I can still remember how I felt when I saw it for the first time. That was the day it all changed.
They always talk about how you should take the road less traveled. Taking that road nearly destroyed Cocoon.
I was taking the shortcut through the piney woods. They were just on the outskirts of Bodhum, but it was the quickest way to get from Claire's house back to the Café. Lebreau had called and told me there was just something I had to see. Snow had warned me about taking the path alone. He said that I could never be sure that a monster was around the corner. Little did he know, I was the monster.
I had just come from Claire's house. I was asking her what she wanted for her birthday. She was very resistant to all my questions. She spent most of her days off in a sort of vegetative state. She really needs a hobby. Sure, she spent a lot of her time training, but it was getting to the point where she mumbled to herself under her breath.
It was mid-afternoon and I was walking hastily through the vaguely designed dirt path. These woods were most likely not a tourist attraction seeing how most people spent all day at the beach and most of the night downtown before and after the fireworks display. There was something here in the forest the was only a minor viewing point. Let's just say that when you come to the tropical paradise of Cocoon, the last thing people really cared out was pointing out a historical artifact.
It was the Pulse Vestige. It was just some leftover junk that must have strayed from the Vile Peaks after the War of Transgression. I had lived in Bodhum for most of my life. I had never really thought much of the Vestige. It sat silently in the background of my life for years.
I thought I heard something crackle from the dense shrub that I had just passed, but I convinced myself that it was just my imagination. That was when I reached the base of the Vestige.
I don't know what possessed me. I had never paid a point of notice to the forgotten underworld statue before in my life. Somehow, I turned to my right. The Vestige stood sentinel in its buried home. It was about 20 feet away from me. Some flora was growing adjacent to the path where it met the Vestige, but the circle around the actual object was barren of life. It was surrounded by some sort of black sediment that was incongruous with the rest of the dirt in the woods. This peaked my attention.
"This must just be some dirt from Pulse that the Sanctum never bothered to clean up." I thought to myself.
I pushed through the weeds and took a few steps closer to the ancient mechanical marvel. I sensed something eerie about the landmark, but I assumed it was just fear of Pulse everyone on Cocoon had suffered from.
That's when I saw it. The doors were open. They were wide open. I didn't know much about the Vestige, but I remember hearing in school that the reason it was not moved from Bodhum was because the Sanctum perceived no threat from the lifeless shell that Vestige had become after the war. The Vestige itself was not suitable material to repair the damage to Cocoon's Wall, but I was no danger to anyone because the doors did not open from either side.
My first instinct upon seeing this was that if they had not checked the doors in a very long time, they could have rusted loose and someone had wandered inside. A child had disappeared in these woods a few weeks ago, but I hadn't thought anything of it until now.
I automatically looked through the doors. Not surprising to me, the area directly past the threshold of the doors was absolutely black. I couldn't see a thing. I didn't want to move further inside, but my feet guided my brain yet again. I held my arms out clumsily in front of me to avoid hitting any object that would be invisible to my blinded vision.
"Hello?" I called. "Is anyone there?" It echoed dankly as my voice came back to my ears in a nasal tone. At that moment, I could have sworn I heard a loud footstep, but I assumed it was just falling debris from the rotting Pulse machine.
I walked in a continuing straight line. I felt a pillar to my right. I felt left and the back of my hand hit another close pillar. I was in an archway, which I had not seen in the dim illumination provided from the newly opened door to the outside. The cave-like abyss was getting only harder to see as I found myself further away from the door. I told myself I could turn around anytime and the light from the doorway would guide me back to the outside.
I suddenly tripped on something hard. I fell forward on to my knees and my hands hit something that hurt. I felt around and found a raised level of metal above me. I felt farther up and grasped another one. I had tripped at the bottom of the stairs.
I was lucky enough the grab the freezing cold railing and regain my standing position. I hugged the wall and the railing as I progressed farther up the stairs. As I made my way, I could tell that the stairs were incredibly steep.
After 20 or so steps, something began to illuminate my vision at the horizon line of my sight. It was a red light. Because of this, I was able to see that the stairs ended only another 20 steps ahead. As I progressed further up the stairs, the source of the light became clearer. I reached top and looked ahead. Although the light was not bright enough to fill the whole chamber I could see the mechanically meshed walls in a foggy forest green color; the same color as the outside of the haunting Vestige.
The source of the light was coming from a giant glowing symbol on the opposite wall. It was crimson red and seemed to glow magically. The bizarre symbol was an intimidating glyph of several red arrows moving horizontally through the pattern. For the first time since entering the remnant of Pulse, I was afraid. Something compelled me to continue moving forward. I was moving even quicker now, since moving become easier now that I could see where I was going. The surface I walked on was made crunching sounds as I stepped on loose bolts connecting the uneven metallic panels.
The center was a round platform. I looked to directly to my left when I reached the top of the stairs and saw this platform was raised high in the air. The light did not shine bright enough to illuminate the abyss below me. I walked towards the symbol. It was imprinted on a door, a larger contraption than the door that led me in from the outside. I was now standing in front of the door and symbol seemed to flicker with my heartbeat.
I reached out my hand and touched it.
At that moment, the symbol began to disappear. The crimson arrows turned white. I clenched my eyes and quickly opened them again. The mechanical door that the symbol was on began to glow in a pulsing liquid red; the same color as the symbol had been just moments before. As the color on the door began to fade, the door itself was gone. Behind me, several fluorescent bulbs began to glow around the perimeter of the platform. They flickered into existence like a dozen giant fireflies.
My neck clicked back into to place to see that something was moving on the other side of where the door was. I let out a high pitched yelp. Whatever moving towards me from the threshold was not human. As a matter of fact, there was more than one. The first thing I saw was a hand. At least, I think it was a hand. It was molded beige like a mummy's wrappings. It had blood-red nails and a black palm. I saw the rest of the body. It looked like an animated corpse. It looked like it was rotting away and moved in slow jerky motions. The neck titled back and I saw what looked like a male human face being eaten by the rest of the body. It had a glowing symbol on its chest. As I took terrified steps backward, I saw there were at least five of these hideous creatures emerging from the depths of the Vestige. I should have listened to Snow.
I turned and began to run. Just as my brain began to attempt to remember the way out, I saw more of them. They were coming up the newly illuminated stairs. I had reached the center of the base and at least a dozen of these horrid creatures were slinking towards me like with the kinks of a broken robot. My brain raced with ideas. I couldn't jump from the side of the ledge. It had to be at least one hundred feet down. I wondered how it was possible and it occurred to me that more of the Vestige was buried underground than was visible.
What were those horrible creatures? Had they been inside the Vestige all these years? I hit me that these creatures were from Pulse. Another concept hit me. It couldn't be. Could it? Were these creatures the dreaded "Cie'th"?
A few months ago, I was accepted into Eden University, only one of a handful to be initiated into their prestigious history program. I thought all the talk of l'Cie and Cie'th was just myths, an exaggerated fairytale used to keep children from trying to go to Pulse. It finally sunk in. These creatures wanted my humanity; they wanted to take me into their ranks. I would become a Cie'th and hurt dozens of innocent people.
I spun slowly to see my oncoming assaulters. I has released the first Pulse creatures onto Cocoon in more than 500 years! It was all my fault! I sunk to my knees. My head shook on the stroke of a drum. I looked down to the floor beneath. I saw their shadows above me. I couldn't dare look at them. My heart beat out of my chest. Something struck my head. Its all black after that.
I was asleep. I was unconscious. I was surrounded by fog, but I wasn't dreaming. I heard church bells like you'd hear at a funeral. The area around me was glowing incandescently in the dark A giant crystal was above my head. I was hovering in the black abyss. Something simply gigantic was hovering several feet in front of me. It was shadowed, but it looked thick and mechanical. Suddenly, before I could even blink, brightly glowing silver blue chains shot out at me from the hovering object. There were 4 of them. Each bound my arms and legs. Everything went white.
A white haired young boy.
A older black man.
Two cloudy figures standing together.
Claire.
Snow.
"Hey!" I heard a gruff female voice, "She's waking up! Move it!"
I heard two pairs of footsteps that echoed while my head was firm against the ground. I jolted into a sitting position. The first thing I saw was the pine trees. I tilted my head back and saw the setting sun. I was outside again. I was on the dirt path in front of the Vestige. I didn't see any sign of the voice or footsteps I had heard only moments before. What just happened?
I recollected my thought. How did I survive being attacked? What the heck was that hovering thing? How did I not become one of those horrific creatures?
I hadn't.
I looked down and clutched the new black arrows on my arm. The first tear came. It wouldn't be the last.