July 11, 1967 (4:20 PM).
The day was moving rather swiftly if you asked me. The past few hours were spent meeting new faces, coming to terms with the fact that:
A. I was in an Umbrella facility (or above one technically) better known as the Spencer Mansion, which was just a bit away from the famous Raccoon City that would later be destroyed by a missile.
B. I was meeting actual scientists that helped to create the future deadly virus' of the game series and they all seemed rather friendly and polite instead of how I thought them to be. In the game they were portrayed as greedy, self-serving and cold-hearted. Some even went as far as to be plainly pathetic and rude. These people begged to differ as they were none of these things.
C. I had an aunt and uncle-in-law I wasn't aware of who just so happen to be the parents of Albert Wesker, the later cold and very cynical man who destroyed lives and hated Chris Redfield with an eerie passion, a.k.a. my first cousin according to the family tree.
D. George Trevor is actually shorter than I had expected.
E. I was about to meet the two other founders of Umbrella while Spencer was off doing 'work'.
Go figure.
I exhaled slowly as I walked down a narrow but elaborate hallway with Mark at my side. I was about to meet Edward Ashford and two women I didn't recognize the names of.
He turned and I paused, watching as he skillfully opened the door and entered into a beautiful looking study room. It looked more like a library to me, but I keep quiet. Inside was the man I really wanted to meet. Edward.
He was tall, clad in a simple navy blue suit with light skin from what I could see, dark brown hair waving around his neck. When he turned to face us with a greeting his green eyes shone brightly.
"Hello, Mark." His words sounded neutral and emotionless.
"Edward." Dad replied curtly. "I would like you to meet my daughter, Saria. This is Sir Edward Ashford, a founder of Umbrella." When he said this I suddenly felt the man's gaze bore into me, as if searching for something.
"Ahhh.. so this is the prodigy daughter you kept mentioning. Science, was it? Are you aspiring to be perhaps a scientist one day, hm?" His tone was mocking but only I noticed this. I had a sudden sense of deja vu, as if I had talked with this man before. I couldn't shake that feeling as I shrugged.
"It's only fun when it comes to certain aspects of it, such as blowing things up." I answered, my own tone sarcastic.
Yes, I was drawn to science. So what? I had no interest in being a scientist or even developing this interest any further. Bio-engineering, virology, biochemistry and all that would be the farthest things from my mind. I wanted to be a painter and artist or perhaps a designer? I recalled the scenery from days before when I had been leisurely sitting beneath a tree, eating cookies and reading, only for my brother to bother me. This train of thought caused my heart to ache.
That evening felt so far away but it had been just three days before. Time seemed to pass so quickly and yet so slowly.
"Amusing." The man mumbled before directing his attention to my father. "Oh, Mark. I forgot to mention. She'll have to meet Marcus when he wakes up."
"Another all nighter?" Mark tilted his head.
Edward chuckled. "More like three days."
"I told him he needs to sleep. He works far too hard." Dad made several 'tsk' sounds.
While the two talked I looked around the room. Bookshelves lined the walls and stuck out in rows. I heard footsteps and noticed a form moving toward us. I remembered dad mentioning two females that he wanted me to meet.
The form was shorter than Ashford, but stunning in her features- yes, it was a woman. Her long medium brown hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, sharp forest orbs flickering about before landing on me. She arched a single slim brow before moving to stand beside the founder.
"This is Francis Trevor, first cousin of George." Dad said when him and Edward had stopped talking. "Francis, this is my daughter Saria."
The woman, Francis, extended a hand to me and so I shook it, both of us smiling to the other.
"I've heard quite a lot about you, miss." She said and I took note of her outfit. By her lab coat she must have been a scientist and yet she wore monotone colors such as a black shirt, matching heels and a white skirt.
"Nice to meet you." I said politely. "You're a scientist?" I blurted and she chuckled.
"A researcher, more or less."
"Where is miss Speyer?" Edward asked, not even looking to the woman.
"Sir, she's with uh.." She paused. Edward turned his head to look at her, urging her on. "Selby.."
Edward visibly twitched before he sighed, rubbing at his temple for a moment.
"Oh god. I hope she's ok." Dad said and shook his head.
I tilted my head. "Selby?"
Mark furrowed his brows and frowned. "Selby is our.. how to put it.. inventive disaster Resident nut? There are many words to describe her erratic behavior."
Sounds to me like a fruit-case. I chuckled. I, on one hand, loved nutty people. They were fun. On the other hand they were highly dangerous and unpredictable.
"Let's go meet her!" I said in a sing-song voice before laughing.
Dad immediately shook his head, waving his hands. "N-no!"
"Go on, take her. I have work to do, anyway. Miss Francis is required in the labs." Edward said with a small smile.
Dad sighed. "Fine, fine! I'll take you.." He turned, gesturing for me to follow him. I did. We left the study/library and headed down the hallway to a closed door that led to another wing of the building.
We entered and thus made our way through this wing until dad froze in the middle of the hallway. I paused beside him and heard a loud crash that was followed by crazy laughter. Dad flinched.
"Whatever you do, Saria, stay away from Selby. She is trouble-" I ignored what he was saying. Sometimes I should but I just couldn't. Selby sounded like an interesting person. This thought allowed me to push open the door and step into the bright light of a bedroom.
Instantly I noticed the shattered vase on the ground and.. two people fencing? What? I blinked as they stalk around in a circle, facing each other. One paused, standing up fluidly to glance to us. The other, which was crouched, dashed forth and shifted the weapon up to lay the bladed end beside the standing person's neck.
"Got ya."
The standing one sighed while the other stood. The loser removed her helmet and let free her brunette hair. "We both know that wasn't fair." She scowled, light brown eyes glaring to the other who was stripping of the fencing clothes.
I studied the one who had lost and glanced to dad. He looked like a nervous wreck, but his eyes were locked on the victor.
"Selby, Lucy." He said, gaining their attention.
"Oh. Hey Mark." The loser said, removing her white clothes to reveal her normal grey sweatpants and a matching tank top. She snatched something white from the desk beside her and put it on, buttoning the lab coat to about her waist. She stepped toward us to hug me, which I found awkward since most did nothing or shook my hand. "You must be Alexandria?" She asked, smiling.
"Saria." I corrected.
"Oh, sorry." Was this polite one Selby? I doubted this. She seemed far from 'erratic'.
The other person, a woman by the way, seemed to be lively indeed if this was Selby. She held these beautiful yet hooded gray eyes that blinked between even lengths of straight black hair on either side of her face that stretched down to below her shoulders, but they rested on the front side. The top part, or the part on the very edge, was braided and swept down the first few strands of hair. She was a bit taller than the other woman, her body curvy in all the right places, with tan skin. Her face held a few freckles and a scar that stretched from above the center of her right eyebrow down across the eye to the center of her cheek. It looked relatively old. She wore a plain grey tank top with white sweatpants.
"Eh? Who're you?" I noticed her slight British accent and so I smiled in comfort. I was secretly fond of the accent.
"Saria Wesker. Mark's my father." I replied.
The woman looked from me to dad several times before settling on the vase at the floor, crouching to pick up the pieces.
"Uhh.." I whispered to myself at her seemingly cold behavior towards me. "And you are?" I asked aloud.
She was silent while she picked up the pieces and then finally stood once she had them all in her hands. She turned and brushed the pieces into the trash bin before glaring at me with a malicious glint. She smiled, but it was dark. "Selby. Selby Ashford."
I bristled. Another Ashford I knew nothing of?
What next?
