Chapter Text
Ethan sat on the couch as Mia, his wonderful wife, was reading his daughter a story. It was a disturbing tale of a young girl getting lost in the woods and visiting four lords of The Forest. A bat, A weaver, A Giant Fish, and A Horse, and the gifts each gave the girl. The girl took something from The Horse, assuming it was a gift, and then a terrifying sorceress appeared before the girl.
"Jesus, Mia, isn't that a little much for her? She's six months old."
"Lady at the store said it was a local tale."
"For teens, maybe. She's going to have a nightmare."
Mia scowled at Ethan, she stood up with Rose in her arms, "Here," She bent over and transferred Rose to Ethan, "go put her to bed, I'll finish dinner."
Ethan stood up and started his small journey to Rose's crib in his and Mia's room. Having Rose wasn't easy, especially after military training and what happened in Dulvey -which Mia has decided recently to refuse to ever talk about- but the two were doing their bests to raise Rose and start over.
During Ethan's ascent up the stairs, Rose started squirming and whining. Ethan placed his palm on Rose's cheek and stroked his thumb across her cheek, "Shhhh," he cooed, "Daddy's here, everything's ok. He's not gonna let anything happen to you." Rose calmed down and smiled. She was so young and so fragile, Ethan was most likely overly protective of her, but scary stories shouldn't be for children, right?
He entered his room and walked to Rose's crib. He placed Rose in her crib and turned on the baby monitor so that him and Mia would be able to hear her from downstairs, and placed a small kiss on Rose's head. He walked over to the desk and looked through Rose's files, she had no trace of the mold from Louisiana, thank God.
"Alright, gotta go back to your mother," Ethan softly said. "Definitely don't want to make her mad."
Ethan walked back down to the kitchen where Mia was cooking. A stew of some kind. Mia was getting into local recipes recently, and while they didn't always sound appealing, they still tasted good, and he was proud of Mia for finding something to help with moving on from Louisiana.
Ethan walked into the kitchen, seeing Mia bring the pot from the stove to the counter. "Smells good. What's that?" Ethan said as he went to get a small taste from the pot.
Mia swatted his hand away with the ladle, "Hands off, mister. It's Ciorba De Legume. It's a local recipe."
"Well, you've gone full native, haven't you?" Ethan teased.
Mia grabbed a dark red bottle, "Local wine, too." Ethan grabbed two wine glasses as Mia continued talking. "But, if you're going to keep sulking all evening, maybe you shouldn't have any."
Ethan placed both glasses on the table and Mia sighed as she poured the wine. "You really have to stop worrying,"
"It's just," Ethan sighed, knowing Mia wasn't going to like what he was going to say, "Finding you in Louisiana, the pregnancy, Chris moving us here, military training- it just all happened so fast, you know?"
Mia looked slightly confused, and then rolled her eyes, "Well, at least we're all together. You, me, Rose. Now everything's going to be-"
Ethan interrupted her, still suspicious as to why she suddenly didn't want to talk about what all has happened to lead to where they are now. "Seriously? You think we can just forget what happened in Louisiana?" He figured, if he kept the questioning up, she'd say something, anything that would help both of them be able to move on instead of just hoping they could move on.
Mia looked frustrated, "It all happened so long ago. I just- I don't understand why you are so-"
The sound of glass shattering interrupted her. Red splatter came out of Mia's shoulder, she looked confused for a moment and then looked at her shoulder, almost not believing what just happened. "Wha-?"
Both he and Mia looked towards where whatever got lodged into Mia would have come from. The yellow curtains blew from the breeze coming from the broken window. "Mia, get down!"
The lights shut off, then a flurry of gunshots stormed from all directions aimed towards Mia. Ethan shot himself under the table, "MIA!"
It was chaos. The light fixture broke and fell to the floor. The wine bottle shattered. Mia was on the floor bleeding. The thunder of gunshots suddenly stopped and the silence was deafening.
Ethan looked back at Mia, lying on the floor. That was her. That was her body. That was the last conversation they had. An Argument. He then heard glass crunching. He saw big, black military boots walking towards him, whoever it was, was holding a gun. The person stopped at the table and then pushed it aside. It was Chris. The man who saved him and his wife in Louisiana. The man who gave him and Mia military training. The man who made sure the mold no longer infected them. The man who he considered a friend.
The man who just killed his wife.
"What the hell?!"
"Sorry, Ethan. There's no time to explain." Chris said, then turned his head towards Mia and took aim.
"NO!" Ethan shouted out, but it fell on nothing.
Chris shot the full magazine towards Mia, who groaned and moved until the second to last bullet entered her torso. She just laid there, in a crimson pool full of glass and metal.
"What- Why?!" Ethan wanted to scream, question everything. He wanted to punch Chris as hard as he could in his rugged face. A click sound stopped those thoughts, he looked and a person covered head to toe holding a rifle aimed at him stood all to close to him. He looked to the other side of him and saw a near identical person with the same weapon approached Ethan as well.
The two poked at him to stand, Ethan stood up and moved as the two poked and prodded at him with the nozzles. He heard crying. Rose. No. What was Chris doing. He wasn't saying anything. Why wasn't he saying anything?
It took all Ethan had to not run to Rose, to save her from whatever Chris had planned and run as fast as he could to anywhere else as long as it Chris was no where nearby.
"All clear." The cloaked team member holding Rose said.
"What the hell are you doing with my daughter?!" Ethan shouted, running up towards Chris. He wanted answers and he wanted them now, he didn't care what he would have to do to get them.
"Package secured, sir." Package? His daughter was not a package. Rose was not a package. She was a living, breathing person. She was his daughter, damn it. She was a baby.
Chris carefully took Rose from the team member, and looked at Ethan as Rose cried in panic. It broke Ethan's heart to see her upset. He wanted to take Rose away from Chris, he wanted to rip Chris' head off. "Get your hands off her." Ethan snarled.
"Take him away." Chris ordered as calm as ever, as if he had just stopped something peacefully instead of killing his wife and stealing his child.
"I said get your hands off her!" Ethan ran up to Chris and tried to push Chris' shoulder, but the large man didn't even move a muscle.
"Ethan, no." Chris barked. Ethan was about to retort back at Chris, when he heard the sound of metal moving. He turned around and a team member hit him in the head with the butt of a gun. Ethan fell to the ground and looked at Chris. Rose was crying in his arms. That bastard. He was going to pay for this. Ethan would make sure of it.
Ethan reached out to his baby, "Rose..." he wanted nothing more than to take her back in his arms, to comfort her throughout this, but the injury to his head took over and he passed out.
Ethan started to wake up again, the sound of ringing took over. He was in the snow, on the ground, at night, he looked up and saw the back of a van on it's side and ripped open. Whoever was in front of him was either passed out or died in what appeared to be a crash. The ringing appeared to be coming from them. He listened closer and there was no crying.
Where was Rose?
He crawled over to the phone and answered it. "About damn time!" the voice on the other side said, "What's your status? Is the package safe?"
"What are you talking about? Where's Chris Redfield? And Rose?"
"Who is this? This is a secure channel, you are not authorized to use this-" Clearly no answers were going to be given by whoever was on the line. Ethan dropped the soldier's phone and stood up. He saw a small flashlight, picked it up, turned it on, then looked around. He saw a clearing and started his way through it.
It was cold, and dark, and the twig like branches kept scraping at Ethan's face. It took a bit of walking, then he came across a valley full of dead birds. Dead birds hanging from twigs, strung up on the branches, dead on the ground, dead in piles. It was morbid and disgusting, but whatever strung them up was human, which meant warmth, which meant somewhere to fix up a plan and then begin his search for his daughter.
Ethan powered through the morbid trail until he reached a small bridge. The bridge was wooden and flat and covered in a salt to make it less slippery. People had to be nearby. Dead crows were littering the ground. Through the misty darkness, he saw a stack of lumber and then a cabin-like house. The door was slightly ajar. Not exactly an invitation, but Ethan made his way in anyways. It was still cold inside, but it was better protection from the cold wind outside, and whatever larger animals like bears or wolves out there.
It was mostly storage. A bucket with a broomstick in it. Containers filled with who knows what inside of them. He walked around exploring for a bit. There was a wardrobe at the end of the room, that was worth exploring. He opened the wardrobe up. Nothing but some clothes. He didn't know what he really expected.
Ethan turned and saw a hallway, after looking through the doorway, he saw a staircase leading to a basement. Absolutely worth exploring.
The descent was dark and dank and cramped. Anything could be above him or behind him. His mind was wandering back to Dulvey. The Baker House. Finding Mia in a cell. What was in that house. No. He wasn't there. He wasn't even in the states. He was in Romania.
He was alone in a house that wasn't his after his wife was killed and his daughter was taken by the man he would've called his friend in Romania.
There were some small desks with nothing really on them, there was still more in the cellar like basement. He went further in and a few boards fell over. He flashed the light towards what could've caused them to fall, it was him. The rug that was under the planks got pulled by his feet. There was a weird symbol on the wall. A circle within a circle and within both of them, something that looked like a tree with the roots. He turned and kept walking. There was a wardrobe with bright, fresh blood across it. But there was no body or animal carcass nearby.
It would be best not to think about it.
There could be something inside worth taking. Anything that could be used as effective self defense was better than nothing. Especially if he had to go against Chris. Ethan placed both hands in the handle, took a deep breath, then opened the door as quickly as possible. The only thing inside was a rat and a broom. The rat ran out of the wardrobe as quickly as possible. Nothing.
Ethan started to go back, then something slammed against the floor above him, causing dust and rubble and snow to fall down on his head. It sounded like something heavy dragging against the floor. There was a crash and then silence. Ethan started to go back to the entrance, there was no other way out of the basement. He picked up a stray broom and held it in front of him, ready to swat at anything and then make a break for it.
The doorway at the top of the stairs was blocked off by the wardrobe that was sideways. There was a way under it. Ethan put the somewhat trustworthy broom down, leaving it for whatever other traveler might make their way here, and started to crawl through the hole.
There was blood on the ground, probably, hopefully, a rats.
Ethan pushed some of the boxes that were by the hole away, which gave him a glance at his blood soaked hands. He couldn't think about it now, something was around and it was dangerous. Especially considered that after looking away from his hands he spotted a giant hole in the wall just a bit taller than he was. "What did all this?"
Ethan stood up and walked out of the hole. Dawn was breaking. There was a trail of disturbed snow. Wherever it went, there's probably people. Ethan hopped the fence and walked up to where there was no disturbed snow, up a small hill that was full of trees. The shrubs around his feet where scratching at his ankles through his pants and socks.
He made it to the top where there was a clearing. He pushed some tree branches away from him, and then looked out.
There was a castle and a village below. A castle? Out in the middle of nowhere?
"Where the hell am I?"
He looked around near him and saw a clear path down into the village. There was bound to be someone that had weapons down there, either ones that would willingly been given to him or ones he would simply have to 'borrow' for the time being.
He slid down the steep hill. There was no going back at that point. It looked like a farm, but there was a dead horse laying on it's side in the snow. Poor horse, at least you're hopefully in a better than place.
Walking past the horse, there was a bowl full of eggs where most of the eggs that were cracked on the ground. There was large mound of garlic strung up in front of the doorway to the house. In stories, that would ward off vampires. Surely there were no vampires here, right?
The door was slightly open as well, and considering how fresh the eggs looked and that they didn't smell rotten yet, the person who lived here was hopefully still there.
The front room was torn apart and ransacked. Crates of food were shoved on the floor, the tablecloth was halfway hanging off the table and on the ground. There was a whole through the doorway, along with food on the floor. The couch and pillows were ripped open, the stuffing exposed. At least one side of the cushions were cold.There was blood on the wall next to the couch. There was a portrait on the wall that was untouched.
The portrait was of what looked like a woman shroud in black, with a bird like helmet, surrounded by black wings and a halo behind her. Ethan left the house and went to the other door of the house, most likely the storage house or garage. There was a door on the other side, of the garage, he went through and saw a well. There wasn't a handle to pull whatever was at the end of the line up.
There was a stone stairway, leading up to it, there was a big gate, shrouded in red tarp, with a sign that read, "DO NOT ENTER!"
Absolutely at some point he would have to go through there, not at the moment though, because if whoever was in there had a weapon, he would most likely end up with his head blown off, and he wouldn't be able to save Rose if his head was blown off, now could he?
The other direction was dark wooded buildings, that were mostly worn down and torn apart. He was exploring some of the building, then stumbled upon goat heads strung up from the trees.
Totally normal thing for an all too quiet village to have. "What happened?" He wondered aloud.
Continuing on, just after the goat heads was a sign post. To the left, a graveyard and ceremony site, back where he was, a workshop. The workshop was probably behind the giant fence that had the DO NOT ENTER sign up. He doubted a ceremony site was particularly a thing a village would have, but who knew.
Wandering down a bit, he stumbled upon a house that had a lantern lit up. Fire had to be started by someone conscious. Someone that would probably have a weapon that they could lend out. Walking up to the door, he saw that it was wide open. He walked right through, careful to look for traps, then saw a large hunting knife stabbed through a wooden table. With some force, the knife was able to be freed of it's temporary holder.
There was a room right next to him, a kitchen. Walking in, he saw a pot of what looked like what used to be stew inside. "Did they just... pick up and leave?" Thoughts of the Baker House filled his mind. How the stew and fridge had rotting food out and in the kitchen, and they had stayed there. He planned on being careful and cautious in case someone was still there.
There was a doorway that was covered with a curtain, there must be something behind it. Ethan pulled the curtain and then the side of the door frame got blasted, he put his hands up, "Aah! No, no! Friendly, friendly!"
The man holding a shotgun behind the curtain spoke, "Who are you? Who sent you?"
"Nobody! There was an accident, down on the road, and-"
There was roaring outside, the man stepped into the room with Ethan and shushed him. Ethan did the smart thing and stayed quiet. He wondered to himself what was going on as the roaring continued outside. The man took one look at Ethan and then went to look out the window. "Oh, no. They're coming!"
"Who is?" Ethan needed answers, and quickly, "What the hell was that?"
"Do you have a gun?" The old man said, panicked.
"What?"
"Please tell me you have a gun!"
"No, why would I?"
There was a rustling upstairs, the man aimed his gun upwards while shuffling back to the room that he was previously in. He quickly grabbed something and then came back out, holding it to Ethan. "It's all I can spare. Take it! Take it!" The man was panicked.
Ethan quickly took the small handgun, he loaded it and cocked it as he followed the man that walked around after the sound. "Tell me what's out there!"
The old man whipped his head around, aimed his shotgun, and then fired at the other window. Ethan aimed towards that window, but didn't see anything. The man quickly threw his ammo on the table while reloading.
Ethan thought now was totally the best time to keep asking questions, "Hey, are you listening? Hey!"
The ceiling collapsed and a large arm grabbed the man by his jaw and lifted him through the ceiling. "What the-" Ethan began, but then saw bright crimson dropping from the floor above him. Whatever took the man was still up there, and Ethan didn't have time to run. The floor under him busted open and a hairy arm grabbed him. "Ah! SHIT!" The arm pulled him though the floor.
Whatever grabbed him didn't stick around to kill him for some reason, and it was quiet. Too quiet. Ethan turned his flashlight back on and saw a dead body. No. Multiple bodies. All at different stages of decomposing. Ethan pulled his gun in front of him. He pushed forwards and hand to move a body to keep moving. "Jesus Christ."
He looked around, "What the hell is wrong with this place?" A body fell, startling Ethan. He aimed his gun towards where the body fell from, but nothing was there.
Until his exposed hand got bit by something. It looked human enough, but it was biting through his previously injured hand. Ethan, in a moment of shock, tried to pull his hand out of the creature's mouth, but the jaw grip was too strong and it followed with him, giving Ethan a horrific view of it's face.
It's eyes were glazed over and grey, and surrounded by puffy red tissue. It's nose was practically nonexistent and squeezed it's face together. It's teeth, oh it's teeth, was mangled and sharp and yellow and it's gums were a bright red. Ethan's own blood was getting on his face. "GET OFF!"
The monster clench it's jaw even harder on Ethan's pinky and ring finger and ripped away, taking his fingers with him. The creature roared, the same roar from outside. The roar mixed with Ethan's pained wails were blending together in the basement. The creature picked him up by the shoulders and threw him through the wall.
The snow against the open wound stung but it was most likely needed to help with the wound. Ethan looked at his open hand, the entirety of the pinky was missing, half his ring finger was gone, and the meat of his hand was gone. "What the fuck was that?!" Ethan turned back and saw the creature slunched over. Walking towards him.
"No... No, st- stay back!" he started crawling away, hopped up, and pulled his gun out. He aimed towards the head and it took 8 shots before it went down.
"What the hell?!"
Ethan looked around, quiet. He didn't hear anything. He went back in the house and looked around before spotting a pair of bolt cutters. He went back outside and saw that the creature was disintegrating, and the door that was behind it was closed off with a heavy chain.
Ethan tried his best to grip the bolt cutters without hissing in pain, but his left hand had a fresh wound, so a hiss naturally came out. He cut the chain off and then opened the gate doors. Through the gate was another house, with the backdoor wide open. Ethan went inside cautiously. There was a radio that was on that was playing static, next to the radio was handgun ammo. He grabbed it and pocketed it in his jacket. He heard what sounded like a rip and then liquid.
He whipped around and saw bright crimson pouring from the ceiling. He quickly ran towards the door and pulled an old bookcase in front of it. He saw stairs and ran up, his gun in front of him, finger on the trigger. There was more ammo in front of a boarded up window. He quickly grabbed it and then a hairy arm smashed in between the boards. The creature pulled it's hand back and then looked between the boards, then jumped onto the ceiling. He saw a part of the ceiling collapsed, but the creature didn't fall through.
Ethan ran back downstairs and saw that it had broken through one of the downstairs windows. He quickly shot at it and slashed it with a knife before the creature collapsed. The radio static changed a bit and there was a voice. "Hello? If there are any survivors out there, come to my- to Luiza's house near the fields."
"Survivors?" Ethan quickly moved the shelf away from the door and started to run around the house. He saw more houses and more creatures on the rooves. He quickly ran into the building and entered a kitchen. On the table was a shotgun -an M1897- with ammo and med fluid. Ethan quickly poured the med fluid onto his hand and then cocked the shotgun. He ran into the next room and saw a ladder leading underground. He jumped down and started running. There was scrap metal on the ground that he quickly picked up. Dulvey taught him that anything could be made into something useful.
He ran under the house and then ran into one of the creatures. One shot to the head was enough to take it out. Three more creatures ran towards him, one shot ran through each of it's heads, knocking them all down. He pulled his handgun out and ran, there was no end to the creatures, but there would be an end to his ammo, and he wouldn't survive with a knife alone against these things.
He ran into another building, grabbed the box of ammo he saw, then went up the ladder to the roof. He saw more creatures all around, and buildings set on fire. Some of the creatures had weapons, some had weapons that were ablaze. Th smoke was thick and black and strong.
Ethan spotted a red gate. That would most likely be the way out. He jumped off the roof and then ran towards the gate. He shot at some of the creatures, knocking them down one by one. He was low on ammo and couldn't get the gate open. He ran out and then ran into a tall creature wielding an axe. He kept running and running before falling into a stream. He heard galloping and looked up. Two creatures were on horses, wielding spears with dead bodies on them, Ethan was surround by the creatures before the giant one with an axe showed up. It jumped in front of Ethan, reared it's head back, and roared.
It looked at Ethan and he saw a face similar to the other creatures, only frostbitten and covered in white hair. It looked to the side, as if something was beckoning it, and ran, and the other creatures ran with it, as if bored of Ethan. He didn't know why they left, but he was glad they did. He finally was able to wrap up his injured hand. Only having three fingers to work with now. He turned and saw someone standing there, amongst the carnage.
The person was short and broad and had a walking staff. They turned and started to walk away. Ethan quickly got up and started to go after them. "Wait. W- Wait!" The person had managed to open the red gate. Ethan ran through.
An elderly woman's voice came from the person. "In life and in death, we give glory."
"Uh, hello? You shouldn't be out here, it's not safe."
The woman was drawing in the dirt with her staff, which had two human skulls and some small animal skulls on it. She was drawing the same symbol that Ethan saw earlier.
"Hey, what the hell?" The woman kept drawing. "Hey, can you hear me?"
The woman finally turned to him. She had a leathery old face, eyes fogged and white hair wild under her hood. "It's you? The child's father."
"Child?" Ethan was confused for a moment, then realized, "Hey, wait, do you mean Rose? Is she here?" He asked excitedly. He wanted nothing more than to hold Rose and get out of this forsaken place.
The woman laughed and sang, "Rose! Rose! Yes!" Her face and voice turned serious, "She is in great danger. Since Mother Miranda brought her to the village, we have fallen into darkness."
"Are you talking about the monsters?" Before Ethan could get an answer, a large bell rang. The woman started to hobble away quickly, back to the red gate.
"The castle bell heralds danger! They're coming!" The woman cackled.
Ethan reached out to her as she went behind the gate, "No, wait! Where's Rose?! And who's 'Mother Miranda'?!"
"The bell tolls for us all!" That wasn't an answer at all. "They're coming again!" The woman cackled as she shut the door quickly.
"Rose is here?" Ethan questioned. Rose is here. Chris is here. Chris will pay.
He had to find Luiza's house first. Now to find out where Luiza's house was. He ran into a house that had what looked like an alter set up on the porch. He stepped inside and saw a giant version of the symbol. There was a scrap of paper that read, "O great lycans, The fabled monsters of old, May they come to eat our flesh, May they come to tear us apart." Either it was an angsty poem a thirteen year old wrote, or a summoning spell for lycans. And based on the creatures that ate up his ammo, he was willing to run with the later option.
Ethan headed outside and looked around, he stumbled upon some crows, who cawed and flew off. He saw the castle off in the distance. He saw a little shrine with a wooden goat. He saw an inscription. "We offer these Goats of Warding to protect the village and its people. Any who break them shall feel the wrath of Mother Miranda."
Yeah, let's NOT touch those, Ethan.
He walked past the little shrine and then saw a big gate labeled 'Castle Dimitrescu.' It was locked by missing two stone contraptions, he would have to look around for the things to finish the contraption to get it to unlock.
"I'm going to find you, Rose." Ethan said as he began his search. "I promise."