Chapter 28: The Altar Of Leaves
Avoiding the outwardly innocuous but darkling well Julia circled around it to the group of trucks on the other side of the clearing. There were three of them, unmarked, with out of state license plates and barely staying together. Lined up next to each other in a row their giant cargo spaces were open and beckoning. She had to jump up on the trucks themselves to see all the way to the back due to her stature but there was nothing inside except piles of chains. Studying the exterior of the trucks she figured that they were old even back when they still moved. The tires had long since gone flat and when she hoisted herself up to the cabins she found that they too had moss growing in them.
Whatever occurred here had happened long ago, involved many people and at the center of it all was the well that looked so ancient it could have been built by the original settlers. There was nothing else to do but check it out and Julia was none too keen to get close to it. Psyching herself up she had gotten within twenty feet of it when she stepped on something much harder than the ground.
At first she thought it was a rock and she was partially right. Into the ground a massive stone slab at least ten feet wide had been buried. She could see the outline of it slightly protruding from the earth and she bent down to get a better look. So focused on the object she almost failed to notice that no grass was growing around it for several feet. Intrigued she starting brushing away the thick layer of dead leaves and grime that had coated the old stone.
Clearing the slab with her hands she wiped away years of weather damage and accumulated plant matter. Underneath the slab was smooth, black and appeared to be one giant, solid piece. Excavating at the edges she noticed that much of the slab was deep in the ground but there were signs of tampering. Though it must have weighed tons it looked like originally it was one rectangular piece but cuts had been made to remove pieces from it. There were even rough waves on the edges from the haphazard cuts but who would want to take pieces of this old rock?
Brushing off a plate sized area she discovered a circular pattern etched into the slab's surface that repeated itself all over the part she had cleaned. Using her fingernail she dug out the pattern to reveal a stylized leaf engraving. Find more grooves to hollow out she realized it was the same motif covering the entire slab. It was conceivable that the entire thing had been decorated like this but why?
Scraping more and more of it clear she found that the closer to the center of it she went the more notches, cuts and chips in the smooth surface there were. It would take hours to fully dig up the slab and this was time she did not have. Night would fall eventually and she most certainly did not want to be here when that happened. Pursing her lips she looked around at the ruins of the encampment but could not quite piece together the even that occurred here. Nothing said he had been born here and the double confirmed that this is where things started. Could this have been literal? Was there a camp of people here long ago, before the calamity that struck Silent Hill?
Standing up over the slab she brushed off her earthen smelling hands as best she could. About to step over the slab it caught a little bit of the ambient light that passed for day in this town. It was just a dull spot, a matte bit of the rock that happened to have light hitting it favorably but it showed that the slab wasn't perfectly black. Her throat tightened up and careful not to block the light she closely examined it up close.
The unmistakable color the light brought out in the block was a deep, dark green. Appearing black with her shadow cast over it the slab was made of the same substance both Nothing's throne and Victor's armor were. Her mind failed her when she tried to make sense of this and she abruptly realized that the odd cuts into the slab weren't so mysterious now. She didn't know how the Dark Man managed to manipulate solid rock into both a highly ornamental throne as well as a suit of armor but that color was too one of a kind to be anything else.
She didn't know what she was going to tell Victor...or even what exactly she could tell him. All she knew was that it was a piece of a rock buried near an old well but something told her it wasn't as innocent as that. Wanting to move on there was only the well left and the pilgrim hesitated before steeling herself and going to it. Keeping herself ready for anything she moved up to it with her hands up. The air seemed thicker as she went closer but the well itself looked quite harmless. Cobbled together with somewhat uniform rocks and an antiquated form of concrete the wooden framework to draw water from it had long since fallen away. Falling apart at the sides it looked like a strong kick could knock the whole thing down.
Reaching out with her earthen covered fingers she prodded the lip of well only to find it surprisingly strong. Looking around her she saw nothing but the tall trees and the mist clinging to them just the way it had been the entire time. Risking a peek over the side she could see some thirty feet down where a still pool of water showed a basic reflection of light and shape. It was only slightly visible thanks to the feeble light of the gray sky but there was definitely a body of water down there.
She was trying to figure out how she was supposed to extract a book from this location when someone, something applied pressure to the bottom of her legs and flipped her headlong into the opening. Screaming and scrambling at the sides of the well to somehow push herself back up her momentum was irreversibly headed forward. Falling straight down she only had a traumatic second and a half to cry out before she hit the water. If filled her open mouth and Julia choked even as she flailed to right herself. Gulping a cold rush of water she kicked back to the surface and burst free.
Treading water and sputtering she coughed up way too much liquid as she looked up at the weak beam of light coming from above. The tunnel for the well had been made to a natural sinkhole which opened to the wide cavern she now was trapped. It was at least twenty feet to the roof of the cavern and another ten of the well's walls to freedom. There was no way she could get that high up with tools, a grappling hook, a James Bond flying backpack. Worse she could not even see what had attacked her and there was nothing but a gray circle looking down on her.
"Fuck! Fucking fuck! Fuck you! Fuck you!" she thrashed in the water as she cursed up at whatever had done this to her. "Goddammit..."
Looking around she got a basic idea of her new and possibly permanent location. Roughly domed with stalactites hanging from the beige, ovalish ceiling the chamber was almost completely filled with the deep pool. Below her in the crystal clear water were jagged, white rock and Julia was thankful that the pool wasn't so shallow that she was dashed to pieces by her fall. The back end of the cave was rocky and had rows of stalagmites popping up but was at least dry. Kicking in that direction she swam towards solid ground.
Directly behind her was what appeared to be a rotten, makeshift dock that had mostly disintegrated. Hope surged through her and Julia splashed towards the only sign of humanity down here. Pulling herself onto a rocky shelf out of the cold water she climbed onto flat, sand colored outcropping and sat in an inch of water to scrutinize what was left of the dock. It was no more than five feet long and everything that had been in the water was almost completely gone by now. Still, someone had to have put this here for a reason and certainly had to have found their way out afterward.
A white rock snagged her attention that had wedged itself under some of the dock that was so fragile it was little more than pulp. Too long and straight to be normal it resembled one of the jagged ones under the water's surface. Reaching into the cold water she dragged it out from its resting spot. Heavily calcified likely from the mineral rich ground water it was curiously familiar. Holding it up to the faint light she gasped and dropped it back into the water when she realized what it was.
She had been holding a human bone.
"Holy shit!" she blurted as she scrambled away from the water as if it were contaminated. Julia had assumed the mass of white rocks absolutely covering the bottom of the pool were just a formation oddity. With water dripping from her hanging chin she looked down at the bones and now could clearly make out skulls, rib cages, femurs under the gentle rocking surface. The remains of dozens, perhaps hundreds of people had been deposited here and their skeletons were an unspoken testament to either a long forgotten burial site, a horrid atrocity or both.
"By the gods..." she said aloud. At least now she knew why the area gave her such an ominous vibe. The gut feeling she had about this place was right on she should have listened to her instincts. Even if her life didn't depend on it Julia now had that much more incentive not to join the dead here. Working from the back wall she looked for anything she could use, any weakness in the cave's structure. Zeroing in on a shallow opening at the back wall directly across from the dock she picked her way over to it on the moist rocks. Getting down on her hands and knees she squinted into the opening to see how far it went.
Slightly heartening and dissuading at the same time she could not see the end of the flat tunnel. It would barely be large enough for her to crawl into and while Julia was no claustrophobe it would be nerve wracking for anyone to go head first into a narrow, unknown opening.
Patting herself down she felt her pocket light still clinging intrepidly to her pocket. Pulling out the water logged machine that had crossed dimensional barriers, gone up gravity elevators and was plunged into goo she held her breath as she clicked it on. The heroic light source sprang to life and breathing out a relieved sigh she kissed the little metal rectangle. Thrusting it into the tunnel she saw now that it went quite far before sloping upward out of sight. Not exactly a cozy elevator ride to the surface it was better than being here when night fell.
Firmly gripping her light and wishing she had a better plan Julia lowered herself to her belly and started crawling into the tunnel. It was surprisingly dry but unsurprisingly cramped and her arms scraped against the rough walls as she worked her way forward. It was slow going but luckily she had no other plans that day and eventually she felt the gradual shift in slope. It was a meager improvement but at least she was heading in the right direction, up.
Ahead she could hear the sound of dripping as the tunnel became more narrow. She could see an widening of the tunnel up ahead when it began to level out but the space was growing so tight she had to abandon the favorable crawling position and turn her head to the side to continue. Forcing herself along as the rough path tore at her ears and scalp her hands broke through to the opening and gave her hope. Blind from the lack of light she felt her way forward and squeezed her head through into a small chamber barely three feet wide but with a high ceiling. Tugging her hips through she took a break and held up the light to the chamber.
Here the tunnel ended and Julia's heart sank. Dirty, wet and bleeding from numerous cuts and abrasions she was no closer to escape and in fact was farther now. Rubbing her forehead with a filthy hand she looked up and the amateur cave diver found that the cave continued above her. To her complete surprise when she held up her light she saw a rope descending from the darkness above just out of reach. Hastily standing she clipped her light to the front of her pocket and jumped up to get the end of the rope. It was slightly difficult to get her grip with the gloves on but she yanked down anyway to make sure the rope wasn't going to give on her. It remained solid and Julia's hopes for getting out of the well alive soared.
As she hauled herself up the rope and gently swayed in the air she thought about the evidence of habitation and what exactly had occurred here. Someone had been to this well often enough to warrant lowering construction material down and do minor construction. It was not immediately apparent to her who was responsible for everything she had seen and what the Fater's role in it was. Was the operation topside started to exhume the remains here? Did an archeologist set all of this up himself to find answers?
Too many questions. Blocking the thoughts out for the time being she concentrated on shimmying up the rope hopefully to freedom or at least a better situation. It was relaxing in a way to shut her mind off and just climb. Perhaps it was everything weighing down on her that she able to let go of for just a little while that made her feel better.
The tunnel went up quite a way but Julia was a strong climber and before her muscles started to go tire the rock around her gave way to concrete. Stunned she kept going and the hole broke into a darkened room which she slowly lowered herself into. Stepping off the rope she put one foot on the floor of the bunker she found herself in and shifted her weight onto it. Looking up she saw that the rope was chained to the roof of the room with a sturdy set of bolts and locks. It dropped into the dark tunnel she had just come out of exactly like a fireman's pole and she did not doubt that someone came here regularly.
Julia could hardly believe what she was looking at. Here, in this most improbable of places, was a home. Rugs covered the cold floor and and dusty furniture cast long shadows as she swept her light around. To her right a large switch and towel rack waited for her and she could hardly believe what she was seeing. For fun she flipped the switch and to her surprise double rows of lights flickered on overhead to halfway blind the cave dweller. Tucking her trusty flashlight back in her pocket Julia was struck by the perfectly spaced rows of bulbs that ran the length of the some thirty foot bunker. She'd seen that kind of uniformity before: the immaculately spaced oil lamps in the heart of Nowhere. It could have just been a coincidence but she didn't believe in coincidence anymore.
In the center of the room was a large drawing desk cluttered with half finished runes and dozens of pages of furiously scribbled cursive. A bed, a old cooler and a large ham radio were set against the right side of the room. On the left was a fireplace, stacks of wood, a comfy looking lounge chair and two large bookshelves packed with decrepit books. Set up on a giant cork board by the desk were dozens of notes, papers and tacks holding them in place to form a paper wall. Directly in front of her at the other end of the bunker was a heavy set of double doors that almost made her cry with joy.
Taking the dusty towel Julia wiped herself down while looking at the chaos on the desk. Large like a painter or graphic artist's desk only level it was a total mess. Dozens of papers, notebooks and tattered newspapers were piled on top of each other so thickly that she couldn't even see the actual top of the desk. The pilgrim recognized an issue of the Tri-State Tribune, the same publication to print the story on her parent's murder at her brother's hands. Goosebumps rippled down her arm as she sifted through what had to be Nothing's work.
His handwriting was overly slanted cursive and almost unintelligible for the most part. Recalling the beautiful notes he had left for them around town they barely resembled each other but the style was clearly the same. There was a machine like perfection to what they had found as opposed the samples here which were very much written by a human.
Scattered among the writing were cargo manifests, shipping route details and contracts dated from around March 1985 right up to September 10th. Interesting but unhelpful she picked up a half finished, quite complicated rune with its crazy symbols and perfectly straight lines. She had set it down and moved away from the desk when it occurred to her that she'd just glossed over something important. Going back to the rune she studied the obsessively linear and sharp lines exactly like Victor's. Nothing's version, which she remembered clearly from the blue runes glowing on the floor of Tower as well as any other time he used them, were always curving and graceful. At one point they had been identical to Victor's. This too was significant but she could not yet fathom why.
Wrapping the towel around her shoulders and shivering slightly she inspected the books on the shelves. Not all of them had titles but the ones that did indicated the Dark Man's light reading material. Paradise Lost, Witchekraft, the Necrinomicon and books entirely in Latin like De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis, Malleus Maleficarium and Delomelanicon filled the shelves. Many had pentagrams and demonic imagery on them crammed together with Aztec, Native American and Mayan mythology. Dictionaries for Greek, Latin and Coptic were in between occult books of every stripe and Julia had no idea what to make of this. Clearly someone had spent a lot of time getting to know the guy downstairs but to what end? Didn't Silent Hill's resident cult have a monopoly on this kind of thing?
She was ready to leave this place and almost did before remembering the reason she was here. Thumbing through the shelf she did not find anything that wasn't a printed book or resembled a journal. Searching the stacks of junk on the desk, the bed, the cooler she turned the already sparse room upside down. Frustrated she plopped herself down in the comfy chair by the fire place and took a well earned break.
Closing her eyes Julia settled in and didn't realize how tired she was. When was the last time she just sat down for a second? Almost irresistibly she nodded off and was only woken by the slight sound of a light blowing wind. Yawning and stretching happily she blinked for a couple seconds as the sound continued. Honing in on it she got up and was led to the fireplace. Pushing aide the fire grate where piles of ancient black ash sat she definitely heard the sound get louder. Putting her ear under the flue she found the source of the sound. The smoke chamber led out of the bunker to the surface where air was either rushing out or in.
Leaning back Julia noticed something breaking up the random piles of ash. Gentling sifting through the long dead cinders she unearthed a single black and white composition book. Shaking it off it was in almost perfect condition somehow. Opening it with soot covered fingers she found what she was looking for. An unmarked, unnamed journal started at April 7 with no year or indication of whose it was. Flipping through it she recognized Nothing's human handwriting and noticed that entire paragraphs and sections had been scribbled over. Clearly someone had gone through it and erased all of the sensitive information but then had been left alone?
It was time to go and she couldn't be more ready. Stuffing the book in her still soaked shirt she inspected the double doors at the end of the bunker. Built at an angle like basement doors they appeared to open inwards. The locking bolts in place were heavy and numerous but she managed to pry them all open. Putting both hands on one of the doors she cranked down and yelped as the door caved in with in avalanche of soil. Julia sprang back and coughed from the sudden explosion of dust as she waved her hands in the air to attempt to dissipate some of it.
Light was coming in from over the dirt pile and she happily clawed her way out of the bunker to sweet misty air. It had never tasted so good and she looked back at the bunker to find it completely buried and otherwise undetectable except for the door. Grass and plants had long since reclaimed the top of it and without knowing where it was it would have just been another hill in the woods. Her problem now was that she had no idea where she was even though she at least wouldn't be starving to death at the bottom of a well.
She knew the direction she generally came from down under the ground but couldn't be 100% sure. Guesstimating that her path would be just to the left of the bunker she hoped to come across the well's clearing again to find her bearings. The pilrgrim started walking but it was impossible to gauge her progress and nothing looked particularly familiar as she went. Julia might as well been leading herself in circles for all she knew at this point.
After walking for some twenty minutes she was getting concerned. Threading her way past a few hardy shrubs she stopped dead in her tracks. At the edge of the mist ahead was a large blank spot the size of a boulder. A perfectly white blotch in the middle of very lively and varied shades of green and brown it had no depth or edges to it no matter what direction she looked at it from. Not in any mood to find out what would happen if she came into contact with the object she backed away before jogging the opposite direction. The pilgrim had no idea if this was the right way either but it had to be better than going near an unraveling of reality.
Trudging warily through the underbrush Julia was coming to the conclusion that she was both hopelessly lost and never coming out of these woods. She could have been twenty feet from the familiar pavement of town and not know it in this mist and bramble. There was no telling-
A crow cawing from just up ahead cut through her thoughts. "Oh, thank the gods." she said in relief. Heading the direction the call came from she moved with purpose now. Her avian adviser was never in sight but she could hear it flapping and it called again from further away. It was slow goings but her guide kept squawking to her and eventually she made it back to the welcome streets of Silent Hill. She was where she started at the edge of town and not a moment too soon as it was beginning to approach dusk.
Now would be a good time to check out the house in front of her that she wanted to take a peek at going by. Above her the crow cawed again before flapping furiously to descend onto the pavement nearby. Looking up at her with glossy black eyes it hopped closer as she smiled at the feisty creature.
"Looks like I owe you one again." she smiled. "Come on up here."
Offering her left arm like a falconer the bird jumped into the air and beat down to settle onto her forearm. "That's good." she smiled again and started scratching it on the head. "Run along now."
Lifting her arm up the bird jumped off and flew up silently into the mist. Chuckling to herself Julia finally headed into the house. Sparsely decorated and ill kept it was still a nice place if a little unimaginatively furnished. Heading upstairs she went down the hall to the master bedroom. It felt like forever since she'd truly relaxed and she felt completely at ease here. Pulling off her grimy gloves and setting them down on the small table by the door she put the journal down as well. Stripping to her underwear and dropping her bra on top of the clothes pile she crawled onto the unmade bed to get under the black sheets.
The pilgrim was asleep in minutes and when she woke much later it was dark out. Yawning and swinging her feet out onto the carpeted floor Julia fumbled in the dark for the lamp at the night stand. Hungry and still a little tired she wondered where she could get a meal at this time of night in this place. It was a shame she couldn't just call in a large pizza to eat by herself and pass out in a grease coma.
Glancing over at her pile of clothes she remembered the journal. Considering everything she went through to get it she was surprised she went to sleep before reading it. Hopping out of bed she took the notebook and tucked herself back into bed. Stacking the pillows behind her to form a comfortable reading position she cracked open the old book and began to read.