Chapter Text
That night the voices visited him again. They aren’t so violent this time there were no hands or bodies grasping for him in the darkness, this time they came to him as a vague echo from the darkness of the store.
“You have to go further” called the choir of voices. “Your still to far you have to rejoin with us” while the voices spoke Sae found himself unable to move completely paralysed against the rough material under him. He screwed his eyes shut trying his best to will the voices away hoping that if he just ignored them, they would leave him alone.
Eventually they called out one final time before receding back into the abyss “find the order”
Sae woke with a start nearly falling of the sofa as his body jerked away from an unseen threat. It was clear that even though he had returned to silent hill there was still something the voices wanted from him. “Find the order” whoat were the order? Sae had certainly never heard of it before.
He wondered if there was a part of the town that he wasn’t seeing quite right like the thing he was searching for was huffed just behind the fog. He was sure that he would find at least some answers at his old home if he could just remember how to get there.
He loitered at the entrance to the furniture shop for a long time wondering if it was safe to go out. Would he even be safe from the creature he had seen before if he did stay hidden in the shop? Probably not. He would just have to face the world and hope for the best.
He squeezed himself back through the gap in the door back onto the rough streets outside. The snow continued to fall and he was still freezing cold but at least the sky was it’s normal shade of bleak instead of having the odd red tinge that had crept through the mist when the creature showed up the day before. Sae was still tired but nowhere near as exhausted as he had been before, he hoped that meant that his mind would be clearer as he traversed the fog.
He recognised many of the shops as places he had visited as a child with Rin. He walked past what used to be the old sweet shop. Now its once neon sign was fading and the windows were boarded and covered in old newspaper but Sae remembered a time when the sweet old woman who worked behind the counter would give him and Rin extra for free.
She would drop the sweets in the little paper bag then put her finger to her lips with a conspiratory glint in her eye willing them not to tell their parents who always worried far too much about the amount of sugar their children ate.
Sae was staring to get bored of the constant walking and he felt cold and miserable even with the collar of his jacket pulled up over his mouth and nose. When he walked into an empty clearing he started to worry that he had completely left town until a large building appeared out of the fog in front of him. The school.
His school had always been old with a creepy to look to it but Sae had to admit it looked far more unnerving now surrounded by fog and missing the dozens of screaming children that made it a school. It all still looked to be in good condition which was a miracle really as when Sae was younger there had been talks of some parts becoming unsteady and that was before it had been left to the elements fit who knows how many years now.
Sae walked around the front of the building to try the front door but unsurprisingly it was locked. He spent some time circling the old place till he found an open window in one of the side walls. He had wanted to try and go straight home from the school but seeing it hadn’t jigged his memory.
When he went to crawl through the window he told himself that he was doing it to remember more parts of his childhood so he could finally get home but really he was just tired and freezing cold and he wanted to have a rest somewhere that wasn’t snowing constantly.
the inside was still cold but after spending hours with snow seeping into his clothes and shoes it felt like stepping into a summers day. Everything was just how he remembered it with chalkboards in the classrooms and children’s drawings on the walls.
everything was covered in far more dirt and grime than it had been in his school days and the chairs and desks had seemingly been thrown across the rooms but he supposed that it was to be expected being abandoned and all.
He thought about all the time he spent there in his youth, sat on hard wooden chairs trying to listen to the teacher while simultaneously avoiding small projectiles thrown across the room by Charles. He wondered if they carried on the same as always when Sae left. Maybe by the time everybody cleared out they’d already forgotten all about him too busy playing with other friends.
The thought upset him and he decided that he didn’t want to look at the classrooms anymore. Sae made his way down the service stairs into the belly of the building down to the extensive basement. He’d never been down there as a child but from what he’d been the told the space was only ever really used for storage or a place for older student to escape to when they wanted to avoid lessons.
The basement was dark a grimy and the metal stairs that led him down had been eaten away by rust. The screws squeaked and groaned so much that he was worried they might fall through beneath him as he walked. The same large bugs that he’d seen the day before were down here too. They crawled over his shoes and up the walls with no fear their blood stained mandibles gnashing away making a constant chattering sound that echoed through the tight halls.
Just as he was inspecting an old busted open box filled with boxes of pencils the walls started to shake and groan as if he was in the belly of beast that was just waking up. The bugs began to crawl out of cracks in the walls and jokes in the floor by the dozen as they all swept in the same direction as if following some sound only they could hear.
The walls cracked and turned grimy just like they had the day before when the creature came for the man. For a moment Sae was terrified that they were here for him, that it was finally his turn to go.
His breathing picked up and he began to walk faster and faster through the dark basement searching for a way out so he at least wouldn’t die in the dark. When the screams started echoing through the halls relief flooded his chest and the dark cloud that had wrapped tightly around his face finally loosened allowing him to catch his breath.
The screams sounded female and Sae chased them all the way to the source hoping that he might be able to help this girl after doing nothing to help the legless man. He turned a sharp corner into a room but as he looked inside properly he had to clamp a hand over his mouth to avoid chucking up.
Inside was a young man who stood in the corner of the room in complete shocked silence. A few bugs crawled over his person and his nose was dripping blood but it was clear that the bugs were there for his companion.
He looked at what he assumed was the girl who had been screaming but he could hardly tell now. All he saw was a figure flailing about like man in a fire completely covered head to toe in the bugs feasting in their flesh. Sae couldn’t tell if the girl was still standing on her own merit or if she was covered in so many tightly packed bugs that they had managed to hold shape. Either way it was clear they were past help.
Sae turned around and bent over to thrown up not caring if it splashed on his shoes. He hadn’t eaten much in the past few days so they was little to line his stomach. Instead he spent a couple of minutes choking on his own stomach acid and spit as the bugs finally fell to the floor having consumed everything.
Sae stood stick still for a moment taking everything in. The girl was dead which meant that the bugs should have been leaving and everything should have gone back to normal and yet it didn’t. Sae slowly turned his head to look at the boy who was still stood paralysed in fear as the truth clicked into place.
Things weren’t going back to normal because they were going for the boy next.
A few moments later the coppery scent of blood began to emerge into the air covering the stench of mould and dirty animals. Sae whipped his head around trying to find the source of the smell never once thinking to look beneath his feet.
The boy had begun to mumble quiet apologies and whimper in fear but he still wouldn’t move. Sae walked up and grabbed his shoulders finally snapping him out of it and causing large terrified eyes to lock with sae’s. “I don’t want to die” he whispered. Sae just nodded “then we need to leave”
The boy was slow to move but eventually he did stop dragging his feet to follow Sae’s lead. It was just as they were leaving the room when sae realised where the smell of blood was coming from. He felt his feet squelching in his shoes as he walked. He looked down to in investigate only to see thick hot blood bubbling out of the grates in the floor.
It rose quickly lapping at the pairs ankles. Sae turned back to lock eyes with the boys and they both froze for a moment.
“run”
The boy didn’t need to be told twice. They ran hand in hand as fast as they could go while sloshing through the quickly rising pool of blood. It was quickly taking over the entire basement and Sae was anxious to get the hell out. They scrabbled about in the dark both boys nearly falling multiple times on their way to the stairs.
The boy was about Sae’s age but he didn’t recognise him at all. He assumed that this boy and the dead girl must have been wanderers lured here same as Sae and the crazy old man.
When they finally reached the stairs the blood was already lapping at their knees but something was in the way of their escape. The earlier shaking of the walls must have completely destabilised the already weak stairs and now the path that led to their safety had almost completely collapsed.
The stairs had become a pile of sharp metal and rubble that was nearly completely covering the doorway. The boy clutched at sae’s shoulder and sobbed as he searched for a way out.
He spied a small gap where a metal pole had gotten caught leaving a small gap in the wall. If they pulled hard enough they just might be able to drag themselves out of the basement. It would hurt and they would probably be cut on the sharp metal but at that point they were desperate enough to try anything to escapee.
By the time they stated climbing the pike of rubble the blood had creeped up to their hips. Sae’s bottom half was completely soaked through and it felt as though the extra weight was trying to drag his tired body down into the steadily rising pool. Tendrils of blood lapped at their heels, they reminded Sae of tentacles of long fingers reaching out to drag them down.
As sae climbed the sharp edges of the pile cut through his clothes causing his own blood to drip down and join the pool beneath him. If the blood swallowed him whole then would he melt down to join the pool the next time it grew hungry? He didn’t want to find out.
When he reached the gap the other boy next to him the blood had risen around them completely soaking them through head to foot as the thrashed about in panic. Sae went first forcing his body through the tight gap using his hands to pull himself through not caring that most of the skin on his palms had been ripped off S he climbed the sharp rubble.
Be cried and whimpered in pain as the jagged metal above him scraped through his clothes and skin peeling it away leaving him raw and sobbing. With one final desperate pull Along with a hard push from behind he finally broke through the gap. He allowed himself a second to press his cheek against the cold wooden floor before dragging himself up to help the boy.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins temporarily allowing him to ignore the pain he was in as he pulled at the boys arms. All things considered Sae had slipped through relatively quickly with his small stature and blood acting at a lubricant but the other boy wasn’t as lucky.
He was far less skinny than Sae and not even his broad shoulders fit through the gap. He and Sae grappled desperately with each other as blood rushed around the boys head invading the hallway. There was so much that it nearly swept Sae away on a wave. The blood was slick and made it difficult for his to get a good grip on the boys hands and still he pulled.
Even when the metal ground up the boys flesh it still didn’t give the boy enough room to slip through. Sae eventually realised that his efforts were futile but he stayed anyway. He sat for minutes in the hall holding the boys hands tightly as blood rushed though the gap covering him completely. He still held tightly even when the boys grip went slack.
Eventually the bugs went away and the cracks on the walls closed up the darkness creeping away. The blood finally stopped gushing but it would take a long time for the basement to be fully empty again. Sae lay in a puddle of the blood on the floor staring emotionlessly at the ceiling not caring if the blood that clung to his skin was his own or not.
Eventually the adrenaline wore off and Sae was left to wallow in a throbbing pain that pulsed throughout his whole body. He obsessively rubbed at his wet clothes with his fingers even when pain shot through his nerves due to the scraped and missing skin. He must have lost a fair amount of blood because he felt dizzy and his vision spent a long time fading in and out of black though that may have been due to shock.
He stayed unmoving till the blood started to turn tacky on his skin and make his clothes stiff. Eventually he rolled onto his front in an ate it to get up though it still took another 10 minutes to get his steady on his feet. He was starting to think that maybe he was fucking cursed or maybe it was just everyone else that was cursed and he was the poor bugger to accidentally wander into hell.
He considered this as he stumbled down the corridor. He must have looked a state completely soaked head to toe in blood with great gashes on his back, legs, arms and hands. Basically his whole body. He was in a massive amount of pain but he didn’t know what to do except to just keep moving. He didn’t know the way to the hospital and even if he somehow got there without passing out there was no way there was anyone still working there to help him.
Maybe he was dead, maybe he had died and was now one of the many creatures who haunted his dreams. What was the hiring process to become part of a demented group of bodies who’s job it was to lure victims to this town. Maybe once you died after drowning in blood or being ripped apart someone would show up infront of you with a job application or maybe you had to seek out the job yourself from the other side.
Silent hill was different to how it was when he’d been a child… obviously. Maybe this was why everyone had left. Sae was sure that if he lived in a place that randomly chose to kill people he probobky wouldn’t be anxious to stay either. He hoped that his friend had at least gotten out with little to no lasting injury or trauma.
When Sae turned the corner to see a man completely dressed in black his delirious pain riddled brain told him that the man was the job recruiter for creepy zombie people. It was only after a bit of mutual staring that Sae realised that the man didn’t seem eager to hand him a job application.
It was at that moment that Sae realised that he might be going a bit mad. Sae was completely sick of seeing people in this dammed town, whenever he saw one bad things were quick to follow so when the man starts to approach him with his hands raised half in the air as a peace offering Sae turned on his heel and ran as fast as his legs could carry him in the opposite direction.
He didn’t look back as he ran but he could hear rubber shoe soles smacking against the ground behind him as the man gave chase. What was this guys problem? If sae saw a blood covered figure wandering the halls of a creepy old school he would assume it to be a ghost and quickly take his leave so why was the guy so eager to catch up with him.
He would be so annoyed if this guy wanted to kill him after what he’d just been through. If he’d known he’d get this much trouble he would have just let himself drown in the blood alongside the boy. It occurred to him that he didn’t even know the boys name. How sad was it to be by someone’s side in their final moments while not knowing a single thing about them.
He’d let thoughts of the dead boy distract him. When he came back to full reality he pursuer was so close that Sae could feel the man’s warm breath on the back of his neck. Sae had ran more in the past few days then he had in the last six years of his life. He had never really liked running even when he was a child and now he was downright sick of it. The silver lining to this man maybe wanting to kill him wad that at least his legs would get a rest while the deed was being done.
Eventually his body gave up on him completely and his legs buckled allowing the man to crash into his back sending him roughly to the floor. He rolled Sae round and sat on his chest pinning his arms beneath his knees. His chest felt like it was caving in and Sae had to fight for each breath.
There was blood in his eyes so he couldn’t get a proper look in the man’s face even when he took his hood off to study Sae’s face properly. The man put his sleeve up to Sae’s face and begun to rub aggressively at his tender skin wiping away all the blood so he could get a proper look at his new hostage.
Sae coughed and spluttered under the harsh treatment before giving the man a look that he hoped looked more defiant than pathetic. It was when he stared into the man’s eyes that he realised he recognised him. It seemed like the man was having a similar revelation as he gasped loudly and moved his hands to cup Sae’s face far more gently than before.
The man’s mouth opened and closed like a broken puppet as he found himself lost for words. After a while of awkward staring he finally found his words just as Sae’s vision started to go fuzzy at the edges.
“Sae?”
“Bunny?”