Murray's Journey: Revelations

[Laraqua]

"You come all this way and you still don't know the first thing about me," she said, sounding weary. "Didn't you even try to visit my mother? To learn why I might be here? To learn where I might go?" Her voice turns suddenly angry and she says with viciousness in her voice, "You didn't even try, did you?!"

[Mr. Handy]

"I did try," says Murray. "I visited her in Shepherd's Glen before I came here. First thing I did. She pretended to be someone else and claimed Mrs. Whittleby no longer lived there, but I saw through her. She shut the door and locked me out. I called her phone and got her machine, which proved who she was. I got her to pick up the phone, but she yelled at me and insisted she hadn't seen you in twenty years before she slammed down the phone."

[Laraqua]

"She called me, I swear," she said, voice hoarse. "They have ways of calling you here."

[Mr. Handy]

"I believe you," says Murray. "I've gotten some unusual phone calls here myself." Case in point, he thinks, looking at the phone in front of him. "Can you please explain what the deal is with this place and why you came here? If you want to talk, I'm here to listen."

[Laraqua]

"I came here to accept my fate and be free," she said softly. "I've been running for so long..."

[Mr. Handy]

"Your fate?" asks Murray, confused. "What do you mean?"

[Laraqua]

"We always hated this town ... Silent Hill ... but we wanted the same strength it provided the others on Toluca Lake," she said softly. "But then one failed to do what was needed and the whole town just went down. Everything ... we lost everything. I thought I could get away but the dreams ... the dreams kept calling me back ... then you ... then Jack ... but it was all your snooping and your lies that decided it for me. I had to leave. I had to come home." Her voice becomes twisted, enraged. "You told me ... you told me to go home! Well, I have something for you ... a gift ... in the very next room you can make yourself at home!"

[Mr. Handy]

It really was my fault! thinks Murray, the revelation weighing on his heart. "I'm sorry, Ash," he says. "I didn't know, I didn't understand. I'd meant for you to go back to your family in San Francisco, not here. I'd never even heard of Silent Hill. What happened here? What was it that needed to be done? Where are you now, Ash? I'll come find you."

[Laraqua]

"You'll come find me?" Her voice breaks. "That's what they always promise ... isn't it? Dreams of a brighter future. Of a tomorrow. You think they really mean it, this time, but they can't ... everyone has their own little words and they can't ever hear you. I - I wish it weren't true but no one ... no one ... ever heard me."

[Mr. Handy]

"I can hear you now," says Murray, "and I do mean it. If it's at all within my power, I'll find you. That's why I came here in the first place. You've got a little girl who misses her mommy, and I intend to see to it that you two are reunited."

[Laraqua]

"There are no guarantees in this world. But I believe you will try." She sounds tired. So very, very tired.

Murray hears her replace the phone back in its cradle and the familiar beeping sound of a telephone call abruptly ended can be heard coming down the line.

[Mr. Handy]

Murray hangs up the receiver and moves to the door and the paintings to get a closer look at them. On a hunch, he takes out his camera and points the lens at the hole in the door, then peers through the camera at the hole.

[Laraqua]

There seems to be some kind of mechanism further inside the hole. Something metallic glints around the edges.

[Mr. Handy]

Murray tries to use his camera's light to enhance the image and get a better look at the mechanism.

[Laraqua]

Photograph skill to work the lights just right.

[Mr. Handy]

Murray adjusts the light as best he can, but the image is a little blurry.

[Laraqua]

The mechanism seems to be some kind of switch at the edge of where the hole broads out into the other side.

[Mr. Handy]

Well, I'm not sticking my hand in there, thinks Murray. He digs through his pockets looking for a piece of string he can use, planning to tie one end into a loop so he can snag the switch and pull it from what he hopes is a safe distance.

[Laraqua]

There may be some package twine at the post office. There isn't any string in his pockets. He does have shoe laces but it's probably best not to use those unless pressed.

[Mr. Handy]

Murray creeps back upstairs to look for some twine.