"Excuse me?"
A man, cheek smeared with oil, looked up from cleaning his truck's engine. His eyes narrowed warily, but there wasn't a paranoid suspicion in his eyes, as one would expect. It was only the healthy amount of wariness that one would expect from a man approached alone in a truck stop.
"Yeah? Who're you?"
He straightened up, wiping his oily palms on his jeans, and took a step back to stay a comfortable distance away.
"My name is Soon Kim."
Soon tried to keep his stance as nonthreatening as possible, but he didn't deny being a little on guard himself. He'd learned early on that this was not a safe investigation to take part in, and in all honesty, the weapons he knew to be available in this world put him on edge.
The man scratched his straggly brown beard, dark eyes fixed on Soon's gray. "Hm. Travis."
He seemed to be somewhat satisfied that Soon wasn't about to attack, so he turned back to the engine, keeping an eye on the paladin while he started cleaning again. "Do you want directions or something? This is a pretty out of way place."
"No, I know where I am. I was actually hoping to speak with you. I understand you're Mr. Grady?"
The man's hands froze on the engine.
"…What do you want?"
"Only information." Soon tried to keep his defensive tensing to a minimum. "Have you been to a place called Silent Hill?"
The trucker looked up with wild eyes, and Soon only had time to back up and put his hand to the knife hidden in his jacket before the man whipped out a pistol from his vest and pointed it right at the paladin's face. "You have five seconds to run."
He stayed calm, his (ebbing) inability to feel fear taking the edge off the adrenaline rush, and stared coolly at the man behind the gun.
"I don't want to hurt anyone. I just want to help a little girl."
The trucker's body straightened out as though he were a puppet.
"You did the same, didn't you? Forty-three years ago now, I think. I heard you saved a girl from a house fire."
A bead of sweat ran down the man's face.
Soon held out his hands peaceably, cocking his head. "I only need to know what I am dealing with. Just answer some questions and I'll be on my way. That will be the end of it."
There was a long pause.
"It won't be the end. It never ends."
Soon hadn't seen a man look so tired in my years. Travis withdrew his weapon, sliding it in his vest again, taking his cap off to run a hand through his hair. "Never."
The paladin stifled a sigh of relief. He didn't like these guns. With just a spasm of the trucker's hand, he would have been dead. Young and Tai would be left alone again.
Travis closed the hood of his truck, breaking into Soon's thoughts, leaning against the grill before putting his cap back on. "Is Alessa back, then?"
"Alessa?" Soon frowned, crossing his arms, replaying the only conversation he had had with Young about this. "That is the second time I've heard that name."
"I thought you said you were protecting a little girl." He didn't look surprised, though. He just gave Soon a tired glance, pushing off from the grill and trotting to the cab of his truck. "Alessa's the only little girl who comes to mind. Unless you count the ghost kids, I guess."
"Ghost kids?"
"They said they were from Shepherd's Glen. I didn't dig any further than that." He opened the cab door and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, putting it on the hood of the truck. "I guess I'm not going to drive today, and I'm not about to have this conversation sober."
Soon was tempted to join in, but he refrained. He had to keep his wits about him.
"Who is Alessa?"
"You know, after everything, even I'm not sure." Travis uncapped one of the bottles and took a swig directly from it. "A little girl. One powerful little girl."
Soon raised an eyebrow, leaning against the grill, his breath coming out in plumes of vapor.
"Get in the cab. We'll chat inside."
The man took another swig, then swung into the driver's seat. Soon had a much more dignified ascent to the passenger's seat before closing the door behind him.
"I take it she's not ordinary?"
"Anything but." Travis rested his bottle in his lap, watching the frost on the windshield gather. "Who are you trying to save? If it's not Alessa, then I don't know what to tell you."
"She's…" Soon had a moment of uncharacteristic indecision. "My daughter."
Travis stared at his bottle for a while.
"Then keep her close. That place eats children alive." He took a swig, closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat. "Alessa… I'm vague on the details, but her mother was part of some cult. The Order. The Order wanted to have their god reborn so she could usher in paradise or some crap like that, but they needed a little girl on Earth to give birth, and they chose Alessa."
"Give birth to God?" Soon frowned in confusion, crossing his arms and arching an eyebrow.
"Yeah. Apparently, they're not just crazy. She was pregnant with something, and it definitely wasn't a baby." He rubbed his face, groaning softly. "Listen, that's all I really know, okay? Alessa's always the center of it." He paused, his eyes narrowing. "And avoid mirrors."
"Mirrors?"
"Yeah."
Travis took another long drink, breathing out a cloud of vapor. "My advice? Grab your daughter and take her as far away as you can. It'll never stop haunting you both, but haunting is worth never going to that place."
"Not in this case." Soon closed his eyes briefly, wariness overtaking him for a moment. "What happened to Alessa?"
"I don't know." Travis leaned on his steering wheel, sighing softly. "But wherever she is now, she's not done with me. I know that much."
"How?"
He looked over at Soon, a sardonic smile on his face.
"Forty-three years. I'm seventy-six. I haven't aged a day." He looked back at the windshield, taking a long drink. "It won't be over until she wants it to be over. I hope you know what you're in for, because it never stops following you."
Soon didn't say anything.
Travis rested his arms on the steering wheel, watching the parking lot as though he expected something to come out of the mist. "Go home. Give your kid a hug. Learn how to use a gun. Try to hold onto why you're doing it, because if you let yourself get distracted by the horrible things the town throws at you, that girl's going to lose her father." He shook his head, capping his bottle. "That's all the advice I can give."
Sensing that he was dismissed, Soon opened the door. "It's more than you know. Thank you."
The trucker didn't look at him. He was lost in thought.
Soon closed the door behind him and walked away.
"You asked for it, Tai."
Tai scowled, sucking a little harder on the ice in his mouth as Young dabbed his lip with a bloodied handkerchief. Girard stifled a laugh, smirking from his place leaning against the wall.
"Kid, I'll give you a tip: when your own twin is scolding you, you fucked up."
Tai turned a searing glare to Girard, opening his mouth to retort.
"Say a word and I'll stuff your mouth with a towel."
He shut up with that one terse statement from his sister, but his frown didn't disappear. Had it been anyone else, he would have socked them for bossing him around like that, but it was his twin. She got a free pass on everything, and boy did she know it.
Apparently sensing his wretched mood, Young softened, mollifying him with a little kiss on his head.
Tai felt most of the anger drain away. It didn't even occur to him to be embarrassed that she did it in front of that smirking redhead pervert—he and his sister had always been physically affectionate in the orphanage, and no one had made a big deal about it.
"I only did it for you, Young."
She arched an eyebrow, the tired lines in her face fading in the fluorescent light. If nothing else, Tai comforted himself in the fact that all the excitement seemed to have distracted his sister from her nightmares.
"If defending my honor involves jumping three seniors, then let the honor lie."
Girard's eyebrows jumped up and he straightened. "Wait, what's that?"
Tai sent another glare towards the redhead, resting his hand on Young's knee protectively. "None of your business."
Girard rolled his eyes, that weird facial tattoo elongating with his scowl. "Why the hell did I agree to this, again?"
"Hey, you're the one who can move away. Not us," Tai snapped.
"You're making your mouth bleed more, idiot." Young gently cuffed his ear, just the same way he did to her when she did something stupid, and pressed the handkerchief hard on his mouth. "Shut up."
Girard smirked, letting out a bark-like laugh. "Yeah, listen to your sister, kid."
Tai tightened his grip on Young's knee, glare only intensifying. He didn't like the redhead or that old man anywhere near him or his sister. He was already regretting signing the damn adoption papers—his sister's nightmares were better than being in a house with anyone who would adopt a teenage boy and girl.
"Glare all you want. You're ass is fried once your father finds out about your fight."
Something snapped.
He yanked his sisters hand from his face, teeth clenching. "He is NOT my father!"
Girard's eyebrows shot up.
"…"
He covered his mouth, maybe to hide a frown.
"Alright, I get it. No need to be testy."
Tai growled softly before Young cuffed his ear, this time not even trying to be gentle. "Tai! He welcomed us into his home—be polite for once in your life!"
Suddenly, the front door to the kitchen opened.
Everyone looked up when Soon Kim came in. He paused in the doorway, looking at the teenage girl perched on top of the kitchen table surrounded by bloodied handkerchiefs, then at the tense boy sitting on a chair in front of her, red splashed across his shirt and smeared on his face among other discolorations, and finally at Girard, who was a few feet away from the children and sported no signs of having caused the boy's wounds.
He took off his jacket and put it on the back of a chair. "What happened?"
"The kid thought it'd be a good idea to pick a fight with jocks three times his size. I had to go pick them up. You owe me. Now it's your problem."
With that curt response, Girard brushed past the older man and was gone.
Soon only arched an eyebrow, tapping his finger on the back of the chair. "…Is there something you want to add to that thorough answer?"
Young stifled a laugh, covering her mouth, then looked back at Tai, reading his face with those familiar gray eyes. Tai looked up at her, still scowling, and made circles on her knee with his thumb. His expression brooked no room for humor.
Her smile faded, and a small part of him regretted being so moody. His sister didn't smile much anymore, and he'd just wiped away one of the few she had.
"Please don't be hard on him. He was only—"
"Young, it's fine. I can handle it myself." Tai looked away, patting his sister's knee. "Go take a look at one of the books you got from the library."
She paused, smile gone completely, and Soon frowned.
"…Alright."
The ice he had been sucking had melted. Young hopped off the table, walking down the hall and disappearing.
Tai pressed the handkerchief to his mouth, trying to ignore the throbbing pain covering his body, somehow more prominent now that his sister was gone. One eye swollen to a squint, a split lip, a bloody nose (that had since stopped bleeding), God-knew how many cuts and bruises… He found himself wishing that Young was around to distract him again.
"You shouldn't dismiss your sister like that."
Soon's tone sounded disapproving, maybe even disappointed, and he went to the freezer, opening it up. "And napkins only do so much. Put some ice on your lip and eye."
Two wraps of ice in towels were put before him before Soon sat across the table. Tai glared warily, then dropped the bloodied handkerchief in his lap, picking up the ice and pressing it to his wounds.
"I'd like to know what happened. Here's your chance to give me your side of the story before the school does."
"None of your business." He had to angle the ice so that it didn't muffle his speech, but it was worth it.
Soon arched an eyebrow, leaning forward and propping elbows on the table. "Tai, do you understand the implications of your adoption?"
He tensed up, color draining from his face.
"I'm your legal guardian. If someone or something is threatening you or your sister, I need to know. I'm not going to hurt you."
"Yeah right."
Tai glared at him guardedly, but color returned to his complexion. He had expected some kind of admission to what was going to happen to them, but he guessed that that wasn't coming yet.
The old man didn't make any indication of his intentions, though, and only sighed softly. "I don't blame you for not trusting me, but the fact remains if you don't explain why you had the fight, I'll need to find out from your sister and you'll only make your punishment more severe."
Tai continued to glare.
"Very well. I'll ask your sister."
The old man stood up from the table. Tai tensed up again, clenching his fist on the ice. Not Young. He didn't want Young being pried into by the creep.
"They were saying stuff about her."
The man paused, then sat back down, frowning. "What kind?"
"You know. They were seniors, and she's a pretty freshman. They were talking about all the nasty stuff they wanted to do." He wrinkled his nose, the gesture making pain pinprick his face. "I lost it."
"…" Soon crossed his arms. "You need to learn to control your temper. No matter how righteous your anger, it'll only endanger you and those you care about."
Tai sneered. "Have you ever had guys talk like that about your sister?"
"No. It was about my wife."
Tai stopped, eyebrows going up. "Wait, really?"
"Yes. Two men I worked with. My wife and I come from a culture where class means a great deal, and she was from a higher class than me. Since we married regardless of that, many people thought that she must have been of a woman of loose morals." His eyes sharpened slightly. "They considered that justification for saying some… inappropriate things while I was around. I challenged them to a duel. Afterwards, no one said anything like that again."
Tai blinked in confusion, putting the ice against his lip down and scratching his head. "Um, weren't you telling me that I wasn't supposed to do that?"
"Yes. That duel almost ended with those men's deaths. I was very angry, and if I had continued after a bystander told me to stop, I would have innocent blood on my hands." He held out his palms, which only reflected the light a little with cleanliness. "It doesn't wash away."
Tai blinked again, trying to sort through what he thought of this story. Maybe he was a little sheltered from the orphanage, but hadn't the days of duels to the death been over for the past century? "…How old were you?"
"Twenty-six. Young and arrogant enough to lose sight of when I had gone too far."
He took a moment, then stood up. "Come with me."
Tai frowned warily, but he followed the man down the hall, keeping ice against his eye. They went to the end of the hall to a white door that the teen hadn't seen the other side of. Without hesitation, the man opened it up and ushered the kid inside.
There was a mat on the ground, with various large things that Tai had never seen before—they looked like training equipment—tucked to the side. There was also what must have been a decorative or antique sword sheathed and hung carefully on the wall (in Tai's unprofessional opinion, it looked… Japanese? Maybe a katana? Hell, he'd never seen one outside of kid books about samurai and ninja turtles anyway). The older man took his shoes off, stepping onto the mat with only socks on, and Tai habitually did the same.
"What's this?"
"Training room." Soon turned around, crossing his arms over his chest, arching an eyebrow. "Try to hit me."
"Wait, what?"
The man held out his arms, leaving his torso unprotected. "Try to hit me."
Tai frowned in confusion, then put the ice bundle on the ground. "You know I'm probably a third of your age, right?"
That provoked a slightly amused smile. "I've done this before."
"Alright." Tai wasn't about to pass up the chance.
He swung his fist at the man's throat, but at the last moment, Soon ducked away, making Tai get caught off balance as his weight was thrown forward to punch air.
Soon, now behind him, caught him by his arm before he fell over. For a moment, Tai hung there, staring at the spot where the man had been a second before, then squirmed from Soon's grip, scowling.
"Alright, you proved that you're better than I am. Happy?"
Soon arched an eyebrow, kneeling down and picking up the ice, holding out to the boy. After a moment's hesitation, Tai took it.
"The point of that was making you recognize that brute force isn't everything. If that had been a serious fight, you could have easily been killed without me having to throw a punch."
"Huh?" Tai frowned as the man stood up, holding the ice to his eye. "I'm not that bad."
"No, but you would have fallen on your stomach. In that position, someone can stomp on your neck and that's the end of it."
Tai's eyebrows shot up. "Um… you put too much thought into that."
"I'm in a dangerous line of work. It's instinctive." Soon crossed his arms, those weirdly Young-like gray eyes drilling a hole through the boy. "Regardless, you got into an avoidable fight. As your guardian, I can't allow that to slide. You have to learn discipline."
Tai scowled, instinctively drawing away and trying to keep from shrinking. Anytime one of the sisters said something like that, he found himself faced with a paddle. He hoped it was just a paddle this time.
"You'll start waking up at six and working with me in here twice a day."
His eyebrows shot up again and he uncurled from his standing protective ball. "What?"
"It teaches discipline. I was planning on teaching your sister, too, but she needs to take something different from it than you do, so I think I should instruct you both separately."
Tai opened his mouth, screwing his face up, trying to process it. "…" He shook his head. "Whoa, no. I don't want you in a room alone with my sister."
His eyes were so sharp and gray. It felt like he was actually looking at the blade of a sword by making any eye-contact. They were the same color as his sister's, but different in a thousand ways. Young's eyes always looked tired and distant, but Soon's were cutting.
Tai resisted the urge to shudder.
The man let out a soft sigh, those eyes keeping Tai's gaze captured. "I understand your concerns, and I admire how much you want to protect your sister, but I assure you that my reasons for adopting both of you are pure."
Tai scowled.
"I swear by my honor. You and your sister are safe, and I will make sure it stays that way."
His tone was weirdly emphatic and sharp on the last phrase, but that didn't alleviate Tai's glower.
"I will keep the door unlocked when she and I are in here. Would that make you more comfortable?"
Tai rolled his shoulders, still frowning. "I don't have much of a choice."
Soon looked at him long and hard. "I don't want to be your enemy, Tai."
The boy shrugged and walked past the older man, leaving the room.
"Shhh… Sweetie, it's okay, I'm done…"
Young trembled and sobbed softly in pain, her forehead throbbing and blood dripping in her eyes. Papa rubbed the blood away from her brow with the heel of his hand, putting pressure on the symbol he had carved in her flesh, the cuts burning hard against the both of them.
"Papa, it hurts…"
"I know, darling." He moved his hand, pressing his lips against the sign, and relief from the burning throbs rippled out from it.
She relaxed against him and he drew away, wiping her blood from his mouth. "Are you feeling okay?"
Young wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his dirty shirt. "Is it done? Do I have to do that again?"
He kissed her head again, stroking her back soothingly. "I'm sorry, Young. Your mother has to complete it."
"Why?" She whimpered softly, even though she knew her mommy would spank her if she found out Young was being so sniffly because of the pain. Her mommy wanted Young and Tai to be tough to survive if she or Papa died, so she punished them when they did things that would get them hurt if they were alone.
"Because we love you. I did the foundation, and it's up to her to put in the details."
"What does love have to do with it, Papa? Don't all parents love their children?"
Papa let out a soft sigh, placing his feet on the ground so she was cradled between his knees and his chest, surrounded by his arms in a cocoon of protection. "…Not all of them. Some of them do bad things to their children. That's why me and your mommy are doing this for you; we love you and that's been enough to keep you safe for now, but there's going to be a time where we aren't going to be around."
Young's lower lip trembled. She tried to hide it, but her papa could tell just by the slight tremble to her shoulders.
"But we're not at that point yet." He kissed her head again, glancing around the room nervously. "Just… always remember that we love you, okay? No matter what, you and your brother will always be my children. Always."
She frowned in confusion, looking up. "Of course. Why would I forget any of that?"
"No reason. No good reason, at least."
He gently pushed her off his lap, standing up and brushing himself off, frowning a little. "You stopped bleeding. Are you feeling alright?"
She resisted the urge to touch her cuts with her filthy hands. Her papa got angry when she touched her cuts—he said they could get infected. "Yes, Papa."
"Alright. We'll need to clean it up back home, okay? We can't stay here any longer."
Young didn't bother asking about getting cleaned up in the lake just outside the Historical Society. Even Papa had spanked her and Tai red for going near that place, and he almost never laid a finger on either of them. It was on her 'never go to' list.
She nodded, taking one glance at the walls. The names and words were all gone. There were only the pictures.
For some reason, the picture of the Crusader held her attention the most.
"Come on, Sweetie."
He took her hand and led her out.
A/N: I didn't take much time to edit this because it took so long to revamp and redo it a couple dozen times. Blerg. I put too much effort into fanfiction. x.x
