Chapter 3: Thomas Kline

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"He spoke of the flames? Are you sure of this?"

"Absolutely. I know what I heard."

"Then there is a chance that this man is...?"

"Yes."

"Do you think He knows?"

"Quiet. He's awake..."

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A siren wailed softly in the distance as Joseph was suddenly shook back to his current reality. He noticed that he had somehow fallen asleep -- or maybe just passed out right there in the front seat. Even stranger, his vehicle was now resting in a ditch along some road that he was definitely unfamiliar with. It didn't occur to Joseph that he had just been dreaming. The conversation still rang clearly in his mind as if he had heard it every single day of his life. The words were so familiar, each voice in the same exact sync that they were when originally spoken.

He knew he had been there with them sometime before, but the sound was all that he could remember. In fact, he didn't even recall there ever being any images to match up with the rest of the scene. Like a radio, he could only let his imagination paint the faces that owned each word.

Joseph tried to focus his eyes, but his newly found headache was blinding. "Damn...where the hell am I?" He glared into the steering wheel. "This doesn't make a goddamn bit of sense at all. Here? Without a scratch? And this..." His eyes caught a fuzzy glimpse of the Silent Hill map.

"I don't want this."

Something about him was different. He no longer wanted to venture out into the world and make a new life for himself, but he instead desired the opposite. He just wanted to drive on and on, far away from wherever he was now, but that was not possible.

There was someone, something...it was calling to him. In the silence of that country road. In the silence of his car. He was being beckoned by a force he could not understand.

The key slid into the ignition. The car purred like an unsettled beast as Joseph had unknowingly decided inside himself to keep going. "Well, I guess as long as I'm moving somewhere..." And with that, he pulled back onto the road and headed off into another stretch of country.

Repetitive slurs of decaying wooden fences greeted Joseph along the way for what seemed like hours. Over the time that he had been cruising by, he began to regain his composure, which of course, wasn't really much of a composed being. The natural nervousness swept back into its place. His headache was easing off, but the sweat on his brow still kept teasing his dry, burning eyes.

After what seemed to be another hour of driving, Joseph swore he had ran across the first car he had seen ever since he first left the prison. Unfortunately, (and not to his surprise) the car was vacant. Tire skids led up to the dusty convertible. He decided to stop and go check it out, and was rewarded with nothing but a tube of red lipstick.

"Figures...I wonder who would've left such a thing here? Ran out of gas, maybe," he had a decent habit of asking himself questions, "Guess I'm not the only one with dumb luck around here."

It would appear to seem that way.

And so Joseph made his way back to his car and was off again, not even bothering to look for passing traffic for there hadn't been any for the past two hours. Upon reaching the next incline of the road, he finally spotted what seemed to be a weathered gas station. It looked like it wasn't vacant, and to his surprise, he noticed another vehicle parked in front of the building. Hoping for some new kind of human interaction, he parked beside it and made his way into the station.

A bell on the convienience store rang as he pushed it open. It seemed homely enough.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"I was kind of looking for a...uhm..." he cleared his throat, "is anyone here?"

The bell sang again as something crashed into the door behind him. Joseph jerked around as he felt the metal handle of the door push into his back and sent staggering to the counter.

A teenager slightly shorter than Joseph stood up in front of him, clenching a brown paper bag that was obviously once filled with several groceries that were now lying on the overly painted floor. "Oh man, I am SO sorry. I was just coming back from the storage outside and you, err I...here, you can get a free tank of gas. Will that work?"

Joseph smiled at the kid. "So this place IS open?" he glanced down at the spilled cans of soda and crushed bags of chips, "Don't worry about it, I don't need any fuel anyways."

"Oh...well then," the boy started as he carried the items back behind his counter, "What can I do for you?"

"I need to know how to get to a city, you know, like some place that I can stay."

The boy rubbed his greasy chin at him, currently fixed on the mess that was sticking to the floor.

"I'm guessing there's not too much around here, right?" Joseph sighed.

"Huh? Oh well, not really. There is one place not too far, but you won't reach it by nightfall," he notioned at a nearby window, "You look bushed. I think you should maybe go get some rest before you go hit the city."

"That's kind of why I wanted to find a place..." Joseph glanced up at the store's abnormally high ceiling, "Oh, you mean you have a place for me to rest?"

"...Right!", the young man grabbed a keyring from his back pocket and led Joseph out to a little shack outside of the store. He opened the door to the two room home and followed Joseph, who looked a bit bewildered about the whole thing. "Like it?" he tried to assure Joseph that the room was harmless, "I usually keep it open for travellers...you're the first one I've gotten in a week or two."

Joseph walked wearily to the door. "How much? Err, just for a few hours, right."

The boy nodded. "Yeah about that...twenty dollars? I'm sorry if that's a bit much but I do need to make a living," he looked away.

"Oh no, that'll be good! I mean, this place looks pretty well off," Joseph handed him a twenty, "You're not here by yourself, are you?"

"Well...about that...my boss hasn't showed up. He's a busy man. My father, that is. Mr. Kline," he held out his hand, "and that would make me Thomas Kline. Nice to meetcha."

At last, a friendly face.

Before Joseph could even shake the boy's hand or even give him his own name, a car horn blared from out front of the store.

"Shoot, I gotta tend to these people. Get some rest, alright? I'll give you a wake up call later."

The wooden doorslammed in his faceas Thomas ran back to the store, leaving Joseph to his one room villa with one little cot. He was convinced that he was in good hands for the evening and collapsed onto the mattress.

"Perhaps this won't be hell after all..."

A/N: Ahh okay so this may seem like a long chapter, and yes I know, no monsters as of yet. Not THAT pleased with it, but hey I'm building this baby up. Sorry for the long wait between chapters. I'm sort of suffering from schoolage and writer's block. . I'd like to thankEVERYONE for their reviews, 'specially Crimson Alessa and Luckie. Please, mooore reviews and opinions so I can make this thing mucho better!

Thanks and thanks again.