As it turned out, Eileen slept very soundly that night. Her dreams were strange...
In the dead of night, something pulled her out of her slumber.
Bump...and a groan. Then a cry. Henry's voice. Muffled, but clear enough.
"Cynthia...stop...what...God...no...NO!"
She grabbed her robe and shot out the door. She let herself in with Henry's second key. She had to push hard to get the door open, and she saw that he had put his boxes against it to block it.
Henry lay in bed, twisted in his thin blanket. His T-shirt and shorts were soaked with sweat, and he was flailing around, mumbling something. Eileen locked the door after her, and sat on the edge of the bed. She grasped Henry's wrists and leaned in with her full weight to hold him down.
"Henry, it's me. Wake up. It's just a dream. It's OK. Wake up...please wake up..." She let go of one hand and slapped his cheeks lightly. His brow was knotted, and pain twisted his features.
His muscles loosened. Eventually, he lay still. His breathing slowed, and his face relaxed. Eileen smoothed the sweat-soaked hair from his forehead.
Thank God. He's stopped moving. What was he dreaming about? Something horrible, I'm sure. I guess it would be more surprising if he didn't have nightmares, after what he must have seen. And we did eat a lot of food earlier.
She stared at him unabashedly. So that's what he looks like, really looks like, she thought, feeling a little guilty for looking. No idea why he hides under all that hair...guess it's part of his shyness.
Henry's eyes opened and looked around the room, unfocused. They came to rest on Eileen, and she saw him focus on her face.
"You were dreaming," she said, releasing his wrists.
He slowly pulled himself upright, and leaned back against the wall, head back. "Hard to tell the difference lately," he said, and pulled the blanket back up to his waist over his knees.
"Yeah...it all does seem like a dream now."
"I wish it had been."
"Cynthia...who was she?"
Henry drew in his breath sharply.
"It's not what you think," he said.
"I don't know what to think any more," she replied.
Henry sat forward and ran his hands through his hair.
"You can tell me," she said. "I need to know."
He leaned his arms on his raised knees, then looked at her.
"You remember...in the subway...the woman with the long hair."
Eileen nodded. "The ghost."
"Yes. That was Cynthia, once. I saw her die. I met her my first time through, in the subway...she was just as lost as I was." He laughed shortly. "She offered to 'do me a special favor' if I helped her get out. But I…" He looked up at her, searching for something in her face. "We tried to find the exit, but I kept losing track of her, and so he killed her. Cut her up in that ticket booth. She was the first I saw." His eyes dropped to her collarbone.
"He carved the numbers into her there, on her chest. 16121. Now I know what they meant, what he was trying to do. But then, I didn't know any of it. I had no idea what was going on . Just that this gorgeous, alive woman was dying a bloody death in my arms, and there was nothing I could do about it.
"In the subway the next time, with you...I couldn't believe what she'd become. Then, all the ghosts...they made sense, and I knew that I was going to meet Jasper and Andrew and Richard again, and all the rest, all the ones he'd killed. I didn't want to fight her, remembering what she'd been like before. Putting that sword into her hurt like I was putting it into myself."
Henry raised his eyes to hers again. She sat silently. His hands grasped hers like a lifeline. She moved to sit next to him, and put her arm around him. He leaned his head into her shoulder. After a minute or so, he continued.
"Weird things were happening in my room, all the time I was with you. Every time I'd go back, something else...One time, there was blood dripping from the peephole in the door. I looked through, and I saw myself...what would happen to me if I gave in to him. Knowing that helped me fight him near the end. There was a dead cat in my fridge another time...and blood running from the tap in the sink...and once, there was the shadow of a little boy in the closet.
"Before, when I found you in your apartment...you had those numbers carved into your back. I thought he'd killed you. God, I thought I was too late. That hole in my wall that you saw?" He hesitated, and she could hear the tremor in his voice. "I was able to see you through it, to check on you to make sure that you were OK. But I couldn't stop him from attacking you. After he killed Richard, he told me you were next, but I couldn't do anything to stop him. I was useless...so useless...stuck in my room..."
He stopped, and she put her other arm around him and held him gently.
"He really killed all those other people," she murmured. "What Joseph told us...we were to be the last two."
Henry nodded. "We're the last two alive." His hand moved up and covered hers.
"Thanks to you," Eileen said softly.
"And you." They sat still.
Eventually, Henry's hand dropped, and he relaxed in her arms. She sat holding him as he slept, and looked at his serene face. She thought and remembered for an unknown length of time. Eventually, she slept too.
She'd been worried, but had all been so easy. Toluca Apartments had had a furnished townhouse unit open up a few days before, and they were anxious to rent it, since the previous tenants had left town suddenly. Henry and Eileen played a young couple to the best of their ability, and they were able to talk the rent down to a very reasonable number.
So, late that morning, they dumped their boxes into the living room of their new place. One bathroom, two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, small spare room, and a balcony outside each bedroom on the upper floor...it was plenty of space for two people. Henry planned to take part of the spare room for his darkroom, and the rest would be a shared office space.
He seemed to see Eileen's fatigue before she was aware of it herself, and they had a quick lunch before she settled down for a nap.
"It's OK. Go rest. I'll start putting things away," Henry said.
"Sorry. I have to be awake for tonight," she said as she started up the stairs.
"Tonight?...Oh yeah. We can do that some other time if you want."
"You don't get off the hook so easily. I want to celebrate tonight. Anyway," she said, "I've been thinking about miso soup all day."
She walked up to her room, flopped down onto her new bed, and slept soundly.
It was late afternoon when she awoke. She put on her robe and slid open the heavy glass door to the balcony of her bedroom. The view over the lake was stunning. The sun hung low over the enormous expanse of rippling water, and the path along the lake shore gleamed from the light reflected from the gravel. She leaned on the railing and breathed in the fresh air, and smelled the water mixed with the light scent of the pine trees that grew near the townhouse.
What a gorgeous lake, she thought. You can just hear the water lapping against the boat launch from here. I could stay here forever. So still, so peaceful. So far away from the bloody hell she'd been in two days before. That was years ago, in another universe.
She sensed Henry's warmth next to her before she heard him.
"It's beautiful, Henry. Thank you."
"I thought you'd like the view from this room. I like mine. The trees are just amazing on the other side."
They stood for a while looking out over the lake as the sun inched closer to the horizon.
"Mind if I take some pictures of this tomorrow?"
"You can visit whenever you like."
"Thanks. Same for you."
"I don't take pictures."
"You're still welcome."
She leaned into him, and he put his arm around her shoulders.
"I've heard some strange things about Toluca Lake," he said after a while. "When I was in Silent Hill, there were all sorts of stories going around."
"I've heard the one about the boat sinking with all of those people," she said. "And the creepy cult there, too."
"Sunderland told me that his son and daughter-in-law went there and never came back. Nobody knows what happened to them. They never found any trace of them."
Eileen shuddered. "Weird to think that it's just on the other side of the lake. It all looks so peaceful now."
"It looked very different when we were down there, at the orphanage."
"A lot darker. Ominous."
"Oppressive."
"Monstrous."
"Would have made a great picture with better light."
"I can imagine."
"We can visit someday."
"I'd like that."
She moved closer to him, and he wrapped both arms around her from the back. They watched the sun set, until the orange glow disappeared from the surface of the water.
Eileen shivered.
"You were going to take me to dinner," he said into her ear.
"You're going to love it," she said. "Gotta get clean first."
"Yeah," he said. "After going without a good shower for all that time, I really appreciate it now."