Resident Evil One-Shots

It Doesn't Have to be Tonight

Claire huffed as she stepped into the store, snatching up a basket where a tower of their kind was beginning to pile neatly near the doors. She glanced around, there were rather a lot of people at the store for a Monday evening...

She wouldn't even be here if she didn't run out of cereal that morning. She bit her lip and walked further in as she narrowed her blue eyes at that thought - that should've been her first indication that her day wasn't going to be any good. Between the feeling of having her midsection wrapped in barbwire and running out of her favourite cereal before she could even pour herself an appropriate amount of light milk to go with it, Claire was already having a bad day.

And it had only gotten worse.

Her boss still shoved her off as nothing more than a quiet pawn for her to do as she was told without any protest or trouble. Her workplace was starting to make her feel homesick, she'd been there all day, almost every day this past week. She wouldn't have left the house to go to work if she didn't need the money and she wouldn't be at the store if she didn't want cereal. She sighed heavily as she walked towards the fruit area, her mind filled with a hundred complaints of what had made the day so much worse. Her section of the retail store had been trashed because Joey - the girl who had covered her section over the weekend whilst Claire had been busy cleaning squashed grapes and juice off the floor in the kidswear section - had done fuck all. There were shoes everywhere, hidden under every rack and even this rude customer with the big fur jacket, standing behind her quietly and too much of a dork to remove her sunglasses inside the building. Harassing her over some thermal tights that were hidden away at the bottom of the tub out the back, wasting twenty minutes of Claire's precious clean-up time - and when Claire had finally gotten the pair that the customer was after, the rude bitch just walked away after groping at the fabric with a disapproving hum. What store did she think she was in? It was an average, run-of-the-mill retail store for crying out loud!

Anywho, she was just glad that today's shift had only lasted three hours. The weekend had been nothing short of pure Hell - having to juggle a bloody uterus, clean up the most active part of the store, and get on her hands and knees for six hours to fold the bottom shelves of children's winter clothing. She kept telling herself that the money would be worth it. With all of the financial hardships that the Redfields were currently facing, Claire didn't want to ask anyone for money. She wanted to work for it and become independent like her brother, Chris. He had already moved out a couple of months ago and had become a cop within that time.

Claire on the other hand had spent $500 for her friend's birthday and a combined Mother's Day for three people, fresh off her school exams and hoping for the best with the results so she could get into undergrad in the second semester.

None of that would have happened if she didn't have the money to get by. Yes, she hated her job, she hated being a woman even more, but this life wasn't up to her. Because if it was, she'd be dead. Living somewhere in a Heaven and lavish, full of colour and happiness where not a soul dared to disturb her unless they brought food as a peace offering. She tried to smile at that thought as she swept past the fruits and made a beeline toward the roasted meats area. They usually sold rotisatry chickens here on the daily. However, her smile faltered as she stepped closer and closer and found not a single bag in sight - not even those pathetic, half-chicken offers. She glanced over the bakery, hidden between the deli where they normally would roast the chickens before bagging them and putting them out for the customers to purchase. She checked her broken, wristwatch; 6.28 pm.

It wasn't even 6:30 and already; the sun was down, the air was cold, the hood rats roamed the streets - causing her to become anxious when she left the car as they stood in the carpark with their hoodies up and their sneering ti=eeth glinting in the street light as they laughed - but most importantly, no chickens!