"Hey, a Merchant!" I shouted as soon as we had turned the corner. "Wait…" I stopped dead in my tracks, obviously not as excited as I was two seconds ago. "Why didn't he just let us in?"
Once again, Leon rolled his eyes – a move that I was beginning to get tired of.
"Come on, let's go." The blonde man said, after he finished his trading with the Merchant.
As soon as we stepped through door to our left, Leon's transmitter went off.
"Leon, where's your current location?" A voice that I recognized as the one and only Ingrid Hunnigan spoke.
"We decided to lay low in a castle, but it looks like it was a bad move." He informed the woman whom I was still angry with.
"Meaning?"
"Well, it appears that this castle's also connected with the Los Illuminados. They must not get many visitors here, 'cause they're giving us one hell of a welcome." He explained.
"Sounds bad. I have an idea Leon, I need you to…" She cut off abruptly.
"What? Repeat Hunnigan…" When he didn't get a response, he shook the device, trying to get a better signal I guessed, but to no avail. "Great, Just my luck…"
"What happened?" I asked.
"The transmission got cut off…" Leon said in a dark tone as he put the device back in its place.
"Is that bad?" Ashley asked.
"Well, it definitely isn't good."
Before anyone could say anything else, my eyes had already begun to absorb everything in the room.
It was square and made of white stone – maybe marble, with a table in the middle of it with what looked like worn out diaries and a box of shotgun shells on it. There was a staircase to the left, and in the corner there was a sword made of platinum placed in a golden frame.
"Leon," Said man looked over at me. "Why is there a silver sword in a gold case?"
"How should I know?" He replied as if my confusion meant nothing.
I crossed my arms, eyeing the mysterious sword. For some reason, it really ticked me off. But maybe that was just my OCD coming into play.
Ashley and I stood in place while Leon went upstairs and did his thing. As soon as he stepped off the top step though, there were the sounds of gunshots and Leon making his super awesome "Hiya!" sound as he kicked a zealot in the face. We knew he didn't need our help. From the sounds of it, there were only two or three of them up there-
And then the door we came through opened and in came about twelve of those freaks all at once. It completely caught us off guard, and one of the creepy men grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder, and began walking away with me back to the door.
I couldn't help but scream at the top of my lungs out of surprise, and it was a good thing the agent was already half way down the stairs at the time because before the guy could leave with me, Leon shot his legs and we both fell down to the cool, marble floor. Good thing I had that cloaked freak to break my fall.
I stood up and dusted myself off. Looking up at Leon, I smiled and said, "Thanks, I owe you one."
He scoffed, but then smiled as he shot a man in the face. "Yeah, more like thirty."
This time I was the one to roll my eyes as I continued shooting the men. After a while, everyone stopped emerging from the rusty door and things were quite again. Well, as quite as they could be with Ashley and I in the room.
"I just don't get why-"
"Would you just drop it, Emily? It's not important!"
"Girls…" Leon said from beside the stairs, but Ashley and I were too busy bickering to hear him.
"I just have this feeling that—!"
"It doesn't matter!"
"Girls…!" He spoke a little more loudly, but still not quite enough.
"If you would just—!"
"No!"
"GIRLS!" That got out attention; we both shut up immediately. "Would you stop arguing for two seconds?"
We both had ashamed looks on our faces, and he continued. "Emily, I'm gonna let you do whatever it is you wanna do, 'cause honestly I got nothing at this point. If you think it might do something, you go right on ahead and try it."
My smile stretched all the way across my face. "Be right back."
I quickly turned around and dashed down the stone stairs making little pitter-patter noises as I went. As soon as I rounded the corner I headed straight for the sword and grabbed it off its spot on the wall. It was heavier than I thought, but nothing too crazy.
"You okay down there?" I heard Leon yell.
"Ye-yeah! I'm fine! It's just… really heavy." I struggled with the sword while walking up the steps, and Leon quickly came to the rescue. Thirty-one.
They both stared at me as I un-mounted a second sword on the top floor (this one was gold in a platinum case) and replaced it with the first. Again, Leon helped me carry the heavy sword down the steps, but, hey, I wasn't complaining. If a hot, muscular blonde man offers you help, you'd have to be put in a psychiatric ward if you turn him down.
When we placed the golden sword in the empty spot, the sound of something heavy scraping across the floor filled the room. I quickly ran upstairs, with Leon following closely behind, and stood dumbfounded, looking at the newly exposed door.
Leon laughed. "See? I knew you could do it." I smiled, but that smile quickly faltered when he continued. "But no more arguing, okay? I've got an extreme headache."
"Hmm…" I walked up to the blonde man, and when standing right in front of him, stood on my toes and pressed my hand against his forehead. The heat was almost over whelming. "Leon… y-you're really hot…"
"Uh… thanks?" He said with the biggest smirk on his face I had ever seen.
I quickly stepped down and retracted my hand. "N-no that's not-"
He laughed and Ashley snickered behind me. "I know." He looked down at me and tousled my hair, making the redness in my face grow even deeper. I smiled back at him, and then we all stepped through the rusty door.
It was dark outside, and the stars were shining brightly above our heads.
"I haven't seen this many stars since I was little…" Ashley whispered in wonder.
I was too speechless to say anything, and before Leon could we heard the door we had just come through open. We all quickly took our eyes off of the night sky and turned to see who the intruder was.
"Leon!" A Hispanic voice called.
"Luis?" Leon asked in confusion.
"I've got something for you guys…" Luis quickly rushed up to us and began patting himself down, looking for something. "Wha-… Oh shit! I must have dropped it when I was running away from them!"
"Dropped what?" Ashley asked.
"A drug that will stop your convulsions!" Stop our what…? I thought. We all looked at him like he was crazy and he continued. "Look, I know you're carriers. You've been coughing up blood, right?"
"…Yeah." Leon answered truthfully, glancing over at me. I gave him a sad look and we looked back at the Spaniard.
"And you?" He asked the President's daughter.
"Yes."
"And what about you, Emily?" He turned to me.
"Well… no. I… I haven't yet." I answered, and then continued when I remembered what he had told me back in that room I was trapped in. "But didn't you say-"
"Yes. We don't have much time." He turned around and began walking back to the door.
"Wait! … L-let me come with you." I offered, running after him.
"No. You stay here with Leon. You told me how fond you were of him, anyways." My eyes grew wide. I didn't dare look back at the tall blonde man standing a few feet behind me.
I returned to the original topic. "But Luis, you're all alone, it wouldn't be fair. I have a gun, I can help you."
"Look, Emily. I know you want to help, but I really need to do this on my own. Please, try to understand that."
He looked at me with such care in his eyes. How could I say no?
"Okay…"
I stood still and looked down at the ground. It was stone, duh, the whole castle was. But this time, it had suddenly become very interesting.
Leon and Ashley had both stepped forward when he had begun walking away, so that they were both standing behind me now. One of their hands was rested on my left shoulder as an act of comfort, though I couldn't determine who until he said, "Why are you-"
"It makes me feel better. Let's just leave it at that."
And just like that, Luis Sera was gone.
