The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)

Chapter 55

I don't know what to do. Frankly, I'm in honest disbelief at him training his gun on me. But then the situation sinks in and I raise my hands so he doesn't accidentally...

"Leon... you're joking right?" my tone a pitch higher from distress.

His jaw clenches and his cheeks flush red, in fury, and his eyes say it. If I provoke him, he's not entirely against shooting me.

His whole demeanor since bursting through that door had been off towards me. I could feel it, and I tried to deny it, tried to reason I was being paranoid, but at staring down the barrel of his gun. Now I know for sure.

That bag... that goddamn bag. I knew the second he threw it and it landed at my feet like it's a ticking time bomb that he'd listened to the tapes. Maybe even saw my ID's and passport with the fake names. He knows... he knows everything I've been trying to hide from him since we met. My kidnapping, the mansion, John... the last tape. If he looked at the location on the plane ticket, he knows I was going to fly to France to find Chris and see where he'd pinpointed their headquarters.

I grabbed the tapes from the desk to avoid this. Planned to destroy them when I had the chance, but so much happened between then and losing the bag on the cable car. They were long forgotten. They weren't supposed to be heard when I was alive. They were supposed to be discovered if a person ever found my body after...

I didn't want him to hear, to know any more about me than what little he's learned tonight. Knowing anything while I'm alive puts him at risk if they come looking for me.

Fuming internally. I'd bet somebody's probably watching my location through my tracker right now, seeing me in another Umbrella lab. Laughing to themselves at what unspeakable turmoil I'm in.

What did he think while listening? What is he thinking now? Clearly, it isn't good if he's training a gun on me. This isn't going to end well if I can't talk him down into lowering the gun. I can't allow him to hurt me or... kill me. I have to help Claire get that vaccine or else Sherry will die, and I have to escape to Europe to help Chris and Jill.

He doesn't say anything at my frightened question, considering what to do next I'm guessing. I try speaking again, "Leon..."

"Don't," he seethes, eyes narrowing like hearing his name come from my mouth is disgusting. "Don't talk. I don't want to hear another lie from you. I don't want to hear anything coming from the mouth of a murderer," and it's like he punched me in the gut and then in the face all at once.

I've called myself that so many times I can't tell the number. For some reason though, hearing that insult pass his lips... it's like the airs torn from my lungs and I can't breathe for a dizzying second. When S.T.A.R.S. found out, I was in the same position as now. Hands up, begging on deaf ears for them to hear me and listen to me. The things they called me before running... They hurt just as bad as hearing Leon insult me, with them I understood why, but with him...

Voice shaking, attempting to speak to him evenly one last time, "W-what you heard..."

"Stop. Talking," he grits, and my lips purse to shut up, but my nerves are fraying from an equal amount of fright and frustration. "How could you keep that from me, Madeleine? Is that even your real name, Cassie? Or is it, Patricia?" a look of horror is on his face that my name might not even be true. "You've killed people for Umbrella... you killed one of our own when he needed you most!" he accuses. "Or actually, you killed one of my own, because you're not even a real officer. You were just sent in to kill S.T.A.R.S. and became one after they were fired."