This was originally only going to be a single chapter story. Did not help that not many seemed interested at all. However thanks to a glowing review from Beckon, a little inspiration, dashed with a desire to see a bit more variety of Evil Within stories, and you get this.
Each chapter will be a point in the game where Sebastian interacted with Kidman within the STEM world, such as in the first chapter and then this one in Chapter 11: Reunion. Some may be longer than others. Some also have some extended scenes, but everything involving Sebastian is taken directly from the game, especially dialogue.
To all of you who wanted more Kidman stories: wish granted.
Enjoy.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Kidman growled under her breath as she urged her tired body on faster, on harder. A whole horde of haunted were right behind her. Far too many to fight, even if the bastards were not so hard to put down permanently.
To make matters worse, her shoulder wound was slowing her down slightly. Kidman could only push the pain aside so much. Pushing her body to its physical limits, just to keep up with the creatures of this world and survive, did not help matters at all.
Kidman refused to give up, she had a job to do here and she was going to do it.
No matter what.
Turning a corner Kidman ran face first into a solid wall of muscle. For a fraction of a second Kidman wondered who she ran into.
That was until she noticed the glowing blue eyes.
Kidman had just enough time to scream before strong, inhuman hands were wrapped around her throat. The haunted shoved her to the floor, Kidman's head hitting the concrete hard enough to make her see stars.
The creature's second hand latched onto the wrist of the hand she held her gun with pinning it to the floor. As the haunted began choking the life out of her with the other, Kidman's spare hand blindly fumbled around for something to use as a weapon.
Kidman was already seeing black spots when her hand felt a shard of glass. Taking the sharp piece of broken glass in hand, she plunged it into the left eye socket of the haunted pinning her down. The attack did not kill it but instead distracted it long enough for Kidman to squirm from its grip. Lifting her leg, she planted a heavy kick to its stomach. Not a strong enough hit to really do much damage but it did shove it off her.
Scrambling to her feet, Kidman landed another kick to its face when it tried to get back off the floor to knock it back down.
The sudden chorus of growls behind her reminded her just how close the haunted were.
Resuming her flight, Kidman quickly found herself in a large room with a crossroads. To the left there was a large set of closed double doors. To the right was a partially open door leading outside to what looked like some kind of balcony. She only had time to try one direction, either the double doors or the balcony. If the double doors were locked she would be cornered, but if the balcony was a dead end she would be trapped outside with only a single measly door to keep the haunted from her.
The risk of the double doors was too great, Kidman made a dash for the door.
Kidman fired two shots over her shoulder while she was a few steps away from the door, then fired a third as her hand shoved the thing open. Her bullet hit the leading haunted in the kneecap taking its leg out from under it. The monster fell forward flat on its face, making several of the others behind it also trip and fall. This bought Kidman enough time to rush through the door and close it behind her.
Once outside she realized her error. Just as she feared the balcony was a dead end, there was no way foreword baring a couple story drop into the flooded streets below.
A flash of movement from down the street caught her eye. She could have sworn she saw a person over there, except this person was not moving with the animal like motions of a haunted.
A part of Kidman, a very tiny part, hoped beyond hope who she saw was Sebastian. Were he there, she would stand a chance. No, if Sebastian were there she would not just stand a chance, her survival would be assured. He would get her out of this, Joseph would too, but not like Sebastian. The older detective would punch Ruvik himself in the face to bail her or Joseph out of trouble.
As she had run through the door, Kidman threw her back against the barrier to hold it shut. She could feel the haunted railing against the other side but they were unable to push it open. To her left and right several of the haunted were reaching their arms through the broken glass windows to try to reach toward and grab her. Thankfully they were all out of reach not matter how far they stretched.
Since some of them had their heads poking out the holes in the shattered windows, Kidman contemplated trying to take shots at them but that idea was quickly put down. She had to use two hands to hold the door shut so she could not take aim at the things.
The damn things had her completely trapped. There was no way to hold the door shut forever, eventually they were going to overpower her and breach the door.
Kidman swallowed hard as she evaluated her options. Waiting was already out the window, the haunted were just too strong to be stopped by a simple door. Flight was equally imposable, she had nowhere to go.
She looked over at the railing to the drop below.
It was not a pleasant option but... when the haunted broke through the door they were likely going to literally rip her to pieces, and that was if they decided to kill her quickly. She would fight back of course but she had no chance against so many.
If the water was as deep as she thought it was then she would maybe survive with a fractured leg or two, maybe a break. The fall would likely not be what killed her anyway.
It was the Shigyo that would.
If it came down to it she would rather throw herself over the railing to the Shigyo instead of being at the mercy of the haunted. Hopefully it would be fast when it devoured her whole.
Kidman closed her eyes as another heavy blow struck the door.
This would not be like when she was trapped in the water tank. There would be no knight missing his trench coat riding in to save her this time.
Kidman once more felt the deep gnawing regret for not being honest with Sebastian and Joseph. If the two men were not already dead, she sincerely hoped they were not, she was going to try to tell them everything. It would be quite a story.
"Kidman! Hold on!"
That voice... no, it could not be possible could it?
Kidman brought her gaze back up, opening her eyes, she saw something that was beyond her wildest dreams.
Sebastian was across the street on an opposing fire escape just slightly below her level. He looked just as she had last seen him just before they were last separated.
Kidman released a breath she did not realize she was holding when she saw that Sebastian was not visibly injured in any way.
"Help! There's too many of them!" Kidman was honestly surprised her voice did not break as she spoke the words.
Sebastian motioned for her to hold on as he cocked his customary shotgun and began to descend the fire escape he was on.
Kidman did not get a chance to warn him about the Shigyo hiding in the water.
To her own surprise the report of a rifle from the street below actually startled her. Kidman felt her heart sinking.
Sebastian was not carrying a rifle.
Kidman took in heavy breaths as she prayed Sebastian was not hurt.
Her answer came a few seconds later when a pistol shot rang out followed by the sound of a haunted howling in pain, then there was a splash, followed by a second splash.
Kidman found herself really wishing she could see the street below.
The woman was unsure how long she stood there holding the door shut. It felt like hours, she had no way of knowing if Sebastian was even still alive down there. Perhaps the Shigyo had managed to get him after all, or maybe the rifle shot hit him and his last act was to kill the haunted who shot him. The splashes could have been both man and haunted falling into the water.
Kidman's thoughts were racing with possibilities so much that she did not notice the loud beeping.
From the other side of the door.
It was a sound she recognized from the last time she saw Sebastian and Joseph. She knew exactly what was coming next when the explosion hit. Thanks to the shut door, the blast completely missed her.
A moment later she noticed the arms were reaching through the gaps in the shattered windows anymore. Something had drawn the haunted off.
Kidman could hear the sounds of growls and gunshots from the other room. Whatever was happening in there, someone was kicking ass if the sound was any indication.
Then came the silence for a few moments.
"Kidman, it's me," Sebastian's voice broke the lingering silence.
Without hesitation Kidman opened the door to the image of carnage all over the room. Blood was splattered over many places, several headless haunted with those patches of blood, as well as a few piles of ash.
Sebastian himself did not seem to have a scratch on him.
"If you hadn't come along..." Kidman was not able to finish her sentence, she was afraid of her voice betraying her. She was just so relieved he came when he did.
"Save it for later. There are probably more of them around..." Kidman could hear the relief in his voice. The man was just glad she was still alive.
Sebastian's eyes scanned her form quickly. Were it any other man, Kidman would accuse them of checking her out, she knew Sebastian better than that though. He was searching her for visible injuries. Naturally after a couple of seconds his eyes locked onto her shoulder wound. Kidman had not had neither the time, nor the materials to patch herself up.
Sebastian however would not berate her for not taking care of herself. Instead, knowing him, he would tell her to sit down while he bandaged her up.
In fact he was probably one hair away from saying just that when there was a heavy knock off to the side in the direction of the double doors she had seen earlier. After another blow, the door was pushed open with three more haunted coming through.
The haunted in the front lifted his arm and hurled a small hand axe toward the detectives.
Toward Sebastian.
"Look out!" Kidman snatched onto his arm and pulled him off to the side. The thrown missile missing by mere inches. After dodging the axe the pair moved over to the side to duck behind a bank of file cabinets.
Kidman dropped the first with a shot to the head, making it explode in a splattering of blood and bone fragments. Both of the other two haunted were hit by the same shotgun blast from Sebastian. While the two hostiles were on the ground, Sebastian pulled a match from his pocket and threw it at them after lighting it. The two instantly went up like a bonfire for a few seconds until only ashes were left.
Sebastian nodded to her as he cocked the shotgun and held it aloft as he went toward the door the haunted came from. Kidman following closely behind.
This time, it was Sebastian who saw the threat first. Before Kidman even had a chance to think Sebastian shoved her off to the side before moving to the opposite side.
This was a blink of an eye before a short burst of an automatic rifle fire flew past, right where they had been standing seconds before.
Kidman had managed to only catch a brief glimpse of their adversary. It was another one of the armored SWAT team haunted. Body armor and an automatic rifle were a potent combination.
Before Kidman could begin to formulate a plan of attack, Sebastian was already acting. He leaned out and quickly fired a shotgun blast toward the armored haunted. The pellets were not strong enough to punch through but did force the monster back a step or two.
Using the opening, Kidman leaned out and fired two more shots to knock it back again. This time, while it was stumbling Sebastian rushed forward and vaulted over the impromptu cover the haunted had been using. The haunted SWAT did not even have a chance to react before Sebastian pounced onto it and plunged his knife straight into its eye socket.
Tearing the blade free, Sebastian motioned to Kidman it was all clear.
With pistol held aloft, Kidman advanced toward into the room. Sebastian was already off to the side hitting the elevator buttons to see if they worked at all, which of course they did not. This left just the stairs.
They descended the steps slowly, Sebastian leading with Kidman close behind.
"I'm so glad you're alright." The relief in Sebastian voice was quite evident. "Ever since the church I..."
"You were at the church?" Kidman had not meant to interrupt him so rudely but the words were already coming out the moment he mentioned the church. Leslie had been with her back at the church but she got separated from the pretty quickly. She had not seen Sebastian there, maybe he had seen her from a ways away. If he had been close at all he would have yelled for her like he did when she saw her in trouble a short while ago.
"Yeah. Joseph and I. He's in bad shape, or at least he was when I last saw him." The thought of not knowing how Joseph was doing was eating away at Sebastian. This was obvious to Kidman. It was very similar to the feeling in the pit of her stomach. Joseph just had to be alright, he had to.
There was something Kidman needed to know though.
"What about the boy from the hospital, Leslie?"
"I found him in a cage. He freaked and ran though." Sebastian spoke as he led them down a hall and out a large hole in the wall to a small catwalk. Looking over the ledge, Kidman could plainly see a massive crater in what used to be a parking lot for one of the nearby factories.
At least for now Leslie was still out of Ruvik's hands. One way or another though she needed to find the boy, before Ruvik did. If Ruvik got to him first... the consequences could be catastrophic.
Making their way down another set of stairs, the duo found themselves on a ruined street. The only way forward was a metal door on the opposite side that led to some kind of alleyway. Sebastian moved over to the door, wasting no time, brought his foot up and kicked it open.
"I think we've all been seeing strange things." As Sebastian spoke he led the way through the now opened door. "Have you been having any nosebleeds? Headaches?" There was that worried and protective tone again.
"No... why?" It was the truth, the symptoms that had been affecting Sebastian and the others, such as the ringing noises, were having zero effect on her. Sebastian must still not know what was going on, at least not entirely. Otherwise he would have figured out by now why she was unaffected.
"Joseph was... it's like he was turning into one of those... things." The horror in his voice was the same feeling that Kidman was now having. Joseph was turning into a haunted? The idea was just plain horrifying.
"Maybe it doesn't affect everybody...?" Kidman proposed, maybe it was true though. Sebastian did not seem to be having the same symptoms as Joseph. The older detective thus far seemed to have only been getting the headaches and ringing noises. At least that was what Kidman hoped.
Kidman could not help the feeling they were being funneled along a pathway like rats. There was always just one direction to go, never ways around or alternate routes. It almost made her feel like they were in some horror movie or video game or something. Unless being plugged into the STEM system was like a video game, the idea was downright preposterous.
Traveling down the alley, the way again was in a single direction, into a nearby office for one of the factories. Looked like it was one for mannequins, nothing creepy about that at all.
Sebastian as always led the way and opened the door to secure the room, Kidman following a step behind. While he covered the forward, she turned left to secure the left side of the room.
Nothing at all to be seen.
Kidman breathed a soft sigh of relief as she looked around. The room was completely clear, was somewhat securable. They would be safe here, it seemed Kidman finally got her wish.
A safe place for her and Sebastian to stop, rest, and finally get everything out in the open.
Kidman had opened her mouth to call out to Sebastian when the man in question suddenly cried out holding his head in his hands. He groaned loudly as he turned to face away from her.
This was a lot like when they were all last separated. Sebastian and Joseph had been hit by a sudden headache and a ringing noise that Kidman was spared from. They had been scattered moments after that.
Wanting to avoid a similar fate, Kidman was about to rush over to Sebastian when he turned slightly toward her.
The first red flag was the inhuman growl he let out.
"Sebastian, what is..." Kidman froze midsentence.
The second red flag was the blisters and red veins forming all over his skin and face.
"No no no no..." Kidman mumbled under her breath in sheer terror. Not Sebastian, anyone but him. The man could survive anything. Surely he could fight this?
"Stay back!" Sebastian's voice was so pained, it hit Kidman in the chest like a freight train.
Kidman gripped her gun tightly but she could not bring herself to point it at Sebastian. Every part of her rational mind told screamed for her to point it at him and fire. That this was not Sebastian anymore, it was a haunted that was going to try to kill her.
She could not do it.
Instead, Kidman dashed for the nearby door as Sebastian let out an animalistic snarl. The door however was locked, she could not get it open. Turning around she pressed her back to the metal of the door.
She instantly wished she had not looked.
Kidman could see in his eyes that the monster in front of her was not Sebastian anymore. The pain of seeing Sebastian like this hurt far more than the pain of him brutally killing her would be.
The haunted's hands were up as it charged her. Time seemed to slow down with each step the creature took toward her.
On pure reflex, Kidman raised her weapon. A single shot to the head, that was all it would take. A single bullet and the beast would be put down.
She would be spared from the soon to follow death.
All she had to do was squeeze the trigger.
A single twitch of the muscles in her finger would be enough.
It was not until the haunted Sebastian was right on top of her that she fired, she did not want to. In fact for a few seconds she did not even realize the gun had gone off. Even the noise was completely unheard.
It was the heavy thud of Sebastian's body hitting the floor that roused Kidman from her stupor.
"Sebastian!" Kidman quickly rushed down to the fallen detective's side. Her bullet had hit Sebastian in the side, blood was already running from the wound. She instantly began to apply pressure to slow the bleeding.
When she did, she instantly noticed he looked back to normal. The red veins, blisters, and blue eyes were all gone. He was back to being a human again.
Kidman looked around the room, frantically searching for anything she could use. A nearby first aid kit seemed like the answer to her prayers. Kidman let go of the wound and rushed for the kit, returning in record time.
Once she moved Sebastian's shirt, the female detective went to work cleaning and bandaging the wound she had inflicted.
Kidman had done some things in life she regretted, just every other person in the world. Shooting Sebastian... that ranked up there with the highest. Even if he was turning into a monster ready to attack her, it was still him, somewhere in there.
Now that he looked normal again, she hoped he would wake up soon and be fine. Kidman knew that was a childish hope... if he had turned once he could do it again. The risk to her mission was too great.
He would at least be safe in here until he awoke. When he did, she would be long gone. As much as Kidman hated being separated from him again, she knew it had to be this way.
After making one last check to make sure he was not bleeding, Kidman slowly rose to her feet. Taking two steps toward the door she looked over her shoulder at Sebastian one last time before leaving the room.
She had just closed the door when she heard movement in the room she just left. Had one of the creatures found a way in?
Kidman turned her head so fast she felt like she almost got whiplash. To her surprise it was not a haunted that made the noise.
Sebastian was already waking up.
Kidman knew he was strong but she did not expect him up that quick.
The man grumbled something under his breath as he slowly stood to his feet. His eyes focused on her swiftly, his gaze first held worry, then confusion. "Did you shoot me..." Kidman knew his words held no reprimand, no anger. Merely a simple question of what she had done.
"You started turning into a monster. You attacked me." Kidman's words were true, Sebastian had to of known what happened. He just wanted to make sure he had not been hallucinating it.
The look of horror on his face said it all.
"I'm sorry but you're tainted now. He might try to stop me through you." This was true too, as much as she wanted, needed, Sebastian with her, she had to go on her own now. She could not risk her mission for something like this.
Once more, she had spoken more about their current situation than Sebastian knew before she could stop herself.
Kidman turned to leave. She had to get away now before she lost all of her self control. This man tended to have that kind of effect on her recently.
"Wait! What are you talking about..." Sebastian's words faded fast because as soon as she took a few steps out of sight of the door's window, she broke into a full sprint.
It was not until she was a little ways down the hall that the reality of what she did set in. She had shot Sebastian. She felt like she was about to vomit.
She had to get away, she did not want Sebastian to see the single tear that ran down her cheek.
Does anyone else think that Kidman would not have just shot Sebastian and watched him bleed through a door window? I thought in the game Sebastian was moving quite well for someone who just took a bullet. Kidman had to of patched him up.
For that matter, I also felt like it was a sucker punch from the game creators to separate Sebastian and Kidman the way they did. Not a single time after this is Sebastian's temporary being a haunted mentioned except an offhand comment with Joseph.
Some reviews would be greatly appreciated, it would make me want to write these out a bit faster.
Anyway, next round: The Ride