CHAPTER 25: IN WATER

James closed his eyes. "It's finished. The nightmare is over."

Unsure of what was to happen next, he opened his eyes. The room had changed completely. He was no longer in a surreal morbid room, it now looked familiar, very familiar. It was his house, the bedroom, the back bedroom. From a window, bright light flooded inside. James was sitting in a chair by a bed, the same bed he saw in that ceiling-less room where he had battled Maria. However, this time, it was a normal, and there was someone in it.

A svelte, small framed woman, with long unbrushed hair, and green pajamas lay comfortably in it. Her face, swollen and bruised, dark splotches of color dotted her previously beautiful features. Her breathing becoming deep and fast paced. James smiled slightly, gently holding her weak hand.

"Mary it's you, isn't it. This is really you!"

She gripped back, turning her tired head towards him, smiling weakly.

"..Yes..its me James, I've been waiting… for you.. I, I'm so… so glad you came… I'm so glad you found me… I was worried… worried you'd forget your promise…"

"I'm sorry I took so long. I had many loose ends to tie up. But I'm here now honey." James responded, quietly, as he brought her hand to his lips kissing it gently.

"I'm…. so glad… to be able… to speak with you…" Mary weakly responded from her bed. "There is so much… I needed to tell… you…"

"Mary." James interrupted. "I… I'm so… sorry for what I did to you… For hurting you. I'm so sorry… Please forgive me…"

"James, I told you I wanted to die. I wanted the pain to end."

"That's why I did it baby; I couldn't just sit back and watch you suffer like that."

"I understand James…"

"No" James confessed closing his eyes. "I'm just lying again. The truth is..."

James paused catching his breathe, fighting back a sob.

"The truth is… you also said you didn't want to die; that you… needed me. But, I… I hated you! I hated what that disease turned you into. What you became… I wanted you out of the way! I wanted my life BACK…" He sobbed softly in the warm light of the room as he attempted to catch his breath.

"James" Mary calmly replied, putting her soft hand to his face. "If that were … true, then why do… why do you look so sad?"

Staring down at his feet, a tear rolling down his face, James didn't respond.

"James you hurt me… you hurt me so… badly. You killed me… for whatever reason… and now you're suffering… terribly for it. But that's not… not what I wanted… It's enough… James it's enough… I only ever wanted what was best for you… I love you… so much."

A slight pause ensued, James wiped his tear stained face with his free hand.

"James, I want… you to do something for me…" Mary continued in her soft weak voice, quietly catching her breathe between pauses.

"Anything baby… anything" James hoarsely whispered, maintaining a firm protective grip on her weak soft hand.

"I want you… I want you to let me go… and go on with your life… The letter… the letter I left for you… there's another part to it… there are many pages… please find them… and read them…"

"No… Mary. You can't ask me to do that." James pleaded in a whisper. "I can't let go. I can't bear to abandon you again like I did at the hospital..."

"Oh, James is that… what you think? Is that what's been… tormenting you? You feel that you… that you abandoned me when… you walked away that d… that day I yelled at you? No, James… you were always there for me. No matter how… horrible and difficult things became…. I… I understand why you did it…. It was so hard, I know… I was so angry… but despite it all you never truly left me… Even until the end, you were there… with me."

With weak shaky hands Mary gently lifted his face to match her loving gaze. "James, listen to me… you don't have anything more to be afraid of… or ashamed of…. I love you … and I forgive you. Now it's time to… wake up from this nightmare. It's time for you to go home… and let go."

"I, I love you so much Mary…" James choked while gripping her soft hands tightly as he gazed at her sickly visage through teary eyes.

"And I love you…" Mary smiled back "I'll always love you..." Locking her loving gaze onto his for just a few brief silent moments, James caught a glimpse of the simplicity and purity of their love when it was young and fresh. Before the disease or this cursed town ever trespassed into their life. Suddenly Mary's body jerked, her limbs trembled, then with a sharp intake of air the spark from her eyes dimmed forever.

"Mary!" James cried, her head falling back lifelessly into the pillow once more. In the bright warm sunbeam through the window, James buried his head into her waist.

"This was how it was supposed to have been, how it should've ended. What right did I have to play God, who gave me the right to take your life?"

James stopped thinking, and released an onslaught of grief and anguish, his intermittent sobs and hot painful tears watering Mary's limp body. Her lifeless corpse, still warm with that soft scent, her scent, the perfume that he put on her every morning even until the day he took her life.

Everything was fading, melting around him, the room dissipated with the clenching of his tight hot eyes. A strange feeling of passing struck him, and a slight and obvious change of equilibrium. Opening his blurry eyes, James found himself once more at the entrance to Silent Hill.

Staring out around him, now standing at the old rest stop, the place where the nightmare had begun, he acknowledged his new transportation. How long had he blacked out, how long since he finally met and reconciled with Mary in their room? How long had he been walking, had he truly ever entered Silent Hill at all? It was daylight, perhaps morning, yet still dim as ever.

However this time, thankfully the damned fog had finally lifted. His vision clear, and crisp for the first time in this hellish realm. But now, everything just seemed more rotted, and more grey. His eyes surveyed the dim illumination of the overpass where he first entered into this nightmare, parking his worn but trusty vehicle.

He checked the dirt for his footprints but couldn't seem to tear his vision from the dodge sedan still parked in the old weed covered parking lot. His mind numb with thoughts, guilt, and remorse, James could scarcely imagine returning to his empty house, or a life haunted by memories of her. Slow and sore, in a daze James began a long walk towards the car.

Approaching the vehicle he ran his dirt stained palms across the cold surface of the top. "Now I know the real reason I came to this town." James thought to himself, climbing inside casually fastening his seatbealt.

"I wonder. What was I so afraid of?" Steady and unyielding, quickly starting the ignition, shifting into gear, James hits the accelerator. Gunning the car forward steering the dodge straight towards the bluffs overlooking the valley of Lake Toluca.

"I ran from everything. All the terror, monsters, and judgments thrown in my path. I lied to myself, I told myself I was innocent, that all I ever tried to do was love her." Jumping and pitching violently the car hops the curb onto the old uncut grass leading towards the drop, James hit's the accelerator even harder.

"I don't deserve to live. Besides without you, I have nothing."

The sound of the engine screaming in open air, echoed through James' head as the car runs over the guard rails through the safety posts and sails over the embankment; the sudden drop lurching his stomach into his chest as his sedan sails through the air, down towards the Lake; the ancient Lake, the sacred Lake Toluca.

A tremendous splash explodes around him as the Brilliant blue surrounds him, the cabin quickly filling with cold freezing water.

"Mary, now we can be together…"