chapter twenty five - even in doubt

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joseph seemed to be right, beacon appeared to be closer now.
"joseph, look!" you said enthusiastically while walking on the torn apart pieces of the street.
you turned around to face him when you saw him bent over, barely able to stand on his own feet. he looked up at you, his eyes red. weird bubbles started to appear all over his face while he was approaching you.
you slowly backed up.
what happened to him? did he get infected by one of the haunted?
"...j-joseph?" you stuttered.
he groaned and put his hands on his head.
for a moment you felt like the eyes that were looking at you had a little bit of the joseph you knew left in them. but then he growled and lunged towards you.
you turned around and ran away as fast as you could but you heard him coming closer.
beacon was too far away, there was no way you would make it.

then the blast waves appeared again, accompanied by an awful sound.
the wave was stronger than before, its force hitting you hard and throwing you on the ground while the street got torn apart. joseph tried to jump on your section but it was too far away. he couldn't reach it and fell down into the abyss together with other parts of asphalt.
"joseph no!" you screamed and crawled to the edge of the section you were on and looked down.
but you couldn't see him anymore.
you sat there for a moment just staring down with wide opened eyes before getting up.
what were you supposed to do?
joseph was gone and you didn't know if sebastian was still alive...
you had no chance against ruvik on your own.
he would take you out within the snap of a finger.
still, you had no other choice if you wanted to save leslie and find a way out of ruvik's mind.
you continued your way to the hospital, it was now right in front of you. the path was more and more destroyed the closer you came.
you climbed on some rocks and asphalt pieces to get up on the section beacon was on.
when you finally reached it and looked up you saw that the light in front of it was flickering. it also seemed... colder outside. you got closer and entered the hospital.

what you saw inside was like a scene straight out of a horror movie. the dead bodies of the nurses laid on the floor as well as medication carts and wheelchairs. blood was splattered everywhere on the ground and walls.
you covered your mouth with your hand and tried to slow down your breathing.
what happened here...?
as you made your way through, more bodies were revealed, most of them were patients. they were all wearing the same attire patients were obligated to wear.
it broke your heart to see them like that. they were basically slaughtered.
it must've been ruvik who did this. he was the only one who wasn't able to feel any empathy or remorse and enjoyed killing people.
you entered the room next to the counter and went through the back area that was filled with
shelves full of cardboard boxes. you got to a steel door and pushed a button on the wall next to it to open it.
it revealed stairs that led down.
"what kind of hospital is this..." you mumbled to yourself while walking downstairs.
it turned out that wasn't even the weirdest thing, the next rooms were even shabbier and had doors out of metal bars. it looked like you were in a prison.
you walked through them as fast as you could and hoped to find something that could lead to leslie.

suddenly you heard someone in the distance.
"no...! no...!"
you instinctively ducked your head and stopped walking.
the voice was too far away for you to tell if it was a friend or foe.
you were as quiet as possible so you could hear them in case they said something again.
or react fast enough if they were already close.
"no... ...want to go home..."
now you recognised the voice.
it was leslie, and he was close.
"...don't want to go there..."
he sounded so desperate, you didn't know who he was talking to but you started running towards his voice.
"leslie..." you whispered, terrified of what was happening to him.
"NO...!" you heard him scream.
you ran around a corner and saw kidman forcefully grabbing his wrist and dragging him after her.
that was enough to make you furious, you wouldn't let her hurt him anymore. she'd done enough damage to him through abusing his trust in her when she was about to kill him.
you carefully walked closer to them.
when you were sure that she didn't notice you, you sprinted towards her and rugby tackled her. she was caught off guard by that and let go of leslie before you two fell on the ground.
"leslie run!!!" you screamed.
he looked down at you terrified and confused before slowly backing off.
"run!" you screamed again before kidman realised what was happening and tried to get you off of her.
you saw him hesitantly turning around and running away.

now you realised that you didn't really think this plan through as kidman was a lot stronger and also better at fighting than you.
without knowing what you were doing you grabbed a wooden plank that laid next to you on the ground and hit her against the head.
you didn't hit her hard but it was enough to give you some time to get up and run after leslie.
he went through the nearest door, that was all you knew so you took the same path.
"leslie?" you shouted.
you heard faint footsteps in the distance so you followed the noise.
then you saw him, he was still running but slower. he was swaying left and right as if he was unsure of where he should go.
"leslie wait!"
he went through another, bigger door.
you almost caught up to him and pushed open the door when you found yourself outside again. it was still raining.
leslie was standing a few feet in front of you, admiring the rain.
carefully, you approached him. you were terrified of his reaction if you were completely honest. the continuous worry about him made you ill and you couldn't do it any longer.
"leslie..." you whispered. you didn't even know why you did that or what you were expecting from it. all you knew was that you had to get out of here, with leslie. but you didn't want to fight anymore. you just wanted peace.

he turned around and looked at you. your hair was already wet and raindrops rolled down your face. but he still noticed your tears.
"y/n... why c-crying?" he said but you didn't answer.
you couldn't because you didn't know why exactly you were crying either.
"i-i'm sorry," he said, "you're sad because of me. promise... i won't h-hurt you any...anymore. i will leave you alone."
you looked at him silently. there was a small part inside of you that wanted nothing more than redemption, no matter the price you had to pay for it.
but the other, much bigger part wanted leslie, even if it meant that you had to endure this torture even longer. you always thought you weren't able to allow yourself to develop feelings for someone, yet alone experience the blessing of feeling loved by another person. you felt like you didn't deserve it and that no one would even want to look past your past and the fact that you were a broken human with many issues that wouldn't just go away.
he was the one who proved you wrong.
he didn't care about your past, he didn't care about your scars.
all he cared about was you, with all your flaws and the mistakes you made.
he didn't judge you and you loved that about him.
yes, you loved him. you loved him so much that you would die for him.

he was about to turn around and walk away when you ran towards him. he was startled by that and looked surprised when you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him passionately.
his whole face was wet because of the rain and made his lips feel softer than last time.
the raindrops that fell down from his hair and on your face tickled you.
leslie's eyes were wide open and he seemed quite overwhelmed by this sudden move.
but then he put his hands around your waist and pulled you closer.
you couldn't describe what this feeling meant to you, you never knew how much you needed someone like him.
he made you feel like everything will be okay, no matter how hard it may seems sometimes.
if everything falls apart, you still have each other. and that's all that matters.
you pulled away and buried your face in his chest.
"leslie, i... i love you. i love you so much. don't leave me," you said.
you felt his hand on the back of your head.
"i l-love you t-too... y/n," he said.

you are my home - leslie withers x readerWhere stories live. Discover now