A persistent haze clouded Harry’s thoughts. Despitethe justifications he’d made himself believe, killing the nurse had left a badtaste in his mouth. It was just another monster, another obstacle in his way;he had every reason to eliminate it. Still, the image of the nearly-human womanbleeding out on the floor plagued him with unwarranted guilt. Was it really themonster he made it out to be? Had he actually murdered someone he could havesaved? Had he made the right decision? Those questions replayed in his mindover and over until even his devotion to finding Cheryl couldn’t justify hisactions. He wandered like a sleepwalker through the hospital’s windingcorridors.

Before he knew it, Harry ended up down in thebas.e.m.e.nt. He pushed open the first door he saw, stepping into a clutteredstoreroom. The boxes stacked on the ground and the medical supplies lining therusty shelves were caked in what seemed to be several years’ worth of dust. Perhapsbecause of his lightheaded daze, Harry’s eyes were drawn right to a point ofsuspicion, a shelf in the very back of the storeroom. The room was packed withso many boxes that there was hardly any room to walk, but the area around thatparticular shelf was bare.

Making his way closer to investigate, he saw marks trailingalong the ground, as if something had been dragged across. Despite the agedstate of the room, it looked as if this shelf had been moved frequently, andrecently too. Harry pushed it to the side…and revealed a hidden door. It openedinto a gaping pa.s.sage deeper into the bas.e.m.e.nt. Harry should havebeen elated; what better place for Cheryl to be hidden than a secret pa.s.sage?But all he could do was stand and stare into the darkness. The encounter withthe nurse had shaken him; he felt gripped by the same fear as when he’d facedthe giant creature in the school bas.e.m.e.nt.

Harry slumped to the floor, leaning against the walland closing his eyes. It must be around noon by now. He hadn’treally slept or even stopped to rest in well over twenty-four hours. Thewariness in his mind and the fatigue in his body weighed on him until hefinally escaped into the respite of sleep.

“Daddy?” Cheryl sat on Harry’s lap as he rested in anarmchair. She nestled closer. “Are you sleeping?” He had been sitting here withhis head in his hands for a long time, then suddenly closed his eyes. The threeyear old looked up at her father, he face full of worry. Harry had lost himselfin grief after Jodie’s pa.s.sing. Memories of her occupied his every thought.Even the wonderful memories of her gentle smile, something that should havegiven him comfort, only tormented him further.

“Hey…dad?” Cheryl shook her father’s knee in alarm. “Daddy, please be okay!I don’t want you to go away too! Please don’t leave me alone…”

Her pleas reached straight to the bottom of his broken heart. Harry slowlyopened his eyes. Cheryl…At only three years old she’dbeen forced to know the sorrows of death, now she feared that it would take herfather, the only person she had left in the world. The shock hit him as ifJodie had slapped him in the face. You’reher father! You have to be here for her now! He lifted his daughter up andheld her tight in his arms.

“I’m so sorry Cheryl. Daddy’s been really carelesslately. I…I was so caught up in the past that I forgot that the most importantthing in the world was right in front of me.”

Cheryl was his treasure, the greatest gift he’d everbeen given in life. She deserved every ounce of devotion in his heart. Withthat loving embrace, he swore that the two of them would live happy livestogether, no matter what.

Harry awoke to the sight of teardrops on thedust-covered floor before him. For that one moment, he was able to hold Cherylin his arms again. Though sorrow still sat heavy in his chest, seeing her smilingface in his dream was enough to fill him with renewed determination. Harry feltas if he’d gotten a full-night’s sleep, despite his watch saying that onlythirty minutes had pa.s.sed. He was d.a.m.n lucky none of the monsters wandered downhere.

Harry pulled himself to his feet to confront the darkpa.s.sage. Jodie must have been watching over him; in that moment he felt all thedoubt and fear melt away. He would keep that promise he made to Cheryl allthose years ago. No matter the cost, he’d bring her home safe.

Behind the hidden door was a smaller, narrow storageroom lined with bare shelves. The only feature in the room was a storage hatchon the floor that lifted with a rusty creak to reveal a stairway leading deeperunderground.

The room at the bottom of those stairs was identicalto the one upstairs, enough to give Harry and odd sense of déjà vu. But it wasfar from a feeling of familiar comfort. The darkness has solidified into athick wall that bore down on him from all sides, banished only by the paltrylight of his flashlight. An appalling chill snaked its was up Harry’s spine. Itwas the same heavy, otherworldly darkness that he’d felt in the “other” school,the twisted version of reality that lay beyond the clock tower.

A dull hiss sounded from the radio in his pocket,steadily growing louder. Pounding footsteps rapidly approached from thedarkness until a sprinting nurse came into view. She was different from the oneHarry had faced before; she wore visible signs of age on her face and her darkhair was flecked with grey. But she had the same hunched posture, the samethrobbing hump on her back, and the same murderous grin stretched across herwrinkled face. The only other difference was a thick syringe she clutched inher hand and raised above her head, ready to strike.

There was no way of knowing what kind of vile liquidwas sloshing around inside that syringe, but Harry wasn’t about to find out. Hecouldn’t afford to hesitate. Do it forCheryl. He steeled himself and unloaded two bullets into the woman’sstomach. She recoiled with a shriek, clutching her gushing wound as shecollapsed into a b.l.o.o.d.y pile on the floor.

But it was far from over.

A newcomer was alerted by the commotion and let out asavage roar as it stumbled over the nurse’s body and lunged at Harry. He dodgedjust in time as a pair of scissors sliced past his head, firing another roundat the new monster in the process. The bullet just barely grazed the shoulderof what was once a well-dressed young doctor, now a rabid monster just like thenurses. He wasted no time grabbing Harry’s arm, forcing them into aclose-combat struggle. Before Harry could turn the muzzle to the doctor again,he felt the cold steel scissors pierce his wrist, loosening his grip andsending the gun to the floor. Harry fought for his life through the bitingpain, beating the doctor back with his bare hands as he tried to antic.i.p.atewhere those scissors would strike next. In a moment of pure desperation, hegrabbed the doctor by the chest and headb.u.t.t the monster in the head with allhis might.

The doctor stumbled backwards with a heavy groan.Harry took advantage of his stunned opponent and brought smacked the scissorsfrom his hand with his flashlight. Now, if only for a moment, the two werefinally on equal footing.  Adrenalinecoursing through him, Harry let out a yell and hurled his body at the doctor,tackling him to the ground. As the two fell into a heap of flailing limbs,Harry’s flashlight slipped from his hand and rolled against the far wall.Suddenly bathed in disorienting darkness, Harry felt a pair of hands grab himby the neck. The doctor dug his fingers into his throat, squeezing with almostsupernatural strength. Gasping and choking, Harry struggled to push hisattacker away with his right hand while groping through the darkness for hisgun with the left. Come on…come on…Heshould have dropped it around here; it had to be there. Or else…

His heart leapt as his hand closed around somethingcold and metallic. It was too thin to be a gun, but a pair of scissors wouldsave his live all the same. Clenching it tight, he stabbed the Doctor. A wet,gurgling scream pierced the darkness and the doctor’s grip went limp. Finallytaking in a lungful of precious air, Harry shoved the monster away and scrambledfor his flashlight to view the aftermath. The doctor was writhing in agony onthe floor, the pair of scissors buried deep in his neck.

Harry’s gun lay on the ground not too far away. Hepicked it up, looking down upon the pathetic creature. One shot was all it tookto put it out of its misery. A monster is a monster after all. It would havejust as easily killed him. The sooner Harry could shake his unnecessarysentimentality, the longer he’d survive in a place like this.

Harry continued on with a heavy gait. He had fourrounds left but…the harrowing encounter with the doctor left him shaken andexhausted. If another nurse appeared, he didn’t feel too confident in hischances.

Nonetheless, heset about the task of checking each room in the long corridor. With every emptyroom he felt both a wave of relief and disappointment. He wouldn’t have tofight for his life again, but he wasn’t any closer to finding his daughtereither.

“What’s this…?”

The final roomHarry entered was identical to the others, but somehow the atmosphere feltdifferent. It was a simple hospital room with nothing but a neatly made bed anda nightstand, but somehow it had avoided the corrupting force that had left therest of the ward in ruin. It was as pristine as a new hotel room and looked tohave been cleaned quite recently. Was someone being treated here? And wherewere they now…?

Harry’s chesttightened. Cheryl could have been here. His daughter could have stood in thisvery room before being whisked off again to G.o.d knows where. Harry’s eyes weredrawn to a picture frame sitting atop the nightstand. He saw, to his surprise,the face of a young girl. Her eyes seemed distant and her expression was tingedwith melancholy. Harry recognized her instantly as the mysterious girl he’dspotted in the boiler room back at the elementary school. As he stared intothose sorrowful eyes, Harry became certain of one thing. This girl was the oneheld prisoner in this room, not Cheryl. But just who was she?

--

Even after all he’d been though,Harry had been unable to find a single trace of Cheryl in this hospital. Theonly remaining lead he had was the suspicious doctor Kaufmann, but he was longgone. He could be halfway out of the state by now. Harry still had his onemeager connection the Brahms police force; he wondered if he could get them toopen an investigation to track the man down.

Weighed down withdisappointment, Harry trekked back to the first floor. He found the previouslylocked fire escape and unlocked it from the inside, pushing it open to reveal agrim sight. The once bright and spotless hospital he saw when he first arrivedhad decayed to the same state as the bas.e.m.e.nt. The walls, the floor, even theair itself had been corroded by darkness. It was as if the building had agedcenturies in the short time he’d been away. Looking around in morbidbewilderment, Harry made his way back to the waiting room.

A theater stage set in aperfect façade of normalcy on one side, but simply walk behind it and one cansee it from a different perspective. Did Silent Hill have two faces as well? Ifhis theory was correct, then whatever was happening at the school and thehospital must be connected.

Harry was walking past anexamination room door when a sudden noise gave him pause. Someone was in there.Another nurse? The wise option would be to just keep walking, but he couldn’tignore the slim possibility that it might be Cheryl. Who knows, maybe Kaufmannforgot something important and risked a return trip for it.

Harry took a deep breath andclenched his gun, feeling a dull throb of pain in the hand the monstrous doctorhad stabbed. His joints ached, his body was plagued by fatigue, and he couldfeel his resolve crumbling by the second. But when it came down to it, he hadno choice. If things went bad again, he’d just turn around and run for it.“Please let me make it out alive…” Harry murmured a quiet prayer as he swungthe door open.

Hands shaking, he pointed theflashlight and muzzle at every corner of the room. Just as he suspected, anurse was crouched under a desk, lying in wait. She looked up at him, squintingin the flashlight’s glare. Harry was poised to pull the trigger, but the lookon her face stopped him. He wasn’t met with a distorted smile, nor did she havea stumbling gait or a grotesque hump.

“Thank G.o.d, another normalperson!” The nurse exclaimed as she scrambled out from under the desk. Harryfinally lowered the gun. Her face was filled with relief; she hardly evennoticed she’d nearly been shot.

“I’m Lisa Garland. But youcan call me Lisa.”

“Name’s Harry Mason. Harry isfine.” Her bright smile and warm demeanor seemed to ease his tired mind andheal his weary body in an instant. She must have an incredible bedside manner;Harry might have actually enjoyed being a patient here if she were the onetaking care of him.

“It feels like I’ve been inhere forever. I was hoping someone would come to save me soon.”

“I’m looking for someone too.I came here looking for answers but those nurses…everyone’s lost their minds.You and I are the only normal people left.”

“It’s so awful…I blacked outand when I came to, the staff, the patients, everyone was just gone. Harry,what on earth is happening here?”

“I wish I knew. I’m just atourist. By the time I arrived, everyone was already gone.”

“It’s like a livingnightmare. I just wish I could wake up…” Lisa’s cheerful smile faded. Harrycouldn’t help but sympathize with her, holed up here all alone as the worldseemed to crumble around her.

“Anyway, we should hurry upand get out of here. I’ll stay with you.”

“Of course. But…There’ssomething I have to do before I can leave. I’m looking for my daughter.”

“Your daughter’s missing?”

“Yeah. Her name’s Cheryl.Short, black hair. Just turned seven. Do you know anything?”

“I was unconscious for awhileso I haven’t seen anyone…Sorry.”

“That’s alright. No need toapologize.” He was feeling let down by her answer, but one nagging questionstill remained. It surely had nothing to do with Cheryl, but it had beenweighing on his mind for a while now.

“I found this weird roomhidden in the bas.e.m.e.nt and there was a picture of a young girl in there. Do youknow anything about her?”

“A hidden room? What are youtalking about?”

“Yeah. I found this staircaseinside one of the storage rooms and-”

His words were cut short by ajarring screech of a siren.

“d.a.m.n…my head…” Harryclutched his head as the shrill call seemed to echo inside his skull.

“Harry? What’s wrong?” Lisalooked to him, concerned. The sound was so loud it seemed to be drowning outhis own thoughts, how could she not hear it? Was it all in his head?

“Harry!? Stay with me!Harry!”

…Harry…

…Harry…

Lisa’s voice drifted furtherand further away before it disappeared into the reverberating sirens. The painthrobbing in his head turned his vision dark. In an instant, the sound stopped.When Harry forced his eyes back open, there was no sign of Lisa. Theexamination room was just as bight and clean as when he first visited.

“It appears you were able toescape the grasp of the darkness.” A voice that didn’t belong to Lisa pulledHarry from his confusion. He looked up to see the aged face of the woman fromthe church.

“You-”

“I believe introductions areoverdue. You may call me Dahlia Gillespie.”

“I don’t care about yourname! I want to know where my daughter is! I only came to this G.o.d-forsakenhospital because of you and there’s nothing here!”

“I’m afraid you were toolate.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Darkness.” Dahlia’svoice was calm but her eyes glistened with intense fervor.

“This town is being devouredby darkness. Strength must overcome petty desire. Childish sleep talk. I knewthis day would come.”

Harry stared in disbelief asutter nonsense poured from her mouth. Just as he suspected, this lady wascompletely crazy after all. Just because of all the bizarre things happening intown, he’d let this delusional old woman send him on a wild goose chase thatnearly got him killed. He was shaken from his thoughts when Dahlia addressedhim again.

“Have you not seen the crestmarked on the ground all over town?”

“A crest? Like the one in theschoolyard?”

“It is the mark of Samael.Etched across all corners of this town. You mustn’t let it be completed.”

Samael. Abeing also called the red serpent; revered by some as an angel, reviled byothers as a demon.

“Only you can end this. It isbeyond my abilities. If you are able to halt the mark’s completion, thedarkness plaguing this town will be dispelled and you may even be reunited withyour little girl. There is another church in this town; that is yourdestination. Don’t let it be completed.”

Dahlia placed something atopthe desk as she spoke. A key. Harry’s gaze wandered for but a moment,distracted by the metal gleam. When he looked back, Dahlia had vanished. Harrytilted his head. As he sat in the heavy stillness, only one thought occupiedhis mind.

That woman is a witch.

Pics coming soon, I just really wanted to get this posed now

Original - Sadamu Yamas.h.i.ta
Characters/story - Konami
Translation - Emily Fitch

Artwork by Masahiro Ito

Screenshots from the Silent Hill wiki