Play@YSDC

Murray hears something.

OOC,I put step by step instructions in [url=http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?p=68577#p68577]this post[/url].

A man's voice can be heard quietly in the background: "Hello ... who are you? ... *clatter of the phone dropping* ... Hey it's all right, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just need some help." The voice approaches the phone.

"Hello?" says Murray. "Who's there?"

Simultaneously he hears, "Hold please," in a sarcastic voice. Then the sound of the phone being placed on the counter.

"I'm on hold," Murray says to Craig. "No reason we can't keep walking." He leads the way down the hallway, looking for the exit.

"On hold?" whispers Craig, seemingly apalled by the concept. "How? To whom?" He shakes his head and mutters to himself. "Even in this hellhole, waiting times, put on hold ... even in Hell ... makes sense."

A right turn reveals the short corridor, now draped in shadows that seem to skitter back from the light, which ends in the reception room that Murray entered beforehand. There's a gurney at a right angle just past where the corridor opens up into the room, one end visible around the corner, a foot and part of a woman's calf muscle visible beneath the blanket. Blood trickles down from a gash in that calf muscle, dropping with an eerie drip-drip-drip sound.

Murray is not yet close enough to see inside the rest of the room though from this angle he can make out the 'Exit' light in red hung above the doors out of here.

A gruff voice starts up over the telephone, "Hello? Who the hell is this girl, and who are you?"

Murray pauses in the hallway so he can focus on the conversation. "The name's Murray Archer," he says. "I don't know who the girl is, sorry. I'm not even sure if she knows who she is. Who are you?"

"I'm Cole, I'm a tourist in the city. How do you know this girl?" says the voice from the phone. He then sounds further away, "Hey Mandy, do you live here?"

Craig grabs Murray's arm. "Let's wait here while you talk. Walking along without paying attention sounds a sure way to die."

Murray nods, having already stopped walking. "I don't know the girl," he says. "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."

The man speaks on the other hand: "So what are you doing here? You haven't seen a girl named Mary have you?"His voice drops to a whisper. "Who are you, what the fuck do you mean 'clue'?"

"I haven't seen a little girl named Mary," says Murray, "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."

"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." says the angry voice over the phone. "Hey girlie, can you let go of me so we can get going?"

"She's either six or eighteen?" says Murray, rolling his eyes. "Well, I guess that makes as much sense as anything else in this crazy place. I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if I find her or any leads to her whereabouts. You haven't met or heard anything about a woman named Ash, have you? Her full name is Cara Ashby."

There's a flash of static over the phone to greet his words, the other man's voice cutting in and out. "...make it worth ... I'm ... to the carnival after ... done ... this building, so try ....." Then there's a click at the other end.

"Who was that?" asks Craig.

"Some guy named Cole," says Murray, putting his phone away. "He's looking for a girl named Mary, and he said he'll be heading to the carnival next after he's done with whatever building he's in now. Maybe we should head over there after we check out the post office and find out what that key I found opens." With his gun ready, he advances stealthily down the corridor towards the reception room.

The reception room is much as he left it though there are a few small differences. The doors have been replaced with large steel ones, dented, as though some force had struck the doors from the other side several times. There is a slight gap between the thick steel doors, through which can only be seen blackness, though a torchlight could probe it if someone were close enough to put their eye to the gap. The floor itself has lost its linoleum in favor of rusted chain link squares over an abyss that emanates with heat.

"The floor hardly looks safe," murmurs Craig.

"Hmm," says Murray, hesitating. "Maybe we should look for another way out. There's gotta be another exit from this place. Fire codes require it. Of course, this room up ahead is one big fire code violation."

"You think the back door will be any better?" asked Craig.

"Yeah, good point," concedes Murray. "Okay, I'll go first. If the floor gives way and I go screaming to my death, well, you'll just have to find another way out. If I make it to the door, I'll try to get a look at what's outside before waving you over." He ventures out cautiously onto the chain link floor and makes his way to the exit.