Silent Hill 4: The Roommates

AN: Heh…thanks for the positive reviews! I'm not sure how the writing of this part will go, but hopefully, it will go…er…well!

Part Two: The Arrival

Walter was smiling so brightly, he was practically shining, were such a thing possible. He walked in, rather peacefully, although it still moved Henry to back away as quickly as he could. However, Walter stopped short, and just seemed to admire the door for a moment, as he did when he was a young boy. Almost nervously, he snaps out of it, looking to Henry, clearing his throat, as he started to reach into the pocket of his long, navy coat.

At first, Henry could only watch in fearful anticipation, finally looking away and shielding his face with his arms, as Walter began to pull his hand back out, pulling out whatever weapon he was here to finally do Henry in with. Yet, no mere weapon of physical-pain-inducing prowess could have done poor Henry's already much assaulted sanity in as much as the small newspaper clipping Walter lightly tapped into his raised, shielding elbow.

Slowly, Henry lowered his arms, looking back at Walter, who had one eyebrow arched somewhat, as he cleared his throat, waving the paper around once more. Henry stared at it dumbly, before he finally stammered out a statement that would have made Jasper Gein look well-spoken enough to deliver a Presidential speech (well-spoken enough compared to George W, anyway).

"Y-you…y-you gotta be…" Still trying to grasp what he was seeing, Henry shook his head. "You…you're joking me!" Seemingly saddened by this, Walter looked down at the floor, kicking the toe of one sneaker-clad foot into the carper as he spoke, almost bashful.

"Well…I, er…haven't quite found a job, yet, but I do need a place." Henry face-faulted a bit, wondering if Walter realized he was referring to the fact that he was the man who once tried to kill him to resurrect the very apartment they were in, not as to whether or not he was employed. Henry slapped one hand over his eyes, mumbling under his breath, as Walter brightened and quickly quipped, "And, I already know where everything is in here! And…and…" Frowning, as Henry turned around, continuing in his disturbingly calm-as-ever tone of voice, Walter's shoulders slumped. "…is this about the hole in the bathroom?"

Henry froze in his tracks. He wasn't a violent person under normal circumstance. Nor did he ever yell, and if he felt that he was shafted with the short end of the stick in a normal situation, he would normally just stay quiet and try to deal with it. Normally. This was definitely not normal. Swerving around, to stomp up to Walter, pointing one finger at him vindictively, Henry quickly started to, basically, lecture Walter. Even then, he could only manage to get angry enough to raise his voice slightly.

"No, it is NOT about the hole in the bathroom – believe it or not, I took care of that. This is about the killing 21 people and being insane thing!" Walter stood up a bit straighter, raising one finger, quickly correcting him, "Nineteen people!" Henry pointed at him even more vindictively, this time managing a subtle shout. "And you TRIED to kill Eileen and I!"

Walter slowly frowned, some creases appearing across his forehead. Slowly, he nodded, opening his mouth in an "Oh!" before chuckling.

"Oh, heh, I did, didn't I?"

Henry let out a groan, covering his ears with his hands as he collapsed backwards onto his reclining chair. As if he were keeping up the conversation to keep things from becoming awkward, Walter rocked back and forth from his toes to his heels, clasping his hands behind his back.

"Those, ah…those were some good times, eh?"

Slowly, Henry looked up at Walter, completely deadpan. Shakily standing, he walks over to his bookshelf, pulling out a phonebook, looking over his shoulder to catch a fleeting look at his still-standing wannabe roommate.

"I…am looking up a psychiatrist. Because there is no way this conversation is taking place – I'm clearly quite mad." Figuring he could be hospitable to a hallucination of Walter Sullivan that wasn't going to drink anything anyway, he gestured over to the refrigerator in his small kitchen. "There's some Pepsi and chocolate milk in there, if you like."

Blinking a couple of times, Walter suddenly broke out in a grin, as Henry muttered to himself about how insane this was.

"Does…that mean that I get to stay?"

"Sure," Henry said quickly as he thumbed through the phonebook. He didn't pay much attention as Walter suddenly skipped over to the fridge, taking out one of the bottles of NesQuick, before looking over his shoulder to Henry. "Do you want anything…?" Still not totally paying attention to the 'fake' Walter, Henry sat back down in his chair. "Sure…just grab me a Pepsi…"

Just as Henry was in the middle of considering calling a dream interpreter he'd found (curious as to what she'd say about those nightmares), he heard a clink in front of him. Looking up, he saw that the hallucination had placed a very real can of caffeine-free Pepsi down on the corner of his coffee-table closest to him. Looking over to the couch, Walter sat, drinking from the chocolate milk bottle, seeming to be waiting on anything Henry would say most intently.

Two thoughts randomly arose in Henry's mind. The first was that he severely doubted that this was a hallucination, and that some reincarnation of Walter Sullivan that wanted to room with him. The second thought was that this meant he would probably still need a psychiatrist, but in no way could afford the sort of help a man in his situation would really need, mentally. So, until he could further attempt to sort this…interesting situation out…Henry leaned forward and lifted the soda, and said the only thing he could think of.

"If you're gonna move in…you're gonna need to use a coaster."

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Bleh. I didn't like writing this part…I wanna get to the easy parts, already! Waah! Comments, reviews, criticism, pointings out of mistakeseses, requests, questions, death-threats and free soda are welcome! Oh, and I realize that Walter is written a little out-of-character…First off, this is a different writer's interpretation of Walter, and a bit of a more…blue-collar resurrected psychopath. Erm…yeah…til next time!