CHAPTER ONE: Cecilia: Checking In

[Kadael]

A residential area? Cecilia frowns. That doesn't seem right. She heads back to the nearest intersection and turns right instead.

While she's walking, she talks softly to the kitten, keeping her hand in her pocket.

"Katie's going to love you. She came back to the house once gushing about kittens. One of Nathan and Keith's neighbors had just adopted one from a shelter..."

It fills the silence, at least.

[Laraqua]

Cecilia is on the current intersection and crossing the street finds herself on another long road with a crater on the right-hand side and a surviving sidewalk on the left-hand side. It's impossible to see what's on the other side of that crater through the gloom.

[Kadael]

This is oddly familiar, but she walks along the left sidewalk eventually. Too many holes in this town. That's one advantage of being on foot, at least.

"...need a litter box and some food, and a tag if you want to be an outdoor cat. The backyard's pretty safe... and she'll want to give you a name. The vet can tell us if you're a boy or girl kitty..."

[Laraqua]

The kitten licks at her finger and nibbles on it, its fluffy paws wrapped around her hand, softly batting at it, without a care in the world. The crater gives way to jutting out asphalt and crumbled stone and then back to smooth asphalt on the other side. The rain continues to spit down on her, leaving her damp and miserable, though somehow the woolen coat protects the kitten and everything within her pockets from that same fate. She could provide comfort and succor to the kitten but she would get none while she was out of these streets. She could try to see what is on the other side of the road or she could simply continue on ahead down this long, long road.

[Kadael]

"...nice to have you around. I just wonder what you were doing with Jack. Did Ash leave you with him, maybe?"

She pauses in her rambling to try and see what's on the other side of the street. Maybe she's going in the right direction?

[Laraqua]

The other side of the street remains a mystery to her, draped in shadows and gloom.

[Kadael]

Unsatisfied, but driven by a need to keep going, Cecilia continues down the long stretch of road.

[Laraqua]

There's another intersection which branches left and straight ahead from what she can tell, though it might be a cross roads, she couldn't tell without turning right and crossing the road. It's been about twenty minutes or so steadily wandering the streets and yet she still hasn't come across anything. Maybe it is safe. Maybe there's nothing to worry about. Or maybe she's just been lucky. It's impossible to say. There's been no sign of people, unless they're hunkering down in their shops, and the few cars she's spotted have been parked along the side of the road, not generally abandoned along the middle of it.

[Kadael]

Cecilia turns right, crosses the street, and continues on.

[Laraqua]

Galaxy. Loggia. A-Market. These are the stores she passes as she heads along down the other sidewalk and she can vaguely make out a police car with its boot popped that's parked in the middle of the road. The entire street is so still and quiet like she is the only one left. Perhaps she is all alone? Perhaps there is no one left? There's a right turn in front of her, though she could always investigate the car, or take a look on the other side of the street.

[Kadael]

Cecilia takes a curious look at the car's trunk. Was it abandoned? Is someone coming back for it?

[Laraqua]

The police car boot contains little more than a blood-stained rag, three shotgun shells, and an energy drink. However, a half dozen notes scrawled across police crime scene forms lie scattered across the asphalt, slowly growing more damp from the rain drops. It's odd, though. They should already be soaked through but it's as though only now are they being rained upon. Now she's in the middle of the street, she can vaguely make out the ominous shape of the Silent Hill Police Station just across the road.

[Kadael]

She takes the shotgun shells and puts them into a pocket. It's probably paranoia-driven more than anything else, since she hasn't shot anything yet.

Then she takes the right turn. Maybe she's close now. Maybe.

[Laraqua]

Son Corp (legal firm? advertising?). 386 (recording studio?). Salmon (clothing shop). Hot Dog (clothing shop). Koontz Street intersection. The sidewalk to the right brushes up against a chasm. She could follow that sidewalk, continue on straight across the road, or go left and see what lies down that undamaged street. The rain runs into her eyes like tears, starting to blur her vision, and no matter how hard she tries to block them, they keep slipping around her fingers and into her eyes to streak down her cheeks like she's crying.

[Kadael]

A drop of rain slithers down her neck, its touch like ice. The water tastes oddly like salt, but her eyes don't sting.

It's unforgiving as the ocean.

Cecilia heads left, grateful for the tiny ball of warmth in her pocket.

[Laraqua]

Dai Dai Restaurant. Sue Nail. Cafe Sun. Simmons Street heads left. There may be another road turning right. Who can tell? This is a short road. The blocks are more inter-cut with roads here.

[Kadael]

Cecilia will head right at the first available opportunity. If there isn't one, she'll just go left on Simmons Street.

Dai Dai Restaurant. That must create some interesting awkwardness in conversations.

[Laraqua]

Cecilia crosses the street to see if there is a chance to cross the road at any point here and finds herself looking at the intersection of Canyon Street. Funnily enough, this is one of those stupid cross roads that aren't. The vertical Canyon Street ended in a T-intersection right next to the T-intersection that is Simmons Street, meaning any car that wanted to get from Canyon Street onto Simmons Street must stop at the intersection, cross, and then get quickly into the proper lane to turn left.

It's such a long walk. How long has it been since she's seen Katie? How long will it take? The icy coldness bites into her heart as her legs begin to tire. Even in sneakers, there's only so far she can walk...

She starts down the left sidewalk of Canyon Street, following a chasm that whips across the asphalt for a dozen or so yards before she comes along a long telephone pole that has dropped from the sidewalk to hang across the void. It doesn't seem to be dipping down at all, despite the fact that it's not longer attached to the concrete sidewalk, and yet it seems perfectly solid. It must have landed on the other side of the chasm and is being held there by some more land.

[Kadael]

Cecilia blinks at the telephone pole, sighs, and steps carefully around it. The kitten doesn't seem warm anymore, and the rain continues to fall.

Like a spray of seawater on her face.

She tries to plan what she'll do once she and Katie get back to Waterville. Maybe they can pretend that all of this never happened.

Unlikely.

[Laraqua]

The road is long and ends at another T-Intersection onto Midway Avenue with the chasm floating around to the right, though assumedly she could follow the sidewalk past it should she choose.

Otherwise, she can always go left.