Hopefully this chapter will answer the questions that have been plaguing people with this story…what are Richard's lies? What was Walter's game? It's all here.

Pain blurred Richard's vision as he slowly regained consciousness. He could vaguely remember an image of a demon standing in front of a body strewn room, backlit by horrendous flames. He screamed at the memory, but all that escaped his mouth was a scarce whisper.

Beside him, a motion drew his attention and he saw a dingy grey uniform disappearing into the gloom of his room. Two tubes ran into his arm, one attached to an IV that led to a bottle of crimson blood, and the other led to what he assumed was a saline drip.

The bedspread around him was as decayed as everything else in the town of Silent Hill, threadbare and stained with blood. He didn't want to lift the sheet and see how much of it was his own, but from the glistening look of it as the light hit the stains, much of it was.

"Back among the living 'Richard'." A snide voice asked from behind his head. "Are you ready for me to explain a few things, 'Richard'?"

"Walter." Richard managed to rasp. "What are you talking about?"

"I've figured it out Richard." Walter said coldly as he walked into view. A single strip of white gauze wound around his elbow, with a single dot of red staining it directly in the center of his arm. "You asked me before why I didn't just kill you outright, and I told you it was because of a certain quality I wanted to figure out about you." He chuckled, the sound sending chills down Richard's back. "Well, I figured it out and I must say I'm terribly disappointed in you Richard...or should I say William?"

"Why are you calling me William?" A confused Richard rasped. "It's the same name Charles called me earlier."

Walter silently pulled a chair up beside the bed and sat in it. The decaying wood creaked loudly but held the man's weight. Despite the haggard look of Walter's clothing and hair, his face was lit with what looked to Richard like joy. More than anything in the room, that fact disturbed him. Long minutes passed as the two men studied each other.

"Have you ever heard of a town known as Ashfield?" Walter asked suddenly, breaking the silence in the room. "Though there isn't a reason to answer my question, and in fact I doubt you could at this point. Your throat probably is very raw from dehydration."

"I grew up in Ashfield…did you know that Richard?" Walter asked casually, saying the facts without the barest hint of emotion. "At least I stayed in an apartment for a while with my mother." His voice broke slightly, and Richard easily detected a hidden sorrow in his face. Whatever had happened to Walter during his stay in Ashfield was enough to even test the serial killer's limits.

"I tried to get my apartment back a few years ago. A man named Henry Townsend was living there. Does that name sound familiar Richard? "

"It was on that note you left me." Richard said weakly, knowing that there was no point in lying to his captor. "Something about how he couldn't escape through the chained door for days."

Walter's eyes sparkled at the words and he took a deep breath, face bordering on ecstasy. "Yes." He said. "I used that same trick to try take my apartment back." His face darkened dramatically, going from joy to anger in the span of a second. "But in order to take it back Henry would have to experience my past. He would have to delve inside my mind and survive the experience. Only if he survived it all would he get a single chance to defeat me."

Richard stared at Walter in awe, trying to digest what he was being told. "Henry beat you, didn't he?" He finally asked incredulously.

"He did." Walter said much more calmly than Richard would have expected. "Somehow, despite all the odds in my favor, Henry destroyed my mind in a single day of struggling to escape his apartment."

The serial killer stood and began to pace the room. Six steps took him from one side of the room to the other and Richard counted forty steps before Walter began to talk again.

"What Henry might not have known, is that while he managed to escape his apartment, he locked me forever in the same type of hell I'd put him through. I had to struggle to remain alive as I was forced to live through the most difficult times in my life over and over again." He stepped back into Richard's frame of vision, lowering his head until it was scarce inches from Richard's face. "Then, you saved me Richard."

Surprise was evident on Richard's face. "How did I save you?"

Walter looked directly into Richard's eyes. "Have you ever been to Ashfield before?"

Richard's response was instantaneous. "No."

Shock entered Walter's eyes. "You don't even know." He said as he fell backwards into the creaky chair. "Your entire life is a lie and you don't even know anymore!"

"What are you talking about?" Richard asked hesitantly.

"Richard Asbury, AKA William Bernshaw. You were orphaned at the age of five and taken to the same Silent Hill orphanage I was."

"If that's true, why didn't you remember me when you first saw me?" Richard demanded.

"You of all people should know that the orphanage wasn't the place you made friends. If a child was weak or not deemed worthy for The Order…they were killed. Do you know what happened to you if you were killed in the orphanage?"

The spark of memory that Richard had felt during his trek through Silent Hill suddenly exploded. He could finally remember everything that had been carefully hidden from him.

"We ate them." He said, tears beginning to form in his eyes. "There were rumors about a room behind the kitchen used for cutting up the dead and putting them in a stew. Only a chosen few were ever told about it."

"That's right." Walter said. "The only four to survive the orphanage; Jeremiah Linving, Sarah Carthage, myself, and you…only you weren't Richard Asbury at that time. You were William Bernshaw, the youngest apprentice The Order has ever seen."

"Why couldn't I remember that?" Richard asked, tears beginning to leak down his face. "Why was it blocked from me?"

The pacing that Walter had stopped earlier began again as he explained what had happened. "After Sarah and Jeremiah left, the order was sent spiraling into chaos. The four of us had been chosen to be the leaders which would bring Silent Hill to its full glory." He shook his head, not even pausing in his pacing. "At that point I was already becoming disenchanted with how The Order worked. I'd been trained as their assassin for to long to not be let in on more secrets than either Jeremiah or Sarah. Everything they had only found out about that caused Harry to bring about the end of Silent Hill I'd known about for almost a year."

"So why did you keep serving them?" Richard wondered aloud.

"They were the only thing I'd ever known, but soon that would end. You were given a mission to track down Sarah and Jeremiah for the purpose of leading The Order to them. Sammael himself blessed you in your quest, and you went happily on your way. Ten years passed before you had to admit defeat. The two traitors had far too much knowledge of The Order's inner workings to ever be caught. Yet you didn't give up. You returned to Silent Hill and found it in ruins."

Richard gasped. "Yes, when I came back I found that something had happened to nearly destroy The Order. Our goddess had been murdered, and the town was becoming included in the media."

"You were given no choice, were you?" Walter asked.

"I began to rituals to seal the town away. Only those that still had business left unfinished in Silent Hill could ever return. It took another long year, but finally everything was prepared and overnight Silent Hill disappeared."

A small chuckle came from beside the bed. "But there was a side-effect not mentioned in the texts, wasn't there?"

"The ritual nearly destroyed my memories of Silent Hill. They began to fade as the days passed."

Walter stopped his pacing, and faced Richard again. "You had no one to turn to, and everything you knew was fading quickly away from you, wasn't it?" At Richard's nod he continued. "Yet despite all that you'd forgotten there was one ritual that still stayed embedded in your mind. You knew how to bind a spirit to you…almost a guardian angel."

There was nothing Richard could say, merely to nod.

"But there was no one left. During your time in Silent Hill you'd heard of my death, but I'd made a mistake. I'd shared one bit of information with you that you were able to use. I'd told you that I'd lived in Ashfield. All you had to do was go to Henry's apartment and link yourself to me."

Understanding finally flooded Richard's mind. "I told you everything I could remember about my mission and then performed the ritual to resurrect you. I forgot a portion of the ritual though."

A deep laugh escaped Walter's mouth. "You forgot the most important part! There were no restrictions that limited me to time or place! I could go anywhere I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. The ritual gave me all the benefits of the demonic energies: invincibility, immortality, enhanced speed and strength…I could even appear wherever you were at will!"

"But why didn't Sarah and Father Jeremiah ever recognize me? I know they remembered Silent Hill…and why didn't I ever remember before this?"

"Ahhhhh, that's the question isn't it?" Walter mocked. "Perhaps they did recognize you. It had been almost 12 years since they'd seen you last, so it probably took them awhile for the resemblance to catch their eye, but once they did they realized that you'd forgotten everything about your former life. You were working at a normal job, had a different name, and had even begun attending a different church…all thanks to me of course. Sarah agreed to marry you with the understanding that now she could keep an eye on you and possibly find out how to bring down Silent Hill for good. Those rituals are in your head, and it would be infinitely valuable to get them. All the texts are long since destroyed from Heather's destruction of Sammael."

"Sammael was destroyed!" Richard tried to yell, but the loudest noise he could make was a low whisper.

"Long dead, my friend, long dead. Harry's daughter did what he couldn't do…but we're getting off the subject, aren't we? You were married to Sarah for nine years, and then all this happened. I've been waiting for you to return, to complete your mission. You're close now, and all you have to do is kill Sarah."

Richard stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, weighing his options. One part of him screamed for him to complete his mission that he'd been on for over twenty years, while the other remembered the nine wonderful years with Sarah. He remembered the ceremonies of Sammael, and the ceremony that had linked him to Sarah as husband and wife.

Finally, he came to a decision. "I can't do it Walter."

"So you've decided to remain Richard." Walter said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "You've given me no choice then. With Pyramid Head killed, I can now assume my position as the most powerful person in Silent Hill, and I think it's finally time I take over The Order. You could have done it, you know. You could have brought The Order back to its fullest potential."

"I can't do that Walter. I can't betray Sarah."

Walter stood and walked to the door. "In the room above you is a heavy slab with knives on the bottom. In three hours it will fall through the ceiling and kill you. You'll have three hours to change your mind. I'll know if you call for me, and can save you." He placed a small alarm clock that had been resting near the door on the chair in the center of the room. "When this goes off the slab falls. I'd recommend giving me at least fifteen minutes to save you…It's been nice knowing you William."

Then he was gone, leaving Richard to live with his past.