Lisa was gone.
"Do you think-?"
"Yeah, I think she's free," Cheryl said, leaning against the wall slightly. "Let's tie Kaufmann up and shove him under a table or some- something-" Cheryl shuddered and collapsed.
"Cheryl!" Travis called, shifting towards her- but his grip on Kaufmann loosened.
Kaufmann promptly took advantage of that by driving his foot into Travis's ankle, then squirmed free and tries to lunge for his gun- Travis recovered and tackled him before he could reach it and the two men rolled over on the floor- until Kaufmann managed to grab the remains of one of the bottles on the floor- held it high above his head.
And then his triumphant smile collapsed as he flopped to the floor, revealing Cheryl's switchblade embedded in his skull.
She gave Travis a shaky grin and he slowly returned it.
"Come on," Cheryl said as she reached down and pulled him up. "We need to get back to the others."
OoOoOo
I hope you like what I did with Lisa. I liked her, so I didn't want to leave her trapped in limbo. I was kinda inspired by another Silent Hill fanfic, though. It's called "Breaking Threads" and it's a pretty awesome one-shot.
But I kinda like the idea of Lisa talking to them like kids because while she pretty much knows that they're adults now, but she can't quite grasp it either. I also liked Cheryl's solution to having Kaufmann as a prisoner.