The last place James expected to be sitting was Harry's bedroom. He looked at the pacing brunette. Harry stopped and looked at him, running a hand through his slicked back hair.
"This way, we'll be further away from Heather's room, it's be better if she doesn't hear any of this…That girl…she's had too much to suffer, all those nineteen years."
James scowled, confusion written deep in his grassy coloured eyes.
"Nineteen? Earlier it was twelve; but that girl; she could barely even be ten! What the hell is going on?"
"Dammit! I-I just can't tell you; you'd think I'm crazy." Harry said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration,
James cupped his hands around each other and stared for a moment, before smiling awkwardly at the elder.
"You want crazy? Try going to Silent Hill…"
Harry's brown eyes snapped open immediately. He lifted James by the –
"Where's your shirt?
"Well, it gets a hella hot out here at night now!"
Harry put his hands on his hips.
"Why were you wearing such a thick jacket earlier then?"
Observant, nice…
James lowered his head, shame sketched onto his features.
"I-it smells like…my wife."
"Your wife?" Harry was confused a smidge.
"S-she died, terminal il-" James stopped, hadn't he already told Harry bout Mary?
Harry sat next to him, placing his arms on his shoulders.
"I-I know, I- I just mean…don't you think you should move on yet?"
James turned his face so quickly that facial proximity was exceptionally dangerous. Harry shot up again, just as quickly as he'd sat.
"Moving on…by coming here, from Silent Hill, I thought that was what I was doing…But, I just can't get her out of my mind! MARY!"
Harry pulled James up from his seat quickly.
"JAMES! I-I'm sorry for shouting; but you need to calm down; and…Heather is…nearby. You need to let this girl go; I doubt she wants you to be unhappy."
'I want you to live…for yourself now, James…'
"Only if you do the same."
Harry flinched sharply.
"My wife?"
But James was already shaking his head in a 'no' gesture.
"That girl; she's not your biological daughter is she?"
Harry shoved James sharply at the wall in rage; holding his arms away so he couldn't retaliate.
"SHUT. UP."
"Why? Tell me what happened, Harry! What is up with that little girl?"
Harry's grip loosened, and he lowered his head, trembling.
"She's gone!"
James realized that he wasn't meant to speak in the pause, and that the brunette was going to speak again.
"It's all my fault. I-I agreed to go to Silent Hill…and those people….they-they stole my daughter…and now she – my little Cheryl, she's gone forever…"
" 'The town that takes all.' I understand. I-I went there once, and so many people lost their lives; all because of me!"
He could still picture their faces in those last moments; the picture of betrayal on Maria's face, the picture of fear on Eddie's, and doubt, uncertainty and sadness on Angela's…
"Harry; I'm such a evil person… I can't believe I even tried coming near you; nobody wants to be close to me, I'd just taint the innocent in my nightmare!"
His never-ending nightmare; haunting him in sleep and outwith as well…
"I can't be tainted anymore than you, I want to be close to you…James. In Silent Hill, I saw…I saw monsters. These creatures that looked like pterodactyls and sewer monsters and even just harmless shadows. But, I don't think it was an illusion! I'm insane…"
James put his hands on Harry's shoulder gently.
"I believe you. I saw monsters too."
Harry stepped backwards slightly, and walked back and sat on his bed.
"You don't seem to be telling me very much."
"OKAY THEN! IF YOU JUST WANT GODDAMN ANSWERS! THEN I KILLED MY WIFE!"
Harry's head snapped up, his eyes huge with shock, at James, kneeling on the floor, clutching his sides.
"I-if it weren't for that girl, I'd have joined her too; in a peaceful death in the lake…"
Once again Harry moved and kneeled down next to James.
"The first word at thy left hand,
A false lunacy a madly dancing man
Hearing unhearable words, drawn to a beloved's grave..."
James tear stained face now held some kind of adorable confusion.
"Sorry, I'm a writer; I use lots of weird sounding phrases."
James smiled, maybe; now, he could start moving on, I mean, Laura had. She still got sad now and then, but she was still so happy and carefree, she'd gone to a new school, made friends, and where was James? James, the horrible, evil, unlikable man spent his days drinking, struggling to maintain any kind of job, attempting to look after the younger blonde, but it was always her looking after him. Harry was the closest he'd been to anybody for those long six years, as Mary withered, and he barely knew the other.
But, Harry had also suffered in Silent Hill, he could relate to the feeling.
"I know you're thinking about Heather, so I'll explain. M-my first daughter, Cheryl, me and my wife had found her by a road in Silent Hill and so we adopted her, but my wife died three years later, Cheryl was the only thing left in my life; she was my reason for living, for existence. So, one day she asked 'Daddy, can we go to Silent Hill?"
At this point James could see the tears welling up in Harry's eyes, and his voice was starting to crack.
"So I said, okay, and we left, but when we got there, I crashed my car, and when I woke up, Cheryl was gone. I went through that town, and lost someone else special to me, she was a nurse called Lisa, and when I finally found Cheryl, it turns out she was half of the soul of a girl called Alessa and her mother was trying to make her birth god. So, she did, and I had to do something. I killed it, and Alessa reappeared, and gave me a baby, her reincarnation. That baby was Heather. She makes me upset, but, I can see some signs of Cheryl in her…"
James draped his arm ove rthe sobbing Harry's back in an attempt to confort him.
" –hic- I loved Cheryl so much, she was my life! And I do love this girl too, of course, but, when she was little I'd wrap my hands around her throat and- Oh god, I'm such and evil person!"
"Harry, you're tired. And I'm so sure, that no matter what, Cheryl always loved –loves- you, and Heather, whether she is a part of Cheryl or not, loves and forgives you."
Harry sniffled, and leaned into James a bit, wanting some kind of affecxtion.
He truly must be unhappy, to want love from another male, whether it's just comforting words or not.
Oh god, were his eyes feeling heavy…So…heavy…So…
"Harry?" Jame looked down, Harry had fallen partially onto his lap, and was sleeping,
"Must be so tired; this guy, he has too much suffering."
James gently lifted him up and managed to get him under his covers.
"Now, where'm I gonna sleep?"
