In which at least two puzzle pieces are finally observed to fit one another.
.
"She slept till one, and she's already napping?" James asked, peering in at where Heather was wrapped up in blankets on the couch.
"She's speed-healing," Lauren observed. "I think mentally, too, not just physically." She glanced at Kaufmann, who nodded. "Probably coping with depression."
"So we're really letting her out alone tomorrow?" Eileen asked, dealing out a hand of rummy.
"She ain't giving us much of a choice," Douglass responded, and after a moment he begrudgingly accepted the hand he was dealt. It felt insane to be playing cards in the middle of Silent Hill, but honestly they didn't have anything left to plan. If they didn't do something they were all going to go crazy and eat each other.
"We'll be keeping busy on our own errands," Travis reminded him. "And odds are, she'll need both before the end."
"Right, but if anything happens to her," Douglass muttered, then sighed and looked up at where a giant red-helmeted monster had entered the kitchen again. He'd roamed around the lighthouse for a bit, and no one could quite figure out what motive was driving him. He seemed different from the day before.
"I wonder if he could use a gun," Henry thought aloud. Douglass gave him a look, reached over, and smacked him upside the back of his head. Henry winced and gave Douglass a return wide-eyed and innocent look.
"As if he weren't already having enough fun with the kitchen knives," Lauren chastised. "Henry, don't give him any ideas!"
"Well he's blind," Henry explained. "I wondering if he can aim, or if he just relies on force?"
"We don't need to find out," Douglas told him. "Eileen, how's Elle doing?"
"She's still really troubled," the other woman told them, brows furrowing in thought, watching as the Red Pyramid picked up a cleaver from the kitchen knife rack. He gave a slight toss and caught it again. Eileen reached out and poked Travis, who just nodded because he was already watching. "Murphy is talking to her. He's a nice guy, you know." Travis grunted.
"What's with the whole 'Butcher' thing?" Douglas asked, as he'd also noticed the cleaver. "Thought that was just the name of one of your monsters."
"Silent Hill was nice enough never to fully explain," Travis responded. "Which makes me think it was guessing at a future that never ended up happening." The Red Pyramid turned towards him and cocked its head to the side. Then it pulled the cleaver back in a strained overhand position. Travis's eyes widened. He kicked his chair out from beneath himself and ducked just as a clever went flying through the air he'd previously inhabited. It sank into the wall behind him.
"Jesus!" Eileen shrieked, and Douglass had his handgun out immediately and had dropped his cards. The others were in various states of distress when the Red Pyramid monster suddenly laughed. They'd heard the noise before: a hoarse, grating bark that echoed out from within the helmet. Travis grimaced, pulling himself up to his feet and eyeing the monster warily.
"Nice," he told the monster dryly. "Anything else?"
The monster rumbled almost innocently, picking up a carving knife and apparently looking at James. Travis tensed, reaching back for his fireman's axe. James turned pale and prepped himself to duck. The monster rumbled as if amused and trailed the tip of the carving knife over the slate counter top for a moment, eliciting a high-pitched shrieking noise. James cringed violently, and then glared up at the Pyramid Monster. "Please stop," he requested.
Samael tilted his massive helm to the side, then apparently grew bored of whatever it was he was doing. He dropped the carving knife, licked at the air, and then rounded the kitchen cabinets. For a moment the party worried he would approach their table and molest someone, but instead he walked into the atrium, looking down at where Heather was sleeping.
"The hell?" Douglas protested. "That's what we're sending her out with. That bipolar, half-god, crazy thing."
Kaufmann frowned, scratching his chin in puzzlement. "I don't think that was the god half, Mr. Cartland," the doctor reflected. "Or the monster, for that matter. I think the human persona might be sociopathic."
"Oh great. That's better," the detective drawled sarcastically. "He's going split her in half the moment they walk out that door, isn't he? Glad I know which components to credit."
The monster twitched and looked back at them slowly, one of his hands clenching. Henry caught the motion and blanched, standing up quickly and grabbing Douglas's shoulder. "Careful!" the quiet man begged in a surprisingly urgent voice. "He's very lucid right now and much smarter than you think. The last 'god' you said might kill Heather didn't take your observations very well."
"I'm just sayin-"
"Douglas. Do not make us look like strawberry poptarts," Henry said in a low voice that surprised everyone. "We need today and tomorrow to be calm."
Hearing no further accusations or predictions about his behavior, Samael licked the air and then slowly looked back to Heather Mason. His posture seemed to soften a little. He sniffed at the air and glanced at the mantelpiece once or twice, but afterwards he seemed content to stand there.
Mercy was a spiderweb of chains. They restrained him, dragged him down, prevented him from moving forward. He was strength; unstoppable strength; punishment, justice, hatred. His shape conveyed his power, his perfection. But these chains, her love and mercy, her tenderness and forgiveness, they were unbreakable.
The witch child smiled at him cruelly, her fingertips drumming gently on the bars of his prison. "You want out for awhile?" she asked him. He roared. She nodded with her equivalent of sympathy. "So do I." He seethed, hating how she thought of him, hating her perception of him as a slave, a toy, a weapon. He was Justice. "Do you hate them like I hate them?" she asked.
ALL HUMANITY, he answered. She nodded, understanding he meant her most of all.
"Will you help me kill them?"
AND YOU, he promised her, and he did not struggle or roar so much because it seemed they had a common goal. They wanted destruction. They wanted death. They would have their justice; each of them. That was fine with her. She reached towards him, offering to extend his leash...
But this was just a dream. A memory. A description.
Suddenly Alessa wasn't there at all, and he was not nearly so chained. He stood in the halls of hell, shackled only by one arm, wreathed in flame. He was alive, partially freed, and furious. In front of him stood the golden-haired spirit. He smelled Alessa's soul in her; he knew his old partner, his old enemy, and he was so close.
The golden-haired spirit frowned up at him, expression cloudy as if she barely aware of her own existence.
SUMMON ME, he told her.
The golden spirit hesitated. Her shape shifted and twisted, the hair blackening towards Alessa's color but then brightening to golden again. Her brows furrowed as she tried to stabilize herself, to gain some clarity. He took a slow step towards her.
FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED, he told her. LONG AGO YOU MADE THIS PACT WITH ME. YOU ASKED ME TO DESTROY YOUR ENEMIES IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR END. FINISH THIS PACT. SUMMON ME. THE SEALS ARE IN PLACE. THE END IS AT HAND. YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU WHO ARE BOTH CONJURER AND BLASPHEMER. FINISH THIS, AND SUMMON ME.
Travis, James, Walter, Lauren, Eileen, Elle, Henry, Kaufmann, Lisa, Douglas, Murphy.
Valtiel. Valtiel resurrected me. Valtiel gave me my katana.
You are dreaming.
Heather looked hesitantly up at the demon, her eyes widening as she gained some awareness of her current state. This dream! She'd had something similar to it before. She remembered being ripped apart by a Pyramid Monster and then reaching out to take his hand.
"Xuchibara," she realized, anchoring herself with the name of the gigantic monster.
Haloed in light-less flame, the Smith nodded. YES, he acknowledged.
She stepped forward uncertainly, looking up at the god. "I've seen you before," she said slowly. "When I summoned the Pyramid Monster-"
YOU ARE THE WITCH. THE BLASPHEMER, he told her. YOU CAME TO ME MANY YEARS AGO. YOU SOUGHT THE DESTRUCTION OF THOSE WHO TORMENTED YOU. FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED. GIVE ME MY JUSTICE, AND I WILL GIVE YOU YOURS.
Heather frowned. "I am not Alessa Gillespie," She told the creature. He reared up at that, flames billowing out from them, his fist clenching.
YOU CANNOT HIDE. I KNOW YOUR SOUL, BLASPHEMER. I KNOW ITS SMELL, I HAVE SENSED YOUR TAINT ON THE SPIRITS YOU HAVE TOUCHED. AND I WILL UNMAKE YOU, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. UNLEASH ME FROM MY PRISON. YOU KNOW THE WORDS TO EXTEND MY CHAINS. YOU KNOW THE WORDS TO SUMMON ME, TO SET YOUR CONDITIONS. SUMMON ME FOR JUSTICE. SUMMON ME AND I WILL UNMAKE THEM AND GIVE YOU OBLIVION.
For a moment Heather was really intimidated, but then she sneered and stepped towards him. "I don't need you," she told him, sparking new levels of rage. "I'm not a helpless child anymore, I'm not the kid whose mother caged her inside her own body with nothing more than things like you for company! I will unmake Silent Hill itself, and I am not so eager to die that I need you to do it for me!"
IS THAT SO, he glowered, and Heather frowned. She hesitated a moment, and then took another step forward.
"You saved me," she remembered. "I asked you for help, and you saved me."
SUMMON. ME. he told her. YOU ARE WASTING TIME. IF MY CREATIONS DESTROY YOU, MY CHAINS WILL BE NO LONGER THAN THEY ARE NOW, AND I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU YOUR VENGEANCE. AND IF THE FAITHFUL WE BOTH SO HATE DESTROY YOU, THEY WILL DENY US BOTH OUR JUSTICE.
Heather shook her head. "I don't want to die."
YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. EMBRACE IT, OR FIGHT IT; GIVE US OUR JUSTICE, OR DESPAIR AND BURN.
She sneered. "I didn't die last time," she pointed out. "And I won't die now!"
The god slowly walked up to her. His flames were horrible, spreading out around her, encompassing her. She wondered if they were melting her flesh. YOU WOULD HAVE DIED IN THE CRUCIBLE THE DAY YOU LOST YOUR CONSORT. I KEPT THEIR VICTORY FROM THEM AND SOUGHT OUT MY OWN. NOW THE END IS IN OUR GRASP. DELIVER FINALITY TO BOTH OF US, OR I WILL TAKE YOUR LIFE ALONE.
Heather tensed, suddenly aware of Samael in the physical world. She could sense the demon looming over her, keeping watch, protecting her, admiring her as she slept. She looked up in alarm at Xuchibara. "Don't take him from me," she whispered, then begged. "Samael, Alex, don't take him from me-"
SUMMON ME.
"My friends are in that lighthouse!" she protested. "They'd die! Everything I've ever fought to save would die!"
I WILL PERMIT YOU THEIR EXCLUSION FROM MY WRATH.
Heather hesitated, momentarily stunned.
DO IT.
She stared up at the giant monster, then her eyes lowered to the chains around one of his arms, and lifted back up to his face. "Why now?" she asked.
THERE IS TIME.
She shook her head. "You didn't contact me yesterday, over the night, while I was sleeping. Why are you suddenly desperate now? What changed, why would you even be contacting me with two more seals...?"
The god glowered at her, and stepped closer. I WILL NOT-
"He was touching me," Heather thought. "The only difference is Samael was physically touching me last night, and there wasn't any other significant change between now and then..." She look perplexed up at Xuchibara. "What difference did that make? How could he possibly protect me from you?"
ENOUGH. MAKE YOUR DECISION.
Her eyes widened as she recalled Samael's incredibly lucid and calm state upon waking. If that and Xuchibara's failure to make this offer one day earlier had the same cause, then.. "He couldn't protect me from you. He could only possibly link me to you." An epiphany rippled through her, and she stared at the monster whom she had feared for days. "You don't want to kill me," she whispered in sudden understanding. "That day I summoned the Pyramid Thing, you wrapped your tongue in my hair and then suddenly calmed down, just like Samael does. That part of him's not Alex, that's you."
Xuchibara reeled backwards, stumbling back from her as if she'd struck him. YOU-
"You expected to kill me in the school," she started rationalizing, filling in the gaps in this narrative and looking down in thought. "You failed, but there are two more Seals, Travis is right, there's no reason for you to be bartering... The only reason you'd be talking to me is if you thought you couldn't do it. Is if you thought you'd been compromised or were somehow lacking..."
She looked up at him, sensing his mounting fury and frustration. "You want me to give you an excuse. To make it easy for you. You want me to tell you to kill me."
Sulphuric air hissed out from under the helm in fierce hate-filled gouts. The hellish air behind him clouded up with veins and ominous clouds. His fists clenched tightly and shook.
I WILL NOT GIVE YOU OBLIVION, he said, advancing on her. I WILL VIOLATE YOU IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY. I WILL POLLUTE YOUR SOUL WITH GOUT AND ROT UNTIL YOU BLOAT AND SPILL OPEN IN TUMORS OF DECAYED CANCERS. I BURN HOLES THROUGH YOUR MIND TILL IT IS YOUR HANDS THAT ARE PULLING THE STILL-BEATING HEARTS FROM THE CHESTS OF YOUR LOVED ONES.
Heather frowned as he continued to advance, but she realized this temper tantrum signified she was right. There was no other reason for him to be so utterly angry. "You have Samael right there, but you must not feel certain you can make him do it..." she whispered, and Xuchibara seethed at her words.
I WILL RUIN YOU UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT WORTH PRESERVING, UNTIL YOU ARE ENSLAVED TO THE BLASPHEMIES YOU DARED TO SPAWN. I WILL MAKE YOU BEG FOR SILENCE TO END THE BOUNDLESS TORMENT. I WILL DO IT WITH YOUR LOVER'S SKIN, WITH YOUR FATHER'S, WITH YOUR FRIENDS'; I WILL HURT YOU WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER HELD DEAR.
He was standing over her, looming huge against the hellscape, muscles rolling with blood like flame beneath the flesh. Heather shook her head in disbelief at this tirade, at how badly she seemed to have completely offended or insulted this amazing entity. She touched her own hair, baffled. "But why, it doesn't make any sense... Why would my smell have any impact on you, much less cause you to falter?" she wondered aloud.
That was the last straw. She felt the fury before she saw it and so she was already scrambling backwards when the Smith lunged at her. He was fast and strong, grasping at her to rip her apart. The clouds of anger wrapped around her and then her vision was clouding and there was darkness everywhere. She was blind.
"Samael!" she shouted desperately, visualizing the Seal of the Metatron on the atrium mirror and the monster she knew had to be somewhere nearby. A red hot touch descended on her injured shoulder and squeezed. "SAMAEL!"
Firm and painfully tight hands were all around her and she was being yanked off the ground. The air was being crushed out of her and she flailed helplessly for a moment, panting heavily in her panic, gasping for breath.
Then her vision was unclouding and she looked around, trying to figure out where she was. The Lighthouse? Her eyes caught the edge of a red helm over her head. Samael was clutching her to him. His tongue was draped down the side of her neck and looped about her collar. At the feel of it, Heather jerked reflexively to touch the black appendage, to make sure it was real.
Heather, the sound of her name passed like hot spring water through her mind. Her eyes rolled up and closed as she leaned her head backwards into her monster's chest. She lay there trying to get her panic under control, breathing heavily. For a moment she couldn't talk, so she just squeezed the tongue closer to her and turned her face into its length. The appendage tightened its embrace and Samael purred softly to her hair. Heather nodded and opened her eyes, looking around. The atrium clock said that it was one in the morning, and the Lighthouse was dark and quiet. Samael had plucked her off the couch and was now cradling her firmly around five or six feet in the air.
"We need to go," she realized aloud, and then started to shift about her weight. Samael grunted in agreement, leaning over to let her slide to her feet. She bumped her injured arm on the way down and then blinked in confusion when she felt no pain. Puzzled, she reached up and pulled back the sling and the fabric at her shoulder, trying to get a better look. When she pulled back the cloth, she found her arm completely unblemished; Where hours ago she had sported deep violet bruises and painful lacerations, her skin was now smooth and pink. The flesh was hot though, and when Heather reached up to touch the area she felt a tingling beneath her fingers.
Samael seemed a little startled by the sight of the healing; Heather certainly was. But then he gave a quick growl and Heather nodded. No time to think about it now. She untied the sling and got it off, and then tested her arm to make sure it was functional. It was.
"We have to go," Heather told the Pyramid Monster and she looked around for her katana. It was laying on the tea table so she snatched it up and began belting it to her waist. "I have to get out there now, while he's angry, I have to let him hit me as hard as he can," she mumbled, turning around and looking for some quick supplies like a flashlight and some granola bars. She managed to find both in the kitchen
"I need to get to that Seal and prove to him whatever the hell it is I can prove, while he's throwing everything into it..." She paused and looked around for Samael, only to see that the monster was following her closely. The tongue re-entwined with her hair and she felt a comfort, a security in the touch that she'd never before felt. She knew the affection meant Samael was still calm, still with her, still on her side.
"What do I think will happen...?" she asked herself, baffled. "What do I think I'm going to learn out there...? Why would my touch or my smell or whatever calm a god down? Much less one like him? But I had dreams about that ever since I got here, about the 'importance' of my touch, even before Alex-" She cut off and looked back at Samael. He gently caressed her cheek and she nodded with a light shudder. "I guess we'll all find out," she agreed. "Come on."
She grasped his hand and led him quickly towards the front door. He followed obediently. But as they walked, she saw something moving in the shadows. Then suddenly the atrium lights were on. Standing in front of the doorway was Travis Grady, his arms crossed over his chest. Heather stopped short. Travis eyed her critically.
"I need to go," she said after an awkward moment. "I need to go now, while it's still night."
His gaze darkened, but he waited for her to explain.
"Look- I don't know how to explain," she began. "But I need to get out there now, I just had a dream and I think it might have given me a clue as to what's going on and what I need to do next."
"You're sneaking out," he told her flatly.
"Look, my arm is healed!" she protested, pulling down her shirt to show him. "Travis, I need to go, please don't wake them up; you know how this place is and I-I've got to go!"
"You were nightmaring" he observed. "What about?"
Heather took in a hard breath and tried to calm herself down to explain. "It was Xuchibara, he was trying to give me his usual offer. But he... he was more verbal, less focused, and I guess something about it just triggered me to dream really lucid. I started questioning him and I think I might understand what I need to do next, but I have to get out there because if I don't I'll lose a sense of what he's doing and I think I might lose the chance to try and influence him-"
"Influence him?" Travis interrupted. "The god?"
"I think there might be a way to convince him to stop trying to kill me!" she exclaimed.
"What?" This was the cult God's left hand demon and executioner she was talking about, not just a monster pet. "How?"
"By- by- this is going to sound crazy but it's true- by giving him every opportunity to." Travis frowned. "Travis, dammit, I don't have time to explain, I need to do this."
"Heather," he growled, conveying with one word how out of control she sounded.
"Trust. Me!" Heather begged, because there was no possible way she could explain everything about the tongue or her dreams or her sudden desperate certainty that there was- for just a short while- a chance for her to accomplish something unthinkable. "There is something huge going on and I think I just hit the tip of it, and I need to go out there and figure it out before it's too late! This is not- this is not a normal part of what I was supposed to go through this is- Travis, I need to go."
Travis stared at her for a very long moment, till she was practically shaking with the need to get outside. When he spoke, he didn't lift his eyes from her. "Alex?" he asked. The Pyramid Monster nearly jumped in surprise and then looked down at him and made a rough attentive noise. "You'll get her back here safely?" The monster responded immediately with a low, hard, affirmative hum. Travis nodded and unfolded his arms. He turned to the side and then picked up a small pack from where it was leaning against the wall. He lifted it up and tossed it to her. Heather caught it and blinked, looking inside. Then she lifted her eyes back to Travis. He'd already expected she might run out on them?
"I-" she hesitated. "I wouldn't be bailing on everyone if this hasn't happened," she explained. "I know you're all planning to help me from afar. I won't try to stop you, but- Travis, I-"
"Kid?" He looked up at her face. "Do what you gotta do. I and Harry both walked into this mess and sided with the people instead of figuring out the truth, and I and Harry both nearly got Alessa vaporized and the God born. And you? One of your first real decisions was that the people were untrustworthy and that the faceless Boogieman might be leading you in the right direction to finish things."
Heather shuddered, not sure what to say. Travis eyed her for a moment and then stepped forward and reached up to take off his cap. He turned it around and plopped it on her head.
"Go and figure it out," he told her. "And when you come back, no matter what the truth is, no matter how crazy it sounds, we'll stand behind you because we love you."
Heather stared at him, lips parted, for a short moment. Then she swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you."
"Go," he told her. "Quick before you wake up Douglass in the other room."
She nodded and reached behind her again, grabbing Samael's hand. The monster followed her swiftly out the front door, pausing only to retrieve his massive knife from where he'd left it. Then the two of them disappeared down the Lighthouse staircase and headed straight out into the moaning hellscape beyond.
When she and the monster were out of earshot Walter Sullivan walked up beside Travis and scowled at the man. "That was exactly the opposite of keeping a close eye on Xuchibara," he disapproved.
"She wanted to talk to you," Travis said, ignoring the comment.
Walter looked out at where he felt the Red Hate and heard the scrape of the Great Knife. "No," he decided. "I would have held her back and counseled escape. She wants to hear insanity is possible. Maybe for her, it is. But then I've nothing to say."
Travis glanced at the dead man. "Have you decided who to root for yet?"
Walter looked at him and tilted his head to the side, slightly intrigued by the question. "I am always on mother's side," he answered a little ominously.
Travis grunted; that was a pretty standard answer from Walter. "Then I hope she's supportive when you bring home your new girlfriend to meet her."
Sullivan jumped a little and gave Travis a quizzical look. No longer able to see Heather, Travis righted himself from where he was leaning against the door frame and moved to head back inside. He paused though, and gave Walter a pitying look.
"When paradise comes," Walter told him, "your eyes will all be opened, and you will understand, and you will weep for joy at the sight of the Mother."
"You can't even figure out why Lauren Sunderland has two nice words to say to you," Travis told him. "The hell do you know about joy?"
Walters eyes narrowed. "Soon we'll all know," he said cryptically.
"You think happiness is something you need a god to hand to you? That its like some endless opium high?" He pointed out towards hell. "Joy is when she walks back through this door alive and safe. And that's it. That's the highest form there is."
Then without another word Travis Grady headed inside.
