They took their time as they passed through the ash-infested streets. As the walked to brookhaven, Rip opened up a little more about her past.
Hans and I had a lot of problems, the fertility was one of them- I was born with only one ovary, so conceiving for me was really hard, and we never were able to. We came closer together when we came to Silent Hill. We both wanted to have a baby so bad. He would've made such a good father too. We had tried everything, from fertility drugs to herbs-but nothing worked. I think he took it harder than I did. I wanted a child just as well. Then finally after 2 years, we got into an IVF program. We were so happy. When I got pregnant it was the happiest moment of my life. I had no problems with the pregnancy except the fatigue, but that was normal.
Rip stood in a daze through the foggy night. The hospital was still quite far away.
Authors note: It was my original intent to edit the following part from the story and end the chapter here. However, I feel that I should post it. However, what I am about to write is NOT fiction. It is a slightly altered account of abuse that Stetson had experienced as a child before he passed. It is not for the faint of heart. After Stetson's father was convicted he was thrown into foster homes till he was 16; he was legally emancipated and moved in with Bobby.
Stetson felt sympathy with her plight. He stared at the ash-covered ground and kicked some soot around.
"I was only five when it got violent at home. My dad was an alcoholic. HE came home drunk nearly every night. I got better and better at hiding in the small places at home so that he wouldn't beat me. Eventually I got older and my little sister Anna had barely turned 4 when my father came back piss drunk from the bar, I was 7 by that time. When my father came home that night, he ended up killing my mother and my little sister. I was hiding in the basement storage room. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison where he died about a year and a half ago. I never once visited him. Because I had no parents I was thrown around foster homes till I turned 18, then they kicked me out into the streets. I was only working part time in a neighboring town; I couldn't afford an apartment on my own, but one day I saw an ad in the paper for a woman in Silent hill looking for a male roommate. Her name was Riana, and she was the first person since my mother to show me compassion and love. We did fall in love. We married barely two years after the day that we met. I loved her. I had an experience very similar to what happen to your Hans, except I never left Silent Hill. I stayed and I clung to every memory of Riana that was all that I had left. I clung to what she left behind, her legacy, because that's all I had. She was my light; my life and I loved her with everything that I had. She was my Angel, I swear, she was sent from Heaven to help me, and she did. She helped me straighten out my life.
She never gave up on me, even when everyone else did. If it weren't for her I would've been dead along time ago. She believed in me. No one had ever done that before, no one ever cared about me before. I swear- If it hadn't been for her…."
Rip could see the hospital in the foggy distance; it loomed morbidly over them. It's once white walls now stained an abhorrent gray. The once marvelous structure now dilapidating, and falling apart. The beautiful windows broken, shattered and their frames a rusty almost blood-stained brown. Rip approached the double-doors. They were a sickly-pale gray, smeared with dried bloody handprints. Rip shrieked when she saw this. She knew she had to muster the courage to get inside this building. She had to do it for Hans' sake. She had to get her husband back. Stetson paced outside the doors.
"You'll have to excuse me, but I don't think that I'll be going in with you."
"That's ok, this is something that I need to do." She replied. Stetson dug into his pocket and pulled out something and handed it to Rip. It was a rosary.
"Take this with you, you'll need it. It belonged to Riana." Rip looked at the small black rosary for a moment. Then she smiled at Stetson, swallowed her fear and opened the door to all her worst nightmares.
End Chapter.
Name and age was changed to protect the identity of Stetson's baby sister.
