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I have a feeling the Screamers are the "spirits" referenced in Lost Memories from Silent Hill 2. Inola, a Cherokee woman in Past Life, refers to them, too.
It sounds as if the Silent Spirits finally have a voice through the Screamers.[u]Lost Memories[/u] wrote:The name comes from the legend of the people whose land was stolen from them. They called this place 'The Place of the Silent Spirits.' By 'Spirits,' they meant not only their dead relatives, but also the spirits that they believed inhabited the trees, rocks and water around them.
According to legend, this was where the holiest ceremonies took place. But it was not the ancestors of those who now live in this town that first stole the land from these people. There were others who came before.
In those days, this town went by another name. But that name is now hopelessly lost in the veils of time. All we know is that there was another name, and that for some reason the town was once abandoned by its residents.
In Past Life, Inola soliloquys:
The story concludes with Potsmaster Blackwood asking Inola, "And the fires? Here . . . and in town?" She responds, "They belong to this land . . . and to the spirits. They're done bein' silent now, postmaster, you know that as well as I do. The fires burn for them . . . for the spirits. And they've only just begun. . . ." (4:22).The Place of the Silent Spirits. It was what this place was once called. Not by my people—but people like me. People who've seen all they are, all they've loved . . . all they've ever known . . . taken away by others. The others claim a Manifest Destiny and infest a sacred land like fleas to a dog, calling it their world. A new world. But, really, it's not new . . . only different. An other world. And everywhere, even in this place, those spirits, silent for so long, cry out to be heard. To be remembered. To be avenged. I watch this white man and his woman enter town, and I know . . . the silence is ending and the time has come . . . for a whole new kind of Manifest Destiny." (1:7-9)
In the first century C.E., adherents of the Historical Jesus' preachings, known as the Holy Way, believed Jesus would return soon—like, weeks after his death. This didn't happen, of course, and the time of his resurrection was delayed again and again. Centuries later, he still hasn't shown, yet Christians still believe he will "soon," and as long Jesus hasn't come back, it will always be "soon."
In this context, we can draw a parallel to Inola's beliefs regarding the people before her—the people of the Place of Silent Spirits—and them returning with the Christians who for millennium have believed Jesus will return. Perhaps, then, the Screamers in Downpour will be their return.