Silence Falls

Hermanni examined Jack conscientiously for any physical reaction even though he already knew what he was thinking deep within his afflicted mind.

Jack had his back against the wall with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his head to shield himself from sight. He hadn’t spoken in the entire ten minutes he’d been sitting there alone, too badly distressed by what he saw to construct words.

At first, Hermanni didn’t want to have to present to him what he ended up seeing, but Jack’s obstinacy wouldn’t allow him to be more impartial to what Hermanni needed him to understand. Jack has depleted all his life believing that everything his town had done was for the greater good, only for Hermanni to now force him to see things for what they truly were behind their fictitious guise.

Silence Falls was chock full of monsters.

Each and every one of the townspeople were monsters.

Silence Falls had all known what was going on inside their swamp yet they all turned a blind eye to it.

All this time Jack thought his townspeople had no idea what was going on, but all along they were consciously ignorant of it all.

So many men, women, and children were hauled into the swamp to their deaths.

So many families were torn apart. Are still being torn apart to this very day!

All of them. Innocent.

All those people were innocent. Even the corrupted ones didn’t deserve this kind of penalty they were given.

No one did.

“Jack, you cannot keep living your life this way.” Hermanni finally spoke up, his voice so velvety it was like a warm blanket over Jack’s unsettled form. A part of him felt low for doing this to the frail human, but Hermanni had to break him. It was the only way for both him and Jack. “They are slaughtering innocent people. Not cursed witches, or malevolent demons. These people had lives, families, children and lovers…and they took that all away because they dared to step out of line in their ideal world.

“You have been doing this for a long time now, Jack. Now that you have seen the truth, are you still willing to leave this room and abet them into executing a million more?” Hermanni inquired, watching Jack’s shoulders begin to shake heavily before he erupted into disheartened sobs.

“Wh-What have I d-done!?” Jack wailed from beneath the refuge of his arms, his heart breaking the more and more he remembered. All the feelings of pain, hopelessness, fury, and demise were swimming through his veins and replaying in repetitions behind his eyelids like a movie.

He had helped generate it all this time.

He could have stopped it from sustaining itself for all these years, all these decades, all these centuries!

He could have ended it…somehow…someway…

“Jack, you are a product of your environment. We all were at some point. What you can take comfort in, is that there is still time to change.” Hermanni heartened Jack, watching him peek out from under his arms through frenzied tearful eyes.

“What are you saying? That i-it doesn’t have to be this way anymore? This can all stop?” Jack murmured softly, sounding like a distraught child recapturing faith again.

“This can all go away. No more innocent lives have to perish.” Hermanni pledged, feeling compassion for this needy young man that was brought to his breaking point. But he had to be brought to his breaking point. How else was he supposed to wake up to his reality?

Jack blotted his face with his sleeve and sniffled back his tears, letting Hermanni’s words sink in for a minute. A life that had been nothing out of the ordinary had just been exposed to be a life of true evil. The very evil Silence Falls was always fighting to protect their people, was everything they embodied behind their bibles. And Jack had been propagated into it from his first breath. Drastic to change that, needing to change that, Jack uncontrollably begged the mystical man in the cage that had severed the spell over him. “How? H-How can this all disappear? What needs to happen for that to happen?”

Hermanni briefly let his eyes drop to the inky water below his suspended cage before returning to Jack. “I can take care of it for you, Jack. I can take the cumbersome bundle from your shoulders alone and you will not have to face your town to do it…but only if you can do one small thing for me in the meantime. It is very pivotal, Jack, that this undertaking be dealt with first.”

“What is it? I’ll do anything!” Jack pleaded hysterically, scrambling to his feet to march to the edge of the platform before the cage. If Hermanni kept him in suspense any longer, he might have to grab ahold of the dripping cold bars and shake the cage for immediate answers. “Tell me!”

“Bert McCracken, and Otep Shamaya.” Hermanni finally told him. Judging by the recognition in Jack’s eyes, he remembered the two all too well.

Frowning, Jack gaped at Hermani in complete bewilderment. “I-I don’t understand. What do they have to do with any of this?”

Overlooking his question, Hermanni scooted closer to the bars between them. “Your part is simple Jack. I need you to protect them and their friends from any form of danger threatening their safety.”

“Protect them from danger?” Jack recited, still not comprehending what Hermanni was asking of him but knowing that whatever it is he had to do it. There was no idling doubt in the corner of his mind that this man spoke the truth. He had seen it for himself. He had witnessed it before becoming conscious in the Asylum where Matt had taken him to meet ‘the devil’. There was no going back to the Jack he was before. There was no mourning over Matt’s sudden death, going back to work as an Orderly or returning home at the end of his shift to watch TV. All there was was an aspiration to make Silence Falls pay!

“From the other patients or staff. This is very important, Jack.” Hermanni stressed sternly.

“But why? Why are they so important?” Jack proceeded to press, wanting to know why.

Hermanni smiled tenderly at him. “Because they are mine.”