The House of Strife

By GQ and Zhak

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Chapter Four: Vincent

"Tseng's been absent for two days… and now Reno and Elena are absent too." Vincent sighed as he wrote some marks on a sheet of paper. "Rude, what have you heard from them?"

Rude shook his head. "Called Tseng. Didn't answer. As for Reno and Elena, they're probably taking a break from watching Mr. ShinRa," he said.

"Hm… we must check up on Tseng soon. It isn't like him to be absent without warning. But for now, we must call Reno and Elena. Maybe they hadn't left Sector 2 yet," Vincent said as he reached for the phone on his desk. After dialing some numbers, he paused. The phone kept ringing. Nobody answered. "Hm. Nobody's home." He replaced the receiver.

"What do we do, sir?" Rude asked.

"Well, we should see the house for ourselves. Along the way, Rude, could you please try contacting them via PHS?" he said, standing up.

Rude nodded. "I'll get the car ready, sir." He walked out of the room.

Vincent rubbed his forehead. "I didn't recall being a Turk being this stressful," he muttered to himself. His PHS started ringing. "Vincent Valentine speaking," he said softly.

"Hey, Vinneh."

The Turk rolled his eyes at the sound of the voice. "Hello, Sephiroth. What is it?"

"I got nothing to do. Could I tag along with the Turks today?"

"Absolutely not."

"Pleeeeeeaaaaaase? Is it confidential stuff you're doing today? Did Rufus tell you to kill some paparazzi or kidnap someone?" Sephiroth pleaded.

"No. We're just going to inspect the Strife's house today and check up on Mr. ShinRa. Which reminds me… I'll have to take Lucrecia with me. She must take a look at him," Vincent replied.

"C'mon, Vinneh! It's not like I'm gonna do anything stupid."

"I highly doubt that." Vincent hung up and put the phone on silent mode. Then he went out of the office and walked towards the laboratories to fetch the lovely Dr. Lucrecia.

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Rude stepped on the brakes, making the car stop by the driveway of the old Strife house. Sephiroth was waiting by the garden, poking some of the weird-looking flowers growing by the front porch.

Vincent wrinkled his nose. "What is he doing here?! I specifically told him not to come…" he thought to himself. Sephiroth, Rufus's newly-appointed General in replacement for Heidegger's old position, turned to look at him. "Hi, Vinny." He greeted, and then turned to his mother, "Hey, mommy." He greeted with a silly smile on his face. Lucrecia just stared in awe at her son. "What, may I ask, are you doing here?" she asked.

"Waiting for you guys. I figured you could use more bodyguards." Sephiroth told her coolly.

"Does Rufus even know you're here?" Vincent asked as he watched Lucrecia and Rude proceed to the house and entered. Sephiroth just followed with his gaze, "Well… I told him I needed to go to the bathroom and left him in his office. Besides, he's talking to his wife about some matters regarding their children." He explained.

"Bathroom, huh? Well wouldn't Rufus start looking for you after he talks to Tifa?" Vincent asked.

"He's a big boy. He can take care of himself even without a bodyguard like me." Sephiroth said before turning back to him. Vincent was not even looking at him, instead, he was eyeing the house quite strangely.

"Well, aren't you coming in with mommy?" Sephiroth asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Vincent just shook his head. "You go on ahead. I'll wait here and guard the car." He told him.

"Well. Okay. See you later," Sephiroth waved and skipped in the house.

Upon seeing the former President dead in his room, Lucrecia shrieked.

Rude and Sephiroth stared at his corpse in awe. "Man! What killed the Old Man?!" the General cursed. He turned to her mother just in time to see her collapse. "Mom!" He and Rude managed to catch her just in time.

"Damn." Was all Rude could say.

"Geez… I guess we don't need to check up on him anymore. We better get Mom outside and tell Vincent to call some cops to look into this…" Sephiroth carried his mother in his arms.

Rude looked around the house. "No… General, Reno and Elena were here last night and they didn't come back. I'll go look around the house first."

"Well, alright, but make it quick. Tell us if they're ok as soon as possible," said Sephiroth before carrying her mother out of the room.

Rude nervously looked around the empty house. Nothing looked suspicious at all in the first floor. Well, maybe except for the fact that everything was clean. He expected it to be messy since Reno stayed there overnight. "Reno? Elena?" he called out in the living room.

The bald Turk looked up at the stairs. He found it strange that it was very dark up there, when it was 9 in the morning. "Hey, are you guys up there?" he called out again.

He walked up the stairs. He peered around the hallway for any signs of murder, or anything suspicious. Nothing.

He heard a slight sound from one of the rooms. "Reno?" he asked. Suddenly feeling nervous, he used one sweaty hand to turn the knob of the door.

Rude's eyes widened behind his sunglasses. The usually silent Turk even shouted at what he saw. "GOOD GRIEF!"

Elena was slumped on the floor. Her gaze was fixated on the floor. Next to her slumped Reno, with one arm around her. His head was close to hers, as if whispering something to her…

They were both dead. Rude fell on the floor, on his knees. "Reno… Elena…" he croaked meekly.

Vincent jerked when he saw Sephiroth carrying an unconscious Lucrecia out of the house. "Oh dear lord! What happened to her?!" he said urgently as he hurried towards the General and carried Lucrecia for himself.

"She fainted when she saw Old Man… somebody killed him." Sephiroth explained.

Vincent bit his lower lip. "We must leave… we must call the authorities. Where is Rude?" he asked as he went towards the car.

"He went looking for Reno and Elena. I'd better call him…" Sephiroth ran in the house again.

"Yes, please hurry…" Vincent laid Lucrecia down on the car seat. He stared at her. "Lucrecia… I have a bad feeling about this…" he muttered.

He sat next to her and guarded her. "I do wish Sephiroth would hurry… I think I should call the police now," he reached for his PHS and dialed the hotline. "Hello, police? Please hurry in the old Strife house in Sector 2. There's been a murder…"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lucrecia jerk. He stared at her curiously, but went back to his phone conversation. "Yes… Mr. Eikichi ShinRa is found dead in his room. General Sephiroth told me so himself… Yes, thank you…" he ended the call. Then he looked over to where Lucrecia was laid… and saw that she was there no more. "Lucrecia?"

A dragging sound from behind him called his attention. He turned around and gasped. "LUCRECIA!"

An invisible force dragged her unconscious body towards the house. Vincent jumped to his feet and sprinted towards Lucrecia. "NO!" The force was too fast. It had managed to get Lucrecia in the house. The door slammed. Vincent was at the point of ruining the door knob in a vain attempt to open the door, but he could not.

He beat on the door when he heard Lucrecia screaming. "Lucrecia! Lucrecia!" he kept shouting.

"No! No! Make it stop! Make it stop!..." she was screaming over and over.

Vincent even got his gun and shot the door knob when he heard knives being brandished and the sounds of slashing. "Why the bloody hell won't this damned door open?!"

Lucrecia stopped screaming. Vincent froze. He only heard one last choke from inside. "No…" he said helplessly.

The door opened on its own. Inside the house, in plain view, was Lucrecia… all bloody and slashed. Her body leaned against the stained wall. Her eyes were open.

In a daze, Vincent walked towards her. He fell on his knees beside her. "She's…"

Sephiroth opened the door to the room. He saw Rude there, frozen, staring at his friends. "Damn…" he thought to himself. "Rude…" he called.

"Reno and Elena are dead." Rude stated. There was a trace of grief in his voice, but he didn't move.

"I…" Sephiroth was at a loss for words. "Well…"

The door behind him slammed.

"What the hell?" he said. Rude looked up curiously. Then the screaming began.

"Oh my god! Mother!" Sephiroth said as he tried to open the door. But it was jammed. "Dammit!" he rattled it over and over, but it still would not open. "Rude! It locked by itself!"

Rude instantly stood up and tried opening the door too. He and Sephiroth beat it up, but it remained shut. Even when Sephiroth tried hacking through the door with his Masamune, it remained closed.
"Mommy!!!" he screamed. When the screaming stopped, the door opened and Sephiroth and Rude fell through the door. They instantly got to their feet and ran downstairs. When they finally arrived at the first floor, they saw that Vincent was kneeling down beside a dead woman all bloody and slashed. Sephiroth's eyes widened in horror, "NO!!!" he cried out in anger.

Rude began to hear some croaking sounds from upstairs and he shivered. "Sir, let's get out of here! I don't feel so good!" he told Sephiroth as he tried to drag the silver-haired man further and went over to Vincent. Sephiroth snapped back to his senses when he passed by the mirror and thought he saw Cloud's reflection through his peripheral vision. He looked back to the mirror and then to the direction where Cloud was supposed to be standing, but no one was there. He began to feel nervous. "Vincent," he began, but the Turk was still looking so stunned, staring at his beloved's corpse. Sephiroth broke free from Rude's grasp and ran over to Vincent as the croaking noises began to get louder and louder by the moment. "Come on!!!" he said sternly as he grabbed Vincent's arm and dragged him outside. "No… Lucrecia…she's…" Vincent stammered.

As soon as they got out, they saw that the sun has set already.

How long had they been inside the house?

"I thought you called for back-up?" Sephiroth demanded from Vincent. But he wouldn't respond well. He was so stunned by the events. Sephiroth got his own mobile phone and began to dial some numbers.

"Who are you calling?" Rude asked nervously as he got inside the car and tried to start the engine but it would not start.

"Rufus!" Sephiroth said in relief when someone picked up. "This is Sephiroth. Where's the back-up that we…" he trailed off when he heard the croaking sound again from the other line. His green eyes were wide in shock and he threw the mobile phone away. "What the fuck?!" he cussed in annoyance.

Vincent was looking up at the house and he started walking towards it again with a dazed look on his face. "Lucrecia…" he was saying softly, trying to stop himself from crying.

Sephiroth and Rude ran towards him again and tried to hold him back, "Vincent, stop it! Let's get away from here! We can't do anything about her now!" Sephiroth yelled at him.

Then something caught Vincent's attention from the second floor window. It was a young boy looking down at them from inside. He froze as his eyes widened. "Sora…" he said softly in awe.

"What?" Sephiroth asked.

Vincent broke free from the two's grasps and rushed back inside the house. "Sora is alive! He's inside the house!!! We have to save him!!!" he said with a concerned voice.

"Vincent no!!!" Sephiroth called out as he and Rude went after Vincent again inside the house. When the two got inside, Vincent was already rushing upstairs and then the front door just shut by itself, surprising them but Vincent who was already on the second floor by then.

Sephiroth and Rude froze when they saw someone crawling down the stairs… long wavy brown hair cascading over her shoulders and face… her hands and arms pale with black and blue bruises all over them… blood between her fingernails…

Sephiroth's eyes widened in shock. "Ae…Aer…Aerith…" he had managed to say in awe.

The croaking sound grew louder as she opened her mouth to say something and lifted her gaze to them, her green eyes reflecting horror in them as she crawled closer and closer to the two…

From upstairs, Vincent finally reached the room where he knew he saw Sora. It was the room where Old Man ShinRa's corpse is… and when Vincent got inside, the TV was switched on but showing only static. He swallowed hard as he scanned the whole room while walking towards the TV. When he reached it, he attempted to switch it off, but it wouldn't. He became impatient and turned to the socket where the TV is plugged in. He saw that it was not even plugged in, but he still reached out to the wire… and when he did so, a small hand grabbed his wrist. He turned to the young boy hiding behind the TV and staring up at him with wide blue eyes. "Sora!" he exclaimed in surprise… but there was something different about the boy… he was very pale and there were dark circles around his eyes. Then Vincent noticed a shadow of a person looming over them and when he turned around to check on who it was, his mouth dropped open but was no sound came out. "Cloud!"

And then there was darkness.

The next day, the police found 7 corpses in the old Strife house. The corpses in the living room were obviously murders, but the assailant left no traces of evidence that can be used. Mr. Eikichi ShinRa and Vincent Valentine's corpes are in the same room. The authorities found that the TV is ruined. They concluded that it exploded. The two of them, along with Reno and Elena, died of an unknown cause.

The deaths disturbed Rufus ShinRa greatly. He found himself visiting 7 other funerals. And he didn't understand anything at all.