Silent Hill: Reflection

Chapter Five

"Amy?" Jessie whispered, in the dark hospital. "Amy, where are you?"

When there is no response, Jessie waited for a while before slowly making her way down the dark corridor, towards the nurses' station. The quiet surrounding is creeping her out as she walks in the dark. Standing before the door to the nurses' station, Jessie rubs her hands at her arms, as though unsure of the uncertainty that lies behind the door. Hesitating, she slowly inches forward, reaching out for the handle and opens the door. The badly decomposed door screams to the sound of rusty hinges as it opens. Jessie cringes at the sound, almost afraid that the unearthly sound might have just attracted all the creatures within the vicinity. She quickly looks around before rushing inside, and closing the door after her.

Jessie casually looks around the small deserted office, with a sense of disappointment knowing that Amy is not in this room. The deserted office is rather bare, except for a few tables and chairs in the middle, a row of filing cabinets, a whiteboard, and a photocopying machine at the far corner. Jessie walks around the place, occasionally flipping at the few scattered papers on the tables. Nothing useful.

When she reaches the other end of the office, she sees some haste scribbling of the numbers 5-2-8-4 on the white board, next to the door.

Even though Jessie doesn't know what the numbers signifies, she decides to make a mental note of the number. Next to the scribble is the hospital map. Jessie simply removes the map from the white board, folding it, before stuffing it away inside her back pocket. Just as she was attempting to exit from the office through the door next to the white board, the photocopying machine suddenly roars to life. Jessie gives a scream and turns around to the sound. Miraculously, the machine seems to have a life of its own as it repeatedly prints out copies after copies of papers with the words "dEceiT" in childish handwritings. What's with this word anyway?

Jessie stifles a cry and looks around the place as she slowly moves nearer to the machine. The loud mechanical sounds and eerie green glowing lights emitting from the machine is making the entire place looking more sinister than ever. How did the machine start? There's not a single soul around to operate it, so how the hell did it start by itself?

She stares at the warm printouts from the photocopying machine in disbelieve. Just then the machine stops, as sudden as it started. The ambience sound seems to come to a halt as an envelope of silence once again covers her like a smothering blanket. Something on the machine tray seems to catch her attention. Amidst the stack of papers, the last printout is somewhat different from the rest. It's a different word! Jessie picks up the sheet for a closer examination to see the childish handwritten word "pAEdiaTriC waRdS" on it.

Mike follows the hospital map and arrives at the Pharmacy. However, he sees that the door to the Pharmacy is heavily masked with police tapes bearing the words, "POLICE. DO NOT ENTER".

What happened here? Mike slowly moves forward, as he contemplates at the thought of peeling the tapes off away from the door so as to gain entrance into the Pharmacy. As he is reaching for the tapes, he pauses and looks around, half expecting a police officer to jump out from the dark and stop him from trespassing. When he realises that there isn't any living soul around the hospital, especially since the entire place is deserted, Mike breaks into a dry laugh. Who am I kidding? There isn't a single soul in this forsaken place. Mike absent-mindedly wipes the sweat off of his hands at his jeans and lets out a nervous breath before reaching for the tapes and starting to tear away the police tapes off from the door. With all the tapes removed from the door, Mike then turns at the door knob and pushes it open.

Walking into the room, Mike sees a chair, by the table on his right, totally soaked in wet blood. Mike retched at the sight before him. In contrast to the blood stained chair, the rest of the room is totally clean and void of any signs of blood and gore. Mike slowly moves further inside the room. What the hell happened here?

Mike examines around the room, carefully avoiding the bloodied chair. Nothing turns up in his search around the place that might link to the clue he had found earlier. After searching in vain, Mike finally decides to turn his attention to the crimson chair. He slowly walks over and tries to search through the patients' medical records carelessly scattered on the table, but finds nothing useful. Looking up, he sees a photo frame beside the telephone on the table and picks it up for a clearer look. The photograph clearly shows a pretty blond female, probably in her late-twenties. She was probably a nurse at the hospital judging from the uniform she was wearing in the photograph. There is a name tag on her uniform that says, "Cindy". Nurse Cindy.

Mike returns the photo frame back down on the table. Slowly moving his gaze down, he sees a box of some sort sitting on the blood-soaked chair. Mike groaned. He did not intend to touch the box with wet slimy blood on it. But somewhat, a part of him knows what the box is. His greatest fear is confirmed when he sees a part of a red cross hidden from the smears of blood. The First Aid Box! Mike cursed in disgust as he slowly reaches for the box and opens it.

"A newspaper clipping?" he exclaimed, picking the article out from the box to read.

"The Silent Hill Tribune

April 28.

Early this morning, the body of Miss Cindy Andrews, a nurse who worked at the local hospital, was found in her apartment. Police investigations showed that there were no signs of forced entry into her apartment, citing that the murder could have been committed by someone she knew. No valuables were recovered from the scene. The Silent Hill Police have classified the death of Miss Andrews as a case of murder and robbery..."

The remaining part of the newspaper has been torn off.

Mike stares at the article in his hand. Nothing about the article makes any sense. What has it got to do with Pete? Or me?

Just then, the sound system blasted a loud recording of a female voice.

"H-hello? 911? Please, help m-me… my name is… Cindy… someone broke into my house… armed with gun… I'm injured and I think… there's blood! Oh my god! He is coming… he is coming! Help! I'm at… Woodside Apart-"

The recording stops.

Mike listens intently to the recording in disbelieve. Woodside Apartment? Isn't that where Pete used to stay? What the hell is going on here?

Unknown to him, the door to the Pharmacy slowly opens.

Jessie crosses her arms as she walks down the eerie hospital corridors. She shines her flashlight at the hospital directories she comes across, trying to locate the direction to the Paediatric Ward. Jessie feels a little light-headed. She cringes at her nose as the strong smell of antiseptic stench seems to make her feel like puking. In her mind, Jessie quietly screams, silently wishing to get out of this scary place as soon as possible. But the thought about Amy alone in this scary place makes her more determined to continue with her search. Jessie could not understand why, but a part of her wanted to protect Amy and to keep her safe.

"Amy, where are you?" she thought.

Arriving at the northern wing of the hospital, Jessie again refers to another hospital directory before her. The Paediatric Wards is situated at the new hospital wing, together with some other medical wing clusters. She takes out the hospital map to locate her current bearing as well as to identify the direction to the Paediatric Wards. Tracing her finger along the map, Jessie suddenly freezes. The Paediatric Ward is a little after the northern part of the new wing, just after the mental wing.

Elise wakes up on a bed. She blinks at her eyes, and looks around. Where am I? Slowly, she props herself up from the soft bed and sits upright. The horrible antiseptic stench is the first tell-tale sign of where she is. Hospital.

Elise looks around the heavily padded room. She swings her legs over the mattress and down onto the floor. Standing up, she gently swipes at the strands of black hair away from her face and starts walking when she steps on something. It skids across the floor. Elise bents over and picks it up.
What is it? Elise shines at her flashlight on it to see that it's the map of Brookhaven Hospital. Brookhaven? I'm at Brookhaven? Elise then walks over to the door. The metal door opens to her soft touch and she steps out into the corridor. The small corridor comprises of only four rooms. Elise notices sprays of crimson stains on the wall and on some of the doors while a set of grotesque claw marks ends at the second door to her right. Elise did not want to find out what is inside room number two. She quickly makes her way out of the corridor through a set of double doors.

Finding her way along the dark place, Elise manages to see a small sign on top of the wall that reads "BROOKHAVEN HOSPITAL, MENTAL WING".

Elise remembers why she wants to even come to the hospital in the first place. Her mom. She wants to know what had happened to her mom. What that note means. Elise looks around and sees a directory on the wall and starts a slow jog towards it. Tapping her fingers at the board as she moves her finger down the directory, she silently reads he locations stated on it until she finally sees what she has been looking for.

Referring to the map, Elise sees that the Records and Administration Office is located in the basement, of the mental wing. After keeping the map, she makes her way down the dark corridor. Arriving at the end of the corridor, Elise pushes the set of double doors leading into the elevator area. She tries to push on the call button of the hospital elevator but it doesn't seem to work. Elise presses the button again and again, but to no avail. Of course! There is no power! She then turns and enters into the stairwell beside the elevator. To her dismay, the flight of stairs leading down to the basement is obstructed by a rusty gate. Elise tries her hands on the gate but finds it locked. Elise sighed as she once again refers to the hospital map to search for an alternate route to the Records and Administration Office. Studying at the map, Elise sees that another possibility to get to her destination is to go by the second level corridor of the mental wing to the Accident and Emergency Wing located at the newly constructed medical wing via the outdoor interconnecting walkway. From there, she can then head down to the building basement, which she should be able to get back to the basement of the mental wing.

Elise sighs at the amount of extra area she has to cover by foot. Indeed, it is a much longer detour, however, Elise has got no choice but to do it. Preparing herself, Elise proceeds to march up the flight of stairs leading to the second level of the mental wing. Entering into the corridor of the second level, Elise quickly turns towards the direction leading to the outdoor walkway, when suddenly she hears some noise coming from one of the rooms along the corridor to her left. Elise begins to tense up. The vivid memories about her earlier encounter back at the motel are slowly coming back to her.

Elise wanted to just walk away, but somehow, her mind keeps screaming for her to investigate. Curiosity always kills the cat, Elise! She heaves a sigh and turns towards the direction of the noise. She conveniently picks up a wooden plank next to her and slowly walks down the corridor.

Mike drops the news article on the table and turns around, pointing his handgun at the opening door. "Who's there?" he asked.

A female head peeps out from behind the open door. "Wait. Don't shoot!" she pleaded.

"Who are you?" Mike asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"M-m name is Elise. Elise Strathmore." she replied, slowly stepping out from behind the opening door and into the room.

Mike gradually brings his handgun down. After convincing himself that it's safe, he slides the handgun into the back of his jeans and walks forward. "I'm sorry. For a moment, I thought you were one of those monsters. Oh, I'm Mike, by the way." He smiled, extending his right hand forward, initiating a handshake.

Elise places the wooden plank on a nearby table and walks forward to shake at his hand. "Monsters?" she asked, with uncertainty. Are self-flaming mannequin considered monsters?

"You see them too?" Mike asked, sensing the vibe of uneasiness from her expression.

"I'm not sure. I mean, I've encountered weird stuff earlier-"

"Like zombie nurses?" he asked.

"What? No. I've seen a pair of mannequin self-combusted and," she said. "wait a minute, what zombie nurse?"

"Ah, nevermind. It's kinda disturbing to describe what I've seen and I don't think I would want to burden you with loads of scary stuff. It's better if I leave the details out. It's not really gonna do us any good as it is now, if you know what I mean." Mike said.

"Yeah, I guess you are right. Perhaps we should just move on-" She paused. Move on to what? Here I am, with this man I barely know and I'm telling him to move on? Great, Elise, just great!

"You were saying?" Mike asked.

"Nothing," she blabbered. "Anyway, do you know what happened to this place? Where's everyone?" Elise asked.

"No. I woke up in this hospital earlier and I have not seen anybody around," he explained. "… except you."

"You woke up in this hospital? Were you hurt?" Elise asked, with a look of concern as she looks over at the blood smeared chair.

"If you are referring to the blood stained chair, I can assure you, those are not my blood." Mike said, noticing her gaze. "Anyway, I'm fine. That's the thing. I'm not hurt and I don't even know why am I even in the hospital," Mike said. "Enough about me, so what's your story?"

"I-I felt bored and I've decided to drive out for a spin when my car broke down just outside town. I came here looking for help…" she said, decided to leave out details of the mysterious caller.

"And?" Mike asked.

"Well, the thing is, when I got here, I chanced upon a note that mentioned something about my mom and her treatment at this hospital. Somehow, I managed to wind up in this hospital."

"You too huh? Something just brought you here." Mike sighed.

"What are you saying?"

"I don't really know. In fact, ever since I woke up in this hospital, I've seen well, if not for a better word, "clues" about my brother, Peter. Initially, I thought my brother is in this hospital and I wanted to find him, even though I'm still not sure what the hell is happening."

"And I need to find out what happened to my mom." Elise added.

"Right." Mike assured her. "So, what is your next clue? I mean, where are you supposed to go next?"

"The Records and Administration Office." she replied. "And you?"

"Woodside Apartment, I think," he said. "I guess Pete might not be here at the hospital after all."

"I see."

"What do you think you are going to find there?" Mike asked.

"I don't really know. With this kind of place and all, I don't think anything is that predictable."

"I second that." Mike said, breaking into a smile.

"I guess, I'm going to head for the Records and Administration Office now," Elise said. "And you too should be making your way." she continued.

"You sure you will be alright by yourself?"

"I'm fine. Anyway, I'm almost there now and I think I should be able to find what I need to know at the office."

"It's kind of dangerous to be by yourself," Mike said. "It's not really safe for a girl to be-"

"And I'm a big girl!" she said, defensively. "Anyway, I'm just glad to meet you. It's kinda lonely to be around here all by myself." she joked.

At that, both of them broke into a loud laugh.

"In that case, I hope to see you soon," Mike said, gesturing her out towards the door. "I hope you find what you are looking for."

"Thanks. You too." she replied, walking towards the door.

As she walks out the door, Mike suddenly stops. "Wait. Let me get you your wooden plank." Mike said, walking back to the table.

"Thank you." Elise replied. Standing at the corridor and outside the room, Elise turns her head around just in time to see the door suddenly slams shut, separating them and with Mike still inside the room.

"Mike?" Elise called out, turning at the door knob. It was locked. "Mike? MIKE!" she shouted, banging furiously at the door. "MIKE!"

There was no response.

Elise was once again alone. Alone in Silent Hill.