Autumn leaves twirled and danced across the the ground and in the air, flashing each individual color brilliantly in the dying sun. The day was Friday, October 31, Halloween. The year, 1998. While little kids began to get ready to trick or treat and adults got ready to endlessly hand out candy until twelve in the morning, one man sat on his bed with his back pressed against the wall trying to block out memory's that wouldn't stop plaguing him. The man's sandy blond hair hung in his face and his lips trembled slightly as he remembered the horror that had happened not even a year ago back in Raccoon City. A flash of light erupted in his memory's, he could feel the heat of the flames licking at his body as it blazed out of cars and just recently abandoned buildings. A moaning sound came only feet away from him and he turned, fear in the back of his throat. Mere feet away was a rotting corpse of someone he had once new, just briefly, in passing. A man that had said his name was...Jason? No...the name then rang clearly in his mind. James Holiday, he had been a family man, always talking about his two little girls, and he had worked at the mayors office. Suddenly something flew by him and knocked the zombie version of Mr. Holiday to the ground, blood spurting out of his decaying body. The mans steel blue eyes snapped open and he looked around his small and scarcely decorated bedroom with wide eyes.
"Ugh." The man groaned to himself, pulling his legs onto the bed. "Leon, get a grip on yourself. It's all the past. No need to worry about it now. Just breath in, breath out and forget."
Leon tried to take his own advise but the scene kept flashing before his eyes. No rookies first day had ever gone as horridly as his had and no matter what he tried he couldn't push it out of his mind. He couldn't forget the smell of rotting flesh and the dead hungry sound that had come from James Holidays dead decaying body, he couldn't forget those rolling green eyes and the horrid dragging limp. Leon shook his head and knocked his head backwards into the wall behind himself. Just then the doorbell rang, jolting him out of his skin and causing him to reach for the gun at his hip. It rang again and Leon got slowly to his feet and walked out of his bedroom into the plain living room/kitchen to the door, holding the gun out in front of him, his finger on the trigger. Leon tried to think rationally, zombies couldn't ring the doorbell. They would have beat their bodies against the door until the door gave away, or, more likely, beat themselves into a bloody, gory mess.
Leon took a deep steadying breath. "Who is it?"
"It's Claire!" Leon felt his knees go weak with relief as he recognized the voice of the young woman, a college student, who had helped him survive the entire epidemic that had been Raccoon City. Leon released the cock on the gun and slipped it back into place on his hip before he opened the door.
"Hey, Claire." Leon tried not to look as haunted as he felt. "Long time no see."
Claire stood in the doorway, the smile on her face was fading and her red hair was down, waving down an inch past her shoulders. "Yeah." Claire glanced at the room behind Leon before looking back at him. "I thought I would drop in and see how your doing."
"Oh." Leon couldn't hide the faint spark of surprise that colored his words. "Well, uh, come in."
Leon moved to the side and let Claire squeeze into his apartment before he shut the door behind him, sliding the bolt into home. Leon turned away from the door to see Claire gazing around his little apartment, her back to him.
"I like your apartment." Leon raised an eyebrow at her comment and laughed a little, the sound was on the line of sounding insane.
"Can I get you something to drink?" Leon asked walking past her to the fridge. He opened it up, its bare shelves reminding him that he hadn't gone shopping yet. "Or, uh-"
"I'm fine right now." Claire replied as Leon shut the refrigerator door. Leon turned to see Claire leaning against the worn couch.
"So," Leon took a deep breath and looked Claire directly in her dark blue eyes. "What's the real reason your here?"
"To check up on you." Claire replied honestly, her eyes meeting his unflinchingly. "And to tell you I found my brother."
"Were is he?" Leon asked before he could stop himself.
"Off to find Jill so they can hunt down Wesker." Claire whispered, looking away from Leon and down at her feet.
"Oh." Leon glanced at his feet too. "Well, at least you got to see him before he took off."
"Yeah."
Leon looked up and saw Claire looking out the window of his apartment from were she leaned against the couch. "Don't tell me that I'm the only thing that brought you to Lincoln City."
"Well...you kinda are." Claire replied the smile she had on her face only ten moments before returned, only a little sadder then before. She turned her head away from the window and looked back at Leon. "I didn't want you to be alone on Halloween."
"It brings back bad memory's." Leon agreed, a small hesitant smile creeping on his face.
"Yeah," Claire laughed a little. "Haunting memory's."
"Hey," Leon looked around the room again before looking back at Claire. "How about I show you around Lincoln? I'm sure the city is more fun then I am right now."
"Um, sure." Claire followed Leon out of his apartment, a little surprised that Leon hadn't grabbed a coat. Claire reached out to grab his shoulder but stopped as the memory of his haunted look when he had opened the door. Instead she shut the door behind her and watched Leon locked it.
"So where would you like to go first?" Leon asked finally looking at Claire. Leon could see hesitation on her face and knew that no matter what had happened that night in Raccoon City she didn't expect this. She hadn't expected to find him like this, hiding in Lincoln City, waiting for the FBI to finish his background check so he could try to move on with his life. So he could try and forget, or at least get away from it.
"Uh," Claire looked around the street as they walked out of the apartment building. It was surprisingly empty, except for a hand full of princesses and a pirate or two. "I don't know. How about a diner or something?"
"Sure." Leon smiled at her and led her down the street, his hands stuck in the pockets of his jeans, his gun, still in its sheath, drumming steady against his leg as he walked, and his skin slowly turning red as a small chill creeped under it. They walked quietly down the street, side by side, and hardly looking at each other. Both lost in their own thoughts. They rounded the corner just as Leon had thought of a topic that would be safe, what had she been up to since Raccoon City? He couldn't think of anything wrong with that simple little question. But just as he was about to ask he heard a jumble of moans and groans coming from a head. In a split second Leon's head snapped up and his hand bolted down for his gun.
"Leon!" Leon barely heard Claire shout as he aimed his gun at several zombies, dragging themselves forward, limping and rolling their eyes while a thirty something woman watched laughing. Leon cocked the gun, flashes of Raccoon City ran through his mind. His boss groaning and lunging at him, Ada's death, blood splattering against the skin of his face and hands, the sent of rotting flesh, William Birkin's horrid mutation, and the many other creatures coming to devour Claire and himself. Leon held his hand on the trigger, only seeing the horrid flashbacks. "Leon! Their just kids!"
Leon felt a pair of hands tugging on the sleeve of gray tee shirt before they knocked his arms down, pointing his gun at the ground. "Wha-?" Leon's eyes darted from Claire and then back to the group of zombies. "Claire, what the he-?"
One of the zombies, a male with oddly lively brown eyes, stalked forward, his head held high as the others stood a few feet away.
"B-B-Ben?" The woman whispered harshly, her dark gray eyes flashing.
Leon looked down at the child sized zombie in confusion. It looked back up at him, his expression full anger and annoyance. "What the hells wrong with you? Is this the trick? I just want my treat! I'll take 2 Twinkies for you being such a dumb ass." Leon looked down at the zombie in shock as it smiled at him. A second zombie ran up in front of the zombie named Ben, her brown hair waving out behind her, a pink plastic pumpkin basket hanging from her arm.
"That is...SO COOL! Is it real? Can I keep it? Can I? Can I?" The little zombie girl squealed, jumping up and down next to the first zombie. Leon glanced from one zombie to the other, his mouth hanging open.
"Ben, Sarah, get over here, now!" The woman called again, fear starting to color her words.
"Zo-zo-zombies-es can talk?" Leon stuttered, his eyes still darting in between the first two zombies. The last little zombie walked over slowly, looking Leon up and down.
"никакая водка для Вас." The little female whispered, her gray eyes wide and blending in with the ashen color of her face while her brown hair suck out against it.
"Did-" Leon took a deep breath and looked at Claire. "Did that little zombie just say 'No Vodka for you'? In Russian?"
"How do you know Russian?" Claire asked, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Grace!" The woman rushed over and scooped the girl up. "Ben! Sarah! Lets get trick or treating before it gets to late." The woman glanced at Leon, who was still pointing the gun at the cement sidewalk. "Or before mommy changes her mind."
"But Mom, my Twinkies!"
"The, the shiny toy!"
"никакая водка для Вас!"
Leon watched as the zombie children scurried after her. "They were-were-"
"Real kids. Leon, they were trick or treater's." Claire took a hold of Leon's hands, prying the gun out of his frozen fingers. "They weren't real."
"But, I could have sworn-"
"Leon." Claire forced Leon to meet her gaze. "The whole Raccoon City incident. It wont happen again. Okay? My brother is working on stopping anything else bad from happening."
"He can't stop everything Claire." Leon replied, glancing across the street at the diner. "Can we get inside and finish this conversation? I'm getting cold."
"That's because you forgot a jacket." Claire and Leon walked across the road, Claire was un-attaching the gun sheath from Leon's belt loop and instead attaching it to hers. "And I don't think you need a gun for the rest of the night."
Leon couldn't find the humor in her comment as they walked into the diner and took their seats in secluded corner booth. Leon sighed and buried his hands in his hair, leaning on the table with his elbows. Leon looked up at Claire after a few moments.
"You think I'm nuts, don't you?"
Claire smiled a little at him. "I think you need some happy pills."
"Happy pills?" Leon repeated sceptically. "What the hell are those?"
"Just...Well, little doses of happiness." Claire leaned her elbow on the table and placed her cheek in her hand. "You could get it from actual meds or from friends."
"What works for you?" Leon asked meeting her gaze.
"I do a mix of both. Prescription, you know?"
"I doubt it." Leon laughed darkly. "You don't look like a pill popper, prescription or not."
"You got me." Claire smiled sadly. "I just think of happy memory's to cover up the bad ones."
"And...you think I need a therapist."
"Leon, you held three kids up on Halloween for trick or treating while in zombie costumes." Claire shook her head slowly. "I'm just saying a session or two wouldn't hurt. They might just help."
"Okay, enough about me." Leon untangled his hands from his own hair and placed them on the table as the waitress left two glasses of water and two menus on the table. "I'm guessing your life is better then mine right now."
"You couldn't be farther from the truth if you tried." Claire sighed, opening up the menu, trying to hid her face. "Besides, it's not worth it. It's too long and complicated and messed up."
Leon reached forward and pulled the menu down his eyes burning into hers. "You see how messed up I am." Leon replied gently challenging Claire. "Try me."