project: eden | leon kennedy

▪︎ Chapter 16 ▪︎

Maybe because she never had any of those. Thea had no idea how a normal family acted or what normal things they did. The realization made her frown and turn away from the dining table, not wanting to break her own heart even more.

Deciding to make herself useful, Thea walked up to one of the cabinets next to the window. It stored a few prized possessions like tea mugs too pretty to use and antique plates worth more than the depressing little hole she called home. Sometimes life just wasn't fair.

She hated to admit it, but the moment Leon left her, her life got a lot more boring. She already missed the thrill he gave her and how he managed to yank her straight into the weirdest shit. Being with him felt like her life clicked back into place. Like she knew him for a lifetime now.

Thea wouldn't admit it for the world, but she hated having him out of her sight. She knew she could handle herself and was more than capable of protecting herself. He seemed to be doing great so far, but she couldn't help feeling restless when he was away. Anything could happen. Anything could rip him out of her grasp and she wasn't ready for that. She just got him back.

Blinking away the weird feeling forming in her chest, Thea reached forward and ran her fingers along a leather book. It was rather simple but a small gold chain hanging from it caught her eye. The young woman picked up the book, it weighing more than anticipated as she sized it up in her hand.

With a swift motion, she opened up the book right where the golden chain bookmark sat and let her eyes rake through the small letters inside.

Illuminados 4:3

In great veneration of their master, the people offered up their most prized possessions.

The old farmer, his finest crop.

The slight swineherd, his stoutest pig.

The beggarly grandam, her own beloved babe.

The master saw these gifts and was pleased.

Thea had to read the small paragraph again, failing to understand it more the second time. She hoped to find a cute romance novel or a historical piece wrapped in leather, not some weird cult shit.

Who the fuck in their right mind would offer up their baby for some master? It was so fucked up, the girl didn't even want to read any more of whatever the fuck she just found.

Just as swiftly as she opened the book, she closed it right back up and dropped it on the hard surface of the little cabinet. Her hands felt weird after touching the weird book so she wiped her hands against her pants, the leather material doing nothing to make things better.

Maybe Leon was right. She shouldn't have come in leather pants. But she wasn't some psychic to see into the future – she couldn't have known she was going to fight through mud and blood upon her arrival.

She hoped to meet him in the little village, him doing some village shit people did around here. Walking sheeps or something, she didn't fucking know. But things weren't going as planned in any aspect.

So, here she was in her leather pants that in fact, made her butt look amazing so Kennedy could fuck right off with his judgemental ass. She didn't come here on a mission like he did. She was just here to talk and got pulled into shit. But at least she looked great committing mass murder with the only person she gave a fuck about. Or whatever.

Walking around some more, the brunette hoped to find some bullets at least, maybe a knife she could use. She lost most of her weapons during the landing and only managed to retrieve her trusty shotgun at the price of a lot of dead bodies. But she got it back, so it was a win in her books. The only downside was that she was starting to run out of bullets so she needed an alternative weapon.