They are deeper than they know...

God surrounds them, yet they do not see...

I lie in wait, yet they do not hear...

How am I to be vanquished by such fools?

I will prove him wrong...

They all must die...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alicia? Where are you?"

Sitting on the counter of the gas station, Henry was planning what they should do next. Behind him, Alicia was supposed to be finishing the bandages over his burns. But she wasn't there.

"Alicia?"

They hadn't moved far since being ambushed by the group of monsters outside of the store. Henry hadn't been able to. He'd staggered, afterwards, into the gas station where Alicia had told him to sit on the counter and let her patch him up again. Of course, he was in no condition to refuse so he obediently sat while she went to work on his burns. As he sat there, he tried to think of why they were trapped in the town. This was difficult, though, as he didn't even know where 'here' was. Or if 'here' even existed in the real world. He was also worried that they wouldn't be able to get back to the real world. But he knew that if they wanted to try, they'd need some direction. But where to?

"And where was Alicia?"

"Alicia, where'd you go?"

"I'm right here."

Turning around, he saw her walk through the back door into the station again. She was focused on a piece of paper and had something else in her other hand.

"Ali, where'd you go?"

"I went into the storeroom to see if the had any bottles of water. I found some, but this caught my eye as well," she said, handing him the piece of paper.

"What is it?"

"It's a map. Looks like we're in a town called Silent Hill," she said, pointing to the map title. "It sounds familiar for some reason."

"I know why," said Henry, a memory crossing his mind.

"Why, Hen?"

"The last thing I remember before coming here was Mr Reynolds going on about a book called 'Crimson Ceremonies'. He said it had something to do with a massacre at an orphanage in Silent Hill some years ago."

She gasped. "Wait right here, Hen," she said before hurrying off into the back of the gas station again. Henry wondered how she expected him to go anywhere. After a minute or two of hearing boxes been moved about in the back, Alicia bounded back with what looked like a newspaper.

"Read the front page!"

Henry borrowed the torch from Alicia and began to read. The title of the article said: Body of a Killer found at Last and showed a picture of a man in his late twenties with long, dirty hair, a little facial hair and gaunt, sunken eyes. His name, printed under the photo, was Walter Sullivan.

"Walter Sullivan? I read about him. He was an ex-orphan at the orphanage he massacred. He kept going on that it was the reason the town was haunted or something."

"Yeah, he was all over the place after the massacre. We might as well check it out since we haven't got any other leads out of here. Where is it?"

Henry searched the map. "Looks like it's here," he said, pointing to a small square in the middle of a large forest labelled 'orphanage'.

"In the middle of a forest? Damnit," swore Alicia. "It just had to be out of the way, didn't it."

"OK, we'll go once the darkness lifts. There could be anything out there at the moment."

"Oh, that reminds me," said Alicia, " I also found this in the back". She handed him the thing that had been in her other hand. It turned out to be a standard-looking handgun. "Doesn't look as powerful as the rifle," he thought, remembering the .22 he'd lost during the ambush, "but it spits bullets nonetheless."

Watching him analyse the handgun, she added, "It only has 30 rounds of ammo so be careful with it."

"Thanks, Ali."

After a brief moment of silence, Henry asked, "What should we do until the darkness goes?"

Alicia pondered the question for a bit before moving closer to him and saying, "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

Seizing the opportunity, Henry lowered his face until it was just in front of hers. Whispering to her lips, he asked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Alicia was stunned for a second, a whimper escaping her lips before she closed her eyes, wanting to feel his lips pressed on hers. Henry, seeing her eyes closed, knew that he had drawn her in. But instead of kissing her willing and ready mouth, he suddenly pulled away, mumbling that he needed to prepare for the journey before staggering off. As he trudged away, he looked over his charred, bandaged shoulder. Behind him, Alicia had an angry, pouting glare. He smiled to himself, happy that she finally knew what it felt like.