"In a mind not deliberately hunting for clues, pieces of a puzzle sometimes come together in this way, bringing revelation, so that for a second there flashed across me, vanishing instantly again before I could consider it, a large, distressing thought. I can only describe it vaguely as a shadow. Dark and ugly, oppressive certainly it might be described, with something torn and dreadful about the edges that suggested pain and strife and terror.."

—Algernon Blackwood, 'The Damned'

Chapter 9
Haunted

Tifa awoke slowly. Feeling too tired to get up right away, she lay there in bed for a few moments, eyes still closed. From her bunk, she could hear the sound of rain beating against the window of her quarters. Finally, With some effort, she pried her eyes open, raising herself into a sitting position. The martial artist placed her hand against her forehead, wincing. The headache hadn't quite left her yet, but at least it had subsided from a sharp pain into a dull throb.

She let out a small sigh, a cloud of mist rising from her mouth as she did so. The small room felt unusually cold, and she was feeling reluctant to abandon the safety and warmth of her bed just yet. Pulling the sheets closer to ward off the cold, she glanced outside the small, circular window. The night was pitch-black, making it impossible to see anything. The seemingly endless blackness was interrupted only by the occasional flash of lightning, followed by the distant rumble of thunder. A storm was raging outside, whereas inside the ship, aside from the low, steady hum of the ship's engines, everything seemed eerily quiet..

Closing her eyes again momentarily, she began to shake off the mental cobwebs of sleep, remembering where she was. The last thing she could remember was that she had decided to take a nap on the airship while the group flew back to the Lost City. "We haven't landed yet.." she thought to herself, wondering how long exactly she had slept..

Tifa waited for a few moments more, eyes closed, leaning up against the cold steel wall. She still didn't feel like getting out of bed, but she knew that she couldn't sleep forever, either. Finally, she decided to go check up on the others. She forced herself to get up, her body aching in protest. She swung her legs off the bunk, shivering slightly as her bare feet touched the icy metal floor. She laboriously put on a pair of jeans and her usual black shoes, then headed out the door, her eyes gradually adjusting to the light in the corridor.

As she passed through the Highwind's fuselage, she could swear that she had heard a noise, like metal scraping against metal, coming from somewhere... below? Curious, she paused, waiting to see if she would hear anything else. The sound was faint, but it was there. Coming from beneath her feet. She traced the source of the sound towards the sealed door leading down into the ship's cargo bay, stepping over the slanting gap in the middle of the floor as she did so.

She put her ear up against the metallic door, waiting for the sound to manifest itself again, but it seemed to grow more faint as she waited. Then suddenly there was a loud crash, causing the panicked martial artist to back away from the door hastily. She waited for a second, then checked to make sure the door was sealed. Tifa knew that it could only be opened from her side, meaning that none of the others could be down inside the cargo hold.

And yet... there was something moving around down there..

"Your move."

The rest of the Avalanchers were gathered in the Highwind's command deck. Nanaki and Vincent sat on the floor opposite each other, playing a game of chess, with Vincent making Nanaki's moves for his opponent, as the red-maned beast's paws didn't lend themselves very well to the task of moving the small pieces on the board. Nanaki let out a deep, slow rumble from the back of his larynx, what the others referred to as his "thinking sound", his tail swishing slowly back and forth as he pondered his next move..

Yuffie lay on the floor next to them, resting her head on her hands, humming to herself. She watched their game absent-mindedly, with a look of extreme boredom on her face. Chess had always seemed like a pretty stuffy, not to mention geeky activity to her, but unfortunately for the young ninja, she didn't have a whole else lot to do at the moment.

Cloud watched their game as well, taking some interest in observing Vincent and Red's differing playing styles. The two of them took forever to decide on a move, and they both seemed very reluctant to exchange any pieces. At present, both of them were left with a handful of pawns, as well as a couple of other units. Nanaki had managed to hold onto a rook, as well as one of his knights, whereas Vincent had been almost fanatically protective of his bishops, the "snipers" of the game, appropriately enough.

Cid stood at the control console, one hand resting on the wheel, clutching an almost burnt-out cigarette. He casually guided the ship through the storm, making small adjustments to the Highwind's course as necessary. Reeve and Barret made small talk, whilst observing the slow-moving chess game taking place in the middle of the room. The only one not present in the room was Tifa, whom they had last seen sleeping off her hangover in her quarters.

Nanaki lifted himself up from the ground, stretching. "Knight takes pawn. Your move." he announced. Vincent nonchalantly moved the pieces as his animal companion dictated. The gunman was about to contemplate his next move, when Tifa entered the command deck, visibly still groggy from her nap earlier.

"Hey, you guys know what that noise is down in the cargo bay?" she asked, pointing her thumb back out the door. The others looked up at her.

"Noise?" Cid asked, perplexed. "What noise?"

"I don't know..." Tifa replied, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "...but it sounds like something's... moving around down there."

Everyone in the room looked around at each other in surprise. "We're all here." Vincent said, confirming what everyone else was thinking.

"And we dropped the bodies off back in Rocket Town.." Reeve added, in a quiet tone of voice.

Tifa frowned. "Well, whatever it is, it sure is making a lot of noise.."

Cloud stood up, glancing over at the others, before wordlessly hefting his sword and heading out the door into the main fuselage. The rest of the group followed in tow, brandishing their weapons as well. Everyone gathered at the doorway under the staircase leading to the observation deck, at the vault-like door to the cargo bay.

"All right, let's see what's going on down there.." Cid said. The pilot walked over to a nearby panel on the wall, flipped it open, and punched a numerical code into the console, before hitting a larger button next to the keypad. The floor of the Highwind's main fuselage had been designed so that it could be opened in the middle, for easy access. He and the others waited for a moment, expecting the floor above the cargo bay area to part. But nothing happened..

"The hell..?" the airship pilot muttered under his breath. "..Piece of junk.."

He entered the code again, then banged on the panel a couple of times, sighing. "Must've blown a fuse, or the wiring's out or something.." he muttered to himself. He looked over at Cloud, who was standing next to him. "Looks like we're headin' down."

Cid glanced over at the rest of the ship's crew. It was wordlessly decided that he and Cloud would head down, while the others waited upstairs. Cid walked over to the doorway, unlocking the handle with one of the keys that he carried around his neck, then retracted the bolt locking the door in place. The ship's pilot led the way down the steps, with Cloud close behind him, their steps echoing faintly off the metallic surfaces around them.

The cargo bay was dank and dark, its few working lights flickering on and off seemingly as they pleased. The room's low ceiling and lack of windows did nothing to diminish the overpowering sense of claustrophobia, either. The floor itself somehow seemed almost empty, the unnamed bodies having been removed. As they reached the end of the small staircase, Cid sauntered over to a panel on the wall, similar to the one on the floor above. It was open, and its wiring had been ripped apart, quite violently by the looks of it. Cloud and Cid exchanged a quick look, both thinking the same thing. This was not good..

"There's something down here, all right.." Cloud thought. He looked over at the far side of the room. He could have sworn that he had seen something moving there, in the shadows. He gestured for Cid to follow him. The two of them headed forward slowly, carefully, ready for anything.

As they neared the other end of the room, they began to make out a sound underneath the constant hum of the ship's engines... like claws scraping against the cold metal floor..

And then, a low growl..

They both froze, their weapons at the ready, as they spotted the shape in the darkness in front of them. Piercing red eyes stared at them from the blackness of the bay's corner. Their guard slipped momentarily as the beast stepped out of the shadows.

It was the same kind as the monsters that they had fought just the other day. Only this one was bigger.

Much bigger..

The beast seemed as though it could hardly fit inside the cargo hold, let alone through the doorway. It's crimson eyes flashed with recognition as it observed the two beings standing before it.. The beast bared its fangs, clearly quite angry at the two..

"What the f..." Cid began, the cigarette dropping from his mouth. He was abruptly cut off, however, as the huge beast lunged forward, slashing away frantically. Cloud grabbed the pilot by his arm and pulled him away, heading back towards the stairs, as the monster charged them. He knew that it would be useless to attempt to fight something like that down there..

They barely reached the staircase in time, coming around the turn just as the monster smashed into the wall right behind them, growling and roaring. The two of them rushed back out through the cargo bay door, tripping over the upraised sill in an almost comical fashion as they rushed to escape the rampaging beast behind them. The others backed away as the monster tried to force its way through the door, despite being much too big to fit through.

Cid and Cloud quickly got up and joined the others, who were now gathered around the door in a semi-circle. The others barely had time to figure out what was going on, as the beast frantically began to smash its way through the door's jambs. The steel wall began to bend and give way, as the beast charged the steel barrier repeatedly..

The others had recovered from the initial surprise, and began to ready their weapons. "What the hell is this thing?" Barret shouted.

"Who the hell cares?" Cid shouted back. "Shoot it!"

Reeve, Barret and Vincent all raised their guns, preparing to fire, but before any of them could let off a shot, the monster smashed its way through the steel doorway with incredible force, knocking everyone to the ground as it violently forced its way through.

Everyone scrambled back to their feet, as the beast looked around, assessing its new prey. Cloud and Cid, now at opposite ends of the group, swung their weapons away at the beast, which dodged narrowly before any of their hits connected. The beast wheeled around, forcing everyone back as it did. The ship's narrow spaces made fighting the large animal both awkward and difficult, as they had little to no room to maneuver, and nowhere to run.

Suddenly, Nanaki lunged at the large animal, sinking his teeth into its flesh. The animal, howling in pain, spun around wildly, shaking his attacker off, smashing him into the nearby wall. Nanaki yelped in pain as he smashed against the hard steel wall, and the others winced collectively as they heard something snap.

Barret raised his gun-arm, the barrel of his minigun emplacement spinning up, but before he could fire the beast snapped away at him. Then it charged, knocking Barret down, along with Vincent and Yuffie, and forcing Cid against the wall, almost crushing the airship pilot with its bulk. The beast had managed to get in a hit, slashing Barret quite badly. The big man fell to the floor, clutching his chest and grimacing..

Tifa helped pull Vincent up to his feet and away from the raging beast, but Yuffie was still laying on the floor as the beast turned round again. It seized the opportunity and pounced on the young girl, pinning her down, its claws digging into her exposed abdomen..

"Yuffie!" Cloud shouted, panicking. Not knowing what else to do, he charged right at the beast, jumping up and ramming his buster sword right into the animal's back. The beast went mad, exploding into a paroxysm of rage. It releasing its grip on the young ninja, trying to shake off its attacker, screaming. Cloud held on firmly, straining to hold on, as the beast tried all it could to get rid of him..

As all of this took place...

...below deck, an electrical spark fizzled through the wirings of the ruined control panel..

Cid and the others backed away from the spectacle in front of them, knowing there was little they could do to help. Suddenly, the floor began to move underneath their feet. Too late, Cloud realized that the three of them were right in the middle of the now-splitting floor. The monster backed away, taking a misstep, one of its hind-legs falling between the two sides of the floor.

Cid and the others watched in horror. Before they knew it, Cloud, Yuffie, and the monster had been swept under the narrow crack that had opened in the floor. They fell down into the darkened cargo hold.

As if acted on by an outside force, another, final, spark pulsated through the wirings, causing the gap to close again, before any of them could react. They hurried over to the doorway leading down into the cargo bay, but they realized that it was no use, as the door and walls were now no more than a pile of twisted scrap metal, making it impossible to get through. They looked down at the angular split in the floor, where their friends had been standing only moments ago.

They were trapped down there, alone with that thing..