Visions

The streets of the ghost town of Silent Hill seemed uneasy. It appeared the cleansing of Alessa Gillespie was taking place in the hotel once again. Yet Leonard knew that wasn't so. The atmosphere felt familiar to him as if he had witnessed this before. Though it had been years since he felt this level of loneliness, the hole left from it however breathed fresh life into old wounds. Feelings of hurt, and being scared, seemed to be crippling in this world where misery was a comrade.

He looked at the surrounding realm. As the screams of a woman now filled the air. Screams of fear and great pain. They overpowered the roars of the metal fans. Leonard ran to the sound to find he now stood in front of the apartment that he called home. Fear caused his heart to pound in his chest. His thoughts raced with many questions. But the one that rang out more than others. 'Is Annette now the latest victim to the Cults.' With a heavy heart, he grasped the doorknob, jerking open the door. Waves of relief flowed through him for mere moments. Then shock and anger at the figure that was before him, a woman he thought he would never see again. The woman with soft brown and gray peppered hair. His mother, the woman who was strapped to an old fashion torture device.

Leonard looked at her. She wore a frightened look on her face. Fear of something that she had seen once, but he wasn't going to stand by and allow her to taste the bitterness of death again. Extending his hand as his sword appeared. "I'm sorry, mother. I'm not the same person you knew. I'm no different from the world before you, this world and myself we are one."

"Alexander, what have you become?" New tears fell from her brown eyes, tears of her son's downfall to this chaos. Her heart ached for the man that had his issues, but he wasn't a monster.

"Mother, this isn't your fault. You're not to blame for this crossroads in my life. Evil wakes in vengeance, though I should have joined you many years ago. Vengeance confines me here." Leonard looked at her with tears threatening to come from his own eyes. "You have done your part. You don't belong here."

The brown-haired woman looked at him. "Alexander, please put the sword away. We can still be together. You can be with me forever. We can be happy again, just like we used to be."

Leonard looked at her, cutting her from the device; his sword vanished as the pale woman looked up at him. With a tear-stained face, he sighed. "Mother, as much as I would love to believe that this is real, and believe that I can join you, I have to remember you're dead. I have to come to the understanding that this isn't real and you're not here." His voice cracked. "When… When will I wake up from this nightmare, awake from this prison in the bed that I was welcome into with sweet embraces?" Leonard felt his heart breaking. "Mother, you and I belong in different worlds. You belong with the angels, not being in the pits of hell in the devil's playground. We shouldn't be having this conversation. You're not here. YOU'RE NOT REAL!"

Leonard awoke jolting to a sitting position on the bed, looking around as the sharp pain shot through his body reminding him of his wound. He groaned, leaning back against the bed frame. The sound of bare feet on the floor caused him to look up. As Annette stepped into the room with a cup of something steaming. She sat down beside him. "Are you alright?" She asked, looking at him, placing a reassuring hand on his trembling shoulder. "You're trembling. Are you in that much pain? I can go back to the pharmacy and find a better painkiller."

"No, it's not the pain."

Annette sat the cup on the table beside the bed. "Did you have a nightmare? You were doing a lot of talking? Do you need to talk about it?"

He looked at her. "I saw my mother."

"Leo, dreams are dreams. Some are more unexplainable than others. I'm sure your mother is alright wherever she is. It's alright, she's safe, and you're safe. Here, I found some tea in the kitchen. It may relax you." She retrieved the tea from the bedside table, handing it to him. He accepted, taking a sip. "You told your mother in your dream, that she was dead. Leo, it's normal to grieve over someone you loved like you did your mother. It's part of being human. It's not a moment of weakness when you grieve for someone."

He sighed. "I never got to be there for her death. I had to watch at a distance as they lowered her into the ground. I guess it never seemed real. I guess it never really sank in." Annette looked at him, her heart breaking for the man in front of her, she looked at the bed as he continued. "But what can I do, what is done is done. I can't change the past." Annette looked at him.

"Leo. I'm sorry."

Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "I can't do anything about it, Annette. Neither can you, it's a part of life. We live then we die, some bring more to the table of memories than others."

Annette looked at the floor, then at him. "Drink your tea, then try to get some sleep. You shouldn't be walking around with your wound, you need to rest." He looked at her. Taking a sip of tea.

"What kind of tea is this, it's pretty good. Seems like it's melting my troubles away?"

"It's herbal I think."

He took the last drink of the tea sitting the cup on the bedside table, laying back down. "Perhaps I should get some rest, what do you plan on doing?"

"I'll probably chill in the living room, I found a sketch pad and pencils at the pharmacy and a pack of coloring pencils. I kind of want to practice my drawing."

He smiled. "That's great, I can't wait to see them."

She looked at him. Standing to her feet, covering him, retrieving the empty cup from the table, walking from the room once the sound of peaceful sleep showed her that Leonard had submitted to sleep once more.