"Watch out. The gap in the door…it's a separate reality"

~Anonymous

Eleven

"Teddy didn't come home last night."

All the other roommates in the house were in the living room, eating whatever breakfast they grabbed that morning. For Curt and John, it was cold, pepperoni pizza. Will was in the middle of buttering a bagel, while Rory sat on the bottom few steps and was working on the second of three granola bars. John, however, was staring down at his slice.

"Really?" Curt asked in mid-chew. "That's weird. He went out with that chick last night, right? What was her name?"

"Lauren," John replied but didn't look up, "yeah they went to the movies. Another Love Song. It's a romantic dramedy."

"Right, Lauren. Heh, Teddy went to see a chick flick!" Curt exclaimed, finishing his bite. "Maybe he was really tired and fell asleep when they went back to her place?"
"Or he just stayed the night?" Will offered.

John finally looked up and narrowed his eyes at Will for a moment. He vehemently started to shake his head.

"No. No, Teddy would never sleep at a girl's place, or anyone else's place."
"Okay," Will started, taking a moment to bite into his bagel, "and why not?"

There was a silence in the room after Will's question. He didn't notice at first and continued to eat, but then he noticed that all three of his roommates were looking at him.

"What?" Will asked, looking back and forth between Curt and John.

"Teddy has a CPAP mask," said John, getting up from his seat, "he has sleep apnea."

John walks towards the stairs and past Rory, who stands and moves out of John's way. A door can be heard slamming shut and Rory takes a seat opposite of Will.

"Shows how much you know about the people you live with." Rory proclaims. He sits back against the couch and levels a stare at Will. "Teddy never told anybody about having to wear that mask. I guess you never noticed how he always comes home after a date though, huh?"

Will looked down at his food, but his appetite had diminished. With everything strange that was going on around campus and town, his roommate not coming home was a little troubling. He felt a bit guilty not knowing about Teddy's sleep apnea, but he had a lot on his mind. It wasn't easy juggling two sets of lives. Being scolded by a bratty twenty year didn't make it better.

"Most of us here," Rory continued, "know a lot about each other. We know about each other's families, our goals and aspirations after Clearview; we even know about things like allergies or medical conditions. But then there's you Will."

Will looked up at Rory, was getting back up and making his way around the coffee table to stand over Will. Curt shifted uncomfortably in his seat and avoided making eye contact with either of them.

"We've all been roommates for like two years now, and what do we know about you? We know that you're like five years older than us, that you're from some town nobody's ever heard of on the east coast, and that you have a lot of money at your disposal. We know that you disappear during all hours of the day and night, and that you keep your room locked. That says to me that you have serious trust issues, or that you're hiding something. I think it's the latter. So, what're you hiding up there, Will?"

He had seen Rory intimidate people with his size before, but that just wasn't going to work here. Will scoffed and leaned back with his arms folded over his chest.

"Rory…if you want a pair of my boxers to keep under your pillow, all you have to do is ask."

Despite knowing that a fight wasn't what he needed right now, Will couldn't help himself. Maybe it was the way Rory's face turned beet red whenever he was pissed off. Something about seeing the kid angry amused Will. To his surprise though, Rory laughed off the comment. Curt began to laugh too, probably because he didn't know what else to do.

"That's a good one, old man." Rory clasped his hand on Will's shoulder. Will looked at him and did a quick size-up, more out of instinct than the thought that Rory would attack him. "That's good. I'm glad you have such a fantastic sense of humor. Must serve you well with all the sketchy company you keep."

Rory removed his hand and started back towards the staircase. He stopped on the bottom step.

"I recognized that kid from campus, so I did some asking around. His name is Jeff Trabor. He's a junior and a chemistry major. Rich kid; has a nice Benz. Didn't seem to be looking so good when he came around though. He looked a little twitchy. On Pure, if I had a guess. Why did he want to see you so badly?"

Will didn't respond, nor did Rory give him much time to before going back up the stairs. Will sighed, running a hand through his hair and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Three people were killed in such a short amount of time. The dreams that he'd been having, the way Horace was dismissive of the attention that the deaths could cast on Pure. He felt like everything was related. Hopefully, Teddy just got back to his date's place late and fell asleep on her couch.

"So," Curt began, catching Will's attention, "any plans for tonight?"

"Yeah, actually. I have a date." Will said.

"You? Have a date?" Curt questioned with a smirk, then began to chuckle. "I thought you preferred that one and done lifestyle? Monogamy is a social construct and all that."
"Social construct? That doesn't sound like me." Will replied.

"Yeah maybe that was John describing you." Curt added with a nod. "You don't prefer dates though, so this one must be pretty hot huh?"

Will nodded with a grin. "Yeah she's a piece alright. Also seems to be pretty smart, too. She wants to do an article on me for the school paper."

"An article? Why?"

"She found out that my hometown has a history of tragedy." Will says thoughtfully, looking down at his half-eaten bagel. "She's going to be disappointed, though. It's not going to be as interesting as she thinks."

The movie theater was only ten blocks away from Will's house, and considering how debilitating the fog was growing, both Will and Dawn decided that walking would be the best idea. They didn't see many sets of headlights on the road passing them by, in fact. On a normal Saturday night around eight o'clock, there'd be both a line of cars on this street and packs of co-eds walking along the sidewalks on both sides. The theater was firmly in the center of what was known as the Campus Crawl, a six-block radius with a bar on every corner. On the weekends, the area was metaphorically crawling with college students, and by around one or two in the morning, some of the students were quite literally crawling back to campus.

"I hope you know that just because you picked a movie, that doesn't mean that I'm still not gonna get an interview out of you." Dawn pipes up, breaking a minute of somewhat uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry?" Will asks.

Dawn chuckles at the response, reaching out to lightly jab his arm. "Deep in thought, were we?"

"Yeah, maybe a little bit." Will smirks and runs a hand over where she had playfully punched him. "One of my roommates, Teddy, didn't come home from his date last night. With everything going on around the campus, we're a little worried."

"Understandable. Is it like him to not come home?" Dawn questions, and Will notices what he believes to be a genuine look of concern on her face.

"Apparently not, but I didn't really know that." Will responds with a light shrug. "I guess I don't know my roommates as well as I thought I did. Maybe he went home for the weekend? Pretty sure he grew up less than two hours away."

Dawn nods and the two walk another block in silence. With how thick the fog has grown, they can only see about twenty feet in front of them at any given time. In the distance, a police siren can be heard, however there's no way either of them can tell where it's coming from and where it's going.

"I'm surprised the police haven't instituted a curfew around campus," Dawn says, "what with everything going on. There hadn't been a death involving a student in six years, and now two so close together."

"They still might. There's definitely something strange going on." Will muses.

Dawn suddenly claps her hands together and turns. "I have an idea. We should just start the interview now. Since we're not going to have a lot of time during the actual movie."

"Okay." The word came out before Will had a chance to think about it. He knew that he would eventually have to talk about some things; that was the whole premise of this interview slash date. Still, he would much rather have had a few minutes to prepare for what she might ask. "You sure you don't want to do this when we get there? Won't you want to write everything down?"

She holds her phone out triumphantly. "I can just transcribe it later. So, what to do say we get started with something basic? Like where exactly is Silent Hill?"

That question wasn't as basic as Dawn probably thought it was. Will began to rub the back of his neck trying to think of the simplest answer without it being a complete lie.

"It's a small town in southwestern Maine, about two hours from the Canadian border. I would have thought an ace reporter would have known at least that much." Will says jokingly with a wink.

Dawn chuckles and shrugs her shoulders. "Hey, there's not a lot of information online. Most of it seems like rumors and tall tales. I did see Maine, but I also saw West Virginia and Pennsylvania have towns named Silent Hill also. It's tough to tell which story belongs where. The town you were from, was it a very religious place?"

"You want to know if I was raised in the religious cult that the town is infamous for? Is that what you mean?" Will asks, but he gives her a slight smirk to let her know that it's okay.

Dawn smiles sheepishly and shrugs her shoulder.

"It's okay," Will reassures her and takes a breath, "yes, my family was involved in what has come to be known as the Order of Silent Hill. But it's not nearly as nefarious as the rumors would have you believe. It was more like a commune than anything else. Not too far off from the Amish, but without being luddites. We had phones in our houses and cars. No television, no computers, nor mobile phones. We were just a community of people who believed what we believed and lived our lives accordingly."

He looks over to see Dawn listening intently. Anticipating the next question, he continued to speak without having to be asked.

"There were, however, some people who were considered to be extremists. They had archaic beliefs like animal sacrifice, arranged marriages, often between cousins. There were rumors that one couple killed the first born because it was a girl. It was said to have been a miscarriage, but enough people believed it. Another couple adopted a child that was rumored to have been taken from their parents in Boston. That lead to an entire legend about the town that abducts children and raises them in their cult. Home sweet home."

"That's, a lot to take in," Dawn began, but quickly went back into reporter mode, "so you grew up with no TV or a computer?! What did you do all day?"

"Played outside," Will answers after a laugh, "read books, spent time with my family. Hunted, which I never really liked, but my father insisted."

"And what are your parents like?" Dawn asks.

They stop for a moment at a curb, making sure to take an extra few seconds to look before crossing. With no headlights coming from either direction, they quickly moved across as they probably wouldn't have even seen a car if it hit them. It gave Will some time to decide how he wanted to answer her question.

"My mom's a worrier. She was raised in Silent Hill, and their traditions were much more rigid when she was a kid. She understood my need to get out and see the world, so to say." Will explains with a wry smile, then clears his throat and lets out a light sigh. "My dad, however," Will pauses another moment, "…well, remember those extremists I mentioned? I haven't seen him in seven or eight years."

Dawn presses a button on her phone and puts it away. "I'm not going to include that in the interview."

They were quiet the last few blocks on the way to the movie theater. The bright purple neon lights cast an eerie glow through the fog, which began to dissipate the closer they got to the building. There were about twenty people waiting in ticket lines and through the glass doors, another fifty or so milling about in the lobby. This must have been what everyone decided to do tonight, Will thought to himself. It made sense that with everything going on, people would want to go where there was a mass of other people.

Dawn and Will made small talk while they waited their turn to get tickets. She was from Phoenix originally and moved to a town outside of Seattle when she was a teenager and actually liked the change in weather. Other than that, she was a big movie fan, and rattled of a list that Will had never seen, but in turn he surprised her by listing all the music that he listened to.

"So wait," Dawn starts as they walk through the front doors and hand their tickets to the usher, "if you spent all that time closed off to the internet and pop culture, how do you know so many bands?"

"Music grabbed me more than anything else I guess," Will responds, "just all the different types that are out there. And when I mean all the different types, I mostly mean all the different types of rock. You should see my album collection someday."

He felt a pang in his stomach after the words came out. Dawn now had an invitation to come see his album collection, which was in his room. "What am I doing?" Will thought to himself. He hadn't known this girl for more than a week, and altogether he had about twenty minutes of contact with her. Not even the girls that he had slept with at Clearview were invited to his room. He'd go back to their place or use Rory's bedroom without his knowledge. Dawn said something about owning albums being retro, but Will was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to catch the full sentence.

"It's all about the sound quality," Will comments, holding the door open to their theater for her, "Albums sound much better than CD's."

"You can play music on here nowadays, you know." Dawn remarks while playfully waving her phone in front of his face with a grin.

She turns her phone off as they make their way to their seats. Will follows Dawn, who picks an aisle three rows from the back and goes to the center. The theater is at about half capacity already. Will goes to sit down but gets surprised by Dawn turning around and almost bumping into him. She smiles again, and he can feel her breath against his face, noting that it smells of spearmint.

"Heh, sorry," Dawn says as her cheeks grow a slight bit rosy, "umm, I'm gonna go get some refreshments. You've had popcorn before, right?"

"Popped…corn?" Will asks as he cants his head to the left.

Dawn chuckles and slaps her hand against his chest. "Right, stupid question. What do you want to drink?"

"Cherry coke." Will replies as Dawn moves past him and weaves her way through the growing line of people entering the theater. Will sits down and takes a breath. He didn't know why this girl was getting to him and didn't know if it was a good or bad thing. Distractions at a time like this could be costly, even though going to the movies was a distraction in itself. He tried to push everything that had been going on out of his head, just for a few hours. Although he was still concerned about Teddy's whereabouts.

Will closes his eyes and takes a few more controlled breaths. He felt himself slowly slipping into a semblance of peacefulness and serenity. The noise from the crowd of people around him was even fading away to the point that he could no longer hear anything. For the next two hours, he had something he could focus on, and would try and be open to the possibilities for what would happen after the film. Would she want to go right home, or take him up on that invitation he inadvertently spat out?

He opened his eyes and almost jumped out of his seat. Everybody in the theater was gone. Not only the people, but anything that would have resembled the theater itself. There was no big projector screen at the far end, nor velvet curtains that revealed it when it was time for the film to start. Instead the wall was bare and looked like a gigantic slab of metal that seemed to be slowly rusting before Will's eyes. All the other rows of seats were gone, and he could see that the floor appeared to be of the same material, except grated every few feet.

"It can't be…" Will said to himself.

Looking up he could see nothing, just a darkness so black that he felt he might get sucked into it if he kept staring. He had heard stories from back home about another world that existed, somewhere between reality and dreams. There were incidents where people from the Order had been able to awaken something old; something that served the Gods that they worshipped. All the stories he heard ended violently, and every one of them had left a black mark on the legacy of his hometown. Will thought that one of the reasons he was here at Clearview was to provide an alternative from having to resort to fear and threats of damnation. That was the old way, wasn't it?

For as shocking as the world had turned upon opening his eyes after just a few seconds, it was the sounds that soon followed that got Will to finally get up to his feet. There was a steady banging at the door to the theater. It grew louder and louder, more frantic and forceful. Against all better judgment and every bit of good sense, Will started towards the door as the banging grew louder and louder, now causing mild vibrations that were visible to Will. He got about ten feet from the door and stopped when he heard a shrill scream that caused the hairs on his arms to stand on end. There was one more bang against the door, so heavy he thought that it might cave in. What followed was a steady stream of liquid that flowed through the gap between the door and the floor. A lantern bolted to the wall next to the door shone down on the small, growing river of red that had just touched Will's shoe. He didn't have to touch it to know that it was blood.