Nemesis:

The Last Escape

Part Six:

Down the Rabbit Hole

Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.

― Seneca

Raccoon City - 2018

The door with the heart on it didn't hide the white rabbit.

She wasn't sure why she was disappointed, but Jill felt a tinge of regret when the door opened and they found themselves in a music room. No dancing flowers. No Cats floating in the air. No cards attempting to cut off her head.

Just a piano beneath a portrait of a castle.

Curious, Jill moved toward it while Leon inspected the pristine bar behind the piano. It was lined with bottles of liquid without labels. The bottles were similar to old perfume bottles. Some had the little hand pump for spritzing oneself with whatever concoction was held within.

Jill studied the piece of sheet music on the piano. The tune was Moonlight Sonata. Jill touched the first few keys on the piano and the strong notes soared into the quiet solarium.

She stopped and there was a grinding sound behind the bar.

Leon informed her, "Keep playing. Ok?"

She did, following the notes with ease. There was a click and a rolling grind of gears. She kept on playing as Leon disappeared behind the piece of wall that slid open. She heard his footsteps stop, reverse, and he emerged clutching a little golden shield.

Curious, she stopped playing. The wall slid closed as the silence spilled around them. "...ok."

He shrugged and tucked it into his vest. "Who knows in this place?"

It was the truth.

Like Wonderland, nothing made sense.

The mystery of what this place was hiding remained. For the life of her, Jill couldn't figure it out. The remote location, the diverse and extensive time and effort spent building traps and puzzles to waylay the errant traveler, the obvious attention to detail regarding immersion into a fantasy world...it was bordering on some kind of insanity. Who'd built this place?

She was waiting for Chris to hit her back with his online digging and some answers.

Maybe they'd luck out and find out it used to belong to Edgar Allen Poe or something. Maybe Poe was a fan of Caroll. Maybe it was all a series of elaborate games played by the former horror writer to trap those who attempted to breach his inner sanctum and find his hidden works.

Amused, Jill stopped and shook her head. Leon glanced back at her, "What is it?"

"I'm trying to figure out how in the hell we got here."

He gave her a shrug of one nicely muscled shoulder, "Dark was night and long was the path that led us to temptation."

She tilted her head. He held her gaze until she finally queried, "Who is that?"

"Nobody. That's just me." He shrugged again and eased open the rickety gray door that awaited them at the end of the dusty hallway. He cleared it high and Jill went low but it was just a study. Empty - save for a crackling fire and a shotgun hung nicely above a spotless mantle.

The chair Leon touched as he passed it was still warm.

Someone had, literally, just been sitting there.

He reached for the shotgun above the mantle and Jill called, softly, "...wait! Leon, wait."

He did, glancing at her. She mused, "It's never, ever, this easy. You take that gun, I'm betting you trigger a trap."

He nodded, lowering his hand. "No doubt. But what's the catch?"

"Give me a minute." She turned, surveying the room. "If we go under the assumption that the mansion is Wonderland...it means most of the puzzles will be related to the book."

"The book...or the movie?"

Surprised, she glanced at him. It was a good question. It was intelligent in a way she wasn't expecting. She hadn't considered, once, that the mansion might have been modeled after a film version of the classic tale of Alice and her adventures.

But Jill answered, "I think it's the book. The chessboard is Through the Looking Glass, that's definitely not as common of a conversion to film."

"True." Leon scanned the little study, "But that means we need to figure out what the book might tell us about this type of puzzle."

Jill studied the shotgun on the wall. Even that was classic, old, and a double barrel beauty from a time before high powered was the name of the game. It wasn't a pump action one at all. It was the kind you had to crack to load.

"What do you remember about the books?"

"Enough to know I'd rather be at home watching PewDiePie."

Jill snorted out a laugh, "You start spouting off about meat scepters and I'll probably pee myself."

Leon opened his mouth to proudly say something flirty and dirty and he paused, tilting his head. "Jill?"

"Yeah?"

"Look up."

She did, freezing when see caught sight of what he meant. There was a tiny little heart pull on the chandelier above them. It matched the key they'd found in the drawer.

Jill was too short to reach it, so Leon tugged it gently. The lights went out. The fire extinguished instantly. The darkness spilled cold and cool around them.

And the white rabbit appeared in glowing beauty on the wall above Jill's head. Leon took her shoulders to turn her toward it. They both stared, hesitating.

Finally, Leon shrugged and touched the rabbit.

There was a smooth shifting of sound and the rabbit slid away like a door opening. Inside, a tiny blue vial waited. The moment he picked it up, the lights clicked back on.

The fire whooshed to life.

The room was so eerily quiet that Jill cleared her throat. "What does it say?"

He glanced at her, the blonde spill of his hair leaving one eye completed obscured, "...guess."

But she already knew. Of course she did. She'd read the book a thousand times as a girl. Quietly, she replied, "...drink me."

"Bingo." He sighed, shaking his head, "I don't think it's a wise idea to drink a strange vial of shit in a mansion filled with zombies."

Jill shook her head. "Don't. Forget it. Let's just go back and wait. Someone will come to find us eventually right? Let's just...go back."

Leon gave her a calm look. She finally balked under his expression and nodded, taking two breaths, "Right. Right. Sorry. Just a little freak out."

He patted her wrist as she said, "I guess we should decide who drinks the bo-"

Too late. He'd already shot it back in a single swallow. Jill stared at him as he stared back at her. "...you feeling anything?"

A handful of moments passed before he answered, "Not really. Am I shrinking or something?"

She felt her mouth curve into a smile. Alice, in the books, had shrunk to small enough to fit through a mouse hole after ingesting the potion. Leon was still...Leon. He hadn't really changed at a-

His fingers trailed over the inside of her wrist and up to her elbow. The skin tingled happily at the touch. Quietly, he murmured, "Your skin is smooth. Silky."

"...what?"

He shifted into her personal space. Surprised, she let him back her against the wall. His nose shifted behind her ear to scent her or something. He sniffed, trailing his nose to her collarbone. "...you fucking smell incredible."

Jill blinked twice before she could find the voice to answer, "...thank you?"

What the hell was wrong with him? This was so not the place for a make out session. He was acting like a complete horn dog. It didn't make any sense at all.

His lips pressed against the pulse in her neck. It sped up, annoying her, and causing his breath to blow damp and warm against her skin.

"Like that, huh?"

Why was he acting like he was-of course. He was high.

Jill grabbed his face and tugged it back from her neck. His pupils were dilated and huge. Her mouth twitched, "Feeling good?"

His hand slid against her hip. "Oh, yeah. Jill?"

"Mmm?" She scanned his face. Clearly he was high from the potion. The question was why? What was the purpose of it?

Leon leaned down until their noses brushed and whispered, "I wanna see you naked."

He was something else. She was soooo going to hold this against him later. For now, she needed him to use whatever was happening in that brain for the purpose of escaping this mansion.

"Leon?"

"Let's just stay in this room and fuck, Jill. Maybe we die, but we'll die happy."

Lord have mercy. He was something else.

"That's the dumbest thing anyone, anywhere, ever suggested." What was entirely dumb? Her body liked the idea. She felt her heart thump hard, twice, before she could clear her throat and wet her dry lips to speak again.

He leaned down like he'd kiss her and she halted him with her hands on his face. She tried again, "Leon?"

He wasn't paying attention. He was trying to get his hand in her pants. Jill shook her head, drew back her hand from his cheek, and slapped it instead. She gave it a good smack and had him gasping.

"There we go, rookie. Pay attention. You hear me?"

His ear ringing, he muttered, "...yeah. Yeah I hear ya."

"Ok. I'm gonna pull the chain on the light again. I want you to look with those big eyes of yours and tell me what you see."

She slid away from the wall and hated her heart for knocking happily behind her ribs. Damn the human condition. It allowed you to enjoy a handsome man's attentions even when the timing couldn't possibly be worse.

She pulled the chain. The room went pitch black. Into the dark, she queried, "You see anything?"

"Everything."

"What?"

"I see everything."

"Like what?"

"Like...you."

"Ok. But what about something else?"

Quietly, Leon murmured, "What am I looking for?"

"Probably something edible. Alice ate a cake to grow large in the book. Look for something you'd eat."

In hindsight, it was probably the wrong thing to say to a guy who was high as a kite and horny from it. She probably should have seen it coming. Probably.

"Something to eat?"

"Yeah. Like a cupcake or something."

"Or a Jill sandwich?"

"A wh-"

His mouth closed over hers, surprising her. She tried to stop him, maybe. Maybe she tried. He half carried her back to the wall. Her back bumped it, her head tilted back, and her mouth just opened. It opened.

It was just a breath. It was. It was just a single breath of time. But it was long enough to scramble her brains.

She forgot, in that second, what they were doing there. To her surprise, he let her go first and gasped, "...shit. shit. I'm so sorry. I just c-wait. Wait. Jill?"

Hoarse, breathless, she responded, "...yeah?"

"Reach over your head."

Her hand groped in the dark. It circled around an object. In the dark, she lowered it. "What is it?"

"I don't know. A vase? The rabbit is on the vase. Dump it over into your hand."

She did and the small package tumbled free, settling into her palm. She held it toward him in the dark. "Eat it."

"About before...I-"

"Don't. It doesn't matter. Just...eat whatever this is." Not a sandwich. It wasn't a sandwich. Nope. It was a cake or something. It wasn't her.

She didn't even want him to "eat" her. That was stupid. That was-ok. Ok. It was true. It was kinda true. She was attracted to him. Hell, she'd known that from the beginning.

It was fine. She was an adult. She was mature and professional and a grown up. She didn't need rookies kissing her and groping her in the dark and getting high and making euphemism about eating her.

He chewed on the thing from the vase. The world narrowed to a shiny silver vortex. The white rabbit was in the fire place.

Leon knelt and reached inside. He touched the rabbit where the flames had been. The stones were cool and sharp. They cut his palm. Blood burst red and ruby like from his hand. Surprised, he watched it glitter and fall into the smoldering ashes beneath him.

Where it struck, the world bled rainbow bright. He swayed, rising, and the fire leapt to life in the fireplace glowing and sparking and sizzling. His blood had reawakened it. How was that even possible?

The fireplace shivered and showed a door beyond the flames. They'd have to crawl to get through the door. They'd have to cross the fire to use the door. They'd have to crawl over the flames to go out the door. How was that even possible?

Jill whispered, "What the hell? It was a flood of water from Alice's tears in the book."

And Leon answered, "This time...maybe it's tears of blood."

This house was a nightmare. Wonderland for the undead.

Jill said, "Maybe we can use the cushions from the chair to cross the flames?"

He started to answer and his spine snapped him upright. His hands went numb. Reasons you should never, ever, eat strange biscuits you find in a vase in a rotting mansion of madness.

His body jerked. He stumbled. He grabbed for his chest and cried out. Jill shouted his name.

Those handful of moments bled into one big one. Because whatever he'd eaten had caused him to stop breathing. Jill made a sound of fear and reached in the dark for him.

The lights clicked back on.

He tumbled forward into her arms. He was utterly still. She couldn't hold him and lost her grip. He went to the floor in the middle of the ugly carpet.

Jill rolled him to his back to start doing chest compressions.

She straddled him and pushed. Something in the floor clicked twice. The shotgun slid off the wall to bounce across the floor and slide.

She had the gun.

The fire went out and the door was waiting.

And Leon Kennedy was dead on the floor beneath her.

Post Note: An old friend shows his face for the first time in the next chapter. He'll start chasing our heroes in this mansion that is nothing like the one we think we knew. How far down the rabbit hole will we go?