CHAPTER ONE: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

Herein you will find the earlier chapters of those unlucky enough to visit the quaint little tourist town with a weight in their hearts.

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CHAPTER ONE: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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It's not a pretty bar but it's home. He's spent enough time working there, after all, and preparing for the onrush of customers that comes with the warmer months. It's late spring already, May, and the place is generally fairly pumping by now. Tonight has been pretty damn quiet from what Rochelle said. She's gone home sick and she said she'd close up briefly until you got there. It's still daylight, though, so any alcoholic punters wanting to get their mid-afternoon drinks on shouldn't be too cross. Of course, on a fog-shrouded day like this, there were likely to be quite a few tourists making their way to a brighter spot. Not that Annie's Bar was a particularly flash spot. Still, the location was good, in the Silent Hill Resort Area, on the corner of Bachman Rd. and Craig St. The parking lot is fairly empty when he cruises into a spot though there's an old Cadillac with the bonnet up that is still steaming and making that tck-tck-tck sound of a hot engine cooling. The front door looks locked, and the steel shutters are down over the windows. Not exactly a good look for any possible visitors, but at least it'll keep people's eyes off the gloomy streets.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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Jack let out a yawn as he dug around his pockets for the keys to the darn place. The deck of Tarot Cards fell out from his pockets, scattering its contents all throughout the street.

Jack swore, cursing at whatever deity that was responsible for gravity and careless mistakes. He began to gather up all the cards that fell out and paused at the last one.

"Major Arcana, 13," he muttered, smiling. "Seems like something interesting is in the air, eh?" He picked the final card up.

The door opened with a small creak. Jack grimaced. He would have to get someone to oil that soon. He moved over behind the counter and checked the stock. It was almost a robotic response now, really, checking out the stock of liquour behind the counter to make sure that some hooligan didn't break in to help himself to free drinks. It never happened, of course, but Rochelle was insistent.

One would think, Jack thought with a smile, that the first response would be to check if nobody had stolen the shotgun behind the counter, but Jack shook himself from the thought. Customers would arrive soon, and he had to make this place pretty for that.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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Annie's Bar isn't the biggest pub around but it did the job. It was the place folk came to drink in a cozy place with the rustic atmosphere that sold so many tickets and hotel rooms in this little resort town. It didn't feel too resort-y at the moment when the fog rolled in off the lake, but that was just the way things went sometimes. It was just a shame there wasn't a fireplace to get the damn chill out of the air. Rochelle was such a miser, she must've switched off the heating when she left. How that was going to encourage folks to stay in was anyone's guess. Warm air sold more drinks. Besides, even Jack was starting to feel a little chilled. The controls for the heating were in her office in the back area, opposite the little kitchen.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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One would have expected the heating to be close to the bar area, where people were, instead of all the way back in the office.

Jack muttered out several curses as he made his way to the office.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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Jack's grumbled complaint to himself conjures up an image of a time when the heaters would turn themselves on and off at random times and it was thought that one of the customers was doing it on purpose so they moved the controls into the office. Of course, they forgot that there's normally only 1 person working here (sometimes 2) and it's pretty awkward having to leave the bar to go adjust the heating and cooling. Then again, who is Silent Hill thought ahead like that? He reaches the office door and jigs the handle. Locked. Pulling out his keys, he tries to insert the right one but it doesn't go in. Is there something stuck in there?
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Spoiler:
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Roll: 9. Skill rank=26. Success!
Jack frowned, and pulled out a lockpicking kit from his pockets.

"Is there anything in the town that's not broken?" He wondered out aloud. He wasn't an expert at picking locks... He just learned how to do it when Rochelle forgot to give him the key to the place for the umpteenth time. He felt good this time, however. He fooled around with the lock until he could feel something click.
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Turns out the click wasn't the tumblers turning. There truly was something caught inside but the fancy lockpicks (and Rochelle scoffed when he bought the kit) do manage to dislodge something that falls out the other side. Then, and only then, is he able to turn the tumblers and get the door unlocked. Brushing open the door into the back office, he sees something lying on the floor. It looks like a tooth! The rest of the office looks as it should be. The steel shutters are down over the outside, which is usual, since Rochelle hates to see the fog press against the windows. She says it makes her feel depressed. The desk is neatly ordered and the computer shut off. The heater control panel is to the right of the steel locker, just above the filing cabinet where she keeps her tax forms and her collection of telly tubby paraphernalia. There's a lot of paper scrunched up and dropped in the waste paper bin and an upended bottle of pain killers lying beside the bin. The good kind. Migraine pain killers that can leave you dizzy. There's a few pills that have spilled from the bottle.
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"A tooth," Jack muttered. "A tooth. Because...that's not creepy at all."

He picked the tooth up. Hang on. How did Rochelle get out of office if the tooth was stuck in the lock?

A sick grin flashed across his face, and he leapt into the office chair. "BWAHAHAHA!" He said. "I am Rochelle, Evil Overlordess Magnificent! How shall I torment Jack, that worthless Bartender, more?!"

Jack leapt out of the chair. "I do not know, Mistress," he said, sitting subserviently on the floor towards the empty office chair. "Perhaps a more subtle kind of pain and misery would be suitable this time."

"Yes, my nameless minion, who is also a voice in my head," said Jack, as he leapt back into the office chair. "I know what I shall do! A closed room mystery! How did Rochelle escape from a locked room with something wedged in the lock... FROM THE INSIDE?!?!"

"A most brilliant plan, mistress," said Jack as he leapt out of the chair. "But surely, we can be more...ehh...creepy...with the thing? Perhaps a dead body or..."

"Hmm... you are right," Jack interrupted Jack as he clambered back into the chair. "I know! I'll wedge the lock... with your tooth!"

"Argh! Don't hurt me, Mistress!"

"Mwahahaha... and he'll totally be creeped out the next time he appears! Meanwhile, I'll leave through the windows and close the shutter behind me!"

"What about me, mistress?"

"Oh, you can go into the cabinet along with the rest of the skeletons."

"I should stop," Jack said as he shook the dust off of his clothes. He placed the tooth in his pockets. "I would hate to think of what would happen if people actually saw me do that."

He moved over to the locker and clicked on the heater.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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The heaters whir into life and he feels cold puffs of air coming from the Central Heating ducts as the cold air is expelled and the machine starts heating up the next set of air. It'll be a lot nicer once it gets warm and toasty in here. Shame it's icy cold at the moment and the puffs of air are icier still. As he checks the themometer on the heater (7 degrees Celsius in here, what's that in Fahrenheit? Stupid Australian Rochelle...), hehears a faint rattling sound coming from inside the metal locker. It even shakes slightly as something moves inside of it.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

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Jack looked blankly at the metal locker for a few moments. "Skelly? Is that you?" he said. "WELL I AM HAVING NONE OF IT!" he stormed off to the bar and grabbed the Sawn Off Remington 870 shotgun. Fully Loaded.

"SURPRISE!" Jack said as he pulled open the metal locker.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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The locker appears to be empty of anything but one of Rochelle's leather jackets and a pair of high heels. Then something moves against the heels and he peers down to see a little brown tabby kitten. It gazes up at him and meows plaintively. There appears to be a note stapled to its bow tie collar.
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"A kitten," Jack said. "So, little guy, what are you doing in the mysterious locked room in the dilapated creepy bar in the middle of a fog filled creepy town?"

The kitten meowed. Jack sighed. "Some day, I am going to teach your kind how to communicate with human kind. Oh what's this? A bow tie collar? And a note on it!"

He carefully removed the note from the kitten, being careful not to mess up its collar in the process.

"Let's see," he said, opening the note while keeping a firm hand on the cat. "What does the mysterious note say..."
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The note states in rough black penmanship: FOR KATIE, Don't Eat It, A.G.
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Jack nodded understandingly and grabbed the kitten. "Now you are a popular guy. Or a gal. I am not all too familiar with cat biology," he said.

He walked over to the counter and placed the cat next to him. "You stay there and be quiet, m'kay?"

The cat meowed.

"Good kitty," he said. He whistled out a few tones as he took out a rag and cleaned the bar.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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A dog barked somewhere outside and the kitten flattened its ears and hissed. Silent Hill has always had trouble with stray dogs attacking people. That cute Doctor Stacey McIntosh from the Emergency Department over at Alchemilla Hospital always complains about how the locals don't take care of their dogs. Dog attacks are one of the leading non-alcohol-induced causes of emergency ward visits some months. Okay, so maybe Dr. McIntosh may have been exaggerating but there were always a fair number and he didn't remember New York having such trouble with animals. Luckily, the dogs didn't seem to be rabid, though that didn't help the poor suckers who had to take the rabies shots, just in case.

Without any customers, its real quiet in here. There's no sound of traffic or people outside as the fog muffles everything. It's just him, his whistled tune, and the odd dog bark. Where were all the customers, anyway? It was nearing 7 PM and this place was normally jumping. As Jack's gaze flits to the clock hidden beneath the counter (so customers don't see it and realise what the time was), he realises that it's broken and stuck on 7 PM. Or maybe the batteries have just died.

Maybe having the Juke Box play some tunes might actually attract some clientele. If anyone could hear it outside through all that God Forsaken Fog.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

Oh, also, check out my new blog on roleplaying and running games: http://stwildonroleplaying.blogspot.com/
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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The Jukebox starts pelting out some tunes and the heaters are now working sufficiently enough to start warming up the bar. With the chill gone and the silent broken, this place is starting to feel more like a pub in a thriving resort town. Now all he needs to do is wait for some customers. Everything is a little bit dusty (the dust gets into everything here) but most pub punters don't much care about a little bit of dust so long as it's not in their pint. He even has a kitten which will doubtless cause all the women around to Nawww at and chat to him about it. Kittens were great like that.

The pub telephone starts ringing.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

Oh, also, check out my new blog on roleplaying and running games: http://stwildonroleplaying.blogspot.com/
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"Hello! Annie's Bar!" he cried out cheerfully as he snatched up the phone. The kitten let out a yelp as it quickly dodged Jack's foot.
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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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The telephones are obviously on the fritz again as the telephone crackles slightly before a woman's voice asks: "Oh god, Jack, are you hurt?" It sounds like Rochelle but her voice is strangely tight.

The kitten glares balefully up at him and then pauses to lick its paw and brush it across its head whispers.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

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Re: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

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"Nope, why would I be?" Jack said, still smiling. "How did you lock your office from the inside with a tooth, by the way?"
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