2001
Sitting at her desk Claire looked at her right ankle that had swollen up a bit from the surgery with stitches around it with the medical bill on the desk.
"I'm never going to financially recover. Insurance my ass, 20 thousand."
Rubbing her temples in annoyance the textbooks came back into view as Claire ground out loud.
Opening the book Claire saw one of the few polaroid pictures of Wesker but a smile didn't come to her face like usual,* Is it possible I don't love him anymore?*
As Rob Zombie's Living Dead Girl started playing, Claire tapped her foot to it as the Bride of Chucky intro started playing in her head,*Is it a Chucky and Tiffany situation? Do I convince myself I love him because of killing?*
Throwing the hunting knife in the air Claire caught it with no injury and she repeated this acting several more times each never gaining an injury. Long after the song had ended Claire continued to look at her textbook and self-report.
"Now, how the hell am I going to get anger without basically saying 'Oh, hey I'm a serial killer because I loved a guy. Along with almost killing several kids in high school with some teachers on the side."
Slamming the book shut Claire threw the knife running the blade all the way in what was simply the closet door that was its home for now. In her fit of rage, Claire crushed the Walkman and nearly broke the desk.
Knock
"IT'S OPEN," Claire shouted from her room hearing the door open quickly she pushed the walkman's remains into the trash bin next to her desk that desperately needed to be taken out.
"Hey, Claire in your room again." It was Jill, luckily one of the few people Claire could stand at the moment.
The door opened as Claire spun around to face Jill," Ok, that college report can wait to go shower, have something besides coffee, and sleep."
Jill looked at the several cups of coffee piled on the floor and desk," My report is worth over half the grade and if I don't get it done I'm in deep, deep shit."
Picking up the mugs Jill found all of them bone dry," How so?"
Putting her foot on the table," Well, let me think I broke this bitch and that's 20 thousand and my college fee is almost double that and I'm still paying. If I don't get this done I will never financially recover."
Jill left the room with the coffee mugs and returned moments later to Claire spinning around in circles," Alright you need to shower, now. Get your ass in the shower."
Claire stood up, passing Jill," Take two raccoons up the ass yourself."
As Claire went to the bathroom Jill continued to clean the room, running the water Claire could hear Jill passing with more cups,*I cleaned my room like last week.*
As the water continued to rise Claire continued to hear Jill's constant but small complaints about her room.
Once the water stopped running Claire began peeling off her clothes as the foul smell hit her,
"Oh ok then laundry next."
Dropping the clothes in a pile Claire stepped into the bathtub and began to relax but it was short-lived as Jill slammed the door open," Hey, Claire why do you have a polaroid of Wesker from S.T.A.R.S?"
"Knock please Jill." Claire felt her heart racing as she made eye contact with Jill who looked remarkably calm compared to Claire's panicked expression.
Knocking on the open door Jill showed the picture," I'm just curious. Aw did little Claire have a thing for the captain?"
"No." Darting her eyes back and forth Jill sat on the toilet looking right at Claire.
"Oh, I know your lying, and holy shit girl you smell like Racoon City." Jill immediately left the room with Claire's clothes only to pass with her laundry basket.
Laying down in the water, memories of better times began flowing into her mind of the few people Claire considered her true friends.
1995
"Ok guys seriously we need number 18." Honey tried getting Samantha and Steves's attention as the twins were messing around again.
"Well, sorry Señorita perfecta. Claires off task again." Samantha pointed out before reviewing her notes again.
Honey looked to her right to see Claire completely out of it," Miracle kid, number 18 what is it."
Completely unfocused Claire looked at her sloppy notes," X equals 10, Z equals -15.5."
The other four instantly wrote down the answers," Alright, I need to head home my mom's making me take two Mandarin lessons back to back."
Honey left the room as Samantha and Steve continued to mess around as Austin watched occasionally laughing at the twins as Claire blankly stared out the window, watching as the leaves fell.
As the left she has fixated on fell Claire climbed onto Samantha's bed and watched as the left hit the ground and repeated her cycle of watching a left fall.
"Who's that cop?" Claire pointed to a police cruiser down the street.
The twins practically climbed on top of Claire to see as Austin slowly wheeled his way over to the window," Oh it's just Wesker, the poor guy needs a vacation from our street."
Placing her chin under Samantha's chest Claire began intensely staring at Wesker, watching as left Claire felt almost angered by that.
"If you want him you have a little competition. Miss. Racoon City, Emily Riley's been making amateur moves on him. I think she's going to try something big soon." Austin's words almost angered Claire.
"I need to go." Spinning around instantly Claire grabbed her bag and left the room.
"You expected at the cookout tonight!" Steve's words went in one ear and out the other as Claire left the house feeling baked alive in the summer heat.
At Chris's house, Claire dumped her bag on her mess of a room and went downstairs eyeing Chris's gun,* No, he's going to notice if I took his gun I'll have to use what I find at the trails.*
Taking her motorcycle keys Claire left scouting around for Emily, in downtown Claire spotted her surrounded by fans," I love all of you but I do need to get going."
At the corner, Claire didn't stop, instead turning to make a square in the downtown area earning her some swears. Watching as Emily went into her convertible,* Now I do wish I took the gun. Got to get creative.*
Following Emily's home, Claire parked in the streets as the woman disappeared in her home emerging 10 minutes later wearing running clothes. Starting the motorcycle again Claire drove off to the trails, in the trails Claire parked her motorcycle and began looking for a branch that would be easy to move.
Going to a tree on the side of the trails Claire waited for Emily to emerge while waiting Claire's arms began to feel heavy from the branch as her heart raced. As Claire's heart rate slowed down she heard a car coming, peeking out from the tree Claire saw Emily,* Ok, calm down just break her leg she can't see you.*
Hearing Emily begin to run Claire pulled the branch closer to her and waited as Emily passed by her. As time slowed down Claire hit Emily's leg with a branch as it broke into two pieces, and Emily fell screaming in pain holding her leg as it was clearly broken as well as the tree branch.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Emily sounded distressed and turned to see Claire's face.
Shocked Claire took the tree branch and beat Emilys head into a bloody puddle on the trail," Oh, shit, fucking hell I just fucking killed someone. Calm down they can't tell it was me right?"
Taking the tree branches Claire threw them deep into the forest and went around the trees staying off the dirt trail.
At her motorcycle, Claire fumbled with the keys trying to get it into the ignition," God damn it go in and start fucker."
Finally, Claire got the key in and drove off leaving a cloud of dust following her covering parts of the tracks her motorcycle and Emily's convertible left.
At Chris' house, Claire stormed right in completely oblivious to her brother and anything else in the house," Hey, Claire where have you been?"
Claire had disappeared upstairs ignoring everyone in the house," What's wrong with her?"
Jill took a sip of her beer," Probably hormones, she's at that age and Chris you can't avoid it anymore."
Chris slammed down his empty beer can," I'm not explaining how babies are made to a 17-year old sister."
"I ALREADY KNOW THAT CHRISTOPHER!" Claire yelled from upstairs.
Barry snickered," Oh, it is hormones. I've known Kathy long enough to know if she's angry with hormones. That's hormones."
As Forest and Brad stood next to Wesker," Dang, your sister is kinda cute when she's mad."
Chris threw an empty glass bottle that hit Forest right in the eye," Go for your own age group, asshole."
Jill snickered asForest threw the bottle back and the two men began to fight," Uh captain? Wait, where did the Captain go?"
Brad was looking around the house before seeing Wesker outside the house leaving," How did he? I swear, I was to his right."
"He's a tricky one, actually where is he going?" Jill and Brad watched as Wesker left the house.
Barry looked at his watch and put down the barely touched beer can," I got to go, have fun dealing with Claire's hormones for about another day."
Chris punched Forest in the face," That will be fun."
Upstairs Claire was quietly pacing around in her room, almost making permanent dents in the floorboard.
*Pull yourself together not like I just FUCKING MURDERED SOMEONE, and that someone is bound to be already reported missing. I'm dead, my life's going down the drain, I didn't leave anything there did I?*
Hearing a knock on the door Claire began sweating gallons a second,* It's Chris. He sees me like this. I'm actually dead.*
" Hey uh Claire, are you doing ok?"
Panicking Claire's eyes darted all around her room before landing on the Advanced Biology textbook," Yeah, just…studying for Biology finals."
Hearing Chris leaving Claire felt as millions of pounds of stress were lifted from her shoulders only to return as Chris's footsteps went back to the door," Wait a minute, never since you were put in all advanced courses have I seen or heard you study."
Acting quickly Claire went to her desk and opened the textbook as Chris entered the room," Well, you'd know I study if you're here for more than 4 hours a day."
Chris took one look at his sister," You're sweating a lot. You're lying Claire."
Slamming the book shut Claire stayed seated," It's like a million degrees outside and my dumbass wore black happy now?"
"Yes, have fun." Chris gave a shit-eating grin and left the room.
Covering her face, Claire felt relieved before hearing the phone ringing from downstairs," Please don't tell him Emilys dead."
Repeating that phrase in her head Claire opened up the book pretending to study, moments passed before Chris slammed the door open," Jesus, knock please."
"I got to go, a dead body was found on the trails. They don't know who yet."
Claire looked shocked as Chris disappeared out the door,* Wait, they had to have recently discovered the body, Emily's got a few distinct features that's not her face.*
Claire sat back down watching Chris almost break every traffic law to get to the trails.
At the trails, Chris saw Barry and Wesker already there with multiple photographers," Oh shit, what the hell happened?"
"Caucasian female, '20s-'30s most, the person had to have been recently killed no flies when the person saw it."
Brad and Forest arrived on the scene both looking sick when they went near the body," Wait, that's Emily Vancove."
Wesker and Barry turned to Forest," Are you sure?"
Forest nodded his head and very noticeably gulped," Yeah the tattoo on her shoulder, the convertible at the entrance, and she always runs on this trail at this time."
Barry looked at Forest, almost concerned and scared as Wesker was taking notes," Guess Forest's fanboy habits might have made a huge break."
As the others went to the body and others started to search around the body Wesker felt his phone go off, leaving the group Wesker saw it was William.
"Better be worth my time Birkin."
"Yeah, you were right, the killer is a high schooler and in advanced classes."
"And you doubted me like usual."
"It's Claire Redfield, and with a little digging, she would be physically capable of crushing a human skull with that stick. You want to let her run free or hold her responsible?"
"Run free, Emily was a pain and she did me a favor."
"You're returning a favor to a high schooler? That's a new one."
Wesker hung up and watched as the other cops desperately searched for anything in the forest,* Idiots, you'll find nothing here.*
Pretending to help with the search as Wesker predicted the cops found nothing after almost 3 hours of searching the forest. As everyone left the scene Wesker waited for everyone to leave before heading to the NEST base.
In the base nothing was out of the ordinary heading to Williams's office Wesker noticed several of Sergei's men there,* Great, the last man I want to deal with now.*
Entering the lab Wesker saw both Sergei and Nickolai and William cowering over notes.
"Ah, Mister Vesker, how are you today?"
Sergei's thick Russian was showing as the giant looked down at him smiling like they were friends.
"I'm fine, what are you two doing here?" Nickolai smiled as Sergei had a serious look on his face.
"You two are behind on updating me on our secret project. I'm here for the update, don't forget who's funding this project."
William looked at Wesker fearfully nodding for him to answer," Zombie eggs are not bonding to the artificial megamyced. We need living eggs, not dead ones."
Sergei's smile returned," I just needed to be told that, as a favor, what qualities would you like the 'donor' to possess?"
"Genetic potential and being alive, we don't care about the rest." William finally spoke up as the two Russians left, leaving the two alone.
Wesker turned to William annoyed," We're running low on women with genetic potential that no one would care about. Just being alive would have been the only request."
Wesker hit Williams' head, hard," Ow, sorry. What about the Redfield girl, that would be better than keeping her out of jail."
Wesker hit William again," That's a child and half the town is going to know if she disappeared."
"Well, wait till she's older, what is she a junior? Besides, summer break is in a month."
Snatching the papers from Williams' hand Wesker looked over the notes smuggled with tears," Why would you name the subjects? It's pointless and a waste of time and effort."
William looked at the notes, seeing he did in fact name the subject D-004, Daniella," Well out of the whole 70 others she's been the most successful so I just thought that she deserved a name."
Slamming down the notes Wesker left William, who had started on his own project the Gologatha variant. Taking note of what William said, Wesker put Claire's name on their candidate's list at place 35.
2001
Jolting awake Claire felt as the water was now almost freezing cold," Jill?"
Nothing, exiting the tub Claire saw some of her skin had shriveled up," I've been in for way too long."
Leavening the bathroom Claire saw it was dark out," Oh I fucked up."
In her room, it smelled a lot better and was in no way a mess with a note on her desk,' When you wake up Claire don't make a mess. Please, I spent 3 hours on your room alone, including washing your dishes.
-Jill
P.S. when you get a house make sure it has a dishwasher, Chris is better about washing dishes than you.'
Discarding the note in the now empty trash can Claire opened up her closet to find it organized in color,* Like usual, the super cop has to be perfect.*
Taking one of the T-shirts and shorts Claire dressed for bed as her stomach growled loudly," Probably should eat something."
Entering her kitchen Claire saw how clean it was," Damn, I haven't seen it this clean in so long."
Going to her bread holder Claire saw something odd about the light, in that specific area, it covered more surface area Like the light was reflecting off of something. Feeling around Claire found something cold, prying it off it was a small disk looking at the disk closer Claire saw a faint Umbrella logo on one of the sides.
Dropping the disk Claire rushed to her phone and dialed Chris's number only to hear that the line was dead. Following her cord, it had been cut cleanly,* How long has the line been cut, how long has Umbrella been listening?"
Claire dropped the cable and ran to her room pulling out her revolver waiting for someone to come in," Come on you asshole."
Almost one cue something broke through her window filling the room with gas, as the gas level rose higher and higher Claire dropped the gun and began feeling light-headed before falling to the floor and succumbing to the gas.
As the apartment grew some unwelcome guests, one went to the bedroom letting the gas filter itself out of the room. Taking the grenade the man threw it out of the window and picked up the sleeping woman.
The man only smirked and left the room as two people went in and replaced the window and dropped the old broken one to the garbage down below.