Chapter 5: The Beginning
Jill's heart was beating as she stood in front of the door to the basement; she found the situation just too strange to be real, and was still convinced that she was dreaming. Taking a deep breath and mustering all of her courage, she placed a hand on the doorknob and turned it slowly. Pushing the door, it creaked on its hinges as it slowly opened up to a darkened stairway that descended down into the depths of the house.
The stairway was dark, illuminated only by the light of the hallway in which Jill was currently standing. As there was no light, she could not even see the basement door. Her heart beating even faster now, as she didn't fancy walking around in the dark, she hesitated for a while. Suddenly, a noise came from the living room; someone must have been coming into the hallway! Quickly looking at the living room door, then back to the darkened stairwell, Jill had no choice but to hastily jump down onto the stairs and close the door behind her, leaving her in complete darkness.
"Man." She whispered to herself, as she patted down her uniform in search for her lighter. "I picked a wrong week to quit smoking…"
Although she knew there had been a light switch somewhere on the wall- from what she could remember- she couldn't find it, so simply had to inch her way down the stairs carefully, so that she might not kill herself. Down and down she went, her breathing loud and irregular; she was surprised that she could not hear the voices of her friends down in the basement, which had been converted into a games room.
Even though she had walked down the stairs for at least half a minute, the stairs continued on.
BACK IN THE KITCHEN
"So," teenage Jill began, (as she once again eyed the costume that the real Rebecca was wearing) "how come you're not downstairs with the others?"
Rebecca smiled sweetly and sipped at her beer as she thought of an excuse, ever aware that teenage Jill and Chris hadn't taken their eyes off her since she had entered the room; she must have forgotten how odd her friends were.
"Well, Barry's acting like a doofus, like usual." Rebecca lied, although it had been like Barry to act like the 'adult' whenever they had had parties; he would hide the alcohol if they had drank too much, insist they stood outside when they started smoking and always complained at their choice in dance music. "So I thought I'd see how you two were doing!" Teenage Jill continued to smile like a robot, nodding her head slowly as Rebecca spoke. "So what's that you're drinking?" Rebecca asked, feeling rather uncomfortable.
"It's white wine spritzer." The young version of Jill answered, curtly.
Rebecca nodded her head and smiled, giving a quick glance over to Chris, who was still staring directly at her. Maybe they want to be left alone? She had been thinking, as they hadn't given her the warmest reception. But, she wondered, will it be all right to leave them like this? She was worried that teenage Jill would leave the kitchen and discover the real Jill. But, thinking back, she had suddenly remembered that Jill had "gotten lucky" with Chris that night, so she should be all right.
"Well, I'm going to get back to the party." Rebecca laughed, weakly. Placing her beer down on the kitchen counter, she turned as if to leave.
"Wait!" teenage Jill and Chris suddenly cried out in unison. Running up to her, Jill grabbed her shoulder painfully and picked up her drink, urging her to finish it. "Don't go yet, why don't you leave the boys alone for while?" Brushing her hand away, Rebecca cautiously stared at her in the eyes and backed off a little, her shoulder still hurting a little.
Although she didn't know what was wrong exactly, Rebecca could definitely tell something was up. Teenage Jill and Chris had not taken their eyes off her for the last fifteen minutes, and she didn't recall them even blinking once. Wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of there and back into her bedroom where the real Barry, Wesker, Chris and Claire waited, she shook her head and forced a smile.
"I really can't." she chuckled lightly. "I—uh, need the toilet."
"Nonsense." Chris suddenly chuckled, jumping down from the kitchen counter. "You've only had half a glass of beer."
"Yeah, well, I have a small bladder." She lied, slowly walking backwards towards the kitchen door as teenage Jill and Chris moved ever closer to her.
Then it happened—the silence; it felt as if time had stopped as they each stared into her eyes menacingly. Scared and confused, Rebecca's eyes darted back and forth from young Jill and Chris'. In a flash, they had grabbed her, causing her to scream out in shock as they held on tightly to her arms.
Lifting her up into the air as she kicked out wildly in the vain effort of breaking free, they ran towards the kitchen counter-table in the middle of the room and literally threw her on top of it! Rebecca hit the counter top hard, knocking the glass of beer onto the floor and breaking it. Rolling off the edge, she landed on the tiled floor below with a cry, as teenage Jill and Chris circled the counter top and approached her. "Looks like we're going to have to replace you." She swore she heard teenage Jill say as she rolled onto her front in pain.
Her heart beating wildly, Rebecca put all her mental energy into not passing out in fear, and stared intently from the floor at the corner of the counter top, where Chris would come out at any second. She needed to get rid of him first if she was to have any hope to of escaping them—there was no way that she could face Jill with him on her back, not with his strength. Quickly patting down her vest, for she was still wearing her S.T.A.R.S. uniform, she pulled out something which she hoped would help.
Rebecca almost let out a shriek of fright as young Chris turned the corner and looked down at her, his expression blank. Just as he reached her head, Rebecca revealed what she had been hiding in her hand—a military hunting knife. Chris' eyes widened momentarily before she quickly sunk the sharp blade into his right foot, sending him crashing down onto the floor in agonising screams. Quickly shooting up onto her feet in one swift (and rather cool-looking) manoeuvre, Rebecca's eyes moved wildly around in search of something to attack the quickly approaching teenage Jill, who looked absolutely furious.
It was too late, for the young Jill had grabbed her by her neck, squeezing hard on her throat and pushing her backwards onto the kitchen counter.
"Agh!" Rebecca spat out, frightened, as Jill continued to squeeze with full strength. Quickly slamming her hand down on the kitchen top, Rebecca searched desperately for anything that would save her—she had to act quickly, for Chris had managed to stand up, balancing himself on the kitchen counter in the middle. Pulling out the knife from his foot and grabbing it in his hand, he slowly approached her, a smile on his lips.
Rebecca could have screamed with relief as she felt what must have been a wine bottle in her hand. Wrapping her fingers around the neck of the bottle, she clenched it tightly in her fist and raised it high in the air.
"Get… the fuck off me, mega-bitch!" Rebecca croaked through the strangulation, as she smashed the bottle over young Jill's head as hard as she could—the bottle shattered in her hands, sending shards of glass everywhere. Shutting her eyes to protect them from any stray bits of glass, Rebecca let out a shriek as Jill fell backwards violently, nearly unable to stand from the shock of being hit on the head. Not wasting a moment, Rebecca quickly dived out of the way as young Chris went to stab her with her own knife—using what martial art techniques she had acquired at her stay in S.T.A.R.S., she had quickly conquered his arm, twisting it painfully and turned it into and under his elbow in a regulation police lock. He immediately cried out in pain and dropped the knife, which Rebecca quickly grabbed from the air and clenched in her fist; shutting her eyes tightly, as her attacker did still have the image of her friend Chris, she thrust the blade forward.