Audrey Park, 5:55, same day.
Laura couldn't remember the last time she had cried. The twenty one year old college student sniffed softly and wiped the tears away on the sleeve of her favorite shirt. Life shouldn't be this cruel, all she wanted was peace and…redemption, she supposed. That was the exact word he had used, it stuck in her head like a headache, but worse.
Slowly, she pulled herself up, the weight that had resided on her chest for so long had been broken, and now the broken pieces were sticking her in the heart.
"He's lying." She whimpered into her jean knees. "He's lying, he's lying…" Her voice cracked pitifully and began to weep again helplessly, too tired to care anymore about swollen eyes. Her car was parked on the side of a park; her father use to take her there as a little girl. Whenever she was sad or stressed, she always came. It always calmed her down.
Not now.
Nothing would ever calm her again.
He's lying, he must be. That bastard! How could he! What have we done wrong? What have I done to deserve this? With a frustrated cry, Laura flung open her car door and stepped out into the sunny day. The emerald green grass crunched softly beneath her heels as she trudged into the park. All around her seemed to be at peace, children were happily screaming, trees swayed in the soft breeze, everything seemed so at peace, it broke Laura's heart. She gazed around the peaceful park, thinking of what a bitch life could be.
Sadness gave way to anger. As quickly as he tears had materialized, they were gone. Only deep anger boiled in her soul; anger for what wasn't fair.
All her life, Laura could only remember two things; the deep love for her father, and the horrible pang of sadness for her mother. Laura pulled her knees to her chest and laid her chin on her knees, feeling like a child again. Slender fingers slowly felt their way to her locket, and she fingered it softly.
I need you mommy.
"Are you alone here?"
The voice startled Laura. She was so lost in her thoughts she hadn't heard the person come up. Shielding her eyes from the sun, Laura looked up to find an Asian looking woman. Laura's eyes narrowed as she realized who the woman was. Instead of the expensive violet red dress, she wore a plain pair of jeans and a blue sweater.
"What?" She demanded, a bit more haughtily than she had intended.
The woman didn't say anything; she just sat down next to Laura. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"
"Can I help you?"
"My name's Ada."
"So?" Laura asked impudently.
"Are you Laura Sunderland?"
"Maybe I am." Laura said nastily. "Who the hell are you?"
"I told you," Ada said patiently without looking at her. "My name is Ada."
Laura rolled her eyes. "I know your name. What do you guys want with us? Why can't you just leave us alone?" Laura rose swiftly from the seat and began to stomp away, simmering. She couldn't help but act that way, she knew it was childish.
The woman swiftly caught up with her, grabbing her arm. Laura tried to jerk free unsuccessfully; Ada was much stronger than her. "Let me go!"
"Why did Wesker tell you Laura?" Ada asked her, sounding a bit impatient with the rude girl.
Laura glared at her. "You work for him don't you? Go ask him yourself if you don't already know." Ada jerked her arm a bit more, causing the younger girl to squeal.
"I'm afraid your life is in danger, I'm only trying to help!"
Laura had tears streaming from her eyes, her mouth twisted in pain and anger. The iron grasp around her arm didn't let up, Laura was trapped, but she was still Laura. Ada was getting tired of the little brat, "That's a lie!" She yelled angrily at the woman. "You only care about your own g-ddamned self! You have nothing to lose except a paycheck! So what if we…if we…" Laura couldn't continue. Her arm went limp in Ada's hand and she pressed her good hand to her cheek as though willing the tears to dissolve back into her eyes. Ada took one look at the pitiful, crying girl and released the strong grip. Laura rubbed her arm lightly; a bruise was beginning to appear.
"I'm sorry," Ada told her. "I'm sorry I did that."
Laura half shrugged, half grimaced.
"I don't know you," Ada said. "So it's true. Whatever happens to you and your father won't affect me at all. I'm trying to help you."
Laura was silent a moment, then nodded. Even though she stood directly in the autumn sun, and there was no wind, she shivered. There was a look of deep haunting on her face as though reliving a horrible event.
"Where is Silent Hill?"
Laura was gazing at the blue sky, looking thoughtful despite her situation. She twirled a piece of blonde hair between her fingers nervously, refusing to meet Ada's eyes. "It's a small town up north," She said finally. "I don't think it's occupied, very much at least. I was only there once, a long time ago, but my mother," Her voice cracked a bit. "loved it there. She used to show me pictures…"
"Why is it so special?"
"I don't know." Her voice suddenly turned sharp. "What does he want with it? I don't believe in ghost anymore, but I do know there is definitely something wrong with that town! I would tell your boss to quit while he's ahead. He's getting into some very messy business."
"You don't know Wesker then."
The little girl first noticed the smell, faint at first, but growing rapidly as she began to regain consciousness. Her whole being hurt, worn mostly from the wrenching pain and dread building up in her stomach all day. Everything appeared dark at first, and then she realized her eyes were closed. As much as she wanted to see where she was, she felt too tired, like an unbearable weight was holding her down.
Vaguely, she remembered a needle, the memory of the tip pinching her skin hard and the horrible blackness that had followed afterward make her squirm in discomfort.
There was a noise too, horrible, loud crackling and whispering very loudly. When the girl tried to call out, she found her tongue felt too big in her mouth and her throat was real sore, she couldn't really even swallow! Fear stirred with the darkness that she was trying to abandon. Part of her knew this was bad, yet, almost, expecting. She knew something bad was going to happen all day.
The heat was excruciating. The girl began to slip out of the depths of dreams into reality. As soon as she left behind the cool darkness, she instantly wished to go back. She didn't like this at all. Everywhere, the heat rolled onto her in waves, a horrible pain was about her, she didn't know why, but it hurt everywhere, it hadn't been dread after all. She struggled to remember what had happened, what had led up to this.
Chanting voices…hoods…mommy…
What had happened? It seemed like so long ago, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours. Heat piled around her body, her flesh tingled with the horrible sensation of intense cold. Everywhere, behind her closed eyes, lights danced beyond them.
Its fire, she realized with unusual calm. Fire to cleanse the Earth.
In her head, she could hear her mother above the light chanting as she praised the heavens above, her blue eyes bright lights in the dark cellar. Her mother, her voice sounding so powerful and full of life. "In order to bring paradise, we must re-build the Earth, cleanse it of sins and unhappiness. We will be granted salvation and redemption from our greed; we will wrought forth from this perfection, the beginning of mankind!"
A sacrifice. She was the sacrifice that she had been told about for so many years. The chosen one. She was to suffer for the world.
Mommy, please understand, I only want to be with you…
Although she writhed and tried to call out, she knew it was helpless. The fire was everywhere until she could only imagined she had been placed in hell. The smoke sucked the moisture from her body, flames licked hungrily at her.
First they lick at your fingers and toes, and then they moved up your arms and legs.
She tried desperately to block out the burning, she willed herself somewhere else. The flames had gotten her; the heat had become unbearable until it actually felt cold. Dry tears poured down her cheeks, her pained voice rasped where no one would hear. She was still slightly drugged, so she only partly felt the flames.
The chanting people had gathered around her, she only recognized Dr. Kaufman, holding up a syringe. She lay on a table, listening with tears in her eyes as her mother spoke out about the happiness this would bring, about g-d who would be coming soon.
"My daughter will be the mother of g-d!" Then she'd blacked out.
Fire piled around her, her hair was slowly burning away; the nauseating smell was of her own flesh burning. Everything was becoming hazy. They needed her like that. Unconscious, unreasoning, but not death. The g-d would feed off her pain, her mother had said, g-d would be born through hate and despair and hopelessness. Were they all so blind? Wasn't g-d was suppose to bring them happiness and joy? How could a g-d born from pain and suffering bring a perfect world?
They will be evil, she realized. In her heart, she had known the truth all along.
The whole world didn't deserve this kind of suffering. There were bound to be some good people in the world.
She would just be kept alive, burnt and blackened, with a-a demon growing inside of her. Not a g-d, a demon. The devil probably even. Was everyone too blind to see that? This thing couldn't be born.
I want to die! She thought to herself. Oh please, I need to die.
The pain was over bearing, she knew no one could hear. Se prayed the flames would take her faster.
No one could hear her…
"Release from suffering, release from worldly desires! The time has come for salvation to once again overcome us, for g-d to once again be born!"
…and they wouldn't come anyway.
Here's the next chapter. This is actually based off of another story I had kept on deleting and re-writing for Silent Hill but was never pleased with the outcome. This was really hard, so I'm sorry if it's not good.
