A/N: This is a Glee/Resident Evil crossover fic that will feature our Gleeks in similar situations to some of the original Resident Evil games. Even if you're not familiar with Resident Evil, I'll make sure to include all the necessary details so that everyone may follow the story without getting confused. Because this is connected with RE, this means that The Umbrella Corporation exists in this universe and there will be zombies and all sorts of genetically mutated creatures for our characters to come across. In addition to our usual characters, there will also be Jesse's younger siblings from my head canon, Lacey and Kristian. This is a survival horror story with some romance and a lot of mystery. Expect a lot of death and tragedy. If you're still interested after reading this, then continue on and thank you for giving it a shot.
Just outside the outskirts of Akron, Ohio was an old estate that many locals and travelers who drove by and always wondered about. It wasn't uncommon for people to stop their cars on the side of the road to take a look at the grand mansion. Much of the view of it was cut off by the trees that were carefully planted behind the tall black iron gates of the estate to provide the owners with as much privacy as possible. Despite that, onlookers could still tell that the home was enormous from the little view they had. People would always question the same things. Who lived there? What on earth was their profession that allowed them to be able to afford such an enormous piece of architecture that resembled that of a museum? The locals knew who lived there, though they never saw or heard from them very much because they were always busy working or on vacation. They saw it as a shame that the owners of the place could never fully appreciate the beauty of their home because they were so rarely in it.
A black Range Rover pulled up just outside the old gate that bore the insignia of the crest with a lion belonging to the family that resided there. Inside the car sat a young man of nineteen waiting impatiently for one of the guards to come out and unlock the gates to grant him entrance. Drumming his fingers along the steering wheel, he leaned his head back against the head rest and sighed. Muttering a few curses under his breath, he finally resorted to opening the door and stepping out to get it open himself. His designer boots hit the gravel outside the gate with a crunch as he stepped out of his vehicle and walked over to the small box on the far side of the fence. As he reached for the key pad, he glanced up at the surveillance camera positioned right above him that was following his every move. Turning his attention back to the key pad, he entered the password to manually unlock the gates to the manor. Upon entering the final digit to the code, the red light above the keypad turned a bright green to let him know that he had entered it correctly.
A loud click rang out as the gate unlocked and swung open to allow him to enter. Stepping back in his Range Rover, he restarted the car and drove up the winding path that led to the mansion before the gates swung shut again to secure the estate. On his way to the building, he glanced over at the booth where the security guard usually stood watch, but noticed that he was nowhere to be found. Shaking his head, he parked the car in the driveway next to a few of his father's sports cars parked nearby. Grabbing the duffle bag of his things on the passenger's seat, he stepped out of his car and climbed the stone steps and passed through the marble columns that led to the grand front entrance. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out an old key that also bore the family crest on it to unlock the double doors.
It had been quite some time since he had been in his old home and he found himself looking around at the vast entrance hall to see if anything had changed since then. Not very much had. There was still the same old red carpet that started at the front door and worked its way up the great mahogany staircase in the center of the hall. The staircase reached up to the second floor and diverted in two paths on the left and right that wrapped around the entire top floor of the entrance hall and led to a few doors. Up in the center wall above the staircase was a large life sized portrait of the family from a few years ago. There was a stern and dignified looking man with brown curls that matched the young man looking up at it. The only difference was the flecks of gray and slight age lines on his face to show the age difference. Next to the man in the portrait was his blonde wife who, while she had a softer look on her face, still looked as high society and dignified as her husband. Her hand rested on her daughter who stood next to her twin brother. Both of the fraternal twins had blondish hair and brown eyes like their mother. On the right corner next to the twins stood a younger version of the young man looking up at the portrait from downstairs. His striking blue-grey eyes matched that of his father's. The painter had gotten every detail of his incredibly handsome features, down to the smirk that usually played upon his lips.
The portrait was one of the many hanging on the walls in the mansion. His father had insisted that it be covered with them so that their home could look as rich and high class as possible. It was obviously to intimidate people who came over to visit and it worked a lot of the time.
Shaking his head at the portrait, the young man turned right to one of the first doors in the entrance hall. Pulling it open, he found himself in a large room that was the closest thing to a living room that the house had. Sitting on one of the large black couches were slightly older versions of the twins from the portrait.
Turning her head to the door, the girl jumped up from where she sat and bolted towards him for a hug.
"Jesse, you're here!" she sighed as she wrapped her arms around her older brother.
Jesse looked down at his sister with a half smile and nodded.
"How have you been, Lace?" he asked.
His eyes followed their brother, Kristian, as he scoffed and went to go stand in the corner with his arms crossed.
"We've been managing," Lacey muttered as she pulled away from the hug and ran her hand through her wavy dark blonde hair.
Jesse's eyes scanned his sister and he noticed how much thinner she had gotten since the last time he had seen her before he left for UCLA after graduating at Carmel. It wasn't that she lost any baby fat because she was already thin when he had last seen her. Now his eighteen year old sister was so thin that she almost looked sick. His frown deepened as he understood that her bulimia was probably worse these days. She had dark circles under her big brown eyes and her complexion was a little off color.
"Great of you to finally show up," muttered Lacey's twin brother, Kristian, from the corner.
Turning his attention to his brother, he noticed that he too had changed over the time that had passed. His wavy blonde hair was unkempt and had grown long past his dark brown eyes. He could just hear his father's voice scolding Kristian in his head in an attempt to get him to comb his hair. Kristian's eyes lacked any trace of warmth as he stared down his older brother coldly. Jesse couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something else quite off about his brother that made him look slightly unhinged. Jesse knew that Kristian had been messing with drugs before he left, but now he looked so much worse.
The drastic change in both of his siblings put Jesse on edge slightly. How bad could things have gotten in his absence that it left his brother and sister looking the way they did? Lacey appeared shaky and fragile while Kristian appeared insane and even sicker than before.
"With Mom and Dad gone, I still can't decide if I should be worried or relieved," Lacey said from where she stood next to Jesse with her arms wrapped around herself.
"It's no big deal, Lace. It's not like they ever paid much attention to us when they actually were around, anyway. Unless they wanted to toss you around or belittle us…" Kristian muttered bitterly.
"What the hell is he talking about?" Jesse asked, looking back to his sister with a small trace of concern in his eyes.
Lacy looked down and pulled her sleeves over her hands. Shaking her head, she walked past Jesse and over to the door leading back to the entrance hall.
"It's nothing," she whispered before leaving.
Kristian followed after his twin sister, but stopped in front of Jesse with a glare.
"What do you care anyway?" he spat before continuing on his way to the door. "Just stop pretending like you actually give a damn and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing only thinking about yourself. We don't need you."
Alone now, Jesse walked over to the fireplace and leaned against it with a frustrated sigh. He noticed a picture frame turned down and grabbed it to put it back up. When he saw the picture of him and his brother and sister laughing together so many years ago, he felt a deep pang of guilt rip through him. His siblings looked so much happier and healthier then. Things weren't that great before he left, but they were obviously a lot better than they were now. Some things must have happened in his absence to affect them like this and to make Kristian so bitter towards him for not being around to stop it.
Whatever it was, he was determined to find out and try and make it right.
The bell rang to signal the end of another school day, but instead of going home, the members of New Directions gathered in the choir room like they usually did on Thursday afternoons. Many of them took their usual seats in the chairs at the back of the room while Kurt and Blaine sat at the piano working on something while they waited for Mr. Schuester, Brad, and the band to show up for rehearsals.
The door swung open and in walked Rachel Berry briskly and more excited than she usually was for rehearsals. Clutching a white flyer in her hand, she stood in the center of the room in front of the piano as she raised her hands for everyone's attention.
"Attention Glee Clubbers!" she squealed, looking out at the rest of her teammates with a huge smile.
The sound of the music from the piano stopped as Kurt and Blaine turned their attention to Rachel.
"What's got you looking like you just downed an entire crate of Red Bull?" asked Puck with a cocked eyebrow.
"Seriously, are you taking those Vitamin D pills again?" asked Quinn.
"Or crack," muttered Santana.
When everyone looked over at her as though she had taken it too far, she simply shrugged and looked on at Rachel. Rachel's smile weakened for the slightest moment at her teammates' comments, but she refused to let them put a damper on her excitement. Straightening her vintage lavender mini dress, she held her head high and looked back at her team confidently.
"Anyway, I've got news for you that's going to get you just excited as I am," she said with her hands on her hips.
"I don't think that's even possible, but go on," said Sam.
"I was browsing the Show Choir message boards to keep an eye on the competition as well as opportunities for us to take part in to help us out with future competitions, and I stumbled upon a contest sponsored by Umbrella Corporation… you know, the Pharmaceutical company from all the commercials on TV? Anyway, the contest is up by their headquarters in Akron this weekend. Apparently, they're trying to show a support for the arts in schools by reaching out to Show Choirs and the winning team gets full Umbrella sponsorship for a year. That means we'll never have to worry about fundraising for costumes or transportation costs and we can just focus on trying to win Regionals and Nationals. So I've signed us up!"
The rest of the team simply stared at Rachel for a moment as they tried to get a grasp of the mouthful she just said.
"Uhh, Rachel? Don't you think you should have spoken to us or Mr. Schue about that before you said we'd show?" asked Mercedes.
"Yeah, how are we going to even get the money to get to Akron?" asked Blaine from behind Rachel at the piano.
Biting her lip, Rachel turned to look at him.
"We can carpool?"
"And how are we going to even be ready to perform with a contest the day after tomorrow? We'd need to think up a set list and rehearse it and there's just no time," said Quinn with a frown.
Rachel scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"We came up with our set list for Nationals overnight. It's not impossible, you guys. We just need to actually try!"
Her eyes moved to Finn who sat looking uncomfortable in the corner. She gave him a pleading look for him to come to her aid and support her, but he only shook his head.
"I don't know, Rachel. It's Christmas next week," he shrugged. "I'd rather take it easy and not have to sing for a while."
Her face fell for a second before she once again pulled herself together and looked back at the rest of the group. It was her last shot to get them to agree.
"Wouldn't it be a great Christmas present to the team if we won this? Think of what it could mean for us if we had such a huge company backing us up. Can't we just try?" she asked softly, looking out at them with big hopeful eyes.
The team exchanged looks as they silently deliberated. A few exchanged nods and sighs.
"I think Rachel's right. We can do this," said Kurt as he stood up and walked over to Rachel.
Leaning in slightly, he put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a small smile.
"Besides, if we win this it'll look great on our NYADA application," he winked.
Having not even thought about that, Rachel's face lit up once more and she nodded.
"So what do you all say?" she asked, looking out at them with a confident smile.
Artie sighed and nodded.
"Alright. If Mr. Schue is down, then we're in it to win it," he said with his hands up.
Rachel squealed and flung her arms around Kurt, whispering a word of thanks for supporting her. After Glee Club ended later, she'd be sure to have a word with Finn over his lack of it. But right now there were much more important things to tend to.
"I already have a few potential song ideas for us to go over," she said as she spun on her heel to grab the red dry erase marker from the tray underneath the board. "How do you all feel about boy bands and girl groups?"
In the center of the board, she drew the red and white Umbrella logo with a huge smiley face on it before turning back to the rest of the team.
"Okay, let's start brainstorming."
After grabbing all of the books she needed to look over for her holiday break assignments, she stuffed them into her already filled backpack in front of her locker. When she was done, she pushed the locker door to slam shut before walking out of the building and over to the parking lot to wait for Finn to drive her home. When he walked up behind her with his own backpack slung over his shoulder as well as some of his football equipment, she gave him a small smile.
"That bag looks heavy," he observed.
"Yes, it is. Actually, could you—"
"Could you hold my football and helmet? My hands are full. Thanks," he said, dumping everything into her arms.
"Sure," she muttered quietly as she followed after him.
For a second, she had forgotten that she was irritated with him and that she wanted to have a word with him over what happened in the choir room. Being around Finn always seemed to have that kind of effect on her for some reason. Even when she was mad, his presence made her always forget it and put it aside. But right now, it just didn't feel right.
"Finn," she spoke up, following after him. "I can't carry these. My bag is already too heavy enough as it is and—"
"Alright, alright. Just dump them in the back," he said as he unlocked his truck and climbed in.
Rachel sighed and did as she was told before climbing into the passenger's seat.
When Finn' started the truck, the radio immediately went on and he reached for the dial to find a station with the kind of music he liked.
"Finn listen to me. I didn't appreciate how you left me hanging back there. As my co-captain and my boyfriend, you should have supported me. And I've noticed that you don't really—"
"Look Rachel, I just didn't agree with you. You can't expect me to back you up with everything."
"But you hardly ever do. You're supposed to support me. If the roles were reversed I would have been by your side in a second," she explained as she reached for the seatbelt and buckled it.
Sighing, Finn continued to fumble with the dial on the radio in between stations. When the name "St. James" was spoken by a radio announcer, Rachel immediately reached out to grab Finn's hand to stop him from changing it any further.
"Go back," she said quickly, swatting his hand away to turn the dial back a little to return to the station she heard the name on.
Biting her lip, she listened to the news reporter intently, wondering if the St. James being mentioned was the one she knew.
"Police are still on the search for the missing husband and wife, Jensen and Katherine St. James—"
"Oh my God, those are Jesse's parents!" she gasped.
Before Finn could say anything about Jesse, she reached out her hand to cover his mouth so she could listen to the rest of the report.
"They were last seen by two of their children who had been residing with them at the old St. James Manor just outside Akron last Friday. Detectives are on the case to find the missing couple in hopes of bringing them back to their three children, Jesse, Kristian, and Lacey, safely. If anyone knows anything about the whereabouts of the two, police advise you to come forward with anything you might know... We'll move onto our next story about the animal attacks in the forest after a word from our sponsor, Umbrella Corporation... "
"Well that sucks for Jesse," Finn muttered as he began pulling out of his parking space.
"It's terrible," she whispered.
Shaking her head, she looked over at her boyfriend with an extremely worried look on her face.
"When we got to Akron for the contest, I want to visit Jesse and see if he's okay," she said quietly.
"I don't really think that's a good idea. Jesse will only end up trying to hit on you or—"
"Finn, I wasn't asking for your permission," she snapped, losing her patience with him completely.
Taking a breath, she closed her eyes and calmed herself down.
"I'm going."