Beware! Graphic Content Ahead!
Chapter VII: This Is No Kind Of Life
The painting that hung in the main hall was definitely alluring… or perhaps alluring was not the correct word to use. However, the object in question definitely seemed to be calling out to Alfred. Normally, he would have just figured it was Alexia's presence within the scene depicted, but he had an instinctual feeling that this was not the case. It was acting like a mask. But a mask for what? The young Ashford could not tell. But every time he took his trip to the Antarctic, every moment he was not permitted to spend with Alexia, he was standing in front of the painting scrutinizing it carefully. It was almost an obsession with him. It was impossible to shake the feeling that there were secrets hidden by the three familiar faces in the portrait.
When no one else was in the main hall of the winter-land mansion, he'd run his fingers carefully over the dried oil paints, feeling that particular texture with the utmost attentiveness. He paid extra attention to the three small grooves in the painting. There was one at his father's ear, one on his own hand, and one at his sister's elegantly painted neck. He had initially assumed it had something to do with the green, blue, and red jewels they possessed but had never truly thought about extending this thought further.
However, one day, curiosity got the best of him. He retrieved the ring from one of his pockets and began to remove the gem from its silver encasement. He never wore the piece of jewellery, the ring proved to be several sizes too big for his subtly feminine fingers on his boyish hands. Once the stone was freed he placed it into the appropriate indentation. It proved to be a perfect fit, but nothing else happened. The painting sat there silently, refusing to reveal its secrets.
I probably need the jewels belonging to father and dearest Alexia. He took the blue jewel from its cradle in the painting before heading up the stairs to Alexia's room. Alfred figured that it would be much easier to convince Alexia of relinquishing her gem as opposed to Alexander who was the one who must have been hiding something. However, Alexia had asked that he leave her alone for a while. It wasn't an odd request since she was surrounded by (dense) people constantly on a daily basis as she tried to make more advances on the T-Veronica virus and rarely had a moment to spend by herself. Alfred understood her sentiments entirely. He himself liked to spend much time alone, but any possible moment he could he wanted to be near his sister. But this is important. Surely Alexia will understand why I must bother her with this entreaty.
Despite the importance he placed on discovering the truth concealed by the painting, he still found himself hesitant to knock on his sister's door and risking disturbing her. He stood there for about a minute before he finally took a deep breath and found the nerve to rap on the door three times. After a brief silence, he heard Alexia's voice call out softly in a vaguely annoyed tone, "Come in." Alfred opened the door and entered his sister's room. She was lounging on her bed; her eyes scanned the words of a thick book resting on her lap. Lately, Alexia had been reading fairytales whenever she had time to spare. It was almost a manic fixation. She continuously asked their father to bring her back any books with fairytales in it whenever he left the Antarctic. The girl was usually highly organized and kept her room spotless, but now books lay everywhere in her room. The bookshelf was almost empty and rather dusty, several books lay open on her desk, there were even several open the floor, and the rest of her fairytales were placed carelessly about the room in a haphazard manner. It was like she was studying them.
"What is it?" she questioned in a voice that made it seem like she barely registered the fact that she was speaking. She didn't bother to look up or get angry. She just kept reading as if she were in a trance. Alfred just couldn't figure out why the make-believe stories held such a spell over her and kept her absolute rapt fascination.
"Alexia, forgive me for bothering you, but I wanted to ask if I may borrow your red jewel." Alfred found his voice getting quieter. Part of his volume was born out intimidation at Alexia's possible rage, he most certainly didn't want to upset his most dear sister, but it was also partly because he could feel some strange tangible mood in the air and it felt like his speaking might disrupt it if he spoke too loud. He couldn't tell what exactly that feeling was, but he could only guess it came from Alexia's concentration on the book she was reading, as if she were imagining the story happening around her and he was getting in the way.
However, his soft-spoken words seemed to get her attention for she finally looked up at him. "You may," she replied as she finally removed her hands from the object in her lap and began to take off her choker to remove the jewel. But it was such a random request she couldn't help but inquire, "Why do you need it, brother?"
Alfred honestly wanted to tell his sister what he planned to do with the item, yet he was not completely certain if he was correct in assuming that the portrait in the main hall was hiding something. He didn't want to make himself look like fool in Alexia's flawless eyes. He needed to know the truth before he informed his sister of his suspicions. At the same time, he wasn't sure how to tell her that he could not speak of what purpose the gem was needed. So his lips remained shut as Alexia removed the jewel and handed it to her sibling. He looked at the precious stone for a moment and a strange jealousy flared up inside him. It was a stupid envy, but he still felt it all the same. That tiny piece of rock basically spent every moment of every single day with his sister, close to her almost all the time. Why couldn't he be with her all the time? He would more than gladly live in the Antarctic if he could see even just glimpses of her everyday. He hated being away from her and though Alexander and himself were staying for an extended period of time this visit (five months) that still didn't seem like nearly enough time to spend with his sister.
"Well?" Alexia's voice cut through his thoughts, that slightly irritated intonation returning. The light glare from her icy eyes prompted him to break his silence immediately.
"It's about that painting in the hall. I am certain it's hiding something. I just cannot tell what it is yet. If I collect the three jewels our family possesses than perhaps the portrait might reveal something," he explained, trying desperately to hide the sudden sheepishness that overtook him. It seemed like every time he had some sort of plan it would seem like a good idea at first, until he spoke to Alexia about it. Alfred always had this overwhelming need for Alexia's absolute approval, even for something as simple as what clothes he wore. But Alexia said nothing at all and simply returned her focus to the story she was reading. He couldn't decide it this was a good thing or a bad thing, yet still immediately felt his heart sink a bit. Then again, he tried to reason, she wasn't terribly interested in anything in the past year or so except for the T-Veronica project and her books. Everything else was just a nuisance, unfortunately that seemed to include himself as well (as much as he tried not to admit it to himself). He looked down at the jewel again and reminded himself that he still had to somehow acquire his father's gem. That may take some time… "Alexia, do mind if I hold on to this for a while?"
"You may. I certainly do not need it for anything." Alfred thanked her and began to leave the room. Just as he was turning the doorknob, he heard Alexia's delicate but stalwart voice reach his ears. "Good luck, brother." A smile immediately found itself on his face at such simple words. Her voice sounded distracted but Alexia rarely, if ever, said things she didn't truly mean. With the happy grin on his face he returned to the main hall and once again stopped in front of the large picture as he had done countless times before. With renewed determination to find out the secrets his father hid, he began to plan just exactly how to get his hands on the remaining jewel.
January 30th
There's a sealed room in the hallway located inside of the Antarctic facility. I don't know what is hidden there, but I do know how to get in.
I can use the three jewels that each one of our three members wear as proof of being legitimate descendant of the Ashford family. The only problem is, I do not know how I can gain possession of my father's proof.
It didn't take Alfred very long to ponder a plan of action, but despite the simplicity of his plan he needed to act carefully. He certainly didn't want to get caught stealing something so valuable from his father. All he needed to do was sneak into his father's room while the man was asleep and take the proof. However, this task was made a great deal more difficult by the fact that guards patrolled basically all locations of the facility and on top of that there were security cameras that could catch him. Plus, there was also the risk that he could wake his father up.
If he were caught he knew he would not be able to think up a reasonable to excuse. He couldn't say something like he had a bad dream and explain that he was going to his father for consolation like some snivelling child. If he said that it would be immediately deemed as something odd for him to say. First of all, at twelve, Alfred was a tad too old to be crying about nightmares and secondly nightmares never bothered the boy, in fact they fascinated him. The only nightmares that bothered him were ones where some harm came to Alexia, but that was easily remedied by spending more time with her, assuring his mind that all was well where his sister was concerned. And for a third reason, Alfred never went to Alexander for any kind of problem, he only trusted Alexia to calm whatever fears or uncertainties he held in his mind.
So Alfred decided to spend some time practicing his route, taking note of where the security cameras were placed and following around the guards at night, making absolutely certain that he was not seen. Then when the path was clear, he would just stand outside his father's room and open the door just a crack then watch Alexander's sleeping form. He wanted to make sure that the man wasn't a light sleeper, but the head of the Ashford family proved to be neither a light sleeper or a restless one for that matter. He didn't really move at all, it was almost like he was dead. If only…
He would just stay there for at least an hour simply observing before he quietly closed the door and left. He did this for quite a few days, and as he spent hours standing outside his father's door just watching the sleeping man he couldn't help but feel a bit like the protagonist from The Tell-tale Heart.
On the beginning hour of February seventeenth, Alfred finally decided to follow-through with his little scheme. He wandered through the various darkened corridors, peeking around corners, and taking shallow breaths. His footsteps were soft and his movements slow. He didn't want any of the security officers to hear him. His eyes stayed trained on any flashlights that illuminated the hallways and moved accordingly to stick devoutly to the shadows, pressing himself tightly against the walls.
After much slinking about, he finally found himself at his father's room and slipped inside, quietly shutting the door behind him. The only item in the room to brighten the thick darkness was a tiny, flickering flame that threatened to extinguish itself at any moment. But that was all that Alfred needed. His eyes scanned the room until he could see a green jewel sparkling gently in the light of the candle on the other side of the room. Blue eyes darted to Alexander sleeping peacefully on his king-sized bed and Alfred stood still for a moment. He knew he had no reason to worry about anything, he was so close to obtaining the proof that he required. However, that did not mean he could suddenly be reckless with his little mission.
Slowly, the boy began to creep across the room, looking between his sleeping father and the emerald that tempted him to be careless. Alfred took another step, but his foot caught on something on the ground and he promptly fell, not making much noise yet not exactly being silent either. All he could do was curse vehemently in his mind and stay as silent as he possibly could on the floor. He didn't dare move as he heard his father stir in his bed. The boy looked down to see what he had tripped on and saw that a rug was to blame for his downfall. Frowning murderously at the object, he hated that his vantage point from the door in the previous nights hadn't provided him with the knowledge that the rug sat there uselessly waiting to foil his plan.
He listened with the utmost attention as it sounded as if his father sat up in his bed. It suddenly seemed that no matter how little he breathed, he still seemed much too loud. His mind immediately tried to think of all possible hiding spots he could quickly get to, the best bet seemed to be underneath the bed, but he wasn't sure if he could conceal himself silently. However, after what seemed like such a dreadfully long time Alfred deemed it safe to raise from the floor and tiptoe over to the dresser where the jewel was located. He grasped the tiny object and pocketed it before returning to the door, taking great care in turning the knob slowly and pulling the door open gradually so as to not make the thing creak on its hinges.
He peaked out to ascertain that the coast was clear, and found that he was free to retreat to the main hall. He returned the way he had come from and soon found himself standing once again before the giant portrait. A strange anxiety overtook the boy as he worked the jewel out of the silver that held it. More than before, he keenly felt the need to know exactly what lay beyond the picture of the Ashfords. He pressed each of the precious stones into their respective holes in the painting and as soon as they were placed where they needed to be the picture began to shake then it raised, revealing a hidden door behind it. I knew it! I knew he was hiding something! Alfred went forward and grasped the handle of the door in his hand. Finally, he would know whatever secrets his father needed to hide and his own curiosity would be satiated at last.
… Then an annoying knock at the door awoke the beautiful princess from her peaceful slumber. That was the first thought to cross Alexia's mind as she was woken up by the obnoxious noise. She couldn't quite recall when she had fallen asleep, but she held one of her books in her hand. The last tale she could remember reading was The True Bride, so she figured she must have fallen asleep before she could start reading the next story. The knocking continued with hushed urgency. With a sigh, Alexia pushed herself up from the bed and finally answered the door only to see Alfred on the other side with a look of distress on his face. But Alexia chose to ignore the state he was in and snappily demanded, "What do you want? I was sleeping."
"Alexia, come with me. There's something I have to show you," Alfred insisted with a sense of complete and utter seriousness.
"What is it?" she questioned, not wanting to go anywhere unless the matter was of high importance. Although Alfred rarely bothered her with anything too trivial or acted in such a way toward her, it was no reason to go running off in the middle of the night (according to her clock).
"Just, please, follow me. It's… it's something you have to see for yourself," her brother pleaded as he took her hands in his and began to tug at her gently. Alexia huffed in irritation, but she conceded to follow him nonetheless. He led her down the stairs just in front of her room and they stood before a door where their family portrait once stood. She had to admit to herself that her interest was piqued. Alfred went through the door and just a few feet down the hall until he stopped at a door located on their right.
The automatic door admitted them entrance and opened into a large lab. "What is this?" Alexia whispered to herself, looking around. Why was there a hidden lab that she was not aware of in the facility? More lab space would have surely helped her project further in advancement. So why was all this extra equipment kept secret from her? Alfred took no notice of his sister's befuddlement and went straight to the large computer sitting on one side of the room. His fingers frantically typed in commands as he tried to bring up the various documents and statistics that Alexander had concealed from everyone, documents about something called 'Code: Veronica'.
Once he had everything up on the screen, he called Alexia over, "You must read all of this." Alexia tore her attention away from the room itself and went to stand by Alfred, reading the words that her brother wanted her to see. At first she almost didn't understand the information before her (which seemed absolutely ludicrous to consider as truth), but perhaps that was because part of her didn't want to believe it was true. Everything that was displayed before her was cleanly summarized in a file written by her own father.
After many long years of research, I finally identified the inheritance element that administers the intelligence of man.
I even succeeded in manipulating the absolute value of intelligence artificially, by recomposing the base alignment of the element.
I then sampled the gene of our great ancestor, manipulated its element, then implanted it into the unfertilized egg of a surrogate mother.
What I didn't expect was that twins, a boy and a girl, were born. The boy had higher intelligence than normal, but not high enough for him to be considered a genius. However, the girl had unmatched intelligence that easily allowed her to be classified as a genius.
She was exactly what I had been looking for, the revival of our great ancestor.
I already determined their names : the girl's name, Alexia, and the boy's name, Alfred.
I'm certain that Alexia will elevate the name of the Ashford family to extreme glory.
Alexander Ashford
She was completely stunned and rendered speechless, her hands groped for the ledge of the control panel to steady herself. Her mind desperately didn't want to believe it was true and reject it completely, but she couldn't. The proof was there right in front of her eyes and in every memory of her entire life. She was exactly the positive results that the experiment detailed had hoped to produce. Suddenly, she felt like one of the princesses in her stories and a horrible curse was placed upon her. It made her into… "A monster," she whispered to herself quietly. Yes, she was the disfigured princess and her chosen prince could do nothing but peg what she was perfectly. '…Little monster…'
"Alexia, are you all right?" Her brother's voice broke her from the confines of her mind. She wanted to snap at him (clearly she was not all right at all!), but from his voice alone she could tell he was just as affected as herself. She supposed that the only thing worse than being the good little fiend was being the unwanted one.
"Monsters. We're monsters, aren't we?" she questioned him, feeling shock, anger, and despair mixing within her and preparing to overflow in a violent volcanic eruption. Alfred shook his head and immediately was prepared to disagree, to quell and soothe whatever worries assaulted her. However, she quickly quieted his words as her own words began to spill forth from her mouth like toxic angel tears. "You know it's true! I mean, look at me. It's unnatural that a twelve year old has this occupation, isn't it? It's…" She briefly paused in her ranting to search for the right wording, but only one crass word echoed like a bell, ringing only in truth. "…freakish, right? This isn't normal. I'm not normal. I'm anything but normal!"
Alexia used to think that it was a good thing, her superior intellect, and that those who were jealous or showed animosity towards her were nothing more than pitiful beings fated to a life of mediocrity. But now she could understand them somewhat. Someone like her shouldn't exist, just as demons shouldn't exist. She looked up at her picture showing on the screen, a bunch of candid shots depicting her going about her daily life. Alfred was talking to her, but she cared not for what he said. Instead all she could suddenly think of was that if Alexander could isolate the gene for human intelligence then there was a good chance that he probably created her exactly as he saw fit, right down to every last hair on her head. She looked down at her perfect little hands and she felt all over a flawlessly designed doll, so much like all the ones still superfluously decorating her room. She was a trophy, not a daughter. At least that thought wasn't anything new to her, but that only served to hurt her more. Now she knew for sure that she was only alive to distract people from the previous failures of her father.
"We're no better than those damn prisoners that I use as test subjects," she spat acidly and as the reality of that statement hit her she found herself crying as anguish and mania captured her broken blue eyes. "That's right…" she sobbed helplessly, "we're awful little devils, just a couple more of Umbrella's toys." She began bashing violently against the keyboard for the computer, opening and closing various files that were open, and Alfred could only stand still, unsure of what to do as he watched his sister. After a moment or two, he had to do something. His own suffering meant nothing next to Alexia's; he couldn't just stand by and let her endure her torment with no reprieve.
"Calm down, it's okay," he tried to say with as much serenity in his voice as he could muster. "What does it matter if we're not like other people? You're far superior to any other person in this world." Alexia suddenly stopped in her abuse against the technology before her and looked at Alfred with something vaguely akin to hate. Feeling her staring at him like that made everything else in the world not matter at that moment, all he knew was that he deserved only the most severe punishment for adding to his sister's pain. "I'm sorry, Alexia. Forgive me," he tried to apologize, but it was too late. His words had already dealt their damage.
Over his attempted apology, she began ranting shrilly again as the screen that had informed them of the new revelation sat black. "Superior? Isn't that what Umbrella is trying to do with their bio-weapons? Make superior products? That's what we are! We're hardly human beings. No, we're more like puppets. Marionettes of our father." She fell silent as her brain circled around that thought. "Yes, Alexander. It's his fault." Fresh tears spilled from her eyes, but they were infected with bitter hatred. She had never loved her father as other daughters love their fathers. At best, she felt detached recognition of being related to him. But now she felt the pure hatred swelling up inside of her, devouring her and consuming all her thoughts. "It's all his fault!"
"Hello? Is someone there?" A muffled voice interrupted Alexia and it rendered her silent quite effectively. The pair in the room recognized the voice as belonging to one of their family's butlers, Scott Harman. After what she discovered, she was well aware that neither of them could be caught in that room. There was another door leading to the hallway that led to the prison area, but the girl didn't think they could make it in time. Instead, she tugged on Alfred's arm and dragged him with her underneath the large desk behind them holding several computers, crawling as far into the darkness as they could. It was bit uncomfortable as they were cramped close together in order to fit, but all that mattered was that they remained hidden.
They both stayed perfectly still as the electronic doors slid open noisily and footsteps clacked against the smooth floor. Legs wearing black pants and feet wearing polished black shoes stopped in front of the desk, the twins could only wait with bated breath. As Harman paused there for a short while, Alfred felt a small splash of water on his hand and looked up at his sister who continued to cry silently. He cursed Alexander in his mind for bringing such grief to Alexia's life as he quietly brushed away her tears. At that moment, she looked up him. The crazed sadness had faded from her eyes, but instead they were steely with a calculated determination. Alexia leaned closer to him conspiratorially and with a voice suddenly void of all emotion whispered, "Alexander must pay for what he has done and he must pay with his life."
"Are you going to kill him?" he whispered back curiously. The idea didn't repulse him at all. He would happily assist his sibling with whatever plans she had for their creator.
"No," she replied immediately. "That isn't a good enough punishment for what he has done by manufacturing everything about us. Plus, it would also be a waste of a perfectly good test subject, wouldn't you agree?" Instantly, Alfred understood what she meant and couldn't help, but smirk at the thought, which Alexia mirrored with attractive malice. As Harman finally gave up searching the room and left, turning off the lights, the girl continued, "This way, he too will understand how it feels to be a monster."
February 17th
I finally succeeded in entering that sealed room. I never could have imagined that such an insane secret existed regarding the birth of both Alexia and myself...
I hate my father. That fool, Alexander... Now it is obvious that we were merely created in an attempt to cover my father's blunder. I can never trust him again. I must regain the glory of the Ashford family with my sister.
I have nothing to be afraid of, as long as Alexia is with me.
A few weeks passed as the two children decided exactly how to go about performing the experiment on their father and Alfred loved every moment of it. He took a sick delight in discussing every detail of what would happen to Alexander and on top of that he was allowed to spend much more time with his beloved sister, working towards a common goal with her. All of her fairy tales lay forgotten around them as they talked in her room for hours about the desired reality ahead of them. "There is a high possibility that the virus will not work as it is supposed to. In fact, I'm almost certain it will not. However, that serves our purpose rather well and it will also allow me a subject, which may help me discover how to fix that problem."
Eventually, at the beginning of the month of March, the two of them had decided to set everything into motion. Alfred waited in the prison area in a cell that was isolated from the other prisoners; it was the room where Alexia always performed her experiments on living subjects. While Alfred waited, Alexia went to go fetch Alexander. As she had expected, Alexander was lounging in his office reading various files sent to him. Alexia barged straight into the room, having long ago given up the practice of knocking before entering; it was a needless polite act that only hindered whatever matter that needed to be dealt with. Plus, it was her facility so she shouldn't need to be given permission to enter any room when the whole place was under her jurisdiction.
"Good evening, father," Alexia greeted, exercising great control to make her voice sound sweet instead of sour. The muscles in her face distorted themselves painfully into a delicate smile. A gentle sparkle in her eye created the illusion that she was happy to see her father, but in all actuality it was simply her jubilance for the role she would fill that night. For once she would not be the princess feeling helpless and unsure. No, for one night she would instead play the role of a brave heroine, ready to vanquish the beast before her.
"Good evening, dear," Alexander returned pleasantly. It wasn't very often that his daughter came to visit him, so he welcomed the surprise with open arms. He disliked the fact that he saw his precious Alexia less than he did before, but he accepted it happily knowing that she was exerting so much time and energy into something she was passionate about. There were two reasons for this. On the surface, he gave the impression that it brought him joy to know that it gave a better image of the Ashford family, it elevated their status. However, he had another selfish and personal reason. As a father, there could be no greater happiness than to see his daughter excelling at something she enjoyed. Yes, he knew that sometimes she would hit roadblocks and grow frustrated with her work, but he liked to believe that overall she loved her research and it made her happy. And that fact only made him more fascinated by his own child and only served to make him love her more.
Alexia walked up to his desk innocently and kept her hands safely hidden behind her back. "I have a gift for you," she announced enigmatically.
A smile crossed Alexander's face and he responded, "You do? What is it?"
At this point, Alexia revealed her hands and in one of her hands she held a thick black ribbon. "It's also a surprise." A little bit of mischief coated her voice, but just enough to be playful instead of malevolent. The girl went around to the other side of the desk and wrapped the ribbon securely around Alexander's head, covering his eyes to sufficiently blind him. "Now all you have to do is follow me," she instructed him, knowing full well that he would trust her completely and do as she asked without objection.
As Alexia helped him out of his chair Alexander asked, "May I try and guess what this surprise might be?""No, you may not for there is a chance you may guess correctly and thus the surprise would lose all its impact," she explained as she led him into the corridor.
"Very well then. Lead the way, darling."
Once the two of them arrived at the location Alexia stopped in front of the large cement chair in the lonely hall filled only with memories of death and grotesque mutations. "Sit down," she said as she helped him into the seat. Alexia motioned for Alfred (who stood by silently) to go to the other side of the chair. She held up three fingers and began a small countdown. Three. Two. One. At once both children took hold of the restraints on the chair and secured them around Alexander's wrists. Strangely, the man didn't struggle at all. He simply continued to sit there calmly like he was an avatar for the old adage 'Love is blind'. This only enraged Alexia, so she ripped the blindfold off of Alexander and her face relaxed into an expression fuelled by hatred. "Surprise," she growled sardonically, throwing her hands out as if to motion to the situation they found themselves in.
Alexander still remained infuriatingly composed. "Alexia, what is the meaning of this?" he questioned her, looking every bit incredibly clueless.
The girl walked over to a trolley where a bunch of medical supplies were laid out and she picked up a pair of trauma shears as she placed the ribbon down. "Why should I explain anything to you?" she retorted coolly as she walked back over to the man and began to cut away the suit jacket and shirt he wore. "You never took the time to explain anything to us. I'm aware that you must've been ashamed that you needed children to cover up your countless failures, but that is no excuse."
"What are you talking about?"
"How is it possible that you could be so endlessly stupid? It continues to boggle my mind how I could share the same DNA with you," she replied as she began to remove the shredded pieces of fabric before walking back over to the trolley with the instruments Alfred had brought for her. "But let me explain it to you in a way that even you would understand. You are Dr. Frankenstein while Alfred and myself are the abominations you created, isn't that right? You engineered us so that we may outshine all your previous blunders. Now, what kind of selfish father would do that to his children?" The girl picked up a syringe and began to fill it with her incomplete, prized virus.
As Alexia spoke Alexander slowly realized exactly what she was talking about and began to panic, especially when his eyes focused on the object in her hand. "Then again, we're not really children. We're just your specimen." Alexia turned around and slowly walked toward the man sitting in the chair.
Alexander was about to open his mouth to protest, to try to explain to her why he hid his research and how he felt about his children at that moment, but a different voice interrupted him, "Alexia, wait." It was Alfred who had been completely silent up until that moment. His sister turned around to face him and gave him a quizzical, almost angry, look. "Not yet. Would you mind if I used some of my toys first?" he asked innocently as he swept one hand towards the cart. Alexia looked over to the tools laid out and smiled lightly. She may not have spent much time with her brother anymore, but Alfred was no longer very good at hiding his emotions or his penchant for unusual hobbies.
"Why certainly, dear brother. Just do not take too long, all right?" Alexia walked away from the chair and decided to watch the show Alfred was about to put on. Her twin thanked her and walked over to view which instrument he would begin with. As he did this, Alexander began babbling in desperation.
"Alexia, you can't do this!""I'm not doing a single thing right now, father," the girl replied, spitting out the last vile word like a bitter poison.
"You know what I mean! Alexia, you have to believe me when I say I love you.""Why should I?""I know now that I did a terrible thing to you and your brother with my experiment and maybe I should never have done what I did. I see plenty of other parents with their children, who they love unconditionally regardless of how they look or act or any of those other traits that I once deemed so important. And every time I do I feel so sickened at what I did to the two of you! Why do you think I wanted to hide all the evidence of what I did? I didn't want you two to find out, I didn't want to hurt you. I don't love you because you make the family look better, I love you because you're my children."
"Really?" Alexia remarked, feeling her throat tightening up and tears beginning to pour down her face. It wasn't because of the heartfelt speech from her father, it was because they all sounded like nothing but empty lies to her ears. Just as it was as she was a child when he would comment on her brilliance, it was still the same now as he begged for his life. "If that's true, then would you have 'loved' us had we been normal, stupid children?"
"Of course, I would have!"
"Stop lying! Face it, we would be nothing like we are now if you hadn't done your tampering with our DNA."
"That doesn't change the fact that I-"Finally, Alfred had decided on what he wanted to use and walked over to Alexander. "Don't worry, Alexia. I'll silence him for you." He too had a syringe in his hands. However, what he would inject into his struggling father was not a mutagenic pathogen, but instead pancuronium.
"Alfred, wait. To you especially I was far from a perfect parent and I'm sorry. Forgive me! Please!"
"Don't apologize to me, anything you did to me personally is of no consequence. But you did make Alexia cry and it is for that crime that you must receive punishment," he responded icily before plunging the needle into Alexander's body and dispensing its contents. Alfred returned to the instruments once more as he picked up a scalpel with the largest blade he could find. "I suppose this will have to do," he murmured to himself as he inspected the object. Meanwhile, Alexander slowly was losing the fight against the drug and after nearly two minutes he made not one movement in his chair.
The boy forced open his father's mouth and readied the piece of equipment in his hands. He studied his target for a moment before entering the scalpel into Alexander's mouth and making the initial incision into his tongue. As he sliced into it and blood began to pool in the man's mouth Alfred began to talk, "As you can tell, that was no sedative that I administered to you. It was simply a muscle relaxant." He savagely drove the blade farther and farther in until Alfred could reach his other hand in and pluck the thing out of Alexander's mouth. He threw the bloodied piece of muscle onto the floor. Alfred hurried over to the trolley and got a suction device before returning to the paralyzed man, removing the blood from his mouth. "I wouldn't want you to choke to death now."
He grabbed a pair of extracting forceps and then once again went to Alexander. "Given what will happen to you, I reason that you won't be needing all your teeth." He latched the device onto one of the man's molars and started to rip it from his gums with all his might. After a little while one tooth came free and it joined the tongue on the floor. But Alfred was far from done. He continued to work on a second tooth while intermittently removing blood from his father's mouth. As for Alexander, all he could do was suffer indescribable pain as he watched Alexia watching him. He knew he was an awful person, but no one in the world deserved to have something so horrible happen.
By the time the fourth tooth was removed, Alfred was bored of the process and no longer found any fun in it. He once again grabbed the scalpel and simply stared at his father for a few moments, determining what action to do next. "Alexia, do you think the subject will need his eyes after he mutates?"
"Given that he'll rot down here for the rest of eternity, no."
"Perfect," Alfred replied, smiling sadistically as an almost hungry look came into his own eyes. At first he gently let the blade glide across the sclera of Alexander's left eye and then with no warning he jabbed the scalpel right through the cornea, watching in amusement as aqueous and vitreous humor leaked from the puncture wound. Removing the blade from the eye, he placed the scalpel down and stretched the skin surrounding the eye. As the eyeball began to collapse from losing its fluids, more room was afforded to Alfred to do what he pleased. So he dug his fingers into the socket and began to pull at the organ. The capillaries and optic nerve were not strong enough against the force and quickly gave way, causing a torrent of blood to flow down Alexander's already crimson-stained face and torso. Once again, the thing was tossed aside like garbage. The boy admired his handiwork for a moment before performing a similar action on the eye's twin.
Alexia watched in delighted disgust. She hated outright torture, it was pointless and nothing really came from it aside from quenching a person's sadistic pleasure, but there was no denying the fact that she relished in the pain that Alexander now felt. However, she still couldn't stand to look at the mangled mess before her and there was still her virus, which begged to be put to use. "Alfred, stop," she ordered as she went over to the cart and exchanged the syringe for the blindfold. "I do not have all day to watch you have your fun."
"I'm sorry, Alexia," Alfred replied with a sad inflection.
"There is no need to apologize. As much as I enjoy watching you torment Alexander, I do have work that I need to get to today," she explained as she tied the black ribbon around Alexander's head again. She needed to cover the hollow caverns, it brought a queasy feeling to her stomach to look into them. "If you could start cleaning up this mess, I'll administer the virus." She fetched the syringe again as Alfred quickly began to clean the place up and slipped the needle into one of Alexander's veins before depressing the plunder steadily. Once the virus was entirely injected she stepped away from the man and looked at him with intense scorn. "Enjoy your gift." She turned on her heel and stalked away, following Alfred as he was already making his way down the hall.
Once the duo made it into the area with the door, Alexia pulled the lever down that would separate themselves from the monster that would soon be introduced to the world. And then she simply stood there watching with a scowl on her face. "Are you coming?" Alfred questioned his sister, motioning to the door.
"No, I want to see what happens to him." The twins stood there silently watching as they waited for Alexander to undergo a mutation.
I'm sorry. That was all Alexander could think. If only I hadn't…I'm sorry, Alfred. I'm sorry, Alexia. Just as I failed my father as a son, I've failed you both as a father.
I'm sorry.
March 3rd
Alexia carried out the experiment on the human body that we've been talking about. Our useless father must be happy now, since he can finally contribute to the Ashford family.
The only thing we should be careful about is that the butler, Harman, does not become wise to our activities.
I liiiiiive! Sorry, I haven't updated in stone's age but life's been a little hectic on and off for the past couple of months and I've been lazy. :P Anyway, author notes!
1. I had to change up the first file from the game due to the fact that Alfred actually did have a pretty good hunch of how to move the painting.
2. Thank you CAPCOM for the files.
3. Thanks to Gramm485 for beta reading this chapter and for beta reading chapter V (I was a bitch and forgot to mention that at the time. :( ).
4. Once again, sorry to the readers for the wait. I hope this chapter was worth it. :)
Hopefully, I will not take such a ridiculously long time with the next chapter.