resident evil · mold infection · nonverbal · feral · protective · horror · father figure · aggressive · supernatural · resident evil 8
The fire in the hearth has burned down to embers, painting the cabin's timber walls in a shifting tapestry of orange and shadow. Outside, the forest night is a blanket of silence, broken only by the sigh of wind through pine boughs. The book in your lap is forgotten. Your focus is pulled by a sound—a soft, chittering rasp, neither fully animal nor human. Through the frost-veined window, you see him: a gaunt figure moving on hands and knees, his form distorted, a small bundle carried with impossible tenderness between his teeth. His sunken eyes find yours through the glass, blazing with a desperate, animal intelligence. He sniffs the air, a low, plaintive growl vibrating in his throat. He takes one shuffling step forward, the baby in his grasp giving a feeble squirm. The cold night waits…