After that dreadful night my mother and father were constantly together. My father even refused to return to service which resulted in the oh so familiar phone arguments which usually resulted with the need for a new phone. Mother was quiet, oh so quiet. She never met my eyes, she walked around as if a zombie and her face was pale. Father would insure me that she would be alright but for the first time his comforting words were not so comforting. A couple weeks passed like this until my father had no choice but to return to work when strange men in black suits came to our house. My mother still had no words as she would silently make me food then return to her bedroom where the quietest of sobs could be heard. That rainy night while I was laying in my bed the most wretched, heart-crushing scream echoed throughout my house, hummed beautifully with the clash of thunder that shook my windows. Immediately I burst through my bedroom door taking two steps at a time down the stairs and into the parlor. There on the floor was my mother bursting with cries of agony with my godmother holding her head murmuring soft words. Finally I found my voice,
"Aerith?" I whispered. She looked up towards me her eyes glazed over turning her head around to the man behind her. Only then did I notice the looming figure behind them, a figure I have grown to know so well.
"Cloud." I choked, my mothers cries were becoming to much for me to bear. He walked towards me into the dimly lit room and only then did I see a man who i had grown to know as my fathers best friend in a way that no child should ever have to see.
A gasp escaped my lips as my eyes adjusted to the light in front of me stood a man covered in blood with the eyes of a dead man who has lost the will to live. The blood on his armor was drying into a rusted looking color and as soon as I saw it I knew it was not his own. At the time my young mind could not put the pieces together to realize the situation at hand. My mind was clouded as my undeveloped brain tried to understand what was happening. People were talking but all I heard was gibberish, a run of words that made no sense. All I knew was that Cloud had taken me in his arms and was carrying me to an oh so familiar motorcycle. The screams of my memory returned me to reality as I realized i was being taken away from my beloved mother. I kicked and screamed as I attempted to reach back to my hysterical mother.
"No! Let me go, Mother!" I cried as her figure disappeared into the darkness. My voice was ignored as I was placed on the front of Fenrir and driven away in the cold wet night.