Wham! Tifa Lockhart slammed her fist against the wall. Ignoring the stabbing pain in her fist, she let a few tears escape. She had never felt more stupid in her entire life. She shook as she recalled the incident that had just happened merely five minutes ago..
"Tifa!" She heard a familiar voice call from behind her. Tifa turned, her hair whipping against her shoulders. She smiled as she looked at the man she loved so dearly. Cloud Strife hurried to catch up to her.
"Good morning, Cloud." She said, feeling the slight heat in her cheeks as she blushed. God, he was perfect.
"Teef, listen. I really need to talk to you. Can we go to your room?" Cloud gazed at her with those lovely blue eyes of his.
"Sure." She led Cloud into her freshly cleaned bedroom. Light streamed through the bay window as dust motes fluttered about. She felt happy in here.
"Tifa, I know how you feel about me. But Tifa I can't be with you." Cloud said in one breath. Tifa froze. Her heart rate dropped and she felt the room spinning.
"I'm not going to ask why. You're running away like you always do." She could feel the tears stinging in her eyes.
"Tifa, you know that's not-" Cloud stuttered before Tifa cut him off.
"I'm done." She left, fists clenched tightly.
Damn him. She thought bitterly. Cloud couldn't man up, could he? She heard him leave a few minutes ago, and she had never felt more alone in her entire life. She curled up on her bed and cried herself to sleep.
A few hours later, the creak of the floorboards awoke Tifa. She sat up in bed, looking around. She decided it must be Denzel or Marlene.
A hand clamped down around her mouth and she screamed into the gloved palm. She bit as hard as she could and the person howled in pain. She sprung out of her bed and whipped around, pulling her gloves from her pocket. She braced herself against her attacker. He turned to face her, a sadistic grin plastered on his face.
"Don't be like that, sugar I won't hurt you if you cooperate." His black eyes sparkled with a glint of evil.
"If you think I'll give into what ever it you want, think again." Tifa growled menacingly.
The man took another step towards her. That was the trigger. She lept off the floor and aimed a kick at the man's head. Before she could make contact, he grabbed her ankle and slammed her right through the floorboards. She landed in the table below and groaned. She couldn't move a muscle. The man dropped down after her and picked her up by her hair.
"You're coming with me sugar. I want you." Tifa aimed a weak punch, but failed. The man laughed and Tifa's conciousness slipped in and out.
Cloud… Was the last thought she had before the world went black.
"CLOUD STRIFE, YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT!" Yuffie screamed the minute he walked through the door. Cloud had been expecting this, but he was only trying to protect Tifa. He loved her too much to let her suffer.
"Cloud, you are going to march over to the bar, and apologize for your stupid actions. You know how much you love her Cloud, and you can't run away from it." Barret called from the table in the living room. Marlene was curled up on his lap, fast asleep.
"It's the middle of the night, she's asleep." Cloud mumbled, not pleased with his poor excuse.
Yuffie scowled. "You know full well that she doesn't sleep without you. She has nightmares otherwise." Cloud flinched at the last part.
"Fine." Cloud said, storming out of the house. He knew they were right, but he was protecting Tifa. Protecting her from someone who was too messed up to be loved by such a wonderful girl like her.
All too soon he was outside the bar door. He knocked and waited, but there was no answer. Great, she was going to be difficult.
"Tifa, it's me. Please open up." He called. Cloud reached for the doorknob, surprised to find it unlocked. That was odd, Tifa never went to sleep if the bar wasn't locked. Maybe she was waiting for him.
"Tifa?" He called, still receiving now answer. He wondered through the house and skidded to a stop when he saw a mess in the kitchen.
A table laid smashed on the ground, as if it had collapsed under great force. Debris and dust surrounded it. Cloud's stomach dropped as he look up towards the ceiling. Shit! He thought, noticing that it was Tifa's room above the kitchen. He sprinted up the steps.
"Tifa?" He yelled, fearing the worst. He got to her bedroom and saw that it was empty. Her blankets were all bunched up and hanging off the side of the bed, like they had been pulled off. The hole in the floor was large, and Cloud saw a few strands of black hair clumped to one of the broken floorboards. He felt sick.
Fumbling for his cell phone, his fingers dialed Yuffie's number. He was shaking all over in fury.
"Yuffie! Where's Tifa?" Cloud growled into the phone. He was scared out of his mind.
"What do you mean 'where's Tifa?' She's at home!" Yuffie screeched.
"Dammit! No she's not! There's been a…struggle." Cloud's voice cracked on the last word.
Yuffie gasped. "Get back here, now Cloud! We need to start searching immediately." She hissed.
"You think I don't know that?" Cloud yelled before snapping his phone shut. He was still shaking violently as he remembered his earlier fight with Tifa.
I should never have said those things. If I had just shut up and stayed, then she would be safe here with me, in my arms. Cloud that bitterly. He sped through the streets back to his base.
"We have to find her now!" Cloud roared the moment he went inside. Everyone jumped at his booming voice. They had never seen him so angry.
"We're working on it!" Yuffie and Barret bellowed at the same time. Everyone looked extremely worried and nervous, but Cloud was the worst.
"Now, let's go over what we know. We know that at some point after you left, she was attacked. She obviously put up a good fight, but the other person won. Were there any trails, Cloud?" Barret said, looking at the space behind Cloud.
Cloud stiffened. "I found a clump of hair and some blood spatter. Not much, so I guess that's good. We need to search the streets around her home for more clues." He grumbled. They needed to get a move on, Tifa was in danger!
"Let's go." Vincent said, speaking for the first time since Cloud had seen him.
The group ran off to the 7th Heaven Bar. Each of them split up, searching the area.
Cloud paid close attention to the ground, looking for any sort of trail. A glint of white fabric caught his eye, and he leaned closer to investigate.
"Good girl, Tifa." Cloud whispered, picking up the trail of material. It looked as though Tifa ripped bits off of her nightgown and let them trail behind her. From what Cloud could see, there was a solid trail.
"Everyone, I've got something. Let's go." Cloud barked into his phone.
Hang in there Tifa, I'm coming.
Tifa was in a damp, dark room. It smelled horrible and she was dizzy. She hoped dearly that Cloud had picked up on her trail- that is, if he even noticed or cared that she was gone. In the very least, the others would come for her.
The door to the room banged open. A draft blew threw and tickled her now bare skin. As soon as she had arrived, she had been stripped of her night gown and was left in only her undergarments.
"Hello honey." The disgusting, slimy voice called out to her. Tifa flinched involuntarily.
"Get off of me." Tifa hissed, bucking her legs at him. Her efforts were in vain- she was tied tightly to the chair.
The man reached forward a filthy hand and stroked her breasts. "Don't be like that sugar, you'll grow to like me." His breath was foul.
Tifa spat in his face. The guy obviously didn't like that, for her grabbed her by the neck and slammed her and the chair to the ground, shattering it. He grabbed a knife from his pocket and sliced it across her stomach. Tifa let out a howl of pain as she curled over into a ball.
"Next time, just take it." He spat back in her face. TIfa groaned, letting the tears that had been threatening her escape.
Cloud… even if you don't care for me, please keep your promise… please come for me. Tifa thought, before she slipped into the darkness.