Shadows of A Lonely Man



Prologue

The room was plain, four walls, four white walls with a single window, a table and two chairs by it. A woman sat on the chair rumaging through a bag finnaly pulling out a tape recorder and inserting a blank tape glanced around the room.

"Are you ready?"

The voice came from a shadowy part of the room, it was night and even though the lights were on a strange shadow was cast over the corner of the room hiding a man. Looking up at him the woman nodded.

"Yes" she said "im ready.."

"Then ill begin?" he replied

"yes."

The man stayed in the corner almost as if the light would hurt him, he stayed silent for a minute waiting for the woman to begin, however before she could her bag fell from the table onto the floor its contents spilling from within it. Some blank tapes, a packet of ciggarettes and a business card littered the floor. She quickly pushed the bag under the table and scooped up the belongings and put them on the table. The business card read "Ceilia Tapi Documentations" and it had a telephone number. Looking at the shadow and what she could see of the man she pushed the record button of the tape recorder and smiled sweetly.

"So what is your name?" She Asked

"my name? it matters..?

"It helps"

"As you wish.."

The man stepped out of the shadows, a red bandana across his head tried to keep his long black hair from spilling over it but failed and flowed down his shoulders. He wore a tight suit and a long red cloak that hid his body. Were it parted a claw could be seen , it had five razor sharp talons for fingers and while looking at him Ceilia could have sworn she caught a glimpse of a gun under his coat but payed it no attention.

"So your name?" She asked once more

"Valentine..Vincent Valentine" he replied firmly

"So when youre ready to start ill listen"

"start.yes but were?" "Well its customery to start at the beginning"

"Allright then.."

Vincent looked at Ceilia as he prepared his story in his mind, he walked over to the window and placed his claw and hand behind his back his hand holding the claw in place.

"Well.." he started "My story starts in 2180 on May 11th, I had just joined the ShinRa department in administrative research most commonly known as the Turks, they were ShinRas elite soldiers, but to most now they along with ShinRa are a faded memory.so I don't expect you to remember it. "

As Ceilia listened to Vincents story it slowly began to form in her mind as the tape recorded every word, she sat there thinking as she listened , who was this man? Was Vincent infact his real name? was he crazy? She knew that she didn't usually document this kind of stuff but she had made a special exception in this case, something about him just appealed to her. She reached over and picked up the packet of ciggarettes and flipped the lid back. She was greeted with a piece of silver foil, a new packet unopened, oh how she loved opening a new packet of ciggarettes, the sultry smell of tabbacco as she pulled the foil away . She smiled and puled it open and took out one of the ciggarettes and laid it gently between her full red lips. Fumbling as she searched her pockets for her lighter she didn't realise Vincent had stopped talking and when she looked up found him standing before her holding a box of matches. Smiling she took them from him and slid the box open taking a match striking it and lighting the ciggarette, she took a long drag, the first long drag you always take to make sure the ciggarette is lit and then exhaled the smoke.

"Thank you" she said with a smile and motioned for him to continue.

He walked away from her and then Ceilia noticed the silence that had replaced Vincents voice, she watched as he moved and then stopped before the window. Then as unnoticably as the sound of his voice had stopped it started again, only this time the story began to form images in Ceilia's mind.