Chapter Text
Silent Hill is not what James had remembered it as. Ever since he and Mary had visited the town, all those years ago, Silent Hill had always been a place of peace and sunshine in James’ memory. They hadn’t come to the town on purpose, he recalls, it had been an impulsive decision to take a right instead of going straight down the highway on their way home from visiting Mary’s parents. He remembers how Mary had pointed out the town on one of the highway signs, laughing softly at how odd a name it was for a town.
“ ‘Silent Hill’? Not exactly the most welcoming of names, is it?” Mary’s voice is like a balm soothing James’ nerves. Her parents always made him anxious - he could tell they didn’t like him - and this visit had been especially bad. Mary had wanted to announce their engagement and invite them to the wedding in person rather than sending a letter or over a phone call. James had gone along with it, despite how much he dreaded the thought of how her parents would react, because she’d looked so excited, and he hadn’t wanted to ruin that.
“It’s kind of intriguing though,” James finally replies, chancing a glance over at Mary to find her staring out the window with a thoughtful expression. The midday sun makes her hair glow, and her eyes almost look like they’re sparkling when she catches his eye, a small grin tugging at her lips. James is struck again and again by her effortless beauty. She’s never needed makeup or form-fitting clothes to be attractive or pretty. She could wear anything, have her hair cut or styled in any way and James just knows he’d always find her beautiful.
He thinks he’s maybe the luckiest man in the world when her grin shapes into a smile, shy but playful. How did he end up engaged to someone so perfect?
“We should go,” Mary says, breaking James from his reverie. He blinks, and looks back at the road, grateful that he hadn’t veered into another lane while so distracted. He glances at Mary again, briefly, arching an eyebrow in question.
“Go…?”
“To Silent Hill, dummy! Have you been listening to a word I’ve said?” Mary’s laughing, despite the annoyed tone she tries to put on. Her smile is radiant, and her laugh never fails to make James’ heart flutter. “Maybe if you stopped staring so much, you could keep up.”
“Kinda hard to do when I’m sitting next to the most gorgeous woman on the planet,” James says cheekily, and he feels something in his heart melt at how Mary’s face reddens and she puts on a pout, shoving weakly at James’ arm in retaliation.
“Oh, shut up,” she says, but he can tell she doesn’t mean it. “Anyways, I’m being serious. We should go to Silent Hill.”
“I don’t know…”
“C’mon, James! Why not? Let’s live a little!” Mary’s excitement is infectious, and James can’t deny that the prospect of doing something a little impulsive is enticing. Mary gently grabs James’ arm, and he can’t help but mirror the smile on her face with a small one of his own. “We have enough money and clothes to stay for a few days if we wanted to. Let’s just forget the world for a bit, just you and me and this mysterious Silent Hill. And if it sucks, we can always just leave.”
“Well… If you really want to, then… Screw it. Let’s go.”
How long ago had that been? Five years? James isn’t even sure anymore. His perception of time is warped; the past three years a blur in his memory, so foggy and thick that it’s impossible to make out any details. Just like the mostly empty streets of Silent Hill. He knows the town hadn’t been like this when he and Mary had been here. Sure, it had felt like a lonely little place, but there had been something almost reverent in its isolation. So far from any other town, so shut off from the world that it had felt like walking into a different reality entirely. And there had been something so comforting about that, at the time. Time had seemed to stop existing in the days they’d spent here, doing anything from swimming in the lake, to walking around the quaint town, visiting the shops and the museum, getting to know the townsfolk and history. It felt like a dream.
Now, however, Silent Hill feels more like a living nightmare. The isolation that had once been a comfort, now feels suffocating and threatening. The fog makes it impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction, leaving the town unrecognizable, and the silence is intermittently disrupted with distant noises that fill James with cold dread. This is not the Silent Hill that James remembers at all, and yet… he can’t find it in himself to turn around and go back to his car.
Mary’s letter is like a burning presence in his breast pocket. Every time James considers turning tail, he remembers it. Mary died three years ago, James was almost sure of it, but even the slight possibility that she could still be alive is a driving force in James’ body. The past three years have been a whirlwind of misery, and as much as James has forgotten, he knows that he was on a straight path down the barrel of the pistol he keeps locked away under his bed. If anything, the letter has given him something to do, the very possibility that Mary could be alive giving him something to live for again. No matter how ridiculous or crazy it may be, it’s worth a shot. Even if he dies here, at least he could die knowing he’d tried to do something .
So James pushes on.
-
Leon… doesn’t know where he is. Well, no, that’s a lie. The sign saying ‘Welcome to Silent Hill’ is impossible to miss walking into town. It’s just… Leon has no idea how he got here. He knows he’s in Silent Hill but, where the fuck is Silent Hill? He can’t even recall how he ended up on the long, lonely path that had led him to the town. There has to be a gap in his memory a mile wide, because the last thing he can remember is parking at a gas station just outside of Raccoon City, needing to fill up before driving in for his first day on the job. It had been night then, and, despite the thick rain clouds overhead, Leon can tell it’s daytime now. It was like the moment he stepped out of his car at that gas station, he’d just blacked out and somehow ended up walking down a barren path to an isolated town in bumfuck nowhere.
He’s even wearing different clothes. What the fuck.
Regardless of how he got here, Leon knows he needs to leave. Something at the back of his mind is tugging at him - he needs to get back to Raccoon City as soon as possible. He’d slept in and missed his first official day on the job because he’d been hung over, and he’d been in a rush to make it in after waking up. Leon knows he isn’t even worried about his job, he’s a lot more concerned about– about what? God, his memory hasn’t always been this bad, has it?
There’s a flash of lightning from the churning clouds overhead, and the following thunder startles Leon so bad, he practically jumps out of his skin. He can ponder more on his memory issues later; Leon can tell the clouds are rearing for an awful storm and he really doesn’t want to be caught in the middle of it. Plus, Leon’s almost positive he’s been hearing noises in the distance that he just isn’t interested in seeing the source of.
He continues forward, desperately trying each door that isn’t blocked off, each one locked, making him increasingly anxious as the storm builds above him. He's practically sprinting from building to building by the time the first few drops of rain start coming down, and coincidentally, that's when he comes across his first unlocked door. Or, more accurately, an unlocked gate that wraps around the entrance to an apartment building.
Leon can't help but let out a sigh of relief when the gate opens with ease, creaking loudly enough that Leon winces, hoping it won't attract anything. Which is a weird thought, given the fact that Leon hasn't seen so much as a bug in terms of other living creatures since entering the town. But the feeling of not being entirely alone has been plaguing him since he first came to on the path. The feeling worsens when Leon spots a key on the ground beneath the gate. He kneels down to pick it up, and finds the label ' Wood Side Apartments' attached to it.
Someone else had unlocked the gate, and had left the key on the ground. Someone else had been here before, and there's no saying how recent. Leon thinks he should feel more excited at the prospect of finally finding another person, but instead he just feels unsettled and anxious as he makes his way to the doors of the apartment lobby. His hands itch for some kind of weapon to defend himself with, and he finds himself reaching for Matilda at his hip–
Wait. What? Matilda? What the fuck did that even mean, and why had that been his first instinct when thinking of a weapon? Leon wracks his brain for some kind of explanation, but the fog in his memories seems to come back tenfold and he finds he can't even remember what it was he'd been so confused about.
Thunder cracks overhead once more and Leon doesn't think he's ever felt this scared of a storm in his life. He… he needs to get out of this town before he really starts to lose it.
Leon cautiously opens the front door of the apartment building, and is unsurprised to find the interior dark and unwelcoming. The door shuts behind him with a resounding click, shutting out the sounds of the brewing storm and leaving him in an eerie silence.
He looks around to the best of his ability, not finding it to be exactly easy with the darkness and lack of any windows. He pushes forward with caution, the echo of his footsteps jarring in the still quiet of the small lobby. And it is small; nothing more than an empty room with a staircase and a door just beyond. There's mailboxes lining the wall to his right, and a blank bulletin board to the left. Beyond that, the lobby is practically desolate, and the smell reminds Leon of the abandoned buildings he used to explore with friends in high-school.
The door past the stairs is locked, a trend Leon is beginning to notice with this town. So he stands at the base of the steps and takes a breath, praying they won't give beneath his feet with how decayed the building seems to be. He still has a jagged scar on his leg from when he’d stepped on a rotted stair and the wood had collapsed beneath his weight. When the first step proves mostly stable, Leon continues up. It’s a slow ascent, a growing sense of dread making Leon hesitant to go on.
Right as Leon makes it to the second floor landing, a loud bang rings out throughout the building, slicing through the thick silence and making Leon yelp. He grabs the railing and looks around wildy for the source of the sound. The bang is quickly followed by three more, each one making Leon flinch violently. Then it’s quiet once more, aside from Leon’s shaky panting. His knees feel weak and he has a white-knuckled grip on the sticky metal of the rails, and Leon quickly realizes he’s on the verge of a panic attack. He eases himself to the ground, and closes his eyes to focus on getting his breathing under control.
Those were gunshots. Unmistakably so. Leon just can’t understand why the sound made him panic so bad, but the thought is quickly pushed aside by the realization that that means someone else is in the building with him, and they’re armed. Icy fear shoots down Leon's spine, and for a second he's frozen in place because he's being hunted again and he doesn't have much time left, he has to find Claire and get back to Marvin and —
What the fuck.
Leon blinks, biting back a groan as a headache sears through him. It's some of the worst pain he's ever experienced, and he nearly screams with it before it's gone just as quickly as it came. What… what had he been worried about? Someone with a gun, right? That wasn't everything though, he's sure of it.
Before he can think any further on it, the second floor door creaks open, and Leon instinctively crouches down to hide. He peaks through the bars of the railing as the door widens and he's nearly blinded by the light that spills out from the doorway. It shifts, and Leon quickly realizes it's a flashlight. And attached to the flashlight is a man, who pauses just outside the door and looks around wearily.
Leon is just beyond the flashlight's reach, and he ducks down further to ensure that he won't be noticed before he can fully assess the threat this man could potentially pose. And the man certainly looks like he could be a threat. He's big, definitely taller than Leon, and he's all broad shoulders and big arms that could easily overpower Leon in strength alone. Leon can't make out the details of his face, but he can definitely see the handgun clutched tightly in the man's hands.
That explains the source of the gunfire at least.
Leon holds his breath as the man quickly checks his gun before he pulls out a folded up piece of paper. As he unfolds it, Leon realizes it's a map, likely of the apartment building. The man looks over the map for a second, going so far as to briefly pocket his gun in order to pull out a red marker and scribble on it. Despite being unable to see his face, Leon can see how meticulous and thoughtful the man is as he pours over the map, muttering softly to himself. Once seemingly satisfied, he puts away the marker and folds the map back up, putting it into his back pocket and pulling out the gun again.
Then he starts walking forward, directly towards Leon and that's when Leon realizes his mistake; he definitely should've made his presence known when the stranger wasn't holding a firearm. Leon knows he has to act fast, as crouching in the darkness doesn't exactly scream friendly to someone with a gun. Maybe it's not the smartest decision, but he doesn't have much of a choice at this point.
He stands slowly, raising his hands in the air and walks forward, putting weight in his steps to make sure the stranger won't startle at the sight of him. He can tell the man hears it too, as he immediately freezes up and raises the gun to the direction of the noise. Leon can't recall ever being held at gunpoint, but something about the situation strikes him as familiar as he quickly shouts, "Don't shoot!"
Any fears Leon may have had about getting shot by a trigger happy, paranoid stranger die quickly as the gun is almost instantly lowered. The man makes a sound of relief, and quickly steps closer to Leon. The flashlight is nearly blinding so close but as Leon's eyes adjust, the man's features finally become visible.
He's a little more than average. A face that would pass by in a sea of hundreds. Strong jaw line, slightly large nose, and tired, tired eyes. His hair is lighter, Leon's assuming blonde, and some of it hangs over his forehead, though it's mussed, likely from being constantly swept aside. He's not really anything special.
Leon feels his heart skip a beat. Fuck.
"Hey, uh," The man starts, and his voice does not match his appearance at all. He speaks softly, almost gentle, and his tone is just this side of awkward. It's cute. "My name's James. I'm… Are you from here?"
James. It's fitting. Average name for an average face.
"Leon S. Kennedy," Leon says, finally letting his hands lower now that he's certain James won't decide to shoot him after all. "I'm actually just visiting. Can't remember how I ended up here and you're the first person I've come across. Not exactly what I'd call a welcome party."
James huffs, lips pulling up briefly at Leon's horrible attempt at a joke. Damn, if he keeps laughing at Leon's one-liners, it'll be real hard to keep himself from falling even more. Now is not the time to be developing crushes on men you've just met in scary ghost towns, Kennedy!
"I've met two others so far. But… I'm honestly looking for someone specific." As he speaks, something… haunted passes over James' expression. His gaze wanders to a point beyond Leon, and for a moment he just looks so lost. "I still don't know why I think she's here."
“Can I ask who it is? I could help you search for her,” Leon steps closer, and James’ focus dials back in on him. He looks Leon up and down, and bites his lip, visibly contemplating the question.
“It’s… my wife. Mary.”
Leon tries not to feel too disappointed by the revelation that not only is James already taken, but likely straight as a rod as well. He should’ve known if he’s being honest with himself. Well, better he find out now rather than let the crush build and have it hurt more later.
“Mary, huh? Well, when did you last see her? Was it nearby?” Leon asks, already trying to think of ways they could search for a missing woman in a town like this. It couldn’t be that hard, right? This town seemed small, and it’s not like there were many people to be looking through.
At that, James hesitates again. He looks away, and for a second, something… off passes over his face. It’s gone before Leon can properly decipher what it meant, but it leaves him feeling a little unsettled.
“Well, that’s the thing. She… passed away three years ago. She was sick, you see,” James looks back at Leon, and his eyes are wet. He blinks a couple times, and reaches into the pocket of his jacket not holding the flashlight. He pulls out a folded piece of paper, and just holds it for a moment; his big hands are so delicate with it, as if he’s afraid the thing will turn to ash if he grips it too tightly. He then holds the paper out, prompting Leon to take it. “But then I got this letter from her.”
Leon takes the letter, handling it with just as much care as James had shown. He slowly unfolds it, the unease in his stomach only growing. A big part of him feels nothing but pity and sorrow for this man, so clearly still distraught over the loss of his wife; desperate for any clue that he could see her again. But, as Leon reads over the meticulously hand-written letter from a dead woman, he can’t help but feel like something is deeply wrong here. He frowns as he reads over the final statement: ‘I’m alone there now, in our “special place”, waiting for you.’
Of course someone in James’ position would only see a letter like this as a sign of hope, of a chance that his wife was somehow still alive and waiting for him. But to Leon, it only feels foreboding. Like a predator setting out bait for gullible prey. He’s almost certain this letter couldn’t have been written by Mary, and if it were, it had to have been written before she passed. Leon wants to say something, but as he folds the paper back up to hand back to James, he hesitates at the expression on his face.
It’s hope. How could Leon crush a grieving man’s hope at seeing his late wife again? Maybe if Leon were stronger he’d be able to do the right thing and guide James away from this clearly self-destructive path but… Leon has never considered himself to be particularly strong. He’s always been particularly weak to those in distress.
“You understand what I mean? She’s here. She has to be,” James says, and he sounds so sure of himself, despite the way his eyes still shine with unshed tears. He tucks the letter back into his breast pocket lovingly, and Leon knows he’s making the wrong choice when he lays a careful hand on James’ shoulder.
“We’ll find her, James,” Leon says with false confidence. Damnit, the way James’ face lights up at the words shouldn’t be so handsome, Leon, stop that. The small, hesitant smile that James gives him seals the deal, and Leon knows he’s doomed to follow this man to the ends of the earth if it means he can see that smile again. He offers a small grin of his own that he hopes is convincing. “Well, she’s waiting for you, isn’t she? Let’s get a move on.”