Author's Note: Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? It took me forever to finish this story, so for the people that enjoyed it, I'm sorry I took so long. So, just for you guys, I've decided to just finish the last two chapters and post it all together as one big beast of a story. I've also reworked any inconsistencies that might have plagued the earlier run, so hopefully I got them all. Heh heh, this is my first venture into fanfiction, so let me know what you think. Anyway, happy reading, and feel free to post any comments on the reviews page, or email me at itsthatoneguy@excite.com and I'd be way grateful! Okay, well, enough of my rambling. Enjoy.

-Chandler.

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Familiar Hauntings

Chapter One

"I can't believe this," Lori removed her wire frame glasses and cried bitter sobs, as she finally allowed her emotions to overtake her. Devon put his hand on her heaving shoulders, in an attempt to comfort her, as well as silence the screaming feelings inside is own heart.

"But there's really nothing we can do about our situation, guys. Just stick together." Bethani stared at her hands resting on the table. Her eyebrows raised slightly, and she swallowed hard, summoning more courage from the quickly depleting reservoir from within.

"No one will even tell us what's going on!" Eric finally yelled from somewhere behind his disturbed expression. He threw his arms about wildly in a fit of frustration, his eyebrows twitching slightly over his intensive, fearful eyes.

"I'll tell you what's going on, comrade," Bobbye pulled back her long blonde hair into a ponytail and fitted it with a scrunchie before continuing. "We're being quarantined."

"But why?" Bethani asked quietly.

"Something's really wrong here," Demi said quietly, her hands fidgeting with a napkin on the table. "I'm starting to wish I hadn't come down here for school."

Claire Redfield remained silent as she continued to brood inside.

The seven friends sat in the university cafeteria, quietly expressing their dispositions to the newly formed crisis at hand. They had trays of food, however none of them were eating, it was more of a distraction to keep them from going insane with worry. Their table was not unlike many others in the café. In fact, frenzied yelling and crying could be heard everywhere, all around them. "I know that a cafeteria is expected to be loud," Devon thought with a troubled mind, "but this is just…disturbing." Devon was a somewhat muscular young man at the age of twenty, and was a junior in his college. He wore a dark blue short-sleeve sweater with a white shirt underneath. His fingers were occupied at the moment with his short brown hair, and they rested on the top of his head, with his forehead resting on the meat of his palms. His hazel eyes looked at his tray, or rather through it, as he was lost in his thoughts.

His eyes turned to Lori, a longhaired brunette who happened to be his best friend. Her crying was still racking her thin frame, and through her red eyes was an expression of total despair. It unsettled Devon to see her like that. She thumbed her red leather coat absently as she cried.

"I say we find out what's going on here, at least," Bobbye said, "I'm sure those guys in white know what's going on, since they're the ones that put all this together." Bobbye was a quite muscular young lady, and she was involved in many sports at the college. She was also very intelligent, however, she still managed to round out her features by being quite attractive, as well. Her eyes looked to each person at the table for approval.

"I don't care." Demi finally said, "I just want out. I want to get out of here." The petite freshman had come to the Arden Springs University in central Texas because of its incredible biology program, which was one of the best in the nation. That, and also because of one of her closest friends, Devon. Her beautiful mid-neck length hair was dyed to an unnatural dark reddish-brown. It was a quite exotic look seemed to demand attention from anyone around her. Her normally sparkling green eyes had been clouded over with worry and exhaustion. "It's been like this here for three days, and no answers. The dean keeps telling us that they're coming…" Demi trailed back into her own deep mind.

"…But he only tells us it's safety precautions." Eric finally finished. He was a small-statured guy with curly brown hair, with blond highlights at the tips. He wore a plaid blue overshirt, with a black undershirt beneath. His brow furrowed at his response, before lightening with his next thought. "But you know, maybe it's not that big of a deal."

"Please!" Bethani scolded. The cheerleader glared at Eric with piercing brown eyes. She was quite beautiful with her wavy brown hair and slender figure, if a little stuck on herself. She and Devon had shared a couple of classes together their freshman year, and had been friends since, even if it was a rather odd friendship that mainly consisted of batting sarcasm at one another, with no room for much of other matters…until now. She tugged at the bottom of her orange American Eagle shirt. Her next sentence was quieter, more composed. "We would be able to leave the school if it wasn't 'that big of a deal.' Military's here, media's here, it's bad, whatever it is." Beth looked over at Claire, who was staring down at her red leather biker's jacket, fingering the torn edges of the shoulder seams absently. "Claire, you okay?"

"Yeah." It was a simple response from the only student in the school that had a good idea at what was happening, or at least about to happen. She had endured more pain and hardship than most other people could even imagine, and her heart was tearing apart inside to know that it might be starting all over again. She had wanted to tell her new friends about the other life she had before college, before normality was a possibility. She had been involved in the Raccoon City incident that all of them knew about, but none of them, like the rest of the civilian public, had details on. She had wanted to tell them that she had fought through hordes of undead to uncover Umbrella and destroy them, but it almost seemed to be more trouble than it was worth to unearth that pain. If they knew what she knew, then hope for them would become something of the past. She cared for them, and didn't want them to go through that gut-wrenching pain she had to live through. "If the time comes," she thought, "if I have to, I'll tell them." She was now a somewhat silent person, constantly battling the ghosts of her memories. They never left her alone, no matter how hard she would try to deny the fact that they were not a part of her. She would try to push them away, but in the back of her mind, she knew the state Umbrella worked under, and she knew it wasn't over. Would it ever be over? "Why can't I just be a normal teenager?" she thought to herself.

"Yes," the sophomore repeated to Bethani, "I'm fine."

"Okay…" Beth dropped the subject, unconvinced.

There was a long silence at the table. None of them were really in the mood for talking.

"I'm not eating this food." Demi finally said. "Look at it, it's gross."

"I'm not either," Devon said, pushing away his tray, until it bumped Demi's across the table. She glanced up at him for it, but when she saw that his action was devoid of intention, she looked away, and said nothing.

"It's eight o'clock." Eric said after another long silence. "I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight. The past three days have been…" He didn't finish, but he didn't have to. Everyone understood. "…And we still have classes tomorrow, for some reason." He opened his mouth to say something else, but his eyes told his friends what he was feeling. He looked away, and stood up from the table, and walked his tray to the conveyor belt before hitting the door open out of frustration. The crew waited until he had rounded the corner before returning to their attempt of conversation.

"I think I'm going to follow suit and try and get some sleep." Claire said, putting her drink on her tray of uneaten food. She smiled weakly at her friends. "I have food that tastes way better than this in the dorm." Seeing the glum faces of her remaining friends, she added an encouragement. "Hey, I'm sure all this will blow over in a couple of days. We just have to hang in there, okay?" She lied. She hated lying to her friends. Besides, positive thinking wasn't something associated with her a lot anymore. She gave another awkward smile before leaving the café.

The remaining four sat there, silent, each waiting for someone else to speak.

"Do you guys want to go and walk somewhere? Devon eventually asked the remaining girls.

"No comrade, I'm going to go jog, then I'm going back for tonight." Bobbye flipped her hair onto her other shoulder, and stood up, putting her backpack on her shoulders.

"I'll go," Demi said.

"Me too," Lori followed.

They all walked over to the doors, and Devon turned to look back at the still-crowded café. All his other friends were still eating, the mask of depression heavy upon their faces. They seemed tired, pale. Devon wondered if that's how he looked to everyone as well. He frowned, and walked out the doors.

****

Jim Bowman dialed the number again, but to no avail. "Damn you, Devon!" he cursed as the operator's message clicked on the receiver, informing him that the line was no longer in service. He knew it wasn't Devon's fault, but he felt the need to blame someone, and Devon was the first person that came to mind. He hung up the phone, and stared at it, silent, only to pick it up and dialing Devon's number one more time. He waited before sighing in frustration and slamming the phone down. He looked around his dorm room lost in thought, and decided that now would probably be a good time to leave. Bowman just hoped he wasn't too late already. Arden Springs, Texas was a long way from Fort Collins, Colorado, but this was important. He knew that the trip down there wouldn't be in vain, but he hoped that Devon would still be alive as well. He grabbed his truck keys off the hook, and bolted out the door.

"If you're dead, I'll kill you Devon."