The Last Survivor //Resident Evil Village//

The stolen maiden

The obnoxious sound of dripping water woke her. It was cold, dark, the stone wall that she rested against made her body ache. She had no recollection of where she was, and this frightened her. She pulled her arms only to find them chained above her head, the chains rattled, sending an echo through the dark dungeon. Her clothes were torn, allowing her to see the fresh cuts along her arms and legs. Panic began to set in as she pulled at her restraints.

There were hooded figures wandering around outside of her cell. They walked with a limp and growled lowly under their breaths. They held weapons in their hands, dragging them along behind them as they walked. She felt her stomach churn at the god awful smell emitting from these people, if people was even the right word. There was no way possible that these things were human.

She watched in horror as the creatures limped around, as she strained her brain to remember something, anything. Sarah. It was as if someone had whispered the name in her ear. She would've been even more frightened had she not realized that Sarah was her name.

"My name is Sarah," she muttered to herself. If it was the only thing she was going to remember then she would make sure that it never left her head. She would drive herself insane reminding herself that her name was Sarah. "My name is Sarah, my name is Sarah, my name is Sarah."

A commotion outside interrupted her thoughts. The creatures guarding her cell hissed and headed towards whatever said commotion was. Suddenly, a loud bang emitted from the distance, causing her to jump. She once again began to tug at her restraints as quickened footsteps neared her. Another bang sounded and Sarah had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming. One of the creatures stumbled back into view, crying out as it raised the sword in its hands. A terrible scream came from the thing before another bang sounded, sending the creature tumbling to the floor.

Sarah pressed herself further against the wall, hoping to hide from whatever was about to approach. A man stepped into view, he held something in his shaky hands and pointed it at the creature, kicking it to make sure it was truly dead. When it didn't move he sighed, leaning against the bars of her cell. His eyes widened as they came into contact with the woman locked inside.

She felt her heart begin to pound against her chest as the man fumbled with the cell door. She tried to speak, to ask him who he was and what he wanted, but the words didn't form. He approached her and reached for the chains. Sarah screamed and kicked at him, attempting to get him away from her, but the man was quite persistent.

"Hey, hey, stop. I'm not gonna hurt you," he finally called. This seemed to calm her as she stopped kicking. There was something about his voice that told her he wasn't lying. That told her he wasn't a threat. She was still afraid of him nonetheless, and she watched him with fearful eyes. "I'm gonna help you, I promise. What have those sick fucks done to you?" He inquired, eying the cuts along her arms and legs.

After some time the chains finally came loose, allowing her to pull her arms away. She rubbed her sore and exhausted wrists, looking back up at the man who held his hand out to her. She shook her head, recoiling into the corner. This only lasted for a moment as another growl from one of those creatures emitted from somewhere in the dungeon. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet as they took off from the cell.

"How long have you been down here?" He asked as they ran. Sarah eyed him with fear and curiosity, not knowing how to answer. "Can you even speak English? ¿Español? Français? Deutsch?"

"What?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, so you can speak English, you're just ignoring me," he chuckled as they entered a larger and brighter room. "Can you at least tell me your name? Are you from this village? Anything?"

"What have we here?" A woman's voice called. The man turned around and pulled Sarah behind him, aiming his weapon at the blonde woman in front of them. Her mouth was stained with blood, she had a strange marking on her forehead and wore an all black dress and cloak. Her eyes widened at the sight of Sarah. "What are you doing with her?" The woman spat. "She is MINE!"

The man pulled the trigger on his weapon as the woman began to stomp towards him. She chuckled, "your bullets cannot harm me. Now give me back my maiden!" She cried. He stepped backwards, holding his hand out protectively in front of Sarah. "Did I stutter? GIVE HER TO ME!" The three of them stopped at the sound of cracking. Sarah looked up to see the window behind the woman shatter. The woman let out a cry as cold air filled the room.

What ensued afterwards was a fight between the woman and the man. The man somehow kept the woman from getting to Sarah, though she got close many times. Slowly, the woman began to turn to stone. Before she was completely turned, she gave the man one final message. "You're a fool if you think you'll ever get Rose back. You've already lost," she gasped before the stone she had turned to shattered into a million pieces.

Sarah fell to the floor, backing into a wall, her breathing growing heavier as the weight of what had just happened crushed her. "Is she-"

"Yeah," he replied, kneeling next to her. He rested his hands on her shoulders and looked her up and down, checking for any injuries. "Hey, it's okay. She can't hurt you."

"What is this place?" Sarah choked back a sob.

"I don't know. I figured you would know."

"I can't remember," she muttered in embarrassment. "I don't remember anything. I just woke up here," she shivered from the cold air entering through the broken windows. "Who are you? Who is.." she thought back to what the woman said, "Rose?"

"Rose is my daughter," he sighed. "She was taken. We were taken, by someone I thought I could trust. I'm going to find her."

Sarah nodded, looking at his bandaged hand. "Your fingers! What happened?" She asked, noticing he was missing a few fingers.

He chuckled. "You think what's in here is bad? You won't believe what's out there," he patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. You're safe," he paused for a minute before looking back to her. "I'm Ethan."

"Ethan," she repeated, taking in everything he had told her. He reached his uninjured hand out and combed it through her jet black hair. She winced at all the knots that were being pulled.

"Please tell me this village at least has a hairbrush," Ethan chuckled.

"I- I don't know."

"Right, sorry. Maybe your memory will start coming back to you. When we get out of this castle I'll take you to someplace safe to hunker down until I find Rose. Then we'll all get the hell out of here," he grabbed her hand and helped her to her feet. "I'll get you some help, I promise."

"Ethan," she whispered. "You helped me, so I'll help you. You shouldn't have to look for your daughter on your own."

"No. I can't have you getting hurt because you think you owe me. I can't have anyone else dying because of..." he froze, immediately gripping onto the wedding ring on his finger, feeling a sharp pang in his chest. "You don't owe me," he muttered, turning away from her.

She wanted to argue, but could see she had struck a nerve. Instead, she nodded, dropping her head in shame.

"We should- we should get going. Won't find Rose by just standing around now, will we?" He attempted to lighten the mood.

"Okay," she muttered, following him down a long hall. "There is one thing I remember."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"My name is Sarah."

"Sarah," he repeated. Similar to how she had repeated his name earlier. "It's nice to meet you Sarah. I'm glad to know I'm not the only sane person still alive."

She giggled. "Me too."