Biohazard: Resident Evil VII

Chapter Twenty One: The Greenhouse

There was a flash of lightning across the sky, and the rain started coming down even harder, before the incredibly loud crash of thunder that followed as Ethan made his way back toward the greenhouse. The weather in Louisiana was so much different than it was back in Texas; they had rain there, but not as often as in this place, nor was it ever as heavy or last nearly as long. As far as he could tell, it had been raining since right after he and Zoe had gone to sleep, and it was still going strong several hours later.

He could see plenty of holes in the greenhouse roof as well, meaning that there was probably going to be just as much water pouring down inside as there was coming into the old house… but at least the water had helped protect him against the insects that Marguerite had been puking up. Hell, the rain had probably saved his life, since it had also seemed to deter the creatures that he had seen moving around in that nest thing as well.

Almost nothing was left of the mud trail that he had been following before, as he reached the building, with a small exception of some drag-marks under the awning that hung above the first door that he saw. It was a pretty safe bet that the cackling woman had gone that way, so he tried the door, and the knob turned. Ethan hadn't expected it to be unlocked, meaning that he could go after Marguerite right away... but it also meant that she could be in there waiting for him to rush right in.

Maybe there was another way to get inside, and then he could sneak up on her, so he started walking around the building, eventually coming across an exterior staircase. It was covered by a trellis that was overgrown with jasmine, so there was only a little water dripping down through to the faded wooden stairs, and it gave Ethan a much needed break from the falling rain. Making his way to the top as quietly as he could, another door was found, and it too was unlocked, allowing access to the upper floor of the greenhouse when opened.

Ethan had been right, there was just as much water, if not more, pouring in from the broken roof than there was in the old house, but it did help to cover the sound of his movements while he crept across the wooden floor. From what he could see, the upper level of the greenhouse was mostly empty, aside from a couple of what could be tool cabinets scattered around. This whole area seemed to be a platform that had probably been used for maintenance access for the sprinklers that ran above the first floor, being that there were so many openings that allowed him to see both the sprinklers and the overgrown plants below.

However, what he didn't see was Marguerite, or that lantern that she had been carrying around, meaning that he would have to venture down to the first floor. Finding the staircase against the wall was easy, and fortunate, since Ethan didn't want to have to try jumping down, but now he was getting a lot more nervous. Whereas the second floor had been a single, open platform, from the top of the stairs he could see that the first floor was a lot more complicated, containing multiple rooms, and plants that were far more overgrown than the grass outside.

So, readying the shotgun and keeping it aimed toward the bottom of the stairs, Ethan started moving down as quietly as he could, but he had only gone a couple steps when he felt something clamp down around his ankle. Crying out in surprise as he fell on his face, he nearly dropped the shotgun, but it was a good thing that he didn't; turning over to see what had gotten his ankle, only to gasp as he saw that it was a hand.

"Welcome to my garden, Ethan!" Marguerite yelled as she started pulling him back up the stairs. "Hope you like it, cause' you're gonna get buried here, you son of a bitch!"

Her arm seemed longer than it had been before, and it took Ethan a second to realize that the reason he could only see part of her was because she was leaning out from inside the wall. Somehow, the cackling woman had managed to squeeze herself into the space between the interior and exterior walls, but he had no intention of joining her in there, so he swung the shotgun around so that the barrel was pointed right into her face, and pulled the trigger.

The grip on his ankle was released as the shell tore into her face with a loud bang, making Marguerite cry out as she fell back down into the wall… and making Ethan cry out the same time as he tumbled down the stairs. Rolling to a stop on the floor below, he could hear the cackling woman scratching and crawling her way through the walls while he pulled himself to his feet, and then Ethan cocked the shotgun.

"We don't have to do this, Marguerite!" He called, trying to follow her movements from the sound. "I just want your lantern, okay? Give me that, and I'll leave you and the rest of your family alone… all I want is to leave with Mia and Zoe, but I don't want to fight with you!"

"Oh, you're such a fuckin' boy scout, ain't you, Ethan!" Her voice called from somewhere different than where he thought she was. "This here lantern is mine, you little bastard, and you ain't takin' two of my daughters from me, neither! Here, catch!"

Ethan wasn't sure what she meant by that last part as he entered a larger room with more plants, but then he turned to the left just in time to be struck in the shoulder by a flying metal bucket. The object itself wasn't that big or heavy, but the surprise was enough to make him fall against the nearest wall, and then he saw the cackling woman on the other side of the room, laughing as she picked up a large bag of what looked like fertilizer over her head with one hand, while still carrying the lantern with the other.

This time he had to jump out of the way to avoid it, and it was a good thing he did, since the bag was heavy enough to put a new hole all the way through the nearby wall into the next room. Marguerite continued to laugh as she tossed everything at him that she could get her hands on, big and small, forcing him to duck down behind a shelf after crying out in pain when a brick struck him in the thigh.

"Aw, did that hurt, city-boy?!" She yelled, walking over to pick up her next object. "Well, here, mama's gonna make it all better… catch this, you fuckin' prick!"

The next thing she picked up was a large yellow container that sloshed around as she lifted it over her head, as if it were full of water. Of course, by this time Ethan was getting tired of having things tossed at him, so he took a risk by leaning out and firing the shotgun at her just as she tossed it. The shell struck the container just before it would have left her hands, and it must've contained something flammable, because it burst into a kind of fiery rain that made Marguerite scream as if splashed onto her.

The flames quickly spread across her whole body, with the cackling woman continuing to scream as her hair and clothes were burned away, revealing something about her that was so disturbing that it stopped Ethan in the middle of reloading the two shells that he had fired, once he saw it. Now that Marguerite's clothes were gone, he was able to see that her entire torso had… somehow mutated into a discolored mass… and when he saw that there were insects… hundreds of burning insects falling out of the mass's many holes… he realized that her body had literally become just like the nest he had seen in the old house.

The flames also seemed to be weakening her, slowing Marguerite's moving speed, and making her less coordinated as she started walking again… but when Ethan saw that she was headed toward the nearest stream of water that was leaking in from the roof, he knew that he had to act fast if he was to survive. So he cocked the shotgun and fired a shell into her burning stomach, making her stumble backwards while he ran past, and then he picked up another of the yellow containers that he could now see were clearly marked: Kerosene.

Tossing the container against her legs, and then shooting it, the cackling woman screamed again as she was engulfed with even more fire, and now that there were no more insects falling out of her, her skin was starting to melt and char. The next time that Ethan shot her, this time in the chest, Marguerite stumbled back into the wall, before falling to her hands and knees, and he was about to shoot her again, when something strange began to happen. The flames on her body were going out, and her skin was starting to turn… white?

"Ethan." She said, struggling to look up at him while the whiteness continued spreading. "Ethan, we ain't… we ain't killers… we was good folk… good family… please, save my children from Eveline… and you take good care of my Zoe… she needs… she deserves… a good man… a good man like… you."

By this time the whiteness had spread all across her body, and the final words Marguerite spoke were more like a forced whisper just before it covered her face as well. Then the no longer cackling woman was still… and she began to… crumble? It was a strange thing to see; large cracks forming all throughout her body, and then her collapsing down into a hundred tiny pieces as if the strange whiteness had completely changed her into… whatever the brittle substance was that he was now looking at.

This time there had been no feeling of relief like Ethan had experienced after cutting Jack in half in the slaughterhouse, probably since poor Marguerite seemed to have regained her senses just before the end. So was that what Eveline did to them? Was that little girl somehow working them like puppets, and… were they aware? What a nightmare that must've been if it were true, being completely aware of your actions, but helpless to stop them… and just what the hell was Eveline, anyway? Somehow he doubted that the little girl would explain herself, and the only other person that would possibly really know anything was Mia.

His mind screamed for answers as he picked up Marguerite's fallen lantern, and as much as he wanted to convince himself that his wife had nothing to do with what happened to these poor people… there was too much evidence otherwise. Had Mia's so called babysitting job actually involved Eveline like Zoe had suggested? And if so… then what in the literal fuck had she been thinking?

The only way he was going to get any real answers was to find the case that Zoe had described to him, and then hopefully it would provide a way for them to escape. Mia had a lot of questions to answer as well, and as Ethan left the greenhouse, he just hoped that her role in… whatever had actually happened to cause all this, wasn't too damning.