Chapter 31: Truth Hurts
Gathering in the living room the next morning the three of them ate with each other in silence. Only Julia seemed to be in a decent enough mood; Victor certainly wasn't and Chuck was having a bad day. The knight had read Nothing's journal twice and could hardly believe it the second time as much as the first. He knew that the Fater was responsible for heinous crimes but he assumed that this was limited to his Sacraments and actions against the Order. He would never have imagined just how far the shade was willing to go for vengeance with complete disregard to anything or anyone else. He was evil on a mass murderer level both in life and death but what did that make them for working with him?
Victor listened in as Julia told her story literally running through Nowhere to Chuck. The knight would not admit it to anyone else but he was fascinated with the details of the twisted realm. Very much what he imagined the Fater's home to be like he also knew that it was that way purely on the whim of Nothing. To have god like power in his own dream...one had to wonder what else could be made. Again the Silent Hill native could not reconcile the pros and cons of such things.
All things considered the Canadian took it fairly well. He had put so much misguided faith in the Fater and it was coming back to haunt him now. When the dark haired woman was done they spent a few minutes taking it in and sipping black coffee.
"Well...damn." Chuck said finally.
"Pretty much." Julia agreed.
"A dragon attacked you?"
"Yep. It would have been cool if it wasn't busy killing my new friends and trying to eat me." she shrugged.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Chuck asked hopelessly.
"Find Stone and kill him." Victor answered. "Kill the Sacrament maker too. There is no other choice here."
"I mean about the Dark Man."
"Oh. Ah...yeah..." Victor stumbled. "I don't really know."
"How would we even go about doing that? Ideas?" Julia wondered.
"I've got a few." Victor replied. "But stopping the Order comes first. Nullifying the Descent is our top priority. Whoever managed to imprison our benefactor is going to be more than we can deal with by ourselves. We need him right now."
"What about after that?" the killer persisted. "Knowing what we know now...is it right to leave the Dark Man here to run around? What about the girl? If we get rid of them who hangs around making sure it doesn't happen again?"
It was a good question and one that Victor was unable to answer even for himself. He didn't necessarily prefer this life to the outside one but who else in their right mind would be here to keep the Order from setting up shop? The food was terrible, the hazards many and the pay was practically non-existent. It was true though that there wasn't a single place on Earth like Silent Hill and the mist seemed to call to him when he was away from it. He also had Julia to think about now and while the long years in walking distance of Lake Toluca made him tough they also made him lonely. The short, fiery woman was his life line to the real world, other people, love. The knight wasn't sure anymore if he could go back to an existence that didn't include Julia Stormson.
"Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to leave." she suggested and Victor had to do a double take to make sure he had heard her right.
"Wha?"
"If we'd been here already we might have prevented all of this." she added.
Chuck nodded in agreement and for once Victor found himself the odd man out on the issue. "You think that's a good idea?"
"No, I'm just saying maybe we shouldn't just rush out of here right away."
"I'm not going anywhere." Chuck announced. "Even after we win."
"Wait, what? Are you sure?" Julia inquired worriedly.
"The two of you have things waiting for you out there. I don't. Just a small room and a steel bed...lots of bad memories. If I stay, I won't be able to hurt anyone but myself. Maybe I can help people that wander in and get lost."
"That's...are you sure?" Victor checked.
"I've been thinking about it since I got here." the killer answered. "This whole business with the Dark Man just confirms it. People should have a helping hand if they get themselves into trouble here. I could be that person. Not like I have much else to live for."
Victor ruminated on this and could not find fault in the Canadian's thinking. What else would he do with himself if not for his very significant other? "What about the girl?" that very person asked .
"What about her?"
"Shouldn't we...I don't know...do something?"
"I wouldn't even know where to start looking for her." Victor shook his head. "And who knows what would be protecting her if all of this was her dream."
"Dark Man would know where she was."
"Good luck convincing him to tell you."
"What I wouldn't give to put the screws to that guy and make him talk straight for once." Julia sighed.
"Gentlemen, your conversation makes for interesting listening." Nothing grated from nearby and Victor nearly jumped up to the next floor off the couch. Looking around wildly he spotted the Fater laying down on the ceiling in the kitchen shrouded in shadow. The three of them did not expect his presence and Victor was genuinely worried that he'd been able to sneak up on them like that.
"How long have you been there!?" the knight demanded.
"Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear." the shade said without moving.
Looking at his stunned companions Victor edged forward. "You have a lot of explaining to do."
"Do I?" the Fater asked sardonically. "And you would force answers from me? An ant against a mountain..."
"We know who you are...or were...Daniel Kewahqu." Julia said.
Sitting up so that his torso hung from the top of the room he looked like he was on a lawn chair only on the wrong side of the floor. "Aaaahhhhh..." he trembled. "There is a name I have not heard in a long, long time..."
"We know what you did. What really happened in 1985."
"What of it?" Nothing asked without concern.
"All of this is your fault!" she cried. "Not to mention all the people you killed!"
Getting to his feet on the ceiling he crouched down on it and suddenly fell to the floor. Twisting like a cat mid air the shade landed on one knee and looked up at them with his dead eyes. He took a few deliberate steps into the living room and Victor fought the urge to go for the very sword the Fater had given him. It wouldn't have helped anyway.
"You think you know me?" Nothing awkwardly changed his voice and tilted his head back. "Me got booooy...boy me got.". Taking another step towards them Victor held his ground for no other reason than knowing doing anything else would not matter much.
"I have balanced the sins of the past and you would dare judge?" the Fater asked incredulously in his normal if gnashing voice. "You three who have taken lives in joyous combat? How many have you slain, Julia Stormson? Victor Rosencrantz? Charles Taylor?"
They could not answer and the shade raged on as he paced in front of them. "A room a killers we are and a room of killers the misty land requires. It needeth you now after it has given you everything you wished for, yet still you would deny its holiness?
"You! The family you sought your whole life!" he pointed an accusing finger at Julia. "The truth of yourself and Sandy Williams!" he turned to Chuck.
"And you, Victor Rosencrantz, it gave you everything. Took you in, nourished you, taught you techniques, gave you a reason to live. Yet you three would pretend you have not been made greater by it...?" he asked sadly. Victor tried to come up with a response but could not think of anything to say and apparently neither could his friends.
Composing himself the Fater continued with the slithering tone of a winding snake. "You owe this holy land and I am its guardian. Destroy the Order's ambition and I will release you from this place...if that is your desire. The memory of this land is long, long and accurate. It will remember your deeds to save it should you choose to remain."
"The land's memory is long or is the Gillespie girl's?" Victor dared to ask.
"Do not question that which you do not understand." Nothing growled.
"Where is she?"
The shade laughed and the sound was like nails on a chalk board to his ears. "And what would a solitary man do with this knowledge?"
"This dream has gone on long enough, Fater. Let it end and give her a measure of peace." but Nothing was already shaking his head.
"You grasp at matters you cannot fathom. The anger of the land needed her, her and her potential. That cocoon of pain and charred flesh become both slave and master. But no longer...the flame is lit, the cord severed, the gate opening and shutting at his will."
"What's he talking about Vic?" Julia whispered.
"He's saying...I think he's saying...that Silent Hill is awake now with or without the girl. It's grown beyond her."
"Brava, brava, bravissima." Nothing clapped at him.
"Why did you help me?" Chuck blurted out.
"Why, Charles Taylor, we are friends, aren't we? You asked and thou receiveth."
"You buried hundreds of people. Why the hell do you want friends?" the killer asked angrily.
"I needed you. All of you." he explained. "The misty land's enemies never rest and neither must we. You are not the only allies I have, simply the best."
"Those people who got us to come here on the outside." Julia reasoned.
"You were born here, Charlos Taylor." Nothing announced as if Julia hadn't spoken. "And here has called you back, all of us. This makes us family, does it not?" he asked with false, saccharine sweetness.
Victor was taken aback by this revelation about the killer but Julia didn't seem fazed by it. "And you, coming back to sell that house. You never mentioned whose it was or whose inheritance you were claiming. It was your parents', wasn't it?"
The shade didn't answer and she went on. "You were an orphan, right? Like the rest of us?"
Nothing grinned and Victor flinched at the sight. Chuck had to sit down and the pilgrim put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Chuck. They probably didn't want you to know."
Victor was amazed but it made a twisted sort of logic that fit in with the Fater's style. The knight couldn't help but snicker humorlessly at the whole thing. "Who better to defend Silent Hill than those of us with no other real home? No other family. Is that what you thought?"
"So like me, in my time on Earth, you all are."
"That's why you set all of this stuff up. In case anything happened to you. How long did you leave the stash here for us to find? Months? Years?"
The shade spread his hands as if to say, 'so what?' and Julia asked, "Where did you get off using your altar for Victor's armor? Did you think we wouldn't find out where it came from?"
"The greatest of materials serves little use without potency." Nothing said. "As black gave way to green so too does stone become greater than the ordinary. That which once was cold and inert become lively and pliable through purification."
"Uh...Vic, translation?" she asked but the knight was already reeling from the implication.
"Oh, gods..."
"What?"
"The 'leaves'. Not the ones he carved in but the metaphorical ones, his victims. They're what turned it green and also gave my armor its strength beyond normal rock." he said in disgust. "I was protected in part by the essence of his victims."
"Oh. Oh! OH!" Julia stammered. "That's terrible!" Nothing seemed to be enjoying this while Chuck looked mildly upset but no doubt he was still dealing with his own problems. Something clicked in his mind and gave Victor the confidence to say what he had put together since reading the journal.
"The ashes...the ones you gave us a small bag of...they were the cremated remains of Jennifer Carroll, weren't they?" and the Fater only began laughing raucously as a response. Ignoring the aghast faces of his companions Victor continued with his reasoning. "You smash through wards and spells like they weren't there. She must have been burned at the stake with crow bone charm still around her neck. And you found out her remains broke wards even after all those years...so you ate them before you killed yourself. That's what's running in your veins isn't it? Why your blood is black?"
"What!?" Julia exclaimed hysterically for some reason.
"Very good, Victor Rosencrantz." the Fater admired. "There is not much left to teach thee. All that remaineth is your Sacraments. Do as I have done and ingest a part of the Mother before your Assumption and no earthly spell shall harm thee."
"I will not." he refused.
"When the time is right, a true believer will take up my mantle." he assured them.
"Someone already has." Victor pointed out.
"Verily, and oblivion is his fate. I have decreed it thus." Nothing said grandly. "Sayeth your final prayers, O vessels of vengeance, for the hour of reckoning approacheth. At his island Marcus Stone and judgment awaits. We must not disappoint."
Holding up two fingers he dragged them down in front of his face and Victor's eyes closed along with the downward motion. It took the knight a few seconds to realize there was no outside force acting on his eyelids and when he opened them the Fater was gone. Sighing he slumped down onto the couch in a daze and Julia slowly came to sit beside him to cling onto his arm. Chuck looked completely pale and obviously was not taking the news well.
"So." Julia cleared her throat. "We've been putting dead person on our foreheads."
"My parents weren't my parents." Chuck lamented.
"I've been running around in unholy armor." Victor chimed in.
"Hey uh, Vic?"
"Yes Jewel?"
"About his blood..."
"Yeah?"
"Ah...you know what, never mind, answered my own question." she said suddenly.
"Oh...okay."
It was some time before any of them spoke again. Chuck got up to drink some water from the dirty faucet and came back to the group with a forlorn look on his saddened features. "I'm going to go lay down for a bit."
He left the room and Victor looked over to Julia. She looked a little shaken but was still strong and clear eyed. What was going to happen she would be there to watch his back and this gave him the security to attempt anything. They would have a long overdue meeting with Marcus Stone and the only thing the knight could hope for was that it was over quickly. Things rarely went according to plan here in this sleepy, mist laden place though.