PREVIOUSLY: Rebecca Chambers, in her efforts to investigate a mysterious cult known as The Order, discovered they somehow played a role in the destruction of two towns, Silent Hill and it's neighbor, Shepherd's Glen. Rebecca's search for answers led her to Black Falls, Vermont...and to another who was hunting for the cult, a young woman named Cheryl Mason with amazing powers and a haunted past.

In this chapter, Rebecca and Cheryl prepare to confront Doctor Young - a former associate of Michael Kaufmann, who worked with The Order before Silent Hill's fall. Unfortunately, nothing will prepare them for an encounter with the leader of the cult...and he has a nasty surprise for them!

RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGEMENT DAY

written by Charles Spencer,
inspired by Ygure

CHAPTER SIX:

"MONSTERS"

-1-

The time was approaching four o'clock that Friday afternoon in central Black Falls. Rebecca Chambers and Cheryl Mason were walking down Barker Avenue, only a block from Wyler Community Hospital, their destination. As the held hands, as Cheryl held a plush Huey the Horse with her free arm, she looked at the companion she had come to care for so deeply since they met and said, "Tell me more about Jill Valentine. You said she's your best friend?"

Rebecca nodded as she held hands with Cheryl, as she held her handbag in her free hand...in the handbag was her iPhone, her wallet and government I.D., and her Beretta 9mm pistol. Rebecca brightly answered, "Ever since I joined S.T.A.R.S. in Raccoon City, yeah." She smiled fondly as she remembered. She'd gone through months of police academy training to be certified for the unit; some of those lessons were specialized and involved her learning special weapons and tactics, skill sets similar to those ingrained into the Los Angeles Police Department's famed S.W.A.T. unit, including emergency procedures for everything from natural disasters to hostage situations. Rebecca wasn't a strictly athletic girl, but she made up for any physical shortcomings with her characteristic high energy and a passionate desire to learn. Her spirit drove her to succeed and she did...Rebecca officially became the field medic of the S.T.A.R.S. unit's Bravo Team in June of 1998, less than half a year after she graduated from college at the age of 18. "I knew going in that I'd be the rookie, that I'd have so much to prove to the people I'd be working with. But there was one other little problem I had...I was one of only two females in a group full of men."

Cheryl smiled gently and said, "Let me guess: testosterone overload!"

Rebecca laughed and almost shouted, "Bingo! Half the guys couldn't take me seriously because I was a 'little girl', and the other half were afraid they'd break me if they got too close! One of them, this big but lovable lummox named Barry Burton, called me 'the S.T.A.R.S. mascot'." Cheryl visibly cringed in reaction, and Rebecca's smile turned lame. "Yeah. I did my best to play along, but god, I hated that!" The beautiful brunette's smile became sunnier again as she continued... "And then I met Jill, who was on Alpha Team. I was beyond lucky to meet her, and even luckier she became my best friend. Shoot, it was like I'd finally found a big sister. Jill took me under her wing and helped me find ways to bring the guys around to the fact I deserved to be treated as an equal. Jill could have done that for me - and easily! - but because of her, I found the strength to earn the respect of the guys myself. I'll always be grateful to Jill for that. I...I owe her for so many things." The brunette's voice fell almost to a whisper when she said that last sentence.

For a moment, Rebecca's lovely expression became a mix of emotions. Not just of gratitude to her best friend, but she felt so much more. For a fleeting moment, Cheryl thought she felt from the brunette a burst of sadness...and of shame? Cheryl didn't use her power look fully into Rebecca's thoughts to satisfy her curiosity. The beautiful blonde had too much respect for the one she had grown to hold sacred in such little time too, but Cheryl got the sense that there was a terrible regret in Rebecca's past, and that she was loathe to dwell on it.

Rebecca finally added in a more serious tone, "Anyway, not long after I became part of S.T.A.R.S., the incidents in the forest happened that July. Vacationers were being attacked...being eaten by both animals and what appeared to be unknown human suspects."

Cheryl nodded. "The first of those zombies. How did you get involved with that?"

But Rebecca said, "I'll have to tell you about that later, Cheryl. Because this must be the place!" The brunette stopped and so did the blonde as they held hands. Cheryl quickly realized she'd been so focused in Rebecca, she didn't notice at first they had arrived at their destination. They were both at the front visitor doors of Wyler Community Hospital. The pale building dominated the center of town at the T-intersection of Barker and Kubrick, Black Falls' main street. The man Rebecca needed to talk to - the hosptial's Administrator, Doctor Burton Young - had to be here.

Cheryl glanced down at her left wrist, at her watch, and saw the time. "It's just about four, too. You'd better go inside."

Rebecca's eyes became soft as she squeezed Cheryl's hand...she asked, "You sure you'll be okay out here?" Agents of The Order had to be watching them at the moment from somewhere unseen, in spite of the town becoming crowded with visitors to the nearby County Fair.

But the blonde beauty squeezed her hand back reassuringly, her expression confident. "On a public street with tons of people everywhere? In broad daylight? The Order wouldn't try anything with me now, whether they're watching or not." Cheryl knew better than anyone the cult's greatest advantage was their secrecy...in her experience, they always did their worst in the shadows so they'd never be seen by the prying eyes of nonbelievers. That was how The Order became the secret power that controlled Silent Hill before its fall.

Cheryl truly believed The Order would never do something that might expose them, even for a moment.

Rebecca saw the logic in the blonde's words and nodded. "Okay."

Cheryl's eyes shifted to become solemn as she looked into Cheryl's eyes. "I'm more worried about you, so like before I'm going to stay with you by thought. I'll listen and see through you, and if I see anything important you need to focus on, I'll let you know." She had done the same thing with Rebecca's permission when the BSAA agent spoke to Doctor Young before at the fair. Then Cheryl thought of something and added, "There's one thing you need to be on the lookout for...it's called Aglaophotis."

Rebecca's eyebrows perked up. "What in the world is that?"

"I told you before that The Order used the parasites in Silent Hill to control people, to make them foot soldiers for the cult." The agent nodded. "History has to be repeating itself, but even those bastards wouldn't be immune to the things. Aglaophotis is a dark shade of red and comes in fluid or crystal form, and...it has a lot of uses. But two of its most important are that it can not only kill a parasite, make them disintegrate, it can drive a parasite off a human it possessed and free them. Doctor Young's friend in Silent Hill, Michael Kaufmann, kept some Aglaophotis to protect himself in case The Order betrayed him. If Young says he supposedly came up with a solution for the parasites in this town, then that has to be it! Got it?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I wouldn't even be surprised if the good doctor kept some Aglaophotis with him, too. Even Reeve and his people might be carrying some...just in case. When the time is right, when you rattle Young's cage, I'll look into his thoughts." Cheryl's smile reflected she honestly looked forward to that. Then they could begin to find an end to this before The Order caused any damage in Black Falls that couldn't be repaired.

"Will you be able to tell if I meet any of his friends in The Order? There might be some working with him in the hospital."

"Yes. If need be just ask if you want to know about anyone you run into, and I'll be able to tell if they're innocent or not."

Rebecca nodded. "All right! And the moment we know enough, I'll call in my friends with the BSAA. It'll take them less than an hour and a half to fly here from Washington."

Cheryl stepped close to Rebecca as her hazel eyes gazed into the agent's sky-blue eyes. There was a quiet power in the blonde's voice as she spoke. "Just be yourself, Rebecca. Together we can do this."

They still held hands as they looked into each other's eyes. Rebecca said softly, "I know. Cheryl..." For a moment, the brunette looked down, unsure, as she bit her lower lip in a way that made her even more beautiful. On impulse, Rebecca quickly yet softly kissed Cheryl on her cheek. Rebecca's own cheeks brightened a little under the warm summer sun as she said, with feeling, "Thank you."

Cheryl looked at Rebecca with a mix of surprise and a flood of other emotions. It felt like a charged energy had built in the air between the young women. Then. Cheryl squeezed Rebecca's hand again as the lovely blonde's full lips kissed the brunette's tenderly, sweetly, and she took her time in the careful yet adoring act. Cheryl almost whispered, "No...thank you."

Rebecca suddenly felt very, very warm then as she and Cheryl looked into each other's eyes...as they held hands. For a moment, the rest of the world around them melted away. Rebecca felt her heart pound in her chest...she breathed a little more shakily...yet she felt like she was just swept up into one of the few white clouds drifting in the blue sky above. Indeed, they both felt the same euphoria, the mutual need for each other that grew since the first moment they met. It was a need that had evolved into something more, they both knew. Much, much more.

But dammit...there wasn't any time for that. Not now. Slowly, reluctantly, Rebecca Chambers stepped back as she softly let go of Cheryl's hand. The brunette's smile was luminous as she promised, "I'll see you later!" Then Rebecca turned away from Cheryl to the doors as they automatically opened, and that alone felt so wrong as her bright smile faltered...it was even worse to walk away from the blonde, for there to be any distance between them. Cheryl felt the same way as the brunette girl moved into the shadow of the hospital's lobby, out of the daylight...it was almost painful to watch her go, to feel her growing absence. But then Rebecca Chambers needfully glanced back to Cheryl and smiled again...and then the doors closed.

Cheryl Mason suddenly felt more alone than she ever had been...ever...and she didn't know that was possible. She moved down the sidewalk several paces as she carried Huey the Horse under one arm, and then stopped to lean against the wall as she saw the thick stop-and-go traffic in front of her, the pedestrians not much further away moving north to the intersection and then turning west onto Barker, toward the County Fair. Those driving or on foot who happened to glance at the blonde girl would have just kept on with what they were doing. It was Cheryl's style to not attract attention to herself as she wore her leather jacket, plaid men's shirt and jeans with boots. There seemed to be nothing special about her at all, when the hidden truth was that the girl was more extraordinary than anyone could have imagined. But if a person would have let their glance linger on her, they would have felt a sudden worry. Cheryl slowly slid down the wall to sit against it as the sadness in her expression increased...her knees were close to her lovely face as she let Huey lie on the sidewalk next to her...then she wrapped her arms around her slender legs and the fingers of her trembling hands laced together. Cheryl Mason almost curled up into a ball as she sat against the wall, and she fought with all of her heart and soul not to cry.

Cheryl's sad, expressive eyes shone in the sun as she barely held back her tears...she thought: What the hell am I doing?! How did I let things get to this point?! I wanted to deal with these bastards alone. I didn't want Douglas or anyone else involved in the first place because I didn't want anyone getting hurt trying to help me! Besides, this is my fight, right? I know better than anyone what The Order wants. If I stop them, that's all I can ask for. Just stop them from hurting anyone else. And if I fail...then I can only hope I'll have the chance to kill myself.

I know what they want from me. If I die, then I'll still win. If I die, I'll still be free of them.

It won't be a bad thing if I die, anyway.

Yet everything changed the moment Rebecca Chambers entered her life.

Oh Becca, why did you have to come here? You have no idea what those scum have done, you couldn't imagine what they want to do, and I hope you never ever find out. W-why did you come into my life? How did I open up to you so easily? Why?

But Cheryl already knew why.

Because Cheryl had been alone for so long...for too long. She cared for Rebecca, felt things she never imagined she could feel for anyone else. It was so perfectly right to be with Rebecca. Cheryl felt she had already begun to fall in lo -

NO! No-no-no! I-I can't let that happen! Even if it hurts so much, I have to remember what happened to dad! He died because of me, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else!

Cheryl Mason fought even harder against her need to cry as she let her hands part and her legs relaxed...her feet moved out a little, but she didn't want anybody to maybe trip over her. Her right hand instinctively lifted to touch the silver choker necklace she wore around her neck. A gift from her father, Harry Mason, on her sixteenth birthday...a little over a year before he died. Her mournful eyes looked into the distance as she began to cry haunted, guilty tears.

Dad died because of me, and I can't let that happen to anyone else. And Becca doesn't know everything about me yet. She doesn't know what kind of monster I am. I don't deserve to be happy...or to be loved. Sweet Becca, it would have been better if you never even met me.

But just as quickly as she thought that, Cheryl Mason thought something else...something she knew to be true.

Oh, Becca...I can't live without you.

But before Cheryl could reconcile the maelstrom of feelings inside of her, she felt Rebecca Chambers speak to her by thought because of the mental rapport she established between them. "Cheryl, I'm about to reach the third floor!"

Quickly, for Rebecca's sake, Cheryl Mason wiped her wet cheeks furiously with her bare hands. The girl managed to calm, slow her breathing, and focused as she closed her eyes. As she sat on the sidewalk outside, the blonde reached out and began to see and hear all the BSAA agent did. Cheryl answered by thought, "I hear you, Becca. I'm right there with you!"

-2-

The elevator doors opened on the third floor, and Rebecca Chambers stepped out. The pixie-like, short-haired brunette dressed in her crimson top and long gloves and tight black pants and shoes continued to give the visual impression she was dressed more for fun in a big city than for visiting a hospital in a small New England town. Rebecca didn't mean to, it was just her style...even though, like the former tomboy told Cheryl not long ago, looking pretty wasn't a big deal to her like it used to be. No one would have thought her to be a federal agent for a bioterrorism task force either, which was a good thing. But there was such an aura of natural innocence and pure, elemental charm in her wide, bright eyes that made anyone who got closer to Rebecca realize she wasn't a party girl. Rebecca Chambers was simply a sweet, caring young woman who lived for the moment whenever she could in spite of the terrors she had barely survived in her past.

But now was time for business...serious business. Rebecca looked at the Nurse's Station in front of her in the heart of the hospital's third floor, staffed by a solid number of nurses and orderlies. The male orderlies were dressed in scrubs...green, short-sleeved shirts and long pants. The female nurses, however, were a different and visually arresting story.

Rebecca had no idea when in the history of American medical practice it started, but it could still be found in many hospitals in the modern day, and it was definitely found in Wyler Community Hospital...the lady nurses here were dressed in that classic, glamorous style with short, white, buttoned dresses that accentuated their bosoms and their legs, which were in matching white pantyhose, along with their nurse's caps and shoes. (And yeah, it was something the politically correct would have demanded to see end altogether if they weren't focused on other issues.) Rebecca honestly didn't mind...it was something she and most everyone in her culture basically grew up with. But even she had to question why female caregivers, especially the attractive ones, had to be dressed in a way that accentuated their...well, their natural charms. Was it for the men who worked with the nurses, or maybe for the guys who ran the hospitals? Or maybe it was simply to give male patients something to distract them from their pain?

Whatever the reason, Rebecca figured, it was evidence to support the argument that this was a man's world.

Then the brunette saw a much younger redheaded girl in her teens appear from around a corner to talk to one of the nurses as she carried a clipboard...she was similarly dressed, but she had bubblegum-pink pinstripes to accentuate her short dress. Rebecca couldn't believe it...this hospital had candy stripers? She thought they went extinct! But nope, this girl was here volunteering as a nurse's assistant at the hospital when she wasn't in high school...the sweet-faced redhead was even chewing gum at the moment. Rebecca thought the candy striper made her look positively conservative...then she thought of the girl's not-yet-legal age, and if this was an administrative decision to dress nurses and their volunteer assistants like this, then Doctor Young had to be a damned pervert.

Rebecca Chambers moved up to the counter of the station and looked at an African-American nurse working at her computer station. The BSAA agent said, "Hi! Can I see Head Nurse Park, please?"

The nurse looked at her curiously. "Are you here for a patient, miss?"

"Oh no, I'm here for a meeting, and I was told I should see the Head Nurse at this time - !"

"You're Rebecca Chambers?" The bemused voice came from behind Rebecca, and she turned to see a lady of exotic Korean descent who was probably born to wear a nurse's uniform, she was so beautiful. She was over ten years older than Rebecca, yet looked about the agent's age. Her glossy, jet-black hair was done up in a bun as she wore her nurse's cap. The lady had her hands on her hips as her almond-shaped eyes assessed Rebecca and commented, "I'm sorry, Doctor Young told me you're a bioterrorist agent, but I didn't expect anyone so...um, cute!" Her smile was truly kind, yet there was also a natural and undeniable authority to the lady's persona. Her hospital I.D. on her breast pocket said Head Nurse G. Park.

Rebecca defensively asked by thought, "Cheryl...?"

Rebecca heard Cheryl's thoughts answer in her mind: "It's okay, Becca. She's not an enemy. She doesn't know anything about the parasites or The Order."

Relieved, Rebecca smiled back and said lightly, "I always take 'cute' as a compliment, thanks!" The agent stepped toward her and asked, "You're the Head Nurse of this hospital, Gwendolyn Park?"

"Yes, and call me Gwen, please." Gwen offered her hand to Rebecca, who gladly took it and they shook hands gently.

"Rebecca!" Then the pixie-like girl frowned a little. "Uh, where's Doctor Young...?"

"Here I am!" The declaration from Doctor Burton Young as he arrived from the left almost made Rebecca jump. The old doctor was still his pensive, nervous self, perhaps moreso even though he was in his own hospital. The ladies looked at him as he laughed nervously. "Ha-ha, my apologies, I had some paperwork to attend to. Good to see you again, Agent Chambers."

Rebecca asked him, "I hope everything's okay, Doctor?"

"Ah, just business as usual...well, as far as 'usual' goes for a hospital, at any rate!"

Gwen looked at Rebecca hopefully. "Doctor Young said you were here about the parasites. Are you here to help in some way...?"

Rebecca's eyes become solemn. "If I can, Gwen. Doctor Young said the situation is under control and that he found a solution, though. I just wanted to see the parasites and what he's doing to help those who became their hosts."

Gwen Park was genuinely surprised, and turned to look at her boss. "Is that true, Doctor? This is the first I'm hearing about it." That certainly surprised Rebecca.

Young nodded. "Yes, Gwen, it's true. I-I just wanted to keep the matter hush-hush until Monday since it's so...ah, sensitive!"

Both Rebecca and Gwen looked at him.

Rebecca heard Cheryl ask in her mind: "You don't need me to tell you he's lying his ass off, do you?"

The brunette agent answered, "Nope. This guy is not a good liar. At all!"

Then Doctor Young clapped his hands together. "W-well, then! Shall we go to the second floor? The patients in question are in our Intensive Care Unit. Gwen and I will answer any questions you might have, as well." Like he was about to give Rebecca a tour or something.

Rebecca frowned a little and nodded. "After you, Doctor."

-3-

The odor of a hospital, a heavy combination of bleach and antiseptic, is itself a major reason people don't like hospitals. Those who smell it don't automatically think of a place where people heal. The odor makes them think instinctively of disease and death.

The smell was even stronger on the second floor, in the ICU.

It was a smell that didn't help the sudden, overwhelming horror Rebecca Chambers felt in the core of her soul as her eyes turned as big as saucers...she took the sight in and reflexively whispered, "Oh, holy god..."

Doctor Young nodded, his expression grim. "Yes. Y-yes, to see these people for the first time can be...most disquieting."

'Disquieting' wasn't the best word for it...chilling, however, might have been better to describe what Rebecca saw in the ICU. There were seven full beds here, those who laid on them on their stomachs were connected to heart and EKG monitors, along with IVs that dripped a constant supply of sedative that kept the patients, five men and two women, unconscious. The patients' arms and wrists were also strapped securely to their bedframes with heavy leather. On each of the patients' backs was a glistening-black parasite about a foot long virtually grafted to their hosts' backs. It wasn't known in their present state if these people were experiencing any form of sleep or not as they laid on their stomachs...all of their eyes were half-open, staring at nothing, and both their pupils and irises long ago became the color of blood.

Rebecca remembered all she read from classified government case files about the parasitic lifeforms known as Las Plagas. They were very similar to these creatures in the ICU in the sense they took control of human victims...worse, in many cases they hideously mutated people beyond any hope of normalcy into monsters. The Los Illuminados cult leader Osmund Salazar and then both the madman Albert Wesker and Tricell CEO Excella Gionne put the creatures through extensive genetic engineering to make them even more terrifying bio-organic weapons for them to control in Spain and Africa, respectively. To this day it was still unknown exactly how Las Plagas became such a biohazard, whether by natural evolution, human interference, or some other cause. As she saw these black, slug-like parasites for the first time in this ICU, Rebecca had to really wonder if these creatures Cheryl said originated in Silent Hill had any natural foundation at all, too.

Gwen Park was just as horrified as Rebecca was. She said to the agent with quiet anxiety, "Ever since we brought the first case here months ago, it's absolutely frightened me."

Rebecca felt Cheryl say softly yet darkly in her mind, "Damn The Order. This is just like Silent Hill."

Rebecca felt the instinctive, primal need to not be in this ICU anymore...but she marshalled her inner strength and asked Gwen, "Can I take a closer look, please? I-I also need to document this. I won't touch anything..."

Gwen nodded. "It should be okay. Doctor...?"

Doctor Burton Young said quietly, "Of course, Agent Chambers. B-but please keep your distance from the beds for your safety. Even under heavy sedation, if one got too close, the parasites...ah, might respond."

Rebecca stared at him. "'Respond'?"

Gwen enlightened Rebecca: "If someone gets too close to these patients, even under constant, heavy sedation, the creatures joined to them become agitated. Since they're in control of the patients' nervous systems and higher brain functions, that's potentially dangerous. We learned that the hard way early on when the second patient woke up and attacked a nurse who got too close, even though he was under at the time. We were forced to increase round-the-clock sedation dramatically since."

Rebecca Chambers nodded in understanding as her inner horror compounded terribly. She got out her iPhone from her handbag and began to use its camera. Slowly, carefully, she went to each bed and took pictures, which she'd mail directly to Chris Redfield soon...the newest patient was the first in the row, and she slowly began to make her way down the line. She couldn't help but comment on the way, "This...oh god, I wouldn't even know where to start...these poor people..." As Rebecca approached the end of the row of beds, she noticed something that made her inner axis tilt as felt a growing urge to vomit, something about the older hosts and how hideous their conditions had become. "Oh! I-it gets worse the further back I go..." Then Rebecca stopped and stared upon the victims who had been hosts the longest. She breathed, "The host's skin is growing over the parasites...!"

It was one of the ugliest aspects of the whole situation, and was most dramatically present in the oldest patients. The skin of the back of each victim seemed to grow at a dramatically enhanced rate to begin to engulf and cover the parasites as they were attached to the victim. In the oldest cases, the process wasn't long from being complete. Their skin seemed to nearly swallow the parasite, part of the black creature pulsing from the shrinking opening like a hideous organ exposed to the light. The growing skin itself was a strange pale color, like wax, as it formed a literal hump on the victims' backs.

Gwen said quietly, fearfully, "We can't even guess what's causing it, Rebecca. It's some kind of process that makes the symbiosis...permanent. It makes the creatures part of the victim they have control over."

Rebecca stopped taking pictures...the iPhone she held trembled visibly in her hand, and she brought it up to her chest defensively. Her eyes were still wide as she said flatly, "This is one of the most horrible things I've ever seen in my life." And she had seen a lot.

Gwen spoke again, and there was a note of desperation in her voice as she stared at Young. This town had been forced to live with these monsters for far too long. "Doctor, you said you have a solution, a way to help these patients? Please, tell us what it is!"

Rebecca had wanted to calm herself...but as she heard Gwen's pleading voice, her horror was replaced by a primal, swiftly building outrage. The brunette put her iPhone back in her handbag and suddenly said, "You heard her, Doctor, tell us!" Rebecca looked at Young then, and an increasing anger could be seen in her eyes. She asked loudly, "I mean, how in the world can we help anyone suffering like this?! Being controlled like this?!"

But there was a sutble, not quite buried edge of accusation in her tone that made Doctor Young even more nervous. He stammered, "P-please calm down, Agent Chambers! I-I-I have sample of the solution right here with me!" The old man quickly reached under his silver suit coat...and pulled out what appeared to be a thick vial half a foot long with a secure screw top. He held the vial in display and repeated, "I-it's right here!"

Rebecca Chambers moved to the old man fast, and with a closer look saw that the vial contained a red fluid...so red it was almost black.

Cheryl Mason almost shouted into Rebecca's mind, "My god, Becca, that's it! It's the same thing Kaufmann used to protect himself in Silent Hill!"

Impulsively, Rebecca snatched the vial from Doctor Young, much to his and Gwen's surprise. She looked at it even more closely and almost whispered, "So this is Aglaophotis?"

In reaction, Doctor Burton Young's mouth opened as his eyes turned wide with shock. He looked like a deer frozen in an onrushing truck's headlights. He managed, "H-h-how do you know what that is?! You couldn't - !" But Young suddenly stopped himself awkwardly as he wished he hadn't said that.

It was a wish that came too late. Rebecca's eyes narrowed as her expression hardened. Gwen Park's face told so much...she looked at the doctor she trusted and believed in for so long with unsure, fearful eyes as she tried to understand what the hell was going on. Young began to speak, to try to explain himself. "I-I mean - !" Too late.

Rebecca Chambers was suddenly, almost literally in his face and she yelled, "Don't even try lying to me again, Doctor!" She was outraged, horrified to her core for these people possessed, suddenly desperate to know what Young and The Order were doing in Black Falls, and most importantly she wanted with all of her heart and soul to protect Cheryl Mason. Rebecca had lost her patience and she began rattling the old doctor's cage with zeal. "I know Aglaophotis isn't something you just created! It's connected to Silent Hill, and so are those godforsaken parasites! Remember your old buddy, Michael Kaufmann?! He kept some of this, didn't he? Didn't he?!"

Young looked like he was on the verge of a heart attack. He didn't defend himself. He didn't try to tell her to leave. Completely stunned, he tried to ask, "H-how could you know...?!"

Unrelenting, Rebecca said passionately, "That doesn't matter! What DOES matter is you start telling me the truth, and you start now! Why is this happening? Why are you working for The Order?!" She then gestured at the line of beds angrily and demanded, "Why do they want THIS?!" Rebecca turned back to Young and began, "You start talking right now, or - !"

PAIN! It came to Rebecca Chambers without warning as she spoke, and was so terribly overwhelming as the agony assaulted her mind she could only sigh breathlessly instead of scream at the top of her lungs as her eyes squeezed shut and every muscle in her petite body turned rigid...imagine how it would feel to have a medieval knight run a lance through your skull and you weren't given the blessing of death, and it would have been close. Along with the pain came a strange white noise that drove into the core of her being, as well. As she still held the vial and her handbag in her balled hands, even as Gwen Park bolted into motion to help the stricken agent and Doctor Young looked at her with sudden confusion, Rebecca was driven to her knees and it took all of her inner strength to slow her fall, and she did barely before she dropped to all fours. She wanted to die, the pain was so intense.

-4-

At ground level outside of the hospital, Cheryl Mason felt the same dominating pain overwhelm her within and the ethreal whine that assaulted her physical senses at the same time as Rebecca as she sat against the wall on the sidewalk. As her eyes squeezed shut, her full lips peeled back as she clenched her teeth and barely kept herself from screaming. Cheryl's slender hands became fists and she placed them on either side of her head as she fought desperately against the sudden, complete torment she felt. But as she did, she felt a dread...because she recognized this pain, this white noise. It felt familiar - !

Only a moment later, Cheryl understood why as she heard a stranger's voice speak within her. It was a man, and the the voice's 'sound' in her mind was as smooth as it was cold. "Greetings, Alessa Gillespie. You and your companion are being very naughty."

Cheryl almost felt her heart stop from shock. She thought, "Who...who the hell are you?!"

"I wish I could formally introduce myself, dear Alessa. My name is Reeve. I guide what is left of the holy covenant of The Order."

And Cheryl Mason truly did understand as she flashed back...what she was going through was the same thing that happened when she was first confronted by the high priestess of The Order thirteen years ago, on the night her father died. It was exactly what Claudia Wolf did to her, when she had been driven to her knees in overwhelming pain. Cheryl opened her eyes as she thought, "You...you're like Claudia...you're like me! Y-you have powers!"

She felt the cold, smooth voice say, "Oh, my powers are far humbler than yours. I am not even close to the strength of the late Priestess Claudia Wolf...but where there is a will, there is a way. I must say it's an honor to speak to the Mother of God."

Cheryl's eyes turned hard as she breathed through her clenched teeth, as she fought through the pain. "I-I promise...I will make you feel differently, you son of a bitch! I'll make you wish you were never even born!"

"I doubt that. You still have a most important role to play, the role you were destined for. You've denied us before...that will NOT happen again, Alessa."

Cheryl's thoughts snapped back angrily, in total defiance, "I'm not Alessa! My name is Cheryl, damn you! That's the name my father gave me! You - !"

Then the pain and the white noise ended, just like that. Cheryl Mason remembered to breathe again as she sat on the sidewalk...she lowered her fists as they trembled. Then, horribly, she realized that she hadn't been the only recipient of this assault. She whispered, "Oh...oh, dammit...! Rebecca!"

The bastard hurt her, too...!

TO BE CONTINUED