#jamessunderland

The fog pressed tighter around us as we walked, the streets curling into silence the deeper we went. Streetlamps hung overhead like broken teeth, their light too faint to reach the ground. Buildings leaned close together as if whispering secrets neither of us were meant to hear.The fog pressed tighter around us as we walked, the streets curling into silence the deeper we went. Streetlamps hung overhead like broken teeth, their light too faint to reach the ground. Buildings leaned close together as if whispering secrets neither of us were meant to hear. We moved without speaking, our footsteps the only rhythm against the hollow quiet. 

James walked a half step ahead of me, driven by something he couldn’t name as his shoulders squared against the weight of the fog. I followed, through every turn, every blind corner made my skin crawl with the thought of someone watching us or even jumping out to kill us. The further we went the more the town seemed to rot around us. Pavement cracked into jagged veins, rust bloomed across abandoned cars, and the air grew sharp with the metallic tang of blood and rain. It was less a walk than a slow descent, every street leading downward as though Silent Hill itself were funneling us toward some inevitable end. 

And then there it was… Brookhaven Hospital. 

It loomed from the haze with a stillness that felt wrong, its shape too sharp against the blur of the fog. The building windows were blackened from within and streaks of rust were running down its walls like old wounds. I could taste iron just from looking at it, like the air had already curdled. James stopped at the doors, staring up at the letters eaten away by corrosion. His breath shuddered out, and for the first time since he’d begged me to follow him, I wondered if he was afraid. Because I was. Still, when he pushed open the doors, I followed and stepped in after him. The doors groaned as they swung open, their hinges screaming something in pain. The hospital lobby in front greeted us, a hollow cavern of shadows. Fluorescent bulbs buzzed weakly overhead, flickering like dying fireflies. The air smelled of antiseptic turned sour, the sweetness of bleach layered with the metallic tang of blood in the air. 

I hugged my arms around myself, feeling my skin tighten at the chill. James proceeded to step forward, every movement taut, like a man afraid of making noise. His eyes darted between the reception desk, the broken chairs scattered across the floor, the empty elevators yawning like open mouths at the far end. “ Place is… deserted “ he muttered, voice low but loud enough to disturb the silence. 

“ Feels like it’s watching… “ I whispered back as his jaw tightened.

“ ….Yeah “

We continue to walk further inside the hospital, shoes squeaking faintly against the cracked floor. A gurney lay abandoned against the wall, one wheel bent at an unnatural angle. There were rust stains on the sheets still strapped to it, dark, blooming, shaped too much like handprints. I forced myself to look away. James drifted toward the front desk, his fingers brushing over the splintered wood. Crouching slightly, peering over as if expecting someone to rise up from behind it and escort us to our destination. “ No one here. “ he said to himself. 

“ Did you really think there would be? “ The words came out sharper than I meant. His shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t turn to look at me. Instead, he pressed his hands to the counter and let out a long, thin breath.

“ I have to believe she’s here “ he said. “ If I stop believing that, then.. “ His voice broke off, unfinished. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “ Then what?- “ He didn’t answer. A sound cut the silence before I could push him further, a dragging noise, faint at first but then clearer. Rubber soles sliding against the floor, my whole body went rigid. James’ head snapped up, his eyes narrowing as he tried to pinpoint where the noises were coming from. The flickering light overhead dimmed for a long second, plunging the hall in complete darkness before buzzing back to life. That’s when I saw them. Figures moving at the edge of the corridor. Women- or something dressed as women. Their bodies shrouded in stained nurse uniforms, skirts clinging to the skin that looked warped, melted. Bandages, or was it flesh itself? Wrapped around their heads, twisting their features into faceless masks. They twitch violently, jerking like broken marionettes pulled by tangled strings from above. James froze, his hand instinctively flying to the weapon strapped at his side. I grabbed his wrist before he could raise it. 

“ Don’t “ I hissed at him, “ I don’t… I don’t think they can see very well. “ His eyes flicked to me, then back to the creatures. He was breathing too fast. “What if they can hear?” 

“ Then stop breathing so goddamn loud. “ He gave me a look, half a glare, half terrified disbelief. But he forced himself to slow his breathing, shoulders shaking as he did. We inched forward. My heart hammered so hard I was sure it would give us away. The nearest nurse twitched, head jerking in our direction. It sniffed at the air, a wet, rattling sound that turned my stomach. 

We froze.

For one long endless moment, nothing happened. 

But then another nurse slammed its metal pipe against the wall with a sharp metallic clang. The sound reverberated down to the corridor, too loud, too deliberate. James flinched as his grip twitched, and before I could stop him, he swung. The pipe cracked against the nurse’s skull. The creature toppled to the floor in a writhing heap, limbs spasming before going limp. The silence that follows pressed down on us, heavy and suffocating. As always. Lifting my eyes up to catch his eyes, I stare at him, words caught in my throat. All I could manage was a sharp, strangled whisper. “ Be careful. “ 

His chest heaves. Looking down at the twisted body on the ground, his expression cracked into something like guilt. His knuckles turned white on the weapon, and finally he gave me a small nod, almost ashamed from what he did. We stepped past the corpse. My shoes slipped on a smear of blood and I nearly stumbled. James reached out instinctively, steadying me with a hand at my elbow. For a moment, I wanted to lean into it. For a moment, I wanted him to hold on. But his hand dropped as soon as I regained my balance, and so we kept on moving. Somewhere deeper into the hospital, faint and muffled, came a sound that froze us both.  A scream. High pitched, frantic and desperate. 

“ James! “ it echoed down the hall, rattling broken lights, curling around us like smoke. His whole body jolted from the sound. 

“ Mar- Maria- “ he breathed, the name raw in his tongue. He looked at me and I could already see it in his face. “ Did you hear that? “ 

“ Yes “ I told him, though I wish I could lie. 

“ She’s here, I knew it “ his voice cracking with certainty. 

“ We have to find her. “

James didn’t wait for my answer, he lunged forward as though the sound itself had taken him by the hand, dragging him down the dark throat of the hallway. Stumbling after him, my pulse like a drum in my ears, every step louder than I wanted it to be. The scream came again, closer now, pitch so sharp it could cut through my chest. 

“ James! Please! “ Her voice cracked on the plea, twisting the air into something frantic and childlike. I hated how it made me want to run, as if my own bones were being tugged towards her. The hallways bent and warped around us the further we went. Paint peeled from the walls in long strips, curling like dead skin, ceiling tiles sagged with water damage, dipping steadily, so the floor grew slick beneath our shoes. My reflection fractured in the puddles, pieces of me twitching in distorted rhythm. But James didn’t notice- his focus was solely on the voice shouting his name. Reaching a set of double doors at the end of the corridor, one hung askew, bent on its hinges while the other bore deep gouges… as if something had raked its way through. The scream blended into the gap, so close now I could almost feel the hot breath of it against my ear. 

With a careful step, James strode toward the partition, his shoulders drawn tight as if bracing for whatever waited behind it. I tried reaching out for him, fingers brushing the fabric of his sleeve, but he was already moving faster, already slipping from my grasp.

“ James wait- “ The words cracked from my throat, too quiet and too late. He pushed closer, one hand lifting towards the door swaying it, and in that breath of silence I could hear my own heartbeat, hear the sharp hitch of his breath. I wanted to drag him back- pull him away before the hospital decides what to show us. 

James shoved the door open, and the sound inside collapsed into silence. The room was empty, save for overturned beds and shattered glass scattered across the tiles like salt. Rust chewed through the frames, the smell of old blood turning my stomach. At the far end of the ward, the curtain of a partition swayed gently as though someone had just passed through. 

And then the floor shook.

Not a quake, not natural. This was heavy, deliberate. A thud like footsteps large enough to rattle the bones of the hospital itself.

Standing there, filling the space with his impossible bulk, was him. 

The Great Knife scraped against the floor as Pyramid Head stepped forward, helmet gleaming dully in the broken light. His presence sucked the air out of the room, pressing it tight against my ribs until I couldn’t breathe. The large chunk of metal shrieked across the floor as he dragged it forward. That sound vibrated through my teeth, sinking straight into bone. James’ lips moved, one word spilling out raw and broken “ Maria wai- “

“ James! “ I grabbed his arm this time, nails digging into his sleeve.

“ Move! “ 

He looked at me as though waking from a trance, eyes wide open with something close to guilt. Then the blade swung, beds screeched on the floor, metal legs sparking as they toppled. James staggered, instinct kicking in at last. He seized my hand, clutching it so tightly it hurt, and we bolted toward the nearest door. Our feet pounded against the tiles, our breaths ragged and loud in the suffocating air. Behind us, each step of the monster landed like a hammer blow, rattling the walls, shaking the very floor beneath us. And as the hallway split ahead acting like two gaping choices. James yanked left, my weight pulled right, our grips slippery with sweat and panic. 

“Don’t let go!” I shouted, but the words were ripped away by the roar of metal cleaving through concrete. 

Our hands tore apart.

“(Y/N)!” His voice cracked, desperate, reaching for me even as the fog thickened between us.

“James!” I tried to run back, but the floor buckled beneath my feet. Tiles split open like rotting teeth, and suddenly I was stumbling into a side corridor, its darkness swallowing me whole. The sound of his voice faded, drowned by the scrape of the knife dragging against the tiles. My chest burned as I stumbled forward, palms grazing the walls for balance. 

That was when I realized it, this hallway wasn’t the same. The walls dripped with rust that gleamed too fresh, too wet. The buzzing lights stuttered and died, one by one, until I was left in a corridor that smelled not of blood or sterile- but of mildew, rot and something sweet. Familiar. My throat tightened. The hospital wasn’t showing me its face anymore, it was showing me mine. 

The room contracts around me, every shadow steeped in the smell of old smoke and leather straps. The figure staggers forward, its many hands groping like it has never forgotten the shape of me. I recoil, breath ragged, but my back hits plaster before I even move a step. The walls bend closer, peeling roses shivering as if they, too, remember. 

I wanted James. God, I wanted him to come crashing through the door, to prove this wasn’t mine to face alone. His pipe, his voice, his hands- I- anything but this silence. But the only sound was the wet drag of the monster’s limbs and the faint echo of him shouting my name somewhere far away, muffled as though through walls that wouldn’t let me through. The creature lifts its head. Its face is a smear of features, no eyes, no mouth, just the suggestion of both in folds of waxy skin. And yet I feel watched, pinned down beneath the weight of a gaze that doesn’t exist.

“ No… ” My voice is paper thin, barely leaving my lips. The hands twitch at the sound, convulsing with a hunger too old to be denied. My chest aches. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine James’ hand instead steadying me like before, pulling me out of this nightmare. But when I open them, it is only fingers that are not his, reaching, reaching. My knees buckle, but I force myself upright. Because if I fall here, I know it will catch me. And if it catches me, I will not come back.  Each step closer shakes the frame of the bed it crawled from, rattling metal in a rhythm too steady, too practiced. It wasn’t clumsy. It wasn’t confused. It knows me. 

“ James, ” I whisper, but it doesn’t matter if he can’t hear me. Maybe it’s not even for him. Maybe it’s just for me, to remind myself that someone is still out there, calling my name. I backed up until my spine met the wall. Paint flaked off against my palms, sticky with some kind of resin. I wanted to scream but my body knew better. The thing’s head tilted as if scenting the air, and a low, wet sound came from somewhere deep inside it… half sigh, half moan, it disgusted me.

And as the monster took another step the walls tightened around me, the tiles under my feet turned from carpet to wood to something soft and damp. Lights flickered, and for an instant I was standing in my childhood bedroom- same wallpaper, same cracked closet door, same smell of stale perfume. Then it blinked back into the hospital’s dripping corridor. The shift was so quick it felt like I'd been slapped. 

It lunged.

As quickly as I could I threw myself sideways, my shoulder slamming against the doorframe. My hands skidded along the wall, smearing rust across my palms as I ran. The hallway warped around me, stretching, bending into impossible angles, doors multiplying like a funhouse with no mirrors. I could still hear it behind me with its hands scraping the walls, its belt dragging like a tongue across the floor. Stumbling through an open doorway, slamming it shut behind me. The click of the latch was too small to matter. My back slid down the wood, lungs burning. Somewhere far away, muffled and distant, James’ voice was calling my name again low and frantic.

“ James… “ I whispered back, a soundless echo. 

The room I’d landed in was small and dim, lit only by a single bulb swinging from a cord. A hospital exam table sat in the middle, leather cracked, straps dangling from its sides. A mirror hung crookedly on the opposite wall, its surface clouded with grime. My reflection flickered between me and someone else, someone younger, smaller, her wrists already caught in the straps. Pressing my knees to my forehead, my breathing coming in shallow bursts, trembling with the old instinct to be quiet, to disappear, to make myself small enough to survive.

Then a sound cracked the air like a whip, metal dragging over tile. Not the monster this time. A different sound. A pipe clattering to the floor. And then-

“ Y/n! “ 

It was James, closer now, his voice breaking down at the edges.

“ James! “ I called back, my throat raw.

The door creaked open, and there he was- his silhouette filling the threshold, shoulders hunched the way they always were, pipe still clutched like he never put it down. My chest cracked with relief so sudden it almost hurt. 

“ Y/n ” he breathed, stepping inside. His voice was warm, steady, everything I’d been begging for.

Staggering towards him desperate for the weight of his hands against mine, for anything real. He caught me as I fell into him, his arms wrapping around me. That familiar scent… sweat, smoke, faint aftershave washed over me. I pressed my face into his chest, trembling, whispering. “ You came back… you came back for me. “

But then another voice broke the comfort of my silence, soft and coaxing, hummed from the corner. 

“ James… “

My head snapped up. The room bent. From the shadows, Maria stepped forward, lips curling with that same sultry half smile she always carried, her eyes glittering like she’d already won. James’ arms loosened around me.

“ Maria? “ His voice softened. Too soft, softer than it had ever been for me. I pulled back, but his arms didn’t reach to steady me this time, they drifted toward her. And when she leaned into him, tilting her chin to meet his mouth, he didn’t hesitate. His lips pressed against hers with a hunger that knocked the air out of me.

My whole body went cold. 

“ No… ” The word slipped out before I could stop it, paper-thin and breaking. “ No, that’s not- James, that’s not- ” He didn’t look at me. He didn’t even hear me. His hands cupped Maria’s face like it was the only thing in the world that mattered, like I had never been there at all. My knees buckled. I wanted to tear them apart, to scream until the walls collapsed, but nothing came. My throat locked tight as the mirror across the room flickered again, showing me myself alone, small, pressed against the straps of the exam table, mouth open in silence. 

This is what you get, the town seemed to whisper. You wanted him. You wanted more than you deserved. And look… he was never yours to begin with. 

“ Stop- please stop- ” I pressed my hands to my ears, but it didn’t block anything. Their bodies blurred into one, shadows writhing together. And then…

A hand, rough and real, seized my arm.

“ Y/n! “

The sound cut through everything, the kiss, the laughter, the whispering walls. My head whipped up, and there he was again, this time with dirt on his shirt and blood spattered along his temple, his pipe clenched like he’d fought his way here. His eyes locked on mine, wide with something desperate. “ Y/n ” he said again, shaking me just enough to force my focus back. His voice was raw, urgent, nothing like the soft dream that had gutted me seconds before. This one was real.

I collapsed into him, clutching his shirt like it was the last tether I had. My sob came out broken, ugly, spilling everything I’d tried to hold in. He held me up, wordless, his breathing ragged in my ear.

The room stilled. The shadows receded.

But inside, I couldn’t shake the image… the phantom warmth of his arms around me, only to let go. The kiss he gave Maria, the kiss that wasn’t mine.

Even with him here, even with his grip unyielding, the doubt crawled under my skin like rot.