Just... a misunderstanding.

"The rules suck so much." She whispered after a few moments of following the road. Her eyes drifted in my direction and I noticed what looked like a sad expression on her face..

"Oh please don't tell me you subscribe to that searching for Mr. Right Crap." I groaned. Nothing was worse than hearing about bad pop psychology books.

"No I didn... Yeah, sorry about that. Charlotte had it out this one time, and you know what they say about a train wreck." Helen stopped mid sentence, and her entire demeanor seemed to change. She seemed almost relieved to be able to apologize for reading the piece of crap book. For a second, something seemed off, but her hand grasped my arm.

"You've got crap on your sweater." Helen pulled a couple of needles from the neck of my garment before sliding her hand around the back of my neck, pulling me in for another aggressive kiss. Far more aggressive than usual, to be honest. I pulled her against me, feeling the leather of my coat crushed against the soft wool. It felt right, familiar.

She broke the kiss and stepped back.

"OK, so, now that we've wasted way too much time screwing around in the woods, do we want to hurry this up? I don't know about you, but I'm dying to hear Charlotte's surprise."

"What kinds of stuff does she do?" I asked, returning to our hike.

"Oh, I never know. That's why it's great. Don't worry, it probably won't involve anything heavier than pot." Helen smirked at the last.

"So, I'm assuming these get pretty intense."

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes they're just sweet. A little intimate something that shows that she knows what you're into and that she wants to make you happy." Helen shrugged.

"Oh fuck... and she just read my porn history." I groaned.

"Ha! I hope you were watching things you were REALLY into." Helen chuckled. "Because Charlotte... she's into a lot of stuff."

We walked along the road, and the fog continued to swirl around us.

It only took about another hour to reach the town. The fog kept being strange the entire way that Helen and I had walked, the topics of discussion ranging all over the place. I tried to remember which of the buildings ahead of us held the ATM as we continued our rather random discussion.

"Ok, so we agree that a standing army sucks, but what can you do about it?" Helen grumbled. "I mean, you don't keep people ready, they get steamrollered by the jerks who did keep em ready."

"That wasn't my point! I was just saying that we can't dedicate our lives to war. The loss of the art form aspect turns the military into a brutal, efficient but ugly and soulless thing. " I retorted. How had we even gotten onto this topic?

"So, that's why you quit?" She asked, "It's not like you really do much art now."

"Well, I... " She had a decent point there. "I just had responsibilities."

"Yeah, well... you always do keep your word. I know that's why Kaila loves you." Helen rolled her eyes slightly.

"Oh, so you two talked about me?" I laughed. I looked ahead, trying to see what I thought was an ATM kiosk in the wall of one of the buildings ahead of us. I thought I could see a silvery glow ahead. I turned my head to look at Helen. It took a second for me to register that she was no longer walking beside me. I turned to look back, but could see no movement in the fog around me.

"Helen?" I asked, craning my ear for sounds.

I stopped, and took a few quick steps back in the direction from which we had come. Nothing.

"Ah shit, I'm in Silent Hill." I said loudly. Or The Fog. Or any other countless horror films and games that start with somebody disappearing. Ok, I thought rapidly. Helen's seen the same damn films. Any second now she'll pop out of the fog with a BOO and you'll freak and the tension will be broken.

I waited. No movement. And the silvery light in the distance seemed to softly pulse.

"Helen!" I shouted. There was no sound in response.