Silent Hill 4: The Roommates

A/N: Meh. Written on several bouts of insomnia. And on one Friday a few minutes before work.

Part 6: Explanations

Feeling much refreshed after his devoid-of-blood shower, finding out that Eileen had stayed passed out for the past 7 minutes, and changing into some more comfortable and unsoiled clothes, Henry sighed, as he picked up Eileen, carrying her as carefully as he could, as he looked over to Walter, who was watching his – or most likely, the slumbering Eileen's – every motion; even the slight flutter of her eyes from under her eyelids, with a small smile. It was strangely sort of sweet…just REALLY creepy.

"So, um, when you're done with your shower and everything, or whatever it is...dead people do when they need to clean up, just knock on her door, okay?" Henry looked at Walter, who blinked, slowly, as he looked up, before smiling and nodding.

"Just like when I came to her house the first time!" Walter quipped. Henry groaned, but quickly forced a chuckle to cover it up, and nodded, as he walked out the door, making sure Walter followed him, to help open Eileen's door. He just really hoped that if it was locked, Walter could just take an evil-looking key out of his pocket or something and open it. One of Frank's visits would be very inopportune at this moment, as Henry wasn't sure if he could explain why he was carrying a passed-out Eileen Galvin to her apartment, with some weird guy covered in blood and dressed only in boxers, socks and a long-sleeve black shirt.

Making his way through the front door of room 301, Henry nodded at Walter over his shoulder, who returned the nod, before slowly shutting the door. He could hear him as he walked off, before there was a squeak, most likely one of Walter's sock-clad feet as it skidded across the floor, and a loud thump. Henry winced, before listening carefully to the shuffling sound outside, followed up by a shout of "I'm okay!"

Henry shook his head as he carried Eileen over to her sofa, laying her down gently, breathing a sigh of relief as she slowly started to wake up. Backing up to sit down on her lounge chair across the room from her, Henry folded his hands, and waited for her to fully come to. She sat up and mumbled harshly, rubbing the back of her head in a daze, as she looked around, her eyes still shrugging off the filmy haze of her prior unconsciousness. Suddenly, her eyes widened, as she let out a whimper, looking around the room, almost as if she had seen a ghost. Henry sighed inwardly. One, yeah, she's seen plenty of ghosts and she'd just seen Walter, who he'd killed. Two, he winced, as he had a strange sort of déjà vu back to when he saw her on the hospital bed in Saint Jerome's when she woke up and started crying. Thinking of anything from then really gave Henry a headache, though…he'd started hoarding Advil like ammunition when he'd gone through Walter's many layers of hell. But anyway, Eileen. She finally looked over at Henry, still a bit shocked. Frowning, she continued to rub the bump on the back of her head, as she mumbled out a word or two.

"Henry…was I…was I dreaming?" She glanced towards her door nervously, her spare arm hugging around her knees, "I…I thought I saw…" Henry took a deep breath as the tension in the nervous silence built up, Miss Galvin slowly turning her eyes towards his. He waited until their eyes aligned, to attempt a smile – one that he just knew turned out grim – trying to think of the most comforting way to tell her that the man who almost killed her with his bare hands and that Henry himself had killed with rusty axe was alive, supposedly well, and living in his apartment with him. The smile faded away immediately, as Henry realized he was totally unable to say this and smile at Eileen, whether it was reassuring or otherwise.

"Walter." Henry said calmly, feeling a pang run through down his spine as Eileen's eyes widened in horror, before she glared, reaching down for the purse that sat on her coffee table.

"That lousy, psychopathic son of a…oooh!" Henry blinked, as the suddenly driven Eileen sprung from her seat, giving Henry a very meaningful look, one burning with intensity, before she started to strut to the door. "That's it, Henry, let's get him out of there once and for all!"

"Eileen, wait, I didn't…" Was all Henry managed to get out, before Eileen stormed towards the door, pulling it open, semi-lethal purse in hand as she made her way into the hall. Not a moment later, Henry was up and making his way to her door, which she had pushed shut behind her. He started to try and open the door back up, only to let out a despaired gasp, as he heard his own door get slammed open. Making his way into the hall. "This is NOT the way I planned it…" Henry mumbled to himself, as he looked for Eileen, only to glimpse a woman's leg disappearing into his door – as in, Eileen stepped inside, Walter isn't already wailing away on people with a chainsaw. Heh. That would be neat, though. The door slowly began to slide shut, as Henry jogged over and caught it, throwing it back open before entering room 302 and making sure he pulled the door shut and – this time – locked it, in case there were any more inopportune visitors. He was just able to take a few quick strides to catch up to Eileen, who was carefully surveying his apartment for signs of the devil, beginning to head down the hall. Oh, jeez, was all Henry was able to think to himself as he noted that the water to his shower sounded like it just stopped running.

"Look, Eileen, it's okay…" He started, trying to speak over the 'Are you INSANE?' look she gave him, "He's not really…well…it's, erm…" Eileen reached over, putting one hand over Henry's on her forearm, which he'd used to catch her, before shaking her head.

"No, Henry…you were there for me, and we're really going to make it through this together this time, okay?" She raised her eyebrows, causing her eyes to widen a bit, the softness of her expression like that of someone assuring a smaller child that it would be all right. Henry blinked, rather blank of mind, as he looked into her glittery green eyes, stuttering a bit, before finally stammering out an "okay," before he could remember what they were talking about. She's just so beautiful, he also managed to point out to himself, before her attention (but not his, unfortunately for a certain someone reentering the scene) turned to the opening bathroom door.

Walter was innocently whistling to himself, still running a blue-grey towel over his long, slightly wavy locks of silvery blonde hair, already decked out in his navy blue jacket, a pair of black shoes and a khaki-colored pair of pants. Turning to walk down the hall, he'd just pulled the towel off of his head, shaking out his hair and tossing it back, before blinking, almost face to face with the woman he's sort of dubbed his new mommy. Standing up straighter, he beamed down at her, ready to seemingly reel off a thousand merry words.

"Hi, muh-" would be as far as he got before Eileen let out an enraged cry and started to whack him upside the head with her purse. Walter yelped like a shocked puppy, before putting up his arms to shield himself from the blows, flinching back down the hall always. Henry sighed, before taking a few steps forward to try and grab one of Eileen's flailing wrists, only to be clubbed in the jaw with the back-swing of her purse.

It was then that Henry would never mock any of the monsters killed by that purse ever again, as he let out a severe grunt as he staggered back, holding his jaw. Wide-eyed and too blank of mind to think of anything to do other than clutch at his stinging face, he looked back over to see if Walter was doing any better. Granted, it wasn't easy to see around the purse-slinging spitfire, but he could make out the figure of his roommate as he retreated back another step. Henry considered letting this go on until Eileen got tired, but then remembered that, well…to ONE of the people here, this was tantamount to child abuse and could lead to even more mental scarring. To ANOTHER person in the room, they would probably just think that this would deserve that ONE person right. But, Henry digressed; this needed to stop, plain and simple.

"Eileen! Eileen! Cut it out!" Henry managed to speak clearly, despite the tingling of the soon-to-be-numb corner of his mouth where the purse smacked hip, this time going in a bit lower, hugging her around the waist, and starting to pull her back. She let out a small yelp as she fumbled with the purse, and, with a cat-fight-style growl, she lifted one of her Converse-clad feet, taking advantage of the raised elevation to kick Walter right in the face. Cursing rather loudly, Walter stumbled back, reaching up to clutch his nose, blinking a few times, as Henry pulled Eileen back into his living room, slowly letting her feet touch for floor again.

"Eileen," Henry started, taking a deep breathe, before looking at her, and then nodding to Walter, "This is…um…my roommate." Eileen blanched, as she stared at Walter, who was still rubbing his nose, as he slowly tiptoed – in Eileen's mind, stalked – out of the hall. Henry cleared his throat as he continued. "He's just sort um, you know, how I was having trouble with my rent? Walter's sort of helping me out." The young Miss Galvin narrowed her eyes, weakly attempting to pry herself out of Henry's grip once more, before turning back to Henry, back to Walter, and then struggling a bit more.

"Oh, God…this is South Ashfield Heights, not Melrose Place…" Eileen's shout was a bit more directed at Henry, now. "Couldn't you find someone that hadn't tried to kill everyone?!" Seeming a tad bit offended, Walter let out a huff, crossing his arms and looking away; despite his haughtiness, he was clearly offended. I mean, imagine if YOUR mom was doing this to you. Henry sighed as he watched Walter for a moment, before letting go of Eileen, keeping one hand on her shoulder just in case of another assault on his roommate.

"Well…I…could have…but no one really came forward…" Henry gestured to Walter, speaking about him as nicely as he knew how, "And, you know, he's pretty handy around the house, and, um, isn't a bad person once…he's not, you know. Murdering." Swallowing to get rid of the dryness in his throat, Henry then cleared it as well, finally taking his hand back. He noticed that Eileen was still stand-offish, as she walked to the back of his apartment, leaving Walter to stand closer to the front door. Stepping closer to Eileen, Henry leaned down, whispering. "He thinks you're his mom, you know…didn't you feel bad for him before?" Henry lowered his tone to a somewhat angrier tone – it wasn't like Walter hadn't tried to kill him, too! "He really doesn't want to hurt you…"

Eileen sighed, looking up at Walter with a slight frown. He was still turned away, tapping one foot slightly. That simple frown turned into a glare, as she eyed Henry, not bothering to keep her tone at a polite whisper like Henry.

"I felt sorry for the five-year-old…not the maniac who near beat me to death."

"Well, Eileen," Henry started, also not bothering to whisper at this point, "A five-year-old isn't going to help pay the bills on the apartment, now, is he?!" Realizing at once that he snapped, his shoulders slouched, and he raised both hands defensively. "Look, all I mean is, er, well…"

"No, you know what, Henry?" Eileen started, as she walked towards the door, looking over her shoulder to continue arguing, "You can go ahead and keep your walking Psyche ward here, becahh!"

Henry was looking down at the floor, but frowned – "becahh"? That was a weird word…it didn't take him TOO long to figure out that was actually a scream, as he looked over at where she'd headed. She had gotten too close to Walter, who had lifted her up off her feet, slightly, in a tight bear-hug. One of Eileen's arms was pushing futilely at Walter's opposite shoulders, as her face was stuck over his other one, just as his chin was resting down over her shoulder, facing Henry. Walter's eyes were locked on the floor, somewhat, as he hugged Eileen a bit tighter.

"I'm sorry."

Henry bit back a small chuckle as he noticed Eileen's near imperceptible sigh, and extremely slight pat on Walter's back. When he finally let go of her, she stumbled oddly around him, looking to Henry – who immediately sobered his expression – with a confused frown. She huffed a little, as she began to make her way out the front door. She looked at Walter once, quickly, before looking back at Henry.

"I'll…talk to you later about this. I think I'm gonna call a psychiatrist, now, though."

With that, she left, shutting the door sharply behind her. Walter blinked at the door for a bit, before looking back to Henry. Looking up from where he'd been staring at the floor, Henry took a deep breath, before reaching up to rub his temples a little.

"Well," Henry sighed, "I think that went over a lot better than it could have…"

Post Mortem: Ah...fairly obvious that this chapter was sort of rushed and not well-thought-through. I'm to the point where I've ran out of ideas. So…while I appreciate all the 3 and support, I could really use some creative input. I may have about a month or so's worth of time pass by in the story, and have some chapters detailing life outside of South Ashfield Heights for Walter and Henry, but I can't think of what. So, if you have a good idea and can get it to me, I'll see if I can write it in and I'll give you credit. Because I – as I said – am spent.