The Tree

1st Person Mode

"Well, for starters, I've been holding onto this for a while," Daniel said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a folded slip of paper and opened it to another portion of a family tree:

Dahlia and ?Dahlia and Walter? and Maria

Walter, AlessaDanielEileen

I had snatched the paper from him and examined it. I flinched, and almost anticipating the answer, I asked, "Why didn't you show this to me earlier?"

"I didn't want you to think I was weird, but since you've figured out that I'm apart of the Sacraments, and all that I've done to continue the cycle, not much more can freak you out, especially now that you've figured out that you're part of my family."

"So, where do I fit in from here?" I asked.

"First, I'll explain to you a few things:

"As you may already notice, Dahlia married some unknown man. I'm not really sure what happened between them. I heard rumors that it was rape because I never heard from him after they had Alessa and Walter, but I looked into his records several years ago, and he hadn't been convicted of such a thing."

"Do you know his name?" I questioned.

"I used to, but it's slipped my mind. I didn't care after so long, and just put it out of my mind, but what blew me away was the fact that the second to last Sacrament of the Twenty One that Walter executed before the recent seven, 'The Mother Reborn,' was Eileen Galvin, his cousin."

"Why did he kill her?"

"Walter killed everyone who had some association with him. Most of the people had somehow interfered with Room 302, which he had called his mother."

"What occured there? Who was the real mother of Walter?"

"Dahlia. Aren't you looking at the family tree?"

"But didn't he know that all along? He hasn't found out about that until recently?"

"Dahlia had two children; twins," Daniel continued. "Alessa and Walter. She saw Alessa as a goddess, quite literally. She saw Alessa as the rebirth of our own God, and Walter, just the opposite. She conceived them in South Ashefield Heights, room 302."

"So, what? She just abandoned Walter there because she felt he was an unholy child?" I asked.

"She felt that Walter would somehow interfere with her plans for Alessa and dropped him off in Room 302. Several years later, as an infant, he was taken in by Wish House, and she checked up on him several years following as a stranger, and began to take him under her wing. Since he was young, she determined for herself if, perhaps, she had made a mistake about Walter, and soon came to realize that she could trance him into working for her by using Room 302 as a bribe."

"So, what about the small Walter? Where did he come from? How did he exist while Walter Sr. did?"

Daniel shook his head. "There are so many holes in this family as to where things can't be explained, but I believe that he was a reincarnation of Walter Sr. How that happened, I'm not sure, but he was the first Sacrament as 'Revenge of the Paradox.' When Walter figured out that Room 302 wasn't his mother, and, instead, Dahlia was, he had no reason to follow through with assuming that the apartment was his home anymore, so he burned it down, along with the memories left behind in it."

"And that's how Walter Jr. died?"

"Yeah. That was sixteen years ago. After that, Dahlia and Walter.." He paused.

"They what?" I pushed.

"They had an affair, and had me." He shook his head in disgust.

"So, what about your grandfather? The unknown man? Who was the wife that gave birth to Eileen?"

"Her name was Maria. She was an exotic dancer here in Silent Hill. She had a distant twin sister named Mary who was hospitalized in his town after suffering some disease. Her husband strangled her soon after." Daniel turned to look at me. "You may have heard about him in the newspaper: James Sunderland? He committed suicide when he realized what he had done by driving his car into Toluka Lake."

"So, he was part of the curse?"

"It seemed that way. Several years ago, a man came to this town by the name of Harry Mason," Daniel continued. "He had a young daughter named Cheryl. He was in a car accident and came to the town to search for her. It seemed that Cheryl was the reincarnation of Alessa, Dahlia's daughter. Alessa later gave birth to a child and died shortly after. Harry took the girl into his care for seventeen years. Her fate was as the Fourth Sacrament."

"What was her name?"

Daniel hesitated. "Heather Mason."

"But, that's impossible!" I screamed.

"I knew you would question that," Daniel said, pushing himself from the wall. "Heather Mason was your grandmother, right?"

I nodded.

"It's true, Heather Mason was your 'grandmother,' but the old woman you know as your grandmother under the name of Heather only had that name assumed as her own."

"Then, who is the real Heather Mason?"

"She's a young woman about the age of thirty five, or was so before she died several days ago." Daniel paused. "In case you were to find out about your family being a fake, your mother's mother, Sandra Du'shat, was to assume the name Heather Mason, so you would not feel as insecure and out of place if you realized the truth about your family."

"Then who is this Heather Mason? The real Heather Mason? How is she my grandmother when she is so young?"

"Even if I were to tell you, you wouldn't understand," Daniel explained. "I think it's best that you see for yourself."

"How?" I snapped.

"There are still sections of the family tree scattered around different places," Daniel said. "Pursue to find out more about your family if you wish, but what we need to do right now is find out what to do about Dahlia."

"Hey, don't run away from me!" I yelled, following him to the next door.

"You're the one running," he said, and stepped through the next door without me. It slammed after. I stood there in the silence, the darkness. Alone.