Dinner with James Sunderland

Ah yes, James Sunderland. Commonly known for his misadventures within the town called Silent Hill. But who is he really? What type of man resides under that cool persona of his. I can happily answer that question, he's absolutely crazy. A complete mad man, truly. What with his completely monotone voice, lack of emotion, tacky clothing, and that constant drive to find his dead wife Maria, it can be seen clearly why my statement holds true. I unfortunately found out just how crazy he was the hard way, by inviting the man over for dinner.

I was twenty six at that time. I'd already shared a few events with James in the past, so we were on friendly terms. This is why he accepted my invitation to come over and eat. However, I don't think he fully understood the concept of "company dining". My first red flag should have been when I called up James to invite him over. It took several calls before he finally picked, and when he did… the conversation went… south.

"Hello?" He droned into his phone.

I cleared my throat, "Hello yes, James? It's me, Alex."

"Alex?" Harry's voice showed no signs of emotion, straight monotone emptiness.

"Yes… Alex. You recall? You and I went on several trips together in the past, one was with Raiden."

"Raiden?"

"Yes… Raiden. Look, do you remember me at all James?"

"Yes." There was a long silence between us, a very long silence. As you can tell, James social skills were lacking. He was a man of few words, and even fewer manners. Deep down I knew that my best option was to hang up the phone right then and there.

I was young however, and foolish, so I continued to talk, "Well James… I was wondering if you were free tonight."

"What's happening tonight?" He asked.

"Dinner." I replied.

"Dinner?"

"Yes, at my house James I was…"

"Why does it matter if there's dinner at your house? What's going on?"

"Let me finish and I can tell you." Now, keep in mind that I was still very young, and didn't understand fully who I was talking to. This was James Sunderland, the man who had fought two pyramid heads at once and successfully killed them, the man who survived Silent Hill and returned home with a child. Me getting testy was a foolish move on my part. Without knowing it, I had created one of the most dangerous stories of my life.

"Are you… getting angry at me?" James questioned, it was the first time I heard any sort of emotion in his voice - anger.

"Uh, no James, not at all." I replied quickly. "Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to eat dinner with me?"

"With… you?"

"Yeah, with me. Would you like to?"

Again there was an extremely long pause, and without a reply from James, I heard him hang up. So it seemed that I would be dining alone that night. I knew then that I had probably said something to upset him but, it didn't bother me too much. My evening went on normally after that point, I cooked up some pasta, turned on my television, and began to relax.

There was something I hadn't taken into account however. It was true that James hadn't said yes to my invitation, but he hadn't said no either. He simply had hung up his phone. It never occurred to me that he still may come over. Again, I was such a young pup my mind still had not wrapped around just how peculiar some people can be.

Sure enough around eleven o'clock at night, I hear my door bell ring. I was surprised, to say the least, and as I walked to the door I couldn't help but wonder who was ringing at such a late hour. Since it was so late I thought it a better idea to question who it was before opening my door.

"Who is it?" I called.

"It's me… James."

"James?" Who wouldn't have been surprised? It was eleven at night, the man came over for dinner now? Surely not, he must have come for some other reason, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for dinner." He replied.

"James… it's eleven at night!"

There was a slight delay to his response, "Can I come in?"

What was I to do? I could not turn away such an opportunity as this, so slowly, I opened the door. James looked just the same as every other time I had seen him. It seemed as though the man never aged over a day. He wore the same green overcoat he had worn for years, his hair was even cut the same way.

He walked into my house with calm strides. He looked around for a moment, then turned to me. "Is… Maria here?"

"Maria? Oh you mean your wife… uh no she's not here James."

James looked at the ground, "Then why?" I couldn't tell if he was upset or angry, either way I knew James wasn't feeling at his best.

"Well, I put away dinner a while ago… I thought you weren't coming…"

He looked up at me, "But you asked me to come. Why wouldn't I come? Did you think I would leave you?" James took a step towards me, I naturally took a step back.

"Let's… get the food ready." Honestly I didn't know what to say to this man, James never was a normal person to begin with but today seemed even worse. I quickly walked over to my refrigerator and pulled out the left over spaghetti. I reheated it as quickly as I could and placed it down on my kitchen table.

"There we are. All set. Here James, let's have dinner." I offered him a chair as I spoke. James looked at me, then at the food, he looked around the room once more.

"Maria." He whispered.

"No, spaghetti." I Answered sitting him down. James continued to mumble as I found my own seat. "Now, would you like something to drink James?"

James looked at the bowl of food in front of him, I assumed he hadn't heard me.

"James?"

Still no reply, James looked up from the food and brushed his hand through his hair. "This place, is… so quiet."

"That's because it's eleven thirty on a weekday James, pretty much everyone's sleeping."

"Well… why aren't you? Why should we be allowed to have dinner at this time when everyone else has to sleep?" James sounded like a whining child, as he spoke the lights in my house dimmed some; and it was at this moment I realized that things were far from normal around this guy. I thought perhaps that some of Silent Hill had maybe followed him here.

"Ok James… look I don't know if you realized this but you can eat pretty much whenever you want."

James nodded and stuck a fork into his spaghetti. "That's what Maria would always say."

I raised an eyebrow, "You two, you guys would talk about times of eating?"

"Yeah among other things." James said with a wicked laugh. You see, James didn't know how to express anger. Let me rephrase, James didn't know how to express any sort of emotion whatsoever. This was a prime example of that fact. James began to laugh hysterically as sad music began to play in the background.

"James…" I said somberly, falling right into character for this particular act.

He shook his head, "No, it's alright… really. I… I was just thinking about Maria." James peered at his bowl of food, "Hey, wait a minute! Is this… Maria?" He asked looking at the spaghetti.

The queer question made me shift in my seat uncomfortably, "No James, that's… spaghetti."

"I don't want ss-spagehti…" He said bitterly. "I want Maria!" He yelled slamming his fork into the noodles. His bowl broke instantly, the room grew heavy with awkward.

I stared at him with wide eyes, "Ok, I see that your upset… how about we just move straight onto dessert." I stood up quickly, not even bothering to hear what James had to say. Another mistake on my part. As soon as I had turned my back on the man, there was a scuttle of a chair and table moving. My head spun around quickly, James was no where to be found.

"James?" I called out into the darkness of my house, there was no reply. Yes, because of my foolhardy actions I would now have to find James Sunderland in my house. The hunt had begun, only, I wasn't the hunter. No, I was the hunted.