Secrets don't die, they just disapear Chapter 1, a resident evil fanfic

Through stone and metal.

Damn, I still posted this far later than I had originally planned. Oh well. Better later than never.

Oh, and for those that reviewed for my last story, thanks.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own the right to the resident evil series or any thing related to it. Nor am I making no money from this.

"I pray that god justifies my death with your safety." Setting my ballpoint pen down onto the moss-ridden floor, a small, barely audible sigh escaped my lips in the darkness of the cave while I pocketed my diary. I truly didn't know where I had gone so wrong, one moment I had been on top of the world, having finished in my greatest creation to date, the Spencer mansion. The next, I'm a prisoner in my on grand creation, barely alive and crawling around in the dark just to remain alive. Soon, I wouldn't even be that if Spencer has his way. I just wish that he had left his family out of this matter.

Letting out another dry lonely sigh, I stood up and began to head in the direction of the only thing my 'friend' Spencer had given, my very own gravestone. I had always known that Spencer had possessed a sick sense of humour, however, even I wouldn't have betted that this bastard would have done this. "Oh well… At least with my death the secret of the room behind the painting of the mansion will die with me, along with a few others I had kept from Spencer If only I had told someone, anyone, else about the biggest secret of this mansion, though."

Pausing for a moment in mid stride, I pulled out the closet key that had been in my left pocket and began to caresses the smooth surface of it with my index finger. Letting out another small sigh, I noiselessly pocketed it and leant against the figurehead of the grave while placing my diary on top of the stone with his initials inscribed on. Making myself comfortable, I closed my eyes for what I intended to be the last time. I still had some strength in me, I probably would be able to last a day one more day without food or water at the most if I pushed it. Unless of course I manage to sneak into the mansion kitchen. Except there wasn't any way to get into there since the two entrances where located in the mansion and heavily guarded. So there was no way of me breaking into there without being caught and I'd rather die down here than be caught by Spencer again.

With my eyes tightly shut, I began to run my hands along the surface of the grave stone, taking in the craftsman ship of the grave head, which was very poor, I should add. If I had any proper strength length then I probably would have frowned angrily at this lack of respect for me. "Look at this, the surface isn't even smoothed down properly. As a matter of fact, judging by how big this piece of stone of stone is that jutting out of the side of it, this has to have been made by an amateur. Great, just what I always wanted…"

Click.

My eyes shot open at the sudden noise that echoed throughout the cave, closely followed by the sound of a stone panel shifting. Twisting my waist around quickly, I just managed to catch a glimpse of the stone panel that had been made up my grave head slide away to reveal a metallic ladder leading down, bathed in a very faint white light.

Peering down into the hole, my face turned into a look of confusion and rage as I surveyed the room down the ladder. "… Is this some kind of sick joke?!" wait a minute… the room down there looked eerily familiar. With my eyes closed in concentration, I began to rack my brain as to why this room was so familiar to me. It was something involving my wife making a suggestion… a backdoor to the kitchen… another storage room… That's it!

Opening my eyes, I eyed the ladder leading down my eyes held a emotion that I hadn't felt for a long time, ever since I had first entered this dismay death trap of a mansion:

Hope.

I finally recognised this room now. During the designing the kitchen I had needed to create more storage space since I had found out that the old one hadn't been big enough. Using a suggestion that my wife had made, I had created a small entrance into the caves underneath the mansion for a second storage space, a very big storage space if I do say so. The gravestone had been a suggestion by Lisa, it would suit the caves.

However, since it had been done at the last minute and not in the final design, Spencer hadn't known about this, except that about the gravestone down here, since it served as memorial to all the workers that had died during a freak accident in the creation of the mansion. So this couldn't be an elaborate hoax made by Spencer to give him false hope. Besides, Spencer may have a sick humour however it wasn't that sick… I think.

With a new-found strength created by the hope of escaping, I pressed my ears near the hole leading downwards and strained them.

…Drip.

… Drip.

… Just water falling from the ceiling was the only thing I managed to catch in the silence. Very slowly, I stood up, knelt down in front of the ladder and would have began my decent if I had not paused for a moment to look at my diary, neatly placed in the centre of my gravestone. "…Spencer can keep it for all I care, I won't be needing it anymore…" Right before I started to head down and pressed the button on the gravestone to make it cover the hole again in order to cover up my tracks. With any luck, Spencer might think that I had crawled off into the caves somewhere and left my dairy in an act of desperation, instead of climbing down a hole in the floor that led to the kitchen…

Clink, bump-bump.

Casually letting go off the ladder, my feet touched the damp, compacted soil beneath them, while I carefully looked about me, a look of distaste slowly forming on my face at the state of the room below me. Talk about disorderly, the stone walls making up the room were dank and bare, reminding me of the caves and water was seeping into the room through small cracks in them. Out of everything else that I had designed for this mansion this was one of the very few rooms that didn't have the grandeur that Spencer or I had wanted.

Shaking my head, I quietly paced along the corridor until I came to a fork in it. Pausing for a moment, I racked my brain to remember which way I lead to the kitchen. Beginning my stride again, I silently crept to the end of the corridor where an already greying door was placed. Very softly, I placed my ears against the side of it to detect any suspicious noises on the other side.

…

After a few seconds of silence I tentatively pulled down the doorknob and slowly pressured the door open. Pulling it shut behind me, I continued my way until the next bend in the corridor, where at my first glance of the next room my face turned into a grimance of disgust, this one was even worse than the one before! Water from the underground streams had again seeped into the room but instead of falling down in small steady drops it was forming a massive pool on the floor, bathed in a white glow produced from the 12-volt light bulb dangling shakily from the ceiling.

Shaking my head again, I continued my cautious pace until I reached another bend in the corridor. Pausing for a moment, I took a quick glance at the corridor leading to the kitchen, already cluttered with rubbish, before freezing at the sight of security camera pointed right at me, right before I jumped behind the wall, cursing my stupidity. "Damnit! I almost got caught again! How could I have forgotten that Spencer had installed security camera's all over the place?" Taking another quick glance around the corner, I noticed that it was now turning towards the kitchen door and whipped some of the sweat off my forehead in relief, looks liked they didn't notice me… But how am I surposed to sneak into the kitchen now? I'm pretty sure Spencer installed security camera's in there too…

It was then I managed to make out the faint crackle of electricity somewhere off in this room, coming from the waterlogged corridor up ahead. Deciding to investigate the source of the noise, I dashed down that corridor just as the camera was looking in the direction of the kitchen door until I reached the other side. Slowing down to a walking pace, I came to the end of the corridor where the auxiliary power control box for the mansion was stationed. And here I thought that it was in the attic like I originally designed, guess Spencer must have altered some of my designs…

A sudden thought entered my head; what if I could eliminate the power going to the security system? I remember when I had been designing the power system I had planned it so that the auxiliary power box could stop the flow of electricity to certain areas or systems, except that that could easily be overridden by the command power box stored in the woods somewhere. "If I could this right, I think I can temporarily knock out the power to the security system." It was worth a shot at least.

Looking over the control panel I noticed a switch panel with a series of spark plugs underneath each, marked with the different kinds of systems in the mansion. "… Oh well, this made it a lot easier for me." Tracing my fingers over the different spark plugs making it up, I pulled out the one with the words 'security system' marked underneath it along with the one for the water control system and pocketed them, an evil smirk present on my face. It little bit of chaos would do Spencer some good, especially since I seem to recall how it would soon be the grand opening day for the Spencer mansion and all of the board members would attending as well for a few days.

Slowly I began to trudge back towards the main corridor leading to the kitchen, the freezing water from the cave sloshing about my black boots. Pausing right where the corridors connected, I peered down the corridor where the camera was placed. With the presence of the red light being let off by it gone, I hastily headed towards the metallic door and pressed my ear against it's cold surface.

...Nothing, just the faint sound of the refrigerator humming in the background. This seemed far to easy, it's would be just like Spencer to give me a false sense of hope right before he broke it again. All for his twisted sense of humour… But I couldn't give up now just because there was a good chance Spencer was toying with me again, for the sake of my family alone.

Gingerly, I pushed open the metallic doors and paced into the kitchen. Taking a good look around, I dully noted down the time on the kitchen clock overhead "2:13 in the morning, I doubt weither or not Spencer up now… unless of course he's doing one of his 'experiments' again…" shaking that thought out of my head, I began to pace towards the fridge and pulled it open, making my eyes widen as they stared hungrily at the spread inside while a small amount of drool escaped my dry, caked up lips. Placed gently on the middle shelf was one of the largest roast tom turkey I had seen, all the stuffing and all the seasoning included. It got even better though, for desert I could see a huge sherry trifle, made of the creamest custard I had ever seen, the thickest cream on top while a number of berries where placed on top of it, all of it mixed in with the finest selection of digestive biscuit, as I would expect from an aristocrat of spencers class.

Needless to say, just the mere sight of the golden brown skin of the tom and the sight of the trifle set my stomach rumbling into overdrive, it's had been way to long…

"Whoever said 'revenge is a sweet dish' was absolutely right." I thought to myself while greedily chomping down on a reasonably big turkey leg which I had placed on the kitchen table. Gulping down the large piece of cold meat, I proceeded to wash it down with some of the cooled gravy that had bathed the roast turkey and stuffed some of the stuffing that had been placed right next to the turkey into my mouth. I had never tasted anything so good before! I felt like I had already died and gone to heaven!

For about five minutes I gorged on the turkey alone, devouring both legs and at least a good portion of the rest of carcass, before proceeding to the trifle. My taste buds practically exploded at the first taste of the trifle, while my stomach began to feel more content than it had in years. It took me 15 minutes in total to finish off this… feast. Finally, with one last relaxed sigh I slowly pushed the door to the refrigerator shut containing the stripped down bones of the tom and the near empty. Never before had I felt so stuffed… well, apart from the time when I gorged myself at the grand completion dinner of at the Spencer mansion. Now all I longed for was a nice long nap in the secret room that I had designed. However, that raised another problem…

"How on earth am I going to get out of this death trap without getting caught again?" Pushing that thought to the back of my mind for later, I decided to head back to the secret room that I had designed for now. Well, I would have if I hadn't heard voices approaching fast from the other side of the main door to the kitchen, making me freeze on the spot. Thinking quickly, I half dashed, half waddled, along the passage to the elevator leading up just, all the while ignoring the protests from my stomach, as the sound of the door creaking open could be heard from the other side of the room.

At the other end of the room I could hear the sound of the door being slammed shut and the loud, obnoxious voice of one of Spencer's assistants, Mark Trunsdale complaining to his companion. "Can you believe that the hot water system and security systems both went off line at the same time?"

I just managed to make out the sound of Steven Booth, another one of Spencer's assistants grunt out before he slammed the door shut behind him: "Yeah, it is a good thing though that they didn't go off during the opening ceremony though. Besides, doing this is far much better than finishing prepping the lower floor of the dining hall."

Just as they where about to shut the door to the storage room behind them I was able to catch Mark laugh at Steven comments: "Hell yeah! Good thing though we finished up in the main hall." Just as they shut the door behind them I let out a muffled groan, now I was in some serious trouble. So tomorrow would be the opening ceremony of the mansion eh? Well, that would explain the turkey dinner in the fridge…

"Let's see…" I mentally mumbled to myself. "Its sounds like most of the people still up are in the lower floor of the dinning hall and possibly that the main hall is deserted." A sudden inspiration hit me as I was looking at the elevator. "However, maybe the second floor is deserted as well." It was worth a shot at least. Hurriedly, I pressed the call button to the elevator and a second later the door to it smoothly slid open and I entered the square chamber. "God, I hope no one hears this going up." Silently praying, I slid open the door from the elevator and stepped out, amazingly no one was out there… "Heh, looks like lady luck is on my side, for once, that is." Pressing forward, I soon reached the wooden door that lead into the second's floor's east main corridor. After hearing nothing from the other side I silently pressed it open and stepped into the corridor and onto the red rug that almost seemed to welcome me. Once again I decided to press my luck even further than I would have ever dared to do, I pressed my ears against the oak wooden door that lead to the balcony above the dining hall. Very faintly, I managed to hear voices from behind it along with the masked sound of what I thought was music. Giving a quick nod myself I slowly began to press it open. "Oh god, I hope this doesn't blow back in my face…"

Immediately After opening the door I was blasted by one of the most horrible tunes I had ever heard. Closing the door behind me, I spotted Spencer's old grammar phone placed on top of one of the marble stands, playing what I recognised as midnight walce, one of spencer's favourites and I burst out into silent laughter. There was no way they would be able to hear me walking along the balcony with that racket on! Down below I could make out the sounds of Spencer talking very loudly over the music with one of his assistants.

I could almost see Spencer making his ever so famous ark gesture with his hands as he spoke. "So, what do you think? Isn't it absolutely perfect for the ceremony tomorrow?"

Tiptoeing along to the door leading to the main corridor, I could just hear the servant down they're let out a slight hum as he picked his words carefully. "I don't know sir, aren't both lord Ashford and doctor Marcus more into classical music?"

By now I was halfway to the door. "Nonsense! Alexander always chooses something similar to this for his parties and Marcus spends too much time in his lab to even have a taste in music!" three quarters the way there… "This will be the absolutely perfect celebration!"

Just as I reached the door I heard the servant put him back down. "That is of course after Mark and Steven get the water system back online."

Judging by how Spencer spoke I could almost see the scowl on his face. "Yes, after those two do their jobs properly, for once." I could make out that an annoyed sigh had escaped his throat as he spoke while I opened the left door. "Honestly, I don't know why their still in my employment at times…" the rest of the conversation was unknown to me as a silently slid the door shut behind me and stepped out into the main hall.

Like Spencer's lackeys said and I had hoped, the main hall was empty, set up with the most expensive decorations that Spencer could afford (which was really expensive by the way.) in the centre of the room was a chandelier of brilliance that I had never seen before could be seen dangling from the room, shaking very slightly still from having streamers attached to it. Red silk streamers stretched across from all corners of the room while placed atop the door was a silk banner with the Spencer family crest placed dead in the centre. Shaking my head at the sudden change in the room decor, I hurriedly rushed along the top floor until I reached the stairs. Placing my hand on the freshly waxed banister, I hastily went down the stairs until I suddenly stop as what sounded like a loud roar of anger went in the air from the dinning hall, I think… "… What was that?"

… Is that Spencer? I wonder what's got him so angry… "What do you mean that the main centre piece for the banquet and the main dessert has been completely eaten?!" ah… so that explains why he's so angry… Strange, i didn't eat all of it…

Very faintly, I could make out the nervous voice of Mark. "Ehehe, the trifle has been eaten as well." … okay, I didn't do that, I'm sure of it.

"What?! But now what are we going to feed the delegates?! They're going to be here in eight hours! We can't possibly get another huge turkey and it cook in just eight hours! What are we going to do?!"

I guess the next sentence came out of Marks mouth before he thought it over: "We could always send for some fast food."

"… Mark, your fired." I couldn't help but let out a light chuckle as I continued down the stairs, it was about time...

It was about halfway I noticed that I wasn't alone as I had originally thought. Standing near the door leading to the dining hall was one of the newly deployed security team that Spencer had just been in the process of hiring yesterday, the day of my 'surposed' to be death. He had also noticed me as well.

With a eye-brow raised, he cocked his head as if saying 'who are you?' instead of asking aloud and disrupting Spencer's ranting while looking over the state of my clothes, it was a complete state... Still though, it looks like Spencer doesn't keep his staff that well informed. Maybe I can use that to my advantage…

Thinking quickly, I indicated to the door leading to the graveyard located behind me and mouthed the word 'grave-digger' before indicating to the set of double doors in front of him while mouthing the word 'bath'. Giving me a slight nod, his face went back to it's original bored look while listening to the commotion coming from behind him. Mentally, I whipped my sweating brow, thank god he isn't at the right angle to directly up at the door leading to the graveyard…

Casually, I paced my way to the door leading to the art room and quietly opened it and shut it behind me. The rest was simple enough, Instead of taking the path to the right, which would have lead to the bathroom, I took the path on the left which lead to a dead end and was only used for storage space. Or so every one else thought. As I approached a huge painting of the mansion I nervously shook my head left and right. Licking my now wet lips, I pulled out a light blue key with an emblem on it I inserted it into the keyhole while turning left. With a one loud click the door swung open and I hastily stepped and shut the door noiselessly behind me.

The room wasn't exactly furbished very well. The wallpaper consisted of stripped purple flowers which repeated themselves after about 3 feet and the only furniture consisted of a therapist's bench and a wardrobe along with a 7-foot mirror… oh, and a pot plant in the corner of the room.

To me thought it was heaven.

Pocketing the key again, I slowly came down to rest on the bench right by the mirror and lied down it when I first came to realize just how bad my present state had become. My blue overalls was in ruin and completely caked in dirt while my blue pants were ripped apart and covered in dirt along with a strange grey substance stuck on in great big clumps, concrete by the looks of it. My hair was wild, untamed and looked like it hadn't been combed for a month while a lot of stubble was present around the lower and upper part of my chin.

Basically I looked a twentieth century wildman, with an extremely bad hair day.

Shaking that abysmal thought out of my head, my worried thoughts went back to my missing family, "god I hope their okay…" If only if I hadn't taken up Spencers offer about building this place. "… Then again, what kind of architect would resist the chance to build a dream mansion while at the same time having the chance of making 3 million dollars?"

Very faintly, I thought I could hear the sound of car engines muffled behind the walls. "Hmmm, mabye the board delights are early?" Oh well, all the worse for spencer…

Leaning against the wall, I realised just how tired I was. Hell, I could probably fall asleep now, leaning against this wall if I wanted. "When was the last time I slept properly? About three days ago?" well, I can't do anything for now while the other board members are here so I might as well catch up with some well needed and earned, rest. Letting out a loud yawn, I pushed myself off the wall and gently rested my head against the pillow on the coach before closing my eyes.

"Jessica…Lisa, please be okay…"

Since I won't be able to access my computer for the next few days, I won't be uploading the second chapter for at least 4 days. It will be here in less than a week though, that I can promise. Meanwhile, review! Like mad preferably.