you are my home - leslie withers x reader

chapter seventeen - doubts

your heart skipped a beat. hearing these words out of leslie's mouth was one of the most beautiful things you could imagine. leslie had always been a bit clingy and made sure to stay by your side, but you never knew if it was because he liked you or if he was just afraid of being alone and needed someone to look out for him. you were still not entirely sure, but this gave you a little bit of hope.
but for what exactly? you frowned. as far as you knew, leslie had been in the beacon mental hospital for a long time. and he spent all this time alone. being in his room alone, every hour of the day except for when he had appointments with his doctor must've had an incredible impact on him. and what about you? you weren't there for no reason either. you're not able to trust other people, especially not this fast. could this even be possible?
oh my god...
you noticed that your mind was all over the place. tons of thoughts flooded your brain and you felt completely lost, overwhelmed by your emotions. you realised that you subconsciously wished for something that was never going to happen. a life with leslie? a normal life? you didn't even know if he wanted that. you're far from a professional, why would he get better because of you, if all the doctors failed to help him. because you're this one special girl he would start to love life for?
this isn't some sort of cheap romance-tv-show stuff. this is the real life. and the harsh reality of life can punch you in the gut.

you tried to get up. "i-i'm fine leslie, don't worry..."
you avoided to look at him and got out of the ambulance. the others were nowhere in sight.
"great... where is everyone?" you mumbled to yourself. when you turned around you saw leslie standing next to the vehicle, eyes on the ground. he seemed unsure about how he should behave. it broke your heart to see him like that but it was better this way.
"come on leslie, we have to find the others," you said as you started walking, not knowing which direction was the right one.

"joseph, stop!" sebastian shouted while he was running away from his murderous partner. they had been running for quite some time now until joseph finally started to slow down. he fell to the ground and started shaking.
"hey man, you okay?" sebastian asked as he slowly approached him.
"y-yeah, i'm good... sorry. i just can't control it... it's exhausting. i... i don't know if i'm able to gain back control next time. i don't want to hurt you. maybe we should go sepe-"
"no," sebastian interrupted him, "we're staying together, okay? we will find a solution for this. but for now you need to stay strong and fight against it. we have to find leslie as fast as possible and get us all out of here before ruvik is able to take over his body and gets back into the real world."
"yeah, you're right... i just... it's scaring me," joseph admitted.

seb put his hand on josephs shoulder, "of course it does, it would scare the heck out of me, believe me. don't worry, we'll get through this."
joseph smiled and quickly adjusted his glasses.
"wait... where's kidman?" he asked and looked around.
sebastian frowned. "i don't know... maybe she's with leslie and y/n. let's find them."
joseph nodded and they started walking.

after quite some time they entered another building. it looked abandoned, at least as far as they could tell.
sebastian pushed open a double door and they walked into a big room with two floors, one laying beneath them. on the lower level, a woman was trapped in something that looked like a giant glass cube which quickly filled with a liquid. sebastian looked closer and finally realised who the woman was.

"kidman!" he shouted.
she turned around and looked up, the liquid had already reached her waist.
"get me out of this thing!" she demanded.
sebastian was about do go down when joseph stopped him.
"wait a minute; it's another trap. look..."
quickly, a herd of haunted entered the room. soon they were everywhere, blocking the way to the glass cube which made it even harder to free kidman.
joseph noticed that this wouldn't be easy.
"it's much more elaborately-" he couldn't finish his sentence as he was pushed over the railing by a haunted.
both of them didn't see it coming from behind.
a loud cracking noise was herd as joseph and the haunted fell onto a wooden table, breaking it.
"joseph, are you all right?!" sebastian asked, visibly worried about his partner.
"yeah, i'm fine," he said after he got up, the haunted still laying on the ground, "i think you'd better get down here..."
"hold on, i'm coming," seb said while he went down to the lower level.

after a while they managed to kill all of the haunted. now they just needed to free kidman. the liquid had already reached her throat. but suddenly joseph noticed even more haunted coming for them.
"sebastian, they're above us!" he said.
they put up quite a fight and seb and joseph just grew even more concerned, kidman already had problems breathing.
"i can't get the thing open," joseph said, "i think there's another control panel around here. we're running out of time."
sebastian noticed that the cables led away from the glass cube. he followed them and told joseph to give him instructions. after walking by a few cells with haunted in them, he found the control panel. they managed to disable the trap and the door flung open. kidman was thrown on the ground and didn't move.
"are you all right?" joseph asked. he helped her sit up when suddenly a red glowing symbol appeared beside them. next, the ground collapsed and the two were swallowed by it.

"joseph!? kidman!?" sebastian shouted. but he didn't get an answer. he jumped down and ran to the hole. "hang on, i'm coming!"
the hole was pitch black. he couldn't see a single thing but he jumped in nonetheless.
luckily, he had his lantern with him and after he had to squeeze himself through some small gaps in the wall and climbed over ceiling parts that fell down, he found kidman and joseph, both unharmed.
they managed to unlock the door of the room they were trapped in and started searching for a way out of the building.
"i'm glad you both are all right," sebastian said.
"it's odd though, why would they catch you instead of just killing you?" joseph asked suspiciously.
"maybe he didn't see me as a threat...?" she answered.
"he?" sebastian said.
but before kidman could answer they all heard the high-pitched noise again. juli was the first one that disappeared through the ground, joseph followed instantly.
long, skinny arms that were covered in blood grabbed seb and pulled him down.