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Dark Descent	By : PyramidHead316 Category: +S through Z > Silent Hill Views: 8598 -:- 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
- 21
- 22
- 23
Disclaimer: Silent Hill is owned by Konami. No money is made off of this.

Warning: If you've ever been a victim of sexual abuse, this chapter will be disturbing to you.
Chapter 19: Vengeance
Alternate Brookhaven - Part 3
Alessa stepped into the first floor. That incident in the basement had left her shaken, but now it was time to move on. This was ground zero for the activity in the hospital. Whatever else she had to find in the hospital, she could feel it was here. She could hear the monsters scurrying on in the background. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of them here. She had to be careful. The corridor of the level was pitch black, and even darker than the third floor.
She didn’t place any beef jerky on the ground, since there didn’t seem to be any of the slurper monsters. Alessa sneakily proceeded down the corridor, watching for any signs of danger. It didn’t take long until she encountered her first nurse. The nurse came around the corner to launch herself at her, swinging a pipe and reaching out for her with one bloody hand. The sounds of her heavy breathing and labored steps gave it away to Alessa’s ears, before she even saw it. Alessa slashed at the nurse’s chest with her sword, and reeling back, she sliced it again at her shoulder, sinking the degenerate nurse to the ground. She stomped on the nurse’s back once to end its miserable life.
Alessa wiped her brow with her forearm. This was getting difficult. She was running out of energy, and still so much longer to go. She was getting accustomed to the monsters, a little too much so. They no longer intimidated her, and they were easy to predict. She was killing them easily, although she wondered about that, if she was doing it a little too much so. It shouldn’t be this easy, right? She should feel something when killing these creatures in self-defense, right? Or was it all right, since she was doing it in self-defense? Even if it was in self-defense, she should feel something, right? Some semblance of regret, a feeling of loathing or disgust, anything! She didn’t know, and she supposed maybe she didn’t want to know. Hmm.
Was she really that twisted?
She spotted the doors leading to the outside. In her Otherworld years ago, the doors in the hospital had contained a chamber that was filled with a useful item for someone to find, but the doors here were locked. She ducked into the door on her left. The room was a small compartment, compared to what was outside. Thankfully, there was no nurse waiting for her inside. That would have been the last thing she needed right now.
Alessa looked around the room. There was nothing in the room except file cabinets and junk, accumulated in the corner. Alessa frowned to herself in confusion. What was the point of this room? Or maybe it was just showing that the entire hospital had been transformed, and some rooms that were insignificant were just showing off the process. Maybe there was no point.
She exited the room and left to go further in the hallway. She ventured into the darkness of the main corridor, remaining wary of any threats. There was only one other room in the area that was open, and that was the last at the end of the hall. Making a left, Alessa found herself face-to-face with that chance for something significant. Fitting up her handgun, Alessa slowly opened the door and waited for any threat.
She scanned her eyes around the room, searching for anything of interest. There was a table right in front of her, with other medical knick knacks scattered around the room. There was an I.V. in the corner, which immediately sent a shiver up her body. Alessa spotted a group of needles to the right of the table. Ugh, that was gross. The syringes looked dirty and well used. Ugh, that was even worse than before. She was definitely not touching those, that was for sure. That was an awful lot of drugs in this room, Alessa thought. It didn’t look like they had been used with regular medicine, if her meaning was clear. This place was disgusting. Or maybe it was just her. Alessa spotted a letter lying on top of the table. Her eyes lit up as she realized it was about Leonard. Leonard! She picked up the letter and hurried to read it, wondering if this could give her any further insight into her enemy.
Dr Midkiff:
Please use extra caution with the patient in room 312.
He should still have his Religious freedom here in the hospital,
but he shouldn't push his faith on others.
I'm a victim too.
Rumor has it he got here by stabbing someone over
a religious dispute.
Please be careful.
R Crosby
P.S It looks like the rumor was true, according to
the head nurse.
I do think he's a good person otherwise
though --- easy to deal with.
Alessa put down the letter. So this was worse than she thought. Leonard wasn’t just an abuser and a pervert, he was a full-blown psychopath. Yeah, a good person. A good person didn’t stab someone over religion. Or judge people on their sexuality, as she knew some religious people did. They didn’t try to impose their religious views on you and try to force you to live up to their standards, at all costs. Being religious didn’t automatically make you a good person; in fact, some times it made you a monster. Alessa frowned at the thought. It made her angry. She gripped the paper she held in her hand, crumbling it into a ball. She needed to kill this man. By God-given right, she needed to kill this man. The world had suffered enough at the hands of this man, and Claudia had suffered enough, even if she didn’t know it. Not that she particularly cared what that wretched hag thought at the moment, but it was the principal of the thing.
…And there was that damned sign again. Although here, it kind of looked like it fit, Alessa thought to herself. This place was surrounded by evil and was corrupt, perverted, and decaying. It made a perfect place for a sign of a mystical alignment to appear. Alessa still wished she could figure it out. What did it mean exactly? She got the feeling it was something from her past that she knew very well, but she couldn’t remember it. Alessa put her hand to her forehead trying to recall the information while she strained, but the memories just wouldn’t come to her. She wanted to touch the symbol with her hand, but she had no idea what kind of effect would ensue so she left it alone.
There was nothing else left in the room. She exited the rusted exam room, and left behind that disgusting letter. With each room that she took down, she was getting closer and closer to Leonard. Her heart was starting to beat a little faster. It was almost time. The time had come for Leonard to pay for his crimes, and she was rapidly hurtling towards that destiny. Okay, so maybe destiny was a bit too much, but she was going to make sure that Leonard paid for what he did. She wondered what it would be like, whether it would be a cold killing of her hated enemy, or whether she would be unable to control her emotions and unleash a tidal wave of rage against her opponent. Even she didn’t know how she was going to react at this point when she saw him. She had a lot of emotions stored inside of her from all these years, and one way or another she was going to deal with it. Leonard’s life would be the prize for that.
As she left the chamber, she realized she had been in the exam room. That was some exam room, with its syringes full of dirty crap and blood-stained rusted walls. It was kind of barren for an exam room, too. She wondered what an exam comprised of in this place. She doubted it was an ordinary medical exam. More like a torture session most likely, she thought to herself. Probably she didn’t want to know.
Alessa ran down the hall, navigating through the darkness easily now that she was familiar with the way. The end near the exam room had been blocked off by a wire fence-like barrier, so she couldn’t go around to the front of the hall; she had to go all the way back the way she came, around the elevator. Alessa ran all the way back to the beginning in search of the next challenge, when her heart almost stopped at what she saw. There was a nurse right ahead of her, and she had a gun in her hand. Where the hell had she come from?! The nurse turned at the sound of someone in the area, and Alessa knew she had to act quickly. She ran up to the nurse and slashed at the decayed creature with her sword, before the nurse had a chance to aim her gun. It would have taken too long to aim with her gun properly and ensure that she had a right shot that would take her down instantly, without the chance of the nurse getting a shot inside. Alessa slashed at the nurse again and buried the metal blade in her chest, causing her to cry out and taking her down. Alessa looked at the gun in her hand and wondered if she could take it for her own. Something told her it would be a very bad idea to take it from her hand, however. For some reason, she had the feeling the guns were meant for them and them alone. She wondered if they were cursed, or would cause grave misfortune to those who wielded them.
Alessa stared at the blade of the sword in her hand. The blade was stained red with crimson blood, from all the fights she had been in. She knew she needed to wipe it with something; it was staining her shirt, her backpack, but she didn’t have time to clean it right now. She didn’t really care; she had better things to do right now. How many creatures had she killed on her journey with this blade? Too many to count. She was turning into quite the serial killer, she thought to herself wryly, yet she didn’t mind. She was doing it to survive, and she knew that it demanded her absolute focus to pull off.
There wasn’t much of a choice. She wasn’t going to feel bad for doing what she had to, to survive.
Alessa suddenly remembered the plastic bag she had in her backpack! There was only one possible thing she could scoop with it, and it wasn’t one Alessa wanted to ponder. She may have been making a mistake, but the blood on the third floor hospital room was the only thing she could imagine using the bag for. She decided to take the risk. She didn’t know what it would be used for, but it was probably something important later on. If she had guessed wrong about the whole thing, she would just empty out the bag and use it for something else.
Once she had filled the bag with the blood, Alessa moved on to her next destination. She had cringed and fought with the disgust all the way, but she had done it. She had tried to grip the bag around the edges and around the blood, but she had still gotten some blood on her fingertips. Yuck. She used a health drink to wash her hands. Alessa hated to waste one on such a frivolous purpose, but she was not going to walk around with bloody hands, thank you very much. That was just disgusting, and who knew what was in there. Some type of disease, no doubt. She felt dirty enough, being in this place. It was like an atmospheric type of griminess, the way it clung to her clothes and wouldn’t let go. She shuddered to think of what the air was like in here. Enough of that already, though. Now she had something else to focus on. Alessa remembered the quiz she had heard on the radio. The narrator had said the prizes were in the storeroom on the third floor. It looked like she was heading there next.
She went through the weird room with the thing hanging in there and around the corridor. She still had no idea what that thing was, and she probably didn’t want to know. She had this strange fear that it would open up and moths would come out of it and try to eat her; devour her alive. She knew it was bizarre, but that’s what she felt like. That was what moths did, after all; hang inside clothes and wait for someone to bother them, wasn’t it? This looked too much like the cloth bunches where a moth might be hiding, ready to pounce.
Alessa crept outside the door to the third floor storeroom. Oh God, when the announcer said it was the third floor storeroom, she didn’t realize it was the mirror room! The memories of that terrible experience came flooding back, bombarding her mind with a thousand terrible images. It was the place where she had been (raped) attacked, and she was standing right outside the semblance of it! It was an awful scenario, but she had to do this. She had vowed to find whatever was in there, and chances were the radio host wouldn’t let her off so easily, if she backed down. Alessa held up the gun and aimed it at the door. Oh God, what was she doing? She couldn’t go into this place again; that would be an absolute nightmare. She would be attacked again. She was going to get killed again. She slowly opened the door and readied herself to fire at what was inside. Alessa counted down in her mind. One. Two. She got ready to fire. Three. Alessa swung the door open and looked inside. To her shock, the mirror and the accompanying basin were missing. There were shelves now occupying the layout of the space, and a locker had been added to the assortment, along with a rack for storing items; the whole room had a tightly-packed together feeling, and Alessa found it difficult to move among the clustered shelves. The room had been converted back into an ordinary storage room. Alessa thankfully breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” she said, even though she knew there was no such thing as the Christian God, as they understood it, and the other one was a monster. It was the principal of the thing. This couldn’t have worked out better for her. At least now she didn’t have to worry about being assaulted again, in whatever nightmarish way they chose.
Alessa moved further into the room. She didn’t notice anything out of place at first. There was nothing on the shelves, and the locker seemed quite normal. It was then that she saw it. There was an ornately decorated chest on the right wall of the place, with vibrant colors and a beautifully carved gray pattern on its surface. It had been hidden by a divide and was not immediately visible. Alessa approached the chest curiously. The chest had a panel on its surface, with buttons to press lined up in rows of threes, and the panel seemed inlaid with an almost gold color. The buttons were labeled ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’, on either rows of the panel, and was done so in a way that was impossible to miss. It was obvious this was the “reward” the radio host had talked about. The chest lay on a table, having been placed there by someone only a few minutes ago.
Alessa frowned in concentration. Time to get to work. The first question had been about the name of a road leading to the resort area of the town. She remembered them well, having written it into her brain back when they first aired. Alessa concentrated hard on answering the question, as she remembered what she knew of the town’s history. Okay, the name of a street, she told herself…Bachman Road. That was easy, there was only one major road leading to the amusement park for that side of the town. She knew that like the back of her hand. She pressed the ‘1’ button on the first row for the corresponding answer.
Doing good so far, Alessa, she told herself.
The second question was about the mine that had brought the town its fortunes, before it went bankrupt and the town turned to another industry for its revenue, tourism…Alessa knew this well from school. It was Wiltse Coal Mine. The mine lay on the outskirts of South Vale, and served the town for several decades. It was discovered in the early 1800’s, and was mined by the town until the early 1900’s. Alessa pressed the third button for ‘3’. She was almost finished.
The third question was about a politician who had run for local office. Alessa frowned to herself. She didn’t know this question. Alessa groaned to herself. She had no idea what the answer to this question was. She hadn’t been in the town in years. She vaguely remembered reading something in the paper about it, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember the details about who the person was that was involved. Gah, this was impossible! Alessa decided to mentally review what she knew about the candidates, taking it one step at a time.
Scott Fairbanks was out. She had absolutely no idea who that was. He may have been a local member of the Order, but there was probably nothing significant about him. Alessa was sure she would have heard about him if it were otherwise. That left two possible candidates, Jimmy Stone and Toby Archbolt. Alessa mentally reviewed what she knew about each of them.
Jimmy Stone was a priest in the Order. He was always wearing those Executioner costumes, which Alessa found utterly weird, and he was nicknamed “the Red Devil” by his followers. Alessa didn’t recall hearing anything about him running for office, but then again, she couldn’t remember the details of the person she had read about in the papers.
Toby Archbolt was an unknown. He was a member of the Order, but that was all she knew. Alessa didn’t remember reading about him running for office, but then again, that was the problem. She couldn’t remember the details of who it was who ran for office in the paper she read. Only the vague memory of reading the paper in the morning, and seeing the article about Silent Hill, was the thing that sprang to her mind. She tried to recall anything that she could about Toby Archbolt’s personality, anything that might help her, but she couldn’t remember anything about what he was like. Oh God, she didn’t know.
She had to make a choice. She knew nothing of the circumstances being discussed in the question, and yet she knew she had to answer soon, or else she would stay here forever. Oh God, she was going to fail this test, and then who knows what kind of consequences would be unleashed. Alessa felt her heart starting to beat faster, and her anxieties going up all over the place. She wasn’t cut out for this. Alessa strained her brains to come up with an answer, but none was forthcoming. Don’t make me choose…
Alessa put her left hand over her eyes, and moved her hand rapidly over the buttons, counting down in her mind. She waited until several moments had passed, not wanting to make the decision, fingers hovering over the panel with a frantic energy. Finally, she pushed down the button for option number 1, with one slender finger.
A grating buzzing sound was suddenly heard throughout the room. Alessa was taken aback by the shocking intrusion, as she realized exactly what that meant. Oh no. She had failed the test. It wasn’t Jimmy Stone, it was Toby Archbolt! Damn it! Who knew what was going to be out there now? She had chosen the wrong answer, and she doubted the town was going to let her forget about it. She had no idea about the consequences that would ensue, but they probably wouldn’t be pretty.
It was a disheartening, depressing moment. And suddenly Alessa lost it. She was going to get that reward no matter what! She tried to wrench open the lock, manually giving it a beating and pulling at it with all her might. When that didn’t work, Alessa took a step back. She decided she was going to try to break the lock. She thought about shooting it, but she wasn’t sure what the effect would be in a place like this. Her resolve only grew greater, and this was pissing her off. She tried to pry open the chest with her katana, using it as a crowbar, but the damn container would not budge, and she wasn’t sure if the added force would break her katana. It wasn’t supposed to happen, considering it was a katana, but she didn’t want to be unsure and break her katana, and end up with a broken, useless blade. Alessa sighed with considerable discontent. The only way might be to take the chest and smash it against the floor, to spill open the contents. It looked pretty heavy though, and she didn’t want to strain her back, or her abdomen. Alessa sighed to herself in growing frustration. Damn it. She couldn’t get in. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t get in. The stupid radio host had made sure that the case was foolproof, to anything but a sledgehammer. She almost felt like crying. She had failed this challenge. She sagged her shoulders, as she realized the inevitable truth. She couldn’t do it. There was no way to open the case. Damn it. So much for that reward.
Alessa peeked her head out the door. She then went back inside. Who knows what was lurking outside now, thanks to her earlier decision. She didn’t dare to go outside now. But she had to, so she picked herself up by her bootstraps and left the room. She had no choice. She couldn’t stay in this place still lingering here after everything was done, and being afraid of what she was facing like a little girl. She was braver than that. She had to go out there.
The hallway was deserted. Alessa looked from side to side, trying to ascertain the threat. She almost thought there was nothing there to fear for a moment. It was all a big bluff. Suddenly, the cacophony of noise emerged out of the darkness, heading towards her. She saw a massive brown creature heading towards her. Alessa turned on spotting the creature, and she nearly jumped back in shock upon seeing how quickly it was aggressively proceeding towards her. The eight eyes that stared out of the square-like head on its shoulders were ghastly, and the creature had a mottled brown skin that covered the entirety of its body, rusted, bloody, and looking like it had been burned. There were multiple limbs, and each one was topped off with a hand of some sort, useful for grabbing stuff and ripping it to pieces obviously, though they barely resembled a human. The bottom half looked like an ordinary man wearing pants, and the legs were moving quickly while barefooted on the ground as they approached her. The creature gave a low growl and savagely rushed at her, and Alessa knew she had to act. Alessa aimed her gun and shot at the deranged creature approaching her. The first shot didn’t stop the monster in its tracks, but the second to the stomach made it pause in pain, and the third one finally took it down. Alessa breathed hard at the shock, putting her hands on her knees and resting on them. Oh God, that was tough. She had nearly pissed her pants when that thing came out of the darkness! That was too much of a shock. Where the hell had that thing come from? One moment it wasn’t there, the next it was. It was like it had been there in the shadows, waiting to rush out at her.
Alessa took a closer look at the dead monster. Oh God, why did it have to be spiders? She hated spiders! They were one of the few childhood fears that Alessa had retained, and now was no different. They had always creeped her out, with the way they moved, their many eyes, and the way they stalked you while skittering along on the surface of the floor. She didn’t even like Spider-Man that much, knowing that he would eventually mutate into a hideous half-man, half-spider with multiple limbs, who wanted to eat human flesh. She had once spent $12 on insect spray to catch a spider that had gotten away from her. Her family thought she had gone crazy. This hybrid looked far less grotesque than the comic book version, but it was still hideous. She had had a wall collection on insects once when she was a child, but she was still disturbed by them. That was when she was still patient enough to deal with insects, and Dahlia had encouraged her to collect them, but even then she recognized the disturbing aspect of them.
There was a crumpled paper in the ‘hand’ of the monster. Looking at it curiously, Alessa picked it up and read over the crude lines of writing. There were scraggly lines of writing that barely spelled out the words “Not a treat, but a trick!” Alessa frowned to herself as she examined the statement. Yeah, that was definitely the ‘reward’ for failing the quiz challenge. There was a crude drawing of some kind of vial brown in color and looking like a glass bottle of some kind. Alessa looked closer at it and realized it looked like an ampoule, a drug that was supposed to promote accelerated healing. So that was what the prize was for answering the questions correctly, she realized. Alessa sighed highly with discontent; that was something that really would have come in handy for her throughout these circumstances.
Alessa went back down to the first floor. There was only one place left, and it was a big one. She went in through the north entrance of the day room. This place was big, and it was the only way into the patient hall of the first floor. Alessa went inside without a thought. The torrent of sounds coming from the darkness immediately alerted her. Alessa nearly jumped back, until she realized that she was separated from the nurse by a barrier of wire fence. Alessa took a moment to calm her beating heart, taking deep breaths of the stale otherworldly air. The nurse ambled about in the darkness, hunched over like a hunchback with a weapon in her hand, barely aware of her presence apparently, as long as she didn’t make too much noise. Suddenly she noticed there was a paper lying on the ground. There was a diary on the ground! Alessa looked at the paper, which was a crumbled up form barely maintaining its shape among the other pages of the notebook it was a part of. Alessa kept a wary eye on the nurse in the background, while she picked up the notebook and began reading through its contents, holding the aged notebook carefully in her hands.
The world is teeming with
unnecessary people.
It's God's decision that I fight.
As a knight of honor, as protector
of the seal, I sacrifice myself to the
blood of criminals.
Alessa frowned in growing disgust while regarding the contents she’d just read. So this was the diary of a religious fanatic. And there were only a few guesses as to who it might have been. The primary one was right here in the hospital. Leonard wasn’t just an abusive psychopath, he truly believed he was one of the necessary ones. Typical religious fanatic, Alessa scoffed. They were usually the unnecessary ones! They were the ones who discriminated against people, tried to force them to adopt their view, judged people based on their sexuality, instead of encouraging them to give in to their natural urges, and generally did all sorts of abhorrent things. And yet they were the ones who thought they were the necessary ones, while everyone else was a blight on their kingdoms. It made Alessa sick. She felt like throwing something at the wall. If it were up to her, she would wipe them all off the face of the Earth. She clenched her fist in growing rage. Leonard had to die. She had to kill him, no matter the consequences. Leonard must die, because he was the embodiment of all that had gone wrong with the world today. She was going to kill him, so that she could avenge all the innocent people who had suffered at his hands, and the hands of those like him. She would absolutely demolish him.
She left the room for the hell outside. She went around to the rear entrance of the day room. From the moment she entered the room, the nurse spotted her and charged at her. Alessa waited until the nurse had come out of the darkness closer to her and then she calmly shot her twice, killing her instantly. She proceeded past the dead body with an icy calm. She was on a mission today, and she was not going to let anything stop her.
As soon as she entered the hallway, Alessa was alarmed at the noise that was heading towards her. She started firing off into the darkness repeatedly, squeezing off shot after shot at the oncoming creatures. It was like a cluster of crumbling paper, scampering on the ground, low growls, and determined feet on wire mesh, amplified to the max that felt like a nightmare in the environment surrounding her; like a wall of noise hitting her full force, all around her! Come on, come on. Soon enough, she saw them. The responsible creatures were coming towards her, scampering on the ground quickly intent on making her their meal. Alessa was able to stop a couple of them with her shots, but one of them kept coming, sidestepping the corpses and fighting its way through the barrage with determination. Alessa nearly shrieked as the creature almost jumped at her, only to be stopped by the shot from Alessa’s Magnum at the last minute. It was only a little startled sound, but it was enough to give voice to her fears. She was pressed back against the door, as the creature collapsed right in front of her. It wasn’t done, though. There was still one more of them. Alessa aimed her gun at the shadows. She could hear it scurrying about somewhere up ahead. She waited patiently for the creature to reveal itself. Finally the creature came advancing forward. It was moving very quickly and was able to evade all of the shots Alessa fired its way, making her panic a bit as she shakily backed up. She was only able to hit it when the creature came up close, shooting it in its covered face. The creature was still rattling with a death throe at her feet. Alessa stomped on it and ended its life. Then came the nurse. Alessa was alarmed when she saw the nurse had a gun, and frantically fought to bring up her gun to aim properly. She fired two shots at her chest, instantly taking her down, before the nurse had a chance to raise her gun again. Alessa breathed a sigh of relief. This was getting difficult. They were throwing more loads of monsters at her, though thankfully it seemed at an end. She wiped her brow, thankful this little incident had passed without her body getting torn to shreds.
Alessa noticed there was a message written on the wall. “Happy Birthday!” Happy Birthday, what the hell? Don’t tell her it was that birthday psycho again, back from the phone call in the locker room, laying a trap for her of some sort! Was he laying a trap for her of some sort, she wondered, looking at the white scrawled message? Or was there something else going on here, concerning all this?
Alessa carefully opened the door to peek inside.
As soon as she opened the door, Alessa shrieked and jumped back as three nurses suddenly rushed at her! She was forced to put up her gun and shoot rapidly, to avoid the nurses’ swinging pipes smashing into her face with their nasty surfaces, and a potentially damaging gunshot blowing a hole in her chest. She took down two of the nurses, slamming them to the ground with a series of thunderous shots. A third nurse came forward, and Alessa used her blade to divert the pipe and planting a shot in the nurse’s chest, taking her down. Alessa dragged her forearm over her forehead. She had to stop doing that! She was going to get killed or molested by these things. And the scary part was she wasn’t joking. This town was evil, corrupted, perverted, and gross. She didn’t even want to imagine what they would do to her, if they got their hands on her without their weapons, free to touch her. She knew she was using gallows humor to deal with her situation, but at this point it was the only way she could sustain herself throughout this hell. It was a scary thought, just contemplating the thought. She put it out of her mind. Alessa knelt by the corpses, examining the details of the room. There had to be a purpose to what she was doing here, in this patient room overrun with carnivorous nurses. This couldn’t just be a useless room with no purpose whatsoever. Unless she had stumbled into a random mess filled with monsters, like on many occasions before. Damn it, that happened a lot more frequently than she thought.
There was a stretcher in the room, a bed that was dirty and filthy with its decayed mattress, bottles of pills on a nightstand, and another overturned bed in the corner of the room. Alessa went to the stretcher first. It was right next to the door, and was the first thing she noticed. She knew there was someone under there. It looked too thin to be a person, though. Was it a string of long intestine? An unknown animal she hadn’t yet encountered? The images the possibilities conjured up were endless. A part of her wanted to check, but then she knew better than to lift the sheet. It was probably better to leave it alone. She left it alone to move on.
Alessa knelt by the bed, on the left side of its rusted frame. There was a greeting card on the edge. It looked like a birthday card! Was it from that creep? She wondered. Alessa picked up the birthday card and opened it. There was a sequence written on the card. “7 + 13 + 27 = 47?” What was the meaning of that? Alessa wondered about the significance behind those statements. What was the town trying to tell her? She got the feeling there was something important she wasn’t seeing.
Alessa noticed there was something on the other bed. There were two first aid kits on the frame! She didn’t know how she had missed them before. These would definitely come in handy in patching her wounds. While the health drinks were okay, she didn’t know if she wanted to keep drinking that stuff, until she had gone through a dozen bottles of it. Using it to wash her hands was one thing, but she didn’t know if she wanted to keep putting them inside her body. She guessed that was the birthday present from that crazy guy on the phone. That was a pretty great birthday present, Alessa had to smile. Still, that didn’t change the fact that there was something unsettling about this whole issue with the calls. Who was that guy? How did he know so much about her, including her name? And why was he so obsessed with the birthday thing? The caller might have given her a nice reward, but there was something undeniably creepy underlying the whole tone of the caller. She supposed it was a mystery she might never know the answer to.
The dark hallway was completely deserted now. Alessa walked down the length of the corridor with a sense of foreboding. She was getting closer now. Every step she was taking was bringing her closer to Leonard and her conclusion. The moment of the hour was rapidly arriving. It was now time to see the truth about whether she could do this; confront her hated enemy. She passed a stretcher on the way. There was a dead person under the sheet. She was pretty sure they were dead, so they had no need for Alessa to check them under it. The sheet was red with whatever the sickness was that was corrupting this place. She sure wasn’t going to touch it, that was for sure. Whatever it was, it would probably give her a disease or kill her, if she touched it directly. Medical related stuff was one of Alessa’s greatest phobias.
The other doors in the hallway were locked. There was one that led to the pool and the garden, and an elevator that led upstairs. Neither of them were relevant. There was only one place left to go.
Alessa stood alone outside the room. Her heart was starting to beat faster. This was it. The moment when she would finally determine whether or not she could put this man down, once and for all. The room was C4, and it was the very last room on the patient hall of the first floor. She took a deep breath. The whole enormity of the moment was upon her, and it was intimidating. Her hand was almost shaking. Grabbing the doorknob, she slowly turned the knob and went inside. The door opened easily to her advance; there was nothing holding her back now.
The room was darkly lit and small. There was a stretcher up ahead, and some kind of curtain in the corner. Her first impression was one of confusion. Where was Leonard? There was no reason to overreact at first, though. Still, she knew things in this place were rarely as they seemed. This was the only place she could have gone. He had to be around here somewhere. There was something more to this room than met the eye, and she was determined to find out what. Alessa searched throughout the room, determined to uncover the mystery of what she was supposed to do here.
There was a stretcher right in front of her, which she had already noted. Looking closer, she saw that it was no ordinary stretcher, though. It almost looked like an altar. There was a picture hanging above the altar, although it was indistinguishable as to what it was. Alessa wondered whether the Otherworld had warped it, or whether it had always been indistinguishable in that way. There were two lit candles, a knife on the blanket…and was that blood that was positioned on the altar? Alessa found it to be very creepy…and it was disturbing as to what this was.
Alessa looked to the left. There was an old book on a table, with the pages yellowing. It looked really old, like it was written at least a century ago. Alessa looked at the title, and realized it was a copy of the “Lost Memories” book she had found earlier. Or was it the same book, and it had been transported over here somehow? It was open to a section somewhere in the middle. Alessa read through it, intrigued on what it had to say this time. It was obviously placed here for a reason.
One characteristic, mentioned only

in rare documents and dying out in

the modern age, is that of the ritual

sacrifice.

"Offering prayers, pierce a man's

chest with a copper stake. Drench

the altar in the blood which spouts

red from the heart, to praise and to

show loyalty unto God."

In another sacrificial rite mentioned

in the same book, the victim is

burned alive.

This was a more dignified ceremony

in which prisoners and sinners were

not allowed to participate. Only the

clergy could be sacrificed.

Similar to burning at the stake, no

comparable rite can be found in

religions practiced nearby. It may

have some connection with the

main deity being a sun god.

Even though this religion extols

redemption, it brings to mind a

dark and cultish history.

Alessa shivered a bit in recollection. That had been done to her. She was a priestess in the Order. Or at least, she was supposed to have been. She was also supposed to have been a medium. Unfortunately she didn’t have the talent for it. However, she had had enough raw power that Dahlia had chosen her to be the harbinger for the Order’s God. It couldn’t be just any plain old little girl, only a clergy member of the Order could have the ‘honor’ of giving birth to the Order’s God. It was indeed like being burned at the stake, except it wasn’t meant to torture, like being a horrible death at the hands of stupid Christians too deluded to realize that most witches were good. Instead it was meant to be a purification ritual, a rite of passage through pain. It made Alessa shudder to know that someone could do that to their child, and not feel remorse for it.

Alessa suddenly knew what she had to do…

She took out the packet of blood. Alessa grimaced at what she was about to do, knowing it was too much like a sacrifice and hating every minute of it. She took the packet of blood and spilled it all over the altar, laying it out in a flowing pattern. There, that was her sacrifice. There was her sacrifice in blood, to the Order’s heathen God, its so-called Sun God and Creator deity, and that was all she would do. No way was she going to sacrifice an innocent person to this thing. Now to wait for the results.

At first nothing happened. Then reality began to shift around her, as though the air was changing in the environment, imposing its will on the concrete structure. The back of the room began to melt into the floor, as the structure was opening up and changing with an almost liquid-like, organic motivation. The altar had accepted its offering. The whole process was fascinating to watch, and Alessa couldn’t help but stare as the pipes twisted and buckled, and the floor crumbled into a red mass that receded with the tiles. Soon the process was complete.

Before her was a vast pit, stretching across the expanse of the room. The edges of the opening appeared to have been formed from the same organic tubing where that monster on the ladder had been in. Alessa noticed the entryway of the room had been blocked by the hole, now separated by a few feet. There was no way out now. Alessa took a deep breath. This was it. There were no other places where Leonard could be, and she had reached the end of her journey in this particular locale. She had to go into the void, to find her hated enemy.

Alessa looked at the feature she had seen earlier. It turned out it wasn’t a curtain at all, but a partition of some kind, probably to protect someone’s privacy while dressing. That same symbol she had seen all this time was on there, too. This one was different, though. This one seemed to have been written down a long time ago, rather than been made recently. It didn’t seem to be part of an ethereal glow, like the other symbols, but rather like an actual piece of writing. Alessa wondered if Leonard had written it, or if he was worshipping it in some way. What was he doing with it? Was there some magical component to it, or was it part of some spell he had been casting? She knew there was some important component to the symbol, but Alessa just couldn’t remember for the life of her what that was…she knew it would probably make itself known to her eventually.

There was a ladder at the edge of the crevice, leading down into the hole. Alessa steeled her nerves. This was it. She was getting ready to end this. Down there was the specter of the man who had been haunting her all her life. She was ready for this to be finished once and for all. Grabbing the edges of the ladder, she carefully climbed her way down into the darkness, step by step, ensuring that she didn’t fall on the slippery rungs of the thing. She wondered what hell was awaiting her down there, in the care of this nightmarish hell.

~

Alessa descended into the darkness. The place around her seemed to be a cave, or sewer of some kind, and wasn’t what she was expecting. It was dark, smelling of stale uncirculated air, and she could almost feel the moisture in the air. The fetid stench clung to her clothing at every turn. Although all things considered, it could have been a lot worse. She took her feet off the last rung and climbed off of the ladder, stepping onto the wet sewer ground.

Alessa took a surveying glance at her latest surroundings. The chamber appeared to be an altered underground waterway. The sewer floor was covered in about three and half feet of water that flowed in streams from the grinding machinery nearby. She looked to see if her prey was indeed here, but she couldn’t notice anyone besides herself.
“Ah Heather, you’re finally here. It certainly took you long enough,” a familiar voice said from somewhere in the room.
“Leonard? Is that you?” Alessa inquired blandly.
“Yes. Thank you, Heather. Now I can finally leave this place, and Claudia’s ridiculous dream is over. Well, I guess it’s time to dispose of her. ‘The salvation of all mankind’. Ha! What a pathetic goal to aspire to. Why must we reward even the unbelievers? It’s a pity. She could have been such a nice girl,” Leonard said mock-sadly, as if lamenting for his lost daughter. The tone rankled Alessa, but she forced herself to remain calm.
“What are you talking about?” she asked in response, trying to sound ignorant about the situation.
“About our plans, of course,” the unseen voice said in matter-of-fact fashion. “It’s true that God is merciful. But first one must be chosen. Only those who hearken to the voice of God will be given the keys to paradise. Don’t you think so, Heather?” The delusional preaching was nothing less than Alessa expected from Leonard Wolf. In a way, it was reassuring to see that his stay at Brookhaven had not changed him a bit. It made what she would soon do all that more enjoyable.
“Yeah, whatever,” she said dismissively. “Go ahead and think anything you want.”
“What do you mean by that?” the hidden man inquired in a quietly serious tone.
“It’s funny you should mention all that stuff about unbelievers. You see, I couldn’t care less about your sorry excuse for a God,” she said nonchalantly.
“What? You’re an unbeliever? How dare you deceive me?!”
Alessa was satisfied her words had the intended effect. She continued as if she hadn’t heard him at all. “I have something to tell you. My name isn’t Heather, you sick, stupid son of a bitch. It’s Alessa. Alessa Gillespie,” she said casually, almost off-handedly.
There was a beat of silence.
“Alessa?” Leonard breathed in a shocked voice.
“Yes. Little Alessa, whom you raped when she was six years old. I haven’t forgotten what you did to me, you monster. And after the hell this goddamn hospital has put me through, I’m going to enjoy making you suffer for it.” Now that she had revealed her true identity to Leonard, there was little point in keeping a tranquil facade.
“Alessa…it can’t be.”
“Oh, but it is,” she assured him ominously. She could sense panic start to rise in the old man. “And I fully remember what you did to me. Can you have even the slightest idea of what you put me through? How dirty and worthless you made me feel? I was a child; too young to understand the sick things you were doing to me, you miserable bastard!”
She took a deep breath. “But I knew it was wrong through every second of that hell. Every time you jabbed your fingers into me or forced yourself between my thighs. Every time you made me ‘pleasure’,” the disgust dripped from her tone, “those filthy organs between your legs, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I wasn’t supposed to be doing that. You weren’t supposed to be doing that! But I never realized just how sick it truly was then. I do now.”
Leonard was silent, stunned by the venomous level of his victim’s sheer outrage and hatred. He was afraid as well, the fear pouring off him now in palpable waves. It brought a sadistic smile to Alessa’s face. But then she recalled something else, prompting the smile to fade.
“And to think you had the audacity to do that to Claudia too. Your own daughter! How dare you call yourself a human being?”
“You know,” she began, “one of the first things I did when I woke up all those years ago was to look for you. I knew you deserved the most horrible punishment I could inflict on you with my powers, and you weren’t going to escape me so easily. I must say I was very disappointed when I realized you left town.”
She scoffed. “You got off lucky then. But your luck’s run out. You’re every bit the demon Dahlia was. And just like she burned for what she did, so will you. And so will your fucking excuse for a deity!”
Invoking his revered deity finally got a rise out of Leonard. “Heretic! You plan to destroy God!” he shouted from somewhere in the water.
“You’re damned right I do!” Alessa screamed at her nemesis. “It’s enough that I had to deal with that once. I’m not going to deal with it a second time,” she told him resolutely.
Leonard almost seemed disappointed. “I see now the old bitch did a pathetic job of teaching you. I knew I should have taken your destiny into my own hands. You infidel…”
“Oh shut up, you arrogant motherfucker!” Alessa snapped furiously. “Enough of that bullshit already! That garbage almost ruined my life, and it obviously drove Claudia insane. I’ve had more than enough of it. You want to believe all that crap? Fine by me, since it won’t help you in the least. I’m gonna kill her, and right now, I’m gonna kill you.” She readied her Desert Eagle for emphasis.
“If you’re going to threaten me, at least own up to what you did and face me like a man,” Alessa ordered. She smirked when Leonard hesitated. “Although, I guess you’re not really a man, eh? You never were. You’re nothing but a gutless, ball-less, depraved son of a bitch.”
That was the last straw for Leonard. “You insolent bitch!” he roared from somewhere in the room. “It’s obvious you didn’t learn your lesson from all those times I handled you and that pathetic daughter of mine. Very well then. I won’t just grant you a gruesome death now. I’ll show pain unlike anything you’ve felt before!”
He rose out of the water, and Alessa beheld her nemesis for the first time in over fourteen years. The Leonard she remembered was a man of average height and weight. The Leonard she saw now was anything but.
Warped and twisted by the Otherworld, the beast was as grotesque on the outside as he was on the inside. The ugly brown flesh on his bare body was covered in sores, scars, tumors, and other repulsive things no one wanted to see on a human form. His mass had doubled in size, with his arms extending well past his thighs. Odd crescent-shaped spikes resembling malformed fins adorned their ends. Leonard’s face bore no mouth, and his blackened eyes were completely sunken in.
Alessa was not impressed. She stared at Leonard with the disdain that one might have for an ant, pressed under their boot. “Well, well, you really are a monster. Why am I not surprised?” Under normal circumstances, Alessa might have been startled by his altered appearance. Such was her rage that she didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
“It is an honor to be chosen by God for one of Her glorious tasks. And now, you will suffer for defying her!” Leonard growled at her.
“Then go ahead, you depraved sack of shit. Do your worst!” she snarled back hatefully.
Leonard wasted no time in lunging at the girl, swiping viciously at her chest. Alessa evaded the attack, raising her Magnum to the demon’s head. She fired a thunderous shot right at his forehead. Leonard groaned in pain. Alessa got off two more shots that dropped Leonard to the water, then connected with another before he swam away.
Alessa took the moment to reload. She worked fast but Leonard recovered by the time she finished. Seizing the opportunity to strike, he slid towards her through the water and swiped at her legs. Alessa tumbled down into the aquatic flow, losing her grip on the Magnum. Her adversary slowly stood up, towering above her like an executioner about to carry out his sentence. He raises his spiked arm and slammed it into the water, but Alessa dodged the blow by rolling to the side. Alessa tried to take out her sword and slash at her adversary, but Leonard struck her with a hard blow, swiping it out of her hand and sending it to the water. Damn it, she had to get that sword back! She tried to dive lower to the water to go for her sword, but Leonard struck her with hard force in the abdomen, sending her back to the water, to her knees. Alessa held her stomach, wincing in pain. She had to take another shot at him, before he gained the advantage. It was then that she noticed a spot on his body that provided a most suitable target. Before the demon attempted another hit, Alessa took out her switchblade and thrust it right into the fleshy bulge between his legs.
Leonard unleashed a howl of pure agony at the attack. Alessa ruthlessly jabbed and twisted the blade, ripping apart whatever organs the pouch of skin had been concealing. She pulled out the knife, her right hand covered in blood. The organs spilled to the water in a waterfall of blood, as Leonard howled in frightened agonizing pain. Leonard reeled from the wound, and Alessa used jam her knife right into the creature’s right eye. Another shriek of anguish emerged from the monster as she shattered his optical organ. He struck out with his right fin, but it wasn’t enough to prevent another attack from Alessa. She bounced back and shoved the knife into his left eye, leaving him completely blinded. Leonard again struck at her, this time throwing her several feet backwards.
The impact took Alessa’s breath away, but it made little difference at this point. Leonard was defenseless now. Searching through the water, she located her gun. Aiming at her enemy’s head, she fired shot after shot at the monster. He collapsed to the ground after the fifth one.
Alessa approached the thrashing body. Leonard’s face was partially blown off, revealing rotten muscle and bone. He was still alive, but just barely. One more shot would probably finish him off. Alessa retrieved her sword from the water, strapping it to her back once again despite the blade dripping with watery moisture. She stared at her hated nemesis, who was now thrashing helplessly on the ground. She aimed the gun directly at his skull.
So much suffering had been caused at the hands of this man. What he did to Alessa was only part of it. Claudia was his victim too. Dahlia may have warped her into an insane fanatic, but it was Leonard who set her on the path by abusing her in such a despicable manner. In a way, it was his fault Julie was dead, and Cybil was dead as well, murdered by Claudia herself. Leonard’s sins were unforgivable. Had he lost his humanity to the Order or did he ever have any to begin with? Alessa didn’t know and frankly, she couldn’t care less. She had lived with the burden of the shame and humiliation for far too long. The time had come for Leonard Wolf to face justice for his heinous actions.
“See you in Hell, Leonard. I hope you get everything you deserve down there,” Alessa muttered. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
A loud bang signified the Magnum discharging the powerful bullet that struck Leonard squarely in the forehead, shattering bone and flesh. Leonard’s spasms halted immediately. The water around him lay still. Alessa took in the sight of the unmoving corpse, filled with a sense of triumphant vindication. Leonard was dead. It had taken many years, but he finally paid the ultimate price for the hell he put two innocent little girls through.
Almost on cue, the cave around her filled with a white light that made Alessa’s eyes wince from the shock, and filled the entire chamber of the underground passage. Alessa brought up her hands to block out the light, but this time there was no torturing straining in her mind that caused her to grit her teeth in pain. She was at peace. She had killed her hated enemy, and there was no more threat of the past at his hands coming back to haunt her. She felt the world spinning gradually around her, as that effect took place that gave Alessa a familiar disorienting sensation. Alessa yielded to the sensation, allowing her body to shut down, as she heeded the town’s primal call. Alessa passed out pleasantly almost, in a bliss of white light, wondering where she would wake up next.
~
AN: Some dialogue may be borrowed from the game.
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Dark Descent