Chapter 1 Unravel

"Well now who could it be, that lives inside of me?
I'm broken, lying helpless, shattered
Surrounded by the world

And yet, your smiling bright
Completely blind to life"- Unravel, Ling Tosite Sigure

Natalia had settled into her new life pretty well. The few years passed by quickly. She had recently turned 15. Preparing to start her first year of high school. All the trauma and therapy and adoption took a while, so she got held back a year. But once Barry finally had her enrolled in the local school she was happy to be leading a normal life. Except..

"She hasn't made any friends in two years of going to school." Dr. Haupman said. " I am somewhat concerned by this. I'm afraid her traumatic experience has left her unable to relate to others. "

Barry and his wife sat at the office, with Natalia sitting behind them.

"Is there anything we can do to help? " Kathy asked.

Natalia just sat there with her head bowed. Things were going to get complicated, weren't they?

"I would like to hear what Natalia has to say about it at first." The man said.

Letting out a sigh she spoke.

"Well.. It's just all the other kids seem so immature. I prefer to study."

It was true. And her grades were excellent. On most subjects anyway.

"I'm happy to hear that." The doctor said." Education is important. But human beings are social creatures. We need connections to accomplish anything. On our own we are nothing" he said in that Northern European accent she had gotten used to over the couple years.

"As for how you can help" he diverted his attention back to Barry and Kathy." I think you should consider transferring her to a different school. I know a special school for the gifted. Considering her grades Natalia should have no problems getting accepted. I think being around like minded, more mature students would be helpful.

Barry and Kathy exchanged glances.

"Well, if you say so doctor. " he agreed.

Dr. Haupman was in charge of monitoring Natalia. He was recommended by TerraServe and constantly updated them on anything unusual. He was aware of the experiment that might have resulted in the consciousness of Alex Wesker being transferred into Natalia. He even confirmed it to be true.

Natalia didn't feel any different but sometimes she remembered things. Memories that weren't hers. It often occurred when she was asleep. Dreams of people and places she knew she never visited. Feelings of fear and panic, confusion often accompanied those dreams.

The most recent incident however was a drawing. In art class when asked to draw a picture of their families, Natalia ended up with something that was not her dead parents or the Burtons. It was a group of fourteen people, thirteen blond children in white clothes and a man in wheel chair in the middle. Upon seeing this a deep feeling of sadness overwhelmed her and she broke down crying not even sure why to begin with. This caused some extra monitoring of her actions that continued all trough out summer. It was stressful. But as long nothing else happened she would be able to go out unsupervised once more.

A new school sounded like an interesting idea. She would miss the old school and it's cozy little library where she spent most of her time reading. It wasn't something she considered but the moment she first came there and began wondering among the shelves and saw a book by Kafka it triggered some kind of strange familiarity. Nostalgia? Longing?

The teachers praised her on her essays and on how much of mature reader she was. Most kids in her class were reading Harry Potter and some stupid book about sparkling vampires. She did well in other subjects too. There was that feeling of familiarity with them. Biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, even IT. She wasn't fond of arts but she could draw well enough. She was average in athletics. She found history boring. A lot of the events she knew more about, somehow then the books did. Especially when it came to modern times and all the warfare and B.O.W. . . Yes, Natalia was aware, a little bit at least. She was told about the woman who tried to transfer herself into her head. Some of this was partially because of her. But Natalia liked to study, something she believed was her own genuine feelings. The extra knowledge did come in helpful. Especially during tests.

The new school was big, even huge compared to the old one. It was a long drive away from where Barry lived. Outside a smaller town. It did have dorms for students but after the recent incident there was no way she would be left unsupervised. Barry wasn't happy about the everyday long drives to school and back they would have to take. Natalia didn't care much. They drove to take the entrance test and Natalia got a high score. Then the tour of the campus. Barry spoke with the headmaster and the deputy about Natalia's situation. Leaving out the mind transfer and the hard to explain stuff. She a survivor of Terragrigia, who was targeted and kidnapped by terrorist and deeply traumatized by those evens. So if she did anything strange the school was supposed let them know.

The closer it came to returning to school the more anxious she felt. Not sure why. She liked to study. But this new place was so far away. It was going to be different. The dreams had become more frequent. But she kept quiet about it. It seemed that Barry was still angry about the drawing thing. She he wasn't angry at her. He was angry at the woman inside her head. But it was getting difficult to tell where exactly the boundary between the two of them began.

Annett was laughing at something. Some company party. Daniel's grinning face as he flirted with every woman in the room. Clearly drunk. And him. Blond hair. Icy blue eyes hidden behind dark lenses.

Natalia woke up with tears streaming down her face. A feeling of sadness and loneliness crushing her chest. Natalia never really had friends her age. But those memories. Not hers. Showed her what it was like to have them. To belong. Lottie was her friend (Barry bought her a new Lottie). Not really. Lottie was a bear, a toy, not a person. The stuffed bear sat on a chair in her room. It was Polly's old room. She wore Polly's old dresses. She is fifteen yet still wears the same style of clothes. Barry still sees her as a little girl. She isn't.

On the first day of school it becomes painfully apparent. She is late. Not her fault. There was a lot of traffic. She bumped into a girl on her way to class. But she was lost. The school was so big. She wasn't even sure if her class was in this building or in the next one.

"Watch it twerp!" the tall blond with a short skirt and a cashmere sweater looked down at her.

"Who let a kid in here?" her friends began to talk among themselves.

"Kindergarten is that way"

"Did you get a boo boo? Are you gonna cry?

Natalia got up and apologized.

"Yeah, whatever. Watch where you're going brat"

She ended up being late for class. The teacher was mad at her. The other students mocked her in whippers behind her back. She was so distracted she couldn't focus and ended up answering complete wrong. The whole class burst into laughter even the teacher was struggling to suppress an amused smile. Class dragged on forever or so it seemed.

She was in the girl's room when she hear some girls girl's talking.

"Did you get a load of the new girl?"

"Yeah, I know right? What is up with those clothes?"

"And those braids?"

"I know right. She's like some kind of freak. "

"Yeah, I bet she'll drag us down."

"I don't want to be known for being in the class with the freak."

"Don't worry. I have plan to send her back where ever the hell she came from."

Natalia buried her face on the skirt of her dress. Pulling her feet up on to the toilet to avoid getting spotted. She hadn't even spoken to those people yet and they wanted to get rid of her. Hot tears streamed down her face. She waited to hear the girls leave and began sobbing loudly.

She must have fallen asleep at some point. She was kneeling on the floor with a checker board pattern. Her knees hurt. The peas under the cloth digging in painfully. She was crying. It hurt. The man in front of her adjusted his glasses and told her to do it again. She looked at the open book in front of her. She couldn't read it. Her eyes too blurry. The belt cracked trough the air, hitting her back. Read it again, from the top. It won't end until she does it without any mistakes. Her long blond hair falling around her face.

Natalia jumped, startled by the bell. She was dazed and confused. It took her time to figure out where she was. Then she remembered she was supposed to be in class. Not sure what time it was. She washed her face with cold water and undid her braids. Hopping the hair would hide her face. The halls were empty. The class she was supposed to be having was in another building. She took of running. Once again she bumped into somebody.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She began apologizing.

Slowly she opened her eyes trying to see who she hit this time.

It was girl with black hair that had blue ends. She wore dark make up and black leather clothes.

"Hey. Are you alright." She said reaching a hand out to Natalia.

There were peppers scattered all around the hall.

"I'm sorry." She said again taking the hand and getting up.

"Don't worry about it."

"Uhm, thanks" she said looking at the mess on the floor.

There seemed to a picture of the same person on all the papers.

"You're looking for someone?"

"Yeah. My friend had gone missing but nobody in this fucking down gives a damn. Oh, by the way. I'm Lucy."

Natalia felt her head spitting. Still confused and stressed out by the day she had.

"Nice to meet you. "She bent down to pick up the posters.

"Didn't you have somewhere to be?" Lucy reminded her.

"Oh, no I forgot about class. Sorry, I got to go." She took of running again.

"Wait. What's your name?" Lucy called after her.

"It's Alex"

Right after the words left her mouth Natalia paused. She had made it to the yard and stopped dead in her tracks.

"Why did I say that?" she thought mortified.

" I have to go back and tell her my name." She resolved.

She rushed back to the hallway where she bumped into Lucy but the girl was gone. Natalia stopped to look at the poster up on the billboard. The hand drawn image of the girl drew her gaze to it. Ashley Davis. Age 16. Missing since July 22nd. There was something about the drawing. The life like details. A feeling of familiarity crept up her spine. The girl seemed familiar, well not the girl, but something about her. It was something she knew but could not remember. She had never hear the name, she was certain. And yet…

Barry picked her up and Natalia tried to act optimistic. Not mentioning anything that happened today. He seemed to believe her. It felt strange. She had never lied to him before. But she didn't want him to be mad at her, to be disappointed. She knew she should feel bad. Yet it felt strangely familiar, even easy to lie. It was to a part of her.

I'll stand here
Existing and feeling wretched existence
Consuming life-force 'til I grow distant
Don't bother searching for somebody like me
A fading no one
I don't want to hurt you, it's not my nature
A monster born from dusk to dawn can't be your saviour
Remember the 'me', the way I used to be"


I imagine DR. Haupman as Mads Mikkelsen. ( You'll understand if you've seen Hanibal)