I've been interested in the game's premise as soon as I heard about it, and according to forum denizens on Gamespot, its story is supposed to be really atmospheric and compelling. I really like your style, so I'm sure you'll do the game justice.
Black Inches
Hell Frozen Over
Entry Two: Silent Hill
Leaving the diner, I pulled up the map on my phone, and headed back towards the playground, hoping to find Cheryl when I got home. As I entered the playground, I saw the figure from before, and on an impulse, took a photograph of it. As soon as I did so, a new voicemail appeared on my phone. A crackling message, like a poor signal. Just four words. "Daddy...I need you." I couldn't tell if it was Cheryl or not, the crackling making the voice hard to discern.
As I walked down the stairs of the boutique, the static started again. No call to my phone, just...static. An endless drone, and it got louder and louder, the closer I got to ground level. Trying to find the source of the interference, As I approached a mannequin in the corner of the room, one wearing a red dress, a wind blew through the boutique, fluttering the dress, and another message appeared on my phone. A coincidence, clearly. The message however... it was from a girl called Caitlin. It sounded like a call to somebody else, about...a dress.
As I left the boutique, I recieved another phone call. It was from Cheryl. And she was scared, hysteric. "You have to run, Daddy! You can't fight them! Run!" And again...that static, playing in the background, a cacophony. And then she hung up. Determined to get home as quickly as I could, I continued walking in the direction of home. And then... the world froze.
A din, metallic screeching. Ice flowed across the ground, encasing everything it its path. Bending street lamps, crushing the light, surrounding buildings. Everywhere, deep blue ice. Car alarms added their sound to the surrounding racket, squealing over the night. Seeing a door I hadn't noticed on my previous trip, I entered, trying to find a way around the crushing, oppressive walls of ice.
More ice, a corridor of ice. And behind that ice were...things. Fleshy, thin, horrific things. They screeched, and ran as they saw me. And I ran too, desperate to find an escape, crashing through the next door I encountered. Vaulting over a fence, and entering a house. And you know what I found? Ice. Ice where ice should not be. A nightmare, decorated, instead of by blood, and rust, by neverending cold. And the static started again, getting louder and louder as I proceeded.
I opened the next door. And it leaped. One of the things leapt onto my body, draining the heat from my flesh. I threw it off, and ran, focused only on my own safety. And they kept coming. More and more of them. We are legion, for we are many. And always running from the monstrosities behind me. I opened another door, leading to an empty, frozen pool, and continued on, in a blind panic. And then...they killed me. No...no. That wasn't what happened. A restroom, a large gash, splitting it. And the running continued. Through rotting houses, more gashes in the floor. Until I reached a gate. My legs, burning. And then, the ice vanished.
Entry Two
The therapist started talking about family. Asking about whether I preferred my friends, or my family. Then, a picture. A colouring exercise. I don't know what this had to do with anything, but I guess that's why I'm the patient, and not the therapist.
Yeah, I got lost a lot whilst running away from the Raw Shocks. So much ice... Anyhow, that's it for now.
edited 11th Jun '10 1:30:13 PM by Darxzero
Escape.
Black Inches
If You Go Into The Woods Today...
Entry Three: Silent Hill
I walked towards my house, almost collapsing from the raging pain in my legs. Knocking on the door, waiting to see Cheryl again. But when the door opened, it wasn't Cheryl who was standing there. A middle aged man, not my daughter. In anger, I confronted him, demanding to know why he was in my house. His wife came to the door, inquiring into what the problem was, saying that they had lived in the house for fourteen years.
Then, the officer from the diner appeared. Apparently, she knew the "owners" of the house, by name, as did they know her, calling her "Cybil". She ushered me away from the house, telling me to get into her car. She explained that we would head to the police station, and try to figure things out. On the journey, she explained that she "...knows all the faces around here. But I've never seen you before." The snowstorm thickened, and Cybil left, to find our location. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I left the car, finding myself in a forest.
Following the path, I came across an old wooden cabin. And once more, that static started. Approaching the phone at the side of the cabin, the static stopped, as suddenly as it started, and like before, with the dress, a new voicemail appeared. This one was from a girl, to her mother, stating "I'm at a party in the woods, but I'm feeling uncomfortable. I need you to pick me up." Why is this happening? Where is this static coming from, and these messages?
Continuing along the path, passing through a boathouse, vessels still floating on the lake, the static happened again. That static. Back, and then gone. Back, and then gone. Am I going crazy? The static stopped when I came across a body bag, and another message appeared. "Whoa. Someone slipped the new girl a Mickey, and things got out of hand. Wild and crazy. Feel kind of bad for her." And attached to the message, a picture of a body. A teenage girl, dead. What happened here? And how long ago? Was she the same girl from the phone call, or somebody completely different. It's like a puzzle where all of the pieces of round. Going onwards, passing through a drainage system on the way. Static. A wreath. A message, somebody saying that will "be with their brother soon".
It's always the static. Always the messages. A symphony that only ghosts could understand. Pressing through the snow, the chill biting my bones, I found a hunting lodge. Blood. Blood everywhere. A dead bear, as a centrepiece, chained to the ceiling. Its stomach, torn open. Traps lining the room. And all the blood. A door, opening into a bedroom, from there, leading to the outside.
As I left the lodge, Cybil called me. She asked me why I had "run off", despite being the one to leave me. Then, I hung up, to find my way back to the town by myself. And the madness. Again. The static. A patch of ground. A message. "You've got to kill it. This is the way the world works. Shoot!" Jumping the river, I found another cabin. A bloodied handprint smeared across the door. Locked. Around the side of the cabin... a bloodstained coat, a bloodstained floral print purse, containing a key. Blood, just like the bear. How many people had died in these woods?
The STATIC. The neverending STATIC. Can anyone else hear it? Does anyone else CARE? The messages. Always those. Fear. Anger. Despair. No happy messages. No thank yous. And as I approached the source, once more, the world froze over, whilst a woman's shadow fled. No body, just a shadow.
Ah, the joys of the old "Murder Wood". Maybe they should name it that.
edited 12th Jun '10 11:37:28 AM by Darxzero
Escape.
Black Inches
Fear in Abstraction
Entry Four: Silent Hill
Leaving the cabin, I started to make my way through the now chilled woods. As I entered the hunting lodge once more, the static started playing its eerie solo once more. On an impulse, I ducked under the nearby bed, just before the door opened, and one of the things entered. But, this time, it was different. Whereas before, the things had been featureless bodies, relentlessly stalking me, this time, they had mutated.
The body of the thing was in pieces, each piece defying gravity. Where had once been a head was a large cross, a hole in the centre. And, despite being in slices, it still moved. Suddenly, the thing returned, and grabbed me from where I was hiding. The cold chill started to creep into my bones again, as I threw it off, and broke into a mad run. As I left the lodge, more of the things appeared, like the previous once, sliced, but this time, with heads.
I continued running, through houses that before had not existed, leaping gaps that had opened in the ground. Reaching another house, hiding in the wardrobe, from those things. Almost like they were singing, in their horrible screechs. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Come now sisters, he can't be far." Wicker men hanging from the tree branches, pulling them down as I ran, hoping to impede them, even if only for a second. A plane, crashed into a tree, balancing impossibly. And I just kept running, never turning back, hearing those things scrabbling behind me.
Eventually, I reached a twisted bridge, and like before, the ice, without warning, receded, taking the things with it.
Yup, a shorter one this time.
edited 13th Jun '10 11:03:58 AM by Darxzero
Escape.
Black Inches
School Days
Entry Five: Silent Hill
I must have fell unconcious after that. The strange thing is, it felt like months since all the running happened. Not that it really mattered to me. All I cared about was finding Cheryl, and escaping this nightmare. I proceeded forwards, hoping to find some sign that I was near the town again, anything to get away from the forest. I soon came across an empty car, the door hanging open, and a small cabin with an opening at the front. Climbing through the opening, I went through the back door, finding myself on a small path.
Across the edge of the path was a wire fence, a huge hole gaping open in it. I crawled through the hole, and found myself looking at a sign. "Midwich High School". The name gave me a feeling of unease, almost as if it pertained to something more sinister. But I guess that was to be expected. Anything seemed more twisted than normal after what I had gone through. I climbed the fence into the school grounds, a few seconds before my phone started ringing. Answering it, I found it was Cybil. She told me that the school used the gym as an emergency shelter in weather such as this, and that I should look for Cheryl there. I thanked her, and then headed towards the school.
Entry Three
The therapist started probing me about my school life. Threw out some words. Asked me to nod if they fit how I was at school. I always hated this kind of thing, but I went along with it anyway. He didn't say much, acting all "understanding" like he had before. I don't know why, but the clinical way he acted unsettled me, as if he wasn't interested in what I had to say at all. Then, a "perfect day" timetabling exercise. After that, he "Let's talk about the bad stuff that happened at school", his voice taking on a creepy tone.
Entry Six: Silent Hill
Locating a door into the school, I found it was locked. Following the small path of cleared snow leading from the door, I found a glass-paned cabinet, set into the wall. Opening it, I found a key inside. I headed back to the door, hoping that the key would fit. It did, leading into a dark storage room. Cardboard boxes littered the floors, and lined the shelves. I came across a metal locker, with a sign stuck to it, warning of dangerous chemicals. On a strange impulse, I put my hand to the door, which came open easily. Inside was a bottle of bleach...and a dead rat. Closing the locker, I left the room.
I came out into a corridor, the floor covered with wet cardboard sheets. Like the storage room, the corridor was pitch black, leaving me with only my flashlight to see where I was going. The dull blue paint flaked off of the walls, revealing the grey concrete underneath. The cover to a fusebox was lying on the floor, but there was no sign of anyone else around, trying to fix it. I left through the double doors at the end of the corridor, emerging outside once more. And the static started again, more grating than ever before, worming its way into my very mind in a crackling cacophony.
Approaching a poster on the wall, the static got louder, louder than it had ever been before. As I reached the poster, the static stopped. Just like every other time. And another message. This time, about something called the "choking game". Why? Why did this happen? Where did these messages come from?
I continued down the street, trying to find a way into the school grounds again. After going through a couple of buildings, I emerged once more neat the school. Climbing the small brick wall in front of the school, the awful noise started again. Approaching one of the cars parked there, I received a voicemail. Someone, talking to his daughter. Calling her a perfect little girl. And my urge to find Cheryl again increased even more. I needed to find her. I needed to.
Unable to enter through the front doors, I opened a nearby window, climbing into the school again. Another storage room. ...And a coat hanger, a belt hanging from it. And from the corner of my vision, I swore I could see a boy there too, the belt round his neck, hanging there lifeless... But nothing. Shaking the disturbing image from my mind, I continued on. And again, static. Static. STATIC. STATIC. Always. Preying on the corners of my brain, fooling my hearing. And now, a high pitched whistling was there too, like wind in a pipe. Approaching a bench, another message, and a flyer on the bench tearing itself in too. I felt like I was going insane.
Outside again, into a courtyard. A statue in the middle, covered in snow like everything else. And the static. It happened more here, in this school, than ever before. Like something had happened. And, when I approached the source? A scream for help. And it faded just as quickly.
I went inside again, through a cloakroom, and into a science lab. The whistling had started again. A laugh, no, a cackle. And a shadow scuttling across the floor, like a hunchbacked little man. With claws. Leaving the room, the whistling stopped, as I stepped into a dissection room, blood staining the floor, like the bear before. I quickly left, before climbing a flight of stairs to the second floor, accessing an art studio. On the wall were shadows, forming the shape of a number. On a whim, I called it. The caller ID was "Shadows", and when it connected, just two words. A female voice, whispering "Door's open". Trying the door in the back of the room, it opened.
The whistling started again. Louder this time. A child's shadow ran past the bottom of the stairway, screaming. I couldn't understand it. Nothing was making sense anymore. At the bottom of the stairway, I received a message, from a "Dahlia". "Check out this hot new outfit". A photo was attached, glare obscuring the face. I called the number for her, but all that was on the other end was breathing, and a quiet laugh. And yet again. Static started. Again. Again. Again. AND AGAIN. Another voicemail, a prom speech. At the end of the corridor was the gym doors, a keypad next to them. Going on instinct, I entered a number. The doors opened. I couldn't explain how I knew the number, but I wasn't complaining.
As I approached the gym, it started yet once more. Another voicemail, a conversation. I cannot understand. Why me? Why these messages? How did they happen? They shouldn't of even existed. Not when you consider their content. People don't hold conversations just to record them on voicemail, and send them to strangers. I entered the gym. It was filled with tables. And candles. But...the prom had already happened. And there was no sign of Cheryl. Or anyone else. Suddenly, on the stage, a woman came out from the shadows, and started singing. She came down from the stage, and introduced herself as Michelle Valdez. She said that she knew Cheryl. She showed me a picture, but this Cheryl was an adult. When I told her this, she lead me to the principal's office, suggesting I use the computer to check the records. Checking the records, I found that my ID was old, that we had moved. I left the office, to get a better signal, and called the number. It was answered by "Dahlia". She seemed to know me. I don't know how. A few moments later she cut me off. And the corridor filled with ice.
Interestingly, one of the words in the therapist session was "slut". I'm starting to think that the one in the therapy sessions isn't who I imagined it to be...
Happy Halloween!
edited 31st Oct '10 1:26:34 PM by Darxzero
Escape.
So this is the result of that therapy session. Hmm...that "Dahlia" person must have been the result of some interesting answers.
So, having recently obtained Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, I decided that it would be an interesting exercise in liveblogging, which is something I haven't done for a long time. This will mostly be in a journal kind of style, for the record. So, let us begin.
"Welcome to Silent Hill"
One of the first things the game threw at me as I began was a "psychology warning". Ya know, in all the time I've being playing the SH series, I don't recall it warning me that it will psychologically profile me, and then proceed to tailor make a "personal nightmare." Nope, definitely don't remember that happening before.
Entry One
Another new therapist. How many have I gone through now? Three? Five? I've lost track. It's all a faint blur, and I'm never truly able to remember what happened in those sessions. Maybe this guy will work out better. One of the first things he did was give me a form. Seven questions. "Have you ever cheated on a partner?". "A drink helps me relax." The usual kind of thing.
Entry One: Silent Hill
I crashed. The snowdrift, it made my car careen out of control, and wrecked it. I wasn't harmed... but Cheryl. She was gone. I started to look for her, with the tiny flashlight that I had with me, barely enough to illuminate a small alleyway. I called out for Cheryl, but she didn't come running. Where was she? I left the yard that I had crashed into, climbing the iron gate blocking the entrance. I don't know how Cheryl had gotten past it, but she clearly had.
In front of me was a door, leading to a garage. A car was raised into the air, despite the lack of people. Underneath the car was a mess of wood, and cardboard. The restrooms were rusty, dilapidated. And the male restroom...the walls. It wasn't the normal teenage grafitti. "Cammie Boone was spit roasted by the entire Cuckoo's offense here!!" "Cheer Leader Whore!" What the hell? Who were these people?
The door leading out from the garage lead into a wrecked store, with a few items remaining on the shelves, and nothing else. There was still no sign of Cheryl, and I couldn't open the front door of the shop, so I went through the "Employees Only" door, to try and find a way out. The corridor led to the other exit, letting me out of the gas station.
The snow cascaded down, covering the streets. Huge snowdrifts covered most of the paths, impassable. The tunnel next to the gas station was barricaded, for no visible reason. Stores lined the road. A laundromat. An internet café. A photo store. A boutique. A market. Unable to access many of the stores, their entrances snowed in, or shuttered, I opened the door to the boutique. Piles of clothes sat there, folded. Mannequins in the corners. And like the gas station, dilapidated, abandoned.
And then, there was a crying. A single loud sob. And then, silence. On the countertop of the boutique, there was an answering machine, a new message on it. I pressed the play button, and a women's voice started playing, explaining that a woman had come in to sell a dress, something about "being sad to see it go", and that she had left the store key in "Jane's jacket". I left the boutique, continuing along the path, and climbed over the fence at the end. There was a playground on the other side. And a figure. Sitting on a swing. I walked towards the swing, hoping to find Cheryl, but as I approached, the figure vanished into thin air, and the swing was revealed to be broken, just like the roundabout that accompanied it. A dumpster was in the corner of the playground, containing a mangled bike, a teddy bear. And still, no sign of Cheryl.
The door leading out of the playground was locked, so I looked around for a key. On the back of the climbing frame, I found three cans, one of which rattled when I picked it up. Turning it upside down, a key fell out, and trying not to think too hard about what had been in the can, I took it.
Out in the streets, there were two buildings, "Diner 52", and the "Good 'Ol Days Sports Bar''. I tried to open the door to the bar, but finding it shut, I decided to give up. Then, I noticed that light was coming from the diner, and approached it.
Inside the diner was a police officer. I told her about Cheryl, showed her a photo. Then, whilst she was questioning me, my phone rang. But, when I answered it, there was nothing but static. Unending, deafening static.
And for now, that's a wrap.
edited 10th Jun '10 2:50:18 PM by Darxzero
Escape.