Women Accustomed to Violence
By Detective Ryoshi
The soft, gray smoke of her cigar finally dissipated against the crude, bright neon lights. She dropped it into an ash tray, as she started walking over to the counter. It was a badly-lit bar, cramped, with few chairs. The glasses were always dirty and the windows were always broken. Over the counter the neon light started fluttering. It annoyed her. Now what would a well-off, middle class girl like her be doing here, she thought.
The Balalaika sat down next to the young woman, who was sipping some beer out of a large glass. The glass reflected Balalaikas' bright red dress.
"What do you want?" asked Heather Mason sullenly.
"You're pretty easy to find, you know that?" the Balalaika said cheerfully.
"You didn't answer my question." Heather continued.
"Very well. I see that you have had many visitors before…"
"Yeah. Exactly like you. They all end up the same…"
"I assure you, none of them are like me."
"We'll discuss that later. Now talk."
"Very well. The Toluca County mafia managed to contact me. They wanted my military skills, you see. And they were willing to pay top dollar. So I asked them, who they wanted me to take out. Rival families, police men, I thought it was the usual thing. But then they tell me, who they need defending from is, well, Hell itself…"
"Damn right. Now why did you find me?"
"Because I have killed, tortured, and utterly annihilated many, many men in my time. Only men. You have experience with the creatures of this town… this Silent Hill. You help me defeat them, and I'll help you…"
"Help me?" Heather smirked. "Help me? I swear if I had a dime every time I heard that… everyone always comes to me with the same request. Help me through Silent Hill. I need to rescue my mother. My wife. My daughter. If you help me, I'll give you what you want. Bull. Then never can give what they promised. I can always tell it in their eyes. They never can fulfill."
Then, the Balalaika suddenly turned to Heather and grabbed her by the collar. She held her face closely to hers. Heather, trembling, gazed upon the Balalaikas' eyes. They were so cold, so mechanical. Heather hadn't seen eyes like that before. At least, eyes she couldn't find in Silent Hill. She gulped. Her heart began beating quickly. The eyes, they reminded her of Allyssa's' eyes. She knew this woman was dead serious.
The Balalaika dropped her from her grip. Heather began panting.
"So, what was that about my eyes…" asked the Balalaika.
"Well… well… okay… I understand… you can do the job…" Heather gasped for air.
"But… do you… have a plan…"
"Yes. Yes I do," said a confident Balalaika, "
"You do know what I want right? You do understand the stakes, right?"
"Of course. Now, stock up on supplies, weapons everything you need. You know where to meet me tomorrow morning."
"Yeah… I'll see you then."
The Balalaika calmly turned and walked out of the bar.
The mist rolled in over the horizon, not bowing to anyone, showing no remorse. Still it wasn't so strong that it blocked her sight. She found the tall, strong, red figure in the distance, standing next to the entrance of the sleepy Silent Hill. Heather walked up to the shape, her heavy back-pack resting comfortable on her and her knapsack banging against her hips every step she made.
"You're early." Heather said in an annoyed manner.
"It is necessary for survival. It's a habit you pick up when you're in organized crime."
"Sure," Heather said sarcastically, "so, you know what you want do here?"
"Yes. The Giaglacci Family used to run many arms smuggling operations quite well in their headquarters at Silent Hill. Now that their HQ has been removed due to, um, unnatural causes, the surviving members have instructed me to plant a several highly flammable incendiary explosives in an underground location referred to as simply 'The Chapel.' Once I'm done with that, or while I'm doing that, I will help you find what you want."
"You better. Because just remember, if you dare pull out…" Heather said menacingly, as she unzipped her knapsack and pulled out a steel, double-barreled shotgun, "… I will do anything I can to personally kill you."
The Balalaika, though unfazed, understood the gravity in Heather's statement. She pointed to her black car, which was parked ten feet away from them. They both entered and took their seats in the front of the car, Balalaika taking the wheel. Heather was slightly surprised to see the trunk and back seats filled with giant kerosene barrels. They drove into the main street of the town, determined to achieve their personal goals.
As the car drove by Silent Hill's numerous, hollow streets, severally creatures came up to the Balalaikas' car, in a futile attempt to attack it. They interested her. The attractive nurse who was missing her face. The being who was just two sets of legs attached to each other. The angry, skinless, dog. She was going to miss all these wondrous sights.
"This hell-hole has gotten worse," Heather muttered under her breath.
"What makes you say that?" replied the Balalaika.
"This place… I thought I had destroyed the evil that haunted it. But it just returned, stronger."
"How so?"
"Well, the root of this towns' evil is… a religion. A religion that was founded and grew here… preserved by a group called the Order…"
"Go on…" said a fascinated Balalaika. Deranged monsters, and now religious fanaticism? This place was really starting to grow on her.
"The Order… they… got a little girl. A harmless, innocent little girl named Allyssa. And her mother, that bitch, she well, burned her alive. She did so in order to, in order to… have Allyssa birth their god."
The Balalaika was immediately reminded of Hansel and Gretel, the Romanian Vampire Twins she had a run-in with once. Sacrificial lambs to the slaughter. A childhood erased by the sins of adults.
"And well… it worked. Allyssa actually could use the powers of the Orders' god. And well, using those powers… Silent Hill became this."
"You mean to say, magic powers destroyed this place and brought about these surreal monsters?" The Balalaika really was shocked. The monsters surprised her and suspended her disbelief, after all she had seen some insane stuff in Roanapur, but real life divine intervention was just too much for her.
"I know it's hard to believe, but its' true. This cult in Silent Hill, they have powers over reality. They can make your worst nightmares come true…"
Balalaika took a deep breath and accepted her situation. I better not wake up in a padded cell next morning, she thought.
"My father came to this damned place several years ago… that's where he found me."
"You mean to say you were born here?"
"Well yeah, technically. Allessa, her soul was separated into two halves, one keeping her name, the other going by the name Cheryl. Both halves combined into physical form, and that was well, me. As an infant. My father, Harry Mason found me and adopted me as his own."
"He seems like a brave man. What happened to him? Are you in touch?"
"No… The Order, they got him. They took him away from me two years ago. But I… I avenged him. I returned to Silent Hill and murdered his killer, who attempted to make me birth their god, using the parts of Allessa inside me. But I foiled her plans, and killed their god, born in flesh. I thought it was all over."
"I know what happened after that."
"Yes, I'm sure you do. You wouldn't have made this promise if you didn't."
"Wait, if you defeated the God and Allessa, then why did this town 'get worse?'"
"Because more people come to this place. Either they're just people who have gotten lost, or they're drawn here. The town… it feeds on their misery… their guilt. Alessa has returned somehow, and the Order has new plans. New nefarious plans…"
"Ominous…" Balalaika remarked.
The car stopped at the target of the two women. "Funny, I thought it was underground. It's just an ordinary church" said the Balalaika. "It is. The part you're looking for is underneath the church" replied Heather. The two entered the church's' great entrance and soon descended into the hellish rusted, industrial labyrinth the chapel held underneath. Soon they had reached it. What Heather had been searching for. She swallowed hard. The Balalaika had fulfilled her promise.
Though Heather knew this what she really wanted, she was still disturbed. The mere sight of it. The sounds. She felt sick and uneasy. The Balalaika didn't flinch for a second. If this is what she wants, she's going to have to take responsibility for it, she thought. Though she felt very uncomfortable, Heather knew what had to be done. And she knew the Russian women would help her. "Do it!" yelled Heather. The Balalaika nodded. She pulled out her pistol, a heavy-caliber Desert Eagle .50. The two were in the inner sanctum of the chapel. A round, circular shaped room with an altar. In the middle of the room, a half-naked, middle aged man had was on his knees, his arms and legs in shackles chained to the walls of the room. He was screaming and howling in pain as a bizarre, tall reptilian man was flaying his back. The Balalaika was shocked to find out that the weapons the strange creature wielded in his hands were not weapons at all, they were razor-sharp hook-like bone growths. Heather recognized the beast immediately. It was Leonard Wolf. I defeated him once, why can't I defeat him now? Heather thought. Either way, I can't close my eyes. I can't hold back. I have to see if this lady can save him. Heather also recognized the tortured man, though when she did she felt sick to her stomach and she wished she didn't. The Balalaika calmly aimed the pistol at the beasts' head, and fired six shots in row. They all did nothing.
After having dodged all the bullets, the creature leaped from the altar and directly on to the Balalaika, his faceless head shrieking and twitching. The Balalaika smiled. This is going to be an interesting battle, she thought. Leonard attempted to claw at Balalaika with one his bladed arms, but the blow was blocked by Balalaikas' empty Desert Eagle. She smiled wider and wider as Wolf struggled to stab her face. Suddenly, Balalaika head butted Leonard which caused him to recoil. She… hurt him with physical contact? Heather said in her head. Wow… she really must be very strong. As Leonard was trying to gain balance, the Balalaika reloaded her pistol and grabbed a grenade from her coat pocket. The monster attempted to slash at her again, as he started sprinting towards her. Swiftly, the Balalaika crouched and slid through the beasts' open legs. With Leonards' back wide open to her, she held the grenade tightly in her fist, and shoved it through Leonards' skull with a disgusting, moist, squishing sound. Calmly, the Balalaika dropped the grenade in the creatures' open scalp and retracted her bloody, brain matter- covered hand from his head. Then, she violently kneed Leonard in the stomach. The impact sent Leonard falling backwards, directly into a grotesque hole in the rusted floor. As the beast fell down, slowly getting shrouded by more and more darkness, he exploded. Embers and drops of blood flew out of the hole with a thunderous "boom." The Russian chuckled as she twirled the grenade pin around her finger.
Tears slowly began to flow down Heathers' cheeks as she walked towards the shackled man, his back still bleeding fresh blood. "Oh thank god… you've come to my rescue… who are- … Cheryl?" the man asked in astonishment. Heather looked at him slowly, her cheeks all red and puffy, and her tears still flowing. "Hello… Doug…" she cried.
"So… you know this man…" the Balalaika interrogated.
"Yes… yes, I do… this man… he's my second adopted father…" answered Heather.
"Cheryl… baby, you came back for me!" exclaimed Douglas.
"I'm so sorry Dad… the reason you're here… its' my fault…"
"No baby… I understand. I understand your actions."
"It's all my fault…" Heather began to sob.
"While this family reunion is quite touching," the Balalaika began, "I still have a job to do."
"Of course…" whimpered Heather.
Slowly, Heather freed her dad by using a saw she had in her knapsack. They embraced, and slowly started to walk away. They all left the area, stagnantly moving upwards towards the church. Finally, they returned towards the surface. They walked out of the church. Douglas felt good to smell the open air, and to see the sun, though it was barely poking through Silent Hills' heavy mist. The Balalaika unrolled the explosive barrels from her car. She attached a small, wired time bomb to the barrels, and rolled them down into the chapel. The group entered the Balalaikas' car. The Balalaika took the wheel as usual, while Heather and her newly acquainted father sat in the now empty back seats. As the car drove away from the nightmarish town, the chapel erupted into flames, not making a sound.
The car stopped outside the gates of Silent Hill. The Balalaika exited the car and stopped for a smoke break. She lit her cigar and began inhaling as she gazed upon the Toluca County landscape. Heather, drying her wet face with her hand, then walked up to her.
"Hey, I think we need to talk." Heather said.
"Yes, I agree. Hey just curious, why does he call you Cheryl?" asked Balalaika.
"Well because, well that's my real name. My dad, my other dad, he named me Heather so that way I would be safe from the Oder."
"Smart decision. When did you become Douglas's daughter?"
"Well, we grow really close to each other when he came to help me avenge my father. He said he reminded me of his son, whom he said had died. And… I just kind of accepted him to be my father, and he accepted me as his daughter. We became family. Not that I'll ever forget about Harry though…"
"I understand. Now, tell me, why do you feel so guilty?"
Heather gulped.
"Because… well…"
Heather sighed.
"Well… I guess I'm going to have to come to grips with it. Though I feel uncomfortable, I'll still tell you. You see… after I left Silent Hill for the last time with him… I just started getting awful nightmares. Disturbing visions. My life was being ruined by them. I tried seeing doctors and therapists and taking pills but that didn't do anything. They were… just too much… I thought they'd end… if I… if I, well… brought him back to the town. If I sacrificed him. And then… then… the visions stopped. But I felt… I felt so guilty… I never wanted to go back to Silent Hill again. I needed help. I needed someone like you to help me. But now… I feel like my life's returned to normal. Doug has forgiven me. And he's back from that town. And well… I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you."
Heather then grew silent.
The Balalaika smiled warmly. "I'm glad to know I could be of assistance."
She began walking back to the car. She looked at her watch. "…shit. My payment's coming to me at 3:00 and it's already 2:30. We better leave soon."
She opened the car door and Heather began walking slowly. "Oh, and Heather…" the Balalaika began.
Heather froze.
"… You're quite a remarkable person. It was great meeting you. It's nice to meet someone who's willing to sacrifice so much."
Heather smiled. "…thanks…" she said. A new feeling of accomplishment grew over her.
The two re-entered the car, and they drove off. Away from Silent Hill.
THE END