Chapter Three:
"The calm (before)..."
Claire's cousin, Chris Wright, woke up just before everyone else in the penthouse, and slipped quietly out of the boys' bedroom to head for the kitchen. Between the small children on the trip and the ever-chatty parents, Chris preferred to be the first one up for breakfast, wanting to eat in peace and quiet.
As he went for the cupboards to grab a box of cereal, he teetered in place, still not entirely out of "sleep mode" yet. He rubbed his eyes and smoothed back some of his short, spiky hair before he attempted for the cereal box again. He poured himself a bowl- followed by the milk- and made his way upstairs to eat in the living room. To his surprise, he saw Claire sleeping on one of the couches in the living room, looking rather uncomfortable in the position she was in: all scrunched up with blankets thrown in different places on her.
Chris tried as hard as he could to not disturb her when he sat down on another couch, but the sounds of the fabric made upon sitting caused Claire to stir...and eventually her eyes fluttered open. The first thing her tired, blurry eyes noticed was Chris on the other side. "Did you sleep here all night?" He asked flatly, taking a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.
Claire sat herself up on the couch and complained, "I just...can't sleep with all them in one bedroom! It's just so hard to sleep when they snore- I mean, I know one of them snores. It's either the little kid, or- I don't know her name- Amber's sister or whatever?" She groaned, putting her face into her hands. "I want to sleep in my own bed again..."
"Gonna be a long wait," said Chris with a mocking smile, taking another bite of cereal.
Out of the corner of Claire's eye, she spied her cellphone lying next to the couch. Her eyes grew wide and a chill coursed through her when she noticed that the little light in the corner of her phone was blinking, indicating she had gotten a call while she was sleeping. She hastily picked it up in eager anticipation, hoping it was the call she was expecting from the Stoneheart Group. She clicked a few buttons and checked the screen...and her heart sank; it was just a telemarketer or the likes.
Chris had watched Claire's excitement instantly become gloomy. Claire looked up and realized that he had been watching her the whole time, wondering what the whole fuss was about with her cellphone. "I- it's nothing," she told him, setting her phone down next to her. "Just thought I heard something from an advertising agency regarding a few pieces I submitted."
Chris blinked. "O...kay..." He really couldn't care less.
Silence fell between them. It was those times where it made Claire feel anxious. She began to drum her fingers against the armrests of the couch. She never preferred this "awkward silence" between her and whoever else was in the room with her. It only convinced her that she needed to come up with some sort of topic to talk about, or else the silence would continue.
Claire stared off to the side, and it was then she began to reminisce of Chris and herself of four years ago...where the young boy had confronted Claire about calling Aunt Trish "mom".
"Hey..." Chris peered up from his cereal bowl, wondering what Claire wanted now. "You remember four years ago when-" Claire stopped herself, not wanting to drudge up the past that reminded her that she really didn't belong in this family. "You know what, never mind. It's nothing."
Chris continued to stare at her, knowing there was still something on Claire's mind.
After a moment of pondering, she asked, "I know we're cousins and all, but do you see me more as your sister than your cousin?"
Chris furrowed his features. "What? Why you asking that?" Letting out a frustrated breath, he decided to humor her, "Well...I guess you're kinda 'like' a sister to me, but- you know, it's not like you're actually my sister or anything. You're still just my cousin."
Claire felt a tinge of hurt from his words. "I...I see," she said sadly. She decided to change the subject by saying, "You know what though?..."
Chris grunted infuriatingly. "What?"
Claire smiled brightly. "You're still my Chris Redfield to my Claire!"
Chris rolled his eyes and shook his head. Because he and Claire had the same names as two characters from the video game series Resident Evil, Claire always loved to bring up that fact every now and then, mostly because Chris and Claire in the video game series were brother and sister. Claire- the real Claire, only wished that she and Chris could somehow be this "dynamic duo" in a world full of cruel things. She always envisioned something like that would be awesome.
"Seriously, will you cut that out!" Chris griped, groaning afterwards. "Seriously!"
Claire's smile widened upon his reaction. With much relief to Chris, the parents and even the younger children began waking up, indicating that their days traversing New York were to begin again.
The evening seemed to come so quickly to everyone.
Throughout the day, everyone decided to shop around the various stores close to the hotel. And throughout that day, Claire had kept close tabs on her cellphone, hoping for that call from the Stoneheart Group, or more specifically, Eldritch Palmer. Unfortunately, the constant glimpses of her phone only proved to be uneventful. With each passing hour, her heart began to sink a little further into depression. Perhaps going to the Stoneheart building was pointless all around. The more she thought about it, the more she started to think that she must of come off as some crazy woman to the employees there. What was she thinking? Eldritch Palmer supposedly knowing some distant and most likely, deceased relative of hers?
It's not like Claire expected Thomas Eichhorst to be alive and well to meet with her.
Still though, it was a nice thought for Claire: to meet with her direct-line descendant, especially someone on her mom's side. Even if he was a former Nazi officer, Claire would of liked to learn more about him, just for curiosity's sake.
After everyone had returned from their day of shopping and exploring, the parents took rest for a few hours before they all decided to dine out at night, wanting some time to themselves without their children present. And so, the parents hustled and bustled around the penthouse, dolling themselves up for a night on the town. The children were taken aback on how dressed up their parents were getting; they were really taking this night seriously, as if it would be their last.
"Please have the the kids in bed by nine," said Mrs. Yates to Amber and Claire, ready and standing with the other parents by the entrance doors to the penthouse. "Otherwise they'll be really cranky in the morning."
"We'll do," said Amber with a reassuring smile on her face.
Once everyone said their goodbyes, the parents left the penthouse, leaving their children to stand there awkwardly with what to do now. It wasn't until a few moments later that Amber suggested ordering pizza and other takeout items, and the younger ones couldn't agree more to that decision; everyone was beginning to get hungry. So Amber made many calls, ordering pizzas, Chinese, fried chicken, and then a few vegetarian dishes since Amber was the vegetarian one among the group. ... No one could imagine what the bill looked like for all the food they ordered...
Most of the evening was spent eating and watching whatever kid-friendly movies happened to be on TV, and not one of them entertained the older ones, such as Amber, Sarah, and Chris (but the child inside Claire enjoyed a few, not that she would admit to that to anyone).
Before anyone knew it though, it was after nine o' clock, and the little ones were far from wanting to fall asleep, and when Amber (along with Chris and Sarah) tried to insist that they should get ready for bed, the children stood their ground and refused, saying they weren't near tired and were having too much fun staying up late.
Amber growled frustratingly, plopping down on the living room couch. "So now what?" She wondered exhaustively, eyeing each of the three children heatedly. "They won't listen to us."
Claire stood up from the couch and sat down with the three children on the floor. "How about a spooky ghost story then?" The children's eyes actually lit up to the idea. "It's not a kiddy story either," she added in, attempting to make them feel more "grown up" about it.
Chris raised an eyebrow. "How's that supposed to make them sleep? Wouldn't that make them not want to sleep?"
Claire scoffed and waved him off. "It's not that scary or anything." She got more comfortable on the ground and ushered the children to scoot themselves closer to her. "This story is about the Japanese legend of Datasushi. Have you ever heard of Datasushi?" One little boy shook his head slowly. Claire continued, "Datasushi is a creature who the villagers have dubbed a 'God' that has fallen from the heavens, but I think it was just an alien or something like that, to be honest. Anyways, this scary story starts a long, long time ago, on an island- in a little village called Hanuda-"
"You tried telling this story to us the first time, and it was boring then," said Chris, cutting in. "They're not going to want to hear that."
Claire looked to him angrily. "Well, if you guys had let me finish, you might have liked it," she said sourly, crossing her arms. "What's wrong with it now?"
"Bo-ring!" Chris yelled out, and Sarah snickered to his remark.
Claire turned away, infuriated- and hurt. It was a story she had found one day when she happened to hack into the deep web once. It was a very difficult, intricate process to say the least: hacking onto the deep web. She didn't know why such a story was on the deep web in the first place, but she thought the tale of a legendary creature was rather fascinating. Unfortunately, when she had tried to tell her family of Datasushi and some of the lore surrounding it, they dismissed it, saying it didn't sound interesting at all. Ever since then, she had kept it to herself, and now, it was looking that way again.
Claire sighed dejectedly, shrugging. "Okay. Fine. I won't tell the story." She felt a tad flattered when one of the children moaned disappointedly.
"Well, we need to do something," stressed Amber, gesturing to one of the large clocks hanging on the wall. "It's going on nine-thirty."
"I brought my laptop," Chris chimed in. "They can watch me play Five Nights at Freddy's."
Claire scoffed. "Like they wouldn't be scared by that, but they'll be 'terrified' from my story on Datasushi?"
"Freddy's isn't scary."
"To you."
Both Claire and Chris huffed at each other as a means to end their small squabble. Then...silence.
As each of the older children wondered just how they would get the smaller ones to bed, Claire brought out her cellphone...and an idea clicked in her head. She sprung right up from the ground and hastily went down the stairs and into the girls' bedroom. Everyone else waited quietly, wondering why Claire got so excited all of sudden. Claire returned no more than a few minutes later, and in her hands were two, small, portable speakers. She went over to one of the living room tables and set up the speakers to her cellphone.
"What are you doing?" Asked Sarah.
"You'll see," replied Claire, still fumbling around with a certain app on her phone.
After another minute of silence, the room was suddenly filled with music blaring from the speakers, and Claire turned up the volume to make it seem like the walls itself were giving off the songs themselves. A few of the others covered their ears until they adjusted well enough to the volume increase. "What the hell?" Chris complained, cupping his ears more protectively than the others.
Claire smiled eagerly at everyone. "It is a known fact that kids can crash down hard from strenuous activity, so I thought dancing to awesome songs would help achieve that." She then started dancing, and urged the three smaller children on the floor to do the same. "Come on! Dance!" It didn't take long for each of the little ones to join her, although with more encouragement on her part.
"Are you serious?" Said a sarcastic Amber, eyeing the dancing ones like they had lost their minds.
"Yes I'm serious," said Claire in between breaths. "Unless someone else has a better idea to get them tired faster." Amber, Sarah, and Chris looked at one another for any suggestions, but none had anything to say.
"These songs sound old," Sarah complained, partially, slouching into the couch more.
"Well, these are hits from the 90's- and they're not that old. They're awesome!" Claire said happily, holding onto one of the children's hands while she danced with them. "And someone else has to join me on this! They need more encouragement from one of you guys!" She says this when she notices that the only little girl appeared to stray away from the dancing frenzy.
After sitting for another minute, pondering, Amber eventually rolled her eyes in defeat and slowly got to her feet. "What the hell, if it makes them tired..." She then took the little girl's hand and got her to dance back with the others.
While this carried on, Chris and Sarah turned their heads to each other, their expressions alone being their means of communication; wondering if one or the other was going to join the rest...but their non-moving bodies kind of answered for themselves. So they remained sitting on the couch, watching the others dance the night away.
About an hour later, the three little children practically collapsed into their beds, much to the older ones relief. They were also very much relieved that their parents weren't home at this time to see that it took them longer than they thought to get the others to bed.
When Claire, Amber, Sarah, and Chris did get the smaller children to sleep, the four pretty much went their own separate ways. Sarah and Chris were tired themselves and went to bed shortly after, leaving Claire and Amber alone.
While Amber had succumbed to drowsiness and decided to go to bed, Claire was now the only one that remained wide awake, worrying- as usual- for the parents to return. She would of went to bed herself, but thought to be the responsible one and stay up and attentive of her surroundings until the parents came back. She sat in the living room and turned on the TV, hoping it would calm her nerves. The first thing that happened to come up on the screen...was the news reporting of an airplane, located at the very airport she and the rest had come from to get to New York. At the JFK International Airport...with Regis Air 7-5-3...there had been a horrible disturbance going on with it. Listening more to the information given about the situation, Claire's face slowly turned to that of pure terror.
Months from now, people would refer to this day as "Night Zero".
"...the storm."