Ah hello again! I am back, sorry I took so long to update but my computer went all screwy and I had to wait for a bit to reformat it. Anyway, to reviewer responses!
LastCetera: Thanks so much for reviewing, you are my only reviewer but that's all right you are nice. (I'm a suck up yes) anyway, I hope that this chappie is up to par, I'm not sure.
Chapter 3:
"Vincent. When will you find me? I'm waiting for you. Please, come and find me Vincent."
He stared at her. How could this be happening? "Lucrecia, tell me where you are, I promise I'll come and get you, just tell me."
She looked back at him sadly. Lucrecia reached out her hand and he took it. He could feel the warmth her of her touch but this had to be a dream. This couldn't be happening, could it? After all, they were surrounded by nothing. The only thing he saw was her but there wasn't anything else around them that he could see, grey as far as the eye could see. She was embracing him but he was asleep wasn't he? Why couldn't he wake up and end this torture?
Vincent looked down at her and realized she was no longer breathing. She couldn't be dead, it was only a dream, this wasn't actually happening was it? As he watched, her flesh began to dry and wither like a flower pedal left in the sun. Soon there was only a skeleton left with its eyes dark pits and its mouth agape. He wanted to scream, to cry, to do anything but even movement was beyond him.
"Lucrecia…"
Vincent woke up with his heart still pounding. Had that been just a dream? He was breathing hard and he even had tears running down his face. It had been so real; his nightmare was so vivid it had felt as if it had been actually happening. But it wasn't real, was it?
He sat up and tried to shake the thoughts from his head. He'd be thinking about it all day now. Vincent realized he hadn't changed out of his wet clothes he'd worn the day before. He went to change only because his mother would no doubt tell him to if he didn't. Then something hit him. It was Saturday. There was no school today. He also realized that it was only 6a.m. But he couldn't go back to sleep, not now. So he went downstairs to the basement and sat on the yellow couch that, like everthing else, matched something else in the room and was a pastel colour. His parents must have been smoking something when they bought the furniture for the rec room. The television was an old model but it still worked, it, however, didn't match anything. It was just there.
He picked up the remote and turned on the t.v. The news was on. What else is new, he thought. Did he want to watch this? Did he want to see all the problems this messed up world had? Vincent just sat there; he wasn't really paying attention.
"In other news, 15 year old James Davis has gone missing from his home in Thunder Bay. Anyone with information regarding James or the possibly related case Lucrecia Campbell is asked to call the police or the tip hotline at 555-TIPS."
Vincent looked up to see a picture of a red headed boy with a crooked smile staring out at him. A picture of Lucrecia then followed. It was her yearbook picture; he remembered that she had just got her hair cut a week before and had wondered if it looked weird. Usually she didn't worry about her hair, it was straight and tended to take care of its self but on this occasion she said she wanted to look halfway decent.
"Well, I think you look more than decent everyday, I don't see how a picture matters…" He said as lucrecia brushed her hair in her bathroom.
She turned around and smiled at him. "Hm…I see what you mean. Call me whatever you want. Maybe I'll start talking like a valley girl now."
"No, I don't think I will, it may encourage this 'valley girl' personality to show its self," Vincent replied and tried to stop the wave of laughter that was threatening to burst out.
"Like, this is like, the only time you'll like get to say it."
"I doubt that. You'll do the same thing next year," he said with a small smile.
She hugged him and laughed, "You know me too well. Like totally."
He laughed too and touched her hair. She leaned up and kissed him on the lips.
It didn't really matter if her parents saw them, or at least that was what Lucrecia said. It had happened once already and it had been horribly embarrasing.
(A/N: I will separate different memories that are in sequence by switching the font)
"Lucrecia, do you know whe-" Mrs. Campbell began.
He pulled away and felt his face grow hot with embarrassment. This was her mother for god sakes and here he was kissing her!
"Uh…I suppose I should be going now…"
Vincent went to leave but Lucrecia grabbed him by the shirt collar.
"Mom…This is Vincent Valentine from my english class…in case you were wondering…we're kind of going out," Lucrecia said fairly calmly until the last part of her sentence, she said that bit very quickly.
Her mother glanced at both of them with no real discernable expression.
"It's nice to meet you Vincent."
He briefly wondered if saying my pleasure because in his own mind it could be interpreted wrong.
"It's nice to meet you as well Mrs. Campbell."
Lucrecia's mother gave them one last look then left the room however she left the door open. She obviously trusted Lucrecia a lot to do that, besides it's not as if they would do anything of that nature.
His thoughts changed to those of guilt. Why hadn't he walked her to the door, why hadn't he called her to see if she had gotten home, why hadn't he waited for her to get in the door before driving away? Lucrecia, why did I let you disapear? You invited me over but I said I couldn't come because I had homework…why didn't I ignore the goddamn homework?
"Vincent? What are you doing up so early?"
It was his mother. He didn't want to talk to her or anyone. Nobody should talk to him because he was as much of a killer as any person in jail for murder. He let Lucrecia disapear; maybe even let her die. Do you blame me Lucrecia? If you don't, should you? Why did this have to happen?
Lucrecia was a good person, she wasn't a drug dealer or a robber or a serial killer so why did this have to happen to her? Why did she have to be the one to disapear without a trace? If there was a god why did he let her get kidnapped and hurt? Vincent had little faith in "God". Even less than he had in the police. Life wasn't fair apparently but why was the world so horrible to people who were caring and always helped others?
There were footsteps as his mother made her way downstairs. He knew she was going to ask the same questions she had just a few minutes ago again but he didn't feel like answering. He probably would eventually, there was no point trying to make his mother stop asking questions by not responding, she would just keep at it until he answered.
"Did you hear me? Why are you up so early? Are you going out somewhere?"
Where he would be going at 6:45 in the morning Vincent didn't know but he answered anyhow.
"Yes. I don't know. No," he answered; giving each of her answers a response in one breath.
She frowned, "But don't your any of your friends ask you to go out anywhere?"
Vincent shrugged. Sure, they asked him but that didn't mean he said yes. He'd probably wake up one day and his mother would say she's set up a play date with one of them. He remembered that Aeris had asked him to go to a movie with her and Cloud today. Of course he had said no but she still asked no matter how many times he refused. They all did.
"Hey Vince, I know you're probably still feeling &# up but Shera told me ask if you wanna come watch a goddamn movie with me, her and Aeris."
That had been Cid a couple of months after Lucrecia's disapearance. Now he was less sypathetic and just told Vincent to go somewhere. It didn't bother him that Cid wasn't sympathetic, he didn't want sympathy. But he didn't want to go out anywhere either. There had been a time when Vincent would have said yes, would have gone out, before all this had happened.
"Vincent, do you want to go out everybody tonight, or are you busy?" Lucrecia asked, a slight smile on her face.
"Who, exactly, is everybody?"
"Cid, Shera, Aeris, Cloud, Tifa, and Barret. Oh, and Yuffie too," She replied as she counted off their friend's names on her fingers.
"Oh, well then yes, if you want to."
"I'm indifferent to it all. If you want to go then I want to go too," Lucrecia replied with a shrug.
He shrugged his shoulders too, "Alright then. What are we doing?"
"…Dinner…I think…I don't care, as long as you're paying," she answered jokingly.
"How about no. What happened to fifty fifty Lucrecia, are you telling me that you're a liar? Isn't chivalry dead?"
"Yes, us girls killed it. Chivalry I mean," Lucrecia replied with a stabbing motion, "Target has been neutralized."
"Murderer. Ah, anyway, what time should I pick you up and what do I wear?"
"Good questions. 7:00 and…nothing too formal or casual, find the happy median Vincent, find it. Oh, and put your hair like…this," she answered and pulled his black hair into a loose ponytail.
Vincent smiled. She always told him to put his hair up but he almost never did. He thought he looked like some poor Hollywood scriptwriter that lived in his parent's basement.
"No, you don't look like you live in your parent's basement. You look like you live in their house but have just enough money to rent out a proper room in their house, probably your own room," Lucrecia told him. She had a knack for knowing exactly what he was thinking no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
"Wow, that is so very flattering."
Things had been so different then; he wanted everything to go back to the way it was before. But it wouldn't. Even if Lucrecia did come back nothing would go back to normal, ever.
"Are you hungry?" his mother asked awkwardly.
"Why don't you tell me?" She already knew he didn't want to eat but still told him he should even if he said a thousand times, "I'm not hungry," She would still insist that he was.
"Why did you run away last night honey?"
"…I was walking. You could have easily caught up to me and dragged me home…If you wanted to," Vincent replied without looking at her.
"Fine, why did you leave?"
"Because I am insane and foolishly believed that if I walked ong enough I would a) die or b) find Lucrecia," he answered. Maybe that was what he had thought at that moment, or maybe he was just angry. Either way he didn't know.
"Are you joking or not? I can never tell with you Vincent."
He shrugged. That's the point. He didn't need people thinking he was crazy or that he was sad, that was just stupid sympathy.
"Do you want to go for a drive?"
"Why?" he asked indifferently.
"No reason, just something to do."
Yes, but what is the point? Why should it matter whether or not there was something to do?
"I need to talk to you," his mother admitted finally.
"…Then talk."
"Vincent just come with me," she replied almost pleadingly.
He turned to face her and looked her right in the eye. "You want me to talk to you when you lie to me? How do I know when you're lying and when you aren't mother? Do you think I don't hear you when you're on the phone? I know you think I should see Dr. Roberts more and I certainly know that the police have found a body and want me to go see if it is Lucrecia."
Vincent had heard his mother talking on the phone on many occasions. All the times he pretended not to listen or just walked away he remembered what had been said. They had found that body long ago but had been unable to take it out of the crime scene before they gathered all the evidence, which of course had taken weeks.
His mother looked surprised but regained her composure after a moment. "You're right. They have and the Campbells are going to be there too so be on your-"
"Best behaviour."
"Yes. No comments about insanity or dying. Don't upset them more then they probably already are," she finished after the brief interuption.
Upset them? Vincent didn't think they were very fragile people in that sense. Mr and Mrs Campbell were the strongest people he knew, they hadn't plead for Lucrecia to come home if she had run away they just said they had high hopes that she would. They weren't at all the stereotypical parents in crisis. But Vincent didn't say anything; he just nodded.
"Let's go then," his mother said quietly.
Vincent followed his mother as she walked upstairs to the first floor, grabbed her keys off the end table in the front hallway, took her jacket off of the coat rack and walked out the door. Vincent didn't bother getting his coat, he didn't care if it was cold outside as it probably was.
He went outside and noticed the sun was just coming up. Stars were sill visible in the sky; streaks of pink, yellow and purple invaded the place where darkness once ruled. Lucrecia was always doing things like getting up really early to watch the sun rise even if it was freezing or staying up extra late to watch a meteor shower; she liked things like that he remembered. Sometimes she painted what she saw, other times she was simply an observer, ignorant of how the stars or planets were formed or which way the sun rose and set. According to her all the knowledge in the world couldn't make a person see the beauty of small things, things people took for granted. Like the light. After Vincent and Lucrecia had been going out for a few months there had been a blackout. Nobody could see anything inside their homes so most people stayed outside. Everything had been so dark.
"It makes you wish for the light doesn't it? But really you need the darkness because without it there would be no light. Everything has an opposite. Good, evil, right, wrong, loud, soft. Without each other none of those things would exist. If you take away the wrong in the world how do you know what is right? People take everything for granted don't they?" she had said while lying on the grass looking up at the moonless sky.
When the lights had come on Vincent almost wished they would go out again. The world did take the light for granted, without it they felt like a tiny speck in a huge universe. They were put in their place.He sat in the passenger's seat and didn't say anything. He was thinking about Lucrecia, he was lost in his memories. He had taken her for granted he had assumed she would always be by his side. He could have appreciated her more, gone out of his way to make up something really romantic for her but he wasn't that kind of person and neither was she really. They had done things for each other, spent every waking hour together and told each other how they felt all the time but neither of them got dressed up when they knew the other was comign over. They hadn't bought each other elaborate or expensive gifts. Should he have, was that what she had really wanted? Vincent already knew the answer and was overanalyzing the situation but he couldn't stop himself.
He distracted himself by looking out the window and watching the city go by. Tall buildings whizzed by and houses seemed to blend into one. His mother was driving fast, to scare him maybe.
"The world doesn't revolve around you Vincent."
"I never implied that it did."
"Just how you're acting…are you trying to get attention? Is that what you want?" she asked, glancing his way.
"…On the contrary, that is exactly what I do not want. I want people to leave me alone."
She looked at him strangely. "Really, well people want to help you not leave you alone. You need help."
"Keep your eyes on the road."
"Don't block me out Vincent, his mother cried shrilly.
"Mother, watch the road."
"Don't change the subject. I'm talking to you!" she yelled.
"Mother."
He grabbed the steering wheel with his left arm and yanked it to the side, which drove the car into a ditch, and out of the way of an oncoming tractor trailor.
His mother was far too distracted by yelling at him to drive. Not only had she been driving in the wrong lane she had almost rammed into the 18-wheeler that she hadn't even seen or heard. Vincent had heard the truck driver honking his horn the second time she had been yelling, how his mother had missed the loud sound he didn't know. She could have killed them both, no; she would have killed them both. A small car against a tractor-trailer was hardly a fair fight.
His mother was now staring at him wide eyed and breathing hard. He didn't know if she knew what could have happened right now, maybe she was in shock but he ignored her and took off his seatbelt. Vincent opened the car door and walked over to the driver's side. He opened his mother's door and took off her seatbelt for her as she seemed incapable of doing so herself.
"Get out of the car."
She complied almost immediately so he got in. Vincent was allowed to drive so technically he could hop in a car and drive anytime he wanted without another lisenced driver in the car with him.
The ditch wasn't very deep and it was fairly easy for him to manouver it out of the small trench and keep driving. It was a sort of rural area so everywhere he looked there were farmhouses and open fields.
"I'm sorry," his mother whispered.
He didn't reply to her statement but asked a question of his own. "Where are we going?"
"…To the police station in the next town."
"Why didn't we go to the one in our town?" he asked. It's an elaborate set up to get me killed isn't it mother? Vincent had become quite good at making up whole conversations in his head. It wasn't because he was lonely. It was because it was strange trying to imagine what a person would say to completely outrageous comments. He had become an odd person in the last year it seemed.
He did however wonder why the hell they were going to the police station in the next town rather than the most convienient one that was in their own town. Whatever the answer was it was probably a ridiculous one.
"Because the Campbell's want to avoid a lot of publicity."
It made sense but Vincent didn't really think that people would be flocking around the police station just to see if someone had died, they could watch it on the 6 o' clock news.
He continued to drive at a steady pace until they reached the next town and found the police station.
Vincent saw the Campbell's white Ford sedan in the parking lot. He wondered when they had gotten here, maybe way before he and his mother. Lucrecia was their daughter after all. Had they been inside the waiting room for long or had they just drove around for awhile before coming to the station?
He and his mother walked inside the small building with two double doors in the front. The walls inside were pale grey and had blocky letters telling visitors where certain areas were. Vincent highly doubted that anyone could get lost in this place, it was too small.
Lucrecia's parents were sitting in the waiting room. Apparently the police thought that people waiting might like a nice place to sit so there was floral wallpaper and chairs with small cushions on them. It looked more like a doctor's waiting room than a police office where people identified the bodies of their friends and relatives or reported some sort of horrendous crime.
Mrs. Campbell looked pretty upset and for good reason but her husband was at least trying to put on a brave face.
"Sarah, Micheal oh I'm so sorry. I just hope it isn't her," his mother said tearfully.
Everyone was so two faced these days. You couldn't really tell how someone really was just by the way they acted around one person, everybody seemed to have multiple personalities.
Mrs. Campbell stood up and hugged his mother and then Vincent.
"How've you been lately Vincent?" she asked him.
"Alright I suppose…And you ma'am?"
"Sarah, not ma'am. Anyway, you look pale, have you really been alright or is it all just a poorly constructed façade?" Mrs. Campbell asked with a small smile.
He shrugged, "Whatever you want to think."
His mother made a sound in her throat to signal that he was pushing his luck.
"And school, has that been going well?" Mrs. Campbell asked, raising an eyebrow.
"…Not really,"he answered truthfully.
"Are you failing any classes?"
Vincent didn't want to answer but Mrs. Campbell was not a woman to let you slip through the cracks so to speak. So he answered where as if it had been his mother asking he would have avoided answering. Regardless his mother would know what was really going on in school now.
"…Yes…last time I checked I was failing english with 33, science with 24, french with 20 percent and history with 40."
His mother made a kind of choking sound but Lucrecia's mother just shook her head.
"Hm. Well, that's not very good. You are a bright young man, so why is it that you're failing Vincent?" she asked, with no real discernable emotion.
"I don't see the point of it all."
Mrs. Campbell had always been someone he could talk to and even if there were other people in the room, he had no problem telling her exactly what he felt. Of course that probably had to do with the fact that she wasn't his mother and he didn't see her all the time. Plus she wasn't an overbearing person, merely concerned.
"Well if I don't hear that passed all of your classes at the end of semester when Lucrecia gets back I'll have to forbid you to see her."
She still had hope that Lucrecia would come back? Why did she but no one else did, were they all afraid to get their hopes up? He guessed that parents always held out some hope that their child would return even if they knew they wouldn't. Vincent didn't know if Lucrecia was coming back but he would always wait for her even if she were dead. If Lucrecia was dead…what would happen? Vincent had been thinking of that a lot lately. He just couldn't think of anything else. What would he do if she were dead? Would he keep going on like this or would he eventually just get over it? While Vincent was thinking of that a police officer came up and led them to the morgue.
Vicnent's heart was pounding as he walked. It was so loud he thought that if anyone stopped and listened hard enough they would hear it too. If it were her…everything would change…nothing would be the same again. He was scared of what would happen. Vincent tried to keep his head down so that nobody would see the fear in his eyes.
When they got to the morgue, which wasn't very far from the waiting room, he closed his eyes. The walk here had felt like it had taken forever though it had probably only taken about 2 minutes. Vincent refused to look. He didn't want to know. He didn't want to see. So many thoughts were running through his head all at once and he couldn't stop them. In a way he wished it were her just so he wouldn't have to wonder anymore but the other part of him hoped it wasn't her because he didn't want her to be dead.
"Vincent…please look and see if it's her," Mrs. Campbell's voice said through the darkness. Her speech revealed nothing and he hated her for being so calm while his thoughts and emotions were running away with him. He had to know but he didn't want to.
Dread and panic filled him but he tried not to let on when he opened his eyes. Vincent took a deep breath. Was it Lucrecia? Did he dare look? He glanced up and gasped despite himself.
HA! End of CHAPTER 3! Cliffhanger! YES! Sorry, I love doing that. Anyway, any theories as to whether it's her or not? Hm? Let me know if you thought this chapter was cruddy and I won't necessarily change this one but I'll fix the things in the next chapter. I have some of the 4th chapter written but after that…I'll have to start writing it on the computer. Anyway, next chapter the story will begin to wind down (did it even wind up in the first place?) until it gets to the conclusion which should be in a few chapters. Maybe even the 5th. Not sure. Anyway, anyone who reviews this thanks so much. oh and by the way, just because Vincent is scared does not make him that ooc! he is allowed to be afraid!