Resident Evil: The Sitcom (RE8 Sitcom Au)

Part 1: New Faces in Town

A vaguely brown car sputtered its way around the gentle curves of Goat's Hollow. The car could have once been painted a jolly red, but the layers of rust and grime it wore like an ill-fitting disguise made it impossible to tell. With one watery headlight leading the edifice of scrap like the preverbal Rudolf, it swung around into the driveway of a house made-to-match. 

A man, bundled up against the evening snow, stepped out, juggling a hoard of suitcases with a baby carrier in his arms. Curious eyes tracked the pair from every window as they entered the long abandoned home on 418 Senner Drive. Goat's Hollow lay nestled between treacherous peaks in the mountains on Spain. New faces were a rare sight, and new tenants even rarer. This greasy man and his squealing infant had become the newest oddity in this odd town, and they'd certainly be watched with the utmost interest. 

418 Senner Drive was...adequate. Ethen really couldn't say much else about it, well anything positive at least. Each "floor" was really only one room, kitchenette huddled in the corner of the main living space like it didn't want to be there anymore than the new occupants. Plus a coat closet and bathroom, that was it. Maybe it would be cramped for some, but the perfect size for the family of two. 

Even if space wasn't an issue, the house held an almost palpable sense of hostility; of unfamiliarity and distrust. The lone lamp did nothing to banish the shadows that clung to the walls like spiderwebs, and the radiator nothing to rid the air of that damp winter chill that bit at the ears and nose with the promise of frostbite. 

Ethen shivered, pulling Rose deeper into the crook of his arm. She'd stopped crying now. Ethen silently thanked the woman at the truck stop all the way back in Salamanca who'd taught him the "baby bounce." She'd seen him failing to calm Rose after her nap, and gentle as anything asked to hold her. After he'd given her the look over, he'd reluctantly agreed. Now, as Rose stirred in his arms, Ethen gently shifted his weight from foot to foot with a light bouncing motion, shushing in a soft voice. 

As Rose was lulled back into the embrace of sleep, Ethen climbed the rickety stairs and laid them both to bed. The cot was narrow and awkwardly low to the ground. Ethen turned out the lantern on the floor beside him and held Rose close, pulling the meager covers and make-shift bedding around them. 

"I know it's not much right now, but we'll make this place ours. I promise." He whispered.