Title: Drag Them Into Hell
Author: HousethatJackBuilt
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Swearing, violence, gore, horror, slight slash *SPOILERS FOR SH5 AND SH2!*
Chapter Warnings: Strong language, violence.
Pairing: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Silent Hill or any of its characters or creations. All credit goes to the makers. I am not making any money off this story.
Author's Note: Hey everyone, I am SO sorry for the huge delay in this and for making you all wait! This is indeed the final chapter although I'm posting it in two parts and here is part one! Part two will be coming soon I promise, and will be posted as chapter 14. I am halfway through this final chapter now but I didn't want to make you all wait, I wanted to give you something to keep you going so here it is. Plus it's pretty long already so it's better in two parts. Again I thank you all so much for continuing to read and review it, it really is appreciated and I'm sorry I had to make you all wait so long. Final author's note will be in part two so I hope you enjoy this one, I hope it was worth the wait!
Summary: It's been five months since Alex Shepherd left Silent Hill and he is trying to rebuild his life. Things are going well until children start to go missing from his hometown and he hears voices calling him back to Silent Hill. James Sunderland is still in Silent Hill, continuously being tormented. His spirit is faltering and he is growing weaker by the day, considering suicide daily. Pyramid Head won't allow James to leave and wants Alex to come home. You cannot escape who you are.
So do not cry aloud at night, stay hidden in your bed...
Or the Bogeyman from Silent Hill will come chop off your head.
Part I
And down Alex went, deeper and deeper into the unknown and into the darkness. This final hole wasn't as deep as the other ones and he landed on his feet and managed to stay on them with minimum difficulty. The ground shuddered beneath him and Alex had a sickening feeling that it was going to crumble and give way, plunging him down another drop, only this time to his death. But after taking in his surroundings he realised that the cause for this unstable ground was because it wasn't ground at all, he was standing in a very old and rusting elevator.
He could see the rather narrow shaft he was suspended in through the decaying and crumbling prison like bars that served for the walls of the elevator. And that's when he realised, if there were bars in place of walls, where the hell where the buttons to control the thing? He looked around on all four sides of him but could find nothing to control the movement of the elevator. How the hell did people get up and down in this thing? Alex wondered, trying to shove away the niggling thought in the back of his mind that if there was no way to control the elevator, there may be no way to get out of it. The thought of being suspended god knew how many feet up in the air in a cage-like coffin make Alex feel nauseous and he began to break out in a sweat, trying to force himself to think logically.
Maybe the control buttons were at the top and bottom of where the elevator stopped and had to be pressed before you got into it. That thought made Alex sweat even more because if that was the case, it was pretty much a done deal that he was stuck. There was no way he could climb back up the shaft, despite the drop not being as large as the others. So the only other way to go was down. And how else could he get the elevator to go down besides from pressing the buttons? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, praying to whoever was listening that the distance to the bottom wasn't as significant as he was imagining and dreading in his mind. He swallowed that dread and began to jump, putting all of his weight into his feet, as if he really did want the floor to crumble and give way this time.
The elevator began to groan and shake. Alex kept jumping, trying not to think about how insane and dangerous this was. But he'd come this far, he'd taken countless jumps before this one not knowing what was at the bottom. He just hoped that the luck he'd had with those risks would hold out for this one too. The noise of his feet hitting the floor was deafening in the narrow shaft and the sound travelled downwards and reverberated back up towards the top. Come on you bastard, move, move! And with one final mighty jump and a loud snapping noise, the elevator did just that. But it didn't just move, it plummeted.
Alex barely had time to brace himself, it all happened so fast. His stomach dropped as the elevator began to fall. The metal bars screamed against the shaft and sparks began to fly as they picked up speed. He managed to get himself down on all fours to distribute his weight evenly should the distance be as long as he was dreading and with all of his strength he forced himself to stay in the middle of the elevator. If he were to stumble or fall and touch the sides, whatever part of him that made contact with those deadly rusty bars that were biting into the shaft walls with their spark like claws, would surely be ripped clean off.
After what felt like an eternity, the elevator finally hit the bottom of the shaft with such a bone rattling force that Alex's breath was knocked clean out of him. The strength of the impact propelled him upwards a few feet into the air and he landed hard on the ground, certain he'd done some serious damage to his kneecaps. He rolled over onto his side trying to catch his breath and waiting for the ringing in his ears to subside. He sat up carefully inspecting himself and his weapons.
Both his handgun and the assault rifle were intact, as were his flashlight and radio, which he had expected one or both to have smashed in the fall. He was on all fours when the elevator landed so his wrists were throbbing but he knew that would subside, it was his knees that had took most of the impact. He bent his left leg gingerly and felt a twinge but he knew it was nothing serious. When Alex bent his right leg however, pain shot through his knee like a bullet and it was all he could do not to scream out in agony. He slowly lifted up his trouser leg which had been torn open at the knee and his heart sank when he saw the full extent of his injury. At least one layer of skin had been scraped off his knee and it was bleeding rather heavily, and there was severe bruising and swelling around the injured area, causing a throbbing pain to join the stabbing pain that was caused by the tear.
He knew he had to stop the bleeding so he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a roll of bandages he had taken with him from Annie's Bar, just before his encounter with James and the chilling message he'd left on the door for him. He pushed that thought out of his mind and focussed on the task at hand. He dressed his wound up as best he could which was agony in itself and after about five exhausting minutes, he managed to get himself on to his feet. Just the effort and pain of getting up made Alex dizzy and short of breath so he had to take a moment to steady himself. He got himself out of the shaft through a set of doors and found himself in a short corridor with a single door at the end. Was that the entrance to the labyrinth?
He began to slowly limp towards the door with his handgun at the ready and found that even putting the slightest bit of weight on his bad leg sent a flare of pain shooting right through his body. This was going to slow him down tremendously and this made Alex irritated beyond belief. He couldn't afford to be slowed down now! Not at such a crucial moment, not with James and Pyramid Head stalking him. He gritted his teeth together and tested how much weight he could actually take without feeling like he was going to pass out. It wasn't a great deal but now he knew how much his knee could handle should he need to get away fast. He made sure his radio and his flashlight were both on. He made sure his gun was fully loaded and armed. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to focus as best he could.
He opened the door and stepped into the labyrinth.
XXX
Alex didn't know what to expect when he stepped into the labyrinth, the place where the red demon dwelled. The word labyrinth conjured up an image in his mind of a rat in a maze full of sterile white walls, being observed and monitored whilst trying to find the treat at the other end. This was quite the opposite and surprisingly normal, which, in a place like this, made it even more bizarre. The corridor he was standing in was quite narrow, barely wide enough to fit two people in standing side by side. The walls were covered with what used to be white wallpaper, but now turned grey by the thick layers of dirt and grime covering it. The paper was peeling and torn in various places. The floor was wooden and again, smeared with filth and dirty footprints that Alex didn't know, and didn't want to know, what they belonged to.
He knew that neither pictures nor any sign of a human touch would be gracing these twisting and turning corridors any time soon, that everything would continue to look exactly the same as the last corridor so he was going to have to be very careful not to get completely lost.
With his flashlight illuminating the way before him, it wasn't long before static began to seep out of his radio and he encountered a Patient Demon stalking the hallways, looking for a victim to burn alive with its deadly acid. Alex took aim and shot it point blank in the head. He gave it a good kick when it was down just to make sure it was really dead. It was and he continued on, trying to commit to memory which way he had came.
He didn't have any idea of which way he was going and hoped he wouldn't have to go through too many doors and down too many corridors to find Toby and William, if they were even still alive. He hoped against all hope that they were. He thought of Bill and Iris and Toby's mother, what they would all be going through, how much the pain would intensify and the dread would continue to grow with each passing day of their children not being found. He wondered if anybody had noticed that Alex himself had gone missing.
He'd been gone for around three days now, almost four if he was going to make it to see morning. He remembered how James had told him that he'd found him in the asylum where Fox had taken him because he'd overheard Officer Stanton on his radio, telling his men to follow him to Alex's position, just before he'd nearly strangled the life out of him. The police must have known that Dr Fox had taken Alex against his will, and they would have gotten to the asylum after James no doubt, too late to find Alex but not too late to find Fox and his men and whoever else they were torturing in there hopefully. If that was the case and Fox had been arrested, would he tell the police about why he had taken Alex? Alex felt sick at the thought. If the insane doctor talked, he would reveal everything about Alex's past that he had tried to keep hidden. And the worst thing of all, he might even tell the police about Silent Hill.
Alex had gone missing the day after William had, if the police uncovered his past from Fox and even Silent Hill, the police might get the wrong idea. They could think that I have taken those kids and disappeared. Alex's mind began to work overtime. If he did manage to find Toby and William and go one step further and actually get them back to Oakley alive, how was he going to explain where he'd found them in the first place? Stanton and the police where a lot less likely to believe that a demon carrying a great knife and a pyramid in place of a head had taken them than Alex himself, a man with a tragic past and quite a lot of secrets. He shook his head and tried to focus. He couldn't think about that now, he couldn't think that far ahead. He needed to find the kids and get the hell out; he'd have to think about the consequences later.
He came to an intersection that ran both left and right, and at the end of each corridor was a ladder leading down. He decided to go left and he peered precariously over the edge. The drop was a few feet at best and Alex could see the bottom. It looked very similar to the hallways he was standing in now; only instead of peeling wallpaper covering the walls it was grey, dried cement. He put his gun in the back of his waistband and made his way cautiously down the ladder. He winced as his knee flared up and he was out of breath from the pain by the time he reached the bottom. He saw that a few feet in front of him the solid floor gave way from being covered in wood to rusting metal grating. He just hoped it would hold his weight.
Alex headed left and stepped on to the grating and as soon as he did so, static began to hiss from his radio. He held out his gun in front of him expecting to be ambushed at any moment by a Patient Demon or something far worse but there was not a creature to be seen. Static still began to hiss softly and he let out a yelp of surprise when he heard a loud bang beneath him and the metal grating began to shake. Alex looked down sharply and was horrified to see something hanging on to the underside of the grating and was following his every step, swinging from limb to limb like some twisted game on the monkey bars. He couldn't fully see what the creature was, it was obscured by the darkness but he didn't stick around to find out. He limped as fast as he could around the corner, and made a sharp left, relieved to find himself on wooden flooring once again.
The thing that was following him swung away and the static faded along with the creature. Alex found himself in a short corridor with a door at the end. He began to limp towards it but stopped dead when he heard a faint whimpering. Alex listened intently, not daring to move or even breathe. Did he just imagine what sounded like a child crying? He strained to hear into the ever stretching silence and after a few seconds he heard it again, more loudly this time. It was definitely a child sobbing. Could it be Toby or William? Or could it be James or Pyramid Head playing a cruel joke on him? Baiting him to come running right into some sort of trap they had laid out for him?
He moved along as silently as he could towards the door and the crying got louder. It was coming from the other side. Alex's heart began to pound and he dared himself just a glimmer of hope. The thing he was dreading the most was finding one or both of the kid's lifeless bodies or not finding them at all. If they were alive, if he could save just one of them, then all of this will have been for something. He tightened his finger on the trigger, knowing that if one or both of the kids were in there, anything else could be too.
He approached the door and took hold of the metal handle, keeping his gun steady in his other hand. He began to turn the handle downwards, praying the door wasn't locked but stopped when he heard a terrified voice from within whimpering, a voice that no doubt belonged to a child.
"No, please, go away! I promise I'll be good this time, just leave me alone!" The child began to sob uncontrollably and Alex took a chance. He wrenched the handle downwards and flew into the room, his gun aimed out steady in front of him.
He cursed the change in light conditions and tried to adjust his eyes as quickly as he could, expecting a knife or a claw to try and rip his head off at any moment. Nothing came to attack him however but the sight he saw before him was far worse than what he was expecting.
He was in a small room that he knew must be where Pyramid Head spent most of his time. A metal fan hung from the ceiling and made a soft whirring sound overhead as it spun. To Alex's right on a small table that was stained with blood laid all sorts of metal medical instruments which were also stained with the substance and the thing that indicated this was in fact Pyramid Head's quarters, the great knife was also lying on the table next to them. Did the bastard have more than one of these things? Or was he roaming the streets with some other deadly weapon now? He didn't even consider taking it for a weapon for himself, he probably wouldn't be able to lift the thing let alone use it.
The walls and floor were also covered in blood but the thing that disturbed Alex most about this macabre sight was what he saw when he looked above him.
Hanging from the ceiling in metal cages which looked to be made from bed frames, were dead bodies. They were hanging from their feet and were so decomposed, it was all Alex could do not to throw up on the spot from the overwhelming stench they produced. He didn't even want to think about how long they had been there for. Their skin was so rotten and haggard that Alex couldn't tell whether they had been male or female. But the thing that disturbed him most about the poor people, who would never return home to their loved ones, was the fact that they had been sliced open on multiple parts of their mutilated bodies and had been stitched back together again. What the hell did Pyramid Head do to them? He just hoped to god that the sadistic operation took place after the victims were dead, but he didn't have much confidence in that possibility.
He was brought back to reality when he heard a terrified whimper behind him and remembered why he'd burst into the room in the first place. Sitting in a corner of the room, hugging his knees and trembling uncontrollably was a little boy. He had sandy coloured hair and was wearing a ripped yellow t-shirt, blue shorts and Alex noticed he only had one shoe on. It was Toby Griffiths. Alex felt an overwhelming sense of relief sweep over him, he had found him alive! He didn't seem to be damaged physically from what Alex could tell, although whether his psychological state was still completely sound was yet to be discovered. But he was alive, and Alex felt an even stronger desire to get out of Silent Hill, so strong it was almost suffocating. But one thought kept pushing at him, where was William?
He put his gun away and knelt down in front of Toby, gritting his teeth hard against the pain in his knee. Toby shied away even more and squeezed his eyes shut. Alex felt a deep pang of sympathy and something else, guilt maybe? Yes, guilt. Toby would have never been taken if Pyramid Head didn't want Alex back in Silent Hill for whatever reason. But he knew he wasn't responsible, it was that monster that was to blame, but he still felt like shit anyway just looking at the poor kid who had probably seen the most unimaginable horrors kids his age should only have nightmares about. He knew he had to be gentle.
"Toby," Alex began in the most soothing tone he could muster. "It's alright Toby; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to take you home."
Toby looked up at him with big blue eyes filled with fear, wanting to believe this stranger with the gun but also fearing to as well.
"Home?" he choked out, in a voice so small and defenceless Alex thought his heart might break.
"Yes, back to Oakley. I live there too, my name is Alex Shepherd. I know who took you Toby and we're going to get out of here. You have to trust me okay?"
"You know who took me? You believe in the bogey man too?"
Alex knew that the bogey man must be Pyramid Head. That Toby had given him this name because the bogey man was every child's worst fear and the red demon embodied everything that every kid imagined about the man who lurked in the shadows. Any other time Alex would have said he didn't believe in the bogey man, but now, he couldn't be more firm in his beliefs.
"Yes I do Toby, he's real isn't he? Did he hurt you?"
Toby began to tremble even more, and shut his eyes tight again, as if trying to block out the images he was seeing in his head.
"N-no, but he – he bought things back here, monsters and he d-did things to them... he," Toby let out a choked sob and covered his ears and Alex knew he was hearing the images as well as seeing them.
Alex felt a blaze of anger flare up inside of him and had an overwhelming desire to murder Pyramid Head, a desire that consumed his fear of the demon completely and just left a fire of rage burning in his stomach. Toby would be mentally scarred for life after seeing the horrific things he'd never be able to un-see. He would never be able to be a child again, he would constantly be haunted by nightmares, by the images Pyramid Head subjected him to in this very room. He'd constantly have to sleep with the light on and would forever be hiding in his bed whilst the other children would play outside carefree and innocent. Pyramid Head had robbed him of all of that and Alex vowed to get Toby back to his mother and Oakley, even if it meant his life.
"It's alright Toby," said Alex, gently taking hold of his hands and taking them away from his ears so he could hear what Alex was telling him. "He's gone now, he won't hurt you anymore."
"He'll back though!" cried the child in a shrill voice that was filled with fear. "He'll be back for me, he's been gone for ages now, and he'll be back soon! I – I wish William was here."
William! Alex had been so caught up in trying to get Toby to communicate that he'd momentarily forgotten about William. If he was here previously, why had he been taken? And by whom?
"William was here with you? I know William well Toby, who took him?"
Toby looked up at Alex and in a hushed voice, as if the walls were listening, he whispered, "The white ghost took him away."
Alex was confused at first. White ghost? He'd seen some terrible beasts in Silent Hill but no ghosts, no spirits or phantoms. That's when he realised and fear gripped his heart with a bruising force. The pale ghostly skin, the silver hair and those pearly white teeth smiling that awful smile of his. James.
James had taken William and Alex was filled with panic and despair. Pyramid Head had not hurt Toby because he'd stuck to his end of the deal; it was Alex he wanted, not the kid. He may be an evil sadistic bastard but he had a calculated calm to him that was terrifying, yet a blessing in Toby's circumstance. But James was reckless and animalistic whose lust for blood would soon devour any rational thinking part of his brain he had left. He could have already killed William in the worst way imaginable, and that thought was too much for Alex to bear that he simply could not make himself believe it. William had to be alive, but if he was, it was only a matter of time before James got bored and did the unthinkable, which left Alex with very little time.
"Where did the white ghost take William Toby?" Alex asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.
"He – he told me where he was going when he dragged William away." Toby closed his eyes trying to remember what James had said. Alex was trying to keep his dwindling patience under control as another minute passed but it was clear Toby wanted to get the words exact. Finally he opened his eyes and spoke.
"If Alex comes for you tell him me and William are waiting for him at mine and Mary's special place. The Lakeview Hotel."
Alex had never been to the Lakeview Hotel but based on the name it must be overlooking the lake, Toluca Lake to be exact and the Historical Society from which he had came to get to the Labyrinth was also near to the lake. He knew he must be close to the hotel but how the hell was he going to get out? He dreaded to think how deep he was underground and there was no way he could retrace his route he'd used to get here, the holes he'd jumped down would see to that. There had to be another way out and Alex had to find it, and fast.
He was distracted by a muffled bang somewhere nearby and realised that at any moment Pyramid Head could come back and then the game would be over. He still had an overwhelming desire to kill the bastard but he had Toby and William to think about right now, and his knee wouldn't help matters should it come to a confrontation. He just needed to put as much distance between himself and the red demon, just enough so he could find William and get Toby away safely.
"Toby we have to leave now," said Alex, struggling to get up on his bad leg but getting up all the same.
Toby looked up at him with terrified eyes. "We can't go out there! There are monsters out there!" he cried.
"Listen Toby, I won't let them hurt you I promise. If we stay here you know he's going to come back. But we can leave now and I can take you back home to your mother, you have to be brave now so you can see her again." Alex held out his hand and Toby stared at it, then at Alex.
"You promise you won't let the bogey man take me? You cross your heart?" he asked.
Alex saw so much of Josh in Toby at that very moment. The innocence, the child like fear that everyone experiences and the fact that he was looking to Alex for protection. Alex couldn't protect Josh, he couldn't save him but he would protect Toby and he would save William, he had to. Alex knew he had to keep his promise, no matter what the cost.
"I cross my heart and hope to die," he said solemnly.
Toby took Alex's hand and got to his feet, his legs shaking but he was holding himself together.
"Now no matter what happens from this point, you always stay right behind me okay? Don't run unless I tell you to, even if there are monsters because I won't let them hurt you. Just stay with me and be brave and we'll get out of this just fine okay?" Alex tried not to doubt his own words, he kept repeating the promise he'd just made over and over in his head.
Toby nodded and Alex took out his handgun and made his way to the door, the kid close behind. He opened the door slowly, convinced Pyramid Head was going to be standing on the other side having just been listening to every single word but the way was clear for now and his radio remained silent.
They made their way to the intersection and Alex turned right, backtracking the way he'd come. Static began to creep out of his radio when they stepped on to the metal grating and the hanging creature was back. Alex realised that they couldn't do any damage as long as they kept moving. Toby made a distressed sound behind him at the sight of the monster but he kept moving too, remembering what Alex had told him. They made their way swiftly around the corner and back on to solid ground, the static fading once more as the creature swung away. Alex looked up at the ladder from which he'd come down and made a decision.
"Toby, I'm just going to climb up and look over the top to see if the coast is clear okay? I'll come back down for you and we can get out of here."
Toby nodded and Alex began to climb slowly, trying to ignore the pain in his knee. He peeked over the top and was relieved to find the corridor from which he'd previously came deserted for the moment. He was about to climb back down when static burst from his radio in a sharp hiss. He looked back over the top at the hallways but it still remained empty. He snapped his head back around to look behind him but those hallways were deserted too. Was the hanging creature back? Was that the cause for the static that was still hissing from his radio? Whatever it was, he didn't want to wait around to meet it. He turned back around and began to climb back down when he heard Toby's cry of terror.
"Alex! Alex hurry!" he screamed.
Alex spun his head around and his blood ran cold when he saw the tip of a pyramid emerging from around the corner. He knew he didn't have a second to lose. He skipped the last few rungs of the ladder and dropped down sending a flare of agony through his knee. He tried his best to ignore it and grabbed Toby by the waist and hoisted him as far up the ladder as he could reach. Toby grabbed on and began to climb.
"Wait for me at the top!" shouted Alex. He didn't want Toby running into a Patient Demon up there without him.
Pyramid Head was at the end of the corridor now and was fixated on Alex. Alex also saw that the weapon he'd chosen to carry instead of his great knife was a long, sharp spear and he was beyond dismayed to realise that without the heavy knife dragging him down he could move a lot faster. The great pyramid on his head still slowed him down somewhat but he was still too fast for Alex's liking. He fired off a few shots at the monsters torso but it barely managed to have an effect, Pyramid Head was advancing quickly. Alex debated about using the rifle but in such close quarters he would only be able to get off a few shots before he was in range of that deadly long spear. He would be skewered before he knew it and then Toby would be left alone to the horrors of this town and William would be left in James's clutches.
Alex put aside his desire to kill Pyramid Head and thought about why he'd come here in the first place. He put his gun away and spun around and began to climb the ladder. He was about halfway up when he felt a pull on his leg, his injured leg and let out a scream of agony when he felt the wound open up on his knee and could feel the bandage being soaked in fresh blood. He felt light headed and dizzy and when he felt the pull on his leg once more, the pain was so blinding that he lost his grip on the ladder and went crashing to the ground. He saw the anguished face of Toby at the top, looking on in despair.
He felt a pull on the lapels of his coat and was hoisted to his feet and slammed into the wall beside him, Pyramid Head's hand around his neck, the other clutching his spear. This is it, Alex thought in despair. He's going to stick that spear right through my heart and those kids will perish. He looked around desperately trying to think of a way out of the situation, trying to still the rapid beating of his heart and think clearly but the pain is his knee was making it hard to focus.
"Clever boy Alex," whispered Pyramid Head in that deadly calm voice of his. "You found him."
The hand around Alex's neck tightened a little more and he struggled to breathe, willing the fuzziness in his head to clear. He couldn't think straight, he needed more time.
"Just tell me... what you want," Alex choked out, his voice raspy and harsh. "I'm here, you – you've got me, now let the kid go."
Pyramid Head leaned in a little closer and ran the tip of his spear down the wound on Alex's cheek that he had gotten in Brookhaven Hospital with his last terrifying encounter of the red demon. The wound reopened and fresh blood began to flow making Alex wince in pain.
"What I want Alex... is for you to stay here with me. For you to become me... to become the darkness." He ran a gloved thumb over the wound, spreading the blood over Alex's cheek.
Alex didn't have a clue what the bastard was talking about. He understood the 'stay with me' part terrifyingly well; it was the 'become me' part that confused him. Did he want to turn Alex into a similar abomination that he had turned James into? Somehow he didn't think so. He chose James for that because he already had the black cloud forming in his mind, the darkness was consuming him so he was the perfect choice. Alex had to admit that his own mind and conscience weren't completely pure. He was not free of guilt or blame, he thought of Josh. Nor was he free of anger and hatred, he thought of his father. But he wasn't like James, he was nothing like him and he'd rather die than become what James had become, roaming the streets of Silent Hill without a soul. Never to return to those he loved.
Alex knew he was running out of time, he had to think of something and quickly. Before Pyramid Head killed him or James got impatient at the Lakeview Hotel and killed William.
"Okay," whispered Alex. "I'll stay with you, but you let the kid go!"
Pyramid Head looked at Toby who was still watching the whole exchange from the top of the ladder, almost in tears at the fact that he was about to be abandoned. For one terrifying moment Alex thought that Pyramid Head was going to throw his spear like a javelin right at Toby and end his life there and then, but the monster turned back to Alex.
"The child can live... I will let him fend for himself... and you will stay with me."
"He won't last five minutes out there by himself! Send him back to the real world and his family!" shouted Alex as loud as the hand around his throat would allow.
Pyramid Head tightened his grip causing black spots to dance in front of Alex's eyes. "You don't make demands Alex... When I'm certain you're not going anywhere I will send him back... Until then, he's on his own... Understand?"
It was the best Alex could hope for. At least Toby would be alive long enough for Alex to come up with a plan on how the hell he was going to get out of this. But he had to think of one soon, preferably in the next two minutes, before Pyramid Head got him back into that blood stained room with the bodies hanging from the ceiling.
"Alright, I understand. I'll come with you... I'll do whatever you want."
Pyramid Head chuckled, "Yes you will Alex... and you can start by going back to the room... I want you to walk backwards, facing me... Hands up."
He released his grip on Alex and he stumbled from the wall, trying his best to walk backwards and not trip over. He had his hands in the air and Pyramid Head walking in front of him, his spear held out ready to be put to use should Alex try anything. Alex could see Toby over Pyramid Head's shoulder, watching helplessly, fear and anger at being left alone in his eyes.
Alex continued his slow pace backwards, his knee paining every step he took. The static in his radio got louder as they both stepped on to the metal grating, the hanging creature back to play monkey bars once again, but as soon as it sensed Pyramid Head, it swung away and the static died again.
Alex sensed they should be nearing the end of the grating soon, that solid wooden floor should be underfoot at any moment. He risked turning his head and looking behind him under the pretence of just checking that he wasn't going to bash into anything or trip over. He was right; he was about two steps away from the wooden floor. He had to get the timing perfect or it would all be over, he would be dead in an instant and so would Toby and William. It was now or never, he only had a tiny window of opportunity and he seized it with everything he had.
He braced himself against the pain that this would cause his knee and acted. He threw himself backwards so fast before Pyramid Head had time to retaliate. He landed on the wooden flooring with a hard thump on his backside, out of range for the moment of the red demon's deadly spear. He saw Pyramid Head begin to register what had happened and could see the monster begin to physically shake with rage at being tricked. This spurred Alex on faster; his fear of what would be done to him should Pyramid Head catch him driving him forward. He wrenched his handgun from the back of his waistband and took aim, knowing that he couldn't afford to miss a single shot.
He shot four times in front of him, not aiming for Pyramid Head at all this time but at the metal grating on the ground. He didn't miss his targets and Pyramid Head knew this. The grating began to shudder and groan, the screws that Alex had just shot at coming loose causing the metal to give way. Pyramid Head gave a huge cry of fury before plummeting into whatever lay below, and when Alex heard the splash he knew it must be water. He was panting heavily and shaking with relief that his plan that he was certain wasn't going to work had just come together.
He dared himself to look over the edge and down below but all he could see was darkness. Would the fall have killed the red demon? Or was he on his feet now, coming back to get Alex with a vengeance? Alex didn't want to stick around to find out. He also knew that he'd opened the only barrier that was protecting him from the hanging creature and he didn't want to wait around to meet that either. He got to his feet and knew he had to find another way back to the ladder where he hoped Toby was still waiting for him.
He followed the corridor round, going past the blood stained room where Pyramid Head dwelled and around another corner. He went past a ladder that he knew wasn't the one he had came down and carried on. The corridor seemed to go around in a complete circle, the red demon's room being in the middle. Finally he came back to the ladder he was looking for but Toby wasn't at the top of it. Alex's stomach dropped and he just hoped to god he hadn't gotten far. He was moving toward the ladder when he heard a cry of fear that he knew must be Toby. He threw himself at the ladder and flew up it, forgetting the pain in his knee and the throbbing in his temples. Forgetting everything but the kid.
He reached the top and saw Toby a few feet in front of him, with a Patient Demon getting ready to shower him with acid. Alex took out his gun and the creature was on the ground with a bullet in its head before Toby even had a chance to turn around. Alex put his gun away and the boy turned to face him.
"You left me," he said, in a voice full of hurt.
"I had to Toby, just for a second or he would have killed us both. I came back though didn't I? I promised I wouldn't let the bogey man get you and I mean it okay?"
"... Is he dead?" asked Toby.
"I don't know. He's gone for now though, so we have to get moving. Come on, remember to stay behind me."
Alex started down the corridors and he felt Toby holding on to the back of his coat, knowing that the kid did believe him about keeping his promise.
He didn't have a clue where he was going. He just knew he needed to get out and to the Lakeview Hotel as quickly as possible. James had called it, "him and Mary's special place." Did that mean that this new monstrous form he had taken on still had memories of the person he used to be? If he could remember his wife, and where they used to go together, was the old James still in there somewhere? Was it possible that he wasn't doomed to the horrific fate of living out his days as a monster roaming the fog filled streets and the pitch black nights? That there was still a chance to save him?
Alex shook his head. He couldn't afford to think like that. He couldn't see James as another person to be saved; he had to see him for what he truly was now which was a monster that would kill and enjoy it. He remembered what he did to the Order member who'd called himself John Wayne back in Dargento Cemetery. How he'd ripped out his throat with his bare teeth and how he'd killed the other Order member in the prison too. But he also remembered how James had tried desperately to pull Alex out of Pyramid Head's clutches at Brookhaven Hospital when he was being dragged into the day room. And he also remembered how James had come to his rescue and had saved him when he could have just left him there at the monster's mercy.
Alex thoughts began to conflict but he forced himself to think of William. The old James was gone now, and he'd made a promise to him that when the inevitable happened and James did give into the darkness that he would kill him. Alex thought of Bill and Iris, suffering for their lost son. He thought of William, terrified and alone.
He would keep his promise to the James that once was. He would find William, and he would kill the monster that James had become. He thought of his brother that he failed to protect. He felt Toby hanging on to his coat behind him, counting on him for so much. He thought of William who just wanted to be home with his family. He began to walk faster, desperately searching for a way out. He thought of Pyramid Head who would be chasing him and James who would be waiting for him.
He was running out of time.