Eileen's mouth dropped open.

"Silent Hill? Why?" she croaked.

"You two are the only people I know of who have been through that kind of hell and come back," John replied.

"Yes, but…but we weren't in Silent Hill…we were in Ashfield for most of it," she stammered. "We were in the subway, and across the street, and in the apartments…"

"Actually," Henry said, "we were out by the lake at one point. Remember, by the orphanage?"

Orosco stared at Henry. "You two went to Wish House?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "Before and after it burned down. We also went through the cylindrical prison that the orphanage ran."

Orosco drew in his breath. "I thought that place was just a myth."

"If only," Eileen said. "It's a horrible place, but it's real. At least, as real as any of it was. Everywhere else we went seemed to be connected to real places, so I guess that must have been real, too."

"Are we really the only two people you can find?" Henry asked. "I mean, there have been all of these rumors about the things that happen there…of all of those people, we're the only two who made it out alive?"

"Almost everyone else hasn't come back," Orosco said simply.

"Almost?"

Orosco sat back, and took another deep breath.

"Almost twenty years ago, a man went into town in search of his daughter, who'd gotten lost after their car wrecked outside of town. He came back out without her, but with a baby girl. Word is that that girl grew up and went back there with some private detective or someone a year or two ago, after her father was murdered by the cult. They got out, but I can't find any trace of them." Orosco ran his hand through his damp hair. "Not for lack of trying, believe me. I know almost all of the private dicks around here, but nobody's heard a single thing. Of course, if I were them, I'd go to ground and never show my face around here again. Too dangerous."

Everyone nodded.

"So, you two are it," he said, spreading his hands wide. "You have fought your way through the demons and made it out in one piece. You're the only ones who have. Anyone else going in there would be dead in ten minutes."

"Well…Henry did most of the fighting," Eileen admitted. "I trailed around after him and swatted at things with my handbag."

Frank looked astonished, but Orosco laughed.

"You did a lot more than that," Henry said. "You're deadly with a nightstick. Are you trying to weasel out of this?" He raised his eyebrow at her.

Eileen was tempted to snap at him, but that little twinkle, almost invisible, was in his eye.

"Yeah, like I'd let you go in there without me," she said. "Somebody's gotta keep you out of trouble."

"Well, as long as there aren't any ladders..."

Eileen stood up and walked back to her chair, smacking Henry on the head lightly on her way. "Excuse us for a moment," she said, and grabbed his arm and pulled him into the darkroom. She closed the door.

"What? That hurt," Henry said, rubbing his head.

"I'd never let you go in there without me."

"I knew you wouldn't. I just wanted you to have an out in case…"

"In case of what?"

Henry shook his head. "You've been through enough. I couldn't ask you to do this."

"You could, but you wouldn't. I'm going with you, and I would even if I didn't owe you a life debt. You mean too damn much to me," Eileen said, and she stared at the join of his collarbones as her fingers wended their way through his. "I just wish you'd accept that."

She looked up at him.

"So, are we going?" she asked softly.

He sighed. "We have to."

The next morning, Henry packed the arsenal of weapons and other supplies that he'd accumulated into an old duffel bag, and they all got into his old battered truck. As they were leaving town, they stopped to get food, ammo, and whatever else they thought they might need. Finally, they hit the road that would take them around the lake to Silent Hill.

As they rode along, Eileen asked Frank about James and Mary. Frank was only too happy to tell her all about them; the years hadn't diminished his fatherly pride one bit. He went on and on happily about them, and how happy they had been and how proud he'd been of them.

Orosco rode up front with Henry. They were silent for a while.

"Mind if I ask a personal question?" Henry began.

"Not at all."

"Is Frank the only reason you want to go to Silent Hill?"

"No," Orosco said, looking out the window.

"Your sister."

Orosco nodded. "She disappeared around the same time as James and Mary. Maybe I can find some sign of her, or maybe somebody saw her there…"

Henry drove as Orosco talked. Frank and Eileen had stopped talking, and listened to Orosco's story in silence.

"She was my little sister," he said. "When we were kids, she did all those typical little-sister things…tagged along when I went to baseball practice, you know. She was a great kid. All my friends treated her like their little sister, too. I looked out for her, made sure she never got bullied at school, you know, big-brother stuff. We were happy back then…

"When I was fifteen, Mom died. We buried her in Silent Hill. After the funeral, I moved out on my own. Angela was too young, so she went with our father to Paleville.

"I should never have left her alone with him." His voice grew harsh, and his fists were white at the knuckles. "I had no idea…I never thought that he would…

"Years later, I got a call. Our father was dead. Murdered. He'd been knifed to death. And Angie was missing. At first, the police thought that she'd been kidnapped or killed too, but they found no sign of any of that, and my father's van was gone. Later, people said they'd seen her driving away from the house, erratically…the last time the van was seen, it was on the road to Silent Hill. Maybe she went to visit Mom…

"When the police entered the house..." Orosco hesitated. "They found…evidence of the things that he did to her. It was crystal-clear. They tried to keep me out of the house, but I saw it all. It made me vomit. There was no sign of a break-in, or of anybody else at the house, so the police concluded that she'd finally done something about it.

"That's why I joined the police force. I wanted to do what I could to keep others from suffering like she had. And, maybe, someday, I'd hear something that would help me find out what happened to her. But all these years, I never had a real hope of finding her...not until now.

"I've never blamed her. I just want to tell her that, that it's OK, that I still love her and that I understand. I want her to come home."

The interior of the truck was quiet now. Frank leaned forward and put his hand onto Orosco's shoulder. "Detective…"

"Call me John. Please."

"John…maybe she's still there, too. Maybe we can find her."

Don't get your hopes up, Eileen thought.

The truck pulled into a rest stop on Route 73 just outside of town.

"That's it!" Frank yelled. He pulled himself out of the truck and hurried toward an old blue sedan parked across the spaces outside the rest-stop bathrooms. "See? That's Jim's car. He wouldn't have just left it behind."

The driver's door was open, as was the trunk. The car was empty, except for a spare tire pushed deep into the back of the trunk. The interior light was on.

"That's weird," Henry said. "The battery should have run out years ago."

"But it's here anyway," Frank said. "See? Time runs differently here…" He moved around the car slowly, inspecting it.

Eileen wandered to the wall overlooking the lake. Henry followed her.

"God, it's gorgeous," she said. "Just like we knew it would be."

"Yes," he said. "I wish we were here for a vacation, instead."

"That's OK," she replied. "We will someday. I'm sure of it."

Henry took out his digital camera and snapped a picture of the lake. Then, he backed up several paces, and Eileen heard the click of the shutter again.

"Henry!" she chided. "You take that thing everywhere!"

He lowered the camera, which had been pointed at her. "It's easier to carry than the Pentax," he replied with a shrug.

John was at the other end of the lot, looking at a large white van. They joined him.

"This is Dad's van," John said slowly. "Angie did drive it here. She did come to Silent Hill after all…" His fingers moved over the van's surface, and he peered through a window.

"It's empty," he said. "No, wait..."

He opened the passenger door, and pulled out something dark and woolen.

"This is her coat," he said. "I haven't seen this in so long...but it's definitely hers. She's wandering around this godforsaken place without a coat. Mom always had to remind her to put her coat on when it was cold..."

He hugged the coat to his chest for a moment, then he put it back in the van.

The fog was rolling in from the lake now, in long white fingers. Eileen shivered, but not from the cold.

"Where's Frank?" Henry asked. They looked around, but the old man was nowhere in sight. The blue car stood abandoned as it had before.

"Maybe he's in the building," Eileen said.

"I'll check. You two stay out here," John said, and he went in. Henry put his arm around Eileen, who leaned into his warmth.

John came out a minute later. "He's not in there. I don't know where he would have gone. I did find this," he said, opening his hand. A strange blue gem glittered in his palm.

"Damn. Now we have to find him, too…" Henry frowned. "He's out there without a weapon or anything."

"Speaking of which…" Eileen walked back over to the truck and pulled the duffel bag from its back. "Let's do this before we go any further."

Henry gave them each a Saint Medallion, and explained its use, along with plenty of other food and ammo supplies. John already had his police-issue gun, so Henry took the pistol for himself and gave Eileen the revolver.

"This was Richard's," he told her as he loaded it.

"Richard? Braintree?"

"Yeah. I found it in his room after he died."

John took the bat, Henry grabbed the axe, and Eileen took the spade and the piece of pipe.

"I haven't held one of these in years," John said. He took a few practice swings.

"It's good to have decent weapons for once. Beats a handbag and a nightstick any day," Eileen said.

"Hey!" said John jokingly. "Don't knock nightsticks. All cops have a soft spot for them. It's a historical thing."

"Yeah, but this -- " Eileen swung the spade -- "is a lot more effective." It made a solid clank as it hit the concrete of the parking lot.

"Point taken," he smiled.

Henry shouldered the backpack that he'd stuffed into the duffel bag before leaving. "I have enough in here to last us for a while. Learned that lesson last time…I never had enough space to carry things." He patted one of the multitude of pockets on his photographer's jacket. "Not going to let that happen again."

"Well, we can't drive," Eileen said, indicating the blocked-off tunnel bidding them WECOM! "We're going to have to walk."

So the three set off down the parking lot, and descended the steps. Eileen turned back for one last look at Henry's truck, not knowing when they might see it again. Henry caught her eye, and smiled encouragement at her.

They trudged down the dirt path, which wound its way along the side of the hill for a long time. Eileen kept stride with Henry. "See?" she said. "I'm keeping up just fine this time."

"For a change."

She elbowed him in the ribs, and he grinned at her.

"Sorry, but that was too easy," he said. She made a face at him.

After a while, they came to a well on the side of the path. John stopped to look in, but stepped back quickly.

"Makes me feel all weird when I look at it," he said. "Like something's poking around in my head. Let's keep going."

After a short walk, they came to a wide graveyard. John stopped at the gate.

"This place…I think this is where we buried Mama…our mother," he said. He pushed open the gate, looked around, and hurried forward to one of the gravestones.

"Yes. Here it is. She's here," he said. He bent and touched the stone softly, then jerked his hand away. "Look."

Henry and Eileen looked. The normal dirt and dust covering the stone had been wiped off recently. The name OROSCO was clear against the granite.

"Someone's been looking at it. Today, maybe yesterday or the day before. Someone's been here!"

He ran toward the far side of the graveyard. A small chapel stood by the stone wall. He opened the door and rushed inside. Henry and Eileen followed him.

The interior of the chapel was dark. As Eileen's eyes adjusted to the change, she saw John standing at the end of the aisle, in front of the altar. They made their way to him, as he fell to his knees, head hanging.

"I was hoping that this wouldn't happen..." he said.

In front of him on the floor was a large red circular emblem, with three circles around its middle. A faint but familiar smell rose from it.

"What the hell…" Henry said. "It can't be…"

"It has to be," Eileen replied.

"It's the cult," John said. "It's drawn in blood."