How long had it been... Days, weeks? Perhaps even a month. All sense of time was lost here.
James was tired and starving, not to mention weak from blood loss and wounds.
His eyes weren't more than slits as he limped along the fog-ridden streets of Silent Hill, leaning against the stone buildings for support. An empty revolver dangled uselessly at his side, and he briefly considered if he should just leave it behind. The blonde haired man felt his knees go out as he stumbled to the ground. James laid there for a moment, his entire body feeling weighed down and now in severe pain. Tears came to his eyes as a result. He curled up into a ball and stayed there on the fog-ridden streetcorner. He could hear his radio beginning to static, but by this point he couldn't move.
Realization hit him- James finally understood that he was dying. A million thoughts rushed through his head at once; thoughts of his parents, his life, and especially of his beloved wife Mary. He didn't want to die now, but it was too late to make a difference anyway.
His heart pounded as the static of his radio grew louder. The monster was now in sight- a Bubble Head Nurse weilding a thick iron pipe. James watched as she lurched and twisted her way over to him, each inhumane step agonizing the man. What was she even doing outside of the hospital...? There was no time to think about it now.
The nurse stopped suddenly, seeming to notice him for the first time. She tilted her head to the side and walked towards him more cautiously now,
unaware if her 'prey' was still alive.
She walked slowly, but eventually found her way over to James. The Bubble Head Nurse stared him down. He couldn't see it, but he could feel her,
gazing through the mask of flesh that covered her face. He heard a ripping noise. An awful noise that sounded like wet sheets being torn apart. James looked up to see that the monsterous nurse had ripped away a piece of the mask of flesh around her face, revealing a gleaming black eye.
He let out a frightened gasp as the Bubble Head Nurse lifted this iron pipe above her, finally bringing it down to the side of his head. James tried to get up, to fight her and escape, but his body was in too much pain and would not allow it.
All he could think about was Mary. He loved her so much... Why did it have to end like this? If not for that terrible disease, she would still be alive,
he would have never came back to this nightmarish place, and they would be home. Happy. The nurse threw the pipe into him again. Darkness crept into his vision, soon engulfing it. James accepted his death. Maybe he would see Mary again. He wasn't sure; the only thing he knew was that this was the end.
"James..." The first thing he felt was fingers caressing the side of his face. James opened his eyes slightly. Everything was blurry, but there was the outline of someone's face standing above him.
His vision slowly cleared, and the features of the person came into veiw. "M-mary!" he gasped. She was smiling, but there was sadness in her eyes.
"You're with me now," Mary pulled him into a hug. "But honey... You didn't have to die for me..."
"But I wanted to be with you, Mary," James replied quietly. "I was nothing without you."
The smaller woman sighed, looking down to the ground. "James, you were young. Just because a disease took my life didn't mean that you had to die as well."
James hesitated. He felt some strange regret deep in the back of his mind. This is what he had wanted since her death, what could possibly make him feel this now?
"It's not too late, James," Mary said softly, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "You can still go back."
"...I want to stay with you."
"You should have never died for me, James," she replied. "You're too sweet for your own good."
James smiled slightly, his emerald eyes clouded with a mixture of emotions. "This place... It's beautiful. This is heaven, isn't it?" He noticed his surroundings for the first time. They were standing in a field- a seemingly endless expanse of grass and nothing but a clear blue sky above.
"No," Mary replied. "It's... A middle world. I can't explain it, but it's not heaven. I've been there, but you can't come... You're not meant to die."
"But Mary! I came here for you!" James exclaimed suddenly, his eyes filling up with tears. "We can finally be together again! Please!" A strong wind started to blow, the tall blades of grass following it's rythym.
"Do you feel that, James?" Mary asked, barely more than a whisper. "It's beckoning you back to where you should be."
Mary leaned in and kissed James. He cherished that moment. It had been so long... He wanted to hold her like that forever. The strength of the wind increased as Mary broke the kiss. "We will see each other again soon, James," she smiled, though the tears in her eyes gave away the truth.
"How long?" James replied, looking down at his wife.
"Four years," she said, wiping away the tears in her eyes. "It's not too long. I pray for the day we meet again."
They stood there for a moment in silence, the only sound being the breeze that grew ever so stronger. "Go now! Hurry or it will leave without you!" she pushed him in the direction the wind was blowing, her voice beginning to crack. James started walking, looking over his shoulder at his wife one last time before he entered darkness once more.
When James finally woke up, his entire body ached. Yes, he was certainly alive now. The entire left side of his head felt numb and bloody- the place that the Bubble Head Nurse had struck him.
He stood up on shaky, weak legs and looked around. Something about Silent Hill was very different. It looked normal. There was no fog, no monsters, just old, abandoned buildings. The sun was just rising into the sky- it must have been early morning, he guessed. Maybe he was finally back to the real world. Whatever the case was, James didn't want to stick around long enough to see if some of the creatures had stayed. He started walking down the street, following the crumpled map he'd found earlier.
The morning air was fair, the best weather he'd felt in a very long time. He had decided that, once he had gotten back to his car, he'd drive to the nearest hospital he could find. Some of those wounds were deep, too painful to ignore.
Thankful that the fog had cleared, James eventually made it to his car and almost immediately ran over and jumped into it. As the engine rumbled to life once more, James felt calm and at peace, glad to be away from Silent Hill.
And he was sure that Mary, wherever she was really at, felt peace too.
