See, I told you I'm still writing on this fic! I didn't leave it! I was re-reading the first chapter and I'm surprised how much of a better writer I am now than a few months ago. At least...I think I am. It was terrible. And I wonder why this story has fewer reviews than my other ones! I obsess over reviews...don't mind me...XD! By the way, I'm sorry if I keep going back and forth from Squall to Leon...I don't pay attention when I write and I know I probably do that in all of my stories.
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Terrorized
Chapter Five
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Leon fell down the elevator hole, landing hard on his back. Aerith screamed loudly and ran over to him, pulling Cloud by the wrist.
"What happened? L-Leon?" Aerith said in a hysterical voice, putting her hands onto his neck, checking for a pulse. She wouldn't be able to handle it if two of her friends died. She hated admitting it to herself, but all of the odds were against Yuffie.
Unable to feel a pulse, she backed away slowly, emitting a soft cry. "Cloud...i-is he..?"
Cloud stepped forward and kneeled down to take his pulse, shaking his head. "He's alive."
Aerith put a hand onto her chest and let out a deep breath, looking over Cloud's shoulder, her long auburn braid falling over her neck. "Will he be okay?"
"I think so..." Cloud said uncertainly.
Leon groaned and opened his eyes, hissing with pain as he sat up. Aerith rushed forward and looked at him closely. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine..." he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "The elevator looks broken, though."
"Let me help you," Aerith said quickly, ignoring his last comment. It wasn't as important. She cast some light Cura spells on him. "Better?"
"I said I was fine." She bit her lip. "I only wanted to help."
"What the hell was up there?" Cloud quickly interjected, staring up the elevator shaft. All he could see was darkness; no light from Merlin's house shone through.
"Yuffie and...that woman," he said, standing up slowly.
"Yuffie?! Is she alive?" Aerith said anxiously, fresh tears jumping into her eyes. She clasped her hands together.
"Yeah. She didn't look too good." Squall furrowed his eyebrows together and glanced up there again.
"Oh...thank God..." Aerith said, letting out a whoosh of air. "Please let her be all right..." she said softly.
"Who was the woman?" Cloud asked, walked away from the elevator and picking up the handle of his sword.
"I don't know. She was tall, had white skin, and there was some kind of mist circling her," he said in a low voice. His face was pale, like he had seen a ghost. "She was saying she was going to make the ultimate sacrifice...I think she's going to kill her."
"Kill her? Kill Yuffie?" Aerith whispered, her hands at her mouth.
"What else would she have meant?" he answered coldly.
Cloud stepped between them. "Stop fighting. We have to be a team, now. Come on, Sora is back at the hotel. We should go tell him what happened."
They walked back to the hotel silently. No Heartless came to meet them. Most of them had already been killed earlier that day.
Aerith sighed and pushed open the door of the hotel, frowning at its state of disrepair. It looked utterly horrible. She held the door open for Leon and Cloud then closed it firmly behind them. Sora sat on a chair in the lobby, looking bored.
"There you guys are. I thought you were never coming back," he said with a cheesy grin, waving. Aerith tried to return the smile, but it just couldn't come to her lips. Sora noticed. "What happened?"
"Someone's got Yuffie in Merlin's house. Merlin is dead—" Aerith gasped at this; Leon had not told her this before. "—And the woman was saying something about the ultimate sacrifice. She's talking about Yuffie."
"Well, I'll go get her then. No way is that woman going to kill our friend!" Sora said, standing up and looking determined. Cloud pushed him down into the chair.
"No one is going anywhere. We can't even get into Third District," Cloud said and ran a hand through his hair, leaning against the wall.
"So use the elevator," Sora said stubbornly.
"It broke."
"Well what are we going to do, then? We can't just leave her there!" Aerith said quickly, rubbing her temples. "We have to break down the door to Third District."
"Are you kidding? We can't break down that door," Cloud protested.
"And why not? This is Yuffie we're talking about, a human life at stake!"
"The reason we can't is because, for one, it's protected by magical spells. Two, it's too heavy and might come smashing down on us. Three, whatever is locking it so tight is not going to budge," he said bitterly.
Aerith frowned. "Then what are we going to do?"
No one had an answer for her.
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Yuffie opened her eyes slowly. It was dark, and Yuffie's eyes were sleep-blurred. She stifled a yawn and swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, wobbling slightly. She stumbled across the room, about to go to the bathroom, but a hard table blocked her path. A table?
She sat back down on the bed. Of course. She wasn't even in the Green Room anymore. No wonder it was so dark out. She sighed and crossed her arms and placed them on her knees. What time was it? She couldn't have been sleeping for too long, could she?
She bit her lip and looked around warily. Yvonne could be anywhere in the room, just watching her, waiting to see what she did. For all Yuffie knew, she could see through the dark.
A slight scuffling sound echoed across the room. Her eyes widened.
"Hello...?" she whispered shakily. "Yvonne?"
The scuffling grew a little louder and two pale yellow eyes stared out at her from the black abyss. Yuffie quickly shut her mouth, cutting off her gasp and slowly inched her hand down to her belt where she kept her shurikens. Just a little bit closer...
The door to Merlin's house slammed open, letting in light and blinding Yuffie's eyes. She raised her arm over her head and squinted, trying to see who it was while alternating and groping for her weapons.
"I wouldn't try it Yuffie," came the silky voice from the door. "The Heartless was in here to guard you."
"Yvonne?" Yuffie asked a little more bravely. Her eyes had adjusted to the light and she could now see the pale, blackness covered woman stroking the Heartless's head. She whispered to it under her breath and it scattered out of the room, its heels dragging against the floor.
"Why was it trying to guard me?" Yuffie lowered her eyes, unable to bring herself to look at the woman's penetrating stare.
"Because, I thought that once you discovered I was no longer in the room you would try and escape," she said simply while settling herself down in a seat, carelessly stroking the darkness. A slow smile spread across her lips. "Only one more day..."
"Did I sleep the whole day?" Yuffie asked in surprise. "A day passed?"
"Stop asking foolish questions, you useless child," Yvonne snapped. Yuffie narrowed her eyes, and realized it was a mistake. Yvonne was close to her face, and it didn't look happy. "Do not look at me like that, do not dare. My power is great enough that I can snap my fingers and you will die a torturous death full of pain and misery."
Yuffie nodded slowly, lowering her steady glare. Maybe she made the wrong decision about coming with Yvonne. Where she had been sweet and almost caring, now she seemed cruel and ruthless. Her patience seemed to be thinning.
"Soon...soon I will have full power, full immortality," she whispered, savoring the words on her tongue. "At midnight tonight, I shall be restored to my full glory!"
Yvonne swept over to her and placed her long, white fingers under Yuffie's chin, raising it to stare at her. Her fingers touching her skin made her wince. "Look at me," she whispered.
"No..."
"I said look at me!" she hissed, and as if it had a mind of its own, Yuffie's eyes stared into Yvonne's dark ones. "There now, isn't that much better? You will be the key to all of this. Not only will you give me back my life, you will lead me to gaining revenge on that stupid, stupid fool of a boy."
"Who? Sora...?" Yuffie whispered, unable to wrench her eyes off of hers. "Are you hurting him?"
"Have I not told you before? I thought I must have. Very well. Yes, I shall kill him for what he has done to me. Then again...without him...I would not have such power, as I gained it the minute I died."
"You...can't," she protested, worry scattered across her features.
"And you, a weak little girl, is going to stop me? I'm sorry to say this—well, actually, I am not—but your friends are no longer your friends and you have already come with me. You cannot go back...your future is inevitable."
"Futures aren't inevitable."
"You dare speak back to me? Have you not seen what I have done to Merlin, despite the way his soul squirmed under my power? If only you could have felt his inner turmoil...so much fear in which I feed off...like I am doing now to your doubts."
"You're insane," Yuffie hissed.
"Perhaps...yet you know what is coming. You cringe when I touch you, because you know I can hurt you. Am I not correct? Yes, I am. It is best to kill when the prey is knowing, and not taken by surprise."
"What the hell do you mean?" Yuffie whispered fearfully, trying to back into the wall. She dug her fingers into the hard cot and felt her muscles tensing up.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she said with a laugh.
Yuffie failed to answer. She reached for her shuriken stars once again, and successfully felt the cool, comforting metal touch her fingers, slick and sharp. Before she could change her mind she whipped it at Yvonne, aiming at the uncovered flesh of her face. The mist instinctively curled up to her face to block the hit, but it was unneeded. Yvonne caught the star with two fingers and merely laughed.
"Pathetic. This? This is a little star. This can't hurt me," she said with an almost child like giggle. Yuffie, determined to catch her off guard, grabbed another star and whipped it at her face before the mist could block while Yvonne was still studying the star.
This time, her hit was perfect. It buried itself deep into her pale, white cheek. An inhuman scream of surprise, much like that of the Heartless, screeched out of her mouth. Yuffie felt a burning sensation in the identical cheek she had hit the woman and put a hand to it, stumbling backwards on the bed.
"It hurts, doesn't it? If I could, I would hurt you, torture you, but as you can see, when one gets hurt, it is like a mirror reflection. So does the other. That makes killing you so much more complicated."
"W-what? Kill me? Why?"
"My sacrifice, you idiot. What else? I must sacrifice you to save myself from living off of you forever until you get so old I must find another host. And it is hard to catch human hosts off guard, especially when they must have dark thoughts in mind...ah yes."
Yuffie's eyes widened in realization. This was why Yvonne wanted her. Not because she wanted to help her, but because she wanted to kill her, and all of her friends.
Startling her, Yvonne took in a deep, shuddering breath and Yuffie gasped and felt a hollow pit in her chest, and the desirable urge to lay down and sleep for a long, long time. Yvonne took in two more breaths and her nostrils flared as she glanced down at Yuffie.
"Do you feel that? It feels so wonderful. Not for you, of course," she said with a laugh, her eyes closed and her face raised to the ceiling as if feeling the sun on a warm day. "I sucked out some of your soul, your energy. Making me stronger...and you...weaker."
Yuffie didn't have the strength to kick her. A wave of dizziness passed over her, then a more powerful wave. "Burn in—" before she could finish her sentence she collapsed on the bed.
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Blech, I hate this! And I have writer's block which is why this is so short. Anyways, review pleaaaaaaaase!! I meant to say something else but I totally forgot. It's the result of staying up until 4:30 AM like now...and sleeping during the day. I'm a vampire! WHEE! ::batman theme song:: Oh wait...well vampires can be bats right? o.o;;