Alessa was almost afraid to wake up. Considering everything--her nightmares, her latent memories, the pain of rejuvenation--she was afraid of more to face. She had probably been afraid to sleep as well; she couldn't completely remember. That seemed to happen lately. Her life was a painful nightmare; she had accepted that a long time ago, she thought, and that was why she accepted any attempt to make the pain go away.
That was why this happened. That was why she was lying naked in Lisa's arms in the bed of some random, empty home. Her beloved nurse--no, lover--was still sound asleep after what they had done together for some number of hours. Alessa had wanted to make the pain of everything go away for awhile, and Lisa was eager to serve… No, eager wasn't the word. The more she watched her, the more Alessa realized Lisa was almost without any emotion besides complacent happiness. Why was that? Had something happened that she wasn't aware of?
She rose from the bed and wandered to the adjoining bathroom of the tan bedroom. The lights were dim as she flipped them on and stared at herself in the mirror, witnessed the remnants of Lisa's work upon her. Somehow, she knew none of it was right. No, it wasn't an issue of gender, but rather the fact that it was with Lisa. Why? Why her? Was it because Lisa had been nearly the only person she had ever seen all those painful years locked away in the bottom of that terrible hospital? All she wanted was to live a normal life, to have someone to love, and Lisa had been the only one that had shown her any shred of human kindness in all that time. It was the fault of her mother and the horrible people in the cult. Why was she the pawn of the world? Couldn't she have her own life? Why did everything always have to be so wrong?
She had to make everything right. She had to start here, she was sure. Alessa started to walk back into the bedroom in order to talk to Lisa, to try and explain the way she was feeling, but the nurse was gone, replaced by the decaying form of a rotting corpse in her place, blood and pus just oozing from it with the terrible stench that made Alessa's lungs burn and her stomach heave. Vomit started to rise in the girl's throat, as well as the horror in her mind, forcing her to flee back into the bathroom and lose the contents of her stomach upon the toilet. Choking tears consumed her as her mind struggled to understand everything that was happening, but was unable to. Pain wracked her body like before, as if her very being was trying to tear itself apart.
Lisa came in the next moment, all dressed and well in appearance as ever as she approached the girl, speaking calmly and softly to her as if nothing had happened. Had anything happened, Alessa struggled to comprehend? What was going on? Lisa made her lie down again and rest, but what had happened to Lisa? Was she--what--her--happening--try--
"We really have to stop meeting like this."
Logan opened his eyes to first find Alice. The phrase that instantly came to his mind was "how ironic." The mysterious vanishing girl once again appears all content and to take care of him again. He inwardly agreed whole-heartedly with her words.
He sat up and realized he was laying on a bench in a park devoid of much else but grass. Just one bench in the middle of a field… It was gray again, no longer night or dark; he had returned to Light Silent Hill. Now that he had returned to the Light World, when would he return to the Real World?
Alice was sitting on the grass, with one knee up to rest her hand upon, as if she was simply relaxing. Logan thought to himself that, in the Real World, this probably would be a nice, relaxing place to be.
The girl seemed entirely at peace, much different than when they met in the apartment building. It may have been because of the handgun and other various little trinkets in a backpack laying in the grass beside her, but he doubted that. It was just something about this calm landscape.
Holding his head from the sudden pain that afflicted it, Logan asked her, "What happened now?"
She smiled as she said, "At least it wasn't my fault this time. I found you in a library, though it beats me why you were there. Since the coast was clear, I picked you up and carried you out here to the nearby park. It's a little less filled with life than I remember from my youth."
Logan asked quickly, "In the library? You mean I was still there after the sirens sounded?"
Alice looked at him with concern. "You mean you heard them, too? I thought I had hit my head or something, especially after everything seemed to turn into bloody metal. I ended up in another area, though even now I don't really know where I am."
His thoughts wandered. "How did you carry me all this way?"
She smiled again, flexing her "muscles." "I'm tougher than I look, y' know. Give me a little more credit than that."
Logan tried to smile, but all these events were really starting to get to him; he shook his head at this foolish understatement. A memory crossed his mind, and he said, "Oh, I'm sorry for losing your stuff in the apartment. Your radio kinda got destroyed by a pterodactyl monster."
She waved it away. "Don't worry, I found another one. They're all over the place, actually, just like the flashlights and guns and bullets and first-aid kits. Sorry I don't have an extra one for you, but if we get separated again, I'll be sure to grab one for you just in case."
Silence was all that filled the area besides their voices and breathing. Feeling relatively safe at the moment, Logan decided it would be alright for them to rest for the moment. If any demons did appear, he would destroy them to protect her.
"So," he started. "have you seen anyone else wandering around yet?"
Alice made a tsh sound and explained, "I've seen way too many people wandering around, and most of them not very amiable. They're either insane and they mistakenly try to kill you, or they're perfectly sane, but they're evil and they still wanna kill you. I think you're the only nice guy I've met here, or in a long while, actually…" Her voice trailed off at that, making Logan believe she was reminiscing about the life she had before entering this darkness.
Trying to distract her from such downcast thoughts, Logan remarked in a half-serious tone, "I don't think there's that many bad people out there. I mean, only one person's tried to kill me now, another, well, he almost killed me accidentally, and the other guy was sleeping with his girlfriend, so, yeah, just a bunch of your everyday people."
It seemed to work; Alice asked with a light sort of smile, "Did you run into this one weird guy? He looked like a detective or something, and he kept talking into his tape recorder the whole time. I would've tried talking to him, but I was up high in an office building at the time, fighting a monster."
Thoughts of the federal agent drifted through his mind. "Yep. That would be Devan… Sylph, if I remember right. I guess he's better than the rest of us, 'cause he's only seen one monster, and it resembled his ex-wife."
Alice laughed out loud. "Are you serious!?"
Logan couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. He's looking for his partner, Jack, I think." Thoughts of his other passersby filtered into his mind. "Oh, something very important: stay away from the lady in blue. She's terribly powerful and clearly evil. Another psychopath, y' know?"
The girl looked away again, her happiness slowly fading. "Yeah… Stay away from Maxwell. He's a middle-aged guy that seems rather off. He's walking around with a sword and a rocket launcher, so be sure to stay clear from him, though I don't think he's really gonna use that stuff."
Logan repeated annoyingly, "A sword and a rocket launcher. Well that's great. I just need someone to blow me to bits then chop up the bits smaller." He rubbed his head. "I also bumped into this guy named Harry and his girlfriend Cybil, but it was in a dream, and I don't know if it really happened. If the dream logic was right, then they faced Silent Hill and escaped. That's some bit of hope, huh?"
Alice kept her gaze to the distance, her voice growing low. "I ran into this pregnant woman, Elizabeth. She was bleeding terribly, and she was worried about her child. In her state of shock, she asked me to take care of the baby for her, and all I could do was tell her I would… She died…"
A moment of silence passed between them, almost in mourning. A cool breeze passed through the area, and thus brought the light snow back down from the sky. Although this was obviously a tender moment, Logan asked her, "And Nykis? What about him?"
Alice rose with her backpack and started walking away, obviously trying to ignore the question and all following it. Without emotion, she stated, "Come on, let's get going."
Logan stood up and asked, "Go where? Where are you headed?"
"Out. Just out." She wouldn't turn around to face him.
Logan explained softly, "I'm headed the opposite direction of you. I'm going in. I'm headed for the center of the evil in Silent Hill. I have to destroy the darkness there, or else it will continue spreading and you'll never be able to just walk out."
She laughed quietly, bitterly, muttering to herself, "I can never run away from anything, can I?" She turned around with a false expression of acceptance and told him, "Alright, in that case, I'll come with you. After all, four eyes are better than two, and the same with weapons. Besides, you don't have a radio to warn you about monsters yet. It'll be like me protecting you."
The snow becoming more constant, the two of them started walking off into the fog.
AN: If anyone's interested, I do have another Silent Hill story up on FF.Net. It's a one-shot called Rainstorm, and it's pretty good, in my opinon. I'd appriciate people reading and reviewing it. Thank you still for reading this far. ^_^
