Tripping the Trap
The darkest nights of Edge City at the outskirts of the remnants of Midgar were almost always announced by the brightest days before them. As the sun began to set across the horizon to the west, Cloud lifted a hand up to shield his eyes slightly from the glare reflecting from the windshields lined on the side of the road by the crowded sidewalk he himself used. The black convertibles, red sedans, and even the light blue pickup all seemed to catch the light at the most inopportune moments, sending shocks of bright light into the spiky-haired blonde's oddly-colored eyes, making him tilt his head back and forth trying to find a happy medium that he can use to see normally without inhibition.
Aside from the shocking glares, the evening was otherwise comfortable for him; the cool breeze was a welcome change from the stuffy air of the Seventh Heaven, especially across his bare arm, lightly dotted by perspiration. The dark blue top, snapped on the left shoulder with a pewter wolf-head emblem and a shroud over his left arm, was dottedly stuck to his upper body, giving faint hints of the elevated muscles beneath. As he walked, his legs, covered in thick dark blue pants that reach down to his black boots that cross over the pavement past car on the right and tall skyscraper on the left.
Cloud finally found himself tired of the constant interruptions from the setting evening sun, and takes a brisk left turn as the sidewalk does rather than crossing the street ahead as he usually did each evening to return home. With a relieved breath, he moves his hand from over his eyes to brush through his long hair, letting it wave back with the motion before standing straight up and outward again as per normal for himself. He lowers his arm to his side and continues ahead in a slow, languid stride forward, tilting his head slightly in polite acknowledgement of the occasional person that passes now on this less crowded throughway towards the outsirts of the city.
Each step he took seemed to individually draw the sun lower and lower on the horizon to his side, soon disappearing beneath the skyline of the new, growing city and its skyscrapers, which cast a wide spectrum of color across the broad sky overhead, until the light dimmed further and the friendly hues of the sunset were replaced by the bright electric glow of the streetlights along the sidewalk he traveled on, large halos of light spaced apart with shadows growing in between.
Proceeding further down the street brought Cloud to another crosswalk, which he began across without hesitation as the traffic light overhead turned red. However, as he reached the middle of the street, he suddenly turned to the left, raising up his left hand to slam down on the hood of a large car screeching to a halt at his side, mere inches from slamming into him. He lifted up his fist from the hood and pointed his index finger at the already cursing driver, then looked ahead again with a couple shakes of his head and some murmured words beneath his breath. He took the step back onto the sidewalk by another crop of what seemed to be a residential block in construction, and continued his impromptu walk about the city with his contented, confident stride.
Cloud's traveling through the growing burroughs of the city were soon interrupted by a sudden uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, which caused him to look around suspiciously. It was a familiar feeling, one that brought almost dread to him. He shook his head after a couple of minutes and simply rested his left hand on his stomach before continuing on … only to be interrupted again a few steps later by an intense pain spreading up through his neck and into his head.
He let out a low groan, his vision flickering strangely for a couple of moments before returning to normal, though the pain in his head was starting to grow more intense. He stumbled forward a couple of steps before catching his balance, one hand resting on his forehead while the other extended off to the side to find balance on a newspaper box by the side of the road, which hardly seemed to be able to support his weight in the first place. With a pang of almost terror, he felt his attention slowly drawn to the left, into the depths of the construction site off to his side, and without a moment of hesitation, he felt his feet moving without his own permission, taking slow, deliberate steps away from where he propped himself up and instead towards the depths of the skeleton buildings ahead.
This drew Cloud to start to fight this feeling, but every step his feet took only seemed to thwart more and more of his own control, and soon he was staggering forward, off of the sidewalk and through a gap between the protective fenceline around the area, his boots stepping into the fine sand around the base of the buildings as they carried him closer and closer towards a building in the middle in particular, He tried lifting his hands up to prevent himself from stepping between the two girders his feet led him to, only to no avail – instead, his hands latched onto them for balance as he stepped across the threshold into the darkness of the building.
After crossing into the building, Cloud felt his feet starting to slow, until he came to a stop in the middle of a large open area inside what was obviously a large room in the new construction, surrounded by horizontal and vertical steel and alloy girders. However … the creeping sick feeling in his stomach told him that he wasn't the only occupant of this building. He wanted to close his eyes, but found himself unable – only staring ahead blankly … until a low, deep chuckle started echoing through the chamber, followed by a slightly higher pitched, more excited and louder one, then a quieter, softer, but deeper sound of amusement, each coming from a different direction around him.
He then felt control of his body rush back into him, causing him to collapse to his knees in a heap into the dirt below, his hands catching him barely from faceplanting forward. He let out a weak, shuddering groan as he tried to process the return of his own body, the nerves tingling and convulsing slightly. A low, familiar voice began issuing forward in an ominous, in-control tone.
"Well, look who tripped the trap."