Chris stayed in a defensive position for a few seconds, before opening his eyes and looking around. He and Heather should have been dead, should have been knocked away, but instead he was looking at a young girl in a blue school uniform. She had caught the monsters arm in one frail looking arm, and the smaller ones were slinking away.
She turned her head to him, and he holstered his gun before picking up Heather. She then turned back to the monster, and raised her other arm, holding one finger up as if she was scolding the thing. It screeched in pain before falling to its knees and it slowly disappeared.
"Thank you…" Chris said as he stepped past the girl, weary, but she turned away again, fading away herself. Chris shook his head, before almost walking into another young girl. This one was younger than the other one, and she was wearing a pink corduroy turtleneck and a denim dress.
"Shh, follow me before they come back." She whispered to him, before she turned and started to run. Chris jogged after her, never quite being able to catch up to her, but staying within sight. He moved through decomposing building, crumbling rubble falling around him, before running out in front of the elementary school.
"Wait… I thought I already passed this place" he muttered to himself, before realizing that the girl was not going past the school, but over to a utility building beside it. He reached it just as she slipped down the ladder.
He stopped and looked down the ladder, into the darkness, before adjusting his grip on Heather, who was turning grey and was freezing. Somehow, Chris managed to maneuver her into a position that allowed him to start down the ladder right as something behind him started to bay. He reached the bottom of the ladder quickly, and turned to look for his guide.
She was nowhere to be found, but his flashlight picked up what looked like crayon arrows drawn on the ground.
"So I follow this then?" He wondered, as he started to walk. Heather's radio had gone silent, and as Chris walked through a tunnel that lead to the sewers proper, he let himself be lulled into a sense of safety.
And so, when he heard something clanging on the walkway, he thought it was the girl again, even though he'd been following her signs, and did not expect the large green cockroach that launched itself at him.
He had stumbled at the last moment, a patch of poorly constructed grating, so the bug had just grazed Chris' legs, instead of hitting him full on. He stumbled to the side, and without looking back to get a better look, he started to run.
More and more of the bugs started to appear, and one that was hanging down from a piece of ductwork managed to snag a chunk out of Chris's face, before the arrows point up to safety.
Or, as safe as Silent Hill could be.
Blood streaming down his face, Chris climbed out of the sewer, adjusted his hold on Heather, and looked…through the girl who had helped him.
"They're just down there, your friends!" She said, before looking down the street. "But more things are coming and I can't help anymore. Bye!" She waved at him, before running off towards the lake.
Chris watched her go, before wiping blood from his face, and setting off. After a few steps he realized he would have to run again as smaller bugs started nipping his feet, and the weird, lumpy things that had cornered Rebecca started attempting to heard him away from his destination.
As he started jogging, more and more things started to appear, and soon he found his speed matched by bizarre looking dogs and lurching nurses. As he turned the corner, huge, lumbering things turned what he thought was their heads towards him, and what looked like a puppet started to screech and grapple for him.
As more and more superficial wounds started to dot his arms and legs, Chris could see the motel ahead, and knowing that the things were right behind him, he decided to…forgo the door.
Back in the motel, a sobbing Laura was curled up with Claire on the bed with Cybil, when something came crashing through the window that Claire had been so worried about. Everyone jumped, Laura screamed, and they pointed their weapons at…
"Chris!?" Claire scrambled off the bed as her brother sat up.
"Lisa, take Cheryl. Everyone else, guns ready!" Chris staggered up, bleeding from hitting the glass and his trip through the streets, and turned back to the window.
Lisa hurried over and knelt at Heathers side. "Oh my god, what happened? Chris, what happened to her?" Lisa's voice wavered, and small drops of blood started to fall from her face.
"Dahlia did…something. With a triangular… thing." Was his unsure reply, and Lisa sobbed, dropping her head down onto Heather.
"Then none of us are safe anymore." Lisa raised her head, looking up at Chris. "Did you bring it with you?"
"What? The thing? No…The church was collapsing. I didn't have time to look for it." Him and Barry started to shoot then, and Laura cringed, curling up against Cybil.
"Oh no…If you had it, I probably could stop all of this!" Lisa said, hysterical. "But now…"
"What was the thing then?" Jill asked, joining Chris and Barry. "Oh shit…I think you were right about that doctor of yours, Lisa. He's headed this way and he's got friends."
"Her power…Basically, whatever Dahlia did is killing her. And now…" Lisa had gone pale, the only colour on her face smudged lines of blood. "And now she has no control over the town. It's trying to kill us."
"Oh god." Douglas whispered. "Can you help her, Lisa?"
"I…I don't know!" Lisa said, more blood falling onto the ground, on to Heather's shirt. "If this is hurting her, then I can't…she's the most powerful thing in this town, so the only one who can let me help her is the town, the cult's…god."
"Lisa," she looked up at Douglas, who'd scrambled off the other bed and now had a rifle in his hand. "Please, do anything you can. Don't let anything happen to her too. I don't know what'd I'd do if she was gone too." She nodded at him, wordlessly, and he turned to crouch by the window, firing at the creatures that approached.
Everyone who could, had drawn their weapons, and started to fire. Cybil and Laura were hiding behind the one bed, Cybil's legs still too sore to do much of anything, and Laura too young.
"Do they have a weak spot?" Jill asked, shooting blindly into the throng, her bullets going through the ranting doctor and pushing back the monstrosities behind him.
"Uhm, not really?" Douglas replied, wincing each time he shot, his shoulder tender. "I'd just say if it's got a head, shoot there. Otherwise body shots or shoot them in the legs. Maybe they'll fall and take their friends with em."
"Great." It seemed like no matter how many things fell, more appeared to take their place, and as they inched closer and closer to the motel, the group noticed that they were starting to run dry.
Douglas realized it first, when his rifle clicked empty and he didn't have anything to reload with. Then Claire ran out, anxiously patting herself down, hoping that she'd find one more clip.
As the rest of them realized they were running out, Jill emptying her second to last clip and Barry switching to his back-up gun, a magnum with only 6 shots, Lisa started to murmur to Heather's body, leaning over her, rubbing her hands, and praying.
"Please…Let me help her. Let me help Alessa, Heather. Please, God." Lisa whispered, and everything went quiet. The monsters outside stilled, and everyone inside the motel lowered their guns and backed away. Something had changed, something was making the monsters back away, despite Kauffman's urgings.
"Lisa! What's happening!?" Claire hissed, but instead Lisa drooped, her head bowed so her face was obscured.
When Lisa opened her eyes, she was in some nightmarish world, Heather crouched in the center, shrouded by Cheryl, Alessa, a woman dressed in white, and…
"Harry…" Lisa murmured, and she took a step, only to find herself further from Heather. "What?"
She looked around, now barely able to see Heather through a haze. There were dark…things creeping through a barrier around her, and Lisa narrowed her eyes, and started running.
For every step forwards, Heather seemed to move further away, so Lisa switched tactics, and started to run sideways, then diagonally. When that didn't get her any closer, Lisa turned, faced into the darkness, the thing that was creeping forward, killing Heather. She took a deep breath, and stepped forward. The first few steps were fine, but as she battled her way through the blackness, she could feel it pressing on her, blood pouring and her back contorting from the pressure.
She refused to stop though, knowing that she was getting closer to Heather, because she could hear crying, and then Alessa appeared.
"What are you doing?" she asked, looking at Lisa.
Lisa looked down at the pale, thin ghost. "She's dying, you're dying! I can't let that happen, I need to help her."
Alessa looked confused, and Lisa could see that the darkness was getting closer and closer to Heather. "I don't understand. If she dies, then everything will end. Don't you want that?"
Lisa shook her head. "No, not if it will kill her! She has too many people who care for her still out there…And what if her, you, dying doesn't do anything? Then she's gone, and there will be no one to save those who wander into this town. There has got to be a way for me to help, Alessa!"
Alessa opened her moth to speak, before hesitating. She looked behind her, and Lisa could make out the wavering form of the little girl Heather had once been starting to fade.
"Please." She said, and Alessa crumbled.
"You can help her, but it will destroy you." She whispered, and Lisa realized she was upset. "I don't want you to be destroyed! I need you to stay!"
Now the figure on white was wavering, and Lisa pulled Alessa's shade into a hug. "I don't mind, being destroyed. I've been dead for years and years, remember? But you need to let me help, or else you won't be here for me to help!"
"Okay…" Alessa whispered, and grabbed Lisa's had, dragging her through the last of the darkness and over to Heather.
Still holding onto Alessa's hand, Lisa knelt and grasped Heather's shoulder, trying to get her to look up. But when she wouldn't move, wouldn't even shift when Lisa shook her gently, she looked back at Alessa.
"what do I do?"
Alessa shook her head, and pulled Lisa up. "You can't do anything. I have to do it." There was a gasp, and Lisa turned to see the white figure gone, and Harry the only one still holding Heather. "It will hurt her though."
"What will you do?" Lisa asked.
"I have to take the power it's trying to devour from her, and give it to you. You're…dead already, so you can push outward, destroy the nightmare I created." Alessa replied. "She will still have to power to create, to control, and the thing that grows inside her will still remain. I…we cannot ever change that."
Lisa nodded, "Okay. I'm ready. Let me help her, please." Even if it would destroy her, Heather needed to get out of the town.
Alessa hugged Lisa once more, before something flowed from Heather into the beloved nurse.
Lisa started to stand, a light moving from Heather for her, and suddenly her head snapped up. Something, dark specs, started to swirl around her, and shades of people, a little girl, a teenager, a woman in white, and a tall man in a brown coat, started to walk along with her. She pulled open the door and the darkness outside started to funnel towards them as they walked out towards Kauffman.
"What, what are you doing?!" The dead doctor yelled, watching as Lisa approached him, and as the monsters, both dead and alive, started to fade, disintegrating.
Lisa didn't reply, and instead grabbed him by his coat and started dragging him off, talking him with her as she turned and walked towards the lake. The shades that had appeared, the ghosts, turned and went their own way, the little girl heading back towards where the amusement park was, the teenager to the school, the woman in white back where Chris had carried Heather from, and the man back around the motel, heading to Old Silent Hill.
"What's going on, what happened?" Cybil asked from where she was, sitting behind the bed, on the floor with Laura.
"I- I don't know." Jill said, holstering her gun as the radios in the room stopped blaring static. "The things, they're all gone!"
As everyone started to get their bearings back, Barry noticed something strange. "Look!"
He pointed out the shattered window, and those who could stand could see cars and people starting to flicker into view.
"What's going on? "Claire asked, bending to pick up Laura and to help Cybil up.
"everything's changing back, going back to normal." Douglas pulled himself up from where he'd crouched by the window, and turned to Chris. "We'd better get moving before the people at this motel noticed the window. And us."
"Agreed." With than, Chris had everyone moving, not even waiting to let Rebecca fix up the scrapes he had. He dug around for his wallet, leaving a card and a note telling the owner to contact the Bureau, and to ask for Redfield, before they quickly moved out of the motel.
As they moved through the streets, the fog started to disappear and the people living in Silent Hill started to appear. They must have made for an odd sight, Cybil and Douglas leaning against Jill and Chris, Claire carrying Laura, and Barry carrying Heather. Rebecca was leading the way, maps held tightly in her hands, brushing off the concerns of the citizens.
"What happened?! Do you need help, should I call an ambulance?" One woman asked, jogging away from her shop, a horrified look on her face at the sight of Cybil's legs.
"Thank you, Ma'am, but we have everything under control. Thank you though." Rebecca politely said, before shaking out her map. "But…If we keep following this street we'll reach the cemetery, correct?" They had decided to go back the way they'd came, in an attempt to attract less attention.
The woman looked taken back, before glancing at Heather and narrowing her eyes. "Yes…but why are you headed that way? What are you doing?"
Rebecca didn't answer, the group moving again, hurrying faster as more and more people turned to stare.
As they got closer to the cemetery, a police car screeched to a halt next to them, and two officers got out, stopping the group.
"What are you doing" One of the officers asked, and Cybil sighed, frustrated.
"Cybil Bennet, Brahms PD." She said, flashing her badge. "These two are Douglas Cartland and Cheryl Mason, two of my officers. The rest of these people are from the United States government. And this girl here-" she pointed to Laura, "- is a witness to a murder we've been investigating. Now, you can go and call in my badge number, but then I will have a write up for obstructing a case and send it to your chief."
"but-" the one officer started, but the other one shook his head.
"Right, 'Cybil Bennet, Brahms PD', I'll see the badge then. You were heading to the grave yard, so I don't trust you." He smirked, and Cybil sighed.
Everyone settled in as the officer called Brahms, and Douglas smiled as the disgruntled officer handed his phone over to Cybil, the officer on the other end frantic with worry.
"Louis, Louis! Listen, we're mostly fine, but we need you to meet us. Now, you don't need to come here, but there is this rest stop halfway. Yeah, we should be fine in the one car till then, but we've got injured…Oh, and get someone brave with a truck to come along the regular rout. My bike's been left and I need it picked up."
The officers watched as they started on their way again, the one muttering angrily as they left, the other driving off in the car.
"What was up with that?" Claire asked Cybil.
"The second officer, I wouldn't give him a job," Cybil said, wincing as she walked. "And so he's got something against me, and my people. He won't be a threat though; at least once we get back to Brahms. All my officers were warned about him, so if he comes into town, we'll know."
Everyone went quiet again, walking through the graveyard, dodging the half broken gravestones and the sketchy looking grave keeper. The gate on the other side was locked, but Barry smashed it open, and they hurried through at the grave keeper started moving towards them, screaming at them for breaking the lock.
As they made their way up to the rest stop, Claire moved ahead with Laura, and was the first one to the car. There were a few people loitering, looking at the car, and as Claire and Laura went to open it and get in, one of them snapped at her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? That's not your car." A man yelled, and Claire turned and glared.
"You're right, it isn't my fucking car. It's a rental. Now get out of my face before my brother shows up and explains to you why you don't threaten a government official and a murder witness." Claire had no idea what was wrong with the guy, and she turned away, searching in her pockets for the keys she was sure she'd taken off of Chris.
The man reached out to Claire as his wife and children watched, when Rebecca jogged over, her gun in plain sight. "Claire! Good, the rental is in good condition. Chris would flip if it had gotten all banged up." She held up the keys, and unlocked the doors.
"Pft, yeah." Claire also turned so the man could see her gun, and he backed away as his wife started to call someone. "Where's everyone else?"
Rebecca turned a warning look to the family, before replying. "Cybil's legs are bugging her. If you give me Laura, can you go help?"
"Yeah, sure." Claire passed Laura over to Rebecca, before jogging back through the trees to assist. The woman was speaking frantically into her phone now, and her husband then tried to grab for Rebecca.
She was faster though than him though, and quickly put Laura in the car. She then locked it and darted out of the man's reach. "You do realize we can arrest you if you continue to act in this behaviour, sir…although I have no idea why you're acting like this."
But before the hoity-toity tourist could say anything else, the rest of the group filed out of the forest. Claire was helping Jill carry Cybil up the hill, and Heather was looking less and less gray.
"I've called the police, you know." The woman said, clutching her phone close to her, and Douglas turned to look at her.
"And here we are! What was your issue?" he said.
"What? But…" The woman said, as the same police cruiser that had stopped the group before pulled up. The one officer, not the one that Cybil had refused to hire got out, saw them, and sighed.
"Officer, these people are trying to tell us that this is their car and that they work for the police. Obviously they are wrong, and I demand you arrest them!" The man bellowed, but the officer shook his head.
"No can do. That's the chief of police from Brahms, two of her officers, and a bunch of government officials. And even if it isn't their car, there's not much I can do. The government trumps small town police. Was there anything else? Or were you just calling to be a pest, sir? And may I say, that you sir, are illegally parked? And littering. That can factor into a hefty ticket if you do not change those things, sir."
With a chuckle, the group left the tourists to the officer and started moving. There were way too many people in the car now, and with the injured, space was tight. Heather was propped up between Douglas and Jill, and Claire had Laura sitting on her lap.
A few minutes down the highway, Heather shifted, and Rebecca twisted from the front seat to check on her. "Cheryl? Are you awake?" Heather didn't respond, and Douglas gently shook her shoulder.
"Cheryl, can you hear me?" he asked, and Heather groaned, shifting again. Despite Douglas and Jill's best efforts, she didn't wake, not until after they returned to Brahms, after a few days in hospital with Douglas and Cybil.
Heather had just put Laura to bed when Sam knocked on the door.
"Hey there. I just stuck Laura in my room to sleep, so we'll have to watch bad movies quietly." Heather said, and Sam nodded.
"Yeah, I got it. How's Douglas doing?" she asked as she followed Heather into the living room. "How are you too? I mean, Jeeze. Silent Hill…and then you were in the hospital! I mean, all three of you…how did those government people get away without any big injuries?"
"Douglas is doing fine, he's still in the hospital though. They want to watch his shoulder to make sure it doesn't get worse." Heather replied, before bending and turning on the TV. "I'm…I think I'm okay. I had some weird dreams when I was under, but I'm okay. Not eager to go back to Silent Hill though. Plus, with Douglas hurt, and now Laura here. It's just…new for me."
Sam nodded. "Yeah, I get that. When my cousin came to live with me after her mom died, it sure was interesting, trying to adjust to another person. I'm sure you'll do fine, though. She seems to like you, from what I've seen." After Heather had woken and gotten her stuff back together, she had taken Laura in to the station after seeing Claire off. Everyone else had hurried back, but Claire had stayed to watch Laura while Heather was unconscious.
Heather reached around a corner to grab two popped bags of popcorn. "Yeah…But we…had some pitfalls while we were there. Cybil fell trying to get to Laura, Douglas fell down some stairs and hit some metal, and then I fell and knocked myself out. I just think the others had better shoes, honestly. Or they'd be as banged up as us."
Heather went quiet as the movie started, glad that Sam understood that she didn't want to talk, not really. She didn't know if the town was fixed now, if Lisa's sacrifice for her had changed things.
All Heather knew was that she was never going back.
Somewhere, in a dimly lit room:
A monstrosity, with the appearance of two pairs of legs attached at the waist, is beating on a pane of glass as a man peers in at it. Several other monstrosities of many different types are in other enclosures, some roaring, some beating on the glass, as the man turns away.
Everything was going perfectly.
A/N: AND IT'S DONE! ;o; My first multi-chapter story! (Woo~)
I've had some problems with the last few chapters, so I apologize for the…less than stellar last few chapters. In the coming months I might come back to these chapters and do a few edits, but the story is now done. (I've tried to go back and edit…but I think I need to let it sit for a while before I can change it so it's actually, ya know, good)
And, (I don't know if anyone was planning on asking) I am not planning on a sequel of any sort. I had a…time, writing this story, thinking up scenarios, and I'm not sure how/what I would do for a sequel… Sorry!
(Also I think I accidentally put the Dursley's in as the tourists in the end…oops? That part just ran away on me XD)
But thank you very much for sticking with me through 14 chapters of me not having a single clue of what I was doing UvU~