A Silent Obsession

(Chapter One)

The Beautiful Crier

Tires squealed and the car took off. The bass of the music began to pound hard enough to shake the pictures on the walls of houses nearly a mile away. To the occupants the scene was a blur. Each shot of the burning liquid blurred reality just a little more. Laughter and singing filled the compact car as it sped down the empty freeway. A few more hours and the sun would rise. The engine revved and as the speedometer's needle passed the eighty mile per hour mark. The car flew passed the next few green exits. Unconsciously entering the next exit, the car enters a residential area… and eventually around a thick, unforgiving tree…

/\

\/

Vivina Viera sat in the waiting room. Her throbbing head rested in her hands as she awaited the news. Worries of what would become of her made her even more nauseous. Her father has brutally scolded her for her actions and promised her she'd be locked up forever for manslaughter for not one but two murders. Her mother could only cry…

A warm hand rested itself upon her shoulder and she lifted her face from her hands. It was the police officer who arrived at the scene. He was young and undoubtedly new to his job. In any other circumstance he was the cop any young girl would want to be arrested by. He was very tall with olive colored skin. With his boyishly good looks, and his flawless physique, this man in uniform could win any heart. "You won't be charged with anything serious, miss."

She just stared at the man. He showed her a warm smile, but there was glint in his eyes that made her question the validity of his statement. "I decided to cut you a break this time."

"It couldn't have been just up to you." She responded narrowing her eyes at him.

"No… it did take a lot of convincing. But it would be a shame to shatter that clean record of yours. Everyone makes mistakes and I personally believe everyone should be allowed a second chance."

She looked away thinking for a moment. Vivina had never been involved in any sort of trouble with the law. She hadn't even gotten a single traffic ticket, but that didn't mean she was an angel.

A doctor entered the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. "Mr. Leonhart will most likely not make it through the night. His immediate family is with him now and they have requested that we eliminate your rights to visit him."

Vivina shot out of her chair. The dark haired policeman stood slowly watching her every move.

"They can't do that!" she screamed advancing towards the doctor. He backed away almost in fear of the furious petite woman in front of him. Though tiny, her presence did give off a bit of intimidation. Her face consisted of a few piercings. There was one on her eyebrow and one in her nose. Her left ear was pierced all the way around the outside. Her left arm was a sleeve of colorful tattoos that reached her elbow. She had very long, jet, blue-black hair that hung in untamed waves around her shoulders. Yet the most intimidating of all was the look in her light grey eyes that were usually outlined heavily in dark make up.

The police man gently took her arm and pulled her back.

"No! They can't do that!" her piercing voice got louder and the doctor backed away further. The officer wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her back, nodding at the doctor to leave.

/\

\/

Banned from the funeral, the only thing Vivina could do was visit the graveyard. Both her boyfriend and her close friend died that night yet her friend was buried in a different cemetery. Having her driver's license permanently suspended, she was forced to take the policeman's offer to drive her there after his patrolling hours.

Suspicious eyes peered at the police car that rolled up to the cemetery. The man crouched down behind the tall angel shaped tombstone he had been mourning at. He watched as a young woman carrying what appeared to be a piece of jewelry walked into the graveyard. He slid further back as she came closer. He continued to watch her as she sat down next to a new stone he hadn't yet noticed. He spent a lot of time in this particular cemetery and knew his surroundings very well. At first she appeared calm, he supposed it was a distant friend or an ex lover that she felt indebted to pay her respects to. But then as she placed the necklace on the stone he saw her first tear fall. Her black tears were easily spotted running down her porcelain white cheeks. She threw her face to the sky asking the Gods why.

The man couldn't take his eyes off of her as she hugged the tombstone crying her eyes out. She was beautiful even as her face was twisted in pain. Her cries pulled strings in his heart. After a half hour he felt as if he was hurting as much as she was. He played with the idea of approaching her, but he didn't want to scare her. Being approached at his hour in a cemetery would be startling in general, much less by a person of his appearance. He had finally figured that the person buried under that stone must have been her lover.

A sound near the police car made him aware that he wasn't the only one watching this woman.

"Vivina." The officer called out to her. It was like that was not even her name. She continued to cry softly by the grave of her lost love.

He cringed as he watched the officer approach and touched the shoulder of the young woman. His heightened senses could feel the tears that still needed to be shed. She was not done watched as the man in uniform helped the woman into a standing position and walked her back to the police car.

Returning to his quiet home, he brushed the dust off of his old art supplies. Decades had passed since he'd felt the urge to draw. It was his only way of expressing himself…

/\

\/

"Are you going to be ok?" the officer asked her once they'd reached the front door of her apartment. Vivina only nodded as more tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Are you sure? You're not thinking of hurting yourself or…"

"Don't be stupid." Vivina cut him off smiling through her tears. "I'm ok. This is just really hard for me knowing that I caused the death of the man I loved and one of my closest friends." She sniffed and wiped more tears away.

The officer pulled a tablet out of his shirt pocket and scribbled down his number for her. "If you need anything, anything at all please don't hesitate to call." Vivina took the slip of paper from him with a nod and turned away to unlock her door.

"Thanks for everything." She said before retreating into her empty apartment. She only made it to the couch before collapsing again. This was their apartment. Everything around her reminded her of him. His old shoes were still scattered around the front door and a few of his jackets hanging on the coat rack. The drawing of his new tattoo he was about to get was lying out on the coffee table. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was anywhere but here.

The next morning she awoke with swollen eyes and a throat sore from crying. It was a good thing she didn't have to go anywhere. She didn't work or go to school which made her parents very proud. However, her boyfriend actually had a pretty good paying job at the chemical plant. He paid the bills around here and took care of her. She wasn't materialistic or anything and didn't have to spend money on things like clothes or other meaningless accessories. But if there was something she wanted, she knew how to get her money. Her rare appearances at Seventh Heaven were a sight that any man would pay hundreds to see. Without going nude or even topless, her performance on the stage captivated every man's eyes in the place along with their wallets.

She walked into her small bathroom and turned on the light, stunned by her appearance. She slid inside the shower attempting to wash away her grief. When that didn't work, she dried herself and returned to her bed where she attempted to sleep away her misery.

A call to the house phone at five in the evening eventually woke her. Her mother called to console her, though disappointment was evident in her tone. Vivina hung up with her feeling worse than she had before speaking to her. She decided to fish around her dirty laundry for a cell phone that should be in one of her jean pockets. Of course it was dead, but as soon as she hooked it to the charger the unheard messages came flooding in. She answered not a one of them. Most of them were 'Are you ok?' or 'How are you doing?'. Of course I'm not ok and how do you think I'm doing?! She would have answered.

Vivina spent the next two days in complete isolation not speaking, or texting a single word to anyone. One the morning of the third day since the accident there was a knock at her door. She didn't even bother with her disheveled appearance before answering the door. Standing there was her other good friend Paine. The white haired, crimson eyed woman looked her friend over.

"You haven't answered anyone's calls… People get worried you know." Paine, usually not the talker, continued when her friend didn't respond. "Some were thinking you might've hurt yourself."

"Paine, you of all people should know better…" she sighed pushing the door open and stepping inside. Paine took this as an invite and walked in behind her. She shut the door securely and sat with her friend on the sheet covered couch.

"There are no hard feelings from the rest of the gang." Paine said. Vivina glanced up at her soft spoken companion.

"What if it had been you? What if you had been riding with us?" Tears welled in her eyes again and she glanced around her cluttered coffee table for a clean tissue. There were plenty of balled up used ones.

"What ifs are irrelevant at this point, Viv." Paine lit up a cigarette and pushed her pack and lighter towards Vivina.

"Thanks." Vivina muttered as she did the same. The two smoked their cigarettes in silence until Paine spoke again.

"Think of it this way, at least you're not behind bars." Paine flicked her ashes in the ash tray staring at her friend.

Vivina sighed. "It just doesn't feel right though, Paine… I took two lives!" she took a long last drag from her cigarette before aggressively putting it out.

"It was their fault as much as yours for getting into the car with you knowing you'd had that much to drink." Paine handed her the box of tissues that was sitting behind her on the end table. Vivina pulled one out and began to cry again. Tears weren't for Paine. She looked away while her friend cried and waited for her to compose herself.

Paine spent the day at her friend's apartment helping her get the place organized. Paine was in charge of getting most of Vivian's boyfriend's stuff boxed away since it was too hard for her to touch any of his things herself. Cleaning could actually be very therapeutic they both discovered. Later that evening Vivian asked Paine to give her a ride out to the cemetery.

/\

\/

For the first time in his life, Vincent didn't come to the cemetery to 'speak' with his late Lucrecia. He came in hopes he'd run into the beautiful crier again. Never did he think he would be as attracted to another woman as he'd been to Lucrecia upon first sight. Nor did he think he'd ever have another connection that ran as deep as theirs did. But he knew when he saw that woman crying he had felt her pain. He had watched her the entire three quarters of an hour that she was there. As much as he wanted to deny it and forget he'd ever even seen the girl, he couldn't.

A silver sports car pulled up and he once again dipped low behind his late lover's tombstone. There she was again. This time, there was a woman by her side. He watched as Vivina turned to her friend and seemingly asked her to wait in the car. Her friend responded with a nod and returned to her driver's seat.

The necklace that she'd left the night before was still there. She picked it back up and put it on staring at the emblem for a while. He watched as her attention returned to the tombstone where she traced the letters of her late lover's name with her slender pale fingers. He watched her as she mourned undisturbed for a briefer fifteen minutes before returning to the silver car. Worried this may have been her final visit, he swiftly left his spot behind the tombstone and darted in and out behind several trees as he followed the car out of the graveyard's parkway.

PS: This was orginally going to be a Yuffentine, but I just didn't think Yuffie's personality fit the part and i didn't want to have to make her out of character either. And this story is slightly AU but it does take place in a modern day Midgar. AND there's gonna be alot of cameo appearances of other various FF characters because I'm not good at coming up with OCs...