A/N: Reviews would be nice peoples—I feel like I'm writing for nothing

Chapter Five

The blatant attempted demolition of the heavy door was enough to send even the bravest of sensible humans into panic mode; Rose had reacted instinctively and shied away from the door, leaving Cybil positioned before her, as had become typical following the officer's predictable demands to "Stand back." The pistol, now loaded, had been stripped of its safety and found itself to be cocked and aimed at the doorway; the owner had taken on a stance of utmost alertness and tenseness, one arm outstretched in the classic manner of attempted protection of the woman behind her. The thudding from the door became rhythmic, and Rose's mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that the producer of the noise was one of the miners from the nearby town of Silent Hill. The sound was strikingly similar to the blundering of the metal rods they carried with them against the door of the locker room of the Midwich Elementary School, when she had been trapped there just that short time ago.

Yet just as suddenly as it had started, the sounds ceased, filling the room with another thick bout of silence, save for the haggard breathing of Cybil, who remained in place; her hands quaked noticeably, and despite the dim light filtering through the dirtied glass windows, Rose was able to lay eye upon the anxiety present in her friend's posture. She couldn't possibly have blamed her—anyone having been forced to return to such a place as Silent Hill, or the town nearest it would be bound to fear the whole of their curséd surroundings. A minimum of five minutes past, the young cop lowered the pistol cautiously, her free hand now gripping it in addition to the one already having done so; a slight lean was taken to one side so that she might glance through the circle of clarity in the glass window beside her, thoroughly expecting some form of miscreation to make a flying leap for her face, lest it be exposed to view. The glass separating her from the world outside did little to ease her concern.

Meanwhile Rose stayed hitched in her current position, either untrusting or unwilling enough to take a risk and shift that position to another; her eyes snapped from Cybil to the door and remained trained unblinkingly on that particular spot for a length of time that was presumptively unhealthy as far as the human need to keep moist the eyes was concerned. Eventually Cybil pivoted on the thick, tall black heel of her boot, her attention now upon Rose; one chilled palm gripped the mother's shoulder and shook her with quite a great amount of force as she voiced spoken word, resulting in Rose's abrupt returning to reality—or so it seemed. Blue eyes widened considerably, though briefly, apparently surprised that Cybil was even present in the room, let alone there shaking her back to some semblance of life; an instant past and they were narrowed into an expression of question and inquiry, as something along the lines of a request for the cop to repeat what she had said spilled forth from the fear-dried throat of Rose.

"Does your truck still run?"

Admittedly befuddled by the relevance the question had to anything the two were currently dealing with, or the situation they had found themselves locked within for the second allotment in a slim amount of time, the mother's head tilted just so to one side, so as to display her obvious confusion and curiosity. The muscle in her chest let out the last of its lusty poundings as she managed to calm herself to the point at which rational thought was capable; the keen mind was steadily cleansed of its adrenaline exorbitance; long at last the situation began to process, as did the inquest of the other woman present in the room; long at last words took shape, melting themselves into sentences, which synthesized into communicable sound.

"As long as that bullet didn't hit anything major."

"Excuse me?"

"You shot out my window."

"I wasn't exactly in the right of mind, you know."

"We need to get to Silent Hill."

Knowing better than to press the matter, and fully understanding that Rose's determination, once set in place, was set in stone, and was not easily removed, the cop ran a hand through her short flaxen hair; the spinning motion of her form that followed was something Rose had taken for habit—she tended to do so when nerves had gotten the better of her. Predictably, the officer was soon to be found facing the young mother yet again, her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows tilted, her expression withholding a sense of disbelief at her friend's recklessness, the seemingly incessant need for her to get herself into trouble in which her life would be endangered, and the absolute lack of the basic and natural instinct to self-preserve. As far as Cybil could see, Rose Da Silva was much more trouble than she was worth, and she would have been better off to simply leave the mother to her searching; but if there was one part of Cybil herself that was as equally flawed, 'twould be her instinct to protect and serve—she couldn't just abandon Rose. No. Something kept her there, always chasing after her when she took off on another one of her mindless pursuits of some runaway child; something kept her always saving her from certain death at the last minute—and at her own expense. The question evident in her eyes, Rose answered before Cybil even had a chance to ask.

"I need to help Sharon. And as far as I can tell, Silent Hill is the only place where I might stand a chance in Hell of finding out how exactly I'm supposed to do that. If you don't want to help, I'll understand."

Glancing at her slowly, the cop responded, clicking the safety of the pistol on and sliding it into the holster as she did so.

"It would have been nice if you'd told me that you'd found her first," she said in a quiet voice, her hands on her hips as she looked at the ground. "Where is she?"

"She's at home. I couldn't bring her back here again. Not after what she saw."

"A mother's love is undying."

"And so is a wife's love for her husband. It'd be nice to be able to see Chris again."

For a moment a look of surprise was brought about on the officer's face, but it was quickly replaced by one of understanding. Rose was a married woman, no doubt her only concern being for the safety and continuity of her family; Cybil had decidedly envisioned her as a single mother searching desperately for a way to ease both she and her daughter's suffering. Alas, this was not the case in its entirety. So deep in thought was the blonde haired deputy that she didn't even question Rose's sanity in leaving her child presumably alone whilst she returned to Silent Hill with an uncertain future in store. After a moment, however, the woman's head rose to glance at the door, and she picked up the rifle from its place by the chair where Rose had been sitting previously. No words were exchanged save for two, voiced by the cop as she readied the rifle, should she need to use it.

"Let's go."