Trek Into Silent Hill

Chapter One

 I shiver as I rub my lean arms to keep warm in the falling snow. Dark conifers line the deserted road. I stare at the red sign, "Silent Hill- ½ mile." Glancing over my shoulder, I see the wrecked bus. The body of the driver is still visible through the windshield.

Jean was drunk at the steering wheel, had a heart attack, and promptly died. Even worse, my cell phone got smashed into tiny pieces in the class. I am nowhere close to the mall where I was supposed to pick up Tom's gift, or even close to any landmark I can recognize. Even though I was alone, I could make it to a phone and call my boyfriend Tom to pick me up.

I shudder and brush my honey blonde bangs out of my somber brown eyes. If I had known it was going to snow I would've brought my mustard colored beanie Tom gave me. I stick my tongue out to taste the snow, spreading my arms out. I blink and cough as the snowflakes land in my mouth.

"Snowflakes don't taste like smoke," I frown. Cupping my hands, the fallen white clumps melt into damp grey powder. "Ash?" I raise my head to the sky. "Hmph. Tom would know." My voice was the only noise in these dense woods. Slightly annoyed, I realize that I probably can't get his new video game today. Our Valentine's day should still be amazing regardless of whether or not there are gifts. Thoughts of our future date brought a beaming smile to my face, and keeps me warm as I trek to to Silent Hill.

"The fog is so thick," I breathed, Squinting my eyes, I push my glasses up my nose to try to see the town better. The town is dressed in a grey and dusty coat; buildings the color of my grandpa's hair don shattered windows and crooked doors. Cars dot the sides of the road like unwanted trash. A blue truck is sideways in the middle of the street with the both the driver and passenger doors ajar, with long skid marks following behind it.

"Where is everyone?" The place is abandoned. Not even birds were around.

The urgency to find a phone couldn't be ignored, so I jog down to a nearby gas station. The windows are caked with dust and made the view inside distorted. A foreboding feeling hovers over the place, but I only pause in front of the door for a second. I need to get to Tom soon. A little bell tinkles on the door. Faded black and white linoleum peel in the corners of the once white, now yellow, walls. Three store shelves go down the middle of the gas station. Old food, lotion, and batteries lay unwanted. A checkout counter stands in the corner next to a multisex bathroom.

By the condition of the payphone, it surprises me that it still works. I punch in the number to Tom's cell phone and wait for the dial tone to switch to ringing. My leg jiggles impatiently. Why is it so slow? My hand raises to deposit another quarter when the humming of the dial tone stops.

"Hello?" My voice is drowned out by the heavy silence in the gas station. "Tom?" What the hell? It seems whenever I need something that I see everyday it either disappears or breaks.

Irritated that it isn't working I nearly slam the phone down, but before I could a groaning noise erupts from the ear piece. I bring it to my ear excitedly only to have my smile dwindle. Crunching slurping sounds are mixed in with a horrible choking noise. Then the line is dead.

I have no opinion of it. I can't decide if it scares me, irks me slightly, or if it is a sick prank. I slowly hang the phone up when I notice something. The phone cord is cut.

A high-pitched inward whine escapes my lips. I desperately want to believe I imagined it, but I am too much a realist to delude myself. My lean back touches the wall and I slide down to the floor. Panic about being trapped in this desolate town rises up in my insides. Eyes wide, I clutch my heaving chest as I begin to hyperventilate. The familiar feeling of a panic attack is settling in. Oxygen is suddenly a scarcity, and everything seems way too big in comparison to me, as if the shelves and counter are trapping me in. I twist my fingers into my short ebony hair in frustration with myself. Panic attacks always happen at the worst of times and over the most mundane things. And I am probably being over-dramatic. I will rationalize through this.

The phone is not working, and something strange is happening in this creepy town. But I have only explored a small section of Silent HIll, so there may be another phone, a functional vehicle, or even a person. There are many solutions to this. With these thoughts, my breathing decelerates. I bring my thumb to my jugular vein in my neck to check my pulse. It is slowing down. I try to block out the memory of the noises from the phone so I wouldn't start up again. Sliding down even more against the shabby wall, I let out a long breath. This is going to be a long day.

Standing up, my hand brushes the pay phone and it rings, once, twice, three times only to die again. My body freezes in fear as a ominous crackling comes from the bathroom to my left. It takes all my nerves to turn to face it.

Suddenly the worn wallpaper and linoleum is torn upward by an unseen force, then evaporates just before it touches the cobwebbed ceiling. The exposed patches of wall is a mixture of rotten brown wood and rusted steel grates. Red liquid gushes into small puddles on the floor as the tile degenerates into more steel grates. An acrid odor smell fills the air. Almost worse than this transformation was a loud siren heard in the distance. It intensified this unexplainable situation.