Play@YSDC

He awakens, groggy and head spinning, still too dazed to do much more than raise his head and glance about the decayed and deteriorated room. He's lying on a couch and there's a woman with damp brown hair and a business suit who paces across the room, back and forth, back and forth, clutching a pole in her other hand. If he reaches for his gun, he finds he doesn't have it. Its sitting on the counter in the kitchenette alongside the rest of his weapons.

"What were you thinking?" she demands, rounding on him but still a good half dozen paces away. "You were going to kill yourself? Here? What will that change? How will that fix anything?"

She snickers.

"Perhaps you like your vacation enough that you want to stay. Is that it?" She glances at his I.D. reading his name off it.

Show,what is the name on his I.D.? Cole?

I stare dazed for a moment, "I don't care about fixing anything." I slowly piece together this who this woman must be. "I'll kill you you bitch!" I yell pulling myself off and diving for my gun.

She stumbles back in shock as he grabs hold off his gun. As his fingers wrap around the gun, she's pulling open the door and rushing out into the hallway. He draws a bead on her as she goes and has a chance to shoot her in the back. With the kitchen counter in between them, there's no way he can stop her from getting out of the door other than plugging her in the back with a heavy gun's bullet.

I do so.
If I'm within 14 feet I do point blank rules right? I lost my rulebook recently but I remember that was a rule I hadn't been following
success 23 regardless. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3744341/
2 damage, I rolled the d8, is that right? http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3744341/

The gun clicks. Empty. She must have unloaded the gun. A quick glance around the kitchenette reveals no bullets anywhere.

The door swings shut behind her.

I grab my knife and tazer off the table(if the're both there) before running after her, tazer in hand.

The knife and tazer are there, so quickly holstering his gun to hold them in his hands, he rushes to the door. The door is stuck and with the knife in his hand he has to scrabble at the handle for a few moments to twist it and then he must shoulder the door three times to slam it open to reveal an empty corridor in a state of mild disrepair. Grimy windows line one wall while the other has two doors and a landing to the left of him and a third door to the right. Apartment doors judging by the numbers on them. 21, 22, 23, 24. He was in Apartment 23. Apartment 24 has boards nailed into position over it.

There is no sign of the woman. Simply a photograph that lies on the floor, face down so that he can't see what the picture is. 02/01/2011 is written on the back. That was two years ago. Perhaps the woman had dropped this picture.

The air is musty and dry. The world beyond the foggy windows seems to be nearing twilight. There's a sound of floorboards creaking overhead though in a repetitive fashion that suggests that it isn't a person but perhaps something more artificial than that.

I could use this opportunity to kill myself but I really don't want to slit my wrists. I pick up the photo and yell. "Is anyone there? Anyone, where am I?"

A family. A happy family. The woman he had attempted to kill and who has now left him alone stands to the right of this happy family, gazing sweetly at someone who was most probably her daughter. Perhaps she'd had answers. Perhaps not. She'd kept him from killing himself, presuming it had been her hand on that pole, and with a single threat and an attempt to kill her he'd chased off potential answers. When only silence met his cries and the sensation that now he might truly be alone slams down on his shoulders, his shouted questions seemed almost ironic. If there were anyone out there, anyone listening, would they survive long enough to answer his questions?

I shouldn't have chased that girl off, she had to have been crazy but she still might answer a few of my questions. "WAIT, COME BACK I WON'T HURT YOU, I'M SORRY I'M JUST SO FUCKING CONFUSED!" I scream as I jog down one of the hallways, hoping I had chosen the right one.

There's only one hallway although there is a landing that leads up and down the stairs. He runs up the steps just far enough to peer through the bannisters and sees an empty corridor with a slowly rocking chair. Perhaps she upset the rocking chair as she fled there? It would be typical for an American woman to try to flee further up. There is a scent of marijuana to the air up there as well. Perhaps someone still lives here? Alternatively, it might have nothing to do with her or anyone alive and perhaps he should head downstairs to the front door and see if she's out on the street.

I might as well go downstairs and see if I can get outside. I think as I barrel down the stairs, still hoping to catch up to this woman.

Cole runs out into the foyer and slams open the wooden door with its grimy patch of window glass. It opens easily, admitting him into a small archway with a series of buzzers to the right. The street in front of him is filled with fog but there's no sign of the woman out here. In this fog, she could be a few dozen feet away and he'd never find her. There might be some clue as to her identity or motive in that apartment. It might even be her apartment. Alternatively, he could set out down the streets of Silent Hill and hope to make his way out. He is feeling a bit woozy. Has he been drugged? Perhaps it was a hallucinogen that caused those terrible visions earlier.

I could have been drugged, yeah that has to be it. But how much was real? I know the job was real, robbing that priest was probably real, I really think that Katie and the police were too though. OK, maybe I ate or inhaled in the woods after running from the priests house, it just started to take effect when I was going through the police station, and it really got bad when I got into the school. But that would mean the shooter was real, and so how did whats her name club me and get me from the school all the way over here? Ah fuck it, if things really are all normal I should be able to find someone in this apartment building. I go back to they apartment I woke up in, knocking on every door on the way and periodically yelling for help.

None of the doors open until he reaches 33, whereupon the door to Apartment 31 (which reeked the most of marijuana smoke) creaks open, and a shaven headed Asian man peers out at him, followed by a waft of marijuana smoke.



"You the pizza delivery guy?" he asks. His eyes are red-rimmed and sleepy with that dazed kind of look of a stoner. Despite Coles' ragged appearance and the weapons in his hands, he doesn't seem all of that fazed. "We've been waiting awhile for that pizza man."

Great, this guy is gonna be a ton of help. I walk back and poke my head into his room, pushing him aside if I have too. Without answering his question I speak. "Do you know where all your neighbors are?"
OOC- Cole put the knife back in his trench coats inner pocket and the tazer is in the outer one with his hand.

"Hey, you don't have any pizza," said the man as he heads towards him. Its not hard to shove his way into the room. The apartment is much like the one he had awoken in downstairs although this one smelled strongly of marijuana and there were a few bongs and several empty pizza boxes lying about the coffee table. "Hey, we've been waiting for ages. No fair."

When Cole speaks to him he takes a moment before responding. "Uh, I dunno. I try not to trouble the neighbours and they don't trouble us. It's all good here, y'know?"

The man wasn't the only person in the apartment, however, there was also a young woman sitting on the couch whose eyes stay on Cole as she tries to hide the drugs beneath a pizza box.



"Are you looking for someone in particular?" she asks. "A lot of people who come this way are looking for someone."

The man stares out into the hall for a long moment before pulling the door closed. "Its foggy outside."

"Again? That's..." The woman looks down at her hands. "Oh. That's why the pizza hasn't come."

OOC- I'm assuming from the smell at least one of the bongs is lit.
Upon seeing the lit bong my eyes light up a bit. Oh my god finally a vice. "What do you mean by that, who else has come this way?" Cole says as he casually knocks over the girls crappy attempt to hide her drugs, picks up the bong, and takes a deep inhale.

While she could cover the pipes, there wasn't much she could do about the bong without pouring the water everywhere. Cole grabs up the bong and wraps his mouth around the glass, grabbing one of the lighters and lighting up the packed dope. The water bubbles as he inhales the smoke and holds it in his lungs. The world immediately seems a little calmer though one never could tell when dope's calming effects would twist to anxiety. Still, for now it seemed to be working. After a few dozen seconds he exhales.

While he holds his breath, the man speaks: "Huh? No, man, the fog. What's that got to do with other people?" He gives Cole a blank look then. He's probably so high right now his short term memory has fried. He's probably forgotten what he just said even now.

"I dunno, people drop by occasionally," says the woman. "The old cat lady from across the road came throwing stones at the windows a few weeks ago but that was a few weeks ago. We just wait and things just work themselves out."

"Meanwhile, we listen to the radio," said the man. "Who're you, anyway? You don't look like a tourist."

Show,bongs and pipes don't really carry a glow to them unless people are drawing air through them by inhaling. They don't stay alight, either, and a smoker will hold a lighter to it to keep it burning. I believe they had chemicals to cigarettes to keep them from going out as well as I believe tobacco alone is much the same. Also, like cigarette smoke, much of the smell of marijuana smoke comes from exhalations rather than burning it and so it lingers for quite awhile after you stop smoking it. Just as apartments can reek of cigarettes, so can they reek of dope.

"Yeah I'm a tourist, I'm trying to get out of the city but something seems hell bent on keeping me here." I turn on the tv and look for a phone, intending to call the police station and ask what the word on that city evacuation was. If I can't find it I ask the girl where it is.
OOC-Cole still has the book he came here to steal right? Also sorry about the previous post, misunderstanding like that happen when a rule following nerd plays a criminal I guess.

The television remote is on the coffee table but the television merely shows a blue screen. Has something affected all of the television stations? There's a telephone sitting on the kitchenette counter and he calls through to the police station but simply gets an engaged signal.

"Traffic that bad, huh?" asks the man.

Show,it's all good. I've done plenty of research and watched plenty of cop shows so you pick up a few details like that.

OK, this is no big deal, there is nothing supernatural going on. There were some earthquakes, the city is in a bit of a chaotic state right now because of them, that's why you can't reach the police station. You just have to chill out, and wait for they evacuation.
"You guys don't happen to have a gun do you, there was a pretty bad earthquake and we might not be rescued for a while, we might want to be weary of looters." Of course I was worried about things far worse then looters but I suppressed this.

"Earthquakes?" asks the man, sinking down into a sofa chair. "Really? That's ... that's no good. I didn't notice any earthquakes." He gets up again and heads over to the fridge, fumbling around for a drink. "Beer?" He grabs a beer for himself and the woman, another one for Cole if he asks for it, and then grabs a bag of pretzels and shares them around. "Well, we don't got no guns but we've got food enough to last a few days so long as we don't live this apartment and give it time to spoil."

The woman gratefully accepts the beer and the pretzel and remains seated on the couch, looking thoughtful. "We don't have any weapons. Even our knives are cheap and blunt. The door has a good lock, though."

Crap, no gun. Oh well if all I deal with is looters I can probably scare them off with an unloaded one. "Where's your radio? Lets see if we can get anything on that." Cole asks taking the beer with a gratefull nod and taking a good sized drink.

[Spoiler-Button]do I still have the book I stole from the priest's house?[/Spoiler-Button]

"Our radio?" asks the woman. "Um, give me a sec. My bedroom alarm is a radio." She hops off the couch and heads down the short corridor into one of the bedrooms.

Cole checks his internal pocket. The book is still there.

"So, what's your story anyway?" asks the man. "You hear on a romantic holiday? Looking to pick up? Come to patch things up with your wife? Want someplace to relax? Just passing through?"

I wonder for a moment if I should even bother answering the man as I look again at the book. "Yeah, I uh, won some office pool for a paid vacation here and thought why the hell not." Where the hell did all those suggestions come from?

"Hey, that's nice," says the man. "That's real nice. You hear that, Momoko? He won a trip here from his office!" The man leans back on his comfy chair and smiles sleepily at him. "Where do you work? That sounds real nice for your average office. You work with Microsoft or something?"

Momoko returns to the living room with a radio in her hands. "Here's the radio." She sat down on the couch next to Cole and turned it on to static. She started fiddling with the dials to find a working station.

"Yeah I work for Microsoft," I say, not putting much effort into my lies to this stoned dumb ass. "any luck?"

Momoko glances sidelong at him, catching the lie but not saying anything. "You can hear as much as I can."

The static growls at a few points as though the radio signals were almost strong enough but not quite there. Then there's another burst of static and a man's voice can be heard: "...WLMN FM, this is DJ Bobby Ricks keeping you entertained on these long and lonely nights. I've got a shout out for old man Cole with a wonderful song of beautiful contrasts and a *he he* unique style of love." Moments later a songstarts to play over the radio.

"I always thought this song was so creepy," said Momoko.

I listen intently to the song, of course it wasn't about you, why would it be? Nobody here knows you. "Alright I'm gonna go have a look around, I'll be back."

"No problem," says the man. "You want to come back at any point, feel free. We'll be here. Always are." He shrugs a shoulder.

As Cole heads for the door, Momoko looks up and says, "Hey!" and rushes over to him.

"Hey, feel free to say no but could you help us out if it's on your way?" asks Momoko. "I've been getting some bad headaches and I could really use some painkillers. Dope helps but its not going to solve anything. I think I'm dehydrated. We've only got soft drink in the fridge and the water is all fouled up. Could you bring us back a bottle of water or two?"

"I got a hankering for chocolate if you come across any," says the man.

Momoko glances back at him sullenly, likely guessing that too many requests would make Cole more likely to say no.

Well I did come into their house uninvited, smoke their weed, and drink their beer. "Sure, I'll keep an eye out." I walk down the hallway still pounding on every door, when I get a decent distance away I break into a random apartment to look for supplies and clues as to where the people might be.

Lock picking success 49 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3745944/

The door unlocks with a click and Cole heads inside. There's a pretty awful smell in here like the septic tanks are broken. Its the same lay out as the other places. He enters through a grimy kitchenette that opens onto a small living room. A short corridor to the right has three doors. One door leads into a bedroom with a double bed stripped of blankets that stands below a steadily rotating ceiling fan. A series of family photographs line one of the dressers that seem to all include one sullen-looking teenage boy. This apartment certainly isn't large enough to house a family nor are there signs of teenager about the place. Perhaps the kid grew up? Or the father divorced and moved into this apartment?

The laundry is about the size of a cramped bedroom and it has both a washing machine, a dryer, and an old-fashioned safe that is currently supporting a basket load of men's clothing that all smell like old socks.

One leads into a bathroom buzziing with grimy tiles, tattered shower curtains and a cracked toilet lid which are all smeared with drying human (judging by the smell) feces. The room buzzes with flies and something silvery glints in the toilet bowl, half hidden by human waste. It looks like dog tags.

I search the apartment for the things I was asked to find, if their no there I go check the next one, and so on.
Also I forget if Lockpicking skill can open safes but I try if I can.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3745999/ thats for the safe, if I can't open it its for the next apartment, I'm going to do this for a while, I want plenty of water.

Most of the doors are unlocked. There is a ground floor apartment that has a single water bottle sitting in the refrigerator but as Cole picks it up there is the sound of something heavy thwacking against the window glass. A large bird, perhaps? The heavy curtains are mostly drawn closed but there is a thin gap through which a wan light enters through the grimy glass. As he pauses a moment, wondering what he heard, there's a second thwack. Louder this time. And the sound of cracking glass.

I go to investigate, tazer in my dominate hand.
OOC- did I find painkillers?

There'd been no painkillers so far. The cupboards are bare of food and the bathroom cabinets rarely even have used and grotty toothbrushes, let alone painkillers or any good medication. He might need to head for the chemists to get a hold of any medication. At least he's found a 2 litre bottle of water. That should help with the dehydration. Marijuana gives a very dry, cotton wool sensation in the mouth anyway so that can't help them if they're thirsty.

Thinking of that makes Cole's mouth feel a little dry.

He heads over to the window and brushes the window curtains aside to see a nurse who looked similar, though different, to the woman he had killed at the priest's house. This one had a substantial bruise and swelling on her forehead that trickled blood down her cheek even as she slammed her forehead against the glass again. Her eyes were glazed and her face impassive and she moved with the halting yet direct movements of someone completely out of her mind. As he stares at her, she tilts her head back and staggers back a few steps into the fog, her mouth hanging open slightly as her eyes caught his own. Slowly, ever so slowly, she raised her hand to point at him.

Oh God I knew all the insanity being a hallucination was too good to be true. I open the window "Whatcha doing there?" I yell out casually, tazer still held out of sight in my pocket.

She stares up at him, swaying heavily, even stumbling right somewhat to maintain her balance. Her finger, half raised to point toward him, lowers as though she lacks the strength to hold up her hand. From her throat utters a distinctive rattle of blood and froth in the lungs. Oh, Cole can well recognise that noise. She turns in a shuddering movement and starts to stumble away from him, lips working silently as though trying to say something and yet failing.

"Ah, I thought so." I close the window and proceed to go back to the stoners apartment, taking a long swig from the water bottle as I walk.

OOC- what does cole recognize it?

Show,Cole aims to kill fairly regularly so in his forays I imagine he's stabbed someone before. Its the sound a person makes when their lung has been punctured and is filling with blood while the person is still trying to breathe.

There's no disruptions or other trouble as Cole heads back up the stairs. The water is refreshing after such dry and dusty work as Cole has been going through. In truth, it's been awhile since he's eaten and the water bottle makes him feel both hungry and thirsty. The rest of that water bottle looks mighty fine. The stoners wouldn't know if he drank it all and tossed it aside. They wouldn't even know if he'd found it.

Ah the girls sick I really should leave her some I glug down half the bottle before I reach the apartment, intending to give the rest to her, eat some food, and go back to looting the apartment.
OOC- alright got it. By the way Cole is still keeping an eye for that woman who clubbed him.

Show,there's no sign of the woman thus far other than the photograph. Did [b]Cole[/b] take the photograph with him?

After a few knocks, the man opens the door and looks at him with a smile. "Hey, water! That's great. Momoko's over there on the couch."

Momoko lays on the couch, the back of one hand pressed against her forehead. She looks up weakly at Cole's approach. "Oh.... Hey."

OOC-Yeah he did.

"Hey." I say emotionlessly dropping the water bottle(sealed) on her before grabbing the bag of pretzels from earlier and immediately turning around to leave. Over his shoulder he calls out. "I'm gonna keep looking for supplies." Once more emotionlessly, scolding himself mentally for wasting water on someone else when he himself was thirsty.

No one complains when he takes the pretzels.

"Thank you," whispers Momoko weakly.

"That's good, man, I was starting to ... worry about her," says the man. "Been awhile since we had any water and all the food we got is salty. Can't go out there. Dangerous."

I stop in my tracks as he says that. I have had plenty of women but never really had a relationship with one since Mary, but I did know that men had an obligation to protect and provide for their women. And this guy making an excuse for why he wasn't doing it made me mad, though I didn't show this. Instead I turn to him "Yeah well you might want to get over that as soon as your heads together you're helping me." I say harshly before I leave.

Cole steps out into the hallway. He's already searched this building and other than the metal thing in the soiled toilet bowl and the safe there wasn't really anything here. Actually, that wasn't true. He hadn't searched the room he'd woken up in for signs of who that woman was.

Show,Mary's his sister, isn't it?

OOC- Yeah I intended earlier that he would go back to search the room he woke up in. Sorry I guess I didn't make that clear. And yeah Mary was his little sister.

This apartment is a little dirtier and a whole lot more dilapidated than the other ones though he hadn't really noticed it before. The paint is bubbled and peeling like there was a great heat in here but there's no sign that anything had been burned. The couch has a few springs visible beneath the threadbare cloth. There are books on the coffee table that seem to be about contract law and government regulations. There's a travel bag slung by the window that has a laptop in it that's password protected when he opens it up (Computers needed to unlock it) and a horribly tear stained printed out email on a letter whose ink has faded in time:

C........................

I can't bel............................................ure that you could at leas...atch her on vaca.................ow she's.........ned.
I'm so angr................ould..ill yo...........t you've done to our poo....eet daughter. A................nted was for her mother
to give a d.......................spen.....................hy couldn't you......at? Why couldn...........................

She's only.........................sted yo........................usted you......atch her.

Did she ca..........................ask: "M........................tch me.......!" Did she?

Did you ig.............................sweet.........................eth............mportant to do........................................
watching..............................eno..........................n a st...............while she's sw....................e."

Well at lea..............................how m.......e.matte....

Regards,

Your griev.....ex-hus...nd.

P.S. Tha......a......king lot.

Perhaps the full email is on the password protected laptop.

The bathroom contains a shower filled with loose strands of long dark brown hair. Hair so long that it would reach a woman's ankles if it was attached to her head. Perhaps the fibres aren't human but they certainly look like it clogged around the bottom of the shower cubicle. There's a number of used tissues that dot the floor around the toilet. The main bedroom has Cole's spare bullets sitting in an otherwise empty glass vase on the side table. The other bedroom has a number of colouring books whose pages have been stuck to the walls showing a range of drawings that have been pieced together to state:

FinD Me Please I MisseD YoU
But You NeveR Cared To Look
Because You'Re Busy
AlwAys Too BusY
MurdeRing PeopLe For BooKs
MoneY MoneY MoneY
DiD I MatteR To You?
DiD YoU EveR CaRe?
Can'T Care NoW
YoU BurnT ThaT Out Of YoU
You Burnt mY meMorY aLL aWaY

I stare at the pictures, earnestly trying to convince myself this message has nothing to do with me. Because I knew the only person in my life who could have left it. "Mary..." I say out loud. There's so much shit here, monsters, craters, dead people walking. Could she be here? What would I do if she was? What would she think of me, looking at me know. She's the one who left you, its her fault you like this. I think weakly, trying fruitlessly to replace my woe with anger before turning around, retrieving the laptop and heading back to the stoners. Hoping weakly that one of them knows something about computers. Just before I head out the door a thought occurs to me, before I could stop myself I pull out the laptop and enter 'Mary' into the box.

The laptop simply states: You have typed an incorrect USERNAME or PASSWORD. You have 2 more tries.

He returns to the stoner's apartment and heads inside. The man looks over at him. "Momoko's gone to try and sleep off her headache. I think the water helped. Thanks."

"Yeah sure." I place the laptop on the couch. "Keep an eye on that, I think it's important." It might tell me something about Mary. I go to check out the room with the safe, keeping an eye out for some sort of blunt instrument I could break it open with. I'm going to do that it the metal thing in the toilet doesn't give me some clue.
OOC- Username's already there right?

Username is CBrooks.

Etched onto the dog tags is a name Pte. J Hendle and a birthdate 04/05/72.

Even a prybar is unlikely to open the safe.

I try the birth day digits for the safe code.

The safe door clicks and opens to reveal a small backpack just like the one Mary used to drag around with her and hold her most reasured belongings. It's pink and emblazoned with April O'Neill from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it with the turtles in the background. It's been so long that Cole can't even remember where she'd found it but he knows it was heres. There's a part of a tyre iron sticking out of the main zipped up section. A quick search finds a mangled copy of every weapon he's ever used to kill or brutally incapacitate / assault someone over the course of his life. At the very bottom is a Lakeside Amusement Park flyer with I WANT A BUNNY written on it in red and a brochure from the Silent Hill Historical Society.

The cold, logical half of my brain freezes my emotions for a moment, just long enough for me to calmly check if the fire arms in backpack are loaded. Regardless of what the result is I calmly put them back in the backpack, zip it up, and stare for a moment feeling the familiar sensation of tears falling down my cheeks. "Mary...." Just hearing the name out loud through me over the edge. "MARY" I scream as loud as I can in between sobs. Mary's here? Here in this horrible place? No, Mary's dead. You stared at her body for hours you know that. But what if she is alive? I always justified my thieving to her by saying that I wasn't hurting anyone, and that we needed to eat. What I'm doing now is completely different. And she knows what I'm doing? I need to find her, I need to explain myself to her, I have to make her understand and get her out of this terrible place. "WHERE ARE YOU MARY?!"

-assuming their is no response: "Maybe the computer can tell me where she is." I mumble out going back to the stoners room. I try to type in I WANT A BUNNY in the password box.

The laptop simply states: You have typed an incorrect USERNAME or PASSWORD. You have 1 more try.

The guns were loaded but the bullets can be seen glimpsed through the dented and cracked barrel. They're rusted and likely dented themselves. They'll be no use to him.

Cole heads into the stoner's room, doubtless not bothering to knock, and the man gets up from his couch.

"Hey, you got anymore...." He pauses, obviously noticing the glitter of tears in Cole's eyes. He drops his gaze, correctly deducing that it's not a good idea to show that he noticed. "What do ya need?"

"I don't suppose you know some 'magic hacker' way to get into that computer, I only have one more try and it's important I get in." I say simply. As I say this I sit down and carefully read over the brochure and amusement park flier.

"Not personally, no," says the man cautiously. "The password's probably around somewhere. You might just need to keep it with you. This place ... it ... it has it's own rules. Someone may be able to get in." He pauses and then thinks to himself. "Actually, I heard over the radio earlier that there was a shout out to two new computer whizzes that've come to town. A brother and sister duo. Charlie and Lily Thompson. Maybe one of them could help you? The radio said they were down at Annie's Bar which is somewhat south from here. Do you have a map?"

OOC-Do I? If so I have him mark it and head their, if the amusement park is on the way I head their first.

Show,you would have brought one. Add it to your inventory. Going without a street map to a heist is a bad idea.

A quick check of the map and a little assistance from the man means that you quickly locate yourself on the north eastern edge of the map in Greenfield Apartments on Acadia Road. There's a Lutheran Church just to the west of this building. He can follow Acadia Road all the way down to the end where it would turn right onto Craig Street. Annie's Bar is along that road. It'd be annoying in that fog and risky with all of those monsters out there but certainly possible.

"Hey man, there's a pharmacy on Koontz street not far from here," says the stoner. "You could dart down there and get us some more water and painkillers for Momoko."

The radio is currently playing Mad World by Gary Jules.

I slam my combat knife down on the table in front of him. "She's your woman, go get'em yourself you miserable fuck! I have to get this computer's password!" I have to find Mary. I say before rushing outside and practically sprinting down the street to the bar.
OOC- You never told me what the flier and brochure said. Also can I take the bullets out of my destroyed gun, if not I double check that the tazer is still working before leaving my knife with the stoner.

Show,while you could potentially take the guns to pry out the rusted and dented bullets they wouldn't be of any use and would just cause your gun to explode.

The Lakeside Amusement Park flyer has a map of the park on the inside and information about the park on the outside:



Come and see the Lakeside Amusement Park in the Resort Area! It's a popular tourist attraction with key activities including a rollercoaster, a carousel, a ferris wheel, and other carnival rides and sideshows. Its a perfect accompaniment to your vacation if you're a tourist or to your family's weekend if you're a local family who want to do something enjoyable for themselves. Lakeside Amusement Park features many attractions.

1. Entrance
You can find a number of stalls that line the entrance that vary across the course of the year and includes fun and games, toys, and treats that can be purchased. There is always, of course, a chance to buy show bags and our lovely mascots here: Kathy the Kitty, Robbie the Rabbit, Huey the Horse and Dawn the Duck.

2. The Ride Of Your Life: Happy Carousel
This beautiful carousel of horses designed and painted by the artist, Otto Frahn, in 1922 and carefully maintained over the years by the Silent Hill Historical Society. This bright and shining carousel has seen many engagements, meetings of loved ones, and happy children. Come and bring your family along or take a look to see if you can find your beloved reflected in the mirror glass!

3. The Arcade
You can come find a number of different games here such as video games, pinball machines, and dance dance revolution! Win a prize. Test your skill.

Central: Swing Rocket
A carousel-type spaceship ride. In order for her to gain access to the east side of the park, Heather connects one end of a rusty chain to the center column of the ride and the other to a nearby gate. After turning on the ride, the chain wraps around the center column as it turns until the previously locked gate is pulled open. After this, the ride is no longer operational.

Right of Central: Fortune House.
Have a question of the fates? Lost touch with an old friend? Want to know where the love of your life is hiding? Come and cross this fortune teller's hand with silver to learn the truth through her crystal ball.

4. Crystal's Dreaming
A concession stand that sells frozen yogurt, ice cream, and candy floss.

5. Flamin' Hot Dogs
Do you like your hot dogs? You can get them here nice or spicy. How about cinnamon doughnuts? Fairy floss? Soft drinks? You can find it all here.

6. Cinderella Candy
There's a lot of treats and sweets that you can purchase here from boxes of chocolate to gift boxes to key chains and other take away items that will help you remember your trip here.

7. Tunnel of Love.
Come for a fun and romantic ride on swan boats through dark passages in pairs in this relaxing environment that encourages romance between couples.

8. Mountain Coaster
An ordinary roller coaster. Its control panel turns on as Heather is walking along its tracks, however, this is just a dream and Heather uses her new knowledge to turn off this roller coaster so that she isn't struck down by an oncoming ride.

9. Myths and Legends.
A medieval castle with dungeons and dragons that will be sure to thrill you. Come and learn about the medieval era in an enjoyable environment.

10. The Great Wheel
A Ferris wheel which has a view of the entire lake. What a fun ending to your visit to this wonderful Amusement Park.

11. Borley Haunted Mansion
Further east from the Crystal's Dreaming, not pictured on the map due to its inappropriateness for pregnant women and those who are of a weak heart is this haunted mansion. Children under the age of eight must be accompanied by an adult due to this mansion's scaaaariness.

Looking over this pamphlet makes Cole immediately think about where his sister would have liked to visit if she had come here back in the day. Where would that be? Which attractions would have attracted her?

A Ferris-wheel, Mary would have loved that. She never asked me for anything but I saw the way her eyes would light up when we watched the dock carnival from afar. Should I head there? That's probably where she'd want to be if she was here. No don't be stupid, she'd be scared, she'd be looking for you; wouldn't she? I desperately search my mind for what to do, should I head to the carnival or look for those computer experts and try to open this laptop. "God dammit Mary where are you." I mutter out loud trying to figure out which way to go. As more of a guess then anything else Cole takes off running towards the carnival.

Show,luckily for him you have to pass by [b]Annie's Bar[/b] to get to the carnival. The Historical Society building is also further along the road past the carnival.

Silent Hill Historical Society Flier



No visit would be complete to Silent Hill without an examination of our local and rather colourful history. Managed by Frank Anderson, this historical museum can be found just off Nathan Avenue on the edge of South Vale.

This museum showcases photographs and artifacts of Silent Hill's historical past from its Native American origins to the prison colony and all the way up to today. Many photos hang on the walls of the museum, some of which show landmarks of the once-famous town. Some pieces also refer to the dark practices that have taken place within Silent Hill so if you wish to be amazed and horrified come and take a look at Silent Hill's ghostly past. Ghost tours start from the historical society at 11.00PM every Friday from the museum lobby for the low, low cost of $15.

You can also find a range of Silent Hill merchandise with a more vintage feel, including postcards printed by the local council in the early 1950s.

So come along to this wonderful little museum. Entry is just a single gold coin donation.

I don't know how to reply to this, he stops by annies bar on the way to the carnival

As he pounds down the long pavement through the foggy streets, dodging around a crashed car that had met a shop front, and vaulting over a few cracks in the ground, Cole hears the sound of dogs barking not too far away. There'd been few enough encounters with guard dogs during his criminal career but each one had been decidedly unpleasant and full of risk. He can hear their heavy pants as they come rushing toward him.

SHIT! I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THESE DAMN MUTTS! Calm down, your no good to Mary dead, slow down and avoid them, you won't be able to scare them off with an unloaded gun. I force myself to calm down, drop to a crouch, and silence my footsteps while still moving as fast as I can. There was one trick I knew for avoiding guard dogs; as I moved I lit the cigarettes I had, rubbing a few all over myself, then lighting and throwing the remainder in random directions to throw off their sense of smell.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3753659/ Success of 58 on sneak, if it matters.

Cole performs his tricks and crawls behind one of the parked cars. He can hear a snuffling sound coming from the road, followed by an eager yelp, and the sound of a couple sets of dogs racing past his hiding place. That was close. Beating off several dogs with a tazer and a knife was no one's idea of a good time. They seemed to have turned right. He should still be able to avoid them if he headed straight down this road.

I release a shudder sigh of relief and continue heading for the bar, filled with a determination I hadn't known in decades.
OOC- He left his knife with the stoner, remember?

I don't suppose you were keeping track of what checks I earned?

Yeah its the skills with a (+) beside them.

I'm not sure where you want my roll urls so I'm just putting them here for now. You roll 2d6 for an improved skill right?
Climb success 46 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3763784/
it improves to 49
Jump fail 12
Listen fail 26
Locksmith success 97 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3763812/
it improves to 94 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3763793/

sweet,much needed sanity boost

Sneak fail 49
spot hidden fail 17
Tazer success 67 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3763817/
Improves to 54 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3763820/
Handgun fail 38

Back from Lily's Journey (Chapter One).

"She's probably had long enough," whispers Ash. "With this fog...." She hops down off the railing and quirks her head to one side as she turned to lean her elbows against the rails, running a hand through her gorgeous locks. In this state it would be hard for her to jump before he reached her. "The password is katieneedsme. Katie with an i and an e. No caps. All one word. She changed it to that afterwards. Beforehand it was enigmatic64, no caps, all one word. No idea why she had that password. I'd suggest trying both."

I flip the laptop open and quickly enter the password, hands shaking from excitement; excitement at finding Mary and that I'll finally be able to make that bitch shut up about me.

Ash is silent as he keys in the passwords. The first one works. Katieneedsme. Windows begins to load up.

He's in.

I become so excited that I'll finally find where Mary is I almost forget all about this damn woman. I quickly search for anything that looks like it might help.

The desktop wallpaper is of a young girl holding up a puppy with a big grin on her face. It's obviously the girl from the photograph that he had found earlier. Was that woman in the photograph Cecilia? If so, perhaps this young girl is Katie. There is a folder on the starting screen that is titled Correspondance. Clicking on that reveals a number of files including one on a girl called Mary. Clicking on that one opens up a Microsoft Word document also titled Mary that has a poor resolution scanned photograph of a girl lying in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around her head. She is clearly Mary.


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

Spoke to several doctors and therapists and tracked down the details. I might be so lucky....

Young girl was shot in another city and left for dead. She was found in a critical condition due to shock, nearly deceased, with a low heart rate and almost suspended breathing that convinced most medical personnel that she was dead. A visiting doctor doing the rounds during some wider training noticed her as she was brought into emergency and brought it to public attention. This doctor, Dr. Kauffman, took her under his wing and brought her to Alchemilla Hospital where she was given medical treatment despite her lack of health insurance. She underwent rehabilitative therapy but it couldn't treat her mind. The girl, presumed to be around 8 years old, hardly spoke although it became clear that she could understand speech.

After two years, she was transferred to Brookhaven Mental Institution to help her deal with traumas where she soon lapsed into a routine. At first she seemed to love mirrors and would stare at her own reflection for hours, stroking it affectionately, but over the years her loving treatment of mirrors turned to horror and later fear. She would shatter any mirrors she came across and react violently to their presence - real or implied.

There seems to be a connection to mirrors here.

I'm starting to think, maybe, I can find in a way to find Katie. If what I'm seeing in my dreams is right....

What am I saying? I know they're right. I can feel them. I can find her.

I have to get my hands on those transcripts but there's so many other cases to look into.

Mary's alive, Mary's alive and I left her there on that filthy road because I couldn't bare to look at her 'corpse'. What the fuck kind of brother am I?! I think to myself trembling. Okay, focus. I need to get to her, I have to get her out of this place. More to myself then anyone else I say out loud "Where the hell is the brookhaven mental institution?" As I speak I pull out my map and quickly look around. Darting towards the building as soon as I have a location.

Ash simply begins to hum to herself once more. It takes him a moment but Cole locates Brookhaven easily enough. Its on this side of the bridge. He just needs to follow Nathan Avenue past the Lakeside Amusement Park and then turn right on one of the roads.

I start sprinting there, so excited I've forgotten completely about Ash.

Cole rushes in through the door and starts making the long way through the winding stairs, which slows him down a bit lest he go sprawling and break his neck.

Show,what thoughts rush through his mind as he goes?

Mary's alive, Mary needs my help, Mary's alive, Mary needs my help, Mary's alive, Mary needs my help......
[Spoiler-Button]something like that [/Spoiler-Button]

It takes so long to get down to the very bottom that when he's burst free of the door he breaks into a run across the wooden jetty. He doubtless wants to sprint but that would take him a shorter distance quicker. At least with a run he might make it down to the end of the jetty. The lake around him is a flat grey, swirling with fog, but the fog seems less tight now. He can see further away. It is as though a pressure has somewhat lifted from the area surrounding him as he runs along, turning right onto the main jetty and running all of the way to the West and East Garage. He sees no sign of Lily. Either she hid behind the lighthouse as he ran past or down onto one of those water level platforms or perhaps she fell off the jetty itself. Who can say?

Soon he is back onto the road and free to follow Nathan Avenue around. There is a sound, however, a shivering sound like leaves rubbing together alongside a heavy, drawn out panting like someone struggling to breathe. There's a stink to the air. Stale sweat and old booze that reminds him of the homeless he used to live amongst back when he was a child.

I don't pay any attention to the sound other then putting my hand on my gun as I keep running.

Cole can make out a shivering creature whose flesh drapes off it like old, buzzing clothing as it shambles onto the road but he sprints past it and keeps on going, planning to follow Nathan Avenue until he can reach Brookhaven. His sister's there. She must be.

Show,make three rolls. One at Con x 5. Then Con x 4. Then Con x 3. Let's see how far you can run.

success critical 5 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3786307/
fail 91
success(I think) 32 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3786310/
OOC- Is the thing chasing me?

Cole has left the thing well behind but he's only a third of the way there when he has to pause to pant and stagger along, trying to move despite his burning lungs. He must've been on his feet longer than he thought. He would've assumed he could get there easily. Still Sandford Street is longer than he had expected and he hasn't quite reached Nathan Avenue yet. Pine trees loom up around the road on either side, boxing him in, the leaves of the bushes rustling nervously about him.

What the hell was that monster? Can't-Can't think about that right now, those fucking things are the reason I have to get to Mary, we have to get the hell out of here.
What will I say when I get to her? she knows what I do if that message is any indication.
Screw it I'll think about that later, I just have to find her first. I continue moving as fast as my body will let me towards my destination.

After a painstaking journey along that long curving road he finally reaches Nathan Avenue and has to follow it as it run over a river that flows out onto Lake Toluca. This bridge is lower than the other one and he can see the grey waters below. Everything seems grey here - wrapped in a sort of colourless gauze. At least there's been no chasms blocking his way. He's also probably less likely to get ambushed as he crosses the bridge.

Probably.

Oh God I'm so close, I can believe she's alive, all these years I've wasted. Why didn't she ever try to find me? Whatever, I don't care, I just can't believe I'm going to see her again. I'd live through all the shit that's happened to me here a dozen times over if it got me Mary back. I think to myself, feeling hopeful and happy for the first time in what feels like forever. I continue huffing my way across the bridge.

Cole makes his way down Nathan Avenue, feeling himself closing in. His harried thoughts means he can't quite remember which street he has to turn down. It's the first right onto Carroll Street. Follow it along and it should be on the right. After catching his breath he manages to run and make it to the right hand turn before having to pause for breath again. There's a laneway with a series of narrow houses pressed tight up against each other and lookin onto the car park for Pete's Bowl-o-Rama. That'd be another place his sister probably would've liked to visit. There was that homeless kid, Ralph, who used to talk about how he used to go ten pin bowling with his mom before his dad beat her so bad she got an acquired brain injury. Ralph and his mom were out on the street after that and his mom weren't any good for anything anymore. At least he had one, though. Some of the homeless kids used to take turns borrowing her. Some of the men did, too, but in a different way.

On the other side of Pete's stands Carroll Street. He starts down it. On the left he can make out a nice house next to Texxon Gas. Then there's a stretch of weed-infested nothing on the left side of the road. On the right there's Heaven's Night and then more nothing.

I keep making my way towards the asylum. Bowling, I remember once Mary asked if we could do that and I asked if she could pull thirty bucks out of her.... God I was such a dick. I'll take her bowling as soon as we get out of here, I'll take her anywhere in the damn world she wants to go.

Brookhaven Hospital appears to have seen better days. It looms over the street like a wraith - its windows boarded up in places and its fence spattered with rusts like most things metal in this god forsaken town. The concrete walls that line the walkway up to the front doors do not look welcoming either and someone has sprayed Abandon All Hope Nutcases on the wall for good measure. This town is a real hell hole. It's amazing to think anyone could live here let alone come on vacation. Whatever is going on between those walls it's unlikely to have been comfortable for poor Mary.

"GOD DAMMIT!" I scream. The building is closed! of course the fucking building is closed! Every damn time I think I've caught a break! Okay, maybe I can find something in there that will give me a hint as to where she is. "MARY, IT"S YOUR BROTHER! MARY?" I yell again as I walk through the doors and start poking around. I look for some kind of record system, something that might tell me where the patients went when the building closed, assuming nobody answers my yells of course.

Cole steps into the dilapidated reception area. Crumbling white tiles cover the walls and a blue-and-white linoleum tiles stained with muck and dirty footsteps cover the floor. There are a pair of emergency exit posters on the wall that should help him find his way (see maps below). There's a long counter across reception that contains a single computer and a telephone with a message pad on one side with the words: 'Pharmacy Delivery Remember Laura Pendleton's birthdate'. Most of the goods in the Reception counter involves simple stationary and other moulding bits of useless paperwork. There's a door behind the desk marked Reception. One to the right marked Pharmacy and one to the left marked Director's Room. The Pharmacy door is locked and has a keypad beside it. The Director's Room is also locked but this time just with a normal key. The keypad seems to be working. Perhaps they actually have power down here.

"MARY?" I yell one last time, though half heartedly. I see if the computer will turn on and if it has any info if it does. Then I try to force my way into the directors room and look for info their.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3791436/ lockpick success.

The computer doesn't turn on. It looks like the power cord has been partially eaten through - perhaps by mice? Its a simple business to get into the Director's Room. It's a pretty standard office with a jacket slung over the chair. This computer doesn't even have a power cord. There's a big old-fashioned fax machine / photocopier in the corner of the room that does have power. There's also a filing cabinet whose key is in the top drawer of the desk. All the files in there appear to be accounting and staffing files. There is a photograph on the desk of a man with his young daughter which is signed Milly. There's a Health Drink sitting by the monitor as well which looks appetising. Apparently it helps with healing times following injury.

Considering the map, he probably needs to get inside the Document Room but to get in there he needs to get into the Reception Office. The Reception Office is locked, though, and it appears that someone has filled the key hole with polyfiller. He may need to find something to dissolve it if he wants to get inside. Either that or find a fire axe to tear the whole thing down. It's almost as though someone doesn't want him to find out the fate of his sister.

As he looks around, he hears something shatter somewhere down the opposite side of the building - perhaps from the Day Room.

It might be a good idea to find a better weapon than his tazer.

I take the drink and sneak towards the source of the noise, pistol in one hand, flashlight in the other, off.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3791529/ 16 success, critical I think.

The door to the cell corridor is locked with a key card scanner to one side of it. There is, however, another way around into the Day Room. He sneaks quietly down the corridor, avoiding the weak pools of wan grey light that spill in through the grimy windows. He reaches the metal double doors without making a sound.

Show,have you added your won percentiles to your character sheet? You can if you like. I've removed the last chapters' (+) so that we can start tracking the next lot.

I enter the room, careful of any dangers I might see.

A weak sunlight dribbles through grimy, fly-spattered windows into this large room with peeling linoleum tiles. Several fold up white tables stood in the middle of the room surrounded by stools. The walls themselves are cluttered with locked cupboards and cabinets. There's a video camera on a tripod in the corner of the room. A chalkboard sits against one wall contains dozens and dozens of names that are each written in a different style across a range of colours. Mary's name can be seen clearly in the middle of the chalkboard.

I immediately check the camera, hoping desperately that it will show me the meaning of all these names, and why Mary's is the focus.

There is a CD still inside and he plays it back. At first there's an image of a Christmas slide with the words: "Christmas Greetings From Our Residents" and then a series of clips follow showing the various residents spending about five minutes talking to their family and wishing them a Merry Christmas.

Show,I presume that Garrett will keep skipping these scenes until he sees one including his sister?

OOC-You presume correctly, unless something looks really weird he'll just keep going until he reaches her.

Soon he comes to little Mary sitting there at around the age of nine, her hands clasped on her lap, smiling slightly and nervously and not looking at the camera.

"Hello Mary," says a voice from off screen.

"Hello," says Mary.

"Do you have anything you'd like to say to your family?"

She stays silent.

"Your family might come along one day and they'll want to see you as you grow and hear your messages, okay?"

She nods.

"Do you have any messages for your family?"

"Yes."

"To who?"

"My brother." Her smile slips and she stares down at her feet. "I miss him."

"Wish him a Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

"Is there anything you'd like to say to him?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Merry Christmas."

"Anything else?"

"Yes."

"And that is?"

"One day I'm going to be just like my brother. I miss him and I want to be like him. I'll come and find you and we'll be able to do things together and you won't need to worry about me anymore because I'll be strong like you. I'll be just like you." She hugs herself. "Good and strong and warm."

"Okay, that should be enough for now. Say 'See You Next Year'."

Mary waves at the camera. "See you next year."

It seems like there must be more of these tapes around that may give him more information on his sister these past few years.

I tremble at the sight of her, "Mary..." the word whispers out my mouth without me realizing it as soon as I see her.

"One day I'm going to be just like my brother. I miss him and I want to be like him. I'll come and find you and we'll be able to do things together and you won't need to worry about me anymore because I'll be strong like you. I'll be just like you." She hugs herself. "Good and strong and warm."
Mary wanted to be like me? Of course she did you stupid fuck! She thought being a sweet, thankful, little angel was stupid. She thought that because you fucking told her it was! As the tears begin to well up in my eyes a let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. I remember once when a man in a business suit walked under our bridge I said I was gonna mug him with my butterfly knife. Mary told me I couldn't do that, she told me someone could get hurt, she said she'd scream and warn him if I tried. I was so relieved for an excuse not to do it, I was so proud and jealous that Mary was still thinking of others even with how we were living. Of course I didn't tell her that, I screamed at her, I told her she was a burden and I'd be better off without her. I told her I wished I didn't have to take of her. I had never before or after said anything so horrible to her; I apologized after she burst into tears, I told her it wasn't true but she just kept saying that she was sorry.
Mary, just like me? Dear God no.... I can't shake this thought away as I continue searching the asylum, still I have enough sense to head for the store room to look for more tapes. Proceeding quietly,

The store room contains dust and chairs and fold out tables and shelves filled with dusty linen.

I check the other store room, if nothings there I'm going to start doing a full sweep of the building.

There's no other store room on this floor although there are a few other rooms. A sweep of the building would take quite some time.

Perhaps take a look at a room on the map?

http://silenthillheaven.com/main/wp-con ... al_b1f.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/silent/images/5 ... _rf-1-.jpg

OOC- okay if I have to start somewhere specific I guess he'll go to the special treatment room on the third floor.

The building is dark and grimy as he goes up a stairwell littered with dirt and debris from dozens of homeless people and teenagers over the years. Cigarette butts, crumpled beer cans, and other such social detritus. The walls is tagged with names and slurs. How long has this place been closed? He reaches the Special Treatment Rooms but finds the door into that short corridor to be locked. There's a note sticky taped to the metal door:
As he reads the note, he hears a door slam further inside the building.

I try to pick the lock, if that doesn't work I proceed toward the source of the noise.
success http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3828644/

The picks make short work of the lock. As his finger grips the handle, he begins to open it and can hear a gurgling sound coming from within.

I turn off my flashlight and drop into a crouch, gun in one hand and tazer in the other; then proceed slowly towards the noise.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3836037/ success 51

Pulling open one of the doors in the darkness, he can hear the sound of fluids gurgling down a drain. He can feel the edge of a padded floor and damp walls inside. He can't see anything in the darkness.

I get ready to run and turn my flashlight on, intending to carefully inspect the room.

A woman's body dangles upside down from a thick coil of fleshy rope that enters the ceiling, the jagged slit of her throat gaping open from the weight of her head, showing ragged and blackened ends dripping with maggots. Her dress stained yellow and mottled brown with body fluids that had leaked free from her, urine, perhaps feces, certainly the juices from her rotting skin as it loosened from the tissue beneath. The bruised and nearly black skin on her body has most certainly started to lift off the meat. Her eyes are a murky yellow covered in a thick mucus that must have dripped from her face, mouth open, with the glint of metal (perhaps keys) wedged within the swollen folds of her tongue and rotting cheeks. The stink is thick and fast and envelopes Cole, wrenching his gut, hanging sour and disgusting in his nose and mouth so that he can almost taste the rot of her flesh. In fact, the smell is so thick and the air so moist it seems to leave a film across his tongue.

I release a shudder looking at the body before turning away and continuing to search the building.

The maps show that the Store Room is the nearest. He walks out of the Special Treatment Rooms - which are obviously just fancy words for solitary confinement in padded cells - and out into the main ante-chamber. The linoleum tiles are old and worn out. The paint cracked and peeling. Who knows how long since this place was abandoned? Since this whole town was abandoned? The area had seemed so sunny and well-maintained when Cole had done a bit of quick research on the web to check the proximity of police stations to his robbery location among other vital details. Was it the fog that had done all this? Rolled in and aged everything? This place did seem like something out of the Mist (a movie, if you weren't aware).

Cole finds the store room door unlocked and steps inside.



The store room seems to have been undergoing some form of renovations before the place was abandoned. Dusty white sheets lay over everything. A portion of plaster, however, had been stripped back to reveal a mural of spectral hands reaching up toward a hole in the wall in which sits a roll of film negatives and a crumpled up note. An open book, too mouldy to read, lies open on a table beside it.

I cautiously step forward to get the note and film, keeping my tazer in my off hand ready.
OOC-What was the film thing exactly, I don't recognize that term you used.

Nothing happens when he picks up the roll of film and the crumpled note paper. No monsters, sudden screams, nor anything else untoward.

That is a relief.

Show,a roll of film negatives from a non-digital camera are what you get with your photographs after the photography camera treats the film and provides you with the photographs. Basically, they're small rectangular squares that show the vague images of the pictures that were taken on them and they can be developed to create yet more photographs.

I look over the note and pictures, pocketing them and moving on with my search if they don't give me anything to go on.

The negatives only reveal a number of young individuals in this very same building but it's hard to see the details in pictures that are a bit less than a square inch apiece. A well--lit white background would be the best bet to view them, similar to those lit spaces they mount X-Rays on. The note itself is easy to read but, oddly enough, it seems to be in his sister's handwriting which is strange because she was hardly literate when he last saw her as there wasn't much in the way of teaching on the streets. The note stays:

My favourite subject is painting
But the doctors wonder at what I paint
They don't like all the dark paints I use
In the Day Room
But I just have to paint myself
But it's hard not to paint my own reflection
I want to be like the one I watch in the mirrors
My dearest
But I run out of paint
Too many reds and blacks
I tell them he's a superhero and he's saving us all
From villains
But in the real world villains leave gore
But they don't understand.

The Director took my last painting to his office.
I think he liked it.

Ugh, painting isn't going to help me find her. Still I made a mental note before I continued my search to drop by the office before I left, if nothing else I bet Mary would be happy to see it once I find her. If I find her, God I hope I find her.

The elevator stands vacant and silent. The other doors in this area are all locked. There are other floors to explore, however. The ground floor and the first floor - not to mention the basement.

OOC-When you say locked I assume you mean even my lock picks do nothing. If not here's a roll for busting them.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3854022/
I take the stairs to the next level, not daring to tempt fate by getting in an elevator, then again I had read that a lot more people die on stairs then in elevators. Maybe I'm reverting to horror movie logic, I think with a dry laugh. I continue my search, going door to door. Turning my flashlight off and proceeding quietly.

When Cole attempts to unlock these doors, the tumblers simply fall out of position rather than clicking into place. Perhaps the door locks are all broken? Or perhaps it's the queer logic of this place demanding that he get the keys?

Regardless of that, he heads downstairs and onto the 2nd floor. The air is stuffy down here with an ever present smell of mildew. There are shadows staining the walls - shadows of people locked in death throes, clutching at throats or bellies or in the process of slumping to the floor. He is at a T-Intersection. Where should he head now?

Did I already check the day room? If not he starts their and does a full sweep, if so he just starts the sweep from where he is.

The day room doors are locked. The door to the corridor into the cells has been banded with steel that has been spot welded to the wall around it. There’s still the locker rooms, however, and the nurse’s station with its darkly gleaming window spattered with soot on the inside. Stepping into the nurse’s station and brushing his flashlight around, he can see how soot covers everything – files, tables, the typewriter (typewriter?) and telephone. A charred woman sits slumped on the chair with a scalpel caught in her hand, the nurse’s uniform (what’s left of it) embedded in her skin. Long, sharp teeth press out from her jaws. Before her, on the counter, is an immaculate notepad with something written on it in small, fine handwriting.

Cole would have to lean close to read it.

My eyes firmly on the charred, monstrous looking body, I slowly move forward and extend my left hand to snatch the paper quickly off the desk. If that goes off without a hitch I back up a few steps and start reading it.

The corpse doesn't move, doesn't so much as twitch, although it says something that he has to worry about a moving corpse in this place.

Opening the note he reads:

She wouldn't let me do anything fun.
So I invented a new game.
Wouldn't he be proud?

I breath a deep sigh of relief as the corpse doesn't do anything. But once I read the note the calm flees away. Oh God, my eyes glance up at the corpse, could Mary have done this? No, no that's stupid Mary's the sweetest, gentlest little girl on the planet. Besides the note wasn't clear, and she probably isn't even the one who wrote it. Trying to shake myself away from these thoughts I search the room a little more thoroughly before proceeding to the next room.

As Cole turns away from the corpse, he hears the sound of charred meat cracking and bones creaking. Turning around and taking a few quick steps backward, he sees the creature lurch toward him from its chair, the charred flesh of its jaw cracking in several places to weep grotesque juices as it opens its mouth to bite.

Show,you go first.

"HOLY FUCK!" I scream, surprised even though I really shouldn't be. I lash forward with my tazer at the hellspawn, making contact with it's torso.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3880072/ success 12,critical I think.

-If that stops it I stomp the ever living shit out of its head.
-If not I fun

Garrett strikes the thing across the torso but the buzz of electricity seems to do nothing to its fried and charred flesh. It screams, tendons snapping and pulling noisily, as it reaches out with its hands to grasp his face before blowing a torrent of hot embers and ashen fumes just past his face.

Show,your turn.

I run out the door, as soon as I put some distance between the monster and myself I drop into a crouch and sneak away, looking even harder for anything that could be used as a weapon.

Success on both of them.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3932275/

Cole hurries over into the store room and drops down into a crouch by the corner, slipping the door closed and waiting. As the door opens inward, he would be hidden if the door were to open and the creature shamble inside. The only question remains as to how long he will wait?

I give it about twenty minutes then, if I don't hear anything continue my search, still sneaking.
sneak success 63 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3934320/

Cole sneaks to the door and slides it open a crack, peering out. The corridor looks empty and he can't hear anything.

The only question remains: Where to now?

I continue searching all the rooms on this floor I haven't already checked, looking for a weapon and anything that might pertain to Mary.

As he steps out into the hall, he hears something. There's a young girl's voice coming from the direction of the nurse's station (further along the corridor, back along the right) muttering to herself. It isn't a crazed, quiet mutter but more the mutter of a girl casually talking to herself or someone else.

I slowly make my way back to noise, and then try to get a look at the girl without being noticed.

Cole creeps up to the side of the corridor entrance and peers around the corner. There's the faint glow of light coming from a flashlight in the nurse's station so he doesn't need to turn his own flashlight on. A little girl with dark, curly hair bunched up around her shoulders can be seen sitting on the counter, playing with a little golliwog. The flashlight seems to be in her lap (her legs are crossed) though he can't see the light it seems to be pointing upwards.

OOc-what's a golliwog?
I let out a groan, I know I'm going to regret this. "Hello?" I say cautiously, standing up so that the girl would be able to see me. "Who are you?"

The girl looks in his direction and he can make out that she has a telephone receiver to her ear. She gasps and mutters something into the phone before dropping it, the receiver clattering against the counter. She darts off the chair into the darkness of the reception office.

Well, better then shooting fireballs at me. I thought glumly, I follow her at a slow pace, taking a look around the room as I do. In a voice just quiet enough for her to here I say. "Hey it's all right, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just need some help.
Fast talk success 12 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4026792/ W
While saying this I pick up the phone and see if anyone is still on the other line.

The nurse's station is much as he left it last when he had stumbled across the charred nurse before it had chased him. The girl is crouched down in the corner, knees pressed up against her chest, clutching a doll and covering her face with both of her hands. There's no dial tone, which suggests there might be someone on the other end, though there's no guarantee.

"Hold please." I say into the phone sarcastically. I put the phone down for a moment and approach the girl slowly. "Hey don't be scared, I said I'm not gonna hurt you." I crouch down to be closer to eye level. "What are you doing here, are you alright?" Great, more freaky little kids, oh well she might be able to tell me something useful.I think to myself.

Simultaneously Cole hears, Hello? Who's there?" but he is already placing the handset down and turning to the girl.

The girl flinches at his words but doesn't move to run. She peeks between her fingers at him, trembling and shaking. Then she suddenly moves forwards toward him, arms outstretched, tears running down her cheeks....

OOC-I'm guessing I don't know if she's going to attack me or hug me?
My hand shoots to my pocket and tazer but for a split second I hesitate to use it. And that split second is enough for the girl to reach me.
-If she claws me or tries something like that I zap her.
success 20 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4030170/
-If not I lean back to grab the phone. "Hello? Who the hell is this girl, and who are you?

She wraps her arms around his neck and buries her face into her shoulder, weeping quietly and holding him tight. Her dolly is still held in both hands across his back. "I was sooo scaaaared...."

It's difficult for him to move back over to the phone the next few steps to grab the phone and speak into it.

"......There, there." I mutter out, awkwardly patting the young girl on the back. He once again reaches for the phone, as he starts to pull back to do so he speaks to the young girl. "Who are you?"

Over the phone: "The name's Murray Archer. I don't know who the girl is, sorry. I'm not even sure if she knows who she is. Who are you?"

The girl says miserably, "Mandy." She doesn't relax her grip on him though being only five-years-old she's not much of a weight to someone of his strength.

"I'm Cole, I'm a tourist in the city. How do you know this girl?" I say into the phone, trying to do two conversations at once I turn back to the young girl. "Hey Mandy, do you live here?" I say, trying to sound comforting while I look over my shoulder to make sure I don't hear that thing from the hallway.

"No," says the girl rather miserably into his shoulder.

"I don't know the girl," says the voice over the phone. "I didn't even know her name until you just said it. I happened across this number and thought it might be an important clue, so I called it."

Trying to push her away a little I speak again. "So what are you doing here? You haven't seen a girl named Mary have you?" I lean back into the phone, speaking quietly so that the girl doesn't hear. "Who are you, what the fuck do you mean 'clue'?"

While Cole is strong, she resists so firmly that he'll have to push hard enough to hurt her locked joints and tight muscles. No permanently, but still, it's bound to hurt a little. Will he push her that little bit harder?

OOC- Not yet, he wants his questions answered first

"I haven't seen a little girl named Mary," says the voice on the phone, "but if you describe her, I'll keep an eye out for her. I'm a private detective. I came to Silent Hill to find a missing person, only it seems that more than a few people have gone missing here."

OOC-Cole asked the little girl if she's seen Mary, not the guy on the phone.
"Well, I don't know if your aware but this town is pretty fucked up. In light of that, your looking for either a 6, or around 18 year old girl, with chestnut hair, pale skin and brown eyes. Oh, also she afraid of mirrors now or some shit." I say, not bothering to be quiet my anger. "Hey girlie, can you let go of me so we can get going?" I said, sounding somewhat annoyed. (after she answers my prompt about Mary.

The little girl doesn't respond to his question about Mary, apparently having thought he'd been talking to Murray. When he requests her to get off, she simply shivers and says, "But I'm scaaaared."

"Oh whatever, you haven't seen a girl named Mary have you? And what the hell are you doing here anyway?" I ask the little girl, standing up and moving towards the door. Before he leaves though he speaks back into the phone "Listen, if you get any info on Mary contact me, I'll make it worth your while. I'm gonna head to the carnival after I'm done searching this building, so try to get a hold of me."

Only static meets his words over the phone.

The little girl wraps her legs about his hips, clinging to him like a koala, as he rises. "C-carnival?" she murmurs.

"Yeah, my sister wanted to go to one when she was little so if she's not here I'm gonna go look there. This place is the only lead I have on her so if I don't find something here I have no idea where else to start looking." He says in a tired voice, for the first time fully realizing how bad it would be if he didn't find anything here. "So what the hell are you doing here? And have you seen Mary or not?

She shook her head. "N-no." She took in a shuddering breath. "D-doctor's keep n-notes on their patients, don't they?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm searching this building; and on that note, let's get going." I say, dropping into a crouch and resuming my sweep, starting with the rooms on this floor I haven't checked yet.
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4048928/ Sneak success 39

The little girl finally releases him, allowing him to stealth, but her movements aren't nearly as stealthy as she walks along behind him. Luckily she's a small child and therefore naturally doesn't make a lot of noise as she walks. The bloodstained footprints leading to the door to the next corridor is likely a good path to follow. Otherwise there are a few other floors.

"Aren't you scared?" asked the little girl as he made his decision.

"I'm not afraid of anything." I reply instantly and habitually. Shit do I even believe that anymore? I think to myself with slight amusement as I follow the footprints.

The door opens this time and allows entrance into a hallway with a number of cell doors lining both sides. The bloody footsteps lead down to the door at the very end. The cells themselves have small windows with little bars in place and there seems to be movement coming from inside each one, a scraping sound, like feet being dragged, or the slapping of meat against stone, or the dripping of fluids. There is no light down here, except from his flashlight, though he could peek in each room to continue his search, or he could avoid looking and continue on his way.

"Close your eyes kid." I say, then without waiting to see if she does so, I begin scanning the cells one at a time with the flashlight, taking a deep breath to brace myself for what I might see.

The air seems warmer as he approaches the gaps in the doors, thick and clammy like a slap across the face, and as he raises his flashlight to probe into the darkness he has a sensation of peering into someone else's most private moments. There's a scuffle of shadows, like someone avoiding the light, and a startled whimper in this cell. The next one sounds like flesh beating against itself with a slightly slick sound reminiscent of sex yet when his flashlight pierces the shadows he sees little. Perhaps if he went in closer.... Perhaps there is something toward the floor that he can't see this angle. The next cells reveal little at this angle until he reaches the last one where he can make out the body of a patient whose torso is at head heigh, whose arms lay slack at his sides, moving slightly with the creaking of rope.

"Hey, are you a patient here, do you know where they keep the tapes?" I ask the giant, not expecting much but figuring it was worth a try.

Silence.

"Oh whatever" I mutter out, and continue searching in the direction of the footprints.

The footprints go all the way to the end of the corridor to Cell M6. It looks like a mattress has been leaned against the door and pressed up against it from the inside, preventing him from looking inside through the eye slit.

Should I even bother, it's probably just gonna be another freaky ass monster. But then again it also might be a half crazed resident who can tell me something about my sister. I think to myself. "Stand back kiddo." I say to the little girl as I heave the mattress out of the way with a slight groan.

The mattress is on the other side of the door, but by pushing the door open, he pushes the mattress out of the way. It hits the ground with a thunk. The walls in here are covered in white chalk drawings of horses and unicorns and photo frames of a girl with a boy that seem to be in sequence of age. It starts off with them very young in a family, mere babies, then works its way up to the two alone, then shows ones where the boy and girl aren't facing each other and the boy is crying, then one where the girl is reaching for the boy but he faces away, still crying, then one where the boy is holding someone by the collar and the girl is watching and then the boy is at least a man and there's someone lying at his feet with crosses for eyes and the girl is watching, and then the boy is taking something through the window of the house and the girl is watching.

There's a postcard on the floor showing the Amusement Park's ferris wheel ride. On the back it states, "1 of 4 post cards taken on our outing. First, I went on the ferris wheel."

Perhaps there's a postcard with where she is at the moment? That would fit in with this crazy place.

The little girl whose with him leans up against the doorway. "Whoever lived here must've really needed a hug," she says softly.

OOC- is the little girl in the photo Mary?
I let out a scoff at the kids remark before looking around for more postcards, maybe I should just head straight to the Ferris wheel and try to find a clue there, naw while I'm here I'll go ahead and search the building. I think to myself before continuing my sweep.

Show,the pictures are all chalk drawings so it's hard to be sure.

The handwriting looks like Mary's. If that's the case then maybe this was her cell once upon a time. Or the cell of a friend. If he heads down to the document room, he could probably find out more by linking the room to the patient.

I should probably check to make sure this was all Mary's before I head to the amusement park, I'm beginning to doubt I'll find anything but more monsters if I keep searching this place. I think to myself as I head off to the document room.

The Nurse's Station is the first port of call but it states that Wendy Parker lived in Ward M6. There isn't much information in the file on Wendy herself but it does reference a number of drugs (Medicine roll to interpret), suggest a variety of symptoms using big and fancy words as short hand (Psychology roll) and it does have 'Wendy's' approximate age which would put her at about the same age as Mary. Apparently she spoke a lot about a girl in S6 and seemed to want to spend all of her spare time gazing at mirrors in the shower room on the M Ward Floor. As he reads, Cole feels a shiver through the stones of this building and the sensation of being watched slowly builds though there is no sign of anyone around.

"Can we go someplace safe now?" asks the little girl, hugging herself.

Medicine, fail 72
Psychology, fail 46
"Fine you little brat we'll leave!" I yelled, mostly out of frustration. In truth I wanted to get out of here also. Besides I can't understand any of this shit, even if I found Mary's notes they probably wouldn't help, and the tapes wouldn't help me find out where she is now. Screw it I'll just head to the fair and look for another postcard. "As I began walking out of the facility with her I speak again. "Do you even know anyplace safe I can take you?" I guess I could take her to those stoners, not that she'd really be safe their if a monster showed up. Oh well, I don't have any better options. An afterthought shot through my head. I might as well stop by that pharmacy on the way back then, get the girl her pain killers.

The girl quails a bit at his sudden outburst of anger. "I-I'm sorry. I-I don't know. I just...." Tears prick at her eyes. "I just want to go home."

Cole takes the girl to the stairs and starts heading down the stairwell as he hears her breath hitching in that annoying way little kids' did before they started crying.

I let out a mental groan hearing her, I knew of course that me snapping at her was uncalled for but fuck I didn't ask to be watching a kid.
"Well where is 'home'?" I ask a little softer, "Is it close, is there somebody there who can take care of you? Cause I can't watch you, I got places to be." I mutter out. I need to find out where Mary is, is she even looking for me? Is she in on this game God's playing with me?
I forgot to make note that Cole stops in the directors room on his way out, he's looking for that painting.

"I don't think anyone'll be home," mumbles the little girl as they head down the stairs to the ground floor. "I don't think they're around anymore. They said they were leaving and told me they'd be by to pick me up but they haven't come and it's been a really long time." She frowns petulantly. "I'm hungry."

"There'll be food at the place I'm taking you." I say shortly as I make my way to the directors office, hoping to find the painting Mary's note mentioned.

"Are you taking me to your home?" she asks, as Cole makes his way over to the door to the Director's Office.

"I don't live here, hell I haven't even checked into a hotel here." I say with a short laugh. "I'm taking you to a......friend's(?) house" He says with a small amount of uncertainty. "We're stopping somewhere first though, I need to do my 'friend' a favor before we go there." He says opening the door and looking around.

Cole puts his hand on the door handle then snatches it away briefly. It's hot. There's a slight draught and he noticeswhat looks like little tendrils of air, or smoke, being sucked through the gaps around the door. He's not sure what it means and opens the door as he considers it thoughtfully. Intuitively, however, he grasps the severity of the situationand steps back around the door frame, grabbing the girl and pulling her with him as the air enters the room and there's a sudden rush of flame and force that gouts out from the doorway, singing the hair off his face as he hides behind the doorframe. After a painfully long moment, the fire subsides to a dull crackle. The room inside is scorched to cinders but for a painting of his sister, now sixteen-years-old, clutching a film reel in her hands labeled: "My Brother."

Show,I assumed Cole would take the girl with him instinctively. Feel free to state otherwise.

OOC-you assumed right.
"Good GOD! What the hell?" I say as the fire subsides, I'm hesitant to even poke my head in the door but when I do my eyes immediately go to the picture. Is that Mary? And what the hell is with the camera, she never came back and saw me, she wouldn't have photos of me. I shake my head away from these thoughts, I grab the picture(if it's not to big) and head for the pharmacy, double checking my map so that I know where I'm going.

The background in the painting looks familiar. Is that the City Hall building here? It looks like it. The painting's about as long as his forearm so it's not too hard for him to stuff it under one arm. The room is still rather warm yet the painting isn't so much as scorched. At least upon leaving the place there's no surprises, though the distant barking of dogs sets his nerves on edge. The little girl trails behind him as he sets out into the fog. The pharmacy doesn't look like it's too far away at least. They've barely made it a street when the little girl murmurs, "Ow, my leg hurts."

"Suck it up." I say without sympathy or slowing my pace as I continue towards the pharmacy and, ultimately, the stoner's apartment. I know I shouldn't be so cross with her but I'm all ready going out of my way to help the kid; and I don't have much patience for her complaining.

"Are your friends nice?" she asks, drawing a deep breath and jogging to catch up with his much longer strides. She tries to take his hand, gazing up at him as though trying to find comfort in the expression on his face.

Seeing the little girl running I slow down a little and allow her to take my hand while trying my best at a comforting smile. "....Yeah I guess so." I say in response to her question. "One of them's strung out and the other's sick though, so you're probably just gonna have to sit quietly and wait for things to get sorted out. But you'll be safe there" I hope.

Cole finds a large sinkhole in the middle of the road but the footpaths on other side are still intact, if a bit cracked and tilting downward - which is a bit disturbing when walking across it. The sinkhole seems almost entirely round and reminds him of a news article he saw in some third world country. Still no town would logically be riddled with them, especially not after being just fine only a few hours ago. It hits him that he's only been here for several hours. By now it doubtless feels like an eternity.

"How far do you think it goes?" she asks. "Is New York like this? London?"

"I don't think so, I mean, the police I talked to said that this was earthquakes or some shit." Then again maybe this is happening everywhere, maybe it's the end of days, didn't Revelations say some shit about the dead coming back to life? Could that be what's going on?

"So people can still leave and be safe?" she asked. "There were noises and my step-daddy said if I'd wait where I was told that they'd come back for me when they ewhackwooeighted but I don't think he's coming back, is he?" She looked around sadly. "I think they left without me."

"Maybe your folks just got-" killed? "-held up somewhere and couldn't get back to you. I really don't think they would just leave you here, unless your dead or something, you're not are you?" I say in a somewhat joking tone, though I was legitimately worried.

"Dead?" she asked with the cautious smile of a kid who can't tell if an adult is joking. "How could I be dead? I don't think zombies can talk."

She looks back around the silent streets of the deserted town with the cars left abandoned by the side of the road.

"There's really not many people left here are there."

She pauses for a moment then asks, "Do you believe in zombies?"

"Well I didn't, but hell anything seems possible in this place. In fact I think I saw a zombie when I was running to the asylum, but who the fuck knows."

She winces at his swear word. "Who're you looking for?"

"My sister, I thought she was dead but then I learned she was just brought here." I say in a somewhat angry tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She falls silent after that and they make their way in silence over to the pharmacy doors. The windows have all been newspapered over with several prints of Missing Persons fliers. "There's always more and more of these but they never used to put them up here." The little girl stops outside the posters and looks them over. Cole can either drag her inside, wait with her, or leave her out there as he enters.

"You wanna wait here or you wanna come with me?" I say, standing in the doorway trying to see if it's safe.

"I'm looking for my folks," she says softly. "I can go in in a minute."

The pharmacy seems deserted, ransacked, with only a few grimy bottles and boxes cluttering the shelves in this room dimly lit from stray strands of light coming in through the fly-specked papers stuck to the windows. The painkillers are likely somewhere in there.

"Alright, just scream if you see anything." I say casually, walking through the doors and looking around for the pills I was sent out for.

Cole finds the painkillers after a relatively cursory look, as well as a couple of Health Drinks that look tempting, and a bottle of water. The cash register on the counter looks tempting. Maybe there's still some cash in there?

I grab the health drinks and the water, as well as the painkillers of course. As I pass the cash register my greed pushes me to take some and I actually laugh out loud, I got 30k dollars in my coat pocket, and I'd set that on fire in a heartbeat to get out of this god forsaken place.

Cole spots a baseball bat beneath the counter as he pauses by the cash register.

Ooo, that might come in handy. I think as I grab the small club. "Aight kiddo, time to go." I say as I walk out the door, putting the water and pills into my various coat pockets.

The baseball bat feels firm and decisive in his hands. It's a step back from his gun but it's still better than nothing. As he opens the pharmacy door he has a moment's thought that she might not be there anymore. Perhaps swooped up by some fell thing or otherwise spirited away into the fog. But no, for better or worse, she's still there perusing the missing person's notices plastering the windows.

"They're not there," she says in a sad little voice. "They're not missing. They just left."

"There wouldn't be a missing person flier for an adult kid, they probably got herded out of town in some evacuation thing and assumed the same happened to you. Now come on, we need to get moving so I can get back to my search." I say, trying to be comforting as I start walking towards the stoner's house, grabbing her if she lingers.

The little girl is silent for the rest of the journey and other than the consistent detours of which Cole is beginning to recognise and the journey is easy and without any real risk. It's odd. The town seems less dangerous now. More ... abandoned. Empty. Neglected. Yet at least it feels somehow safer. There's no more sounds of distant baying hounds nor the scrape of violent steps behind them. All is quiet. Calm but for the slight breeze that ruffles his hair. Finally they reach the apartment building within which the stoners currently wait.

Well this can only be a good thing. I think to myself as I walk through the town, noting how much safer it feels. "Here we are." I say simply pulling the girl to the apartment that reeks of weed and knocking softly on the door, opening it if nobody answers.

"Are you going to leave me here?" she asks as they head up into the apartment building. As they head upstairs the scent of weed and the sound of music can clearly be heard. "I want to go with you."

The door opens to reveal the stoner guy who blinks at him a couple times, then looks down at the little girl. "Oh, man, you came back! That's great news. D'you bring the painkillers?"

"Yes I am, and no you don't; you've seen all the scary shit that's out there." I say in response to the young girl's questions. As I approach the door I guzzle down most of the water, leaving a few gulps so the girl can take her medicine. (I remember in an earlier post you said I was thirsty, I assume I still am.) When the door opens I look with contempt at the stoner. "Yeah I did, I brought a scared little girl to. Watch her." I say dragging the girl into the apartment, when I reach the sofa table I put the bat, water, and pain killers down. Then take my knife and head back out the door without another word.

"Don't leave me," she says in a soft voice as the door shuts between them.

As Cole heads to the landing he can clearly hear the sound of glass breaking downstairs near the front door. It doesn't sound like a lot. Perhaps a glass or a small window?

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4136527/ Sneak success.
I drop into a crouch and slowly make my way down the stairs towards the door, looking around carefully for what might have made the noise.

The broken glass came from the glass window inset into the door and as he creeps down he sees a creature reach in through the gap with a clawed hand and grabbing the handle from the inside, almost breaking off the handle, and then slid the door open. The creature, for it is most assuredly not human and likely was, falls forward through the doorway, unable to hold itself upright now that it's no longer got a door to lean upon. It turns its blind head about the corridor and let's loose a terrible wail that sounds almost childlike from its masculine throat.

I stay put and try to observe what the beast does next.

The beast blindly sniffs the air, tossing its head one way than the other, as its nails scrabble across the linoleum floor. It should be easy enough to avoid it by going another way or dropping from a first floor window. It licks its lips, and part of its face, with a long and whiplike tongue. It doesn't seem to have noticed him just yet.

I make my way back to the stoner's apartment. As I shut the door I look at the man. "Turn the fucking music off somethings out there!" I say staying near the door and trying to listen for any movement from the beast.

"But the music means we don't got to hear it," says the stoner guy, grumpily heading over to switch off the stereo.

"You came back!" gasped the the little girl, giving him a big and hopeful smile. "You came back ... for me?"

"Shut the hell up!" I whisper harshly, holding a finger up in the shushing motion. "And get away from the door!" I whisper as an afterthought, keeping an ear to the door while standing a bit to the side of it. At least this one looks alive, I think with a morbid relief as I grip my tazer, if I can just zap it maybe I could slit it's throat real fast. A detailed picture of the creature shoots through my mind..... but lets not try to fight it unless I have to.
Listen check, fail

The room falls in silent but, try as he might, he can't really make anything out. There was a noise ... but how far away? What was it exactly? He can't quite make it out. Hopefully the creature can't hear where they are either.

Letting out a groan I slowly and silently open the door and peer down the hallway.

The hallway is thus far still empty though he can hear movement coming from the floor below.

ooc-Is it coming this way?

It doesn't appear to be coming up the stairs, no, though it certainly is moving around down there. Perhaps there is another way out. A fire escape or something similar? Wasn't basic fire code to have at least two exits to every apartment building?

Not that this town seemed very up to code.

I stay by the door for the better part of half an hour, waiting to see if the beast comes up here, before finally conceding. "Oy, you stay quiet and duck into the bedroom or something, that thing out there doesn't look like it's coming up. I gotta go." I say before leaving the room, telling myself that the kid and my 'friends' will be fine as I try to find a window or something that I can escape from.

"Be back soon, okay?" asks the little girl as Cole heads out down the corridor and stealthily makes his way to the nearby window. It doesn't appear that the creature will be coming up those stairs anytime soon.

Show,Cole will need to climb (die roll please) to get down without hurting himself but it doesn't seem that far a drop.

"No promises." I reply to the little girl as I leave once again, heading for one of the windows I saw earlier. Seeing that it's a small drop I figure there wouldn't be any harm in simply jumping, I'd certainly done so from higher places.
Climb check fail

Cole slips and falls, bruising his ankle but otherwise landing okay beside a dumpster. A quick glance up revealed the little girl at the window, waving at him with a hopeful smile, as he headed away. But to where?

"HIDE" I whisper staring at the little girl before turning around and heading in the direction of the amusement park.

Cole makes it a few more streets before there's the sudden crash of shattering glass behind him. Hopefully that had nothing to do with the apartment he had left behind...

Before him he can make out the bridge that crosses one of the rivers that lets out into Lake Toluca. Streetlights flicker in the fog, running along each side of the bridge, and ashen footprints seem charred into the asphalt, heading this way and away from the bridge.

I take a deep breath and ignore the noise, I mean, with all the crap in this town what are the odds that it came from the apartment? Putting this thought firmly in my mind I continue towards the carnival.

Halfway across the bridge, Cole starts hearing splashing in the water below and scuffling steps on the railings somewhere further in the darkness on the right-hand side of the bridge.

I peak over the bridge to see if I can make out what made the noise.
38, success I think. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242217/

Through the swirling fog below, a dim outline of some tentacular shape swirls and splashs deeply below somewhere upon a matt of pale blonde hair. As Cole stares down at the dark lake waters he hears the sing song wail of a siren blaring from non-existent speakers all around him. There's a sudden surge of adrenaline. A sudden knowledge that soon everything will change. The bridge itself groans, shudders, and a chunk of it falls free and loose to splash heavily into the water below. The bridge may not last. He will need to hurry.

"FUCK!" I scream as I take off in a dead sprint down the bridge.

The bridge shudders as it warps. Concrete shatters, raining shrapnel down, leaving pockmarked holes across the bridge. There's a whine of strained wire and steel as the supportive girders begin to come loose, landing with an almighty crash in the river below and setting the bridge on a terrifying tilt. A set of charred prints run along the bridge, seemingly undamaged in a single path, but as he approaches it the concrete buckles before him. He'll need to Jump to get across that hole.

45, fail I think. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301754/
I desperately try to make the leap across, praying that I won't die here after coming so far.

The yawning waters below become all that he sees as he flails in the air for a long moment before dropping like a stone into the cold below. He hits the ice, sending the breath rushing out of him, before it cracks and breaks and lands him into water so cold it saps his very consciousness away. He finds himself sinking into the eerie blackness of his mind....

OOC,Please make rolls for any skill increases as the consequence of your failed roll means you get launched straight into Chapter Three and will awaken at your destination rather than getting the chance to explore the spaces in between.

Damn, oh well, I eagerly await chapter three.

Hide Fail
Lockpick fail
Sneak fail
Tazer/punch success http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4326162/
-8 increase http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4326163/
Fast talk fail