Me: And here's Chapter 10!

Rendan: About time this one came out.

Zero: Especially after that damned cliffhanger. Even if I was satisfied with Pyramid Head's actions.

Me: Well, that cliffhanger's going to be 'resolved' in this chapter.

Rendan: Why do I hate the way you said that?

Me: Dunno.

Zero: Well, there are more spoilers in this chapter, so, read at your own discretion, readers. Azard doesn't own Silent Hill or Hey Arnold! They are the respective properties of Konami and Craig Bartlett. All he owns are the plot and the monsters he creates. Hey! There's a Silent Hill reference there!

Rendan: The only ones who'll get it have played Homecoming. Or those who've done their research.

Me: True. Also, thanks for handling the disclaimer, Zero.

Zero: S'what I do.

Rendan: Correctly, hopefully.

Zero: GODDAMMIT!

Me: -snickers- Read and enjoy.

Chapter 10: A Hotel Made For Hell

Walking on the cold hard grates of the Otherworld was not fun. This was something both Arnold and Helga could attest to. The siren had blared only moments ago and the duo watched as the very ground they walked on was ripped up, leaving only a grated floor beneath them which seemed to hover over a large pit with seemingly no bottom. Arnold gulped and took the key from Helga gripping it tightly in his hands, feeling that if he dropped that item, he may just ruin their only chance of escaping from Silent Hill. Both kids kept up a steady breathing pattern, if only to keep some kind of normalcy in their walk through what was, in all other words, Hell. No trees, no grass, just a grated floor over a bottomless pit.

"H-hey, Football Head," Helga stammered out. Arnold blinked and turned to Helga. "Do you really think those notes can help us get out of this nightmare?" Arnold turned his gaze down to the pit beneath them. He didn't say anything for a while. He simply gazed down into the abyss, trying to think of what he could say. In truth, he didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to tell her.

It was entirely possible that these notes he was finding could lead them to a dead end or, worse still, to their deaths. In a place like this, that was all too real a scenario. Would these little notes help them? Could the Path of Victims really give them hints on how to escape? Arnold recalled the first note and thought on it. It had said to accept the inner darkness all of mankind possesses.

But... he didn't have any darkness inside him! Did he? Could he really turn out like Eddie? Either way, his, Helga's and Lila's journey in Silent Hill would most likely be recorded in the Path of Victims. The one thing that bothered him was how they would be remembered. Would they be remembered as survivors or just more of the damned?

"I hope so, Helga," Arnold finally replied. Helga turned her gaze toward him only to see him staring through the grates they were walking on into the abyss. "I really hope so." Helga let out a small breath as the silhouette of the hotel appeared in the distance. The radio Helga held maintained it's silence the whole way through, a small factor which brought both kids a fair amount of hope. The fewer monsters they encountered, the quicker they'd be able to escape. Then again, the words of the boy they'd met in Silent Hill rang in their ears.

"After a while, you won't be able to run anymore and when that happens, it's kill or be killed."

Arnold shuddered as that sentence rang throughout his head. He tightened his grip and started breathing slightly faster. Helga, on the other hand, was now looking at the black sky. She shut her eyes as if going into deep concentration and began to think more on the subject of actually fighting the monsters instead of just running away. She'd thought about this once before, though she was quickly brought out of her musings when she remembered she had a job to do at the time. She shook her head, resolving to cross that bridge when she came back to it.

They approached the hotel on the side, finding the only door leading inside was locked. Arnold shakily took the key in his hand and placed it in the lock. Hearing that beautiful click when the lock was undone, he pushed the door open, revealing the pitch blackness of the hotel. They walked inside and began to check rooms, once more, finding a solid majority of them locked. In one of the rooms they'd been able to walk in, they found the furniture stacked to allow access to the above floor via a hole in the ceiling.

Arnold and Helga explored the rest of the floor, finding the way they'd prefer to take upstairs to be completely destroyed. Another thing they noticed was the two dead bodies in front of the staircase. One was of a Nurse like the one they'd seen at the hospital, only it was missing its head, and the other was a creature they'd never seen before. It looked to be missing an arm and, if what they guessed was true, that thing sticking out of its head was its other arm. Helga shuddered at the sheer brutality of the scene in front of them while Arnold found his hands tightening around the handle of his bat.

"Who did this?" Helga asked in no more than a whisper. Arnold audibly gulped.

"M-maybe Lila and AJ came through here," Arnold said, though even he didn't think the boy traveling with Lila would be capable of doing this. Not with that knife he had anyway. The two turned around and headed back into the room with the stacked furniture. They climbed up the makeshift ladder and walked around the second floor, running into a large tear in the floor that was too large to jump across. From the looks of it, they'd have to find a way onto the other side of the floor through one of the rooms.

Sadly for them, the only room that was not only unlocked but had a way onto the other half of the floor looked like it was a war zone. Dead bodies littered the floor. Some bodies belonged to Nurses while others belonged to that weird monster they'd seen dead on the first floor. Another odd thing was the broken shovel lying in two separate places in the room. The metal head was lying on the floor with a large red splotch on it while the longer end was standing upright inside of a Nurse's head. One body, however, stuck out from all the others. The body itself was about their height if not slightly bigger. Just like the body Arnold and Helga had seen in the school, this body was also skinned with several bones sticking out at random places. Two things that made this body different, however, were the hatchet in its right hand and the crudely altered military vest it was wearing.

"Arnold..." Helga began, "you don't think..." Helga couldn't even bring herself to finish that statement.

"I... don't know," Arnold admitted. He walked closer to the body and examined it. After a moment, he nodded his head solemnly. "It's him. This is his vest." Arnold didn't have to say who it was; they both knew. After a short moment of silence, since it was all they could afford to spend, Arnold reached down and pulled off the vest from the body.

"Criminy, Football Head! How about some respect for the dead?" Helga all but shouted. Arnold kept his back to her as he pulled the vest, with great difficulty, over his head and over his shirt. He turned back to Helga and stared at her with serious eyes. His eyes were more serious than any she'd ever seen before.

"Anything to survive in this place," was all he said. Helga couldn't be sure but, for a moment, she saw AJ standing next to Arnold saying the exact same thing. She remembered that he had said it when they'd first met. Arnold looked up to the rubble blocked doorway. He climbed up and looked through the hole. "He was trapped." Helga shot her gaze from the dead body to Arnold. "He couldn't fit trough the hole and so he fought until his death. He didn't even have enough time to try and make the opening larger before the things attacked."

"What about Lila?" Helga asked, shocking Arnold slightly in the process. When did she really care about Lila? He turned to face her, the shock still present on his face. Helga noticed the look in his eyes and commented. "Hey, I may not like her but she doesn't deserve to die in a place like this!" Arnold shifted his gaze back to the hole and started to move some of the rubble aside, making the hole bigger. When it was finally big enough for him to get through, he climbed through with Helga following him shortly after. The two took a final look back at the final resting place for their ally and moved forward.

"Lila would've been able to get through that hole," Arnold stated. "He might've told her to escape while he fought all those monsters." Helga looked to Arnold and nodded. As they walked through the hotel, they heard a soft crying coming from one of the rooms. It was faint but just loud enough for them to hear. They followed the sound to the room where it was the loudest and easily opened the door. Once the door opened, the crying stopped. Arnold and Helga looked at each other before carefully walking inside. One thing that they noticed, though, was that there was no static on the radio.

"Do you think–?" Helga began in a whisper.

"Let's find out," Arnold whispered back. "Lila? Are you in here?" There was nothing but silence for a second until a meek voice was heard.

"A- Arnold? Is that you?" There was no doubt about it. That was Lila.

"It's okay, Lila. It's me and Helga." Arnold suddenly found himself tackled by Lila who grabbed him in a hug.

"I can't believe you're okay!" Lila happily cried. She looked and smiled at Helga but her face fell when she noticed the lack of a third person in their party. "Where is he?" It was only then when she noticed a particular garment Arnold was wearing that he was not wearing before. Even worse, it was exactly what AJ wore, with the tear on the left side from when the Jilt tried to stab him. "W-where did you get that vest?" Helga and Arnold could hear the dread in her voice. Helga sighed as her gaze shifted to the floor, finding it very interesting. Arnold shut his eyes and shook his head back and forth slowly.

"I'm sorry," Arnold sincerely said. "He's dead. We found his body in the room with the door blocked off by the rubble." Lila dropped to her knees and started crying. She wasn't even sure why she was crying as hard as she was. No, she knew why. AJ'd lied to her, even if he didn't mean to. He was supposed to train her! He was supposed to help her escape with Arnold and Helga! They were all supposed to escape!

"It's my fault..." Lila whispered to herself. Unfortunately for her, Arnold and Helga heard her.

"It's not your fault, Lila," Arnold began.

"Yeah. There's nothing you could've done. If you had stayed, you would both be dead in there." That didn't make Lila feel any better.

"I could've tried!" She shouted, tears still falling from her eyes. "I could've helped him fight! I could've... I- I could've..." Lila's voice became overcome with sorrow as she began to cry, her sobs drowning out the words she wanted to say. Arnold and Helga helped Lila to her feet and helped her steady herself. "It's my fault..."

Arnold and Helga looked at Lila with no small amount of sympathy. They could understand, even if only a little, why she felt this way. She had been there. However, what they couldn't understand is why she'd stay back if she was only going to get herself killed.

"Lila," Arnold began. Lila looked up to him, her eyes still full with tears. "Don't let his sacrifice be in vain. He stayed back while you got away so you could escape from this place. Don't let his final gift to you be for nothing." Though her eyes were still full of tears, she nodded lightly, but Helga could see something in the way Lila carried herself at this point. She blamed herself for AJ's death.

She blamed herself because he sacrificed himself so she could live. There was one other thing that Helga noticed that had her think about Lila's mental state as it was. She had AJ's combat knife in her hands. How had she missed that before? If Lila blamed herself for his death, would she go so far as to kill herself?

"Hey, Football Head," Helga whispered, getting Arnold's attention. She walked up to him and whispered in his ear so Lila wouldn't hear. "She has AJ's knife in her hands. Do you think she'll... you know... kill herself because she feels guilty?"

"Stop talking crazy, Helga!" Arnold shouted. In truth, he'd only done that as a means to make it appear that he wouldn't even consider the possibility. After reading the two forms for the Path of Victims, however, he honestly wasn't so sure. It was possible, especially if Silent Hill affected a broken mind the way it affected Eddie Dombrowski. Lila seemed broken over a sacrifice, so how was she going to handle everything else this town was capable of doing to someone? He shook his head. "C'mon, Lila. From now on we have to stick together." Lila nodded and followed Arnold and Helga as they quickly searched the room and moved on to the rest of the floor.

The trio entered another room that was open, finding it to be nearly empty except for a large bloody hole in the wall. When Helga went to examine it, she saw something shiny inside and heard a low growl or perhaps some kind of roar come from it as well. Helga gulped and slowly backed away from the hole. As she backed up, she knocked over a small item on a dresser and it fell to the floor with a resounding crash. Amongst the shattered pieces was a small key. Arnold walked over to the shattered item and picked up the key.

As the three walked throughout the hotel, the radio stayed suspiciously quiet. It was somewhat odd, considering just where they were and how many monsters Lila had seen before. Where did they all go? Did they simply vanish or... were they lying in wait for the three students?

Lila kept moving her eyes back and forth as they walked through the hotel. Eventually they found a way to get up to the third floor. Surprisingly, it was a staircase that wasn't broken. Without a word they moved up to the third floor, hopefully to find something that could be helpful to them. As they reached the third floor they heard the static on the radio suddenly spike but saw no monsters. There was one thing, however, that seemed out of place. They heard a bird chirping. After a moment, the static stopped as did the bird's chirping. Lila started breathing heavily much to the confusion of Arnold and Helga.

"We have to hide," Lila said softly. "Quickly!"

"Why?" Helga asked.

"That bird is used by The Order! They're close!" Arnold and Helga opened the nearest room and rushed inside it. Barely a moment later the three students heard footsteps walking by the door and down the steps, followed by chirping, bloodcurdling screams and the sound of something hitting the floor. The students visibly paled. Arnold stood back up after a moment and looked around the room, finding a few health drinks and some metal ammo for Helga.

The rest of the floor wasn't much better. Most of the rooms on the floor were accessible but had nothing of value in them. At the end of the floor was a final door that was locked. Arnold pulled out the key and unlocked the door. The door, surprisingly, swung open the second it was unlocked. They entered cautiously and looked around. In the room was a small television set that, for whatever reason, was turned on with a large armchair sitting in front of it. On the chair was another note. Arnold picked it up and read its contents.

Surprise, surprise, you actually decided to come here. You've got guts, Arnold, I'll give you that. What? You thought I didn't know who you were? Who do you think wrote these notes? I know EVERYTHING, Arnold. That's beside the point. You're reading this to learn about James Sunderland, correct? Correct. Ah, where to begin with this basket case? Well, for starters, he came here to search for his wife. Normally, that may seem rather normal, right? Well, it was different for one huge reason. His wife was dead. That's right. She was dead. In fact, in his twisted fantasy she'd been dead for years.

Now why did I say she was dead for years in his fantasy? Simple, really. She had died very recently. Possibly within a week recently, yet James had convinced himself that his wife, Mary, had been dead for years. Actually, he fought her right on top of this very hotel... or... was it Maria that he fought? Hard to remember in this place, sometimes, especially when dealing with such a... special case. The reason I say special is because no one knows what happened to him. No one knows if James survived or joined the ranks of the damned. He just... vanished. Well, to say the least, he was a truly messed up case. The man killed his own wife and convinced himself that the illness she was afflicted with did it.

In fact, it's because of him that Pyramid Head is here. If you haven't met him yet consider yourself lucky. Not many meet him and live to talk about it. I'd dare say NONE do anymore. The guilt James felt for the murder of his wife gave birth to the eternal avenger known as Pyramid Head. No, avenger is the wrong word. PUNISHER. That word works better. He's drawn to anyone that feels guilty for something or feels that they should be punished. If you know someone with either or both of those emotions, feelings, whatever you wish to call them, be careful. Pyramid Head could be following you right now.

Anyway, your next target is Harry Mason. To find the next form you'll have to backtrack a bit. This next form is back in the elementary school. Be careful though, I hear something truly terrifying tends to walk the halls of that school.

Arnold looked down at the form in horror. What kind of person could actually do the things that the form mentioned? The very thought that all of this was true was more than enough to drain all of the color from Arnold's face. He looked directly at Lila who he knew was feeling guilty for what had happened earlier.

"Lila," he began, making Lila turn to face him, "what do you know about... Pyramid Head?" The very fact that Lila's face lost all color in a split second told him that this figure was nothing that should be trifled with. Lila was about to answer until a siren blared in the distance. That was the last thing any of them heard before the world went black.

Me: And that's the chapter. Arnold, Helga and Lila fall deeper into the madness of Silent Hill and I get to have me a cup of hot chocolate.

Rendan: You're a jackass.

Me: Why do you say that?

Zero: AJ basically promised Lila he'd train her and you KILLED HIM OFF!

Me: Oh well. Too fucking bad.

Rendan: Seriously?

Me: Seriously.

Zero: Have you no soul?

Me: Nope. Sold that roughly... ten years ago. Got me a pop-tart out of it. Oh wait, maybe that was what I sold recently for that cupcake.

Rendan: I think he's finally lost it.

Zero: Took him long enough. Especially if he's writing for fucking SILENT HILL!

Me: Nope, I haven't lost it... yet.

Rendan: Well, you're still insane.

Me: That is my job, after all. Anyway, I think that'll do it for this time.

Zero: Be good-

Rendan: And be safe, everyone!

Me: I'm outta here!