Silent Hill: The Inner Monster
Page 24
By John Priest (Efrit, Drake, Noctros, etc)

*Tai's story*

There they lay, Tai and Jake, both of them laying face first on top of the organic, frost-bitten floor. The scenery all around them, has taken a drastic change in the motif. Once, where there was dust, now lies a varying amount of ice particles. Where wood and carpet once comforted the feet of people past, now lies an odd mixture of vines and frost. It is clear, that both Tai and Jake, have left the odd sense of reality of Silent Hill, and have been placed inside some sort of frozen alternate.

Tai shivers as she lays' upon the organic/frost mixture. Her skin has absorbed a bit too much of the temperature around her, lowering her internal temperature and causing her to shake constantly. She would've awakened by now, were it not for the nightmare occurring inside her head. There she stands, in the middle of a room, disoriented for a few moments, unsure of why she's here and what she need's to do. The air inside the room is antagonistic; every time she breaths, it stings her small throat. Tai looks around and surveys' her surroundings, noticing a door with a peculiar, crystalline handle.

She hesitates from opening the door, but finally with some courage, she open's it and goes through it, right into a bright light. The light clears and there she is, inside a café with Kate and Jennifer. Their both laughing, Jennifer snorts a bit which just causes even more laughter. Tai smiles, thinking that she's just awoken from a nightmare; that she's finally safe.
"Hey gal's" greets Tai as she smiles at Kate, who oddly, doesn't seem to notice her, instead she just continues to talk with Jennifer, ignorant that Tai's really there.
"Kate?" asks Tai worriedly, wondering if maybe she's done something wrong.
It's of no uses, Kate just continues to ignore her. Tai in response, gets out of her chair and walks over to Kate. She lightly taps on Kate's shoulder, who suddenly goes silent. The Entire room goes silent, everyone looking at Tai with odd, bead-like eyes.

Tai is extremely unnerved by this sudden focus on her, preferring the silence if she could've chosen. That's when, Kate slowly turns her head and faces Tai, Tai's face contorting into an expression of pure, unleaded horror. Kate's face is broken, battered, and bruised; blood flows forth from the open wounds on her face; Her smile entirely ghastly, bearing both broken and chipped teeth.
The ghoul-ish Kate stare's right into Tai, stands up, and hisses "Why'd you let me die Tai?! WHY YOU LET ME DIE?!?!?!" Screeching those last words into Tai's face as it clamps its hands right onto her shoulders.
Tai is breathless, unable to mutter a single word, or even let out a gasp. All around her, the people slowly turn into ghouls, their faces becoming damaged and misshapen.
They all chant "You let her die! You let her die! You let her die!" In union as they slowly descend upon her.

All hope seems lost as they slowly, but surely gang up on her. Just then, a loud bang is heard and the Ghoul-Kate's face, is instantly blown off of its shoulders, it's body collapsing into a twitching heap as it hits' the ground. While Tai doesn't seem the even notice this new change of events, the Ghoul's turn and hiss at someone, who's shadow quickly darts across the room and towards Tai. Her hand is gripped upon by this shadow, who in turn fires upon more of the ghouls. She remains unresponsive, feeling numb all over as her mind replays' those cruel, knife-twisting words "You let her die!".
That's when she hears "Tai! Wake up!" And feels a sort of pain in her neck, which has resulted from the figure shaking her. That's when she snaps out of her delusion and looks up, to find John's face, etched with concern, looking down upon her.

"John..." Mutter's Tai as she glances upon his face.
John flashes a little smile before returning to his usual serious countenance. He grabs her hand and shouts "Come on!" As he drags her out of the café and away from the hideous ghouls. They run for what seems like miles, their stamina seemingly unlimited, yet surely draining somehow. The shrieks and moans of the ghoul's seem to be ever-present, even as they seem to be distancing themselves from the affronted antagonistic apparitions.
That's when she begins to hear a slowly growing "Tai...Tai...Tai.." Which becomes louder and louder, until both John and Tai charge their way through a door and into another bright light.

She sits up with a instantaneous shock, lifting her torso away from the cold surface of the Otherworld flooring. She's confused by what she sees, everything is covered in ice and strange, plant-like growth. "Tai!" Is heard as she dart's her head around her surroundings, darting it to the left and immediately seeing Jake. Jake's rough face shines a noticeable expression of concern, looking down onto her as she looks back.
"Are you all right Tai? I woke up to you muttering in your sleep." Explains Jake as he lay's his left hand on her right shoulder and listens for a reply.
She stares at him for a bit, before shaking her head a little bit and replying "Y-yeah...just a bad dream..." trailing off at the last word.
"Alright, I'll take your word for it. Now, come on, on your feet" Directs Jake as he slowly lift's Tai up onto her feet.

When she's finally on her feet, Jake lets go of her and she brushes herself off. Shivering a bit, she looks around the room. Pulsating vines lie beneath their feat, covered in a thin veil of frost.
Jake pokes the floor with his bat, remarking "What the hell happened?" As the vines react.
Tai would reply, but she's just as stumped as he is. The last thing she remembers, is hearing some sort of loud, ear-splitting siren.
Hesitating for a bit, she swallows her fear for a moment, "Let's get out of here, try to figure out where we are", Jake replying "Alright, lead the way".
She does so, her lead pipe gripped tightly in her hands. She put aside her pistol, placing it inside her right pocket as they went towards the door. Once at the door, she uses her left hand to take hold of the frozen handle. She looks at Jake momentarily for a bit, still unsure. But his nod of acknowledgment, gives her some boost in courage.

She rams the door with her shoulder, causing it to fling forward; remnants of the ice that was coating the door frame, flying into the air and landing upon the floor. Outside, the hallways are covered in even more ice. Crystalline obstructions decorate it. Icicles align the top of the hallway, putting forth an omnipresent sense of danger into the atmosphere. If one of the icicles should be pointed in any sense and fell on top of someone, they could potentially pierce the skin. Since they aren't too high, they couldn't do too much damage, but they'd still wound someone should they fall upon them. The sides of the hallways on the other hand, vary in design. Some are simplistic, no bumps at all and such. On the other hand, patches of ice contain bumps, holes, and many other forms of obtrusion's.

Tai looks to her left and finds out, that the entire western hallway, has collapsed and disappeared into a deep, black abyss. The door's to the rooms to her left, have either dropped into the abyss as well or are hanging off of the frames by an inch. Ice formations protruding from the rooms, spilling out into the empty holes. Knowing that this route isn't accessible anymore, Tai looks to her right and start's walking, having already made certain that the floor is still there. As they pass the storage room, they see that it is heavily entombed in ice. So, that cut's off another potential route. So, Tai decides to go inside the Director's Office, which is strangely, yet luckily, wide open. Inside, it is a sort of chilling scene. The scene laid out in front of both Tai and Jake, is ghastly. The roof in the northern side of the room has collapsed, apparently on something as an odd odor is emanating from the wreckage. With nothing to do at the moment, they stop to consult each other.