The Ripple Effect
Disclaimer: All characters are (c) Squaresoft.
Summary: Cloud finds himself sitting by the lake he buried Aeris in many years before...
Yeah, it's short. I know. Ch.2 will be up soon. Enjoy and comment!
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"Can you really ever just be again? After so many years apart, going through everything I thought I could to save you… there's been no result. I wonder.. If I were to die right now.. Would we meet? Would you still love me? Could we simply…be?"
The words uttered from Cloud's lips slipped off into the wind, carried to dead ears. The young man known as Cloud sat on a pile of rocks, his legs dangling into murky water. His eyes stared downwards, searching somewhere deep within the water.
"You're here Aeris.. I know it." he said again.
'What am I doing? Do I really expect her to show herself to me?' he thought.
Cloud clenched his fist into the ground, grasping some loose pebbles. He turned them over in his palm, letting them fall out of his grasp until only one remained.
"I'll find you. I swear it." He said before throwing the pebble fiercely into the water. His eyes studied the ripple effect left behind, and for a moment he though he saw something down below.
Cloud stood up, the muscles in his body screaming from not being in use for so long. Pain was something he was used to, and easy to ignore. Instead, his whole body seemed to focus on one spot in the lake.
"A pink ribbon.." Cloud muttered, before looking to the sky.
"It has to be her…"
He hesitated for a moment, then flung aside his fear, and thrust himself into the water. He tore through the life liquid, swimming furiously towards the dot of pink he had seen at the surface.
It didn't take him long to reach it, an abandoned pink ribbon floating solitary. Cloud stopped his mad-swim and clutched the ribbon to his heart. He shook his head, wishing the water could wrap tighter around him, and squeeze till he had no more life. It was in the midst of these thoughts that he felt a small pressure on his shoulder.
Slowly, he drug his eyes to his shoulder, and found his eyes resting upon a small pale hand. Slower still, he turned his body to face the hand's owner.
"AERIS!" Cloud shouted into the water, unaware, or perhaps uncaring of the water that seeped into his mouth and down his throat as he spoke.
He seized the girl, and clutched her close to him, resting his cheek on her head, and running his hand through the girl's brown locks. Gently he closed his eyes, and a small smile cut across his face. The water masked his tears, and perhaps the girl's too.
"Cloud.." she spoke like a song, cutting through the water and straight to his ears.
"Oh, how I've missed you. You've left me here for so long…"
She lifted her hand, and ran it through his blonde hair.
"Isn't the water beautiful? It's been my home for so long…"
Cloud could find no words, and simply pulled the girl closer.
"Cloud? Cloud? Look at me.. Open your eyes.."
Obediently, he did. First he glanced at his hand holding her hair, and he was surprised to find that the thick locks that had been in his hand before were nothing more than thin strands. Puzzled, Cloud pulled away and looked into Aeris' face.
He screamed, horrified to find himself staring into the sunken eyes of a skull. He thrashed about wildly in the water, trying desperately to push the skeleton off of him. In his vain attempt, he released all of his air, and as consciousness began to fade from Cloud he swore he heard Aeris' voice in his ear,
"We'll be together soon Cloud. Any moment now, my love…"