Play@YSDC

Emily awakens on the side of a fog-shrouded road not far from the Lakeview Hotel car park. She can only just make out the edges of a few of the cars. Perhaps it had all just been a nightmare. Perhaps she had sleep walked out of the hotel.... There were tales of that happening. People having awful nightmares. Then again, most of those nightmares occurred in fog-shrouded streets.... And her knees, elbows and palms of her hands were scraped raw. And Katie was crouched with her knees tucked up under her chin, staring coldly across the road.

"The girl lied to me," said Katie. "She said it would be fun. She said she'd take me to see mommy after." She wiped a tear off her cheek. "She lied."

Katie continues staring for a long moment before hiding her face in her knees. "I want mommy."

Emily finds herself at a loss for how to respond, already dazed and bleary-eyed from what feels like another dream. "We'll find your mommy, sweetie."

The words ring hollow. She's not sure she can keep a promise, so she doesn't make one.

"We'll look for her. Can you tell me what she looks like? What her name is?"

And who's this girl...? She said something about a Laura...

"Erm, she's got dark hair that comes down to around her shoulders and she's got tired eyes because she's working all the time." Katie draws in a deep breath and stared up at the grey skies overhead. "Her names Cecilia. Cecilia Brooks. You'd know her if you saw her. She wears suits, mostly, and she'll be talking into one of two mobile phones. One is an iPhone, the latest model, in black with chrome edging, and the other ones is a black headset by Sleek. It has Sleek in white writing. She might have her laptop case with her."

Katie sighed. "I'd hoped mommy's car was in the car park but I don't think it was. I couldn't find it anywhere. I think she might be up on the deck that looks at the town near where the church and the graves and the long walk was."

A sudden cold wind whips up and she shivers.

"Laura said the trip wouldn't take very long and that she'd bring me back to my mommy. I met her in the toilets and we went for a walk and it wasn't meant to be a long walk and we went to the Amusement Park but when she took me to the hotel everything was different and then you came in with that man."

Emily nods. She doesn't think she's seen this woman - why would she, if she's just a tourist? She stands, wincing as the cold air stings her raw skin. A thought occurs to her.

"Do you know her cellphone number, hon?"

Or was that a good idea? She has no idea of the state of her phone, or if she even has it with her after everything that happened. Damn it.

"Yeah, sometimes its easier to talk to her if she's on her cell," said Katie, brightening. She recites her off the top of her head.

Emily nods, searching for her cellphone. Worst case scenario, they have to find another phone somewhere else.

Emily quickly pulls out her cellphone and Katie recites the number again, allowing her to input it. After a few moments, she clearly hears the sound of a mobile phone ringing coming from back towards the hotel. It doesn't sound like it's coming from inside. Perhaps from the car park?

Emily beckons Katie closer with a hand gesture, keeping the phone pressed to her ear. It's unlikely she'll pick up, but... follow the sound.

Ringtones?,I [i]want[/i] Cecie to have some fun 90s song as her ringtone, but she lost her sense of fun and it probably just makes an old-fashioned ringing noise.

"Is that her?" asks Katie uncertainly, as they follow the ringtone between the few cars still parked in this grey and foggy world until they are blocked by hedgerows that stand out a few feet from the hotels' once grand plaster facade. The sound leads them along a side path and through a side gate toward the rear gardens. Their shoes crunch a yellow gravel as they go and both are silent, hitching their breath as leaves rustle by them, as though the sheer sound of a noisy exhalation with kill the fragile life line between mother and daughter. The steady ringing doesn't bode well as they step out into the lovely rear garden and pass by an old fountain that has long since been left to fill with leaves and dirt. Everything in such a state of disrepair.... What Silent Hill always so run down? Emily didn't remember it being in this poor a state.

There's a light in the gloomy fog further out toward the end of the jetty they can't yet see. There's still a part of the rear garden to follow toward that sound and yet Emily's feet catch on the ground and she slows to a halt for a moment. Something ... bothers here. Is that a silhouette of a ferry she can see before her?

Show,Macarena? Or the more modern Gungnam Style?

Emily peers into the darkness, briefly turning her phone towards the strange shape to try and get some light - any light. "Do you see something?" she murmurs to Katie.

Yesterday, it seemed as though everything was perfect. A lovely little resort town, all cut and polished for tourists. How long ago was yesterday? She can't remember.

OOC,When's this game set? I thought it was 2011, could be wrong. Gangnam Style came out in 2012. :P And now all the Welcome to Silent Hill characters are doing the dance in my head.

"I'm not sure," murmurs Katie sadly. "I don't think I want to go any further. The lake ... I don't think I like it here."

Show,Cecilia did come here in 2011, yes, so good point. Let's say Emily came here in 2012. Time seems to be a bit fluid in Silent Hill anyway.

Emily reaches for Katie's hand, trying to reassure her with a wan smile. "Hey. You're really brave. It's all right to be scared, but the important part is that you keep going."

What other choice do we have?

Katie looks up at her and her lip trembles as Emily takes her hand. "Something bad happened here. I ... I ... I don't know what it was." She rubs at her eyes with the back of her hand as though trying to rub the tears away. "I'm brave now. I ... I think." She starts across the lawn with Emily. "Do you ... d'you know why this is ... why it's....? Is Silent Hill always like this?"

Emily matches her pace with Katie's, not wanting to frighten her out of finding answers. If she thought back, she could probably remember so many terrible things about the lake - but how would Katie know? She's just a little girl, after all...

"No, it's... it's not always this way, hon. But... there are stories."

They cross the lawn in silence and draw close enough to the lake to see its grey waters. There's some sort of vessel floating out in the fog by the jetty but it's hard to make it out.

Katie tugs free of Emily's hand. "No, I can't! I can't go near the water!" She whirls and flees back up the lawn. The fog swirled behind her, quickly swallowing her up, though Emily could still hear her footsteps.

"Hey, anyone need help out there?" calls a voice that's somehow familiar.

Emily immediately darts after Katie's disappearing footsteps, arms out as though they could cut through the fog. "Don't run away!" she shouts. "It's not safe for you to be alone!"

The voice catches her attention. For a second, she pauses as it rings in her memory. "Yes! Please! Please come!"

She chases Katie's footsteps up onto the rear verandah and hears the door slam behind the little girl. Emily struggles with the door knob but finds the door is stuck fast.

Emily clearly hears the man's voice murmur, "Huh, must be hearing something. I thought I heard a woman and a little girl."

"This lake sure is creepy when the fogs come running down," says another man's voice.

Emily throws another half-coherent shout over her shoulder: "Hello! Can you hear me?! We need help!"

But it won't do to chase phantom voices, will it? She doesn't want to go back into the hotel, but she's made Katie's safety her responsibility. There have to be other entrances - where are they?

There's the front entrance at least and a side entrance to the restaurant.

Emily runs around to the front entrance first. Strange, she was only just here - and now she might as well be on the other side of the country. She hardly recognizes a thing.

Emily has the funniest sensation that she just turned her back on her ticket out of this ... this ... what was this? There were rumors about this sort of thing. Someone at the SH Historical Society had been doing a project on it - on all the uncanny bits and pieces that had turned up. Maybe she should go fine Father Vincent? Her mother went to that church when Emily was small.

The door is locked. The place imposing. Is there any way inside?