I remember the pain in my head being almost unbearable. At that moment I had no clue how Sephiroth could bestow such a pain upon me without a single movement. But now it is so simple for me to unleash the same power from my own mind and even make it a thousand times more intense. Only now I see that Sephiroth never reached his full potential as a vampire because he never was that powerful. Not being used to pain can play tricks on your mind and does not allow you to understand what real pain feels like. The hurt that he gave me that day was nothing.
I woke up the next day from my dreamless sleep to a day full of lightning and rain. It was just like that the day before. But as I opened my eyes, confusion clouded my senses once again. I was in my own bed at home in the quiet village of Nibelheim. I had a slight headache that may have come from a cold I thought I had gotten over earlier that week. But I couldn't remember how I got home that night. What happened seemed too real to be merely a dream. I tried to remember absolutely anything that could help me determine if all of it was real or not but nothing came to me.
I got out of bed and realized I was still dressed in the clothes I had on the night before. I didn't have time to think of it because I knew I was late. I had to be at the castle already. I quickly left my house and started running in the direction of the castle grounds. My mind was still trying to understand what happened when I got a strange idea. Maybe I went out drinking with the guys last night. It would certainly explain my loss of memory and my headache. I convinced myself that I had a point as I got to the castle and I noticed the drawbridge was gone. I went inside using the small piece of metal that lied across the moat. Cid and Barret were at their usual positions yet they seemed horribly disturbed.
"Where the hell were you!?" Cid demanded, "You're late this morning and you just disappeared on us last night!"
"Wait a second", I said. "I disappeared?"
"Yeah. Both you and Yuffie", Barret replied with a smile. "I thought you said she wasn't your type."
My confusion turned to annoyance and I punched Barret. "I'm not in the mood to joke around today, alright?"
"Well neither are we!" Cid yelled. "Something pretty big happened last night and you two just leaving didn't help much."
I turned to look at him. "What happened?"
"It started when we heard screaming. Sephiroth came to us with blood all over him and he told us to leave quickly. We came back this morning and we had to find a replacement for the drawbridge."
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Look around! This place is trashed! It looks like there was a war in the damn castle last night with all the blood around here!"
I guess I looked unusually calm then. But this familiar confusion was so intense, it almost hurt. "Did you even search the castle or did you just stand around here doing nothing?"
This time it was Barret's turn to punch me. "You think we're going to go through all of this by ourselves? Whatever did all this could still be here and we have no weapons on us right now."
Cid looked at him. "Barret, shut up and quit acting like a monster did this. There is a reasonable explanation for everything." He then turned to look at me. "So where did you go last night? See Aeris again?"
I was suddenly filled with mixed emotions of guilt and fear. "Shit! I forgot all about her!"
Both Cid and Barret looked at me surprised. They had never heard me curse out loud before. I looked at both of them. "Get used to it", I said as I turned to run out of the castle. I ran towards the barn where she usually stayed. I went inside calling her name and I realized she wasn't there. My mixed feelings turned into worry and my confusion was at an all time high.
"Damn it! What the hell happened!?" I yelled as I turned to run back. The sky was dark but the rain had stopped. Again I didn't have time to notice since my mind was busy trying to find some sense in all of this. I went back inside the castle and found Cid and Barret right where they were standing earlier.
"Well, are you guys going to actually do something or what?" I said out of breath. There was no one else around for miles it seemed and I doubted my sanity already. I also needed to find Aeris.
"What can we do!? This place is dead!" Cid yelled.
"Go to town and get help. And find out if someone knows about what happened." I said. Apparently I was the only one even trying to think. "And look for Yuffie while you're at it."
Barret sighed and left. Cid looked at me. "And what are you going to do?"
"Look for any clues about what happened here. Since you guys are too scared."
"We're not scared! Only unsure of our surroundings." Cid replied following Barret.
I crossed my arms. "Sure you are", I said lowering my voice.
I turned to look into the castle. The lack of sunlight made it look like night so I found a torch and lit it on fire. I looked around carefully as I walked further into the castle and noticed how messed up the place really was. Not one piece of furniture was left untouched and blood covered the walls. It looked like no one in the castle had left with their life that night. And I still wondered how I got out. I thought of the events that I had seen and how it somehow fit like a puzzle piece into how this all came to be.
I soon came upon the door that led to the dungeon cells. I tried opening it but it was unusually locked. I told myself to forget it and to keep looking. I got an idea and I headed to Sephiroth's room. Since all this somehow involved him I guessed, there should be some kind of information where he kept most of his secrets. But as I kept walking I became more scared about what could've happened to Aeris. She was always at the barn and if she wasn't she would leave some kind of note for me. We talked about all this already so that we would make sure nothing happened to any of us. I sighed and put those thoughts aside for now. I thought that if I wanted to get something done, I must only concentrate on one thing at a time and to keep calm. Everyone always said I could keep calm at the worst of times. But they have never seen past my appearance.
I soon came to Sephiroth's room. The door wasn't locked and I easily opened it. I quickly scanned the room and it was also trashed just like the rest of the castle. I walked in and saw paper scattered all over the floor. I thought of the papers Yuffie gave to me to read and I began to pick up each paper and tried to put all the numbered ones in order. Some I couldn't even read because of all the blood that covered a few of them. But soon I had all that I could read easily and I sat down at the desk in the corner of the room. I started to read and the time flew by. It soon became evening but I didn't even notice because of all the information that I took in. I wasn't even done reading when I heard a noise from somewhere in the castle. I looked up and realized how much time went by. Maybe that noise was from Cid and Barret even though they should have been back sooner. I stood up and stretched, feeling like I had just read a fictional novel. The noise sounded again and I became distracted from the rest of the papers. I stood up and walked to the door. Lightning from the dying storm lit the hallway and I started to walk to where I had heard the sound. I entered a room and saw a dark figure. Not being able to be surprised anymore, I took a guess and said his name. Lightning filled the room again as if fate itself was messing with my head and it showed me that I was right. The light reflected off his incredibly long sword. He just looked at me.
"I gave you a chance to live, servant. Why did you come back?"
Strangely, I felt as if I accomplished something. I let all the things that had confused me earlier come back to me and so many questions filled my head. I asked the one that came to me first.
