Chapter 1: The boy with a mark on his arm

Splash, splash, splash! Deep in the woods, in the pouring rain, there was a little boy running for his life. Panting and huffing, trying to catch his breath. The boy was hard to make out because he wore a black cloak to blend in with the night. The boy squeezed his left arm with a painful look on his face. He glanced behind him and sees two black figures chasing him on large motorcycles in high-speed. The boy ran faster and faster until he tripped over a log and fell face first into the ground.

"I have to move! Or they will kill me!" He says under his breath, as he forced himself to get on his feet, he started to feel a severe pain in his left arm with brought him down to the ground.

"No, no, no! Not now!" He muttered, trying to stand back on his feet.

"There's gotta be a place to hide around here." He looked around for a hiding spot when he noticed, outside the woods he saw what looked like an abandoned building.

He stood on his feet, while holding his arm and made his way towards the building. Then he heard a motorcycle engine coming closer and closer to him which made him no choice but to run with his last breath. His feet started to feel numb from running in old, soaked boots. His skin started to get goosebumps from being soaked in the cold, pouring rain. As he got closer to the building, he could feel his body starting to get numb and freeze. He looked for a place to hide and saw a big green dumpster on the right side of the building. He jogged over to the dumpster and sat next to it. Knees tucked in, black cloak covering his entire body to keep some warmth. He sat there a moment to catch his breath when he heard footsteps walking in his direction. All he could see was a shadow of a person. He erased his breath and pulled his knees to his chest to quiet down his heartbeat. The shadow got bigger and bigger until he saw a pair a black boots standing right next to him. The boy started to shake as the man in black stood there right beside him. The man had short hair that was the color of light gray. He wore a black tight suit that covered his whole body, from the neck down. Though his eyes were the most interesting. His eyes had a color of both green and blue.

"Hey brother, did you find him?" Said a man who stood behind the man with short, gray hair.

"No, I believe that we lost him." he replied.

"Aw man! Now what do we do?!" the other man complained.

"He couldn't have gotten that far, especially with that mark on his arm." The gray-haired man assumed.

"Let's go back. We will search tomorrow."

As the men leave, so did their shadow. The sound of a motorcycle engine began to soften as it continues to go away. The boy waits a few more minutes and releases his breath.

"That was close. I thought they would have found me." The boy said to himself.

He sat back up against the wall and stared up at the night sky. Stars were everywhere. The moon shone its brightest in the night sky, giving the boy some light. Then, as the boy continued to stare at the sky, his eyelids started to get heavy and all there was, was complete darkness.


The next morning, the birds were chirping and the sun rose and shined its light through a bedroom window. Warming the wooden floor and bed sheets. There, sleeping soundly in bed was a 7-year-old girl. The sun's light raised up towards the girls face and covered it with the warmth of the light. She squinted one of her eyes open and stared out the window. She smiled and hopped out of bed. She stretched her arms out with a loud yawn.

"Tifa! Come on and get up!" shouts a voice.

"Okay. I'll be right down!" She shouted back.

Tifa went over to her dresser and took out some clothes. She tucked her long black hair behind her ear to find an outfit that she would like to wear. After she got dressed, she wore a dark brown skirt that had long straps attached to it that goes over her shoulders and had on a white, sleeveless top that only covered above her belly button. She brushed out her long black hair that went down to her bottom.

"Coming!" Tifa shouts, as she makes her way downstairs.

Tifa lives in a little bar outside of a large city with her parents. They aren't really rich but they have the best drinks you can find at a bar. Tifa comes down to the dining room and kisses her dads cheek and went to the kitchen, hugged her mom, and sat down at the dining table.

"Tifa? Will you do me a favor us and buy us some milk?" Her Mother asked with a smile.

Tifa smiled back, nodded her, and was about to leave.

"Oh and Tifa. Take the trash out for daddy ok?" Her father said while reading the news paper.

She groaned.

"Ok, Daddy." She replies as she took the bag of trash outside with her.

She flipped the trash over her shoulder and went to the dumpster.

"Man, this is pretty heavy. What's in here?" She asked herself.

As she placed the bag on the ground, she noticed a dark figure resting against the dumpster, all covered in mud ( which is now dried up dirt ), a soaken wet black cover that looked like a cloak.

"What in the world is that?" Tifa, curiously, squatted down in front of the figure and observed it.

She slowly but carefully poked the figure to see if it was alive, but it didn't move. Nor did it react. So she leaned in close enough to hear if it is breathing and it was. The mysterious figure seems to be a person her age and was alive but seems to be asleep. She giggled.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing, sleeping outside by the dumpster?" She asked. No answer.

"Um, hello?" She tapped the person several times but no reaction.

Tifa raised one eyebrow. She reached out and flipped the black hood over, to see a boy sound asleep. The boy had spikey blonde hair. His skin was had a peach color. His cheeks had a pinkish color from the cold. Tifa scanned her fingers down the black cloak that was extremely soaked and cold.

"He must be freezing out here." she says to herself.

She reached out her hand and placed it on the boy's right cheek and began to stroke him.

"His skin's so soft. But he's freezing." She thought to herself.


The boy opened his eyes but all he could see was a blur. He blinked his eyes again and started regaining his vision. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to get the sleepy's out. He finds himself inside a bedroom.

"Huh? Where am I?" He asked himself. He touched his right arm and suddenly snatched his hand away. he looked at his right arm to see it completely bandaged up.

"Ah, I see that you are awake." said a voice.

The boy jumped and glanced over to see a woman carrying tray of toast with butter, 2 muffins, and oatmeal. It smelled really good. It almost made his mouth water. She had long dark brown hair and wore an apron that looked like it was a few weeks old. Her skin was a peach colored.

"Oh dear, did I bandage that wound too tightly?" the woman asked as she placed the tray on his lap.

The boy glanced at his arm then at the woman.

"No, not at all. Thank you, Mrs..."

"Leila. My name is Leila Lockhart. But please, call me Mrs. Leila." Leila replied.

" Thank you, Mrs. Leila. My name is Cloud Strife." Cloud bowed his head.

"Nice to meet you, Cloud. But you shouldn't thank me, though. Thank my daughter. She was the one that found you outside sitting by our dumpster." Leila smiled.

Cloud cheeks turned light pink as he scratched the back of his head. Cloud placed his hand on his right cheek where Tifa stroked it. For some reason, he had this weird feeling in his chest. He seems confused about why he feels this way. He shook his head as he pushed the weird feeling aside and helped himself to his meal.

"You must have been hungry. Where are your parents? Why aren't they with you?" Leila asked.

Cloud stopped before he could take another bite of his toast and held his right arm. Leila looked at him with a concerned expression on her face. Maybe she shouldn't have ask him about his life. It could been something personal.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ask that." Leila looked down at her hands.

For a few minutes there was complete silence until Cloud turned to Leila not looking her in the eye.

"You don't have to be sorry. It's not like it's your fault." he said to the woman, giving her the tray of food.

"I think that I should go. I don't want to trouble you and your family." He says while getting out the bed. Leila placed her hand on Cloud's forehead and shook her head.

"No, you should stay in bed until your fever goes down. You have caught a bad cold." We won't mind you staying for a few days." Leila replied with a smile. She set Cloud back into bed and tucked him in, then went towards the door with the tray of food. She stopped in her tracks and glanced at Cloud.

"Cloud, if i might asked. How old are you?" She says.

"7-years old, Mrs. Leila." He replied.

"Oh really? Since you and my daughter are the same age, you might be the best of friends!" Leila smiled as she headed out the door.

Cloud stared at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Friends,huh."