Put Your Lights On

9.25.05

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This is a FFVII fic by kleptomaniac0. I own no characters except those you haven't heard of, meaning the ones I've made. Normally I'm adverse to posting something new while I have multiple works in progress, but this OC, the first OC I ever created, has been banging against the walls of my head ever since Advent Children came in out Japan. So I'm letting her out before she drives me crazy.

This will be a lot more unguarded than my other works, meaning it'll be sloppier. I'm writing this to get it out of my head and though I always appreciate reviews and constructive criticism, I probably won't be looking at them until the story's done. Or as done as it's going to get, anyway. Yep. :imagines a mailbox full of flames: Oh well.

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Chapter Six: August 31

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Toriko couldn't sleep. The air in her cell seemed heavy, pressing down on her head to make her shaved scalp prickle every time she moved. She paced restlessly in the ten-by-fifteen room, unable to shake the feeling that something important was about to happen. Of course, she'd been feeling that way for several months, but tonight was the crucial moment.

She hoped it didn't have anything to do with Hojo. His face plagued her nightmares, where it alternately laughed and sneered at her when she tried to escape from the white-green tubes she always found herself shut in. And his hands were always so cold, so clammy, his fingertips like splinters. Oddly, if Hojo had touched her like that in lust, Toriko would not have been so frightened of him. Lust made people foolish, lust could be manipulated. At the very least, lust could wane over time and leave its object alone. Hojo's spirit of cold scientific examination, however, would never cease.

She really hoped Hojo was not involved in whatever momentous thing was happening tonight. Realistically, he wouldn't be; it was approximately midnight and even mad scientists had to go home to sleep. From beyond her steel door, though, Toriko could hear people moving around and they didn't have the shuffle of the usual janitors and techs. The step was heavier, more definite; the word 'military' popped into Toriko's mind for no reason. Toriko stopped pacing and keened her ears to the footsteps. It sounded like more than two—more than five, actually—people were walking around in the lab.

"What could they be doing here so late at night?" Toriko wondered. For a moment, she thought about walking to the door and pressing her ear against it to hear them talking; Toriko's ears had just been getting sharper with age, and they were to the point where she could hear someone writing across the laboratory. But something made her hesitate. The same sense of anticipation that had been making her edgy for months seemed to tell her that being near the door would be a bad idea. Toriko sighed gustily and continued to pace.

Suddenly there was a yell and a sharp bang-bang-bang, and Toriko nearly leapt out of her skin—but her momentary fear was suddenly and inexplicably washed away by a surge of excitement. The anticipation that had been hanging over her head ignited, turning into a lightning cloud of adrenaline that nearly made Toriko laugh out loud. From the sounds of things, there was some fighting going on outside, and that was what she had been waiting for.

More yells. More bangs. There was the squishy sound of meat being hit hard, ripped apart, and someone died with a scream that made her blood thrill. Toriko's ears perked up as someone keyed in the code to her cell and without thinking, she ran for the door, a streak of white in the darkened lab. Briefly she caught a glimpse of a startled someone in glasses—not Hojo—as she hung a hard right to streak for the cargo elevator, where she knew things were carried into and out of the lab.

"Shit, Awe's escaping!" Someone yelled.

"Good for her!" Someone else shouted, and the first person died in a messy splooshing noise.

Miraculously, the elevator was right there, the doors seeming to invite her in. With a triumphant grin, Toriko sprinted in and slammed the 'down' arrow with the heel of her hand. The panel shattered; for a moment, Toriko stared at the sparking circuitry as she wondered if she'd broken the damn thing, but then the elevator lurched and began its slow, ponderous descent down. Toriko felt tears of joy prick her eyes.

But as the elevator rumbled down, Toriko suddenly realized that beyond escaping from the laboratory, she hadn't the faintest idea of what to do. At only eleven years of age, there was but one profession she could go into and Toriko knew her mother would die of shame (if she wasn't dead of disease already) if she found out her only daughter had gone into the "business". Besides, Toriko didn't want to catch some crotch-rotting disease. Prostitution was definitely out of the picture.

For a moment she considered tracking down her illustrious father. Hello, Sephiroth, I'm the product of a rape you committed eleven years ago. Could you give me some money? Toriko snorted. That possibility had 'death' written all over it. Yet death would be better than wandering penniless, hunted by Hojo all her days...

"I've only my life to lose... And it hasn't been the best of lives, anyway. Why not try it?"

And if her mother were dead already, maybe Toriko would see her in the afterlife.

Toriko looked up as alarms began to blare and froze when the elevator chugged to a stop. Panicking, she ran to the shattered elevator panel and tried to figure out where to press for 'down'.

"Move," she whispered. Hope and fear fluttered in her chest like a dying bird. "Please."

The elevator did not move. Toriko swallowed a hysterical scream and looked around for an escape. The elevator was nothing more than a railed platform that clanked its way up and down the shaft via huge cogs set in its corners. Walking to the side of the platform, she peeked over the edge and flinched when she saw nothing but black infinity below her. Jumping would be suicide.

Toriko looked at the sturdy cogs that hauled the elevator up and down, her eyes going from their large teeth to the corresponding crenelated rail set in the wall. Each tooth fit in a groove five inches wide, more than enough for a slender eleven-year-old hand or foot to fit in. Toriko stepped over the rail and carefully put her bare foot in the nearest groove. Her toes slipped, and Toriko realized that the rail was greased. Climbing down would be extremely dangerous.

"I will not stay here and be caught!"

An overwhelming sense of dread came over her as she firmly put her other foot a bit further down the rail, still hanging onto the edge of the elevator. All the muscles in her body tensed to rock-hardness as she slowly turned, reaching for the greased teeth of the cog rail. Gripping one large block, Toriko squeezed until she thought she heard the metal buckling; or maybe it was her hand creaking in protest. Whatever it was, her grip felt secure and Toriko slowly unwrapped her hand from the elevator's rail.

She tried not to look down as she turned to grasp another tooth, but it was impossible not to; darkness yawned before her like the gullet of a hungry monster, and the teeth Toriko held suddenly seemed slick with saliva. Suddenly her foot slipped and Toriko screamed as she suddenly found herself dangling over empty space, the thin sound echoing shrilly in the long tunnel.

"Another way! Another way!" She gibbered mentally, grabbing the elevator's rail and yanking herself back onto the elevator. Toriko scrambled to the center of the platform, sobbing with fear. A few minutes passed before she managed to get the pounding of her heart under control.

"No climbing," Toriko thought, vigorously scrubbing the black oil off her hands and feet. "There has to be another way out." Toriko looked around and froze when she saw an innocuous service ladder sticking out on the wall where the doors would be. She hadn't seen it because she'd automatically looked to the left and right for escape, not behind.

"I'm stupid." Cursing herself, Toriko walked to the ladder and wrapped her hands around the rungs. It was thankfully grease-free. Heartened by her discovery, Toriko began to climb down.

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Author's note:

Part one of Toriko's escape is done. Watch for part two!

Riddle: who is the startled person in glasses that Toriko runs by?

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