Kyle Brody's House
10:00am
Leon and Claire
stood in the cool morning, staring up at the dilapidated old house that had
once been the Brody's residence.
The house looked in need of renovation, but
they both suspected that nobody would be wanting to buy the house of the only
survivor of a spate of child murders, who later went insane.
The house was not that far from the main
road, but that didn't make it any less creepy. The building was surrounded by a
coldness that they both felt. It also had quite a large front garden, which
meant they were still fifty plus metres from the main road.
After the dream, Leon was trying not to
trust his emotions – but the house still gave him a strong sinking feeling that
was hard to push away.
He heard Claire gulp.
"I don't like it…" Claire said "…I don't
like it at all"
Neither Claire or Leon were the easiest
people to be scared, Leon knew that Claire was tough as old boots and just as
hard to terrify – But Claire herself was feeling pretty shaky. She didn't know
quite what it was…but it was almost as bad as the feeling she'd had in Racoon.
What was
it? Neither of them knew exactly for sure, the town was visually unspectacular,
and there was nothing particularly creepy about the place during the day.
"Me neither" Leon replied "But we'd
better look around anyway"
They both walked up towards the ruined
house, both taking comfort in the fact it had been abandoned for a very long
time.
The door creaked open, and they were hit
by a wall of musty air that made you cough just by breathing it in.
"Geez, somebody needs to leave a window
open in here" Claire said, wrinkling her nose.
"Got any air freshener?" Leon grinned.
She rolled her eyes.
"As if – Got a vacuum cleaner?" she
replied.
They both laughed. At least their sense
of humour hadn't been entirely ruined by the town.
Inside, it was like an antique house
that had just been left to rot – Dust coated every surface, thicker in some
places, but the house still had eerie imprints of its last owners. Underneath a
layer of dust in the sitting room were dust coated chairs that had once been
fine antique specimens but were now sadly lying in state of disrepair. On the
mantelpiece was a photograph, now yellow with age. Leon gently removed it, and
wiped the layer of dust from its surface. A family, mother, father and son. The
son, presumably, was Kyle Brody.
"Is that the kid?" Claire asked,
peering at the photo.
"Think so"
"The kid who never spoke after he was
kidnapped by Rustin Parr?"
"Yep"
"Did he go…insane?"
"Unfortunately, yes"
Claire sighed.
"Poor kid" she said "That's the
definition of a poor life"
Leon nodded, and replaced the photo.
The whole lower floor was either rotting
or had deteriorated to such a point that it was barely worth looking at.
"Upstairs?" Claire indicated the
stairs.
"Good idea – Maybe we can find Brody's
room"
Claire nodded, and they walked up to the
stairs.
Leon looked doubtfully at the stairs. They
were over fifty years old, and neither of them wanted the unique experience of
going through a set of stairs as
opposed to up them.
Thankfully, the planks didn't look like
they were rotting – So they set off up the stairs.
The wood creaked under their feet, and as
they got to the top, they checked out the landing.
Three doors. Claire peeked inside one.
"Huh. Just the parent's room. Nothing"
Leon tried the second door.
"Store cupboard" he said, blankly, when he
was greeted with the sight of a dusty wooden cupboard with a few practically
unidentifiable objects inside.
The final door was obviously Kyle Brody's
room.
Very slowly, Leon pushed it open, dust
falling off it as it slowly opened. They stepped into the musty air of the
room.
Their jaws dropped almost simultaneously,
and Leon felt a warm tide of fear flow up through his body from the toe up.
The room was furnished with a table,
bed…and about five hundred pieces of yellowing paper, each with demonic,
screaming faces and unidentifiable scrawls that looked like nordic runes, and
one dominant symbol that vaguely resembled a stickman.
There was a phrase, scribbled heavily
across the thickly papered wall; 'LEAVE ME ALONE'
"Leon…" Claire said "…I don't know how it
is, but this…scares me"
"Yeah…" Leon murmured "…You're right. I
don't like this Claire, I don't like this at all"
General Store
12:00pm
They were both
very relieved to leave the house, after taking photos and filming the room,
they made the very wise decision of getting out of there. More of Kyle Brody
later, they both decided on the way back down into town, the woods were their
primary concern.
Leon strode up to the counter of the only
General Store Burkittsville had, and said as politely as he could manage
"Can I have a map of the Black Hill's
forests?"
The shopkeeper leaned over the counter, giving Leon
his most mysterious and damning look.
"I've sold three maps of the Black Hill's
Forest. Two of them went missing along with their owners"
"Who's the third guy then?" Claire asked, innocently.
The man grinned.
"Why, you of course" he said, indicating
Leon.
Leon handed some money over, and the
shopkeeper took it, hungrily, handing over a folded up piece of paper that
resembled a map, which Leon tucked into his pocket.
"Although I'd be careful" he warned "The
woods can be dangerous – There's talk of evil things in that forest…"
Leon shook his head.
"Ah, I don't think we've got anything to
worry about" he said, despite that his mind said otherwise.
The shopkeeper shrugged.
"Very well" he said "If you insist"
"He seemed a little uneasy about us" Claire
said, as she and Leon walked across the pedestrian crossing, being persistently
beeped at by several cars waiting behind the crossing "Do you think he's
suspicious about us?"
Leon shook his head.
"Nah. Not possible, I mean we only arrived
yesterday, I don't think word spreads that quickly around here"
Claire looked around.
"Well, we're here – So I say we start to
pack for our little 'hike'"
Leon nodded in agreement.
"Good idea" he said.
Holiday
Inn
1:00pm
Claire finished packing the third pair of
socks into her rucksack, and then pulled out the small GPS device they had
bought in New York, pressing the ON button. There was a shrill beep, and the
LCD display lit up, displaying various numbers and co-ordinates that Claire
felt she would understand better if she had listened to her teachers in her
Geography classes. Either that, or let Leon work it out.
"Uh…Leon?" she said, and Leon looked up,
clicking the clips on his rucksack shut.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Do you know how this works? I'm not a new
technology person"
Leon shrugged, and took it gently from
her, and pressed a few buttons.
"Yep…" then he put on a California surfer
twang "…I'm like totally up to date with the latest gizmos, dude"
Claire giggled.
"As long as your navigation skills are
better than your surfer dude impersonation, I think we're safe!"
He grinned, and was suddenly surprised to
feel her hand brush his leg. His skin tingled, and he looked at her. He was
once again aware of her tremendous beauty, even in a pair of jeans and a shirt.
She was, however wearing that sexy red jacket of hers that made Leon wilt every
time he saw her.
He took her hand and squeezed it,
encouragingly.
She smiled, the smile that he loved so
dearly and made the clouds part when all seemed so gloomy.
Leon wanted to tell her how he felt,
how things had changed, how he felt she looked…
He opened his mouth…and shut it
again.
"Let's go" he said, mouth dry.
"Yes, let's" she replied, looking him
in the eyes.
Then, an uncontrollable urge made itself
present in Leon, and without warning, he slipped his arms around her, staring
into her eyes aggressively.
"I want you…" he whispered "Right here
and now, I want you Claire, goddamnit"
She threw her arms around him, and
kissed him full on the mouth, Claire feeling his tongue slip against hers, and
then into her mouth. She gazed into his eyes, saw the deep primal lust for
somebody permeate his eyes, witnessed the fires of love burning…for her…
"Then have me" she whispered in reply,
and kissed him again "Have me right now…"
He began to unbutton her jacket as they
kissed.
"This is so stupid…" he muttered as they
kissed, yanking off her jacket.
"Right…" she replied through the kiss
"…Then let's both be stupid for a couple of hours"
He pushed her down onto the bed, and
unzipped her jeans, feeling her hands remove his shirt as she unbuttoned his
own trousers.
"Why are you letting me do this?" he
asked.
"Because I love you" she replied, gazing
at him with her clear, beautiful eyes again.
His mouth opened and shut, he didn't know
what to say.
"Ditto" he said, simply, and then fell
on top of her, allowing himself to finally give in to the urges that had
ravaged him ever since the end of their adventure in Raccoon City.
'I love you Claire' he thought, and then
he said it.
"I love you too" she replied, as if to
confirm her earlier statement.
They finished about two hours later, Leon
grunted for the last time, and collapsed on top of Claire.
They panted with exertion.
"Whoa…I've…never done that with you
before" Claire gasped.
"I've never…done it with you either"
They lay there for a while, considering
their options, and holding each other.
"It was…good, wasn't it?" Leon asked.
Claire smiled up at him.
"The best, Leon, the best" she kissed
him on his lower lip.
"Thanks" he replied, and grinned
boyishly "You weren't THAT bad"
He giggled as she playfully slapped him
on the side of his neck.
"Come on" he whispered, stroking her
chest "Let's get changed"
Black
Rock Road
2:30pm
Claire shouldered her backpack, and looked up
doubtfully into the dark woods. Sure, it was just a forest, but there was
something about this particular forest that unsettled her. She was sure Leon
felt it too, despite his cheery demeanour.
She turned to Leon, who was getting the GPS
out of the car, and unloading his own backpack.
"For the last time, are you sure this is
necessary?" she asked, anxiously "It feels…bad"
He frowned
"Bad?" he asked.
"Bad" she replied "As in, this place is
not a good place"
"Well, neither are Umbrella's labs – But
that's never worried you in the past"
He sighed, looking at her worried
expression.
"To tell you the truth, I'm spooked too.
But if Umbrella scientists were out here, we should know what they were doing,
whether or not this Blair Witch turns out to be real"
She nodded, smiling a little.
"I guess I'm just a little scared"
"Me too, baby, me too"
He gently kissed her on the forehead, and
adjusted her backpack. The wind was cool, but at least the sun was out in a
clear blue sky. Perhaps, she thought as they locked up the car and trudged off
the long, repetitive tarmac road and into the leaf mould that indicated the
start of the Black Hills Forest, it would be okay after all.
They rested after about four hours of
walking and chatting by a large tree, what kind Leon didn't notice, but it was
very thick and extremely old from its look. Leon had made a note of their
co-ordinates, and told Claire that it was quite easy to find their way back
from where they were. Despite how confident he seemed, how he felt was another
matter.
It was a mistake to go out into the
woods. A total mistake.
Not because they could get lost or
anything, what worried him was that the place, as Claire had said, felt bad. It
was not a good place, the persistent darkness despite how bright it was loomed
all around them. He was almost scared to see the sun go down and the night
begin. He was also scared for Claire, she was as worried as he was, and both
were beginning to doubt as to whether they'd find anything. The sun was
setting, the reddish orange light slid slowly across the countryside and
created odd shadows as it filtered through leafy branches which, had once
seemed threatening, but now seemed mildly unpleasant.
"Tell you what" Leon said "Let's walk for
another hour, see if we can spot anything, and then we'll camp down for the
night, and walk back in the morning"
Claire nodded. She was afraid, Leon
noticed. He was too…but how? He could feel it in his bones, as if something
very old and unfamiliar was trying to give him a kick.
"What about Rustin Parr's house? Is
that around here?"
"It might be" Leon remarked "And I'll
see if I can work out where it is using the map tomorrow morning"
"Okay" Claire said, standing up "Let's
walk"
Night swept across the landscape. Shadows
became the all encompassing, and light was banished. Claire and Leon sat
huddled in their tent, the halogen light illuminating the tent and their own
shadows against the stretched material of the tent.
Leon held Claire by his side, enjoying the warmth of her body against his own, feeling her gentle breathing as her own arms were wrapped around his body.
"Leon…" she said slowly "What…do you
think happened to those students who went missing here in 1994?"
"I…don't know. Really I have no idea"
"I'm not sure either…did the witch get
them, or just some psycho with an axe and a grudge?"
"Who knows…but they barely had any idea
where they were going"
She nodded.
"I guess so"
He rubbed her gently.
"You're freezing" he said "Why don't you
get into your sleeping bag?"
She smiled softly, and nodded.
"Okay" she said, and pulled away from
him, so that she could wrap herself up in her sleeping bag.
"Night" she said.
"Night" he whispered, and slipped into
his own bag with a loud yawn.
Leon didn't know what woke him up. He
just was. Checking his watch, he saw that it was 3:00am.
Three in the morning? What prompted him
to wake up this early?
As this mystery swirled around him, so did
the light. He was pretty sure he wasn't dreaming this time, but there was
something wrong. He looked around.
Leon looked at the side of the tent. A
faint feeling of fear boiled up from his stomach, as he saw…a shape. It was
outside…but…it wasn't human…
His heart began to thump hard, and
loudly. He'd seen a lot to scare him, monsters and hideous zombies were pretty
bad, but this was something above zombies…it wasn't the same kind of fear.
Zombies and monsters were very real, but this was something on the verge of
dreams, something dark and unreal.
Please say this is a dream he
thought as he saw the shape begin to press the side of the tent Please say
that I'll wake up in a minute, that this experience will be over…
He nearly gasped, and tried to hold in
any exclamations.
"Claire…" he whispered.
No response.
He nudged the sleeping form of Claire,
and very slowly she came to. Claire blinked softly, and turned to him.
"What's…up?"
She saw his pallid expression, his
fearful face.
"What?" she asked.
He grabbed her, pulled her close to
him, and pointed at the tent wall.
She turned, and the colour drained from
her face.
"Oh god…" she whispered, feeling her
own heart begin to pound as the thing outside began to press harder against the
tent wall.
"Go" he whispered "Grab your bag and
go"
He pushed her, and at that moment,
everything happened at once. The tent shook, as if in an earthquake or savage
storm, and both of them, scared as they had ever been, grabbed what they could
and belted out of the tent door, into the velvety dangerous night.
Leon kept his eye on Claire as they
ran, his heart thumping loudly. He heard Claire's gasps, her terrified breaths,
and felt his own body almost turn limp as he heard from behind them, a giggle.
Not an inhuman one…a ghostly, baby's laugh, like a happy child on a summer's
day.
It was behind, to his left and
right…
Then, suddenly, he felt himself
blunder into Claire, both of them tripped and fell over. They immediately
grabbed each other, squeezing hard, Leon heard Claire begin to cry into his
chest.
"I heard…a baby…a baby…I swear!!" he
gasped, through her tears.
"I heard it too…I heard it too…" Leon
replied, closing his eyes and holding her tight as the night closed in on them.
Authors note:
Sorry about the delay!
