So much of his life had turned around in mere hours. Half-convinced as he was that this was all some dying dream of his, the chill of the rolling fog felt as real as the pale, small hand of the bratty little towhead who tugged him along impatiently through the cemetery.

"Hurry up! I have to pee," Laura snapped, giving James a sharp but harmless kick on the heel as he struggled with the rusty gate. "I'll do it right here, too! Think I won't?!"

"Okay, okay. We'll find a bush for you or something," James muttered, grimacing as he thought of the unholy urinal in which his long journey had begun.

"Ewwwww!" Scrunching up her face and gagging, Laura held her stomach. "I'm not an animal like you!"

Too bad Eddie didn't cross paths with you after he snapped, James thought darkly. Swallowing the nasty thought - for Mary, for Mary, absolutely for Mary, and perhaps for the sake of skipping another terrifying, convoluted trip through town - he led her past the gate, and through the now-quiet, tree-lined path to the observation deck. Laura scurried into the men's room to relieve herself, and James could hear her dissatisfied griping the entire time as he dug around in his jacket for his car keys. Ah - there they were.

Laura emerged from the restroom moments later, smiling proudly. "I peed standing up," she announced, marching to the car. "I wanna go to McDonald's."

What the f- "How did y-" He shook his head. "Okay. Good job. We'll get you a Happy Meal or something. Come on."

"And I wanna Batman toy," Laura commanded, tapping her foot impatiently as James went around to the passenger side to unlock her door. "And a milksh- what are you looking at?"

For James was now standing there, door half-opened, staring curiously into the backseat.

"Oh, boy." He gulped. "I... I forgot about that..."

"Forgot about what?" Standing on her tiptoes, Laura pressed her face against the window - James's sore lack of paternal instincts failing to warn her away from the sight. She gasped in delight. "Hi, Mary!"

Mary Shepherd-Sunderland was sprawled peacefully across the backseat of James's '79 Chevy Nova, limbs askew, pajamas stained and soiled. Her hair, normally pinned up neatly, was lank and messy, and a fly crawled across her bruised, sallow cheek.

Face falling, Laura stepped away from the window and shook her head. "Wait, duh..."

James buried his face in his hand. "Shit." The waves of depression, a building panic attack, rolled over him. "What am I going to do? I... I-" Running a hand through his hair, he mulled over his options. Dump her in the lake? That seemed cold. Not his Mary. The lake was crowded, so many had perished in its depths... Give her a proper burial here, in Silent Hill? She did love it, but what a disturbing, horrible perversion of it to be buried in...

Laura's voice broke into his reeling slot machine of thoughts: "So, are we gonna go anywhere?" She was already cautiously buckling her seat belt, eyeing Mary suspiciously, as though she might begin spewing moths at any moment.

"I need a moment," James's voice answered, floating in from the cracked driver's side window. How could he have forgotten about this so easily? No, that was it, he hadn't quite forgotten. It was just that his purpose had changed, with her forgiveness and his epiphany. He briefly pictured himself driving over a speed bump, causing Mary to tumble to the floor with a loud thump; the horrified expression frozen on the cashier's face as she returned his credit card through the drive-through window, along with a Happy Meal and some coffee, and spotted the slightly-decayed corpse in his backseat; "Without You" blaring on the radio as Mary's body let out a putrid burst of trapped gas that left them both coughing at a red light.

Sighing, James thumped his head a few times against the window. They weren't far from the cemetery... perhaps they could mark her grave somehow? She did love the town so dearly. And he certainly owed her this. This, taking a hellion under his wing, moving on with his life-

"Eww! Mary farted! Let me out!"

Enough brooding. Grimacing, James gingerly removed his wife from the backseat, motioning to Laura to follow him as they made their way back to the cemetery to lay Mary to rest.

He suddenly wanted a Happy Meal, too.

Author's Notes: I just finished SH2 recently - got the Leave ending, like I'd hoped for. Ah, what bliss. This story came to mind after realizing that - if Laura and James leave town in James's car - well, it's been stated that Mary's body is most likely still in the trunk or backseat. How awkward. And so, my twisted imagination took it from there.

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