Silent Hill: Reflection
Chapter Three
Elise loved playing by the porch when she was young. She always enjoyed the feeling of the warm afternoon summer breeze licking at her skin. Being a nine year old, Elise loved to sit by the porch, playing with her rag doll while she waited for her dad to return home from his work.
And today was no different.
As she sat by the porch, playing with her doll, she heard the sound of the familiar motor car engine roaring from a distant. Elise happily stood up. Seconds later, the familiar yellow sedan car came into view. Elise smiled and waved. The sedan car slowly drove up into the driveway.
Elise waited patiently at the porch for the driver to come out from the car.
"Elise?" Her mom called out to her from inside the house.
"Mom, daddy is back!" Elise chirped.
With a slam of the car door, Elise's dad walked up the porch, his car key still clinging on his finger.
"Daddy!" Elise called out.
"Sweetheart! How was your day?" Her dad asked, smiling.
"Good!" She replied, grinning.
"Elise, come in right away!" Her mom commanded.
Elise dropped her doll on the floor as she turned her head towards the harsh voice of her mom. Then, she quickly turned to look at her dad. The smile on her dad's face faded. He thought Elise did not noticed, but in fact, she did.
"Go right in, sweetheart. Your mom is calling." Her dad said, patting her head.
Elise nodded sadly. She then turns around and walked into the house, with her dad following after her. As she walked into the house, she could see her mom, folding her arms, standing next to the entrance.
Elise quickly went into her room. As she closed the door behind her, she could hear her parents started their heated arguments again. Elise could not make out what their arguments were about behind the closed door. She was sad to see that her parents were always quarrelling. Elise had no idea what her parents were arguing.
Elise arrives at the house. Standing outside, she finds the house fairly familiar. The exterior of the house was blue. Elise strains at her eyes to garner more details of the house. From where she's standing, she could see that all the window frames are white, complete with matching white curtains within. For as far as she can remember, her parents' house is also blue. The resemblance of the window frames and white curtains to her parents' place was uncanny.
Elise takes a deep breath before making her way up the steps, up the front porch. The rotten wooden steps creaked at every step she takes.
Suddenly, something familiar caught her eyes at the top of the steps. Elise stopped and stares at it from where she is standing. It's impossible. She looks around the place before turning her gaze back at the object now resting on the porch.
Right on the porch is a rag doll. Her rag doll.
Mike reaches the doctor's lounge. He softly pushes the door and steps into the small empty room. The place looked abandoned. Everywhere he looks, there was dust. Mike casually glides at his finger at the thick layer of dust on the top of a nearby rusty cabinet. Damn, it's dusty! To his left is a coffee table with a potted plant and scattered papers. The plant had long withered and the dark coffee stains on the papers indicate that the papers have probably been there for a long time. Where is everyone? To his right, is a row of lockers. Mike walks towards the lockers. All the lockers are locked, except for one. Mike reads at the name on the locker. Doctor Carl Steven. Mike opens the door to Carl Steven's locker. The locker is almost empty except for a doctor's coat by a hanger and a pair of sneakers at the bottom of the locker. Mike remembered from the note he found that Dr Carl Steven had left the key to S12 in his coat. He slowly reaches inside the pocket to find something metallic and fishes it out. Mikes shines at his flashlight on the metallic item in his hand to see a silver key with the label "S12". BINGO!
Holding on to the key, Mike opens the drawer below. There is a set of clothes and a handgun. A handgun? Why would the doctor keep a handgun in his locker? Then, looking at the set of clothes in the locker, Mike realises that he is still in his hospital gown. Placing the bloodied scalpel, key, map and flashlight on a nearby chair, Mike removes the hospital gown and throws it onto the floor. He then grabs the shirt and the pair of jeans, as well as the pair of sneakers from Carl Steven's locker and put it on. Although the clothing seems slightly over-sized, it did not bother Mike. Well, at least it's better than running around in just a hospital gown.
Mike picks up the handgun to find that it is fully loaded. Gotta save on ammunition. He then stuffs the handgun in the back pocket of his jeans. Turning to the chair, he picks up his flashlight and clips it on his shirt. Satisfied, he picks up his remaining stuffs before turning around and walks out of the lounge area, heading back to S12.
Elise bends over to pick up the rag doll. T-that's my rag doll. She looks around the place, as though trying to remember. This is where I used to live when I was younger, with my mom and dad! But, why is it here at Silent hill?
Moving forward, Elise rests her hand on the door handle and pushes the door open. Years of dust and grim greeted her as she walks into the deserted house. Walking in, she conveniently places the rag doll on the side table next to the entrance. Recollections of visions start flashing before her eyes. Her head starts to throb. Elise winced at the throbbing in her head. Taking deep breaths, Elise presses on and walks further into the house.
In the middle of the living area, Elise finds a piece of note on the table.
"Diana, why have you stopped your medical treatment at the Brookhaven Hospital?"
Mom? Treatment? What medical treatment? Elise drops the note back on the table. Who wrote this note? Could it be dad? No. It can't be. Dad had passed away long time ago and it definitely doesn't look like any of his handwriting. She did not know that her mom was suffering from any illness. It has been a long time since she last saw her mom. A wave of confusion gushes over her. Elise suddenly felt cold and weak. She felt her legs turn jelly-soft and she had to grab on to the table to support her from collapsing to the floor.
Just then, she hears a sound coming from the kitchen. Elise slowly makes her way into the kitchen only to find a disgusting stench coming from the fridge. Her heart is throbbing.
Afraid. Afraid of the unknown.
Afraid. Afraid of what she might find in the fridge.
Elise finally plucks up her courage and opens the door to the fridge. A mass of blood and gore greeted her. Elise retched. Oh shit! Almost immediately, she staggered backwards, away from the fridge and gagging at the display before her. Then, at the corner of her eye, Elise saw something. There is something inside the fridge, amidst the blood and gore. Elise covers her nose and mouth with her hand as she reluctantly moves forward. Forcing herself to look into the fridge, she sees an object. It's a mirror!
Elise groaned, as she hesitantly reached into the fridge to take out the mirror. Looking at it in disgust, she sees the words "tRuTh" written in blood on the mirror.
The truth?
Elise quickly puts the mirror down in disgust and looks around the house. What is happening? Everything seems like a nightmare. Silent Hill? What is with this Silent Hill anyway? What has it got to do with me? My nightmares? What happened to mom?
Elise felt lost. There are so many questions, but no answers. Her world had suddenly turned upside down. As she stood there pondering at the unknowns, her fear slowly escalated to anger and frustrations. None of these makes any sense! She kicks at a chair beside her. Frustrated. Frustrated at not knowing what is going on and what she should do. Wait. All these things that's happening… there must be a reason. There must be something… or maybe clues I have to follow. Things I need to do. There must be something I need to do to find the truth of what's happening.
She quickly walks back out into the living area. There's something that is bothering her. Something that she thinks could be the key to what is happening. The note! Elise almost gasped. She walks over and picks up the paper again, silently reading it once more.
Brookhaven Hospital. Somehow, she thinks that she is going to find her answers there.
Mike inserts the silver key into the keyhole. With a click, the door to room S12 unlocks. He steadies his breath before pushing the door open and walks in.
The room looks as if it was abandoned years ago, neglected and left to rot. From where he is standing, Mike can see that there are four beds in the room, two on each side of the walls. The floor tiles are badly stained with dark red liquid and Mike did not even want to know what the hell it is. The lights in the room are not working so it's too dark to see across the room. The smell of age and decay seems to reside in every part of the room.
Mike cautiously walks further into the room holding his scalpel up, half expecting to be jumped by killer nurses, like the one he had encountered earlier.
"Pete?" He calls out. "Pete, are you in here?"
Instantly, Mike felt a cold draft. Mike looks at the windows, but found them tightly shut. What the-? Where is the wind coming from?
Mike shines his flashlight around the dark place, looking around the room. "Pete?" He shouted.
Suddenly, the door to the room slams shut and the room immediately fills with the smell of stale blood. The sudden slamming of the door made Mike jump. Frightened, Mike quickly shines at his flashlight at the surrounding. The sound of the air raid siren blasted in the background as the room begins transforming into a bloody mess. Mike watches in horror as he witnesses everything in the room changes. The walls and floor become non-existent as their surfaces peeled to expose rusty cages, exposing only darkness beyond the bloodied metal cage walls.
Mike staggers backward, in shock. He walks around the room, with his shoes making clanking sounds on the metal surfaces. What the hell just happened? In place of the door to the room now is a metal gate, secured by a padlock. Mike gives a furious tug at the padlock. But the stubborn padlock simply refused to budge. This is just crazy!
Then, he heard something. It sounded familiar. Mike turns around, trying to strain at his hearing to identify the sound. What is it? Suddenly, he stopped. Water! It's the sound of running water. No, wait. Not running water. I-it… it's the sound of squashing water.
Mike looks around, guiding his flashlight all over the place. Then he saw it. Despite all the beds being transformed into mere metal skeleton frame, only one bed remains the same, still complete with pillow, mattress and blanket.
Mike shines his flashlight at the bed, located at the far corner. In the middle of the mattress, is a small red patch. Blood! As he further looks upon the bed, the red patch begins to grow larger, as if blood is being constantly pumped from , the blood soaks the entire mattress. And when the mattress can no longer hold the volume of the blood, it began to drip. The drips soon turn into flow. And then blood seems to be pouring out from the mattress.
What the hell? Mike quickly swings at his flashlight back to the metal gate.
"Hello? Anybody?" Mike shouted, banging his hands at the metal gate. "Help!"
As he screams for help, Mike hears a sound. It's a low growl. He frantically turns around, shining his flashlight back at the bed, with his eyes wide open. At first, there's only the blood bath. Mike squints at his eyes, trying to find the source of the sound. Then, he saw it. From within the mattress, he sees a claw. Slowly, a second claw becomes visible. Then, a creature emerges from within the blood-soaked mattress.
The creature had a bulging torso and yellow shiny eyes.
Mike stood there, with his mouth open, as though hypnotised by the creature. Soon, the realisation of danger sets into his mind and he quickly turns back to the metal gate. There's got to be a way out! Mike kicks hard at the padlock. Come on!
Then he remembered. The handgun! Mike draws out the handgun from the back pocket of his jeans and takes aim.
BANG!
Expecting the padlock to break under the firepower, Mike uses his hand to fidget at the padlock. But to his dismay, the padlock remains stubbornly locked in place. SHIT!
The creature roared again. Mike quickly turns around to see that the creature is now closing towards him. With trembling hands, Mike lifts his hands and aims his handgun at the creature before him.
"Do not come any closer!" He scowled.
Despite his warning, the creature continues moving forward. Mike shifted uncomfortably felt his back rubbing against at the metal gate. Remaining at his spot, Mike watch the creature approach him with weary eyes. Suddenly, the creature takes a swing at him with brute force. Caught off guard, Mike somehow managed to dodge from the attack, but unfortunately, he dropped his handgun in the process.
The handgun spins, as it glides along the floor.
As the creature clumsily turns around, Mike sees the opportunity and runs past the creature. But in his haste, he trips and falls.
The creature roars again. Its fiery eyes now locked onto Mike.
With his eyes still fixated at the creature, Mike retreats backwards, kicking at his legs and pushing his hands on the grated floor.
The creature continues advancing.
Suddenly, Mike felt something on the floor. The handgun. He swiftly looks over and picks up his handgun. Pointing it at the approaching creature, he squeezes the trigger.
The creature felt a thrust backwards as the bullet hit at its torso. The creature roars in pain. Mike sees the opportunity and takes aim before he squeezes the trigger again. This time, sending the bullet right into the creature's head.
The creature gave out its last roar before collapsing to the grated floor. Dead, from the gunshots.
Time seems to stand still as he stares at the motionless creature. Then, a beam of bright light seems to fill the entire room. Mike squints at his eyes to the blinding white light.
And then, Mike lost his consciousness.