overplays | there is a storm in the distance

there is a storm in the distance

[ The rocky shore under his back digs in, hurting even through the thick material of his jacket. When he tries to breathe, he chokes, turns on his side to cough up water onto the rocks. His head's pounding, his throat's sore - he wasn't here a second ago. What happened?

don't be afraid, son.

He pushes himself to sitting, runs hands through damp hair, slicking it back. He's soaked, again, like the first time he'd arrived in Silent Hill. But he'd - he'd been in the underground area. The sacrificial chamber. That thing, and Josh, he'd said his goodbyes -

joshua will be safe

His head's pounding, harder now. It hurts, it hurts and there's just images, bits and pieces that he can't quite fit together. He'd left the chamber, but then what? He'd met with Elle and Wheeler, right? That was the only conclusion that made sense. But there wasn't anything of that in there, there was just dark backgrounds, the feeling of being cold and wet, of fear and dread and hands holding him down.

What happened?

It comes all at once, feels like a physical blow. He remembers being tied up, waking in the old claw-footed tub in his childhood home. Remembers his father walking in, the confusion and disbelief he'd felt at seeing Adam alive. That couldn't have been right. The Bogeyman had cut him in half. Alex had felt the blood on his skin.

don't be afraid, son. your sacrifice will save all of us. joshua will be safe to carry on the family name.

But Josh was dead. Alex had killed him. Right? Or had it all been a delusion, something his guilty conscience cooked up to get him back home, make him face what needed to be done? What had happened? What was real, what this even real or was it a dream, another delusion? Had his father really drowned them right in their own home? Was Shepherd's Glen still safe for another fifty years?

Is he going insane?

He can feel his breath coming short, chest tightening in an oncoming panic attack. He doesn't know what to do, where to go, but he needs to move.

So Alex moves. He stumbles to his feet, moves into the fog-covered streets of Silent Hill. He doesn't want to be back here, but if he's here there must be a reason. Maybe if he looks, he'll find an explanation for what's going on.

(God, he hopes so.) ]

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[the fog is thick as always, distorting shapes in the distance.

as alex moves he'll find that the town is even more barren than usual, no monsters appear in his path, but if he looks close enough he'll notice fleeting shadows, the flick of an image there but gone in an instant.

it's almost as if a calm has fallen over the town but no, calm - isn't the right word. not with the heavy feeling in the air, suffocating and impenetrable. something has descended on silent hill, something that even nightmares and terrors refuse to cross.

what could it be?

yet despite all that, once alex has made enough headway into the town, he'll find a young boy (young, younger than joshua) with a bowlcut and striped shirt, wandering aimlessly.

at least, until he spots alex.

he runs.]

[ The flickering images at the edge of his vision, they only serve to heighten his panic. With everything as it is now he can't be sure of what he's seeing, if he's seeing anything or if it's just his fractured mind playing tricks on him, and he remembers the monsters that lurked here the last time. The dogs, the pendulum-headed monsters, the (mermaids) clawed and blind creatures scraping along the ground. He doesn't have a weapon this time, nothing - no gun, no pipe, not even the knife. He's defenseless if something attacks him, and it's not a good position to be in in Silent Hill.

But then he sees the boy. He knows, even from this distance, that it's not Josh - the kid is shorter, not as lanky. Younger. But still, it's a kid in Silent Hill, and more than that it's a distraction from his panic and aimlessness. Something to focus on.

Clearly, he didn't learn the lesson about the truth of kids in Silent Hill the first time. ]

Hey - hey, wait! I'm not gonna hurt you!

[ Alex gives chase. ]

[the boy leads him deeper into the town, darting down streets and alleyways, until finally he dives down into a crawlspace under a house. he can try all he wants but there's no way to squeeze a full grown adult body under there.

it's then that the door to the house opens with a creak, as if welcoming alex in.]

[ Alex doesn't even try to get into that space - he knows better. He's more likely to just get himself stuck, and like hell he wants that in Silent Hill. He peers under, but he can only see darkness, and calling to the kid doesn't bring any results. He frowns to himself, sits up, brushes dirt off his drying clothing and shivers in the cold. Silent Hill always feels cold, but it's worse now that he's wet.

His head snaps around at the creaking, instantly tense and alert. He watches the door warily as he climbs to his feet, sees it's conveniently ajar. It's always like this, being led down one path or another to the truth, or whatever else is waiting for him. At this point, he knows the game, as much as he hates it.

He takes a breath, fingers fumbling for a knife that isn't there, frown deepening when he remembers his lack of weapons. But he forces himself to shake it off, climb the porch steps and slowly push the door open. He doesn't cross the doorway, not yet, peering carefully around first. If something lunges out, he can at least slam the door shut as a makeshift shield and use the time to run. ]

Hello? Anyone here?

[ This hasn't been anyone's home in a long time. ]

[he's right.

the wallpaper is faded and peeling in the walls of the living room, cobwebs covering windows where shreds of curtains hang. thick layers of dust coat the kitchen table, chairs broken and splintered.

the wind blows in through a gap in the window, producing a faint whistling sound.

pages of newspaper and magazine articles scatter the floor, you'd think a journalist lived here.

the stairs that lead upstairs creak like a pair of aching knees and at the top

sits a man.

hands folded together, his head is bowed, face hidden by a curtain of washed out blonde hair.]

[ ... well. That's.

Not what he was expecting.

He stops when he sees the man, quiet, taking a moment to just observe him. Try to figure out if he's a danger or if he's even, honestly, alive. This is the first stranger Alex has encountered in his travels through Silent Hill, not counting the boy he was chasing, and he doesn't know what to make of the change in routine he's experiencing.

His eyes leave the man to take in the house again, but not for long - no need to take his eyes off a potential threat. That's just asking for trouble. He steps slowly from the doorway, keeping his back to a wall at all times, eyes remaining on the man sitting still, so still, at the top of the stairs. (He can't even see his shoulders move with his breaths. If he's breathing at all.)

Softer now, more cautiously: ]

Sir? Are you okay?

[at first, there's no answer. only silence, stillness that permeates through the rest of the house. until he moves, head lifting up and hair falling away.

the light mounted on the wall between them stays untouched but suddenly flickers on, a soft yellow glow filling the room. it erases the shadows from the man's face, only to highlight the white of his skin, the crinkles, wrinkles, lines of his face from age and when he speaks, his voice is low, serene.]

Hello, Alexander.

[ Alex tenses when the light suddenly turns on, eyes moving to it out of instinct before returning to the man, taking him in again now that he's lifted his head. The pale skin, the lines of age and the stubble along his jaw, the empty -

What.

That's his name. That's his full name. That is a stranger addressing him by his full name. If Alex was tense before, he's nothing sort of a coiled spring now, ready to go off at the slightest provocation. His jaw tightens as his mind races, trying to place if maybe, maybe he's met this man before and the issues with his mind are causing him trouble - but if such is the case, he can't place it.

The man doesn't feel familiar, either. ]

... how do you know my name? Who are you?

[ He wishes he had a weapon. If nothing more than to make him feel a little more steady, prepared. ]

[the man spreads his arms out wide from his spot at the top of the stairs, much like a ruler overlooking his kingdom.]

I am one of the denizens of Silent Hill. We've all heard of your journey, Alexander.

[and he just. disappears. vanishes into thin air.

until alex hears a voice from behind him, speaking right into his ear.]

I'm Walter.

[ He's startled at the disappearance, sure, that's rather unnerving. But when the voice comes in his hear, soft and way too close and suddenly behind him - Alex jumps. If his skin weren't attached to him, muscle, blood and bone, he' would've jumped out of it. He's quick to whirl around, eyes wide and heart racing in his chest as he backs away from the man - Walter - trying to put distance between them.

Not that it's really effective, when apparently he can go wherever he wants without much trouble at all. ]

Wh - what the fuck. [ Every alarm in his head is going off, telling him this man is bad, bad news, that Alex should get away from him ASAP. It's his reptilian brain, hissing at him from the back of his mind, that this man is wrong wrong wrong. He swallows hard, mind going back over the rest of what he said - ] 'Denizen'?

[ People don't live here. Monsters do. ]

Are you unfamiliar with the word?

[he cocks his head, as if they're in the middle of a pleasant conversation on a street corner.]

It means, to call a specific area 'home.' Silent Hill has been my home since the end of my life.

[while he's speaking his last line, he tugs at the collar of his coat and shirt, revealing a scar that travels along his neck, right where the jugular would be. it's faded, aged like the rest of him and then's it's gone when he removes his hand.]

I'm dead.

And so are you.

[those soft simple words leave his lips, curling into a small smile.]

[ The sight of that scar chills him to the bone. It's old, and his mind's whirling, trying to figure out if someone could survive a wound like that - if they got immediate attention, maybe, slim to none - when Walter speaks again. The words, the meaning of them, seem to make the whole world screech to a horrible stop.

And so are you. ]

No, I'm - [ He's still wet. He remembers the bathtub, the freezing water, his father's blurry outline and hands on his shoulders, holding him down. He remembers choking, trying to fight back, get his head above water. He remembers his lungs hurting, the rush of water when he finally tried to breathe, remembers the black encroaching at the edges of his vision.

His head hurts. So does his throat, lungs, chest. He's cold, and he doesn't know when he fell back against the wall for support, when his fingers curled tight enough in his hair to threaten pulling strands out, only that he's somehow there now. ]

I'm not. I'm not dead.

[ There's not as much conviction in his voice as he'd like there to be. ]

Edited 2012-11-26 18:21 (UTC)

Would that be so terrible?

[he steps closer.]

Did you leave a life that fulfilled your every need?

[and closer.]

Did you leave behind a family who loved you?

[he whispers, his words becoming a secret, a prayer.]

Did you even have a family to begin with? Were you alone Alexander, bodies all around you but alone in your mind, kind words from friends meaningless because they weren't your family. Not your mother. Not your father.

[ He doesn't want to hear this. He doesn't want to hear this from a complete stranger, doesn't want to be here, near Walter. But he hears it, even when he screws his eyes shut tight like it'll wake him at any second

were you alone

and be in bed, none of this, not even the initial journey, ever having happened. All just some horrible dream the night before a big test in school. But it's not, he knows it isn't, Josh is dead (no he's not) and he killed the only family who cared for him (no you didn't) and got the town killed (they're all still alive) because he made a terrible mistake (because of your sacrifice).

He knows this isn't a nightmare, but what the fuck part of it is real?

He wants to answer, wants to tell Walter he's wrong. Wants to stand straight, firm, like he (a good soldier) should. But he can't, he can barely even breathe, and all his body wants to do is curl away from the words that seem to hurt just as much as physical blows.

Because they're true. Because a stranger knows so much about everything that hurt. Because a stranger knows that no matter how much he talked to Elle, every night he went back to a house that was cold aside from his room, aside from Joshua.

Finally, he finds his voice. Even if it's just for one word, even if it shakes. ]

Stop.

[walter leans in close, ignores his curled in posture, the weakness to his voice.]

What would you do, for a family?

[the prayer like quality to his words is back, stressing the word family, as if it is something sacred, something to go down on your knees for.]

[ For a second he misses a letter. He knows he'd do anything for family. Would have saved his parents if he could, would have kept Josh from falling, would never have taken him out on the lake that night. (Did that all happen?) For a family, to have one, one that cares for him, means something...

It's family that gives Alex conviction, no matter how broken his own may be. The idea that comes into his head at Walter's words has him lifting him head, jaw set tight and eyes sharp, the pain and fracturing that was there a second ago mostly gone now. His voice is steady when he responds. ]

I'd never replace what I have.

[ His father and mother, they had loved him, even if circumstances didn't allow them to show it. He'd seen it in their last moments, in their pain and anguish. (Did it even happen?) And even without that, Alex has Josh, who he'd never give up. Never replace. Ever.

He doesn't need whatever Walter's offering. Nothing good comes of Silent Hill or those who reside in it. ]

[for once the smile breaks, coming into something close to a smirk. what an interesting boy.]

Have? Are they here?

[or is he all alone, with no one and nothing. you know what they say. you can't take it with you.]

Edited 2012-11-26 18:58 (UTC)

[ The question doesn't make him falter. He simply shakes his head, admits to the truth: ]

No, they're not. [ He straightens up, gaining more confidence, getting his feet back under him, so to speak. ] Better that way. Silent Hill's screwed us up enough. If I had to die -

[ Did he die? Did Adam actually kill him?

Would if be better if he did?

Save the town for another fifty years. Maybe they could use that time to figure out another way, some way to escape the touch of this place, the pact the founders had made with Silent Hill's god when they fled.

But the town was built on, protected by blood and corpses. What would happen when it came time for Josh to carry out his duty? Alex can't help shuddering at the thought, eyes sliding shut as he takes his head, mind whirling with arguments and counter-arguments. (If the town is safe - For how long? Does it justify what they did? To Scarlet, to Joey, Nora?

To you?

-

Am I even dead?)

He doesn't finish the sentence, eyes shutting tight again against the pounding in his head, his temples, pressing the heel of his hand to one of his eyes. There's too much to consider, too much to take in that he feels like even if he had forever he couldn't being to grasp the gravity of it all, or what the right answer might be. ]

You're confused.

Why don't we talk later?

[without giving him a chance to respond walter disappears once again.]

[gone is the mysterious man, leaving the house silent, save for the wind. it whistles through the crack of the window fondly, trying in vain to get in.]

...huh?

[moments later a tiny voice speaks out, hiding behind a chair in the living room a few feet away from the front door.]

You're the stranger.

[ Alex opens his eyes in time to see Walter disappear, not sure how to feel about the development. Sure, he hadn't been around Walter, but at the same time... at the same time, he didn't want to be alone. Alone, stuck with nothing but the sounds of an old, lifeless house and the thoughts that he can't make heads or tails of.

He stands in the silence, stares at some point on the wall without really seeing it, trying to keep his mind quiet - and then he hears the voice. He turns his head, shifts to get a better look, sees the boy he was chasing earlier. ]

I - yeah, I am. [ He pauses then, moves to kneel down, but doesn't get any closer. Maybe he'll seem less threatening this way. ] My name's Alex. Who're you?

[the little boy brings a hand up to his mouth in serious thought.]

You're not bad?

[the child asks in all sincerity. there's also an unspoken implication to his tone. if you are, i'm not telling.]

[ The question gets a small smile from Alex, one that's gentle and kind from experience with his brother, with children younger than him. He shakes his head, settles to sit on the floor instead of crouching. ]

Nope. I fight bad people.

[his answer must be good enough, because after pondering for a moment the boy nods and moves out slowly from behind the chair.]

Everyone calls me Walter, Walter Sullivan.

I've never seen you before.

[ Walter.

The name's common enough. But he just met a Walter, and blond hair and blue eyes... A common combination, but Alex can't help wondering, even if the possibility seems insane. (This is Silent Hill.) He doesn't know what to think.

He's quick to get the surprise off his face, though, shrugging at the comment. ] I don't come here often. [ True enough, and truer than saying he's new. ] I live across the lake from here. Ever heard of Shepherd's Glen?

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