Fan Fiction ❯ Silent Hill 2: Path of Retribution ❯ Driving to Hell ( Chapter 1 )

Copyright: All Silent Hill related characters belong to Konami and Konami only.

Luv, DC_Alice

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I had to stop in Derry, a small town that wants to become a city along line 64 toward the Hills. My stomach was calling for food, and from what I could tell, it was starting to turn violent on me. I ate fast. In fact, I noticed some people looking at me as if I were the pig of the century. It was not the fact that I was incredibly hungry, but I was in a hurry.

"Sorry guys, my dead wife's waiting for me, hope you understand", I would see myself tell them, and chuckled a couple of times as I thought about their reactions.

I found I was, on occasion, laughing at myself for being so desperate.

I stopped in Derry at 8 in the morning, and was gone by 9 o'clock. I was quick and went on again.

Silent Hill was much further down. Vacation towns are always far from home.

All the way down, all I found was forests, trees, and more and more trees. The Hills are isolated from the big towns, and that's alright. The place was beautiful, and had it wanted to become a city, like Derry, it would have lost its original beauty and interest.

Little did I know something else had turned the place into a desastreous peice far worst then the imagination itself could ever create.

I drove a long ride, doing my best to stay awake as the yellow lines of the road worked as hypnotizers. As I drove along, I noticed the sky was turning darker. Rain? Storms? I was better being careful. The air was turning more humid despite my window being opened and the wind blowing in my face. It did not seem to help. The air was not refreshing and seemed as if it were trying to break my face apart like sharp needles. It was like a faint illusion at first, but as I approached Silent Hill, the feeling grew stronger.

I suppose it was part of the beginning of my strange encounters.

I let the radio blow out music, old out of town music as you can only listen to in these deserted areas. It was not my favorite, but it was not too bad either. Kept me somewhat awake as trees by trees, time would pass by and try to take away part of me.

"Yes, I guess I'll get the papers and go home

Like I've been doin' ever since we've been apart

I get some consolation when I read

Of someone elses lonely heart,

yes I wonder if you get the papers too

And if you feel as melancholy as I do"

It was a song from Louis Armstrong. I was never a fan, but it was, again, alright. I tried and listen, but the hot wind would eventually take the best of me, and I began to drift away a little... And that's when it happened. I'm not crazy. I know I heard it, but back then I was not sure. Something within the song struck me as hard as a hammer in the forehead. As Louis sang, as I drifted off, the first actual calling began.

"Until you're in my arms again,

never more "-James -" to roam I guess

I'll get the papers and go home, yes "

I was in a new mental state at this point. That voice. Had I been dreaming? Had I really heard it? Or were my hopes getting too far up for my own good? I reached for the radio and turned the channel a bit, but the song remained: it was the only channel after all in the area. I rose the volume as high as the speakers could take them, but only Louis would sing. Yet I knew, I hoped. Mary had called my name. It as a whisper, faint, and probably only audible by myself, as Louis sang and took no notice of his song alterning to a new voice.

I eventually resigned myself. It was probably the humid and hot air playing with my mind, like a mirage. The song ended and a new one started. I don't know who it was. I didn't care anymore, and my mind was drifting off again after it realised I had only been silly to think Mary could talk through my radio like an incarnation.

My ride went on for a while, and I never heard my name through anymore songs.

Around 11, I knew I was getting closer. Somehow a bit of fog, I could tell, was floating above the ground as I went.

"Must be pretty hot over there...", I told myself, and though about how it must be hard to even breathe in this town if the atmosphere was as hard to take as here, especially with the lake. I remembered the place oh so very well. The Toluca Lake, most beautiful, taking your breathe as you either walked in the park or even would spend a few days at the Hotel. Those were places me and Mary had visited and liked the most.

The fog grew ticker forcing me to slow the speed down and be cautious of my surroundings. I felt something was wrong. The kind of wrongness you cannot seem to be able to grasp onto, and keeps haunting you until you're far away. Only, my plan was not to escape it, I was heading there.

The radio started loosing its lenght, and the channel would not give quality anymore. The sound was fading, and loud crackles of interference would come and go. I worked on the channels a little, but I would get no better.

Passing by what seemed like a little area for tourists to take a break from a long ride before entering town, I found there were no alternative roads turning from there. A small restroom was the only thing standing in order to have people relax and prepare them for the town....

There was only wall of bricks which opened like stretched arms to the forest boarding the area. There was a path from there I could see. No one was there today.

Then my eye got a glimpse of something shinny. Funny how the human specie can be attracted to anything shinny... But despite my decresed speed, I had no time to really take a look at whatever it was. Extending my neck toward it, my eyes nothing btut a thin line as if it were to give the view of binoculars. Oh course, it did not, but I sucked in on air as the refelxion of what was there, lifeless, hit me.

A wheelchair?

But before I could ask myself further questions, it was far behind me.

However, that's when the radio went suddenly berserk. It was so loud and out of hand my head felt like it was about to burst! The music was gone, and only the annoying screaching and crackling went on. Then it was my tires there were screaming. Their howls echoed through the thickness of nature, and soon, I realised I was screaming as loud, at the top of my lungs until my throat would burn!

Within a second and a sharp turn of the wheel, I was able to make the car turn around on itself and finally come to a rough stop. My eyes wide with unbeleivable feelings, I was out of my car without losing a moment, and walked to the edge of what seemed to be.... nothing.

Nothing was the perfect word. The road was simply gone, as the earth had shattered at this very point. The asphalt was crackled as if something heavy had dropped on it and broke it apart, sending it far down into the nothingness under me.

Aye James! Told ye y'would reach the end of the world! Why'd ye try!? some alien voice mocked me within

my own head.

Of course, it was me all along, trying to make the best of the situation. My heart was racing in my chest, and my brain was throbbing with adrenaline. I had almost fell off to my death. The fog seemed to come from the hole, and no one could tell how deep it was, nor how far was the other edge. It really was the end of the world.

How had it happened? I was paralysed, looking down the long fall, my mouth wide and agape with horror, terror, fear, everything!!

I was there, standing in front of.. nothing. Surely there was a mistake. There was probably signs indicating the danger zone somewhere and I had missed it as I went across the lane, dreaming awake and looking at what seemed like a wheelchair. It had to be that. As I regained my breath, I went back to the car where the radio was still working its hell. I closed it as I went back inside. This time, as I drove, I took most of my time, going at a merely 10 km/h, looking for signs for the ravin behind me. I noticed none whatsoever.

"What the hell are those locals THINKING?", I asked myself in awe.

All I was able to find was that whatever had been the metallic thing on the side of the road was now gone. I couldn't have cared less...

Soon, I reached this relaxing road area. I drove into the empty parking lot, and looked at my map. The gods had kept the full lane alive to town on my peice of paper, so why couldn't they do the same with the road itself?

I looked around me, sighing loudly. There was only one way that could lead me to my destiny. The forest's path. If not that, it was a nice fall down an endless pit. As I opened the door once more and set foot on the ground, I realized my whole body was shaking.

I'm not sure what it was. At first, my mind was set on the fact that I had almost killed myself. It stayed with me for so long, but now I know it had nothing to do with this.

My body was shaking because it knew. Body language, nothing more. There's still time to gp back. Go back and never look over your shoulder; just drive home. Leave.

I swallowed hard and forced the rest of my body out of the hot engine, being careful to take the map and Mary's letter along with me. It's perfume made me feel somewhat better... But when the wind hit my face, I felt the sweat turning cold over my forehead. Without thinking, I entered the highway restroom in order to tone down and get refreshed....

Only I had to stop short at the entrance. It had no door, but I was thankful for the room was plunged into darkness and the only light was provided by the outside .What should have been a clean place to make you feel most welcomed was all but that. The mirrors were broken and dirty, while the walls held rot and rust all over them, cracking from one place to the other, while the vile smell of rotting himidity made my nose twitch.

When my reflection was brought to the mirror, a chill went along my spine. The light brown haired man at the beginning of his 30s, his kaki colored coat over his old gray shirt, looked back at me as a ghost of myself. My skin was so pale one could have thought I was the walking dead. I moved closer to it, as if stumbling in slow motion toward it the mirror to take a better look. Grey eyes, tired and sad looked back at me, accusing me with some unexpected greif, anger even. I moved my hand in front of my face, the light touch of my fingers running on my cheeks as if trying to change the image in front of me, like cartoons magically manage to do on TV. The eyes of the man wouldn't let go of their grave glance on me. So I let him go.

I let go of his stare and his guilt for nothing.

I straightened up again, and as I let out a long sigh that echoed through the whole room, I let my head drop back.

As far as I can tell, the grey eyes still stared at me as dared another look in the dirty glass, then I simply asked, as if awaiting an answer from like in movies and have all my dreams finally come true:

"Mary, could you really be in this town?"

She gave me no answer....

To be continued