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Tenebrae	By : Raptor6411 Category: +M through R > Resident Evil Views: 13262 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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His ears were ringing so badly that he could only barely
understand what he himself was saying. Her mouth was moving, quickly,
frantically, as her legs kicked out over the long fall. Desperately he tried to
stretch his arm down further.

�Ashley. Ashley, take my hand okay, just reach up a little
further. You need to do this. Come on Ashley, I know you can.�

Her grip was loosening- he could see her stiff little
fingers slowly giving way. Face etched with fear, she bit her bottom lip hard
and stared helplessly up at him.

Oh God, she couldn�t do that. He couldn�t stand it when she
looked at him that way. It made his heart feel like it was contracting. With a
sudden surge of energy he wiggled his way further out over the edge, extending
his fingers.

�Ashley. Please. Reach up, you can do it.�

Her eyes were wide and glassy, pools of unthinking terror.

Please, he mouthed. Please.

Something in his eyes must have broken through the panic,
for with her last ounce of strength she swung one arm up. Moving with a speed
he hadn�t known he possessed, he grabbed it firmly with both his hands, hauling
her up until he could lift under her arms. Gathering her close to his chest, he
threw his weight to the side and rolled away from the precipice, taking her
with him.

She was lying on top of him but that hardly seemed
significant as they both gasped for breath, allowing weak limbs to relax and
regain some token strength. They were pushing too hard, he knew. They needed a
rest. He didn�t know how it would be possible, but they had to stop if only for
a little while.

The feeling of something wet against the side of his neck
pulled him from his thoughts, and he realized Ashley had buried her face there,
and was quietly sobbing. Gently he reached up and softly patted her on the back,
knowing they couldn�t lay there for long. His hearing was gradually returning-
the loss of which had been the result of a near miss by a catapult. The
operator of said catapult had met his end shortly after by the work of Leon�s
rifle, but Ashley had been tossed violently to the side and had slid over a
nearby ledge. It had been a close call, far too close for Leon�s
taste.

�Ashley. Ashley, we need to go.�

Still letting loose a few silent tears onto his skin, she
nodded, but made no move to get up. As unwilling to move as she but bending to
necessity, Leon
sat up and hoisted both of them to their feet. It was a few seconds before she
looked up, a few tears still glistening on her cheeks in the moonlight.
Tenderly, Leon
brushed one of them away with his thumb, sending her embarrassed
gaze back to the ground.

�Okay?� He asked softly.

Wordlessly, she nodded.

As they moved off through the reaches of the castle, Leon
reflected that somewhere along the way this mission had become quite personal.

___

Ashley was dead on her feet. Her shoes dragged against the
stone floor with every step and Leon
was afraid that should the need arise, and it often did, she would be unable to
move quickly. They were in drastic need of a place to rest, and Leon
was now pressured to search harder than ever for somewhere to hide.

Salvation came in the form of a small, blocked in stone room
on the edge of the one the castle wings. Located in a relatively out of the way
place and hosting only one small window and a heavy iron door, it was their
best chance for a breather.

No sooner had Leon
shut the door and wedged a heavy beam into the bar lock than Ashley slumped to
the floor. She needed to be off her feet, if but for a short time. Adrenaline
could only carry a body so far.

Leon
settled down next to her, taking worried stock of his steadily dwindling ammo
supply. He conserved as much as possible and looted what he could, but at this
rate without finding a new source of bullets it wouldn�t be long before he
would be using the butt end of his weapons. And as exhaustion slowly set in, he
was becoming more concerned about his state of combat worthiness. Fatigue would
drag him down, make him more unaware. He couldn�t protect Ashley like that.

He wasn�t interested in considering when her safety had
become all important. Tripping together in the dark the only sane thing they
had to cling to was each other. And in some deep way she needed him- depended
on him. There was a time when everything fit neatly under the mission but more
and more her need meant something to him.

Blinking quickly Leon
squeezed the bridge of his nose, trying to clear his head. Too many thoughts,
none of them about what was happening at hand. He needed to be focused, too
concentrate on keeping them alive. But he was so tired- a little rest couldn�t
hurt.

Ashley was shivering despite her sweater. The cold and
vaguely damp stone did not make for the best sleeping position. Wishing not for
the first time that he still had his jacket, Leon
wrapped his arms around her and leaned her against his side. Placing his loaded
handgun safely in reach, he closed his eyes to the sound of her breathing.

___

What places he walked, where even the walls could swallow
you.

Ashley was gone, vanished behind a layer of impassable stone,
barricaded from what little safety he could offer her.
He felt guilty, like it was his fault. He felt like he had failed.

Now it was a race to reach her.

The sewer reflected noises at odd angles, mixed into an
ambient audio level that ebbed and flowed like the water itself. Grimly he
realized it would be extremely difficult to discern the position of any enemies
by sound alone. Twisted by strange acoustics even his own watery footsteps
seemed to come from every direction. And with the walls and ceiling distorted
by the wavering liquid reflections he didn�t trust his eyes all that much
either.

It was perhaps for these reasons that the first attack
caught him by complete surprise.

Something solid and heavy caught him in the midsection at
the same time an alien screech reverberated through his ears. The breath
knocked from his lungs, Leon
smacked painfully into the wall and fell with a splash into the shallow water.
Moving with a tightly controlled urgency he rolled back upright, bringing his
shotgun to bear. He had little time to think about it- at the first sign of
some strange luminescence heading quickly towards him he fired.

The buckshot caught his invisible enemy at close quarters,
tossing it violently onto its back. Whatever sophisticated camouflage the thing
possessed momentarily faded as it thrashed through the water, releasing
deafening screams in its pain. His first impressions were of a large insect
like creature, but he wasn�t interested in a live biology lesson- he�d settle
for an autopsy. Chambering another shell he fired into what he judged to be its
head, putting an end to its cries.

There would be more. There was no way he was lucky enough to
have met the only such creature.

Steeling himself, Leon
stepped further into the dank reaches of the tunnels.

___

Relief was not a strong enough word to cover the feelings
that flooded through Leon
when he held her safely again, a subtle quaking still running through her fine
bones. She was soft and warm but even more importantly, alive. He had never
felt as helpless as when she had disappeared into the door, leaving him to
stand and wait for her return. His mind had never thought further ahead than
that. They were each a crutch to the other, a necessary support. Should one of
them fall, the madness that surrounded this place would crush the one left
behind, like a limb separated from its host, withered and dying.

Then she raised her head from his chest to meet his gaze
with hazel eyes that said things they didn�t have the time to explore. And brief
touch, heart to heart, and then need drove them further down the darkened path.

When this was over, maybe they could talk about it.
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Tenebrae