"Are you looking for someone, little girl?" a woman with black hair and brown eyes asks as she kneels.
"There's a dog over there," the little girl points at the shaggy, golden-haired retriever who is currently sitting down, and panting hard in the shade. The air is hot and heavy: it's a humid summer day.
"Oh, Ralphie? He's my dog sweetie. Would you like to pet him?" she stands, reaching her hand for Madeleine's. She reaches hers up too, stopping at the remembrance of her parent's warning. "Don't trust strangers."
This isn't a scary stranger though. No, she has a dog and seems very friendly to the little girl with her gentle smile.
"Yes please, Ma'am," she beams back at her, naively. Innocently, because how could a child so young know that there truly are people in this world with intentions of harming children?
They pass some tall shrubbery walking over to the canine. The little girl doesn't notice how far away they are from her parents and aunt until her vision goes black. Terrified and startled, she opens her mouth to scream for help. She's met with a mass of cloth that's shoved in before she can scream, gagging her instead. It's then taped over, preventing her from spitting it out. Preventing her from calling for Mommy and Daddy as she's hauled off the ground, and crushed hard over someone's shoulder. The tears start coming uncontrollably in muffled hiccups of confusion and fear.
She reaches blindly for Mommy. Daddy. Anybody... until she loses her bearings and is carried away from all she knows.
. . .
September 28th, 7:00 A.M
I jolt awake from the nightmare, but I don't move. Only turning my head from where I fell asleep sitting upright in the cramped space to stare at the back cabinet on the wall behind Wesker's desk.
My bloodshot, unfocused eyes land on the papers and debris that are scattered on the floor from last night when I got here. Where I'd trashed the office after several minutes of staring in from the entryway. In utter disbelief, I was banished from seeing the remaining officers for the rest of our time alive here. I didn't even grab any food or water to take with me, my departure from the operations room was so hasty. I was legitimately afraid if I took too long that Rita would hold true to her promise and shoot me. Like she no doubt will if she finds me in the building still. Even after telling me to get out, I stayed. Rather risking her fury than dying on the road while running around in the middle of the night.
I'd stepped into the office cautiously, still afraid of the very presence it exuded after the two months of being here. And then... I just broke. Broke at the thought of being inside the office of the man partially at fault for my predicament. The man whose body hopefully burned to oblivion at the bottom of that lab, but not before destroying the lives of the S.T.A.R.S. team. I cried as I tore the paintings from the walls, slamming them all onto his desk to shatter the glass before tearing them in two.
The picture that stopped me in my rage being a photo of said team all lined up. Smiling proudly while they posed for their very first photo together as a team.
It was the picture that froze me in my tracks, where I picked the frame up and sat on the floor under the desk as I touched the faces of the men and women, both alive and dead. Apologizing, muttering my regret aloud for being part of the plan that killed them. Not stopping until I passed out at some point.
I twist my sore, stiff neck, feeling nothing in response but a dull ache and go to climb out from under the desk. The movements are hindered when I'm met with the swirling and blurring vision of vertigo. I shut my eyes tightly, disoriented by the dizziness.
YOU ARE READING
The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)
Horror"I think you're going to learn a lot of things about this city and the people that you won't want to." Madeleine Sówka has spent the last twelve years of her life believing she knows what monsters look like. They are the people who hide in the backg...
