Chapter One:

Unwelcome

I.

Interstate 80 was a peaceful and serene place for Kristin Russell as she drove away from home, not looking back once. She never wanted to see that place again. She wanted to set miles between her and Florida, hell she wanted to be on the other end of the world after the fight she had with her family. Kristin was just never good enough to be the pearl of their eyes. Kristin would always be a mistake somewhere and deserved to be told where her place was. She didn't want that. She wanted a divide between that pain and the new Kristin Russell.

The state was nice, however, and Kristin almost felt that this might be enough space between her and the family. Nevada was just beautiful in the fall. The leaves of the tree sea were just beginning to brown and the smells of Autumn made the air delightful. It was hot and humid, no, but cool, brisk, something that made the skin on Kristin tingle just a bit. She liked that.

Was Nevada the same in the summer though? Winter? Maybe Spring could show some horrid changes from this wonderful time of year. Kristin did not want to stay somewhere with a feeling that wasn't constant. Hell, she knew her mother wasn't ever a constant in her life. Kristin's mother would be fine and moments later yell at her, call her horrid names (like whore and bitch). At times she didn't even respond to her daughter. Kristin would then get a delightful message from her, a sort of apology, but did not even feel real enough. Kristin couldn't stand those constant changes. Not like the world and its always changing seasons.

Kristin felt her foot push more steadily on the gas, going anywhere that was further away from home. One of her hands drifted off to the radio and turned it on. A few stations only offered blue grass music and one held a static version of some Katy Perry song.

"Stupid radio," Kristin mumbled, turning the audio off.

Kristin saw a sign off in the distance, indicating a town was only five miles off. Silent Hill was the name. She sighed, letting her eyes drift down toward the clock on the radio. It was late. Dark. She wasn't sure if it was right to keep driving at this time of day. Maybe a quick stop in this town would help ease her mind a bit and let her stop running for a moment.

Her head shook at the thought, her foot pressed even harder on the gas pedal. Kristin needed to keep driving further or else she wasn't going to find that divide she was hoping for. Her family would come to Nevada for sure, looking for her and yell about Kristin's mistake for running away. Again. The last time, a police force looking for her found her in a pit stop in of Georgia. Kristin wouldn't let that mistake happen again. Not this time. Kristin would get as far away as she possibly could.

A phone in the cup holder rang. Kristin's phone. Her eyes drifted down toward the device. She kept telling herself not to pick it up. Another part of her mind told her too, though. Told her to tell that family what they would be missing.

She picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Kristin answered weakly, her voice cracking from some fear.

"Kristin? Are you alright?"

The voice of her father was comforting. Kristin knew that her father was more rational than her mother, and sometimes he would listen to her words.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine Dad."

"That's good. Your mother is worried about you."

'Yeah, right,' Kristin could hear the sarcasm in her thoughts. 'Next she'll tell you that she wants me to come home.'

"She wants you to come home."

"Predictable."

"What?"

Kristin shook her head, keeping a steady hand on the wheel of the car. She let her thoughts slip into the conversation, something she usually held back. Why was she so vocally ready to call her father out on all the crap now though?

"Nevermind that," her father sounded agitated. "Look, can't you just come home."

"I'm not coming back."

"Well what's wrong?"

Kristin could feel her knuckles ache. One hand was gripping tightly to the steering wheel, the other holding the phone so tight it might have cracked in her grip.

"You know what's wrong Dad."

"No I don't. You worry me when you do these things."

"And you all make me run away when you do those things."

"What things?"

"You know damn well what!"

Kristin felt her face reddening, but she wasn't sure why this package of emotion was surfacing now. She should have told her family off a long time ago. Her dad, her mom, her sister, the whole package. She should have told them to just go die.

"You always stick by Mom's side even though she's wrong half the time. You know when she is wrong too yet you just let her say what she wants to me. You let her speak so, so, god I can't even describe how angry you make me when you just stand by her side when she calls me a cunt and throws me out."

"You know she doesn't mean it."

"Then why would she say it Dad?"

"Well... sometimes your mother is really stressed."

"Stressed my ass. I'm stressed all the fucking time and you don't see me calling her names! You don't see me telling her to drink herself to death every night!"

Kristin could hear her father sigh, definite frustration building inside of him. She liked it; he needed to know how she felt.

"Can't you just listen to yourself Kristin? You don't sound yourself. Are you sure you're alright? You should come home and we'll talk about it."

"Don't you get it!" Kristin was suddenly surprised by the volume of her voice. "I don't want to go back to that hell hole!"

Her eyes were away from the road, looking off. Kristin looked back up, and within moments her foot shifted toward the brakes. A man was beginning to cross the road, the Interstate of all places, and stood before Kristin's vehicle. Her car swerved, screeched as the brakes banged against the speeding wheels, attempting to stop the machine from running into this man. Kristin could see it though, she was going to hit him and the police would come. The police would fine her, take her back home, do terrible things.

But the car barely missed the man. The brakes continued to howl as the car was tossed off the side of the highway into the sea of autumn colored trees. Kristin screamed bracing herself with the steering wheel as the car spun like a tea cup ride over and over. When the wheels finally stopped, she could feel the intense ache of her fingers and the burning of her lungs as she tried to control her breathing.

The car had stopped near a highway exit, exit 43 to Downtown Silent Hill. Kristin took her gaze from the sign to her phone, which had fallen to the floor on the passengers side. She picked it up, hearing her Dad constantly call out for her in a panicked, distressed voice. She hung up the phone.

"I'm not going home... not even now..." Kristin said allowed, staring at the call ended screen.

II.

The car stopped and the lights went out. The engine muffled to a complete silence and it seemed all at once to crash down on Kristin. She was away from home, but now her car wasn't going anywhere. She was going to be stranded out in the middle of Nevada where no one would find her. She had been the only car on the Interstate at the time. Kristin even wondered if anyone in the small, country area was awake at the time, at eleven forty-seven. She held her tired hands to her face and began to cry silently.

"What do I do?" She quietly asked. "I can't just stay here."

Kristin grabbed at the key and began to try and start the ignition again. The engine rumbled about once or twice, but never really started itself. The motor didn't seem to survive the extreme accident it was in.

The driver's door opened weakly against Kristin's push. Her legs slowly turned toward the outside, and she stood there. She held the top of her car door for a good few moments trying to keep herself sane. Kristin was realizing that, in her want to run, she was now stranded without anyone or anything to rely on. She wouldn't call the police since they would just drag her back to Florida. She wouldn't call the insurance since it was under her fathers name. Everything would eventually link back to home.

Her feet shuffled forward a bit. She closed the car door. She stuffed the keys in her pocket, along with her cell phone. Kristin had to find a way to move alone.

She took another step toward the off ramp. There was no sign of life don the road toward Silent Hill other than the lit streetlamps guiding her toward the town. That was her best chance. Kristin could make it to town and have a tow truck pick up the car, the one thing in her name, and have some company in town fix it for her. She would be back up and running away from home. Kristin would be able to move away again and find that long divide.

A thought occurred to her. What about the man that had stopped in the middle of the street? Why was he just standing there, waiting for her car to hit him? He didn't move, didn't flinch, he just stood there looking at her car. Waiting for her.

She wasn't going back to look for him. Kristin relied on watching too many horror movies and knew it was a bad idea to follow the mysterious stranger into unspeakable dangers. She would just mention him to someone in town. Maybe there was a Sanitarium there and he escaped. No, he would be more dangerous then she thought. He must have been a missing person. Someone in town must be looking for him. That would be easier to believe.

With the thought gone, she turned back to the off ramp and headed toward the town of Silent Hill.

III.

About a mile or two down the road, Kristin found a small convenience store. She hadn't seen too many gas stations this small; only one pump and a room with two shelves of snacks and things for cars such as spare oil. The man behind the counter was an older gentleman, maybe around sixty or seventy, definitely a good forty years above Kristin who was only twenty-three. There was another woman in the store with Kristin as well. She was about Kristin's age, browsing through the aisles as though she was lost.

Kristin stopped at the counter with a weak smile on her face.

"Can you help me out?"

The man raised a brow, looking her over.

"The hell happened to you?"

Kristin forgot she must have looked terrible after the accident. She definitely has some stains on her face from the tears, and a few bruises here and there from when the car spun about. She couldn't have looked too bad though.

"My car died just off the highway exit," Kristin lied, "and I was just wondering if you could call a tow truck for me."

"Oh, uh, sure thing miss, give me just a sec here."

The man went through a door behind the counter. Kristin stood patiently waiting for him to return, her fingers clicking against the counter.

"You're car isn't working either?"

Kristin jumped, almost shrieked when she turned to see the woman who was in the aisles suddenly next to her. She hated when people popped up out of nowhere.

"Uh, yeah," Kristin gave off a weak laugh.

"Mine died just a few miles up the road."

"That's nice."

"Not really... no one likes to have something wrong with their car."

"Yes, I suppose..."

Kristin tapped her fingers more, looking away from the woman constantly. The man came out from behind the desk looking puzzled. He sat down and gave a weak smile to Kristin and the other woman.

"Sorry bout that, seems the phone's dead. You're gonna have to walk into town and get some help."

"Alright, thanks," Kristin said.

As she started to walk away, the woman grabbed her arm.

"Please, let me go with you," the woman pleaded.

"Well-"

"I don't want to go alone."

"It's just a bit down the road isn't it, you can-"

"No, I can't."

Kristin snatched her arm back and massaged her forehead. She didn't want the woman's company, she was so awkward and had already scared the living daylights out of Kristin. But why let the walk be lonely with that man out there, near the highway, standing and waiting for another car to hit him. Or maybe he was even looking for Kristin right now.

"Fine, come on."

"Oh, thank you!"

Kristin walked out, and the woman followed gleefully.

"You ladies have a safe walk now, you hear!" the man shouted, sitting back behind the counter. "Jeez, she's the fourth one today."

IV.

"I'm Jessica by the way," the woman held her hand out to Kristin as they walked side to side.

"Kristin."

Kristin didn't hold her hand out, and Jessica eventually lowered her. They walked in more silence except for the occasional breeze here and there.

Trees were at each end of the road. The leaves were bright green. No animals ran through the area and no birds chirped. It was probably because the time was late, or early now rather. The feeling it gave Kristin was unsettling though.

"Have you ever been to Silent Hill before?"

Kristin felt shocked when Jessica asked the question. She didn't know why, but she felt for a moment she had been there. She had never been there though, she knew that.

"No, this is my first visit."

"Well Silent Hill is a special place," Jessica smiled as she spoke. "I lived here when I was younger with my family. I was coming to visit them today, I hope nothing has changed."

Kristin couldn't shake the feeling. She hadn't been there, had she?

"The downtown area was still the original design when I left. The store fronts looked nothing like they do in big cities now. It feels like something old and cherished when you walk down the streets. I love it there."

The place was old and didn't feel like the big, new cities. Kristin wanted new, not old. That's what he family was, an old part of her life.

"Though... some people did say some strange things about the town when I lived there."

Kristin looked at her with some worry. "Things like?"

"Well, we had people vanishing all the time."

"Vanishing? Like completely gone?"

Jessica nodded. "The people would be neighbors sometimes, people you knew well. They would just up and disappear and the police couldn't find a trace of them. The oddest was a man that used to live right across the street from me. I was about ten when he poofed."

"Huh..." Kristin's eyes darted about, looking for the man from the highway.

"He was Mr. Deveaux. Nice man. He came over a lot and played board games with my family and I. One day, he just went away though."

"And they never found him?"

"Nope. It was like he was never there."

Kristin sighed. The two stopped at a car parked on the side of the road. Jessica opened the doors and began to rummage through the contents before coming out. In one hand she held a small flashlight, more like a penlight, and in the other was an old fashioned radio.

"This was my car. I planned to wait at the station for my family but they weren't coming, so I just thought I might as well go with you."

"What's with the light and radio?"

Jessica looked down at them, then back up with a weak smile. "Just a tradition, something we believe in from Silent Hill."

"Hardly explains it."

"Well a lot of the people in Silent Hill are superstitious, to say the least," Jessica giggled at the thought, continuing her stride toward the town. "They believe in spirits and such, saying the lights keep them away and the radio will let you know if their coming."

"That sounds stupid."

Kristin rolled her eyes and walked next to Jessica. A heavy fog was beginning to settle around the road.

"Well a lot of people believed it, even some of the police did."

"Still sounds far fetched. I can't believe you continue to carry that stuff around with you."

Kristin could believe it though. She thought Jessica was a complete nut job from most of the stories she had heard so far. A town where people just went up and missing without a single trace. A bunch of people with the spooks, afraid of spirits and other things. Sounded like something from a horrible book she'd find on a clearance rack at Books-A-Million.

"Well then don't worry about it. What you don't believe can't hurt you, right?" Jessica smiled at Kristin, then looked forward into the foggy abyss.

V.

He flipped the closed sign on the station door after the two ladies left and locked the deadbolt with a sly grin on his face. It was foolish for either of them to trust a man, even at his age, about a town like Silent Hill. The place had become deserted years ago, almost completely wiped off the map. No one dared to approach it because the place was supposedly haunted or cursed or something along those lines. He didn't believe it though, he was just looking for some easy cash and this was the right place. The buildings were empty and the registers full of bills upon bills. He was going to go home and live the easy life, not having to worry about overspending his retirement.

The register popped open and he gleefully pocketed in the money, getting more and more excited by the vast amounts of bills that were piling out of the drawers. He counted about eight hundred and seventy dollars, more than most of the shops in downtown Silent Hill even carried in their registers. It made him happy.

"Don't worry Lucy, George has the money and he's coming home soon," he spoke, putting the last bit of change in his pocket. "We'll have all the money we need for awhile and more."

The man, George, closed the drawer just as an audible ding rang through the store. He looked up and saw the front door of the convenience store sway open and then close slowly. George slowly stepped out from behind the counter and went to the door. On inspection, he found the lock had been smashed and completely demolished.

Something fell in the far aisle from the door. George looked back toward the aisle and saw a cup of instant soup roll on the floor and clink against the wall. George walked over and picked up the cup of soup, looking it over. In large, black ink, these words were written:

"I KNOW WHAT YOU DID

PUNISH THOSE WHO PUNISH"

George tossed aside the soup and looked around more seeing that no one but himself was inside the store. He could feel his already weak heart beating faster and faster, making him sweat and ache all over. Someone had broken into the store while he was alone and was now threatening him, trying to take away his life. George needed to get the money to his wife though, to Lucy. He needed to get back home to her.

He caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure exiting through the front door. George slowly crept to the door and opened it, looking out toward the street. There was a lone man standing there, wearing a tan trench coat and some dirtied khaki's. The rest of his body was hidden by the sudden build of fog.

"Hey, are you the one that busted the lock?"

The man outside was silent, only facing toward George. George stepped out further and closed the door behind him.

"I'm sure you can read son, the sign said closed. You could have knocked if you wanted to come inside."

The man in the trench coat stuffed a hand in his pocket and spoke up.

"Where was she going?"

"Who?" George asked, his voice shaky.

"The woman who was here earlier." The man in the trench coat began to waltz slowly toward George. "She wants to get away from it all so bad. Her tired feet try to carry her away from the punishment."

"The hell are you talking about boy?"

The man in the trench coat stops before George, obviously about five or six inches taller than him. He was somewhere around six foot three, and George was a messily five foot nine. Even worse, George was obviously afraid, shivering in his place. This man could probably kill him if he wanted to.

"W-what do you want boy?"

"There are those that have wronged me. It left a sore spot in my once warm heart."

George coughed a bit. The man in the trench coat smelt like smoke, and his breath smelled of sulfur. The two odors were irresistible together.

"Of course I have not wronged one man today, and yet you have wronged many today George Young."

George froze in his spot. How did the man know who he was? It was impossible since he hadn't introduced himself to anyone in the area, and he knew that this man as a complete stranger to him.

"I punish those who punish others."

The man in the trench coat grabbed George, and lifted the old man off of his feet. George struggled in the grasp, which felt so warm that it seemed to burn the skin under his clothes.

'Who the hell is this guy!' George thought, panicking more.

"I'm the retribution of man," the man in the trench coat spoke, as though he could hear George's thoughts. "And I'm here to find the one who desires me."