The Freshwater Spring

The Freshwater Spring: The spring is on the far east side of town, the opposite end from where the factory is. It is located inside a nature reserve, fenced off with a long and winding line of wooden stakes. There are a number of ways in, but the main one is consists of a dirt pathway from the suburb road through an opening in the wooden stakes. Above is a wooden sign, “Nomosa” etched into the woodwork. Beyond the stakes, the path circles around a flagpole, the flag itself long since gone, with a log cabin on the side, a soft fiery glow coming from the small stove inside. The door to the cabin is torn off its hinges and snapped in half, with deep scratches everywhere. Inside the log cabin, there are similar scratch marks on everything but no blood or other signs of a struggle. On a desk inside, there is a map of the reserve torn in three but laid out orderly and neatly.
In the reserve itself, there are several dirt paths to follow, all of them winding and turning but eventually converging on the center where there is a large cave entrance. Along the paths, there are small ponds, tiny streams connecting them and an abundance of birch trees, bleached white with only a little space between them. Many of them bear scratch marks, similar in appearance to those in the cabin. The leaves are almost all yellowed and falling, such that there is a permanent bed of fallen leaves on the ground in the reserve. There is only a small amount of vegetation, often only bulrushes near the ponds, which permanently sway gently back and forth.
Sometimes, small service cabins can be seen in the woods, but are extremely hard to reach and the windows are mostly impossible to see through. Once in a while, the sound of a snapping twig comes from the cabin, occasionally followed by a quiet laugh.
When you reach the center of the reserve, the trees clear for a brief while, nothing growing near the cave at all. From the branches of the trees nearest to the cave, all manner of clothing is hung up, including jackets, socks, shirts and even shoes. There is a shallow descent into the maw of the cave, with a working flashlight always waiting in one of the small crevices in between stones on the way down. Short and faint gusts of wind blow in and out of the cave in rhythm.
Stepping into the cave and traveling down the descent reveals a huge cavern with only one further opening at ground level. From the ceiling of the cavern hangs a series of stalactites, blood dripping gently from them. In the left of the room is a huge stalagmite connected with the ceiling, cracked from the top down to the base. To the right is a deep pit, a permanent hissing coming from it. At the base, if you shine the flashlight down it, is a huge red snake, its reptilian eyes staring coldly up and its tongue occasionally flicking. It seems almost to be smiling malevolently and coiled with unconcern. Higher up, dozens of small alcoves have more gentle breaths of wind coming in and out of them. None of them are in reach but mucus and slime oozes slowly from the openings, aided along by the wind. The only opening at ground level is a small hole in the wall, just big enough to crawl through on your stomach, but with no chance of turning around midway. As you go through, it begins to tilt downwards until it is so steeply angled that you begin to slide down, the stone smoothing out and the slick walls being impossible to hold onto as you pick up speed. Suddenly, the opening widens and you fall into a pit of warm water. This is Nomosa spring.
The room itself is smaller than the first cavern but taller, much taller. The pit is perfectly circular and the room itself is equally circular, save for some minor imperfections in the rock. On the ground around the pit is a carefully etched pattern, a single snake, coiled around a second snake, several heads growing out of it, none of them meeting and all of them fangs extended and ready to strike the flesh of the other. On the wall is a series of handprints, all of them missing fingers, sometimes one, sometimes four and all of them too small to be anything but belonging to children.
In the pool of water, a faint red light hangs further down in the water, a small amount of which glows in the room. Swimming down into the depths reveals the water as breathable with no adverse effects. The red light itself comes from a beating human heart, five times larger than it should be, the veins pumping into the sides of the pit. The light pulsates with its beat and it increases the closer you swim. A second red light can be made out further below.
Touching the heart itself is an ecstasy impossible to describe beyond the most wonderful pleasure conceivable and then some. The cave itself vibrates and the red light splits into six and rise quickly out and into the cave above. If you hurt the heart, the pit will close on itself and you will quickly drown. If you do not and return to the pit above, the walls will have shifted, revealing one last room. The stench is borderline unbearable.
A putrid and enormous mass of flesh rests upon a dias inside, breathing slowly. It has seven hairy heads, three monstrous legs, a hideously deformed and obese torso, with burns and boils on one arm that make it grossly swollen compared to the other and no clothing at all. Its hands are bloodied and claws extend from its seven fingers. Flies buzz around it, as though it were dead. It awakens and rises slowly, its body rumbling and making squelching noises all the while, puss and blood leaking from its every orifice. Small snakes retreat into gaping pores in its horrific body. The first of its seven heads stares at you, its eyes beady and black. It has no mouth or jaw and is attached at the shoulder. The second head is upside down in the center of its chest, a huge gaping maw with blunt and unevenly spaced teeth inside. The third head is smaller than the others and blends into its unspoilt arm’s bicep, its tongue long and coiled around its body. The fourth head has no eyes, only a nose and extends from the right of its chest. The fifth, its back and has five eyes, a lopsided mouth and no nose. The sixth has its eyes shut and sits where a head would normally sit, but the skull fused to its ruined arm’s shoulder. The seventh and final head rests on its other shoulder, its skull crushed and traumatized with only one eye open and the other permanently shut and blackened. This is the Emblem.
The Emblem is the Pyramid Head of my Silent Hill.
Getting out of the Emblem’s chamber requires sprinting through to the other side. There, a small doorway leads up a flight of stairs, slick with blood, naked bodies scattered to either side, some with their stomachs ripped out, others with their legs split in both directions, a handful of which still scream to be killed and the rest with their heads crushed by sheer blunt force. Escaping the Emblem’s lair after awakening it means he will now search everywhere for you. Denizens, Lopers, Darlings, Burrowers and even Frosts will flee from you, recognizing the stench of the Emblem clinging to you. Only Workmen and Drones will be unphased. Anything unfortunate enough to be found in the Emblem’s way will suffer one of three fates. Lopers will be disemboweled by its mighty claws, their innards eaten in front of them by the second head’s mouth. Some Denizens will suffer the same, but Darlings, Burrowers and other Denizens will be stomped by the Emblem’s third leg, their legs, apart from Burrowers, pulled to the breaking point, but not dismembered, only broken and dislocated. Frosts will, by comparison, be spared and merely be crushed underfoot. Workmen, Drones and Officers will be thrown aside, not worth the Emblem’s consideration.
If the Emblem should ever catch you, it will take nose first. Its third smaller mouth will bite through its own tongue to remove it, then your nose. It will turn you face-down for the next, where it runs its claws along your back, puss spilling from its open sores into your back. Finally, it will take your legs and do the same to you as it does to Darlings and Burrowers.
The Emblem is slow and noisy but has your scent, able to track you no matter where you are in the city. If you do not hear its footsteps coming, you will certainly smell it.