you are my home - leslie withers x reader

chapter twenty - exploit

"leslie!" you almost screamed and ran over to him. at first he looked frightened but when he realised it was you, he was relieved. you didn't care that there were metal bars between the two of you, you just wanted to hug him and tell him how much he meant to you. you slung your arms around him and held him tight.
"y-/n..." he whispered.
"i'm here, leslie... i'm here. and i'm not going anywhere."
"y-you're not... mad anymore?"
"of course not, i've never been mad at you, silly! i'm so sorry you thought that."

you heard sebastian clear his throat behind you.
"i don't want to interrupt the love birds but... we have to get leslie out of there and move on."
when you heard him say that you instantly blushed and you could see that leslie's reaction was the same.
you let him go and felt a bit awkward.
"y-yeah, of course... b-but how? i don't see a door or something similar," you said.

sebastian circled around leslie's cell to find a way out of it but there was nothing.
how did he even get in there?
but then leslie started mumbling something.
"leave... leslie. leave... leave..."

"no leslie, we're not going to leave you behind! there has to be something we're missing..."
you said.
"but... it's too d-dangerous... for y-you."
"no!" you said and gently placed your hand on his cheek, "i won't loose you again..."
suddenly, it started rumbling and you all fell to the ground.
"what the..." sebastian said.
but the rumbling quickly stopped and you looked at each other pretty confused.
you knew that ruvik was behind most of the things that happened, but that didn't mean you'd understand it. sometimes it didn't make any sense to you, especially when it seemed like it was helping you escape or find each other. maybe he was just enjoying all of this, to toy with you and give you hope, before he would annihilate all of you... at least you had a pretty sadistic impression of him.

"...kid... ...kid...," leslie said suddenly.
"kidman? is she here too...?" sebastian asked him.
but leslie just kept mumbling.
"...kid... ...kid..."
sebastian forcefully grabbed the bars in front of leslie.
"is she all right?!"
"...is she all right...? ...all right...?"
leslie was clearly stressed and hesitant, you had a feeling that he knows so much more than he says.
then you noticed that something was different. leslie's cell had a door now.
you ran over to it and placed your hand on the knob to open it.

leslie watched you and seemed kind of... impatient?
when the door was finally open he almost ran towards you and pulled you in for a hug. his arms wrapped around your waist and back and he buried his face in your neck to breathe in your scent. you were a little bit shocked because you'd never seen him behave like that before.
"alright guys, come on. we have to get going and find kidman. i don't want to wait for some of the haunted to show up, or even worse, that ruvik guy," sebastian said.
he was right, you had to keep moving but it was fairly hard to convince leslie to let go of you.
eventually, he agreed and pulled away from the hug but instantly grabbed your hand.
sebastian walked out of the room and you both followed him through a dark hallway.

you entered something that looked like a big cave. the ceiling was dripping and it was kind of dark. a few haunted were walking around but they were not really a threat to you as sebastian took them out pretty fast, he was a good shot.
you got to a big metal gate that had to be pulled up by an old winch. sebastian started to turn the handle and the gate opened. the path lead you up and it was difficult to walk as rocks came rolling down and pieces of wooden destroyed wooden bars fell from above. you hurried to get to the end of the tunnel as fast as possible. you entered another cave and suddenly bats flew past your face just inches away from you. they screeched and you flinched and stumbled backwards but leslie was still holding your hand and prevented you from falling to the ground.
you smiled at him thankfully and he just looked at you, but you could swear that his eyes sparkled for a brief second.

you continued your way through the cave and eventually found a way out, after a rather unpleasant encounter with dr. marcelo jimenez, which only lastet for a few seconds, before he disappeared out of nowhere. it was clear that ruvik controlled everything, and that he didn't want you to figure out how to stop him. apparently, he and the doctor were working together to find a way to link brains to share everything on an electro-chemical level. something straight out of a horror movie you could say. but they believed in it and now it got out of control and you knew one thing for sure: you wouldn't let them use leslie for their dirty experiments. he'd suffered enough and to let ruvik out in the open world wouldn't be the best idea either.

you were walking through a forest when something caught your attention. a single sunflower was standing in the middle of the path.
"sebastian..." you said.
he followed your gaze and when he spotted the sunflower he grew suspicious as well.
he motioned you to keep your head low and crouched towards it.
you almost reached it when the air started to get blurry and ruvik stepped right through the flower. it looked like the air was glitching and then he was gone, together with the sunflower.
sebastian looked around but ruvik was nowhere. instead there was a new, different path leading to a giant mansion.
it was surrounded by a big wall with a metal gate through which you could enter the forecourt.
sebastian started to walk faster now and startled some crows that were sitting on the path. they hastily flew away, emitting several loud, scratchy caws.

"wait... i've seen that house somewhere..." sebastian said.
he opened the gate and entered the forecourt.
you followed him and watched him worriedly.
"i've never been here before but..."
he didn't finish his sentence but you understood what he was trying to say. he approached the fountain that stood in the middle of the forecourt and looked around. everything looked abandoned and weeds were growing everywhere, even out of the fountain. the benches that once must've been shining white and very elegant looking were now dirty and rusty. you wondered how old this mansion was and who lived here.
it probably was a very wealthy family, maybe even nobles?

you were so lost in your thoughts that you didn't even notice how leslie let go of your hand and looked around.
sebastian was searching for anything useful when you found something weird laying on the ground. it was a drawing of a young boy and a girl. she is taller than him and has long, black hair. the boy is wearing fancy clothes and has blonde hair. they are surrounded by a big field of sunflowers. was that a coincidence? just a few minutes ago ruvik was appearing behind one. could it be him as a child...? but if so, who is the girl standing next to him?
before you could continue your thoughts, you heard sebastian screaming.
"leslie, stop!"
you dropped the drawing and turned around. the colour drained from your face when you saw leslie entering the mansion.
you sprinted towards him and saw sebastian walking up the stairs. he opened the door and you ran past him inside the house. between two giant staircases there was another door, leading to a different room. you saw leslie but he wasn't alone, dr. marcelo jimenez was walking next to him and guided him into the room.
"hey! stop. dammit!" sebastian shouted but it was too late. the doctor gave you one last look before the doors shut and locked themselves.