The church was quieter than a funeral.  Untouched pews laid dusty on both sides of the raptor, windows glossy with cobwebs over stained glass causing the light to turn dim through them.  Candles were lit to give some light however, casting shadows across the aisles.  A medium-sized organ was the centrepiece of the hall.  James started to regret coming in, but he decided to investigate nevertheless.  He was tempted to shout out, but now he was uncertain.  He didn't want to alert monsters to his position.
With that note, he remembered his radio and turned it back on again to let it scan the area for creatures.  Silence.  So far so good.  Sighing with some relief, James examined the place, his luck turning for the better with a fresh set of handgun bullets upon one of the seats, immediately reloading his gun for a full 10-bullet clip with five bullets leftover for later.  The click of the freshly-loaded handgun echoed faintly throughout the hall.  The church itself was not too big either, not even having an upstairs.  He did however find a smaller darker room to the side, with a few confessionals lined up along old oaken walls.

He felt a little uncertain, but he was starting to feel tired and the sanctuary of a confessional to hide in only tempted him more.  Eventually, he gave in and sat down inside one, closing the door and sitting down upon the plush velour cushion.
The confessional seemed to be illuminated enough amongst the dark empty church, enough for him to feel somewhat safe.  As he took a moment to rest himself, thankful for the cushion being so soft against his rump, a deep voice came from the other side of the veiled wooden panel.
	"You here to confess?"
	"H-huh?"
	"You came here to confess...right?"
The voice was American, clearly an accent from one of the bigger cities but with a tone of accusation that FG wasn't sure about.
	"W-well, I was...kind of lost."
	"We all lost in places like this."
	"Tell me about it.  I dunno what the fuck's up with this town with all these monsters everywhere you go."
	"Monsters?"
	"Yeah, you haven't seen them!?  Wandering around the town, blind guys with police sticks, some big muscly fucker with a sorta...wheelbarrow-pyramid thing on its head, that kind of stuff."
	"...Um...kay."  The voice was somewhat unnerved.
	"Oh what you don't believe me, you live here priest!"
	"I ain' from 'round here."
	"...well, how come you don't believe me about these monsters huh!?!"
	"Maybe I ain' crazy like you."
	"You a priest or a fucking therapist?"
	"A lot more than that, FinalGamer."
	"Well I bet I......wait, how do you know-"
	"You gonna confess or not?!"
	"What the hell do I have to confess about?!?"
	"Don't lie to me bitch!"  The voice turned angrier, a sudden slam of a fist from the other side.  "You a straight-up fuckin' thief AND a murderer, so you gonna confess or I'm gonna beat it out of you."
	"Wh-what!?!  Hey I maybe STOLE stuff sure, but I never killed anyone!"
	"YOU FUCKING DID!"
	"A-a-a-alright!  Alright!  Th-there was Bob, and that boxer I admit...and that guy Delaney-"
	"Wh...whut?  NO, not them!  I ain't talkin' 'bout some jackoff called Bob or Delaney or whutever!"
	"What!?  Well who did I kill then Mister All-Seeing Asswipe?!"
	"Lemme jumpstart yer memory huh?!  New York City, three year ago, you robbed an apartment down in Hell's Kitchen, A couple inside got in yer way-"
	"Woah woah woah, I've NEVER been to New York in my life!"
	"DON'T YOU DARE LIE, MOTHERFUCKER!"
	"I'm serious, I only ever been to Chicago, nowhere else!  I was nowhere NEAR New York or even the USA two years ago, hell longer than that!"
	"LIAR!"
To further punctuate the unseen accuser's rage, a huge blade shoved through the veiled panel right alongside James' head, a terrible rusty blade he shuddered at recognising.  It was Pyramid Head's.
	"OH...GOD NO!  NO, NOT YOU AGAIN!"

He ran out of the confessional, scissors up in defence as he stumbled blindly through the suddenly darker church hall, the candles now snuffed out, making him unable to see where to go.  He was however able to see the Great Knife wielded before him, the figure coming out of the confessional.  Yet something was off about it, enough for him to dissuade his fear and realise something.
Something was odd about Pyramid Head, if it even was him.  He could barely see the outline but it looked shorter, less muscular, less intimidating, as well as having that voice filled with fury.
	"I know what you fuckin' did, bitch!"
	"I don't know what you're talkin' about, I swear, you got the wrong guy!"
	"You fuckin' make me SICK!  Even when I know the truth, when I SAW YOU kill them!"
	"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!"
	"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAARGH!"
The blade swung at him with huge clumsy swings, not at all like the controlled powerful force of Pyramid Head when he faced him.  This couldn't be the same thing.  This was someone else, someone not skilled with it.  As a result, FG could easily handle him, deflecting the weapon with his more skilled hand.  Despite the inexperienced charging swings he managed to block, he was still thrown off by the sheer weight of the blade always striking his guard away.
All he could see was that rusted weapon shining in the darkness, deflecting and dodging it, trying to attack his opponent, lasting for perhaps a minute or two.  What the fighter lacked in skill he certainly made up for with pure strength, his swings brutal but uncoordinated.  It was starting to tire the raptor out from having to block, so he instead opted for evasion, dodging around the swings to strike at his unseen foe.
Eventually he managed to cut the enemy, slashing across the leg enough to make him roar in rage.  The Great Knife suddenly dropped down to the ground, the enemy clearly wounded.  Soon it slinked away into the darkness, limping to somewhere else as the voice swore back:
	"YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN FOREVER, FG!  BUT WHEN I SEE YOU AGAIN, YOU FUCKING DEAD!"
As he lost sight of the weapon and its wielder, James was merely confused by the furious individual who clearly knew his nickname and wanted him dead so badly.
	"The fuck was that guy?  That voice...do I...know it from somewhere?  ....No...no, this town's playing tricks on me, that's all it is, j-just stay focused James, you gotta get out of here first."

Exiting the church, feeling that the town was not quite ready to let him rest just yet, he walked across the road towards the pet centre.  Perhaps such an abandoned store as this would offer him some respite, a place nobody would go to in such a state of affairs.  James came from a world where pets were a largely unfamiliar concept.  As a result, the rows upon rows of empty aquariums, hutches and cages made him feel like it was a prison.
Sarah had mentioned to him long ago about how humans in the old days kept non-sentient animals as pets.  He wasn't entirely sure how to imagine it, for his own concept of a pet was a lot less innocent.  The smell of old hay assaulted his nostrils, the place empty of any sort of life.  Old bags of dog food, a desk counter with various amenities, aisles separated by species.  Somewhere in the back however was the sound of someone trying to break open a metal casing.
Walking closer, he turned a corner to find some sort of machine for engraving collar tags.  A white canine figure bent down in front of it, trying to jimmy open the casing and steal the money inside.  Stepping closer, the canine suddenly turned with a fright and blushed before speaking with a sweet but sultry female voice.
	"AH!  ...hehe, hey um...listen I really need some money and I-"
	"Wh...D-....D-......no...can't be..."
He walked closer towards the canine figure in the darkness, some strange part of his mind lighting up a futile hope at who it could be.  As his footsteps turned louder towards the figure, it looked almost too good to be true.  It looked exactly like her.
But the moment the light turned better as he stepped up to her, his heart sank immediately with disappointment, as well as frustration at how stupid he was to have his hopes up like that.

	"Um...hi there," greeted the white female dog.
	"Uh, hi."
	"You uh...lookin' fer someone?"
	"Uh...y-yes...I mean no, no actually I'm not I was uhhh...uhm..."
	"Hehehe...it's alright, just take a deep breath and calm down...always had that way with guys."
She was unbelieveable.  She was so uncannily like her that it frightened him, the very thought of which being too painful for him to even try to compare fully.  The only differences were the mascara around her eyes to turn them darker, her voice a more sultry tone all while wearing a fully black-red dress, like that of a Spanish contessa.  After he realised his mistake more clearly, he calmed down and said:
	"I got lost, and ended up in this town and I'm trying to get out of here.  Do you know any way I can leave?"
	"Hmmmm...you tried all the roads here?"
	"Every one of them is either blocked or destroyed, this place is like a fucking graveyard!"
	"Hey hey heeeey, calm down cutie...mmmmmm..."  She walked closer to him, sliding a hand along his arm very smoothly.  "If you can't get anywhere on this side, there's the other side of Toluca Lake.  Maybe even the Lakeside Hotel can help ya get somewhere, someone must be there or at least in the old town further ahead."
	"You think?"  James ignored the hand on his arm.  "Hmmm...how do I get across the lake?"
	"There's a boathouse further along the interstate road that way, that is if the interstate road isn't blocked or anything and you can get out that way.  If not, you gotta row across Toluca Lake."
	"Right...but there's some kinda fence blocking the way past the bank."
	"Well...you can always try another street, the one that goes along south should help you."
	"Well there was a road past the uh...apartments but that's closed off too."
	"Huh, well how about Saul Street, the one all the way at the end of Neely Street?"
	"Hmm...didn't check that one, alright then.  So uh....what happened to this town, do you live here?"
	"You can say that, yeah."  She winked at him oddly, but he disregarded it as he asked:
	"So what happened here?"
	"It's a li'l complex...but there used to be this big cult a long time back, ruled the town, not even police could do anything about it, tried to give birth to the devil himself...kinda all fucked up in the end but...the scary thing was it wasn't all in their minds."
	"They...actually did it?"  Her small profanity soothed him, driving away his image of Daisy within her.
	"No one's really sure.  But the town still kinda has an influence over it...an influence of...well I can't say, but you don't want a guided tour of the place, you wanna get outta here right?"
	"Ahhh yeah, soon as possible please, this place is...well fucking horrible, I had so much shit happen to me in those apartments over there it's not even funny."
	"Well let's get you away from here soon as we can.  What's yer name by the way?"
	"Uhhh James."
	"I'm Luisa."  She took his hand in hers, her touch so familiar to him that he had to resist shivering from it.  "Pleased to meet you James."
	"So uh, you were jimmying that thing open huh?"
	"Yeah well, I needed some money and I'm a li'l desperate, hehee."
	"Lemme help with that."

James didn't care about not being a vandal at this point, not after what he'd been through.  Already he hated the town enough to want to do some damage, pulling out his scissors and forcing the tips into the casing.  Jamming the tips into where Luisa had weakened it, he furiously tore it off with a mighty clang, the change counter exposing dozens of coins.
	"Jackpot!"  Luisa immediately began scrounging them up to put into her purse, giggling excitably.  "Thanks!  Yer a treasure."
She pulled him close to give him a kiss, a warm kiss that sent a shiver deep within his soul.  She looked at him oddly at his reaction, holding his arm close to hers in appreciation.
	"Uhh, sorry, it's kinda cold."
	"Ooooh...no fur right?"
	"Y-yeah."
	"Well...I could keep you warm."  She wrapped her arm around his even more, but he did not pull away out of politeness.
	"I...I appreciate that but I'm okay, don't worry."
	"Alright then cutie.  So, where you heading?"
	"Just any way out of here, where did you say I could go?"
	"Try Saul Street, I'll show you the way."
She led him down Neely Street, the road surprisingly clear of monsters for now.  James wasn't sure if she had seen them either, but did not want to frighten her so he did not ask.  The town still remained its foggiest, blurring his vision ahead, keeping everything a mystery from him.
Heading south, the dog and the raptor reached Saul Street, a rather disused-looking road due to the greater presence of industrial fences on both sides, as well as the tunnel ahead of them.  James was uncertain about going through a dark tunnel in a town like this, but he had no other place to go through.  Sighing with resignation, he walked in with Luisa.
	"So where you live Luisa?"
	"Just past here actually, a house along Rendell Street.  Long as I get there, I'll be okay."
	"Well that's not far right?"
	"Nope, just on the other side of the tunnel."
Her sweet but sultry voice charmed him all the more, and he couldn't help but smile in her presence, even if she was different.  They soon found themselves within the Saul Street tunnel, keeping close to each other to not lose their way, walking forwards instinctively.  Occasionally they would veer off-center towards the wall due to the darkness, but they managed to pass through unharmed.
As they exited the Saul Street tunnel, they were met with a suddenly darkened sky.  Somehow the night had come to greet them, and it wasn't welcome.
	"Shit, that was sudden."
	"Maybe it's the winter solstice," offered Luisa.
	"...is it even winter?"
	"In a town like this, it always feels like winter."
	"Are you gonna be this cryptic all the time?"
	"Hmhmhm, relax James, I'm just teasin' you...I dunno what's going on here anymore than you-"
She was soon cut off by a rather strange groan from the distance, coinciding with the radio static suddenly blaring out from James' satchel.  Luisa yelped with a start.
	"W-What the-"
	"Stay back!  Lemme deal with this."
He knew it was another of those police zombie things, whatever they were called, slowly shambling into view.  In fact, it was three of them coming towards him and Luisa.  He was tempted to use his handgun, not wanting to risk getting another spraying of gas to the face.  He took out the weapon from his satchel, the canine behind him looking a little scared.
	"W-w-what the hell are they?!"
	"I dunno, but they're not gonna lay a hand on you."
The darkness made things more difficult for the raptor to aim, trying to line up his shot for one of the heads, but finding they wobbled around too much for a clear shot.  Instead, he opted for the chest, shooting straight at one creature's sternum, knocking it down hard.  The second one he misfired and hit in the shoulder, the creature groaning with a turn of its body before James fired once more at the stomach.
The third one desperately tried to spray its gas from a distance, but James was too far out of reach and merely shot it once more, straight in the head when it stopped to spray.  The corpses began to spasm on the ground, shaking and squealing like poisoned rats.  James had no sympathy, grabbing Luisa's hand and running past them, the radio static fading with each stride they made.
	"Come on, let's get you home!"
	"W-wait, what are those things, are they monsters?!"
	"I don't know, you live here!"
	"I never seen them before!"
	"I don't care, they're fucking monsters!"
	"WAIT!"
	"What?!"
	"This is the place!"

Halfway along Rendell Street was a large colonial mansion.  It was truly enormous and quite a stately place for anyone to live in, towering over them in the dark of night, darkened windows with nary a light on that made its size even more deceptively larger than it was.  James was surprised, he expected Luisa to live in an apartment block.  The radio turned silent, leaving them in the dead of night, underneath a lit streetlight.
	"You...live here?"
	"I'm a lodger, the guy lets me live here for rent."
	"Alright...you gonna be okay?"
	"I think so...b-but those monsters...they looked like the police, what happened to them?!"
	"I don't know.  Maybe this is to do with that cult you were talking about?"
	"M-maybe!  But that was all up in the old town of Silent Hill, not here!  Then again...the police did say about a bad influence spreading."
	"Well I think the police know enough about THAT.  Anyway I don't think there's any monsters around now, you're safe."
	"Okay...thank you."
Her gratitude warmed his heart, and he smiled up to her as she walked two steps up towards the house entrance.  The light covered only half of her body now, somehow intriguing the raptor even more at the look of her in a more mystical light.  Her black dress shimmered with the smallest flicker of the streetlight.
	"No problem...you sure you gonna be okay?  I can come in and-"
	"Uhhhh I don't think Mr. Baldwin would appreciate me bringing in a stranger so late."
	"Alright alright...well I uh...I...um..."
	"Is...something wrong?"  James felt like he wasn't going to see her again, so he made his admittance.
	"You uh...okay don't take this the wrong way but, you remind me of someone...a LOT like someone."
	"Really?"
	"Yeah...um...my girlfriend."
	"Awwwwww...you're all confused."  She gently slid her hand up to his right shoulder, gently walking back into the light to tease him so.
	"N-n-no not confused, really."
	"You're worried yer gonna cheat on her aren't you?"
	"No, I mean yea-I MEAN NO, I can't cheat on her, because...b-because..."  His face changed to an expression of regret.  Luisa noticed it clearly.
	"Did...something happen to her?"
	"Y-yeah...she...uhm...she died."
	"Ohh...I'm so sorry sweetie."
	"It's okay.  Just uh...you're REALLY like her, like a lot like her and that's why I'm acting all weird."
	"Shhh...don't worry James."  She pressed a white-furred finger against his lips.  "I understand."
	"You...you do?"
	"Mmhmm.  How much am I like her?"
	"Well...other than your voice a li'l deeper, your clothes and that...you're like a clone of her."
	"Hhhaha...I'll take that as a compliment.  I'm sorry."  She gave him a tender kiss on the cheek, a friendly one.  "You don't have to worry about me James.  Really, I'll be fine."
	"Uhh...a-alright then."
As he gazed upon her with the smallest feelings of comfort welling up inside him, Luisa's face soon changed as she began to cough, small at first before building up to stronger throatier coughs.
	"Hey you okay?!"
	"Yeah yeah I just...I need my pills, they're in my room, I got a bit of a...lung problem."
	"Ahh.  Well I'll...um...I'll just get going then."
	"Alright."  She made a few smaller coughs before straightening herself up.  "If you need any help there's a hospital up the way, Brookhaven along Carroll Street."
	"Really?  I'll check it out, thanks."
	"Take care James."

Luisa skipped merrily up the steps and into the mansion.  The raptor was slightly taken aback by the fact she wasn't as scared as he expected her to be of weird monsters.  Maybe she was a goth, the way she dressed made him think such.  Maybe she enjoyed watching horror movies and wasn't as scared as most people would of such aberrations.  Or she was just a tougher girl than she looked.
The fact she looked exactly like Daisy still rubbed him up the wrong way, trying to ignore it as he walked west along Rendell Street.  A tunnel exiting the town went southwest, but it was completely closed off by a huge steel gate, saying it was closed for reparations.
	"God...fucking dammit."
He struggled to think of a way out, snarling to himself before realising something incredibly obvious.  He could have left anytime he wanted to.  He had the urge to bash his head against the gate for such stupidity, but for now, he calmed himself down and tried to focus on leaving.
	"Okay, okay, you were stressed, you didn't have time to think about teleporting out of here, that's fine.  ...fucking moron.  Okay, here we go."
He willed himself the power to teleport out of Silent Hill, claws tingling with the power of his nanos, slowly swirling around his hands like miniature galaxies.  He thought of a word, darkness, all around him easily enough.  It seemed to trigger something.  He waited for the moment, that powerful icy vaccuum into the infinity of the space between dimensions.  He felt it draw him in...and then it stopped.

The teleporting failed.  He was still in front of a broken tunnel out of Silent Hill.  Thinking it was a hiccup, he tried to think of another word, another random word that could make him go somewhere.  He thought of Glenn, he could return to previous worlds surely, nothing could stop him doing such.  Yet the nanos would charge themselves up, only to suddenly fail.
	"What the hell is going on!?"
He tried once more, this time thinking of Cyrodiil, of Chorrol, of Dar-Ma.  He knew he could return back to that world, he even brought out the sigil stone he had kept as extra motivation.  The nanos did charge up more powerfully, and the portal did just about manage to open up before him, a thin blue rending of space.  But as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared once again in the wink of an eye.
	"GOD!  DAMMIT!  What the fuck is your deal, town?!  Now you wanna fucking block me in here?!?  Alright, fine, I'll go through like a normal person and just wander aimlessly like a spaz, alright!?"
With frustration in his hands, he walked north along Carroll Street, looking out for the hospital that Luisa mentioned.  As he walked further up, the radio suddenly went off again.  Bracing himself with his handgun at the ready, he waited for more shambling police corpses to approach him.  Nothing of the sort came.  Something else came towards him from out of the night fog.  A new creature that made his skin crawl.