21.
Title: #037: Hell
Rating: PG
Characters: Cloud, Tifa
Word Count: 304
Summary: For a second, he despised the flowers. This was not tragic and the small buds of drooping white and yellow, not poetic.
Few sights in the world could render him frightened and afraid to his very core.
But staring down at Tifa, Cloud felt cold and there was a hard knot inside him. The weariness drained out of him as suddenly as if somebody covered him with a blindfold. A creeping fear overtook everything else.
She lay crumpled on the ground, so still and unmoving, her feet bent beneath her thighs. A crushed bed of flowers surrounded her body, their bulbs and stalks torn apart, as the petals littering the floor formed a crude pillow for her head. Cloud drew in a breath sharply.
Who had done this to her? And why?
He ran towards her. Then he cradled her delicately in his arms and called her name. She did not answer. Numerous smudges of dirt marred the skin under her eyes but even they could not erase the pallor of her cheeks. It was too pale. Cloud swallowed thickly and felt a wave of nausea engulf him for a moment as the anger blotted out everything else. He balled his hands into fists, then wished he hadn't. The sudden return of blood flow pulsed angrily in his wrist and caused his hands to ache. There was a heavily sweet odor lacing the air, permeating the church and choking his senses.
He tried again, refusing to let her give up on him. He felt panicky and desperate. The futility was only in his imagination. It had to be.
She remained motionless. The stench of flowers all but made him gag now, their fragrance, suffocating, in the stifling heat. He cursed at them. And for a second, he despised the damned flowers. This was not tragic and the small buds of drooping white and yellow, not poetic.
No, instead, it was a peculiar kind of nightmare. His hellish field of shredded flowers and a Tifa who could not smile.
AN: Tifa did not die. Again, this was scene taken from ACC, or AC. Whichever you prefer.
Much thanks plus a dozen roses goes to my awesome reviewers: VanillacookiesXD, mom calling and Mind Astray. Thank you for all the support.