I.

Heather Mason cursed herself for not killing Claudia when she had the chance. Not only had Claudia been responsible for her father's death, but now, she was going to be responsible for a lot more, trying to "birth" that—that thing. The memory of what had just happened a few moments ago replayed over and over again.

Her eyes dropped down to Vincent and the dagger sticking out of his chest. He was clearly dead, but Heather really felt indifferent about it. He was strange and cryptic, never making his real intentions clear. Even in the last few moments of his life, he was still confusing but calculating. Vincent wasn't a person that could be trusted. All Heather knew was that he was just as twisted and warped as Claudia.

After Claudia killed Vincent, Heather remembered something her father gave her. It was a pendant, but there was a red jewel inside. Somehow, she knew that this red jewel would help her with the thing growing inside of her.

Heather quickly swallowed the pill, and almost immediately, her body rejected the fetus. It was repelled through her mouth, where it landed on the floor. She thought it was the end of it, until Claudia took the thing and put it in her own system.

Now, she had fallen through a hole in the floor, taking the fetus with her.

"What the hell was she thinking?' Heather asked herself. She couldn't believe that someone would be that determined in an obviously sick cause.

Before she could make a move, Heather was suddenly blasted out of the nightmare she was in to the outskirts of Silent Hill. The bitter night air nipped at her exposed legs and arms, but her body continued as if it couldn't feel the cold.

Even though her thoughts were running at a mile a minute, her body was sluggish and in a state of shock. She felt as though she were making her way through a thick fog...thicker than anything she had seen in Silent Hill. Her body shambled along to some destination only unknown to her.

Heather was only slightly aware of the car that swerved to miss her. The sound of crunching metal and breaking glass eluded her as she continued to shamble into the darkness...away from Silent Hill.

A blinding flash of pain burst in Heather's head. She immediately snapped out of the self-induced daze, clutching her head and falling to her knees. A grunt escaped her lips as she bent over, tears stinging her eyes.

The pain subsided as quickly as it had come. When she opened them again, she looked at the street, only to see a vast chasm stopping her from leaving Silent Hill.

A light, cool breeze ruffled her hair, which somehow soothed her nerves. It also brought her back to reality. Was her daze Claudia's doing? Was Claudia trying to kill her? These questions couldn't be answered.

Heather's whole life had been turned upside down in a span of a few hours. Not only had she been an instrument in Claudia's sick plans to revive some evil deity, she found out about her fractured past, and her father had been killed. Not only that, but the only person she could even begin to trust was still injured at the amusement park, waiting for her.

A fleeting thought of throwing herself into the chasm whisked through her mind and was discarded in a flash. There was no way that Heather was going to allow Claudia or whoever else succeeds in whatever they were trying to do.

The details were still a bit hazy. Vincent had only complicated things, and Claudia spoke in riddles every time she encountered her. Still, Heather was able to make out some of the plot of the mystery she was involuntarily involved in. It didn't make it any easier though.

Heather slowly climbed to her feet, suddenly concerned about the car that had swerved. She presumed it had crashed a ways back, but she couldn't be sure. Reaching into her pocket, she found the handgun that had been mysteriously left for her on the floor of one of the mall stores.

She shed the white vest she had been wearing and pulled the sleeves of her rust orange sweater to her mid-forearm. Heather set her eyes on the fog in front of her and made her way back to Silent Hill.

II.

"It's just a bar," Trey told himself, but an uneasy feeling grew in his stomach, and crawled all over his skin.

He was right. Neely's Bar, which was serving as Trey's hiding place for the time being was a bar. During the tourist months, it was quite a popular place with friendly bartenders and cute waitresses. It was one of the more popular night spots that Silent Hill had to offer for its guests.

Now, it seemed as though the town was offering Trey its worst. The bar was desolate and dark, the mirror covered by tattered newspaper. Chairs and tables were overturned, as if the patrons were running away from the same thing Trey was running from. The air was still and Trey could swear that there was something else in there with him.

His eyes darted around the room, searching for the source of his discomfort, but he was met with darkness in every corner and space. Only a hint of light from the outside made it through the newspaper, only to be cast on the floor directly by the window.

Upon closer inspection, Trey realized that the newspaper covering the window was actually from today's newspaper. A weight suddenly came over his as he realized that either the people had just made it out of the bar alive, or something much more sinister was going on.

He thought of simply leaving the creepy place, but he remembered the monsters that were lurking out there. Surely, they wouldn't have any good intentions for him if they found him. But he couldn't just sit here. He had to get to a car and get back to the school or as far away from all of this as possible.

Taking one last glance around the room, he saw exactly what he needed...a weapon. He grabbed a wooden plank that was sitting against the cash register, as if waiting for someone like him to come along. It was light, but heavy enough to do some damage if needed. Plus, it had three nails sticking through the end, so he could definitely incapacitate anything he came across.

Trey took a deep breath, steadied himself, took a few practice swings with the plank, and headed back out into the street.

III.

Her boots lightly treaded over the street. Heather's dark eyes darted back and forth, searching for any movement that would let her know a monster was in the area. It didn't help that the night was quiet. Too quiet. It was now that Heather noticed there were no normal night sounds. Crickets chirping, swaying of trees, breeze ruffling the soft grass—none of those sounds echoed through the night. It was like time had stopped for the horrific town of Silent Hill.

The car appeared through the fog, overturned and wrecked. A flash of the car driving toward her and swerving came to her mind and she realized that she was the cause of the accident.

Heather jogged to the vehicle, only to be met by a pool of blood seeping from the driver's side.

She realized that she had seen so many strange things on this night that another pool of blood didn't really bother her. But the fact that it was a person and she was responsible for their death really upset her.

In stepping closer, Heather caught a glimpse of something.

VI.

Christine had no map and no idea of where she was going. The tree line on either side of the road seemed to be endless, the fog ever-thickening. She could swear that she heard unearthly growls and grunts, but the fog hid whatever it was. Her pace was quick, and she didn't slow down for any reason.

But then, before she could even react, she was knocked down from behind. She hit the street hard, no time for her to even scream. Christine turned toward her assailant, but saw no one directly behind her.

A growl caught her attention and she glanced skyward. She gasped and scrambled to her feet. A creature, that's the only thing she could think to call it, was flapping its wings, hovering in mid-air. Her eyes were denying the thing's existence, because she had a hard time focusing in on any distinctive features of the thing. It was like it was constantly changing its appearance, too fast for her eyes to keep up.

It only took her a moment to realize the creature was diving for her again. She spun on her heel and tried to run away, but tripped in the process. The creature whizzed only inches from her head, growling and cawing right over her. It soared into the air again, giving Christine enough time to get up again and try to escape.

The creature dove at her again, but this time, changed direction at the last second and caught her from the front, knocking her onto the ground. It wasted no time in pouncing on the defenseless girl.

She screamed. Christine flailed her arms, trying to get the featureless creature off of her, but she could hear its growls, hear teeth snapping together, feel hot musty breath nipping at her cheeks, its weight almost crushing her frame as it tried to get at her.

Christine focused her attacks at the creature's head, and against a dog or some small zoo animal, she may have defended herself well, but this creature kept attacking, getting closer and closer to her face.

When the gunshot rang out, Christine didn't know what to think. Her body had taken over and self-preservation was its top priority. Her hands kept swinging against the creature, who was just as stunned as she was over the gunshot. Another shot rang out, and Christine heard the fleshy impact of the bullet from behind the creature.

One well-timed punch sent the creature to the side, and Christine rolled in the opposite direction and covered her head as three more shots rang out. The silence after the third shot was deafening. Christine looked up and saw the flying creature lying on its side, crushing one of its own wings, wiggling from the damage it had taken.

Though the scene was disgusting, Christine still looked on, trying to classify the creature into something she could comprehend—something she had seen before. When a pair of brown boots came into view, it caught her by surprise. It was even more surprising when one of the boots rose into the air and slammed down on the creature's head, splattering creature brains, or whatever was inside of its head, on the street.

Christine followed the boots to a pair of legs that disappeared under a tan skirt. The top of the skirt was lost under a rust covered sweater with two arms hanging down. One of the hands attached to those arms had a gun, which Christine presumed had been the one firing only moments ago. Her eyes continued up the sweater to a neck, then a face, which she had no trouble in distinguishing features on.

The girl standing before Christine looked worn and tired. The slightly dark circles under her eyes told Christine that much, but it was the calm, stoic expression that was etched into her face that told here this girl had seen something far worse than this creature.

Christine quickly rose to her feet, feeling queasy. She struggled to find something to say, but couldn't find the right words. She recognized the girl as the same one that caused them to run off the road. On one hand, she was angry and blamed her for her boyfriend's death. On the other hand, she had just saved her from being eaten, absorbed, assimilated, or whatever terrible plan the creature had in store for her.

"Thanks," Christine finally said, casting her eyes downward.

"You don't belong here. Get out while you still can," Heather flatly said. She checked her gun, glanced to the left and right, and began on her way.

Christine was both confused and annoyed by the girl's attitude.

"Hey, wait a minute," she ran up behind Heather and followed her closely. "What is going on here?"

Heather sighed. "Look, there are things going on here that you couldn't understand, and I don't have the time to explain them. I have to find someone."

"I'm not going to stay here by myself. You—you caused us to run off the road. My boyfriend—he—"

"Look, I don't know what happened. All I know is that I have to find Douglas and Claudia," she trailed off, the night's events running through her mind. "Find a place to hide, and say there. Running around this city will do nothing but get you killed."

Christine was even more confused. "What is it with this town? Why are there monsters running around here?"

"I don't have time to explain it to you," Heather turned from the girl and headed in her original direction.

Christine followed her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm not staying anywhere by myself. I'm going with you."

Heather sighed. She didn't have time to baby-sit, nor play heroine for anyone else. "I can't protect the both of us."

"I can protect myself," Christine's voice faltered, giving away her own insecurity and fear.

"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. Just don't get in my way," Heather's voice remained tinged with an unemotional edge.

Christine knew that staying by herself wasn't a good idea, but she wondered if going with this girl was any better. She followed closely, but not too close.

Notes:

Silent Hill belongs to Konami. All other characters are fictional.

I know everyone probably thought I fell off the face of the earth. This semester was particularly rough, but I got my highest GPA, so it was worth it. Thanks for all of the awesome reviews, I have much more free time, so there will definitely be more postings!

Superslacker: Thanks for the review. I'll do my best to keep the characters as real as possible while keeping them in an unreal situation

Crimson Alessa: Sorry for the long absence. You know how school is. Hopefully, this chapter keeps up the suspense

Rich: My wonderful editor, thanks for the review. You're always too kind.

Elvenmagyk1978: I hope this chapter is as good as the rest...it's a little slower in terms of action, but I promise, it will pick up next chapter.

Kaworu85: Hopefully, this answered a little bit of what happened to Trey. I'm glad you liked the cell phone too. If I were in a similar situation, I wouldn't pick up some random radio. A cell phone seems so much more logical. You'll definitely be seeing more personality from Michael as well as from Stacy. Sorry you didn't like her too much. I'm sure she'll be better in the next chapter.

Rodarian: I'm glad that you like the feel of the story. I was going for something original, but keeping true to the Silent Hill series. The rest of the characters will meet up with each other as well, but not necessarily under the best of circumstances.

Snikers: Glad you like the story so far...I am to please.