Chapter 1

Unexplainable

The tears dangled lifelessly from her chin, the cries stuck in her throat, her watery eyes lay focused on the sunset in the distance. It reminded her pleasant memories, good times, but now the memories were all stuck in the sun which was now setting and disappearing faster each second. She closed her eyes.

Recalling the news of what she had just heard she couldn't remember straight, but the news made her feel like another fallible human being.

She had promised to herself when she was little that death wasn't going to overwhelm her the day it appeared, but life can't always shine. She wished death wasn't inevitable…especially for lovers.

Her husband, Dan had killed himself not over an hour ago, just as the police stated. As many would feel, she blamed herself for his death and pondered what she did wrong. The only answer she was received was thinking more about him made her cry.

Calming down was the biggest thing on her mind, or she thought her heart would explode. In and out deep breaths but none succeeded. Angered, she slammed her fist into her thigh. "WHY!" She cried as loud as she could, wondering if Josie or the policeman heard her from the other room.

She knew it was best if she didn't think about it so she wiped her eyes with her hands and sniffed up the clogged nose and prayed for some salvation from God. Looking deeper into the sky through the window, she looked closely at a bright star in the sky which sent her back to the minute she heard the bad news.

Just finished putting all the dishes into the dishwasher, she washed her hands at the kitchen sink when Josie peered into the kitchen smiling. "Mom", she spoke softly to Josie "What are you doing?"

"Why, can't I still check up on my little baby when she's working in the kitchen?"

Starting to feel embarrassed, she replied "Mom, come on, please don't do that!"

"Doing what? You're still my baby and as long as you're living in my house, I have the right to call you my little baby…" she walked up to her and kissed her from behind on the cheek "…and you always will be."

At Josie's remark, she scoffed, Moms!

"Hey, where is Dan, Kayla? He hasn't come home in hours. Is he like this?"

Kayla tried to think and made a weird face "Sometime he is, and that's usually when he's out with another girl…"

"Very funny, Kayla!" said Josie sarcastically.

"Ok, anyway he's sometimes out like this, but I don't know where he is, but he has to be home soon". At the time Kayla said "soon", a knock was heard at the door…

…Her eye didn't stay to the trance of the shining star very long and she snapped out of it, taking a fast breath. For some reason, Kayla felt very tired but no certain reason why. Stepping off the couch, she walked into the kitchen where her mother was talking with the policeman.

Josie must've seen her from the corner of her eye, as she and her met faces. The policeman also surprised looked at Kayla and setting down his cup of coffee. She tried to show herself standing there in the hallway as normal as possible to her mom and the officer, but her brushes with fear made her lean against the wall.

There was a long silence. Why the hell won't they let me sit down?, Kayla thought.

Her mother looked at her as if she was just going to blurt everything out she knew but instead said very little. "…Kayla, um…I think you should go upstairs and rest, ok?"

Josie didn't want to see her only daughter suffer anymore, especially like this. As she used to tell Kayla, "This too shall pass", and she followed her mother's motto for the rest of her life.

"…Ok," she softly spoke before she saw her mother let out a tear from her eye.

There was a moment of silence before the policeman got impatient. He started clearing his throat and a cough, a sign of the officer wanting to talk more with Josie. She knew what he meant, so she slowly walked over to Kayla looking her straight in the weak eyes and gave her a tight hug.

"Get some rest," Josie whispered into her ear, although Kayla felt like resting in her mother's arms for the time being, and without the impatient asshole of whom she betted didn't care of this tragedy but his fucking salary.

She got a kiss on her forehead before she finally had gone on her way to her bedroom. Firstly, she had to work herself up the stairs. Basically, there were only about ten steps but it felt like the stairs were separating into pieces, each step into halves, then into fourths…

She decided to stay on the stairs, lie down and eavesdrop on her mother and policeman's conversation. It was only so loud, the voices turning to whispers as if they knew she was listening. Kayla was in such deep doubt, she didn't know what to think, or even if she should listen to the conversation. She wanted to get up and fall into bed; she had never acted this way ever before. She would never normally fall on the stairs after hearing about a death and feel like dying. A few years ago, her gramps dies of cancer in her own house on Thanksgiving and Kayla acted like a normal adult and called an ambulance, not being a baby.

Her mother must've heard her crying again because the talking stopped and there were footsteps creeping towards the stairs. Kayla felt fear although she knew who it was even when she saw Josie's eyes look into hers. Kayla resisted and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'll go to bed, mom," she shouted and ran up the stairs into her room her eyes closed all the way. She jumped onto the bed and wanted to hate herself. No, she didn't want to think negative, "Think positive you goddamn brain" she hollered and slammed her fists into the blankets that made her fists bounce back into her anger.

Her heart was pounding like the horn of a train speeding on the tracks, she felt like having a heart attack and go to Heaven, or Hell wherever she had to go, just out of this world.

Just then, she realized how much she loved Dan, and why she blamed herself. Why would anyone want to kill him, or why would he kill himself? He was the next Tom Cruise on Easy Street. She met him when she was a waitress at a diner in her hometown. She was serving food one day when a man came up to her and pinched her butt from behind her. Without thinking, she pushed her elbow behind her and hit the sickening man in the abs, which was why she got fired. But a nice young man came out of nowhere and convinced me he would get me my job back or he would get me one elsewhere. When she saw him walk up to her boss, a grumpy old man probably in his seventies was reading a newspaper groaning about the recent news and then the Man grabbed the newspaper and pushed it toward the boss who was in disbelief as the paper blinded his vision as scraps flew everywhere. The Man then went over to Kayla and said, "I don't think he wants you here, so let's go somewhere where you're wanted." Kayla smiled with joy that she was finally getting out of the smoke dump and finally with someone she was starting to like.

He was like a person that came into her world when the whole world had gone out, she remembered a quote sort of like that every time she thanked him for getting her a job as at a JCPenny not far from her home because the Man, who's name was Dan Clutz, had connections with the employers of the store and she received a much greater salary than at her old job. When she was taking a break during her job, all she could think about was him, a handsome great…hunk, she laughed when that word came into her mind.

As their friendship rose, Kayla feared a little that he was more than a friend. She never thought of marry him ever before but did have a crush on him, while she thought he also had a crush on her, she had full confidence that it was true. And her thoughts were granted when she experienced a big surprise.

He invited her for swimming on the phone and he even gave her a ride to the beach.About an hour later, she was jumping off the sandbar when Dan ducked under the splashing water. As she got her balance above the deep water, she didn't see Dan anywhere. "Dan!" she shouted and he popped right out of the water behind her. She laughed but he cut her off. "I was looking for something I saw underwater" and he showed the ring in his hand. "Will you marry me!" She was in shock at this but how could she refuse? He looked into her eyes but Kayla didn't say the answer. "What could I give to you in return? I have nothing."

"My only wishes," he said softly smiling "are your love and you." Without another word, she said "yes".

Both of them could hear the waves as they hid under a towel on the sand and made love. She didn't want to stop kissing him and she didn't think he wanted to either. She would love him forever with all her heart. She would get married to him.

But she forgot that Dan Clutz was dead as she sat up on her bed. She must've fallen asleep because when she checked the time it was past six and the stars were already gleaming in the sky.

She decided to herself that there would be no more pain and suffering, and she would just pretend this never happened, just do the same usual routine she did every day. She got up the bed and because she was in very wrinkly clothes, she reached into the closet without turning on the light and just wore what she picked; a silk gold robe. The robe Dan gave her, but she pretended she bought it from a store and changed out of her cloths and into the soft robe that was one size too small.

But Kayla wasn't paying to any of the details or scenery around her, just thinking: she was sleepwalking in a different world, an eternal Paradise, where she could be with Dan even if it was only once. She just wanted her nightmare to end.

She crept down the labyrinth down to the kitchen where a slightly bright light was on and a note on the table. Dear Kayla, Please don't be alarmed that I'm not here. I am going back home so I don't cause anymore anger. Love you, Mom and there was a Post-It on the letter, her mother's phone number.

What now? What am I suppose to do now? Start a life being alone in my own house with no one to comfort me. Why aren't you here, Dan? Please don't let me feel bad anymore…I'll pray for you, Kayla opened her sleepy eyes. She tried to recap what had happened: she got some coffee and was now sitting at the kitchen table; her future all a blur, her future was already ruined.

When she fell asleep on the table, the other memories came to her. She had a dream that was very unclear to distinguish from any normal dream. There was an endless fog that surrounded her which affected her from seeing any more than twenty feet around her, the frightening sound of screams and groaning noises which made Kayla sit Indian-style on the ground and closed her eyes. She knew it was a dream, and she knew when she closed her eyes, she would be transported back to the real world. She squeezed tighter and tighter but the noises got louder.

Hopeless, she opened her eyes and the sound and fog suddenly disappeared and there was silence, except for the blowing wind. It's Silent Hill! She remembered her old Paradise, Silent Hill, and she recognized that she was on the road she guessed was most likely Bachman Road because she recognized the Balkan Church at the corner of Bachman Road and Bloch Street. The decorations like the balloons on the church made Kayla recall the time there was a new years and it was morning. Thousands of resident of Silent Hill and even tourists walked down the streets cheering and letting balloons fly into the air and she remembered one balloon got tangled up on the roof's cross but no one ever tried to get it down, not even the priests. It was quite odd, but the day was very enjoyable, and no one noticed the cross with Jesus on it had disappeared from the roof and was never found.

But that was a long time ago, now that she could see the church was in bad condition on an account of several broken wood. Actually, all her view of Silent Hill in the present day was all…dull, she didn't want to say but it was. The town looked the same but something was missing. Kayla thought for a second and realized; people! Where was everybody? Everything was empty and dredged in gloom.

Although in amazement to be back at "home", she started walking anxiously and but after a few quiet steps the realization hit her when she unintentionally kicked something on the ground and the noise echoed throughout the town. Kayla peered down and realized it was a banged up sign about Silent Hill. You are now entering Silent Hill: The town where dreams come true! And behind the text was a picture of one of the attractions of this lovely town. Lovely wasn't a word to describe the town, thought Kayla; it was only a quiet town filled with the silence of peace…not lovely.

She couldn't make sense of what she was saying and still pondering, she didn't notice the color of the text on the sign was darkening and stretching out wider so it was right under her fingers like a slithering snake. And in a heartbeat, Kayla's perspective of Silent Hill switched to the exact opposite and she saw the blood overflowing the sign and her hands, although it was if her hands were numb because she felt no blood. The sight made her heart jump and she dropped the sign in shock. When she looked back at her hands, there was no blood on them, and the sign had also disappeared.

Still frightened, she tried to take deep sighs and calm down. She had never seen real blood and never intended to. The sight of blood made her so squeamish; she could fidget like she was having a seizure for minutes. She was seven years old when she first saw blood on a movie called Alien, which didn't scare the hell out of her because she had nightmares of aliens for weeks at a time until she got a dream catcher in her room, which was close to a miracle for her and she never dreamed of evil again.

But isn't this a dream out of my own imagination? Aren't I making this horror? Kayla's thoughts were now out of order but she deleted all of them and came up with one she could hold onto: What you see is what you get. So she closed her eyes and thought of Silent Hill from when she visited there. The beautiful scenery of the sun that never was out of view, the hearing of happiness in the air, the Paradise. After a relaxing deep breath, she opened her eyes.

Her joy that came out of her must've spread all around her as she saw before her eyes the changing of the old now-dead town to the refreshed new town she always remembered. Her horror had now disappeared and she smiled big.

She had never loved anything ever before as much as she loved what she was seeing unfold. She in such a state of joy she didn't know what to expect, and she didn't notice she had another thing coming.

The Paradise was now transforming again into a dull old place again but quickly flickered back to Paradise as if it was someone turning a light on and off repeatedly. This is getting too weird, Kayla now considered returning back to her home but she felt she was being pulled further into the dream when the flicking stopped and stayed on scariness.

Her heart started to feel like drums again and she slowly backed away from what she was seeing and still failed to escape the dream when her squeezing eyes started to hurt. The noises of static were emerging and footsteps could be heard from a very far distance. Kayla plugged her ears with her hands and started to moan to block out the sounds. It worked but she was now in pure darkness and she felt hopeless enough to feel like she was paralyzed in the position she was in, her cramps trying to make her move but she held on as tight as she could.

What now, she thought while she still moaned. Thinking made her cry. Dan! It was her only thoughts to get her away from this nightmare but at least it made her feel better, thinking about more good times, back in her real dreams.

"Kayla", the voice of a whisper she could hear from the corner of her ear behind her. Feeling relieved, she spun around and found nothing at her side. What!, her brain roared. Suddenly, she felt the feeling of faint and started to wobble so she could fall to the ground. My life's over and God stinks at making a happy life. Her smile turned into a frown and she felt like dying. Finally, she reached the last wobble before she would fall. Somewhere inside her, she felt sort of happy. But when Kayla's hair got pulled from behind her, it was a different side because she was screaming in agony.