H
Forgotten Souls
e sighed; breathing in the moldy dust of his coffin that he
had grown so accustomed to. He stared at the splintering ceiling of the wooden
chamber wondering when he would be set free. He had long lost count of how long
he's been locked up in his coffin and thinking over his life would be his
ritual throughout the years he spent in this vertical position, with no food, no
water. He was locked in the basement of an old condemned mansion, which the
townspeople called the Shindra mansion. He would think, in the eternal silence
of the house, how he ended up here, and about Lucrecia. "Damn its cold..."
he would usually think and bring his arms around his bare chest to keep warm,
but this day he was filled with despair and thought, "if today is my day to
die than I shall and with pleasure." Then he thought of the man who caused
these disruptive thoughts inside of him, Dr. HoJo, he locked him inside of this
coffin and stole Lucrecia from him. Suddenly his thought was broken by a noise
at the basement door. His eyes opened wide and he became both scarred and
excited at the same time. Thoughts ran through his head, as fast as lighting
striking the earth. Is it Dr.HoJo, Lucrecia? He wanted to call out, he wanted to
scream, but all the years of being locked in the coffin, inhaling the dust,
damaged his vocal cords, hopefully, he though, when I breath in some fresh air
my voice will began to heal. He banged at the coffin lid with all his strength,
which wasn't a lot for the lack of energy he had. Then he heard footsteps
through the room. Then people's voices, he strained his ears to hear what they
were saying but the coffin was too thick and the voices too soft. Then an
echoing boom filled the room. It came from the coffin beside his, he decided,
please open mine! Suddenly scraping, and prying noises filtered through the lid
of his coffin, which were sounds that he had dreamed of hearing for a long, long
time. Then a small dingy light entered the coffin, then, when the whole lid was
off, light comepleatly filled his coffin, temporarily blinding him. He shut his
eyes, for seeing light for the first time in more than five years can hurt.
"What is it?" the soft voice of a female asked.
"I'm not sure… hello?" a male answered the girl, as the man in
the coffin slowly opened his eye, adjusting to the new light. There were three
people standing there, a girl with light brown hair and glowing green eyes, a
young boy, who seemed the age of 20, or 21, with spiky dirty blonde hair, and
then there was another girl, she was taller than the first with long black hair
and wild brown eyes. The boy spoke up again, and said, as if he wasn't talking
to a stranger, "do you know
anything about Sephiroth?" He stared at the boy, and shook his head, in shock
that he was not searching for him, but for one named Sephiroth. "Are you
sure?" The boy asked. He nodded. "Well thanks anyway." The man in the
coffin was appalled… how dare they wake me from my sleep of time and just walk
away like that! He sat up and watched the three wonder out of the basement and
up the stairs to the main floor. He just sat there, in his coffin for a few
minutes, collecting himself. He has been dreaming of this moment every day that
he had been locked up in the coffin by HoJo, and now that the moment had come,
he didn't know what to do with it. He slowly stood and stepped out of his
wooden prison. He looked around the basement. It hasn't changed at all through
out all these years. It was still dusty, and cobwebs all over the roof and the
stench of death hung in the air. He started to walk towards the door. He almost
lost balance only once. As he got to the spiral staircase he remembered the
frantic chase he had endured all those years ago. He would do anything to claim
revenge. He climbed the ancient staircase that seemed alive under his boots. As
he reached the top his thoughts remained on the young boys question. "Do you
know anything about Sephiroth?" echoed in his brain. "Sephiroth, Sephiroth,
Sephiroth." Then he remembered, HoJo saying something about Jenova and
Sephiroth. He stood in the room that the staircase led up to, he combed his hand
through his back length black hair. All these memories came flooding back to
him, memories from the past, the past that seemed another life since he was
locked up in the coffin. "Jenova, Mako, experiment, Lucrecia, Sephiroth..."
With all these memories came ones of hatred, ones of HoJo. He shook away these
thoughts, more important things are afoot, he thought. There is no time to stand
around thinking of what cannot be changed. He thought this often; he got these
thoughts almost every waking day. He walked out of the room, into a hallway, and
then into a huge room, with a staircase leading into the main room. He walked
right past the staircase into another room and found the safe he used when the
mansion was still an inn. He searched the pockets of his tight, torn, black
leather pants until he found a rusty skeleton key. He slid the key into the lock
and turned it, the safe opened with ease. Inside he found his old possessions,
the possessions of his past life, locked away, locked away from time and change.
They were wrapped up in a soft, lavender cloth. He took out his things and,
leaving the key in the lock, turned and walked back into the main hall. It was
huge, the domed ceiling hovering over him about 200 feet. The railing of the
staircase was covered in a thick layer of dust and the stairs creaked under his
weight as he hurriedly stepped down them. When he got to the bottom of the
staircase he rushed to the door, he wanted to get out of there; he knows the
place to be as prison to him, as a place of torture. He opened the heavy, wooden
door and stepped outside. He grasped his neck as he inhaled his first breath of
fresh air in all those years, and then he let out a horse cough. He squinted his
eyes and walked down the dirty, rocky path to the giant dark, iron gates that
kept the weeds in the grass from escaping into the town. When he reached the
gates he yanked them open and walked out, leaving the gate open. He then looked
around. There was two roads he
could go down. To his left there was the mountain pass, which lead up to Mount
Nibel and the other, which was directly in front of him, lead to the town.
"Why would I want to go and get lost in those wrenched mountains?" he
thought to himself looking left and griping his things as he started to walk
towards the town. It's was a smaller town than he'd remembered, but the well
was still there. No one walked the streets, only a whining dog was in sight. He
walked into the inn, and took out the 100 gil he had kept in his pocket all
those years. He looked up at the clerk; middle-aged woman with short, icy blue
hair was absorbed in a magazine and probably didn't notice him walk in. He
nosily dropped the 100 gil on the counter and the clerk, with out looking up
even then, grasped the gil and tossed him any room key. He hurriedly climbed up
the stairs and opened the door to the room. It's was a messy room, but it was
better than his past accommodations. He put his stuff down on the bed and walked
into the bathroom to examine how he has changed over the years. He looked at the
floor as he stepped completely in, his glare then fixed in the sink and slowly
he moved his crimson eyes to the piece of reflective glass, which hung on the
wall above the sink. He examined his face with awe. He hadn't changed a bit!
His skin was still soft with youth, his scarlet eyes still lively, and his dark
chocolate hair was still in place. He then lifted his arm and combed through his
hair. He examined his hair closer and found old cobwebs all mangled into it. He
then rubbed his hand over his torn leather pants to receive a handful of dust.
"I must take a shower now." He thought as he slowly unbuttoned his pants
with one hand as his other was useless for it would get caught in the seam line,
because another reason he despised Dr.HoJo is that he replaced his left arm with
a golden claw, just another one of the bastards twisted experiments. The pants
dropped down into a pile around his feet as he stepped out of it and untied his
bootlaces and slowly kicked them off one by one. He then grasped the shower knob
with his right hand and turned on the shower. He slowly crept behind the light
green curtain surrounding the shower, adjusting to the warm water that fell upon
his body. He scrubbed the water through his hair, making sure to rinse out all
of the spider webs and the dust. Then he thought, "Its good that the clerk
didn't look up and see me, she would have thought I was back from the dead."
Then he thought about the ones who had woken him. "I wonder who they were…
maybe I would be help to them, after all I know something about Sephiroth…
That monster HoJo was always talking about a new experiment, a superhuman… and
when I tried to stop him, he cut off my arm and locked me in that horrible
coffin. I'll find them tomorrow and see if I can join them" He then turned
off the water and climbed out of the shower, dripping water all over the floor.
His dark bangs hung in his eyes, dripping water into his face like stalactites
hanging on a cave ceiling. He grasped a towel and quickly dried off his claw, so
it wouldn't rust, and then rapped it around his hair. He then took another
towel and dried off his pale body. He then walked naked into the room with the
bed and got his stuff and delicately unwrapped the snow-purple fabric, relieving
a new pair of soft, leather jeans, a black uniform shirt, a blood red cape,
which attached around his neck like a turtle neck sweater, a red bandana, a
glove, a pair of silky red boxers and a Quicksilver gun. He slipped on the silky
boxers and his new tight leather pants. Then he slipped on his shirt and
buttoned it up to the top. He picked up the cape and thrust it around his
shoulders and latched the first two buttons, leaving the other two to hang. He
then slipped on the glove and picked up the bandana and wrapped it around his
head and under his hair twice, letting a few hairs slip out and hang in his
face. Then he stood and walked into the bathroom, he kicked his old pair of
pants under the sink and slipped his boots back on. He would go back into the
town and get something to drink; maybe he would be able to talk better then. He
suddenly stopped at the door and looked at his claw. He wondered what people
would think if they saw it. He closed his eyes and shrugged. "I am Vincent
Valentine…" he thought. "I don't care what people think." He picked up
the key off the table and slipped it into his pocket. He closed, and locked the
door and walked down the stairs.
"Checking out sir?" asked the blue haired lady at the front desk,
asked him as he headed for the door. He shook his head no. "Ok, just
checking." He stepped out into the town again as the sun was just setting and
the stars were coming out. He walked just to the building next to the inn and
opened the stained glass door.
"Hello!" a fat, cheery man
behind the bar said. Vincent uneasily waved with his right hand. "Can I get
you a drink?" the man asked. Vincent nodded yes. The man turned around and
fiddled around with all sorts of bottles and glasses until he finally turned
around and slid Vincent the oozing glass. He stared blankly at the glass until
the bartenders' heavy stare forced him to bring the glass to his lips. He
sipped the golden liquid and sat the glass on the table taking a deep breath and
digging into his pocket. He took out two gil and slid them over to the man. He
greedily grasped them and watched as Vincent took another gulp.
"Ha! Good stuff huh? All the way from Cosmo Canyon!" He
said as another customer walked in and he completely forgot about Vincent.
As Vincent finished the glass he glanced around the bar. Up on the wall
behind the bar hung little bags full of materia. Once, as a child he played with
materia. Materia, once connected to a weapon of some sort can give you powers,
as in ice, fire, lighting, and many others. His mother often disciplined him
because materia contains a small amount of mako, which can kill you. Vincent
looked curiously and coughed, making sure his voice had returned, if maybe just
a little. It had, but talking made it burn extremely.
"Excuse me sir," he said slowly, his voice low. "Is that materia?"
"It sure us, son…"he said anticipating another purchase. "Would
you like to buy some?"
"Yes please." Said Vincent, using his manners, which
came naturally to him.
"Which one, I got fire, ice water, lighting and earth."
"I'll take water, fire and ice." Replied Vincent as he took out
1000 gil from his pocket.
Again, the bartender greedily took it and gave Vincent back
9 gil, and placed the glowing red, blue and sliver-blue stones on the counter.
Vincent stuffed the gil into his pocket and attached the materia to his weapon.
"Thank you." Vincent said, standing up and walking out
of the bar, back to the inn, and going to sleep.
~*~
e awoke the next morning in his bed. At first he was
frightened. The first morning of freedom, he was so used to waking to the smell
of mold and death and waking up in a fresh clean bed startled him.
"Uhhh," excaped his throught as he sat up, holding his head. "Oww,
my head hurts."
He climbed out of the bed, grasped his Quicksilver gun, straightened his
hair and left. He noisily walked down the stairs and threw the key on the
checkout desk.
"Now, where did they go?" he asked himself aloud as he scanned the
town for the first time in a while during daylight hours. But then he saw them,