The dining room was hushed now, save for the wet gurgling of collapsing lungs and Brenda's quiet whimpering.
The chandelier overhead flickered slightly, casting warm, golden light over a scene that no longer resembled a family but a butchered memory of one. The walls, once a soft yellow, now felt sickly. The centerpiece, a vase of daisies, had been knocked aside in the short struggle—the air stank of copper, sweat, and overcooked lies.
Danny and Andrew writhed on the floor like fish out of the water, fingers twitching, mouths opening and closing in mute agony as their blood pooled beneath them. The once-pristine rug under the table was now drenched, soaking up blood like a sponge.
"Y-you shouldn't have killed them, you just wasted the meat." Brenda, now out of the whimpering phase, looked at her two sons with unsatiated hunger.
I knew it, I thought, and dashed toward her, jumping over the table and stabbing the fork in her neck as well.
I stood there, in the room of gurgling pain, despair, yet with no remorse, not even my own, and soon the three succumbed to death, but I knew they'd awaken soon, unfortunately not any less monstrous.
I dragged their bodies outside, the white jade light of the moon illuminating the trail of blood, which would soon disappear. I will make sure of that.
I buried them not far from the farm, with one hole in each of their brains, I had to make sure, so they wouldn't rise from their grave.
I leaned on the shovel, which dug into the ground a few inches with my weight. I exhaled heavily as I looked at the burial site, a frame of freshly turned soil with a length of two and a half meters, and width of one meters. I had to dig it a bit deeper for all three of them to fit inside.
I really can't change, can I? I chuckled to myself, pulling out the shovel from the ground and taking it back to the farm, I had some cleaning to do.
Back at the Motor Inn
The same moonlight that decorated the horror of the farm illuminated the beauty of the two women who used to be at each other's throats, now sitting next to each other in peace.
Carley and Lilly took the RV today, something that had never happened before; maybe the closeness they shared with Wesker had made them closer to each other.
Carley lay down on the roof, in front of the chair occupied by Lilly.
"You think he's fucking someone else today?" Carley asked, her tone blunt and uncaring, hiding the obvious sting of the thought.
Lilly looked at her back and chuckled lightly, "Don't you think he deserves a little reward?" She said trying to piss her off, a pass time Lilly enjoyed well.
Carley bit her lip, her finger curling into fists, but soon relaxed, "Maybe," Carley muttered, making Lilly choke on her saliva, as she never expected to hear that from her.
Lilly thought of teasing her, but stopped as her mind went to the root cause, Wesker. He's always out alone. Why can't he be just like the rest of us? Lilly clicked her tongue; the same thought that irritated her also brought her peace, because if Wesker was like the rest of them, they'd be dead by now.
"As long as he comes back, I don't care for anything else," Lilly muttered, her internal conflicts resolved, Carley chuckled hearing sentiment in her always bitchy tone.
"Doesn't he always come back?" Carley said and slowly closed her eyes, letting the silence fill the air, as the animals and insects became her lullaby.
"You aren't as much of a bitch as you used to be." Carley suddenly said, her voice filled with sarcasm.
Lilly scoffed, "And you aren't as much of a crybaby." Her sentence ended with a laugh that soon both shared.
St.John's
I cleaned the dining room first, thankfully, they hadn't used their house as the butchering station, like in the games, so I only needed to clean the Barn's secret room, which resembled a slaughterhouse, with a man barely breathing, wiggling in pain from losing his 3 limbs.
I put him out of his misery and cleaned up the room. Sigh! I shouldn't have closed that hole, I thought, looking at the gore I still needed it to bury.
I worked through the night, and exhaustion finally took me as the sun had begun to rise.
Later afternoon
The sun had reached its zenith. I woke up on the clean and dust-free couch, listening to the quiet of the house.
For a few seconds, I simply lay there, staring at the chandelier.
I stood up, stretching muscles that screamed in protest, the long nap after two days of no sleep felt better than any night's rest.
The house was clean and dry.
The St.Johns were gone, the taint that they left behind scrubbed away with blood, soil, and a bit of bleach.
I stepped out onto the porch. The fields rolled out before me, endless green under a bright blue sky. A warm wind stirred the high grass, and for a moment, a thought flickered in my mind that the world hadn't ended.
And for some reason I—
Back at the Motor Inn
Evening
The Motor Inn came into view just as the last fingers of daylight slipped through the trees. From a distance, it almost looked normal.
Smoke curled lazily from the fire pit. Laughter—or something close to it—carried on the breeze.
I slowed down, analyzing their faces, their actions, before they noticed me. I had to ditch the car a few miles back as it broke down midway.
The first to spot me was Clementine, as always.
She broke into a sprint, and Carley and Lilly turned to look at her.
"Wesker!" Clem called, her voice breaking with excitement.
I wrapped my arms around her as he crashed into me, her arm wrapping around me. Carley stood up and walked toward me, while Lilly was already behind Clem waiting for her to move.
"You took forever," Carley muttered from the side as Clem broke the embrace.
Before I could get a word out, Lilly jumped on me, and if not for my strength, I would've fallen on my back.
I ruffled Lilly's hair and nodded toward the fire.
***
"I found it."
By now, the others were gathering—Kenny dropping down from the RV roof, Nick emerged from his room, Katjaa wiping her hands with a piece of cloth.
I caught Carley's eyes first—droopy, but relieved.
Lilly stood behind me, leaning on my shoulder, nibbling at my ear, her eyes that seemed to soften when she looked at me, glared at the fire with the same softness.
"You find anything?" Kenny asked, voice cautious but laced with hope. Maybe a change of mind.
I pulled Lilly from behind, letting her sit on my lap.
"Yeah," I said.
"I found us a new home."