Final Fantasy VII and all related names and characters are property of Square.
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Empathy and Its Consequences ~ by Amariƫ
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Standing in the hallway, all dim fluorescent lights and warning signs; peering through the little barred glass window:
"Won't you say something?" I ask, but the child merely stares with those unearthly eyes. How lonely he must be...
The ring of my phone brings me back to my wits. Here I am, on the rise, first hopeful signs showing in three years, and putting it all on the line for some half-human enigma of a restricted-access project? A last glance through the window -- he has not moved -- and I hurry off, mind awash with dreams of success and half-forgotten piles of paperwork on my desk downstairs...
A guard at the end of the hall turns to face me; he was never there before, not for weeks and weeks... Wait! You don't understand! I... I've just lost my way! No? No, just foolish curiosity! I don't even know what it was I saw -- oh please, please don't, no stop --
Nondescript gray jacket and skirt, thick glasses, pile of papers beneath me, stained with red; no significant loss, I was never a standout anyway. So calm I am now, watching them take her away; she was never really me, I am well rid of her. I can feel the child's longing, his loneliness, I can hear them so much more clearly now. Perhaps he wants company? I have all the time in the world.
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author's notes: Yes, it's very short, but I felt that was only as long as it needed to be. I was sitting around, listening to sad music, ("Wo Qui Non Coin" from Cowboy Bebop, just for the record) and it just sort of wrote itself. ^^
