Damian!
I stared at the blond man before me. That rat bastard! So he'd been here before. Or maybe he just hadn't left in… in how long? How long ago was this now? Or far ahead? And was this even the same Damian? The Damian I knew was albino-white, with hair black like a raven and eyes to match, while this guy coulda been a poster-boy for ol' Hitler's master race, the great blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan. But... differences, similarities... whowas this guy here really? He looked all kindsa different, walked with a limp too, I noticed now.
While I was trying to figure all this out, the two in the ambulance bay carried on their sweet-talk, so I missed a lot of what was said. As I started to listen again, I heard her ask him what he was there for:
"So tell me... Damian," she rolled the name over her tongue, then grinned and pushed at him playfully, her eyes bright, her tongue licking her lips as though thirsty at a mere thought, "Did you come all the way out here just to meet little me? Or is there some... medical servicing you need?"
He grinned and picked a piece of lint off her red nurse's jacket, moving slowly, like a guy favoring one movement over another, painful one. "Well, a bit of both really. I came for some treatment, but you almost had me forgetting it."
"And that was...?"
"Well... It's kind of embarrassing. There's some - " He stopped suddenly and grimaced. "Some work I need done. Stitches or something, I dunno. But I got no insurance or nothing. I need some work off the books."
"Ohh. Right, I think I see," she said with a cunning smile. "You got caught up in a bit of a tussle, huh?"
"You could say that."
"Well, I'm not due to finish for another two hours. I've got to check on a patient, catch up on her paperwork, then I'll be free. Completely free, actually, I've told the doctor I'm gonna have to quit that case." Her face clouded over, like maybe 'that case' wasn't gonna be so easy to quit, or had been to hard to work on. The glint in her eyes dulled for a second, and then she smiled again. Overbrightly. Overcompensating, maybe. "So, if you got the time to wait, I could maybe..." She paused, put a hand to her head as though to steady herself, and then straightened up again, the seductive smile back again. "I could maybe... ahhh... squeeze you in?"
Her flirting was even stronger now, almost desperate, but if he saw, he didn't notice.
"Mmmm..." Damian smiled lazily. "Squeezing sounds very good." He grinned at her.
"But I dunno if this can wait, it's gettin' to be - " he grunted and faltered, but straightened up and waved her away as she reached out to support him, "Getting to be pretty painful. Once I'm set, though, how about we catch up later?"
She frowned and chewed her lip in thought, brushing at her hair again as though to remove distractions from her thoughts. Or to just wave a bug away. Was this girl quite sane, I wondered? All these twitches... Or maybe she was just nervous from flirting and worrying about 'that case'. The look on her face when she had mentioned it, she looked damn near terrified, I can tell ya. I mean real terror, the kind of terror that keeps you awake nights cause you can't trust the shadows around you, and makes you look over your shoulder every damn day. She came to a decision, and came out of her thoughts:
"Well, I guess Sue could help you out. I'll tell her I'll take care of the papers, so she won't ask any questions. How about that?"
"Perfect," he said, relieved, "And once I'm all stitched up, maybe we could get some drinks or something? I hear this place ain't that small that it doesn't have anywhere to go."
"Drinks! Yeah, just what I need!" Her eyes shone now, the desperation all but gone at the thought of relief from... whatever it was that had been getting her down. "This place has been driving me nuts, I need something to... ah... take my mind off things."
"Oh yeah? I think I might know just the thing."
She grinned at that, and let him pull her close, whispering something in her ear. As her smile broadened at what she heard, everything went black for me.
And now there was an elevator opening, and a woman's voice:
"Fourth floor, empty beds, more empty beds, and... emergency treatment on the quiet." A different nurse, this one, dark-haired, freckled, and with a posture and shy laugh that just about yelled 'wallflower'. Cute kid, but still just a kid, though she had to be at least twenty-odd. She drifted dreamily into the hallway, and 'Damian' followed, looking suddenly worried.
"Huh? She said she wouldn't need to tell you that it was - "
"She didn't," she giggled, "you just did, though, silly."
"Ah... Right. Guess I walked into that one." As they passed into the hallway from the elevator area, 'Damian' seemed tense now, distrustful.
"That you did. But stay cool, it's all good. You pass me the cash, I split some with Lisa, we say nothing to no-one. So long's you play nice with Lisa, that is. She's... she's a really great friend. So you better behave, mister!" She wagged a finger at him with a smile.
"I'll be good, Sue. You got my word."
"You better. In this way, Traveling Jack. Let's see what you got that just can't wait."
Another lapse of sight, the hallway faded.
And now she was fussing over him lying on a hospital trolley, looking like he'd rather be anywhere in the world but under that knife, in that hospital gown. Going by the gauze pads stuck over him now, he musta had the hell of a fight. Sue leant down and stuck a new pad on an ugly-looking gash running up his leg. That explained the limp, anyways. I looked around, somehow I was standing in the room with them, but not really there in quite the same way. I waved my hand through a cupboard. No resistance, just like in the chapel. I settled down to watch, patiently. She was almost done now, looked like. One last slash up his abs needed stitching and then that should be it, from what I could see. Now I knew why I hadn't seen any wounds before, he'd covered them with his clothing, had moved so's not to aggravate any pain. Sly, just too bad he hadn't been sly enough to not get cut in the first place. He pulled a face as Sue began her stitching again.
"Ow! Watch it!"
She said nothing, simply rolled her eyes at his bitching as she went back to it. He stopped complaining, grit his teeth instead. Silence settled, and I sank into a spare seat, watching the two, watching the room play out. Not as if I could do anything else.
The windows showed nothing but night outside, a gentle snow beginning to paste itself against the cold glass. The quiet feel of the place told me (in the way that sometimes you just know something in a dream, ya know?) that the place was almost completely shut down for the night. Sue looked up from her stitching and frowned at Damian.
"So you said you just ran yourself against a railing, huh?"
"Yeah, just careless I guess," he said and spread his arms in a gesture of mock helplessness, then gasped at the sudden pain and dropped his arms sharply, clutching at the gauze pad on his chest.
"I guess you can add 'thoughtless' to that, too," she giggled, "You do that again and you'll have all those sutures out like that." And she snapped her fingers to emphasis the point.
He grinned sheepishly, "Yes, ma'am. I'll be good."
"On more than one count, too, ok?" She looked suddenly earnest. "Please? I've known Lisa a long time and she's got enough - "
He cut her off mid-sentence, "Oh, she's special, I know that. You can tell by looking at her. Don't worry, I'll be good, didn't I say already?"
"Just making sure," she said, waving a sharp pair of scissors under his nose dreamily, "You just be good, ok? Or else railings will be the least of your worries."
She lowered the scissors along his body, and laughed at his sudden tenseness.
"Relax, I'm just finishing off here. See? All done!" Cutting through the thread, she finished up the stitching, stuck a fresh gauze pad to him with some kinda sticky tape , and turned away to tidy up the surgical bits.
"Tell me, though, Sue," he said, as he lowered himself gently to standing, "Is there someplace I can wash up? It's been a long trip to get here and... well, I could do with some hot water."
"Sure, next door," she said, carelessly pointing as she put the sutures away, "Don't worry about the sutures, they'll hold up just fine so long's you don't scrub all that damn gauze off."
He nodded, went behind a changing screen and entered the adjoining shower room. The door hidden behind the screen, all that could be seen of Damian's exit was his gown flopping carelessly to the floor as he went. The door clicked closed, and Sue seated herself, began flicking through a local paper. The silence was strangely complimented by the sound of running water from the next room, a clock ticking on the wall.
In the dark and quiet I began to relax, thinking maybe this 'vision' thing was a vision of things to come. Better times ahead and all that, ya know?
The clock ticked.
Sue yawned and turned a page, browsing aimlessly. Suddenly she caught her breath, clapped her hand to her mouth and leant back in shock, the force of the movement scraping her seat back and away from the desk. Unseen, unfelt, I walked up behind her, leant over to read the piece. As she gasped for breath behind me, I read the text, saw the picture of 'Damian's face next to it. The paper was dated seventeen years ago, seventeen years before I walked into Silent Hill, seventeen years before 'Heather' killed the 'God'. And here was 'Damian' again, looking no different to when I saw him first in those woods. Seventeen years and no difference... I still can't get over that, even now.
I read on, the headline bold and black and in my face: "Notorious Felon 'Danny Brown' unaccounted for in prison disaster." In black and white, the photo took the illusion of difference that hair color created and destroyed it utterly. The paper showed beyond a doubt that the Damian I'd met before was the same as this one after all. But that he was also 'Danny Brown', who was... I craned over Sue's shoulder as we both read... a thief, kidnapper, murderer, rapist.
And hadn't aged a day in seventeen years. I read on, willing everything to somehow make sense.
The door behind us clicked open, but Sue didn't appear to hear it. Damian emerged, steaming from the shower, and, seeing the paper in front of her, must have figured things out himself. He padded silently up behind the seated woman. Now I recognized him alright, he must have dyed his hair, used some colored lenses or some such, cause the man coming up behind the oblivious nurse was, in the pale muscled flesh, Damian himself.
He sighed tiredly and she stifled a shriek.
"I had hoped they wouldn't put that crap out in all the papers," he murmured, leaning past her to grab the paper, "But I guess even Silent Hill gets the news when it's about a local boy."
He patted her on the shoulder, laughed lightly as she flinched from his hand brushing her neck. "Don't look so worried, they got the wrong guy."
"Wrong guy? There were six witnesses in court, the jury was unanimous."
"Well... ok, so they got the right guy. But I'm out of all that now. I'm being good, didn't I say? And look, if I'd wanted to hurt you, wouldn't I have done it by now?"
"I... I guess so." He stepped around to face her and she quickly averted her eyes, her face coloring.
"Oh... yeah. There's no towels around here, sorry." He saw her shoulders shaking, stepped forward to embrace her, to... I dunno, comfort her, maybe? If that's what he meant, he done fucked up plenty. She shrieked at the sight of his approaching body, jerked backwards and sprawled out of her chair. Her nurse's uniform skirt rode up her long legs, the blouse gaping undignified as she tried to scramble away from him.
And then he was there, knelt in front of her.
And then he was kneeling between her knees, steaming hot body just about against her own shaking form. His hand over her mouth, crooning to calm her.
Shhhh, shhhh, it's ok, it's ok
And then beginning to lose patience and growling at her
Be quiet, already, just be quiet
and then hissing, growling, almost yelling
Shut your filthy noise, bitch!
And then...
My vision blackened once again, and in the darkness and silence
No, please. Please no!
voices and echoes
Nooo, I'll be good!
copper stink of blood, sweet smell of old sex
I won't tell anyone! I promise! Please, no!
I saw Sue's face, a frozen silent scream pressed against the tiled floor.
And now all I could see was a series of disjointed images.
A doctor with a briefcase walking fast down a darkened hallway unlike any I'd ever seen before.
Sue bleeding. Bleeding now from her head, from her chest, her legs.
Now Damian running, panic on his face. Running down the hallway, pounding through doors and out into the night.
The bloody nurse remained behind, Sue staggering listlessly up and down the hallway, the walls reddened and all torn to hell, her own back broken and hunched up between the shoulders. I became aware of sound and touch again, and I was in that hallway with her, fully ignored as she limped on. The hallway floor clanked under her feet, her shoes squeaking as the blood dripping from the dark places of her body lubricated her steps on the cold red metal.
She reached the double doors of the hallway, but could not go through, and turned jerkily, began retracing her steps. I stumbled back at the sight, I couldn't stop myself. Her face ran with blood, her sweet features contorted with pain, fury, lust, despair, all washing over her, one after the other. The steel floor clanked under my feet as I stumbled back, and I froze. The floor shoulda been linoleum, shoulda been soundless, but it had changed with the walls, with the doors, with the bloodied and battered Sue. I saw Sue, and Sue saw me. Somehow I had fallen through the vision and was really there. Sue saw me, and her face lit up. She ran towards me, stumbling over her own feet, the gushing wounds trailing blood behind her.
Help me...
Had I said that? Had she?
Helllp meeee...
Didn't matter now, of course, she was there, grabbing at me, hugging at me. Wanting my help, wanting to be saved. She couldn't tell me, of course, couldn't scream even, all that came from her full red lips was a muffled groan. Harder to talk with no tongue. The blood stink rose up at me, blood and... something else, sickly sweet.
I didn't wanna think about what that coulda been, but the stench gave me just enough shock to move, just enough to shove her away and run. Heading for the doors I thought I could maybe break them down but no luck no good the doors are stuck stuck now turn gotta turn. I turned, ran to run away. Try to pass her by but run into a wall, no good, no good, turn again and here she is. She was coming now, grabbing at me, I couldn't shake her off and she hugged me again. Her soft hot flesh, sticky with her blood, warm and yielding like... suffocating me, I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't shake her off.
Darkness at the end of the hall now, lights out.
The lights failed, one by one, and my last impression of that terrible place was of darkness, choking heat, and the awful noise of her rasping breath.
This time I was glad when my sight failed me, when I passed out again.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
I came to myself again in the middle of the cold, fog-infested street. The memo in my hand, the 'diary scrap' as I had thought, was now blank, without the date or weekday that had marked it as a journal page before. I got up and stared at it, perplexed. All that was on it, marked in red, was that same symbol I had seen on the 'Storefront Poseables' window Damian had somehow broken. As I watched, that faded too, then the paper itself dissolved into ashes, fell through my fingers. Had that been real? Could... would he have...? There was more than just usual nastiness here, was something fucking with my mind? Or was it just that Damian...
My thoughts were interrupted by footsteps behind me. I stood stock still and waited. What now?