AJ: Chapter 11 is up!

Rendan: W-What the hell are you doing here?

AJ: Well, this is my story isn't it?

Zero: Well... it was until you died.

AJ: What's your point?

Rendan: How exactly are you so calm about this?

AJ: Maybe because everything happens for a reason. Azard knows what he's doing.

Zero: That's debatable.

Me: -appears out of nowhere- I heard that.

Rendan and Zero: HOLY SHIT!

AJ: Nice entrance.

Me: I thought so too.

AJ: I've got the disclaimer. Azard doesn't own Silent Hill or Hey Arnold. They are owned by Konami and Craig Bartlett respectively. All he owns are the OCs that'll eventually appear, the monsters he's created and the plot.

Me: Thank you. Well, without further delay, read and enjoy.

Chapter 11: The Order

Silence. Something the three students were by far used to in the town of Silent Hill. Normally, they considered it a blessing. In this case however, it was anything but. Arnold and Helga immediately knew where they were from what they saw when they opened their eyes. They were in the lair of The Order. They attempted to move to no avail. Arnold, Helga and Lila had been placed in separate chairs with their arms and legs strapped down. It wasn't much longer before they heard Lila whimpering next to them.

Arnold turned his head to face the red head. Her eyes wide open with terror, she began to thrash wildly in an attempt to free herself. No good. Like the others, the bonds holding Lila kept her immobile. She looked to her right to see Arnold looking at her. Her breathing steadied slightly at seeing Arnold attempt to give her a calm stare. Obviously an attempt to help the poor girl relax.

The three took the opportunity to look around, getting a better grip of their surroundings. The room they were in appeared to be some type of medical lab. On several of the counters around the room were multiple vials, some with odd liquid in them. What it was, however, was up for speculation.

Several bloodied tools sat around in various areas around the room. The blades that hung over the edge of the counters all dripped blood on the floor in an almost synchronized drip. The life sustaining fluid puddled just underneath the dripping weapons, some of it starting form a small stream leading to the chairs the three were strapped to. The blood seemed to be beckoning to the kids, inviting the blood in their own bodies to join that which was already spilled, sending horrific chills up their spines.

The door to the room was open, a surprise considering most of the rooms themselves were normally locked and they'd never seen this room. Outside the door could be described as pure darkness. That was all that was able to be seen. A long, dark hallway stretching for who knew how long. With the predicament the three were in, it certainly seemed endless, almost engulfing, really.

The darkness itself seemed as if it was plotting to draw them into its abyss where they would suffer for eternity. Thankfully for them the room was lit, albeit barely. A dim light shined from behind them, casting an eerie orange glow on the room.

"So, you're all finally awake," a voice called from the darkness. As the three stared out into the darkened hallway, a figure began to form and emerge from the darkness, then two and three up to seven. The first three that entered were clearly adults. From height alone, that much was obvious. The three took positions around the three trapped students. The tallest, appearing to be in his late thirties, standing directly in front of them while the other two flanked the three.

The oldest of the initial trio, the one standing in front of them, appeared to be a man in his late twenties. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a plaid shirt. He had dark eyes and short nearly black hair. He had a muscular face but held an eerie gentleness to it. He stood with his back to the darkness, halfway submerged in the shadows leaving nothing behind him visible.

The other two appeared to be siblings or possibly twins, most likely in their late teens. Their facial features were exactly alike. They both had dirty blond hair with dull blue eyes. They even wore the same clothes, blue jeans with a dark red shirt. The other four stood perfectly symmetrical on either side of the man staring at the trio.

Something about the other four was off, though. They were only as tall as Arnold, Helga and Lila, perhaps a bit shorter. All of them were garbed in black robes that reached the ground. The robes had hoods which were all concealing the faces of the four short Order members. Arnold, Helga and Lila stared at the short members in a sort of horror. Silently, they hoped that the robed figures weren't what the trio thought they were.

"Who among the four of you can tell me who these three in our presence are?" The Order member on the left of the students asked.

"Heretics," the four robed figures answered in perfectly synchronized monotone, confirming the fears of the trio. The robed figures were just kids.

"And what does She say should happen to any heretics and non-believers?" The middle man questioned.

"They must repent to God or be killed," the four replied, again, in perfect sync. "They must follow the order of God as She decreed to truly be saved. Should they not, eternal damnation awaits them. Whether by our hands or theirs, they will follow God or die." That small factor alone scared the hell out of Helga, Arnold and Lila. They were only kids and were brainwashed into believing the insanity that was The Order.

"That is correct, children of God," the member to the right of the students praised while keeping his eyes on the them. His smile seemed calm which made it all the more terrifying. The fact that he was prepared to hurt and kill without care, a trait best suited for serial killers and sociopaths.

This trait, however, seemed common for Silent Hill which was a factor that was repeatedly and rapidly becoming more evident the longer they stayed here. The man standing directly in front of the trio leaned closer to the them with a soft, uncaring smile.

"What say you, children?" The middle cultist queried. "Will you cast aside your heathen ways and join The Order? It would be a shame to waste such valuable life when you could simply join us and bask in Her glory." His expression never changed as he spoke. He'd done something similar before, that much was clear. The students didn't answer, prompting the cultist to turn to the four children standing next to him. "Go along, young ones. I shall call you if you are to end a heretic's existence this day."

The children bowed lowly and filed out, one behind the other, walking directly into the darkness before vanishing in its infinite blackness. The middle cultist turned back to his prisoners.

"W-well," Arnold stuttered, coming up with a hasty plan, "what does joining The Order do for us?" The cultists smiled widely.

"Salvation," he replied in an elated tone. It was as if he truly believed his answer. Arnold noticed this and, thinking on his feet, decided to distract the cultists until either Helga or Lila could think of some kind of way to escape.

"You enlighten your youth as early as possible," Arnold stated in a serious tone, leaving Helga and Lila staring at him wide-eyed.

'He can't be seriously buying this crap!' Helga thought. 'No, he's not... He's stalling! Alright, let's see, how can we get out of this mess?' Helga immediately started to look at their predicament and looked for anything that could possibly give them some chance at escape. Unfortunately, she couldn't find one.

"Of course, young heathen," the cultist commented. "We teach them as early as possible, so that they too may be accepted into Her loving embrace!" The cultists surrounding the three students grinned. The cultist looked at the trio almost sadly for a moment. "It's a pity that the fourth of your group has died. He would've made an excellent convert."

Lila dropped her head, the pain still fresh, as she looked to her hands; the very hands that failed to protect someone, the same hands that were indirectly responsible for the death of a friend. Arnold looked from Lila to the cultist, finding a malevolent glint in his sorrowful expression. His eyes betrayed a look of fear as realization suddenly sunk in.

'He's playing to her emotions,' Arnold realized. What made matters worse was that he was good at what he did. This man knew fully well how to take a the most pained emotions and use them to make that individual do what suited his needs. A terrifying yet potent and powerful skill.

"We offered him salvation," the cultist continued, "yet he repeatedly denied our generous offers. We could've protected him. After all, we watch out for our own. We are all Her children." Helga, by this time, was at her breaking point. There was only so much bullshit she could take before she snapped and that last monologue did it.

"What a load of crap!" Helga angrily shouted. The three cultists all focused their eyes on her.

"Care to explain what is, as you say, 'crap', young heathen?" The center cultist questioned in an eerily calm tone, as if his anger was still brewing inside of him and he was looking for an excuse to let it all loose.

"You people watch out for your own," Helga said calmly. "If you watch out for each other like you say you do, then why does the Guardian kill you off as easily as he does? He can walk in anywhere and kill as many of you as he sees fit! If you really watch out for each other, why haven't you prevented any of these deaths? In fact, it's because you're members of this stupid cult that the Guardian targets you! We'd be better off on our own than following some loons like you!" Helga's voice rose into a defiant yell as her tirade went on. The cultists, however, remained unreadable through everything. Anything they could've been thinking was a complete mystery as their faces betrayed no emotion. They merely stared with dull eyes.

Arnold looked from Helga to the cultist repeatedly, wondering what course of action he'd take. The cultist moved up to Helga and cupped her face with one of his hands. He smiled grimly at her as he turned her face left and right, examining her. The cultist released his grip as he turned around and stared into the black hallway, the smile never leaving his face.

All of this seemed to have an effect on Lila, though. She had ceased staring at her hands and was now glaring defiantly at the cultists, her eyes still brimming with tears from the still fresh wound they reminded her of. Arnold could only stare at Lila in a small amount of disbelief. All was quiet for a moment, a deadly, deafening silence that seemed to last for an eternity. What ended the silence, however, made everyone jump.

An earsplitting, bloodcurdling scream erupted from the darkness. The voice itself crying in a pain never before brought to man. The cultists stiffened.

"You!" The center cultist pointed at one of the twins. "Go check out there!" The twin nodded and walked out of the room into the darkened hallway. Again, there was only silence. Everyone in the room was becoming unnerved, expecting another scream to pierce through the darkness, but nothing ever came. The cultist that had left stalked back into the room with a shrug.

"I couldn't find anything, sir," he stated. The oldest cultist turned himself back to face the students instead of facing the darkness, fear and worry etched on his once emotionless face. The twins stiffened as another figure started to emerge from the darkness. To their relief, it was one of the Order children, one that was slightly taller than the three prisoners. He wore his hooded robe so it concealed his face just as the others did.

"My apologies," the child said in a clearly male but somewhat sickly voice. "I... had a nightmare." The cultists looked down to the child and rubbed his hooded head.

"Be peaceful, child," he attempted to console the boy. "One day, the Guardian shall die and we will have nothing further to truly fear in Silent Hill."

"What about Pyramid Head?" Arnold asked. All Order members in the room visibly stiffened. The center cultist looked up to Arnold.

"That monstrosity lives?" He all but cried. "N-No! That can't be! That monster died years ago!" The small cultist tilted his head slightly before quickly righting it, as if the statement confused him somewhat. "Suddenly the deaths of our brethren make sense. If the Guardian didn't do it, that monster certainly did. The immortal punisher of Silent Hill."

"We will never be safe," the child spoke cryptically, making the other three cultists look to him. "Even if the Guardian dies, Pyramid Head will hunt us... forever."

"T-that isn't true, my child," one of the dirty blonde cultists said.

"He is right," the center cultist stated. "Once She comes to us, she'll end the punisher's eternal reign, a new era of life shall begin. One without sin, without guilt and without worry."

'The more they talk, the crazier they sound,' Helga mused. Helga was watching the youngest cultist carefully. His concealed face seemed to be scanning her and her friends, almost as if he was expecting them to do something... or perhaps there was another reason. Lila was still staring, terrified, at the darkness. She looked to the robed child in disbelief, not believing that one so young could release a scream that terrifying.

The three adults shook their heads and retook their positions around the trio of prisoners. The child, however stepped behind the center cultist and effectively vanished into the darkness. However, there was something that caught the students' eyes. A flash of something possibly made of steel, followed by a cry of pain as the center cultist found himself pierced through the stomach by a blade. The robed child reached into the cultist's pocket with his left hand and pulled out a six-shot revolver, a snub nose 357. He turned to the cultist on the left, the fastest draw, and shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in the head.

The final cultist pulled out a pistol and opened fire on the child. He swung himself around with the cultist he'd pierced and let every bullet fired hit his human shield, though no shot on its own was fatal. The child raised the revolver and shot the final three bullets, nearly mirroring his previous kill; two shots in the chest, one of which pierced the cultist's heart and a final bullet placed between the eyes. The child cleanly slid the blade from the stomach of the Order member he'd pierced, letting him hit the ground before retrieving the blade. Thanks to the speed he drew the blade with, the hood concealing his appearance fell, revealing his face.

The adrenaline gone from his system, the child turned to the three prisoners, still concealed in the darkness. He began to breathe heavily, the finality of what just passed setting in. The child took a few steps forward, allowing the dim light to reveal him. He glanced to the three before speaking.

"You three," here the speaker panted, "are so fucking lucky!" For Arnold, Helga and Lila, though, they couldn't think about the kills at the moment. The only thing that passed through their minds was a single word. A word that conveyed the destruction of something they'd once believed as a finality.

'Impossible.'

Me: And that's the chapter.

Rendan: Wait, WHAT THE FUCK?

AJ: What?

Zero: What the fuck is with that ending?

Me: Eh? Just wait until next chapter.

AJ: We'll have to wait and see.

Rendan: I swear you two are acting weird.

AJ: Silent Hill.

Rendan: Right... forgot that factor.

Zero: I did too.

AJ: That's it for this week. Be good and be safe everyone!

Me: I'm outta here!