CHAPTER TWO: Jack's Journey: Admissions

[Laraqua]

The world coalesces before his very eyes. An apartment building. A little girl stares forlornly from the second floor window. The glass in the front door has been broken and he can hear something with long claws scratching across the tiles inside. There's something in there. A guardian at the gate. Unfortunately he can't expect any more assistance from She Who Must Not Be Harmed. Odds were even she couldn't do what she wanted to do half the time. There's a slight motion, like an elevator beginning to drop, and then he feels himself more wholly in this place. Ready.

[Seon]

"Killing monsters are so not part of my job description," Jack mumbled. "Actually, I guess I could put "killed monsters" on my résumé now. Maybe find a better job where bosses don't shoot you in the head or put you through intense psychological torture or threaten to vaporize me. A job where a random homeless guy don't stab me for funzies and monsters don't break into the kitchen. Is that too much to ask in this town?"

Jack rubbed his fingers together. He felt real enough. Enough to do this one task. He silenced his footsteps as he entered the building. "Here...kitty kitty kitty..." He said. "My meat isn't delicious so go away..."

OOC: roll for sneak http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4300953/

[Laraqua]

Jack stealthily opens the door and sneaks inside, stepping gingerly over the glass as he regards the creature that had made its way to the other end of the corridor. While the lurker's gaze is elsewhere, Jack tip toes over to the stairs and heads up to the next floor.

[Seon]

"Well that was easy," Jack mumbled. "Now where is that little girl...ghost girl...girly ghost....thing..." Jack wanders down the hallway towards where he believes the room with the girl would be.

"If she's a ghost, I can just toss her over the window and she wouldn't die, right?"

[Laraqua]

The door to one of the apartments creaks open and he can hear the gasps of the dying as she steps out into the corridor. An adorable little blonde girl with a limp in one of her legs. "E-excuse me? Are ... are y-you here to save me?"

[Seon]

"Yes," Jack says, walking past her and through the doorway.

[Laraqua]

There is blood everywhere. A man gutted and emptied out, still somehow painfully alive, lays upon the couch with a bong fused to his hand. He is burned so badly his features run into each other, making him impossible to recognise as being any different to the rest of Silent Hill's more grotesque furnishings. Of course, the other grotesque furnishings might also have been similarly alive once upon a time.

[Seon]

"I like the decor," Jack said to the girl. "Really thematic. Really brings the color of this place alive. Did you do this?"

[Laraqua]

The girl remains out in the corridor and says in a really small, pathetic voice, "I don't want to go in there."

[Seon]

"I suppose," Jack yawned before turning to the nearly-dead man. "Sorry, man, but you're fucked."

He leaves the dying man behind before exiting out into the corridor. No use in dallying about, he supposed. "So what happened in that room?" he said to the girl. "And who gave you that nasty little limp?"

[Laraqua]

"I don't know," says the little girl miserably. "I went walking with Cole and my leg start hurting. I don't know why." She gives a little helpless shrug. "We should go find Cole. I miss him."

[Seon]

"Mkay," Jack said. "Did he say where he was going to go?"

[Laraqua]

"I think he mentioned a playground," says the little girl. "Maybe that really really big playground and amusement park on the other side of the bridge."

[Seon]

"He must have really wanted to go on the Merry-Go-A-Round," Jack mused. "Pardon me, but could you tell me your name?"

[Laraqua]

"Uhh, Katie," she says shyly, scraping her toe across the floor.

[Seon]

"Right, right," Jack gives a soft chuckle. "Well, Katie, you must be a very brave girl to be in the room for such a long time. Whoever decorated the room had a really really sick taste," Jack shrugged.

"By the way, Katie, there is a very very mean and spooky thing downstairs that likes to eat children for breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner. Children are its favorite food. It can't have enough of them. Do you know what a child must do when it sees him or her? Even if there is an adult nearby?"

[Laraqua]

She shakes her head, giving him a wide-eyed stare.

[Seon]

"She must run, Katie," Jack said, staring intently back. "She must run as far as her little feet can carry her. Adult nearby may not be able to solve every problem in the world. Giant monsters that like to eat children are one such thing that they usually cannot solve. Maybe I can, but I wouldn't count it. You should still run because adults are happy if children don't die. Even if the adult has to face off against the monster alone, he will be satisfied knowing that the children, at least, are safely away.

If they are unhappy or unsatisfied, than they aren't adults. If they purposefully leave you behind in a dangerous place, they aren't adults either. They are monsters."

Jack smiled.

"Okay enough of that. Let's go downstairs."

[Laraqua]

Katie stares up at him with big, blue eyes, utterly shocked. Her mouth drops slowly open, eyebrows pulling together in a look of piteous sadness. In that moment, her blonde hair seems to fall lank against her head and the air fills with the smell of charred flesh.

“What about when they set you on fire just to watch you burn?” Her voice is soft, sad. “What about when the only people who hear you scream is only me?” She shivers, holding herself and her voice drops to a near whisper. “I wish I had a Harry....”

Her blue gaze returns to meet his and hardens like ice.

“But I only have a Jack.”

[Seon]

Jack giggled. "Friends in dark places are still friends no?" He says, drawing a switchblade from his pant pocket and flicking it open. "Sometimes, you discover that what you want and what you need may be two completely different things."

He grabbed the knife by the blade and handed it to her.