Chapter Nine: Rebirth

As time fades, so do memories, but they are not lost forever; forgotten memories are waiting to be reborn.

Like a witch in a forest, an old woman's voice crackled in what sounded like a laugh in the distance. Isabel turned her head to face the other masked women in fear, eyes wide.

"It's so nice to see my smiling face once again."

"No, no. You made the wrong decision..."

"You're all wrong."

A choir of voices wailed, moaned and spoke to Isabel. She brushed a stray hair from her view stalling her response to the situation.

"Are you hurt...."

"What's the matter with you?"

"Are you going to come and save yourself?"

"I can feel myself becoming older..."

Frowning, Isabel walked passed each cage. It was just as she suspected. Each one was a mask wearer. Cage #2 was the Depressed Mask. The lean thin figure stood in the small area of light, face dripping with tears. As it stood, it faced Isabel to speak.

"There's nothing wrong with me is there? I can't help it. I can't stop it. I have no choice." It started to sob, collapsing to the floor. "You're me right? You can stop this! Can't you?"

Stopping, Isabel said, "I'm not you." She took another look at the frail delicate being on the floor. It was too skinny and too worn to be her own. "You're not me...right?"

Staring into the abyss created by the eye sockets of the mask reminded her of herself when she felt that deep sadness before. Those depressing feelings of sorrow, fearful anxiety and powerlessness reeked from the being and into her mind. Then the images of the baby taken from her arms made themselves known to her once again, but Isabel was sure she never had a child.

"I am you and you are me. We are all the same person, all seven of us." It spoke again.

"Seven? I only see six of you."

"No. You don't get it do you?" The being wrapped its arms around itself.

"Get what? What is there to understand! I haven't understood a thing since I woke up in this place..."

"Silent Hill." The six spoke in unison, then it all went eerily quiet.

A nervous gulp escaped from Isabel, "What about Silent Hill? What's wrong with this place."

"What's wrong with this place? What's wrong with you? Me?" The person wearing the Depressed mask spoke up.

"Me? Are you saying something is wrong with me? That's insane! I'm perfectly normal!"

"Then why are you here?" The Old Hag stood with the aid of a cane. "Normal people are not dragged into this mess, this town."

"Mess?" Isabel was not enjoying the shrouded answers. "What mess? Can someone tell me?"

"Tell you? You're the one who started it-" The Blank Face's monotonous voice was cut off by the Bloody Mask wearer.

"-And you're the one who'll end it."

"I haven't done anything." Isabel persistently tried to defend her innocense.

"Don't you remember, Isabel?"

"Remember what?" She walked to the Child. "Remember what? What am I supposed to remember?"

The person behind the mask stayed silent.

Isabel felt herself fall victim to frustration and rage. She banged against the bars of the cage, shaking them. Her voice raised with her emotion. "Remember what? Why won't any of you tell me?"

The Child fled to the shadows from the sudden burst of rage.

"I never asked for this. I never wanted to be here! Hell, I'm not even sure how I got here." Isabel paced from cage #1 to #6 over and over thinking.

"Don't you remember? You came here all by yourself. You drove days to get here from New York. You wanted to clear your head."

"I never drove here. And why was I trying to clear my head?"

The Old Hag sighed. "Do you really want to know?"

"She must know." The Blank face spoke walking as far as it could to stare Isabel strait into her eyes. "Let's begin, shall we?"

"Begin what?" Each person under the mask spoke rapidly, barely giving the previous speaker a chance to finish their sentence.

"You had a child Isabel. Many years ago."

"The cult forced the man upon you."

"When you refused to have a child."

"You were drugged."

"You were still young."

"It destroyed your mental stability for a while."

"Until you had to kill."

"You killed him, the baby."

"Then you relapsed and fell into madness again."

"It was the cult."

"The cult influenced you."

"They gave you no choice."

"He was the next sacrifice."

"You were his mother."

"The knife, that knife, you killed him with it." The Bloody Mask pointed to the knife she had in her possession. Isabel took it out to examine it.

"Then you took his lifeless body and let it go in Taluca Lake...."

The rest of their words never reached her mind. She was lost in a sea of misery, shock and disgust. Question after unanswered question pounded in her head with every word they said. Still, no memories returned, no matter how hard she tried. Isabel just could not remember.

"Who are you? Who are all of you?" Isabel asked, tearing up, stopping their mesh of memories and words.

"Isabel. We are you." They all said in a blend of stern voices.

"Don't you see, Isabel?" The Child stood forward. "We are all a part of you, a phase you've gone through at one point or another."

"You might not remember." The Depressed said softly. "You might not want to remember. It might just be best that way."

"Remembering will hinder your life." The Drowned sat up, violently swaying her arms, speaking much louder, with each word. "Do you want to live your life like this." She pointed to her face. "I'm so damn miserable, I could kill myself right now if I wanted to. There are just some things in life we cannot control, and those things can never be repaired."

"But you've forgotten them." Breathing a sigh while dropping her head, the Old Hag continued. "It's only a matter of time until you remember."

"But the question is..."

"Do you really want to know?"

"If you do..."

"Then, release us and your memories will return to you."

"You've already opened one." The Child pointed in the direction of the cell Isabel first walked out of, cell #7.

As Isabel looked, every light went out, but the one hovering over cell #7. A horrid shape scuttled in the shadows.

"Oh, don't tell me that thing came to life." Isabel gripped the handle of her knife.

The outline of the baby's head could be seen in the scarce light. It uttered a shallow cry, choking. A liquid could be heard smacking against the ground. The creature stood with limbs of metal compounds screeching against the cement surface leave deep depressions behind. A blanket of flesh was wrapped around its torso, blood still dripped from the forehead where the knife once struck and from it's mouth.

"Oh God!"

The creature grew larger and larger as light flushed over the being. Then, it bashed through the cage forcing the barred door into the other wall, completely, so it could not be removed from it. Isabel screamed completely terrified and in disbelief. The baby came back from the dead to seek revenge.

All the sudden, a siren went off causing both the baby and Isabel to shriek. Two red lights flashed barely illuminating the menacing creature heading Isabel's way. It's long arms and legs lumbered her way while she slowly fell to the ground, blacking out, but being able to hear someone say,

"It's not time for you to remember yet."