World of Darkness: SILENT HILL

[Hecatoncheires]

JACK CREEL​

A slow day at Dragon's Playground; a few of the regulars stop by, promising they'll be at the game on Wednesday, a mother picking up a present for her son, and a pair of lost Japanese tourists looking for the train station. Not exactly the most profitable day of trading you've ever had, but hey, the sponsorship deal you got with Wizards is helping to keep you afloat.

Then things start to get weird.

One of the display cabinets next to the window collapses, sending dice, paint and miniatures flying across the floor. Tim, one of the local students you employ to help mind the store, and you rush to start cleaning the mess, but then both of you stop as you suddenly realise how the mess has 'arranged' itself.
"Dude, what the fuck?" Tim exclaims next to you.

A bottle of super-glue has burst open, the substance splattering across the floor and hardening far too quickly for this to be normal. Next to it, one of the pots of paint from your Warhammer products has split open, and beside that, dice have scattered in patterns far too precise to be normal.

Together, they have formed two words. Two words you've been hearing ever since it brought you back.

SILENT HILL.

BRADLY GILMAN​

You left for work late this morning, and you're paying dearly for this mistake.

Congestion on the main route to work is even worse than usual this morning, due to a collision between two trucks in the early hours of the day. Motorists from all walks of life, yourself included, have found their day grinding to a sudden halt as they are forced to wait for the wreckage to be cleared.

Angry shouts, curses and car horns sound all around you, drowning out your car stereo. You sigh and settle down for a very long wait.

And then it happens.

Suddenly the engines being revved and the car horns are forming words, metallic and resonating through your head. The angry shouting and swearing changes from insults and demands to the same words, repeating over and over again. It's here, you realise, manipulating the world around you, issuing it's demands once more.

And all around you, the cars and the people scream "SILENT HILL".

JACK CLARK​

"Alright, it's lights out, folks!" you hear the guard scream over the cacophany of your fellow inmates.

The lights in your cell dim, but the noise from your fellow inmates never seems to cease. Over the irritatingly cheery song playing over the intercom, you hear them; shouting, screaming, rambling, crying. The thick, padded walls seem to do nothing to drown out the noise, and you grit your teeth; it'll be another few hours before the guards finally decide to sedate the crazy ones.

Then suddenly, the noises dim, and you know what is coming next.

He starts with a scraping on the wall to your left, insane whispers reaching only your ears. Then the halls begin to echo with insane giggling, followed by furious yells from the cell across from yours.

Punctuated through the mad ramblings, you hear one phrase repeated, followed by the promise to get you out of this place if you comply.

Over and over, he yells, whispers and chuckles "SILENT HILL".

VIN TOBOE​

Ricky Malone's boys have paid yet another visit to your office.

This is the third case they're asking you to influence, all of them connected. The three were small-time members of Malone's outfit, drug runners and thugs occasionally doing a bit of racketeering. Malone discovered they had been holding out on him, making money on the side, and didn't take it very well. Planting a shipment of drugs on them, the mob boss informed the police and had them convicted for several decades.

The trouble for Malone is that now the group is having their sentences cut, due to them making a deal with the District Attorney. Malone's convinced that they're going to sell him out, so he wants them to stay in jail so he can arrange a suitable 'accident' to befall them.

It just so happens you're the lawyer of all three; Malone wants you to lose their cases.

"C'mon, Vinny-Boy!" Pete O'Halley, one of Malone's favoured racketeers, exclaims, "It might not sit too well on your conscience, but think of the money!"
"And if the money don't talk as much as it should," growls Thomas the Tank, a huge man built like something akin to a brick shithouse and Malone's top trigger-man, "Be sure to dwell on the fact that Mr Malone will be very, very upset if you refuse to take his rather generous offer."

You look at the two mobsters staring back at you, just as you feel a hot, inhuman hand on your shoulder.

When he speaks, his voice crackles like an inferno, and you can feel the heat resonating from him. "Do you win or lose in a situation such as this?" he ponders, the two men in front of you completely unaware of his presence, "Do the answers lie in Silent Hill?"

 

[Krang]

It was all a matter of waiting. Should be easy right?

Well, you're strapped into a bed, in a padded room, with criminally insane performing a symphony for you. Don't forget the little man only you can see capering about the room making gurgling noises. Jack fidgeted, for the eighteenth time beneath the restraints. They would be in to tamp meds down his throat in a bit. He'd banter, unnerve them with his cold sanity. The doctor knew why he was in here. He knew personally the man who had only recently gone from employee to patient after just five minutes in Jack's room. Well, there was more to it, but Jack couldn't remember. He got a wash of red, every time he attempted to recall. He asked the doctors, but no one said anything.

The door opened. They had fixed it. It wouldn't close all the way, before. Jack remembered that a simple flake of rust in the hinges had started it all. Maybe it was Destiny, some twisted fuck in a room in the center of the planet typing people's stories into giant computer, snickering at every sad pedophile, lonely nerd. Set them loose, putting gleams into peoples minds. Lawyers suddenly wanted a road fuck, just to bring about an abomination that would bomb a school in fifteen years. Jack giggled, and the little man running around the room looked at him. The wild eyes were full of hate, and love. It's hair hung ragged in front of it. It looked away, at the door, and then at Jack, it giggled and threw it's head up and down in a mock nod, before resuming it's giggling, then running out the door beneath the feet of the men entering.

"Good morning Gentlemen. Breakfast in bed? You're too kind." An employee snickered, but was silenced with a sharp look. They moved forward tentatively, checking to make sure he was strapped in.

"Worry not boys, this time I have no choice but to bend over and enjoy it, right?" The doctor did not respond. A giggle made Jack look up. Hanging from the fluorescent light was his companion. It screeched at a painful level, then motioned with his head. He looked back at the doc, who was looking worriedly at Jack. Jack noticed the thing the spirit had motioned towards. He stared.

A scalpel? What the fuck? Do they perform surgery here now too?

Jack giggled, as the men readied the intravenous feed.

"Tell you boys what, let an arm free, and I'll take it myself." He looked into the eyes of the doctor, and felt a shock go through his body. The doctor stiffened, then, incredibly, he motioned for the two assistants to do it. They questioned him, and the doctor snapped at them.

"Do it!" They hesitated again, looking at each other, then hastened to undo the straps on both his arms. Jack rubbed the wrists, enjoying his freedom. He took the pills they gave him and popped them in his mouth.

"See? Night time. One last thing, doc, could you tighten the leg straps? I've managed to work one semi-loose, and it's been bothering me." The doctor bent over, checking and double checking. Jack darted forward and snagged the target, before the doc straightened again. He motioned for them to do the arm straps again, but Jack gave him another look, feeling the shock go through his body again.

"It's okay, Doc. I feel fine, really." The doctor nodded, his eyes going a little hazy.

"Thanks Mommy. Bedtime now." He swallowed the pills, tucking the scalpel beneath his right buttock, where he would feel anyone trying to take it from him. He settled down for another pleasant nap. The last thing he heard was the symphony of one, from his new best friend.

The last thing he felt was the rage building.

Good. I'm sick of this place.

---

"Good morning!" The attendant said to him, cheerily.

"Good mourning." Jack responded, before plunging the scalpel into his right eye-socket.

He felt alive, for the first time in years. His heart pumped steadily, as he washed his hands in the facility sink. Flicking them clean, he breezed out of the the bathroom, a cheery skip in his step. He approached the security gate, and the guard motioned to him to stop.

"Identification?"

"Right here." He raised the card, purposely putting it in the glare of the fluorescent light. The guard bent over.

"I can't-." Jack shoved the scalpel up through his exposed chin, up, up(and away...!) until he felt spongy tissue. The man spasmed and leaned forward into Jack.

"Shhhh, don't say anything, you'll spoil the moment!" Jack said, before pushed the body against the wall. The man's dying heart spurted gore all over his new uniform.

Belinda's going to have to take the uniform to the dry-cleaners again. Tsk-tsk. Heh, Belinda. That's good.

He bent over and drew the pistol. The guard at the desk turned, staring at Jack's blood-stained white nurse outfit. He put a hole through the man's brain, feeling the coldness spread throughout his arm, stilling it, guiding it as he made the shot. He smiled, inhaling the gritty brimstone smell of death. He motioned at the spirit, nodding in thanks. It simply sobbed and capered away, disappearing as it fell into the dead man's body. Jack moved on. Nurses and Doctors ran away from him. He shot them until the clip was empty. He tossed it away.

"Oh look." The fleeing employee's had neglected a gurney which held a insensate patient. He looked at Jack with glazed eyes.

"I don't like it here either." He stabbed the man through both eyes. He barely jerked. Pushing the gurney behind him, he strolled out into the green. No cops, just fleeing employee's. He laughed, enjoying the fresh air. Jack moseyed out onto the green front of the asylum, looking through the cars, picking out a semi-new Firebird. He liked Firebird's, they were sleek.

The door was unlocked, the key's were in the ignition. He got in, the stuffy inside refreshing after the never-ending cooled inside of the asylum. The engine rumbled to life, the tank was full. Grinning, he nodded to the crying spirit sitting in the seat next to him.

---

Three hours of driving later, Jack pulled over to the side of the road. He sighed, feeling his heartbeat speed slightly. He got out of the car, moved off to the field to his right. As far as the eye could see, there was late-summer farmland, and endless highway. No one in sight.

He bent over and emptied the contents of his stomachs into the ferns. The bile was pure black, disipating to reveal clear jelly like substance instead. His mind snapped back into place. He fell to his knee's, gasping for air. He looked bewildered around him.

What...?

He could recall nothing but red, He cast further and further back in memory, but it was all red. Until he finally remembered a door opening. A door, always the door. He noticed his hands soaked with blood. Soaked was an understatement, they were drenched. He scrambled to his feet in horror.

What had happened?

The giggling he had heard every since the first red-out came again. He looked.

Sitting on the front of the Firebird, a spirit sat.

"Silent Hill." It remarked in a hoarse voice, before falling back into the hood and disappearing.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

LYLE DENBY​

Double-shift again, because the managers asked you to and you didn't know how to say no.

The one called Debbie, with the big tits, is ill. Steph, the blonde one who always smiles at you when you arrive in the morning, is ill too. As you sit in your cubicle, faces that are familiar to you mill about, though you cannot remember any names.

Another day of number crunching and avoiding your co-workers. With breaks in between to furiously masturbate in the toilet.

You don't want to look in the eye, or get forced into a conversation with someone, so you keep your head down and focus on your screen.

And that's when she lays a hand on your shoulder, and begins to whisper in your ear.

"You work far too much, Lyle," Uncle breathes into your ear. You can smell her rotting breath, the smell or irresistable perfume and the stench of dead bodies. "I've told you so many times, you silly boy," she laughs, the sound both beautiful and repugnant, "You're never going to be happy unless you follow my advice. I only want what's best for you, Lyle dear.

"That's why I need you to go to Silent Hill. All your answers lie there."

 

[TheNeverThere]

BZZT!BZZT!BZZT! Jack rolled over in bed and hit the snooze button on his alarm clock. The time glowed red on the digital chronometer. 10:00 AM. It had been a week since the display cabinet had collapsed. The carpet, paint, the glue, and several of the miniatures had been ruined. In all, it cost well into the thousands to replace everything. Luckily, insurance had covered for the carpet. Comes with having a place of business stuck out on a pier. Jack had been able to convince the company's insurance agent that a seagull had hit the window and caused the case to fall. Of course, it helped that their insurance agent was also a regular at the Warhammer 40k events they held every Thursday. However, the miniatures and supplies had to come out of his pocket, along with the display case. Jack had to personally shell out $500 to replace the Limited Edition figuringes, and another $300 for the case. His business partner covered the supplies, the cheap bastard. Today was Friday, which meant Friday Night Magic, an event he'd been pushing for ever since he and Bill had opened the first Dragon's Playground. Now they had five stores spread throughout the Chigaco Land area, and eight more scattered around Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. They had plans and funds set up to open three more locations in the next year: One in LA, one in NYC, and one in Mall of America. "Heh," Jack thought to himself. "Whoever said you need a college degree to be successful don't know Jack." Jack chuckled at his unintended pun. BZZT!BZZT!BZZT! Jack quickly rolled over and hit the snooze alarm again. 10:09 AM. What was it with snooze alarms? They always seemed to go off again after nine minutes. Why nine? Why not ten, or better yet, fifteen? Jack figured he'd probably never know the answer. The next big question of the day, was whether or not to go into work. While he was still on med leave from his accident a little over a week ago, he still liked to go in and work, or at the very least, lay around. After all, someone somewhere once said 'It doesn't seem like work if you enjoy it.' Hadn't they? If they hadn't, they should have. Jack rolled his legs over the side of this bed, switched his the alarm on his clock to the OFF position, grabbed his crutches, and hobbled over to his dresser for yet another painful session of the 'changing of the guard'.

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Two weeks since he had woken up from his coma. Two weeks since that accursed Rattling Oracle bastard had shown up. There had been more 'mishaps' at the store, and this time, and insurance had stopped paying for the carpets. Today, a Monday, Bill was on shift. Jack was reading the latest issue of Dragon Magazine when a seagull flew in through the open door. In it flew, and as luck, or the Oracle, would have it, right into the Scrabble boxes. Jack motioned to Bill that he'd pick it up. He didn't want to bother Bill with explaining why te pieces spelled out 'Silent Hill', like they always did when something wierd happened. Tyler, the shop assistant they had hired when Jack got in his accident had turned out to be more of an occult fanatic than even Jack. Everytime something strange happened when Jack and Tyler were in the shop, Ty would start muttering something about a cursed town and aliens and crap like that. Probably metioned Bigfoot and Nessie too, but Jack never paid much attention. According to his connections, stuff like that was all a hoax...Except for Silent Hill itself. As Jack approached the downed board games, he could see the Oracle hunched over, rearranging the pieces. "He's getting desperate it seems. He's never let me see him doing his work before. I think it's about time I cashed in my vacation time." Not wanting to disturb the Oracle whilst doing his dark deeds, be it because he didn't want to make a poltergeist angry, or because he was just naturally polite, Jack shooed the gull out of the store and closed the door before he went to pick up pieces. By the time he returned to the scene of the latest Silent Hill beacon, the Rattling Oracle had already finished and disappeared. Jack looked down and in addition to the usual 'Silent Hill', there was an additional message. "Strange," Jack thought. "I didn't think he could write anything other than 'Silent Hill'." This newest message simply read, 'GO NOW OR ELSE'. A few inches away there was another message, or rather, a word. 'APOLOGIES' was all it said. "Curiosser and curioser..." Jack muttered to himself. "Since when did malevolent spirits express remorse?" Putting the letter blocks back in their bag, and putting the board and it's accessories back in their place, Jack headed to the door. Opening the door, Jack paused, and without looking up, said. "Hey Bill, don't wait up for me. Seein' as how we're gonna be CEOs this time next year, I think I take an advance on my vacation. I should be back in a week, two at the most. See ya."

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Jack awoke with a start as he fell sideways in his seat. It took a moment to realize where he was. He was on a train. The only one, in fact, asides from the conductor, who remained ever silent, and ever out of sight. Well, alone asides from the passenger who sat across from him. A passenger only he could see. Jack thought to himself how strange it was to see the Oracle reading a newspaper. Jack had never seen the Oracle interact with something solid for so long, or so intently. Maybe something about this train made him better able to manifest...Or maybe they were drawing nearer to Silent Hill. Jack stared at the newspaper to see what section the Oracle might be on, but it was hopeless. The letters swam around the page like bubbles in a glass of Pepsi. Though every once in a while a ew would come together to temporarily spell out a phrase or two. Phrases like 'Newspaper greatest invention since trebuchet', and 'Giant metal snake too noisy'. It was rare for the Oracle to communicate with such complete thoughts. Strange too was what was being said. Jack stared at where the Oracle's face should be. After a brief pause, he spoke to it. "How old are you, exactly?" Though, as Jack had guessed, the Oracle merely went on reading the paper. Jack shrugged and layed down on the train seat, using his duffle bag and backpack as pillows. When next he woke, he found himself on a bench on the outskirts of a town, the Oracle sitting next to him, newspaper nowhere to be seen. How he got off the train was a mystery, but that wasn't what bothered him. It was the town. It was more than just a veritable ghost town. It was the real deal. Jack could feel it. And more than that, he knew, down in his very soul, that THIS was where he should be. This is where the Oracle had been telling him to go. As he stood, he suddenly heard a soft, cold, harsh, dusty voice, as if the actual pages of centuries old books were speaking. It was a voice he'd only once ever before, and a voice he'd never hear again, much to his liking. The voice was the voice of the Oracle, and it spoke haltingly, as if to let each word sink in. It said:


"WELCOME. TO. SILENT. HILL."

 

[Vay]

"Silent hill"

"Silent hill"

"Go to Silent hill"​

It seamed that evety sound in the busy road was screaming at him.

"SILENT HILL"

"SILENT HILL!!!! SILENT HILL"


He took out a flask from inside his hospital coat and downed most of its contents.

"SILENT HILL"

"ALRIGHT!!" he shouted slamming his hands into the steering wheel.

The sounds went back to normal and traffic started moving.

----------------------------------

At the hospital he tried to forget about the voice, the command. He entered the staff room and slid a packet into the microwave and pressed the reheat button.


"SILENT HILL"

[color=#696ff]The car alarm outside caused him to jump and almost fall over. "Just leave me alone. I already let you share......"

[/color]
"You alright Dr. Dilman are you alright?" A nurse asked.

"Yes I.... I need a holiday."

A week later he had the time off he needed and drove to where the map said there was a small town by the name of Silent Hill.

---------------------------------

Hour on the road and he needed a break, pulling over he stopped near an empty car on a lonely stretch of road.

 

[Asmodeus]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_PXTGdlGw"]YouTube- Silent Hill 2 OST - Promise (Reprise)[/nomedia]

So here he sat, the middle of seven cubicles, the sun in slants through gridded windows overhead, dirty yellow, a world in filter.

The others didn't move. Seven figures hunched. Only Lyle, gripping the edge of the desk, an outline broken by the slightest tremble to tell of tears and heartache. Lost half in shadow, a half-man, dust around him dancing golden.

"I don't want t..." the last word lost in a swallow, too much saliva in his mouth, the cheeks and teeth getting in the way, always in the way. He sunk deeper, his head against the screen, touching sweat and oil. He burned in the sun, the lotion crusted, kept in the heat, boiling from the outside in. He scratched, teasing sores beneath the hairline, only she touched, she... no other.

Laura from reception, if she was here, perched on the desk, white shirt tight and straining, he would hitch her up and lift that little skirt. His thumb, he'd use his thumb, press it in. Just right, those hips, not too thin nor fat, a wobble as she moaned, a bounty of flesh, a swell to tell of life, plenty of room, inside her, to get lost. He'd strip her naked, him fully clothed, the contrast, the beautiful contrast, why else were they put upon the world, to pose in beauty, statues, all of them. He'd drag her under the table, hold her tight, lock her head, her shoulders, her limbs, everything rigid as he moved back and forth, inside her, deeper and deeper, till she shuddered.

He couldn't stand up now. He had to wait. He sunk deeper. Her breath... his breath... Uncle, always, the shivers that seemed to break him. Would he fall like water and drain through his keyboard? No, too dry for that, too flaking, the skin fell from him and joined the dust, departing through oil and lotion. How would anyone touch him? How would anyone stroke their hands as he would stroke his hands?

A piece of flesh, flawless, smooth. Oh, for a piece of flesh. They don't know it, how lucky they are. Bitches. Wastes. Squandering all that... Hang them like pictures in his halls, he would, naked, used again and again, every inch and moment savoured.

Silent Hill... no... not like this...

Silent Hill.

To know there was something, a place, another chapter - a comfort and a terror, more than Mother ever was.

Mother... Silent Hill... the mists.. he remembered the mists.

So cold. Lyle curled up in his seat, pushing back behind the screen of the cubicle, reaching down, inside, taking hold. The only heat, the only comfort, the only joy. What else mattered, nothing, all pain and darkness.

No one... no one would give it to him.

"I can't..."

 

[Hecatoncheires]

LYLE DENBY​

The hand carresses your shoulder delicately, Uncle's soft words flowing through your ears.
"Yes you can, Sweetie. Because you have to. Because this world will never make sense until you do. You'll never find the answers you seek sitting in this cubicle."

The hand suddenly tightens, nails digging painfully into your skin, not enough to draw blood but enough to hurt. "And because I tell you to, Lyle. Listen to your Uncle, won't you?"

JACK CLARK​

You kneel in the grass at the side of the road, staring at the spot on your car where the spirit had been sitting just a moment ago. To your left, a town unfolds before you. It's pretty small, and you see no activity in it's streets, though it is early morning. Fog is beginning to form, hindering your vision of the town further, and a bridge, spanning a deep crack in the landscape, seperates you from the town.

Beside the bridge is a sign that reads 'WELCOME TO SILENT HILL'.

As you kneel, you hear the sound of an approaching engine, and as you look around, you see the approaching headlights of a car, that soon pulls in behind yours. You can see the driver inside the vehicle, but he doesn't seem to have noticed you as of yet.

JACK CREEL​

The Oracle seems to look at you for a moment, and then quickly dissipates into the fog that is forming around you. It is early morning, and ahead of you lies a town that could only be Silent Hill.

Even with the fog hampering your vision, you can see that the streets are deserted; nothing stirs in this small resort town. Maybe Ty was right about all that ghost crap for once.

The bench you sit on is about a quarter of a mile out of town, and behind you is a bridge that connects the town to the other side of a deep ravine you can barely see the bottom of.

BRADLY GILMAN​

You left early, really early, due to an inability of yours to sleep without a few glasses of liquid calmness, and so it's early morning when you pull in behind a Firebird. Ahead of you is a bridge, that spans a deep ravine, leading to a small resort town sitting on the edges of a large lake.

Next to the bridge is a sign that reads "WELCOME TO SILENT HILL".

A fog is beginning to form around you, and as you scan the area around your car you don't really notice much because of it (Perception Roll Failure).