A Vampire's Tale

Hi!  This is chapter two.  But I should warn you that it's pretty depressing!  I stayed up most of the night writing it so it's not too good.  I was half asleep while writing it.  But anyway, this is a little of Aeris' childhood. And I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

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Chapter 2

            Aeris looked out the window as she started to talk.  "It began about three hundred years ago.  I was born in a tiny village in the north called Icicle.  My family was poor but I still led a happy life until around the time I turned four years old.  A great war began.  My father was a soldier fighting against the army of men that attempted to destroy the village.  My mother always tried to keep me away from all the fighting so she and I stayed in the small basement of our house.

I was naturally curious at that age and I wanted to see what my mother was hiding from me.  So finally, one stormy day I ran up the stairs of the basement and went outside.  It was the first time I had seen any real violence.  I was amazed with all the hatred and anguish I beheld.  But then my father called out my name.

"Aeris!!  What are you doing out here!  Get back inside!!" he yelled.  I turned around and looked at him.  He was all bruised and cut up and his dark hair was covered in dirt.  The sword that he held was blanketed in blood.

He started running towards me, and I remember a man in armor on a black chocobo riding towards my father.  Before my father could reach me, the man leaped off the chocobo and drove his sword through my father's back.  He kicked him off the sword and my father fell into the mud.

"Daddy!! No!" I screamed.  I ran over to him and looked up at the man who stabbed him.  My vision was blurred because of all the tears but I saw his cruel, aquamarine eyes very clearly.  He turned and walked away, his twelve-foot sword still in his hand.  I looked down at my father and I noticed that he was holding my hand.  He seemed to be trying to say something to me.  I knelt down and listened.  He put his hand up to my face and wiped my tears away.

"I love you and I always will, my princess", he said.  As soon as he finished, he closed his eyes, never to open them again.  All of a sudden, my mother ran out of the house.  She knelt down beside me and put her arm around me.  She too started to cry and she took my father's hand.  She said a silent prayer.  I never knew what she said, but I knew that she was praying.  Then she took my father's necklace from him and put it on me.

"It will be safe with you", she whispered.  I looked at the pendant.  It was a flying silver dove.  I never saw my father without it.  He always had it with him.

My mother took one last look at him and said, "We have to go now".

I looked up.  "How come, mommy?  I wanna stay with daddy".

She looked at me.  "Aeris darling, daddy isn't here anymore".

I gazed back at him.  Tears were streaming down my face.  My mother pulled on my arm.

"Please Aeris, we have to leave now." my mother said, "its much too dangerous here…" But before she could finish, an arrow came out of nowhere and flew into my mother's shoulder.  I screamed and she fell.  I helped her up and she painfully pulled the arrow out of her shoulder.

"Are you okay!?" I asked her anxiously.  She took my hand and stood up.

"Let's go, Aeris", she said.  We started running.  It didn't matter where we ran, as long as it was away from the fighting.  We dodged arrows and spears the whole way as we ran into the forest.  I took one last look at my home and I knew I would never see it again.

We stopped for the night on the other side of the forest.  I was still crying and I had bruises on my legs from all the times I had fallen.  My mother held me in her arms.

"You need some rest, Aeris.  Go to sleep", she said.

"I-I can't.  I miss daddy", I said sobbing.

"I know dear, so do I", she said, "even though he's not here physically, he will always be guiding and protecting us in spirit form".

"Really?" I asked, "Like an angel?"

My mother smiled for the first time that day.  "Yes Aeris, just like an angel".

I felt a little better hearing that.  I remembered the stories that my father used to tell me whenever I felt sad.  They were stories with princes, knights, princesses and dragons.  I liked how my father always named the princess 'Aeris'.  I also liked how the princess got together with the prince in every ending.  He always had a way of making me feel better.

"Mommy?  Could you tell me a story?" I asked her, "Like the ones that daddy always told me?"

"Of course", she replied.  Her voice was very calming and I started to drift off to sleep.  But I knew that I would always remember this day.  And I would never forget the cold, hard gaze of the man with the long sword.  It was burnt into my memory forever. 

Right before I fell asleep, I watched the rain.  It looked just like tears falling from heaven.

"The heavens are crying for us", I whispered as my mother hugged me and finished the story.

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Well, that's chapter 2.  Depressing, huh?  Oh well, let's hope the next chapter is less depressing.  And I think you can all guess who the man with the long sword is!  This story is getting kinda weird.  I should write this while I'm awake!  Anyway, if you have any suggestions or comments, I'd love to hear them!

Yunalesca Strife ^_^