...
"Wake up."
"Jasper... Wake up."
Hearing the eerie whisper in his ear, Jasper groaned as he opened his eyes groggily and adjusted his eyes. Once his vision was much clearer, he observed his surroundings and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, upon noticing that he wasn't in his warm and cozy apartment.
Instead, he found himself in a dark, cold pitch-black room. Confused and anxious, he sat up and observed the area. All he found was darkness in every corner, except a brown door in the distance. He swung his legs over the edge of bed and his feet landed on the ground, only to feel something cold and wet underneath.
He looked down and saw water, rippling under his feet. Suddenly, the sound of small creaking was heard, alerting him. The door was slightly opened, a ray of white light seeping through the gap. Curious, Jasper approached the door and gingerly opened it, the hinges screeching.
When the door was fully opened, the next area he entered was a grand room. In an instant, memories of the incident flashed in his mind and Jasper gasped as he finally recognized the room he was in.
The Raccoon Police Department.
The place he wanted to forget. The place that killed all of his friends and colleagues.
Upon seeing the station, fear stabbed through him. All the painful memories come tumbling back to torture his mind. His heart pounded against his chest and his breathing became distorted.
He looked down and observed himself. He realized that he was no longer in his tank top and shorts. Instead, he was wearing the same black leather jacket and denim pants he wore during the incident.
"This can't be real... This can't... No..." Jasper mumbled to himself, not wanting to believe that him escaping Raccoon City was just a figment of his dream.
"Jasper..." A strained voice called his name—an awfully familiar one. He scanned the room and rushed towards the source of the voice, only to find man in uniform limping towards him. Seeing the blonde hair on his head, Jasper recognized him immediately.
"Leon...?" Jasper called out softly, prompting the man to let out a groan of pain and collapse to the tiled floor. "Leon!" He rushed over and kneeled down in front of him, frightened and worried for the blonde.
Jasper observed him, his uniform was covered in blood and his breathing was ragged. He realized that he must've been injured due to the limp in his step. "Leon, what—"
Jasper's eyes widened in pure horror once Leon lifted his head. His blue eyes were clouded and they looked like they were screaming for help to Jasper. Half of his face was covered in blood and his skin was cracking across his body. "Leon? What the hell happened to you?!" He asked the blonde frantically.
"Why did you leave me?" Leon questioned the latter in a brittle voice, sounding like he was about to break at any given moment.
Jasper only looked at him, frightened and confused. "What?"
Leon lets out a loud groan of pain and violently coughed out blood. Jasper could only watch in horror, not knowing what to do. He looked around frantically, hoping to find something that can somehow help him. "Just hang on, OK? I got you."
Leon panted heavily and hung his head low. Hesitantly, Jasper reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, prompting Leon to growl at him. Jasper yelped and backed away from Leon as he slowly crawled towards him.
"Leon! No..." Jasper crawled away, creating as much distance as he can from his infected partner. He frantically patted himself for a weapon and drew his gun at him as he muttered, "Please don't make me do this..."
"Help me..." Leon begged as he approached him. "Please..."
Jasper's hand gripped his gun tightly. But as he aimed the gun at the blonde's head, he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Due to his hesitation, Leon growled, already long gone from his human self as he launched himself at Jasper.
"NO!"
***
"STOP!" Jasper quickly sat up. He was drenched in sweat and feels a lingering sense of dread from the nightmare he had.
As he tried to regain his bearings, he realized that he was in bed, still wet with sweat. Before he could experience the relief that it was all a dream, the man rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was still asleep or awake and decided that he was awake. Finally, he lets out a huge breath of relief and his shoulders dropped, losing its stiff posture.
Once he finally calmed down, he looked around in his apartment once again. He had only moved into this apartment for a few weeks, but he was already settling in pretty well. It was probably much better than all of the other apartments he had rented from the past years. He had a TV with a couple of couches, large windows covered with blinds, and a small balcony outside.
He looked over to his right and saw his alarm clock on the bedside table, which read 6:50 A.M. on the screen. Jasper always sets his alarm at 7:00 A.M., but as time passed, it became a habit for him to wake up before the alarm could go off.
Jasper shakes his head before removing the covers and standing up. He made his bed until the sheets were neat again. He went over to open the blinds, casting the room in a gentle golden glow from the sun. He grabbed a clean towel and headed to the bathroom to shower.
He switched the light on before closing the door behind him. He placed the towel on the hanger of the sliding door and approached the sink, placing his hands on the cold surface before letting out a heavy sigh. Then he looked up, observing his older self at the mirror.
Jasper had grown a lot since time passed, both physically and mentally. His raven black hair had grown longer. The scar on his forehead faded overtime. His body had developed more muscle from training, and his right forearm was decorated with a tattoo of a tiger that he got about a year ago.
He turned the shower on and adjusted the water to where it was warm, but not boiling hot. He immediately took his clothes off and stepped into the shower, feeling the warm water pouring down on him and soaking his bare body. As his mind began to relax, he recalled everything that happened in the past.
It's been since six years the Raccoon City incident occurred. Six years since Jasper escaped the traumatizing tragedy that will forever leave an impact on his life. He has had many nightmares about the incident for a while now and they only get worse every night.
He remembered how after he escaped, the incident went viral and it didn't take long for the whole world to find out that Umbrella was responsible for the outbreak. Congress voted in a session to suspend them, and with its stock prices crashed, Umbrella was done for.
But somehow, the bioweapons they created happen to end up in the hands of terrorists. People soon feared that another incident like Raccoon City was inevitable. As panic spread, the government rapidly formed a classified anti-Umbrella military agency in the wake of the incident to destroy Umbrella and prevent similar disasters. Which is where he ended up in.
It wasn't exactly his choice to join the program. They "offered" him to work for them in exchange for Sherry's safety and his own life. Soon after that, the training he received turned him from a simple police detective into an expert special agent, answering solely under the President.
Jasper decided to stop thinking about everything that had happened and instead began to wet his hair completely and wash his body. He was always quick at taking showers (he takes a bath too, but mostly doesn't have the time for them), so in about five minutes, he was already done.
As soon as he exited the bathroom with his hair newly dried, his alarm went off with a loud beeping sound. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he grumbled in annoyance as he went over to his alarm and turned it off.
He quickly throws on a clean white tee, a pair of jeans, a black bomber jacket, and a black cap. He grabbed his shoes and keys before heading out to the door.
***
A warm autumn breeze blows as Jasper walked down the sidewalk, taking in all of the sights and sounds of the city. People of all kinds and different nations were hustling and bustling. Cars zip by and horns honk. Sounds of construction can be heard off in the distance. It's a typical day in the city, filled with life and people going about their day.
Jasper eventually arrived at a diner named The Griddle House. He walked up the steps and as soon as he entered the diner, the heavenly smell of breakfast and the sound of clanging silverware greeted him. The diner was bustling with activity, with people coming and going with meals or just stopping for a snack. He noticed the servers bustling around and the cooks in the back preparing meals for the customers. Jasper walked around and took a seat at an empty booth and waited for a waiter or waitress to come and take his order.
And as he expected, a waitress with brunette hair styled in a bun approached Jasper. "Welcome to The Griddle House. How may I take your order?" The waitress spoke to him with enthusiasm.
"Oh, uh... I'll take the bacon omelette," Jasper responded with a small smile.
"Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee would be good," Jasper said.
The waitress with brunette hair nodded with a smile before she put down a plain white mug and poured some black coffee into it. Once the mug was full, the waitress headed to the back and shouted, "One bacon omelette. Stat!"
"Bacon at 12 o'clock high!" One of the cooks shouted back.
As Jasper waited for the diner staff, he heard the music playing in the background. His eyebrows furrowed when he realized that the melody of the song sounded awfully familiar to him. He decided to listen to the lyrics as they began to play out.
Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall
As the music played in the diner, it brought back memories of him and Leon and he couldn't help but smile at the nostalgia. Leon loved this song. Jasper found himself reminiscing about the amount of times Leon has played this song in his car during their late night drives.
Jasper quickly registered his thoughts and shook his head. He lets out a sigh and rubbed his temple up and down before he took a sip from his coffee mug as he waited.
After a few minutes, he saw the same waitress walking to him with a plate of bacon omelette with sliced some tomatoes and extra bacon. "Thank you," Jasper said to the waitress and she nodded in response before leaving.
Jasper stared at the food on the plate for a good moment. He couldn't help but think to himself on how Leon would've loved this place if he was here. I can imagine Leon coming here every morning to grab some breakfast. It was always his favorite meal of the day.
Oh god. Why am I still like this?
After Jasper joined the agency, he hasn't seen or spoken to Leon since. He only heard bits and pieces of what Claire and Sherry were doing after the fall of Raccoon City, but not Leon. For the past six years, the blonde frequently appeared in his thoughts, but he tried to store them away to bury him.
But ignoring the memories that he and Leon had was never that easy. No matter how hard he tried to forget, those memories were stuck to him like a tattoo and he could only look back at them from time to time.
Perhaps Leon's probably better off. Maybe it was for the best that they didn't talk to each other.
For now.
Jasper shook his head, deciding to stop thinking about what happened and instead began to grab the cutlery. He cut a chunk of the omelette and took a bite out of it, humming in response at the taste.
"Are you seeing this?" Jasper heard one of the customers muttered. He turned his attention the person's gaze and saw to the news station on the TV mounted on the adjacent wall.
The new report had a new red banner stretched across the bottom of the screen, the words BREAKING NEWS zipping along the line of color in bold print. The anchor looked solemn as he began to read from his teleprompter. The image of a girl overtook the screen, but it wasn't just any girl. The smiling girl had green eyes and short blonde hair. She was a face that almost everyone in America would recognize, including Jasper.
The President's daughter was kidnapped.