Village: Resident Evil VIII

Chapter Fifty Nine: Wake Up

"Ethan?" A soft voice whispered. "Eeeeeethan?"

His own cough was the first sound that the outsider was aware of, seeming to almost startle himself awake, but regretting it as soon as his other senses started to become aware. There was pain at first, an intense dull throb that pulsed through Ethan's whole body a couple times like an empty, booming heartbeat, and then came the cold. The sensation was kind of like when someone sleeps on their arm wrong for the whole night and wakes up with that almost paralyzing pins and needles feeling, but the feeling engulfed every inch of the outsider's body and the tingling part was more like being stabbed with little tiny icicles.

Struggling to open his eyes, everything was a blur until blinking several times, and even then Ethan wasn't sure where he was. The last thing he remembered was a confrontation with Miranda, but the brunette was gone, as was the ruined factory and what was left of the village, leaving an unfamiliar frozen landscape that actually had a kind of yellowish hue. Snow was falling, and a light wind made him shiver, bringing in his arms to hug himself, but then having to stop. Something was different, his hand… his hand that had lost two fingers during that first encounter with the Lycans, it… the fingers were back like they had never been lost.

"Poor sleepy Ethan." That same voice whispered, seemingly from nowhere. "Maybe he was right… city boys just aren't used to a hard day's work."

"H… hello?" Ethan called as he struggled up to his hands and knees, his voice scratchy and weak. "Is… is someone there?"

His ears were still ringing a little, but the laughter that followed his question was clear as day, high pitched and shrill like a little girl who was overly excited by something, but… there was no one in sight. Legs shaking as he tried to stand up, the outsider took a step forward, and then another, each one feeling like his legs weighed a hundred pounds. God, why did he feel this way? Why was it so hard to move and… and where the hell was he? Stumbling and falling to his knees, the outsider tried to catch himself with his hands, allowing Ethan to see his own reflection in the small stream of water that just happened to be flowing there.

"My heart!" He coughed, looking at the now closed up wound on his chest. "Miranda, she… she… am I… did Miranda kill me? Am I dead?"

"Don't be silly, of course you're dead." That voice said again, this time coming from right in front of him. "But Miranda didn't do it, Ethan… you've been dead for a long time now. Don't tell me you forgot."

Forgot? All this pain made it hard for the outsider to lift his head to see who was talking to him, and then he had to blink a few more times to make sure he was really seeing this. Starting with black boots that were just a little too big for her, exposed knees, gray shot sleeve dress, and finally the wavy black hair that surrounded her deceivingly cute face… it was Eveline… Eveline Baker was right there standing over him. Suddenly the whole world flashed with a bright light, and then Ethan was somewhere else, a damp and dusty wooden room where he felt the heavy crack of a fist ramming into his mouth. Louisiana! He was back in Dulvey, landing on the floor of the Baker's guest house, where… where the heavily wounded Mia was laying on the floor next to him… just before Jack Baker raised his foot do stomp the outsider's face.

"I watched Jack kill you, but I didn't want you to go." Eveline explained as the white flash brought him back to the frozen land. "I knew you would be a great daddy, Ethan, so I brought you back, but I wanted you to love me on your own… looking back that was probably a bad idea, wasn't it?"

What she was saying was a little hard to process, but it couldn't be true… could it? No, the outsider wasn't some mold monster, and he certainly wasn't a lunatic like Jack Baker, but… ugh, his right arm was tingling painfully again. Getting all the way up to his knees and bringing in his arm to clutch it, Ethan gasped when he saw that his skin was turning black, cracking and splitting with each move, but then reforming just like any time that Jack was injured. Eveline laughed again, grabbing the outsider's hand tightly, and causing him to groan as his skin turned back to normal.

"Gosh, you're dumb, you know that?" The little girl said, squeezing his hand harder so that it hurt. "You never wondered about it at all? Never thought it was strange how you could always just bounce back no matter how bad you got hurt? You really believed you were just a normal person this whole time? For real?"

Now Ethan didn't know what to say, and the more he thought about what she was saying, the more sense it made. She was laughing again, skipping around him in a circle while doing a little sing-song about how dead he was, but honestly the outsider was too much shock to really pay attention to the words. But if what she was singing about was really true, like for real this time, how was he still conscious? No, even if the outsider's body was just a pile of E-Series mold, he still had to save Rose. He couldn't let Miranda have his daughter, he had to save her, and now Ethan was getting the feeling that maybe this was still possible. I mean, if Eveline was still there speaking to him, could he still come back like before?

"You can still go back, Ethan, but this is the last time." The little girl explained as she stopped skipping. "There's only so much of me inside you, just like everyone in my family, and now it's all used up. Goodbye, Ethan… I'll always remember you."

Suddenly everything was gone, the frozen landscape, Eveline, everything, replaced by darkness and the sensation of something slowly rumbling. The ground was hard, but at least it wasn't as cold anymore. There was light, too, the soft dim glow of a lantern, casting shadows as it slowly swayed back and forth in the… wait, where the hell was he now? The room was rumbling, vibrating underneath him as if it were moving, the enclosed walls were made of old wood, and there was a strange crest on the floor, like an owl wearing a crown or something, and…

"Well, good morning, Ethan." A familiar voice said cheerfully. "Did you sleep all right? Sounded like you were having a pretty bad nightmare."

"Nightmare?" Ethan asked, groaning as he sat up. "Where are…

Oh, this must be the back of the big man's wagon, realizing it just before Duke said so from where he was driving in front, and then the big man went on to comment that the fight against Heisenberg was truly a sight to behold. He had figured that Miranda would show herself eventually, but now Duke laughed when he exclaimed that he never would have guessed in a million years that the lord of the whole village would be in love with him… but it turns out that one of the most powerful women in the world still had a heart after all.

"Just between you and me, she's a pretty tempting prospect, huh?" The big man continued. "You could be with Miranda one night, Zoe the next, or Bela… hell, if you wanted the Weather Girl from Channel 29, she probably could've made that happen."

Even Ethan had to laugh a little at how ridiculous his affair with Miranda had been, and this was nice because it took his mind off the pain that wasn't subsiding very fast at all. He had been with her twice as Bela Dimitrescu, and God knows how many times as Zoe, and… yeah, the only version of the brunette that the outsider hadn't had sex with was herself… and that was probably a good thing. The pain was lessoning to the point where he could move around better, getting into a sitting position, and then remembering that Miranda still needed to be dealt with.

"Duke, I need a favor." He said, taking a deep breath. "I need you to take me to Miranda… I gotta save Rose."

"Somehow I figured as much, and we are already on the way." The big man replied. "You're sure, though? Chris and Tobias are after her, too, and I'll be honest, you don't look so good. This might be your last chance to leave the village and go back to your world."

Tobias was still alive? God, was he made of Eveline's mold, too? Both of them were capable, and now that the outsider knew the whole story, he knew that Chris would never let anything happen to Rose, but… but could they really destroy Miranda completely? No, Ethan had to finish this, he had to make sure that the brunette was never able to threaten his daughter again, just… he wasn't quite sure how to do that. Miranda had been shot about a million times, and her shape changing ability probably gave her a lot more power than she showed so far.

"I'm gonna need a borrow a weapon." Ethan answered, leaning against the wagon's wall. "But Duke, I just gotta ask… how did you get involved in all this? Who… what are you?"

"I'm just a salesman, my friend, just a salesman." The big man chuckled. "I specialize in exactly what you need at the time, and right now you need to choose from the wall in front of you. Anything you want, Ethan… on the house."

A literal wall of weapons was in front of him, and it was tempting to just grab all of them, but then how would the outsider be able to fight while trying to carry all that? No, he needed to be practical; a heavy weapon, a smaller one in case the big one didn't work, and Miranda liked to get in close to her victims, so this called for something special. The biggest one was simple, a rifle like the one Chris carried, as well as a large caliber handgun just in case. What else then, a knife? A machete? Or maybe… oh yes, that little item on the bottom shelf was exactly what was needed.

"Good choice." Duke commented as the back of the wagon was filled with crackling blue light when the baton extended. "The repair job on Tobias's was supposed to be a custom order, but I know a hot item when I see it."

"Thanks, Duke, I owe you one." The outsider replied, collapsing the weapon and then leaning on the wall. "I'm gonna rest for a minute, so just… let me know when we get there."