Did you folks forget about me? Or rather, did you think I forgot about you?? Bah, I could do no such thing! Not when there are so many loose ends to tie up. And just think, we're not even to the end yet. Holy prolonging plotlines, Batman!
As for my lack of chappies lately, I've been busy, working a lot. A man's gotta eat, ya know? Anyway, I give you the next chapter; I know many of you have been dying to continue.
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Chapter 17: All Alone
Cybil sat on her dusty cot while she related her visit to Silent Hill. She said she'd gone there over 20 years ago, but that didn't make sense. This woman didn't appear to be much older than 25 or 30 years old. She was an officer investigating a report of drug use in the Silent Hill area, but when she got there, well... she found much more.
She'd arrived and found a man named Harry Mason, whom she later helped to find his missing daughter, Cheryl. After the ordeal, she and Harry escaped the town along with a newborn child. I didn't understand that part, but I let her continue anyway. She told the police chief back in Brahms about what'd happened, but no one believed her. Several weeks later, she was institutionalized for her "wild behavior" and had been imprisoned here ever since.
"Cybil," I said, trying to keep the skepticism out of my voice, "how could you have gone there over 20 years ago? You don't look that old..."
"You can't judge time correctly in that place, Stephanie," she said. "It's a reality of its own, with rules of its own. Time doesn't work the same there."
Well that would certainly explain why I seemed to have been in a "coma" for 3 years. Also...
"Jody said that she'd been sent to find an officer who'd been assigned to a drug trafficking report. That was you, wasn't it?"
"More than likely," she said, hanging her head. "With no word from me, they probably would've sent the team to find me a few days after I left."
"You said you were gone for 20 years. I assume you mean 20 years in.. umm.. real time?"
"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Although I was really only in Silent Hill for a few days at most."
"If Jody left a few days after you..."
I didn't want to ask any more, but Cybil seemed to know where I was going with it.
"Yes," she said, "she, too, must've been considered missing for many years. How many years, I couldn't say. Depends on how long she was in that town."
My mind swirled with all the numbers, tried to logically calculate the vast differences in time. Cybil had been considered missing for two decades. Yet, when she came back, she still looked the same (if not a bit unnerved). Jody went to Silent Hill only a few days after Cybil's disappearance, and then she, too, went missing, according to the real world.
However, if Jody had chosen to leave... if somehow, she'd escaped the town, then she could've made it back to Brahms before Cybil had ever returned. It was now twenty years after Cybil's disappearance. If Jody had indeed returned prior to Cybil's return...
That meant that Jody had arrived in Brahms years ago. It also meant that, in lieu of all the time distortion, these two officers had first gone to Silent Hill around the time I was born.
I railed against the logic, trying to make sense of it. I finally resigned myself to Todd's little speech: "This goes far beyond your understanding."
This did nothing to solve the fact that I still had to find Jody. If only someone could tell me how to find her. Cybil obviously didn't know, and I didn't have the slightest clue where James, Mary, or Todd had gone. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
"Whatever happened to Harry?"
"Don't know. He said he wanted to go somewhere quiet where he could raise his daughter in peace. After what we went through, though... well, I doubt if anyone could be peaceful ever again."
"I think I know what you mean," I said, staring vacantly at the window. This whole thing had taken more of a toll on me than I wanted to admit. Would I ever be the same again? Could I go on knowing I'd taken innocent life?
"Cybil... what should I do? I went to Silent Hill with two friends, but later... I found out they weren't really who I thought they were. I met Jody, but she disappeared. Now I'm all alone. Should I just go home, or..."
I pushed back the lump in my throat as I waited for her answer. She looked at me with sunken eyes, eyes that had seen more terror and evil than anyone had a right to.
"Stephanie, I don't have the answers for you. You've stepped into something that wasn't meant for humankind. Only you can get yourself out of it." Her tone was sad, as if she knew deep down that I'd never be free of what'd happened. Maybe she was right. She looked down and took my hand. "Just be honest with yourself, ok? Don't delude yourself with what you want to be true. Do what you know, deep down, is right."
I looked at her, frail, ashen... a shell of who she used to be. Would this happen to me? Was it happening already? It had to stop. Regretfully, I knew what I had to do.
"I have to go find Jody. I can't just leave her in a nightmare, much less one of my own making."
I took a deep breath and looked into Cybil's hollow eyes.
"If that means I have to go back to Silent Hill, then so be it."
As for my lack of chappies lately, I've been busy, working a lot. A man's gotta eat, ya know? Anyway, I give you the next chapter; I know many of you have been dying to continue.
********************************
Chapter 17: All Alone
Cybil sat on her dusty cot while she related her visit to Silent Hill. She said she'd gone there over 20 years ago, but that didn't make sense. This woman didn't appear to be much older than 25 or 30 years old. She was an officer investigating a report of drug use in the Silent Hill area, but when she got there, well... she found much more.
She'd arrived and found a man named Harry Mason, whom she later helped to find his missing daughter, Cheryl. After the ordeal, she and Harry escaped the town along with a newborn child. I didn't understand that part, but I let her continue anyway. She told the police chief back in Brahms about what'd happened, but no one believed her. Several weeks later, she was institutionalized for her "wild behavior" and had been imprisoned here ever since.
"Cybil," I said, trying to keep the skepticism out of my voice, "how could you have gone there over 20 years ago? You don't look that old..."
"You can't judge time correctly in that place, Stephanie," she said. "It's a reality of its own, with rules of its own. Time doesn't work the same there."
Well that would certainly explain why I seemed to have been in a "coma" for 3 years. Also...
"Jody said that she'd been sent to find an officer who'd been assigned to a drug trafficking report. That was you, wasn't it?"
"More than likely," she said, hanging her head. "With no word from me, they probably would've sent the team to find me a few days after I left."
"You said you were gone for 20 years. I assume you mean 20 years in.. umm.. real time?"
"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Although I was really only in Silent Hill for a few days at most."
"If Jody left a few days after you..."
I didn't want to ask any more, but Cybil seemed to know where I was going with it.
"Yes," she said, "she, too, must've been considered missing for many years. How many years, I couldn't say. Depends on how long she was in that town."
My mind swirled with all the numbers, tried to logically calculate the vast differences in time. Cybil had been considered missing for two decades. Yet, when she came back, she still looked the same (if not a bit unnerved). Jody went to Silent Hill only a few days after Cybil's disappearance, and then she, too, went missing, according to the real world.
However, if Jody had chosen to leave... if somehow, she'd escaped the town, then she could've made it back to Brahms before Cybil had ever returned. It was now twenty years after Cybil's disappearance. If Jody had indeed returned prior to Cybil's return...
That meant that Jody had arrived in Brahms years ago. It also meant that, in lieu of all the time distortion, these two officers had first gone to Silent Hill around the time I was born.
I railed against the logic, trying to make sense of it. I finally resigned myself to Todd's little speech: "This goes far beyond your understanding."
This did nothing to solve the fact that I still had to find Jody. If only someone could tell me how to find her. Cybil obviously didn't know, and I didn't have the slightest clue where James, Mary, or Todd had gone. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
"Whatever happened to Harry?"
"Don't know. He said he wanted to go somewhere quiet where he could raise his daughter in peace. After what we went through, though... well, I doubt if anyone could be peaceful ever again."
"I think I know what you mean," I said, staring vacantly at the window. This whole thing had taken more of a toll on me than I wanted to admit. Would I ever be the same again? Could I go on knowing I'd taken innocent life?
"Cybil... what should I do? I went to Silent Hill with two friends, but later... I found out they weren't really who I thought they were. I met Jody, but she disappeared. Now I'm all alone. Should I just go home, or..."
I pushed back the lump in my throat as I waited for her answer. She looked at me with sunken eyes, eyes that had seen more terror and evil than anyone had a right to.
"Stephanie, I don't have the answers for you. You've stepped into something that wasn't meant for humankind. Only you can get yourself out of it." Her tone was sad, as if she knew deep down that I'd never be free of what'd happened. Maybe she was right. She looked down and took my hand. "Just be honest with yourself, ok? Don't delude yourself with what you want to be true. Do what you know, deep down, is right."
I looked at her, frail, ashen... a shell of who she used to be. Would this happen to me? Was it happening already? It had to stop. Regretfully, I knew what I had to do.
"I have to go find Jody. I can't just leave her in a nightmare, much less one of my own making."
I took a deep breath and looked into Cybil's hollow eyes.
"If that means I have to go back to Silent Hill, then so be it."