Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 14
By John Priest (Noctros, Efrit, Drake, etc)
*Tai's Story*
Tai comes to the aging edifice after exiting and running from the Records building. The building stand's whole and complete, facing the future steadfast like a boulder in the river of time. From where she's standing, Tai can vaguely point out a thin ray of light, coming forth from inside the theater and through an opening in its doors. She slowly, yet carefully goes near the door and peeks her head through the door. Inside the theater, is a bright display of lights and imagery. She walks into the grand lobby, showing a faint smile, signaling that the intended effect has occurred. She reads the sign above the entrance to the Auditorium: Swan Lake. A famous ballet, telling the tragic romance of a prince and his love for a swan princess. She has had a history with ballet, first starting in her teen years. It was pretty good, since this was before that man came into her life, she was generally happy yet still a loner. She remembers one of her dearest friends from this era in time, Lillian. Lillian was one of those rare fellows, a nice and caring individual. Someone who'd put her very soul at risk, just to help one person. Tai remembers how, that whenever she missed up on things like splits or twirls, Lillian would be there to offer her help.
But . . . those kinds thought's are quickly dashed away, like the office supplies on top a anger management worker's desk. From the darkest recesses of her mind, come memories that she had long since shunned, those of one corrupt person. A damned living demon who served as the polar opposite of the angelic Lillian, her twin sister Sara. Sara was a seemingly nice person at first, almost like her sister, except a bit crueler. At first, Tai could ignore this at first, but slowly she saw Sara for whom she really was. A living, self-destructing bomb, that would consume all life and happiness, in its cloud of death. While both her sister and she both pursued the same dream, they differentiated in the methods of how they tried to obtain it. While Lillian would be kind and gentle, offering her aid to all who needed it and even going the extra mile to help them, Sara would use intimidation and the ancient art of deceit to get what she wanted. Tai remembers hearing how Sara used her connections to ruin the chances of an aspiring ballerina, she was successful sadly, ending the dream of a poor, innocent girl.
When both Tai and Lillian heard the truth about this incident, they were repulsed by the wickedness of Sara. Tai wanted to fight fire with corrosive acid, but Lillian quickly subdued her friend's want for justice. Lillian, while still an angel, was still a bit naive and as such, thought she could try to get some sort of justification for this act from her twin sister. But alas, things didn't work out like that. When she confronted Sara, her sister just quickly turned the confrontation into an argument about trust, trying to imply that Lillian should be more trusting of her darling sister. Lillian, being the sweet girl she was, quickly lost her voice and submitted to her sisters underhanded assault. Tai on the other hand, tried to confront the conniving prima donna. She argued with Sara infront of Sara's supposed friends, which included Tai's friend Jennifer. Jennifer just stood there like a doll, listening to the unending barrage of insults that Sara and her posse threw at Tai. Tai, while a strong lass, crumbled eventually. But, she did it with some small spec of dignity and walked away with a few tears in her eyes. Afterwards, she contemplated about whether she should continue being a ballerina or just quit. She decided to give it a chance, for Lillian's sake. But, as expected, she was constantly harassed by Sara and her posse, who all feigned innocence when confronted by either Lillian or the class instructor. So, even though she was asked to stay by Lillian, she quit and lost contact with Lillian, not even asking Jennifer about her.
The sudden remembrance of these sweet, yet bitter memories, caused Tai's head to go into a rush and so, she sat down on a near by bench. As the memories came to an end, she started to lie on the bench, closing her eyes and trying to relax. She wishes that this hell would end, that she'd close her eyes one time and she'd wake up in the car Kate was driving. Kate . . . how Tai misses her motherly companion. Tears start to form as she remembers her fallen friend. How she wishes she could've saved Kate, but because of the shock of seeing her friend being hurt, her entire body paralyzed itself in fear. She cries a bit, slamming her fist onto the soft pillow beside her. Because of her, Kate died. She could've saved her, she could've ran with her to some sort of safety, yet she failed to do even the simplistic task of fleeing. She continues to submerge herself in her self-loathing until she hears a crash coming from a room near by. She slowly sits up and sits silently as she waits for something to happen. After several minutes of waiting, she get's up and cautiously walks over to the room near the right corner exit.
One their, she notices the door's hinges being broken and the door itself, forced open. She slowly walks into the dark room, making sure to turn on her flash light, even though the light from the lobby would filter into the dark room. Inside, is a mess of shattered glass and turned over racks, with spilled cloaks scattered about the floor. She slowly creeps about the room, like a tiger hunting for her prey. She looks around the room, but from what she can see, there is no clear indication on what was the source of the disturbance she heard. She walks to the far end of the room, slowly approaching some sort of object. Upon getting close, she can tell that it is a piece of paper. When she gets near, she looks all around her to make sure this isn't a trap and when she deems it safe, she quickly picks the paper up and looks at it with the flash light. She shines the light on it to see that it is a map of the entire theater, along with some sort of note, stapled to it. As she goes to take off the note, she hears the door she came through, close. She looks at the door with her flashlight and sees a dark hand slip away from the light. She shines the light to the right to see something she wishes she hadn't. From on top the ceiling, is hanging a Dark Desire. The monster most likely caused the commotion in order to lure Tai in their and ambush her once she was in.
The Dark Desire had clung onto the walls with it's two normal arms, using its third to shut the door. It drops from the ceiling and slowly stands up, walking towards Tai with a snarl coming from its throat. She is momentarily consumed in her own fear, as the familiar image of the beast is focused upon by her eyes. But, after a few moments, she starts to remember her previous thoughts, how she would become stronger. So, she snaps out of her shock and grips her Steel pipe tightly.
She screams "No, NOT AGAIN!!!" In which she lunges forward and swings the pipe at the Dark Desire's head. She misses and is hit in the stomach by the monsters third arm, punching all the breathe from her body and knocking her to the side. She lies on the floor for a minute, just enough time to let the monster jump and try to land on her. But Tai quickly rolls to the left and dodges her assaulter. She stands up and with the Steel Pipe clenched tightly in both hands, she swings it and caves in the Dark Desire's skull. The dark apparition falls to the floor with a thud, signaling that it has died, but that does not stop Tai. She continues to swing, turning the monster's stiff corpse into a mushy mixture of shattered bone and pulverized flesh.
Tai smashes the pipe into her would-be killer's body over and over, slowly forming a smile as she kills the monster. As she does this, foot steps can be heard coming from behind her, but she doesn't care, instead focusing on the monster. That's when, the door behind her opens up and, acting upon instinct, Tai swings the pipe with all her might. She is surprised when she hears the word "Fuck" and an ensuing metallic clang. She comes back to reality, to see that her pipe has struck a metal bat, wielded by another person. She backs away as she shines the flashlight on the new being, revealing the wielder of the bat to be a Black male.
The man says "What the hell did you do that for?" As he gives her a mixed look of confusion and anger. In which, she only stares back at him as he begins to speak once more.