Silent Hill: Fateful Dreams

Chapter 9

What's happening? Am I still sleeping?

Linda felt herself being in such a state when she wasn't in a deep sleep yet, but not awake either, like something in the middle. It was nothing but darkness surrounding her, but she could hear distant voices whispering something unclear and her body felt every touch. She felt like someone was holding her in his arms, but all body ached, like after a serious fight a few moments ago. A large hand caressed her face and head gently, and Linda could feel that it had a glove on. The touch was so soft, so gentle that Linda felt herself falling into a deep, blissful oblivion. Before slumber enveloped her, she heard a faint voice practically at her ear:

"Linda... wake up..."

"Huh... what..." Linda could barely murmur a few incoherent words.

"Open your eyes..."

There it was again. The voice sounded female. No, it's more like a voice of a child. Linda slowly turned her head on the right, because that's where the voice came from. She opened her eyes finally. Although her vision was rather blurry, she saw a rather good-looking girl standing before her. It was hard to tell her age, but Linda presumed she could be around thirteen or fourteen years old. The girl had short dark hair and wore a knee-length blue dress with a white collar, white socks and black shoes. But before Linda could say something, her vision got clear and she realized that she was in a totally dark, in fact, infernal world. Everything looked rusty, filthy and covered in blood. There were even a few mutilated corpses here and there. But even that wasn't the worst. Turning her head back, the young woman saw a faceless head tilting above her. She realized that she was lying in the arms of a monster. He had no eyes, no nose and no ears, and only something like a thin line was barely visible where his mouth should be. As much as she could see, the monster really wore gloves on his hands and something resembling a ceremonial robe. His arms were muscular and everything was stained in dried blood. Linda wanted to scream, seeing such a creature looming above her, but the monster covered her mouth with his palm in one quick motion, muffling her scream.

Damn, this is just great...

First this strange girl, then being in some hell of a world, and now this creature holding her... What's next?

Then Linda realized something – she has already seen this being once. She remembered climbing up the ladder and this creature was behind it, rotating the valve. And the surroundings looked pretty similar to this world. He was doing his things and seemed ignorant to her presence. But as soon as she turned her head, he was there, on the wall. No matter where she looked, she saw him. Although he had no eyes, Linda could feel him watching her every minute. What's more – he never tried to harm her. And he wasn't intending to do it now, too. Yes, it's him, and Linda was more than sure about that. But what's even stranger – this girl somehow seemed familiar to her.

Seeing Linda's fear, the girl kneeled down and gently caressed her hair.

"Shhh... don't be scared. He won't hurt you."

"W-what? Who is this creature?" Linda stuttered.

"He's my guardian," the girl replied. "And he's your guardian as well."

"My guardian? Why? What are you talking about?" Linda asked, widening her eyes. Her guardian? Since when she has a guardian? It makes no sense.

"You don't remember anything now, do you?" the girl smiled kindly. Linda just shook her head.

"No, but... I think I've seen this being in my dreams," she pointed her head to the monster that was holding her. "And somehow I find you familiar either. It's like... like I've seen you somewhere already."