Chapter Six: Darkening Clouds
Instead of heading to Rosewater park as they had been directed Victor insisted on returning to his old apartment first. He was adamant that it be their first stop before any other and Julia was not going to argue. Adept with the mystic runes the local cult had taught him she fully believed in Victor's ability to keep them safe. If that meant a detour or two she wouldn't mind paying that price.
They stuck to the edges of the buildings where the sidewalk began and kept a brisk but steady pace as they moved deeper into the town. The mist was thick, rolling and ever present just like she remembered. No dark shadows lurked in them so far and Julia was thankful for that. Maybe they had just been lucky so far or maybe there simply were no more monsters here. Logically neither possibility was very likely but as she recalled things didn't turn ugly right away last time. It was only when it was too late did she discover that there was something going horrifically wrong here.
The building was exactly how she saw it in her mind's eye. Flat, unremarkable and falling apart was Victor's chosen residence. Knowing him it was likely the second trait that drew him to the building in the first place. It was so ordinary it seemed like part of the scenery instead of an actual location. The low fence in front of it had toppled over long ago and weeds grew up around the concrete path to the entrance in thick clumps.
Walking up to the front doors they found the building unlocked as if it welcomed the travelers. Julia always fancied that whatever happened to the town occurred during the day when most people wouldn't have a reason to lock their doors. There were simply too many unsecured homes for rational people to leave open at any other time.
The old hinges to the place creaked open louder than she would have liked but the front lobby was empty. Apartments lined the right wall of the hall way before them while the left opened into a stairwell. Light was coming in from above and though it certainly wasn't well illuminated Julia could see just fine. Worrisome shadows still clung to every corner but they safely made their way up the stairs to the second, smaller lobby on the top floor where Victor's rune protected apartment was.
There was a large pentagram looking symbol carved into the floor that she vaguely remembered Victor telling her was for protection. Along the door jam numerous other figures had been etched into the wood but against her expectations nothing decorated the door itself. No figures materialized out of the darkness to attack them. It was almost suspicious to Julia that they had made it all the way here without resistance but perhaps the no more monsters theory held some validity.
Crouching to examine the pentagram looking symbol on the floor Victor traced the lines and strange pictures with his fingers. "Hmm..."
"What is it?" Chuck whispered.
"There's no danger." Victor announced. "But...something's wrong, something's amiss. My seals have been broken."
"Is...that bad news?" Chuck queried as unaware as Julia what that meant.
"Aye." Victor replied absently. "The people that taught me how to use these glyphs are the only ones I know of that can break them. If they finally found this place then they weren't here for a social visit."
"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a good thing." Chuck concurred. "What do we do?"
"We shouldn't go in but I have to." Victor decided for them. "There shouldn't be any monsters around but they may have booby trapped the place or left bugs. Stay here and stay quiet."
"Uh..." Julia began, "bugs like termites?"
"Like cameras and microphones."
"Oh." she said feeling completely foolish.
Running his fingers along the indecipherable lettering on the door jam Victor studied the ones that had been cracked in half. Gingerly touching the doorknob as if he was expecting it to be hot Victor slowly opened the door just enough to get through and slipped inside.
Taking a seat on the stairs Chuck let out a sigh. "I hate to be rude," he started, "but what exactly is that guy's problem?"
"What do you mean?" Julia asked though she had at least an idea of what he was talking about.
"He's just so...serious all of the time. Like someone forgot to teach him how to relax."
"You know, that's not actually too far off the mark." she said. "Imagine being just a kid, losing your only parent and then growing up here. I'm somewhat surprised he's as relatively normal as he is."
"Oh. I guess in that case he's adjusted quite well."
"That's what I tell myself." she grinned. Only half joking about Victor she was in truth pleased with his progress absorbing modern culture. The subject in question reappeared a few moments later empty handed and ashen faced.
"They've been here alright." he reported glumly.
"What's it look like?" Julia asked even if his face had her answer written on it.
"They got everything, my papers, my armor, every one of my books, all of it. They might as well of burned the entire building to the ground. Actually, I might feel better if they just did that." Victor complained.
"So there's definitely people around here and they're definitely going to be unhappy to see us if we run into them?" Chuck questioned.
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it."
"Well then I say we get out of here and pick up enough guns and ammo to invade Cambodia." Chuck suggested.
"What? Why Cambodia?" Victor asked with an annoyed face.
"Uh, I don't know, I just picked a random country. It sounded better in my head."
"We've been strangely fortunate." Victor thought out loud. "If we encounter trouble that's too much to handle we can run."
"What if the trouble runs too?" Chuck asked.
"Pick up something along the way then." Victor recommended.
"Like what?"
"I don't know, a plank of wood, maybe a lead pipe?"
"A pipe...a two by four...how do those sound like good ideas? No one in their right mind would run around with something like that as their only means of defense." Julia snorted.
"Don't knock the pipe. I had one once." Chuck said.
"It was just a suggestion." Victor snapped. "I'm sure you could protect yourself very well but that is currently irrelevant."
"Where are we going then?" interjected Chuck in an effort to change the subject.
"Now we should be going to Rosewater Park. If Nothing is waiting for us there at least we can get an idea of why he dragged us here in the first place."
"Fine. Let's go already." Julia grumbled.
"Festina lente." Victor added.
"And...what does that mean exactly?"
"Hasten slowly." Victor smiled without bothering to explain the phrase. "All right, back the way we came." he ordered and they filed down the steps out of the building.
Their walk was just as nerve wracking but also as uneventful as the first as they reached their destination. Rosewater Park was less of an empty space than a stone walkway surrounded by trees and graves. Most of it looked identical and Julia had a hard time remembering if they had just come from one direction or had not yet even been in any one particular area. Thanks to Victor though she knew that he would lead them on a complete search of the time in a timely fashion.
After wandering around the park for the better part of fifteen minutes that didn't seem to be working either. Victor was baffled as to where they were supposed to go so they took a break on one of the ancient benches that had to have been build near the turn of the previous century.
"Thought we would have found something by now." Victor speculated.
"Just seems a little silly to have us come out here and not mention which part of this giant frickin' park to go to." Chuck said.
"Well why don't you call up your pal and ask him then?" Julia suggested wryly.
"Already tried." Chuck shrugged.
Both Julia and Victor stopped and turned back to look at the guileless Chuck. "What?" he asked innocently.
"What do you mean you already tried?" Victor demanded.
"I mean I called for him already. He could explain everything if he were here right? And we wouldn't have to keep walking all over the place."
"Yeah but...how?" Julia wondered.
"Well, before all I would have to do is call for him out loud and he'd show up all of a sudden like he'd been following me the whole time. Or I'd just randomly run into him fighting monsters."
"You saw him fighting Silent Hill's monsters?" Victor said in disbelief.
"Yeeees?" Chuck confirmed slowly without seeing the cause for confusion.
"Not other people – for sure monsters?" Victor pressed.
"Yeah, like, the headless, faceless, slimy things that usually try to kill you. There were groups of them trying to beat him to death and he was back flipping and breaking their bones and shit. I think I'd remember something like that pretty clearly."
"That's...strange." the dark haired knight said. "I don't understand why he would do that. Those creatures pose no threat to him."
"Maybe he just likes to fight." Julia piped up. Both of the men stared at her as if this fact was obvious but neither had thought of it before. "Or not, whatever."
"Well I hope we track him down soon anyway." Chuck sighed. "I think my body is pissed for making it do all this walking when the most it's had to go is down the hall to get some jello."
"They really served jello?"
"Honestly it was the only thing I had to look forward to there. Which is sad because it wasn't really that good." Chuck frowned. "I don't know how you screw up jello. Oh and the visits with the Dark Man. Other then that it was pretty boring."
"About that..." Victor started. "You only briefly mentioned it before. How long had these visits been going on?"
"Oh, since I was locked up." he recalled. "He'd come every third Thursday of the month. Never missed."
"When was the last time you saw him?"
"Um...let's see...it's been...two weeks since he missed his last appointment? I don't even know what today is."
"The fourth I think." Julia supplied.
"Oh um...I guess it's been almost a month and a half then since I last saw him." Chuck guessed.
"Anything unusual that last visit? Something he said, something he did?" Victor pressed.
"No...not that I can think of. He's always a bit weird and sometimes doesn't make much sense but he didn't mention anything being wrong."
"So that's at most five weeks he's been absent and at least two." he concluded.
"Well yeah but how – hey that's a big ass crow." Chuck interrupted himself to say. Perched on an arch well worn by time some twenty feet away an enormous crow was not so subtly eavesdropping on their conversation. It was as still as a statue with black eyes fixed in their direction.
"That's not creepy or anything."
"This is a good omen." Victor said mysteriously like he was some kind of shaman.
"How do you figure?" Julia asked.
"Can you think of a time here when you have seen a healthy, normal animal of any kind?" he challenged. Unable to she conceded his point. The large bird cawed loudly at them and leap from the gravestone into the air. It flew just barely out of visible range and landed somewhere nearby. Repeating its loud call it fluttered large wings they could not see.
"Break's over." Chuck announced as he returned to his feet.
"What?" Victor and Julia both said.
Gesturing up at the open air in the crow's general direction he said, "Let's follow this guy. He seems to know what's up."
"You can't be serious." Victor balked.
"Of course I am." the other man said as if Victor were being silly. "If the Dark Man isn't going to come himself he would have sent someone else to do it for him. Or something in this case."
"Your faith in him is unfounded, Charles Tay- Chuck." Victor corrected himself. "If he didn't have something to gain from manipulating us he wouldn't have bothered in the first place."
"Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't." Chuck asserted. "But he's never done wrong by me and never did anything but try to help. You do what you want to. I'm following that bird." he said while pointing at the mist. Watching him set out in the crow's direction Julia raised her eyebrows at Victor.
"We going to follow him?" she asked.
"No. Not yet." her man replied. Listening to the sound of Chuck's footsteps they waited as he walked farther away. On some unseen cue Julia heard wings flapping again in the mist. After a brief pause some where farther away the crow cawed again.
"Damn. It's probably leading us. Let's go." Victor said and they quickly followed the sound of footsteps to catch back up to Chuck. Snickering to himself the smug Canadian led them towards the large bird who would take off only to caw at them again from some other vantage point.
"Hey there fella, are you showing us the way or getting us more lost?" Chuck called out. The bird merely cawed back and again soared out of visible range while they picked their way through the park. The three of them followed it to a particularly large arch way where the crow hopped excitedly back and forth.
"I can't tell if this thing is leading us somewhere or it's just trying to lure us into standing underneath it so it can poop." Julia commented. "What's so special about this place anyway, Vic?"
"It's an old sculpture park. It's been here since the 1800s." he answered.
"Whoa. How do you know that?"
"I've been here quite a few times. Plus it says so on the plaque right there." he pointed.
Engraved on a long unpolished brass plate set into the arch were the words, 'Rosewater Park est. 1845'. "Oh. Right." she said.
"Hey uh, question." Chuck asked of no one in particular.
"Hey uh, answer." Julia took on.
"I'm no expert or anything but aren't hedges usually plants?"
Looking at the very plantlike plants the hedges were made out of she turned back to him. "It certainly appears that way."
"Aren't these hedges pretty big?"
"Yes, so far I think we're on the same page."
"So don't you usually need a gardener to keep them from growing out and losing their shape?"
He had noticed something she hadn't even bothered considering. Most of the large hedges were indeed meticulously trimmed and square edged. Being no gardening guru herself she still knew that even a few months of negligence the plants would naturally begin to lose their shape. Considering that the town had been abandoned for almost twenty years this was something worthy of note.
"I'd be freaked out if it was anywhere else but for here that's almost par for the course." Chuck shrugged.
"It's still a little off even for Silent Hill." Julia shuddered. Looking around she added, "Funny enough though I kind of like this architecture."
"It's a nice place to come and read." Victor said out of the blue.
"You mean it would be if it was somewhere else." Julia corrected.
"No?" he said quizzically. Shaking her head at his confusion Julia said, "Looks like our bird guide is taking a bit of a rest. If it turns out he's leading us a shiny rock or his nest or something I'll be expecting some sort of apology."
"Hey, I didn't say you had to follow me." Chuck shrugged. "It was a long shot anyway."
The bird took off again after cawing loudly twice more. Grudgingly the trio followed it to where it squawked from nearby. Circling around a line of bushes they entered a small clearing with a large statue that was placed just right to be concealed by the tall hedges. It was an almost angelic robed figure with a downcast head and praying hands resting on top of an ornate square base. It was very old and weather beaten enough to have been there since the park opened.
Though it was certainly a grand sight at the moment every inch of horizontal real estate on the statue was covered by a crow. They lined the robed figure and base of the statue like a black, feathered aura. Not one of them moved or made the slightest sound much to the dismay of the humans that stumbled upon them. They simply stared at the intruders with dozens of jet black, unblinking orbs.
"Holy..." Chuck trailed off.
"Is...that a good omen?" Julia whispered, for some reason, to Victor.
"Ah...I'm not exactly sure." he whispered back.
The crows suddenly took off in unison and despite herself Julia shrieked while covering her face. The murder filled the air around them with flapping wings but turned and took off into the sky. Their abrupt departure and the sudden cacophony it made lingered long after in Julia's ears even as the flapping faded in the distance. Soon there was no evidence they were ever there in the first place except for the thudding in Julia's chest.
None of them seemed to want to get any closer to the statue even though the menacing avian presence was gone. Regaining her composure Julia hoped her companions would let that moment of weakness pass without comment. "So uh, one of you big, strong men want to over there and check out that statue?" she asked.
"I don't know, are you going to scream again?" Chuck asked. So much for discretion.
"Something is wrong here." Victor said unexpectedly. "Not just the birds."
"What?"
"I've never seen this statue before."
"So?"
"So? I've been here dozens of times in the past. There's no way I would have missed a statue like this." he explained.
"Maybe you just...didn't come this way before?" Chuck theorized.
"No. I've had this park mapped out for a long time. It simply wasn't here before."
"That doesn't make any sense." Chuck shook his head.
"I know. That's why something's wrong." Victor repeated. He retreated away from the statue and examined the way they had just come in. Looking first up and then down along the ground he walked in a straight line across the gap that allowed them to enter the small clearing.
"I'm sure there was a wall here." Victor proclaimed. "Totally sure."
"I'm sure there's a logical...explanation...you know what, I think it's safe to say there was a wall here and it just straight up disappeared. That makes more sense, actually." Chuck said.
"Well, let's check this thing out." Julia said. "Something about it has to be important if we were led to it."
Surrounding the statue they looked for anything unusual while Victor bent down to try to read the faded inscription.
"Oh hey." Chuck said from behind the statue. "Check this out."
Moving to join him Julia saw a small mound directly behind the statue. It was only remarkable in that no grass grew over the top and it appeared to be a slightly different color than the rest of the ground. "What do you think is there?" he asked.
"I don't know but this seems familiar." Julia said with something flitting in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"This is a monument to Jennifer Carroll." Victor noted while circling the statue. "One of the Order's founders if memory serves. Supposedly she was burned at the stake."
Kneeling down Julia poked at the slightly uneven bump of dirt. "A statue is more than most people burned alive get." she said. "Vic, take a look at this."
"Hmm." Victor grunted. "You think something is buried here?"
"Maybe."
"Well, have a look." he suggested.
Shrugging Julia dug into the ground with her hands to begin a low tech excavation. Hunkering down next to her Chuck joined in with Victor standing over them but far enough away to not be in their light. Cold rocks and random roots attempted to block their progress through the black earth as they threw piles of soil to the side. It seemed like a foolish thing to do when she thought about it but after six inches or so her fingers touched something flat and metal.
"Got something!" she said excitedly. Quickly clearing away the rich soil they found a small circular piece of metal embedded in the dirt. Gripping it with grimy fingers she tugged at what turned out to be the top of a cylindrical container wrapped in a thin cloth. It took another minute to uncover enough of it to get a grip on and out of the ground Julia pulled free an eight inch tube tightly bound with thoroughly stained fabric.
Unwrapping it like a Christmas present she revealed a silvery metal trapped under the cloth that somehow retained its gleam. A thin line around the top denoted some kind of opening and she gently pulled on it. It resisted at first but the lid soon gave in and opened with the hiss of trapped air.
All three of them tried to see into the container at once. Pushing Victor's head away she saw that there was an old leather pouch and a small envelope tied to it inside. Shaking the contents out into her hand she divvied up the find. Handing Victor the envelope she carefully opened the pouch to find a dark, coarse powder.
"Someone went through the trouble of burying dirt in dirt? That's kind of redundant." she scoffed as he rose to her feet.
"Let me see." Victor said and she handed him the strange find. Reaching a couple fingers into the sack he pinched a bit and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger. "These are ashes." he murmured.
"Is that...significant?"
"I don't know but hold onto it." Victor said as he wiped the dust from the small envelope. It had been sealed with red wax and had a crest impressed into the wax's surface like a letter from centuries ago. The seal was something like waves or grass or leaves but it was hard to tell. Breaking it open Victor discovered a small letter and a key ring with a single key and a faded plastic tag. Unfolding the letter Victor held it up to the others.
"That's the Dark Man's handwriting." Chuck observed even from upside down. It was a flowing, fancy cursive that matched at least in feel the overly formal red seal on the front.
"Apply this sacred ash unto thyself when the winds blow red." Victor read to them.
"The hell kind of message is that?" Julia asked. "And what's it supposed to mean?"
"It means we put this on if we think the Order's magic is around." Victor translated.
"Yeah...well at least someone was able to figure that out." Chuck scratched his head.
Handing Chuck the letter to hold Victor inspected the key chain. "It has an address on it. 521 Rendell street. A few blocks south and west."
"What do you think the key is for?" Julia wondered.
"Looks like an apartment key, can't be sure." Victor said. "Oh, nevermind. Apartment 45."
"Oh. Good."
"Let's be on our way." Victor said while pocketing the items they found. Plucking the letter of out Chuck's hands he said "I'm just hoping that our good luck keeps and we do not encounter any opposition along the way."
"Ah man!" Chuck said in disappointment.
"Vic! Come on!" Julia cried.
"What?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.
"You never point out something lucky or good while it's still happening! You totally just jinxed us." she explained as she would to a child.
"That's...kind of a silly superstition isn't it? Aren't you two a little old for things like that?" Victor asked.
"Here, of all places, it kind of pays to superstitious."
"We'll see." he said in that annoying tone that meant he didn't believe it for a second. "Come on. Let's get to the bottom of this."
"Tch. You first, luck killer." Julia glared at him.
Having his bearings Victor moved unerringly back into the misty streets. Julia let out a short breath of annoyance and followed him. At least this time she had a gun.