Chapter Text
Valentino had no idea why he was taking this trip to the so-called Silent Hill. He received a letter from… well him. So that was the thing that made it awkward. All he knew was as soon as he read it, he jumped in the car and started driving. He shouldn't have done this; all his instincts were screaming at him to go back. But there was something he couldn't explain. He had to find Marquez.
There was something off about the whole letter. There was no way Marquez would try to reach out to him in any possible way. Marquez was doing his best to ignore him ever since Valentino told him he was acting like butt kissing bastard by trying to fix their relationship. Which was dumb considering the fact that they never had a relationship except being colleagues. (Ehh liar)
The kid kept saying that he was his idol while growing up but he was clearly acting the opposite way. What kind of person would axe their idol’s 10th championship anyway?
The more he thought about this small bastard the more veins in his neck were pumping as if they were trying to escape from his body.
The road was getting smaller and smaller; it was getting sultry with every few meters. And the trees were getting more frequent and were conquering the road leaving no escape. At first he didn't care much after all, all the country roads in Europe were pretty much the same.
There were no street lights but the night was dim anyway. Though there was no sign from the moon. And the fog that had been sinking with every few meters was getting so thick that he thought he could bite into it. This was sending shivers down Valentino's spine. Everything was so quiet except the engine sound as if even the grasshoppers ran away from something.
As the time started to go by, the feeling got worse and worse. Everything was going down into an eternal silence. Even the engine was making less noise. Valentino only could hear his own heart beat now. The radio opened by itself out of nowhere and started buzzing all of a sudden which made Valentino jump in his seat. He tried to close it but all his attempts went to waste.
And for a split second he swore to god he heard it… He heard it… That small bastard’s voice came from that fuckass buzzing radio.
“Valentino… Rossi was the first one”...
He broke the radio…
Every single second passed by started making him paranoid just like the times he smoked weed. But this wasn't something like that, something back in his mind was screaming at him that this was real, this was pure and raw terror he was getting into and he was going to regret this decision if he kept going.
It was pulling him; this was the only explanation he could give to himself. He had to continue…
Welcome to Silent Hill
The billboard was torn apart but everything was still able to read properly.
He finally pulled into a parking area next to a public toilet. He stared ahead for a while before finally finding the courage to get out inside him. For some reason everything about this place was giving him a feeling that he couldn’t quite put a finger on. He slowly walked towards the railing after locking his yellow Ferrari. There were two other cars except his Ferrari a white van parked before the stairs and a 1977 Pontiac Ventura (whoever parked this was a total jerk since they parked it cross instead of parking it parallel like a human being). The car was looking even more hilarious with the environment it was in. It was so fucking obvious that it didn’t belong here not or even closer to this place.
This fact made him a little uneasy. But all he could do was hoping that natives of this town wouldn’t do anything to it. He didn’t know anything about this town's people so he cursed himself for not taking a little more “normal” looking car. He had no idea what he could do if it would get vandalised or (let’s hope for the best) get stolen. He couldn’t see a public transportation opportunity while driving so he assumed the only way to get in and out of here was having a personal car.
He thought of covering the car with some sort of fabric just in case so he started looking around. He found a torn apart stained old piece of fabric back in the bathroom area as if the universe made him a savior. He quickly covered the car as much as he could. It wasn’t the best solution but at least it wasn’t screaming I’m here, I’m expensive and I’m a car that belongs to someone who really loves attention (or someone with new money?).
He leaned against the railing though he didn’t put his full weight onto it since it was rusty and looked like it was praying to god to be taken away by wreckers so it could retire. He looked at the frequent pine trees. There was something calming all about this place even though every bit of Valentino’s soul and mind was screaming at him to run away immediately.
He tried to see the town but the trees were so frequent so he couldn't see anything so he decided it was time to start moving. The stairs were covered with moss and it was clear that it rained recently so he grabbed the railing while doing his best not to fall. The down road was turned into mud entirely so he sank into it without realising ‘till his wrists.
He considered going back when he turned back the stairs were not in his sight. When did he walk that far? He could swear he only took a few steps. He could feel the unseedling feeling of sweat running down and pooling inside his palms. It was too late now…
He kept sinking and rising… He arrived at a well.
“What the fuck?---”
There was a piece of some sort of bright red paper. The colour was so bright that Valentino felt it inside his skull. A sudden pain inside his left eyeball. He covered his eyes and pressed against it as if this would do any better…
“And now If something happens, you will come back”
He knew somehow…
He kept walking, now the ground was finally solid. He pushed open the big, heavy, rusty metal cemetery door. The door got stuck halfway through so he had to curl inside.
The fog was like it was alive now. It was moving, getting thicker and thinner from time to time, curling inside corners, mocking him like Faust and playing mind tricks with Valentino like a loan shark wants to find new “clients”. But Valentino still kept going (his stubbornness was going to be his biggest regret as usual).
Valentino walked around the cemetery looking at the names. No one of them was familiar of course but as he kept reading their names and stuff their loved ones wrote about them, he felt a little attachment…
“Hmm… You are not going to find the thing you are looking for in here though”
Valentino jumped to the sound. He turned around quickly. At the very end of the cemetery there was a young woman leaning against the walls in the corner. Valentino could hardly see her because of the fog. She seemed to show no interest in getting closer so Valentino hesitantly got closer to her just a little. Just to see her face.
“What do you mean?”
Her eyes were such a disturbing shade of brown. They were almost glowing red under the dim light. Everything about her was off, she was taller than Valentino and she was so underweight for someone that tall that Valentino thought he could accidentally break her arm if he tried to catch her.
“You should go back before it gets too late… This place is no ordinary… But since it called you here… You must have deserved it”
Valentino couldn't hear the last part. Just before he could protest or say anything, she quickly jumped out of the corner and started walking towards Silent Hill with an extraordinary speed. She was walking so fast that even though Valentino went immediately after her, he lost her into the fog.
He gave up on finding her so he kept walking. There was only one way anyway, as if the universe was leading him towards something. Silent Hill ranch… He passed huge corn and wheat fields. Everything seemed abandoned. As he kept walking he came across an axe stuck into a pile of logs. (My ass is not giving him the chainsaw. He is too unstable for it.)
Every bit of him told him to take it with him. He didn't listen at first and walked away but his gut feeling got over and quickly came back to it. It was really stuck so after some time of fighting with it he finally took it out (in exchange of falling down right onto his butt). It was a classic red coloured fire fighter axe not really for chopping wood but for way more morally important jobs to be honest...
He kept walking and walking until he came across a junkyard but it seemed it used to be more like a repair shop though it was clearly abandoned now. There was a sign saying that keys were inside but he didn't need to search for them since someone had already opened it before him. The marks under the door onto mud was showing that someone opened it recently and it clearly wasn't a long time ago.
So there was a high chance whoever this was he could meet them soon. He thought it was that young woman he just saw so he didn't think much about it.
He pushed open the door this time he didn’t have to curl up inside so that was a relief. The road ahead was blocked. It seemed to be a work area since there was a sign but there was no noise or workers around even though it was Tuesday and it was too early to be the lunch break… Valentino decided to not dig up more and turned to the right and continued walking.
←- SILENT HILL
The arrow shaped sign sitting on the ground was showing the left so he headed towards that way. He opened the wire door which made a sound of a scared rat. He wrinkled his face as if ate lemon. He was never good with these types of sounds…
The fog was really, really thick in this area. He could only see a few centimeters away at best. He even fell to the river because he got too close to the right side of this narrow road and didn't see the railing. He started walking with his right hand on the railing so he would have a guide. He finally found a billboard with Silent Hill’s map printed on it. There were some hand me downs on the ground wind that blew away and scattered all the way. He leaned down and grabbed one of the ones with less mud on it.
“We will keep going forward then…”
He muttered while trying to clean the mud off the map with his nail. Right before him there was a florist so he figured going inside and asking for somewhere to stay wouldn’t kill him. He put the axe under his jacket just in case. There was something wrong with this place…
“This place is no ordinary…” He remembered her crooked smile. A shiver and a sudden fear concerned him entirely. This place was mocking him and he already could feel it…
He shook his head and ignored his shaking hands then got inside with long and quick steps.
“Hello?” The counter was empty. “Is anyone there?” Silence… All he had here was silence and that fucking devilish fog…
He started walking down inside the building when he stepped on something slippery and almost fell. It was something like… Ground beef, vomit, peeled skin and hospital food?.. (It looked like your dietician gives you to gain weight)
“Uff What the fuck is this?”
His neon yellow converses were ruined with mud and whatever this stuff was… The door was open at the end of the flowershop.
He followed the suspicious traces on the ground. (This man is not surviving. He has no survival instincts at all.)
He cursed to fog under his breath. He couldn't see shit and as the cherry on top it started snowing. How lovely?..
Snow was building up with an extraordinary speed as if it was running away for its life. In just a few minutes it was already at Valentino's wrists. Valentino cursed again for not preparing this type of weather. His converses were slippery as hell and his denim jacket was definitely not helping him through this harsh environment. The whiteness of everything was blinding him…
He started walking down the road mindlessly. He tried to look at the map and find a way but he couldn’t see anything anyway so that was hopeless…
“Sir? Did you get lost?” A child’s voice…
Valentino couldn’t see him at first but once he walked towards the voice. He saw him… This was such a small boy. He seemed to be around 8 or 9. He was smiling brightly at Valentino. He had freckles and a gap between his front teeth. He was definitely a lovely boy. But there was something off about him. He seemed so familiar for some reason. Valentino could swear that he met this boy before. Somewhere… Sometime… A really long time ago…
He knew that a memory was trying to get out. At the bottom of his subconsciousness there was a memory about this kid. He had a feeling that he could remember this memory just fine until he saw the boy’s face.
The kid blinked his big brown bambi eyes. And asked again with a smile.
“Would you like me to help you?”
“Yea…” He whispered "I mean yes that would be lovely…” He was oddly respectful towards this child. He was even surprising himself by acting like this. But his instincts were saying that he should be careful around this child. Probably because of the rifle he had peeking out his backpack that Valentino didn’t see at first because of the constant snowing and fog…
“Uhh umm… I’m Valentino… What’s your name kid?”
The kid was already walking so he had to yell behind him while trying to catch this kid who had incredible speed for someone with such short legs. Valentino was trying his best to stop his shaking but no matter how much he wrapped himself into his denim jacket anything changed. The cold just hit him more and more anyway. Everything here was mocking him. Every single thing…
“I’m Mar” His eyes glowed red under the dim light of the street lamps that managed to escape from the snow and fog and reminded Valentino of the young woman he saw in the cemetery.
***
“It wouldn't matter if the age gap was 14 years or more or less… We would end the same way…”
Was written with red paint (or blood) on the broken window of the dry cleaner…
***
Neely’s Bar
“There was a HoLE here. It's gone now…”
Valentino tilted his head slightly trying to understand what this was but then the snow storm slowed down and for a split second he saw something written with that blood looking paint ahead him opposite the side of the road on a stop sign with tiny letters.
“I’d like to go back in time and see…”
“Huh?” He took a step back. The second he stepped back the storm got angry again and fog returned to its smirking and mocking state…
He turned around. He was all alone again…
“Mar? Where did you go?”
The reality of being all alone in this nonsense again made his fear and panic return immediately. He had to find Mar— No… He… He had to find Marc…
He stopped there for a second. He almost forgot why he came here…
Marquez…
He had to find that small fucking bastard…
He quickly recovered and studied inside the bar. There was a jukebox at the end of the bar. It looked broken but all its pieces were intact…
“Someone fixed this right before I came here…”
The machine was still hot.
There was someone else except him. He wasn't alone… He wasn't alone…
He went to the back of the bar. There wasn't much. Just a door that leads outside again…
Valentino started wandering around like a lost lunatic.
“They can die. Just make sure that they are down…”
“What? What do you mean ‘They can die’? Who?—”
He turned over the paper he found on the floor. It was covered with the same suspicious liquid he almost fell inside the flowershop.
“God… I need a fucking coat” He scoffed. His teeth hit each other because of the cold.
“Footprints…”
He followed them into a bookshop… There wasn't anyone there at first sight. It was warmer inside so he decided to hang around inside for a while. He started pacing inside. Then an open book behind the cabinet at the very end of the shop caught his eye.
“Searching for Another Conclusion Vol. II: Getting the Girl
Do you love her? Do you really love her? In sickness and in health? Words are simple enough, but actions speak the loudest. Would you protect her? Fight for her? Put her above any other? Remember, now she is the one. Leave the past behind and forget about old relationships that ended in tears. Be true to your heart and with luck, things will work out in the end"
(This one paragraph is one of the parts of the game that haunts me the most for some reason. It explains so much and I think this one actually points out towards not just James but Angela too)
Valentino traced the lined parts with his finger.
“That one is not for you.”
Valentino jumped again. She was smiling with that crooked smile while looking right into his soul and sins with those reddish sinister eyes.
She was looking inside the bookshop from the window which made her look like a pervert to Valentino.
“Uff… Well, you have all the right to be scared”
She disappeared into the fog again while chuckling.
Valentino shook himself up uncomfortably. This woman was creeping him out.
“Maybe I’m just wasting time here… Where are you damn bastard?..” He sighed… There was no turning back now so all he could do was to look at the map and try to find a way to go.
“Rosewater Park…”
Seemed like a fair deal. He saw some posters about that place once the fog was mythically cleared a bit. It seemed like a popular tourist place. He could give it a try…
All the roads were blocked tho… All he could do was try to get to that place by passing inside the buildings…
He tried every single door… Only the wood side apartments were open…
But once he opened the door a quick wind immediately closed it and no matter how much he tried it had no interest in moving. The door was like a buddhist monk that made a vow…