#monster sam

How did we get here? Joel pushing Sophie back from her apartment as a giant multi-headed bird-thing tried to attack them. Joel didn’t know what to do. It was too big for him to swallow whole. And it was too fast and ferocious for him to even get the chance. Mr Sam wasn’t here to help either.

The start of this was simply covering more ground. Sam would keep looking on the first floor and Joel and Sophie would go back to Sophie’s apartment. Joel didn’t mind convincing Sophie to let him go with her. He was still a big brother! Even if… his siblings weren’t doing too well. 

Joel felt a sense of guilt over leaving his family to stay with Mr Sam. But he hadn’t been entirely sure what to do. Something had happened to them all. And he was the only one that had adjusted well to the teeth. Joel told himself that he was just staying with Sam for now until his family was doing better. But Joel knew in the back of his mind that they weren’t going to get better.

Joel was excited about the chance to be like a big brother to Sophie too, even if they weren’t that far in age. And Hope was really little, Joel would be a great big brother to them! Joel’s watched his younger siblings before, not often and never for long, but he knows how to watch a baby. Joel was sure he could handle making sure Sophie didn’t get hurt, that’s what big brothers are for!

So when Sophie and Sam came to an agreement and Sophie grabbed Joel’s hand and started running up the stairs, of course he told her to be careful, not that it slowed her down at all. They came to the landing at the 2nd floor and Sophie pushed the doors open while yelling “OPEN SESAME!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t hhhh be yelling?” Joel tried to advise her.

Sophie shrugged and said, “Ah, You’re no fun.”

“No. I’m fun. I’m a lot of hhhh fun!” It came out a bit lame sounding but Joel knew that what he was saying was true. He was a lot of fun to play games with, but now just wasn’t the time for having fun.

In the hallway, just past the doors was the robed man. Joel had seen him earlier when he and Mr Sam were on the 2nd floor but they hadn’t stopped to talk to him. Mr Sam had waved hello and that was it. The robed man perked up seeing them, then started looking back and forth between the stairwell and apartment 21 looking slightly confused.

Sophie called to the man, “Hey Mr Robe Face! Have you seen my mom?”

“I haven’t. How did you-”

“The first floor doors are unlocked now! You’re welcome!”

“Where’s the man who was uh… with you?” the robed man pointed at Joel.

“Mr Sam is looking for Sophie’s mom on the first hhhh floor while we wait at their apartment.” Joel replied.

At that moment the door to apartment 21 clicked open. Joel got excited, expecting to see a mother and daughter reunion, or at least Mr Sam. When the robbed man had said he hadn’t seen Sophie’s mom it had Joel feeling a little worried. A woman did step out from the door but… she looked nothing like Sophie. And nothing like a mother. Her clothes were ripped and dirty, her eyes were feral, and on her face was the widest grin that Joel had ever seen on a person.

“Uhhhh Sophie?” Joel asked, “Is that your mom?”

— Sam —

Sam stepped back, his back bumping into the door. The thing in the rat hole… was this wall mouth its other half? It did bore a slight resemblance. Sam knew he didn’t want to have anything to do with… whatever this is. Sam said to wall mouth, “Child? I don’t have any.”

Hope, of course, decided that this was the best time to take a peek out of Sam’s bag to see what was going on. Damn Sam’s luck.

“THAT CHILD, FEED IT TO ME!”

“Child? This isn’t a child, this is my pet rat.”

“FEED ME THE CHILD”

“No.” Sam opened the door to leave. Even if the hallway monster was still there, he’d rather take his chances with it than talk any moment longer with something that wanted to eat one of his kids. But as he saw the hallway in front of him, his heart sank. It wasn’t the normal space looping hallway he was used to. Now it was some entirely new brand of space warping weirdness.

The hallway stretched out into darkness, no doors to run into. The floor was all grating, just like the floor of room 13, as if it were some strange continuation of it. Sam didn’t want to go into there, but he also didn’t want to stay here. So Sam, with hesitation, walked into the long hallway.

— Joel —

Sophie was looking back and forth between Joel and the strange woman with an incredulous look on her face. “Whaaaaat? You really think she could be my mom?! Come on Joel, don’t be silly. She’s too young to be my mom.” Sophie paused before adding “And too weird too.”

The strange women in question clearly overheard them but to Joel’s surprise she grinned even wider upon being called ‘weird’. She looked at them and said “Heh heh heh… yeah… I’m weird.”

She looked towards Joel and her whole body jerked in his direction. He startled back. And the woman leaned into his personal space. “Say…” the woman said. “I’ve seen you before… heh heh heh. Where’s the other one?”

“Other hhhh one?” Joel took a step back. And the woman took a step forward.

“Heh heh heh… that guy you were with earlier today. I saw you two here in the hallway. Before you ran off and hid in that apartment.” The strange woman pointed at Ms Jeanne’s door. “I’ve been waiting for you two to get back. I have some business with that guy… heh heh heh.”

Joel searched his memories. He remembered Mr Sam getting scared earlier and growing extra eyes. He remembered that Mr Sam had said something had been watching them. Was that something this strange woman? If her just watching made Mr Sam freak out, Joel figured he should be careful around her too, not that he needed much convincing.

Joel eventually replied to the strange woman, “Do you hhhh mean Mr hhhh Sam?” Joel’s nervousness was already starting to make him gasp for air more. It was annoying how often he would just run out of air while talking. It didn’t use to be like that. As a result, Joel wasn’t talking quite as much as he used too.

“Heh heh heh… so that’s his name. Well I’m Leigh.”

“Why do you want to meet Sam so bad?” Sophie butted in. Which Joel was grateful for because Leigh finally took a step back so she could look at both of them. “He’s nice, but a little lame.”

“I want a rematch.” Leigh said. 

Sophie's eyes grew wide. “Whoaaa a rematch? So you two got into a fight!?”

“HEH HEH HEH!” Leigh loudly laughed. “He beat me yesterday… but I don’t like being beat. So I’m going to fight him again… and I’m going to win! HEH HEH HEH!” Sophie started to laugh alongside Leigh. Joel didn’t get what was so funny.

Leigh’s laughter came to a pause. “So…” she said. “Where is… Sam. Heh heh heh.”

“He’s looking for my mom on the 1st floor.” Sophie said before Joel could stop her. Joel didn’t trust Leigh, she made him nervous. Sophie continued, “We’re supposed to wait here at my apartment in case my mom comes back.”

“Heh heh heh… how do you know she ain’t dead?” Leigh asked.

Joel was shocked at such a brazen question. He expected Sophie to be crest fallen but when he turned his head to look at her she wasn’t. Sophie had a big grin on her face, but not nearly as large as Leigh’s of course.

“My mom’s too tough for any old monster to get her! She beat my dad up, he deserved it, and she can beat up monsters too!”

“Your mom sounds cool… heh heh heh… maybe I should challenge her to a fight too.”

“Well my mom could totally beat up Sam, and if Sam beat you up, then my mom could beat you up too!”

“Well I’m going to beat up Sam… we’ll see about your mom… heh heh heh.” Leigh paused before saying, “So is he coming… back here? How did you even slip by me?” That last question was directed at Joel, he could tell by the way Leigh was looking at him.

“Uh…hhhh” Joel tried to say something but was stopped by his need for air again.

Sophie jumped in and said “The doors to the 1st floor got unlocked so we just took the stairs.”

Leigh eyed the doors to the stairwell. “I see… heh heh. So is he going to come up those too?”

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? Either way he’s going to meet with us here. So you can wait with us too!”

“Heh heh heh. Maybe…”

— Sam —

Why couldn’t Sam have gotten space warping powers? He’s run into at least three monsters now that could warp space. What if he wanted to do that too? Was that too much to ask? Believe Sam, he tried. Not that he was entirely sure how powers like that worked. But concentrating really hard on the idea of the hallway ending, certainly didn’t.

He kept walking forward and forward, and no matter how many steps he took and how many minutes passed, whenever he checked behind him the door to room 13 was still there, just a few meters behind him. Was he being looped back? Or was the door following him?

Sam had done it by accident before, so he knew he could do it. Watch things behind him without turning his head. He wanted to try that right now, so he could figure out what was going on. But he wasn’t entirely sure how. Every time he grew extra eyes it was by mistake and almost always when he was scared. Well he was getting pretty anxious right now, but was that not enough?

Sam paused in his walking and closed his eyes. He concentrated on the back of his neck and tried to focus on the idea of opening an eye and looking behind him. Open. Open. Open. And in a slight moment of disorientation he could see the door behind his head. It was odd now, being perfectly aware of what he was doing. The mental image of an eye on the back of his neck made Sam feel queasy. But it was just himself, not some alien invader or parasite. It was him that looked out of that extra eye.

Carefully he opened the ones on his face, just the two normal eyes, luckily he hadn’t triggered anymore than he needed. He expected it to be confusing, looking behind him and in front of himself at the same time. But just like the times before nothing felt all that weird about it. His vision was concentrated ahead of him but it was like he was seeing the door behind him out of his peripheral vision. And he could flip his focus back and forth. 

So Sam walked ahead, keeping a literal eye on the door behind him, even if he wasn’t concentrating on it. The door didn’t seem to move at all. Sam paused and switched the focus of his vision. It was a bit nerve wracking to walk ahead when he only had a vague view of what was in front of him but he had to be sure if his back eye was seeing correctly. And it was. The door didn’t move, but he could clearly see the floor was. It was as if Sam was on a treadmill. The floor was moving but it was just slipping right under the door.

Sam wasn’t sure how long he had been doing this. It had been half an hour if Sam were to guess. But who knew, down here with no windows, no watch, and nothing changing, and doing a tedious task, one’s sense of time couldn’t be something relied upon. And it’s not like time warping powers weren’t also on the table. Who knew how long he’d really been down here? Maybe this endless tunnel thing had only been going on for a minute and Sam’s sense of time had been just as stretched out as the hallway was.

He couldn’t keep doing this, this was a pointless endeavor. Some say the definition of being crazy is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Well Sam wasn’t crazy yet, not by that definition anyway. He turned around, closing his neck eye as he did so, his focus shifting automatically to his regular eyes. The difficulty in walking back to room 13 wasn’t in the length, but in anticipation of being asked to do something horrible. He stepped inside anyway because there was nothing else to do.

The wall mouth repeated its message like a broken record, “FEED ME A CHILD!”

— Joel —

“So you were waiting by the entrance to the shortcut? Did anyone come through? Like my mom?” Sophie asked Leigh.

“Nah… just me in there.” Leigh responded.

“Well Mr hhhh Sam will find her and hhhh bring her back here then.” Joel said. “C’mon let’s hhhh go in.”

Joel walked over to the door that had the number Sophie told him. He didn’t think much of it, reaching for the door and opening it up, it was all perfectly normal and mundane. Why would he think there would be any kind of danger on the other side? But there are a lot of dangerous things now, but Joel wasn’t thinking about that.

When he opened the apartment Joel saw a broken window, shards of glass sprinkled across the floor, and a monster that used to be a bird. The bird-thing had five heads, but one of them hung limply like it was dead. It had only half the feathers it should have, the rest of its body was bare and pink and covered in scratches. Joel could see bits of glass embedded into its skin and feathers. It was a bit larger than a bear and had white and grey feathers.

Sophie was walking up from his side. She hadn’t seen the inside of the apartment yet. Joel knew it might be bad for her if she did. Never mind seeing her home in shambles, the window was open for anybody looking inside to see.

The bird thing spotted him and screeched. Running up to the door frame. Sophie made a worried and confused sound and ran up to try to see what was going on. Joel shoved her back, and tried to slam the door. But the bird had gotten to the entrance of the home and easily blocked the door from being closed.

The bird-thing loomed over both of them, clicking its beak as its eyes looked back and forth. Joel wondered what he was going to do. Maybe Joel wasn’t such a great big brother after all… 

— Sam —

“No.” Sam said. “I’m not feeding you Hope.”

“WHY NOT?”

“I can’t. I just can’t. You can’t have them.”

“NO ESCAPE. FEED ME THE CHILD!”

What cruel twist of fate was this? Sam had already let down two children, Joel’s younger siblings, was he doomed to lose all of them? He had only just met Joel, Sophie, and

 Hope today, but he wasn’t sure if he could bear losing any of them. He had never thought he could be a father but was undeniably one now. And even if Sophie’s mom was found and was completely fine, Sam knew he would regularly check up on the girl.

This wall mouth was a monster, a real monster. And Sam just couldn’t get it out of his head that he himself was a monster too. If wanting to eat a baby made someone a monster, which it did, what does that make Sam? Sam wasn’t sure if he could have saved Ben, but what about the baby sister? Maybe she could have been helped. It would be hard to tell with a baby if it lost its mind or not. Not that Sam remembered making the decision to attack her. Sam didn’t want to be a monster. He didn’t want to act like one. He couldn’t let another baby be eaten. Hope was supposed to be a second chance.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let her be eaten.

There must be some other way.

— Joel —

Joel found himself closing his mouth as the bird leaned down towards him. It was the closest he could get to closing his eyes. He was fighting between the instinct to shy away from the creature and getting into a defensive stance. Either way Joel found himself trying to position his body in between the bird-thing and Sophie.

The bird thing tried pecking at Joel and Joel leaned out of the way as best he could without putting Sophie in jeopardy. He got scratched along his cheek by the bird-thing’s serrated beak.

Something was weird with the hallway.

Joel could only kind of see it. Past that balk of the bird. The hallway was changing, lengthening off into darkness. Behind him he heard Leigh laugh.

“Heh heh heh… you look pretty tough.”

The bird-thing looked up and its eyes went wide.

— Sam —

Sam walked towards the wall mouth, it grinned as he neared. Then he stopped two feet away from it. It’s grin fell.

“FEED ME!” the wall mouth yelled.

“Instead of Hope. Would you take my arm instead?”

The wall mouth fell silent as it considered Sam’s suggestion. And then it said, “YES FEED ME YOUR ARM!”

— Joel —

There was a sound like cracking bones and ripping meat before a beast leapt over Joel and Sophie and tackled the bird-thing in front of them. It was huge. Joel and Sophie almost got squished underneath one of its back legs. Joel and Sophie scrambled back to get some distance between them and the two fighting monsters.

The bird-thing tried to pull back to get out from underneath the monster that had suddenly jumped on top of it. All the while it focused its four working heads on trying to peck at the larger monsters' eyes. Most of the pecks missed, hitting the areas nearby the monster’s eyes. But a few of those peaks hit their targets. The monster grunted and screwed the hit eyes shut.

The larger monster opened its biggest mouth as wide as possible and used most of its limbs to start pushing the bird thing inside. Its other limbs held onto the ground for stability. The bird-thing struggled, increasing the frequency of its peaking but as it was pushed more and more inside, it had less room to move its heads around to aim properly. Eventually the monster seemed to have reached a state where it was satisfied with the position of the bird-thing, because it threw its mouth shut, flatting the bird with a large cracking sound. Blood spilled over the monster's teeth and all over the floor.

“Ew.” Sophie said, “I got blood all over my clothes.” Joel also got blood all over himself but he was more concerned about the new monster that showed up. He was concerned at least before it started laughing.

“HEH HEH HE HEH HEH HEH!” The multiple mouths laughed on the monster that was clearly Leigh. “THAT GUY WASN’T SO TOUGH!”

“Whoa!” Sophie shouted. “You’re so cool! Was the fight you got into with Sam a monster fight!?”

“YEAH HEH HEH! HE WON LAST TIME BUT I’LL GET HIM NEXT TIME!”

“Are you going to hhhh eat him?” Joel asked, worried. Joel didn’t want to lose another person who was taking care of him. 

“NAH HE’S TOO FUN TO FIGHT TO KILL SO SOON”

Joel ignored how what Leigh said implies she’ll kill him one day and watched as Leigh transformed in front of him. It was surprising to see so much mass condense so quickly into a much smaller form. He wondered if Sam would look like that when transforming. The hallway, like some optical illusion, suddenly looked normal again as if it always had been and he’s been just looking at it weirdly.

“You really are just like Sam!” Sophie said.

“Heh heh heh… sure am.”

Joel picked himself up and walked back to Sophie’s apartment door and closed it properly. Before turning to Sophie and saying, “The window’s hhhh open. I don’t think it’s safe for you to hhhh go in.”

Sophie had a worried look that crossed her face. “What if my mom comes home and sees the outside then?”

“We’ll just hhhh leave the note early. You can warn her to not open the door.”

“I guess. But where are we going to live?”

“Mr Sam could fix the window, and you could hhhh go in then.” Joel thought of the many times his own father used Duct Tape to repair household objects. “Duct Tape should work.”

“There was some stuff I wanted to get…”

“I’ll run in and hhhh grab it for you.”

Leigh was starting to walk towards the stairwell. Joel called out to her, “Ms Leigh! Where are you hhhh going?”

“I’m going to go get Sam… heh heh”

“To get help with the hhhh window, right?”

“Heh heh heh…”

“Ms Leigh? F-For hhhh the window… right?” Joel reiterated.

“Heh heh heh… sure…”

— Sam —

Sam stuck his left arm down the slimy gullet of the wall mouth. He found himself questioning if this was really the right choice to make. But if this was the only way to save Hope, he’d do it. He’d chosen his left arm for the very same reason he chooses his left arm for getting shots. It was his non dominant hand, and he wouldn’t need it as much.

He slowly slipped his hand farther and farther down, wondering when the wall mouth would finally be satisfied with what he was offering. He went from forearm, to elbow, to bicep. Finally when he nearly had his shoulder in, he felt teeth lightly brush his skin. Sam immediately stopped moving. The mouth moved up, clearly about to chomp down. Sam had one last moment to rethink this, if he moved quickly enough, could he pull out his arm in time? He needed to do this though. He needed to. There was no other option. So Sam held still as he watched the teeth fall down like a guillotine.

Pain. Oh my god. Teeth tearing through skin and muscle. Sam could hardly think of anything else but pain. In the haze, he tried to pull his arm out, but he couldn’t. The throat of the wall mouth grabbed onto his arm and held it steady as the teeth grinded on his bone, trying to sear through. It was slow and sickening. Sam was crying. He kept trying to pull his arm out but more and more he couldn't even feel his arm. Eventually with one last tear of flesh, he was able to pull himself away from the wall, sans one arm of course.

The wall mouth was continuing its crunching and chewing of Sam’s former arm. But Sam hardly paid the sound any mind, not when he could hardly think of anything else but pain. His hand clutched at the stump of his former arm. Blood poured from the wound and onto the floor. Sam heard his own screaming as if it was from afar. Sam fell onto his knees. There was static in his brain and static in his limbs.

His body was a panopticon. He could see everything in the room. His body was loose, he felt like he was starting to become undone. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Sam can’t let this happen. He needs to stay human. He needs to stay himself. He needs to hold it together.  What would happen if he fell apart now? Even if that only means one arm. He only needs one arm it’s fine it’s fine. He just wants to be Sam again. He needs to be Sam. He is Sam and he is not a monster. He is not a monster. He is just a man named Sam who recently lost his arm. No big deal.

Sam’s head slowly came to clarity. His extra eyes closed. There was the sound like someone hacking something up, it wasn’t him though. Holding his remaining hand with their own tiny little paws was Hope. They were sniffing Sam’s face. They licked him. Sam realized that his face was covered in tears. Actually, he started to become aware, his whole body was covered in tears, it was like he had just been at a water park or went really crazy at a gym. He supposed all his opened eyes had been crying.

Something fell to the floor with a clank. Sam snapped his head in the direction of the sound. It was a disc, and it was covered in saliva and blood from the wall monster’s mouth. He carefully reached out with his hand and grabbed it. It whipped it off as best he could on his clothing and stuck it into his bag, Hope jumped in along with the disc. They were licking the blood that was still stuck to the disc. Sam felt like he should be grossed or creeped out by Hope’s action. But he was too exhausted to care.

Sam stumbled up on weak knees and exited the room of sacrifice.

— Joel —

Joel had gone into the room to grab the items Sophie asked for. A bag of 30 marbles, some toothpaste, some clothes, and a few snacks. There were some other items that Joel considered grabbing but his arms were getting full and he wasn’t sure if Sophie’s mom would be upset or not if he grabbed them. Joel decided to ask Mr Sam later if they should go back to grab anything else.

Other than those items, Sam also grabbed a pencil and a piece of notebook paper. As he grabbed the items he wondered if the lady in the pipe might be able to use them to write her love note. Joel decided to also ask Mr Sam about this idea later. When he gave these to Sophie, she got to work writing a note to her mother.

The first thing the note said, which took up about a third of the paper, was written large and boldly, to prevent Sophie’s mother from walking inside without seeing it first. “DON’T OPEN THE DOOR”

The rest was written in a much more reasonable size. “Hey Mom! It’s Sophie! Don’t open the door! The window is open. Don’t worry I didn’t see it! My friend Joel saw it first, he’s already a friendly monster so he’s fine. I met some people after we got separated and I've been staying with them. Don’t worry, they may be weird, but they aren’t dangerous weird. We’re in apartment 33!”

The note was taped to the door with a bit of Scotch Tape Joel found in Sophie’s apartment. Unfortunately the tape dispenser was very low on tape, so they just used two small squares to hang up the note on the door by its two top corners. Joel really hoped that it wouldn’t fall off.

“So now what.” Sophie asked, “Should we just wait here?”

“Well… hhhh yeah. Mr Sam told us to wait here.”

“But this is boring. I thought we’d be waiting in my house. Not standing out here.” Sophie gestured with her hands to the hallway.

“But… Mr Sam told us too…”

“Let’s just wait at Sam’s apartment. Even if my mom’s with him, I don’t think they’d fix the window until at least tomorrow morning. When Sam gets here, he’ll just see the sign we left. So no harm, no foul.”

Joel mulled Sophie’s suggestion over. She had a point. He wasn’t really all that comfortable with not following directions though… But it was pretty boring to just wait around here. And he wanted to play Jumpland… “Okay hhhh Sophie, let’s go.”

“Alright!” Sophie lifted her fists into the air.

— Sam —

Sam stumbled down the hallway, following the exit signs. He was still really out of it. How much blood did he lose…? The stump had stopped bleeding at least… it stopped when he had almost transformed, what did he do to turn a torrent of blood off so suddenly? Sam didn’t want to think about what had almost happened back in that room. Sam thought he could handle it. The idea that he was a monster. But when he was transforming he didn’t feel like himself. He couldn’t handle it. Sam wanted a clear head. Sam wanted to be himself and he couldn’t let go of that. If he let himself be that thing would he forget how to be himself? Human? But he’s not really human anymore is he?

Sam could see the last exit sign, and beyond that, the doors to the stairwell. As he slowly made his way there, he had the dawning realization of two things. One, he had completely forgotten about looking for Sophie’s mother while in there, not that he hadn’t been playing on calling it a day anyway. And two, he could hear the droning of the hallway monster once again. Sam was so not in the mood to deal with it, not fighting nor running. But he was almost to the stairs. He should be fine.

He was a few meters away when the doors opened and out walked a woman with the largest grin he had ever seen on a person. Those eyes… he knew those eyes. The eyes of a feral beast that just caught sight of its prey. There was something utterly familiar about her despite the fact that he didn’t know who she was. Sam found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. The hallway monster was creeping up behind him. And in front of him was the woman. The dangerous woman.

“Heh heh heh” The woman laughed. Sam had heard that laugh before somewhere. He wasn’t sure where. “Hey… Sam… you owe me a rematch.”

“I-” Sam couldn’t fight anyone right now. Please don’t make him have to get into a battle. He just wants to sleep. “I’m not in a good shape for fighting right now.”

The grinning woman cocked her head to the side and stared at Sam’s missing arm. “Lost your little arm there, didn’t cha? Heh heh heh… grow it back and we can fight proper…ok?”

“I-I can’t” Sam was pretty sure he could.

“Yes you can. It’s not hard. Just grow it back.”

“Please, I really can’t. I-I just want to go home…”

The grinning woman squinted her eyes at him. “Oh come on! Where’s that fighting spirit from yesterday! Heh heh heh… you tried to kill me… and now you say you can’t do such a simple thing as growing your arm back…are you scared you’ll lose this time…?”

Well yes, Sam is scared of losing. But there was something else about her statements that caught his attention. “...yesterday?”

“Yeah! Yesterday! I saw you in your true colors… and you saw me in mine… I didn’t expect you to transform like that but I was glad you did… a good fight but you won… I don’t like losing.” the grinning woman growled. “Fight me! This time I'll win… heh heh heh.”

Sam looked back and forth between her and the now visible hallway monster that was slowly creeping up. Just what the hell was he going to do?  He searched his memories trying to understand what the grinning woman was talking about. A fight… yesterday… was she… could she possibly be…but that would mean she was like Sam.

“Listen I- I wasn’t thinking very clearly then. I didn’t really mean to bite you so hard. Sorry, could you please let me through-”

The woman growled in frustration, her large grin turning into a scowl. “I’m not looking for an apology! I attacked you first! I want you to fight me! Stop being a coward!”

Sam was starting to feel like he was losing his temper too. The pressure of the monster nearing behind him wasn’t helping, “Well I want to go home and sleep! But I guess we can’t all have what we want!”

The woman grinned a little, “There's some fighting spirit…” She transformed. Her form stretched out and overtook the area in front of the doors. “How about a compromise…” she spoke with multiple mouths, her voice overlapping with herself. “We fight the guy behind you together. And you promise to have a rematch with me… heh heh heh.”

What else could Sam do here besides say yes? So he agreed.

There isn’t much to say about the fight aside from the fact that Sam refused to transform. In part, he didn’t do it because he was afraid that the grinning monster might see that as an invitation to fight him. The other parts… were all the reasons he didn’t want to transform anyway. He got a strange crown out of it, and the knowledge that the first floor should be safe to traverse now.

Sam headed back home with Leigh (who had introduced herself) in tow. The whole time she softly laughed as if something about this situation was some sort of inside joke that only she was privy to. Sam didn’t check floor 2, he should have, but his mind was elsewhere and he had completely forgotten about what he told Joel and Sophie to do. He went straight home.

He opened the door and to his surprised shock, Sophie and Joel were already there. That was the moment when he remembered where they were supposed to be. Before he could even ask Joel started blurting out the story of what happened to him and Sophie. The story explained why neither batted an eye at Leigh’s appearance in the apartment. About the whole fixing the window situation, Sam said he’d see what he could do. And about the other items in the apartment Sam said they should go back and grab those as well.

 - Shadow of the Colossus OST

 - 30 mins of Silent Hill II OST