I.
At one time, the Amusement Park thrived, being the one of the main attractions of tourists staying in Silent Hill. It was easy to imagine children with large balloons in their hands or the stuffed version of the mascot dangling off their arms as they ran frantically, believing they would not have enough time to experience all the attractions the park had to offer. Joyful parents trailed behind their kids, far enough to give them independence, but close enough to watch over them. Both young and old couples probably wandered around aimlessly, simply enjoying each other's company and the lively environment.
Cybil imagined that time was long ago considering the state of the park now. Dark. A simple description, yet it encompassed everything that was wrong with the park. The dark, foreboding sky, the rusted, worn rides unsuitable for any child or adult, the hints of destruction and death that loomed around every corner and under every rock. As Cybil gazed around at the sinister attractions, she found herself having trouble drawing up a scene of lively fun. Her own experience in the Amusement Park shone brightly in her mind, almost blinding her to the shuffling noise from the bathroom.
Cybil turned quickly, her heart racing and blood pumping. She was much more nervous than she thought she would be given the circumstances and her familiarity of Silent Hill. Despite it being seventeen years ago, she found herself feeling the same apprehension and nagging fear that she had the first time she stepped into the town. Still, she moved forward quietly and stealthily, getting the monster in view before it took notice of her.
The monster itself was new to Cybil, which told her several things. The first was that her mind was where it needed to be given the circumstances. She was already assessing the monsters lurking around with less trepidation than she initially had. The next thing was that the monsters had somehow evolved from seventeen years ago, meaning that whatever was at the center of all this was gaining power. And the final thing was that the evil hadn't been destroyed seventeen years ago. Cybil and Harry had been tricked.
Aiming her gun, Cybil fired off three rounds and the shambling monster fell to the ground in a heap, its mass of a body and stubby legs kicking violently in a futile effort to resist death. Cybil walked up to it and planted a boot right in the large part of its body, completing the job.
She rolled her head from side to side and sighed. "I'm back," she said aloud as she held up her gun and proceeded into the rest of the park.
II.
Douglas perked up at the sound of gunshots. When the first one sounded, he thought he was hearing things. Between distant cries of pain, the padding of strange monsters, and his own heart, Douglas didn't particularly trust his hearing at this point. However, he knew gunshots when he heard them and he was sure that they came from near the entrance of the park. Could it be Heather? Or maybe it was some other poor, lost soul? Or maybe someone who had totally lost it and had a gun in their possession? The last thought put Douglas on edge, and he felt his adrenaline and senses heighten.
He checked his gun in the same way he had done several times since leaving his place by the park bench. Satisfied with its condition, he kept to the shadows and made an attempt to move in the direction of the long gone gunshots.
Douglas attempted to creep through the amusement park both as a means of avoiding any further contact with the abominations of Silent Hill and to sneak up on the individual or monster that fired the gunshot.
He kept to the shadows, which were plentiful, and stayed near the buildings. He was still limping slightly, but the pain relievers had kicked in, helping him to focus his senses on staying alive. Despite the limp, he was able to move stealthily from point to point, evading the two monsters that he ran into. Douglas finally reached a popcorn stand, which had a terrible stench emanating from it. He was tempted to open it, but suddenly dreaded what he would actually find inside. He shook his head and turned away from it. Then, he was face to face with the barrel of a gun.
III.
The pain was blinding and unyielding, making Claudia suddenly regret her sacrifice for her god. She quickly chastised herself for having second thoughts about her role and simply gritted her teeth and pulled at the sheets in a painful silence.
Her stomach seemed to have a life of its own, moving and probing the world in ways that it shouldn't be able to do. It would move to the left, then squirm to the right, go partially flat, rise, then start the whole process all over again.
Though the unnatural pain soared through Claudia's body, she refused to scream...refused to let herself be taken over by the pain. Just think, her god had been through so much more than she had. Claudia's pain was merely a fleeting whisper of the pain and anguish her god went through. She knew she had to endure. There was no other way.
She had not noticed the surreptitious exit of Valtiel. Claudia couldn't see the darkness growing even darker, the birth of her god imminent. Claudia couldn't see just how she was a vessel not for a god, but for a demon bent on creating hell's paradise.
Claudia closed her eyes and silently prayed for the strength to make it through and a chance to see just a glimpse of paradise.
IV.
In real life, Sean stood only a few inches taller than Christine. He had sandy blond hair in contrast to her dark straight hair. Tan and muscular, Sean was every girl's dream man, the kind you see in magazines and television shows.
And Christine was that girl next door every guy wanted to have. Smart, popular, and attractive, Christine had it all. Though she had dark hair, her complexion was slightly tanned, accented by her jade green eyes. She stood about 5'7", ran track, and loved kickboxing. Her parents thought she enjoyed too much physical activity, but they supported her nonetheless.
She met Sean in kickboxing class, allowing him to take her to dinner after she surprisingly usurped him in the kickboxing ring. They hit it off immediately and they began dating. They were either the epitome of what every couple wanted to be or they were the envy of those that could never achieve the kind of relationship they had.
When Sean suggested that they take a weekend to visit a small town called Silent Hill, Christine didn't object, especially after reading the brochure for the town. It sounded like a nice getaway spot, somewhere the two of them could decide what they wanted to do with their futures and if they were ready to spend it together. Christine was racked with anticipation for the trip, but she felt a hint, maybe it was intuition, but a hint nonetheless of anxiety. It would only be a matter of hours before that anxiety became a full-fledged feeling of fear.
Christine found herself alone with Cybil Bennett, Sean's mother, on a night that was conducive to horrible things occurring: killers stalking babysitters, nightmare monsters coming to life, teens being chased by some grotesque monster. The rain pelted the windows and the thunder shook the house every so often.
Christine wandered from the living room into the kitchen, where Cybil was just finishing washing the dishes from dinner.
"Ahh...I hear Sean is taking you on a trip this weekend," Cybil smiled over her shoulder.
Christine leaned against the doorway leading into the kitchen. "That's what he said...I'm excited...I think it will be a great chance to relax."
"Where is the dashing prince taking you?"
"Ummm, he said it was a small town. Quiet...no, it was Silent. Silent Hill. That's it. Some town called Silent Hill. It was strange, when we were planning the trip, we couldn't find it on the normal road map that we had, but the brochure has the directions. I figure a place like that would draw in lots of tourists," Christine failed to notice the stunned expression on Cybil's face, the memories that flooded back to her in a matter of seconds, the pain and anguish she went through after returning to Silent Hill. Then something hit her. Something malevolent. Something evil with a desire to kill.
By the time Christine even noticed that something was wrong, it was too late. "Cybil?" she hesitantly said.
Through the foreboding silence, the thunder rumbled through just to make its presence known, then let the silence settle back in.
"That place. You have to stay away from that place," Cybil said. She turned and Christine could see the distance in her eyes. Cybil took slow, deliberate steps toward the girl. "You can't go there. You and my son, you cannot go there!" Her voice began to escalate from a calm, mellow voice, to a direct, authoritative volume.
Christine backed away unsteadily. She found herself pressed against the wall as Cybil approached her.
"What's wrong? Why are you so upset?" Christine managed to get out.
Cybil reached for a large butcher knife on the counter. "Seventeen years ago, that place. Harry Mason. We were trapped there. You and my son. You've been seduced by that place. I have to stop you before you start it all over again."
The woman now approaching Christine wasn't Cybil. She wasn't the sweet caring woman, who only yesterday hugged Christine and told her that she was like a daughter to her. This wasn't the same woman that comforted her when her grandfather had passed away. The blond woman in front of her was no longer the same Cybil that Christine trusted and considered a second mother. The faraway look in her eyes and the knife in her hand told Christine that she was dealing with a stranger...one that intended to do her harm.
"Cybil, what are you doing?" Christine choked out, realizing that Cybil was closing the distance between them.
"Silent Hill—that place—the devil's workshop—that girl—she was the cause—now, it is damned—you will be too—"
Cybil picked up her pace and rounded the corner of the island fast. Christine realized that she was in danger. She dashed to the left and through the doorway. She heard the knife impale itself into the wood doorway right behind where her head had been only two seconds ago.
She stumbled into the living room and fell to the floor. Christine cursed herself for being so clumsy, realizing that she was just like females in situations like this: tripping and falling for no apparent reason.
Christine turned around to see Cybil in the doorway with a knife in her right hand.
"No!" Christine whispered as Cybil took slow steps toward her.
"You must die!" she seethed.
Christine's body seemed to move automatically, picking itself off the floor and running through another doorway into the den. She had to get out of the house. Christine ran to the French doors that led to the backyard. She pulled on them. They moved only an inch or two, but did not provide Christine with an adequate escape route. She turned to see Cybil upon her and bringing the knife down on her.
Christine moved slightly to the side. The knife was lodged into the door frame, giving Christine a window of opportunity. She rammed her shoulder into Cybil, sending the woman to the floor. She tried to run past, but Cybil recovered much more quickly than a woman of her age should have. She grabbed Christine's ankle, sending the young woman crashing to the floor.
Christine grunted as she hit the floor, but immediately tried to squirm away.
"No...you must die!" Cybil proclaimed as she pulled Christine toward her. Christine managed to turn herself over, face to face with Cybil.
It was a quick struggle before Christine found herself with Cybil's hands wrapped around her throat.
"Let me go!" she tried to grab the woman's wrists, tried to loosen her grip, tried to get some leverage, but it was no use. Cybil's slender hands tightened around her throat, completely blocking off all of Christine's air. She could only manage muffled grunts as a wave of unconsciousness passed over her. Christine tried to shake it off, suddenly wondering why Sean hadn't returned yet. There was no way she would survive this predicament, and no one would even know what happened.
Christine gave a final struggle as she looked in the crazed woman's eyes. All she could see was some hint of some past long ago forgotten suddenly vivid in the woman's mind. Some kind of danger, something that Cybil may have thought that she was protecting Christine from. But it had gone too far. Cybil had gone too far.
Christine succumbed to the darkness that nipped at the edges of her vision, with the thought of Silent Hill on her mind.
IV.
The darkness faded into a soft white light washing over Christine's face. She forced herself to open her eyes and take in her surroundings. The first thing she realized was that she was lying on the couch. A glass of water sat on the coffee table within her reach. She heard two voices in the background, speaking quietly in the kitchen.
Christine raised herself on her elbows, but a wave of dizziness halted her ascent, sending her back to her resting position.
Footsteps muffled by the thick, dark blue carpet approached the couch.
"Christine?" Sean smiled as he kneeled next to her.
"Sean? Sean—" she reached out and hugged him, ignoring the slight dizziness that was throwing off her equilibrium. She held him tightly, glad for something real to hold on to...someone she could trust.
Christine glanced up and saw Cybil enter the room and take a place opposite the couch, next to the fireplace. She tensed at the sight of the woman, which drew Sean's attention.
"Hey, are you okay? What's wrong?"
Christine looked at Cybil, then looked directly at Sean. As she looked into his eyes, she began to doubt herself. Christine glanced back at Cybil who looked nothing like the woman that tried to kill her some time ago...but still, she knew something wasn't right.
"I—I don't know. Something happened," she said, averting her eyes away from Sean.
"I was worried when you passed out in the kitchen while we were talking. I told Sean not to move you, but he insisted on putting you on the couch," Cybil stepped forward but stopped when she saw Christine's expression of doubt. "I have been concerned about you overworking yourself. You're always running around and never taking the time to simply rest."
Christine locked eyes with Cybil, hoping to catch the woman in her blatant lie, but all she could find was a sincere expression, plagued with concern and a hint of relief.
She began to doubt herself...what is she had simply fainted in the kitchen and imagined everything that happened? But why would she have imagined such a strange thing: Cybil trying to kill her? It was crazy, too crazy for her to just imagine. Yet...
Christine sat upright and swung her legs past Sean. "I think I need to go," she simply said. Sean frowned and lightly touched her shoulder.
"Are you sure you're okay? We could postpone the trip..." Sean began.
"No," Christine replied more strongly than she meant. "No, I...I just think I need to lie down. We've been planning this for a while, I'm really looking forward to spending this time with you."
Christine managed a smile, despite the throbbing in her head and her uneasiness of Cybil. She locked eyes with Cybil for just a moment. In that split second, she swore that she saw a look that told her she was making a big mistake.
She hugged Sean quickly, grabbed her coat, and left the house.
V.
Now as she stood before Sean, and all she could see...the eyes of someone with death as their goal. He shambled along, taking purposeful, yet unsteady steps toward her.
Before she could call his name, she noticed the blood seeping down his face, the paleness of his skin, the way his mouth gaped open.
"Sean...?" she whispered. Christine totally forgot about the situation with Heather, Trey, and Michael...forgot that Michael and Heather were in the grasp of one of the strange figures melded to the wall...forgot that Trey was struggling to free them. All she could see is her boyfriend, who hours ago died in a car accident, now walking toward her.
"Christine, get away from him!" Trey called glancing back over his shoulder.
"Christine," the low, guttural, possessed voice of Sean now called to her, beckoned her to follow him into a distant, cold world.
"St...stay back," she stammered, unsure of this new turn of events. What was he doing there? What did he want with her? Was he going to attack her? These questions kept circling about in her mind, yet she couldn't find an immediate answer for any of them.
Trey fought against the malformed figure even more vigilantly, realizing that Christine was in danger as well. However, the figure's neck unexpectedly extended and its head struck Trey in the face, knocking him to the floor.
"Trey!" Heather called, still struggling against the seemingly unbreakable grip of her captor.
She couldn't break free of the figure's grip. Once a person, the strength it wielded told Heather that it was no longer a person but a puppet of Silent Hill. The sickening drip of internal liquids resounded throughout the room as Heather and Michael struggled against the separate halves of the figure.
Trey lay unmoving on the ground.
Christine only remotely heard Trey collapse on the ground. Her body began to respond to her desire to escape. She began to back away from the advancing corpse in front of her.
"Why?" she whispered.
Sean's head moved erratically back and forth as he advanced. His body began to move in a jerky fashion as well, like he was a roll of film that had some part cut out, so he simply moved from one position to another, without the normal fluidity of movement.
"Christine, get the gun! Shoot it!" Michael shouted.
She backed up a few more steps, unsure of what to do. She was struggling with the image of Sean that she had and this new malformed Sean that staggered toward her. It was like he had been transformed...no longer was he the loving, sometimes overly-concerned boyfriend, he was now a monster. Sean was nothing more than a creature of this place...Silent Hill.
"Sean," she whispered. The hot sting of tears rushed to her eyes not from fear, but from the knowledge that she would have to be the one to kill him. She suddenly wished she would have refused to come...listened to the demented Cybil...but she didn't. Now she was stuck in a nightmare that she may not come out alive. Still, she had to try...she had to make it out of Silent Hill. She had to tell Cybil the truth and find out what the woman knew about Silent Hill, and why she let them go.
"Christine, look out!" Michael shouted as Sean reached for her.
Michael's voice snapped Christine into action. She turned and saw Heather's gun on the grated floor. Leaping for it, she grabbed it in a forward roll, twisted, and turned on one knee towards Sean. The gun was pointed directly at Sean, but the sound of a shot did not immediately sound. Christine held her pose, reluctant to shoot. The memories of everything they had flooded back to her, but the memory of what Cybil did to her burned brightly, and then the thought of Silent Hill and what this place really was.
She fired.
Twice.
Four times.
The figure crumpled to the floor, defeated.
Christine paused for a moment, letting herself stay in the position she fired in: down on one knee, both hands on the gun, eyes locked on her target. And then, she crumbled to the floor, the tears finally falling.
Michael felt the figure loosen its grip and suddenly, Michael found himself falling. He landed on his feet, and looked over to see Heather free from her trap as well. Trey began to stir and sat up slowly.
The room began to change, melting from the corrosion, blood, and rust to tile, plastered walls, and ceilings.
"What is going on?" Michael watched as the environment changed to what they were used to seeing, a normal room. Pictures on the wall, tables and chairs, as well as books scattered about.
Heather was beside Christine helping her to her feet. She heard the click of the door and said, "The door's open now. We should get out of here."
Michael turned and looked at Trey, who was looked around amazed as well.
"We're in way over our heads," Trey said.
"What gave you the first clue?" Michael responded. He looked in the place that the figure that attacked Christine had fallen. In the place of his body was some kind of journal. Michael picked it up and opened it, turning to the first page.
I haven't talked to Harry in years...we never mention what happened in that town...that horrible place called Silent Hill. We parted ways with an unspoken understanding never to talk of that place again. But now, seventeen years later, my son has found it...or it has found him. Maybe it's trying to get back at me...maybe I wasn't supposed to escape...maybe we both were supposed to die there, but somehow, we made it. But it wants me back. I can feel it calling me, driving me insane. Instead of me, it has found my son and his girlfriend. I can't let them go there...they cannot go there...it will get what it wants...I have to stop them, even if I have to kill them.
Michael finished reading and looked up at Christine, who still hadn't recovered.
I have failed, but I know that my son is taking her there. When I went into his room, I found White Claudia, a small bag of it, but I recognized it immediately. They have had my son for I don't know how long and I didn't even know it. My son is taking her there to make her a part of that cult there or something worse. I have to stop it once and for all. I'll go to Silent Hill, even if it means my death. Cybil Bennett
Michael walked over to Christine with the journal and gave it to her. "Maybe you should see this," Michael solemnly said as he handed her the journal.
Christine read through it quickly, and, stunned with disbelief, handed it back to Michael.
"It's true then...Cybil...she tried to kill me...she tried to stop me from coming here. And Sean..."
"It mentioned White Claudia. What is that?" Trey asked.
Michael reached in his backpack and pulled out a small plastic bag filled halfway with white powder.
"This is White Claudia. It's run rampant at the school. People are taking this like crazy. It supposed to have some kind of hallucinogenic properties."
"Where did you get that?" Heather quickly asked.
"Well, I found it in one of the rooms I was trapped in at school. It was beside this strange symbol and a note talking about the day of reckoning arriving and something about the rebirth of paradise."
Heather thought for a moment. "Did the symbol look like that?" she asked, pointing to a chalk board.
Michael followed her gaze to see a strange symbol, a purposeful drawing of circles, triangles and strange writing.
"That's exactly it," he said.
"So, there's this drug, which is somehow tied to this cult that runs around this town, which is tied to this whole nightmare we're going through. Heather here was supposed to give birth to this evil god or something, but this crazy lady Claudia is now birthing the thing. On top of that, we are trapped here and following clues that someone, or something is laying out for us, but what are we following them to?" Trey summarized.
"It wants us. Samael and Claudia are calling to us," Heather ominously replied.
"Wait. The journal. Cybil's coming here!" Christine exclaimed. "We have to find her...she'll be torn apart by whatever's lurking around here."
"We have to find Douglas first. Maybe he knows something about this Cybil," Heather impatiently said. "We're going to the amusement park."
Neither Michael nor Trey argued as they made their way to the door. Christine turned around once more to the spot where Sean's body had fallen. He had disappeared along with the corrosion.
Christine tried to forget about Sean, forget about the accident, forget about Cybil. All she wanted to do was escape from Silent Hill and never look back.
Notes:
Wrath: No matter when you review, I always appreciate it.
Richard B. Sampson Jr: Glad you like the story so far. It's definitely different from my Gen X stories.
Cat: Hopefully, this question answered how the three of them ended up in Silent Hill. In case you don't recognize her or haven't played the first Silent Hill, Cybil is the police officer that helps Harry periodically through the game.
Kaworu85: Glad you are liking the appearance of Cybil. It never was really clarified what happened to her after the first game, so I figured she would be as good of a character as any to bring back. Hopefully, this chapter puts a little more of the spotlight on Christine and gives you some insight into why she is the way she is at this point in the story. Let me know what you think!
Skittlefratz: Thanks for the compliments. I hope this chapter explains some things and leaves you waiting for the next chapter.
Fallen Angel2009: That's too bad that you're grounded, glad you could jump on the computer real quick to review.