Me: Jesus Christ, it's been ages!

Rendan: I thought you were dead.

Zero: I thought you abandoned everything.

Me: Nah. Never abandoned. Life being life is being life and life is crazy.

Rendan: Much like anything else you do you lunatic.

Me: Yup! Now then, I'm going to get right to the show! I don't own Hey Arnold! or Silent Hill! They are the properties of Craig Bartlett/Nickelodeon and Konami respectively, though I'm not 100% sure of the latter anymore. Either way, read and enjoy!

Chapter 27: Fractured

Lila raced through the prison with Arnold and Helga in hot pursuit. She leapt over banisters, stopping only to pop a health drink to heal the injury from jumping off the catwalk onto the concrete ground. Still, she gave neither Arnold nor Helga much time to catch up with her as she burst through the front doors of the prison and raced into the street to search for where AJ had landed.

She found him, of course she found him, lying motionless just off the curb with a massive hole in his chest and lying in a pool of his own blood. His eyes had no light in them and were trapped in an eternal stare, looking upward at the world that had trapped him, the world he never escaped. Lila searched herself for a first-aid kid, but found only a spare health drink. She tried to pop it open but, as if sensing her intentions for it, the drink refused to open. Lila cursed and swore, but to no avail. It was clear. He was dead, his soul forever trapped in this hell and never to escape. The realization hit her, and she fell to her knees next to the corpse, the blade slipping from her hand as she began to cry.

Arnold and Helga caught up shortly after and came upon the scene in the street. There was a brief moment of silence from the two as they approached and bore witness to the scene Lila came upon mere moments before. Helga cringed at the sight and had to collect herself lest she lose whatever contents of her stomach remained. Arnold sighed and shook his head.

"Shit," Helga whispered upon recouping. "That's brutal." Arnold nodded. "I mean, I know we didn't like him much… but shouldn't one of us say something?" Arnold sighed and approached the body. He took one look at AJ's lifeless face and reached out with a hand. With a quick motion, Arnold shut the corpse's eyes.

"Even he doesn't deserve to stare into this hell for eternity," Arnold muttered.

"Don't waste your time mourning," the anger inducing voice of the Guardian stated. The trio looked behind them and spotted the shadowy figure standing in front of the prison's front door. Through the shadows they could see his uncaring expression. "It won't do you any good. This body is dead." Lila's face was contorted into an expression of pure fury. She stood up and grabbed the sword at her side, ready to fight this creature to the death.

"This body?" Helga asked which, incredibly, stopped Lila short. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? What is this? Some kind of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' crap?"

"That's closer to the truth than you realize," the Guardian answered. "While he has not stolen any bodies, the body you mourn is merely an empty shell meant to carry the soul to freedom."

"What?" Came Helga's confused query.

"You're telling us that we've been hanging around a hollow shell this whole time?" Arnold shouted.

"Yes and no," the Guardian said. "To explain it… I don't think you would understand."

"Try us," Helga defiantly stated.

"The real body of the one on the ground before you is trapped away in Silent Hill, hidden somewhere in a prison they cannot escape. When one is trapped and unable to even attempt to escape, Silent Hill gives the soul a chance at freedom. It crafts a false body, virtually identical in every way to the original that the soul can use as a vessel to attempt to gain its freedom. Of course, there's a catch. If the soul escapes using an empty vessel the only freedom they find is in death, their soul taken into the arms of any god on the outside… if one even exists. They will, in essence, be the driving force behind their own demise. Admittedly, a preferable option to remaining trapped here. If the body fails and dies, as this one has, another will be crafted somewhere else… and the soul will track it down and inhabit it to begin the cycle anew. The thing is, the memories of the soul are not… perfect. The soul remembers certain things and forgets others. For example, the first time this happened, he forgot how he and Lila became separated and how he caught up to her. He forgot the trauma of his 'death' and proceeded along as if nothing had happened. To make up for the fractured memories, Silent Hill fills the blanks as best it can, but it's nothing solid. It can easily have holes poked into it."

"You mean… the body we found in the hotel…?" Arnold began, feeling an uneasy stirring in his stomach beginning to rise.

"Was his body. One that failed. The one you were familiar with," The Guardian continued. "And the body that saved you from The Order was another crafted one made from Silent Hill's corruption that the soul took for its own, and immediately went to rescue you. Some things remain constant. Others change. This body chose to trust in you, Arnold, and, in the most hilariously horrid way possible, you betrayed him. You could have told him earlier, told him about his parents' fates, and helped him through his grief. Given him new hope, and a new drive to keep moving forward. Instead, you kept it to yourself and let him find out by accident, showing him that you didn't trust him, that you intended on using him and had no intention of helping him. Bravo, Football Head. Bravo. You've proven you have the capability to be as evil as I am." Arnold growled and gripped the handle of his bat so hard his knuckles began to turn white.

"Wait, his real body is trapped here in Silent Hill?" Lila asked, focusing only on one part of The Guardian's rant.

"As alive as you are," The Guardian answered as Silent Hill's siren began to blare, tearing up the world around them. As soon as the world tore up, he pointed to the corpse behind them. The trio turned in time to watch the body begin to shift and turn into a corrupted mess that eventually fell through the grated floors they now stood upon and fell into the endless abyss below. "That mass of corruption will eventually be recreated elsewhere, and his soul will discover it yet again."

"And what if I find his actual body?" Lila probed, her voice steeled and dripping with determination.

"If you can find, and free, his actual body, the soul will return to it and he will continue on his journey through Silent Hill like the rest of you. Remember, though, if you find the original, I cannot say for certain whether or not he will remember you. You may be little more than a dream he had, and he will feel little more than a passing remembrance to you. He may not choose to help you anymore, thinking you suspicious or, in the worst case scenario, more members of The Order that are attempting to trick him."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Lila said.

"Hey! Wait a minute! What about our say?!" Helga shouted.

"We're supposed to be doing this as a team, Lila," Arnold continued.

"And if he does have a corrupted body about and the soul returns to the original, the copy will become an actual monster," The Guardian added, but was soundly ignored by the three.

"I don't care what you have to say, I'm going to save him! He doesn't deserve to rot away here in this ever so horrid HELLHOLE!" Lila roared. "And, pray tell, why should I listen to either of you when the both of you have been ever so horrible to him?! Corrupted body or not, he's still a person like we are! He just wants to be free, same as us! But he shouldn't have to settle for death! I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone." Lila shuddered slightly. "Not even you… mom…" she finished quietly.

"And I think you're nuts!" Helga spat. "If the only freedom he can get from this place is death, than that's unfortunately what we have to work with! Just because you can't cope with the reality of the situation doesn't mean I have to let you drag us down! You wanna rot in this place trying to save someone who can't be saved?! Well GOOD FUCKING LUCK to you! I want no part of it! I want to get out of here and get home!"

"To what, Helga? Your workaholic father and your alcoholic mother who would sooner drop you in the desert than let their golden child cry? Some life you're working toward!" Lila shot back.

"Lila, that was a bit uncalled for," Arnold said, trying to remain diplomatic.

"You have no place to talk, Arnold! You knew something so major, so… important to him, and you were okay with just letting him continue on in ignorance as long as possible?! That's not just wrong, Arnold, it's evil. Is that why you were hiding that paper from him?! So you could use it when we were about to escape?! So that way he couldn't leave and would be trapped here?!"

"I would never do something like that!" Arnold yelled.

"Before all this, I'd have agreed with you," Lila began, "but now, now I don't know what to think. You've changed Arnold." Lila scowled. "You're not the Arnold I know, the Arnold who always did the right thing, no matter what it meant for him. A boy who kept to the truth about a pink haired lady with one eyebrow while the rest of the class turned on you! And not once did you stray from the truth, even when your best friend seemed to not believe you and you were alone! But now you turn your back on someone in need, and why? Because you have a weird feeling?"

"Weird feelings tend to be right, Lila," Arnold defended, his own tone devolving to anger.

"Except when they're not! Your first impression isn't always right!" Lila argued. "Mine certainly wasn't! It wasn't about Helga, or the other girls! They only were nice after they'd already humiliated me! And why?! Because I was the new girl? Because I've had to do for myself? Or just because I was getting more attention from the boys? And what about you! You led me on for weeks, making me think you liked liked me, and only returned the feelings after you already turned me away!" She shook her head. "I'm done here. If you come to your senses, come and find me. Until then, leave me alone." Lila turned around to sprint away but found herself immobilized by barbed wire that had come from nowhere and wrapped around her legs.

"Before you leave," The Guardian started, "look where the corrupted mass was, please." Lila gave The Guardian a confused look before she did as instructed. In the place of the corrupted mass was both AJ's walkie-talkie and his flashlight. She reached down and grabbed them, feeling relief when the barbed wire harmlessly detached itself from her. She gave the figure a quick nod and sprinted off into the darkness of the Otherworld, waiting until she was well away from the group before turning on either device.

"You could've stopped her," Arnold growled. "You could've stopped her, but instead you gave her what she needed and set her off on her own! She could get killed!"

"She can stand on her own, Football Head," Helga grumbled. "Hell, she has everything she needs to put the odds in her favor as best as she can. Why are you against her leaving if all she is going to do is bring back that freaky kid anyway? Let her fail! Let her fail to find him! Or, better, we find whatever body he inhabits and push him out! Get him finished so he leaves and won't be a problem anymore. Sure, he'll be dead but who cares?! He's free!"

"I want nothing to do with him anymore," Arnold sighed. "I'm done with it."

"Oh, why? Because he brings out your darker side?" Helga inquired. "Because he's bringing out a part of you that you'd like to pretend doesn't exist! Or maybe because you've always been this way and now you can't hide it any longer?! At least I'm trying to help the poor kid! It may end up with him dead, but at least he'll have peace away from here! And if I can help him before Lila finds his body…"

"The body will flop over dead, and the soul won't return to it," the Guardian added.

"She'll be forced to continue onward for herself, and she'll do it if she wants to survive and save her father. If we want to save us all, I think we need to save that other kid first." Arnold shook his head.

"If that's what you think needs to be done then you go and do it, Helga," Arnold said. "I already said I'm done with it, and I am. Fuck him. He's been nothing but trouble this whole way through. If we never met him we wouldn't be having this argument right now! Lila wouldn't have left!"

"And you'd never have shown her this uglier side of yourself, right?" Helga asked. "God, you are so transparent, Football Head. You just want to be the hero of this situation. Show Lila how big and strong you are and maybe she'll finally start to like-you like-you as you do her. You've been carrying that torch for her ever since she found that stupid thing I wrote on the wall!" Helga immediately slapped her hands over her mouth.

"Wait, you wrote that?! Why?!" Arnold shouted. "Why would you write… wait, you're behind everything? All of the hurt feelings and all of the pain we've all gone through, it was you! You started this! So where is your place to talk when you're clearly just mad that your stupid plan, whatever it was, didn't work out the way you hoped! Or… did it? Was that what you were hoping?"

"N-No! It wasn't!" Helga denied. And it was the truth. It really was.

"Well, excuse me for not believing you," Arnold spat. Helga growled.

"Fuck you, then," Helga said. "If that's the way you're going to be, and not even give me a chance to explain, who needs you? I'll make my own way through this place, my own way, and I'll do it myself! I've done everything else in life on my own, WHY SHOULD THIS BE ANY DIFFERENT?!" Helga roared as she stomped off into the Otherworld's darkness.

Arnold breathed heavily, now standing alone on the grated streets with only the Guardian for company. He looked in the direction Lila had run off in, then the way in which Helga had stomped off, and finally to The Guardian. For a moment or two, Arnold couldn't speak. His mouth moved but words failed him. Finally he dropped his head.

"This was your plan… all along, wasn't it?" He asked The Guardian.

"Believe what you will, Arnold," The Guardian responded. "You wouldn't believe the truth if I told you."

"Try me," Arnold dared.

"No. No, this was not my plan. But you all need to face all of your inner darkness if you want to be able to escape. This outcome, this was a result of your own actions. Consequences that came from choices made either in ignorance or malice, but consequences nonetheless. Your actions, all of yours, fractured your little group and, if you all cannot come to some sort of understanding, it may very well end with your demise."

"Let it," Arnold said sadly. "I don't care anymore. I miss my Grandma and Grandpa. I miss Gerald. I miss Stinky and Sid, Harold and Rhonda, Phoebe and Nadine, Sheena and Eugene, Mr. Simmons… hell, I even miss Curly. I just want to go home! I want this all to be over."

"And it will be over, as soon as you fight and triumph," The Guardian informed him. "And if you surrender now, you'll never see them again. You'll die here and your soul will join those that failed just the same as you did. Now, if you need a place to start, you still have a paper you need to find in the prison." Arnold was silent.

"Yeah," he spoke after a few minutes. "I do, don't I?" Arnold began to slowly trudge forward and back into the prison, unaware that The Guardian had not disappeared as he usually did and was, in fact, following closely behind him.

Me: And that'll do it.

Rendan: Not the longest chapter.

Zero: But it gets the job done.

Me: Yup! Still trying to write an actual novel too, but I was at least, finally able to get this out. Having two kids really takes away free time. Not complaining, though. Love the little lunatics. They take after their daddy!

Rendan: Dear gods... there's more of him running around!

Zero: Quick to the shelters!

*Everyone runs away*

Me: HAH! I still got it! Anyway, that'll do it for me. Be good and be safe, everyone. I'm outta here!