A/N: Thanks to the one reviewer I've had so far, I appreciate the sentiment and I promise I'll try to continue to work on this story, though the speed will depend entirely on review levels to make this little tale a priority.

On with the Show:

Chapter Four: Spiral

When Maria had calmed herself there was an awkward silence as she paced around the perimeter of his torchlight trying to restore her dignity and carefree spark. Maria didn't seem ready to speak to him yet so he contented himself by examining their surroundings if for no other reason than to hold off his own troubling thoughts.

The room contained nothing more interesting than a few disused, and mostly empty, filing cabinets, indeed nothing seemed out of place, and there was no sign of the gut wrenching rot that had infested the hospital after his… his what, his episode?

That thought filled him with sorrow, he had almost hoped that Maria had experienced something like the events that had occurred around him. That she would tell him something that would prove he wasn't mad, but she had said nothing.

That made him want to laugh, to laugh until his mind snapped and what was left of him faded away… perhaps then he could finally be with Mary…

Opening another cabinet on a whim he shone the torch briefly about its interior, fully expecting to find nothing more than another empty draw. Inside was a single file, so bright and new against the draws stark interior, that it made him irrationally suspicious.

Had someone planted this file here? Were they the same people determined to drive him out of his mind?

"Earth to James". James brought his head up, suddenly startled out of his paranoid musings, and found Maria staring straight at him, her expression slightly concerned.

"What's wrong?", she asked, peering over his shoulder to see what had caught his attention, "Anything interesting?".

"I don't know", he said, lifting the file out of the draw with exaggerated care, aware that Maria was looking at him slightly perplexed. Ignoring her he opened the file and held its pages to the light:

Patient Name: Jason Philips

Case History: Delusions of grandeur, frequent hallucinations

Doctors Notes: Jason his under the impression the everything revolves around him,

that all events that transpire do so as part of the will of some dark

power that seeks to destroy him. Jason often quotes biblical passages

as if they prove his delusions, this is the only constant throughout his

disorder. Jason has twice accused me of being in league with 'Him',

though when questioned he refuses to say who 'He' is, and refers to his

room as 'Purgatory'. I also found this poem taped to the underside of

his bed.

James removed a separate piece of paper, paper clipped behind the first:

She is an angel no one knows only

I can see the Lady of the Door

they cannot walk along her Bridge

of Thread they fall from the weight

of their crimes.

Like bloated and ugly corpses

their sins she devours them

sin and sinner alike she saves

me she is an angel.

Scrawled at the bottom of the paper were the words: If you wish to leave this world behind then all you must do is ascend to the place were sinners await judgment, from there all you need do is hope you do not fail the lady's test… only the pure of heart and soul will pass. If you fear that this is not the case, (And I assure you James, you will do well to heed my words), then remember… all women are partial to gifts, as I am sure you know James.

(Your Guide to the innerworld)

There was a resounding clang as something small and round slipped out from between the pages of the file and dropped to the floor. Landing on its side it object rolled in a small circle before collapsing at James' feet.

James looked behind him, but Maria had resumed pacing and didn't notice anything amiss.

Gripped by another sudden burst of paranoia, James quickly stooped to grab the ring shaped object and stuff it into his pocket. Feeling both calmer and slightly foolish as soon as it was out of sight.

"Anything interesting", asked Maria again as he turned around, his hand still in his pocket.

"No", he responded defensively, cursing himself silently and getting a tighter grip on the ring.

They regarded each other for a long moment until Maria began to grow impatient.

"So", she prompted, "what now?".

She ploughed ahead without waiting for him to reply.

"What about Laura?", she asked as if she had been trying to find a way to bring this subject all along, "Did you find her?".

James opened his mouth but found himself saying, "No".

He didn't want to revisit those memories even in passing, besides, he couldn't be sure any of it had ever happened. Maria's face twisted with concern and… worry? From Maria?

"I don't know why", she said, not quite looking at him, "but I'm really worried about her. I mean, I've never seen her before but… I feel like it's up to me to protect her… I can't explain it. We need to find her James, she's all alone here".

There was a sincerity and vulnerability to her gaze that forestalled any answer he might have made. This was a new side to Maria, where was the flamboyant, slightly arrogant woman who had spent her time wondering around the twisted landscape of this town of the damned without losing her carefree streak?

Perhaps in the end, this town changed everyone.

Perhaps if he ever found Mary again, she would be nothing like he remembered.

Maria coughed roughly to get his attention, or at least he thought that was the reason. Maria wasn't even looking at him, she held one hand in front of her mouth, while using the other to support herself against a nearby wall. Pushing away from the wall she reached into the one small pocket her skirt permitted and withdrew a small foil packet.

She fumbled with it for a few seconds before she was able to pop a small white capsule free of its wrapping and onto the palm of her hand.

Snapping her head back as she did so, she swallowed the pill in a single shuddering gulp, visibly trying not to wrench as her coughing subsided.

"Maria", he said, darting forward in alarm, to support her as she slumped against the wall.

"I'm fine", she said, dismissing her weakness without thought, hiding her hand as she did so, but not quick enough to stop James seeing the fine splattering of crimson which stained it, "I'm just tired, that's all".

"No, it's more than that, what are you taking pills for?", he asked cautiously, his expression his best imitation of a man who would brook no lies.

Maria stiffened, some of her old attitude resurfacing, "What are you going to do if I don't tell you?"

James frowned at her tone, surely she didn't think…

"Maria, I didn't mean to sound-".

"Whatever," she cut him off rudely walking away from him and opening the door, "It doesn't matter. Lets just get out of here and find Laura".

Not waiting for him to answer she walked out, allowing the door to start swinging shut behind her. James ran to the door and flung it open with so much force it slammed into the opposite wall, startling Maria enough to make her spin to face him.

James flushed with embarrassment and guilt, he hadn't been thinking about her safety when he had rushed out here, no, he had been thinking about what he would do if she vanished again, if he was pulled once more into that, Otherworld.

If it existed… perhaps with someone to take care of he could stave off the strange madness that was trying to secure a hold on him. Yes, right then and there, looking at Maria as she tried to hide her amusement, his face bright red, he vowed to get her out of here no matter what happened.

"I, erm, I", he faltered, trying to find a plausible excuse for his haste.

"I think we should go," he glanced over at where the elevator had been, and found only smooth grey wall staring back, "…upstairs?".

"Well we aren't going to get out down here are we", Maria responded, turning away and heading up the stairwell as if she had spent her entire life in this hospital and knew exactly where she was going.

James was once again left with no choice but to trail along behind her and try to maintain his dignity.

Maria smiled over her shoulder at him in the way she did, the way that made him feel as if he was on fire, from the first floor landing and pulled at the door. It didn't move. Maria's smile faltered for a second as she studied the door with surprise.

Getting a double-handed grip as James ascended the last of the intervening stairs, she tugged at it again and again but it stubbornly held its ground. Maria's smile was back, but as she threw everything she had into trying to open the door, it took on a grim, almost hysterical appearance.

"Maria", he began gently, but she didn't seem to hear him. She continued to pull at the door, her desperation becoming clearer with each movement. James reached out to stop her, intending to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and watched numbly as his hand passed straight through her shoulder as if she wasn't there… or as if he wasn't.

James' breathing was suddenly laboured, every breath an incredible effort. The walls around him began to change, mould and rot creeping up them in vein-like patterns that spread, grew and joined with terrifying ease.

A thick dark red, almost black, ichor began to seep through the floor as if the stone had pores, running in pools toward him as if he drew it toward him some how.

"Maria!", he shouted in terrified desperation, not expecting her to hear him but unable to come up with a better idea as the blood flowed after him, slowly, almost contemptuously, as if it knew he had no escape.

"What?", Maria demanded irritably, turning to face him.

You can see me! he wanted to cry, Then you must see….

His thoughts trailed off when he looked around. All traces of decay where gone, it was as if everything he had seen… had never happened.

That settled it, he was mad.

Oddly he didn't feel concerned, only sad, he had failed Maria before he started, how could he protect her if he could tell whether the danger was real or not?

Maria waved a hand in front of his face, "Hello, James, what did you want?"

Coming from Maria that statement had a strangely suggestive connotation, but James wasn't in the right frame of mind to acknowledge it with banter of his own.

"I…", he struggled to pull his thoughts together, if nothing else he should at least try to succeed in giving her a coherent answer, "erm… let me try that".

Maria stepped wordlessly aside and gestured for him to try all he liked.

With a clear sense of purpose, in the short term anyway, James was able to hold his thoughts in line and make his body, much to his surprise, perform the required actions. Stepping forward and establishing a secure, two-handed grip on the doorknob, he twisted it and pulled as hard as he could. Falling flat on his backside as the doorknob snapped clean off in his hand, sealing the door forever.

James starred at the knob slack-jawed as Maria's head came into view above him.

"Nice job", she drawled sarcastically, taking the doorknob out of his hand and throwing it down the stairs, "Really great".

Walking around him, she helped him to his feet and crossed her arms in front of him, looking for a split second, even more Mary's twin.

"We go up and try the elevator?", he offered pitifully with a shrug.

Maria rolled her eyes ruefully.

The second floor also refused to budge and a strange grating blocked the access to the roof. Luckily the third floor door swung open as if it had been oiled minutes before their arrival, so James was spared the daunting task of trying to figure out how the grating had just materialised out of thin air.

The corridor outside the door was as seemingly deserted as the rest of the hospital but he still had trouble calming his frayed nerves. So it did him no good when Maria spotted the first of the arrows.

Scrawled in white chalk, they guided them, against James better judgement and near hysterical protests, deeper into the semi-lit grotto that was the third floor and into the isolation ward.

Further and further they went, down corridors that seemed to have fewer and fewer functioning lights. Was that a patch of mould? Could that water stain really have gotten where it was? These were the questions that spiralled through his mind leaving him jumpy and light-headed.

All to soon they came to a stop outside rusted door marked with the fading numerals 3 1 2.

"What now?", he asked nervously; unconsciously dry washing his hands and glancing frantically up and down the corridor.

"I guess we go in", Maria said as if she didn't notice his behaviour. Pushing it roughly open she waited for him to follow, shining his light ahead of her to light her way.

The walls were covered in a plain white padding, the floors and ceiling a soothing, if somewhat faded, cream tiling. The room's only furnishings were a medium sized cot and a small bedside cabinet with round corners that had obviously been ground down with sandpaper to remove any edges.

"Here we go", said Maria from near the door, flicking a small switch and bathing the room in a harsh neon glow.

The room seemed even emptier without the shadows to conceal its Spartan look, like the personification of its occupants, void of hope or purpose. Under the merciless glare of the artificial lighting it was possible to make out something tucked into the corner.

Of all things, a moderately sized refrigerator looked desperately out of place.

Humming dutifully even though it had been placed on its back, hinge side facing into the room, it was so uncanny that even Maria looked vary for a second, but her usual mischievous smile came back so quickly he couldn't be sure.

"Well", she said playfully, smiling at him, "If there's some champagne and glasses in there perhaps this place isn't so bad after all".

As if unaware she had spoken he found himself drawn to the steel box, something inside called to him. Standing over it he grabbed the handle roughly and gave a mighty heave.

The door moved a few grinding inches before stopping, making a screeching statement of defiance when he tried to open it further.

"Maria", he called hoarsely, his eyes burning with a passionate fever he couldn't explain. He needed to get this box open, inside was a way to leave, a way to save Mary, and maybe himself. Of course it was possible he was wrong, that whatever was inside would lead only to his doom, either way he had to know.

"Maria", he repeated, "Help me with this, I can't open it alone".

"Really", said Maria, crossing her arms and pacing toward him, her tone was still playful, almost coy, but her body language suggested scorn, "You're supposed to be the big man around here. How's a little girl like me supposed to help?"

James glared impatiently but didn't look up.

"Just help me", he hissed.

Maria's brow beetled with surprise but she didn't say anything else.

Interesting, James thought distractedly, mentally cataloguing the phenomena for later use.

With their combined strength, James and Maria were able to heave the lid open. A soft mist whispered out of the refrigerator, dropping the temperature of the immediate surroundings by several degrees.

James was unsure of what he had expected to find, but he felt let down by what he did.

Inside, was a small metallic band, and a piece of paper.

James picked up and examined the paper while Maria stooped to retrieve the ring. Part of him recognised that he should have taken the ring before Maria found it, but he felt more compelled by the paper.

Turning it gently in his hands, he squinted to make out what was written on it.

The paper was blank.

He turned it over and over in his hands, searching desperately for a message, something that would explain why he thought this note was so important.

Nothing.

James felt oddly dejected, as if someone had forgotten his birthday, or as if he'd just been fired from work.

"Uck", Maria said, holding the ring she had found out for his inspection, "How ugly… here James, you have it".

James held up his hand dumbly, his attention and disappointment still fixed on the paper as Maria held her hand above his, opening it strangely slowly and allowing the ring to tumble end over end onto his palm.

As the cool steel struck is palm, fire and ice lanced up is arm, setting off silent explosions behind his eyes. From his pocket, crimson lightening arced his back, stretching his face in a death-mask grimace.

"James!", Maria called in concern, rushing to his side, her voice barely discernable over the blare of distant sirens.

James' knees folded beneath him, and he would have collapsed if Maria had not steadied him. Somewhere amongst the sirens, Maria screamed. As soon as she touched him she let out an inhuman wail, her fingers digging into his chest and shoulder in a way that may have hurt him at another time, but the torrent of pain that scoured his mind left little room for other concerns.

The floor rushed up at him, striking his head with amazing force. Before the world plunged into darkness he felt another body hit the floor nearby, and then he was swallowed by a fiery oblivion.


James woke slowly, an all to familiar pain throbbing behind his eyes and a coppery tasting liquid oozing from his nose and mouth.

James lay there for a long time before, concentrating solely on not choking to death on his own blood before he was ready to try and lift himself.

Letting his head hang limply on his neck, James pushed himself wearily to his knees, blood dripping lazily from his swollen lip and tender nose. James tried to stand but was shoved roughly back to his knees.

His first thought was that he had been pushed, but it quickly became clear that he simply didn't have the power to stand.

Crawling pitifully around like animal, he found Maria, unconscious but seemingly unharmed, slumped against the remains of the cot.

Remains?, James thought groggily.

The cot had been find just seconds ago, but now it had folded in on itself, the mattress was burned in the centre as if someone had attempted to set it alight and only partially succeeded. James tried to resist, but his head came up of its own accord. The cot was not the only thing that had changed.

The floors and walls were cover in cracked brown and black tiles, materials obviously designed to inflict pain rather than prevent it, to which the variety of bloodstains was testimony.

The broken windows stood out against the black night like jagged fangs, covered by a mesh brace.

As the ache in his skull began to recede, a burning sensation grew in his palm. Holding up his hand in the dim light provided by the faltering neon panel overhead, he found the thing that had caused this transformation.

The ring was sunken into the soft flesh of his hand, the area around it burned red and angry.

Reaching out carefully he probed it with one finger.

The pain caused by touching it was immense but the ring lifted clear of the charred and bloody groove it had made with relative ease. Clattering noisily to the ground it rolled away before coming to rest atop a small piece of paper.

James shuffled over to the ring, pocketing it absentmindedly as the writing on the tiny square caught his eye.

Wasn't the paper blank?, a small voice, what was left of James sanity perhaps, asked. Fighting his eyes sudden desire to wander, he focused on the writing:

I lost them.

My gifts for her, the only things that might have saved me.

I'm not innocent you know, they were right to put me in here.

But maybe I can help you…Sometimes when I'm here I can leave things behind and they appear in the 'Real' world where you are, it seems that it helps if they are bigger, it makes it easier to push them out of… here.

The fridge was the only thing I could find that might make it through the process intact and get someone's attention, so I hid this note inside to warn others away. This is a place of madness and pain, a place where too few can define the barrier between here and… there. For that reason it finds it easier to take us, to that place beyond the veil wher- No! I can't do this long, make sense, this place makes it better at first but then… Look run away! But if you can't, find the rings, she likes gifts… my Lady awaits.

A low groan turned James' attention away from the scrawled gibberish, toward where Maria lay. If his madness held true to form, the world would lurch back to normal, to contradict any claims he might make and deepen his paranoia, driving him over the edge.

Indeed, as he glanced back at his hand he found that the note had vanished… but the blackened groove in his palm remained.

As Maria's eyes fluttered open the evil around him remained tangible, perhaps held there and given solid form by his madness.

It's not changing, why isn't it changing?!

Maybe there was another reason, the note, had he infected Maria when his condition had gripped him again somehow? Was that why the world was not set to rights by Maria's presence?

Had he given her his madness like a contagion, so that now there was no one who could discern what was real, no one to keep the darkness at bay?

Maria sobbed softly, clutching her head in both hands and whimpering as if recovering from a bad hangover.

"What happened?", she asked, her voice still dazed as she looked around the transfigured room, "Where did you move us to?".

James sat there mutely. He felt that he should have attempted to ease her into the extremity of their predicament but he wasn't sure how to answer her first question. He felt intuitively that this… change, was somehow linked to his terrifying delusions.

The note he had read, if it had ever existed and was not simply a manifestation of his intuition, had made it clear that there was something preying on this town. Preying on those with troubled minds, whose instability seemed to give it a foothold on them, allowing it to drag them here, to Otherworld, or at the very least allowing them to see it.

With each person it claimed it must grow stronger somehow, allowing it to send the creatures of Otherworld to this world, where their presence would shatter the boundaries of reason that kept it from the hearts of others. With him, a broken man, there to weaken those barriers, it had reached across to the real world and dragged Maria with him, perhaps meaning to likewise break her for the same unfathomable reasons.

If that was true then his mere presence was aesthesis to Maria's well being, he had failed her simply by staying nearby.

If she was to survive, he decided, then he needed to get her out of here, and then to leave her. He knew that the thing she feared the most was being alone, she had made that abundantly clear, he knew that abandoning her would hurt her, maybe even break her enough that he would no longer be required to doom her, but that was assured if he stayed.

If he could get far enough away then maybe his corrosive existence would taper off, allowing her to reassert the barriers of logic and reason that would protect her from the majority of Otherworld's malice, perhaps giving her a chance at escape.

"James", Maria's voice cut through his silence, fear of abandonment vying with a desire to be far away from the person who might have caused her misery, whose blankness reminder her of her worse fear.

"I…we…", James' voice seemed inadequate to the task of comforting her, and he could find no words to express the horror he had pulled her into, a fate worse than being lost and forgotten.

"James…", she trailed off, unsure how to approach him when she needed reassurance herself.

James stood quickly for the simple reason that if he had done so slowly he would have tottered and fallen, startling Maria, causing her to look up at him fearfully as if he had threatened her need with violence.

James felt his legs weaken, tears fighting to come out, with the unforgivable betrayal he planned to save her by making her face her worst fear, she at least deserved what kindness he could offer.

Holding out a hand, he hazarded a shaky smile, "Maria… Welcome to hell".

Maria froze, her hand bare centimetres from his own, and a look of sickened terror on her face. Grasping her hand he hauled her to her feet before she could resist, feeling a brutal cruelty behind his kindness, almost as if a part of him wanted someone else to suffer as he had only begun to. Someone to take his place.

That thought sickened and excited him, someone to take his place… No, she didn't deserve that, did she? That Maria was no Mary was clear, she probably did things that would have made timid, gentle Mary blush with shock and indignation, things that had earned her a place here.

What was he thinking! His father had thought things like this, seen women as somehow less than human, but no part of him resided in James, did it? Was this place calling to it?

James shook his head roughly, scaring Maria as he viciously struck himself with his free hand but didn't release her, even as he stumbled. The last time his mind had threatened to run away with him like this he had stopped it by giving himself a series of defined tasks.

His first should be to calm Maria, and find a way out. Locking his arm at his side he tried a weak smile which only intensified Maria's fear, redoubling her attempts to break free of his grip.

"Maria", he spoke into her rising panic, forcing his mouth to articulate his intent, his voice sounding distant and cruel even to himself.

"Maria, we'll be fine. I need to get you out of here. If I don't, bad things will happen".

His voice sounded uncharacteristically sinister, or had it always been that way. The bloated evil that infested the town in this reality was eroding his sense of self.

Maria seeming to shrink back, not in cowardice, but in defiance, as if daring him to do his worst.

No, No, he thought desperately, She doesn't understand.

"Maria", he tired again, trying to make his tone gentler, "We need to leave, I've been here before… I think, maybe. Look, if I'm right then this isn't a place you want to be, let me… Let me help you".

Maria tensed as if planning to run, taking her chances against this strange new world rather than continuing to travel with a man of dubious intent.

Slowly her resistance began to crumble, until her arm went limp in his grasp and he felt it safe to release her.

"Maria", he began, still moderating his voice, "We need to leave, if this is like last time… Lets just get out of here".

Opening the door he poked his head cautiously out into the corridor.

The hallway was as warped as the room, cracked, mould covered tiles adorned its length accompanied by a liberal quantity of blood, dry and fresh, some of it still leaking from the dirty, shrouded forms lying on several abandoned gurneys.

James groaned inwardly.

The sight would undoubtedly sicken Maria and they couldn't afford the delay her vomiting would cause. Growing impatient, Maria knocked him aside before he could stop her and stepped into the corridor.

Her eyes went wide as saucers as she took in the scene before her, her mouth opening to release a scream.

Darting forward James clamped a hand over her mouth, muffling her cries as she tried to break free, her eyes rolling wildly.

James found himself humming softly to her. He didn't recognise the tune but it probably didn't matter, if he failed to calm her down there was no telling what kind of monstrosity she would attract.

Eventually her energy began to ebb and her screams stopped.

James continued to rock her and hum until she came back to herself enough to be irritated by his behaviour. Shrugging off his embrace, she took a couple of hesitant steps down the corridor, holding her stomach to help contain her lunch.

James shuffled after her, nervously scanning the halls while keeping close enough to stop her screaming again or to catch her if she fainted, which by the way she swayed when she saw a new patch of blood or lump of rotting flesh poking out from beneath the tatter remains of a sheet, could be any time.


On they went, jumping at every distant noise or imagined movement, until Maria brought them to a halt in front of the most bizarre thing James had seen so far.

The door outside which they stood was decorated by an amazingly life like mural of a red robed woman reaching out as if to comfortingly embrace the pair. However, where her arms should have been drawn, someone had stuck a pair of mannequin's arms, lending a disturbingly three-dimensional quality to the whole image.

"James…", Maria began quietly trailing off as her mouth worked silently for a moment.

James only nodded dumbly as he stepped forward, placing himself instinctively between her and the door.

He reached out cautiously to touch one of the arms, jerking it back as he made contact.

"What is it?", Maria asked.

"The arm… it's, warm… I think it's alive"

"How can it be alive?"

"I don't know"

James poked at the grotesque decorations with morbid curiosity, noting as he did how the flesh discoloured wherever he touched, returning to normal moments later. He also saw two small bands of rot, on the third finger of both hands.

Two small, perfectly uniform bands, the kind left behind by say a wedding ring...

Automatically his hand went to the band left behind by his own wedding ring when it had finally become too painful a reminder of his loss to wear, his fingers brushing the groove burned into his palm as he did so.

Reaching into his pocket, he removed the two rings he had found, placing one over each area of rot.

Despite the situation, the action reminded him vaguely of the day he had proposed to Mary, though he could only wish for that gentle summer now, and the sense of happiness and peace he had felt at the time.

There was a loud click and the door vanished.

James blinked in shock; the door hadn't swung open or slid into a hidden panel, but vanished as if it had never existed.

James stepped forward, shining his torch into the darkness beyond the doorway to reveal a set of unlit stone stairs. The torch didn't reach down to the bottom however, leaving their ultimate destination engulfed in a brooding shadows.

He couldn't shake the troubling feeling that something was lurking in that darkness, waiting for him, taunting him with the path to salvation.

"James?", Maria's panicked voice brought him back to himself and he was shaken to see that he had taken several steps toward the beckoning shadows while lost in thought.

"What choice do we have?", he asked, aware only vaguely of Maria's response as he allowed himself to be draw back into the dark's all embracing presence. It would be so much simpler wouldn't it? To allow himself to succumb to this madness and be swallowed whole, at least his sorrow would be at an end… and Maria would be alone once more.

No, he needed to save her first, then he could rest.

The steps echoed an eerie duet as they traced a winding path down, closer to the malevolent presence that awaited them.

It was almost a disappointment when they reached the bottom and found… nothing, just a plain grey corridor.

"Well?", Maria asked into the silence; the impatience that so characterised her voice of late grating on James' tenuous self-control.

James' hands balled into fists as he spun to face her, his angry words freezing in his throat as his torch illuminated the shadowy figure behind her.

Garbed only in a burned plastic trench coat, a gigantic mass or tortured steel where its head should have been, the creature loomed over her, a primitive spear clutched in its malformed hand.

The Pyramid Head was back.

Grabbing her arm, James thrust her down the corridor ahead of him, shouting, "RUN!", giving her a shove before taking off after her.

If Maria was surprised, or if she questioned his sudden panic he never knew, there was an inhuman scream from behind him, followed by the thud of heavy feet on concrete as the thing gave chase.

For a long time James ran blindly, aware only of the fire that scorched his lungs and the way the light danced on the fake leather of Maria's skirt as they ran for their lives. On they ran, down twisting, ever narrowing corridors of grey broken only by the occasional rusted and dripping pipe. The thing behind them never flagging in its murderous pursuit.

Then James saw it, doors ajar, artificial light spilling out like ethereal arms reaching out to embrace the terrified pair and whisk them to safety.

For that instant, the elevator was a mechanical angel as far as the blond man was concerned.

It was at that moment it happened, the event that would haunt James from that moment on.

A piece of debris, left when or by whom they would never know, lay in Maria's path. She let out a short shriek as her boot clipped it, sending her sprawling to the ground.

James somehow missed the debris but was moving too fast to avoid Maria.

He winced when she cried out as his foot connected with her stomach and he was sent into a headlong tumble, his legs flashing by overhead as he rolled to a halt inside the lift.

He lay there, head spinning, blood dripping from where he had somehow cut his forehead open, completely unable to move.

If not for the blood curdling scream that proceeded his tormentor he might have simply lain there and allowed himself to slip away from consciousness.

James hauled himself up, barely able to see as his eyes kept trying to close against his will.

He saw Maria drag herself upright and then the doors began to close and everything went into slow motion.

The elevator!

He had rolled into the elevator when Maria tripped him. Surging forward, he tried to brace the doors as they ground closed with hydraulic strength.

With less than a hand's breath to go Maria reached the doors, throwing her own strength against them as they continued their grim march toward sealing her fate.

Behind her the creature had slowed to a gradual saunter, its writhing motions betraying the excitement it obviously felt at having its prey trapped and helpless before it.

James poured everything he had into opening the doors but could do nothing to halt them, if he continued all that would happen would be that he lost his fingers when they finally closed.

Maria was weeping openly now, babbling incoherent pleas for him to protect her, to save her before it was to late. Desperate, James was screaming obscenities at the doors, as if he could force them open by shear force of will.

Tears blurring his vision, he looked into Maria's eyes, the stark terror and dependence twisting his gut and filling his mouth with the bitter taste of failure.

Help me, she mouthed, the final, heart-wrenching thing she would ever utter.


When the blood hit James, it came as such a shock that he failed to react.

The spear tip glinted with obscene crimson beauty from the centre of her chest, causing her to vomit blood as the shock caused her to expel the contents of her shredded lungs.

Something in James broke at that moment, the anger, pain, sorrow and bereavement that he knew he should have felt, the feelings still fresh from the death of his wife, crashing through his psyche in an instant, leaving him emotionally barren, all trace of the man he used to be gone in an instant.

James watched, unfeeling, as the spear vanished, allowing Maria's corpse to fall to the floor, the life so clear and vibrant in her eyes gone, leaving only the beseeching expression she had died with etched onto her features for all time.

James watched uncaring, an observer in his own mind as his body slunk to the floor, tears flowing freely from his bloodshot eyes.

The doors slid shut the rest of the way silently, almost respectfully, leaving him alone with his grief.

His head hung limply between his legs, his eyes locked on the blood that covered his hands and formed a dotted pattern across his jacket as the elevator rumbled to life.

He remained that way for a long time, his only companion the quiet vibrations of the lift as it carried him to safety… alone.

He had failed. He had sworn to protect her, to keep her safe until he could leave her, protecting her from the corrosive madness that had him in its thrall.

Another woman he had cared about that he had failed to save.

There was a quiet, jovial ping and the doors slid open, his destination reached. James didn't move, if anyone had seen him at that moment, almost perfectly still, covered in blood, they might have mistaken him for one of the corpses that littered the town.

Maria…

"Tuttuttut, giving up so quickly?".

A shadow fell over James, its shape somehow conveying disappointment and the voice he recognised as that of his mysterious guide.

"Pull yourself together my boy, this place hasn't begun to test you and you don't want to fail if you can avoid it… trust me".

"Go away", James breathed, watching Maria's blood dry on his hands, "Just leave me alone".

At first the shadow seemed inclined to argue but apparently changed its mind.

"Fine, wallow in self-pity until you rot for all I care... but if there's even a shred of you that still cares, your young lady is still waiting for you"

James still didn't look up.

"The present..." the shadow sighed, "everyone's always so caught up in the present, as if it means anything at all, a fleeting moment gone in an instant... it's the past which matters, the past which shapes both present and future, some this towns greatest tragedies…", the shadow paused, drawing a shuddering, painful breath, "… were caused by people forgetting the past, that's why so many of us in this town like the park, such a peaceful reminder of our sorrows, somewhere we can pray for salvation... go there, you may find some peace of mind..."


--- Author's Notes---

And there we have it, chapter 4 complete. Now, I know that some people have expressed concern in reviews of the previous version and what not of the rather brisk pace at which I tend to recount this story. You see, Silent Hill has what, 3hrs of game play? Now that's including all of the time taken to complete puzzles, kill bosses, creep about darkened hallways etc etc, without ever coming into contact with the plot though this rehashed version should account for that hopefully, and you'll see more of what I mean in the next chapter, Chapter Five: Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole