Fan Fiction ❯ Silent Hill 2: Path of Retribution ❯ Seeking Nothing ( Chapter 2 )

All characters belong to Konami: a few things were changed, but barely. Thanks!

Part 2

Seeking Nothing

I was finally able to reach the other end of the path, a fence opening to only more fog. It seemed to get worst as my feet advanced further.

Only this time, there was something different. I had sensed something odd and wrong on my way down to Silent Hill, and it was confirmed when I had almost plunged down to my end. I'll try to describe it as best as I can, though it is rather difficult to do so.

Along the way down the forest's path, I heard several whispers, steps coming from around me. I remember stopping sharply and looking over my shoulder carefully, as if expecting something to jump on my back.

"Who's there?", I heard my own voice tremble. It was ridiculous that someone would give out an answer, yet.... There was something there. There always was, and there probably still is as I am writting this down. Whatever was was pushing me down further, forcing me to continue, playing with me. The fun was not for me. It was for

the sink monster James, its find you, right here right now

whatever it was.

I obeyed and moved faster until I was running, being attracted to what was next to come. My breathe caught the acrid air of the fog and I almost choked on it while faces were laughing at me through the immitation nature made of monsters with our imagination.

Yes, that's all it was, my imagination. At least I thought then.

After a long distance of running and being pushed further to the unknown I encountered an old well on the side of the path. Catching my breathe, I stopped near it.

"I'm getting too old for this", I whispered through my hard breath blowing in my lungs in painful ways. For a while, I remained there, breathing hard... and then my curiosity took over and I moved up the wooded stairs surrounding the stone artifact.

I walked around it a bit, half expecting to find something Mary would have left for me, as absurd as it may have been, half expecting nothing.

I then looked down the hole, somehow wanting to see if the paleness of my face had left place to some color at last. I found no reflection to meet me. No ghost, no color, but it was not empty. In it was what looked like a peice of red carbon paper.

Then I fell. Fell far far down the well as it was sucking me in, the red taking over my mind

it's all red down here James, blood and red... see the hole... there is one.. for how long? There is a hole here. In your head there's a hole

and I was looking down , looking at the piece of paper which meant nothing really. That was when the change occured. Whatever had been down there had went through my mind. It wanted to see things even I did not want to know. It wanted to see me. The town had accepted my quest to find my beloved wife.

Helping me was another story.

I remained there for a while, looking at the wind brushing my hair as I looked at the peice of reflexion left around the red square.

I slowly stepped away. I looked the way I had came, and I knew it was not possible to go back. I did not know what would stop me, but something would. Silent Hill had opened its gates and closed the ones behind me, leading to freedom.

I walked the rest of the way through the trail until I reached an opened fence. I thought it might have been someone's place locked to the outside by a fence and locked doors. There was nothing to lock it, so I let myself in, hoping not to get shot. How many kids might come around other people's properties...

I was wrong. As far as this was someone else's properties it belonged to many people, they probably just did not know it. The old graves were lined up as if for sale, showing the name of the people there from the beginning of the years 1900s. It was impressive, but I did not need more death symbols.

Then, making my heart miss a beat, I heard what sounded like a faint sigh: a mixture of despair and releif at once. A sillouette, not very threatening moved from behind one of the graves, then to its feet and walked a around it. It was definitly human for it brushed one of the garves with a slender hand, as if griefing and giving the final goodbye to it's lost loved one.

This was one of the woest feeling to ever invade my heart, as Mary was decended into the earth for her eternal rest. I remember moving my hand on the coolness of the rock raising her name, the only vestige of her living....

Such pain...

It was a young woman, not more then twenty years old. She moved her fingers to her dark hair, stepping away from the stone and probably ready to leave.

"Excuse me... I...", I let myself say with shyness in my voice.

She gasped with fear and backed away from me quickly, but she had already stopped her moves short, after she had taken a quick but good look at me. "Oooh", she breathed, "I...I...I'm sorry... I.. I was j-just I was..."

I frowned at first, anxious by her reaction. What was she sorry for? She was only showing some respect to someone she had probably lost not so long ago. The stone was not vandalized from what I could tell.

"No, it's okay", I told her tenderly and calmly to show I was not here to harm anyone, "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm.. um... I'm kinda lost you see?" There was a tone of embarassment as I spoke.

She moved closer to me, her eyelids closing into thin lines as she looked at me as if I were the strangest entity around. "Lost?", she articulated perfectly, her dark hair moving around her pretty baby features.

"Yeah. I'm looking for... Silent Hill? Is...this the right way? "

"Um, yeah... It's hard to see in this fog, but there's only one road. You can't miss it", she pointed west.

I smiled and nodded in aggreement. "Thanks." But that was it for now. I had no time for any chit-chat, and decided it was best for me to go now, and leave this young lady pray on her own.

Only, I was startled to hear her voice again, this time full of concern, "But...", was enough for me to look at her again.

"Yes?"

She played with the end of her fadded yellow shirt, shy and wondering how to tell me something I should have listened to in the first place. She straightened up, but looked down, "I.. think you better stay away. This...uh... this town... there's something wrong with it...."

I frowned. "Is it... dangerous?"

Is there any sink monsters?, I imagined myself asking and having this girl laugh it out.

"Maybe... It's not just the fog either", she said as she looked around herself, "It's--"

"Okay. I got it. I'll be careful", I cut her words more rudely then I entended, and turned my back again to walk away. I did not want to hear more. Whoever, whatever was waiting for me.. I did not want to know now. I was just not ready. I was old enough to find things on my own.

"I'm not lying!!!",she suddenly cried.

"No. I beleive you", I told her gently, "It's just... I guess I don't really care if it's dangerous or not", I looked at her over my shoulder with a grave expression, "I'm going to town either way."

"But... why?"

"I'm looking for..."I stopped. How could I tell her I was looking for my dead wife? And that, in a cemetary? No. I was not ready to tell anyone yet. Her eyes, dark and black, were warning me not to yet either. "for... someone", I finished.

"Who... who... who is it?", she suddenly seemed very nervous as she spoke, stuttering and clumsily walking closer to me.

"Someone.. very important to me. I'd do anything if I could be with her again."

I thought she was about to push me to tell her, but instead, she switched the interest to her own situation.

"Me too. I'm looking for my mama... er I mean my mother", she corrected herself quickly as if afraid to reveal anything personnal, then she looked up at the grey sky, dreaming, "It's been so long since I've seen her. I thought my father and brother were here, but, I can't find them either.... I... I'm sorry. It's not your problem..."

"No. I... I.. I hope you find them." I meant it.

"Yeah, you too..."

Then she was looking back at the grave, escaping from the reality we both were into. She had cut the conversation herself and was ready to let me go. She looked again at me, her arms crossed over her chest and smiled softly.

I returned the favor and headed the way she had showed me. I hurt my foot a few times against the stones, standing straight and proud of holding the lives of innocents. Eventually, I found another gate, this one opening the door to Silent Hill at last. I looked over my shoulder as I grabbed one of the bars, the cold metal sending chills through my spine. I was afraid, there was no doubt about it. I knew I would find something that would mark me forever, and that strange, shy woman had made sure to remind me of it all. The door screamed under my push, and I wondered, as I looked over my shoulder, if it was wise to leave her alone like this.

But she seemed gone. Either that or the fog had grown thicker.

Let her be, I told myself, we met out of coincidence anyway. She knows what she has to do. Yet I felt aweful about leaving her on her own. I had not even introduced myself to her, asked her name.... Neither did she. You wanted to leave quickly, my concience reminded me. I sighed and finally decided to let go.

I stepped out of the cemetary and into another long path which would finally lead me to my destiny.

Now that I think about it, perhaps this young woman had escaped from this hell when I first met her. She was ready to leave... . Perhaps she had made it out, and was trying to warn me of what was to come. But because of my foolishness... I think she followed me, or had the urge to as she saw me head for the town. I doubt it was on her own free will. She wanted to go back, felt she had to, because this is how Silent Hill works. The illusion of need. Now I know. She was not done, and neither was the town.

To be continued