A/N: This is a little side story for Secrets of the Past, because some people were wondering about Leon and the Silent Hill 4 peeps. :) Enjoy!
After the events that had transpired in and around Raccoon City, the American Government took those survivors who had actively fought their way out of the city and recruited them to a secret operation. Those recruited were separated into several divisions, including one dedicated to the investigation and eradication of the various Umbrella plants and research facilities throughout the world, and one dedicated to investigating other mysterious and potentially dangerous events taking place throughout the United States.
While the other members of S.T.A.R.S, plus Claire, had been initiated into the URDT(1), Leon was instead first placed in a secret service style training module. After his rescue of the President's daughter, detailed in the Ashley Files(2), he was switched to APAP(3). In the APAP, Leon took direction from other recruits who search the papers of the nation in order to weed out pheromones that may cause harm or damage to the greater populous.
Several days after URDT Alpha had been dispatched to investigate the Umbrella research center located in Silent Hill, Leon got his next mission. As he traveled to South Ashfield(4), Leon was directed to a cordoned off apartment building.
"So, what happened?" Leon sidled up to the lead detective, who jumped, and scowled at him.
"And who are you, hot-shot?"
Leon flashed his badge, and the detective made a dismissive noise before waving him through the police tape.
"Well, I think this whole thing started when they found the body in the subway. Investigators have no clue where the lady came from, she just appeared inside one of the ticket booths, blood everywhere. Our only clues are some numbers carved into her chest." The detective flipped open his notebook as they moved into the apartment building.
"16121, that's what was carved into her torso. Now, we ran the numbers, and ended up with a series of murders just like this, committed in and around the Silent Hill and Ashford areas. Now, my men initially dismissed it as a copy-cat killing"
"Why?" Leon interrupted, looking around the lobby of the building. It was dirty; the grime looked as if it had been there for years, and the stench….
The detective shot a look in his direction. "Because the guy who killed all those people, Walter Sullivan the serial killer, killed himself in prison years ago. Shoved a sharpened spoon into his neck and severed the carotid artery. There was no way he could have survived. Anyways," The cop gestured for Leon to follow as he started climbing the stairs. "We thought it was just a copy-cat, until the second body showed up. This old abandoned orphanage, outside of Silent Hill, caught fire and when the police and firefighters showed up, there was nothing but rubble and a body. Some guy with the numbers '17121' carved into his chest. So, understandably, we got worried."
They stop walking as a forensic investigator came out of the second floor wing and told the detective that the floor was safe again.
"So, knowing that it was Sullivan's MO, we thought maybe this joker had managed to fool everyone, even with a soup-spoon shoved 5 inches in his throat, and we dug up his grave. And you know what we found?" They were moving up the stairs again, and Leon was handed a face mask. Whatever the stench was, it was worrying enough to warrant a mask.
"What? And what's with the masks?" Leon stretched it across his face, noticing the stench was accompanied by a sort of mist the higher they moved.
"Well, we don't know what this stuff is, but it's the reason we're here, really. Anyways, we dig up Sullivan's grave and he wasn't in there. Of course the next logical conclusion was that maybe he was cremated, or this was a decoy grave, you know, so no sickos could dig him up and 'take a trophy'. So, we double checked the records, and nope, that was his grave alright. So we begin looking at the possibility that he survived and was killing people again."
They reached the top floor and the detective motioned for Leon to open the door.
"You've got gloves. And I'm not touching…that."
The door was incrusted with grime and…blood? Leon pushed the door open, and immediately began to feel ill.
"Now…." The detective was also feeling the effects, but pushed through, determined to show Leon what had happened. "We had no clue where to go next, until we got a 911 call. An older man was found in a room on this floor electrocuted in his lazy-boy with '19121' carved into him. Then another call for this place came in for a young woman. Alive, but badly beaten, with '20121' carved into her back. Of course we start getting suspicious. Not to mention this killer skipped a number there. So we were really concerned when…" They stop outside an apartment.
The rest of the hallway was red with grime and blood, but the apartment…the ground outside of it was impeccable, clean and white. They stepped onto it, and immediately Leon felt the ill feeling and the pressure fade.
"What the hell was that?" He asked, breathing deeply.
"We don't know. The boys haven't figured that bit out yet. So, anyways, we figure this place had to be important. I mean, one murder and an attempted murder, one right after another in this dump? So we started looking. What we ended up finding out is that Sullivan was born here; in this very apartment. We heard that as a kid he'd travel and harass the people living in here. So, we got suspicious, came to investigate and then that's when we get the new report."
Leon finally entered the apartment. Pretty basic, boring even. Nothing appeared to be out of sorts….except for the dirt and destruction littering the place. A thick pool of something on the ground, and a more familiar stench assaulted Leon's nose.
"We start hearing of people leaving this place, showing up at the hospital with heart issues. People with no business having heart trouble start showing signs of heart attacks. So they evacuate the place, and in doing so, the crew getting people out find the woman, the one who was beaten and had '20121' in her back, crouched near the 3rd floor doors. The paramedics yank her out, and no one has any idea how this lady got out of the hospital, but she starts screaming about how she can't leave yet. Finally someone calms her down, and she tells us the guy that owns this apartment, Henry, is still trapped in here. So they send someone to check. He has to come down and get an axe and some more help. So they break down this door, and find this place. This Henry bloke is laid out on the floor convulsing, and there's a body in the wall."
The way the detective said this worried Leon, so he peeked around the corner where the coroner and his crew are removing a body from a walled up room.
"This Henry guy kill him?" Leon asks, and the detective shakes his head.
"Nope. Because right there you have Walter Sullivan, dead of a spoon to the neck." At Leon's look, he elaborated. "We checked with the Super. There were at least 3 other people living here before this guy, and all of them only had one bedroom apartments. You'd think they'd notice, what with the rest of the apartments being 2 bedroom ones. Seen enough?"
Leon shook his head. "I want to look in each of the rooms before I leave. And then I need to see this Henry and Eileen. Where are they?"
The detective grunted, and moved to the door. "Suit yourself. And they are at St. Jerome's Hospital." He turned away and left, snapping his mask on.
Leon also turned and began his inspection. The kitchen showed nothing but a fridge with the door ajar, and a look at the living room showed some destroyed furniture and a TV on the fritz. Leon opened the laundry room door and looked at the hole, which lead to nowhere. Leon debated sticking his arm in it, but decided against it, and went into the washroom. The one wall had a space where it looked like a hole was once, and the wall opposite was pristine. Leon left the washroom and peered into the once walled up room.
It was dank and smelled of dust, rust, mold, and death. He took in the shelving and the crew dealing with the body, before moving to the bedroom. It was much cleaner than the rest of the apartment, and Leon sighed.
There was nothing there to help him determine what was going on, and sticking around to look deeper into the corpse room, as he was calling it, was unappealing to him. He exited the apartment, and took a deep breath before attaching the face mask and moving down the hall. As he clamored down the stairs, Leon noticed that the lobby was steadily emptying of investigators. He left the building and pushed his way through the reporters to the rental car. As he removed the mask, he tried to create a scenario in his mind.
'So, a serial killer starts killing again, even though he's been dead for years. He also manages to dig himself up and wall his body inside of an apartment without anybody noticing. Then people here start suffering from heart issues, a hospital patient is found on the third floor, and a tenant is found unconscious inside of his apartment. Hopefully they can help me figure out what is going on…'
Leon made his way to the hospital, and, with a flash of his badge, was taken to the split room Henry and Eileen were recovering in.
"Hello." Leon knocked before moving into the room.
"Ah! Hello…?" Eileen looked up from her magazine, but Henry didn't move much. "Can I help you?"
"Hello, Ms. Galvin. My name is Leon Kennedy. I've been assigned to find out what happened to your apartment building and the people inside of it. Would you be able to answer some questions?" Leon asked.
"Sure? I mean, you probably won't believe me, but I can tell you about what happened. Henry would probably be able to tell you more, but he's pretty out of it…" Eileen looked at her room-mate, who was hooked up to multiple machines.
"Trust me, I think I'll believe you. I survived the Raccoon City incident, so I don't think you'd be able to tell me something that far-fetched." Leon smiled, and seated himself in a chair. "And I'm sure what you can tell me will be just as important as what Mr. Townshend could tell me. Now, how did this all start?"
Leon listened as Eileen told him everything she knew. It had started when she'd noticed that Henry hadn't been around. Then she was attacked while getting ready for a party. The only thing she remembered was seeing a kid, who had managed to save her somehow. Waking up in the hospital, still in the party dress, locked in the room. Henry arriving and getting her out of there. Weird holes that only Henry could see and use. Strange writing that only she understood. This guy named Walter, chasing them, trying to get at her. A town called Silent Hill, a horrible jail, and being possessed. Something called the '21 Sacraments'. Walking into the pool of blood, toward the spinning blades, against her will. Passing out and waking up back in the apartments. Being taken to the hospital again, this time with Henry.
As Leon took down everything she told him, the name Silent Hill stuck out. It was where Claire and the others were headed, and from what Leon could tell it was going to be trouble. He stayed in the room after Eileen finished her tale, her thinking of the unconscious man in the bed beside her, and Leon thinking of the friends and comrades in a sleepy little unassuming town called Silent Hill.
(1)Umbrella Retrieval and Demolition Team
(2)Not included in this file
(3)American Protection Against the Paranormal
(4)One plane trip and 8 hours in a car
A/N: I haven't played SH4 in quite some time, so I apologize if I screwed up XD