Chapter Seven: Painful Memory

Ada sat at the kitchen table, spinning around in her chair as she chattered to her mother about some boy. Kate, her mother, did nothing more than nod or mutter "hmm" at what she knew was the right time. Her daughter was rather talkative, and blocking her out was a necessary skill, unless she was talking about something other than her friends or boys. After a few more minutes of chattering inccessantly, Ada realized her mother wasn't listening to a word she was saying,and hopped out of her chair, and immediatly procceeded to try catching her cat, who tried desperately to get to the living room, where it knew it would be left in peace.

However, the cat failed in its attempts to escape, and stopped struggling in Ada's grip. It glared at her, growling softly, as she stroked it. Ada was about to turn and say something to her mother when her father burst in through the back door. Both his daughter and his wife looked at him, clearly startled.

"Are you okay, Daddy?" Ada asked, still holding the aggrivated cat.

Her father nodded at her, and motioned for his wife to follow him out of the room.

Ada watched her parents leave, puzzled. She let the cat go, who instantly ran for the saftey of the space under the couch in the next room. Ada thought about going and listening at her parent's bedroom door, but refused the urge...If they wanted her to know what was troubling them, they would tell her...They didn't keep secrets from her.

The rest of the afternoon, and all through the evening, her parents continuosly cast worried glances at her, and eachother. Every time they heard soemthing outside, they would quickly check to see what it was, and breathe a sigh of relief when it turned out to be nothing. When it got dark, they kept a close watch on time. the house was silent, no one said a word. Ada was almost afraid to speak. She felt that if she did, she might cause her parents to become even more wound up than they already were, but words kept bubbling up, and she fought hard not to talk. Finally the silence became to much to take and she wandered into the living room, coming up behind her mother and father,

"Mom, Dad?"

Both of them jumped, and spun around as if they were expecting to see monster in place of their daughter. Both looked equally relieved to see it was just her.

"Yes, Ada?" Her mother said, trying to sound calm, and failing, "What is it?"

Seeing their reactions to her, Ada decided it might be wise not to say anything else. "Nevermind." She replied, and strode across the room to sit in her favorite chair.

The watching of time, and the silence continued until around 9 pm, when Ada's mother spoke up, this time startling Ada.

"Sweetheart, Time for bed. No reading, no music. Go straight to bed, and stay there. Don't leave your room," She tried to smile, and make her request seem normal, but the worry in her eyes told Ada differently.

Not arguing, she went up the stairs to her room, though she left the door open a crack, so she could hear anything that might go on. Normally, she would have read for a while before she turned out the lights, or listened to some music, but her mother had been clear that that was off limits tonight. She had also made it clear that she wanted Ada asleep before a certain time...That she wanted her to sleep through something... An hour later, she heard a knock at the front door. Resisting the urge to get up and see who it was that was there that late, she listened carefully. She could hear muffled voices that she knew belonged to her parents, and a third that she vaguely recognized, though she couldn't place it. The voices started to grow louder, and she heard the third voice say:

"I don't have to do this...You can join in on the research, and escape this."

Then her mother's voice, though slightly quieter (Ada had to strain to hear): "No...We would never take part in something like that."

She heard her father cursing at the owner of the third voice in chinese. What little she understood wasn't something her father would normally say.

the third voice spoke again: "Very well. Spencer was the one that requested I give you a chance..He's becoming a little soft in his old age I think."

Ada heard her mother gasp at something, and then a dull thud of something heavy falling on the floor. Ada threw the covers off of herself and quietly opened her bedroom door and creeped down the hall, until she could see below into the living room. She bit back a scream at what she saw. Her father was on the floor, umoving, blood pooling around him, and her mother was standing in front of a tall, handsome blonde man in sunglasses, dressed all in black. She could see her mother trembling with fear as tears coursed down her cheeks. The blonde man grinned at her mother, and wiped blood from the bowie knife he held in his hand. her mother let out a small sound, like a whimper, at the sight of the knife that had killed her husband, but she didn't try to run.

"Run, Mama, run. Please run," Ada whispered over and over again, unable to move, and even unable to speak above a whisper.

But her mother didn't run. Instead, when the man raised the knife, she straightend bravely. Ada tried to squeeze her eyes shut, or look away, but found herself unable to do either. With her eyes wide open, Ada saw the man plunge the large knife into her mother's chest. In horror she watched as a crazy grin spread over his face and he twisted the knife, and her mother dropped to the floor. The man removed the knife from her beautiful mother's body, wiped it clean on the woman's dress, smiled and turned and left the house, whistleing cheerfully.

Only once she'd heard the front door close did Ada rush down the stairs, hoping against hope that somehow her parents were alive. But they weren't. They were dead. And all she had was a the name 'Spencer' and the face of her parents' killer. Now she screamed, and it was her scream the brought the neighbors. They found her sitting there in a pool of her parents' blood, sobbing. She said not a word to them when they tried to comfort her, nor did she say anything when asked what happened. When the police took her, she said not a word. It was 2 months before she spoke to anybody. And in that 2 months she had formed her plan. She knew the name Spencer, and why the blonde man's voice had sounded familiar. Spencer was the head of Umbrella, where her parents had worked, and the voice had belonged to the man who had often called the house, asking to speak to her mother or father.

The first word any one heard out of her since the night of Kate and Jonathan Wong's murder was "Umbrella."

Though she did start speaking again, Ada was never the same. Where she had once been a happy, outgoing child, she was now secluded, and kept her feelings to herself. Where she had once been an incessant babbler, she now remained silent, unless someone spoke directly to her. Though as time passed, she became less secluded, and talked more, she never went back to being the carefree girl she had been.

When she was 18 she began to put her plans into action. First was to get inside Umbrella, and work her way to the top...But when 2 years produced nothing, she began to think that maybe her ideas had been nothing more than a child's wishful thinking. Then she met Jon.

Her boyfriend managed to get her into Umbrella, and she began to think that just maybe she had a chance. Over time, she began to enjoy her job, and though she still had yet to find her parents' murderer, she wasn't giving up. And her stubborness paid off...for she found him.

With all she'd been through, nothing would have prepared her for the day when she was assigned to work for Albert Wesker, as a spy. She was rather looking forward to it. She had heard much about Albert, but had never met him. Though she had heard that he had a reputation for being rather vicious. Joking with one of the few friends she'd made, she headed for Wesker's office. William Birkin was just leaving the room as she was about to enter. Nodding at him, she stepped past him, and into the office.

There was something familiar in the figure that stood before her. She couldn't see his face, because he had his back to her, but the black clothing, and the build struck a chord in her memory.

"You must be Ada." he said, and Ada's eyes widened in shock,"Nice to meet you."

He turned to her, and she saw his face, and his shades, and any doubt of who he was vanished. 8 years of searching, and the man who'd killed her parents was standing right in front of her. He looked slightly amused at the sight of her.

"Your mouth is hanging open." He said, with a laugh.

Ada was quick to snap her jaw shut. She didn't quite trust herself to speak, so she remained silent.

"Have a seat." said Wesker, in an almost friendly tone. When Ada remained both silent and still he snapped, "Are you deaf, girl? I said have a seat!"

This moved Ada into action, and she sat in the chair he offered. Part of her wanted to leap at him right then and strangle him, while the other told her to be patient and take her time. And so she waited patiently, and did her job, waiting for the right time to strike...

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For a long while after Ada finished, neither of them spoke. Leon didn't try to tell her he understood, because he didn't. He didn't understand why she had let Wesker live so long afterwards, if her intention had been to kill him. Though, as if reading his thoughts, Ada suddenly said

"I waited, and waited. I never got the chance, he was always in the company of someone else, usually William Birkin. And after he 'died' there was no way I could have taken him on my own...,"

"So you kept working with him, and then you came to us," Leon said, nodding. It made sense now. "What about Spencer?"

"He's the one who gave the order for them to be killed...So he's the one I'm going to kill," she pulled the knife at her side out of its sheath. It was a bowie knife. "I stole this a few months ago. This is the knife Wesker used on them. It was given to him by Spencer..."

She turned the knife back and forth, watching the blade, as if hypnotized, "Ironic, isn't it? That he should be killed by the same blade as my parents...Yes...Poetic justice,"

Leon got the feeling she wasn't really talking to him anymore, but to herself instead. He sat there silently for a long while as Ada continued to twirl the knife, the reflections from the water glinting off of it. Finally, she stopped, and put the knife away.

"I know how we can get out of here," she stated firmly.

"Yeah? How?"

"That hatch is on a timed lock...I just remembered. It should be opening an-"

Before she could finish speaking, the hatch across from them opened, but seeing what was behind it, Leon would have rather it stayed closed. Looking in at them with blood-red eyes, was a little girl. She smiled, almost evilly at them...Each of her teeth were pointed, and they dripped with fresh blood.