The Creature

Summary: Harry Mason encountered The Creature three times in his life. Just three. But those three times were more than enough.

-First Encounter-

The first time Harry Mason had seen The Creature, it had been a surreal experience—more so than the rest of Silent Hill, that is. He had been limping out of the fire of the room GOD had been in, everyone dead—Kauffman, Lisa, Dahlia, Cybil, the GOD, Alessa…except Alessa wasn't really dead, she was in his arms, along with Cheryl—because Cheryl was Alessa, but Alessa wasn't Cheryl—his head hurt.

So he was limping his way out of the fire when The Creature appeared. He froze when It seemingly scrambled out of the flames on all fours like a feline, clinging to the ceiling of all places. It was shockingly humanoid, but at the same time not as much as, say, the Nurses or Doctors; It was covered in either leather or leathery skin or possibly both, molted and dirty, crusted with dirt and blood, and It was clothed in a strange smock or robe that reminded Harry of a straightjacket without arms complete with starkly white stitches along Its backbone.

The Creature's head was twitching violently, vibrating, which meant Harry could see little of Its face aside from the fact that it was the same material as Its body and seemed to have little if any actual features. Its hands were gloved in red leather, also dirty and smudged, with three fingers melded together and Its thumb and pinky only being free to dig into the ceiling that hadn't been there moments ago.

Reaching for his gun, Harry cursed silently to himself, willing The Creature away. He had the baby to take care of, had to get out; he couldn't fight another battle so soon, with so many injuries on his body and mind and the baby to protect.

Yet instead of fighting, The Creature just turned Its head in his direction, "staring" as It jerked. The flames that had parted were beginning to close in as Harry continued to dawdle frantically. But then The Creature wasn't above him anymore, and Harry froze completely when he heard a gurgling, rasping sound behind him interspersed with yowling like cats'.

Turning and scrambling to move backward, Harry stared with wide eyes at The Creature standing hunched in front of him now, still vibrating uncontrollably. This close, the constant movement didn't hinder Harry's ability to make out Its features—or lack thereof, "face" consisting solely of creases in the leather-skin and a surreal mouth that stretched from ear to ear stitched closed with little white threads similar to the thick ones on Its back.

"D-don't," was all Harry could say. Don't come closer, don't attack, don't make sudden moves, don't harm the innocent life now entrusted to me. Instead of doing any of these things, The Creature bent Its head forward more, jerking rapidly to each side. A single gloved hand raised and stretched with agonizing slowness, Harry tensing and clutching the precious bundle in his arms closer, and It paused except the continued trembling of Its head and body and limbs.

Without further warning Its deformed fingers were touching the babe's head with surprising gentleness. Its contorting "face" locked on the babe's as brilliant blue eyes opened and she cooed as if The Creature wasn't a hideous creation of this Hell-World.

The flames enclosed upon them before bright light flared once more and they were parted. When Harry's eyes cleared, The Creature was gone, and he wasted no more time on leaving the room. It would not be until later that he would realize all his injuries and weariness were cured and the baby, which until that point had been pale and sickly, was suddenly so much healthier and calmer.

Harry Mason had no idea what The Creature had done, but he was sure It was responsible, and silently thanked the Being.

-Second Encounter-

The next time The Creature appeared, the babe—named Heather, for she was both and neither Cheryl and Alessa—was seven (again) and the Cult had found them in the small town of Portland. The gun was smoking and red-hot in his hands, burning, as he stared incomprehensively at the corpse before him. This Cultist had tried to take Heather, had tried to make her relive the horrors of her first life—yet Harry couldn't stop himself from trembling at the sight of the only human he had ever killed.

That was when The Creature came. It didn't make a grand entrance, didn't come in screaming or attacking or attempting to help steal Heather; It just appeared next to Harry in all Its leathery-twitching glory, deformed hands grabbing at the body and dragging it God (not GOD, although perhaps that would be more appropriate?) knows where.

Harry didn't care. He didn't care that The Creature came back some time later, scuttling around. He didn't care that the side of The Creature's head opened like a second(only?) mouth and a long, serpentine tongue slithered out and licked the blood and gore clean from the room. He didn't care that The Creature mewled at Heather as she lay, thankfully still sleeping, on her princess-bed and eventually picked her up with gentleness and put her in Harry's arms.

When Harry finally did care, he was alone again in an apartment that showed nothing about the murder that had just occurred at his hand, Heather sleepily waking in his arms, and The Creature nowhere to be seen.

-Third Encounter-

The final time Harry Mason saw The Creature was ten years after he killed the man, seventeen after he first decided to raise Heather as his own (again?). He was simply sitting at home, watching the news and noticing with a sense of dread that there had been a strange black-out at the mall Heather had gone to and when it cleared, there were signs of blood and bullets.

The sound of a gurgling, hissing mewl nearby alerted Harry to the arrival of The Creature. It was hanging from the ceiling just above the television, neck twisted backwards so Its scalp touched Its backbone while It stared, the leather-skin creaking. Somehow, Harry knew why It had appeared.

"Will you take care of her, after I'm gone?" he softly asked, weary. The Creature's head jerked from side to side, up and down, vibrating intensely and twitching as Its neck bent in ways that should only have been possible for a corpse with a broken spine. Slowly, Harry gave a small, tired smile and closed his eyes.

"Good," was all he said as the door banged open and a blinding pain erupted from his gut. Blackness enveloped him quickly, death's sweet embrace taking him not in Silent Hill as it should have many years ago, but rather in his own home alone in front of the TV like a bad 80s slasher.

His last thought was an apology to Heather and a promise to come back and haunt The Creature if she ended up joining him before her time.

-Afterward-

It had many names throughout Its existence. The Cultists called It "GOD's Attendant;" Mother of Mother and Sister of Mother called It "Metatron;" The Man Who Raised Mother called It "The Creature;" the humans who worshiped It called It "Valtiel." Personally, It preferred the last of these names, simply because that one was the one that Mother used.

Mother had a trying existence. Being human, She was tortured by Mother of Mother and forced to bear the being the humans called "GOD" but was truly nothing more than a demon crawling its way from Hell. Valtiel hated Mother of Mother for this with an intensity that could not be rivaled and only increased as events unfolded, as Mother was forced into pain and burning and eventually killed so She could be Reborn once again.

Valtiel had come to see The Man Who Raised Mother on his way out of the flames mostly with curiosity. It had seen the preceeding fight between "GOD" and The Man Who Raised Mother and was impressed with his power, but wanted to see Mother one last time before She left for a while. The Man Who Raised Mother impressed It with his concern for Her Life and Valtiel in turn healed both he and Her with Its powers before holding back the flames.

Valtiel had come to see The Man Who Raised Mother much time later because It sensed death around Mother as It had not for so long, now. Upon realizing The Man Who Raised Mother was distressed by what he had done to protect Mother so purposefully, and vaguely aware humans outside the Cult disliked such things, Valtiel took It upon Itself to clean the mess. It left the human's body for Mother's Other Children to do with as they pleased (the one known simply as Pyramid Head to humans seemed perversely pleased with the unexpected gift), cleaned what remained, and after checking to make sure Mother was not in trouble anymore left.

Valtiel had come to see The Man Who Raised Mother one more time when It knew Sister of Mother was planning to kill him. It did not approve, but Sister of Mother had just enough control over It to ensure It did not interfere. Instead, Valtiel simply visited to give a warning to The Man Who Raised Mother that he would soon die. It was pleased The Man Who Raised Mother trusted It enough to watch over Her after his death and eagerly agreed even though It already planned to do so anyway. It stayed long enough to watch The Man Who Raised Mother be killed by the Cultist Sister of Mother controlled before fading into the Otherworld.

Mother soon after came home and was saddened.

Valtiel fulfilled Its duty and watched over Her as She mourned, and from then on, with the Blessings of The Man Who Raised Mother.

-END-

MKL's Post-Production Notes (5-6-12): Hope you all enjoyed. If you want to see more like this in the future, review and I'll be more than happy to oblidge. Hope it was to your liking~ ^.^