Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 17
By John Priest (Noctros, Efrit, Drake, etc)
*John's Story*
After getting his mind straight, John heads through the door and into the southern hallway. Inside the hallway, all John can see is a thick veil of dust. He comes to a poster, with an announcement regarding a play, but the words have faded and he can't make out any distinguishable features besides the stage. He walks away from the poster, heading straight for the Music Room. As he walks into the Music Room, he gets a strange sense of nausea upon entering the dark, barely lit room. The air in the room, seems to just fill with life as he breathes it in, perhaps livened up by the atmosphere of the accompanying instruments, the center piece, being a grand piano of glorious design. He's always liked pianos, how gentle they sound, almost hauntingly beautiful in their ingenious melodies. He knows that there are countless, heavy songs involving pianos, but he's always preferred the softer sounds. Never one for heavy, or loud music, he's always stuck to his gentle and classic musical taste.
Through all this musical reminiscing, he almost forgets about the lyrics he found inside that bathroom. But, he remembers the crumpled piece of paper as he puts his hands into his pockets and feels the crude, almost sandy feel of the material it's made of. He takes it out of his inner pocket and opens it up, making sure to try and smoothen out it's wrinkles, which would hender any possible interpretations. He places the music lyrics on top of the piano, figuring that by the structure of the lyrics, they'd be piano lyrics. He wishes he could play the lyrics, but he's not exactly the most gifted in the musical talents. He sighs, cursing his luck at being presented with a musical dilemma. That's when, just as his mind is occupied with thoughts of the lyrics, a tuba falls onto the floor and captures his attention, like a fly to a light. He looks past the piano, to see the fallen tuba laying on the floor, with something inside it.
He carefully approaches the tuba, both hands gripped tightly on an accompanying weapon. Once he gets to the tuba, he hits it once with the Emergency Hammer to make sure nothing is inside. He waits a few minutes before deciding on a course of action, putting the Glock into his left pocket and going to his knee's to pick up whatever's in the tuba. He sticks his left hand inside the tuba, feeling around the insides of the tuba. His hand lands on a cold, metallic item. He grabs hold of the item and swiftly pulls his hand out of the tuba. He breathes for a bit before opening his left hand and finding a Screwdriver.
He wonders to himself *What the hell is a screwdriver doing in a tuba?* as his face shifts to reflect the confusion of his mind. That's when he starts to hear laughing behind him and turns his head, seeing nothing but the very darkness that is blanketing him. He shakes his head and looks downwards, attributing the laughter to the confused state of his mind.
But, when he starts to hear the laughing again, along with the footsteps of children, he quickly turns his head to find the door he closed, open and barely shut. He quickly shoots up to his feet and runs towards the door, rushing through it and looking to his right. In which he sees the shadow of some sort of being, run through the locker room door and out of his sight. He hesitates for a bit, wondering if it's some sort of concoction developed by this town to trick him. He nearly ignores it, but pursues the shadow when he hears "John...." coming forth from the locker room, sounding exactly like Nalia.. Inside the locker room, most of the lockers have been visibly forced open, with their locks littering the floor. Slowly, walks across the dirty floor, analyzing the room's lockers for any contents that could aid him in his journey. He walks around the room, looking into the upper lockers, upon which, he see's a slip of paper with the words "Memo" labeled on it. He reaches inside the strangely damp, disgusting locker and pulls out the piece of paper. He places it on top of the lockers, using a discarded, yet dry towel to wipe his hands and arms free of any foreign material that could've clung to his jacket arm.
Once done, he grabs the memo and looks around the room one more time, making sure that he didn't miss anything, or anyone.
He shakes his head and sigh's, thinking *Must be this damn town again . . . * as he walks back around the lockers and through the open door. As he exits the foul-smelling room, he closes the door behind him and breathes in a huge gulp of air, enjoying the cleaner, better air. Once satisfied, he walks over to an accompanying door and opens it, deciding to find a char before he reads the memo. He settles for a lonely bench, moving aside a few papers and opening up the memo, flashing the light onto it and proceeding to read it.
"Memo to All Staff
All children and unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering The Janitor's Shack, outback behind the school playground. Only the janitor and authorized personnel are allowed inside the shack. If any problems occur with the school's equipment, immediately inform the janitor or principal for assistance
That is all for now" The rest of the memo has faded/or been damaged by whatever was inside that locker.
"Hm....what did that note say?" Questions John as he starts searching through his inner pocket and pulls out the note he retrieved from the reception desk.
"When the weapons of Corrupt Ice and Pure fire are placed in opposition, ready to clash, and fueled by the Flames of Hell, only then will the path be brought forth into the open" reads John as he tries to come up with a plan.
That's when his brain suddenly sparks and he gets it: The Boiler. A boiler is a common piece of equipment in old schools like this, with it's most common use being to warm the school during times of dire, unforgiving cold. He figures that the boiler and its "flames" are what will open the path to whatever awaits John at the end. After he figures this out, John takes a few moments to relax, hoping to ease his rattled mind for the stress of this purgatoric hell he's been thrown into. He figures, that once he's done with this task, he'll come back and do some more exploring of the school, maybe find some ammo or a drink, maybe even Nalia.
He stands up, stretching a bit to loosen his muscles up. He eerily begins to hear the sound of children laughing, like as if he was in this school on a normal day. Those noises unnerve him, making his spine tingle with a cold bit of fear. But he moves on, hoping that they will stop. As he gets to the end of the western hallway, the sounds finally relent on their assault upon his psyche. But with the end of one nuisance, comes another. As John nears the door to his left, he starts to hear the shuffling of feet nearby, with a raspy groan accompanying it. He hesitates at the door, waiting for either the beast to come closer or move away. He waits a few moments, before putting his pistol in his left pocket and grabbing his Emergency Hammer with both of his hands. With the hammer gripped firmly, John bursts through the door, ready for a fight. Strangely, there is no monster to fight, just dust and darkness.
He looks around, making sure that no monster is around, but for all he can see, is just another empty room. He lets out a short breathe, happy that he's avoided any fights for now. But, his luck is yet to give him any aid, for a Dark Desire unhinges itself from the wall above John and lunges at him, knocking John onto the floor and giving the monster an advantage. John struggles with the apparition, trying to throw it off of him. The monster repeatedly punches John in the gut with its third arm, knocking his breathe out each time. John struggles with the monster, trying to raise his hammer in order to attack. John's face is lashed multiple times by the creatures tongues, splitting his skin like a scalpel to a body. John grunts in painful acknowledgment of these new wounds. Using his anger, he headbutts the Dark Desire and throws it towards the accompanying window to the right. They both struggle to stand up first, but John has the edge and grips his Emergency Hammer in hand as he charges at the Dark Desire and swings the hammer like a baseball bat. Hitting the Dark Desire hard and causing it to crash through the window and land onto the gated spikes below.
John stares down at the dead, motionless figure, his adrenaline still pumping and ready for more. After a few minutes, his nerves cool down and he regains his stable mind.
"Ugly bastard...." mutters John as turns around and heads towards the western door. Once through, he looks around to make sure no monsters are sneaking up on him, once satisfied he heads down the stair case to his right and back onto the first floor of the school. When he gets onto the first floor, he heads down the accompanying stair case to his left and right into the basement floor. In there, he goes through the eastern door and into the boiler room. As he walks into the room, he turns on his flashlight to illuminate the dark room. He can see the boiler and it's on-switch, but when he presses it, it does not respond. That's when he sees the gas cap on the floor and looks at the fuel deposit, which is empty to his displeasure.
He swipes his hand down his face and closes his eyes, a bit pissed at his rotten luck. But, he then remembers the memo he found in that locker room and how it said to ask the Janitor to fetch supplies from the Shed in the back of Midwich. He leaves the room, deciding to head for the shed and possibly acquire some fuel for the bloody boiler. As he heads up the stairs and through the northern door, he remembers his wounds from the fight earlier. Deciding to heal them before they scar, John takes out a Health Drink and forces himself to drink half of it, which is good enough to heal his facial wounds completely.
"Gahh....when I get out of here, I'm going to get myself a twelve litter of sweet tea" remarks John as the horrid taste of the health drink dwells inside his mouth.
Once done, he goes through the door to his left in the northen hallway of the school's first floor and into the entrance to the school's playground.
John finds the door locked and secured with a rusty lock. Figuring for the lock to be weakened since it's rusted, John grabs his emergency hammer and slams the blunt end of the hammer onto the lock. With visible distortion, the lock begins to give away but requires more force, in which John assaults it once more with a mighty blow. The lock then breaks and falls onto the floor, opening a new path for John and giving him access to the outside world, once more. On the outside, the cool, gentle breeze caresses John's face like a loving mother to her cute infant. John walks through the playground, seeing teeter totters, jungle jims, etc. That's when he sees the shack, alone and surrounded by uncut, wild grass and vegetation. He gets to the shack, opening the door and going inside. Inside, his flashlight is the only source of illumination. But, even with its minor help, John manages to find a gas can.
He shakes it a bit, the can being half-full but still adequate enough to power for a few hours. With it in hand, John exits the aging edifice. Outside, John starts to get a bit antsy. He knows that since he's outside, so are those Screechers. But he gets to the backdoor entrance to the school in time and avoids any unnecessary confrontations. Inside, he runs to the boiler room and charges through several of the doors in his way, but he gets to his destination in time and fills it up with fuel, in which he presses the button and the school is re-supplied with heat and electricity. He lays the can onto the floor and smiles, knowing that one of his tasks in complete. But that's when, he hears the sounds of a piano.