Author's Note: Chappy two
Summary: Whilsy Leon and Sherry suffer from Side Effects, Chris and Claire pay the Price.
Rating: T
Paranoia
Chapter Two: Price
By: Mazzie May
Claire checked, double checked and triple checked the door locks. All seven of them. She turned away from them and began to quietly make her way down the hall, before pausing and biting her lip nervously. She brought her hand up to her mouth and switched to nibbling on her thumbnail.
A brief pause of indecision…
A moment of hesitation…
Before turning and around and checking the locks for a fourth time. She simply couldn't help herself. But she was learning to. She was training herself to trust the world around her. Why, even last night, she'd left the bottom lock undone and sat in the living room for a whole hour trying to watch TV before half jogging to the door and finish up the last lock.
Chris was worse, though. He'd wanted ten locks and a reinforced door and walls. Claire had managed to talk him out of that, but it had been no easy task and a journey of many moons.
She sighed, letting herself drop into a chair in the kitchen. Why did they do this to themselves? Stay up hours later than they say their going to, watching the doors and windows? It'd been five years since everything. Why weren't the wounds healed, yet? Her fears had begun to scab over last year, but just hardly. Chris was still bleeding.
And why bother with so many door locks? She looked around her carefully at the white paint. Both of them had had more scares with walls-
Mr. X breaking through the wall into the conference room-
- being broken in front of them –
Exploding concrete revealing an ugly, sexless thing, a pulsation heart protruding out of it's sick gray chest, blocking the path to the plane –She shuddered, pushing the memory from mind. Claire was a big strong girl, but there were some nightmares she couldn't handle. She turned away from a crack in the wall near the ceiling, and saw her reflection in a mirror that was hanging in the hall. Gray circles were settled deeply under hazel eyes and her hair was a little messy.
She stood and passed the mirror, not wanting to look at herself. As she put her hand on her doorknob, she stole a glance into Chris' room.
If she thought she looked bad, Chris was worse. Currently, he was passed out, his head on his computer desk, breathing heavily. Chris never slept anymore, just went and went until his body shut down. His eyes were always red from dryness, and his eyelids were bruised from no sleep. They shared the circles underneath their eyes, only his were a dark purplish-green. He was pale and waxy, loosing weight, too. He was always on the computer or checking sources on Umbrella information.
That's not true, though, is it? she thought shaking her head, pushing open her door. It wasn't Umbrella anymore. It was just Wesker now. All Chris did nowadays was breath, eat and dream Wesker. It was horrible and it killed Claire to watch her brother spiral downwards so. Chris thought of Wesker as his arch nemesis, and assumed Wesker felt the same. Another shake of her head as she readjusted her ponytail and slid onto her bed. As much as she hated Wesker, she knew he only saw Chris as a plaything. Nothing more, probably less.
She stared out the window. Or at least, out of the small corner of the window she could see. Chris had moved large pieces of furniture in front of all of the windows. With Chris' discovery of the pecked to death Forrest, and Claire's live action "The Birds" chase, Chris was determined to keep them out. Not that Claire minded that extra security, she still missed looking out windows. In all honesty, however, even if the windows weren't blocked, she'd never be up against them; she'd be pressed against the wall cautiously looking out them before dashing past.
She rolled over onto her side. She hated being ruled by this fear. What she hated even more, though, was she thought she might have a chance. A chance to live a life in the light. But her brother was beyond help. Beyond anything. Nothing could touch him anymore, not even her. It was all she could do, fighting to stay within his sights.
She refused to let his disgusting obsession overrule anymore than it already had, and was determined to be there for him and with him. But this, all this, was costing them.
It cost them their freedom. Their hopes. Their dreams. The sunlight. The world. Her promise to Sherry. His sanity. Life.
It's so very expensive.
Paranoia.
Author's Note: So, uh... yeah. Enjoyed? Yes? No? Maybe? Or not. S'okay. I got two more chances to make you change your mind. Carlos and Jill are up next.
R&R, yesh?