Together: A Dark Romance Duet || Leon Kennedy x Female Reader

Chapter 15: FMC

"Looks like we're still missing a piece..." I say.

Leon and I stare up at the chimera statue, at the ornate golden heads of the serpent and goat placed atop the correct bodies. Blood-red rubies replace both sets of eyes on the animals, the shimmering gems giving off a devilish tenor. It's as if they're watching us, waiting to attack us like everything else in this castle.

"The last head can't be too far now," Leon says.

We found the goat head in another room we stumbled upon; a sprawling, grand space that made the roomy dining hall seem intimate. A room with high, domed ceilings, filled with some form of art—paintings and sculptures and busts of people long since passed. A gallery with two levels, the second of which we found the goat head waiting behind another gilded cage. And while the space was beautiful, a well-preserved treasure trove, we found evil waiting for us still. A group of cult members waited to attack, led by a figure dressed in scarlet with the head of a cow's skull, the symbol of their religion carved into the bone. Leon and I fought off the cult members, and the summoner seemed to control them—chanting incantations in Spanish that seemed to turn those infected into puppets—including us.

"Fuck...I don't feel so..." Leon said over the haunting voice of the summoner-priest as he swayed on his feet while my own head pounded, a similar pain to what I experienced right before I lost control of my body...

It seems whoever is infected with the virus can be controlled, a puppet seduced to kill. Only when Leon shot the priest dead did the zealots stop coming, the chaos ending. And we made it out, the only two people left alive in a room of bodies.

Still, a tremor of unease runs through me, causing my hands to shake at the thought of losing control again. I hope to whatever god is willing to listen that if it happens again, Leon won't hesitate to run, to save his life if I'm too far gone. It is the only way I'm willing to die—if it means Leon lives.

"C'mon, babygirl." Leon grabs my hand, and we begin a quick pace up the stairs to the second level of the grand hall, where there must be a final room we have yet to explore. I follow wordlessly, Leon glancing over his shoulder at me and giving me a tight smile that makes my heart flutter. I return the gesture if only to prove to him I'm still here, still me. He gives my hand a squeeze as if to say, I'm here, too.

Another wooden door waits with unexplored secrets behind its lock, and Leon pushes it open, always going first, always risking himself to check for danger. But what waits on the other side isn't quite what I expect.

The space is dark, lit only by the moonlight that shines through three sets of wide windows. At the opposite end, a lit hallway waits with the outline of a figure—

My heart leaps to my throat until I realize it's a suit of armor. We step further into the room, and against the wall opposite the windows to our left, five suits of armor stand.

"Look, there's some armor. Maybe we could use it as a bulletproof vest?" I say, motioning to the knights.

"Little old fashioned for my taste." Leon inspects the space, from the glossy tile floors to the opulent marble walls.

"Too bad. I think you'd look pretty dashing," I suggest.

"Maybe you just want to see me undress," he says, his back to me as we take careful steps toward the hallway.

"That's a bold assumption, Leon."

"You didn't deny it."

The hallway ends at a set of stairs to our right that leads down—down into a circular, domed space made up of nothing but stone and marble and...blue torches?