Post 17: My Brother, My Protector

“So we have less then five days to get that thing out of Avril.” Vehement sighed, resting his head in his hands.

“To find out how to you mean.” I said, leaning on Vehement’s shoulder.

“No, we already know how to get rid of it.” Bitter rummaged in his bag and pulled out a notebook, before flipping to a page that was covered with handwriting. “There is a plant called Aglaophotis. When crushed into a liquid and applied to someone it expels demons.”

“Only one problem.” Vehement told me, wrapping a hand around my shoulders. “We don’t know where we can get any...”

Bitter was flipping through his notebook when I thought of something. “Why did Vehement feel pain?” Bitter and Vehement both looked over at me. “When the... the birth pains started... Vehement felt pain when I did.”

“Twins are supposed to have some sort of bond.” Vehement suggested, looking over at Bitter, as if for conformation. “Perhaps that bond is responsible?”

“It’s possible, but for some reason I think Dahlia would have stopped it from doing so... she thinks I’m the devil and probably thinks your one of my demons.” Bitter said, looking up from his notebook.

“What about that dream you had?” I asked Vehement.

“What dream?” Bitter leaned forward, suddenly interested.

“I dreamed that someone was hurting Avril, and I went in shielded her with my body.” Vehement explained.

“That explains it.” Bitter sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Vehement tried to protect you from Dahlia... and because of that you are only carrying half of the God.” He pointed to Vehement. “The other half is inside your brother... and that might stop the God from ever being born!”

To Be Continued

Post 16: Mother of God?

I cried out in pain, wrapping my hands around my stomach as the world seemed to spin and my eyes closed. The pain lasted for perhaps a minuted before finally dimming and going away. I opened my eyes to find Vehement lying on the floor next to me, with Bitter kneeling next to him.
My brother was pale, and sweat dripped down his face. He needed help from Bitter to stand. “Vehement...” I whispered, moving over and holding his hand. “Dad, what’s happening to him?”

“I... I don’t know.” Bitter admitted, helping Vehement to sit in one of the less damaged chairs. “It doesn’t make any sense... you’re the one chosen to be the Mother of God...”

“What does that mean? I...I still don’t understand.”

“Rachel someone contacted Dahlia.” Vehement explained, the color slowly returning to his face. “And Dahlia chose to use you in her latest attempt to give her God life.”

“The pain you felt is... well the equivalent of going into labor.” Bitter explained, rummaging in a bag that I hadn’t noticed before and pulling out a bottle of water, which he gave to Vehement and me.

“How long before....” I gulp, trying to calm myself down. “...before...”

“It’s born?” Vehement asked, finishing my sentence.

“I... I don’t know.” Bitter sighed. “From what I know of the other times they’ve tried to give the God life....”

“With Alessa it took over seven years...” Vehement noted.

“But she never had birth pains... or at least we don’t think she did...”

“What about Heather?” Vehement asked, tossing the now empty water bottle over his shoulder.

“Five days at the most.”

To Be Continued

Post 15: An Explanation

“No...” I whispered. “Rachel just decided to take us out here... all I know is that this is Silent Hill and it’s where Rachel grew up and you two met.”

“Silent Hill was once a normal town, a town that just happened to have it’s own religious cult, called the Order... everything was normal, or as normal as is possible, until Dahlia Gillespie—”

“The woman from the Church.” Vehement reminded me.

“... Dahlia Gillespie decided that the time had come for the Cult’s God to be born.” Bitter sighed. “She locked her daughter, Alessa, into a room and set fire to the building. Alessa was horribly burned, and it was only because of the cult’s magic that she survived...”

“To make a long story short, Dahlia managed to use Alessa to birth her god, but it was destroyed and she was killed.” Vehement took over the story. “Several years later another member of the Cult tried to give the God birth... with similar results.”

“But how does this affect us?” I asked, noticing that Bitter was staring at my eyepatch out of the corner of his eyes.

“Rachel’s parents were members of the Order...Rachel joined the Order shortly before I came to Silent Hill.” Bitter sighed and shook his head. “I took her away to prevent this from happening... but somehow she learned of the attempts to birth God... Rachel must have decided that she could be the one to succeed where the others had failed.”

“So Mom’s going to try and birth God?” I asked, trying not to laugh at the idea. Before either Vehement or Bitter could respond a sudeenly sharp pain shot through me, centering around my stomach.

I cried out in pain and fell to the floor. Vehement and Bitter stood to come and help me, when the same thing happened to Vehement. Bitter seemed torn between the two of us, but as we withered in pain, he seemed to understand what was happening.

“Rachel isn’t going to be the Mother of God...” he looked down at me, horror in his eyes. “You are...”

To Be Continued

Post 14: First Meeting

The bridge seemed unnaturally long, and as we crossed it a cold wind started to blow. I pulled my jacket tighter around me as the other side of the river came into view. Ahead of us on the left was the Police Station, which had a bright light burning it’s front windows.

Seeing this, Vehement and I stepped up the pace, jogging through the empty streets until we reached the Police Station. In fort of us the door opened and there, standing in the light, was a man that I’d only seen in old pictures and dreams.

“Dad.” I whispered, standing in front of him, just looking at my Father.

“Hi Avril.” He smiled and gestured for us to come in. As I followed Vehement and Bitter into the Police Station I noticed that Bitter was carrying a long metal pipe and had a knife, similar to Vehement’s, attached to his belt.

Bitter closed the door to the Police Station behind him and used the pipe to make sure it would stay closed. “We ran into Dahlia.” Vehement said and Bitter froze for a second, before seeming to shake it off.

“Where?” he asked, pulling out an old desk chair and sitting down. I did the same, while Vehement leaned against a desk.

“Balkan Church... she did something to us.” Vehement sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Want to explain why she’s even here? I thought you said that Alessa killed her...”

“Mother is God in the eyes of a child.” Bitter said, sounding as if he was quoting something. “No matter what Dahlia did to Alessa, she is still Alessa’s mother.”

“So Alessa didn’t really kill her?” Vehement asked, raising one eyebrow.

“No, Alessa killed her.” Bitter pulled out his knife and began to twirl it around in his hands. “But she didn’t destroy her... some part of Dahlia lingers in this town, and Rachel’s faith gives that part of Dahlia power.” Suddenly Bitter turned to look at me. “You don’t understand what’s going on... do you?”

To Be Continued

Post 13: Across the River

The moment the fog touched my skin I found myself floating in a sea of black, with complete silence. I was alone there, and felt as if I was being violated in some way, but could feel nothing... I do not know how long I hung there, suspended between reality and dream.

Without anything helping awaken me, my eyes shot open. I was lying on a pew in the Church, Vehement was kneeling next to me, his jacket serving as a pillow for my head. “What happened?” I asked, slowly sitting up and handing Vehement his jacket back.

“I don’t know... I blacked out, but I came to before you did.”

“How long was I out?” I stretched, trying to get the kinks out of my body.

“I don’t know... it’s impossible to tell time here.” Vehement sighed. “And before you ask, I have no idea what that fog was...or what it did to us.” He quickly looked me over. “I had this weird dream while it was happening...”

“Really?” I asked, blinking. “I just dreamed about floating in black space.”

“Well... I dreamed that you were being hurt by someone and I took your place... getting hurt so you wouldn’t.” Vehement explained as he helped me to my feet. “We better get started, Bitter will worry if we don’t show up at the Police Station.”

Vehement and I left the church, me with my gun drawn, him with his knife out and ready to attack. Making sure we were listening to the radio we walked down Bloch St and started across the bridge to Central Silent Hill where, we hoped, Bitter was waiting for us.

As we walked my stomach twisted around inside of me and I had to fight back the urge to throw up... several times I would turn around, thinking something was behind me, but there was never anything there.

To Be Continued

Post 12: Third Time’s The Charm

“You must be the spawn of Bitter.” Dahlia spat and a shiver went down my back. “But you...” she looked at me and smiled. “You are the daughter of Rachel... she’s done well in brining you here.”

“What do you want with her?” Vehement practically growled as he shifted so that he was in front of me.

“My dear Avril, you have been chosen for the highest honor...” Dahlia spread her arms out and smiled again. “You have been chosen to birth God.”

“What?” I asked, raising one eyebrow as Vehement stiffened.

“You already tired to give your God life... twice you tried and twice you failed.” Vehement hissed.

Before I could ask what Vehement was talking about, static poured out of the radio as a strange wind started to play with Dahlia’s cloths. I reached over and grabbed by brother’s hand, squeezing it tightly...

“Now is the time for our God’s conception...” Dahlia whispered before raising her hand to point at me and muttering something to herself... as she did this the air behind her seemed to firm, the fog condensing into a deep black something. Vehement quickly wrapped his arm around me and held me close to his side as we stared at the black fog.

I couldn’t stop myself from screaming as the thick black fog rushed towards us.

To Be Continued

Post 11: Something Wicked This Way Comes

I lowered the gun slowly before putting it back in my pocket. “How...why are you here?” I asked, stepping closer to my twin brother.

“Our father, Bitter, was tracking you down. He got to your house but...”

“We’d already left.” I sighed and went to sit down on a pew, Vehement joined me.

“Right. He figured that Rachel ran back to Silent Hill and we came to find you.” Vehement explained.

“Bitter is here?” I asked, looking over at my twin brother.

“Yes... but I lost him when we entered the town. We were attacked by a monster and had to split up.” Vehement sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m supposed to meet him at the Police Station...but I can’t find it.”

I pulled out the map. “I don’t see a Police Station on the map...” Vehement reached over and took the map from me.

“I think I know why. You’ve got a map of Old Silent Hill....” He pulled out another map from a pocket in his jacket. “...and this is a map of Central Silent Hill.”


“We’re in Balkan Church in Old Silent Hill...” I smiled as I saw how the two maps fit together.

“And the Police Station is in Central Silent Hill.” Vehement finished. “We just have to cross this bridge.”

Suddenly the door to the church slammed open. Vehement and I both stood up at the same time and turned to face the door.

“The faithful must gather in judgement for we are called to purify this filth.”

Standing in the doorway was a old woman, with grey hair. She wore faded black clothing that looked like a nun’s habit. My hand slowly moved towards my gun as Vehement’s hand slowly moved towards a knife that hung from his belt.

“We shall restore innocence, for once again we are locked in battle with the forces of evil.”

“Who are you?” I asked, raising my gun so that the woman could see it.

“Her name is Dahlia Gillespie.” Vehement whispered. “She’s the reason Bitter made Rachel leave Silent Hill.”

To Be Continued

Post 10: Vehement

Without quite knowing why, I ran down the stairs and out of the house, before heading towards the Church, where the bell was still ringing... however the moment I came within sight of the building the ringing stopped and dead silence returned, without even the radio’s static. I slowly took out my gun and held it ready, before pushing the door of the church open and stepping inside.

Most of the church was dimly lit by candles and incense burners. However there was a light directly above me, which illuminated the entrance to the church and a light which shone on the crucified Christ that hung on the wall above the alter.

Before I could move another step I realized someone was standing in the darkness in front of me and this someone was walking towards me.

“Hello Avril.” the person spoke, revealing it was a guy.

“Who...who are you?” I asked, pointing the gun at him. Although his features were cloaked in darkness I could tell that he had stopped and put his arms up.

“I don’t want to hurt you. I’m here to help you.” He pleaded.

“Then tell me your name.” I ordered, placing both hands on the gun.

“I go by the name of Vehement.” He explained, before stepping forward into the light. “But my real name is James Callaghan.”

I froze and stared at him. “Callaghan?” I whispered.

“Yes, Callaghan.” Vehement told me. “I’m your younger.. your younger twin.”

To Be Continued

Post 9: Dahlia Gillespie

I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. I took a deep breath and started to read it.


I sighed after reading the letter. It would appear, at first glance, that my mother had taken a turn for the worse, sanity wise. Return of Paradise? Bitter hiding Silent Hill’s location from Rachel?

But who was this Dahlia Gillespie? In all my mother’s stories about Silent Hill she had never mentioned anyone who went by that name... actually, thinking back on the stories she’d told me, the only name mentioned was her own and my fathers. She never talked of childhood friends or neighbors...

“Mom, what were you hiding?” I whispered, looking around the room. First the birth certificate, now this religious nonsense? It was easy to see why my father wanted to take me away from Rachel...

I was suddenly drawn out of my thoughts by the sound of a church bell, ringing as if someone was getting married and wanted the whole world to know.

TO BE CONTINUED

Post 8: Home

I folded my birth certificate and put it into my backpack, my hands shaking slightly from the shock. I didn’t know if I should believe the paper or not... it seemed like my mother would have told me that I had a twin...

Shrugging I stood and continued towards the X on the map. The streets I was walking now were lined with Houses, and old trees whose limbs stretched out over the street. I felt a chill spread over me as I stopped in front of the house which, on the map, was marked with a X.

The house didn’t stand out from all the others on the street... it looked the same, from it’s build to the amount of decay it had experienced. However, when I walked up to the door, it wasn’t locked.

I stepped inside the house and waited for my eyes to adjust. I was standing in what appeared to be the living room. Their was a large window which looked out on to the street and across from this window was a wall with several framed photographs hung on it. Curious, I went over to the wall and looked at the pictures.

Most of the pictures showed a couple and a young girl with blond hair... However the large picture in the middle was of a wedding. The young girl from the other pictures was maybe 18 years old and standing next to a man with white hair... Printed in gold on the bottom of the picture was “Rachel and Tom Callaghan” in elegant letters.

“Mom!” I called out, leaving the living room and going further in to the house. “Mom are you here?”

No one answered me and there was no one downstairs... pulling a small flashlight out of my bag, I started to climb the stairs. The first room upstairs that I entered was done in shades of white and had a religious painting of what I guessed was the Virgin Mary on the wall as well as several landscape paintings. Somehow I just knew that this was my mother’s room.

Slowly I gravitated over to her desk, where a piece of paper and an envelope lay. The envelope simply read “Dahlia Gillespie” with no address underneath.

To Be Continued

Post 7: Family?

The streets of Silent Hill were deserted, save for a couple more monsters, which I avoided. They were easy enough to run from, provided that I payed attention to the radio and kept my cool.

At first I thought that it was snowing, but then I caught a few flakes on my hand and saw that it was ash... but the air was filled with smoke and I couldn’t smell a fire.

The town seemed to have been deserted in a hurry. Several cars sat in the street, with their doors open and keys still in the ignition. However there was nothing that would tell me why Silent Hill had been abandoned. There were no burnt buildings, no cracks from an earthquake or any other sign of disaster, natural or otherwise. The town looked normal, apart from the monsters and fog.

Avril...

I turned quickly to look behind me and froze. I could have sworn I’d heard someone call my name, but there wasn’t anyone there... not even a monster. “Mom?” I asked, looking around for some sign of life.

Lying on the ground in front of me, where only seconds before had been bare asphalt, was a piece of paper. Slowly I walked over to the paper and knelt down next to it, before reading it.

My birth certificate? What was my birth certificate doing here? My mother had never shown it to me, claiming that she left it with Bitter when she ran away... but here it was.

Suddenly I noticed a small part of the certificate that didn’t make sense... or at least didn’t match up with my mother’s stories.

My mother had always told me I was the only child she'd given birth to... But what if I was just the one she'd decided to take?

To Be Continued

Post 6: Fight or Flight?

The creature seemed to look around itself and I slowly reached out for the gun, which I’d set down on the table upon discovering the map. My heart raced and I was afraid that somehow the monster would hear it....

I closed my hand around the gun and slowly raised it, aiming at the monster’s head. The world seemed to shift, to come into sharper focus and what little sound remained (my breathing, my heart beating, the static of the radio and the creatures’ pants) faded away.

I pulled the trigger.

The gun shot seemed as loud as a bomb. It wasn’t until a few seconds afterwards that I realized the monster was dead and lying on the ground, it’s head broken open and blood pouring out on to the ground.

Very slowly I removed my finger from the trigger and put the gun into a pocket. I tried to calm my racing heart and understand exactly what it was I’d seen... and what it meant about this town.

My mother had made Silent Hill seem like Heaven. She’d cried whenever she was reminded of her inability to return to her hometown. Now I was standing in Silent Hill and I’d just seen and killed a monster. A thing that should have only existed in nightmares, but had somehow been right in front of me.

It was then that I noticed that the radio had stopped spitting out static... in fact it had stopped at the exact moment the creature died. Deciding to simply add this to my long list of questions, I dug out the map I’d found.

“Nothing better to do.” I sighed, finding the Café on the map and figuring out how to get to the X. “Mom, you’ve got a lot to explain...”

Making sure I could access the gun and putting the map where I could easily access it, I left the Café and started down the street.

To Be Continued

Post 5: More Questions, No Answers

I stared down at the letter, trying to make sense of it all. Just the idea that my father wanted to find me... All these years my mother had been telling me that Bitter wanted nothing to do with me. She’d told me that he wouldn’t care for me, even if she died. And now I knew that she’d been lying. Bitter had wanted me back. He wanted to bring me home...

But why did my father, Tom Callaghan, go by the name of Bitter? I’d always thought that Bitter was a “nickname” of sorts that my mother had given him. But here was the proof that he actually went by that name! But why should he?

It was just the first in a long list of questions the letter had given me to think over. “That’s just great.” I whispered before picking up the letter and folding it. I was about to put it into the pocket where my radio was, I noticed that another piece of paper was on the table.

It was a tourist map. “Old Silent Hill.” I read aloud, before noticing that someone had drawn on the map. Did Mom do this? I wondered.


Before I could do anything else, my radio blared to life, spitting out static. I growled in annoyance and was about to try and turn the radio when I happened to look outside.

Stumbling down the street was... well at first glance I thought it was a man. He seemed to be wearing cloths of grey cloth, which were covered with blood. His arms seemed to be tied behind his back, as if he wore a straight jacket, and he walked with his legs bent inwards.

I was about to go our and try and help him, when I noticed his face. The...the thing had no eyes, just flat expanses of skin over where the eyes should have been and it’s nose was flat, with two slits, like a snakes.

Before I could scream, it opened it’s mouth, revealing decaying teeth and long blue grey tongue. From it’s open mouth came a horrible high pitched scream that hurt my ears, bringing tears to my eyes. I bit my tongue to hold back a scream, not wanting the creature to hear me.

To Be Continued

Post 4: My Father?

Gun in hand, I jumped back over the counter and was put the bullets into my backpack. I was about to leave when I saw a scarp of paper sitting on the table opposite from me. Curious, I went over to and looked down at the paper... it was a letter, the letter addressed to my mother.


So this was why my mother made us run, this was why we were back here, in Silent Hill

To Be Continued

Post 3: Café 5 to 2

In front of my eyes, the mist seemed to part, like curtains opening at the start of a play. I was standing in the middle of an intersection. As I kept walking, I noticed a small café on my left. Thinking I might find someone who had seen my mother, I went into the café, slipping the now silent radio into a pocket on my jacket.

The place was empty, and appeared to have been abandoned for some time. Several signs, most of which were two seconds away from falling down identified the place as Café 5 to 2

“That’s where I saw Bitter for the first time. It was summer, I’d taken a job at the Café 5 to 2 as a waitress. No one visited Silent Hill in those days, we were a small community and we kept to ourselves, but on that day a car pulled up outside the Café. It was an old pick up truck, with several bags in the back and peeling red paint. Out stepped a young man with white hair.”

My mother had met my father in this café... this was where they’d talked, where Bitter had seduced her and taken away her purity —or at least that was the way she thought of it. I could almost see my parents, in their younger forms, sitting in this café. My father was the dangerous stranger from the outside world, while my mother was the obedient child from the town.

I dropped my bag on the table and hopped over the counter of the café, hoping to find something that would tell me where my mother had gone. There was a lot of trash behind the counter, mostly old slips with orders printed on them and broken plates. I bent down to look in the cupboards behind th counter and froze.

Sitting there was a handgun, with two boxes of bullets. With shaking hands I took the weapon and inspected it... while everything else in the café was covered in a fine layer of dust, this gun looked as if it had been set down only a few minutes ago. I remembered how I’d felt out on the street... like someone, or something, was watching me and decided to pick up the gun and the bullets... just in case.

To Be Continued

Post 2: Welcome to Silent Hill

We drove for four days straight. Rachel never stopped to sleep and would only stop for food if I begged her to. On the fourth day we turned off the main roads and started to climb upwards, making our way along clear mountain streams and steep cliffs.

I was half asleep when the car suddenly stopped. Rachel’s hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly and she was looking straight ahead, as if in a trance. The land around us was obscured in thick mist, but otherwise looked normal, if creepy.

“Mom, what is it?” I asked, looking out my window.

“I... I finally found it.” Rachel whispered, tears running down her face. Suddenly she opened her door and stepped outside, smiling before running off into the fog.

“Mom!” I yelled, jumping out of the car. “Mom! Stop!”

But she didn’t stop. She just kept running and vanished into the mist. I stood there for several seconds, before deciding to go after her. Stopping only to grab my backpack, I took off into the mist, following my wayward mother.

As I got father away from the car, the mist started to get heavier and more ominous. I stuck to the middle of the road, but through the mist I could see the land around me was starting to flatten out. In front of me there was a wooden sign on the side of the road. I froze when I saw the words written upon the sign.

Welcome to Silent Hill

I dropped my bag before quickly pinching my arm, wanting desperately to wake up and find that this was all just a bad dream. When nothing happened I slowly reached down and picked up my backpack, before noticing that something had fallen out. Lying on the ground was my radio. I picked it up and was about to put it back inside my backpack when it suddenly burst to life, spitting out static... static which seemed to be pulsing, as if it was linked with the movements of someone walking. I was staring at the radio in my hand when some sort of sixth sense made me look up at the road in front of me. The moment I looked up the static stopped.

To Be Continued

Post 1: Introduction

Silent Hill. The town that drove my mother insane, the town that consumed her, never letting her rest. She’d been born there and had been so happy in that quite town... until she met my father, Tom Callaghan, the man who made her leave Silent Hill.

Tom tried to make his young wife happy, giving her anything she could desire, but was unable to give her the town of her birth. On February 27th my mother gave birth to a girl and named her Avril.

Less then two days after her daughter was born Rachel ran away, with me in her arms.

My mother wanted so badly to return to Silent Hill, but the town had died and became a ghost town where no one lived anymore. Or that was what Rachel was told, for she was somehow unable to return to Silent Hill. Heartbroken, Rachel was forced to live where she could, raising me with the belief that Silent Hill had been heaven, and Tom Callaghan was a devil, a devil who dragged an angel down to hell.

I grew up calling my father Bitter, the name that my mother gave him in punishment for taking her away from Silent Hill. Despite her hatred for my father, Rachel went by the name of Callaghan all of her life and punished me when I suggested we use her maiden name, Clair.

Despite my mother’s tales of Silent Hill, I never wanted to go to that place. I only wanted to find my father, to find Bitter and see, with my own eyes, if he was really as horrible as my mother said he was.

I was eleven when a street fight cost me my right eye and decorated my face with a deep scar. Rachel never even noticed the damage to my face.... it was as if she couldn't see it.

I was sixteen when I stopped using my father’s last name. By that time my mother was believed to be harmless, but insane. In an effort to distance myself from her, I started calling myself Avril Strange, and claimed to have been sent by my family to watch over Rachel. I told so many people that Rachel Callaghan was my crazy aunt that I began to believe it myself.

On July 13th my mother received a letter in the mail. She refused to allow me to read it and burned the letter so I couldn’t steal it from her... two days later we were in an old beat up station wagon, driving down the road. When I asked where we were going, my mother only said one word. “Home.”

To Be Continued

Silent Hill: Nostalgia Characters

The Heroine

Her Mother

Her Father

Her Twin Brother

Who will show up next?

Silent Hill: Nostalgia Maps