Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 19
By John Priest (Noctros, Efrit, Drake, etc)
*John's story*
As John walks through the stuffy, poorly maintained hallway, he can't help but get lost in the uninhibited melody, echoing throughout the hallways like the scream of a banshee, yet unaffected by its distance from John's eardrums, as if he was right next to a performing pianist. Step by step, John gets closer to the music room and hopefully, to the source of the noise disturbance. His allergies begin to flare up once more, causing him to cough a couple times before managing to get it under control, no doubt caused by the dense layer of dust surrounding him. His skin begins to crawl as he pasts the neighboring doors, swearing that he just saw a door close by itself or some unseen figure lurking in the shadows. Hiding in the walls, lurking throughout this seemingly abandoned school, and constantly playing with his psyche. Shrouded in the dark, their teeth razor sharp, wanting his soul, wishing for his heart, these damned beings know no bounds in their heinous games of torture and psychological dread. In every step he takes, John feels watched and unsafe, constantly on guard in case one of these fell apparitions decide to confront him.
Never the less, John remains ever vigilant in pursuit of his goal: The Music Room. Finally, after what seemed to be an eon of doubt and fear, John arrives at the door leading to the music room, just as the music stops and the atmosphere once again, becomes quiet and unnerving. Carefully and quietly, John grips his emergency hammer in both hands and bursts through the door. Once inside, John is greeted by the shriek of a frightened girl, finding the source to be Nalia. Clearly taken off-guard, John's mouth gapes wide as he stares at the one he thought to be lost. Nalia though, is too shocked by this sudden act to see his own confusion and takes a few breaths before calming herself down and sitting back down onto the piano chair.
"John, please don't ever do that again, I tend to get frightened easily...." trails off Nalia, for she is slightly ashamed at being so cowardly and as such, lowers her head.
John, after several moments of plain shock, finally recovers his senses and comes back to the world of the sane.
"Nalia? Where did you go to? I've been looking everywhere for you" questions John in a concerned tone, making his confusion apparent alongside his curiosity of her well-being.
Upon hearing this, Nalia's face becomes a countenance of bewilderment.
"John? Are you alright?" Questions the concerned, young lass.
Upon hearing this, John's head bob's back a bit out of confusion, what does she mean, is he alright. Of course he's alright, why wouldn't he be?
Baffled by this question, he decides to save it for a later time and replies "Don't get off subject, I was worried Nalia when you just disappeared after I went inside that restroom." Using a mixture of concern and mild frustration as his tone.
Nalia starts to worry about John, showing a clear sign of timidness by use of her body language.
"John....don't you remember telling me to stay in here?" asks a concerned Nalia.
"W-what? No....I don't..." trails off John as he tries too somehow, regain any possible memories he may have blockaded as he went to go and power the generator.
But, no memories come up. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot remember telling Nalia that. In fact, he can't remember seeing Nalia, at all, after the bathroom incident. Confused by these thoughts, he closes his eyes and shakes his head, slowly stopping till e's only rubbing the temples of his head. These thoughts, these perplexing questions cause him to get a headache. This headache is further worsened by his mind, flashing back and forth, trying to piece fact from fiction. He shakes his head once more, this time establishing it clearly in his head, that this is just a delusion....some trickery illustrated by this accursed town. Unluckily, its illusion accomplishes something: it causes John....to remember....
Several, perplexing moments pass. Nalia begins to constantly ask if John is alright, but he doesn't hear her. All he hears, are the memories of old. Children playing their instruments, all of them laughing happily and in union as their teacher plays them a new melody. All, but one, one unknown figure sitting with its arms around its legs. A boy, one of light hair yet darkened aura. Sitting there, with an expression of loneliness being the most unique thing about him. Neither his classmates nor his teacher see it though, lost in their deluded attitudes of joy, unaware of the impending stress that awaits them all in high school. But for now, in the grade of the 8th, they merely enjoy their time together as friends, so that it won't always be so bad when they are enemies. The little boy knows none of this happiness, plagued with thoughts of depression and wishes of acceptance, when he knows deep down, that they'll never truly accept him. He never wished to be so....unique, so....uncommon. Instead of being a regular boy, concerned only with jokes and girls, he is of an uncommon brand. So imaginative, yet so innocent, all he wished to do was express himself and show that he's a good boy. But, none of them would give him A chance...
John's eyes begin to water up, as his face continues to be stuck into the trance his psyche forced, upon his unwilling mind. Nalia sees these tears and desperately tries to snap him out of the illusion he's experiencing. She shakes and shakes him, saying words of kindness and gentleness, hoping that one of those words, may cause him to be happy again. This charade of sorrow would've continued, had it not been for the sudden crash of something above them, snapping John out of his delusion and catching Nalia's attention as well.
"What was that?" Mutters John, forcing out his first word since the incident began inside his mind.
"I don't know...." trails off Nalia, who quickly realizes John is back and hugs him.
"Oh! John!, What happened to you? Why did you cry?" Speaks Nalia as she looks up at him with tears beginning to swell into her eyes.
John sees these tears and quickly wipes them away with his fingers and a gentle smile, along with answering her "Just...bad memories...that's all...it's nothing...." assures John as he kindly smiles at her.
She smiles back, hugging a bit more before letting go and saying "Should we go check out the roof?"
"Yeah, who knows what may have happened up there" responds John, in which they smile at each other once more, before gathering their things and heading out.
Once out of music room and near the stair case, which leads to the roof, their minds begin to go back to an eased state of calm. They haven't said many words to each other, but they both know that its best to not talk now. Once they arrive at the exit to the roof, John checks the knob and finds that it has rusted over. John curses inside his mind at their luck, with Nalia letting out a small sigh, signaling both of their displeasure of the situation at hand.
But, seeing that the door is made out of flimsy metal, John grabs his emergency hammer in both hands and says "Get back, I'll break down the door" as he raises it above his head and waits for her to get out of possible range.
Complying with his command, Nalia moves aside as John looks at her. Once she is out of the way, he swings the hammer hard, nearly destroying the very knob he's aiming at and accomplishing his purpose. He gives Nalia a little smirk, who responds in a childish grin of joy as he pushes the door open with his massive hand and motions for her to go first, because to him, chivalry is not dead, not yet anyway.
On the outside, the sky has taken a grey color, signaling the coming of night. For some reason, the very thought of a night in this town, gives John goose bumps. He can barely stand it in the daytime, so it's no real surprise that the thought of night here, would leave him wary and at unease. He thinks these thoughts as the crisp breeze, sways across his face, accompanied by snow and a semi-dense fog. He looks around to check on Nalia, who stares wondrously at the semi-awing sight of snow. Catching a few flakes on her tongue, causing her to grin with joy and John to smirk and shake his head in amusement. Knowing that they something may have happened up here, John leaves her to her play time and goes behind the roof entrance to check the western end of the school. Nothing strange, oddly. He lays his back onto the wall he presumes is behind him, but his back instead, feels the horrid feeling of bone and flesh.
In which, John looks behind him and steps back instantly. He is shocked to find the semi-mummified, semi-mutilated remains of some sort of humanoid figure. It's eyes still fleshy, carrying a vacant yet disturbing stare. John, becoming slowly desensitized to such grisly sights, manages to hold the contents of his stomach, inside his stomach as he inspects the corpse. It's stomach cut open, partially frozen yet still oddly damp with few juices aligned inside it. It's intestines spread to four different corners, looking like dried jerky to the inspecting individual. Bone is somehow fused together with its upper torso segments, looking like some confusing configuration of bone and ice. John backs away from the figure, looking behind him to gain some fresh air and then continuing with his inspection. When he looks beneath the scrotum area, he sees some sort of obstruction, sticking out of the backside of the being. With hesitation, he grips the obstruction and quickly slides it out of the icy flesh it was encased in.
Once the object is out of the creature, John catches his breath before standing up and seeing what he just gained. To his surprise, it is a sword. Various markings ordain the slick, flame-like sword. No obtrusion's, no rust, just confusing symbols on it and a hilt that look's like it was made with the sword in whole. That's when it hits him. The melody on the piano notes, "To gain the flame, you must listen to their pain". This is the Sword of The Pure Flame. He briefly grins at his luck of find the blade, but his eyes meet those of the corpse and his grin quickly dissipates. With The Pure Flame in hand, he stands up and strolls off to find Nalia and hopefully continue their adventure.