Chapter 5 – Haunting Demons

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Tyler's mind slowly came into focus as he saw white. He was in his hospital room again. He felt mildly sick of the sensation of waking in here after these nightmares. He felt a pressure in his arm and his mind felt buzzed. His body felt light, as if his limbs could float away in space if they weren't attached to him. He looked at his arm. An IV. He couldn't feel any pain. It must have been some good stuff. There were bruises up and down his arm.

"You're awake." said a male voice, though Tyler immediately recognized it.

Dr. Waters stood right by the door, looking at him with a very serious and troubled expression.

"Thanks for the drip. Feels nice." Tyler said in an asinine voice. "But I can't say I like being tied to a machine. I hate restraint."

"I'm glad you're awake, Tyler." He said, sitting down in a chair at the end of the bed. "We need to talk."

Tyler managed to sit himself up. "What is it?"

"How do you keep getting hurt?" Waters asked.

"What do you mean?"

Waters looked away for a second. "We found you in the guest reception area. You were covered in blood and you had bruises all over your arm. There were cuts on your knuckles like you'd been in a fight. What happened?" He asked forcefully.

Tyler looked at him. He let out a snort of bitter amusement, looking away. "You'd never believe a word of it."

Waters looked at him. "Try me."

"Why?" Tyler asked, irked. "So you can declare me insane? You won't believe me. Hell, I don't even know if I believe it."

Waters sighed. "We took samples of the blood off your glasses." He started. "We have resources here to test blood and match it to people in the hospital."

Tyler sneered. "And?"

"It matched your blood."

Tyler looked at the door, thinking. Of course. Why not? Everything else had been completely fucked up so far. That only made sense. In the sense that it made no sense.

"There is no way to get your own blood all over you like that. It's not possible." Waters said. "What happened?"

Tyler smirked. "It wasn't my blood." He muttered.

"Pardon?"

Tyler looked over at the doctor. "If I tell you what happened, you can't interrupt me until I'm done." He said. The doctor nodded. "Fine. I'll tell you."

He rearranged himself in the bed to make himself more comfortable. "So far, ever since I got to this hospital, I've been having…these moments." He said, still searching for a way to define just what had happened to him. "The hospital goes dark. There's no light and no people whatsoever. No life. Except that…" He paused. He wasn't sure of just how to phrase what was next. "These monsters. Real monsters. Grotesque, horrible, bloody monsters. They have tried to kill me. So, I've had to fight back. That blood is theirs."

Waters just looked like him like he was stupid for a second. "What?" He asked sharply.

"You don't believe me."

"Of course not!" Waters shouted. "Do you have any idea how that sounds?"

"Like I'm crazy." Tyler said. "I told you you wouldn't believe me."

"Okay." Waters said, sitting back down. "For the sake of argument, what do these monsters look like?"

"There are a few of them." Tyler said. "One looks like a nurse with long arms and a pipe in their hand. Another looks like the nurse, but its arms are so huge she has to drag them behind her and they look at least three times as big as she is. Then there's these things that look like torsos cut off at the waists without mouths, and there was one with blades for fingers and knives coming from its back. Then there's one that looked like a nude man with its head cut off and a face on its stomach. The most horrible one I've seen, though, was one in a butcher's smock with some weird helmet on its head."

Water's eyes widened. "'Helmet?'" He echoed. "Was it pyramid-shaped?"

Tyler looked at him darkly. "How did you know that?"

"What you're telling me…sounds just like the accounts of some patients at the psychiatric hospital, Brookhaven." Waters said. "They always describe a dark world of metal, rust, blood and death full of ungodly monsters. But a lot of them have seen that thing with the helmet. They called it Pyramid Head."

Tyler looked away. "It's not metal at all." He said. "It's covered in ice and blood."

Waters shook his head. "And the town claims another."

Tyler looked at him "What are you talking about?"

Waters stared right at his eyes. "All kinds of people say Silent Hill is cursed. That you atone for your sins here, fighting for your very life. The town calls to you."

"And you don't believe any of it."

"Why should I?" Waters said in a harsh voice. "I've lived here for four years, nothing's happened to me."

"Maybe the town doesn't want you."

"And why would it want you?" Waters asked.

Tyler hesitated. "You remember asking me about my past hospitalizations?" He asked. Waters nodded. "Then let me tell you about my past.

"I don't remember anything from when I was five years old or younger. But I remember being six and being near my mother. She was disgusting." He growled. "She dressed like a prostitute. Maybe she was, I don't know. But my father…he looked like a father. He looked normal. He was strong. Warm. Loving. My mother…I can't remember a single time when she looked like a mother. She was so cold and dark. She only looked at me with such…hate in her eyes."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "One day, when I was ten…I walked into a room. I saw her. She was bent over a table. I had no idea what she was doing, but I eventually figured out that she was snorting something. She saw me. She screamed at me. I ran into my room and hid in my bed. I didn't come out all day. Finally, that night, my mom came into my room…" His jaw quivered and he had to steel himself. "And she took off my shirt…and she said to me… 'Don't make a sound…'and she hit me. Over and over again. She punched my eye and my stomach. And then she told me that I deserved it…and that I wasn't to tell anyone. That I should tell them that I fell or something."

Tyler smiled bitterly at the memory. "I loved her. She was my momma. I thought she was punishing me. I thought I did deserve it. I thought I had done something wrong." His eyes stung and a tear escaped. "But she didn't stop. She kept hitting me. Once a month. Two months, maybe. But she kept hitting me. And then she said such horrible things to me. Said I was worthless. That I was a waste of space. That I just cost her money and that I shouldn't even be in her life." Tyler looked furious now. "That fucking bitch made me feel like there was something wrong with me. Like I was a piece of TRASH!" He screamed.

He huffed out a breath, and looked down for a moment. "She…she didn't hit me very often… and she was smart enough to make it seem like I could have just fallen. I was hospitalized twice. Once because I started vomiting uncontrollably, and another time because I had broken my nose." He chuckled. "You know what? I take what I said earlier back. THAT'S the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.

"It wasn't until the broken nose that my father caught on. I was 12 then. They were fighting. I remember thinking that they shouldn't be doing that. I was so confused. I didn't know what they were fighting about. My mother slapped my dad. He didn't even flinch. She hit him again, and he punched her so hard, she fell back. She didn't look scared. She looked more evil then than I had ever seen her.

"The very next day, he grabbed me and we left the house we went to this hotel. I had no idea what the fuck was going on. He told me that he loved me and that he would never let anyone hit me ever again. But then…" Tyler shuddered. "The next day…" He clenched his face and his hands balled into fists. He raised his face to look at Waters with a look of absolute pain and anger. "THE NEXT DAY SHE KILLED HIM!!" He screamed. He started sobbing now. He cried uncontrollably.

"The police came. I was on top of my dad. He had a hole in his head. Gunshot. Right through the forehead." He yelled. "I just remember screaming for him to get up, wake up, for him to be okay, screaming that I loved him. Can you imagine what that felt like?"

"…No. I can't." Waters finally said.

Tyler let out a shuddering breath. "I loved my dad. And that…THING that I'm forced to call my mother killed him! I hate her!" He yelled. "But then my grandparents took me in. They didn't probe. They treated me just like before. They tried not to act like I had seen it. I knew it was hard. I heard Granny Grace crying for so long. I hated myself because I was the cause of that. But they helped me. Without them…I would probably be dead."

Waters looked down and sighed. "That is truly horrible." He said. "I never understood how a parent can hurt their own children for no reason." He looked back at Tyler. "But you're not helping yourself. You didn't do anything. So, if this town is cursed or whatever, why would it want you?"

"It's my fault!" Tyler yelled. "If I wasn't around, they wouldn't have fought. My mother wouldn't have hit me! And my dad would still be alive!"

"That's a lie." Waters said.

"…Maybe…but it's what I thought when I was younger." Tyler said. "I know I didn't do anything wrong…but that doesn't make it stop hurting."

Waters sat back in the chair. "So your guilt and the pain of seeing your dad die is what's called you here. Assuming that these stories are true."

"They are." Tyler said. "I'm not crazy."

"I never said you were. Although, you would be prime material for a mental patient."

"Gee. Thanks."

"Well, you saw your father get killed at a young age, your mother not only abused you physically but mentally, and you blamed yourself for all of it. A person's mind doesn't go through that without scars."

"Maybe it just gets stronger." Tyler said.

Waters sighed. "I'm not saying I believe you…but at the same time, I'm not going to do anything. I won't say you need any mental help. You seem all there, even though you seem to have these delusions."

Tyler growled at him.

"Tyler, until I see some sort of definite proof, I don't see any reason to believe that this town really is cursed." Waters said. "I'll get Nurse Defoe to change the wrappings on your ankle. If we're lucky, the brace might be able to come off."

Tyler didn't say anything as he walked towards the door. Then, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"What are you talking about?" Waters asked.

"You've been acting nicer than any doctor I've ever had. You've been going out of your way to help me. Why?"

Waters shrugged. "I just felt like I should. Is that a problem?"

Tyler looked away.

Waters sighed. "Are you really so untrusting that you won't accept someone just trying to help you out?" He asked in a somber voice.

Tyler stayed quiet.

Waters let out a huff and left the room.

Tyler looked over at the morphine in the IV stand, letting himself think. There was one fact that Tyler had neglected to mention. Ever since he was young, because he hated his mother so much, he was automatically put off from women. He remembered there was one English teacher of his in high school who was in her twenties and dressed very provocatively. He had to change courses to a different teacher. He was disgusted by the female body. There was nothing wrong with women, but the thought of being close to a woman made Tyler shudder in revulsion.

Then, when he was a bit older, a senior in high school, he'd started developing urges towards other men. He'd started noticing that men had rather…interesting bodies. Much more attractive than a woman's. Occasionally, he'd caught his attention wandering to some of the better looking males in the room. But he'd always snap himself out of those kinds of thoughts as soon as he could. He wasn't gay. He didn't like men. He didn't like anyone. Now Waters comes along…he'd be lying if he said the doctor wasn't attractive, but just because he could recognize when another man looks good, that didn't mean anything!

Tyler almost didn't hear the dark-haired nurse come into the room with fresh bandages. "That morphine was mostly for when you woke up." She said. "Dr. Waters told me to take it off." She said. She took the needle from Tyler's arm, and fixed the bag so it wouldn't drip anymore. Then she pressed gauze to his arm and bandaged it over.

Nurse Defoe unlatched the brace and took off the casting. "This looks pretty good. It was swollen when you came in yesterday." Tyler's ankle wasn't swollen, but it definitely was red and a little bruised up. The morphine made it not hurt, but it looked like it would.

"Well, if you stay off of this, I think it should be better by the end of the week." Nurse Defoe said, smiling.

"Good. I can get the hell out of this place."

Tyler stayed in his bed all day, with the only exception being bathroom breaks. He was given food, Tylenol, and had the television, but the hours of the day just sort of blurred together into one excruciatingly boring hospital visit. Eventually, lunch and then dinner were brought in. Finally, Dr. Waters decided to grace his hospital room.

"Well," He said, "Let's look at your ankle." He unwrapped it and took off the brace. "How long has it been since you took some painkillers?"

"About an hour." Tyler said.

"Good." He said. "I want you to stand up."

Tyler did so.

"Now walk around the room." Waters said. "Without the cane. Stop if it hurts too much"

Tyler walked in a circle for a good bit. His foot was throbbing and gave some discomfort, but he could walk. It probably would hurt a lot worse with the Tylenol gone, but if he had to walk, he could.

"Does it hurt?" Dr. Waters asked.

"Not exactly." Tyler said. "It feels tight and throbbing, but it doesn't really hurt."

"Alright." Waters' face brightened. "I think we can keep the brace off. Here." He put some medicine by his bedside. "Those are your nighttime pills. And I'll get you some Tylenol to take in the morning. You get some rest."

The doctor left, but Tyler hesitated as he took his medicine. He felt dizzy again, and fell into the bed, asleep. But as he descended into the dark comfort of sleep, he knew that when he woke up, he would be in yet another nightmare.

Except, this time…he would do what he could to end it.

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Yep. Tyler's gay, and in denial. It isn't that he thinks it's wrong to be gay, he just thinks it would be easier to be asexual. After the trauma with his mother, he doesn't want to think of anything in a sexual manner, but his hormones have other plans for him.

Lastly, I said in an earlier chapter I'd explain why Pyramid Head doesn't want to kill Tyler. It's because Pyramid Head is an executioner, a punisher, a being that kills and is born out of guilt for one's crimes and desires to be punished. Tyler feels guilty, but this is unfounded. He hasn't done anything truly wrong. So, Pyramid Head ignores him.