RADICALISATION, leon kennedy [1]

vii. half (de)formed reality

┌────────────────────────────┐

𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒: 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛: ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑓 (𝑑𝑒)𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦

└────────────────────────────┘

Raccoon City — September 30th, 1998

     Midnight tips them over from September 29th into September 30th in the aftermath.

     Leaving Leon to calm himself in the underground passage for a few minutes, and giving himself the chance to stop shaking so damn much, Mason backtracks to ensure that they haven't left anything useful laying around. And, as he guessed earlier, they're going to need at least three more of the weird ass keys to be able to fully clear out the police station — the Club Key, the Diamond Key,and the Heart Key. He tiredly curses their luck and grabs any ammunition from the available rooms that he knows will come in handy for Leon.

     When he joins the rookie in the underground passage, the entrance sealing itself shut behind him, Leon's blue eyes are a mixture of scared and pissed off, which takes Mason aback. He stumbles back several steps as the blond stalks forward, trapping him against the wall at his back, stomach churning and his green eyes wide with shock and confusion. Mason hasn't seen such a vicious look in the rookie's eyes thus far, and it's bewildering to be seeing it right now, without any clear reasoning.

     "Where the hell were you?" Leon exclaims. "I thought one of those things might have got you!"

     Mason blinks, startled. "I..."

     "Just... Don't do that again."

     The blond leaves Mason standing by the wall for a few halting seconds before Mason regains his senses and follows the rookie down the stairs to a lower level of the underground passage. There are ominous sounds of someone — or something — scuffling around on the next floor down, and something in Mason's mind is screaming for them to run. Hand darting out to catch Leon's wrist on instinct, he harshly shakes his head and continues heading down the stairs to see if there's another way out.

     And, much to their luck, there is — but it's locked.

     With a bitter curse from Mason, they return to the second floor of the underground passage and walk towards the damn scuffling sound, much to Mason's displeasure and unease. In classic fashion of their lack of luck regarding anything in the damn building, there's a fallen shelf blocking their way forward. Keeping an eye and an ear out for anything that may attack them, Mason leaves Leon to move the shelf out of their way, his green eyes burning and his right arm trembling, fingers twitching around the hilt of his machete.