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2013-01-12
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On Choosing Sacrifice

Summary:

What will Rose do to get Sharon back?

Notes:

Veers from canon at the point where Sharon and Rose are taken to Alchemilla Hospital. Here they are told about it but find it on their own.

Work Text:

The fog has rolled in to Silent Hill, thick and unnatural, and Rose can barely see what is in front of her. Cybil holds her arm out and Rose grasps it. They must look like an old-fashioned gentleman and his lady walking in the park, instead of two women in the burned and scarred town.

As Rose moves tentatively and slowly, searching the shrouded streets for the place they are meant to find, Cybil speaks softly to her. "It's all right. Just keep walking. We're going to find your daughter, just keep going." Her words keep Rose from breaking down completely.

All Rose can think of is the church and its cult. What have they done to Sharon? How will she find her? Surely she won't go to Alchemilla Hospital and simply find Sharon waiting for her. It can't be that simple. Rose refuses to contemplate the idea that Sharon may no longer be alive.

Finally she finds the hospital, the ominous facade peering at her from the fog. Rose isn't sure what she's meant to find here, but she is certain she will do anything if it will bring her Sharon.

She opens the door, and though there is no fog inside the building she still holds on to Cybil. It's dark inside, with the small light there is coming from nowhere. She can remember Sharon being in the hospital, back in the normal world. At the time she felt like she was going through hell, but now she only wishes she were in some brightly-lit, sanitary-smelling place which her daughter would leave alive.

Two more steps, and they see her. Christabella, staring at them as if she's surprised they made it this far.

"Where is my daughter?" Rose asks. And then suddenly she sees Sharon standing at Christabella's side with a blank look as if she's been drugged. She runs toward her, calling her name, but Christabella's suited and masked followers have appeared and they hold her back, grabbing Cybil as well.

"Do you know how you can get your daughter back?" Christabella asks. Rose only whimpers, struggling with the ones who hold her.

"What have you done to her?" she cries out.

She can hear Cybil shouting "Let me go, you bastards!"

Christabella only repeats herself. "Do you want to know how you can get your daughter back?"

"Tell me," Rose whispers finally.

Christabella holds up a large knife, its handle covered with symbols Rose doesn't recognize, and then moves toward Cybil. She holds the knife to the policewoman's throat.

"Just say the word," she says. "This woman dies; your daughter lives. An easy choice, for a mother, no?"

Cybil isn't shouting anymore. The masked ones have pushed her to her knees, but she's just staring at Rose evenly, not even pleading for her life.

"I can't--" Rose begins, but Cybil interrupts her. "Do what you have to," she says in a resigned tone.

And for a moment she does picture it, Cybil falling to the floor bleeding and her fleeing this horrible place with her daughter. The cult had probably planned on killing all of them anyway; surely she should take any chance to escape. She and Sharon would be free of the nightmare and have normal lives again. And she wouldn’t even have to think about Silent Hill or Cybil anymore.

She stares at Sharon but her eyes are blank. Would her daughter want this blood on their hands?

"Do what you have to," Cybil repeats. And Rose looks deeply into her eyes, and says "No."

Christabella then holds the knife to Sharon's throat. As Rose pulls at her captors's arms, trying desperately to stop her, Sharon herself moves. Gradually she changes form, until what she thought was Sharon is a monstrous thing with mottled brown skin and blunt appendages for arms. Rose realizes that Sharon was never there at all. Christabella slashes the creature's chest and it slides to the floor.

"Are you really a mother?" Christabella asks her. But then suddenly the sound of the siren blasts through the hallway. Christabella and her followers disappear, all of them, and Rose stands in a dark and rust-covered hallway with Cybil. The dead monster still lies in front of them, its blood dripping through the grate which used to be a floor.

Rose can't stop weeping, trying to tell herself that only a monster is dead but still overcome by seeing her child's face. Cybil reaches out and pulls her close gently. "I'm sorry," Rose chokes out. "I’m sorry I hesitated; I shouldn't have. I just... I thought it was Sharon."

Cybil's arms are warm around her and Rose feels comfort even in this place. "Sh... It's all right. You saved my life." Cybil says.

Rose lifts her head and brushes a kiss over Cybil's lips before she can stop herself. She wishes she could smile, just as she wishes she could kiss Cybil again. But Sharon is still gone.

"There's a map over there," Rose says, pointing at the wall, then breathes deeply. "We'll find her."