Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 21
By John Priest (Efrit, Drake, Noctros, etc)
*John's Story*
As he turns the corner of the cube-shaped room, he scans the surrounding area. He quickly locates Nalia, who is happily playing in the snow. He smiles slightly, finding Nalia's child-like joy, derived from such a simple thing like snow, to be cute. Deciding to not interrupt her brief situation of serenity, John walks to his left and lay's his back on the wall. Several minutes pass as John watch's Nalia enjoys this brief time of tranquility. He knows they should get moving, but he also knows that this may be one of the only moments that they'll have that'll be this peaceful. Nalia meanwhile, is laughing in joy as she clumps together some snow and throws it in the air, letting it fall onto her head and touch her with its cold fingers.
This peaceful time lasts for twenty more minutes, in which it is abruptly interrupted by a crash coming from the shack in the school playgrounds. Both John and Nalia instantly take notice, turning their head's to the direction of the disturbance and waiting for something to follow. When nothing appears after several elapsing minutes, John and Nalia turn their heads and look upon each other. John motions for Nalia to come to him, using hand gestures to make sure she gets them and comes to him. She follows as instructed and heads over to him, lightly skipping her way over to him.
"Nalia, I'm sorry to interrupt your playtime, but we need to go" informs John with a clear tone of urgency in his voice.
Nalia smiles a bright countenance, just as she always has, and replies "Hehe, no worries John, I understand." In which she passes John and hum's as she begins to walk through the open door and down the stairs.
John laughs a bit to himself and shakes his head with a smile on his face, as he follows her. As they go down the stairs, they make sure to be careful. They both know that just because there wasn't a monster their before, doesn't mean it will be the same when they come back. Thankfully though, there aren't any monsters awaiting them just as they set foot back onto the second floor.
For a few seconds, they remain in the same spot, unsure on what to do next. They could go to the shack and try to find out what made the disturbance. But, if they did that, they could potentially be walking into a trap. But if they spend too long wandering around in this school, they'd likely become trapped inside this town. John sighs in mild frustration, his mind confused on what to do. One mess up and he could doom not only himself, but Nalia too. He doesn't want to lose her, not after almost losing her like last time. This time....he won't fail, he'll save her. With this focus firmly established inside his mind, he turns to her and smiles, motioning for her to follow, which she so obediently does. Traversing the hallways, they remain on guard. Trying their hardest to remain careful and not stray too far into carelessness.
Oddly, as they tread their way through the eastern wing of the second level, the air begins to become stuffy. Hampering their passageways, they are forced to breathe even harder as they to the stairs and proceed down them to the east side of the first level. They manage to get through the stairs without an altercation occurring. They step onto the floor gently, hoping to not alert any monsters near by. The air inside the school, has only gotten worse. It's gotten extremely humid, bordering un-breathable. As a result, both John and Nalia have had to try harder to get adequate breathes. John's beginning to suspect that these slowly worsening conditions, are a result of the town's manipulation, possibly trying to nudge them to explore the shack outside, from which, came an ostentatious noise. .
John stops for a moment, deciding to rest momentarily and hopefully cool down. Nalia follows his example and sits down on the floor, letting out a breath of air just as the hem of her coat touches upon the wall behind her. As he does this, John finds a lonely bench across an open classroom door and sits on the once deserted bench, momentarily giving it an accompanying presence. As he sits on top of the wooden bench, which in itself, is blatantly plain and uninspiring, yet simply comforting for some who seek rest from the ache of their tired limbs. John adjusts his position on top of the wooden bench, so that his moments of relaxation, won't be interrupted by some sort of physical disturbance from the bench itself.
After finding a good spot, he adjusts his large body frame and fits it well, allowing his back to have some support along with his lower extremities to remain uninterrupted in their feelings of comfort. As he sits there, pondering on what to do next, he looks into the vacant classroom across from him. He sees a multitude of empty desks, some turned over while others in the correct position.
He sighs, muttering "School..." to himself as he closes his eyes.
Unluckily for him, this isn't the best thing to do. He starts to remember his school days, more specifically, his high school days.
It was a cloudy day, in the middle of October. Inside literature class, he was trying to study for an exam. As such, he was minding his own business as the people around him were talking about un-related matters and such. The teacher had to go out for sometime, likely going to deal with some matter un-related to class. So, while she was gone, the class was un-attended. Now, this would've been a regular thing if the class John was in, was behaved and respectful. But, they weren't, with a majority of class being obnoxious at times. They all got good grades, with only a couple kids failing, but most were in the low B area. John himself was in the high A grade average, being keen and smart in literature.
As such, he was sort of a special target for those of lower intelligence, mostly the jocks and preps. During that day, he was picked on as he was trying to study. Being called the Jolly Green Giant since he wore a green sweater that day and of course, with his abnormal height of 6'5. He mostly ignored them, but when his own flesh and blood, his own kin, his sister began to fuel the flames, it started to get him.
"Hey vege-chest, nice leaf's ya'h got there!" remarked one imbecile
"Hey Johnny Appleseed, why don't'cha go play with the trees outside?" remarked his own sister.
He hated how she'd help them make fun of her. Especially when she used his love of nature against him. In the end, he'd get hurt and end up moody for the rest of the day.
Sometimes, he'd wish as he lay on his bed, that he'd been born an only child or perhaps not born at all. But, in the end, it didn't matter how much he wished, it wouldn't change the reality he's been born into.
As John is remembering these memories, Nalia is humming to herself, blissfully unaware of what is occurring between John and his mind. Before he can manage to come out of his memory induced trance, Nalia looks at him and begins to talk, but quickly stops as she sees how he's positioned and barely moving. She carefully get's up and walks over to him, scared that something might be wrong with him.
She slowly reaches out to John's shoulder and lightly shakes him, saying "J-john...are you ok?" very timidly, her voice full of crystal clear dread.
John opens his eyes rather quickly, shaking his head afterwards and groaning a bit as he looks beside him and sees Nalia, who's eyes are nearly filled with tears as her lips begin to tremble with fear.
John is surprised by this and is quick to ask "Nalia? What's wrong?" in a concerned tone.
She doesn't answer, instead she quickly hugs John, who's eyes widen in surprise as she embraces him.
"*sobs* J-john...I'm so glad your okay" answers a tearful Nalia.
John can only pat her on the back, confused with what is happening. She must be easily scared if she had become terrified from John merely closing his eyes for a couple minutes. Then again, he's been told that he almost looks dead when he does sleep, so maybe that's why. Whatever the case, he feel's obligated to try and elevate her feelings.
"It's okay Nalia, I was just remembering something" explains John
John then get's out of her embrace and places his hands on her shoulders "Listen, I'm sorry if I worried, I just had something on my mind, I'm ok now, I promise" assures a gentle sounding John.
Nalia wipes her eyes and smiles at John, replying "O-ok *sniff*" Nalia as she smiles, in which John replies "Good, now let's get out of this place, it's starting to make me sweat" replies John, in which John stands up and with Nalia in hand, heads towards the northern end of the hallway.