Silent Hill: Rebirth

Rick looked down at the words written on the envelope so carefully, about nine months prior to the current date. He couldn’t read it for too long, as he was driving down the road as he did so. Yeah, in some really dense fog too, remember to keep watching. Wouldn’t want to crash. He reminded himself as his Toyota Camry moved down the gloomy road. The radio played in the car, although the reception seemed to be dying out, replacing the familiar music of his favorite bands with static.

He kept his eyes on the road as he felt down into the cup holder, making sure the letter was still there. It had become almost a joke to everyone who worked with him at the post office, the letter sent from another town to their office, the label telling them to return it to the sending address in nine months. Once those nine months had almost gone by, people were getting anxious as who would return the letter to its sender. After various bets and tasks, the job ended up in Rick’s lap, which was how at dawn he found himself bringing the letter back to the town it had been sent from. What was the name again? Nevermind, I know where it is, that’s good enough. He continued to ask himself, before dismissing the thought. He wanted to get the letter delivered and just head back home, after all, it was his son’s birthday and he wanted, no, needed to be there with him to celebrate it. A picture hung underneath his rearview mirror, of him and two children, a boy and a girl, looking eight and eleven respectively. The boy took more after his father, with his black hair color and brown eyes, while the girl was a spitting image of her mother, sporting a reddish brown hair color and blue eyes. Rick smiled slightly at the picture, thinking about what they’ll say when he sees them again, after all, he had left early and hadn’t told them yet, except with a note.
Pop
The car lurched, making Rick’s heart jump as he realized that the car was swerving out of his control. Jesus, what did I hit? A pin, broken glass, what- He started to wonder as he tried to regain control of the car. His actions caused the car to spin, letting off a loud screeching sound followed by a crashing noise as the car hit the barrier on the side of the road. Finally coming to a stop, Rick’s body flew forward, staying in his seat with the help of his seatbelt as he started to calm down again, out of harm’s way. Looking around, he could see that the heavy fog was still around with no sign of lifting up soon.

“Oh, dammit, come on…” He grumbled, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the car door, getting out and inspecting the damage done. The car had hit a three foot high metal barrier, the kind usually seen on highways. There was no tire left where there had once been one at the front right position of his car, and a large sized dent was visible in the front of the car. Smoke rose from the hood, blending in with the gray fog of the morning. He stood still for a moment, wondering what to do and pulled his cell phone out, going to turn it on but finding it to be out of battery.
“There goes that plan…” He muttered, before remembering that he had been nearing his destination anyway. Get some help for the car, and deliver that letter at the same time. Sounds good to me. He decided, and opened the door to the car again, and reaching into the cup-holder he had put the letter in grabbed it, shoving it into the pocket of his dark blue vest that he wore over a red flannel shirt. Turning around, he almost left but stopped, turning back to the car and grabbing his picture of his children from the rearview window, deciding to take it with him. That picture he slid into the pocket of his jeans, before turning back around and starting to head towards the nearest town with a brisk jog, wanting to get out of the cool morning air. After a few feet, he found a sign pointing off to another road to his right. The sign was a standard welcome sign, and the name on it rang a bell to him. That’s it, the town I was supposed to go to. Better get moving. He thought to himself as he turned onto that road, running past the sign that read ”Welcome to Silent Hill.”

Following the road, it didn’t take long for Rick to find his way to what appeared to be the town, as parking lots began to crop up, as did brick buildings with various signs on them advertising the stores. Towards the inside of one of the parking lots, there was a building with a glass front and a sign that read “Mackleby Auto-Repair Shop.” There we go, maybe I can get myself some help here, though it doesn’t look like many people get up early around here. He thought to himself as the loneliness started to get to him. Despite there being perfectly usable streets, nobody seemed to be out and using them. There were a few cars in each parking lot, but not nearly as many as you would normally see. Whatever, I just need to fix my car, deliver the letter and get out of here. He told himself for comfort as he walked to the glass front of the shop, opening the door.

“Perfect…” Rick scoffed, slowly walking into the building. Nobody appeared to be inside or working, and besides a radio on the counter next to the cash register there was no other noise. Directly in front of the door were various aisles lined up and down with supplies, spare windshield wipers, tires, usual things that you would find.
“Hey, anybody around? Hello?” He called out, deciding to see if he could get some kind of response. He paused a moment, listening. The Radio seemed to crackle a little bit, but other than that the silence continued. Alright, just grab some supplies, leave some money and get out then. This place is giving me the creeps… He decided as he walked down the closest aisle, looking for supplies that could be useful. First things first, he picked up a tire iron, since he would need it if he was going to get the busted wheel out. When he grabbed it, he jumped slightly as a new noise could be heard inside the building. What the…a baby? He thought to himself as he looked around, hearing the noise of a baby’s cry coming from the bathroom in the back of the building. He walked over to the door, ignoring the continued crackling of the static on the radio as he opened it and walked inside. The first thing he noticed was the smell, which hit him when he opened the door. What the…it smells like death in here. He continued to walk inside, hearing the noise coming from one of the three stalls lined up. He arrived at the middle stall, where the noise seemed to be loudest and pushed the door open.
”Squick. Squick.”
Rick froze, looking at the…thing that was inside the stall, continuing to emit a baby’s cry as he backed away from it. If he looked closely at a certain angle, it looked like it could have been a person at one time. The legs were human, though there was no clothing covering them and also no sign of genitals of any sorts as he looked further up the creature’s body, which was about as tall as him at possibly the latter half of five feet. Once the hips were reached, the creature changed from human to alien as where a torso would be was a giant, pus-filled area of bloated skin, puffing up and encompassing the upper body, showing no head or arms. To top everything so far, the front of the creature’s bloated torso opened up as flower petals would have, the pieces of skin folding out with small, jagged teeth as it emitted a cry similar to a baby’s. Pus seemed to drip off the front as the creature’s “mouth” opened. Only after he made his examination did Rick fully realize that the thing had noticed him, and was now stumbling towards him. Like any sane man would do, he bolted for the bathroom door, trying to block out the sounds of the creature as it stumbled behind.