Play@YSDC

The whimpers seem to grow louder in volume until they're as loud as a person speaking and Jack can recognise the slightly inhuman tenor to them. They're too regular, too strange, to be entirely human. He can almost hear shuffling through the radio static or something similar, moments before there's a loud whack of something slamming against the door behind them, followed by the scrabbling of nails against wood.

"No, it was you, I know it was you." Lily sighs, feeling even more on edge now that she's locked in with this guy. "I don't forget people who stab me. Who's Ash? Did you stab them too?"

She turns to look at the door, then steps back and flattens herself against a wall like it'll make a difference. "What... is that?"

"Darknesss in one's soul," Jack muttered, unlocking the rear door and leaving the bar through it.

The fog-streaked world outside is chilly and with a damp quality to it as he steps outside, blessedly warm within his trench coat. The sky is overcast and grey, vaguely visible through a fog that is only so thick as to partially obscure cars parked on the other side of the road. The town has earned its name with the strange silence that has settled over it but for the mild buzzing in the radio, much reduced now, and the querying meow of the tiny kitten perched awkwardly on Jack's shoulder. As he stands there for a moment, a cool wet droplet hits his temple and slides down his cheek. Rain. Just a drop here and there. It's already formed a pattern on the concrete and asphalt.

"Listen," Jack sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I did those things to you. But I don't remember them. And honestly, I don't care if I did. There must have been a reason."

Jack absent mindedly patted the kitten before heading towards the lake.

"Yeah, there's always a reason for stabbing people," Lily scoffs, following him out. She didn't consider what she'd do if she and Charles got separated. Perhaps she subconsciously assumed he'd always be over her shoulder, despite her tentative plan to get away.

She didn't anticipate being so afraid. Guilty, too - and this isn't even her fault.

"Where is everybody? Isn't this supposed to be a good vacation spot?"

"Stop," Jack said, turning around. "If you want answers to any more questions, you will have to answer mine. One question for one question. Do you understand?"

"...Okay." Lily nods, hurrying to catch up with him. "That sounds fair... I like talking. So ask."

"What is your name?"

"I already told you that I'm Lily, but I guess you wouldn't remember that either." She shrugs. "So I'm going to repeat, where is everyone?"

She's having a little trouble pacing herself. So many questions in her head don't want to keep quiet.

"In Silent Hill," Jack said. "This is also that place... But it is also not."

"Why did you come to this place?"

"I'm newly twenty-one and I begged my brother to let me come here." Lily kicks a stray rock with her shoe, then looks at the kitten. Any guy with a kitten on his shoulder can't be that bad. "I liked the... the otherworldly atmosphere people kept describing, and I wanted to meet interesting people. Make some friends, find true love... yeah, it's pretty stupid."

"So if this both is and isn't Silent Hill, is this some kind of freaky alternate dimension?"

"You came to the right place," Jack said.

"Yes and no. Alternate dimension implies that it is a constant environment that continues to exist without any observers, merely located in a different plane of existence. This is not. This place exists as long as it needs to exist, and then it is gone. This mist will also exist as long as it needs to."

"Your brother, you live with him still? What is he like?"

"Charles is..." Lily sighs, turning the coin over and over in her hand. "Yeah, I still live with him. God, what can I say? He's got a lot of money and a bad temper and some weird tattoos. He lets me stay in his nice house, though, and he lets me paint as much as I want and buys me nice dresses."

"He gets mean sometimes, but I still love him. He's my big brother, how could I not?" She smiles, then lets her face fall into a frown. "I hate the way he looks at me, though. And today's the first time I've been outside in five whole years, if that means anything."

Lily suddenly looks up at Jack, giving him a severe look. "Please don't tell anybody I said any of that."

"But, um, I have a question about Tarot. What does the Devil mean? Or the Demon, or whatever you want to call it. I... know a little, but I don't have the deck memorized."

"A person of money and power: aggressive, controlling, and persuasive. Reminds me of your brother," Jack muttered. He fiddled around with the radio once more. "Do not worry. I will not say what you just told me to anyone else."

"Why do you follow me?"

"Oh, he's not really like that. He's generous and nice and I just forget sometimes. He'd never hurt me, or anything. He loves me." Lily nervously shuffles her feet, looking out at the mist.

"I don't know where else to go. Before, I was following Charles and Rochelle. Now they're gone, so I'm following you." She turns back to him, raising a curious eyebrow. "What's the radio for?"

"I must use it to find Ash," Jack mumbled. "I must find her. She's all I have left."

"But I must warn you," Jack said. "I may not know where your brother and Rochelle is now... But if you follow me, you will most certianly lengthen the time you need to meet them again.

Jack stared at Lily coldly. "If you love him so much, I would suggest that you turn away now."

The lack of a question (at least, an explicit one) makes Lily's mind explode with endless inquiries. "Who is Ash? How much time do I need? What happens if this version of Silent Hill disappears while we're in it? Where are you going? Are you just trying to get me to go away? How is a radio going to help you? How am I supposed to turn away when you say it like that?"

"I mean, you might as well have slapped a DO NOT ENTER sign on a door and expected me to listen!"

"Someone who believes herself to be without love, and that she only has caused pain and suffering in her wake. Recent events has not changed her opinion in the slightest."

Jack turned and began to walk briskly down the street once more. "To need signs and clues to determine your next step is a weakness. You will die by the end of the day."

"What do you mean? Will I die like you or a normal person?" Lily pulls her skirts off the ground and hurries after him. "Or do people who die here just not stay dead? But then what's the cemetery for?"

The cemetery. Walking with Charles and Rochelle. Leaving the car, her luggage, all of her painting supplies... They were going to find the hotel.

"Hey! Do you know where the hotel is? If you tell me, I'll leave you alone!"