After a short break in a relatively safe spot, Alex and Heather decided to continue moving through Silent Hill. They still had to make their way through the central part of the town to reach the older section, where Midwich Elementary School was located.

The reason for visiting the school was fairly simple: Alex wanted to visit all the places connected to Alessa, while Heather was trying to make sense of her vague and troubling memories, the meaning of which she still couldn’t grasp. When the wandering street monster had gone far enough, Alex cautiously led Heather outside, and they continued along the foggy streets, where a new danger could be lurking around every corner.

Alex tried to avoid encounters with monsters not because they posed a real threat to him—no creature in this town could truly harm him. He did it because of the very nature of Silent Hill: monsters here didn’t die permanently; no matter how many were destroyed, new ones would soon appear—in the same numbers or even more. The second reason was Heather.

These creatures embodied the human sins connected to the town, and Alex believed it was better for Heather not to come into contact with them unnecessarily. He didn’t want her to suddenly become the host of the evil god’s seed, born from the fanatical faith of the Order cult. Of course, Alex could erase these creatures with his power of Destruction, but as long as sin existed in Silent Hill, the monsters would keep appearing endlessly.

After encountering another monster on their path, Alex noticed something gray rising from its body, resembling thick smoke or mist. At that moment, he realized this was the very essence necessary for the birth of a god.

If Heather herself killed the monsters, she would accelerate the process, as the essence would enter her body. But since Alex destroyed the monsters, all the substance could do was merge with the surrounding fog, eventually giving rise to a new monster again.

Throughout their journey to the central part of town, Alex kept a careful eye on Heather, trying to maintain at least some positive morale, despite the fact that Silent Hill was the last place where joy or fun could be expected.

While moving toward the central district, Alex occasionally spotted Alessa. She watched them from afar, appearing in dark, empty alleys, simply standing and staring. Whenever Alex paid attention to her, her figure would dissolve into the fog. Sometimes Alessa appeared in the reflections of closed store windows, still silently and intently watching with her dark, emotionless eyes.

Alex understood that she was observing Heather but could do nothing, only watch. Every time he noticed Alessa, he smiled kindly and waved at her. Heather saw this a few times too, glancing at Alex with suspicion, while he pretended nothing unusual was happening.

From time to time, Alex checked the map he had taken from the Order cultist he had killed earlier, trying to figure out where to go next. However, he overlooked an important detail: for anyone in Silent Hill, the town appeared differently. A map of the entire city could be useful, but it couldn’t be relied upon completely.

When, for some unknown reason, the weather began to deteriorate rapidly and the path ahead became difficult, Alex realized that he and Heather would have to go through the Woodside apartment building. Inside, the apartments were significantly larger than they appeared from the outside.

Standing in the main hall of Woodside, Alex held the map in his hands and smoked a cigarette, frowning slightly, while Heather stood nearby, looking around, trying to spot anything useful or noteworthy. As Alex pondered where to go next, Heather noticed a map of the apartments lying on the reception desk. Seeing it, she immediately walked over, picked it up, and returned to Alex.

“Alex, look, I found a map. We need to go through these apartments to get further,” Heather said, handing him her find.

“Thanks, this is very timely. Tell me, does this place trigger any memories for you? Maybe some strange or familiar sensations?” Alex asked, taking the apartment map from her hands.

“No… I don’t feel anything like that,” Heather replied, slowly shaking her head.

“Alright then. Let’s take a look around and figure out how to get out of this building,” Alex said, putting both maps into his coat pocket.

Heather nodded immediately and, sweeping the flashlight beam from side to side, began to carefully examine the area, hoping to find anything that could help them move forward. By the time they reached these apartments, she had already realized, as Alex had said, that Silent Hill was a strange, confusing town that lived by its own rules.

While Alex peered into the corridors of the Woodside apartments on the first floor, Heather walked around the reception desk, deciding to check if there was anything useful behind it. Entering a small room, she began searching for keys or any other clues when the door behind her creaked quietly.

Heather turned and saw Alex, frowning, shining his flashlight alternately on the map and down the long corridors. Carefully pushing the door further open, she gripped her pistol tighter, ready for whatever monster might jump out from the shadows.

The room turned out to be a living space directly behind the reception desk. Like most places in Silent Hill, it smelled of dampness, dust, and long-rotted wooden boards. However, Heather’s attention was drawn to a strange object that looked like a cabinet, covered with a thick cloth.

Cautiously pulling it off, she revealed a rare, expensive-looking cabinet with an intricately carved pattern of a tree, sun, and moon. Heather’s gaze lingered on several depressions in its surface, and she ran her fingers over them, intuitively sensing that something was missing. Looking higher, she noticed text that looked like both a poem and a riddle at the same time.

“Sheryl, where are you?!” Alex’s voice called from the apartment hall.

“I’m here! I found something!” Heather shouted back.

Alex, standing in the hall, heard her voice coming from the room behind the reception desk and sighed heavily. Once again, he caught himself feeling like Joel, who had to get Ellie to a safe place no matter what. Exhaling cigarette smoke, Alex adjusted the backpack on his shoulders and headed into the room where Heather was.

Upon entering, he immediately saw her, intently examining the strange cabinet. Quickly surveying it, Alex almost immediately understood its purpose. He knew well the simple truth of Silent Hill: the town itself tried to delay them, to prevent them from moving forward, and this openly irritated him.

“It seems like some kind of puzzle. These round holes are meant for something. Why is a cabinet like this even here? Maybe there’s something important inside?” Heather said, looking at Alex.

“What makes you think that?” he asked, genuinely curious about her opinion.

“You said the town shows the way to where we need to go. Maybe this is its way of showing us the path?” Heather replied thoughtfully.

“Well, you’re right, Sheryl. But as someone who can’t stand puzzles and certainly isn’t going to run through every apartment looking for who knows what, I prefer a practical approach,” Alex said, pulling a fire axe out of his backpack.

Heather looked at him in surprise and immediately stepped back. She watched Alex, who was about to smash the puzzle cabinet simply because he didn’t want to solve the riddle or look for the missing pieces. Heather had genuinely expected that they would need to find a part of the puzzle to get the answer, and it took her a moment to realize that Alex couldn’t have cared less about such formalities.

Approaching the cabinet, Alex placed Heather’s hand on his shoulder and gently pushed her back to keep her safe from flying splinters. Once he was sure she was at a safe distance, he raised the fire axe above his head and swung it. The first blow split the cabinet, sending wooden shards flying across the room, and a key fell to the floor with a clink, rolling to Heather’s feet.

She picked it up, turned it in her hands, and quickly realized that it was the key to a room on the second floor, though she still couldn’t understand why it had been hidden here. Alex calmly put the fire axe back in his backpack and turned to Heather, who was still examining the key.

“Well, that’s the whole puzzle. Let’s go, we need to get to the second floor, room 201,” Alex said, taking the key from her hands.

Heather looked at Alex and nodded, once again realizing that for someone like him, this town seemed almost like a place for leisurely weekend strolls. Leaving the room behind the reception desk, Alex and Heather returned to the apartment hall. Without wasting time, Alex headed for the stairs and began climbing to the second floor.

Heather followed cautiously, trying not to fall behind and watching his movements carefully. Reaching the second floor, Alex shined his flashlight down both sides of the corridor, assessing the situation and choosing a direction. He then gestured for Heather to follow, and together they moved down the dark hallway, illuminating the path with narrow beams of light.

As they approached apartment 201, the radio clipped to Alex’s coat pocket began to emit a dry, crackling sound, unmistakably indicating nearby monsters. Alex immediately held up his hand, stopping Heather. Hearing the static, she froze, holding her breath without a word.

Alex listened intently to the surrounding sounds until his gaze fell on the door marked 202. He leaned slightly toward it and made out muffled, hoarse murmurs and uneven breathing from the other side. Not wanting to find out exactly who or what was behind the door, Alex drew “Ebony” from its holster and pressed the muzzle against the wooden surface.

He raised the pistol, relying solely on the sound, and at the very moment his hand steadied, he pulled the trigger. A deafening shot echoed through the quiet corridor, immediately followed by the dull thud of a falling body. A second later, the radio went silent.

“We can move on,” Alex said calmly, holstering the pistol.

“Maybe that’s how the town wanted to warn us? I mean… there could be something else behind the doors?” Heather asked, glancing at him.

“Anything’s possible in this place, Sheryl. Everything here has a reason and a consequence,” Alex replied, lighting a cigarette.

Heather looked at him understandingly, feeling that with every explanation, she began to grasp the very nature of Silent Hill a little better. The previous monster had been just a brief delay, and soon they continued down the dark corridor toward apartment 201.

The door was at the very end, as if deliberately drawing attention—next to it, a single light bulb burned, the only source of light in the entire hallway. Approaching, Alex and Heather turned off their flashlights. Taking out the key, Alex unlocked the door, and they stepped inside.

Upon entering apartment 201, Heather was slightly surprised: the place was strikingly different from everything they had seen before. There was none of the usual musty, damp, dusty smell. The apartment looked clean and tidy, as if someone still lived there.

Despite the dim light, it was enough to make out the furnishings. As Alex and Heather stood in the hallway, Heather suddenly turned her head toward the side room, which contained only a bed, a chair, and a bedside table. Alex noticed her movement and the wary look she cast into the empty room.

“What’s wrong, Sheryl? Did you hear something?” Alex asked, looking at her.

“I don’t know… It felt like I heard a woman’s breathing. It was faint, barely noticeable, but I’m sure I heard it,” Heather replied thoughtfully, her eyes still fixed on the room.

“Maybe it’s an echo from the past. Or, in the worst case, a ghost,” Alex said, lighting another cigarette.

“An echo from the past? What do you mean?” Heather asked, turning to him with interest.

“Places like this hold memories. Mostly tragic ones. I think a sick woman once lived in this apartment. What happened to her, we’ll never know. Maybe she died here alone, or maybe it was far more complicated. Not everyone becomes a prisoner of Silent Hill. Some remain just an old echo of the past, reliving their end over and over again,” Alex said, shaking his head slightly.

Heather looked at the empty room once more, feeling a quiet, lingering sadness: if Alex was right, the woman who had once lain here had died not only from illness but also from loneliness. Noticing her gaze, Alex gently ran a hand over her shoulder, letting her know she was not alone.

Removing his hand, he continued down the corridor of the apartment, still pondering why the key to this particular place had been hidden in the puzzle cabinet. Passing the living room, Alex froze: his attention was immediately drawn to a human silhouette covered with a blood-stained white sheet.

Squinting, he stepped closer, pulled off the sheet, and saw another dead Bureau of Control agent. Heather, following him, also noticed the body, but this time she didn’t look away—by now, during their time in Silent Hill, she had seen enough terrifying things.

Alex moved a small table in front of the couch and crouched next to the body. Taking a deep breath, he carefully examined the agent, trying to determine the cause of death, and almost immediately noticed distinct marks of strangulation on the neck.

Gently removing the sheet, Alex took the badge and pendant from the corpse. He pocketed the badge, planning to return it to the agent’s family when they managed to escape Silent Hill, and then opened the pendant to find a photograph of a young woman with a bright, lively smile inside.

“What did you blame yourself for, Ward? What brought you to this apartment…” Alex murmured quietly, beginning to search the agent’s pockets.

Heather stood slightly apart, not interfering. Alex quickly found a recording device and removed a flash drive from it. Inserting it into his phone, he began reviewing the footage, fast-forwarding until he reached the moment when the group of agents entered a store, and then Ward ended up here, in the Woodside apartments. From the speaker, he could hear Ward attempting to contact someone outside official channels, and then a woman’s voice clearly calling Ward by name. Despite his training and experience, the agent had succumbed to the voice.

At first, he tried to leave the apartments, even looking for keys to the exit, but the persistent female whisper repeatedly lured him back until he eventually ended up in apartment 201. The final minutes of the recording were filled with heavy static and interference, after which the image disappeared completely. Realizing there was nothing more to see, Alex turned off the recording and put the phone away.

“Maybe he blamed himself for what happened to his wife or girlfriend… since he carried a pendant with her photo,” Heather said quietly, looking at Alex.

“Perhaps. And, unfortunately, that guilt killed him—literally,” Alex replied, shaking his head.

Heather was about to say something when a dull thud echoed through the apartment, as if someone had thrown a heavy object against something. They both turned toward the kitchen and saw a door that hadn’t been there a moment ago. It was painted a bright, rusty red, as if it had been sealed right into the wall, and cracks radiated around the frame, revealing rusty metal bars beneath.

Heather looked at Alex, expecting an explanation, but he merely shrugged, as if to say that in Silent Hill, such things were normal: doors appear where they shouldn’t and lead wherever the town decides.

Alex calmly approached the door and grasped the cold, rough handle, while Heather stayed behind, gripping her pistol. So far, she had only had to fire a few times—Alex handled all the other threats. Turning the handle, he opened the door without hesitation, already guessing what lay beyond, a thought that both irritated and darkly intrigued him.

On the other side was another door, identical yet even more corroded, as if it had been standing there not for decades, but centuries. The two doors were separated by a narrow passage, frozen between two apartment blocks, and the adjacent block looked even more foreboding: its walls were eaten by time, and the door was coated with a thick layer of brown rust.

Alex cautiously peered forward, then leaned down to look below, confirming where the passage led. A single glance into the impenetrable darkness stretching inward was enough to realize—this was no ordinary hallway. Heather stepped closer and shone her flashlight forward, then downward, but even the bright beam could not pierce the dense darkness, as if the light itself was being swallowed.

Satisfied that this was an entrance to an alternate Silent Hill, Alex returned to Ward’s body and methodically began removing cartridges and a few grenades from his pockets, working calmly and without emotion.

“Where does this door lead? I can’t see anything on the other side,” Heather asked, watching his movements.

“You’ve seen something like this in the mall. Places like this have many names: the Reverse, the Rusted World, the World of Darkness, the Nightmare World… or the simplest—Alternate World. If we go through it, we’ll end up where we need to be,” Alex replied, handing Heather some pistol magazines.

“Are you sure? I don’t even know how I got out of there before. You said places like that have their own rules for leaving,” Heather said, taking the magazines.

“I’m glad you listened, Sheryl. I’m about ninety percent sure. In the worst case, we’ll cheat a little and cut the path short,” Alex said, thoughtfully stroking his chin.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Heather asked, still full of questions.

“You’ll find out when the time comes. And be extra careful in the alternate world. It’s far worse than here…” he grimaced. “Damn, I hate places like that. They always smell disgusting.”

Heather already understood that Alex had been to such worlds more than once, and she knew he knew exactly what he was doing. Alex approached the edge of the passage and carefully looked down again, checking for anything that might grab Heather’s leg the moment she jumped.

Satisfied that it was clear, he stepped forward and crossed the gap, hovering over the abyss for a moment longer than necessary—he knew all too well what could happen the moment someone fully entered such a doorway.

Alex held out his hand to Heather, helping her cross over, and as soon as she stepped to the other side, he followed. At that very moment, the rusty doors slammed shut behind them with a deafening crash. Heather flinched, spun around, and shone her flashlight on the sealed passage.

“Heh… knew it. Always the same,” Alex smirked.

“So this is normal for places like this?” Heather asked, directing her flashlight at him.

“What did you expect? That they’d just let you back out? No. Once you’re in an alternate world, there’s only one way—forward. Luckily, I know how to find the exit. You can enter one place and come out somewhere completely different,” Alex said calmly.

“For example? We’re in the apartments… where could we end up?” Heather asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Once I went through a tree that had grown into a passage and came out of a lake. Does that example work?” Alex said, lightly stroking his chin.

Heather was genuinely surprised by his answer. In the mall, she had exited in the same spot she entered the alternate world, but according to Alex, the exit could lead anywhere in the city. While she was trying to process that, Alex was already surveying the room.

As he expected, the alternate Silent Hill looked like a twisted reflection of reality: the kitchen that had been on the right was now on the left, and everything looked ancient, rotted, and covered in a thick layer of rust. The worst part was the smell—a heavy, sticky mix of metal and blood, as if it had soaked into the walls permanently.

While Heather wasn’t looking, Alex shone his flashlight on his own hand—and the shadow it cast wasn’t his: it was a slender female hand pointing the way. Alex decided to trust Zhang Ya—she clearly knew how to navigate places like this, since the Red City under her control was far more dangerous than Silent Hill. Seeing the direction, Alex pressed his fingers together in a heart shape as a silent thank-you and confidently moved forward.

Patting Heather on the shoulder, Alex went ahead, moving through the alternate apartment. Heather stepped carefully behind him, keeping her eyes on the floor as if afraid it might disappear beneath her feet. Exiting the apartment, they entered a corridor, and to Heather’s surprise, there was light—dim and cold, as if foreign to this place.

Alex looked at his shadow again, and Zhang Ya silently pointed the way forward. He didn’t waste time trying to figure out exactly where to go, simply following her guidance. Leading Heather, he scanned the surroundings; the acrid stench of rust and blood hung in the air, choking their breathing, and beneath their feet, the rusty grate that served as the floor creaked.

The plaster on the walls had crumbled in places, revealing the same rusty metal grates instead of bricks. As they moved down the corridor, the radio clipped to Alex’s pocket crackled to life again, emitting sharp static. Alex stopped at a corner and cautiously peeked into the next corridor, spotting a monster seemingly bound in a straitjacket: its body was pierced with rusty bars, and it stood squarely in the middle of the passage they needed to cross.

Heather peeked around the corner too, staring at the new creature with concern. Alex knew the local monsters had no supernatural powers and were essentially ordinary beasts, terrifying only in appearance. Stepping out from the corner, hands still in his coat pockets, he calmly walked straight toward the monster, wanting to gauge its abilities. The creature, as if sensing Alex, despite its restrained state, suddenly broke free and lunged at him with frightening speed.

“Watch out!” Heather shouted, seeing how fast it was moving.

Ignoring her shout, Alex calmly stepped aside, letting the monster rush past him, and immediately grabbed it by the back of the head; gripping the creature’s skull, he spun around and slammed it into the wall with force, literally crushing its skull against the iron grate.

The monster’s body went limp, hanging on the rusty metal, twitching slightly from residual spasms. Heather froze, her mouth slightly open, unable to believe her eyes—Alex had just killed a monster with his bare hands. Alex lightly shook his hand, flicking off the remaining blood, and turned to her.

“Let’s go, Sherril. We need to find the exit,” he said calmly, lighting a cigarette.

“You… how did you do that?” Heather asked, stunned, stepping closer and shifting her gaze between Alex and the monster still dangling from the grate.

“These monsters aren’t that tough. Kind of like smashing a watermelon with your fist: hard, but possible. Now come on, I can’t stand the smell of blood and rust,” Alex replied, exhaling a stream of cigarette smoke.

Heather nodded and was about to follow him when the dead monster twitched slightly, making her instinctively clutch Alex’s coat. Feeling her tug, he smiled and patted her head, trying to calm her.

At the end of the corridor, they ran into a dead end: the path was blocked by a rusty grate draped with dirty cloth. Alex moved the fabric aside to peek through and saw Alessa again, staring straight at him; this time, she extended her hand and pointed. Alex raised an eyebrow, turned his head, and noticed a wall with a faint network of cracks, and when he turned back, of course, Alessa was gone.

“So where do we go now? The passage is blocked, and I don’t think you can chop through those rusty bars with the axe,” Heather said, kicking the grate, which responded with a sharp metallic echo.

“As my friend likes to say: the road unfolds where I walk,” Alex smirked, pulling the fire axe from his backpack.

Heather didn’t immediately understand what Alex meant until he approached the wall. Confidently swinging the fire axe, he struck once with precision and knocked a chunk of concrete out of the wall. Peering into the gap, she saw another apartment on the other side, finally realizing the meaning of his words.

Alex continued working the axe, methodically and without rush, until he had carved a full passageway through which they could pass. Finishing, he turned to the stunned Heather and gave her a thumbs-up with a satisfied expression. Heather could only nod silently and step closer to peek through the breach and see where it led.

Removing his backpack, Alex was the first to squeeze through the narrow opening, then reached out his hand to Heather, signaling her to hurry.

Once inside the new room, Alex quickly scanned the surroundings, trying to figure out where to go next. He didn’t intend to wander through this place any longer than necessary, so he almost immediately stepped into the corridor where he had previously seen Alessa. There, he surveyed his surroundings again and confidently moved forward.

At the end of the corridor, there was only one open door, leading to the fire escape balconies. Stepping outside, Alex and Heather heard the distinct sound of rain, though no rain was visible. Looking up at the sky, Alex stretched his hand forward but didn’t feel a drop of moisture, then gave a short nod as if confirming his own thoughts.

At that moment, Heather tugged on his sleeve and pointed in a direction. Following her gesture, Alex noticed another open door on the opposite side of the balcony, a soft light spilling from within.

“How nice, they’re showing us the way again. What great service,” Alex said, nodding slightly with a hint of irony.

“If you don’t count the monsters, the filth, and the smell of blood, you’d call this a five-star hotel?” Heather replied, giving him a crooked smile.

“Not now, young lady. Jokes like that require time and place,” Alex said, lightly pinching Heather’s nose.

“We’re almost the same age. You’re maybe just a couple of years older than me,” Heather protested, swatting his hand away.

“I just look young. Besides, I’m married and have four kids,” Alex stated calmly, putting his hands behind his head as he continued walking along the rusty balcony.

“What?!” Heather exclaimed, staring at his back in sheer disbelief.

Alex simply chuckled quietly, paying no attention to the grim atmosphere around them, calmly making his way along the balcony to the other side of the building. Heather stood frozen for a few moments, still processing what she’d heard, then quickly hurried after him to keep up.

Crossing the rusty balcony to the other side, Alex gave the door a slight push and entered a room that was drastically different from anything they had seen in the alternate world of Silent Hill.

The room looked neat and tidy, like a fragment of normal reality that had somehow ended up in this creepy place by mistake. Even Heather was surprised by the sight. The only thing that sharply stood out were the rusty doors, bound with three massive chains stretching in different directions.

Alex followed the chains with his gaze, fully aware of what they meant: one ran upward through the ceiling, the second led back outside to the balcony, and the third stretched toward the corridor, clearly indicating that the doors would only open when all three chains were gone.

“Another puzzle,” Heather said, looking at the locked doors.

“This only counts as a puzzle if you don’t have a crowbar. And I’ll say it again—I’m not going to search, solve riddles, or do any of that nonsense. If I see locked doors I need to pass through, I just break them instead of looking for a key. And anyway, do you want to waste time on this, considering we need to figure out the cause of your foggy memories and find where your father is being held?” Alex said, pulling a crowbar from his backpack.

“I’m not arguing with you. I also don’t want to waste any more time and want to figure out what’s happening here as quickly as possible,” Heather replied, crossing her arms.

Alex smiled slightly and approached the door, wedging the crowbar between the first chain and the door. With one sharp motion, he tore the chain free, and it instantly vanished into the wall, as if something heavy had pulled it in. Alex and Heather looked at the spot where the chain had disappeared, and he waved his hand, signaling Heather to step back a couple of steps just in case something went wrong.

Heather nodded and took two steps back. The second chain came loose in the same way, but this time a crash echoed from the balcony, the sound disturbingly resembling tearing flesh. Curious about the noise, Alex pulled a glow stick from his backpack and, together with Heather, stepped out onto the balcony.

Throwing the glow stick, they watched it hit something that looked like a writhing piece of flesh, a chain tied to its end. Shaking his head, Alex returned to the door and tore off the last chain, which vanished straight into the ceiling. A loud crash echoed from above, as if several floors had collapsed at once.

“Ah, damn city… it’s always the same thing, every single time,” Alex muttered, putting the crowbar back in his backpack.

“When you say it like that, I almost stop being surprised by anything that happens,” Heather replied, glancing at him.

“Well, that’s normal for places like this. Plus, I’m nearly one hundred percent sure we literally avoided a bunch of monsters roaming the corridors of these alternate apartments,” Alex added, shrugging.

Seeing his confidence and optimism, Heather couldn’t help but smile, catching his mood despite the darkness and eeriness around them, like a madman’s nightmare. Still smiling, Alex opened the doors that had been locked with three chains, revealing an elevator—an ordinary-looking one, but in alternate Silent Hill, it felt strangely out of place.

“This is an elevator…” Heather said, standing next to Alex.

“Yep, an elevator. Nothing special, just an elevator,” Alex replied, pressing the call button to open the doors.

When he pressed it, the elevator doors swung open with the characteristic chime, the light inside flickering eerily. Shaking his head, he stepped into the cabin first, which immediately jolted beneath his feet. Alex waved Heather forward to hurry, and when she stepped inside, the elevator creaked as if the cables might snap at any moment, making Heather nervously glance up at the ceiling.

Alex pressed the buttons in sequence, starting with the upper floors and gradually moving downward. Each time he pressed a button, a rattling beep sounded, as if the system wasn’t responding. When only the last button remained, Alex clicked his tongue.

“Of course… the basement. Where would it be without a basement in a place like this,” he said, looking at the single blood-stained floor button on the panel.

“Didn’t you yourself say that one of the main rules is not to go into basements?” Heather asked, not taking her eyes off the panel.

“We don’t have a choice. But I already know where this leads, so let’s go,” Alex said calmly, pressing the basement button.

After pressing the button, the elevator doors closed with a dull thud, and the cabin jerked slightly as it began to descend slowly. Even though they were only on the second floor, it felt as though the elevator was moving at a snail’s pace, as if the cables could snap at any moment and send the cabin plummeting. After some time, the elevator stopped—but clearly not in the basement. Before Alex and Heather stretched a long, dark corridor, from which came the grinding of chains and the sound of a rusted valve turning in the distance.

The air was thick with the acrid, biting smell of rust and blood. Heather turned on her flashlight, illuminating the long corridor lined with rusted pipes, where rusty grates peeked through places where the walls had collapsed, and the dimly flickering lamps only heightened the sense of abandonment.

Sighing, Alex stepped out of the elevator first and confidently moved forward, already knowing where the path would lead. Heather followed cautiously, and as soon as they left the cabin, the elevator doors closed and the lift moved away, leaving the corridor in partial darkness. Alex lit a cigarette and continued forward without hurry.

Walking down the long corridor, they turned wherever necessary, as if wandering through a labyrinth made from a single endless passage. The sounds of their footsteps echoed off the walls when suddenly the noise of an opening elevator rang out, mixed with the metallic clang of something massive being dragged.

“I think we should pick up the pace,” Heather said, glancing at Alex and quickening her steps.

“Yeah. I don’t like fighting in tight spaces. Usually, I end up covered in blood afterward,” Alex replied, speeding up to walk beside her.

Heather gave him a calculating look and understood what he meant: Alex wasn’t afraid to fight in such conditions because of inconvenience or the enemy’s size; he simply didn’t like having his clothes drenched in blood after a fight. Continuing their brisk pace through the corridor, lit by flickering lamps, they heard a crash behind them, like someone smashing through walls.

At the next turn, an even louder sound came from behind. Alex glanced back and in the dim light of the flashlight spotted Pyramid Head dragging a massive cleaver. He immediately realized that if he got distracted now, unpredictable things could happen near Heather, so before she could look back, he nudged her backward.

“Run,” Alex said, scooping Heather into his arms.

Heather didn’t understand why he had picked her up, but the answer came instantly: Alex turned another corner, kicking open an iron door, and behind them a wall was smashed through, revealing the creature with the metal pyramid on its head and the enormous cleaver in its hands.

Heather froze in terror, but Alex didn’t slow down. If a wall stood in front of him, he smashed through it; if a door blocked the way, he kicked it open. He knew perfectly well that Pyramid Head, though slow, would always be right behind them. Heather kept urging him on, indicating how close the enemy was getting.

When Alex finally saw the elevator light at the end of the corridor, he sped up; the wall behind them had been broken through, and Pyramid Head emerged after them. Alex ignored it and ran into the elevator with Heather still in his arms. She jumped down and frantically pressed the button to close the doors, but they were slow to shut, and Pyramid Head kept getting closer.

“This one’s for you, loser,” Alex said, tossing a grenade at the enemy’s feet, pulling it from his backpack.

The grenade rolled across the floor and hit Pyramid Head’s leg. The creature lowered its metal head, and at that very moment the grenade exploded, sending debris crashing onto its body. The elevator doors closed, and the last thing Alex and Heather saw was Pyramid Head, unharmed, pulling itself from under the rubble and calmly walking away, dragging the massive cleaver behind him.

Heather exhaled heavily, leaning her back against the elevator wall, still in shock. Alex merely smiled, knowing this wasn’t their last encounter with Pyramid Head—and next time, he planned to take that enormous cleaver from him.

To be continued…

(So, here’s Pyramid Head’s appearance. He’ll probably appear more often. As for what happens next, that’s what will happen next. As I said, Alex knows the way. I want to show a couple of significant locations, but whether you recognize them or not is another matter. Next, the school where Alessa studied, yeah. As usual, to get to Alternative Silent Hill, you need to hit the right trigger. And as for the boss monsters, I think I’ll add them. Well, just because I can.)

Early access to chapters on my patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep