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We've traveled a long way, but the chapter you're about to read is an important point of this Resident Evil x Silent Hill crossover story. If you want to think of this as a flight on an airliner, I wouldn't blame you if you thought it was long as heck. It has been, especially for me!

But believe it or not, we're about to bank and begin our final approach to our destination...the ending and resolution of everything you've read thus far, and the crystallization of this true romance between Cheryl Mason and Rebecca Chambers. Things take a dramatic turn here when Cheryl recalls something she forgot (and it'll tie into a lot, especially the first game and even "Silent Hill Origins"!), but remembrance and her own dawning understanding of everything won't give her any comfort. Thankfully, a certain pixie of a Medical Specialist who's depthlessly in love with her can...!
---
RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles W.S.,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 39:

"MEMORY HOLE"

--1--

Cheryl Mason wasn't asleep...not precisely...and what she experienced wasn't a dream.

It was a memory from when she was Alessa Gillespie, just after she had been impregnated and burned terribly by Dahlia Gillespie, to make her the vessel and sacrifice for her Order's Mother of God.

It was a memory of overwhelming and total pain she felt like she was burning with the heat of the Sun from the marrow of her very bones yet her skin felt dead and numb and the worst of it was what Dahlia did to her that profane THING she put INTO her to impregnate her and make her the Mother of God that was worse so much WORSE than everything else and all had become pure misery that only got worse and worse and then that strangest thing happened where she felt something happen to her, something took her very self her soul and

(??I lost some of myself??)

did something to her and ever since she could only feel further confusion a strange disconnect like a whole part of her was somewhere else now but how could that be, how could she still be alive after everything, god if you can hear me please please please bring an end to this bring an end to me please I'd give anything for the pain to end, I'LL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THIS ALL GO AWAY, PLEASE GOD HELP ME AND TAKE ME AWAY FROM

(my mother)

DAHLIA, PLEASE -- !

Something interrupted her desperate, lonely prayer. It wasn't a sound, it was something ABOVE AND BEYOND sound, but all the same it was a voice. Much like her ability to communicate by thought, this voice touched her very soul...and there was such an AGE to this voice. And such benevolence. The voice seemed to come from very very far away in the distance, yet it filled her with a sensation that could only be called golden. It didn't take away her unceasing pain, but at least she was distracted from her unthinkable agony by this great voice:

"Alessa. Let your agony ease, childe...and listen."

Struck with awe, Alessa asked timidly, "Wh-who are you...?"

"I am Metatron. I am the First Servant and Voice of the Creator, the One who is above and beyond voice."

"I...I know your name. You...speak for god...?"

"Yes, childe, but not the god your mother believes in, which can only pretend to godhood. I speak for the Creator some call Jehovah...others Buddha...but those are all different names and faces of The Ultimate Truth."

"Please help me...please...take me to Heaven, end my life before I hurt anyone..."

"It is too late for that, Alessa. Your course is already set. You are not meant to see the end of your mortal phase. Not now."

"Then leave me alone. If you can't kill me, I don't want to talk to you. I don't care if you're the voice of god."

"I know you suffer in the depths of despair, childe. I can only bring you the briefest of comfort, but there are other things I can give you. Listen to me, listen to the words from the Creator Himself, and you shall understand."

"Understand what...?"

"More than you could imagine. You always questioned why you were so different...why you have the power you hold."

"I never wanted to be different. It hasn't done anything but give me pain."

"It shall not always be that way, childe. Listen. In each generation, there come a handful of children into the mortal world born with gifts. They are given the power to make great things possible. You have read of them in books. They are called myths and legends, and some have even been called gods themselves. For a while, your mother believed she was one of those so gifted. But she was wrong...even all of the sacrifices she made to increase her power could not change that. You were the one so blessed, Alessa, and your mother hated you because of that."

"Why? I never felt blessed, my gifts have always been a curse! Why was I born with them???"

"Souls like you are given your gifts so you can have an affect upon moments of great importance. There have always been moments that have altered the destiny of the mortal world, and there always shall be. Those like you are born to have an influence on moments, for good or ill, for right or wrong. It is your role to help those events along or change them in accordance to your will."

"Y-you make it sound like...I'm meant to have my powers."

"There are some things that are meant to be, Alessa. But know it will always be by your choice how your power will affect all things. In many ways, you already set in motion events that will lead to you having a profound role in the future. That does not mean you hold responsibility for the worst of things that shall happen...in the end, it is your mother Dahlia who is responsible for such."

"Don't say her name PLEASE DON'T. But I don't understand, what did I already do??? I just wanted to get away from her and the pain...I wanted to go somewhere else, but..."

"But you brought other places to you instead, Alessa. Without meaning to, childe, you opened a gateway in Silent Hill that has linked your home to two locations. It was the state of your emotions, the torment and uncertainty you suffered, all of your inner fears and doubts, they reached out to domains that would have been in harmony with all you felt."

"I...I don't understand..."

"No, Alessa. You are simply afraid to understand. You must know by instinct what those worlds...those realms are. One is a limbo of uncertainty and doubt...the other is a world where only torment and fear can reign. Each neighbor to the other."

"Th...those places...you mean...?"

"Yes. I describe what lies in the next eternal phase of existence, two of the everlasting domains of what you call the Afterlife. Other mortals have called it the Unseen Realm, but in truth, there are many such realms. The state of your emotions instinctively found two of the most treacherous of realms and...pulled them into the world of the living, where they were not meant to be."

"I-is there any way I can stop it? I didn't want to bring those worlds here and hurt anyone! There must be some way to fix what I did!"

"You cannot, childe...not now. You are not whole. Your soul was just recently divided in two. Another part of you is far away from where you are now."

"I...I know...I felt it happen, and it's so strange...! Did I do that, too? O-or did my -- I-I mean, did she...?"

"No. The events that led to your division were impelled by the will of the Creator Himself. Only He could make such a thing possible."

"Why??? Why can't I just die before I give birth to Dahlia's god? Why do I have to suffer like this?"

"I know it will give you no comfort to say this, dear childe, but all things happen for a reason. All hardships mortals must face are to prepare them, to test and strengthen and enlighten them as they follow the course of this first, temporary phase. Your other half will know the kind of life you always dreamed of...she will know the comfort, guidance and love of another. There is a reason and purpose for your division as well, and it is not simply to forestall your mother's desires to have her God born upon the mortal world through you."

"But I want to die...I don't want to hurt anymore...please help me die, please...!"

"You must be strengthened and forged by your pain, Alessa. It is the only way you will be prepared for your role in future events. There is so much you will understand one day simply by instinct, but for now and a very long time to come, you must endure. Not only for yourself, but for your very world and every soul living upon it."

"I want to die, that's all I want. Besides...no one but Nurse Lisa cares for me. Why should I care for anyone else?"

"A good question, Alessa. This is something you will be able to answer for yourself...if you are strong enough one day...but understand you are a childe of light and darkness. It is in your power to walk under the Creator's golden light and the darkest shadow, for you are at home in both. Thus it will be by your choice how you will shape the future. For better or worse. For others or simply for yourself."

"Wait...I-I-I remember where I've seen your name before...the Seal of Metatron...!"

"Yes. I am here in part because of your knowledge of that mystic ward blessed in my name."

"Dahlia caught me reading about it one day...she got so angry and said I shouldn't read about useless things. But...I could sense she was lying. Dahlia was angry because she was afraid. The Seal wasn't useless, it's really really important -- !"

"The Seal is useless to virtually all, childe, because most mortals do not have the magnitude of power needed to employ it."

"I know...but...but do I...?"

"Alessa, my Seal is incredibly dangerous. I used my Seal to bring low my...counterpart that serves Dahlia's false God."

"What do you mean...?"

"I speak of a lowly, misbegotten soul so completely driven to see his God ascend from the depths of darkness, nothing is forbidden to this one. He tried to bring her to Earth so many times, used the most terrible means you couldn't imagine, and so by the Creator's will I burned my Seal into his flesh to emasculate him of his power. You should beware of Valtiel in the future, Alessa. He is forced to rely on mortal agents of The Order like your mother, but he is as cunning as he is pathetic. He more than any other wants to see his God born on Earth. But just as importantly you must understand what my Seal, what mortals also call the Virun VII Crest, can do -- !"

"I have the power to use it, don't I? THAT'S what scared Dahlia. Maybe it can help me kill myself...!"

"Have a care of what you are thinking, childe. If used wisely, the Seal can make miracles happen. If used unwisely, the destruction it could cause -- !"

"I don't care. If I kill myself, her God won't be born. I'll be free from this prison my body has become. That's what I care about."

For a long, uncertain moment, the voice of Metatron was silent. The golden feeling didn't fade, not yet, but there was a sad weight of...disappointment in the air. Then the great voice spoke again, but it was becoming more and more distant...it was leaving her...

"You are young and you have been through too much suffering, childe. You have no idea that wishing for an end so strongly is a certain path to darkness. By my Creator's will, this memory shall be buried within you for a time. But when the time is right...

...you will remember, and with hope, you will have the wisdom to use this knowledge in the way you feel necessary.

"For everyone...for the sake of balance...or for yourself.

"In the end, it shall be your choice."

The golden feeling faded away and then there was nothing but pain again...it was so much agony Alessa Gillespie easily forgot the counsel of Metatron with hellish time, and she slipped further and further into misery until that dark and endless pain became all that motivated her every waking thought as, somewhere else, Cheryl Mason began to know the unconditional love of her new parents, each part of her not aware the other existed but always feeling that strange disconnect until that day came when Alessa sensed Cheryl, recognized her, and began to lure her to Silent Hill for the sake of her own destruction, and Cheryl's devoted father Harry Mason who had been widowed by the loss of his beloved wife would have done anything for his child and family, a vacation to that town wasn't a bad idea at all, and then EVERYTHING changed

--2--

and in what was once Black Falls, Vermont, Cheryl Mason woke up with a gasp. Her hazel eyes fluttered rapidly with confusion/realization/fear/wonder/horror/hope and so much more was expressed in her lovely face as she remembered that moment from her past. In the next instant, Rebecca Chambers was right there, kneeling close to Cheryl as the blonde just sat up on the grungy sofa she laid on in this condemned teacher's lounge In Black Falls Middle School. Rebecca burst, "Cheryl, thank god! I-I lost you for a while there...!"

Both relieved and totally overwhelmed to see Rebecca's heavenly face again, Cheryl moaned, "B-Becca...I'm so happy to see you, too...!" But then the blonde's brow knitted with concern. "I'm sorry, give me a second." She reached into herself, and with the speed of thought she cloaked herself and Rebecca from being detectable by anything else in the damn darkness. Cheryl just hoped like hell that fucker Reeve hadn't found them again...fortunately, he had still been searching and didn't get a fix on them both yet. Cheryl asked the pixie, "H-how long was I out...?"

Rebecca shrugged her slender shoulders. "I'd only be able to tell you if I had a watch that worked right now. I tried to measure the time...er, there wasn't much else I could do watching over you. But...for some reason it's been hard just counting the seconds." Which she hadn't noticed before, but now that Rebecca thought about it, that was really weird! "I-it must be another 'thing' about this darkness, isn't it?"

Cheryl Mason gazed at her beloved for a long moment with a somber face...and she finally said softly, "There's so many more things to this darkness and the fog than you think, Rebecca."

The pixie gazed at Cheryl and finally said, "You said I wouldn't want to understand, honey. But right now, ignorance definitely isn't bliss." Rebecca gently sat next to Cheryl and sweetly laid a loving arm around the blonde's shoulders. "That doesn't matter right now, all I need to know is...are you okay...?"

Cheryl nuzzled close to Becca needfully. "Yes. I'm all right."

Rebecca frowned. "C-can you tell me what just happened? It was like you had a spell...sigh, please pardon the expression! But you said 'the moment is here', and then you were out like a darn light! What happened???"

Much more quietly, Cheryl told her true love, "I remembered something, Becca. Something from a long time ago...and I will explain it to you." With a great weight building in her voice, the blonde said, "You asked before what happened to this town. Why your friend George and Nurse Lisa changed after they died but they didn't seem to die at all. I can explain it...but you won't want to believe."

Cheryl looked down at her own lap after she said that, and that was why she didn't see Rebecca drew close before the girl gave her a loving kiss on her freckled cheek. The haunted blonde was surprised. Becca gave her a priceless smile and reassured, "At this point, if you told me pigs can fly, I'd believe you. Whatever the hell is going on, I'll be able to take it, Cheryl."

Cheryl considered Rebecca and finally smiled lamely...she purred, "It's a little funny you said it that way." It took her a moment...but she told Rebecca what she had always instinctively knew to be true, everything she had learned ever since her fusion into a single soul again and she grew to maturity in her new life as Cheryl Mason. Last but far from least, Cheryl told Rebecca as much as she could about the memory she recalled while unconscious.

It took Rebecca Chambers a LOT longer than a moment to really absorb everything Cheryl said. About Silent Hill. Shepherd's Glen. And now Black Falls. And the blonde was right. For that terrible moment, Rebecca didn't want to believe...

...but like Leon S. Kennedy and Anne Cunningham, given the chance, she now HAD to. And like Leon, Rebecca really gave it thought and in the end, was it really so fantastic and beyond belief? She had seen Cheryl perform miracles, both wondrous and frightening, and of course testament of her power was from simply looking at what happened to Black Falls because of Reeve Meyers. It all made a strange and terrifying sense really. It had been years since Rebecca went to church with her mom and dad, and she forgot the last time she said her prayers before she hit the sack. But she had never lost her belief there was a god and other truths that were far above and beyond the mortal veil...the pixie always had the belief that we all went somewhere else after our time on Earth was done.

Well, it wasn't so much a belief as it was a hope, really. Rebecca was a Medical Specialist who relied on science and what she could see. It wasn't hard to put her faith in the friendship and love of those closest to her. But to believe in such higher things that couldn't be seen, much less quantified? Things like magic and what happens to us after we died? Until recently, Rebecca thought magic was just a thing of fiction and life after death...she could only hope that was true, because that was far more preferable to thinking that when we reach the end of our lives, we'd snuff out like a candle's flame and...well, game totally over.

It was a strange thing to feel so much relief AND horror to know her hopes had been validated once and for all.

Rebecca said carefully, "That's what happened to Nurse Lisa...a-and to George...and to those girls we saw here in the school." Those sad yet dangerous Dolls they encountered in that classroom, so tortured yet knowing such comfort from one another. "They came back to life, but...that's not the right way to say it because...b-because..."

Cheryl nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Rebecca could only gaze into space with troubled eyes as she really came to grips with the truth...with what it all meant. It took another long moment, but that was okay. Time really didn't mean anything where they were.

Rebecca finally looked at Cheryl and said with a stronger voice, "Okay. It's all right. W...we can adapt to this...I-I-I hope we can! And your father Harry and Cybil took you away from the darkness long ago in Silent Hill, right?? You and Douglas got out of there too after you defeated Claudia. That means we can escape it!"

Cheryl nodded. "I'm still not sure how we can. Things aren't the same as before, but I want to believe we can, Becca. We just have to get past Reeve and all of the monsters out there and..." Cheryl stopped herself. She simply thought of Valtiel, but didn't dare to even say his name. That son of a bitch might hear her.

Cheryl began to understand something else that she kept to herself for now. Age and more importantly experience does bring wisdom, and thanks to what she now recalled, she began to understand the forces she was dealing with. She began to realize how something could resist her conscious will to end this nightmare of fog and darkness and save those who could be saved in Black Falls. It was a moment so much more important than Cheryl thought when she and Rebecca saw the Memory of Alessa at that ruined church.

That wraith would have remembered Metatron, of course -- that was only PART of the meaning behind that visitation -- but the Memory could only say so much. Cheryl understood that part of her self left absolutely important hints when she really thought about what the Memory said. That faceless CREATURE she only glimpsed briefly with her extranormal senses was another most important dot that connected many things and led to all-important answers. However, they had to solve their troubles one at a damned time.

The blonde counseled, "We still need to wait here for our friends. Two of them are badly hurt."

With alarm, Rebecca asked, "Who???"

"One is a lady you never met. Her name is Helena." A sad pause. "The other is Elza. One of those fucking parasites is in control of her."

"Oh, god...!" Rebecca broke into dismay in reaction, but then she remembered! "W-wait, I've got that stuff I took from Doctor Young! We can help Elza!" The Aglaophotis.

Cheryl nodded. "If they can reach us."

Rebecca sighed. "Yeah, if they can...!"

"They are getting closer...it shouldn't be long where they'll get close enough, I can use my power to keep them hidden from any threats, too." One of the groups was being pursued by this...THING that made Cheryl feel dread on so many levels. The Red Pyramid. It was something she knew well from The Order's lore and saw before in Silent Hill, and she had to wonder. Even with her power, could she fight something like that...? Better not to tell Becca that either, not unless she totally had to.

Becca sighed again and lamented, "So we can't do much but wait until then."

"Yeah."

The pixie shrugged. "We need to find some kind of way to pass the -- ha!" Rebecca almost burst into giggles but stifled herself. Knowing what she did now, time literally wasn't even a factor where they were, was it?

Cheryl found the strength to grin back and told her beloved, "It's not that funny."

"No...it really isn't." Rebecca did sober in expression fast, but her gorgeous body did relax easily as she nuzzled next to the blonde. "While we're waiting, I can finally tell you what I've been hiding from you. I owe it to you."

Cheryl told her the truth: "You don't owe me anything, you amazing girl."

Becca looked at the ugly floor and sighed once more. "Okay...I owe it to myself to be honest with you." And for a time (which didn't exist really), Rebecca Chambers told Cheryl her dirty little secret, a truth she could never confide in anyone until then. It still wasn't easy, and by the time she was done, it felt like an iron hand was literally wringing her heart in its strong fist. When she concluded her confession, Rebecca was weeping in such a way anyone else would have been tempted to cry, as well.

The only reason Cheryl Mason didn't was because she had suffered so much more in her past...still, she did hold her beloved with care when she finally said, "That's it? Honestly???"

Rebecca's quivering mouth dropped open and she asked, "Why are you asking like that? Like it...it's no big deal!"

Cheryl frowned and told her Becca, "Seriously, it isn't! Haven't you ever thought you might be too hard on yourself?"

Resistant, Becca moaned, "No...no, I haven't! If I hadn't quit, if I hadn't left Jill and Chris, I would've -- !"

"Don't!" As Cheryl held her beloved lovingly, the blonde said with a firmer voice, "Don't keep saying woulda-coulda-shoulda, dammit. You had no idea what the future was going to bring and you're no one else's keeper, sweetie. You're not responsible for what happens to anyone else."

"B-but I should have been there for her...I love Jill and I owed it to her to -- !"

"Becca, does Jill know you've always felt so damn guilty?"

Horrified by the very thought, Rebecca said, "No, god no, I couldn't ever tell her -- !"

"Maybe you need to."

"I..." Sorrowfully, Rebecca shook her head and moaned, "I-I can't just do that...!"

"Why not? You've told me how much she loves you, too. Jill is the best friend you've ever known." Cheryl gently advised, "If that's true, then she'll be the first to say there's nothing to forgive."

Still in tears, Becca looked at Cheryl and asked meekly, "Y-you really think so??"

"Just ask how much faith you have in your best friend, sweetie. Then you'll have your answer." Cheryl added, "Then maybe you'll forgive yourself."

Rebecca issued a mournful, uncertain sob and broke down again...but Cheryl was there to hold the pixie tight and give her truly loving solace.

--3--

The waiting progressed slowly...Rebecca calmed...and then she couldn't and she started pacing back and forth in the big room anxiously. Becca began to suggest, "We can go out and find them...or maybe send them another message to -- !"

"Becca?" Cheryl was really trying to maintain her calm, but for lots of reasons it was hard. "Please relax?"

"I-I can't just..." Rebecca gestured around her and complained, "I'm not gonna relax HERE knowing where I am! How can you relax??"

"It's only because of experience and I've been in this kind of shit before." A dark pause. "I made this happen before, and I hoped to god that would never happen again."

Becca completely forgot her own anxiety in heartbeats. Thinking only of Cheryl, she said, "You said before I was being too hard on myself, right? You've been doing that too, and for a really really long time."

Cheryl stared at the pixie. "You're only hard on yourself from your point of view. I'm not being hard on myself in any way when I look back at what I've done simply by fucking accident, what I was forced to do, and...and what I tried to do." Another heavy pause as she slowly rose from the couch. "I would have killed myself, Harry, Cybil and everyone else still alive in Silent Hill if I had gotten my way in 1983."

"You were just a child...you were in so much agony and you simply wanted to escape from...from the hell your life had become." The pixie really absorbed her own words. Weren't they eerily, hauntingly ironic. And not simply figurative. Rebecca kept herself from shuddering by focusing fully on Cheryl...she continued with a stronger voice, "Besides, that's a whole other life you lived! From everything you said, you were given a second chance by a power higher than anything. Who the hell else can say that??" With the purest and most divine need, Becca urged, "Please don't let what you tried to do in a previous life haunt you in this one, honey."

Cheryl suddenly snapped, "I've got so much more than that haunting me now, Becca. Metatron told me that all of the shit I've been through was for some goddamn reason, and I wish someone would fucking tell me what that reason IS!"

Becca was at an understandable loss...it took her a moment to search within herself for an answer. "You also told me Metatron said that mortal life is a test for everyone...to make us stronger and wiser as we grow, right?"

"Yeah, to prepare me for whatever damn destiny I was given...!"

"No, Cheryl!" Rebecca took a couple of loving steps closer and declared, "It was to prepare you to choose your own destiny!" The Medical Specialist continued in a more certain voice: "I've never been able to buy into someone when they talk about fate, that our futures are already written and our lives are spent getting from Point A to some inevitable Point Z. They're the same kind of people who would compare life to a stupid lottery! If that was true, wouldn't that take away the whole freaking point of living life if our destinies are set from the very start?? Metatron never said that you were some kind of 'chosen one' who had to do something in particular! He said that what you'll do will be up to you, right???"

Unsure, Cheryl managed, "Y-yes...!"

"Then your fate is in your own hands. I totally believe that, but you need to believe that, too!" So much more softly, Rebecca told her true love, "Believe in yourself as much as I believe in you, Cheryl."

For a timeless moment, the beauties gazed at each other in this silent room.

But pain, a dark agony beyond any words, filled Cheryl's lovely face again. "Metatron said that...that I needed to be strengthened and forged. I had to earn the wisdom to know what to do." Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "If that's so, then it's one fucking ruthless way for me to earn wisdom! I was a damn victim of The Order in the worst ways possible...whether by accident or by force, I destroyed three towns, and I need to take responsibility for what my powers have done. So many people have died and...

"...a-and had even worse things happen to them."

Cheryl shamefully turned from Rebecca to look at one of the profane walls...tears flowed down her cheeks as she said, "Look at how many people have been lost in Black Falls. I've been able to see into the memories of Cybil, Douglas, Anne and all of the others, and god, there have been so many dead before their time. Children were sacrificed. Everyone at that hospital, even the Head Nurse Gwen and that cute candy striper, Bea." A terrible pause. "They're gone."

Rebecca couldn't help but weep then...for Gwen, for Bea, for Elza, for all of the victims of The Order.

"You lost your friend Harley, and your dearest friends Jill and Christine and Chris and so many more are still in danger...my friends Cybil and Douglas are here, too...their souls are at so much more risk than they could ever imagine." The haunted girl from Silent Hill wrapped her slender arms around herself as she looked into space and wept for those lost. "Look at all the suffering that's been caused, Becca. If this was all for the sake of me figuring out my own damned destiny...

"...maybe it would've been better if I hadn't been born at all."

Cheryl bowed her head as she fell silent and wept in true despair.

Not far behind her. Rebecca slowly, tenderly moved to the blonde. The pixie moved to stand before Cheryl, her own wet eyes expressing her soul-deep devotion...her pure and unconditional love.

Rebecca's gloved hands sweetly lifted and began to wipe away Cheryl's tears.

The blonde slowly shook her head, resistant...she was so damned hard on herself...but the pixie's love wouldn't be denied.

Rebecca drew very close and kissed Cheryl's wet, freckled cheeks...the blonde's defenses were slowly breaking in response to the brunette's adoring warmth...

...Cheryl managed, "Please, Becca...please don't..." The warmth was igniting all of the passion she felt in her soul for Rebecca. "...please don't stop, my amazing girl..."

Rebecca Chambers held Cheryl and her lips drew close to the blonde's ear very briefly...to murmur, "Shhhh. I won't. I'll make it all better, Cheryl." They both began to kiss each other needfully, desperately, they clutched each other so wondrously as Rebecca moaned a perfect promise: "I will make it all better." The hunger they felt for each other was mutual and divine as they really began to kiss with their tongues, and the sheer overwhelming purity of their love started to truly wash away Cheryl Mason's agony in the silence. They couldn't stop kissing each other and returned to the couch. For a time that didn't really exist they kept giving each other bliss in this innocent and pure way, kissing and caressing one another, but they never went further than that.

They both became almost exhausted from the euphoria they shared, and relaxed into each other's arms as they sat and waited. They were both so much calmer as their love began to help them draw upon their strength for one another. They would both need their fortitude for the unknowable trials to come.

TO BE CONTINUED

---
If you've been connecting the dots as you've been following this story like Cheryl is (especially if you're a Silent Hill fan!), I'm sure you've made some pretty good guesses already; just wait and see if you're right or not.

Next time, LOTS will begin happening and all threads will really weave together as we (finally!) hit the home stretch to the climax of this survival horror romance/adventure! ^___^

Giving credit here for those who were a huge part in making the art above possible like usual!

XNALara created by Dusan Pavlicek; XPS by Dusan and XNAaraL

Models:
Rebecca Chambers by !
Cheryl Mason by !
Scenery by !

Description
We've traveled a long way, but the chapter you're about to read is an important point of this Resident Evil x Silent Hill crossover story. If you want to think of this as a flight on an airliner, I wouldn't blame you if you thought it was long as heck. It has been, especially for me!

But believe it or not, we're about to bank and begin our final approach to our destination...the ending and resolution of everything you've read thus far, and the crystallization of this true romance between Cheryl Mason and Rebecca Chambers. Things take a dramatic turn here when Cheryl recalls something she forgot (and it'll tie into a lot, especially the first game and even "Silent Hill Origins"!), but remembrance and her own dawning understanding of everything won't give her any comfort. Thankfully, a certain pixie of a Medical Specialist who's depthlessly in love with her can...!
---
RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles W.S.,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 39:

"MEMORY HOLE"

--1--

Cheryl Mason wasn't asleep...not precisely...and what she experienced wasn't a dream.

It was a memory from when she was Alessa Gillespie, just after she had been impregnated and burned terribly by Dahlia Gillespie, to make her the vessel and sacrifice for her Order's Mother of God.

It was a memory of overwhelming and total pain she felt like she was burning with the heat of the Sun from the marrow of her very bones yet her skin felt dead and numb and the worst of it was what Dahlia did to her that profane THING she put INTO her to impregnate her and make her the Mother of God that was worse so much WORSE than everything else and all had become pure misery that only got worse and worse and then that strangest thing happened where she felt something happen to her, something took her very self her soul and

(??I lost some of myself??)

did something to her and ever since she could only feel further confusion a strange disconnect like a whole part of her was somewhere else now but how could that be, how could she still be alive after everything, god if you can hear me please please please bring an end to this bring an end to me please I'd give anything for the pain to end, I'LL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THIS ALL GO AWAY, PLEASE GOD HELP ME AND TAKE ME AWAY FROM

(my mother)

DAHLIA, PLEASE -- !

Something interrupted her desperate, lonely prayer. It wasn't a sound, it was something ABOVE AND BEYOND sound, but all the same it was a voice. Much like her ability to communicate by thought, this voice touched her very soul...and there was such an AGE to this voice. And such benevolence. The voice seemed to come from very very far away in the distance, yet it filled her with a sensation that could only be called golden. It didn't take away her unceasing pain, but at least she was distracted from her unthinkable agony by this great voice:

"Alessa. Let your agony ease, childe...and listen."

Struck with awe, Alessa asked timidly, "Wh-who are you...?"

"I am Metatron. I am the First Servant and Voice of the Creator, the One who is above and beyond voice."

"I...I know your name. You...speak for god...?"

"Yes, childe, but not the god your mother believes in, which can only pretend to godhood. I speak for the Creator some call Jehovah...others Buddha...but those are all different names and faces of The Ultimate Truth."

"Please help me...please...take me to Heaven, end my life before I hurt anyone..."

"It is too late for that, Alessa. Your course is already set. You are not meant to see the end of your mortal phase. Not now."

"Then leave me alone. If you can't kill me, I don't want to talk to you. I don't care if you're the voice of god."

"I know you suffer in the depths of despair, childe. I can only bring you the briefest of comfort, but there are other things I can give you. Listen to me, listen to the words from the Creator Himself, and you shall understand."

"Understand what...?"

"More than you could imagine. You always questioned why you were so different...why you have the power you hold."

"I never wanted to be different. It hasn't done anything but give me pain."

"It shall not always be that way, childe. Listen. In each generation, there come a handful of children into the mortal world born with gifts. They are given the power to make great things possible. You have read of them in books. They are called myths and legends, and some have even been called gods themselves. For a while, your mother believed she was one of those so gifted. But she was wrong...even all of the sacrifices she made to increase her power could not change that. You were the one so blessed, Alessa, and your mother hated you because of that."

"Why? I never felt blessed, my gifts have always been a curse! Why was I born with them???"

"Souls like you are given your gifts so you can have an affect upon moments of great importance. There have always been moments that have altered the destiny of the mortal world, and there always shall be. Those like you are born to have an influence on moments, for good or ill, for right or wrong. It is your role to help those events along or change them in accordance to your will."

"Y-you make it sound like...I'm meant to have my powers."

"There are some things that are meant to be, Alessa. But know it will always be by your choice how your power will affect all things. In many ways, you already set in motion events that will lead to you having a profound role in the future. That does not mean you hold responsibility for the worst of things that shall happen...in the end, it is your mother Dahlia who is responsible for such."

"Don't say her name PLEASE DON'T. But I don't understand, what did I already do??? I just wanted to get away from her and the pain...I wanted to go somewhere else, but..."

"But you brought other places to you instead, Alessa. Without meaning to, childe, you opened a gateway in Silent Hill that has linked your home to two locations. It was the state of your emotions, the torment and uncertainty you suffered, all of your inner fears and doubts, they reached out to domains that would have been in harmony with all you felt."

"I...I don't understand..."

"No, Alessa. You are simply afraid to understand. You must know by instinct what those worlds...those realms are. One is a limbo of uncertainty and doubt...the other is a world where only torment and fear can reign. Each neighbor to the other."

"Th...those places...you mean...?"

"Yes. I describe what lies in the next eternal phase of existence, two of the everlasting domains of what you call the Afterlife. Other mortals have called it the Unseen Realm, but in truth, there are many such realms. The state of your emotions instinctively found two of the most treacherous of realms and...pulled them into the world of the living, where they were not meant to be."

"I-is there any way I can stop it? I didn't want to bring those worlds here and hurt anyone! There must be some way to fix what I did!"

"You cannot, childe...not now. You are not whole. Your soul was just recently divided in two. Another part of you is far away from where you are now."

"I...I know...I felt it happen, and it's so strange...! Did I do that, too? O-or did my -- I-I mean, did she...?"

"No. The events that led to your division were impelled by the will of the Creator Himself. Only He could make such a thing possible."

"Why??? Why can't I just die before I give birth to Dahlia's god? Why do I have to suffer like this?"

"I know it will give you no comfort to say this, dear childe, but all things happen for a reason. All hardships mortals must face are to prepare them, to test and strengthen and enlighten them as they follow the course of this first, temporary phase. Your other half will know the kind of life you always dreamed of...she will know the comfort, guidance and love of another. There is a reason and purpose for your division as well, and it is not simply to forestall your mother's desires to have her God born upon the mortal world through you."

"But I want to die...I don't want to hurt anymore...please help me die, please...!"

"You must be strengthened and forged by your pain, Alessa. It is the only way you will be prepared for your role in future events. There is so much you will understand one day simply by instinct, but for now and a very long time to come, you must endure. Not only for yourself, but for your very world and every soul living upon it."

"I want to die, that's all I want. Besides...no one but Nurse Lisa cares for me. Why should I care for anyone else?"

"A good question, Alessa. This is something you will be able to answer for yourself...if you are strong enough one day...but understand you are a childe of light and darkness. It is in your power to walk under the Creator's golden light and the darkest shadow, for you are at home in both. Thus it will be by your choice how you will shape the future. For better or worse. For others or simply for yourself."

"Wait...I-I-I remember where I've seen your name before...the Seal of Metatron...!"

"Yes. I am here in part because of your knowledge of that mystic ward blessed in my name."

"Dahlia caught me reading about it one day...she got so angry and said I shouldn't read about useless things. But...I could sense she was lying. Dahlia was angry because she was afraid. The Seal wasn't useless, it's really really important -- !"

"The Seal is useless to virtually all, childe, because most mortals do not have the magnitude of power needed to employ it."

"I know...but...but do I...?"

"Alessa, my Seal is incredibly dangerous. I used my Seal to bring low my...counterpart that serves Dahlia's false God."

"What do you mean...?"

"I speak of a lowly, misbegotten soul so completely driven to see his God ascend from the depths of darkness, nothing is forbidden to this one. He tried to bring her to Earth so many times, used the most terrible means you couldn't imagine, and so by the Creator's will I burned my Seal into his flesh to emasculate him of his power. You should beware of Valtiel in the future, Alessa. He is forced to rely on mortal agents of The Order like your mother, but he is as cunning as he is pathetic. He more than any other wants to see his God born on Earth. But just as importantly you must understand what my Seal, what mortals also call the Virun VII Crest, can do -- !"

"I have the power to use it, don't I? THAT'S what scared Dahlia. Maybe it can help me kill myself...!"

"Have a care of what you are thinking, childe. If used wisely, the Seal can make miracles happen. If used unwisely, the destruction it could cause -- !"

"I don't care. If I kill myself, her God won't be born. I'll be free from this prison my body has become. That's what I care about."

For a long, uncertain moment, the voice of Metatron was silent. The golden feeling didn't fade, not yet, but there was a sad weight of...disappointment in the air. Then the great voice spoke again, but it was becoming more and more distant...it was leaving her...

"You are young and you have been through too much suffering, childe. You have no idea that wishing for an end so strongly is a certain path to darkness. By my Creator's will, this memory shall be buried within you for a time. But when the time is right...

...you will remember, and with hope, you will have the wisdom to use this knowledge in the way you feel necessary.

"For everyone...for the sake of balance...or for yourself.

"In the end, it shall be your choice."

The golden feeling faded away and then there was nothing but pain again...it was so much agony Alessa Gillespie easily forgot the counsel of Metatron with hellish time, and she slipped further and further into misery until that dark and endless pain became all that motivated her every waking thought as, somewhere else, Cheryl Mason began to know the unconditional love of her new parents, each part of her not aware the other existed but always feeling that strange disconnect until that day came when Alessa sensed Cheryl, recognized her, and began to lure her to Silent Hill for the sake of her own destruction, and Cheryl's devoted father Harry Mason who had been widowed by the loss of his beloved wife would have done anything for his child and family, a vacation to that town wasn't a bad idea at all, and then EVERYTHING changed

--2--

and in what was once Black Falls, Vermont, Cheryl Mason woke up with a gasp. Her hazel eyes fluttered rapidly with confusion/realization/fear/wonder/horror/hope and so much more was expressed in her lovely face as she remembered that moment from her past. In the next instant, Rebecca Chambers was right there, kneeling close to Cheryl as the blonde just sat up on the grungy sofa she laid on in this condemned teacher's lounge In Black Falls Middle School. Rebecca burst, "Cheryl, thank god! I-I lost you for a while there...!"

Both relieved and totally overwhelmed to see Rebecca's heavenly face again, Cheryl moaned, "B-Becca...I'm so happy to see you, too...!" But then the blonde's brow knitted with concern. "I'm sorry, give me a second." She reached into herself, and with the speed of thought she cloaked herself and Rebecca from being detectable by anything else in the damn darkness. Cheryl just hoped like hell that fucker Reeve hadn't found them again...fortunately, he had still been searching and didn't get a fix on them both yet. Cheryl asked the pixie, "H-how long was I out...?"

Rebecca shrugged her slender shoulders. "I'd only be able to tell you if I had a watch that worked right now. I tried to measure the time...er, there wasn't much else I could do watching over you. But...for some reason it's been hard just counting the seconds." Which she hadn't noticed before, but now that Rebecca thought about it, that was really weird! "I-it must be another 'thing' about this darkness, isn't it?"

Cheryl Mason gazed at her beloved for a long moment with a somber face...and she finally said softly, "There's so many more things to this darkness and the fog than you think, Rebecca."

The pixie gazed at Cheryl and finally said, "You said I wouldn't want to understand, honey. But right now, ignorance definitely isn't bliss." Rebecca gently sat next to Cheryl and sweetly laid a loving arm around the blonde's shoulders. "That doesn't matter right now, all I need to know is...are you okay...?"

Cheryl nuzzled close to Becca needfully. "Yes. I'm all right."

Rebecca frowned. "C-can you tell me what just happened? It was like you had a spell...sigh, please pardon the expression! But you said 'the moment is here', and then you were out like a darn light! What happened???"

Much more quietly, Cheryl told her true love, "I remembered something, Becca. Something from a long time ago...and I will explain it to you." With a great weight building in her voice, the blonde said, "You asked before what happened to this town. Why your friend George and Nurse Lisa changed after they died but they didn't seem to die at all. I can explain it...but you won't want to believe."

Cheryl looked down at her own lap after she said that, and that was why she didn't see Rebecca drew close before the girl gave her a loving kiss on her freckled cheek. The haunted blonde was surprised. Becca gave her a priceless smile and reassured, "At this point, if you told me pigs can fly, I'd believe you. Whatever the hell is going on, I'll be able to take it, Cheryl."

Cheryl considered Rebecca and finally smiled lamely...she purred, "It's a little funny you said it that way." It took her a moment...but she told Rebecca what she had always instinctively knew to be true, everything she had learned ever since her fusion into a single soul again and she grew to maturity in her new life as Cheryl Mason. Last but far from least, Cheryl told Rebecca as much as she could about the memory she recalled while unconscious.

It took Rebecca Chambers a LOT longer than a moment to really absorb everything Cheryl said. About Silent Hill. Shepherd's Glen. And now Black Falls. And the blonde was right. For that terrible moment, Rebecca didn't want to believe...

...but like Leon S. Kennedy and Anne Cunningham, given the chance, she now HAD to. And like Leon, Rebecca really gave it thought and in the end, was it really so fantastic and beyond belief? She had seen Cheryl perform miracles, both wondrous and frightening, and of course testament of her power was from simply looking at what happened to Black Falls because of Reeve Meyers. It all made a strange and terrifying sense really. It had been years since Rebecca went to church with her mom and dad, and she forgot the last time she said her prayers before she hit the sack. But she had never lost her belief there was a god and other truths that were far above and beyond the mortal veil...the pixie always had the belief that we all went somewhere else after our time on Earth was done.

Well, it wasn't so much a belief as it was a hope, really. Rebecca was a Medical Specialist who relied on science and what she could see. It wasn't hard to put her faith in the friendship and love of those closest to her. But to believe in such higher things that couldn't be seen, much less quantified? Things like magic and what happens to us after we died? Until recently, Rebecca thought magic was just a thing of fiction and life after death...she could only hope that was true, because that was far more preferable to thinking that when we reach the end of our lives, we'd snuff out like a candle's flame and...well, game totally over.

It was a strange thing to feel so much relief AND horror to know her hopes had been validated once and for all.

Rebecca said carefully, "That's what happened to Nurse Lisa...a-and to George...and to those girls we saw here in the school." Those sad yet dangerous Dolls they encountered in that classroom, so tortured yet knowing such comfort from one another. "They came back to life, but...that's not the right way to say it because...b-because..."

Cheryl nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Rebecca could only gaze into space with troubled eyes as she really came to grips with the truth...with what it all meant. It took another long moment, but that was okay. Time really didn't mean anything where they were.

Rebecca finally looked at Cheryl and said with a stronger voice, "Okay. It's all right. W...we can adapt to this...I-I-I hope we can! And your father Harry and Cybil took you away from the darkness long ago in Silent Hill, right?? You and Douglas got out of there too after you defeated Claudia. That means we can escape it!"

Cheryl nodded. "I'm still not sure how we can. Things aren't the same as before, but I want to believe we can, Becca. We just have to get past Reeve and all of the monsters out there and..." Cheryl stopped herself. She simply thought of Valtiel, but didn't dare to even say his name. That son of a bitch might hear her.

Cheryl began to understand something else that she kept to herself for now. Age and more importantly experience does bring wisdom, and thanks to what she now recalled, she began to understand the forces she was dealing with. She began to realize how something could resist her conscious will to end this nightmare of fog and darkness and save those who could be saved in Black Falls. It was a moment so much more important than Cheryl thought when she and Rebecca saw the Memory of Alessa at that ruined church.

That wraith would have remembered Metatron, of course -- that was only PART of the meaning behind that visitation -- but the Memory could only say so much. Cheryl understood that part of her self left absolutely important hints when she really thought about what the Memory said. That faceless CREATURE she only glimpsed briefly with her extranormal senses was another most important dot that connected many things and led to all-important answers. However, they had to solve their troubles one at a damned time.

The blonde counseled, "We still need to wait here for our friends. Two of them are badly hurt."

With alarm, Rebecca asked, "Who???"

"One is a lady you never met. Her name is Helena." A sad pause. "The other is Elza. One of those fucking parasites is in control of her."

"Oh, god...!" Rebecca broke into dismay in reaction, but then she remembered! "W-wait, I've got that stuff I took from Doctor Young! We can help Elza!" The Aglaophotis.

Cheryl nodded. "If they can reach us."

Rebecca sighed. "Yeah, if they can...!"

"They are getting closer...it shouldn't be long where they'll get close enough, I can use my power to keep them hidden from any threats, too." One of the groups was being pursued by this...THING that made Cheryl feel dread on so many levels. The Red Pyramid. It was something she knew well from The Order's lore and saw before in Silent Hill, and she had to wonder. Even with her power, could she fight something like that...? Better not to tell Becca that either, not unless she totally had to.

Becca sighed again and lamented, "So we can't do much but wait until then."

"Yeah."

The pixie shrugged. "We need to find some kind of way to pass the -- ha!" Rebecca almost burst into giggles but stifled herself. Knowing what she did now, time literally wasn't even a factor where they were, was it?

Cheryl found the strength to grin back and told her beloved, "It's not that funny."

"No...it really isn't." Rebecca did sober in expression fast, but her gorgeous body did relax easily as she nuzzled next to the blonde. "While we're waiting, I can finally tell you what I've been hiding from you. I owe it to you."

Cheryl told her the truth: "You don't owe me anything, you amazing girl."

Becca looked at the ugly floor and sighed once more. "Okay...I owe it to myself to be honest with you." And for a time (which didn't exist really), Rebecca Chambers told Cheryl her dirty little secret, a truth she could never confide in anyone until then. It still wasn't easy, and by the time she was done, it felt like an iron hand was literally wringing her heart in its strong fist. When she concluded her confession, Rebecca was weeping in such a way anyone else would have been tempted to cry, as well.

The only reason Cheryl Mason didn't was because she had suffered so much more in her past...still, she did hold her beloved with care when she finally said, "That's it? Honestly???"

Rebecca's quivering mouth dropped open and she asked, "Why are you asking like that? Like it...it's no big deal!"

Cheryl frowned and told her Becca, "Seriously, it isn't! Haven't you ever thought you might be too hard on yourself?"

Resistant, Becca moaned, "No...no, I haven't! If I hadn't quit, if I hadn't left Jill and Chris, I would've -- !"

"Don't!" As Cheryl held her beloved lovingly, the blonde said with a firmer voice, "Don't keep saying woulda-coulda-shoulda, dammit. You had no idea what the future was going to bring and you're no one else's keeper, sweetie. You're not responsible for what happens to anyone else."

"B-but I should have been there for her...I love Jill and I owed it to her to -- !"

"Becca, does Jill know you've always felt so damn guilty?"

Horrified by the very thought, Rebecca said, "No, god no, I couldn't ever tell her -- !"

"Maybe you need to."

"I..." Sorrowfully, Rebecca shook her head and moaned, "I-I can't just do that...!"

"Why not? You've told me how much she loves you, too. Jill is the best friend you've ever known." Cheryl gently advised, "If that's true, then she'll be the first to say there's nothing to forgive."

Still in tears, Becca looked at Cheryl and asked meekly, "Y-you really think so??"

"Just ask how much faith you have in your best friend, sweetie. Then you'll have your answer." Cheryl added, "Then maybe you'll forgive yourself."

Rebecca issued a mournful, uncertain sob and broke down again...but Cheryl was there to hold the pixie tight and give her truly loving solace.

--3--

The waiting progressed slowly...Rebecca calmed...and then she couldn't and she started pacing back and forth in the big room anxiously. Becca began to suggest, "We can go out and find them...or maybe send them another message to -- !"

"Becca?" Cheryl was really trying to maintain her calm, but for lots of reasons it was hard. "Please relax?"

"I-I can't just..." Rebecca gestured around her and complained, "I'm not gonna relax HERE knowing where I am! How can you relax??"

"It's only because of experience and I've been in this kind of shit before." A dark pause. "I made this happen before, and I hoped to god that would never happen again."

Becca completely forgot her own anxiety in heartbeats. Thinking only of Cheryl, she said, "You said before I was being too hard on myself, right? You've been doing that too, and for a really really long time."

Cheryl stared at the pixie. "You're only hard on yourself from your point of view. I'm not being hard on myself in any way when I look back at what I've done simply by fucking accident, what I was forced to do, and...and what I tried to do." Another heavy pause as she slowly rose from the couch. "I would have killed myself, Harry, Cybil and everyone else still alive in Silent Hill if I had gotten my way in 1983."

"You were just a child...you were in so much agony and you simply wanted to escape from...from the hell your life had become." The pixie really absorbed her own words. Weren't they eerily, hauntingly ironic. And not simply figurative. Rebecca kept herself from shuddering by focusing fully on Cheryl...she continued with a stronger voice, "Besides, that's a whole other life you lived! From everything you said, you were given a second chance by a power higher than anything. Who the hell else can say that??" With the purest and most divine need, Becca urged, "Please don't let what you tried to do in a previous life haunt you in this one, honey."

Cheryl suddenly snapped, "I've got so much more than that haunting me now, Becca. Metatron told me that all of the shit I've been through was for some goddamn reason, and I wish someone would fucking tell me what that reason IS!"

Becca was at an understandable loss...it took her a moment to search within herself for an answer. "You also told me Metatron said that mortal life is a test for everyone...to make us stronger and wiser as we grow, right?"

"Yeah, to prepare me for whatever damn destiny I was given...!"

"No, Cheryl!" Rebecca took a couple of loving steps closer and declared, "It was to prepare you to choose your own destiny!" The Medical Specialist continued in a more certain voice: "I've never been able to buy into someone when they talk about fate, that our futures are already written and our lives are spent getting from Point A to some inevitable Point Z. They're the same kind of people who would compare life to a stupid lottery! If that was true, wouldn't that take away the whole freaking point of living life if our destinies are set from the very start?? Metatron never said that you were some kind of 'chosen one' who had to do something in particular! He said that what you'll do will be up to you, right???"

Unsure, Cheryl managed, "Y-yes...!"

"Then your fate is in your own hands. I totally believe that, but you need to believe that, too!" So much more softly, Rebecca told her true love, "Believe in yourself as much as I believe in you, Cheryl."

For a timeless moment, the beauties gazed at each other in this silent room.

But pain, a dark agony beyond any words, filled Cheryl's lovely face again. "Metatron said that...that I needed to be strengthened and forged. I had to earn the wisdom to know what to do." Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "If that's so, then it's one fucking ruthless way for me to earn wisdom! I was a damn victim of The Order in the worst ways possible...whether by accident or by force, I destroyed three towns, and I need to take responsibility for what my powers have done. So many people have died and...

"...a-and had even worse things happen to them."

Cheryl shamefully turned from Rebecca to look at one of the profane walls...tears flowed down her cheeks as she said, "Look at how many people have been lost in Black Falls. I've been able to see into the memories of Cybil, Douglas, Anne and all of the others, and god, there have been so many dead before their time. Children were sacrificed. Everyone at that hospital, even the Head Nurse Gwen and that cute candy striper, Bea." A terrible pause. "They're gone."

Rebecca couldn't help but weep then...for Gwen, for Bea, for Elza, for all of the victims of The Order.

"You lost your friend Harley, and your dearest friends Jill and Christine and Chris and so many more are still in danger...my friends Cybil and Douglas are here, too...their souls are at so much more risk than they could ever imagine." The haunted girl from Silent Hill wrapped her slender arms around herself as she looked into space and wept for those lost. "Look at all the suffering that's been caused, Becca. If this was all for the sake of me figuring out my own damned destiny...

"...maybe it would've been better if I hadn't been born at all."

Cheryl bowed her head as she fell silent and wept in true despair.

Not far behind her. Rebecca slowly, tenderly moved to the blonde. The pixie moved to stand before Cheryl, her own wet eyes expressing her soul-deep devotion...her pure and unconditional love.

Rebecca's gloved hands sweetly lifted and began to wipe away Cheryl's tears.

The blonde slowly shook her head, resistant...she was so damned hard on herself...but the pixie's love wouldn't be denied.

Rebecca drew very close and kissed Cheryl's wet, freckled cheeks...the blonde's defenses were slowly breaking in response to the brunette's adoring warmth...

...Cheryl managed, "Please, Becca...please don't..." The warmth was igniting all of the passion she felt in her soul for Rebecca. "...please don't stop, my amazing girl..."

Rebecca Chambers held Cheryl and her lips drew close to the blonde's ear very briefly...to murmur, "Shhhh. I won't. I'll make it all better, Cheryl." They both began to kiss each other needfully, desperately, they clutched each other so wondrously as Rebecca moaned a perfect promise: "I will make it all better." The hunger they felt for each other was mutual and divine as they really began to kiss with their tongues, and the sheer overwhelming purity of their love started to truly wash away Cheryl Mason's agony in the silence. They couldn't stop kissing each other and returned to the couch. For a time that didn't really exist they kept giving each other bliss in this innocent and pure way, kissing and caressing one another, but they never went further than that.

They both became almost exhausted from the euphoria they shared, and relaxed into each other's arms as they sat and waited. They were both so much calmer as their love began to help them draw upon their strength for one another. They would both need their fortitude for the unknowable trials to come.

TO BE CONTINUED

---
If you've been connecting the dots as you've been following this story like Cheryl is (especially if you're a Silent Hill fan!), I'm sure you've made some pretty good guesses already; just wait and see if you're right or not.

Next time, LOTS will begin happening and all threads will really weave together as we (finally!) hit the home stretch to the climax of this survival horror romance/adventure! ^___^

Giving credit here for those who were a huge part in making the art above possible like usual!

XNALara created by Dusan Pavlicek; XPS by Dusan and XNAaraL

Models:
Rebecca Chambers by !
Cheryl Mason by !
Scenery by !