-Incomplete-
This world was a strange place. People drove their odd, roaring mechanical machines to get to places only a mile or two away from where they started. The small town in Colorado wasn't all that big and every building in it was easily within walking distance. Those without the four wheeled machines weren't acting any more sensibly. They were walking around the town on their own two feet but appeared to have no particular destination in mind. They were aimless, without direction, like she was.
They moved from shop to shop or street to street and did little else. These humans seemed to be here for no reason so what was it that gave them purpose? What made them bother to get up in the morning? What inspired them to go about their daily routines or tasks?
These were the things Melody pondered as she observed various humans doing what was seemingly considered normal. Standing there on the street corner she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She'd been standing in that exact spot for over three hours and wasn't the least bit bored.
In fact, people were rather fascinating to her and Melody wouldn't mind watching the humans for days. Ever since she escaped from the place Richard had been keeping her, this is what she did. She watched and learned so she could better play the part of a normal person. She desperately wanted to be like everyone else. To her, it felt like it was the only way she would ever be whole and complete.
Learning to be like everyone else was all she could do for herself. She would never actually be one of them. Her body was ten months old and yet had grown into a woman in her mid-twenties in a few days. She ceased aging after that. Either she would never age again, or it was progressing much more slowly now.
Melody had been asleep in her cryotank the entire length of the aging process in those few days, but Richard showed her recordings to explain her appearance and existence. She was born in a laboratory tank from the cells of her father. Seemingly there was something in her father the man desired to replicate in another being such as her. It was something capable of wielding the terrible machine he brought her to once.
She looked up at the clear night sky and closed her eyes as a cool breeze blew her hair back from her face. Melody truly felt being free to roam this world was the answer to the empty feeling inside. She would never tire of experiencing the sense of freedom that washed over her looking at the open sky. She never wanted to be in a laboratory again.
A shudder ran through her body and she wasn't quite sure whether it was from the chilly night air or the memories of all those tests they'd run on her in their labs. It was probably both.
A middle-aged couple in perhaps their early to late forties came strolling down the street, arm in arm. The man spoke in a hushed voice to the woman clutching his arm and she started to laugh. Melody tried laughing before. She practiced it over and over until she was able to force one convincingly whenever she needed to. The pale woman couldn't comprehend what laughter was exactly, but humans seemed to do it quite often. They enjoyed this laughing thing tremendously. Why else would they do it so often?
The pair was walking in the direction she was standing. The woman must have felt Melody's stare because she jerked her head up and the laughter died in her throat. They stared into one another's eyes and it was the other woman who broke the contact first. She pulled her companion's arm harshly and whispered something. The man lifted his eyes in confusion to look at Melody and then both of them were retreating the way they came, away from her.
She paused to look into a store window displaying a variety of sunglasses, hats, and shoes. An unhappy expression flickered across her face. She knew why they were afraid. Her eyes were an irregular blue color that could glow in the dark when her emotions were heightened. No wonder the couple had run away from her. They were glowing.
She felt the fear and anger of being different building up. Before she realized what she was doing, her hand smashed through the glass to pull out a pair of dark sunglasses. Melody put them on to conceal her eyes and moved rapidly away from the store in case someone saw her break the glass. She noticed her right hand was bleeding but she ignored it and hurried into a nearby building to stay under the radar for a while. People did not like when their things were broken.
It didn't take long to see she'd made her way into a dimly lit bar. She'd seen places like this in other towns and cities passed through. She discovered a bar was a place where people paid for drinks so they could sit there in silence or be loud and talkative. Whenever a person consumed these drinks in large quantities, their ability to rationalize seemed to dissipate and they would say the first thing that came into their minds, no matter how random or rude. Not wanting to be disturbed, she took a seat at a booth in the back and snatched up a napkin which she held around her cut hand.
She sat listening to the quiet of the room. It was early in the evening and she would have to wait for others to trickle in as they got off of work or set out to relax. It was odd that instead of living a life of her own, she chose to watch and observe others live theirs. Melody supposed it was because there was no reason for her to try and live a normal life. She was far from normal. Most people didn't need to wear sunglasses to hide eyes that glowed in the dark.
Her thoughts went to the fair-haired man dressed completely in black she met earlier that day. Wesker was his name. This Wesker was wearing sunglasses even though it was daytime. She'd sensed there was something not quite human about all three of the people she came into contact with that morning, but especially that man. He had the scent of Tyrant, like the ones she saw in the lab. Maybe he was hiding something behind those sunglasses just as Melody was forced to do.
A young waitress came over to her with an empty tray in one hand, smiling kindly. "Can I get you anything?"
Melody glanced at her and then shook her head. "No... Thank you."
She noticed people said "thank you" to others a lot. She hoped she was using the phrase properly. The woman didn't say anything to correct her if she wasn't. The door opened and two men walked in and sat at one of the corner tables diagonal from where she was sitting. The waitress hurried to see if they wanted anything.
Melody glanced their way but gave them little more attention as her eyes shifted to watch the bartender moving back and forth behind the counter, preparing drinks for the only two people who sat at the bar. The man glanced at his watch and then to the door. He did this several times and when it seemed whatever he was expecting wasn't going to happen, he sighed and turned to his customers.
One of them got up from their stool and tossed money on the counter. Before exiting the building, he gave a small wave to the man behind the counter. As the man passed through the door to leave, a younger man jostled his way in.
"Sorry I'm late, Sal. Traffic was a bitch," the young man said with a grin to show he was joking.
A clear lie told in a certain manner made it acceptable. A joke. To be funny. Sarcastic. Sardonic. Melody told herself she should spend more time reading the small dictionary she carried with her. There was so much that didn't make sense to her.
The older bartender did not seem the least bit amused. "Traffic? In this town? Don't even try this funny business. I got a wife and kids to get home to, Scott. The least you can do is show up for work on time every night."
Sal was his name? Come to think of it, the electronic sign above the door read: Sal's bar. The older bartender with the graying brown hair must also be the owner. It wasn't the most amazing thing in the world, but to her it came close. She didn't have much. Why not be entertained by these two interacting with each other?
She was to be disappointed. The employee, Scott, removed his jacket and went behind the counter to get to work while Sal put on his jacket. After fixing his employee with a firm glare, he headed out of the building to go home.
Melody looked at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes past ten o'clock. She didn't know whether she wanted to go back to Eva's apartment or remain in the bar for a while longer. She knew they wouldn't be home until tomorrow so there was no reason to rush back. Even if they were there, what would the reason be for going? She didn't know them well and it would be more social awkwardness on her part.
She was a master at awkward. Melody didn't know how to act most of the time so she smiled when she knew it was appropriate and kept silent and expressionless otherwise. It was a method that proved successful thus far.
One of the men who'd come in minutes after her was staring. She self-consciously adjusted her sunglasses, paranoid her eyes were glowing right through the lenses. She wasn't emotional right now. Completely flat temperament. Honest.
Her fingers released the dictionary tucked away securely in her clothes. She regarded him and the man he sat with in curiosity. They both wore jeans and dark jackets and one of them had a red baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. When he saw she noticed his stare, the man looked away and started talking in a low voice to his friend wearing the hat.
Shrugging it off, she scanned the rest of the room. There was the bartender, Scott, the old rugged-looking man seated at the bar, the two men in the corner, and the waitress. Not much of an interesting group at the bar this time. Melody didn't let it bother her. An uneventful evening could be nice. Sometimes when there wasn't any excitement at all, those were nice times.
Satisfied with this line of thinking, she made up her mind to go to Eva's apartment, but then she saw both men at the corner table were staring her way. She frowned, wondering if they were observing people like she was. They unsettled her.
What is their problem? Don't they have anything better to do?
Now that they were spotted, they shifted their gazes away from her to one another. It began to feel as though her stomach was tying itself into knots. There was something not right about these men. She swallowed hard and decided it was definitely time to go.
Melody got up from the table and started walking across the room to the exit. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the men standing too, and one of them walked quickly toward her. His hand was in his pocket.
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face the man in the cap approaching her and that's when she saw it. He pulled a syringe from his pocket, trying to conceal it in his hand and continued forward. They wanted to keep her from leaving. They wanted to take her freedom.
Melody was panicking and she lifted a hand to him, palm out. The man's air supply immediately cut off and he gasped in surprised pain, stumbling back. His friend was running toward Melody now with a syringe in hand, and she lost it. Crying out with fury, she screamed for them to stay away.
The man choking in front of her tried to get the air back in his lungs by slapping her face. The sunglasses fell off and she clenched her fists by her sides, eyes glowing. Cold hatred for the men trying to inject her with whatever was in those syringes washed through her. She knew who sent these men. Umbrella found her.
She didn't know if they wanted to kill or capture her. Remembering the horrible experiments, she could feel nothing but hate. Her eyes were a brilliant blue hue and she enjoyed watching her two attackers drop to their hands and knees as they lost the strength to stand. Melody watched their faces turn from red to a sickly purple as they suffocated. One after the other they dropped onto their backs.
Only when the men surrendered to their untimely demises and were dead on the ground, did she begin to relax. Taking deep breaths, she regained her calm and bent down to retrieve the sunglasses. She placed them back on and straightened, beginning to sense something was terribly wrong. Melody felt as though she was totally alone.
She glanced in the direction of the bar and her heart skipped a beat. The customer who was drinking at the bar was slumped over the counter. The young bartender had disappeared. Searching the rest of the area, she discovered the waitress was nowhere to be seen either. Had they run out when she was killing those two men?
Melody approached the man on the stool and tapped him on the shoulder. She needed confirmation he was okay.
"Sir? Are you okay? Is your well-being adequate?"
The man didn't move and she tapped him harder. It caused him to slide from the stool. He slipped to the floor and fell on his side. His eyes were opened in slits and she checked to determine life like Richard taught her. He wasn't breathing.
Oh no... What have I done?
She didn't want to see what was there so she took her time leaning over the counter. Bartender Scott was sprawled on his back on the floor, eyes staring wide at the ceiling. It gave the impression he couldn't believe what was happening to him. A few yards away, slightly behind the counter, the waitress was on her stomach. The tray had fallen from her hands and lay just out of her reach. Her head was turned sideways, revealing her disbelieving eyes. They seemed frozen in eternal confusion, not understanding what happened to her or why.
Melody backed away from the bodies, horrified at what she had done. They were all dead. Three innocent human beings killed with the two Umbrella men. Bitter sadness filled her.
Their only crime was being in the same room as me.
Three people dead because of her. She didn't belong in this world. She wanted to live like a normal person in this beautiful world more than anything. But Richard was right. She wasn't normal and she didn't belong among normal humans. Her rightful place was in a lab where it was safe.
No! I'll never go back to that horrible lab. I hate it there. The experiments, the poor, unwilling victims of tests... It was wrong. She wanted to find what was right with Eva. I can't leave, I can't.
She blocked out the accusing eyes of the innocent dead. Melody hurried from the bar. On her way down the street she nearly plowed through an elderly couple. The woman looked at her with contempt.
"Hmph. Kids these days."
The woman began to complain loudly as she kept moving past.
"Think they can just run around and do whatever they want. Well I'll tell you, Edward, the world isn't what it used to be."
"Yes I know, Beth. You're always telling me," the man with her muttered, disinterested.
Melody didn't have time to enjoy their conversation. She had three particular dead bodies on her mind she couldn't shake. Eva wasn't normal. She would help Eva's future. She would dream and find answers. They'd let her stay. She could be human. She could do it right.
She had to do better. She ran for the place that could feel safe. Eva's apartment. It was the only place here she knew.