prologue

It's a perfect day, and only my Mother and I are there.

"You and the kid have a fuckin' roast, and leave me hot dogs?!"

Nobody else, not even the sky, is there. There's a convenience store behind us. We just came out of it. We're so happy. Ahead is a theater.

"You were two hours late!"

Everyone is there except us. Everyone in Silent Hill attended that performance, except us. I'm smiling.

"Yeah, making money to feed you ungrateful scum!"

Mom wanted to go, but I didn't, just because that way the town could be mine, I could walk around at night and the only hear the background of the music. As close to Heaven as I ever thought possible.

"Robert, please! He's in the next room!"

But night never came. Now everything is gone, except my Mother, and I, and the road we're walking on. And It is there. I'm not happy anymore.

"You think I give a shit?!"

It's coming from behind us. I can't see It. It has a gun. It shoots once, but I hear nothing.

"God the Father. . ." I'm at my bed, praying when things are bad, but I can't quite remember it.

It shoots again. "Maybe if you two weren't so fuckin' ungrateful!"

"Who art in Heaven. . ." That's where I want to be.

And again. "Get up to the fucking bed, right now!"

"Hallowed be thy name. . ."

Now I hear It. Three small tings, as if something metal hit the ground. But that's all I hear. I'm not praying at my bed anymore. But I'm noticing Mom on the ground. She's not moving. It walks up, It is formless. I don't know who It is. It takes her wallet, and It throws her I.D. back on the ground near her. It walks away, and then turns. All of the sudden I know what the inside of a gun looks like. Now I see Mom again, staring at me, but her eyes are telling me I did something wrong.

"What did I do?" I ask them. "Forgive us our trespasses. . ."

"Nothing. . ." They respond. "Nothing at all."

Now I'm in my room, but it's a crib. My mother is singing. "As we forgive those. . ."

Rock-a-bye baby on the tree-top. . .

It shoots again.

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. . .

And again.

When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall. . .

A third time.

And down will come baby. . .

"Who trespass upon us. . ."

Things are happening fast now. Then I can see Mother close up, and I hear three more tings, and footsteps going away from me. I try to get up, but It won't let me. I can't see It, but I know that's whose fault it is; It is the reason I can't get up right now. Voices that are slow, distant and muted, are yelling in panic. I can't see them. I can't see anything, but I know they're there. They're lifting me up, and they put me in my cradle. It's all faster then anything in the world.

I hear the noise my room used to make, and now I'm in the back seat. There's a loud siren sound, but it plays the tune of the noise my room used to make, and now I'm in Heaven. Everything is slow again. I'm not worrying about missing the performance. I'm not worried about what her eyes say I did. I'm a baby again. I'm always smiling when I'm a baby at night. Not in the daytime, though, this is where I am now. But it feels like night. It feels like a dream. Everything is blending and mixing. Then I'm in a room, and everything goes wrong. Fast again. The walls are melting, all the doors are disappearing, and there's blood on the walls. Horribly fast. The doctors are monsters, pricking me in the arm. I'm trapped. I can't talk, or feel, or breathe, or hear, or see, or taste, and I'm alone. I'm alone in silence. It's the fastest silence ever. Nobody's here, so now I'm screaming, praying to God to see something. To feel something, anything. Now I see Mom again. She says Goodbye, than disappears. It's behind her. I can see the gun again. So horribly slow. . .

"Don't leave, Mom!"

"Mom!"

"Mom. . ."

"Mom. . ."

Blaine bolted up from the bed. "Mom!"

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