Obsessed

Disclaimer: I’m not dead! Just obscenely busy (and lazy). Anyway, 13th verse same as first. Ranma & Silent Hill are not mine. This is just for fun.

Author’s Notes: Please note that this all takes place in the GAME version of Silent Hill, NOT the MOVIE version. (The movie is worth seeing if you want to get more SH creepiness though.)

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Nabiki pulled herself down the hall, before ducking into a classroom. She backed herself up against the wall, and slid down, as her anxiety weighted her to the ground. She would have been impressed that she was able to move so easily in her tailored bridesmaid dress. Apart from the gaudy lavender fabric it was comprised of, it was designed rather well. Kasumi always did have such a knack for things, though the color scheme had to be blamed on someone.

As her breathing slowed, she felt the weariness settle into her. She was tired, too tired to keep running, too tired to relive the surprise every time she encountered a new threat. She was tired of living an unending nightmare; too tired to continue living.

She chuckled softly to herself, as she checked to make sure that her shotgun was loaded, and wrapped a few of her remaining clean bandages around the handle of the baseball bat for a better grip. It was a serviceable armament, but she knew she could do better. That meant she had a new place to head to.

“Metal shop.”

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Gosunkugi hung against the wall; his mind swimming, and his vision blurring in and out. Large gaps of his memory were falling away like rotting meat from bone, and his consciousness danced between ebon and reality. He barely even remembered what had happened before or after that mallet has slammed into the side of his skull, filling him with an almost outside sense of panic that he couldn’t seem to fully grasp heartfully. The corpses across from him were still there, leering at him with those rotted eye sockets that held more empathy than any pair of irises and pupils could.

He turned his head slightly, at the soft set of footsteps approaching. Hikaru winced in anticipation, from the lightness of the step, it was most likely the girl and that meant more pain, as well as terrors that accompanied her that he couldn’t recall, he could scarcely remember his name at this point. His wanted to whimper, but his throat still burned from something he didn’t remember.

The sound of delicately small feet against the hard floor grew more pronounced, before stopping barely a few couple of meters from him. Slowly, Hikaru’s hazy vision showed a girl, dressed in dark brown pants and a white turtleneck sweater. Even without his memory of what had been happening to him, he felt a great deal of elation that it wasn’t ‘her’.

Despite the raw sensation of his throat, Hikaru managed to mumble, “Help…” The girl stopped, and turned to look at Gosunkugi, a look of mild puzzlement and apprehension on her face. She tilted her head slightly, as if trying to make sure that it was him who spoke.

“Help…please.” Hikaru pleaded again, using what limited English vocabulary he garnered from his school studies.

The girl blinked and looked around as if checking for something. Coyly, she withdrew a large kitchen knife from her pants pocket. Hikaru felt fear spike in his heart again; if this girl was a monster, or worse, then he was dead. He dared not make another sound, as she cautiously approached him, holding the improvised weapon readily and menacingly

The fear deflated, as she brought the blade from where it had come close to his nose to above him, and then felt her slowly but diligently cut away the restraints and the jacket. He dropped to the floor almost bonelessly, and spent a few moments trying to right himself on legs lacking sensation, and blinking his vision back to a serviceable level

“Arigato… Th-thank to you,” He said looking up to the girl. He patted his chest. “I… am…Hikaru Gosunkugi.”

She didn’t say anything in response, instead she sighed, and turned away from the young boy to head back down the hallway.

“That way out?” He asked, leaning up against the wall, not sure of the stability in his legs.

The girl responded by shrugging without even turning to face him.

Gosunkugi felt footing was a little more solid, and brought the palms of his hands to his eyes to fight off a massively pounding headache, before followed the girl into the darkness.

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Nabiki knew her objective wouldn’t be a simple one. She was hoping to go to the metal shop and convert her bat into something with a piercing edge, unfortunately the pile of debris covering the stairway up blocked the most direct way to the classroom. Nabiki supposed she could try and find another way up there, but with Gosunkugi tailing her, she presumed she didn’t have time.

She needed to get another weapon. The bat was okay, but not nearly effective enough for the battle she anticipated. She also knew that this was still far from the end, so she felt it best to conserve the ammunition for the shotgun. She’d rather save it for the greater horrors that awaited her, or at the very least when she knew the psycho behind her was at point blank range.

She took a moment to think; she was on the third floor, while the science lab and shop classes were on the fourth floor. There was nothing but classrooms on the third floor, but on the second floor…what was on the second floor? Quietly, Nabiki descended the stairs, relieved to find that the stairs to the ground floor were unblocked.

Inspiration struck her, as she put her foot down on the rusted grating that the floor was comprised of. She bolted towards the classroom where she would hopefully gain a little more weaponry and an advantage against Hikaru. The school was phasing out the class due to… volatile incidents, but the Home Economics classroom still remained. She hoped they hadn’t yet used up the class’s supplies.

The classroom was still intact though twisted to meet the hellish paradise of Silent Hill; rust covered almost every metal surface, the walls were splattered with a reddish brown substance that occasionally dripped and twitched, and the floor was a steel grating with holes opening in it leading to a uncertain fate, while the fluids liberally coating the walls dripped and splattered on the twisted wreckage and rubble of the floor below. Nabiki’s main concern were that all the shelves, counters, and stovetops were still there. Nabiki took back her relief, when she noticed one of the stoves were actually lit and had a bubbling pot of something on the stove. She gagged; it actually looked and smelled worse than one of Akane’s creations.

Nabiki began to scavenge the classroom for anything she could use; a knife, a rolling pin, a frying pan, Hell…she’d be happy with a spoon. But every drawer seemed to either be empty or unable to open. She swore under her breath and turned around, only to find her breath stop short as she found that Gosunkugi was standing right behind her, impersonally close to her.

“Hi.”

Gosunkugi swept her feet out from under her with a dexterity she didn’t think he was capable of, and hit the ground brutally. Gosunkugi was then on top of her, leering like a predator about to tear the first hunk of flesh from its fallen prey. He grabbed Nabiki’s right breast and squeezed hard. “How about a quick one while he’s away?” He stated with a husky voice; his breath rotting of something foul and dead.

“GET OFF ME!” She screamed, managing to slam her knee into his groin. He froze, opening his mouth open in an airless gasp as the pain filtered through his body. She wriggled out from under him and made for the door.

“Bitch!” She didn’t look around, choosing self preservation over astonishment; apparently whatever possessed him was able to operate past the level pain she was ensured she inflicted. She sprinted for the door, and slammed it, just before a sharp metal point pushed through the wood startling Nabiki.

An ice pick?! Nabiki thought as she ran for the stairwell. When and where did he get an ice pick?!

She started to run for the stairs, and got about halfway down the hallway when she heard the door she had just left behind her smash open. She spun around to see Gosunkugi hot of her heels. The ice pick in one hand, the gun in the other. He hurled the ice pick at her, causing her to throw herself low to dodge it. It soared over her, before rebounding off a hall wall fall to the floor. Even with her minor victory, she gave ground to her pursuer. She looked back to see him grinning, as he raised the gun. Nabiki raised her arms to her face reflexively as instincts of self preservation took over, before the deafening crack of thunder sounded, and her world was embraced in pure pain.

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Gosunkugi buried the ice pick into the laughing creature’s skull, or at least the large protrusion from the body that had that mouth that was making those awful noises. It collapsed to the ground and Hikaru delivered his hardest kick to the torso. It stopped its spasms, and more importantly, that damnable laughter.

For a moment he elated at the adrenaline rush through his body; true he had been involved in but a few Nerima skirmishes, but they were nothing like this, they carried not of the gravity he currently felt. His body had caked blood and icor over it, his left arm erupted into a piercing pain every time he tried to run, and he knew his head wound was responsible for his dizzy spells. His loss of memory was only distracted from by that horrible awful siren that seemed to cause every part of his body to bathe in unyielding pain.

He took another look at the festering form on the ground and pulled out the ice pick with a vicious jerk, while blessing every deity he could think of that he had found it. It was just lying on the ground a little ways away from where he had been hanging , and he knew it would come in useful. Hikaru tried not to despair if he if he would ever be able to find his way out of this seemingly endless labyrinth of walls, stone, and ladders, but the anxiety was slowly drilling at him.

Stepping back, he turned to his companion, as if requesting her approval. She hadn’t said a word so far, a little blessing actually, seeing as his English was extremely limited. She seemed able to handle herself, staying away from the monsters or slashing at them with her knife. Strangely the monsters never seemed that interested in her. Also she apparently had a vague idea of where she was heading.

Hopefully, wherever she was going would also be a way out of here. If not Hikaru knew he wouldn’t escape alive.

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Nabiki screamed, as she collapsed to the floor and howled in pain. She could see her left forearm was a bloody mess, as two protrusions jutted out of her arm. The bone had splintered, and broke the flesh that encased it.

Her train of thought was stopped by Gosunkugi kicking her side hard. She weakly reached for her shotgun with her good but shaky arm, only to have Gosunkugi deftly kicked it away. Nabiki watched in horror as it slid across the floor and fell through one of the gaping maws to the floor below.

“So, how does it feel, my ice queen?” The deep warped voice from the schoolboy’s throat almost rasped. Nabiki’s unbroken hand clawed around on the ground and found her fingers closing around something on the ground.

“Tell me,” He placed a foot on her chest, exerting surprising force down upon her. “What does it feel like looking into the hell you’re heading to? Gosunkugi found it rather liberating. What’s your opinion?”

Nabiki’s undeniable response was to ram the dropped ice pick into Gosunkugi’s ankle as hard as she possibly could.

The thing screeched in an inhuman tone that rattled her ears, and collapsed to the floor. Nabiki was up and running again, abandoning the ice pick in Gosunkugi’s leg. Hopefully that should slow him down enough for her to gain some advantage; however, her arm was the priority. She had to treat it quickly before the full intensity of the pain from the wound hit her and completely disabled her. She ducked into a random door, and braced the door closed with a chair.

She forced her breath as calmly as she could, and stifled the whimpers that threatened to emit from her throat, and gave a quick look around. Paints, paper, and an assortment of creative materials filled the room; possibly an art supply room. She took another calming breath, and got the first aid kit out of her duffle bag as gently as she could without jostling her broken arm. She had to do this carefully, and she needed to do it quick.

Her first aid kid had a few scant bandages; not nearly enough, nor the strength she needed. She bit her lip, trying to will away the pain in her arm. She had to think quickly, doubting it would take Gosunkugi long to catch up with her. She scanned the room once more, desperately hoping to find something to assist her, and spotted a meter stick leaning against the wall. She strode over to it, and kicked it to snap it with the floor and wall bracing it so that it was suitable length. Scouring the room further, she also found a large roll of brown packing tape thrown into an art supply closet. She used the last of her first aid kit to sterilize and treat the wound, while the broken ruler was used as a splint. She wrapped the brown tape around her arm holding it, securing it into place and granting it stability.

Gingerly she tried moving her arm. It still hurt like hell, and she could only lift her arm by her shoulder; attempting to move it by the elbow only granted her blinding pain.

Her time was up, signified by the sound of wood splintering as the door split down the middle. Another crash sounded, before the door buckled and shattered in, revealing Gosunkugi standing there in the wreckage. His left shoulder slightly out of align with his shoulder blades, proving his zealousness by throwing it out breaking the door. He smirked, unaware of the pain he should be suffering, as he raised his gun and cocked the hammer. She grabbed the first things she could get a hold of and threw them at Gosunkugi. There was a gunshot and then suddenly the world went… yellow.

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The gun was a godsend. He had found it in, of all places, an abandoned refrigerator in the middle of the hospital lobby, well, at least what he thought was a hospital lobby. Normally he would make a joke about America’s gun crazy culture, but right now, may the heavens bless the American Second Amendment.

The girl in the white turtleneck stopped in front of a door halfway down the corridor they were walking down. She put her hand on the knob and slowly turned it.

“This way out?” He asked, following her through the door.

“This is how it ends.” She spoke. Her voice was a harsh raspy whisper. “This is how it always ends.”

It was an inferno, as fire seemed to be everywhere. The stairway before them seemed to be a nightmare work of steel, wood, and fire. Hikaru coughed as the superheated air seared his lungs, and tried to locate his companion in the escaping smoke. He gasped in shock when he looked at the girl. Her skin was covered in blisters and flaked skin that darkened with longer and longer exposure.

“You’ve always been like this.” Hikaru said. It wasn’t a question, just a statement. The girl nodded. Slowly she pushed past Hikaru and began to walk up the stairs into the raging fire. Just as she always did, it was best this way…it was the only way.

“Don’t.” He turned to look at her. “Please…”

She paused, as larger and more charred flesh fell from her body.

“You can fight this. You can’t give up! This town isn’t unbeatable! Please!” He never knew why he said that.

She turned and looked at Hikaru, curiously noticing that there wasn’t any fire around him. The whole time he had been with her, he had never been affected by the all consuming flames. She turned fully to him, favoring her companion with a curious expression; maybe that was why she had cut him down. He wasn’t like the others she had met. All the others had the same comforting words but all the same in the end. The grateful little girl willing to give herself over to her ‘savior.’ The young Japanese man’s face had a… a something… she couldn’t put it in words. She just…didn’t feel afraid around him.

“Please…” He held up a handkerchief to his face with one hand and holding out the other as if he were her salvation. “Please, come! Run!” He said in that heavily accented broken English.

The girl in the white sweater then did something she would never be able to explain. She hesitantly walked one step down the burning stairs then took another; each step her hope growing, each step making the forces of the cursed town angrier and angrier.

The stairs whined, then buckled under her legs, as an ungodly roar from the maws of hell blasted through the room. Hikaru watched impotently, as the girl in the white turtleneck sweater was swallowed by the ground. The resigned look on her face flickered away for just a second, and he could have sworn she had almost begun to try and reach out for him. Hikaru lunged forward trying to grab her, but it was too late, she as her consoling smile told him that she was lost to the inferno again.

Hikaru screamed something but the smoke and hot air just surged into his throat. He staggered back and fell, his back against the wall. The wind being knocked out of him. He spent three seconds cursing himself and his worthlessness for letting the girl die. Then he stopped suddenly, because ‘it’ had appeared before him.

He stared up at the being before him. Although his skin was boiling and his back was pressed against a heated wall his entire body felt cold as ice. It towered over him; strong muscular arms, a long smock-like garment made of human skin, and that helmet. Worse of all was the feeling of pure hate, malice, and above all, great violence, permeated the air around it.

Gosunkugi stared at the monster, he was dimly aware of the growing moisture in the crotch of his pants. This was death incarnate, a blood-rusted monster, as malicious as the devil itself. The thing just placed one of its hands upon Gosunkugi’s forehead, and he felt…everything…being ripped away.

MINE.

He screamed, but only in his mind. His mouth was laughing, the mouth dripping with his own scarlet life fluid.

Slowly he got up, and began to walk. His hand slowly moving down inside his pants. The other getting out his gun and checking to see that it was loaded. She was on her way and he had to prepare.

“Isn’t this better?” A mockingly soft voice said. “Just relax Hikaru…enjoy it.”

Hikaru Gosunkugi’s only remaining thought was to pray for death.

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Nabiki managed to realign her senses and focus past the overpowering yellow. She was now covered in the thick yellow paint that had been in the two spray paint cans she had thrown. The bullet must have hit them. Her bridesmaid dress was ruined; no big loss in her mind since she hated the color. She grimaced; realizing yellow was hardly an improvement.

She looked at Gosunkugi quickly, remembering he was there; the explosion and recoil had caused him to stagger back and crash into the wall, buried in piles of art supplies and red acrylic paint. The rest of the room was a mix of the two colors along with a poorly mixed orange. Gosunkugi also seemed senseless for the moment, and trapped under a couple large rolls of butcher paper that his frail body would take more than a few moments to shift to free himself. Nabiki would not waste the opportunity, and took off, heading for the stairs, hoping to retrieve the shotgun.

The stairs stopped at what looked like a large square room. The floor was cement with another one of those strange symbols carved into it. This one was two co-centric circles, but instead of more circles like that ‘Halo of the Sun’ earlier, this one had a triangle carved into it. A large mirror made up one entire wall of the room, and two large double doors led to outside. In the middle of the room was the shotgun.

She almost let out a sob of joy when her fingers closed around the wood handle of the shotgun. She thought back with scorn at the naïve girl who sneered at the thought of Americans and their firearms. She got back up and sprinted for the doors, the hopeful promise of blessed freedom from this hell. Her foot tripped on the uneven floor and she went sprawling.

She landed on her stomach hard with a wet sound, as the paint on her shirt hadn’t yet dried. She managed to maneuver her injured arm away from the fall, though her other one had scraped itself pretty badly on the ground. Her duffle burst open, and spilt all its contents; the spare box of shells, the baseball bat, her last few medical supplies, and the pages of that insane storybook.

She gagged and spat as her stomach made another violent spasm. With a horrible sound she spat a large lump onto one of the scattered pages on the floor. Her spittle was a white froth covering a black and dark red mass, containing far too much solid material for her preference. Suddenly she paused as a new oddity came to her attention.

The blood didn’t absorb into the paper. It beaded and pooled in some areas and ran in odd lines in others. She felt the back of the paper, allowing the fingertips on her good hand to sense waxy in texture with occasional grooves, like broken candle wax. Her fingers lightly danced over it, finding the grooves eerily consistent. Nabiki paused for a moment, listening. Gosunkugi was still limping around upstairs, she still had time.

She pulled out the story book and felt the other pages. All of them were waxy with hidden characters, done in Japanese kana, carved into them. Laying them all out on the floor she puzzled about how she could decipher the pages without requiring her to spill more blood. She rummaged through her duffle bag again to see if anything left inside could help her. She mirthfully considered if she could find a bloody bandage to wring out and use. Her hands stopped as she felt the small plastic fluid filled sacks and recollection hit her. She pulled them out to reveal the soy sauce packets she had picked up in the restaurant.

Without bothering to consider the odd coincidence she ripped them open and poured the dark salty liquid all over the pages. The letters soaked up the condiment and revealed a new message for Nabiki.

Once there was a very sad girl,

She was very pretty, and many people loved her,

She also had two loving sisters, but still she was sad.

Sad because she was going to be alone soon

Then one day the sad girl met a man with grey kind eyes

He gave her Grace, and that made her happy.

The Man came from a town where everyone was happy,

And the Sad Girl wanted everyone in her town to be happy too.

Alas, where he offered happiness, she was weighted by silver.

The silver was tarnished and heavy and brought pain to all.

How the silver mocked the man who was happy without wealth.

How the silver scorned and alienated him.

So she gathered everyone together on a happy day,

Surrounded them all with Grace, let the air fill with it

And then everyone began to be happy.

Once the tarnished Silver was removed.

After the poem ended though, in the letters she had stained with blood there was another message, not written by the same hand that had done the poem.

Eternal Paradise comes with Death.

Eternal Love can be found in Sin.

Eternal Prosperity is given to Cowards.

Eternal Salvation is with God.

Nabiki frowned and shook her head in frustration. What the hell did any of that mean? Well the story part made some sense to her, but that last part…she had no clue at all. That really irritated her because she knew that whatever it meant that it was extremely important.

Her train of thought was derailed by the sound of footsteps approaching the top of the stairs. Nabiki went for the doors again, and found that they were stuck closed. She swore and then quickly moved to the corner next to the stairwell and primed her shotgun. A tricky task to do one handed.

“Nabiki.” Hikaru’s voice cried out in a sensuous, seducing, almost sing song style. “You know I’ll find you.”

Nabiki rolled her eyes. A smirk slowly found its way to her face as she recalled her feelings of her being in a horror movie when she first entered the town. True, Gosunkugi was a far cry from the usual slasher killer, but still she couldn’t help but repress a little maddened but quiet giggle at the absurdity of it all.

Gosunkugi calmly walked down the stairs. His gun was squarely pointed at Nabiki. He whistled the first few bars of the music that always plays in westerns when there’s a shoot out at high noon. “You feeling lucky Nabiki?” He said as they both walked to the center of the room. Their firearms trained on each other.

“You’ve been waiting to say that haven’t you?” Nabiki said dryly.

Hikaru shrugged, “A little, yeah.”

The siren then chose that time to begin its piercing wail. Gosunkugi dropped his weapon to clasp his hands over his ears, while Nabiki dropped to her knees in a vain attempt to bury her head between her legs. Once more Nabiki felt as if there was something burrowing into her skull with steel claws. Then slowly, gradually, the siren died away to nothing. Nabiki lowered her hands and opened her eyes. Gosunkugi was laid out unconscious on the floor.

“Saved by the bell.” She chuckled.

She actually managed to take one step towards the door before the vertigo hit her. The room then seemed to begin to spin and once more her vision became blurry and dark. “Damn.” Nabiki hit the ground as once more darkness overtook her.

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“Shhhh.” A cold hand wiping the blood from her forehead, as a dry scratchy hand peeling the tissues from his eyes. A soft voice humming a song too faint to make out danced just within his senses.

A woman with blood covering her face as well as another woman in white sweater with burnt hands, red with blisters met his vision. Her face was also covered with peeling skin and popped blisters.

“You…” Gosunkugi looked up at the young woman in the sweater. “You’re the one who helped me before.”

The girl nodded.

“Are you an angel?” Gosunkugi croaked.

A soft sad chuckle from the red nurse. The woman in the sweater just patted his forehead with a damp cloth.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” Tears dripped down his face as he recalled his failure.

The woman just put a hand on his cheek in response.

“Huh.” The nurse began to softly redo Nabiki’s splint, replacing the bloody tape with actual medical bandages. “She must like you.”

Gosunkugi started to laugh but ended abruptly with a sharp breath that sounded full of pain. “Then this must be a hallucination. As if a pretty girl like her could like me.”

The woman in the sweater actually blushed. “You…think I’m pretty?” Her voice was a scratchy harsh whisper like last time. However under it he could hear a young voice as well. How he could understand what she was saying was a bit of a mystery, but he wasn’t really thinking about that at the moment.

“Yes.” Gosunkugi swallowed, an act that looked painful. “An angel.”

The woman in the sweater blushed and left the room.

“She’s very shy.” The bleeding nurse said as she began to treat Gosunkugi. “But I do think she likes you.”

“Guess she has lousy taste.” Nabiki said. Her throat was raw, and every word was a brand new experience in the world of pain.

The nurse gave her a look but Gosunkugi managed a pained laugh that turned into a realizing gasp. “Nabiki? That you?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh God!” A wince, that exclamation had been painful. “I’m…I’m so sorry Nabiki. I don’t ev-“

“Forget it. It’s not you doing this.” Nabiki tried to turn her head to look at Gosunkugi but found herself unable. “You are paying for my medical bills though.”

Another chuckle from the beleaguered boy. “Fine, put it on my tab.”

Nabiki chuckled, sighed and looked at the nurse. “Are we dead then?”

“No.” The nurse said carefully cleaning the young boy’s wounds. “Well...sort of…it’s complicated and I don’t understand it entirely, myself.”

“Why are you doing this?” She asked. Even though she couldn’t move she was desperately scanning the room for a weapon that she could use if (and when) the other people in the room turned into monsters.

“You two are holy vessels.” A new voice said. “”So think of this as…a baptism.” It was the familiar dry voice of the man with the glasses. The nurse’s face scrunched up into a look of distaste.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, the snarl in her voice clearly audible.

“Telling these two the truth.” He walked into view of the two teens strapped down. “I feel they deserve that much at least.”

“You never told the truth once in your life.”

“Good thing I’m dead then.” He said with a chuckle. “Just keep working.”

“Who are you?” Nabiki said.

“He’s a priest of the cult here.” Gosunkugi rasped out. “He died a few years ago.”

“You’ve done your research, not bad.” He took a deep breath. “The purification ritual of the Sacred Ladies Sect of the Order is a ritual to turn a place into a…” He paused a bit to chuckle to himself. “quaint paradise like Silent Hill. The ritual causes all sins and evils to take form and rise to the surface where all can see them. Then they are to be gathered together in a vessel, and then all you have to do is eliminate the vessel, thus removing sin.” He clapped his hands together for emphasis. “Simple huh?”

“Ukyo told me that already.” Nabiki said. “So I’m the vessel?”

“You both are, it’s quicker to use two vessels at once and then have one kill the other when they’re filled.”

“So why are you telling us this?”

“Because it serves me.” He sat on Nabiki’s stretcher and wiped his glasses. “There’s a way out of this, all of this, and if you figure it out I can get out of this hell too.”

“So what is it?” Gosunkugi said trying to get up, only to be gently pushed back down by the nurse.

“I can’t tell you, sorry.” He sighed ruefully. “It’s unbelievably anal retentive here. I tell you one way and then it’ll change to something else. Look at what happened to all those other so-called heroes. They all thought they had won, when in reality they had literally walked into the town’s most insidious trap.” He exhaled slowly. “I can give you a clue…well…another clue.” He was looking at Nabiki. “To summon the Lord, bring forth the Red God and the Yellow God both to the altar, then anoint it with sacred water.”

The nurse just rolled her eyes. “What reason should any of us trust you?”

“No reason.” He got up with a grunt. “Consider it a leap of faith. Now,” the all too familiar wail of the siren was starting up again. “I’m sorry to say the intermission is over. Try not to go deaf, now.”

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Nabiki opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling. a mild sense of serenity had washed over her, relaxing her more than she had been in ages. Slowly sitting up with a wince she found that her wounds were still quite painful, but greatly nullified. The nurse’s ministrations were still there, and the shotgun and baseball bat were both on the floor along with Nabiki’s bag of supplies.

A groan from the other side of the room also indicated that Gosunkugi was still here as well. Nabiki doubted that he had returned to his senses, this was reinforced by the sound of a bestial sound that was a mix of a scream, a sob, laughter, and coughing as he tried to pull himself up.

Nabiki however was faster and managed to get up, grab the shotgun and point it at her assailant.

“Lobsel Vith.” The thing inside Gosunkugi giggled as he slowly rose, gun in his hand. “Why are you still letting that tainted vessel command you?”

Because the bitch is stronger than that simpering idiot you have.

Where did THAT voice come from?! Nabiki had heard that voice, but…it wasn’t from anywhere around her. She couldn’t locate the source.

“Come now ‘Valtiel.’” The thing continued speaking what Nabiki thought was pure gibberish. An almost sympathetic tone it its voice as it raised the gun. “I know you are better than a little girl.”

I’m not like you. I am patient. I took care of all the others. This one will be no different.

Where the Hell did that voice come from? It was close…almost like it came from…the mirror.

Nabiki didn’t want to look. She knew that whatever was in there wasn’t something she wanted to see. She should just shoot Gosunkugi and get the hell out of this death trap. Still, despite all of her mental protests and better judgment, she found herself slowly turning to look at the large mirror.

Gosunkugi’s reflection was bad. His skin was blood red, naturally red, not just from the paint, and thick black veins rose from his skin. His eyes were pure red with white pupils, while his hair had been ripped out in tufts, and black blood dripped from his temples. His mouth had been sewn shut with thick black strips of what looked like rotting leather. He was dressed in a garment that looked like a cross between a gown and a smock made out of human skin. Malice, rage, and a sense of sheer brutal strength all emanated from his image.

As bad as Gosunkugi’s was Nabiki’s was far worse. It wasn’t her appearance. No, that looked perfectly normal. Save for all the paint, bandages, and wounds, but there was something just Wrong about her appearance. Then she saw it. The piece of skin in her hand, it was her father’s face. Hollowed out, like a mask. Then her face vibrated, well…not her face, but rather as if her skull vibrated independently from her skin. She realized then that something was inside her… no… something was wearing her. A sudden recollection hit her, recalling the thing that had been her ‘father’ from the clinic. Something had hollowed her out inside and donned her hollow shell like a full body coat, only it had decided to let Nabiki be the one in command, for now at least. She also knew that underneath her face, that thing was smiling at her. The smile, of course, had blood dripping from the corners.

“Kill me.” Gosunkugi gasped and Nabiki looked back at the boy standing in front of her. “Please Nabiki.” His hand shook as his arm slowly, haltingly lowered the gun. “It has to be you that survives. I don’t stand a chance!”

“Hikaru…” Nabiki kept the shotgun raised. “Fight it! Please!”

“I can’t.” Tears dripped down his cheeks, as his legs began to buckle. “It’s too strong. I couldn’t save her, I can’t fight this thing inside me, I’m just worthless!” His doppelganger in the mirror laughed at the young boys sobs, a guttural sound that Nabiki knew couldn’t come from a human throat. Nabiki’s mirror image just stared impassively at the both of them, almost as if it were bored with a movie being played before it.

“Please Nabiki! Kill me! I can’t…I don’t want…I…I…” He dropped his head, and Nabiki sensed the dark calm suddenly eminate from him, before the rage, animosity, and maliciousness permeated the air about him. His head slowly raised to reveal his blood red eyes.

“I want to end it all.” He pulled back the hammer too casually for Nabiki’s comfort. “Goodbye Nabiki Tendou.”

The tremendous thundering boom of the firing mechanism igniting the gunpowder between the bullet and the shell echoed in the empty room, rattling the windows and the soul.

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After a long, long time Nabiki broke the silence.

“I’m a horrible person.” Nabiki stood there as long as she could. Then the smell of blood became overly potent, and overwhelmed her. She tried the doors to the outside again, and nearly praised gods she barely acknowledged in the past when they offered no resistance. She exited the school and entered the chaotic maelstrom that was the town that she had grown up in, and the hell she had been trapped in.

The buildings were watching her, like they had the eyes of a jury passing judgement. They loomed over her, the broken windows still hiding potential evils from her in their darkness. The whispers were everywhere now, only now they were no longer whispers as they were urgent, hoarse shouts demanding her attention. The closer and closer she got to the house, to the dojo, the louder they got. By the time she had reached the gate the voice was shrieking at her now; gibbering away, babbling about mindless loves and inane hates. The list for each seemed endless, and nearly tainted Nabiki’s mind with their urgent and overbearing mantra.

If there were any monsters here they weren’t attacking her, yet Nabiki knew she was being watched by many hidden spectators, granted invisibility by the darkness. A shift of a shadow here, a sound there; she was surrounded by signs that told her that potential death hid all around her proximity. The fact that they now apparently had no more interest in her was now causing her more worry than relief.

She didn’t even bother looking at the house or going inside. There was only one place where this would end. Instinctually, she knew the one place this would all come to a head; the Tendou dojo, now the Tendou Chapel.

It was just as she remembered it. The rows of chairs all set up nice and orderly. The multiple arrangements of flowers placed all around, bringing a sweet smell to the air that was so out of place it made her nauseous and gag. She didn’t even smell the rotting bodies of her friends and family that sat in the seats, all dressed in their finery. How they were all here momentarily confused Nabiki, but she then wryly recalled this was Silent Hill, one should expect something like this. At the front of the chapel was an altar covered in a white bed sheet, and standing in front of the altar was the girl in the bloody bridal veil, lightly tapping the pistol Nabiki had once had at her side.

Nabiki readied her shotgun and marched up to the Girl, her eyes devoid of any emotion save murderous rage that blackened her irises and pupils.

“Hello Nabiki.” She sounded genuinely happy. “I had no doubt you would be able to make it here.”

Nabiki smirked then ran forward. Her smirk shifted into an animalistic snarl, as she lunged for the Girl’s face. Nabiki ripped off the veil just as the Girl pulled away the sheet covering the altar.

Ranma was lying there on the altar, still in his tuxedo matted with thickly dried blood. His chest slowly rose and fell slightly, showing that he was still alive, but unconscious. A hypodermic needle was next to him, used and empty, and a small, barely visible welt rose from his arm.

Akane was lying next to him, in her wedding gown. Half of her face and her neck was torn open, as if it had been violently ripped through by dozens of shards or pellets; the shotgun shell laying near the alter explained the youngest Tendou’s fate. The pool of blood around her head had already attempted to coagulate and dry into a flaky icor along with the little lumps of flesh jutting from it. Despite the violent mess made of her body, she was still smiling, and very much dead.

Nabiki however wasn’t focusing on that.

Nabiki’s mind went utterly blank, and her voice was lost to her throat. The only thing that she managed to squeeze out in her shock was a soft, barely audible:

“Oh… my…”

The pregnant silence between the two girls seemed not to affect the girl that had been wearing the bridal veil. She smiled, causing the blood pooling in the corners of her mirthful expression to spill over, before she chuckled and replied.

“My dear, sweet, little sister…what an apt thing to say.”

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Authors Notes: PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THE ENDING OF THIS CHAPTER IN YOUR REVIEW. I want people who read this later to get the same surprise I hope you did.

Anyways, props to WFROSE, review to your hearts desire, you’ve seen all of this before.