SH2 Novel - Chapter 2A

Silent Hill 2 : The Official Novel

By Sadamu Yamashita
Translated by Lady Ducky

Chapter Two –Someone's Lurking in the Apartment- Part A

Having successfully escaped to a safe place, for now at least, James sat down on the ground to catch his breath.  What would have happened if he hadn't gotten through the fence?  The wire mesh seemed to tremble in fear as the fog danced through the heavy air.  The monsters seemed to sense that their prey had escaped, and they had all given up and left. There wasn't a wriggling body to be seen anywhere.

Once his heart rate slowed and his cold sweat ceased, James finally got back on his feet.  His cheeks still felt a bit numb, but overall he didn't feel as sick as he had earlier.  At least he didn't have to worry about dying from poison anymore.  He was just worried.  Woodside Apartments…  What was waiting for him on the other side of that door?  At first it just seemed like incredibly good luck that he happened to stumble upon this place, but what if it was Mary's guidance that brought him here…?

Next to the apartment's entryway sat a beat-up old dumpster filled with the accumulated trash of the daily lives of residents.  James walked over to it and opened the lid.  He pulled out a sheet from a bundle of old newspapers.  Before he went inside, he'd need to clean himself up a bit.  If Mary really was alive and waiting for him here, he didn't want to meet her with his boots this filthy.  With the old newspaper, he wiped up the monster's blood the best he could.

He caught sight of the sensational headline: "MAN COMMITS SUICIDE WITH SPOON!"  Curious, James took a closer look at the article.  It was printed in what appeared to be a local gossip magazine.  He wasn't sure why, but it drew his attention.

Police announced earlier today that Walter Sullivan, a suspect in the brutal murder of siblings Billy and Miriam Locane in Silent Hill last February, has committed suicide.  He was arrested for the murders on the 18th of this month and was found dead in his cell on the morning of the 22nd.  According to the official announcement, Sullivan killed himself by taking the spoon that came with his evening meal and thrusting it into the left front of his neck near the carotid artery.  He embedded the spoon at least two inches into his neck, blood pouring from the wound.  By the time the guards discovered him, he was already dead.  Classmates from Walter Sullivan's hometown of Pleasant River are quoted as saying, "He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would go around killing children.  He was always pretty quiet at school, but he was a nice person.  I met the guy once, shortly before he was arrested.  He said a whole bunch of weird things, 'He's trying to kill me.  To punish me.  The red demon.  That monster.  Please forgive me, I did it but…it wasn't me!' …Now that I think about it, he was a bit strange."

As he finished reading, James rubbed his neck.  Why was he so fascinated by this?  The method of suicide seemed like such a pitiful way to die, but it was just one prisoner.  This was a mundane event.  Things like this happen all the time.  However, the words printed on the page seemed to burn into his mind, and he couldn't stop thinking about them.  The red demon…a vague image of such a thing appeared in his head…

He shook his head.  Just what does this have to do with Mary?  Stupid piece of garbage.  Using the crumpled up newspaper page, he continued wiping off his boots until they were reasonably clean, then he approached the apartment building's front door.  Its hinges creaked loudly as he pushed the door open and echoed throughout the room as he stepped inside.

It was almost completely dark.  Due to the bad weather, there was hardly any natural light inside and none of the electric lights were on.  The manager must have shut off the power.  After a while, James's eyes grew accustomed to the darkness and he was able to see the narrow room a bit better.  To the left was what looked like a back door, and to the right a staircase ascended into the darkness.  He cautiously stepped further into the dim room.  All the doors in the residential space were locked; none of them budged an inch.

"Hello?  Anyone here?"

James knocked loudly on the doors, but there was no reply.  It looked like there was no choice but to try the upper floors.  James climbed up the stairs and was relieved to find that the door on the second floor landing was unlocked.  Upon entering the hallway, he found that it was even darker than before.  The entire hallway was almost completely pitch-black as if it were the dead of night, the only tiny shred of light coming from a window on the north side.  Looks like this place wasn't blessed with any more sunlight than a building in a crowded city.

"Mary!" James shouted into the darkness.  "It's me, James!  I got your letter and I came here to meet you!"

Hearing no answer, James began to feel his way down the corridor.  One-by-one, he knocked on the doors on the south wall asking at each one, "Come on, open up!  I'm looking for a woman named Mary, do you know her?"

Even when he turned and rattled the doorknobs, none of them would open.  Why wasn't anyone answering?  James was beginning to get frustrated.  This place wasn't supposed to be uninhabited—he certainly should have felt signs of life around here somewhere.  But he couldn't hear any footsteps anywhere.  Woodside Apartments was dead quiet, like it had been abandoned.  James continued down the hallway, the wooden floor creaking with every other step.  When he came to the eastern-most room, room 205, he was surprised to turn the knob and find it unlocked.  He cautiously peeked inside.

"Excuse me?" James said in a low voice.  Running out of patience with the lack of replies, he didn't wait very long before he let himself in without permission.  The room's overhead lights were turned off, but there was still a single source of illumination.  Behind this light stood a human shadow that James took to be the apartment's inhabitant.

"Err, sorry for barging in like this.  I'm looking for someone.  Have you seen…" James fell silent.  As he approached, he saw that there was no use trying to talk to the "person." Wearing only a blouse, skirt, and a cardigan, the figure stared back at him with a blank face.  It was just a sewing mannequin.  The woman who lives here must work as a seamstress from home.  But…something about the clothes the mannequin was wearing seemed to stab at his heart.  All at once he realized—those were the same clothes Mary was wearing in the picture of her he carried.  Could this mean she was still nearby…?  James's hopes soared at the thought.

The light that illuminated the room was a small flashlight attached to a cord hanging from the mannequin like a necklace.  James thought over the situation.  Maybe the resident was using the mannequin to light the place because of the power outage?  It was situated just right to shine over the entire room…  But he had no clue why anyone would leave the light on and the door unlocked while she was away.  Seeing as the person was away at the moment, James decided to "borrow" her flashlight.  He took the light from the mannequin and hung it around his neck.  At least now he would have an easier time getting around the apartments.  Still, he felt a bit guilty.  First trespassing, and now theft?  He really didn't have any ill intent—he just wanted to find Mary.

Leaving room 205 behind, he proceeded down the corridor that extended north from the eastern edge of the first hallway.  Immediately after he turned the corner, he stopped clean in his tracks.  Flickers of static began to emanate from the radio in his coat pocket.  The beam of his flashlight fell on what appeared to be a naked figure standing in the middle of the hallway.

Only it didn't seem to have a head.  A mannequin…?  James though for a moment that maybe the mannequin from 205 was mad at him for stealing its flashlight and it had chased him out here to take it back.  The thought brought a bitter smile to his face.  Still, seeing the thing just standing there made him more than a little bit nervous.  That and the fact that when the radio made noise, there was likely a monster nearby.

He took a couple wary steps forward to take a closer look at the mannequin.  Its body was bent and posed in a manner that seemed almost…coquettish.  He first thought that something about its arms was strange, only now he could see that it, in fact, had no arms.  At the mannequin's waist, where its torso should have begun, was another pair of legs that were missing feet.  These extra limbs were both bent and twisted into unnatural positions.  The mannequin had a surreal style, almost in a weird artistic way.  But why wasn't it wearing any clothes?

Suddenly, it moved.  Twisting around its extra legs, the mannequin's body began to sway back and forth.  James's eyes opened wide in terror.  This thing was no mannequin.  It was another monster.  Though it had a different form than the squirming monster from before, he had no doubt that they were related somehow.  Oddly enough, he found that being confronted by this grotesque being didn't bring up the same feelings of hatred and disgust that the other monsters had.  Still, if it was half as dangerous as the other ones, he didn't want to stick around.

Leaving the mannequin creature behind, James turned and ran back to the second floor's main hallway.  Now that he had a light, he could see another hall branching off of the main corridor and leading north.  However, his flashlight also illuminated a figure lying on the floor that wriggled and squirmed in a very familiar manner.  These things really were running rampant in this town.  First they had infested the streets, now they had spread into the apartment building.  At least this explains why no one would answer him.  The residents were probably all holed up in their rooms, hiding from the horrible creatures roaming the halls.  Or had they all escaped like the person from room 205?

It was becoming clear that the second floor was not a good place to be at the moment.  Ducking into the stairwell to his left, he began to trudge toward the third floor.  He hesitated for a moment.  What would he do if there were monsters on the third floor, too?  Would he just try to leave the apartment building?  But if he did that, he would also have to consider leaving Silent Hill altogether.  He had come this far, the least he could do was keep trying.  He opened the door to the third floor hallway just a crack and carefully listened for any signs of monsters roaming around.  He couldn't be sure…but everything seemed quiet.

As he opened the door and stepped into the hallway, he saw that most of the living area was blocked off by a metal shutter that divided the corridor.  It seemed a bit out of place here.  Was it installed as a security measure, or was it put up to keep away the invading monsters?  If the other side of those bars was a safe zone, there was a good chance Mary would be there with the other residents.  Now that he thought about it, James wished he was over there too—anywhere was safer than here.  He tried calling his wife's name through the bars, but there was still no answer.  As worried as he was about Mary's safety, there was just no way around the shutter.

Turning around, he saw that the small hallway was lined with two doors that sat side by side.  Might as well check them out.  It's not like I have anywhere else to go, James thought.  The door to room 302 wouldn't open, but 301 was unlocked.  However, the room was completely empty.  No furniture, no nothing.  Instead, a lone shopping cart sat abandoned in the middle of the empty darkness.  What was something like that doing here?  James regarded it a bit suspiciously—after all, it was the last thing he expected to find in this room.  He caught sight of something shiny reflecting the beam of his flashlight.  Creeping closer, he peered inside the shopping cart.

It was a gun.

James picked it up and examined it.  He could hardly believe his luck.  Not only was the weapon fully loaded, but a box of spare bullets was sitting close by.  A complacent smile came to his face.  This was just what he needed.  No more running away and hiding every time a monster crossed his path.  Stuffing the extra bullets into his coat pocket with the radio, he began to formulate a new plan.  Now that I have a proper weapon, I can keep searching on the second floor.  Clutching the cold handgun, James left room 301.

Retracing his steps through the gloomy hallway, he found his way back to the stairwell door.  Before he opened it, he caught sight of something in the blocked off section of the hallway.  How had he not noticed this before?  Under the beam of his flashlight, he saw a small object lying on the floor just beyond the shutter.  It was a key, sitting just close enough that he might be able to grab it if he reached far enough.  Maybe it would unlock the shutter?  He slid his hand underneath the grate and groped in the darkness to find the key.  The tips of his fingers fell on something cold.  Stretching out his arm as far as he was able, James tried to pull the key closer.  Just a little more…

Suddenly, James felt the presence of another person.  Before he could see what was happening, a tennis shoe clad foot came into view and in one magnificent strike kicked the key far across the hall.

"Hey!"  His yell turned into a cry of pain as the foot took the opportunity to smash down on his grasping fingers.  Fuming with rage, James glared up at the prankster.  On the other side of the shutter, he saw the back of an elementary school-aged girl as she fled, her laughter echoing through the hallway.

"Idiot!"  She threw one last insult at James before disappearing from sight.

"Hey, get back here!"  Even if the girl did hear him shouting, he doubted she was coming back.  "Damn…"

James swore under his breath as he pulled his aching hand out from under the metal shutter.  What an annoying little brat.  But in a way, seeing her was a bit of good news.  She was proof that there had to be at least a few people hiding in the blocked-off section of the third floor.  The appearance of the girl was enough to keep alive the possibility that Mary was over there as well.  Despite the pain in his hand and his anger at the little girl, a smile returned to James's face.  Wasting no more time, he began to make his way back to the second floor.