Tammy managed to refrain from panicking when she heard the door handle turn. Instead, she calmly drew the curtains across the window she stood in front of. With a deep breath, she turned to face Wesker. She already knew it was him, of course.

He simply stood looking at her for a minute and the started towards her

“Where is Samantha?” he asked softly, never breaking eye-contact with Tammy.

“The bathroom getting cleaned up.” She replied quickly.

Please don’t let him look out the window…

Wesker glanced towards the bathroom door. The sound of running water from behind it and the faint steam rising from underneath it was enough to confirm Tammy’s story.

“I thought I should let you know… They’ll be coming here soon.” He said and Tammy felt her face let slip a look of curiosity.

“How do you know?” Wesker’s mouth twitched at the edges with an unpleasant smile.

“Well… I probably shouldn’t tell you, my love. I know how you like to play the brave one. We don’t want you getting hurt again.” He said rather smarmily and Tammy would have twitched with anger had her new artificial muscles allowed it.

“One seems to forget my getting ‘hurt’ last time wasn’t exactly my fault.” She growled and Wesker’s face immediately lost its look of superiority, being replaced with his stone-cold, passive look. The look that scared Tammy beyond them all.

“And one seems to forget what a whore she might seem in her friends’ eyes for willingly sleeping with their mortal enemy.” He said softly to her, leaning in to whisper it right next to her ear. Tammy jerked back as if burnt by the words.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that…” She whispered, sounding braver then she felt. Wesker folded his arms and looked down at her disdainfully.

“Then don’t you dare talk to me like I didn’t do all I could to save you, because despite what you might want to believe, I actually didn’t want this for you.” He reached out and yanked one of the ear-like ports on Tammy’s head. Though it didn’t hurt her, she wasn’t expecting it and pushed his arm away, frightened.

“Don’t touch me. Just tell me why you know they’ll be coming here soon.”

Wesker laughed humorlessly.

“If I wanted to touch you right now, really touch you, I think you’d let me.” He said simply. Tammy blushed inwardly. She really hated when he talked to her like that. Partly because on some level, he was usually right…

She chose to ignore it and try to get some answers out of him. The sooner he left the better, especially for Samantha…

“Have you made a threat?” She asked and he shook his head. Tammy bit her lip, if it wasn’t that, it meant he’d either taken a prisoner or, god forbid it, killed one of her friends.

Wesker saw the pained, nervous look on her face and relented slightly. Causing her too much stress wasn’t good for the plan. It usually led to her doing wastefully courageous things.

Like pushing him down that hole five years ago… That hadn’t exactly amused him.

“Don’t be so afraid, my dear. It’s simply another hostage… One whom I have no intention of harming.” At the moment… He then added to himself. Tammy visibly relaxed, but only a little.

“Who? Do I know them?” She asked. Wesker analyzed if he should lie or not and decided the truth probably wouldn’t be too dangerous to out to Tammy.

“Claire Redfield.” He stated. Tammy’s eyes widened, she couldn’t believe it.

“You captured Claire?” She blurted rather stupidly, repeating what he had just told her. Wesker rolled his eyes.

“Yes. It seems a pattern is emerging…” Though, if that were true, it meant Claire was easy to capture but a danger to have around. Hopefully his scheme would benefit from her presence as he hoped, rather then destroying it.

“You… You idiot!” Tammy shoved him. Hard. The combination of surprise and her new strength was enough to make Wesker stumble back. Eyes blazing silver behind the lenses of his sunglasses, he advanced towards her.

“Don’t you ever push me again…” He growled, grabbing her arm and squeezing. Tammy felt the pressure of his grasp, but no pain. She looked up at him, a humorless grin stretching her lips from around her teeth.

“Guess you fucked up taking away my ability to feel pain, Wesker…” She whispered and the fury in his eyes immediately died.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Tammy…’ he said, relaxing his grip and trailing his fingertips down her arm to entwine with hers “You know this. But what you should also know is causing pain, it’s… It is part of my nature. I know you despise that about me, but…” He trailed off

Tammy looked away. It was always too hard with Wesker… Too hard to know when he was being truthful and when he was just trying to manipulate her…

But with Samantha at stake, Tammy was willing to let majority rule…

‘Don’t give me that, Albert.’ She said quietly, taking her hand from his “Yes, I hate it. You know I do. There’s no compromise, nothing you could ever do to stop me hating it. Short of stopping… And I know you never will.”

Till the day you die…

Wesker smiled slowly, showing no teeth, forming the most cynical smile she’d ever seen.

“My… Isn’t somebody negative this evening.” He whispered and Tammy flinched. It seemed he was about to say something painful and scathing to her. Her body might be stronger, but his words could still cut her like the touch of a razor.

She wasn’t disappointed…

“I suppose, my dear, you’ll have an eternity with me to justify that theory.” He said and turned away, walking for the door. Tammy just stared at the floor… The truth in his words had hurt badly, but at least now he was leaving, he wouldn’t discover…

Wesker paused, his hand already on the doorknob. If there had been a beating heart in Tammy’s chest, it would have frozen right then…

“Hasn’t Samantha been in the shower a long time?’ Wesker remarked, turning to Tammy. “Come to think of it, isn’t our daughter a little short of stature to turn it off by herself?” The dangerous edge of his voice seemed sharper then any knife right then…

“I- she…” Tammy stammered, taking an instinctive step backwards, feeling the breeze from the open window against her back.

Breeze… Oh, god, that means…!

A stronger gust of wind blew into the room, rustling the curtains. Wesker stormed up to Tammy and struck her across the face, sending her to the floor. He tore the curtains open and looked down…

“How quaint. The rope made of bed sheets. I’ve never seen it practiced myself… Until now.”

Tammy raised herself up from the floor. She’d failed… It had been a stupid, dangerous plan in the first place, and now Wesker was just going to have Samantha rounded up again…

He seemed about to say something else smart to her when he froze dead, having just realized that upon reaching the bottom, the only way for his daughter to have gone was north…

Into the maze.

“Now who’s the idiot?” he murmured, already at the door. When he was gone, Tammy stood and looked out the window…

The hedges of the vast maze were almost black in the dark. Tammy hadn’t any idea if there was an exit to the maze, but she’d hoped she and Samantha could navigate through it. If only Wesker hadn’t come in before she could climb down after their daughter...

Wesker… Why had he suddenly frozen up like that? Tammy bit her lip, pondering. He’d been looking at the maze, and…

Her hand flew to her mouth as she uttered a small, fear-stricken gasp. Eyes wide and staring at the sea of dark hedge walls beneath the window, Tammy knew then that it wasn’t the maze itself that had caused Wesker’s sudden departure…

It was what lay inside it.

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Short chappie, but expect some good old fashioned horror in the next chapter… And find out what lurks inside the sinister maze… XD