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Dark Descent	By : PyramidHead316 Category: +S through Z > Silent Hill Views: 8632 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Silent Hill, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami.
AN: Ding Ding Ding! For all the people who guessed Michael Kaufmann, you were correct! XD Kaufmann was the monster that Alessa just fought. Kaufmann got trapped in the Otherworld after his death in SH1, and there he was tortured into a twisted form suitably representing of his crimes. I thought he deserved a gruesome death. ;-D Now Alessa's finally freed him from his misery, and laid this enemy to rest. Of all the people involved in the Order, Kaufmann is one of the worst, second only to Dahlia, and he's one of the major reasons that Alessa ended up the way she did. I thought Alessa deserved a chance to finally confront this man, and put him to rest. ;-D I hope you all enjoyed the confrontation, and look forward to more in future chapters.
Chapter 16: Chasing the Past
Brookhaven Hospital - Part 4
There was a haze in the air, as if one was looking through a dirty looking glass, making it difficult to see. The haze gradually cleared up, transforming into a more visible sight.
Two figures stood in the middle of the area in an argument, shouting at each other and gesturing with their hands. The figures were a brown haired man in a neatly pressed suit and an old woman in a frumpy dark dress and head scarf. They were already an odd sight, and the fact they were arguing like this spoke of a situation an outsider looking in couldn’t hope to understand.
“I’ve had enough,” the professional looking man said, sparing notes of disdain into his voice. Michael Kaufmann and Dahlia Gillespie glared at each other, throwing obvious glares of hatred each other’s way. The figures were surrounded by white that blanketed the background, but neither one of them seemed to notice, continuing to argue viciously among the stark white background. The argument was one that showed no signs of slowing down, and spoke of years of suppressed hatred and frustration.
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be!” Michael Kaufmann shouted out. It had been several years already, and there was still no sign of their plan having success! He was beginning to wonder if maybe the Order’s gods weren’t as powerful as they thought. “And I want out,” he said. It was a final, appropriately grim statement. And he had had enough of waiting around. The Order’s stupid god was not going to show around him, and he bowed to no higher power. Dahlia’s face turned grim and she protested loudly but he paid her no mind. He was walking away, but he was doing the right thing. Michael had too much to lose. Power: that was the word. He now commanded every ounce of the drug trade in the resort town, and his employees all knew to heed the mandates he gave them as official word of law in the town. He didn’t need any more. He wondered why he ever thought he did.
“You can’t back out now,” Dahlia said grimly, mouth drawn in a thin stern line. She looked furious, flame smoldering in her eyes from the disgusted rage she was feeling. She stared at the man who had once been her cohort, and virtually spat at him in disgust. “Our abilities binds you to our agreement. You will suffer a hellish judgment if you back out now!” she called out in warning, thundering fury with smoldering disgust and crumbling hatred, and yet with some notes in her tones that indicated she was feeling the stings of betrayal. She glared coldly at the doctor with pure venom in her eyes, but it was clear she was feeling betrayed by her once close confidant.
“I don’t fear your power,” Kaufmann looked at her, then turned back. He wasn’t worried about Dahlia’s retribution, despite her words and her offended nature. He had the ultimate safeguard that he had procured, in case her plans did come to fruition. It was hidden safely in the motorcycle, where he had planted it after throwing Dahlia off with another sample for her to find. She was so easy. No matter what Dahlia did to him or tried to do through her cohorts and the power of the town, he was certain that she couldn’t touch him.
So, why then did Kaufmann feel like he was going to his own grave?
~
As the white light faded, Alessa awoke to a burst of confusion, groping around to figure out where she was. She sat up looking around to get a look of her surroundings. The hospital was dark around her, and she seemed to be in the middle of a corridor. Her body felt sore all over, and she remembered she had been fighting a monster on the third floor before she fell unconscious. The creature struck hard, but she had defeated it quite easily. Alessa looked around. She was on the third floor of the hospital. She recognized some of the markings in the corridor from her time doing exploration with Lisa, earlier on before she stormed out.
Alessa sneered at what she had learned. So that was Kaufmann, she thought. It made sense, and what she had seen only confirmed the thought. Kaufmann was tormented, and he had remained trapped in the Otherworld since her escape from the town, apparently. Still, Alessa held no sympathy for him. He had seen the light in the end, apparently, but not gained recognition. He had tried to back out in the end, but not for the reasons she wanted. He still wasn’t regretful for what he’d done. He had no regrets for treating Alessa like a vegetable to experiment on, and it had all been for power. The only thing he regretted was not getting the power Dahlia had promised him. She almost spat at the disgusting thought of him. Alessa was glad she had killed him. That vision had been something else, though. Alessa still marveled at how clear it had been.
The images were so clear, beyond anything she could have imagined. It was astounding that she could relieve so clearly memories that weren’t hers. The way she could hear Kaufmann’s thoughts was unsettling, too. Why was the town showing her this? Was it that she would gain some sort of sympathy for her tormentors, so that she could understand their thoughts? Or was it for her own peace of mind, so that she could move past what happened? No matter, she was never going to forgive them. No matter what the town showed her, no matter what thoughts the town tried to convince her with and make her understand, she would never forgive them. They were dead in her eyes.
Kaufmann was one step removed from a rapist. No, he was a rapist. He had taken those nurses and let his doctors do whatever they wanted with them. As far as Alessa was concerned, the man deserved to rot in hell. She could only hope he hadn’t done that to poor Lisa.
Alessa sat up, pushing herself up on tired arms. She was on the third floor of the hospital, close to the isolation ward. The nurses would put people in there who were uncooperative, and lock them in there on doctor’s orders. Alessa stood up from the ground, gathering her bearings again. She dusted herself off, and focused again on getting her mission accomplished. No time to stand around.
Alessa rushed to the isolation ward door. She wanted to see what was in there. There could be something useful in there, and she couldn’t afford to pass up any opportunity.
She opened the door and went inside. She looked around the contents of the room. There were four cells in here, lined up in order. There was a note pinned to the wall. Alessa picked it up, curious about whatever the paper had to say in this place.
"Punishment for brutality towards
patient: 12-hours confinement in the
special treatment room.
Dismissal policy no longer in effect.
Contact the chief if you have any
questions."
There was something else written on top of the typed statements.
"The trick is not to leave any marks!"
And there was something else too, like someone had added it in at the end.
"The chief is a pervert! Christie
would have been better off if she
had been fired..."
Alessa frowned as she read it, grimly sighing to herself. Ugh, another innocent victim of this place. And she could guess what that punishment was. Rape, once again rearing its ugly head. Another person might not think so, but she could sense the undertones behind the words. This place was a den of rapists, taking advantage of every available piece of flesh in the place. The sickness that was here was spreading farther and wider, pervading every level of the town. Or was that Alchemilla? She couldn’t tell anymore. It was all blending together in one form of a tableau of a long, unending nightmare. She had to kill these people. It was a good thing that there was nobody else here, so that she couldn’t lay into them and beat them to a bloody pulp. She had to get out of here, before she went insane from the discoveries she was making. Nice customer service, she thought nastily. It wasn’t enough to lock the nurse in solitary confinement, after her supposed misdeeds. They had to rape her beforehand too, and then left her alone in solitary confinement to suffer, like some kind of animal and chained wretch.
This place was evil, and she couldn’t believe she ever thought otherwise.
Alessa had to be careful. You couldn’t see inside the cells, which meant there was no way to tell what was inside. Alessa thought it odd that there wouldn’t be any port holes into the cells so that the nurses and doctors could keep track of what the people inside were up to, but she supposed that was part of the point. There was no light into the cell, no way to tell the time, or whether it was dark or light outside. You were alone, utterly alone in the small room, with your arms bound and there was nothing but your thoughts and the passing time to keep you company. Alessa could imagine feeling small and vulnerable inside, and it was a horrible proposition. It gave her the shudders all over.
She opened the doors to the cells. The first one was closed, as was the second. The third door was also closed. Alessa opened the fourth door, and found herself face-to-face with a nurse of the zombie variety. Alessa reacted immediately, and she jumped back in shock. The woman had her back turned to her, and that was enough to give Alessa a slight advantage. Alessa arched her sword and struck her down without a hint of remorse, stomping on the body’s torso until it made a sickening crunch. Alessa grimaced, with a grim feeling in her stomach. She didn’t know if this was the woman who had been locked in, or a representation of her, but if it was, there was nothing Alessa could do for her. Once the Otherworld got its hooks into you with its transformation, it was permanent. There was nothing that could be done to reverse it, and Alessa didn’t regret striking out at one of its victims. She felt a sickening feeling at the thought that she might have killed an innocent person, but it was what it was. There was nothing to be gained by dwelling on it.
It was a manifestation, she told herself over and over.
As she left, Alessa wondered about the scenario going on here. A lot of people would have thought that the nurse was incredibly guilty, but Alessa knew better. The nurse could have been defending herself from an unruly violent patient, or it might have just been a simple slap or series of slaps that got misinterpreted, or maybe she was every bit the violent offender the paper claimed she was. Alessa didn’t know. Alessa wanted the patients to be treated well of course, but the truth was there was simply no way to know exactly what had occurred in this place. And the “the trick is not to leave any marks” bit was troubling. Alessa didn’t think it would be fitting towards Christie, since if she had brutally assaulted a patient, she wouldn’t have had to worry about leaving a mark – the damage would have already been done. That left only one conclusion. Someone had broken into the cell, raped Christie, and then not left a mark on her in order to avoid making it an official problem. And that left Alessa sick inside. Even if she had struck a patient, no one deserved to be punished like that. Not in that way.
The part about the dismissal policy no longer being in effect was also troubling. Were they no longer allowed to leave? That meant they were prisoners – the doctors and nurses working here, being held against their will! They were being held hostage practically, Alessa realized in a momentary flash of thoughts; and weren’t just staff to service the hospital, who were free to come and go as they chose. Alessa was shuddering all over now, feeling cold as she was being sickened by the thought of what was going on here. This place was crazier than she had imagined, and she had no business being here ever under any sane state of mind. She needed to get out of here.
Alessa was in the hallway when she saw it. She knew she needed to go up to the roof, despite all her earlier ideas of not going up there. It was one of the only places she hadn’t explored yet, and she needed to see what was up there. She was rapidly running out of places where Leonard could have hidden himself to. While it seemed obvious that he would be in his room, but somehow Alessa doubted it would be that simple. She was crossing across the hallway when she saw it, a diary sprawled out on the floor, knowing full well who left it there. It looked like it had been recently written, and the ink was fresh on the page. Alessa knelt down to the familiar sight, and picked up the worn book in her hands to read. This one was different though, and she could tell as soon as she saw it. Alessa read through the handwritten diary, feeling her blood boil as she read through the words, going down every line.
You have turned your eyes towards the wrong source, Heather.
I have seen you looking at her, that interloper to our love. Your
feelings for her are false. She can never love
you the way I do. You must understand this. Yet you
resist this. Why? What has she have
that I cannot provide you, Heather? My heart thunders for you
far more than hers ever will, Heather. She betrayed you, and you
will soon know it, too. She is a filthy liar, and a witch. And her gender
will never appreciate you the way I will. I could kill her for
you, Heather. Make her suffer and squirm, until she
can’t breathe anymore, and troubles you no more, and disappears from your
life. Then it will be just the two of us, together again.
Consider my offer, darling. Your feelings for her are
misguided, Heather. And your childhood can never bond
you together, after what she has done. We
are meant to be together, Heather. You know this. My heart
swells with love for you, burning brighter than the shine
of a thousand suns, my love. Cast off that interloper,
and embrace the slice of Paradise that I have to
offer you. Why are you so cruel, Heather? To
toy with my affections like this? Don’t make me make
you regret not choosing our love. She is a
pretender. She can never offer you the full
amount of affections that I can.
Stanley Coleman
Alessa felt her blood boil as she laid down the paper. How dare he… She looked around up at the surroundings of the hospital, where she knew he was lurking somewhere. “You leave her alone…” she said up at the ceiling. “You leave her alone, you hear me. If you take her away from me, I will never forgive you!” she said loudly, hoping that it sounded across just in case he could hear her. “You hear that, you son of a bitch?! If you take her away from me, after all she’s done for me, I will torture you to the end of your days. I will rip you apart and make you scream from the pain, until you regret ever coming across my path!” she threatened with all the rage and loathing she could manifest in her voice. How dare he threaten that woman, the one thing that was good in her life right now? It didn’t matter that she was angry at Lisa right now. The thought of Lisa suddenly disappearing from her life, going into the nowhere that followed this world, gave her chills all over. If this bastard thought that he could take her away from her, then he was sorely mistaken. It was ironic, Alessa thought: he had been poetic and descriptive, and pseudo-romantic during the time he was writing to her, but the moment he became jealous, the mask came off and he revealed his true nature. She needed to warn him with a threat about the consequences that would happen if he tried to take Lisa away from her, and he had another thing coming if he thought he had any chance of succeeding with that plan. And sure enough, Alessa felt the presence in the surroundings recede and a rather palpable fear suddenly manifest, as if the stalker was afraid of her. She didn’t know whether she was feeling Stanley’s actual feelings or whether the environment was somehow reflecting the fluctuations in her state of mind, but Alessa felt relieved that she had gotten her point across. Good, let him munch on that for a while, while he stood in his cowardly hideaway. He should be afraid of her, Alessa thought, with a full expression of dark satisfaction on her face. Alessa concentrated hard as she breathed in deep. She needed to calm herself, so that she could focus on her mission and get it accomplished. Being enraged wouldn’t help with anything, and in fact, it might make things worse. She took the required deep breaths and cleared her mind, until at last she felt calm all over. She forced the enraged bubble of emotion down to her core, quelling it with the forced calm in her mind. She needed to let it go, and there were more important things to focus on. It wouldn’t help to keep dwelling on it, since she couldn’t control this man’s actions. She felt able to continue.
She went into the stairway leading to the roof. She was tempted to go back down to the basement and see if that sight in the elevator was still there, but she decided not to risk it. The last thing she needed was to find out that it had walked off. She wouldn’t be able to handle that. She went up to the roof.
Again, there was a diary laying on the floor. It was accompanied by a doll to the left of the hallway, leaning up against the wall. Alessa was growing weary of this whole business, but she decided to take a look anyway. Unlike the others, this wasn’t a long drawn-out diary, written by a madman professing his love for her. This one was short, simple, and straight to the point.
I also like the rooftop.
It makes me want to fly.
You too?
Stanley Coleman
Alessa set down the diary on the ground. Who was this guy? She thought in bemused attention, staring oddly at the profane diary.
She didn’t think about what he said earlier. It was better to ignore those enraging feelings, rather than working them up again. I’d like to push you off the roof… she thought darkly.
She opened the door to the exterior. She found herself face-to-face with two gigantic figures with enormous sandbag arms, ones that dragged along on the ground as they moved. Alessa weaved in between them, as she grabbed the machine gun ammo on the drum. It spoke of the situation that she didn’t even get a hint of a heart attack as she saw them, other than a hint of surprise as she saw the two monsters. She was getting too used to this. There was a nearby fence lodged between the two entryways, but it didn’t look like it was about to fall over, and Alessa didn’t even know where it would lead to if she used it to escape. Besides, the door was right behind her – why would she go that way? She was in and out before the monsters even got a hit on her.
She didn’t even know why she had the bizarre thought. Alessa looked at her treasures once inside – three clips, enough to kill several monsters at least. Good. She smirked deviously.
She went back down to the third floor. There was only one exploration worthy area left in the hospital, and Alessa prepared herself for the threshold she was about to cross, because this was it, one way or another.
~
The hallway was narrow and dark, stretching into the dark distance. She had gotten in using the code she had found in the basement, having photographed it behind the shelf on the wall, her patience with the camera and Lisa’s coaching having paid off. There were only three rooms that were open. Alessa took them one by one.
In the first room, she found a magazine sitting on the bed. There was a nightstand nearby, but she wasn’t paying it any attention just yet. Alessa turned her attention to the magazine on the bed. The magazine was flipped open to a certain article, and the pages were arranged in such a way that it was impossible to miss. That meant it was intentional. Alessa picked up the magazine article and read through it, feeling a dark, depressing feeling flow throughout her as her eyes skimmed down every word. It was written by a man detailing the activities of a cult in Silent Hill, and the orphanage that they ran under the cover of being a charitable organization. From the moment her eyes made out the words “Wish House”, Alessa knew exactly what the article was about, and what lay in store for her when she read it.
Teaching Despair: "Wish House"

"Wish House", an orphanage on

the outskirts of Silent Hill. But

behind its false image is a place

where children are kidnapped

and brainwashed.

Wish House is managed by the

"Silent Hill Smile Support Society,"

a charity organization sometimes

called "4S."

It's true that 4S is a well-respected

charity that "takes in poor children

without homes and raises them with

hope."

But at its heart, it is a heathen

organization that teaches its own

warped dogma in lieu of good

religious values.

Mr. Smith (temp), who lives near

"Wish House," had this to say:

"Sometimes at night I can hear their

weird prayers and the sounds of

[children] crying. I went there to

complain one time, but they ran me

right out. Since then, it hasn't changed

a bit."

In fact, this reporter was refused

admission when he attempted to

take photographs in the facility.

What exactly do the folks at

"Wish House" have to hide?

During my investigations, I was

able to discover, however, a

suspicious-looking round concrete

tower which appears to be part of

their facilities.

Unfortunately no one was willing

to tell us what the tower was used

for. But it seems unlikely that it has

anything to do with the business of

raising orphans. It may in fact be a

prison, or a secret place of worship.

The cult religion that operates

"Wish House" is known by the

locals simply as "The Order".

It's a religion that is deeply interwoven

with Silent Hill's history.

But its worshippers' fervent belief

that they are among the elite "chosen

people" has a dark and dangerous side.

I intend to continue my

investigation of "Wish House"

and the cult behind it.

I've always believed that "telling

the whole truth" and showing the

children the true path, is our most

important duty.

Joseph Schreiber

Alessa set down the article on the bed. Wish House. It was the orphanage managed by the Order under the pretense of helping disadvantaged children, but was really a recruiting center for their order. She had nothing but bad memories of the place. Her mother had also suffered abuse in the place until she was ‘adopted’ by Dahlia, leading to further sexual abuse in that house. Overall, it was a horrid place that Alessa would have wanted no part of whatsoever. And to think she could have ended up there. If not for her parents taking care of her, or even Dahlia looking after her, she could have ended up there full time, being brainwashed into serving the Order with her resistance to its teachings. Alessa hated her biological mother for what she did to her in the end, but she had to admit it could have been much worse.

She wondered what happened to the man writing the article. She hoped that he was still alive, considering that the article was a recent one, so he might have been one of the few people who went into Silent Hill and escaped the town alive. Still, Alessa couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad had happened to him. You didn’t just go into Silent Hill meddling with its complexities, and expect to walk away unharmed. Nothing good came out of Silent Hill with regards to meddling with the powers that dwelled here. It was a lesson she had learned long ago, and it was one she hoped that many hadn’t learned for themselves, when they visited this place and found themselves caught up in complexities they couldn’t hope to understand, and horrors they couldn’t even comprehend. It was a damned, accursed place.

The next room was deserted, and also located among the same row of rooms. It was S7, the room described in the doctors’ lounge in a memo downstairs. Again, she saw a diary lying on the bed. Alessa was weary of the whole thing by now, but she decided to read it anyway. There might be something useful laying inside. Wait, she noticed there was something different about this one. She looked to the right and realized what it was. The doll: it was broken in parts, and its limbs had been pulled apart. It…was actually rather sad. Intrigued, Alessa picked up the diary and read down through the words.

Goodbye, Heather.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to

respond to your love.

It's all over.

Leonard despises me---because

I made fun of it, saying it would

come to this.

If it weren't for his meddling,

I would have been able to meet

you in just a little while.

Then I could have taken you

to my world.

A world for us alone, more

beautiful than this one.

And I had been waiting for this day,

for today. The day I'd see you,

the day you'd save me. Today.

Heather, watch out for him.

Leonard is no ordinary guy.

Farewell. I loved you.

Heather, my goddess.

Heather, my lover.

Heather, my

Alessa set down the paper on the hospital bed. So he was dead. Alessa looked to the right and saw something she hadn’t before. Oh. Alessa felt a sinking feeling taking hold in her.

There was a foot sticking out from under the side of the bed. Alessa looked under the bed and saw that it was attached to a body that was lying prone under the bed. He was wearing a gray hospital uniform that covered his form, the uniform of Brookhaven. Stanley Coleman. It appeared that Leonard had killed him. So, Leonard was not just a source of information, he was a danger to everyone around him. Alessa should get out of here as soon as possible. She didn’t have to deal with this, with all the things obviously on her plate right now.

Alessa felt a twinge of pity. She may have thought Stanley Coleman was a creepy stalker who was obsessed with her and kept calling her the wrong name, but he was just a guy who was in love with a woman whose name he didn’t even know. While she may have been angry at him for what he said about Lisa, she couldn’t begrudge him the feelings he had for her, or the jealousy he might have felt at that. She looked under the side of the bed quickly and saw a young man with brown locks sticking out from the sides, and a slim build underneath his uniform. Hmm. Not quite what she was expecting. She was expecting someone large or freakish looking, who looked like he belonged in an insane asylum. She took a quick peek, and her expectations were dashed. Alessa felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. He wasn’t some huge, mammoth stalker, or a man that looked particularly dangerous. He was just a guy. And if Leonard had killed him, it also meant that he was far more dangerous than she had imagined. Alessa was beginning to wish she hadn’t come here alone. She should have waited for Douglas to finish checking the house, before heading over to this hospital by herself. Still, she wasn’t going to let that detract her from continuing her objective.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. Leonard had killed him here, and that was that. Stanley was dead, and whatever else he’d been in life, Alessa didn’t have to bother with him anymore. She wished she could do something for him, but on the other hand he was a stalker who was obsessed with her, almost to the point of irrationality. It was probably best to leave it alone. He wasn’t a bother anymore, and that was all that mattered. She felt a twinge of pity, for leaving him here like this, but she wasn’t going to go to those extra lengths for someone she didn’t know. Especially an obsessive who had followed her throughout the hospital. She decided to move on.

Alessa proceeded further into the darkness. She had to be careful. She hadn’t yet encountered any enemies so far, and that was never a good sign. She peered through the fog of darkness, trying to discern any detail. Suddenly, she got her answer. Two nurses came shambling towards her, armed with pipes and a grotesque intention in their minds. Her radio went wild with static after the sudden appearance, providing an almost distracting background after the long silence. The ambling nurses came out of the darkness, ready to attack her. Alessa didn’t hesitate to gun them down. She didn’t have time to waste on this. A disfigured nurse came ambling out of the darkness. Alessa only caught the glint of metal in her hands seconds before she fired, and realized she had a gun in her hands. Alessa moved left to dodge the shot, and fell back in shock. Holy crap, she didn’t realize they had guns! Alessa rushed the nurse quickly, while the nurse was still readying for another shot. Alessa wrenched her arm to the side, and prevented her from firing another round. It was more difficult than it seemed, since the nurses were incredibly strong. While the nurse was grappling with her, Alessa slashed up and down on the nurse with her sword, and struck the nurse several times repeatedly with quick movements, until the creature collapsed to the ground like its strings had been cut. The creature writhed and groaned on the ground, as Alessa decided to finish it off. Alessa took her sword and plunged it straight into the body. The creature stopped moving. Alessa wiped the sweat off her forehead. That was crazy. Who the hell had given them guns?! This place was sick! She would have to be careful, if she didn’t want to get her head blown off, if she encountered any more of them.

The last room was at the end of the hall, buried in the shadows. She entered the room with a slight hesitation. The room was deserted. Alessa wasn’t surprised. She already knew that Leonard wouldn’t be here. Even though it was the only logical choice, somehow she had already known inside of her that he wouldn’t be here in this room. He would have fled, either to escape the Order or to escape the monsters that were now wandering this place. Or perhaps, to escape from something she hadn’t yet seen. Alessa didn’t know. What she did know was that she had to find him anyway. She wondered where he had gone, but if she had explored every inch of this place and there was still no sign of Leonard, then she was going to have to try some new method to gather clues to track him. By now, she needed help.

She stepped closer to the bed. Ugh. Alessa winced. The whole bed smelled like someone hadn’t bathed in a year. She could smell the body odor, and the bed was stained with dried sweat. That didn’t bode well for whoever was staying here, and if indeed it was Leonard who had stayed here, Alessa didn’t know what that said about him. She wasn’t sure she suddenly wanted to know Leonard. It sounded as if Leonard may be part of a cult, or something similar, and Alessa really didn’t want to deal with that right now, if that was the case. She hoped not.

Alessa turned to inspect the nightstand. Suddenly, the phone rang loudly in the room. Alessa was startled by the sudden distraction, sounding painfully loud in the vacant room. Who on Earth would be calling her in this place? She hesitated to pick it up. She wondered if there would be any repercussions for picking it up. Should she answer it? It was her experience that anything to do with the Otherworld was probably not good news. She remembered the last time she had answered a ringing phone, which was evidence enough of that. She stared at the ringing phone for a long time. Finally, she decided to just go for it. It couldn’t hurt to check it out. She hesitantly picked up the ringing phone. “Hello?” she said, responding with a shaking in her voice. It took a moment before something responded on the other end.

“Claudia?”

Alessa knitted her eyebrows together. It was a man.

“No, I’m not. I’m…”

The other end was impatient, cutting her off. “Don’t lie to me, Claudia! You’re always trying to run away from your responsibilities. Have you come to apologize? Or maybe you still don’t realize how foolish you’ve been,” a gruff voice said on the other end. The voice was rough, gravelly, and sounded like an older male.

Alessa backed up for a moment in thought. Was this Leonard?

“Listen to me!” she broke in, before the voice could interrupt her again.

“I’m not Claudia.” She ground out the statement tersely, putting the emphasis on each word.

The voice paused. “You’re…not Claudia?”

It asked the question cautiously, as though it wasn’t sure of the answer.

Alessa restrained herself from getting angry. “No, I’m not,” she said calmly, dismissing her annoyance. “Who are you?” she asked, remembering her original mission. If this was someone who could help her, then she had to listen to them.

The voice hesitated, before it fully answered. “…Leonard Wolf,” he said.

He appeared to be completely calm now in his voice, unlike earlier, when he was agitated and worked up. It seemed the revelation that Alessa was not his tormentor had sent him into a calm, soothing spell of wariness.

A world of memories flooded into Alessa’s consciousness. She had been aware of course, that there was a possibility that Leonard still lived in the town and was actively involved in the Order nowadays. But somehow, it hadn’t occurred to her that it might be the Leonard Wolf, that was the man who Vincent sent her to find. Her mind refused to believe it, that Vincent would send her to find this man willingly, knowing the past that she had with him. Her mind froze in thought. Memories of him cornering her, hands touching her, embedded themselves in Alessa’s mind. Alessa closed her eyes momentarily and then opened them again, trying to hold back the repulsive memories, and thoughts of disgust welling up in her mind. She cleared her mind and returned to the present, realizing that Leonard was still talking to her. She refocused her thoughts, realizing she needed to pay attention.

Leonard’s voice was low, reluctant. “I’m Claudia’s father. Who are you?” he asked, with a reluctant curiosity in his voice. He seemed to be much more calm now, but he was still suspicious of her and was wary of trusting her. Good, he should be. He waited for an answer.

Alessa thought hard with a frown on her face. She rolled over all the possibilities in her mind, considering all the possible actions she could take, every possible thing she could do. Finally, she decided on one. Alessa’s lips curved into a smirk. “My name is Heather…” she said lightly.

Leonard digested that. “Heather…I’m sorry, I thought you were my daughter,” he said apologetically. The voice was pleasant and calmly tempered now. Alessa found it hard to believe this was the same man she remembered from all these years ago. He sounded like an ordinary guy from any neighborhood, almost. There was little to suggest that he was a monster hiding under his skin.

“I’m not…” Alessa said simply.

Leonard was curious. “Are you one of her followers?” he asked inquisitively.

Alessa’s mouth shifted into a frown. “No, I’m not. I’ve come to track her down, after she led me to this accursed town. I’m going to kill her,” Alessa said coldly, wasting no time in getting to the heart of the matter. She knew that ordinarily, a man would have been alarmed to hear that about his daughter, however she knew that Leonard could handle it. She couldn’t have cared less about his emotions and feelings with regards to that matter. Still, he deserved to know what she was going to do to his daughter.

Leonard was silent for a moment. “I see…” he said, lapsing into another silence. That should have been disturbing right there. No normal guy would have that reaction to what someone had just said about his daughter. “That’s very unfortunate…” he said at last.

Alessa elaborated on it. “She killed my mother, and my father,” she said, not sure why she was elaborating on the subject. Even though he was a piece of trash and a scumbag, she still felt like she needed to give him some specific reason why she was killing his daughter. It was the oddest feeling. Maybe it was a way of clearing her conscience. “She attacked my home, for no reason whatsoever, simply because my idea of faith didn’t resonate with hers,” she went on, letting some of the bitterness leak into her voice.

Leonard groused to himself. “She’s a fool…but she’s still my daughter. I was going to forgive her if she changed her ways. Unfortunately, I see now that it’s too late,” Leonard said regretfully, as if he was genuinely regretful of losing a child to her oncoming insanity. There was a sorrow there that spoke of a mentor showing disappointment, wondering what he could have done differently along the line of things.

Inwardly, Alessa seethed. It’s your fault that she turned out this way! She railed at the man on the phone in her mind, finding it difficult to control her temper. No doubt Leonard had beaten and almost raped her until she submitted to his desires, and she had become ensconced in the Order’s belief system. Claudia’s current mental state was directly related to that abuse. He was a monster, and the hypocrisy he was showing in trying to feign a concerned parent grated horribly on Alessa’s nerves. Outwardly, she kept her cool and answered Leonard calmly.

Alessa pretended there was nothing wrong. “I’m sorry,” she said calmly, in a flat tone.

“Heather, will you help me?” Leonard spoke up suddenly. “I’m locked up in here. And I must stop Claudia,” he said optimistically.

“Where are you?” Alessa asked.

“I’m not sure myself, but the door is at the end of the hall on the second floor. I think I can be of help to you. Hurry. I have a seal,” Leonard answered.

“A seal?” Alessa answered, puzzled.

She went to ask more, but the line cut off before she could answer. Alessa put down the phone back on the base.

Alessa smirked deviously to herself, jumping in her mind. A malicious smile spread across her face, as she pictured all the things she was going to do to Leonard, in his dinky little cell. Oh, he had no idea what was coming to him. Alessa set her mouth in a grim line. Now she knew that Leonard had no useful information to give her. Vincent had most likely manipulated her from the start, using her naïveté to send her out on a mission to carry out his own hidden desires. Either Vincent didn’t know what Leonard had done, or else he had intentionally set her on a mission to kill the old man. She found it hard to believe that he did not know about her past. Either way, that was that. There was no useful information that Leonard had to offer her.

Alessa smiled grimly as she drowned in remembrance. She was finally going to claim justice for herself. After all the years of running away from her pain, all the shame and humiliation over what happened to her…she was finally going to get even with her torturer. She knew some people would say that revenge wasn’t the answer, but those people weren’t her. They didn’t know what she had suffered. And there was no way Leonard would ever be brought to justice. There was only one solution: for Alessa to kill him herself. She thought about what Leonard had said about some seal. Probably some religious psychobabble that was useless to her. The man was deluded as anything.

“The door on the end of the second hallway, huh…” Alessa grinned towards the door.

She rushed out the door to the hallway. Alessa walked with purpose, carrying her gun in both hands. There was now a focused gleam in her eye, which spoke that she would not be deterred by anything. It was lucky that there were no nurses wandering around on the third floor, or else they would have been gunned down without any remorse or hesitation whatsoever. She began to pick up speed, as she became more and more focused on her mission. She ran all the way to the door exiting from the 3rd floor, wanting to get there as soon as possible. She slammed the door open and was relieved to find there were no nurses there, either.

She took the elevator down to the second floor. The 2nd floor hallway was deserted. No nurses were encountered here either, for which Alessa was thankful. She didn’t want to have to engage any enemies in battle, or waste any ammo on those creatures. She wanted to save it all for Leonard, so that she could pump that disease-ridden body full of the wounds he deserved. Finally, she stood before the door that led to the objective she had been searching for all this time.

M7, Alessa thought.

The door was wide across the wall, made of iron against the concrete background. It had appeared out of thin air, just like Leonard said. Alessa peered at the large door, as it loomed in front of her hiding its secrets. Leonard was behind that door somewhere, waiting for her to accompany him in whatever insane plan he had planned. Alessa took a deep breath, and then opened the door into whatever void awaited behind it. She slammed the door shut behind her.

The area behind the door was comprised of tunnels, apparently winding around the hospital. It was dark, grimy, and the tunnel was constructed in a very tight knit manner. Alessa shuddered. She was suddenly struck by a feeling of claustrophobia. God, what was this? It felt like the walls were closing in around her. She was expecting to find a room behind the door, but instead there was an entire labyrinth hidden behind the entryway. How could someone pass through something like this? She wondered if the tunnel had always been there, or if it had recently been constructed by sprouting in response to her presence here. She touched the wall, but it seemed solid as any construction method. This was no delusion. She supposed she should be used to such surprises now, but it was still an unexpected shock.

Alessa moved carefully through the tunnels, ready in case anything came her way. There was no telling what was down here. She came to a heavy iron fence barring the opening of the tunnel. Incredibly, the barrier seemed to respond as she approached, as if it was anticipating her presence. Alessa passed warily, watching that the barrier wouldn’t fall down on her while she was passing. The sound of something coming down behind her alerted Alessa, and she looked back to realize that a large gate had fallen down to cover the area. She was alarmed at the sudden change. What was this? So the area placed gates to separate her from the tunnel the longer she went into it. Alessa frowned in a grim line. She would have to be careful that she did not take the wrong turn while she was moving, or else she would get trapped in between the barriers. The barrier sounded heavy, she mused.

She wouldn’t want it to fall down on her if she was passing under it…

At some point Alessa began to hear a sound moving behind her. She was becoming aware that there was something moving behind her. The sound was a moving rustling of noise grumbling along, like the rustling of limbs combined with the growl of an animal. Alessa began to run. She wasn’t going to become caught by whatever was going on here, regardless of where it had come from.

Alessa ran at full speed through the grimy corridors. She ran through the first door, and the second, using her feelings of what direction was right to go in, as she ran through the winding corridors of the maze. She passed by several gates in the process, three in all as she went on her way. But horribly, they didn’t seem to stop what was pursuing her. The last one caught her by surprise, slamming down from behind her without a hint of its presence in the beginning. The grumbling rushing sound behind her continued to make its way closer to her, now mixed with the audible sounds of footsteps rushing over the pavement of the floor. There was a growl behind her, like the sound of some animal approaching its awaiting lunch. At one point, Alessa glanced back, and she saw the image of a dark, mottled creature making its way towards her with savage intent. Alessa hurried as she felt the rush of the creature approaching her. She made her way past the final stretches of the maze, listening as repeated gate after gate made of iron and metal plates slammed down after her in the corridor, grating the atmosphere with a creaky metallic sounding noise as they blocked off the prior portions of the corridor with their chain-link, lit only by the occasional fenced ancient bulb in each section giving off a faint glow. Alessa got to the end of the road after having passed seven of the gates, signified by what appeared to be a rusted gate signaling the end of the corridor, and then stopped as she turned around. The creature had disappeared, leaving only the imposing figure of the gate in front of her. What was that? She wondered to herself. The creature sounded like something was pursuing her to make her its very dead dinner, but why would she be pursued in a place like this? Where did it go? How had it gotten down into here in the first place? Alessa shook away the questions. Now wasn’t the time to get worried about this stuff. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t afford to get distracted from it.

Alessa turned to the wall on her right. There was a blood red symbol painted on the decayed wall, glowing in the subtle light of the corridor. Alessa was drawn to the image of the symbol, and she almost wanted to touch it. For some reason, this one symbol wasn’t giving her large headaches like the others she’d encountered, and in fact it almost gave her a feeling of peace. But there was nothing else that was remarkable about it. For a moment, Alessa bristled at the impossibility of the situation. Where was she supposed to go?! The back part of the place was fenced off, and this wall was solid and in her way. But again, her attention found itself drawn to this symbol. For a moment, Alessa found herself reaching out to the mysterious symbol, and she pressed her palm to the cool concrete wall as she placed her hand fully over the symbol…

She didn’t know what she was expecting, a glue-like substance sticking to her palm, or a thick ink coating her fingers, but suddenly she was fading to another plane…

The room was dark, and the view was scratchy like a faded image being viewed in a dark room. A figure sat with her head in her hands, cloaked partly in the shadows of the room. She looked tired and worn out, looking like she was barely keeping it together amid all the resulting stress. A subtle view of the image revealed that she was shaking. She spoke in a tired, carefully modulated voice, belying the overwhelming stress that she was obviously feeling.

“Still an unusually high fever…” Traces of the red Alchemilla sweater were visible in the video. The woman was obviously a nurse, and it was clear that she was talking about a patient of some sort.

The woman continued undaunted.

“Eyes don’t open…getting a pulse…But just barely breathing.” The nurse (?) droned on about her charge, as if directly reporting the details for the benefit of some unseen party. The voice sounded shaky, as if she was gradually losing a hold of what modicum of control she had.

“Why! What is keeping that child alive?” The voice screamed into the darkness, now showing the true extreme of her stress, as if demanding the answer from the unseen person recording the whole ordeal, on the other side of the camera.

Alessa regained control of her mind as the vision faded. Whoa. That was an impressive vision. Alessa looked at the symbol, and realized the wall had disappeared! Perhaps she was meant to view that before proceeding forward. Alessa cast a downward gaze at the floor, a bit ashamed of herself at the moment. She had no idea Lisa was in such bad shape. She sounded calm at first, but Alessa could hear the strains in her tones and the underlying tensions, like she was barely gripping onto her sanity. And then she had lost it entirely, letting the true extreme stress in her tones show. She had no idea taking care of her was such a painful proposition. Perhaps Alessa owed Lisa an apology.

And when she next met the nurse, Alessa would get on her knees and beg her not to leave her alone, if she had to. While she was still a bit miffed about being responsible for what happened to Lisa in her years, perhaps this was one occasion in which she would simply have to swallow her pride and just apologize for something she didn’t do, if only to keep the peace. She would beg Lisa to stay with her, if it meant that she wouldn’t be alone again.

Alessa went further into the hall and exited through the door.

She found herself in a very short room. There was barely any room to maneuver, and it was obvious that this was a relay point in between two major buildings. Alessa looked up and saw a ladder. Ugh. It looked like she had to climb a ladder. A long ladder, she thought to herself. It looked like it stretched up forever into the hospital, Alessa thought, and the top wasn’t even visible through the shadows. Ugh, this was going to be no fun. She had better hope her grip was up to the task, or else she would fall a long distance, and she didn’t want to bang her knees on this ladder, or worse.

Well, there was nothing for it. She had to do this. She began to climb the bothersome ladder, carefully stepping on one rung at a time. Grabbing the bars to make sure she had a firm grip on the ladder, she hauled herself up the annoying contraption. Her upper body was getting a workout in this place, she groaned to herself mentally. She climbed slowly at first, gradually gaining speed as she became more comfortable with her grasp on this thing. The rusted walls passed by as she climbed the ladder step by painful step. Oh, don’t look down, don’t look down, she told herself, willing herself not to look down at the bottom of the shadow filled room. There was no telling how far up she was, and she would probably die if she fell. Or at the very least, break her legs and end up permanently stranded at the bottom. The more she went up, the closer the details of something drew. Alessa jumped: she had no idea there was someone up here! She looked through the ladder to see a figure with pale skin and a leather smock positioned in some crevice in the wall behind the ladder. The figure was turning a valve and hanging by his claws from a wall, and there appeared to be two flesh-like tunnels on his sides pulsing in response to his ministrations. Alessa stared in shock at the monster. What the hell was this creature? She had thought this was the Red god, but the truth was that now that she thought about it, she had no idea what this creature really was. The creature had followed her all throughout her journey, and whatever it was it seemed to have an interest in watching her. Alessa continued to shakily grip the ladder as she maintained her grasp, trying not to get too close to it as she climbed. She couldn’t shake the feeling of it being directly under it. Gross. She shuddered all over. There was nothing creepier than climbing a ladder while there was some monster operating on some valves under her.

She continued to climb the ladder. God, it seemed like the passageway would never end. How did anyone build anything up here like this? Or was this another manifestation of the town, with no basis in reality? Whatever this was, this had to be several stories tall. She felt tired just from climbing the ladder, even with her current fitness level. All of the stress from all that she had done and all the battles she had fought was starting to take a toll on her. She could have used some gloves, too; they certainly would have helped. The metal was rusted, and it smelled terrible.

As she continued to climb, she came across a most unusual sight. There was a woman positioned behind the ladder, tucked away in some small crevice of the structure under a metal beam. She was much larger than a human person, pale, wearing some tight-fitting facsimile of a nurse’s outfit with thigh-high boots, had dark hair, her arms were bound behind her in some kind of imprisoned position, and was hanging from the space by indeterminate means. Alessa frowned at the mysterious display. There was something about the bound figure that somehow seemed familiar. There was something about the green shoes she was wearing that seemed oddly familiar. What was it supposed to represent? Alessa decided to shake it off. Whatever it was, there was no reason for her to concern herself with it at this time. She continued to climb.

After a bit more of climbing, she finally neared the end of her goal. She came upon a platform that was suspended at the highest point of the room. There appeared to be something above it of importance. With a bit of oomph, Alessa climbed the platform, and hoisted her legs over onto the walkway. She stood up and dusted herself off, wanting something to get the smell of metal off of her. There was a door right in plain view on the walkway. Well, the next route was obvious, she thought. There was a red light bulb right above the door. Alessa wondered what it symbolized. The result was that the entire area was covered in a reddish hue. Alessa took a deep breath. This was it. This was what she’d been waiting for her entire time here, ever since she first realized who it was who was on the phone. She steadied her resolve.

Alessa took a deep breath, and then she opened the door and stepped headfirst into a nightmare.
~
AN: Some dialogue and memos may be borrowed from Silent Hill 3.
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Dark Descent