I'm so happy to finally get this chapter up. After I came back from summer travel I was just slammed with this huge writer's block. Thank you everyone for being patient with me (I know it's hard).

I do not own Silent Hill.

"Well, Vincent," Lilith spat the man's name out like poison with her sword pointed at his throat, "What. The. Fuck. Are you doing in my library?"

"Your library?"

"Yes, my library."

"Why, I'm sorry to tell you Ms. Mason, but this is a public library."

Lilith scowled, "I will only ask you one more time."

"You are quite the feisty one, aren't you?" he teased with that wolfish grin plastered on his face. "I haven't been able to come here after it became infiltrated with those… pests. When I saw that someone had made their way in, I assumed (correctly, may I add) that those pests were no longer a problem. I thank you for doing me such a service."

"I didn't do anything for you. I did it for me. This place is mine."

"And you're making quite splendid use of it, I must say," he complimented in a voice that irritated her, "voice recordings, detailed sketches, it's all very impressive."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to snoop around in other people's things?"

"Unfortunately, I was taught a very different set of morals."

"You're from the church," Lilith growled.

"An unfortunate touch of fate."

She bit down hard on the insides of her mouth, "Screw you and your church. Now get your missionary ass out of my library before I feed it to the groaners."

"You wouldn't do that," he said with certainty.

"I've done it before."

"But you aren't going to do it now."

"What makes you so sure?" she pressed the tip of her blade up to the flesh of his throat. His grin faltered and he struggled to keep up his arrogant pretense. That gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction.

"Because you're curious. You have questions. I have answers. We can help each other."

"What exactly is it that you need help with?"

"I didn't choose this life, Lilith Mason. I want no part of this. I want out."

"Out?"

"Out of Silent Hill."

Lilith laughed. And then she laughed some more. It just kept coming out despite her attempts to bring it under control. She backed away from the man and doubled over, hysterical laughter echoing through the otherwise heavy silence of the room. Vincent just stood there and watched, slightly stunned, until she stood back up, wiping the tears from her eyes with her own, wide grin. "There is no way out, you stupid bastard. There's no leaving Silent Hill." She chuckled again and flicked her sword back up. "Now get out of here."

He no longer grinned. He just stood there, emotionless. "You're wrong."

"I'm not wrong," she told him.

"There is a way."

"No. There's not. And even if there was, I wouldn't help you. You all deserve to suffer."

"I'm sorry about what's happened to you-"

"You have no idea what's happened to me," she snapped.

"Please. Just let me help you," he begged. Lilith didn't put any stock in his simply 'wanting to help' and she wasn't even sure that he really believed he could get out.

"Your people tried to kill me. I can't afford to trust any of you and I'm getting tired of asking you to leave. Please, just go," Lilith recalled the warm spray of blood and sound of flesh slowly ripping apart and the 'thud' as the weight of a decapitated head smacked against the floor. She didn't want to kill Vincent. She didn't want to face that again. But she would, if she had to.

"Please," he begged, "I'm not like them. Let me help." Lilith stared at Vincent. He looked pathetic. But appearances were deceiving and she could not risk it. Then again… how long had it been? With only Pyramid Head and Ghost for company, maybe she really had become too paranoid to see what was right in front of her. It wasn't as if her paranoia was unjustified, but despite that something inside her stirred. She had been alone- all alone with no one who could ever understand. Maybe, just maybe…

No. She couldn't afford to think like that. So why did she lower her sword? Why? Why did she not, at the very least, threaten him and demand he never come back? Why didn't she kill him? Why. Why. Why. So many questions and so few answers. Could he really help her? Lilith wondered if her curiosity really was stronger than her common sense, but as she sheathed her sword and sat it down on the desk, she concluded that it was. "Turn around," she demanded, "put your hands on the wall." He did as he was told and she got uncomfortably close to him and began to pat him down, searching for a gun or a knife or anything else he could use against her, but found nothing. "No weapons?"

"No," he responded, turning around as she backed off.

Lilith looked at him skeptically, "it's not smart to walk around without any kind of protection."

"When you live here your whole life," he explained, "you learn how to go undetected."

"You church mice don't usually scurry beyond a few blocks for fear of getting trapped in the Other."

He shrugged, his grin creeping back onto his face, "what can I say, it's a necessary risk." Lilith walked around the desk and sat down in her rather comfortable chair facing the doorway and sat her sword down beside her. It was a very large desk made of smooth, dark wood with ornate carvings and gold embellishments. There were also file cabinets and smaller tables stacked with folders and books. She'd been through half of it and most of it had been relatively useless, so she removed it and made room for her own studies. Vincent pulled a small wooden chair to the opposite side of the desk and sat across from her.

"Start talking," she told him.

"I want to ask you about your parents."

"My parents?"

"Yes," Vincent grabbed a few sheets of paper and a pen, "can you tell me their names?"

"Jenny and Andrew Mason, why does it matter?"

"Were you adopted?"

"No, I wasn't. Now will you tell me how that could possibly be relevant?"

"Well, I just don't think it's a coincidence," he said, writing down her parents' names at the top of the paper with a line connected to her own name.

"What's a coincidence?"

Vincent stopped writing and look up at her curiously, "How much do you actually know about this town?"

"I know you burned a little girl to death and she wasn't exactly happy about it so she sold her soul to a demon who turned the whole place into a living nightmare."

"Well, yes and no. Alessa didn't just forfeit her soul, she spilt it in half."

Lilith nodded, "yeah, she mentioned that."

"She? You spoke to her?"

"Yeah, a few times. The demon Alessa, not Alessa Alessa."

"How did you…" Vincent shook his head, "alright, one thing at a time." Lilith didn't know if he was talking to her or himself. "She split her soul in two and it was taken far away from here to be kept safe-"

"Wait. Are you saying there's another Alessa out there, that doesn't live in Silent Hill?"

"Yes, she was taken far from here, in the form of a newborn baby, possessing every decent scrap of humanity left in the original Alessa."

"So she literally split herself in half," Lilith said, leaning back against her chair.

"Yes. And then she was adopted Harry and Jodie Mason."

Lilith sat up straighter on the edge of her chair, her brow furrowed as she touched the papers on the desk without any real reason. "They found her on the side of a highway…They named her Cheryl," she spoke hesitantly, like someone trying to recall a dream they had long ago.

"Lilith. Are you related to Harry Mason?"

"I…I'm not sure," Lilith told him, honestly. "My father had a brother, but it was like he never existed. They didn't get along, I wasn't allowed to ever see him or even speak of him. My mother said they had… issues, but I never found out what they were. I know that he and his wife found a baby on the side of the road and just took it home. I also know that his wife was sick and she died three, maybe four years later." Lilith bent forward and pressed her palms against her head as it began to ache.

"Do you remember anything else?" Vincent asked her.

Lilith nodded, "after his wife died he went crazy. That's what they said, anyway. About ten years ago he left town with his daughter and when he came back he showed up on our doorstep with… a baby?" Lilith tried to picture it, but it still felt like she was trying to conjure up dreams from a past life. "And then we left. We moved to Georgia and we never heard from them again. I was young, so I never really cared or thought about it very much."

Vincent was scribbling away on one of the sheets of paper, nodding his head, "this is really good, Lilith." Lilith didn't know why it was good. In fact, it was a terrible story. "That baby he brought back," Vincent looked up at her, "that was Alessa reincarnated, the two halves come together again. Free from suffering, with no memories of the awful things that happened to her."

"If she's free then why is Silent Hill still stuck and why does the Other still exists?"

"Because within her, a power still lies dormant. She may not know it's there, but as long as it is, Silent Hill will remain this way. The power must be extracted, removed, if there is hope of ending this nightmare."

"You mean you want to kill her."

"No, no, of course, but if we-"

"Whoa, okay, no. You stop that. There is no 'we'. I'm not going to help you with your fucked up little occult rituals. You're insane. Everything you're saying is insane," Lilith got up out of her chair and picked up her sword.

"Is it? Really? After everything you've seen can you really just dismiss it so easily?"

"Yeah, I can. It's time for you to go."

"Lilith-" he tried to plead but she shoved him hard towards the door.

"GO." She drew her sword and followed him up the stairs and back out of the window onto the fire escape. Lilith dropped the ladder and forced him down as she did her best to amend the wire across the window when the thought occurred to her. How had he cut the wire if he didn't have anything to cut it with?

Lilith sighed, she wouldn't worry about that right now. He probably just found something to cut it with in the alley and discarded it once he'd gotten in. When she had done her best to cover it up, she climbed down and pushed Vincent back against the wall. "I want to make one thing clear to you. I was nice this time, but I won't be next time. If you step foot in my library again without my permission I will kill you. Do you understand?"

Vincent nodded, "I understand."

"Good. Now get out of here."

He turned from her and looked out into the fog, "come find me if you change your mind," he told her before jogging off into the direction of the church. She watched him disappear before leaning back against the wall. There was a slow, dull ache in her head and she rubbed her hands over her face, groaning. She questioned whether she had been too quick to shut Vincent out, but she didn't want to think about it. And she certainly didn't want any part of his cult. Even if there was some bizarre connection between her family and this town, she didn't want to know about it. What good would it do her? She had enough puzzles on her plate as it was.

She let out a sigh and tilted her head back, looking up between the tall, crumbling buildings of the alleyway into the grey sky as ash lightly floated downward- a few flakes settling onto her cheeks. She rubbed them with the back of her hand before realizing that would only smear it across her face. Oh well. Who did she have to impress anyways.

"Making friends?" Lilith suddenly snapped to attention at the sound of a small voice by her side. Alessa stood there, her head tilted as if studying Lilith. Her eyes were dark and they seemed to suck the life out of everything their gaze fell upon.

"Not exactly," Lilith told her.

"You should be careful."

"Your concern is touching, but don't worry. He's not coming back."

"Very well," she said flatly, taking a step towards her, "I wish for you to accompany me."

"Where?" Lilith asked as the demon came closer to her.

"Somewhere," she grabbed her wrist too tightly and it began to sting. But, just as she looked down, Alessa released her, her fingers leaving marks around Lilith's wrist. They were in a small room with sickening pale light. It was almost like they were underground- the air was cold and thick. Lilith's sight caught on a single bed, plastic curtains hanging all around it, shielding whatever lay inside from her view. She stepped towards it, but jumped back immediately as a figure stood up, hands covering her face as she got out of a chair next to the bed and quickly walked around the other side. Her red heels make sharp click clack noises as she hurried to get away from Lilith. She could hear her weeping now and the consistent beeps and whooshes of air, as if she were in a hospital, listening to the machines. Her pulse quickened and her heart beat hard against her chest. There was a coldness, a dread that quickly flowed through her. There were a lot of things that had terrified her in Silent Hill, but this was different. It was wrong. As if she stumbled into a place that simply should not exist.

Alessa stood in the corner, watching. She made no move and said nothing. The weeping grew louder and Lilith slowly walked around the bed. The woman stood facing the corner with long blonde hair and wearing a red sweater over what appeared to be a nurses uniform. "Miss…" Lilith said hesitantly, coming closer, "are you okay?" her voice came out softly. "Miss…" she touched the woman's shoulder and she turned around with a loud wail and Lilith jumped back. Thick, bloody scars crisscrossed over her face and her eyes were completely capped in white. She looked at Lilith and kept sobbing before pushing past her and going to the other side of the room.

"She's harmless," Alessa spoke.

"What happened to her?" Lilith asked, coming back around to face the demon child.

Alessa simply shrugged, "she got too curious."

Lilith's eyes flickered to the plastic screen, "about what?"

"I think you already know." Alessa's gaze also focused onto the plastic sheet, an eerie smile on her face. "She wanted to meet you," she looked at the nurse in the opposite corner, "don't worry. That won't happen to you. She wants you to see." Lilith's heart raced and didn't really feel at all reassured. "Well," Alessa said, "go on."

Lilith didn't really want to see what (or who) was behind that curtain, but she didn't think Alessa was ever going to let her leave until she did. There was no door in the room, no windows, no way for her to just leave. So she made her way over to the bed and grabbed onto the edge of the plastic curtain. It felt wet and slimy and with a deep breath she pulled it away.

She didn't move. She just stood there in shock of what she saw. There, in the bed before her, was a small figure, every inch of them burned and blackened. An eye flickered her direction and just stared at her. Lilith didn't know how anyone could even be alive in this sort of condition. "This," Alessa said coming up beside her, "is the real Alessa. Or rather, what remains of her."

Lilith placed her hand over her mouth, her fear replaced by a deep sadness for the little girl. "I thought you sent her away."

"Her soul, yes. This is merely a shell of Alessa. Of who she was. Soulless, but very much alive. She is trapped here, until the nightmare comes to an end she is doomed to suffer her pain."

"That's horrible…"

"Quite tragic," Alessa agreed.

Lilith looked down at the young girl who just continued to stare at her. "I'm so sorry this happened to you," she whispered. The girl blinked.

"She says she can see you are a good person and she is sorry for what happened to you too."

Lilith looked over at the demon by her side, "how does she know?"

"Silent Hill is hers. Two halves of the same whole. She sees everything here."

"That must be such a burden," she said, looking back at the girl. She blinked again. Lilith wondered if what Vincent had said about her soul returning- about it ending this nightmare- was really true. She wanted to ask, but something told her it was better not to. So she simply kept quiet as the real Alessa stared at her, like she was reading her own soul.

"She is tired now. She must rest," the demon that appeared as Alessa told her.

"You can speak to her?"

"She can understand what you say to her, but she cannot speak herself. She relays her thoughts to me and I let her wants be known," Alessa said. "She wishes me to tell you that she is happy you visited. She is very lonely."

"Maybe I can come back sometime?" Lilith asked.

"She would like that." Lilith smiled at the girl and Alessa grabbed her wrist once more and in a blink they were back in alleyway. Lilith rubbed her wrist where Alessa had grabbed onto it. Her touch seemed to burn her skin.

"Why did you show me that?"

"She asked me to bring you to visit."

"And you have to do what she says?"

"Yes," Alessa told her, "but that is not what I wish to speak of now. I want you to tell me what happened when you went into The Other."

Lilith sighed, "I don't know. There were loud voices and banging sounds- it felt like I was going crazy."

Alessa pursed her lips together, "you were hearing The Other side. It is not meant to be heard by humans. I suspect it became louder the closer you came to it."

"Then I was just…burning."

"Yes, that is quite curious. Your ashes were left behind, yet when you returned you still remained in your body."

"Then it was just darkness until I woke up in a room, strapped to a table. I couldn't move."

"Was there anyone else there?"

Lilith nodded, feeling sick as she revived her memories, "a man. He looked old. Blue lips and a chunk missing from his left ear. He was…operating on me. Then everything became dark again and I woke up back here."

"Very well," Alessa said.

"Why did you need to-" Lilith looked over at Alessa, but she was gone. Lilith simply sighed, pushing the conversation from mind. She had come out to forget about the whole ordeal and here the demon was making her relive it. Not that Alessa cared, it wasn't as if her dissatisfaction with Lilith's existence was a secret. With a sigh she pushed herself off the wall and walked aimlessly through the fog, hoping maybe something would come out and end her suffering, but no creature ever came forth.