Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 12
By John Priest (Drake, Noctros, Efrit, etc)
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*Tai's story*
As Tai exits the church, she can't help but feel afraid. This entire town frightens her. She doesn't know why she's here or how she came here. All she can remember before waking up in that hospital, is her life and that she, Kate, and Jennifer were in a car before everything got dark. Why is she being tortured by this town? What has she done to deserve this punishment? She is still being haunted by the echos of Kate's screams. Images of her last moments flash in her head and Tai could swear she can see Kate, out in the corners of her eyes. This place is like her own personal hell. She slowly pulls out the map and looks to see what buildings are near. On the map, she notices that a Tavern is near. She decides to get a drink or two, to calm her nerves.
She arrives at the Tavern after twenty minutes of walking. On her way, she noticed that several of the streets have caved in and that for now, it'd be impossible to get back to Alchemilla Hospital. She comes to the tavern door to find it open, she pokes her head in slightly and looks inside. The interior of the tavern is dusty and kinda life-less. She decides to go in cautiously with her handgun gripped tightly in both hands. As she walks inside and takes a number of looks around, her mind flashbacks to the times she used to go to bars. She, Kate, and Jennifer would go to a bar and just have fun. She and Kate would just hang out and order a few rounds of sake, Jennifer on the other hand, would flirt and get drunk. Most of the time, Kate would drive both of them home, but sometimes Tai would have too.
She can still remember how those losers at the bar would flex their muscles and make up some corny pick up line to try and get into her pants. She'd turn them down most of the time, allowing only a few the chance to date her. Most men she rejected would either call her something along the lines of "Slut" or try again, most of the time they'd grab her ass and try to force her into kissing them. She'd elbow them in the chest and slap them in the face, in which they'd limp back to their pathetic friends. Tai looks around the bar, going through the various cabinets. After going through several cabinets and finding zip, she decides to take a break. She opens a bottle of Sake and takes a long drink.
She enjoys the brisk, ecstasy taste of the sake before putting it down and re-corking it. The nectar of the sake calms her nerves and allows her a few, precious moments of sanity from this insane town. She doesn't know what to do now, all she can think about is Kate. How she failed to protect the one who has protected her so much. How she failed to save her dearest friend when she needed her most. She starts to cry but stops when she remembers the theater. When she awoke, she found a map and on it, Artaud Theater was circled in red. She decides to go to the theater and begins to head out before eying an object on one of the tables. She comes close to the object and discovers a vase, full of tar. Wondering how she could use this, she sits down and tries to solve this problem.
She looks around and sees a bunch of bottles, full of dry whiskey. She walks over to the bottles and tries to figure out how she could use them to her advantage. She could make some Molotov Cocktails if she just had some rags. Tai searches through the drawers of the tavern and after several minutes, finds some rags. At first, she's happy that she's found a new weapon. But her smile quickly fades when she realizes, that she has no form of transportation for them. She tries to figure out a solution to this conundrum. This situation she's in puzzles her. Then she remembers, that a Public record building is near here. She decides to go to the records building, hoping that like the one back in D.C., it has carrying bags. She pours the tar into eight bottles and gathers those eight in her hands. When they are finally in her arms, she runs off through the door, to hopefully find a bag in the Public Records.
After running for about several minutes, she arrives at the building. She carefully puts down the bottles and slowly opens the door. Unlike the Tavern, the Public Records building is clean and tidy, with the only similarity being the darkness that hampers Tai's vision. As she slowly moves inside, she turns on her flashlight to give her a better view. As she moves through the aging records building, she can't help but look through the books. Each book is nothing more than records of births, deaths, etc. Some books are centered on one important event, but usually it's nothing of any real importance. As she looks through the countless records, she can't help but lower her awareness as she reads through the convoluted mess.
As her guard lowers, she allows herself a few moments of relaxation, hoping that nothing bad will happen. She sits down on one of the leather chairs and reads a memo, concerning Alchemilla's staff from a incident in 1980. She is startled to find a familiar name on it.
"Lisa Garland........" whispers Tai as she reads the name aloud
The last name forces her mind to remember John. The man who tried and apparently succeeded in saving her from those demonic nurses. But, what she wants to know, is why did he save her?
What does he get from helping her? What does he desire from her? That has to be it . . . he has to want something . . . most likely sex. Yeah, she bets that he only wants to get into her pants and have his fun. He probably wouldn't even take the time to get her in the mood, he's just a pig, like all other men.
As she stares at the paper, with her fists clenched as the heat of anger fuels her, she fails to notice the increasing smell of burning flesh. As the thought of men in general comes across her mind, she yells
"Bastards!"
Unbeknownst to her, her angry yells have attracted unwanted attention. But she still fails to notice the lingering, overly increasing smell of burnt flesh. As she starts to rip the record into pieces, just to smite John, a crash is heard from the back and it snaps her out of her anger induced rage. She slowly gets up with her handgun cocked and tightly gripped in both of her hands. She slowly walks to the back, with her flashlight on. As she gets to the back, she notices and grimaces at the horrid, overly bearing smell of burnt flesh.
When she finally gets to the back, she is horrified to discover a monster of unspeakable grotesqueness. The monster is sinking its fangs straight into a Dark Desire, ripping the middle arm off and eating it. The monster's very visage causes Tai to go into shakes and triggers her mind into a traumatic flashback. She was 21 when she and Kate went into a Zoo, to look at the cats. Oh how she loved cats. Big Cats, small cats, house cats, wild cats. It matters not to her, because she loves all felines. But that day was abysmal and will be forever burned into her memory. When she and Kate went over to the big cat's pen, they witnessed a grisly scene. The entire pen was set aflame. All the big cats like the lions, tigers, etc. were running around, screaming in agony as the flames consumed their fur and ate away at their flesh like corrosive acid.
She watched in horror as they all howled with pain and died off, one by one. They're flesh melting, twisting and contorting into new, more painful forms. That is where this monster comes in. It's flesh on its spinal column is clearly visible and charred black along with beginning of the head, the skin on its head has been fused with the remains of its ears, the bottom jaw is purely muscle, the teeth are as sharp as a scythe, the insides of the mouth are fused together in a twisted mess of muscles, melted flesh, and the incinerated tongue, the torso is blob-like mess of melted flesh and muscle, the claws are ever present and are as sharp as the teeth, and the tail is missing.
She shrieks a bit at this sight, but the creature doesn't seem to notice. She breathes a little sigh of relief but is stopped as she hears it, sniffing the air. Because of its destroyed ears, its senses have been increased twin-fold. It looks at its prey with hunger and anticipation of a new, less corrupted meal. Tai slowly backs up before rolling to the side, as the Melted Feral lunges at her. She crawls under a table and tries to hide, but the monster jumps on top of the desk and roars at Tai. She tips the table over with her strength and causes the Melted Feral to fall along with the table. She then runs over to the chair she was sitting in and moves it aside.
She takes one look as she hides behind the leather chair, in which she sees the fell creature lunge at her. It lands on the seat and in a moment of complete panic and adrenaline, she takes out the cleavers inside her pants pocket and impales them right into the monster's head, killing it. But she is not satisfied and tips over the chair, she then grabs a printer and throws it on top of the corpses head, making sure to kill the beast.
She breathes heavily, cursing and crying a bit, still gripped tightly in the embrace of terror. She remains still for several minutes before quickly jumping over the table and going over to the back. She sees where the Melted Feral came from, as she spots the broken bars. She goes inside the room to find it nearly empty, except for one item: a Steel Pipe. She slowly goes over to it, examines it, and quickly grabs it. She runs out of the Records Building and straight to the only building on her mind: Artaud Theater.