Me: Chapter 5 is up.

Zero: You've been updating this one quite a lot.

Rendan: Well, Silent Hill appeals to his psychotic nature. It helps his muse greatly.

Zero: Shit, I'm not complaining. I happen to like the bloody scenes.

Me: Well, I'm glad I have your approval.

Zero: All right, I'll handle the disclaimer.

Rendan: Here we go again.

Zero: Shut up! Azard doesn't own Silent Hill or Hey Arnold! They are owned by Konami and Craig Bartlett respectively. The only things he owns are his OCs, the plot, and the monsters he creates.

Me: It's been a while since you did that.

Zero: And it feels good to finally do it.

Rendan: Correctly, I might add.

Zero: Shut up, dammit!

Me: Anyway, read and enjoy.

Chapter 5: The Executioner Appears

Lila and AJ continued following the path adjacent to the lake until they reached the main part of the town. Several buildings appeared boarded up, their open doors boarded up by multiple planks. Those not boarded up were locked or the locks were broken far beyond what could be repaired. In short, Silent Hill was something akin to a ghost town at this point... a ghost town filled with monsters, anyway.

The duo proceeded on until they stood in front of the Silent Hill Police Station. The building appeared to be much like the others with its construction appearing to be somewhere near the early fifties or even earlier. However akin to the other buildings it appeared, showing no age or sign of former habitation other than a few doors being boarded up, it stood out in that its primary door was slightly ajar.

"Someone's been through here," AJ stated gravely. Lila glanced toward her companion.

"Isn't that a good thing?" She questioned.

"Not exactly. Silent Hill isn't exactly a place where everyone you meet can be trusted."

"Why do you say that?" Lila examined her companion only to find his eyes had become fixed into a silent fury directed into the abyss that was the Fog World. His hands were balled up into fists, his body became tense and he began to breathe angrily. Lila backed up slightly, fearful that her questions had somehow angered him. After a moment of silence, AJ visually relaxed gave her a sidelong glance.

"Experience," he said with a venomous tone. "That's why I'm here in the first place. Someone I thought I could trust betrayed me. Then this place called out to me and here I am." Lila nodded, still slightly afraid of what an obviously combat trained individual would do if and when angered and there was certainly one of those individuals currently in her company. "Don't worry about it, let's keep moving."

AJ walked over to the ajar metal door and eased it open slowly, getting a loud creak from the rusty hinges. He peeked inside and walked in before motioning for Lila to follow. She kept her pace even with his, walking only a foot or so behind him.

The station was quiet, a factor that, on its own, made Lila feel uneasy. The very idea that a normal beacon of safety could be inhabited by the creatures that chased her and her friends through the streets of Silent Hill, what seemed like, an hour ago was far from unsettling. By the computer on a receptionist's desk was a map of the building, something that would certainly be useful. Lila walked over and retrieved it as a precaution.

They followed the only hallway that led to the rest of the building. The first rooms the two encountered were offices of lower level officers. Lila checked the rooms only to find a majority of them locked. The only door open led into a room that was, for lack of a better word, destroyed.

The chair was knocked over and pushed toward a filing cabinet on the back left of the room. The desk was split in two with one end lying on its side and the other was turned upside down. Several drawers were sprawled across the floor, all of them lying on a pool of dried blood. Lila tried her hardest not to recoil in disgust at the amount of blood and even harder not to faint on the spot.

She had never seen this amount before even in her most horrible of nightmares but was now dealing with a very real living nightmare. Behind the desk was another mutilated body, this one split in half vertically, giving both kids a view on the inner workings of the human body. The body appeared to have been split in half by a large weapon of some kind. Hanging on one of the body's ribs was a rusty old key on a string. AJ retrieved the key and took a good long look at it.

"A key?" Lila asked incredulously. That was certainly not what she'd expected to find on... in a dead body.

"I've found stranger," AJ commented, smartly keeping the fact that he'd found his knife inside of a dead body's stomach a secret. "Come on, let's go to the Chief's office. There should be something there we can use." They walked out of the room and continued on. AJ lead the way almost effortlessly through the station, never once stopping to check the map they'd picked up at the receptionist's desk. Lila was slightly shocked that he'd had such an extensive knowledge of the station.

'Has he been here before?' Lila thought as they walked up to the second floor of the station and toward the front. They walked toward the door with 'Chief's Office' scrawled on the door. They paused momentarily only to hear a loud static erupting from the room. AJ jiggled the doorknob only to find that the door was locked. He pulled out the key and unlocked the door before he opened it to face the monstrosity waiting for them inside.

Elsewhere, Arnold and Helga were making their way toward the Town Hall, keeping a sensitive ear for any static that would suddenly assault their ears. They crossed over a slightly decrepit bridge. Parts of it had fallen off and into the river below and the cracks that most likely caused the fall were still evident and had spread to a good portion of the bridge. Arnold kept his eyes glued to the map, taking careful steps to make sure they headed in the correct direction. Helga, on the other hand was getting disturbed by the silence.

"Hey Football Head, how about you say something?" Helga asked. Arnold looked at her quizzically. "It's too quiet around here. At least some talking would help calm my nerves. At least static suddenly coming from the radio will be one hundred times less freaky if there was some sort of noise going on."

"The quiet's getting to you." It was a statement, not a question.

"That and the fog. It's so thick I can barely see three feet in front of me." Arnold let out a small chuckle, further annoying Helga.

"All right then. What do you want to talk about?"

"Those notes you found in the school," Helga began. "What were they about?" Arnold glanced downward as the color once again drained from his face at the memory of what he'd read.

"You saw the note that said The Order was looking to create a guardian right?" Helga nodded. "Well, the first paper was one of them saying they'd succeeded. They created quite possibly the strongest monster to exist in Silent Hill. According to The Order, no monster in either the Fog World or Otherworld should be able to stand against him. They'd apparently gone all out in making the ultimate protector."

"Criminy," Helga breathed out. "What about the second?" Arnold's face became more pale.

"The second paper was cut off at one point. Blood blocked out a good portion of the note, or what I think was a good portion. The Order realized that in creating the Guardian, he'd retained his own free will. They knew he'd become a problem and sent someone to retrieve some kind of 'purification liquid' so they could kill him and start over. But apparently he got loose and killed them all."

"Leave it to a stupid cult to make a mistake like that."

"The last form was what terrified me the most. That body that fell out of the closet was probably an Order member that the Guardian found and killed. It basically said that only the 'purification liquid' can kill him now. They think they've created a literally unstoppable creature since the liquid went missing and it kills anyone it wants to." Arnold pulled out the form he'd pocketed. "This part worries me the most. 'We must always be careful, for one of his strongest abilities proves to be deeply troubling. It is what makes him a true guardian and protector. I fear we may never be able to destroy what we've created, the ultimate monster. For any of our brothers who may be reading this, be wary or the Guardian will find you. If he does, pray your death will be quick.' Honestly, if it's that bad, we really are walking in a deathtrap."

"How can it possibly get any worse?" Helga shouted.

"In one way. The Order believes the monsters are either too afraid to attack the Guardian, or in some way he's learned to control them."

"So the Guardian could be sending the monsters to kill us?"

"That seems to be the case but maybe we can avoid him if we're careful enough," Arnold mused.

"I hope we can. I'd hate to end up like that body." Arnold and Helga walked off the bridge and found themselves in front of the Silent Hill Police Station. The doors were closed and several of them were boarded up. "Shouldn't a police station have information on the town?"

"It might. Let's check it out." No sooner than Arnold had said that, the sound of shattering glass assaulted their ears as a monster plummeted from a second floor window and landed, head first, on the concrete, sending gore across the pavement.

"Forget that, Football Head! Run away!" Helga cried as she ran away from the station as fast as she could. Arnold simply followed her, running for his very life. At the broken window, however, someone's head popped out to watch two retreating figures run into the fog.

"What the hell?" AJ asked.

"That sounded like Arnold and Helga," Lila said.

"I think it was and they just ran off into the fog." He looked down at the monster currently splattered across the pavement. "Well, that thing isn't going to be bothering anyone ever again." The chief's office, like the subordinate's, was in utter disarray. The difference here was the state the dead body was in. The body was perfectly whole but a dull roar of static seemed to be coming from inside the body. "Did– did he swallow the walkie talkie?"

"Why would he do that?" Lila questioned.

"No idea. Let me borrow the knife for a second." Lila handed AJ the knife, to which he plunged the blade into the body's stomach before slowly cutting up to the chest. After wiping the blade and giving it back to Lila, he stuck his hand into the body and searched it much to Lila's evident disgust, so much so she almost emptied the contents of her stomach. After a moment or so he found what he was looking for, a walkie talkie with a note attached to it. "And you thought the key was weird."

"This place is full of surprises, isn't it?" AJ nodded as he removed the note and handed it to Lila. Out of curiosity, she opened and read it.

April 22nd

That boy came back this morning. He came yesterday as well talking about how some weird guys talking to him about becoming a protector for their God have been stalking him for the past day or so. Funny how he doesn't seem to know or suspect just who is a member of The Order and just who their allies are. I've contacted the sect and we've decided on ambushing him here. I can't be certain but something about that boy may prove to be an issue later. Oh well, better not to discuss it, lest Dahlia decide to use me as a guinea pig instead. Better him than me right? Right. If all goes according to plan he'll be in our possession sometime by tomorrow. For the greater good, let's pray it doesn't take too much longer.

Lila almost had a tear come to her eye. To think that someone who was supposed to protect the people of a town was essentially sending an innocent kid to his death. To her surprise another piece of paper was behind the other. She placed the first paper behind the second and read it.

April 23rd

He came back again at three o'clock this morning. Thankfully we're always open and he returned or else we would've had to take more drastic measures in his acquisition. I could see the smiles on the officers' faces as our members dragged him out to their lab. Hell, I was smiling as he came back to my office and two of our members jumped him. The confusion and pain in his eyes is something I will savor for the rest of my days. Maybe now he'll learn to be more careful. Oh wait, no he won't. Either they'll turn him into the protector we need or someone else will have that distinct honor. Should he die we'll just start over again. We do have several years after all. Time is certainly on our side.

That did it. Lila felt a few tears fall from her eyes at what she'd just read. The boy who'd been chosen to be the Guardian was betrayed by the very people all parents tell their children they can trust. The police. Her mind wondered just how many people had been tricked or coerced into joining The Order.

"Lila?" AJ questioned. "Are you okay?" Lila glanced up from the forms to see her companion looking at her with concern. She quickly wiped her eyes and regained her composure.

"I'm fine," She assured him. "It's just, the things people do..." Lila held out the papers and AJ took and read them. She noticed his hands tense slightly as his eyes danced across the forms. He silently handed them back and gave Lila a sympathetic glance.

"Welcome to Silent Hill," was all he said in response to the forms. "Let's keep moving." The two walked out of the office only to be ambushed by the loud static as well as a loud scraping sound. AJ stopped dead in his tracks and pushed Lila back into a nearby office and carefully looked out the glass window.

A large, imposing figure trudged slowly down the hallway, his movements slow thanks to the large near seven foot blade he carried behind him with one hand. The figure appeared to be about seven feet tall, wore no shirt and had some type of red substance coating his arms from the elbow down. He wore what looked like the lower half of a flesh-colored robe around his waist that fell to the floor and covered his feet. On his head appeared to be a large, pyramid like helmet that covered his entire head and seemed to have been painfully grafted onto his head. The figure twitched as he walked, as if in serious pain from the object on his head.

"What is that?" Lila whispered. She looked toward her companion to see him shaking in fear. This was a person who took a dead body falling on him calmly and fought monsters without issue, yet this creature had him trembling in fear.

"Pyramid Head," AJ simply replied. "He's the strongest monster in Silent Hill." He looked toward Lila and guessed at her next questions. "That red stuff on his arms is blood." Lila paled as she heard that. "And that robe like clothing he wears is literally made from human flesh." Lila had to go to the corner to empty the contents of her stomach in relative peace. After she got to see her lunch for the second time, she re-approached her companion.

"Why don't you just fight him like you did the other monsters?"

"Because that's a death sentence. Nobody fights Pyramid Head and lives to tell the tale anymore. I've seen more people than you can imagine die at his hands, monsters too." AJ pointed toward his military vest. "This vest was worn by one of his victims. Cut him in half near the waist. Pyramid Head seems to have a will of his own and only attacks certain people."

"So he may not be after us?"

"He may or he may not but I'm not willing to take that risk. If he corners you, it's all over. Nothing can kill him. He's died once but that's only because he killed himself. Then, he came back bigger and stronger than ever. Now he's everyone's worst nightmare. All I know is, if he's after you, run as fast as you can and never look back."

Pyramid Head turned his attention to the room the two kids hid in, turning his entire body to see their terrified expressions. He stared directly at them, not moving and keeping his gaze fixed upon them. After a quick moment of silence that felt like an eternity, he turned and continued on his way. Lila and AJ fell to the floor and began to breathe heavily, for they had just stared death in the face and lived to talk about it.

Me: And that's the chapter.

AJ: For fuck's sake man! Pyramid Head? We're all fucked now!

Me: Maybe, maybe not. Okay, I'm just going to say this now, the only monsters that Konami themselves created that will appear in this story have almost all been introduced. There is only one other monster and she's appearing in the next chapter. In case you haven't already guessed, here's another hint, she's a staple of Silent Hill.

Zero: Aren't you making that too obvious?

Me: I really don't care. It seems like you can't have a Silent Hill story without them really. Also, one other thing I want to point out. AJ keeps telling Lila to keep moving because she is easily frightened by the creatures and the situation she finds her friends and herself in isn't helping matters. In a sense, her timidity is currently preventing her from acting without some sort of catalyst which was proven before. As long as he keeps moving her along, Lila's able to keep her head on straight for a while longer and not worry too much about what she'll see.

Rendan: And that, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that she has her own guardian to watch out for her?

Me: That... may be a factor as well.

Rendan: Well, it is a point. Besides all of that, I'm curious to see how good old Pyramid Head factors in and what role he plays.

Me: Oh, he's playing a pretty... disturbing role, especially when it's revealed why he's there in the first place. But, like anything good, that won't be revealed for a good long time. Well, that'll do it for this week.

Rendan: Be good–

Zero: And be safe, everyone!

Me: I'm outta here!