6. A Dark and Stormy Night
The night was still thick and cumbersome, but it would be dawn in less than two hours. Leon got off the couch carefully so as not to wake Claire Redfield who had fallen asleep a few hours ago. He had been watching her sleep, unable to sleep himself. He hadn't been able to get any rest because he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had happened, or was about to.
He stood up, looking at Claire as she slept once more. She was attractive. He didn't like admitting his attraction to her to even himself, but it was there. She was attractive and she looked cute when she slept. Timidly, he brought his hand to her face and tucked a reddish brown strand of hair behind her ear. She stirred a little and Leon smiled. Once satisfied she was still sleeping, he walked to the kitchen where he opened the fridge. The low florescent fridge light cast shadows on the kitchen and living room's walls. Finding nothing but beer and a carton of milk, he settled on drinking milk straight from the carton.
"Are you going to drink all of that?" Chris Redfield asked.
Leon turned to see him padding into the kitchen, wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Shrugging, he passed the carton to Chris, who took a swig from it. The two men stood there, looking into the living room for several seconds and saying nothing. Finally, Leon said, "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Jill fell asleep and she snores," he said, grinning a little.
"You feel like something is going to happen to them," Leon said, shaking his head, referring to Claire and Jill.
"That too, I guess. I'm worried something happened to Rebecca and Barry as well."
"The weather's awful. Flight delays all over, you know that. They aren't due in for another few hours anyway."
Chris shifted against the counter, taking another drink of milk. "Look, Leon, I have instinct, right?"
"What kind of instinct?" Leon asked, looking at Chris weirdly.
"Well, there are two kinds for me. There's the brotherly instinct, which tells me you want to jump my sister right now," Chris said, inducing a wince from Leon. He raised his hand dismissively as he continued. "But I'm not talking about that instinct now, even if I want to chew you out for it. I'm talking about the cop in me. Something isn't right. I can feel it everywhere."
"Me too." Leon was relieved the older, more experienced man had similar misgivings about the situation. It made him more confident in his unease.
"Now the question is are we wrong?"
"It was a dark and stormy night," Leon said, turning his head to the window still being pounded by torrential downpour.
Then he said, turning back to Chris, "No, I don't think so."
"So then, the next question is where do you keep the firepower?"
"My bedroom," Leon said.
Chris laughed a little."Only you would keep them there."
"Hey, it's the only place no one but me goes," Leon admitted sheepishly, laughing a little.
"A regular Casanova is after my sister alright. At least you don't live with your mom still."
Slapping Chris on the back, hard, Leon walked to his bedroom down the hall. Stepping into the room, he instantly felt the hair on his arms go on end. In the dark, illuminated by the moonlight streaming in from the window to the right, he could see Hannah sprawled out on his bed, asleep. There was a large shape next to her, but it was too dark to see what it was.
"Girl? Hannah?"
There was no movement.
Stepping closer, Leon could now see the pools of blood that oozed down to the floor, coming from underneath the German Shepard. He gagged and put his hand to where Chris' chest should have been to prevent him from making any sudden moves, but hit air. He had disappeared. Realizing he didn't have time to worry, Leon took two large and slow steps to the nightstand and put his hand on the drawer, fumbling to open it. Turning to the doorway, he saw Chris had returned with a knife from the kitchen and was now brandishing it. The blade glimmered in the moonlight.
"Good thinking," he whispered to Chris, who nodded. He wrapped his hands around the 9mm he kept fully loaded in his nightstand and pulled it out. Steadying it, he motioned for Chris to flick on the lights.
As the lights went on, the large shape stirred and launched itself off of the German Shepard's bloody corpse. The horror of recognition hit Leon as it sailed through the air. It was a Spider Plagas. It was a Spider Plagas and it was heading right towards them.
"Chris, move," he shouted, as he fired several shots at the moving parasite. The shots sent the parasite backwards where it landed with a sickening thud on the dresser. It settled there momentarily, getting back on its legs and making a loud hissing sound.
Chris looked at Leon. "What is that thing?"
Leon didn't bother answering. He checked his clip. Only five bullets left, he'd better make them count.
"Leon?"
Leon ignored him again. Beads of sweat began to build at his brow and fall down his face as he concentrated. He aimed his gun at the organism, which moved from the left and to the right preparing for attack. Suddenly it chattered loudly and spit a giant stream of green fluid at Chris Redfield, whose instincts for survival saved him just in time. At the sound, Chris had rolled out of the way to the left, just dodging the acidic fluid. There was a growing hole in the wall exposing the white tiled bathroom.
Chris was wide-eyed and he looked to Leon for any confirmation of what he'd seen. Leon just steadied his gun, stepping closer to the dresser. The parasite sprung back and jumped at its attacker. Two inches from its destination of Leon Kennedy's face, it was shot back, point-black, with a series of five impeccably aimed 9mm rounds. It landed on the window, a mess of green liquid and exoskeleton. Soon it began to dissolve, the acid eating its remainders.
Leon turned and offered his hand to Chris, pulling him off the floor. "It's from Spain. It's Albert Wesker's new toy."
"Wesker," Chris proclaimed sourly. He looked to the bed where Hannah lay, dismembered and in a pool of blood.
Leon looked at the dog in disbelief. "If I'd been asleep, it would have killed me too." The nightmare never ended. In her own way, Claire Redfield had just saved his life. Leon walked to the bed and pulled a sheet over Hannah, getting the awful feeling that this was just the beginning and Spain had been a prelude of the horror to come, not a separate story.
Snapping out of the nightmarish reverie, he walked to his closet and pulled it open. There lay enough weaponry to take out a sizeable army. In silence, Chris grabbed a Desert Eagle and loaded it while Leon eased himself into a Kevlar vest and pocketed a few flash grenades. He'd bought the munitions a few days ago when he returned from Spain, unable to shake the fact that Wesker was still out there. Apparently it had been a good move.
"I didn't expect you to have my personal favorite," Chris said, putting the kitchen knife down in exchange for a survival knife.
Before Chris could continue, there was a shrill scream and a loud grunt from somewhere else in the apartment. They looked at each other.
"CLAAAAAAIIIIIIIIRE."
There was the sound of breaking glass.
"CLAAAAAAIIIIIIIIRE."
Followed by more breaking glass.
"CLAAAAAAIIIIIIIIRE."
This time, the proclamation was followed by a loud grunt and another roar, this one mostly unintelligible, trailed by a feminine scream and the sound of even more breaking glass. The entire apartment shook violently from the impact.
"Claire," Leon and Chris said in unison, rushing out into the hallway. The guest bedroom's door was open and they moved in quickly, worry lining their faces.
There was a large outline of a man's shape in the room, running through the window and the wall, and rain was streaming in over the broken glass and plaster. Holding their weapons at the ready, the men ran to the gaping hole in the building and looked down. Three stories below, they could see a giant, hulking creature with a woman in his arms. He was running through the streets with a trail of parasites following him.
"Claire," they whispered again, this time an edge of hopelessness in their voices. Leon brought his pistol out to shoot, but Chris put his hand on his arm. It was too dangerous to try from that range and hope to not actually hit Claire. They looked out as the monster disappeared into the alleyway, away from their sight.
Feeling a pair of eyes on him, Chris was first to turn around with his magnum. To his surprise, the small frame of his sister was standing in the doorway. He elbowed Leon to turn around, whose jaw dropped as he did.
"What happened?" She yawned. "Is everything okay? Where's Jill?"
"Jill," Chris said, realizing what had happened.
Then he said, "The bastard took Jill instead."
Note: Thanks again for the reviews and feel free to leave more. I hope everyone likes this chapter, I am trying to update in a timely fashion. Also, it's intentional that it's unexplained how Steve got there. I realized if I kept it in real time, it might be a little dragging and I would have to add more fluff, something I am not hugely a fan of!