chapter 1: welcome to silent hill

Harry buckled his sleeping seven-year-old into her car seat. "She's all I have left…" He thought sadly. Lauren's disease had taken her life four years ago, and it had left a shadow over his soul.

Cheryl often wondered where her mother was at, and it took all Harry had to simply tell her that she was waiting for her in a much happier place. A year after her death, however, Cheryl would occasionally sleepwalk, and in her unconscious state she would mumble the name Silent Hill. This troubled Harry. Surely she had been to young seven years ago to remember where she was found.

Another thing was because it was Lauren's favorite vacation spot, and told Cheryl all the great things about it from time to time. But what Harry hadn't told Cheryl or Lauren was that soon after they had left with their new child, something terrible happened at Silent Hill. A horrible fire destroyed half of the town. It was closed down for five years for repair, but now no one ever goes there. "And now I'm taking my daughter there because she wants to in her sleep…"

Harry thought. He got in the driver seat of his jeep and started up the vehicle. Going back wasn't going to be the best thing for him, but he had to. He would do anything for his daughter. He pulled out a road map.

From his home in Kentucky he could reach Toluca County in West Virginia in about an hour. He sped off onto the dark highway. Soon after he left his house and was on the dark highway surrounded by trees and lit with seldom street lamps, an attractive female police officer sped by on a motorcycle. She passed him in the other lane and sped off ahead. "Wonder what the problem is?"

He thought. Soon his mind began to wander to the last day with his wife in the hospital.

"Mr. Mason, your wife's condition is failing her. I don't think she has much longer left. Please take your daughter and go see her before…"

"Lauren…"

"I know Harry, I know…Please take care of our Cheryl."

"I will hunny, of course I will."

"Let me see her."

"Mommy? When are you coming home?"

"I might not be home for a long time. But I promise you'll see me again soon. I'll be in a place called Heaven."

"How do you get to Heaven?"

"The closet I ever was to Heaven here was Silent Hill…"

"Lauren…? Lauren! We need a doctor in here!"

Harry blinked, pushing the tears away. He then thought carefully. Lauren had said the closest to Heaven she had ever been to was Silent Hill. Was that why Cheryl wanted to go there?

He looked back at his sleeping seven-year-old. She had just had a birthday the month before. For her it meant opening presents and eating cake and having some friends over. For Harry it was a reminder of seven years ago when he found her with Lauren in Silent Hill.

He was always cheerful enough, but after Lauren passed away…He pushed the thought out of his head. Cheryl had wanted a haircut for her seventh birthday, and now her midnight colored hair was up to her shoulders. It actually looked quite good on her. He turned on the radio, but all he got was static. He turned it off. A sign went by that said Welcome to Silent Hill: 1 mile.

He turned back toward the road and saw the police officers motorcycle ditched to the side of the road, a large dent in the guardrail. It was a strange sight to behold since the officer was no where to be seen. He looked back ahead -

-and slammed on the brake as a young girl stepped out from the shadows and onto the road. The tires began to smoke and screech, and he felt the jeep lurch sideways and began tumbling down a hill. He felt his head slam onto the steering wheel and the last thing he remembered was Cheryl screaming his name.

"Cheryl? Cheryl where are you…?"

"…Hmmm…I'll be back soon…Silent Hill…"

"Cheryl? Cheryl wake up! What's wrong hunny? Why did you say that?"

"Say what daddy? I was having a nightmare…"

"Silent Hill…Why did you say that Cheryl…?"

"I don't remember…"

Harry awoke to a throbbing pain in his head. He could hear each heart beat reverberate in his ears. He felt something warm trickle down his temple. He reached with trembling fingers and touched the sore spot. He pulled away and saw blood on his fingers. But then something occurred to him that was worse than the pain, the blood. Cheryl. He looked over and saw the back door open, and the car seat empty.

"Cheryl? Cheryl!" He forced his door open and sluggishly stepped out onto the road. Was he going blind? Why was it so hard to see? And it was so cold. Was he dead?

"Cheryl! Where are you hunny!" He blinked several times and saw he wasn't going blind. It was extremely foggy. His vision extended to about five feet and then everything else was lost in fog. He could tell it was daylight though. It had been nighttime when he crashed, he could remember that much.

Exactly how long had he been out? And snow was falling softly. It was just cold enough to snow, but hot enough to melt it as it hit the ground. Wasn't it the month of May? Another thing that bothered him, it was so quiet, almost like a ghost town. On that thought, where was he?

He reached inside his jeep and pulled out the map. Toward the highway he had been on it was actually near a road that led into Silent Hill. It was Bachman Road. He looked around for a sign, and could vaguely see something green in the distant.

He took several steps forward and saw that he was in fact on Bachman Road. He stuffed the map in his pocket and began walking up the road. Several old buildings came into view, as well as some deserted cars on the side. A streetlight was frozen on red, and his footsteps didn't seem to have an echo.

"This town is so…different." He continued forward until he heard another set of light footsteps. He ran around the corner onto a different road. He squinted his eyes and saw the silhouette of his daughter in the fog.

"Hey Cheryl!" Seeming oblivious to his voice, Cheryl began running toward an alleyway. "Hey wait! Stop!" Harry began to pursue his daughter, running into the alley after her. Rows of garages and fenced back yards went by in a blur. He noticed that no one was around.

Was Silent Hill really deserted now after the fire? At the end it turned to a small chain linked gate. He heard the gate open and close quickly. A sign was hung on the front that said

Beware of dog! A putrid smell permeated from the alley. He followed after her, and almost fell face forward into a mass of…red. He could vaguely describe it as once being an animal of some sort, probably a dog.

It looked as though it had imploded from the inside, leaving trails of blood and gore on the wall it had been chained to. Several fragments of bone were lying around the mass of flesh and blood. He carefully stepped over the gore pool and went down the alley.

The walls suddenly came in close, only an arm length of space on each side. He continued down. Several snowflakes would drift down from the sky, which Harry noticed, was slowly getting darker. He rounded the corner and went through another small gate.

A siren then filled his ears, far away at first but it seemed to get closer. It sounded kind of like a tornado warning siren, and Harry could tell it was warning him of something. Suddenly blackness fell over the alley, and Harry had to pull out his silver butane lighter to allow his eyes to see.

His vision was now restricted to a couple of feet. Panic filled his body, and he turned and exited out of the second gate. He ran down the alley, but now saw his path was blocked by a dead end. Several barrels were piled up by the mysterious wall. Having no choice but to continue forward, he went further and further. Aside from the blaring siren, he heard a constant squeak.

He lowered his lighter and saw an overturned hospital wheelchair ominously abandoned. It had scattered blood spatters on it, and on the ground around it. "What the hell?" Harry took several more timid steps further, noticing that the random snowflakes were now rain droplets, and the air had grown hotter.

When the alley came to another right turn, he saw a bloody hospital gurney abandoned as well. Underneath the tattered yellow sheet was the outline of a body. Harry was tempted to look underneath, but knew Cheryl wouldn't be hiding there. He turned right and followed the closed in alley some more. Puddles of blood on the ground became larger and more frequent, and the brick walls were replaced by tall, barbed wire fences. Beyond the fences was blackness, and all he could hear was the siren and far off wails.

Soon the ground looked like wire fence, and gore on the walls and ground became more and more frequent. Finally the alley opened into a dead end. Several body parts and torsos were lying in the pools of blood on the ground. Gruesomely strung up on the barbed wire fence in a crucifixion style was a full body however, gutted, skinned, and covered in a thin layer of blood and slime.

"What the hell is this…? What's going on here!" A demonic wail came from behind, and he turned to face a charred looking child. Pieces of its skin had a light ember glow, and it flaked off occasionally as ash. It's face looked stretch to far, making the mouth long and odd shaped.

"What the-" He stopped as several more walked from behind it. He turned and ran back toward the exit, but saw it was now cut off by a fence. "Help me! Anyone!" Harry called out, adrenaline pumping through his veins. There was no escape. He dropped his lighter and felt blindly along the fence, shaking it as though it would fall. "Shit! Help me!" He screamed again as the tiny charred children closed in, their high pitched demonic wails filling his ears to accompany the siren.

He felt pain in his knees, and saw one of the children grabbing him. He fell to his stomach and tried to crawl away, but they all grabbed him and pulled him closer and closer to their charred bodies. He kicked, screaming dark curses as they clutched at his cloths and pulled. He screamed as loud as he could, and then his world went black.