Disclaimer: You know the drill, right?
Note: Yeah, um…I'm updating! Yay! There'll probably be some OOC-ness in this chapter, but the situation going on is so upside-down you'll have to understand, right?
Reviewer Responses (I decided to do this just because…so there! And if you reviewed but you're not on here it's because I uploaded the chapter before you reviewed…sorreh!)
Nando the RPS King: Heh, your review made me smile. Thanks!
BabyGurl: Oh, I will, don't worry…people will slaughter me if I don't.
lunament: Yes, poor Red…and it's ok, don't be sorry! Be HAPPY! Or else! You're one of my most loyal reviewers!
Crimson Tears: Thanks! I think I'll make her like that in this chapter and stuff…yeah, your review made me wonder myself why she wasn't very scared. Thanks!
Chapter 5: Realization and Regret
It wasn't until a few days after the kidnapping happened that Tifa actually, fully realized what was going on. She didn't know when she realized—was it dinnertime, maybe? The site of Vincent actually cooking, and the sound of his voice almost coldly telling her not to go near the door, inspired a growing fear inside of her.
Well, maybe "fear" isn't the right word—she didn't experience fear that day until later. Perhaps the right word for that moment in time is anxiety. She felt anxious—finally, she realized that something wasn't quite right…
She examined Vincent as they ate, vaguely registering that he was a decent cook. She hadn't had spaghetti in a long time and it was a nice change.
Wait, she thought. I'm commenting how good his cooking is? Why? He kidnapped me.
That's when it hit her: She was a captive. Someone she thought she could trust was her captor. She could no longer trust him…so, how did she know he wouldn't hurt her? The warm pasta suddenly turned cold in her stomach and she stopped eating.
Vincent noticed her sudden change in behavior and had a feeling he knew why. "Are you all right, Tifa? You look pale," he asked quietly.
The dark-haired bartender's mouth opened and closed, and hard as she tried no words could come out. She weakly shook her head "No," hiding her trembling hands from view under the old table.
Vincent said nothing. Chaos and the other demons told him to finish his meal, which he silently did. Once he finished, he stood up. Tifa registered that he'd be taller than she would be, even if she had stood up when he did. The thought made her feel even weaker.
"I will be gone for a couple of hours," the crimson-eyed gunman said, unable to keep the demon-induced iciness out of his voice. The martial artist turned her head slightly towards him, her cinnamon eyes barely focused on him.
"Okay," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Do not leave the house, Tifa. If you do, be assured that I will find you." Vincent wanted to cringe. The words didn't come out of his mouth willingly—his demons pushed them out.
Tifa's breath became shaky. The realization of what was going on grew stronger by every word her captor said. She nodded in response to what he said.
Vincent, not wanting his demons to talk to his captive any more, briskly paced to the door.
"Quite the ex-Turk, aren't you?" the woman said hotly.
Vincent—rather, Chaos and the rest of the demons—gave the woman a long, hard stare. Tifa stared defiantly back, until the demonic gaze burned her eyes and she had to look away, eyes stinging with tears.
"I'll be back," the ex-Turk reminded the brunette martial artist.
He slammed and locked the door behind him.
Tifa stared at the door for minutes after Vincent left. That's when she completely realized that she wasn't completely safe.
"Well," she reasoned, "I should at least have five good reasons to not trust Vincent before I panic." She desperately wanted to believe that she still thought Vincent was a good man.
"One," she muttered, "he kidnapped me, and the reason wasn't even very good…Two, he's an ex-Turk…Three, he has not one, but four demons in his head and can't always control them. Four, he was involved somehow in the birth of Sephiroth, as far as I know…Five, he has a giant, metal, clawed arm that could easily kill someone if he tried…Six, he's better with a gun than anyone else…oh, crud, that's six!"
That's when the fear came. Panicked, she stood up from her chair with such a force that it fell over, making a soft thud as it hit the carpeted ground. She whirled to the door, banging and pulling on it feverishly, tears streaming rapidly down her cheeks like miniature waterfalls. It was no use. The door was bolted shut, and even when she locked it from the inside, it wouldn't open up—the internal lock was most likely a false lock that didn't actually work. If it weren't a false lock, Vincent wouldn't be able to get inside.
Vincent, she thought. I have a few hours to find a way out of here…
Tifa scrambled through the tiny house, almost hysterically. There were no windows, no other doors, and despite her careful examination of every nook and cranny, there were no weak spots, no hidden doors.
It was the perfect place to hide a captive that you didn't want to escape.
The brunette shuddered. What sort of hellish deeds went on in this place in the past? She doubted it was a mere Turk hideaway—no, the Turks would certainly have a hideaway more luxurious than this. It sure didn't seem like a place that was open to the public. Perhaps it was just her frantic imagination, but as she examined the walls when she entered the bedroom, was that a bloodstain? She shivered. There was no way she felt comfortable in a building with blood staining the walls of the bedroom.
She felt so stupid—stupid for falling for Vincent's "Do you want to take a walk?" trick, stupid for not being scared earlier, stupid for being so helpless.
She sat by the door, the terror of it all overwhelming her. She let out a high-pitched scream of fear and aggravation.
Miles away, Chaos picked up the sound of Tifa's scream and let Vincent hear it. The ebon-haired man shuddered, regret that he had felt before growing larger in his chest than ever.
"I should let her go," he muttered.
Chaos and the other demons mentally turned against him, giving the expert gunman a giant headache. He stopped resisting their will and the headache disappeared.
"You can't just let her go," Chaos hissed.
"I have to—I can't just let her suffer like this," Vincent reasoned.
"NO!" the head demon snapped. "You will do no such thing! If you truly want Cloud to suffer, you will sacrifice Tifa's freedom to do so! If that spiky-haired moron doesn't get the point at first, then Vincent, I will kill that woman you seem to treasure so much."
"You can't kill Tifa," Vincent breathed. "I promised them that I wouldn't."
"I will kill Tifa if I have to," Chaos said, his voice full of malice. "Now, understand: YOU WILL NOT LET HER GO. You will let this kidnapping pull through completely. If Cloud does not understand, then you will kill Tifa."
Regret and that ever-so familiar feeling of helplessness grew inside Vincent. "No," he said firmly.
Chaos and the other demons teamed up against Vincent's willpower, recreating the massive headache they had given him earlier. "YOU WILL," they roared together.
"I-I can let the kidnapping pull through, but I will NOT kill Tifa," Vincent said. He rarely cried. But at that time, the tears came.
"YOU WILL DO AS WE SAY," the demons screamed.
"N-no," Vincent breathed, falling to his knees. Now the headache spread to other parts of his body until he was in so much pain that it interfered with his breathing.
"You will," Chaos whispered, his voice a deadly calm.
"I-I…have…no…choice," Vincent mouthed. He had no air left to create a voice, and therefore no voice to create his words. The demons took the pain away, releasing his lungs. The red-eyed man gasped in several raspy breaths, coughing up blood. Though the pain the demons had given him in order to make him give in to their will was gone, the pain from the fact that they would probably make him kill Tifa was even greater in his chest.
If he killed Tifa, he could never forgive himself.
Yumesuta: The chapter leapt from my fingers! I didn't plan any of this, I swear! PLEASE review and tell me what you think of this twist.