chapter one

stranger;

Maddie was standing in front of a stretcher. The stretcher was located in the center of a room. A hospital room.

On the stretcher, a little girl was resting. Her body was covered with a purple plush blanket and her little arms were wrapped around the neck of a rag doll, while an IV emerged from the back of her left hand, giving her a transparent, jelly-like liquid. The girl appeared to be sleeping peacefully. And even though her eyes were closed, her face and body completely relaxed, Maddie, knew that the girl was awake. Awake and listening attentively.

The slight beep that marked her vital signs managed to distract Maddie a bit from the conversation that was taking place somewhere in the hospital. Maddie understood that the girl wanted to hear what they were saying. She spun on her own axis and saw them. Really, she couldn't see more than their silhouettes, but she heard them clearly.

"What happened?" asked one of the men. The voice was somewhat rough. He looked familiar.

"There was a failure in the process" the other man spoke. His voice was the complete opposite of the man's. It was the voice of an old man with a knowing tone. "We've had to neutralize two of the test subjects."

"And the G subject?" the man asked, his tone concerned.

"In perfect condition."

A sharp pain shot through Maddie's shoulder and the girl squealed, opening her eyes.

When Maddie opened her eyes, she noticed that a metal figurine had fallen from the top of a shelf right onto her shoulder, causing her pain so bad it had caused her to open her eyes. Maddie was sitting on her butt, with Ashley's head on her other shoulder. She could feel a pain in her shoulder added to the discomfort in her neck and the numbness in her bottom.

Gently, Maddie laid Ashley down on the hard stone floor of the small room they were in. She scrambled to her feet and stretched out her body. A soft (yet pleasurable) sequence of cracks filled the silent stone room where they had been placed, Maddie dropping her arms to her sides as if they had no strength to hold on. Her gaze swept the room.

The room was tiny. A simple square with four walls and a door, there were no windows. Maddie had no way of knowing how long they had been in there but she wouldn't put it more than a couple of hours. It had poor lighting. Small, thin white candles graced the smooth stone walls, providing just enough light so that no corners were dark enough. There were wooden barrels, she supposed they would be easy to open...if she had the means to open them. She sighed.

In a corner (where Ashley was sleeping soundly to the surprise of the black-haired girl) there were sacks with flour inside, minimally fluffy enough to serve as a pillow, but anything was better than a scratchy floor. In another corner a stack of long dark wooden boards were stacked against the wall facing her and just to her right was a large wooden shelf, similar to the one to her left from where the figurine had fallen.

The black-haired girl frowned and walked towards the metal figure that lay on the floor. It was a simple peasant girl carved from metal. She was wearing a long skirt with pleats at the ends, a shirt with buttons down the front (almost like her uniform, which she was just wearing), the woman in the statuette had a headscarf tied to her head, with one hand she was holding a bucket and with the other a cup on her head.

Maddie pursed her lips. She tightened her fingers around the figurine and lifted it up. It was heavy, quite a lot, she was surprised that it hadn't broken her shoulder by falling such a heavy object from such a height. So, she decided that she was stronger than she believed and that this statuette would be her weapon. Perhaps, with just enough force, she could crack a skull or two.

Then the metal doorknob creaked. Maddie felt a sudden acceleration of her heartbeat. She blinked twice and spun around. Her black hair tossed and her skirt fluttered around her legs. She raised the metal figure to the height of her head and waited in silence. The door was opened very carefully, Maddie swallowed nervously. What would she do after hitting them and knocking them out? Flee? Where? She would have to bring Ashley, but the blonde didn't work well under pressure.

She didn't even know where in the world she was and now she was trying to run away? Maybe she could start a mini riot. Yeah,that. A revolution for the rights of the kidnapped. A bed, at least. And decent food and they would be good hostages. It worked.

Through the door, a young man walked through. The first thing Maddie notices is his long black hair. She swings the figurine through the air, but the man catches it inches from hitting his face.

"Ayayay!" the man complained with a strange accent. Maddie released the figure and backed away slowly "You sure are brave, loca."

The black-haired girl looked at him with wide eyes, she didn't quite understand what was happening, so she stared at him while she slowly backed away.

"Don't be scared," the man spoke. That strange accent in his voice was still there and made Maddie a little uneasy. "My name is Luis, Luis Sera. What is your name, preciosa?"

Maddie, unable to really help herself, ran her eyes from the man's messy hair, to his muddy boots. She looked at him suspiciously and crossed her arms, trying somehow to look a little more intimidating. Actually, Maddie knew she wouldn't achieve much, surely you could see the terror in the depths of her eyes and her height didn't help much either.

"Where are we?" Maddie asked, but more than question, she sounded command. As if this Luis had the obligation to answer each of the questions that the girl would ask.

"You do sound like the president's daughter," Luis joked, trying to build trust with the girl.

"Well, I'm not," the green-eyed girl snapped helplessly. If she would back down in the future, she decided not to think about it, she kept her gaze defiant and her jaw clenched.

"Then even better," the man said with a smirk. "You're disposable in her plan and it's in your best interest to listen to me, preciosa."

"Maddie," she corrected angrily. "My name is Maddie."

"Nice name."

"I know," the girl snapped, still wary. "If you want me to hear you, answer me first, otherwise I'll scream."

Luis chuckled.

"What will you accomplish by screaming?" the man scoffed.

Maddie flashed a superior smile. Luis Sera seemed very intelligent, but he had made a mistake. Maddie was a girl who paid too much attention to her surroundings. The way he had entered had given him away so well in her eyes that she knew this man was definitely not welcome. She batted her lashes softly and looked up at him as her smirk widened to her pink lips.

Luis inhaled strongly while he watched the girl's face fill with that expression that made his hair stand on end.

"Are you seriously asking, Mr. Sera?" she replied in a honeyed tone of voice, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in her pleated school skirt and raising her green eyes to the older man. "It's obvious that you're here, talking to me, without anyone knowing, which leads me to think that the same people who have me here are looking for you too."

"Insightful," Luis pointed out, as he crossed his arms and leaned his back against the metal door and watched the girl clad in a school uniform. "Okay, we're in a town in Spain, are you happy?"

"Spain?!" she asked, as her eyes widened. "That's almost a 10 hour flight! How is it…?!

Luis stepped forward and put a hand over her mouth. His dark eyes watched her green ones with warning, he was telling her without using his words that she should be very careful with the tone she used. The black-haired girl stared back at him, suddenly annoyed that the man had shut her up and he had the audacity to put his hands on her.

Noticing this, Luis raised his hands to the height of his head, without moving away from her, to be able to whisper and for her to listen to him.

"Pay close attention, Maddie Graham," and she wanted to correct him. She wanted to tell him that his last name was Fray, but she bit her tongue and narrowed her eyes at the man, "they're coming for you, a soldier, Leon Kennedy. Please help him get out of here alive."

"And how could I help him?" she whispered back, now her green eyes were bathed in confusion.

"Let me do some blood tests on you," she told him, looking at him hard. "Let me take some of your blood, I beg you. It's for the greater good."

Maddie looked at him confused, while she felt how Luis's hand closed on her arm and the other very slowly took out a sterilized syringe from his pocket. Images slipped through her mind, making her hair stand on end. For some reason, she saw herself standing in front of a white-robed man. She was crying and the man was injecting her with different needles.

"I... W-why do I have to do that?" She answered in a low voice.

"Maddie," he replied. "Do you want to get out of here alive? You and your sister?"

She frowned. What kind of question was that? Of course she wanted to get out of there alive and not just her. She and Ashley would have to get out of here alive, they couldn't die kidnapped. The mere fact made her hair stand on end and looking away from that man, she gave a nod for him to do everything he had to do.

She heard the syringe wrapper be opened and then the painful sting in her wrist. She pursed her lips as she searched for Ashley with her eyes. She was curled up on the stone floor and she Maddie felt her heart clench in her chest. Hell, she'd do anything to get them out of there alive.

maddie did have a strange dream, don't you think? aside from her, how curious that Luis had to ask her for some of her blood for a blood test, why would he want it? curious very curious.

i already want leon to appear and finally maddie and him to see each other face to face, surely they would get along fatally at the beginning.

now, english is defenetly not my first language, so i want to apologise for the basic english and all the grammar mistakes i know i made, fell free to correct me or advice me, i would love to read all the sugestions. for now, see ya in the next chapter.