DISCLAIMER: Resident Evil © Capcom
PLOT: Post Resident Evil 5 - The world works to eradicate bio-terrorism. Not everything ended in Africa. Concerning Sherry Birkin, the girl who disappeared.
When her classmates heard she was leaving, it was "Why, Shelly?"
She had explained, "A relative recently died."
This was easy. It was simply understood and allowed her the chance to fly from Europe to the States. To Colorado, she made her way, just east of the Arklay Mountains. It was a place of haunting memories, but she had long since overcome any specific diversion to the local. If anything at all, Sherry felt a strange sense of homecoming, as if returning to some old, remembered home of childhood. In a sense, it was exactly that.
There was a bank not far from the estate. In the bank there was a safe deposit box she was privy to access. Amongst various articles left for utilization were a set of keys. The keys and one bank card she took with her and placed the rest back into their silent vault. Then driving her rental, she made the long and winding ascent to where the private estate lay sequestered within the mountain range.
It was a quiet drive. Sherry was half aware of the engine's hum and half engulfed with inner reflection. It was like entering into a dream. She was on auto-pilot as she slowly brought the car past the security gate and up the twisting driveway. None of it had seemed real. Not until the metallic glide made it all too tangible, as she slid her keys into the front door.
The entrance hall was the emptiest room of the modest mansion. Dust was gathered over the sparse furniture and in dark corners old cobwebs hung in despair. She made her way inside, musing over the abandonment. No one had walked these floors for years. Upstairs, making her way down the landing, she paused outside a door. She swung it open and investigated the small, private study. It was dark and smelled of disuse. The monitors stared empty at her, and the books on the shelves were soft with dust. On the desk she fingered over files left in order. The place may have been abandoned, but it appeared it had not been forgotten.
Sherry smiled to herself. "We're of the same kind."
She grew quiet as her eyes fell on a file left resting on the desk. Unlike so many of the red and white logos she had been born accustomed to, this one was very different and something she easily recognized. The file looked fresher than the books on the shelves, and a simple Tricell logo gazed fixedly back at her. She picked it up and stared down at it, leaving the study and shutting it in darkness once more.
She hurried down the hall and came before a door she swung open with the ease of habit. Inside she froze, momentarily forgetting the folder in her arms. It was like stepping through time. Her bed lay neat and empty against the back wall, shadowed by the drawn curtains on either side. Her desk was as she had left it all that time ago, and her dresser was still lined atop with old treasure boxes. Glancing briefly towards the bathroom door, she headed opposite to the fireplace, pulling back another heavy drape a few feet from it. Light seeped into the room from the narrow balcony beyond, and she unlocked the door and stepped outside.
The cool wind was a fresh breath and a stark contrast from the heavy stillness inside. She turned her gaze to the right and across the expanse to a larger balcony further down. Memories, vivid, played behind her eyes.
***
"Practice makes perfect. Trite but true, even here."
"But I don't like it!" She argued against him. "I don't want to do this."
He had turned from her to gaze over the forested expanse below, his patience with the girl waning already. "You'd think, being different as you are, you'd take more interest in it."
"I'm not my mom and dad!"
He had regarded her with a piercing look that could be felt behind the glasses. "No. You certainly aren't."
And for some reason, she had felt as some great shortcoming.
***
She clenched the file and stared down at it. Tricell Pharmaceutical Company.
"What were you trying to do?" she breathed into the wind. She turned from the view and stepped back into the room.
Schumann - Opus 15 "Kinderszenen".