Resident Evil One-Shots

In the Dark

Little hands grasped desperately at the golden door handle in the middle of the night.
The little girl, no older than five, had been abruptly woken up by a dog's bark. It was nearing the holidays in Russia so temperatures were freezing but luckily she was dressed in wooly, baby-pink socks, and a dandelion-spotted onesie.

Her long, straight, brown hair shielded her back as she sniffed and reached up on her toes to wrestle with the doorknob again. It was the front door to their house. She knew that.
She was scared to stay in her room because she'd seen a shadow staring at her from the closet. Terrified, the little girl had quickly run out of her bedroom, quietly crying as she thudded down the hallway and was now jagging wildly at the doorknob to leave the house.

She was scared.

Her chest tightened as her cries bubbled in her throat and she cried harder as she heard slow, heavy footsteps cause the wooden floorboards to creak behind her.

As they got closer, Paris cried harder and shook her head as she dropped her Chebrushka teddy in favour of using both hands to yank the door open.

"Papa," Paris quietly whimpered as she tried to pull the door open, using all of her little might to do her best to escape whatever it was that was coming down the hallway after her. "Nyet, Pap! Please!"

She cried harder, both hands tightly gripping the doorknob as she closed her eyes and huddled against it - hoping that whatever happened next, it would either happen quickly or it would just let her be.

She knew her Daddy was strong and big, but in her panicked mind, she didn't know where he was. She thought that he was out there somewhere in the snow, walking the men again. She didn't understand everything but she knew enough to find his office or the barracks where her close uncles Kolya and Yuri slept.

As she huddled against her door, her cries turned into sobs as she trembled, unable to see the giant hand coming to reach out to her. It paused as it heard her cries and pulled back slightly as it spoke.

"Parsha," the little girl stopped crying for a brief moment as she heard her father's voice.

Her tiny, brown eyes reopened to scan the darkness frantically in front of her.

"Papa?" She sniffed, still tightly gripping the doorknob.

"Parsha, it's me." She heard his voice again and slowly let go of the doorknob as she turned around to look back down the hallway. At first, she was scanning behind the hulking shadow in front of her, wondering where he was if she couldn't see him. "I'm here."

His soft, yet deep voice gently called out to her from the shadow that was directly in front of her.

Paris sniffed and stared at it before she started crying again and threw her little arms around the shadow. "Papa, I'm sorry!"

She cried harder, nearly begging for his forgiveness. Paris wasn't normally a difficult child - it was her condition that made it difficult. She was a good kid; she did everything that they asked and tried her best to remember all of what had been taught to her. But there were moments, such as now, when her family worried. No five-year-old should be wandering the streets of a Russian military base at 1 in the morning, especially in such horrid weather. She'd either freeze to death, get lost, or worse. Probably even shot at if someone saw her from afar.

All these things were stressful, yes, but that's why they had the front door reinforced with several different locks after the first time she escaped. They didn't have dogs because she was terrified of them but they had a cat. Unfortunately, the cat was sleeping with their little boy tonight and hadn't been there to comfort their little girl. Thankfully, Sergei had heard her running down the hall and had swiftly gotten up to investigate - believing that an intruder was in the house. Highly unlikely, but still, he was a very protective father and he wasn't one to take any chances around his children and wife.

Despite being tired, he carefully wrapped his massive arms around the little girl and kissed her cheek.
"It's alright," he tried his best to reassure her that he wasn't upset. Between her hallucinations and anxiety, Sergei had to constantly remind himself to be patient and understanding with his youngest. She was perhaps the only figure in his life who needed that little bit more of his caring nature. His eldest daughter was no doubt just as ruthless as he was, and their son was completely laid back. So he could handle Paris' episodes here and there as long as his eldest, Katherine, didn't take advantage of the situation to prey on her little sister.

He grunted as he then picked her up, a hand coming to snatch up her teddy before he straightened with a small sigh and turned his head so his nose was against hers. "Papa's here."

"Th-there w-was a do-dog," Paris tried to explain herself in between her sobs.

Sergei was tired.
But he was still going to stay up every night and talk to her as much as he could. He didn't always understand his children, especially his youngest, but he wasn't ever going to let her think that she was fighting this battle alone.

"A dog?" He asked as he slowly took them back down the hallway.

"Da," Paris nodded as she tried to wipe her eyes. "I-it was s-staring at me."

"Oh, did you think of giving him any pats?"

"Nyet!" Paris shrieked and cried harder.

Sergei grunted and leaned away as she did so, a little annoyed but more at himself than he was with her. He wanted his daughter to develop a love for animals so she could lean on them for support. However, it was clear that dogs were still a very scary thing for the little girl.

By the time that they made it back to Paris' bed, the little girl had nearly cried her heart out and exhaustion was beginning to take over. Sergei carefully set her down, placed Chebrushka beside her, and pulled up the two covers before examining her tiny, tear-stained face.

"Pap," she murmured quietly as she tried to keep her eyes open.

The scarred man smiled as he held her tiny hand in his massive one. "I'm still here, Parsha. And I'll be here when you wake up tomorrow. We can go sledding with Kolya's family? You like Temma, don't you?"

"Mhm," Paris nodded as she tried to turn on her side and curl up in the fetal position.

"Get some rest then," Sergei carefully leaned down to kiss the top of her head but only left once he was sure that she was completely out. He had done this many times and the fear on her face when she suddenly woke up and didn't feel or see him there anymore had been too much pain on him in previous encounters. He hoped that with time, she would get better. He could only hope. But for now, he wasn't aware of the hours dragging by as he held her tiny hand and stared down at her. He wanted her to know that even when he stepped away to go back to sleep, he was still going to be there with her; gently reassuring her that he was going to do all that he could to keep her safe. Even if the monsters in her head weren't the ones that he could fight. He had to try, for her sake.