you are my home - leslie withers x reader

chapter nineteen - find him safe

at first you didn't really realise what was going on, but then you felt the tension relieve and were thankful that they were here.
"thank you for saving me from... whatever that was," you said.
"we call them the haunted," joseph said while helping you up. "they lost all humanity and wander around without a will of their own, waiting for their next prey."
you shuddered. "what happened to them? why did they become like that?"
"this is all part of ruvik's imagination. he needed minions, so he made some, just with the power of his mind. everything in here is controlled by him," sebastian said.
he made sure that no other haunted followed you. you couldn't see nor hear any of them but he still looked concerned. he came a bit closer before asking you something that made your heart ache.

"where's leslie?"
you felt the knot in your stomach again. oh how you wished you knew the answer. but the truth was that you had no idea where he was and you were worried sick.
"i... i don't... know," you managed to croak out.
sebastian had a puzzled look on his face and tilted his head.
"we... we were together but suddenly there was this unbearable noise... we fell to the ground and i... i couldn't see, he was right next to me i swear! i mean he had to be. it wouldn't make any sense if he wasn't, right? how would that even be possible?" you couldn't stop rambling and felt your voice crack.

"y/n, slow down," sebastian said and put his hand on your shoulder. "it's alright, just take a breath."
you nodded and continued to talk.
"when... when the noise stopped i got up but leslie was... he was gone. i've been searching for him for a while now but i have no idea where he could be."
you felt yourself tearing up.
"it's okay y/n, this isn't your fault. we will search for him together and we will find him,"
sebastian said dedicated.
joseph nodded at you to show you that he's also confident that you'll find leslie.
"okay..." you said and walked a few steps, "but where could he be?"
"i don't think he's wandering around outside, he probably searched for shelter indoors. maybe he is inside the church," sebastian said and walked towards it. joseph and you followed him.

the three of you entered another part of the curchyard and made your way to the church.
once you arrived at it, sebastian opened the door and you went inside. it looked abandoned, no one's probably been here for a while. a giant chandelier hung from the ceiling and a few rays of light were shining through the windows. joseph walked towards one of the benches and supported himself on it. it was clear that he was extremely exhausted, he was breathing heavily and looked like he was about to pass out every moment.
sebastian walked around the room and searched for anything that could be of use or a lead on the whereabouts of leslie.
then, you heard a familiar voice.

"get you... get you...!"

it sounded like leslie.
"did you hear that?" you almost shouted.
sebastian frowned and nodded.
"that was leslie! i know it!" you said.
then you could hear another voice.
"you have to stay with me. theres no other way."
it was a woman. her voice sounded familiar but you didn't recognize it, until sebastian said something.
"kidman..."
the thought of her being alone with leslie gave you an eerie feeling. you didn't trust her, especially not after she behaved kind of weird when you met her for the first time.
it sounded like they were somewhere below you. sebastian walked in front of a statue that was placed on top of some metal bars in the ground.
"maybe they're in here..." he mumbled.
you ran over to him.
"but...but how are we going to get there?" you asked.
he went back, scanning the room. there must be a way to get down to them.
meanwhile, joseph sat down on the bench and started coughing pretty badly.
"hey, joseph... you still with me?"
sebastian walked over to him. suddenly, it was like all his strength was leaving him and his body was falling to the ground, but sebastian managed to catch him in time.

"sebastian, you ever had the urge to just jump... when you're on a high place, or the subway rolls by? imagine if you had that urge for a minute straight, then two minutes..."

"you fought it of three times now, joseph. you're learning to stop it."

"i'm not worried about stopping it, sebastian! i'm worried about not wanting to stop it.
some part of me wants to turn."

you stood a few feet away from them, listening to what they said and grew more worried with every word you heard. this was bigger than you dared to imagine. everything seemed so hopeless... how would you ever be able to find leslie? and even if you should, how would all of you get out of here safe and unharmed and how can you stop this whole thing?
you felt yourself tearing up, when you heard it again. that noise... it was pure torture. you couldn't do this again. sebastian and joseph were squirming in pain, and you also couldn't bear it much longer.
you tried to shout sebastian's name but you lost your voice so you could just look over to them helplessly.
you saw him injecting something into joseph's neck, whereupon he fell to the ground.
sebastian took all his strength together and tried to stand up straight when looked up. you followed his gaze and felt a knot forming in your stomach. there he was, standing high up on the chandelier. ruvik.

you could feel the fear clutching at your throat. he looked directly into you eyes, then shifted his gaze towards sebastian. everything went incredibly fast. the chandelier swung back and forth while he raised his hand. you heard sebastian scream and suddenly your body started to feel weird. before you knew what was happening, sebastian, the altar and all the other things around you started to float. you felt a strange force pulling you up and soon you also floated in the air. desperately, you tried to reach the floor and grab something to help you get back on the ground but it was too late. even the statue behind you broke off from its pedestal and moved up, breaking apart when it hit the ceiling.
sebastian groaned in pain but managed to take a look at the ground and saw joseph laying motionless on the floor. why wasn't he floating too?
then, the noise stopped and you started falling. you couldn't hold your scream in and just before you hit the ground, it opened a slit and you fell into an abyss.

you hit the ground hard and groaned in pain when you felt the cold stone floor. you slowly put your hands on the ground and pushed yourself up, when you heard someone behind you. was it a haunted? you turned around, still on the ground, and quickly backed off.
"y/n, it's me don't worry."
you squinted your eyes and tried to see better in the darkness when you could make out sebastian's silhouette. he walked closer to you and reached out his hand to help you up.
"i thought we'd been separated again..." you mumbled.
"well, we sort of have," sebastian answered, "i don't know where joseph is. the last thing i saw was him laying on the ground, not moving."
he started walking in the only possible direction.
"don't worry, we will find him," you said, trying to reassure him.
"mhmh," he said. it was obvious that he also couldn't put up with this much longer.
the floor lead to another room that was full of lit candles. it had to be hundreds of them. who put so many candles here, and why?

then you heard his voice again.
"get you... get you... get you... get you... get you..."
"leslie?!" you shouted.
"leslie i'm here, where are you?"
but no response.
"please answer me leslie."
you were desperate. all you wanted was to find him. you ran in the direction his voice came from. it was like a labyrinth, the room had so many turns and the candles made everything look exactly the same. you could hear sebastian behind you telling you to stop but you didn't listen.
you ran around another corner when you froze. a haunted was standing at the end of the hallway. you didn't dare to move a muscle, but it was too late. the haunted probably heard your shouting miles away, which wasn't really hard to be honest. your concern for leslie made you careless. but no matter how much you tried, the thought of leslie being hurt made you loose all rationality.
the haunted charged for you and right before it got to you, a gunshot was fired.
your ears were ringing and you frantically turned around to see sebastian pointing his gun at the now dead haunted.
"th-thank you..." you managed to whisper.
he just nodded.
"will you slow down now?"
"yeah..." you said looking down, a bit embarrassed.
the two of you made your way to the end of the hallway, entering another room.
and there he was, locked behind bars like a wild animal. leslie looked up and when his eyes met yours, all the pain you endured was worth it.