"...tendencies." (a story about obsession)
7: Abyssmal Spiral
Blur blur blur.
"Brumas."
"Algo incorehente"
Fog screamed a thick smothering warning to Leroy Elways.
He walked towards the bar hoping to get a drink, his stern jaw set tight as always. The shadows cast by the dim streetlights fell sideways, contorting and freakish.
Strength and experience had made a cocky S.O.B. of Leroy Elways.
He carried no fear with him. He carried a revolver with him. He had very large biceps. He could bench press 250 lbs. without blinking and knew every trick of the slums. And he could fight.
Death beckoned a thin pale finger to Leroy Elways.
He heard a noise behind him and turned around and fell onto a sword. Or a sword fell through him. Either way he ended up with a huge shard of metal shrieking through his chest.
Blood, thick warm puddles of it, made a very nice shroud for Leroy Elways.
The figure in the dark -brumas- cleaned the dripping sword on the grungy shirt of Leroy Elways, then stalked off into the night.
Blurblurblur. Stepstepstep. Disappear.
Laughter mourned the death of Leroy Elways.
Nobody else was there to.
NO! NO! NO!
Three screams pierced through the night like an unholy trinity.
Cloud sat up in bed and tried to place where the noise was coming from, blue eyes gleaming in the dark of the night.
NEVER! I DON'T WANT TO! OH GOD, PLEASE NO!
His hand trembled, his lips trembled, and his eyes widened to saucers. And with more a gasp than a word of speech, he said, "Aeris."
Within seconds, the man had tumbled out of his bed, pulling on his shirt and pants hurriedly as he ran. He practically tripped over his own flying legs as he crossed the hallway in a matter of steps. With an open hand and a kick, he slammed the door to Aeris' room open, snarling "Alright, you bastards, you leave her alo-"
Alone.
All alone, Aeris sat in her room, sobbing and tearing at her hair and rocking herself on the bed.
Cloud's steps slowed as he approached hesitantly.
"Why did you do it?" she asked suddenly, huge green eyes abruptly swinging up towards him in the darkness. "Why? Was there some reason? Do you need me for something? Did you want to tell me something?"
Cloud's mouth hung open but it held no answer for the girl.
"Why, goddammit," she cried. "Why? Why did you bring me back? When all I wanted was to stay in the warm green water with my mother and my father and my close buzzing family? Tell me!" She clutched at his shirt with her clenched fists. "Why? Why?" She pounded at his chest, sobbing. "Why do I exist??!!"
Cloud sat down and gathered her into his arms, tears running out of his own flourescently shining blue eyes. "I love you," he said softly. "I love you," he repeated, louder, holding her at arms length to look into her face. "I need you. I love you. That's why I brought you back."
Aeris ventured a smile.
We love you too, though, Aeris. Come back...
"I love you," she murmmered, wrapping her thin arms around Cloud.
Blades the memories screamed, die, the hissed, bleed, so she clung to him.
On the other side of the thin wall, Tifa heard, and Tifa mourned. And Tifa ground her teeth and glared at the darkness and swore herself she'd get her revenge.
"Revenge," said Vincent, watching through the window from the alley.
"Is something you keep asking for, but never truly get.
Revenge, though unattainable, is temporarily satiable."
"By what?" asked a silken soft voice behind him.
Vincent turned around. "Hello Jenova," he said to the tall blue figure, so elegant and perfect, as young and ideal as the day Cloud had seen her in the woods, had taken the purple materia from her.
"By what," she repeated, in his voice, through his mouth, to flex her power.
Vincent wasn't fazed. "By bloodshed," he said. "And Jenova, you won't win the battle. Not this time. Not now."
"We'll see," she said, with a smile, and a little bow. She pointed at the embracing figures of Cloud and Aeris. Of Tifa now in the fitness room punching tearstained and infuriated at the punching bag. "But it seems like I've got the lead."
Then she was gone.
Vincent held his gun close to his chest.
And Vincent stayed.
"He-ey," grinned Tifa at Cloud and Aeris the next morning when they emerged for breakfast. "How are you kids doing? Great? Great. Want some coffee? It's fresh. Be a shame to waste it. Hahah."
"It's amazing," said Vincent to himself, sitting outside the window of the back attachment to 7th Heaven where Tifa lived, watching them, "How false laughter can be when it cloaks agony."
Aeris shook her head. "No thank you, Tifa," she said with a soft smile. "But thank you for asking."
"No problem hahaha. What about you Cloud?" She brandished the coffee pot in his face with a mad glint in her auburn eye.
Cloud eyed Tifa warily, settling down in his seat. "Yeah, sure, sounds great Teef. Fill 'er up," he said, offering his cup.
His officialthankyouverymuch girlfriend, as Tifa liked to refer to herself, poured him a cupful of the hot steaming liquid, smiling a bit smug at him. "Drink it all up," she said to him, eyes studying the blonde man intently. "All of it now."
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Okie dokie," he returned, gulping at it. "Why're you so chipper, anyways?"
"Oh, no reason," Tifa chirped airily. "No reason at all." Suddenly, she shoved a knife in Aeris' face. Aeris squeaked, then realized there was something on the end of the knife. Her eyes uncrossed. "Oh...how nice," the flower girl said politely.
"Sausage?" offered Tifa, not withdrawing the sausage-shish-kabob-knife. "Eggs?" Aeris shook her head again. "No thank you. I'm not very hungry."
"I am!" announced Cloud, patting his growling stomach rowdily. "Load it on Tifa, I can take it," he said with a grin, as the hot coffee woke him up. The coffee...Cloud sniffed at it. "Hey, this tastes weird, Teef. New coffee? New cream? Somethin'?"
"Oh, nothing new at all," said Tifa, looking quite innocent. "Nothing at all." Clang. A plate full of sausages and eggs sat in front of Cloud. She patted him on the back. "Eat up." Hips swinging, she sashayed back to the kitchen. "So what are you two doing today, ahehe?"
"Going back to the dress store," said Cloud through a mouthful of eggs, as Aeris sat beside him with her hands folded in her lap demurely. "Get some more..uh..dresses."
"What kind of dresses, honey?" asked Tifa's voice from inside the kitchen, invisible.
"Well, like the one she has on right now. Lots of them."
A crash, then the tinkling of broken glass as Tifa dropped something in the kitchen. "Ahah, clumsy me, dropped that glass on accident, hehe." She came out looking slightly frantic. "Can't have too many pink dresses that look exactly like the dress you died in, eh?" she said with a wild grin, as both Cloud and Aeris squirmed. She stared at them a long second. "You going to finish your coffee?" she snapped at Cloud.
He stared at her bewildered, then drank the rest. "Yeah, yeah, done," he said. "Sheesh."
She smiled. "Good. Well, you two better be off. heheh. Bye!"
Cloud nodded slowly, then, grabbing another sausage in one hand, and Aeris' slim white hand in the other, he walked quickly out the door.
Tifa watched them go. In the silence of the empty room, she brought down her bare hand with one swift movement and slammed her fist through the table, breaking it in half with the greatest of ease. She stood in the splinters, the rubble, and she smiled. She was Tifa Lockheart. And she was strong. She didn't need that man. She didn't need any man.
Cloud put his hands on Aeris' shoulders, kissing her lightly on the nose. "Stay here, alright," he told her at the entrance of the dress store. "I'm just going to pick up your dresses and we'll go." His demeanor brightened as a sudden idea hit him. "And then we can go back and find some playground to sit and talk in, alright? Just like old times." He grinned. "Exactly like old times, ok? We'll do everything we did together over, except...except better, ok?"
Aeris nodded dumbly. She felt like a child when Cloud talked to her like this, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it. It wasn't like she shouldn't be treated this way. She got dizzy all the time and forgot where she was, all the time. Of course Cloud was going to take care of her. He loved her. She smiled as she watched his retreating figure. Then she sat down on the stoop and hugged her knees. blades. Her heart leapt into her mouth, beating wildly. Her mind, her eyes corkscrewed in her head. She fell over and...and...
...and when she looked back up, she saw ... she saw...
Vincent walked unnoticed, silently, into the back rooms of 7th Heaven, sat down crosslegged in the middle of the room where Aeris now resided.
My girl, my girl, where did you go?
"It is the nature of flower girls," he said slowly, methodically, "To get lost in their fields."
My girl, my girl, where do you go?
He picked up a flower that had fallen from the basket Cloud gave her. Picked it up in his unclawed hand and gently plucked petal by petal off. "It is the song of flower girls," he said, in the same voice as before, yet sadder, "to chant that he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me...not."
My girl, my girl, where will you go?
I'm going where the cold wind blows
Aeris fell over and when she looked up
and when she looked up
and when she looked up
she saw
she saw
she saw
saw
saw
blood.
TBC.