DISCLAIMER: Resident Evil and all of its elements belong to Capcom Entertainment.
Author's Note: A short look into the power of the Umbrella Corporation through the eyes of an anonymous employee and his girlfriend.
AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE by Caffeine Productions
"Are you sure that you want to stay here with that storm coming?"
She looked into his eyes, almost dazedly. Their icy-blue color was refreshing, bright and brilliant, especially when she thought to the deathly-gray world outside of the castle. She wouldn't openly admit it, but she was afraid to be out there, even afraid to hear the thunder and pounding rain from the inside; when the storm came, it would be one to remember for years to come, both of them knew that.
It couldn't get inside, though. Anything heard could easily be ignored when she was able to hear the clear accent in her prince's voice. This world—for a country other than that of where you come from is often like another world—had become sanctuary to her, as it had always been for him… but that was only because he made it complete.
"I'm supposed to stay for another few days," she told him. "That is exactly how long I'm going to be here. With you."
That smile, too, could make her feel so light-headed. For a moment, she did nothing more than stand and stare into his face, taking it in like energy.
In exactly three days, her plane would be arriving to take her over the ocean, away from the island and back to her "home." She didn't want to go. Nothing, not even the secrets that she knew about him, could make her wish to be in a place where he wasn't; it didn't matter to her that the red-and-white Umbrella, Inc. logo scattered throughout the castle signified where he was employed, and it didn't matter in the least that she knew all too well the murders that he was blatantly accused of. If it was true, so what? None of that mattered, for he'd always be no less to her than the prince that he was.
As the winds blew loudly over the land, he led her outside, where they stood on the wooden platforms of a simple dock. It created a strange checkerboard pattern over the water, but it was hard to see that at this point. The waves of a gray ocean had picked up, throwing themselves onto the wood with enough power to surf over and wind up back into the sea where they belonged. The storm-charged sky had reached the same color, little else but gray visible.
Staring out into nothingness, she found it hard to lie to herself. No, in no way was she afraid of him, like so many others; she was afraid for him. Umbrella employees never had proper protection. How much longer could his luck survive?
As it turned out… not very long.
With enough cruelty to equal up to the amount of money that the Umbrella Corporation came upon by expending lives, the verdict declared that the prince had to be executed. She was there to hear it from the prince himself. He admitted everything to her—the murders, the company, what was to happen, all of it—but she showed no hatred, no regret, because she'd known all along and didn't care about any of that. And she had always worried that it would have to come to this. The prince told her that she'd be there for his final day if she didn't leave immediately, but she refused to heed the warning; as her heart desperately begged, she'd be there up until his last minute.
Afterward, with tears coming down to mix undiscernibly with the continuous thunderstorm, she stared out into the icy sea. Soon, it would be time to leave. Undoubtedly, she'd act the same around her family. There wasn't a simple way to talk about what had happened or the way that she was feeling as a result. She might've said that, in her moment of a sudden, forced loneliness, she felt at one with the ocean itself.
Up until the end, she'd remember the hypnotizing coloration of the prince's eyes. She'd remember his smile and the unique color of his hair. The sound of his voice would remain in her mind as a lullaby; the sound of his beating heart as they embraced that final time would be as haunting as it would be soothing.