Disclaimer: All the Silent Hill 4 stuff that has been taken and twisted here belongs to Konami
A white morning...
The sky was cloudy. Completely cloudy. Rain would fall soon, there was no doubt. Another reason to fill his heart with sadness. All what remained in that house, besides the forgotten dust of years, was lots of boxes, where they had kept everything. And now he was almost stuck to the window, contemplating that sky, so gloomy as himself, at least that day.
"Come on! We already have to go! It's time to go to see the new house!"
His mother was distracted, watching the landscape through the window. His father was driving, complaining about the fog. He was staring at the broken lens of a camera over his knees, the only thing that he refused to keep with the rest of his luggage.
"Don't worry, honey, we will buy you a new one"
"We don't have to, I can fix that"
But he didn't reply. All what they could hear from him was his breath, what in fact wasn't entirely audible either.
"Oh, right... This is not by that, dear, it's because we are moving"
"Seriously? But it's not so bad, dad got a better job! Aren't you glad by that?"
Again, no response.
"Leave him, he's just feeling homesick"
"Are you sure? Because this worries me a little..."
"That always happens, he'll be fine later"
He slipped his hand over the lens once more. He truly wanted to speak, but something was keeping him quiet. Anyway, maybe they wouldn't have understood what had happened to him last night.
"Dad... Do you believe in ghosts?"
It didn't surprise him that his father was observing him with a clearly bewildered expression. That wasn't a precisely normal question, after all.
"No. Why? Do you?"
He shook his head shyly.
"Although... I'm not sure..."
"Just tell me what happened and I will try to help you"
"Nothing..."
"Oh, well..."
His father sighed frustratedly and continued unpacking.
A while later, he left silently, to wander around the new neighborhood. He had no idea of why, but the streets were deserted, what gave him a sensation of calm by any reason, when in fact, it was rather disturbing to don't find anyone nearby. But since he had been wanting to be alone, he didn't mind.
He was still thinking in that night. He was totally convinced. What he had seen, what he had seen in his now former house was entirely real.
A grey afternoon...
Thunders. He could hear the thunders. The storm was near and he was still very far from his home. The memory of the apparition, in the middle of the backyard, was threatening to return.
What was he doing there so late, anyway? Trying to take a photograph to any firefly, probably. That silhouette was lying over the grass. The first time he saw it, he ran towards it, thinking what anybody else would have thought. What happened... What happened... There's a wounded girl over there...
And right in that moment, she, no... that lifted its head and attempted to crawl towards him. Passing through the flowerpots, and even a tree, without any trouble, and letting out horrific moans, what were causing him a terrible headache. He stepped away, scared to death, but once she was enough close and already starting to get up, his mother came to tell him that it was late and he had to go to bed. In that same second, the creature vanished immediately. He would never know that the medallion that was hanging from her neck was what had saved his life. However, he was even more frightened the next day, when he heard on the radio that the corpse of a girl, who had been brutally chopped, had been found, not very far, that same night. He couldn't stop thinking in that apparition, in its bloodstained face, for the rest of the week.
Now he was recalling that moment, as a spectral breeze began to shake his scarf. Although he was certainly scared and he even thought that he was going to die, what he felt when he saw that spirit the first time was different. It was rather a feeling of anguish, melancholy, maybe a little of curiosity...
Now he was sure. Even when he thought that he was completely alone, he wasn't. There was always somebody or something else nearby, even if he couldn't see it. That was what that breeze seemed to be wanting to tell him. He wasn't alone. He never was going to be alone.
He lifted his glance, noticing that the fog had covered all the streets, to make the scene more eerie. And there he was. A thin little boy, whose eyes were almost hidden under his messy hair, wandering around calmly. Anybody else, anybody who would think like him, would have supposed that he was a ghost. Another ghost, lost in the fog.
It was just by that reason that he barely talked to his parents. No matter of how understanding they seemed, he was afraid of telling them about those strange sensations and thoughts that he had been having those last days. And then that ghost in the backyard... It wasn't so hard for him to imagine them, again mentioning that he was already twelve years old, that he had to stop those childish games of hunting monsters and ghosts, that he was a clever boy, that he could spend his time doing better things. Obviously, none of that would help him, but he could live with that.
Then he heard another thunder, as a kind of warning, but he didn't want to return yet. He sat down in a bench and watched the fog for another while. Still alone. Or at least, that's what he wanted to believe.
A black evening...
He was late. He was terribly late and he knew it. So he kept running across the streets, trying to guide himself, since, somehow, he couldn't remember how did he get there in the first place. However, the ambience seemed to be really relaxing, or perhaps he was extremely tired, because he had fallen asleep in the bench.
Knowing his parents, they surely were looking for him desperately, although the town was still so deserted as before. But now there wasn't fog anymore. Now everything was just darker, and he had no idea of where he was, for his consternation.
He stopped suddenly, as he fixed his eyes, more and more confused. Because he didn't remember that there was a lake near there. He was standing in the shore, though. He didn't even feel that he was in the same town. Anyway, the strangest thing happened when he turned, perceiving a presence.
Not very far from where he was, he glimpsed a man, who seemed to notice him too, because he also turned. In fact, both looked at each other almost at the same time, as another great thunder blared and then, finally, it started to rain.
Between the raindrops, he reached to see that man's pale face, framed in a bush of dark blond hair, and also a pair of vivacious greenish eyes, that were still staring at his own indifferent glance. Words didn't seem to be necessary. Just their eyes, contemplating each other infinitely. And then he felt it, that sharp pain in his skull. He couldn't avoid to let out a brief groan, leading his hand to his forehead. The stranger smiled openly, as he frowned, astonished, wondering what would he be thinking. But that was something else that he would never know, because that man began to walk away, and before he could do anything else, he lost the consciousness and fell silently over the grass, still being covered by the raindrops.
"My God! Where have you been! You could have caught a cold!"
His mother's voice brought him back to reality. He looked around and realized that he was in his bed, in his new bedroom, and she was practically leaning over him.
"Seems that you have been sleepwalking, or at least that's what your father said. We spent like a hour looking for you, and with that rain! I was worried sick!"
He didn't reply. He was still slightly stunned and his head was still hurting a little, but he heard everything perfectly. Then was it a dream? Then he never left the house and he was just sleeping somewhere? No... That wasn't what he felt.
Maybe those persons that still ignored that there wasn't any way to be completely alone, as his mother, thought that. But for him, he wasn't dreaming. Anyway, he wasn't sure of what had really happened. For a moment, he felt like his soul had left his body, and it was his soul the one who had been wandering around. Naturally, he hadn't been wandering around the neighborhood. He was somewhere else. In another dimension. In another world. Another world that could belong to that stranger, who maybe was another of those spirits who look for company when someone believes to be alone...
He wasn't going to tell a word about that to his parents though. Just keep it for himself and try to never forget it.
However, once he thought that maybe he didn't have to worry about that anymore, at least for a while, he saw something else that undoubtedly disturbed him. Because when he turned to the window, not very far from his house, he saw him again, standing in the middle of the nocturnal darkness, watching him, smiling at him, as telling him how true was what he supposed. But the apparition didn't last enough, since a breeze seemed to erase it from his sight. He couldn't avoid to shiver, and then, at last, his mother finally heard him speak.
"What... the... hell?"