Authors Note: Things are getting messy, bring a bucket. Also warning for sensitive subject matter. Don't read if you're easily upset.
You think you know, but you're horribly blind
You think you know how this story's defined
You think you know that your heart has gone cold inside
Fine
- Device
Clink, clink, clink.
The sound would be unbearable if the promise of life giving caffeine didn't immediately follow. Leon stirs in a small heap of sugar to a large mug of black coffee and lifts it to his lips. It was hot enough to fend off the hangover threatening behind his eyes, but not so hot it burned his mouth. Just the way he liked it.
The three of them sat at the furthest table from the door of a cheap diner not too far from the scene of the torn in half scientist. Sherry was quiet, processing what she'd seen while clutching a mug of herbal tea. For a girl that had been through a few different versions of the apocalypse, she still held on to her humanity. Seeing another human being ripped to pieces like that had obviously shaken her, and Leon was considering telling their superiors that this wasn't the case for her to be on after all. But if he did that, he knew he'd never hear the end of it from her. Another woman barking in his ear wasn't really high up on his list of wants right now. He just hoped she learned to stomach it before the next case rolled in, he had a feeling whatever was doing this it was just getting started and the murders weren't going to get any prettier to look at. These people were being punished, the killer wanted them to suffer – to be scared. While he had no solid facts yet to back that theory up with, it was just a strong feeling in his gut. You didn't paint in someone's blood unless you really wanted people to know you were pissed off.
It sent a pretty strong message.
"Here ya go hun," a blonde waitress snaps her gum and sets down a plate in front of him, he thanks her with a smile. Breakfast, most important meal of the day, especially at 5am after no sleep and half a bottle of whiskey. Rolling in to work later was going to be a riot.
"Coroner says there's no entry wound," Chris speaks up as Leon eats and Sherry cradles her tea, "so the guy was legitimately ripped in half."
The color that had started returning to Sherry's cheeks begins to recede again. Leon flicks his gaze from her to Chris, who was pouring over a report on his tablet sat beside the most ridiculous egg white omelette. Leon was a gym rat, but he refused to eat dull food. Probably why he wasn't the size of a tank unlike his protein loving friend.
"Claw marks then? Teeth? Anything?" He shrugs.
Chris shakes his head, looking back up to him and starting on his food. "Nothing. He wasn't bitten, he wasn't scratched. He was just ripped in two."
Leon narrows his eyes, thinking. "But to exert that kind of force, you'd have to have a grip – somewhere."
"Hm, kinda as impossible as jumping through reinforced glass, huh." Chris says mysteriously.
"Maybe it really is witchcraft.." Sherry says absently, causing both men to look at her. She realizes after a moment of staring in to her tea and shrugs at them. "I mean, stranger things have happened."
Leon studies her. "Sure, but those stranger things were dreamed up in labs by scientists. They look impossible when you're facing them but when you get down to it, science goes 'hey, this is a thing now'.." he chuckles.
Chris sighs, shutting his tablet down and pushing it aside in favor of his food. "Well whatever it is, I want this shit shut down. This is not how I pictured a vacation."
Leon smirks, vacation was a flimsy word in their world. Sure, some of their jobs were downright dull. You couldn't have an end of the world threat on a daily basis, the major incidents were thankfully few and far between. In the middle was the small stuff, the weird stuff, the apprehending people before they got as far as causing the apocalypse.
And from time to time, they got to be detectives. Leon would be lying if he said he didn't find this kind of thing a little fascinating. He enjoyed testing his brain.
"You said the symbol on the floor was for a demon goddess," Sherry continues with a small yawn, "I'm just saying."
Chris gives her a sideways look and shakes his head, "just what we need. The undead, crazy scientists, bio weapons and now demons. Lets just throw in an alien invasion we'll have the full set."
"Don't tempt fate." Leon closes his eyes, offering up a small prayer to whoever was listening that the universe wouldn't take Chris up on his challenge.
They finish up their breakfasts and while Chris had the rest of the day off to research this thing, Leon and Sherry had to get in to the office. She drops him off at his apartment so he can shower and change – he could still smell that abattoir on his clothes. He lived on the third floor of a small apartment block that sat over a bar, this wasn't a coincidence. He had a nice place out in Colorado but it was about as impractical as it got when you worked for the Government. The way he saw it, if he had to be in D.C then all he needed was a roof over his head and a place to drink the memories away, so an apartment above a bar had sealed the deal almost immediately. The only downside to a small building – as nice as it was – it had thin walls. And boy did his neighbor hate him.
He lived next door a younger guy that seemed to be in to Dungeons and Dragons from what Leon could make out. He had to be in his mid 20's and now and again he'd see the guy in a cape or dressed like something out of Lord of the Rings. It was strange, but Leon was very much a 'whatever floats your boat' kind of guy. Unfortunately, his neighbor was not. He'd complained many times about the things that floated Leon's boat, at first he'd been apologetic and he'd really tried to keep the noise down and be a good neighbor. But after a while it had just gotten annoying and sort of sad, the kid needed a life outside of pretending to be someone else. A small, vindictive part of Leon Kennedy enjoyed it when women were extra loud, just because it would piss him off.
He arrives on his floor and heads to his door, sliding his key in to the lock only for the handle to turn and it to swing open for him. He frowns as Helena stands before him wearing only one of his shirts and a smile on her face.
"You're still here?" He asks as though it's not obvious.
She laughs, "well it's not even 6am yet, I was getting ready to go."
"Oh, right." He nods, brushing past her and hearing her shut the door behind him. He shrugs off his jacket and chucks it over the back of a chair, getting rid of the holsters and his boots.
"How did it go?" She asks, making him frown.
"How did what go?"
"The case."
"Dead dude..." Leon gestures, "someone strung him up on meat hooks in two halves."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"Any theories?"
Leon pinches the bridge of his nose and then turns to face her, "can we.. not."
Her turn to frown, stepping toward him, "are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" he stops her in her tracks, holding his hands up. "I just gotta get ready for work, so.."
"Well I'll start you a shower." She smiles at him and turns for his bathroom. His hands curl in to claws and he makes a face behind her back. What was wrong with him? Why did he have to make every situation with women a thousand times worse by sleeping with them?
"Helena, you don't have to.."
"Its fine, might as well make myself useful." She breezes.
He glances around himself and then heads in to his kitchen, grabbing a glass from the sink and unscrewing the cap of the half empty whiskey bottle. He pours a good size shot and brings it to his mouth, then hesitates.
Stop it.
He closes his eyes and places the glass down, bracing his hands on the counter and taking a few deep, cleansing breaths.
"You can do this.." He tells himself. He didn't need alcohol, he had to go to work. Maybe Claire was right.
No, she was not right.
With new resolve he tips the whiskey back in to the bottle and screws the cap on tightly, dropping the glass into the sink and heading for the bathroom. She had the shower going as promised. How did all these women know where his towels were? She'd set them out for him next to the sink. "Thanks," he gives her a little smile and holds the door open for her to leave. Only she doesn't leave. She begins unbuttoning his shirt.
"I can unbutton my own shirt." He tells her.
"I know," she says with a cheeky little gleam in her eye.
His jaw tenses and he takes hold of her wrist. "Helena."
"You just seem a little tense." She purrs.
He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes at her. Then she brushes her hand over the crotch of his jeans.
"I'm tense, cause I just pulled an all nighter with some ripped in half guy and I have to go.. to.. work.." A woman with her hand around his dick won every time, he was a hopeless mess. A little rumble escapes the back of his throat as she sinks down to her knees in front of him, her hands running over the front of his jeans and then unfastening them completely. He wants to protest, the logic part of his brain tells him to. That he wasn't interested in her like that, that this was getting complicated, that she was going to end up hurt, that none of this was cool. But she has him rock hard and in her mouth and he had no willpower at all.
None.
For the first time, they show up to work together. It has the women of the office talking and it has Leon keeping his head down for the entire day. Escaping to the gym to work off the guilt and alcohol, then in to his office to pour over the facts so far in this Lilith case. So far there were little to no connections between the two scientists, they'd worked in different places on different projects. It was only now that they shared a connection, working with the government. Everything there was above board. As much as Leon didn't like to think it, they really needed more to go on. But if this was indeed the work of a good old fashioned serial killer then they likely wouldn't have to wait long for the third and more to go on. It was frustrating.
The crime scenes showed nothing. No prints, no hairs or fibers that didn't belong to the victim. No blood that wasn't theirs. It was like they'd done it to themselves. You could throw yourself out of a window but Leon was pretty sure you couldn't rip yourself in half and hang yourself on meat hooks. What was even stranger was the security camera footage in both cases showed nothing but dead air. The first ones apartment – all four cameras failed at the same time and recorded darkness. At the abattoir, there was only one camera on the alleyway outside the building and surprise surprise, it went black a handful of hours before the body was reported.
An anonymous, untraceable tip.
Someone wanted to be seen and heard. But what was the message? Fuck science?
Leon sits back in his chair and rocks it slowly side to side, lost in thought. He was putting mental pictures together, trying to build a profile in his head of someone that would want scientists bumped off in a big bad way. But nothing linked. Nothing fit. He needed some sleep. With that thought in mind he gets up and grabs his jacket, pulling it on he switches off his computer and heads out.
"Leon!"
"What?!" he snaps, turning to face the female voice calling his name.
Sherry looks at him wide eyed. "Whoa."
His heart sinks, his physical stance relaxing. "I'm sorry, I thought you were.. someone else."
Sherry blinks, moving a little closer to him. "Are you okay?"
"I wish people would stop asking me that." He sighs.
"Done and done.." she holds up her hands and he gives her a gentler smile. "I just wanted to say sorry about this morning."
His eyebrow quirks, a little confused. "What for?"
"For freaking out at the crime scene, it was really unprofessional."
His expression softens, "not unprofessional to find this shit disturbing."
"Well I should be used to disturbing things by now. Its not like Jake and I didn't see enough of it." She shrugs.
Leon looks thoughtful for a moment, then gently takes the top of her arm. "Y'know what. Don't let this job make you numb, kid. You got one of the best hearts I know. I'd hate to see it turn cold."
She gazes at him like he'd just given her the answer to life, the universe and everything. A smile spreading across her face. "Aw, Leon."
"I'm serious. You don't wanna end up like me."
"I think most people aspire to be like you." She laughs.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Well they need a new role model."
"Why? You saved the world.. more than once. You're like a God around here."
He cringes. "And I'm telling you, don't let it make you immune. Save the world, do it with your heart in tact."
Sherry's face falls. "Yours isn't?"
Leon smiles wistfully, "just trust me, okay kiddo? There's nothing wrong with how you handled that today. Deep breaths. You'll be fine."
"Leon.." she says sadly.
"Don't ask me if I'm alright. Just listen." He nods, lifting his hand from her shoulder and giving her hair a ruffle. "Go home, get some sleep. What I'm doing."
"Yes, Boss." She smiles.
He turns away from her, heading to the elevator. "I'm not your boss."
Leon's sleep is short lived. He wakes from being torn to shreds by Simmons with a jump, his eyes flying open and his heart thudding in his chest. He blinks a few times, forcing the nightmare away, then he tilts his head, looking at the clock. He'd had about three hours since getting home from work, and it was almost 9pm.
He pushes himself up with a groan and rubs his hands over his face and through his hair, his stomach growling. With the claws of the nightmare still grabbing at him he gets up and tugs on jeans and a t shirt, briefly fixing his hair and freshening up a bit before heading out with nothing but his wallet and keys. He doesn't go far, just the bar beneath his apartment. They did good burgers and he needed a beer or five. No whiskey today, maybe he'd give the stuff a break for a week. See how it felt.
"Hey Leon," the bar tender greets him. He was a regular, unsurprisingly.
"Hey Mike," Leon smiles, taking a seat at the bar.
"Usual?"
"Oh yeah, minus the Jack shot." He nods.
"Giving the liver a break?" The barman laughs, getting his beer.
"Something like that." He nods, glancing at the TV and the sports playing. Mike sets a pint glass down in front of him and starts him a tab, Leon had a tendency to settle in for a good few hours. It usually ended when a woman parked herself in his lap.
"Hows work?" Mike asks, he knew Leon's job, drunk people told their bar tenders everything. Bar tenders kept their patrons secrets. It was just the deal. "Do I need to be moving things along with my fallout shelter?"
Leon chuckles, taking a sip of his beer. "Not yet, no apocalypse scheduled that I know of."
"I don't get it, why are people always trying to end the world?"
"Beats me." He shakes his head, "it's not like there's anything to do after its over."
"Crazy is as crazy does I guess."
"I guess so."
"Couldn't do what you do, man. It's bad enough knowing that shits out there."
Leon nods slowly, nursing his beer.
"Foods on the house." Mike adds, putting the order through. Least you could do is feed the man that saved the world for a living for free.
He thanks the barman quietly and he's left alone with his thoughts for a while. He spends it gazing at the TV and working his way through his beer. The burger and fries arrive and he makes short work of that. By the time he's on his third beer, there's a girl with jet black hair sitting beside him making conversation. She was gorgeous, she looked a tiny bit like Ada if he was honest, only her hair reached her waist and she wore a leather jacket, tight fitting black jeans and a navy blue top with the best tit job he'd ever seen sat underneath. No way they were real, they were way too perfect.
He bought her a drink and they talked. Mike the bartender kept that knowing, slightly amused look on his face. Leon was known for more than just being a regular customer.
She was a model and aspiring actress named Jasmina, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Though he joked that she was in the wrong city for all of that, she needed to be in LA. She tells him that that's the plan, she was working toward moving there and saving like crazy. He asks her what she's doing alone in the bar, and she says she's waiting for some girlfriends. He promises to buy them all a round when they got there.
The flirting between them is obvious to anyone with eyes, and honestly, he was kinda hoping her friends didn't show. The subject of what he did for a living comes up and he gives her a string of mysterious answers, before leaning in and tucking her hair back, whispering near to her ear that he could tell her, but it was top secret. As she giggles in a coy, flirtatious way, he feels a tap on his shoulder.
He turns.
"PIG!" Helena snaps at him, then throws his beer in his face.
It was a record scratch moment.
His jaw drops, the glass had been just about full and he was drenched, his hair plastered to his face, his t shirt soaked and the pitter patter of liquid hitting the wood floor below seems to fill the room louder than the noise of the TV. Helena glares at him, still clutching the glass. Their eyes meet and for a moment he's frozen, sitting there completely stunned by what she'd done. Then she slams down the glass on the counter and bolts.
He's after her in a heartbeat. Potential conquest and bar tab forgotten, he chases her out of the door and into the street where he catches her arm and pulls her around to face him.
"What the fuck was that?!" He yells at her in the middle of the pavement.
"You asshole!" she yells right back at him. "I turn my back for five seconds and you're hitting on some sleazy skank."
He blinks. "Turn your back? Hold on a second, just what the fuck do you think we are to each other?"
"You're USING me!" She shouts at him.
He laughs. "I've been pretty goddamn clear what we are since we got back from China, Helena. You wanted this." He points at himself. "I TOLD you!"
"You didn't tell me you were a lying, cheating piece of shit." She shoves him and he takes a step back, gritting his teeth. The glare he returns to her would stop most people in their tracks.
"How can I be cheating on you if we're not even dating?!" He hisses, trying to keep his voice down as passers by stare at them.
"Oh we're not?" She folds her arms.
"NO!" he snaps.
"Then why do I keep waking up in your bed?"
He laughs, "cause you keep putting yourself there."
"You're disgusting."
"I'm honest." He growls. "I was honest with you, I said I wasn't looking for anything else."
She shoves him again, knocking him another step back.
"Helena I swear to god.." He warns.
"Fuck you! Go back to your slut.. I'm sorry I'm not Ada or an Ada lookalike." She was crying.
"Woman, you need to get a grip."
She slaps him. It barely registers on his face, his eyes narrow and fix on her.
"Are you serious?" He asks in a quiet, calm tone. So she swings again and he catches her wrist, stopping her from making contact and seething. "You don't want to do that."
"Or what? Big hero! What are you gonna do, huh?" She challenges.
He releases her wrist, turning away from her and stalking back in to the bar.
"You dickless, alcoholic sack of shit!" Helena yells after him.
He lets the bar door swing shut behind him. Apologizing to Mike, Jasmina was long gone. He pays his tab and returns to his apartment, a quietly seething wrath under a cool exterior.
Leon's woken at 5am by a bleeping on his phone. He reaches out and blearily grabs it, bringing it to his ear. He'd taken a shower before he went to bed but he could still smell the beer and it already put him in a mood.
"Kennedy.." he mumbles.
"There's been a report of a disturbance at the house of a Dr Marcus White. A former Umbrella Biologist that now works with Rebecca Chambers at the University..."
Details are reeled off and Leon's already on his feet and getting dressed. It was reported as a disturbance, not a murder. Something was happening as they spoke and that left no time. He straps his magnum and pulls on his jacket, out of the door in under five minutes. The pattern was forming, now two of the scientists possibly involved in this had worked for Umbrella in the past.
There's flashing blue lights in the drive when he arrives, and Redfield is a heartbeat behind him. The Chief giving them a brief on what they knew so far. Anonymous tip about a loud disturbance. Officers were speaking with neighbors, but nobody had gone in the house yet. With a Bio Weapon as a suspect, it was the wisest move.
Leon and Chris approach the large, mansion of a house with their weapons drawn. Science sure paid well by the looks of things. They pause by the ornate front door and listen for a second, then gesture to one another. With a nod, they step back and kick that door in in a practiced, precise dual blow. Together they head through and instantly split, taking a side each and sweeping through the lower floor on whisper quiet feet. Finding nothing, they converge at the foot of the grand stairs. Chris grumbles a little.
"Why is it always dark fucking mansions?" He asks.
"Powers out." Leon shrugs.
"Yeah, isn't it always?" Chris sighs.
"Mansions are your area, not mine."
Side by side they make their way up the stairs, using the same method when they reach the top. Chris breaks right, Leon breaks left. The house was quiet, eerily so. But there was a strange smell in the air. Something he couldn't quite make out, it wasn't death. But it had the same sourness to it. He checks what appears to be a child's bedroom and finds nothing. So many rooms, such a big place, for a single man? If you were a single man why did you need children's bedrooms?
Leon shivers a little, pulling the door closed behind him.
"KENNEDY!"
Chris' call has him moving swiftly down the hall in the direction of the master bedroom. Finding Chris standing in the doorway, Leon draws to a halt and as he takes in the sight in front of him, he lowers his gun. "Holy fucking shit.." he breathes.
"Y'think?" Chris rubs his hand over his mouth.
Inside the master bedroom a four poster bed sat in the middle of the room. On the ceiling above it, painted in blood, the seal of Lilith. On the bed, the flayed body of what they assumed to be Dr Marcus White. As if skinning a man alive wasn't creepy enough, his skin lay beside him on the bed in perfect form. It was like he'd crawled out if it in the same way a moth would break free from a chrysalis or a snake would shed its scales.
The two men had seen a lot in their lifetimes, but this left both of them without a pun between them. They simply stare.
"What's doing this?" Chris asks.
"I have no fucking idea.." Leon shakes his head slowly.
The slightest noise elsewhere in the house has both men drawing their weapons again, turning and moving in its direction. The deeper in to the house they get, the more familiar the noise becomes. The tighter their grips get on their weapons.
Sobbing.
Nearing the source of the sound, they flank the door it was coming from behind and glance at one another. Then on three, both turn and kick it in. Ready to shoot the shit out of anything that moved. But nothing does. Instead the figure of a young girl dressed in white lies on her side on a bed, crying. She couldn't be any more than a teenager, with long blonde hair that seemed like it hadn't seen a brush in days. There was blood on her white dress, and on the bed. Leon slowly lowers his gun, taking in the scene, he reaches out and gently touches the heavy handed soldiers wrist.
"She was locked in, we just busted the door." He says quietly, gesturing a little to the door behind them, the key sat in the lock on the outside. Chris turns a look to him, then back to her.
"Miss, are you okay?" Chris speaks up. She flinches, like they'd burned her with words.
"Please.. don't.." she sobs.
Leon holsters his gun and takes a few cautious steps forward.
"We're not going to hurt you, we're here to help."
She lifts her face and fixes him with a pair of ocean green eyes filled with tears. Her lip was split, her eye bruised and the front of her dress torn. She clutches the ripped fabric to herself and Leon swallows, looking around the room. "Chris.." he points to a blanket over a chair and Redfield holsters his weapon, bringing it over cautiously.
"What happened here?" Leon asks, carefully handing her the blanket.
She closes her eyes, taking it and holding it to herself.
"I don't know.." she whispers.
Leon had been taking in every inch of the situation since he entered the room. The pattern of the blood on the bed and on her dress told a story that made his stomach tie in to knots and an anger raise somewhere in his soul. Men were scum.
"You don't live here?" Chris asks.
She shakes her head.
"Were you abducted?"
Leon catches Chris' eye and gives a small nod. "Lets call the medics up here, and Sherry. She's terrified."
He beckons Chris over to the door and the pair of them go, stepping just outside of the room. "I think she was raped, she was locked in. Whatever's going on with the Scientist in the other room, this just got a whole lot murkier."
"Christ," the other man sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Go, get the paramedics up here. I'll stay," Leon says quietly. Chris nods and turns away, heading out to explain the situation. Leon moves back in to the room, speaking in his most soothing, gentle tone.
"Helps on the way, okay?" he murmurs, crouching down beside the bed where the girl had pulled herself in to a fetal position and was trembling. Those green eyes were haunting. "What's your name, can you tell me that?"
She whimpers.
"I'm not gonna let anything else hurt you, I promise. I'm Leon." He offers her a smile. "The big brute was Chris. He's a teddy bear really. The police are outside, medics on their way. You're safe now."
She gives him the tiniest nod.
"Lizzie.." she whispers.
It's a long, long day.
After spending much of it at a secure hospital trying to make sense of what they'd found in that mansion, Leon had hit the gym and filled in a bunch of office paperwork. Now he was ready for a shower, his couch, and a strong drink. He needed to burn the image of finding that girl in such a sorry state out of his mind, not to mention the memory of the skinned scientist. This case was beginning to unravel.
Walking down the hall he pulls his keys from his jacket pocket and slides his apartment key in to the lock. Opening the door.
He steps inside and the door is closed behind him.
"Claire..." he hesitates, finding the redhead sitting at his couch. But she wasn't the only one. His eyes flick around the room at the other, familiar faces all gazing at him with overly concerned expressions.
He laughs at them.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me.."
