CHAPTER ONE: Jack's Journey: Opening Hours

[Seon]

Jack sighed and returned to the lobby. Maybe it was time to investigate the bloodtrail once more. Then he could examine what he saw in the television set.

[Laraqua]

Jack heads out past three doors on his left into the main reception foyer. The blood trail seemed to stretch from between the women's toilets to behind the reception desk. Coming closer to the desk, Jack notices a Health Drink sitting next to the computer. A couple sheets of paper lie beside the keyboard. There's blood spatter across the door behind the desk and across the noticeboard but he can't tell what might have caused it. The Wanted Posters, Information Posters, and Missing Persons Posters are all dull and faded on the wall opposite the vending machine.

[Seon]

Jack popped open the health drink and sat on the counter as he examined the papers in detail, occasionally eyeing the blood trails leading up to the woman's bathroom. Once he studied the papers to a certain detail, he began to move towards the woman's bathroom.

Jack then, ever so quietly, opened the door.

Spoiler:

Rolled for Sneak.

[Laraqua]

The papers say some interesting things that would doubtless frighten Cecilia if she read them:

The Bogeyman - A Child's Nursery Rhyme
This is a nursery rhyme that's been spreading throughout the playgrounds and streets of Silent Hill like wildfire since the 1890s. While the wording sometimes changes, the essential meaning remains the same. No one knows who invented it nor who is continuing it but it has to be the longest children's poem to survive for a very long while. Perhaps that's why the old principal used to mutter it to herself at Brookhaven.

Where is Steven, mommy? He can't play and I'm sad.
You mustn't, ask my darling - Steven has been bad.
Billy too, and Sally? Did they do something wrong?
I'm afraid it's true, child - all your friends are gone.
Beware of he who took them- he goes by many names.
The Bogeyman, the Shadow One, but all are he, the same.
For every sin a child has, must be a punishment to bear.
Your friends are now beyond our reach: trapped deep within his lair.
Remember to always behave, for sins he won't abide.
He wields a rusty, jagged blade, to cut out your insides.
The lying little children, with souls selfish and small,
Will find their wriggling tongues cut out, and nailed to his wall.
And if they take what is not theirs, there can be no doubt
He'll stretch their skin until it snaps, and all the blood drains out.
The bullies and their spiteful wrath will find torment as well.
Soon he will strike them where they stand and drag them into hell.
Child, you must obey your parents: do everything they say.
Little ones who do otherwise, he tortures in the flames.
Beatings cleanse the soul, they say, and that is what he'll do.
If you don't control your anger then you'll feel his anger too.
You are your brother's keeper, remember it always.
Or else, the Bogeyman will chain you underneath the waves.
And while good children live, bad ones cannot escape their fate.
For once your hear his screeching wail, it's already too late.
So do not cry aloud at night stay hidden in your bed...
Or the Bogeyman from Silent Hill will come chop off your head.

The bathroom door squeaks open to reveal a bloodsmeared set of black-and-white tiles that lead into the second to last stall (there are three). The mirrored glass is cracked in a strangely obscure pattern that seems important somehow.

[Seon]

Jack studied the pattern for a few seconds, trying to remember what the pattern could possibly mean. He then walked over to the second stall and...

opend it.

Spoiler:

Rolled for Occult.

[Laraqua]

The pattern seemed to give him a partial headache but it did mean something. It was a flawed design intended to disrupt negative supernatural forces and protect those reflected in its image from attacks. Of course, it obviously didn't work. Or perhaps it did. The victim wasn't behind the counter which meant they must be in that stall so they had been attacked elsewhere. Hmm, no, then the monster couldn't have passed it by. Because surely a monster would count as a negative supernatural force? He crossed the smear of clotting blood and pulled open the door to reveal the corpse of an overweight man, likely the desk sergeant, sitting on the toilet. His face was a shattered mess and it was obvious that whatever had gooed up the corpse by his car had also done a job on him as his ribs were glistening pink, the internals of him having been cleared out or liquefied so that through the hollow, Jack could make out his hip bones. His pants and belt had survived the treatment, however. He didn't have a gun on him but he did still have a baton and some CS spray, or whatever they called it. One of his wallets also bulged.

[Seon]

"Oooh, I'll take them," Jack said as he grabbed onto the can of CS Spray and the wallet. He also took the baton. He figured that, with the baton, he will at least be able to hit something in the head whilst holding the flashlight at the same time. He also dug through the wallet to examine whatever it was that was making it bulge.

[Laraqua]

Prying off the baton and the CS spray is enough but taking out the wallet (and keys) causes the body to slide to one side and fall down between the toilet and the cubicle, leaving a smear of something gross on the cubicle wall. The wallet's I.D. shows this man to be Sergeant Blake Williams. Well, assuming that the wallet actually belongs to the corpse. The wounds sort of make him unidentifiable. The key ring holds a lot of different keys. None of them are marked.

[Seon]

"Aaaahhhh, blood trails. You lead me in the right direction once more," Jack chuckled as he left, leaving the body of the sergeant behind. He glared once at the flawed pattern before leaving the bathroom. He also dropped the sledgehammer on the counter. It was getting awfully heavy carrying that around. He would leave it here, at least until he figured out how to fix the damn flashlight to his shoulders or something. Didn't cops have those flashlights that you could attach to the shoulders? Maybe there was one in thestorage.

[Laraqua]

Jack returns to the storage area and takes a few moments to find the right key for the lock. Pulling open the door he reveals a room full of metal shelving that carries many cardboard boxes full of bric-a-brac, two old filing cabinets, a stack of eight chairs, a chalkboard, a box of rags, and some cleaning products. There may still be a clip-on flashlight somewhere amongst this mess. He'd just need to take the time to search for it.

[Seon]

Jack silently moved around the mess, searching carefully through the metal shelves and the filing cabinets, looking for anything vaguely interesting in the darn mess.

[Laraqua]

There's a bottle of whiskey on one counter and another clip-on radio sitting on a shelf that could be a good trade item if he ever felt the need. There was also a small first aid kit which had a bandage he could at least wrap over his arm wound to stop the bleeding (since the last Health Drink did very little for him). There are no bullets or weaponry here (unless you count the mop) but packed in the back of one of the boxes is a clip-on flashlight.

[Seon]

He took the other clip-on radio and absent mindly clipped it on next to his other radio. He bagged the first aid kit into his pockets and then clipped on the flashlight to his coat.

"Won't be needing you anymore," Jack said hopefully as he dropped his other, more hefty, flashlight.

[Laraqua]

Jack's coat feels a lot more lightweight now. All he had to do was find a new place to go find Ash.

[Seon]

"The interrogation rooms are.... probably upstairs, right?" Jack mumbled. "There has to be some maps somewhere in this damn police station..."

Still, without making any noise, he left the storage room and began to wander towards the stairwell.

[Laraqua]

The door at the end of this short corridor is broken. The door knob doesn't even turn. Judging by the map, there's a door behind the counter that would lead to the stairwell in a roundabout route. It's a one-storey building, however, so those stairs can only lead one way. Downstairs. However, he does recall seeing black lettering on the two doors nearest the Men's Toilets said Interview Room 1 and Interview Room 2.

[Seon]

Jack doubled back to the Men's toilet to the Interview Room 1 and 2, and knocked on the doors of each.

[Laraqua]

There's no response.

[Seon]

"Anyone there?..."

[Laraqua]

No response.