Chapter III
As I watched the huge, barnacle encrusted behemoth trapped in an assortment of corroded leather and rusted metal lumber out of the cafeteria of the prison, it's Grey Child clutching one of it's huge withered fingers tightly, I couldn't help but be reminded of how me and my Daddy use to go out on our gathering sessions. I closed my sapphire eyes and allowed myself a brief moment of remembrance.
"Eleanor, if you help me, if we stick together…I promise you that those memories will become reality once more."
I nodded my helmet encompassed head and smiled an empty smile, devoid of any real happiness. I trust Alessa Gillespie, her and I are so much alike it's scary, to our short cut raven black hair, to our clear sapphire eyes. We even have the same ivory colored skin complexion. We were both used by our mothers, who were both the leaders of perverse ruthless cult followings. We were brought into this world only to be used…. Yes, Alessa Gillespie understands me more than any person I have ever met in my short life, possibly even slightly more than my father.
I wonder how long I have to wait to meet her face to face. Suddenly, I heard an amused chuckle sound throughout my mind.
"Do not worry sister, after this mission we will have a chance to meet each other. I REALLY look forward to it."
I smiled, a genuine one this time.
'I as well.' I thought back to her. My eyes wandered over to the strange monster attached to the ceiling beside me. My partner, Valtiel, was giving me a strange 'look'. It had it's head cocked to the side and the convulsive twitching of it's head had slowed down significantly. Now I could see it's facial features completely but like I said before, it's not like there were much features to behold. Suddenly, a seam on the side of Valtiel's head opened and a tongue like appendage snaked out of it. I quirked an eyebrow, was that it's mouth? A hiss escaped from Valtiel's 'mouth' and it leaped from the ceiling and onto the ground below, I followed suit. I worked the kinks out of my arms and legs, quickly preparing myself for anything that might be hidden around the next corner.
'Alessa, just what exactly are we looking for? And what's the history of this place anyway?' I asked Alessa. Although the goal of our mission was crucial, I'd like to know as much information as possible about my surroundings as well. It helps give me a clearer picture of what exactly I'm expected to be up against AND it also helps me formulate tactics to use the environment to my advantage against my enemies.
Plus, I just like learning new things.
"Well, to answer your first question you and your partner are hunting down a man named Walter Sullivan. He has been called…'filthy yet handsome.' Alessa joked. 'He has long dirty blond hair and is dressed in filthy rags, he is almost impossible to not recognize…and he'll probably be the only 'person' you'll see in this place. Be careful though, he has power that could be compared to mine."
'Alessa, who exactly is this…'filthy yet handsome', Walter Sullivan? How did he receive a power that could be compared to your own?' I asked with pure curiosity. Alessa grinned sadistically within my mind.
"Let me show you."
My breath hitched in my throat as a collage of images began to flash within my mind. I saw two people…a man and a woman fighting over…something. The man was yelling and breaking things around their apartment, he slapped the woman (who was most likely his wife) sending her crashing to the ground. A scream of anguish erupted not from the woman's throat but from the baby who sat in a basket on the kitchen table. The man yelled at the baby, telling him to 'Shut the hell up', pinching the baby's arms hard enough to cause his flesh to turn purplish red. The image in my mind then faded to an empty apartment, no furniture…just the same crying baby lying in the basket in the middle of the apartment's living room floor alone.
"Like yours and mine, Walter's childhood contained mostly pain, suffering, and loneliness. When he was an infant, his parents abandoned him in room 302 in Ashfield Heights, an apartment complex situated in the city of Ashfield, which is not very far from Silent Hill's location."
Suddenly the door to the apartment opened, revealing a man with grey hair and brown eyes. The man looked surprised to find the baby abandoned. The man picked up the baby and quickly took him to a nearby hospital. The baby stayed at the hospital for a couple of months before a woman with grey hair wearing a black dress along with two men came to the hospital and took the child away.
"The infant Walter was found by a man named Frank Sunderland, he turned the baby over to St. Jerome's Hospital, which was situated nearby. After his stay in the hospital, Walter was adopted by the Wish House orphanage which is located in a forest near Silent Hill."
The images of the hospital in my mind melted away and was replaced by a building surrounded by trees, which was more than likely the orphanage. In side it showed a six year old Walter being taught some sort of ritual by a man and a woman in dark red cloaks in a secluded room. The door to the room opened to reveal, to my surprise, Alessa's mother.
"It was there that he began his tutelage in the ways of my mother's detestable Order. The damned cult operated the orphanage, it was they who gave him the name 'Walter'. When Walter was six years old, my mother Dahlia Gillespie, came to the Wish House Orphanage and told Walter that his mother was 'asleep' in Ashfield."
Once again the images in my mind faded. Droplets of blood dripped onto the images and slowly they began to be consumed by the blood. My mind went red…and then the image of a six year old Walter traveling on a subway train alone flashed into my mind. He took the train to South Ashfield Heights every week. I saw the tenants of the complex building abuse him, annoyed with his ever returning presence to the building.
"Every week, Walter traveled from the orphanage to South Ashfield Heights by taking the subway or the bus. Unfortunately someone else was living in Room 302, preventing him from being reunited with his 'mother'. The tenants of the apartment complex began to complain and treat him badly when they saw him hanging around and Walter began to fear them, seeing them as obstacles preventing him from being reunited with his 'mother'."
The image faded to Walter, shivering in the corner of a round cell. A balding, fat man loomed over him with a wooden bat in hand, grinning sadistically.
"My mother's cult, like your mother's own, is perverse and does not condone the active abuse of children. If Walter was to misbehave, he would be sent to the Water Prison, where a disgusting man named Andrew DeSalvo would abuse and neglect him…along with other children of the orphanage."
The image disappeared in a flash of blinding light, replaced by an image of Walter steadily growing into adulthood, like one of those flip page comic books.
"As the years passed and Walter matured, he began to be more and more influenced by the teachings of the cult. Walter became preoccupied with one particular tract from the Order's Bible: The Decent of the Holy Mother-The 13 Archangels of Darkness and Chaos."
The silhouettes of thirteen hellish Demonic figures flashed into my mind, behind them was a world consumed by a fury hellfire and despair.
"The Thirteen are a group of Demonic creatures that came into being when…the Darkness took over. Before the Darkness, the Thirteen were just a myth, thought to be Angels that had fallen from Heaven. Each of the Thirteen corresponds to thirteen constellations in the sky, specifically the Zodiac signs: Aries, Pisces, Capricorn, Gemini, Sagittarius, Libra, Scorpio, Leo, Cancer, Aquarius, Taurus, Virgo, and Serpentarius. The Order's Bible says that it's possible to summon one of the Thirteen if you do a ritual involving the sacrifice of a person corresponding to the said Thirteen's sign. So if Walter sacrificed someone who was born in March, with the use of a specific ritual their blood would summon the Thirteen member with the sign Aries, The Ram."
The demonic image faded from my mind I once again found myself in the cold, desolate hallways of the Water Prison.
"But wait, even though Serpentarius is a constellation that is within the path of the sun, much like the Zodiac signs, it is not a true Zodiac sign it's self. There is no Serpentarius sign."
I heard Alessa chuckle.
"This is true. The member of the Thirteen whose sign is Serpentarius is the most powerful of all the Thirteen. It wields a power that is said to be infinite as the blackest pits of hell. This creature can only be summoned with the help of the first Twelve members…. And then with their combined power they will be able to summon the Order's Goddess, Walter's 'mother'."
I nodded my head in understanding.
"So Walter Sullivan is planning to summon all Thirteen members and use them to summon the coup de grace."
"Precisely, he has already killed ten people, including himself , so he has already summoned TEN of the twelve. Through the power of Silent Hill, he is able to manifest himself into a physical form so he is not truly dead. I need you to eliminate Walter for good, as well as the ten of the Thirteen he has already summoned. My disciples are extremely powerful but these creatures rival their power and unfortunately I only have six disciples…including you. We can't afford for him to succeed in summoning all Thirteen…."
I nodded my head once more and looked to Valtiel, who was standing their patiently, waiting for Alessa to finish up her explanations. It…no, He looked very freaky just standing there like that, his head twitching spastically. My eyes subconsciously wandered over his well toned body and I could feel a blush creeping on to my face. When he tilted his head to the side and slowed down the spastic twitching of his head, I quickly averted my gaze and walked farther into the Water Prison, the monstrous archangel following close behind me. What the bloody hell is wrong with me? The thing is has no FACE for the love of God! I never really thought of myself as a pervert since…well, my mother never gave me time for such thoughts but if Valtiel can turn me on then it's a done deal. I could practically feel the smirk on Alessa's face.
"Be careful Eleanor. Although it's very rare, Valtiel is known to rape unwary Bubble Head Nurses, I think that you would be a welcome change from the now and again routine."
I quirked an eyebrow at that tidbit of information. As I spared a backwards glance at Valtiel, I wondered if getting raped by him was actually a bad thing. Now, if he tried to kill me afterwards then I would just have to blast him all the way back to hell.
"Eleanor, with the amount of ADAM you have absorbed I don't even think you CAN be killed."
Well, when my father and I were escaping Rapture I did shrug off practically any bullets, fireballs, flying boulders, punches, almost any form of attack that impacted me. The wounds still hurt…but none of them were life threatening as they healed within seconds.
"Besides, Valtiel cannot really be killed either. His physical body can be destroyed…but later it will just reform at some random place. Don't know why he just doesn't pick a location and stick with it like all of my other disciples, it's really annoying at times when I'm trying to contact him."
Valtiel must of heard her as he actually looked…sheepish. How the thing with no faced LOOKED anything would be beyond most people but his body posture said sheepish.
When Valtiel and I came to a huge metal door with letters of the Greek alphabet scribbled onto it, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. The letters were written in blood. I shrugged, as I have seen to many sentences written in blood on the walls in Rapture to be affected by it, and walked forward. I tried opening the door but it wouldn't budge. I huffed in annoyance and began to search for some type of switch. I spotted something…familiar looking leaning up against the door to my far left and walked up to it. My eyes widened in surprise, it looked like Father's Rivet Gun…except that was smaller and much more compact. A series of belts, buckles, and straps were connected to the bottom of the rifle…like it was meant to be an arm mounted weapon. I could here Alessa huff inside my mind.
"You see what I mean when I say weapons I've never seen before are sprouting up out of nowhere? What exactly is that?"
I chuckled, it felt strange for me to be the one answering the questions.
'It's a weaponized Rivet Gun. In Rapture they were not only used to help construct the city but used as weapons by Big Daddies.'
I picked up the redesigned Rivet Gun, detached my ADAM Syringe from my left arm and put it away for now. I then attached the Rivet Gun to my arm, I aimed at the wall to my left and fired the weapon. A piping white hot rivet escaped from the barrel of the gun and hit the wall, the rivet was so hot that it left a scorch mark. I smirked behind the cover of my visor, I didn't expect for it to actually work.
"Okay Valtiel, lets keep moving. Oh wait, yeah the locked door…"
Valtiel looked surprised that I had started to converse with him but the surprise was quickly hidden. You would be surprised by what you can tell about the mood of a person just by their body posture.
"Hmmm, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with these Greek letters, wouldn't you agree?" I asked Valtiel as I walked up to the door and started to examine the letters. Some of them went close to the ground so I had to bend over to see them more clearly, I could feel Valtiel looking at me, looking at the curves of my body…
It made me blush madly.
"I think I found what the problem is, the eighteenth letter of the Greek Alphabet is missing. Let's see…" I brought out my ADAM syringe and brought the tip of it to the wall, where the missing letter was. I ejected some ADAM from the tip of the needle and drew the Greek letter: Sigma.
As soon as I finished drawing it, the doors flew open.
"Well, let's proceed."
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AN: I know this chapter was boring but I had to introduce the main enemy of this 'arch' and what he is planning to do. The next chapter will be MUCH more…'action packed'. Hoped you liked the little thing between Valtiel and Eleanor and this story will offically be updated on a week to week baisis. I hope you'er all still out there. ~Cryoshock123