The pickup, loaded with half a truckload of weapons and equipment, rolled out of San Francisco.
Bella drove. 006 sat in the passenger seat, occasionally sizing up the vehicle's exterior.
The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. Back when he'd been delivering food in Phoenix, he vaguely remembered encountering a pickup just like this on the street. That vehicle had been incredibly fast—had nearly run him over. Was this the same truck?
He didn't dare say anything. Didn't dare ask.
With nothing better to do, he stole glances at the rearview mirror. Miss Shaw—the former agent who'd died some time ago and was now a ghost—wasn't studying ropes, nails, or claws. Instead, she'd tied up her long hair and was cradling a sniper rifle, fiddling with it.
To be honest, this scene completely shattered his preconceived notions.
Were ghosts in the modern era all like this now? Did spirits use firearms?
"Don't worry," Bella said, seeing his confusion. "Shaw is a special case. I believe that after you die, you'll be in a normal ghostly state."
Is that really what I'm worried about?
006's voice sounded dry. "Let's... let's continue talking about my wife and daughter..."
Silent Hill, West Virginia.
A small town, long abandoned.
According to official records, in November 1974, a massive fire swept through the area. The flames ignited the coal mines underground, releasing huge quantities of toxic and noxious gases. Thick, deadly smoke would occasionally billow out from cracks in the ground.
The town was no longer suitable for human habitation.
Local police set up roadblocks on the few highways leading in and out of Silent Hill—specifically to prevent visitors unaware of the situation from entering.
From this, it was clear the authorities weren't ignorant of Silent Hill's danger. They'd simply chosen the most conservative approach.
With the pickup's Ghost Mode fully activated, 006 felt as if he'd fallen into an ice cellar. His brain felt like it was about to freeze solid. After a brief bout of dizziness, they passed straight through the police blockade and entered the town.
The town was empty.
Traces of the fire from years past were everywhere. The brownish-black road was covered in a thick layer of ash. As the wheels rolled over it, the ash scattered like snowflakes. Scorched buildings stood in clusters; dark doorways and windows resembled the gaping maws of monsters.
006 pointed toward a road not far away. "I was here yesterday. I entered from that western intersection. Hurry—use your power. My wife must be nearby! But I can't see her!"
As he spoke, his voice involuntarily dropped.
Unclear whether he was doing it on purpose or whether the town itself was swallowing his words. The sound carried less than two meters before dissipating. An invisible silence enveloped the pickup, as though they were prey that had wandered into a trap.
Bella didn't speak.
She carefully observed the surroundings.
The fame of Silent Hill's Real World, Fog World, and Otherworld was simply too great. Even people who paid little attention to such films had likely heard these terms.
But watching a movie was one thing. Personally experiencing it with psionic perception was another.
"Impressive," Bella murmured.
At this moment, she and 006 were still in the Real World. With her abilities, she could only faintly glimpse traces of the Fog World, as if seen through a veil of mist. The Otherworld was completely invisible to her.
Even within this Fog World alone, she could sense several types of power intermingling.
The power of Native American ancestral spirits. The power of ecclesiastical faith. Small traces of magic, voodoo curses, mental manifestations, and demonic energy. On top of that—overwhelming amounts of negative emotion.
Negative emotions surged like ocean tides, drawing all these chaotic supernatural forces together. Then, using the real town as a base and malice as a driving force, they forcibly carved out an interstitial space filled with endless nightmares, layered atop reality.
Entering the Fog World with Bella's abilities wasn't difficult.
The real challenge lay in how to get back out.
"If we go in, can you still find a way back out?" she asked Shaw, who was enthusiastically playing with the gun.
"Send me... home?" Even Shaw sounded uncertain this time.
006 looked at Bella nervously, afraid she might abandon the whole plan.
Bella thought about the original course of events.
How had Sharon escaped in the original timeline? It was because her mother—006's wife, Rose—had seized a Seal of Metatron. That was how she'd sent her daughter out of the Fog World and back to reality.
Metatron.
Just hearing the name was enough to know this was a heavyweight existence.
Bella hadn't studied the Gutenberg Bible for nothing. She was well aware of Metatron's legends. It was said he'd lived for 365 years before death, then ascended as a Seraph afterward. He was the Chancellor of Heaven, the archangel closest to the Throne.
However, this was an angel of Judaism, not Christianity—a true "high official of the previous regime." Some ancient Jewish texts even claimed Metatron's status was higher than Christianity's Jesus, a notion Christianity firmly rejected.
In practical terms, Judaism paled in comparison to Christianity in sheer numbers, but it was ancient.
Bella couldn't accurately judge what level of power the Seraph Metatron actually possessed. She only knew it was best to stay as far away as possible.
After some consideration, she took out her last remaining artifact—the ship's wheel of the Flying Dutchman.
After absorbing a massive amount of death energy in the Murder House, it had grown from the size of a fingernail to the size of a washbasin once she removed it from her wrist.
Bella removed the pickup's steering wheel and installed the ship's helm in its place.
Shaw stared, completely dumbfounded.
Bella reached out and tore at empty space.
Thick, heavy dust from the Fog World spilled into the Real World through the tear.
A hole appeared out of thin air before their eyes. On the other side was clearly another world. The sight nearly shattered 006's worldview, yet he gritted his teeth and held his ground without retreating even half a step.
Ignoring his reaction, Bella asked Shaw again. "What about now? If we go in now, can we still come back?"
With the Flying Dutchman's helm assisting her, Shaw's tone became far more certain.
"Send me home."
Bella understood.
That meant: yes, they could.
"Get in." She motioned for 006 to climb into the car. "And Mr. Alec, be ready for combat. I'm going to forcibly break the boundary. This will definitely alert whatever's on the other side."
Bella pushed her psionic power to its limits. She used her will to press down on the boundary of Silent Hill's Fog World, right at the edge of that interstitial space.
She didn't need to affect the whole thing—just a small portion of the boundary.
A pale gray world gradually appeared before their eyes.
Once the rift was large enough, she jumped into the car, slammed on the accelerator, and charged straight into Silent Hill's Fog World.
The leaden sky blocked most sunlight from reaching the Fog World. Absolute silence reigned, living up to the town's name.
Here, there was only silence.
The pickup crashed straight through dilapidated, rusted barbed wire. They hadn't reentered the highway at all. Instead, they seemed to have emerged at the dead end of a narrow alley.