That night they didn't go back to the Lakeview Hotel. They were both tired and it was too far to travel, so they ended up in an abandoned motel, in the only room that opened. Angela didn't want to take her own room and Maria didn't feel like forcing her to. But she wrapped herself in her own blanket and stayed on her own side of the king-sized bed. She didn't want to touch Angela, for the girl's own sake. Maria had kissed her at the Lakeview but after what she had found out she figured Angela must need personal space more than anyone ever had. Angela's eyes looked a little lost, peeking out from the blanket on her side, but Maria couldn't help that.

Don't get attached to her, Maria told herself. In this place who knows what will happen.

In the morning when she opened her eyes to see the pale sunlight streaking across Angela's face she considered sneaking out, wondered how far she would get before Angela figured it out and tried to follow her. But she changed her mind before the girl opened her eyes.

Eventually they found a store with canned food in the window. Maria hefted a rock to throw and Angela grabbed her arm. "What if there's an alarm?"

"Who would answer an alarm in this place?" Maria asked. But after mentally answering her own question she put the rock down.

On another street they found a restaurant with an unlocked door and ate crackers and dried apricots. Maria didn't actually feel hungry, and she wondered if Angela did, but it was easier to eat than to think about that. Angela made a mess of her food, compulsively breaking it up into tiny pieces and jumping whenever Maria moved.

"It's OK," Maria told her, managing to keep annoyance out of her voice. "I'm not going to take it away."

"I need to go to the cemetery today," Angela said when they were finished.

Maria stared. "You're just a bundle of laughs, aren't you?"

"I need to find my mother's grave."

Maria didn't ask why she didn't already know. She wasn't sure what Angela remembered about her family today, and she didn't want to see that crazy look in her eyes.

When they got there, fog was rolling in from wherever it came from in Silent Hill and the place was so shadowed it looked like evening rather than morning.

"I think we're breaking some kind of rule," said Maria.

"What rule?"

"The 'don't go poking around in the spooky deserted graveyard in the evil town' rule."

"Do you think there's anything worse in there than there isn't out here?" Angela asked.

"Why wouldn't there be?" Maria answered. But just to show Angela she wasn't scared, she drew her gun and pushed the gate open. There was enough light to see the headstones, just barely. Angela grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

"What was your mother's name?" Maria asked.

"Alma Orosco," said Angela. "But she would have wanted her full name on a headstone, like she would have used in Mexico. Alma Benitez Guerrero de Orosco."

After an hour of looking they hadn't found any Orosco headstones. But they hadn't found any horrific creatures either, and Maria was about to feel relatively thankful when she suddenly doubled over in a coughing fit. She was still staring at the ground waiting for another spasm when she felt Angela's arm around her shoulders.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah," said Maria, straight up carefully. "I'm fine. Anyway, what would we do about it if I'm not fine?"

As she wondered where the "we" had come from, Angela said, "There was a hospital on the way."

"There's nobody there," said Maria.

"I know, but there must be medicine."

Maria considered for a moment. "I don't know; it's not like I can just take some random medicine and get rid of this cough."

Finally she agreed with Angela that it was better than nothing and they headed back in the direction of the hospital. Maria hesitated again when they stood in front of the doors.

"Is there a spooky abandoned hospital rule?" asked Angela.

Maria opened the doors, wondering if Angela had actually made a joke just then. But she didn't have time to think much before something in a nurse's uniform ran at them, grabbing Maria by the neck before she could react. She was losing oxygen rapidly as she stared into the thing's bandaged and non-existent face.

"I should have known," she thought to herself as she reached wildly for the gun. Then the thing fell, and Angela stood there with blood dripping from the knife.

"I had to do it," she said weakly.

Maria put a hand on her arm. "Yeah, you did. Don't freak out, OK?"

"If the police come, tell them I had to."

"Are... the police after you, Angela?"

The girl shook her head. "They came after my father... died. And I told them everything and then I went to live in a hospital for a while. When I got out, I came here."

So she wasn't in trouble with the law, apparently, just with... her own conscience? Whatever ruled Silent Hill? Who knew, really. Maria didn't know what she herself had done to deserve this either.

Angela cast her eyes back toward the body. "Did it used to be a nurse?" she asked.

"It looks like a nurse to you too?" Maria asked.

She nodded. "Nurses killed my mother. I mean, real nurses. She went into hospital and they didn't take care of her. That's what my father said."

"Was it this hospital?" Maria asked.

"I don't know. He wouldn't let us visit her."

"We should go," said Maria. "There might be more of them."

"There are monsters wherever we go," Angela said. "And you're still sick."

As if proving her point, Maria started coughing again, this time so hard that she wound up sitting on the floor, weak and dizzy. Angela pulled her up by the hand and into a small room with a bed. "Lie down," she said. "I'll go get something for you."

Maria felt sick enough not to protest, and lay down in the bed. She thought she might fall asleep, but the coughing and the memory of the nurse monster kept her awake. After some time Angela came back and knocked on the door, presenting Maria with several bottles of pills.

"I found the pharmacy. This one is for coughing, and this one is an antibiotic, and this is for pain. And these are vitamins. They can't hurt."

"Oh well, might as well take them all," said Maria. She dumped a handful of pills into her hand and swallowed them dry.

"Maybe I can get sleep now," she muttered.

"All right," said Angela, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Maria.

"I'm not sure. To look for my mother."

"It's getting late," said Maria. "You could stay here." She edged over on the bed. "I don't think I'm contagious. Though how would I know?"

Angela, her face showing relief, locked the door from the inside and got into the bed beside her. This bed was much too small for Maria to get far away from her, so she just curled around her. Angela's hair smelled nice, though neither of them had been big on personal hygiene here, and she was warm.

As she closed her eyes and finally began to sleep, she heard Angela say "You're welcome."

"Yeah," replied Maria. "Thanks."

The next morning she woke up alone.