A/N- I'm so sorry for having to make you wait so long between updates, but I've been working with wrapping college up and then Microsoft Word decides to stop working for me. Ugh! Then there's the problem with writer's block. I'm sure you all have heard that li'l song and dance a time or two before, so I'll spare you the details.
Resident Evil © Capcom
Falling to Pieces
Lenore didn't even want to turn around. That sound had sent a chill running down her spine as her grip on the flashlight loosened. The cells, to her knowledge, had been empty! Whatever creature that had manifested itself in the prison cell had to be huge. Slowly and with bated breath, the diminutive girl turned her head to see what had made that unearthly sound. Her flashlight bounced off the rack, off the dark stones of the room and right onto some thing. It had some sort of rock-hard yet shiny black exoskeleton; dark red flesh peeked out from under the gaps in the exoskeleton. Now Lenore was starting to sweat as she forced herself to pull the flashlight up farther to make out the face of the thing that she was pretty damn convinced would be devouring her alive. Her flashlight travelled up, up to at least eight feet in height before stopping on a ghost-white fleshy face. Spider-like mandibles moved hungrily as Lenore's flashlight stood transfixed upon glowing red eyes. This beast looked like it had stepped right out of an H.R. Giger painting and it made the young girl's knees go weak. Was this one of the Executioners? If so, where was the other?
Her flashlight bobbled on the beast as it drew closer. She had to pull herself out of the shocked state she was in and began to back away from the obviously irate Executioner. The tail was long and Lenore saw a glint of some scythe-like point on the end; curved and deadly. Her mind was working overtime to find a way to get the creature to keep from drawing closer. Lenore thought she could throw her flashlight at it, but that would mean trying to find her way out of the Executioner's Room in absolute darkness. Lenore also debated about toppling the suit of armor over beside her to pull its attention to the loud crash rather than her, but the girl knew that she was far too weak to pull that off either. One word came out of her mouth," Shit."
Lenore knew what the creature was planning to do the minute it started hunkering down and twitching the tip of its tail. She had watched cats make that very same movement just before they were going to kill a mouse. The Executioner was the cat and she was the mouse! Before a scream could escape Lenore's throat, she felt an arm wrap around her chest from behind and drag her out of the way seconds before the Alien-esque thing could tear her apart. The shock of the moment had her temporarily dazed before she saw a Red9 hovering over her head aimed directly at the beast.
"Luis?!" the startled girl managed to choke out, her flashlight dancing on the Spaniard's lean face. By the grim expression set on his lips and intensity in his eyes, the girl knew it was no time for questions. He had saved her and that was all she needed to know. She quickly brought her hands up to her ears as Luis fired off two shots into the fleshy head of the Executioner. The beast simply shook the shots off as if a mosquito had bit it and rounded on the pair. Luis had an unusually collective cool about him, a far difference to the shaking and frightened Lenore.
"Try to see if you can get it to follow you to the guillotine! Quick!" Luis told the girl, who shot him a baffled look, "Now! Hurry!"
Not quite sure if Luis was sending her on a suicide run, Lenore quickly darted away from man and beast as she heard more bullets being fired from the researcher's gun. Her flashlight bobbled up and down as Lenore dove up for the platform the guillotine was on, bruising her shins in the process of pulling herself up. Indeed what Luis told her to do was true; the Executioner turned its head and started to follow the bouncing yellow light. Luis, watching the petite girl and hissing beast, slowly started to circle around so he could instruct Lenore on the next thing to do. If he had known the Salazar family well enough in his research of them, was that they had an affinity for booby traps and trap doors. He kept the laser sight of the Red9 pointed on the back of the Verdugo's head, unsure of what its next movement would be.
Lenore was in a panic, her head was moving left and right to figure out why exactly Luis wanted her up near the creepy device only to be chased by the creepier monster. The castellan's eyes momentarily flickered over a strange round device imbedded at the side of the guillotine. She saw her family crest upon it and had a feeling that this wasn't a necessary part to the decapitating of someone on the guillotine. A hiss drawing closer snapped her out of her thoughts as she saw the black-bodied Verdugo draw near. Without even giving her mind a chance to think over what the device might do, she slammed her hand on it and put as much force as she could muster in her eighty-five pound body. She heard the sound of stones cracking and grinding under heavy weight while the sound of chains squeaking began beneath the floor. The Verdugo clicked its mandibles audibly as Luis immediately saw what exactly Lenore's device had done. There were little hinges set on the floor in the open area that spanned the distance between the rack and the guillotine. It was a trap door and the Verdugo was directly upon it. Luis found himself smirking despite the situation as he started to back away to a safe area.
The floor dropped open beneath the beast the minute it had started to get the same lunging position. Lenore watched as it seemed to stand on thin air for a split second before dropping down into the depths of the castle below. Her eyes simply stared into the abyss as it took her a second to realize what she had done. She had slain the beast! A grin formed upon her face as she let out an unintentionally loud laugh, slamming her hand onto the device once more to get the floor to go back to normal once more. "Ee hee hahahaha! That will put you in your place you miserable beast! Whatever you do, don't come back!"
Luis put the gun back in his hip holster as he motioned for the still laughing Lenore to come his way. He was impressed with the nerve that it took the young girl, but concerned about the way she had reacted after it was all said and done. Never once in his past encounter with the petite woman did she seem the type to show glee for disposing of anything, human or not. He put a hand on Lenore's shoulder as she drew closer," How have you been feeling? You have been using those pills I gave you, right?"
She gave a small nod of her head, avoiding eye contact with the Spaniard. His question immediately brought back to mind what had happened earlier that morning as her brief confidence in herself began to falter," I..killed...someone. I couldn't help it! That man…the one in the purple robes! He made me do it and, and I…couldn't stop myself."
Luis didn't know how to react. Already that bastard Saddler had gave her the initiation ritual. The sacrificing ritual that Luis loathed the man even more so for making the neutral Lenore participate in. He gritted his teeth a moment, trying to find something to say to keep from making the girl feel worse than she already did," I know you didn't mean to. It's just with that parasite Saddler has control over you and until we can get it out of you, your actions might not necessarily be your own."
Lenore went to open her mouth to speak, but as if on cue, she found herself coughing violently. Not again, dammit, Lenore thought as she felt her chest constricting and insides twisting. She was struggling to breathe as she found herself doubling over in agony. Luis was close by, trying to keep the girl as steady on her feet as possible. Each time Lenore coughed, specks of blood would seep between her fingers. Her chest felt like something was writhing inside, burning and ready to burst out like an alien. Her eyes were tearing as she struggled to breathe. Lenore managed to pull in some air when she pulled her hands away from her mouth. During that quick interlude, she saw something that was flicking its way underneath her skin. Dark blue veins had started to weave their way down her arms. She started to scream but only managed to violently cough again.
Luis knelt down, putting both hands on the suffering girl's shoulders. So many times he had seen this happen to people he had known for years. He wished he could truly feel sorry for Lenore, but he had grown accustomed to watching people change to mindless puppets before his eyes. Luis did notice something with the Master Plaga inside Lenore that differed from the run-of-the-mill Plagas that had been given to the villagers. The fits were much more violent and lasted longer than normal. Typically they would cough for a little while and pass out. Lenore's fit had been going on for a good two minutes and he started to grow concerned seeing her not being able to take in air. He kept a firm grip on both her shoulders, urging her to breathe and fight it. Right before the girl blacked out, he saw her eyes take on a yellow color and then faze out as she closed them.
The rain had stopped falling over the island, but the cloud cover was still there. In the depths of the facility, beyond a laser-enforced hall, Osmund Saddler sat in his red-velvet lined throne. He was having a hard time figuring out why the Salazar girl wasn't showing any physical signs of having Las Plagas in her body. He had complete control over her, but for her body to be housing such a powerful parasite as the Master Plagas, her body seemed to show no signs of a change. Either he had underestimated the girl, which Saddler truly doubted, or someone was giving her something to slow down the growth of Las Plagas.
Saddler knew it was beneficial to his plan to have the parasite fully mature in the girl and someone was getting in the way. The man had his suspicions on who the traitor was, but even then, he still needed that person alive long enough to perfect one last experiment before permanently disposing of the traitor. A cruel smile traced its way onto Saddler's lips as he thought of what to do. He wouldn't do anything with his own two hands just yet, but he knew the right person to use forceful tactics against the castellan to see if she had any growth suppressing pills on her. It would also give Saddler a good chance to see how loyal this newcomer truly was, too. Without making a sound, the cult leader got out of the throne and exited the cold room.
Luis had found a fainting chair to lay the poor girl down in as he took a seat in a chair adjacent to her. The cultists still trusted him, which on his part was a good thing. If they figured out what he was doing against their twisted faith, he'd already be dead. Luis always tried to stay on the neutral team, it had always been the best, but this was for his grandparent's village! This was to try to get rid of the horrendous man that dared to call himself lord! Luis had to do his best to keep from shooting the man every time he saw him, but he knew of how powerful Saddler was.
Luis sunk his head, looking down at the crimson floor with small deeper red ivy patterns that traced throughout. Kill the girl, kill her, Luis repeated that over and over in his mind. If only it was that easy! He knew he'd have to act when the time came, Ada wouldn't have it any other way but hers. Luis pulled himself out of the chair to see how much longer the girl had left before she became one of them. He put his pointer and middle finger up against her jugular, checking her pulse. It had slowed down considerably, even for a person at rest, which was not good. He had seen those veins on her arms as he had carried her through the castle. At least they had faded after the attack went away. The last thing he had seen was her eyes, that same horrendous shade of yellow that the past castellan had had after being "converted" over to Los Illuminados ways. Luis leaned close to the unconscious Lenore, wanting to make for certain that the effects of the parasite had went away, at least temporarily. Using a single finger from his right hand, he gently lifted the eyelid up in time to heart the girl give an audible groan.
"Finally awake, I see," Luis said calmly, backing away from the groggy girl.
"Y-you could say that," Lenore rubbed at the throbbing going on in her temples. Almost out of habit, she held her palms open in front of her to see her blood-soaked hands. She still felt sick from the convulsion.
The Spaniard leaned up against an ornate dresser, arms crossed over his chest. His face was serious; he was always serious anymore, "I hate to break to the chase, chica, but that attack you had earlier today tells me that you don't have much longer before you turn into one of Saddler's little freaks."
Lenore propped herself up on her elbows, blue eyes staring straight ahead at Luis," How long do I have?"
He shrugged, "Two days' tops. What that sorry excuse for a man put in you is much stronger and growing more rapidly than I had anticipated. Keep taking that medicine and I will do my best to get you something stronger and give it to you to hopefully keep that little bug under control."
Lenore already popped the cap off of the pill bottle and had two of the little pills in her hands. It's so easy for you to say that because you're not going through it, she thought to herself. Still, he had been trying to help her and she was thoroughly grateful. She swallowed the pills and grimaced. Finally, she nodded, "Okay, will do."
Luis patted the girl on the shoulder before turning to leave," I'll get you through this, even if worst comes to worst. Just promise to me that you will try to stay as positive as you can, Lenore." Once more the girl nodded.
A/N: Ugh! Cheesiest ending ever! For those of you, and I know that you are, thinking I'm making this story Luis/Lenore, I'm not! I can't stand normal romance stories, let alone one with my original character falling for a game character! No! Luis is simply concerned for Lenore's own well-being. Nothing more. Anyways, sorry for the long wait. Please read and review, my pretties!