Priscilla
Twenty years after meteor, the children are grown. Twenty years after meteor, Priscilla, Marlene and Chole want to know the past (yuri themes)
Prologue One: Priscilla
I watch him as he breathes deeply, his vocal chords sighing with the effort as he sleeps heavily as usual.
I hate him.
I used to joke when I said that, but now it's true. I despise him with every inch of my body, with every breath of my being. And its my fault I'm in this mess, I know that and don't deny it. But every time I look at him it hits me; I am only twenty-four and I am stuck like this forever.
My name is Priscilla. It's pretty and I'm pretty, or so I've always thought. A pretty feminine name to go with my flicks, lips and hips. Pri-scill-a. I used to say it like that… I remember now. The day I first met Cloud, I was talking to Mr Dolphin, trying to make a friend. I was the only child in Lower Junon; my mother was an ex-Honey Bee who got pregnant and ran away so she could keep her child… me. I often wonder who my father was. She always told me he was "beautiful like me, with dark colourings and sharp eyes…" A Shinra man, no doubt. I always hated them.
I stuck out a lot in Lower Junon, and not just because of my looks. Everyone there was so conservative, so average… not me. I had a gift. I could see the future. Sure everyone used to scoff at my gift, but it was genuine. And when I stared death in the face I realised that I would have to accept it if I was to live my life. I opened my eyes and saw his; burning with Makou energy like hot coal. I knew as soon as I saw them that he was the man I had to marry.
I did want to in a way. He was a hero, my hero, the man who had saved my young life and given me a chance to live. It seemed natural to me that I should give my life to him in recompense… not that he wanted me at first, of course. I was four, he was twenty-one… but ten years eventually passed after meteor. He wandered around aimlessly over the world, trying to find a way to resurrect the flower girl without success. Eventually he came back here and met me again… his eyes still burned at me even if his face had become slightly softer with age. He fucked me without asking my name, without caring who I was… he only saw a pretty young girl who was willing. But I remembered him, and I would remember him still when he returned to Lower Junon five years later, asking me to marry him.
Why did he do it? I didn't know then, but maybe now I understand as I clutch my belly, remembering him say the child would be called Aeris or Zack. He want so desperately to prove to Tifa he can move on like she has. He loves her beyond all other things; me, this child, his home… even more than the memory of that wretched Ancient. But he lost her and so he came to me, pining for success. Well he got it. Five years of marriage and a child on the way.
I slowly get up, not wanting to wake him for fear of him becoming violent again. He has theses dreams… dreams that frighten me so much that I am often sick… he says things, bad things… I cant bear to think of them. Dressing in my robe I exit our small house and walk down to the beach where I spent my childhood. Smiling slightly, I whistle like Old Man Bryn taught me to. Sure enough a dolphin appears, a descendant of my own childhood friend. "Hello, Mr Dolphin, How are you today?"
He clicks and sighs, jumping through the water with a freedom I long for. Eventually he just swims off, leaving me deserted on the beach, staring as the dawn breaks over the horizon. I hug myself tightly as tears start to prick my eyes. Even in this moment of solitude I manage to convince myself they are caused by the glare of the rising sun. You see, my unhappiness has been escalating for the last year, ever since I met her.
Short sharp hair like scissor-blades frames her beautifully pale face… her deep eyes sparkle with happiness and love for all around her, especially her adoptive parents Barret and Tifa. Her name to me sounds like birdsong… Marlene.
"What are you doing up so early?"
I know that voice, so I don't want to turn around. "I just wanted to see the dawn, darling." I say, though it is not me speaking at all. It's her, the person he wants me to be, the carbon copy of that fucking flower girl I despise so much. I'm glad she's dead. But I wish he'd join her.
His hand slips over my breast, thumbing the pert nipple with far too much enthusiasm. His breathing quickens and I feel him up against my back like a disease growing over my skin. He groans and sighs like a perverted old man… the perverted old man that he is. "You should be inside… resting." he says breathlessly. My guess is he is gone on those brief few minutes of me. He kisses my neck softly in a way that still makes me quiver… in my mind it is Marlene that kisses me there, that runs her hands over my body hungrily like she couldn't bear to break contact with me…
"You're beautiful, Prissy."
No, I am not beautiful, Cloud. Beauty requires you to have inner strength, to glow from the inside out. You remember true beauty in the face of Aeris… you see her face whenever you look at me I know. It is a state of mind, a way of being, something I will never have despite of my flawless looks. Marlene has that beauty, an essence of life that is undeniable and flawless.
True beauty is found in the free. And I am not.
