Silent Hill: Broken Dreams (an original fan story)

[ParasiteAdam]

Well as the title of the thread pretty much sums up its a fan story centered around possibly my most favored of gaming series Silent Hill. Note I say fan story and not fan fiction. This is because this is an all original story, which works because to me SH always seemed to me as one of those ideas where there were plenty of small stories apart of the greater whole. Ok I got side tracked. So I say fan story becuase even though the story may make nods or references to the "canon" story that is Silent Hill unlike fanfiction I'm not trying to shoe-horn it into canon. If you find it fits then thank you very much and I shall take it as a compliment.

Anyway I have the beginning and first 2 parts completed and randomly work on it while I can. Especially since I go to boot camp in November updates will become kind of random. So here is what I have finished so far. Note this is a raw manuscript meaning yes there may be plenty of grammar and punctuation mistakes but currently I am waiting for my normal editor to "red pen" it as it were. so without further ado...

Prologue

I had that dream again last night.



In that dream I saw a town I could only vaguely remember.



Silent Hill…



In my dream I was a child again. Did I grow up here? Was this my home at some point?



This town held some sort o power over my dreaming mind.



In the dream I'm wandering aimlessly through the town. I have no idea where I am but at the same time I have a feeling someone is calling out to me allowing me to know where I'm going. I'm thinking of how strange this is in my head yet my body is out of my control and I keep walking.



The strangest part being that in my dream I'm ten years old instead of twenty-two. Though this isn't that important just an odd observation one makes in those out of body dreams.



Eventually my dream hits the same part as it does every time.



I'm walking through a decrepit burned out school. Judging by the remains of the rust, blood and scorched walls it was a elementary school. I can see movement in the shadows. They stooped and hunched figures trying to avoid any light.



These shadows were never a threat as long as I stayed away from the dark corners.



All I did know was that I was following soft cries that carried from somewhere in the building. From what I can tell it was a girl. She sounded so incredibly sad it made my heart ache. What made it more unnerving was that she was calling out my name.



"Damien…"



After reaching the second floor without fail I begin to pick up speed. As I'm nearing a classroom at the end of the hall the voice grows louder. I begin to sweat as my body heats up as if I'm walking around a fire.



As my hand closes around the knob to the room the cries become soft whimpers and my heart is beating a mile a minute. I stop wondering what could be behind the door. Before I could lose my nerve I throw the door open.



And I see her.



A young girl possibly between twelve and fourteen years old sits in the center of what remained of the classroom. She's wearing a blue school uniform and her shoulders are hunched as she's crying. I can't see her face because it is obscured by her long black hair.



Cautiously I walk forward. After my first step into the room she goes quiet. It's at this point I finally speak.



"Who are you?"



Even my voice is that of a scared version of my child self. The girl sniffles before slumping over in a new wave of whimpers. I take a few timid steps forward.



"Hello Miss? Are you ok?"



Again she goes quiet as I speak. After a few more steps I'm right behind her. From the parts of her skin I can see she is covered in cuts and bruises. I hesitantly reach my hand out and rest it on her shoulder.



In a flash she throws her head back causing me to topple backward onto the floor. In a blink of an eye she was on her feet still facing away from me. The room filled with an unbearable heat. All around me flames sprang up out of the desks and chairs.



I was frozen in a mixture a fear and curiosity. Something inside me needed to see this girl's face. As if by seeing it I would remember more of my forgotten past. The girl slowly turned towards me seeming to grow taller as the fire intensified.



As she did her flesh morphed from cuts and bruises to terrible burns.



Just as I was about to see her face a piercing air raid siren sounds from the distance. I clutch my ears trying to block out the noise but it's useless. I could no longer feel the heat from the flames that were now closing in around us. Soon my vision begins to fail me.



The girl is reaching out to me while bringing her obscured face closer. I wanted to see her face but everything was quickly fading to black. Before everything did she whispered one last thing to me.



"I'm waiting for you. I'm waiting in Silent Hill."

[ParasiteAdam]

Part 1: Troubled Sleep

Damien awakes at this point covered in a cold sweat. His heart is racing as his disoriented brain tries to bring him back to reality. Like every time he has this dream for a few puzzling moments he thinks he's still in the school.



I swear I'm losing it…



He shakes his head at this thought as he pushes some of long black hair off of his sweaty forehead. Again in normal fashion almost like a ritual Damien pulls his knees to his chest and takes deep breaths while counting to ten. This happened to be a way of dealing with the problem since his time in the orphanage.



After he calms down just after counting eight he shakes his head again. How long has he been having these dreams? Eight years, ten years, he couldn't remember. The more Damien tried to remember his time before he entered the orphanage he grew up in the more hazy things became.



Damien gets out of bed and stumbles into the kitchen to get a glass of water waking up more with every step. In usual fashion he turns on all the lights in his two bedroom apartment as he walks through it. After getting his water Damien sat at the table and buried his face into his hands as his sleep addled brain tried to sort through everything for seemingly the millionth time.



As far as he could remember he's been having these dreams since his arrival in the orphanage at age eight. He had no idea what his real last name was. When he was taken there apparently he had just recovered from a terrible car crash on the outskirts of South Ashfield where he now lived. The strange part about the story from what Damien has learned over the years that even though he survived the car crash there were never any mention of his parents' bodies being uncovered. This made sense in the fact he didn't know his real last name but after looking up an old newspaper article on the incident he learned that the front half of the car was covered in blood…



Before leaving the orphanage when he turned eighteen Damien adopted the last name Winters.



Silent Hill…



The name buzzed around inside his head like an angry hornet. The town itself was no big secret. Being only half a day's drive from South Ashfield and being a popular resort spot it was easy to look up any info on the town. Granted Damien ran across a few interesting stories, most of which are rumors about a cult, he had never ran across anything that would explain the dreams.



Interestingly after the first time Damien had the dream a special detective was called in to do a little research in the town's birth records to possibly find out Damien's real last name. There were no leads.



So why hadn't Damien ever just take a trip to Silent Hill to get to the root of the dream? Part of it is his hectic work schedule. Between working at a video rental store in the mall downtown and doing pieces for various magazines in town he never really had time to take a trip hoping the workload would distract his mind.



The other part was fear. Deep down he was a bit afraid of what he would uncover about himself in that town. The dreams scared him with their unfamiliarity but at the same time held a sense of sick nostalgia.



Stifling a yawn Damien finished his water then went into the refrigerator to pour himself a glass of orange juice. Scratching at the light stubble on his chin Damien sits down in front of his computer which was still on from the night before. After taking it out of sleep mode the screen filled with the latest piece he was working on for a horror magazine.



He chuckled to himself looking at it. Even with all of his sleepless nights and bizarre dreams he was still able to write reviews for the latest horror movies he would normally never watch. The little clock in the lower right hand corner of his screen showed him it was just a few minutes past 3AM.



Sighing Damien tried to finish the piece but couldn't focus on it. For some strange reason the dream was bothering him more than usual. It could have been he seemed a little closer to finally seeing the young girl's face. Sighing again in defeat Damien minimized the review and opened up his internet browser figuring he might as well check his mail.



Sometimes he didn't see reason for keeping his e-mail considering the only messages he got were either spam or work related. Damien had never been one to make friends even though he made the occasional acquaintance at the video rental store he worked at. After scrolling through the first few messages, mostly from the publishers of the magazines he wrote for thanking him for yet another good article or review, he was just about to call it quits before a message's header caught his attention.



Troubled sleep lately?



Damien clicked on it with a small chuckle. It was bound to be some spam mail about some miracle breakthrough sleep aid. When the message did come up what Damien saw nearly stopped his breathing.



It was a picture of a young girl in a blue school uniform. Judging from her appearance she was at least six or seven. She looked a little too young but one look at the picture and Damien instantly knew it was the same girl from his dream.



It took a few moments to realize he was hearing a low moan. It took him a few more to realize it was coming from him. Damien quickly scrolled down to read the message itself.



Don't ignore the dreams. Her name is Alessa Gillespie. You can find her and the answers you seek in Silent Hill.



That was what the entire message said. Damien sat there rereading it repeatedly without realizing it. He quickly glanced at the sending address.



All it said was TheOrder.



This struck Damien as strange. There was no ~anything to the name and it didn't even look familiar. For some reason he wasn't compelled to question it. But could he trust it?

Do I even have a choice?



Damien's brain finally kick started to life. He soon found himself mulling over the idea of taking a visit to Silent Hill to look up this lead. After all he had saved up enough money to take a little vacation and he's definitely racked up enough pull at the video store in the years he's worked there. The upside is if it turned out to be some kind of elaborate joke he could just check into a hotel and enjoy a few days on vacation to clear his head.



Something told him though that it wasn't going to be that simple.



Alessa Gillespie…



The name struck a chord within the young man. His fingers hovered above the keyboard about to look up her name. Damien stopped getting the feeling if he did he would lose his nerve and decide against the trip and continue to suffer his question riddled dreams.



Damien looked at the clock on his computer again. Surprisingly he had been sitting there for almost an hour. Feeling a burst of energy surge through his body he picked up his glass of orange juice that had been sitting there and downed it in one long gulp. Damien was determined to be ready and out the door by 7AM.



Within the next three hours Damien showered, shaved and packed a duffle bag with enough of his things for a few days. He also made a few calls and sent out emails to any magazines he hadn't finished his pieces for and explained he was taking a long deserved vacation.

Just before seven he was lacing up his boots. He had decided on wearing a simple pair of jeans with a tear in the left knee and a black shirt with the sleeves ripped off. He was just tying his hair back with his lucky black bandana he noticed something was missing.



"Shit! My necklace!"



It was the only item he owned from before his life without parents. Damien ran into his bedroom and began ruffling through his dresser in search for the pendant. He found it in the back of his sock drawer.



"Thank goodness" he exhaled. He always carried it with him where ever he went. In a way he felt the pendant was more of a good luck charm than his bandana. Then again where he was heading he had a feeling he'd need the luck.



Since he was a few minutes ahead of schedule Damien paused to reflect on the pendant. He held it up to his face by the chain. It was a strange symbol etched into the circle of metal the size of a fifty cent coin. The symbol itself was a triangle inside a circle of what Damien assumed was runes.



Before locking up his apartment Damien slipped the necklace around his neck and tucked it under his shirt. Within the next half hour Damien was in his car and on the road heading to Silent Hill.



Damien turned up the radio as a loud rock song came on the radio. He pressed down on the gas a bit on the mostly empty highway. With the windows rolled down and the summer wind hitting his face Damien actually smile, something he hasn't done in awhile.



"I'm glad I did this!" Damien exclaimed to the empty car.



He zoomed along until he hit a rest stop about an hour away from the town from what he could tell from the directions he printed out with his computer. It was a little past noon and the young man was starving. Damien pulled into the diner's parking lot taking note of all the large trucks.



Damien heard a bell tinkle when opening and closing the door. Clearly seeing the bar stool seats were a self claimed trucker only area he slipped into a booth next to an open window. The window itself didn't help considering it just let in the humid summer air building making Damien break out into a slight sweat as the smell of hot tar wafted into his nostrils.



As cliché as it may sound, a pretty young waitress with bright red hair walked over to Damien's booth with a notepad to take his order. The young man could just make out the name Rachel on her name tag.



She looked at him with dark blue eyes and a beautiful smile, "What can I get you hon?"



Damien bowed his head down feeling decidedly embarrassed. He was never any good with women. Looking over the menu he decided on a cheeseburger and some fries.



As the waitress wrote down his order she spared Damien a sideway glance, "Let me guess heading to Silent Hill? Vacation?"



"You could say something like that." Damien mumbled trying not to look directly into the Rachel's eyes.



After he said that, one of the truckers from the stools swiveled around to look at him. It was a big mountain of a man wearing the standard plaid flannel shirt and dirt stained blue jeans held up with a belt sporting a large belt buckle. "You say you're heading to Silent Hill?"



Damien nodded in response feeling a bit uncomfortable.



The man let out a low whistle while rubbing his graying beard, "Shoot boy haven't you been watching the news?"



Damien shook his head at this. He rarely watched TV unless it was to watch cartoons. A bit childish but he figured the world was already depressing enough without the news helping.



The man's expression turned serious as he leaned in. A few of the other truckers around him went quiet to listen in. "If I were you I'd high-tail it home now. Last few years a lot of fucked up stuff's been going down in that place." He leaned in a little more his voice becoming more of a growl, "Strange sightings, weird climate conditions and a hell of a lot of disappearances."



The look on Damien's face must have betrayed how he was feeling because the man leaned back and barked out a loud laugh which made a few of the other customers in booths jump and look over.



After taking a large gulp of his coffee the trucker leaned back towards the younger man, "I wouldn't worry none about it. Hell I don't live there so how true can the stories be?"



He gave Damien a quick look over, "Besides young buck like your self doesn't look like he'd get into much trouble. Probably got a pretty little thing waiting for ya."



Rachel came to the rescue as she brought Damien his food, "Jed leave the poor boy alone. You know those stories scare people."



"Don't mind him. Jed there is one of the biggest gossips that passes through here." she favored Damien with another of her smiles.



Jed laughed and went back to talking to the other truckers allowing Damien to eat.



After finishing his meal Damien paid his bill. He almost blushed when Rachel handed him a receipt and he saw a phone number written on it.



She smiled secretly and leaned in "Don't be afraid to give me a call sometime."



Damien thanked her and exited the diner. He was just about to open the driver's side door to his car before a large hand slammed on the window in front of him. Jumping back Damien was surprised to see it was Jed. It was odd that he didn't even see the man leave his seat.



"Oh uh hey Jed what's up?"



Something in the man's rough expression made Damien feel uncomfortable.



Jed spoke with a low growl of a voice, "So tell me boy. What exactly you going to that town for?"



Damien wondered why the man was so interested.



"I'm looking for someone. I don't remember anything about them but I know they're in the town."



The old truck driver looked at him and got a little closer looking like he didn't want to be heard, "You should know years ago a buddy of mine went to that town. He saw things in the fog, monsters ya know?"



Damien took another instinctive step back looking around to see if anyone saw them standing there. The parking lot was surprisingly empty of people.



Not noticing Jed continued, "He never told the full story. But I can tell you that the stories are real. Something really fucked up is going down in that town. So if you're friend really is there…"



He looked directly into Damien's eyes.



"Forget about em. Just turn around and go home."



Damien shook his head, "Sorry. It's something I have to do."



"Even if there are monster's" he added with a smile trying to lighten the mood.



Jed didn't smile back. His frown was visible in his bushy beard. He took a step away from the car allowing Damien access. Damien quickly unlocked the door and climbed in.



Before he could close the door Jed put his face in "Then just be careful then. Also watch out for the woman in the black robe."



Damien nodded and Jed moved away from the car so he could close his door. A little shaken while starting up the car he got out of there in a hurry. He spared a glance in the rearview mirror to see Jed still standing there staring at him.



What the hell?



For the last twenty minutes a steady and thick fog had been swallowing the world in front of him. Even the high beams of his car couldn't cut through it. After sparing a glance at the print out map in the passenger seat Damien leaned forward trying to see the outside better.



"Come on almost there." he muttered darkly to himself.



According to the map after the next turn Silent Hill would be a straight shot. Damien had been so lost in thought he didn't notice his foot pressing down on the gas accelerating the car.



"Almost there." Damien repeated that to himself over and over almost obsessed. Something about the fog made him very uncomfortable. It also seemed to dull his senses as his eyelids drooped and his car picked up speed.



Damien snapped out of his stupor just before reaching the turn long enough to see a person standing in the middle of the road.



"Shit!" he screamed jerking the wheel right to avoid hitting her.

[ParasiteAdam]

Part 2: A Familiar Stranger

As his pulse quickened to the point of hyperventilation the last thing the young man could recall was seeing the figure standing in the fog. As the headlights washed over the figure just standing there Damien knew he was looking into the steely gaze of a young woman with dark hair. Then all at once everything went dark following a grinding metallic crunch of the car hitting the sign signaling the sharp turn.

He floated in the darkness. All his senses were gone and yet he was still aware of everything.



Who was that girl? Why was she just standing in the middle of the road? It's almost as if he was waiting…



Out of the void around him he heard that ear splitting siren from his dreams. All of his thoughts spun around in his head as he covered his ears. Did he cover his ears? In this darkness he couldn't tell let alone feel if he was moving. He was a consciousness and nothing more.



Slowly a spot began to appear ahead of him in the darkness. A milky light shining in the dark slowly growing ebbing away the shadows. Damien slowly grew aware of his limbs. First a small tingling in his finger tips that spread up his arms. Then when the light spread enough to see what appeared to be a room Damien regained feeling in his legs and began walking forward.



Soon the world reappeared slowly around him. Damien was standing in the middle of a hospital lobby.



What the hell?



The young man was first confused as to why he had no visible injures. Hadn't he just been in a serious accident? Then another even more disturbing thought entered his head.



"Who brought me here?" his voice sounded small as it sounded through the empty lobby.

That was another thing that bugged him. He was completely alone. The entire area had a gray, washed out look to it.



"Hello?" Damien's voice cracked. It was so quiet to the point of being uncomfortable.



A wave of dizziness and nausea hit Damien causing him to sway on the spot. He placed his fingertips to his temples feeling the beginnings of a headache. Maybe there was some damage.



"That girl…" he whispered to the non-existent listeners of the lobby.



Had she brought him here? It wasn't impossible. After all he had swerved to avoid her. He wasn't going to get any answers just standing there obviously he was fine and could leave the hospital.



Besides he didn't much care for hospitals.



Damien walked to the front doors ready to leave and get some answers. Even though he couldn't be sure he knew this had to be Silent Hill. He could feel it.



Just as Damien rested his hand on the door to push it open he heard a scream from somewhere in the building. He froze, his ears perking up to see if he could hear it again. Sure enough after a couple heart beats came another high pitched scream. A woman was screaming somewhere on the floor above him.



Quickly forgetting his plans to leave Damien spun around and tore through the lobby shouldering the door into the corridor open. He ran up the nearest staircase feeling a knot of dread forming in his stomach. He had the strongest hunch that whatever he was running into wasn't going to be good.



Damien quickly made it up two long flights of stairs jumping up the steps three at a time. As he reached the landing he strained his ears listening for the scream again. The light sweat that had formed on his back turned cold when the scream sounded so close.



Again Damien hurled himself into the door leading him down a corridor. His footfalls boomed in the silent grayness that seemed to rob the world around him its color. As he ran he spared a glance out the window and only saw shadows of the outside world hidden under a blanket of thick fog.



None of that matters right now. There's a woman in trouble and she needs help!



The thought allowed Damien to find the energy to put on another burst of speed.



Damien hung a right and came to a stop in front of a set of double doors leading to an operating room. Everything had returned to a complete dead silence. He had paused with his hand on the handles of the door.



Had I imagined all that? It's so quiet my mind could have made it up. Either that or I might really have something wrong with me.



A loud crash beyond the doors jolted Damien out of his thoughts. Damien threw the doors open and what he saw made his blood run cold in his veins.



At first all he saw was a young woman cowering on the floor. Damien was confused to what she was doing there until a hunched figure lurched forward from a corner of the room blocking her from view.



Damien couldn't believe what he was seeing. From a quick glance the hunched figure could have passed as a doctor complete with plain looking pants and a white coat. Unfortunately that's where the resemblance ended. Everything fed itself to Damien's brain in bits and pieces.



The "doctor's" skin was decomposing on the bone showing dissolving muscle underneath and giving off an ungodly stench of rotted fruit and excrement. The creature drooled a dark viscous liquid as it single-mindedly half dragged its lame leg towards the young woman. Worst of all was the cause of its hunched appearance. On its back was a large insect-like parasite attached to its spine.



Damien tasted sour stomach bile as the parasite squirmed after each dragging step. He stood there rooted to the spot until the woman's voice pulled him back to reality.



"Please help me!" she cried frantically.

She must have seen him before the creature blocked her from his sight. Running purely on instinct Damien let out a loud yell as he barreled into the doctor creature. It crashed against an empty gurney after a well placed shoulder block from the young man landing with a sickening smack.



Damien couldn't hold back a scream as he swatted at the slime the "doctor" left on his arm. As he did the young woman screamed again pointing at the figure still grounded on its side. For the first time Damien noticed the object glinting in one of the creature's deformed hands. As it attempted to drag itself with one hand that was almost nothing but bone it was swiping at Damien's ankles with a scalpel.



This time screaming with a primal fury he didn't know he had Damien jumped towards the creature landing stomped down hard on the parasite with both feet. With almost no resistance the parasite exploded into a bloody slime puddle with a loud popping noise.



Before Damien could feel the disgust his attention was drawn back to the "doctor". It was letting out a high pitch scream like that of a pig being slaughtered as its hands scrambled across the floor moving itself in a crooked half circle. It then suddenly froze going silent and began to melt into a murky brown puddle giving off a very strong odor of-



Shit. This thing smells like shit!



Damien gagged from the smell having to swallow back the vomit that threatened to come up.



After a few heavy breaths to collect himself Damien finally looked in the woman's direction.

"Are you all right?" Damien kept his voice calm and even. He tried to force a smile but it didn't last long.



The woman finding her wits looked at him wearily. "Who are you?" her voice was small and waivered.



Now with all the commotion over Damien was able to get a better look at the woman. She easily had to be in her twenties even though the fear on her face gave her an almost childlike appearance. She must have been a nurse considering she was wearing an older styled short skirt nurse uniform complete with cap and a red sweater on top of it. In all the commotion her long blonde hair had gotten out of place.



"Damien. Damien Winters." he held his hand out to her this time managing a genuine smile.



"Lisa Garland." she took his hand and returned his smile with a small one of her own.



Before Damien could ask Lisa what was going on a loud crash came from behind him. Instinctively Damien whirled around and to protect Lisa and came face to face with another nightmare.



Of all things the creature appeared to be wearing a uniform almost identical to Lisa's. The "nurse" had molted blood soaked skin that seemed stretched out due to its long limbs. At first look it appeared more human that the "doctor" but it also lacked the normal fluidity in a normal person's movement.

It walked directly up to the two standing straight and stiff limbed making Damien's whole body tense up when pausing in front of him. The "nurse was abnormally tall considering the young man's eyes were level with its breast. It leaned in almost as if it were sniffing Damien allowing him to see its face better.



There wasn't much to see. The thing's face was covered in bandages except for two holes for its nostrils and its gore covered mouth with incredibly long incisors poking through its lips. Damien backed slowly leading Lisa with his back hoping no sudden movements would make this monster attack them. They had almost made it to the double doors before the "nurse" bent lower to the floor and inhaled the scent of its fallen brother. Without a moment's hesitation it through its head back and let out an ear splitting wail.



"Run!" Damien bellowed grabbing Lisa's hand.



The two ran through the gray halls. But it had also changed since Damien's first run through. The shadows had deepened with more "nurses" reaching out to grab them. Lisa screamed and jerked back. Damien was going to scream at her asking what she was doing but stopped when he saw that one of the creatures had a hold of her arm and was brandishing a sinister looking syringe.



Feeling a fresh wave of adrenaline he let go of Lisa and tackled the "nurse" around its waist freeing the scared young woman and taking him and the monster down to the floor. Damien quickly got back to his feet and dropped a heavy booted foot to the creature's neck feeling a snap and the whole body spasm wildly.



"Keep moving." Damien went to pull Lisa but she didn't budge. She had a hunted look in her eyes of someone going into mild shock. Damien looked around them. The monsters were closing in all carrying nasty devices and weapons. Even though they were closing in there was an opening to a room halfway down the hall. There was no guarantee it'd be empty but it was their best chance.



So Damien held onto Lisa tightly and half carried, half dragged her to the room. Just as it looked like they were going to be overwhelmed Damien had already opened the door and got them both inside before closing it behind him. Luckily there was a deadbolt on the door. After getting it locked Damien leaned against the door and slid into a sitting position.



After getting his breathing under control he finally looked around the room. They were in what Damien would guess to be a break room. The room was brightly light from the windows reminding him just how empty he thought this place was.



With everything that had happened, the car crash, waking up in a strange place, the monsters Damien did the last thing he expected to start doing.



He started to laugh.



Not a crazy sort of laughter or even loudly. It was more of an exasperated chuckle of someone who didn't know what to do. Lisa looked at him with a look of confusion mixed with pity. Hesitantly Lisa moved closer to Damien and kneeled down in front of him.



She went to place her hand on his shoulder before he spoke up in a soft voice, "Can you believe this? I just came to this place to find some answers. Now monsters? I'm dreaming right?"



Damien went to tighten his bandana when for the first time he noticed he wasn't wearing it, "Damn. My lucky bandana is gone. That explains so much." He looked into Lisa's face with a weary expression.



After a moment of silence passed between the two Lisa was the first to speak, "Thank you. I mean for saving me from those things."



"Don't mention it. I only did what I felt any decent human would." he responded with a small smile. Damien felt like he must have said something wrong because Lisa's expression fell.



"Sorry." the young man quickly apologized.



Seeming a million miles away Lisa shook her head, "It's alright. Everything has just been happening so fast I'm just not all here. One minute I was resting my eyes while doing my rounds and the next minute I open my eyes and I'm completely alone."



A look of overwhelming sadness spread across her features as she lowered her gaze, staring at her hands which rested on her lap.



"I can't even remember anymore how long it's been like this. I've been so alone." it seemed as if she forgot Damien was in the room with her.

Damien listened against the door. Whatever those creature nurses were doing they obviously had no idea they were in there. There hadn't even been as much as a bump against the door since he locked it.



The silence stretched on for a few more beats.



"So you came here looking for answers?" Lisa asked breaking out of her stupor.



Damien nodded and began to fiddle with the pendent that luckily was still around his neck.



"Yeah actually I'm here to find someone."



Lisa tilted her head to the side as if she were studying him, "Oh? It's a small town I might be able to help."



"Alessa Gillespie."



A look of recognition fluttered through her eyes but quickly disappeared.



"Sorry doesn't ring a bell." Lisa touched her forehead, "I feel so confused. Like I can't remember much after waking up in all this."



Damien was about to agree when a familiar siren began blaring. Suddenly his ears began ringing to the point he placed his hands over them and screamed.



Lisa was already back on her feet and moving away from Damien in horror.



Clutching his head he tried to get her to help him, "Lisa. My head! … Hurts so bad!"



Damien's voice began to sound like an echo to his own ears as his vision grew fuzzy and dark, "Please help me… The siren… the siren…"



Again the whole world faded to black.