Chapter 2 – Gruesome Nightmare
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Tyler just stared, wide-eyed, and spellbound by the vision of horror in front of him. The creature was a tall, masculine figure with what looked like a butcher's apron, and looked to be holding something rather heavy. Some sort of red light was shining onto it, giving it a bloody red aura. The most terrifying thing about it, however, was the huge, red, metal, pyramidal helmet on its head.
"Pyramid Head." Tyler muttered. It was the first thing that came to his head.
The creature stood several feet away from Tyler, not moving at all. Tyler wondered if it were capable of moving at all. It just – presumably – stared at Tyler, not even moving the slightest inch.
Tyler took one step back and watched the beast, gauging its actions. It didn't do a thing. He took another step, which was not easy to do with the brace or cane. Again, nothing. The creature didn't seem to want to move, so Tyler started walking backwards slowly. Pyramid Head remained motionless, and finally, Tyler turned around, hobbling as fast as he could – which was pretty good, actually – trying furiously to get away from the monster.
Tyler looked back briefly to make sure the thing wasn't following him. The red light was growing fainter, and Pyramid Head remained still.
Tyler looked in front of him again. The static coming from his headphones resting on his shoulders became stronger as he got farther from the creature. Tyler saw a flash of something in the scarce light of the hallway and looked ahead. He kept still, not wanting to go towards anything that could be a source of pain for him.
Finally, two more creatures appeared under the light of a lamp. These weren't nearly as terrifying as Pyramid Head, but they were still frightening. They were nurses, from the looks of it, with old-fashioned nurse's outfits rather than the scrubs the other nurses seemed to wear in the hospital. The outfits were rather risqué, and showed off their chests and thighs. They also wore white high heels and fishnet stockings. Hair covered their faces, making their faces impossible to see. The most prominent feature they had was their arms; they were so long they almost touched the floor and were horribly gnarled and the color of yellowed, decaying flesh. The nurses also carried what looked like long pipes.
"Oh, crap." Tyler muttered. Unlike the Pyramid Head behind him, these Armed Nurses were moving toward him. They moved in an erotic fashion, thrusting their chests forward as they moved. Their heads lolled from side to side, and the pipes dragged along the floor.
The nurses were only a yard or two from him. The one to his right, which was the one closest to him, seemed to straighten itself as it came closer, turning what one could only assume to be its face towards Tyler. It moaned in a way that sounded both painful and erotic at the same time. "Mmmh!"
Tyler weighed his options: go back into the limited safety of his bedroom and get closer to that pyramid-headed thing, or stay and fend off these creatures.
The Armed Nurse started moving much faster, raising its pipe up to attack.
"Come on." Tyler whispered, raising the cane.
The Armed Nurse was quickly in front of him, and Tyler raised his cane as it swung the pipe. The metal CLANGED on each other and the nurse was obviously putting a good bit of effort into her attack, because the sheer force of her swing made Tyler's knees buckle.
Tyler pushed off the pipe with all of his weight, and THWAKED the Armed Nurse across the face. It moaned again, its head snapping to the side, and Tyler took this chance to bring the cane down as hard as he could onto its skull. Blood splattered as the Armed Nurse fell to the ground. Tyler didn't wait to for it to get back up for round two; he hit the nurse on the head again with his cane. The nurse spasmed one last time, and fell limp.
Tyler heard another "Mmmh!" and looked up, seeing the nurse he'd almost forgotten about. The thing tried to hurt him with the pipe, but Tyler managed to sidestep it out of sheer reflex, and cringed as he put too much undue pressure on his ankle. He fell for a moment, and the Nurse saw its chance. It struck, but Tyler managed to fall out of the way onto the floor, the pipe hitting the wall instead. The tile of the hospital wall fell and Tyler managed to set himself into a sitting position as the nurse readied its weapon again.
The Nurse brought its pipe down, but Tyler caught it in his hands, gripping it as hard as he could. The hard metal hurt his hands, but Tyler ignored it for now. The nurse and Tyler struggled, but the Nurse brought it's long, deformed arm around, smacking Tyler hard. He was flung a ways to the left, but he didn't let go of the pipe, wrenching it out of the Nurse's grip.
Tyler stood as the Nurse let out a cross between a moan and a scream in realization that its weapon was gone. The Nurse flung its arm at Tyler again, but Tyler hit it, using the pipe as a baseball bat. He hit the palm of the long arm, and it hit the wall, making the tile fall. The Nurse screamed/moaned again, and Tyler took a huge step forward, hitting the Nurse over the head like he did with the other. The nurse fell to her knees, and Tyler beat her until she stopped moving.
Tyler panted, and stumbled forward, grabbing his cane. He noticed in the dim light that there was a men's room nearby. He walked to it, but looked down the black hall again. The Armed Nurses were still in place, but the red light that had illuminated Pyramid Head was gone. Tyler wondered if that meant he was gone as well. Regardless, he walked into the bathroom.
A single lamp lit the bathroom, and Tyler walked over to the mirrors. He looked at himself. He looked a lot worse than he thought. He had blood on his face from beating the Nurses, but didn't feel any from his shirt. He turned the sink on, and clear, pure water flowed out. Thank God.
He splashed water on his face and wiped away the blood on his face and hands. He looked at his reflection, and fixed his crooked glasses. "What the Hell was that?" He asked himself, the reality of what he'd just done finally catching up with him. He took his headphones off and looked at them. The static was dying down.
Light filtered through the windows and other formerly dim lights in the room flickered on. The static had disappeared. Tyler tentatively walked outside the bathroom with his cane, and saw only the usual hospital. Everything was well-lit, and there were people walking around. Perfectly normal.
"Mr. Summers?"
Tyler looked and saw Dr. Waters walking down toward him.
"I was just about to come get you for your physical therapy session. You okay?"
"I, um…" He thought as quickly as he could. Waters would never believe what he'd just seen, so why bother? "I had a nosebleed. I've had 'em since I was little." Tyler lied. "Is there any blood out here on the floor that you can see? I know it's a biohazard."
"I can't see any. But I'll tell a custodian to check." Waters said. "Are you doing okay walking, or do you need some help?"
"I can get around fine with this cane. It's better than the crutches I needed when I was 15." Tyler laughed under his breath.
"Oh, yeah. Your records said something about a fractured knee." Waters said, walking with Tyler to his session.
"Worst pain I've felt in my life." Tyler grimaced. "You'd think bones wouldn't hurt as much as they do, but it is amazing how much just a hairline fracture will hurt."
"I agree." Waters frowned a bit. "Your records also said that you were in and out of the hospital a lot as a child."
Tyler stopped for a second. "Um, yeah. Can I not talk about that?"
Waters shrugged. "If you don't want to." He noticed a large woman walking around with a huge trash can and cleaning supplies. "Excuse me, Nancy? This patient just had a nosebleed, and I need you to make sure there's no blood in the hallway."
"Sure. I can take my lunch break later, after cleaning up after the patients here." Nancy said in a faux bitter voice. She left, and Tyler got a look on his face like he thought he was being a burden.
"Nancy's always like that. Don't worry." Waters said, lightly touching his arm comfortingly.
"Did you get in touch with my grandparents?" Tyler asked, trying to change the subject.
"They said they would be on the way, but that it would take about two hours to get here." Waters answered.
"Sounds right." Tyler said.
The two of them came to an elevator and went inside, Waters pressing the button for some floor. Tyler didn't see which.
Physical therapy was mostly basic exercises to see if he could do them. Then there was just watching him walk or touching his fingers together to test his coordination. There was also a fake staircase of 5 steps that Tyler walked up with his cane to see if he could. Everything went well, and they could say that he didn't seem to have any adverse brain injury.
Dr. Waters accompanied Tyler back to the ground floor of the hospital where his room was. "Listen, until your grandparents come, we have a rest area for both guests and patients outside." He said. "You can wait out there until they come by. Fresh air will do you some good."
"Thanks. I've only been here a few hours and I'm already sick of this place."
Waters laughed. "Can't exactly blame you." His pager rang. "Oh, man. I gotta go. Listen, the rest area's right next to the guest waiting room; can't miss it." He said, turning around and leaving.
Tyler looked for the guest waiting room, which was a larger room for people who were waiting to see people who were admitted to the hospital. Waters was right – you couldn't miss it. One whole wall was a giant window with double doors leading outside. It was difficult to see outside because it was really foggy. But Tyler could at least see a small pond-slash fountain that one would find fish.
Tyler walked outside. The air was chilly, but it felt good on his skin. He walked over to the fountain, and looked inside. There were no fish, but there was a large amount of coins.
Tyler hadn't taken off his headphones from around his neck this entire time – he figured he could wait until he got back to his room. So when static started crackling from the phones, he immediately looked around him. At first nothing seemed wrong, but then he looked inside the waiting room. The lights all went off at once.
"Oh, god." He whispered, remembering the Armed Nurses from before. "Not again."
He looked at the windows and wasn't sure of what to do. Was he safe outside or not? In the midst of his thoughts, he almost missed the flash of white in the windows. The Ambiguous Phantom was staring at him again. Tyler stood, spellbound. The Phantom slowly turned around and walked into the darkness, vanishing completely.
Tyler's mind started to work overtime. The last time he'd seen the Ambiguous Phantom, the Nurses appeared shortly afterwards. His thoughts were interrupted by a gurgling noise mixed in with a voice of some kind.
Tyler looked and didn't see anything, but looked down and saw a monster crawling towards him. The creature had white skin, rather than the yellowed skin of the Armed Nurses. Its body was cut off at the waist, and its body was just a torso dragging itself across the pebble floor of the rest area with its arms. A bit of its spine was visible. The creature was bald and its eyes were stitched shut. Its mouth, however, had almost no soft flesh around it, and the inside of its mouth was permanently visible. It's chattering teeth were horribly crooked and made a repetitive clicking noise.
The Shambles moved forward on its stomach, reaching out towards Tyler. Tyler didn't give it the chance to get close; he picked up his cane, and used it like a golf club. He let out a grunt of effort when he cracked the cane across the Shambles' face.
The thing let out a noise that sounded like a "GURAAAK!" and Tyler brought down the cane onto its head. The creature stopped moving and blood pooled around its corpse. Well. That hadn't been too hard. Much easier than the Armed Nurses.
Tyler heard more gurgling screeches and saw at least four more Shambles crawling towards him rather quickly. Behind them were two more Armed Nurses, walking towards him suggestively. Apparently, the Nurses liked to travel in pairs.
"Fuck." Tyler muttered.
"Mmmh!" The nurses moaned. The Shambles let out their wet screeches and crawled faster towards Tyler. The Shambles' were obviously the faster of the two, despite the Nurses not having to get close with their long arms and pipes. If Tyler got rid of the Shambles' first, he could worry about the Nurses after.
Using the cane as a golf club once more, Tyler sent one Shambles flying into a Nurse, knocking the two over. They screeched loudly, but Tyler used that time to beat the remaining three Shambles over the head in a whack-a-mole-ish way. They were pretty easy to kill, but they obviously liked numbers.
Behind the now defeated Shambles', the Nurse had flung the torso on top of her off, its head crunching on the stone floor. Despite their erotic disposition, the Armed Nurses didn't seem to appreciate being topped.
Tyler, out of sheer experimentation, picked up one of the Shambles corpses by the neck, surprised at how light it was, and threw it at the Nurses. The Nurse yelled in an erotic way as she fell, but struggled to pick the thing up. Her disproportionately long arms made it a bit difficult to grab a hold of the Shambles.
The other Nurse walked over to her, grabbed the Shambles and flung it off of her companion. When she turned to look at Tyler, however, he was right next to her. Tyler hit the nurse as hard as he could with his cane, and she fell to the ground. Tyler bludgeoned her face in.
The remaining Nurse moaned loudly, but Tyler was right in front of her, and her long arms made it difficult to attack something that close. Tyler punched her stomach, and she let out another moan. She went limp, and Tyler brought the cane down upon her skull several times, until she finally stopped moving.
Tyler looked at the cane's end. There was a good amount of blood all over it. Tyler had no mirror, but didn't see any blood on himself. He was amazed by this. Maybe his black attire managed to hide it, but he had almost no blood on him. He walked over to the fountain and sat down, resting. He put the end of his cane into the fountain, making a stirring motion to wash away the blood on the cane. He pulled it out and shook it dry.
Tyler sure didn't want to stay out here, so he walked inside, hoping that the lights would come back on. They didn't. "Damn. So dark. Where's my room from here?"
Before he could answer himself, he heard a "MMMH!" that was louder than the other Armed Nurses he'd seen so far. He looked and managed, in the limited light, to see another nurse entirely coming down the hallway.
This nurse looked exactly like the other Nurses. Black hair covered her face, her old-fashioned nurse's uniform was very revealing, and she moved in a suggestive fashion as she walked. The main difference, however, was her arms. They were so huge and gnarled that she actually had to drag them behind her.
"Oh, god." Tyler muttered. The Armed Nurses from before were hard enough to deal with. What could he do with something like THIS!? It wasn't like he had a firearm or something!
The Beldam came into the waiting room, and Tyler looked around for something – anything! – that could get him out of this situation! He didn't look fast enough, apparently, because the Beldam threw one of her massive arms at him. He dropped to the floor, and the arm hit the wall of windows, shattering them all with a deafening CRASH!!
Tyler didn't stay still to let any of the glass hit him. He ran. He didn't care where to, he just fucking RAN. He ignored the protests from his injured ankle as he ran as fast as he could, not bothering to use the cane. The great thing about those massive arms, however, was that because The Beldam had to drag them behind her, they slowed her down quite a bit.
Blindly turning around dark corners and hallways, Tyler ran, not bothering to see if he had lost The Beldam in the maze of halls.
"MMMH!"
"Oh, FUCK!" Tyler shouted, looking behind him. Even in the very limited light, he could still see the womanly beast behind him. The Beldam had caught up with him!? How!?
Tyler turned back around, and stopped running so fast that he fell backwards onto the floor.
In front of him was a figure standing under a red light with a gigantic knife as long as he was, and a pyramidal helmet. Pyramid Head was back. Only this time he was just a few feet away from Tyler.
"Oh god…" Tyler thought. "I'm gonna die…" The Beldam was behind him, Pyramid Head was in front of him, how the fuck was he going to survive this!? Even worse, Pyramid Head MOVED his head to look at him. Before now, Pyramid Head hadn't moved at all.
Tyler furiously crawled backwards on his palms to try to get away from Pyramid Head, but he walked closer and closer. His Great Knife dragged noisily across the floor, screeching painfully. Tyler looked back and saw that The Beldam had started to move down another hallway, as if trying to get away from Pyramid Head.
The second Tyler had used to look back Pyramid Head had used to stand in front of him. Tyler stared up at the behemoth and held his breath as its free hand came down, grabbing his shirt. Pyramid Head lifted him up off the ground, raising him, and keeping him aloft. Almost as if he was inspecting him.
Tyler used his own hands to support himself on Pyramid Head's thick arm, and could hear metallic breathing from the grilles of the beast's helm. He also saw holes in the helm for someone's eyes, but couldn't see the eyes themselves. Tyler waited with baited breath as Pyramid Head simply held him in the air for a moment.
Pyramid Head threw Tyler behind him like a rag doll, and the young man landed flat on his back. Pain and shock from the impact wracked his body instantly, subsiding just as quickly. From his current position, Tyler could see Pyramid Head walking away from him, down the same hall The Beldam had gone down.
Tyler fought to stay awake, but failed as his body and head sang out in pain from the impact with the floor along with fatigue from running and fighting. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the tip of the Great Knife going down the hall.
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Yeah, um…Pyramid Head doesn't want to kill Tyler. Why? I'll tell you guys later. It'll fit into the story later, but not now.
Some notes on the monsters:
Armed Nurse – Nurses seem to be a recurring theme among the monsters in all of the Silent Hill games, so here we go. These nurses are halfway mine; I gave them long hair and floor-length arms, but other than that, they're Silent Hill's.
The Beldam – Basically a supped-up version of the Armed Nurse, except she has no weapon; she doesn't need it. There's only one, so she's more of a Boss than anything else. I'll get to what the monsters represent later. Again, it wouldn't fit with the story. You don't know enough about Tyler just yet. :)
Shambles – Originally called Torsos, these I came up with on my own, so don't go copying it, okay? They're the weakest of the monsters, but like to show up in numbers. They're like bugs; numerous and annoying.