The next morning dawned bright and clear. Eileen woke slowly, to find Henry curled against her back, keeping her warm, just like he did every night at home. His arm was thrown over her waist, and his jacket covered them both.
James was flat on his back on the other side of the fire. He slept the sleep of the dead, silhouetted against the morning light, mouth open, snoring lightly. As she watched, he snorked abruptly, then turned over to face away from her. She smiled, and snuggled back into Henry's warmth.
Henry stirred, and shifted slightly. She rolled over to face him, and stroked his hair gently as his mouth opened, and then his eyes. They squinted against the light that hit his face, and she moved her hand to block the light.
His eyes focused on her. "Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey yourself," she whispered. "Sleep well?"
He smiled. "Very. And you?"
"Like a baby," she replied.
His arm tightened around her, and his face grew serious. "'Leen, I…"
"Later, Henry," she said. She nodded toward James' sleeping form. "Tell me later."
Henry nodded, disappointed. Suddenly, he moved closer, and leaned in to kiss her. Her lips opened, and they devoured each other.
She smiled against his mouth. Talk wasn't always needed.
He rolled onto his back, and pulled her on top of him. His hands ran down her back as she scooted up higher and grabbed his hair.
"Glad to see you two getting along better."
They broke apart to see James propped up on one elbow, grinning. Eileen felt herself go red.
"I remember what that was like, a long time ago," James said, pulling himself up to his feet. He stretched his arms wide. "I'm going to go in and check on breakfast. Come on in whenever." The doorflap opened and closed, and he was gone.
Eileen and Henry stared at each other, then burst out laughing. She rolled off of him onto the floor, and they both shook with laughter.
"Oops," Eileen said, when their laughs finally died down and they could breathe again. "That was embarrassing."
"Damn it, wasn't thinking again."
"I think he was OK with it," Eileen said, smiling. "He understands." Her fingers moved to trace Henry's lips. "We're a good team."
"Yes, we are," Henry said. His hand moved over hers, and he kissed her palm. A thrill shot down her arm. "Too good."
"Well, I guess we're stuck with each other," Eileen said. "Not like they are, thank God."
"No, not like that," Henry said. He contemplated her fingers. "But I don't see either of us trying again. We're getting too old for all of this."
"Who are you calling old?" Eileen said, mock-seriously.
"Well, you're my old lady now, right?" Henry said.
Eileen pondered this. "I guess I am. Old man."
"Who're you calling old?" Henry said, pulling her to him.
"You're years older than me."
"A few years. Come on. We're not eight any more."
Her finger moved languorously down his chest, and she moved closer.
When they broke apart, he smiled.
"Old man, huh?"
"I'll admit, you're well-preserved."
He laughed. "Let's get some breakfast."
Breakfast that morning smelled good. Mary smiled pleasantly at them as they came into the house, and pointed them to the bathroom. The shower was large, so they opted to shower together.
When they got out, Henry picked up his clothes from the pile he'd left on the hamper.
"James wasn't kidding."
Eileen stopped toweling her hair and turned to look. Henry was holding up his jeans. The dirt and mud and blood from yesterday's trip through town was completely gone, and the rip on one knee was absent. The jeans looked fresh and clean. Her clothes were pristine as well.
"He sure wasn't."
"Yeah. And that's gone, too." His fingers traced a path down her arm where a branch had caught her the previous day and left a long red line. The skin was unblemished.
Eileen shivered. "We'd better get dressed before all the food goes as well."
Henry's stomach rumbled in agreement.
They ate ravenously, as did John and Frank. Laura ate well, with the appetite of a normal, growing eight-year-old. Mary had a cup of coffee and some eggs, while James picked at his food.
After breakfast, Laura jumped down from her chair and collared John, wanting to know all about what it was like to be a policeman. John smiled, and let the little girl pull him onto the back porch to talk. Frank sat by the fireplace, and Mary beckoned James over to the fire as well.
James shot Eileen a look of helplessness, and she smiled and shook her head. Sorry, she thought, but you and Frank do need to talk.
"Let's go out front," she said to Henry.
They put on their jackets and went out to the clearing. Two rustic Adirondack-type chairs sat about twenty feet from the house, with a little table in between, facing a break in the trees. They sat down, and found that from there they could see out over the lake toward Silent Hill. The fog was gone, and the faint sound of the bells from the town church carried over the water in the crisp morning air.
"Just like our patio back home," Eileen said. "Same lake, even."
"I saw a special about Alcatraz on TV once," Henry said. "You know, the prison out in the middle of San Francisco Bay? They said that you could see the city from some of the cells, and on a still night you could hear the rowdiness from the piers. That was the worst torment for the prisoners, seeing what was so close yet so far out of reach."
Eileen nodded. "That would be torture. I don't know how James stands it." Her hand sought Henry's, and they sat side by side, fingers intertwined between the chairs.
He leaned his head back, eyes closed.
"I can't say that I wouldn't make the same choice. I don't know what I wouldn't do for you. I'd give it all for you. Any man in my position who wouldn't…he'd be a fool." He pulled her hand toward him, and kissed it.
"I know. You almost did, many times." She smiled. "You've got nothing left to prove there, Henry Townshend."
"Neither does James."
They sat in silence.
"Eileen?"
"Hm?"
"It was James, wasn't it?"
Eileen turned to him. Henry's eyes were closed again.
"The older guy you had a crush on a long time ago…it was him."
Eileen nodded. "Yes. But that was a long time ago, Henry. I was a kid, ten, eleven tops. My parents knew the Sunderlands from way back, so I knew James when I was growing up. Same way I loved horses…it was a pre-teen-girl thing. He was a lot older than me."
She scanned Henry's face. He was looking off into the distance, but he was listening.
"All of my girlfriends thought he was good-looking, in that sort of arrogant way. When I was younger, I remember him always having some gorgeous girl or other on his arm. Then, he met Mary, and there were no other girls. Even then, I had my little dream that when I was older, he'd notice me. That one died hard…took till their wedding day."
Eileen bit her lip at the memory.
"That's long gone, Henry," she said. She squeezed his hand. "Even if he came to me tomorrow professing his undying love, it would be too late. I'm your old woman now."
He smiled at her. "You'd better be."
"Hey," she said in mock indignation, "are you going all caveman on me again?"
"Grrr. My woman. If you had longer hair, I'd drag you back to the house with it."
"Henry!" she protested, but he was grinning.
"You need me to go beat him up for hurting you like that?"
"No," she said. "He's been through enough, and then some. I think he never even knew."
"Well, I'm keeping you, and if he tries anything..."
"Remember, he knows his way around a steel pipe too."
"Yeah, but I'm younger and faster...maybe. Anyway, I bet he tires more quickly than I do."
"Henry…"
"Eileen?"
"Stay with me. Please."
He nodded solemnly. "You couldn't get rid of me if you tried."
"I'm not going to."
"That's what I'm counting on."
He moved to one side of his chair and pulled her over, and she curled up next to him. His hand found a blanket folded on the grass, and he spread it over both of them. Warm, fed, and content, they fell asleep in the chair as the sun rose higher.
They were woken a while later by a commotion from within the house. Laura came running out, yelling, "Henry! Eileen!"
Eileen jumped, and the chair fell sideways. They tumbled to the ground, tangled in the blanket.
"Damn it," Eileen muttered.
"Hey, kid coming," Henry said, and they quickly untangled themselves.
Laura was out of breath. "Frank's gone!"
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Eileen asked.
"Gone! Are you deaf or something?" Laura snapped.
"That's not very nice, Laura," Henry said.
"I'm sorry, Eileen," the little girl said breathlessly. "But he's gone. Nobody can find him."
"Any idea where he went?" Henry asked John, who was walking quickly toward them, followed by Mary and James. James looked panic-stricken, but Mary was serene as always.
"No clue. I'm going to check the boats. You see what you can find out," John said, back in police mode.
"John," James called out. "There's a lookout about a hundred feet along. You can see the dock from there." John nodded, and he hurried down the path.
"What happened?" Eileen asked.
James ran his hand through his hair. "God help me, I don't know. We were talking about things. Catching up. He asked me about…" He looked nervously at Mary, then back toward Eileen. "He asked me about the conditions of the spell. 'How can you live like this?' he said."
Mary looked up. "I told him that we were perfectly happy, and that he didn't need to worry about us."
"Then," James resumed, "he stood up and excused himself to go to the bathroom. After about ten minutes, I went to see if he was OK. The door was open, the window was open, and he was gone."
"And you have no idea where he went?" Henry said evenly. James shook his head, but Eileen knew that Henry had seen the little glance of fear.
"OK," he said. "James, why don't you and Eileen check the front, and Mary and I will check the back. If you see anything, yell."
Eileen and James went to the side of the house, several feet into the forest, and they started poking around in the underbrush.
Eileen looked around to make sure that they were alone. Then, she approached James. "You're not telling us something."
James nodded. "There's something…even Mary doesn't know, Eileen. I've wanted to keep it from her, but if what I think is true, it may be too late."
"What is it, James? Where?"
"…I don't know how Dad knew…God, maybe it called him…oh God…"
"James," Eileen said slowly. He seemed to pull himself together somewhat.
"There's a…room. Under the house. Not a room…a cavern. It's huge. It was here when I first brought Mary here; the house was smaller then. Once I started adding on to the house, I built over the entrance. I knew I'd never need it again. It's a big place..very big...that's why the back room is so large..." James was frantic, wandering.
Eileen shook him by the shoulders. "The cavern. What's in it?"
James avoided her eyes. "That's where…where I brought Mary back."
"There? I assumed…"
"That I'd done it out front? That's why that circle is there. I did that to make Mary think that, too, so she wouldn't ever know about the cavern."
"What's so…special about the cavern?"
James made no attempt to conceal the fear in his eyes. "God," he said, sagging. "It's a horrible place, Eileen. It's the mouth of Hell."
Eileen saw John run back into the clearing.
"You're going to have to tell them, James," she said. "It may be our only chance to save your father."
He nodded tiredly. "Yeah. Time to stop pretending."
John was out of breath. "The boats are still here, so he didn't use them. No sign of anyone swimming, as far as I could tell."
Henry and Mary hurried up as well. "He's not anywhere out back," Henry said.
John looked around. "Where's Laura?"
Eileen smacked her hand against her forehead. "Crap," she said. "Sorry. I forgot about her."
They all hurried inside. Mary called, "Laura, are you in here?"
"Come here! Hurry!" came Laura's voice from the back. They rushed into the back bedroom to see Laura standing in the middle of the room. On the floor, a large symbol had appeared in red. It was the same symbol that was in front of the house.
Henry bent to look more closely. "Blood."
"He's under there! I know it! I know it!" Laura cried. "We've got to get him out!"
"How did he…" John asked.
They all looked at him.
"OK, OK," he muttered. "Never mind. It's Silent Hill, I get it."
James ran out of the room, and brought back the chainsaw from by the front door. Everyone stepped back as James started cutting out the center of the symbol from the wooden floorboards.
After a tense couple of minutes, he removed the circle of wood. Underneath was a stone staircase.
"I never thought I would see this again…" he muttered. He dropped the chainsaw and started down the steps.
"James. Wait," Henry called. He left the room and returned seconds later with an armful of weapons.
"Forgot. It's been a while," James said, and gratefully took his rifle. Everyone but Laura took a weapon or two, and they started down the stairs.