My Lenore

-Disclaimer-
I don't own Cloud or any KH characters, I own Reiyne AKA "Lenore". Song is Utada Hikaru's Kremlin Dusk.

Dedicated to anonymous reviewer IceNinja, 'cause I'm nice like that...

Dream is in italics mostly.

In Sora's memories, there lived a wish for an opponent of his in the Coliseum to find true love for himself. He wished for a young woman to heal the torn man's heart and save him from an eternity of lonely moments and unanswered feelings. So when in Castle Oblivion, his wish came true for just that moment. Only one moment, but it was enough for the memory of a worthy opponent.

In the Underworld of Hades, souls were tortured endlessly with regrets and sins of numerous amounts. The souls' screams could be heard by any sinner that dared to enter the royal chamber of the sickening death god. Only those propostitioned by the dark lord himself were allowed to gain entry.

"Come this way, my boy!"

Draped in the blood red tattered cape and his dark armor, the blonde young man stepped into the cellar of the Coliseum. Broken bones and screaming hearts were trapped on the walls of the tunnel and all around the ceiling of the dungeon. It was an awful tour that no one should face, but the young man was there for a reason. The reason he remembered well, because it was one of the only things he could figure in this hell of a world. A dream he thought was erased like all of his memories was still intact, and it played on and on as he searched for the one that made the dream worth a lifetime of heartache. The dark-haired beauty of his dream plagued him endlessly as he waited for the god that offered his help to the searching man. Malefic thoughts carried on in his mind-

All along I was searching for my Lenore,
And the words of Mr. Edgar Allen Poe.
Now I'm sober and nevermore,
Will the raven come to bother me at home?

"What brings you here?" The Underworld dictator inquired as he took a seat in his humongous stone throne adorned with deadly spikes together with endless amounts of human skulls. The young man was unphased by the particularly macabre scene that would make any normal man scream with fear.

In his thoughts, the dream would always be more terrifying than anything he would soon face. The thought of never finding his love would be all too much for his shattered heart.

"I want information."

The hot-headed god gave the man a toothy grin. Getting straight to business entertained him greatly. Out came a blue hand with an ample ball of flame forming in the palm.

"Dodge this," Hades called to the man as the fireball shot straight toward him. The man's body bent backwards to dodge the flaming hazard, and he fell onto the concrete covered by the carcasses of ones passed.

In that moment, his dream was set in motion to cause a bitter anguish to rise inside him.

Calling you, calling you home-
You-u, calling you, calling you home...

The room was white, pure white but seen in his eyes through a shaded gray, with a small window set in the wall he was facing. He stepped toward it, gazing upon the vision he witnessed every night since his memories were lost. Green almond shaped eyes looked back at him with longing, teardrops dripping down her face and falling off her chin; staining the white gown she wore. The drops fell rapidly like soft falling rain, barely visible, but he could tell they were there. Those tears tore at his heartstrings as he watched his lover stand up from the white-painted chair to leave him once again. Her open mouth narrated the words he wished he would never hear. A silence like never before, yet it occurred a million times to slowly drive him mad.

By the door you said you had to go.
Couldn't help me any-any more.
This I saw coming long before,
So I kept on staring out the window.

The broken-hearted man was expecting the dream to continue how it always had. To see the bright green eyes fade to ashen as she decayed on the noose of thorned roses. However, the dream rewinded. He looked into the almond eyes again, bright as ever. A whisper escaped the her light-colored lips painted with lavender.

"Cloud..."


Calling you, calling you home
You-u, calling you, calling you home...


He could move towards her. He could give her the embrace he knew she was dying for. He felt the gray float away as the white room brightened; making him think of a heaven he would never want to extinguish. Courage never prepared him for a moment like this. All his dreams of her death, and now it was reversed. It all faded away like an old childhood nightmare. His arms were around her soft skin, and his lips met hers for a kiss that he revered in moments when he held her outside of his mind, outside of the barrier of dreams. What was life meant for if it wasn't meant for the discovery of a perfect moment that could be relived a thousand times without it once becoming tarnished or worn down? Life had to be that one moment when his lips locked with hers, sharing his deep feelings of passion, love, and most of all regret. It was regret for his desertion. It was regret for what he had done to her in those last moments that she begged him to stay. His promise of return became a lie more and more as the days went on.


I am a natural entertainer.
Aren't we all holding pieces of dying ember?
I'm just trying to remember who I can call
Who can I - I - I - I call?

Cloud felt more alive in this dream than he had felt since he walked out that door. Since he left her staring out at him through the small window as he placed his belongings in a vessel that would take him away from her. This was how he wanted to stay. He could feel memories of her return to him as their lips parted ways. Her smile, her laugh, her scent- they all returned to him as if they were there all along. As if this faded memory was real. The warmth of her cheek against his palm almost fooled him as he held her closer. She told him she knew he would return to her one way or another, whether in death or life. He didn't understand her.


Ohhh! Calling you, calling you

I run a secret propaganda.
Aren't we all hiding pieces of broken anger.
I'm just trying to remember who I can call
That I - I - I can...

Her bright face fell as she realized that he did not decipher her cryptic explanation.

"We are together now, in death."

Cloud heard her that time, but he knew that if the world was devoid of her that it was no use to stay there for a hope of another love to come along. She was already divine enough to pass on to the land of the dead. Here he would stay with her for eternity, like he should have stayed when he was alive. It was his second chance to correct the mistakes life had made.

Born in a world of opposite attraction,
Or is it or is it a natural conception.
Torn by the arms in the opposite direction,
So is it, or is it a modernist reaction.

Reiyne loved him till the end of her life and beyond. She called to him every day for him to return to her as he promised. She knew it wasn't a lie. She knew it was destiny. She knew...

Is it like this? Is it always the same?
When a heartache begins, is it like this?
Do you like this? Where you always the same?
Will you come back again? Do you like this?

A perfect death together... forever and always.


Author's Note: One shot love/tragedy. Thank Utada Hikaru for the inspiration for this one, and IceNinja of course. Hope it doesn't disappoint.