Silent Hill: Bonds Ch. 1

-Never go into the lake, Michael! I've told you countless times to stay away from it!
-I'm sorry, dad, we were just playing
-I don't care what you were doing, go inside!

I wake up again, same as always. I've been having this dream constantly and it always starts and ends there. I can't remember anything before or beyond that. It's 7 a.m., Sunday. I can't believe it's so early. Today's my mom's birthday. This afternoon I'll be heading to Browns, that's where my parents live. It'll be the same as every year. Have lunch, supper, chat a little bit and leave. I'm never happy to follow that routine because it gets boring with time, but I do like visiting my parents once in a while. It is such a shame I get to see them only once every year. I guess my work doesn't allow it as much as I'd like.

I get up from bed, check the phone. No voice mails. I go straight to the kitchen to make myself some cereal; it's pretty early so I might as well just watch some T.V. before I get ready to visit my parents. Since it is Sunday, I won't be able to stay at my parents' house like sometimes. I got to get to work next day so it'll be a quick trip for me. I like staying with my parents in my old room. Brings back so many memories about my childhood and how I spent my times playing with my friends. We usually played hide-and-seek, sometimes we'd play with our action figures and if we wanted to show how brave we were, we'd go swimming a little bit at the lake. The lake has had a bad reputation for many drowning and accidents, so people tend to avoid it thinking it brings 'bad luck' just to swim on it. My friends and I didn't believe such tales and we always decided to dive in anyways.

T.V. news, I bet they're the same everywhere. I've never liked watching them. Even as a kid, I thought they said the same things over and over again. People told me it was important to be up to date with the news, but every time I tried watching a complete news segment, I'd end up asleep or something else would grab my attention, like my friends knocking on the door asking if I could go out and play with them. How do I miss those days! Everything was plain and simple and we just lived, we didn't have to worry about mortgage or about work. We were always together with family and loving parents. Anyways, ironically though, my father worked as a reporter for our town. We were a few miles from the nearest city so he'd always depart early and return somewhere between 6 p.m. just in time for dinner. He was the one who always forbid me to get near the lake. Since he was a reporter, he knew of every single case that surrounded that case and the big coincidences which happened to every "victim".

'You know, son. Knowledge is power, and it brings us closer to the truth. And the truth is a two-way path. It can ultimately relieve us and hurt us.' My father loved quoting that to us. He spoke those words with such enunciation that suggested pride and seriousness at the same time. I never truly understood the meaning of it; neither did my mom. What time is it? 10 p.m. I'm almost late. I'll turn off the T.V. and take a shower. Browns is 2 hours away from my place so I better be quick if I want to get there on time.

I'm now on my way to Browns. The path is pretty straight forward. You just got to follow the same road for about 1 and a half hour. There are some popular reports about the road being haunted. I remember my dad coming to our house with a bunch of files. My mom asked him what was that and he told us that those files were the complete reports of all the disappearances on that road from 1998 to the current date. I skimmed some of the files and I remember reading "Couple disappear after walking to the woods, both previously showed anger and frustration over their divorce", another read "police officer who was being investigated for drug trafficking and suspect to the murder of a family went missing after he was driving back home and stopped at the forest." Police detectives thought he stopped for a 'leak' and was driven away to the woods by something or merely decided to escape. My dad eventually told me to stop reading because I could scramble everything up. I'd tell my friends about it and they'd share similar stories. The truth is that every time that topic came out with my friends or family, I'd have a hard time sleeping at night. I slept and had recurring nightmares of me running away from something. In my nightmare, I never look back, so I never know what it looks like or what it is, but it was obviously something I had to get away from.

I'm currently driving by the woods. They're always foggy at this time of the day. The sunlight streams down the woods and the sun beams that make it through the pine trees gets dispersed by the thick fog that covers the lower parts of the forest. It gives me the chills just by watching it. I really want to get away from this part of the road as quick as possible. Ring, Ring, Ring. Ring, Ring, Ring. My cell phone, it's probably just my mom asking me where I am. It's weird though, it's just 11:30, and I'm not running late or anything. I answer. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sean! This is Henry! watcha' doing, champ?" Henry, the guy who I respond to at my job. I work as an accountant at a phone company. It's really weird for Henry to call me. He just does that if there's an emergency which I need to attend to. Oh, crap. I'm in between the two places. What could he want? "Sean? Are you there?" I forgot to respond "Oh, sorry Henry. I'm currently driving. What's up? Need something?" Not that I can help you… or want to. "Not really, Sean. I was just calling you because of... well you know. I'm sorry for calling; I know you got plans with your family. You should take the week off, man. I got you covered, don't worry about it." What the hell is he talking about? Did something happen? I better ask him "What's wrong, Henry?" He's silent for a second, I'm getting nervous here. "It's nothing, Sean. Take the week off and we'll see next Monday. Rest, okay?" Well, I got the week off… but why? "Henry, why are you giving me the week off?" A lot of static starts coming out of the phone. I get it away from my ear due to its loudness. Communication problems, something really normal when near the forest. I should just keep driving, I'm almost there.