On Monday morning Tifa opened the bar as usual and tried to suppress the happiness that was welling up inside her and making her hot and moist. She wished she could close the bar to indulge Cloud but she knew she couldn't, he didn't work and she needed to pay the bills. She didn't mind supporting them both since Cloud still had tons of gil remaining from their travels.
She was much more cheerful this morning, strutting around the bar and talking to patrons like they were old friends. The aura inside the bar remained bright and sunny even though a thick, dark overcast hung over the city like an omniscient presence. As noon passed the heavens opened up and a torrent of rain began to flood the town. The streets cleared, many people taking refuge in the nearby stores, several even coming into the Eighth Heaven Bar.
Inside the bar remained delightful; an air of tranquility hovered over the patrons and some even began to dance. Cloud, on a number of occasions, circled behind the bar where Tifa stood making drinks to pinch he buttocks. Even after several pinches she still jumped and squealed, then turned to glare at him as he stared at her with his eyes to the sky and an innocent smile on his face. She would promptly return to her work knowing she could not scold him with such an adorable face.
- - - - -
And so it was late one evening, not a trace of fear hung in the air and only the nightingales made any sound. Cloud walked home from the grocery store at a brisk pace, nearly skipping in his overjoyed fate. Tonight he and Tifa would make love together and he couldn't get home fast enough. He loved her dearly and the time he spent with her since his return was unquestionably the happiest week of his life. He could only hope that more like it would follow.
His joy was smashed into oblivion when a sudden chill ran down his spine as he neared his home in Kalm Town. His turmoil began when he noticed the front door was open and swinging in the wind, as a breeze blew by, its icy claws grasping at him like death. The lights were off, something Tifa would never do if he were out, nor would she ever leave the door open like that.
He rushed into the bar and flipped the light switch. The old bulb flickered on with a slight buzzing sound. He heard the chime of the overhead bells but nothing else. He felt no sign of life and checked behind the bar, discovering only a few smashed glasses lying in pieces on the floor. He ran up the stairs and into the bedroom, finding only an open window and curtains blowing in the cold wind. The bed was unmade as if someone had been laying in it, but nothing seemed to be missing. Nothing, except for Tifa.
"Tifa!" He called frantically, yet in the pit of his stomach he knew she was not there.
He ran through the remaining upstairs rooms, but found them, not to his surprise, to be empty as well. He pieced together the evidence and believed that an intruder had come through the upstairs bedroom window, taken Tifa out of bed while she lay waiting for him, dragged her downstairs as she fought him off, crashed into the bar wall knocking over some glasses, then ran out the door and into the night.
Cloud noticed some traces of blood on the headboard, indicating that maybe Tifa had been injured, and that was why she was unable to escape. He sat down on one of the stairs and placed his face into his hands and for the first time in years, cried his eyes out. He couldn't believe that he had finally found his happiness in life, and now, she was gone. He couldn't imagine how it could have happened, or why it happened. He was here, and he was supposed to be able to take care of her. It didn't seem possible that she would disappear just as he came home to her.
- - - - -
Cloud awoke uncomfortably to find himself on the hardwood floor of the bar. His head throbbed from a headache and he had a pain in his spine as well. He was drenched with sweat from his fitful slumber and took a shower to wash away his pain.
He had to find her, he had wanted to protect her, and again, he failed. He didn't know where she was or who had taken her, nor did he have any clues as to whom the perpetrator could be. He didn't know what was happening to her, whether she was being tortured or even if she was… He couldn't finish his thought though it did hang in the back of his mind. He dressed and called the police.
"9-1-1 what's the problem?" The operator asked monotonously.
Cloud didn't know what to say, he wished he had called the night before but he didn't think about it, he just cried himself to sleep…as he had done when he was a child. He could have killed himself for falling into his old ways, if only for one night, he needed to be strong, now more than ever, for Tifa.
He hesitated before saying, "My girlfriend…she…last night I came home…she's gone…the window and door…they were open…that's not like her…I think…" his voice trailed off. He didn't want to say it; he thought that maybe if he didn't say it out loud, it wasn't true, it didn't really happen if he didn't speak it.
"It's alright sir, continue" The operator said calmly. Cloud could feel the anger and tears swell up inside him and explode. How could the person on the other line be so calm? When someone is murdered, do they just calmly speak to them? What if it were their own family, how would they feel then?
"She's been kidnapped!" He yelled, his voice quivering while he fought back the tears. Having to call the police only slowed the time it took for him to find her and dispose of her kidnapper himself. He finished the police conversation by giving the address she disappeared from and hung up the phone. Within minutes the authority had arrived.
They scoured the home from top to bottom, searching for evidence and at the end of the day left, telling the distraught lover that they would do everything in their power to return Tifa quickly, and safely.
Cloud wasn't satisfied with their answer and began his own investigation. Though it was late at night, he set out on the town, knocking on every door and asking the neighbors if they had heard any screams the night before. As luck would have it, a neighbor across the street had seen a suspicious car fleeing the town in the direction of Midgar. They thought it was strange for a black car to be speeding out of such a quaint town and to head in the direction of the abandoned city seemed even odder. And thus, Cloud packed his bags and headed for the destroyed city.
- - - - -
She lifted her head and blinked her eyes several times. The room seemed to be spinning and she saw doubles of everything. A small whole in the wall, about an inch in diameter let a tiny drop of light pour in. She wondered where she was and how she had gotten there. She stood up slowly, pain coursing through her bones, and pressed her face against the wall to peer out through the tiny hole, but was unable to recognize her surroundings.
She could hear a rustling noise above her head and began to panic. "What happened to me?" she thought to herself. She could barely remember anything. She looked around as her eyesight adjusted and focused.
She was in a shack somewhere unknown. The walls were made of cheap wood and had a few wholes in them. She was in the corner of a basement, between two adjacent wooden walls. She realized that she was in a cage. The other two walls surrounding her and cutting her off from the rest of the basement were made of wrought iron. A keyed entry was on the other side of the gate leading into her prison.
She froze but kept her eyes moving slowly. There was no way out. The iron cage stretched all the way up to the ceiling and was welded to the walls. She wanted to scream but thought better of it. Whoever had kidnapped her had done this before. She had not been their first victim.
She slumped to the ground and began to cry, wishing that Cloud were next to her, holding her in his strong arms. Anger consumed her body and she leapt up, lunging at the cage bars and shaking them vehemently. She grunted angrily and sat back down, noticing a sharp pain in her right ankle. She crawled into what little light she had and examined her leg. A large metal clasp was fastened around her ankle and was connected to a chain that ran along the floor, and was bolted in the corner. She screamed as softly as she could as the hot tears flowed freely from her eyes.
She looked around the rest of the basement, lit only by a single candle flame resting on a large wooden platform. It looked to be on some kind of a rotation device, a sex device, she feared. Metal chains with handcuffs were fused to each corner. Whips and free hanging chains were attached to the walls and the whole room smelt of rotting fish.
Tifa swallowed the lump in her throat as she heard footsteps descending the stairs across the room from her. A tall, bald man entered the room wearing a pair of jeans without a shirt, his large gut hanging over his belt loops like a bowl of overflowing jelly. She began to shake violently as he neared her, inching her way towards the corner. She feared what he would do to her. The man squatted in front of the gate to her cell and began to kiss to her as if she were an animal.
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty." He cooed, motioning with his finger for her to come to him. She pressed herself against the corner and placed her knees together at her chin in fear.
He had climbed through an open window in her bedroom while she laid waiting for Cloud. It had been a hot summer night in Kalm Town and she had opened the window to let the breeze in. She tried to remain quiet when he entered and reached for her fighting gloves that were in her nightstand. He rooted around in her dresser looking for valuables but caught sight of her before she could put her gloves on. She jumped up to run from him but he caught her and threw her back on the bed, where she hit her skull on the headboard, drops of blood caressing its surface.
She had blacked out and when she woke up she was in this cage. She did not know that her kidnapper had bumped into the shelves behind the bar knocking glasses to the floor, nor did she know why this man had taken her.
He stood up and reached for the candle on the platform behind him, crouching again and bringing it in front of his face, showing his sadistic grin of missing teeth. A sudden wave of shock swept over her as if she had been punched in the face. She knew this man. He had came into the bar once just months earlier; she remembered him because he had stared at her for over an hour straight. She didn't think much of it then since many guys stared at her, that was something which could not be helped; but there was something frightening about the way he stared at her, it was as if he was planning something.
She did not know that after his initial viewing of her that the man had developed an obsession and had paced in front of the bar several times a day, peering into the window and watching her work. She did not know that he would sit on a branch outside her bedroom window and watch her while she slept, or changed clothes. She did not know that if Cloud hadn't arrived when he did, she would have been taken much earlier.
He removed a key from his pocket and opened the cage door, closing it softly behind him and advancing towards her. She continued to back into the corner even though there was no more ground to cover. He could see the fear in her eyes and he loved it; he craved it. He wanted to have her, to own her, to control her. He wanted to be able to decide her fate. He wanted to be God to her.
He continued to advance on her slowly; step by step. Tifa looked away and gritted her teeth, knowing what was about to come. She jumped up and kicked him in the gut with her free leg, sending him buckling to his knees. She tried to kick him again, this time in the head, but his hand shot out and gripped her ankle. She screamed at his deathly grip and tried to shake him off her, but he pulled his arm back hard, sending her to the ground in a most degrading position.
She closed her legs together tightly as he reached into his back pocket. She stared at him with fire in her eyes and brought her hands up in front of her face when he revealed a syringe. She shook her head and screamed as he thrust the needle into her upper arm, dispensing its oblique liquid into her veins. She tried to wriggle her arm free but it was too late. She felt the room spin around her again and she slumped back to the floor.
She awoke just a few minutes later to find herself lying on the same wooden platform she had seen before. She looked up at her outstretched arms and saw that they were bound to the corners. Her gaze shifted to her feet and she saw that she was completely trapped, her feet were bound as well and she could feel an intense cold surround her body and clutch her.
He was standing at her side, naked as well, and brought his face just inches from hers, their noses touching. She could feel his hot breath against her lips and smelled his horrendous halitosis.
"Ready for some fun, baby?" his raspy voice questioned. Tifa lunged her face at him and bit his nose hard, leaving a deep impression and producing some blood. He swore and grasped his nostrils, backing away from her. "You bitch!" he yelled when he noticed that the bleeding had stopped. He looked at her for a moment in shock, and then walked up to her to slap her across the face as hard as he could. "No more Mr. Nice Guy."
She spit at him and he hit her again, this time in her stomach. The blow nearly made her vomit and her body tensed up. He grinned evilly, his only front tooth sticking down beyond his lower lip. He advanced at her and climbed up on the table. She screamed and tried to shake him off but she was tied down too tightly.
When he was finished with her he left her to wash himself off. Once he was gone she could feel vomit rise in her throat and turned her head to let it out. She was dirty and sweaty and wanted a shower more than anything in the world.
He did not return to her that night as she shivered in the cold basement, naked and reeking of his filth. She cried herself to sleep and prayed for Cloud to rescue her. There she remained, on the slab of wood, starving and alone. Her torture was over…for now.
- - - - -
It took Cloud less than a day to arrive in Midgar from Kalm; his new record time. He had to find her before something awful happened to her. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he failed her as he had failed Aeris.
He entered the city under the plate in Sector 3. The whole city looked like a junk heap. Though the slums had always been full of garbage, sections of wall and the upper plate had fallen due to the storm caused by Meteor. He kicked away charred shards of metal as he walked, slowly looking around for any signs of life.
Rats scurried in the distance and startled him. He jumped and turned to face their direction, finding nothing but a spinning hubcap. He found deep tire tracks in the mud that must have been created recently, after the recent thunderstorm that had swept the area. Water still dripped from pipes and cables of the old trains, which hung lifelessly over steel framework like a spider's web.
He followed the tracks until they stopped under a black car; a car similar to the one described by his neighbor. His blood started pumping vigorously through his veins as he thought that he was close to finding his love. He opened the driver's side door and peered in, squinting his eyes into focus in the dark. Even though much of the upper plate had fallen as an aftermath to Meteor, darkness still shrouded the once proud nation.
He sat in the Driver's seat and searched around for any kind of evidence he could find. He could hear the impending arrival of police cars and looked up into the rear-view mirror to see the swirl of flashing lights pulling up behind him. Relief enveloped his body as he saw the policeman get out of their car and advance towards him. He knew they could scour the car for clues and perhaps tonight he would already be reunited with her.
The driver approached him and hovered over him like a great statue, forever strong and unmoving. Cloud looked up at the authority and nodded in salutation.
"Sir please step out of the car." The officer ordered calmly.
Cloud obliged but was met with great hostility. The next thing he knew he had his arms behind his back in handcuffs and was being pressed against the hood of a squad car. It happened so fast that he had had no time to react and even now was confused about the entire situation.
"Officer, I think you have the wrong guy…" He tried to continue but his body was thrust into the hood of the car with such force that he felt as though his windpipe had burst.
"Are you Cloud Strife?" The officer barked. Cloud nodded as best he could while gasping for air. "You're under the arrest for the disappearance of Miss Tifa Lockheart."
- - - - -
The sun peered down from the heavens in an angelic fashion; the warm air caressed his gentle skin and provided the much needed heat for him. He sat up, his head in pain from an uncomfortable nights sleep on a prison cot. He looked around cell and saw stone; gray stone and a barred window. He stood up and pounded on the door.
"Let me out!" He called and was promptly met with the cold stare of a prison guard.
The husky man on the other side of the door opened it and grabbed Cloud by the arm. He threw him into a room with a table and two chairs, a mirror along one wall that was obviously one-way. Cloud sat down and waited until a detective greeted him in a brown tweed suit. The detective sat down across from him with a clipboard rested on one knee.
"Do you know why you are in here?" The man asked. Cloud shook his head fervently. "You are here for the disappearance of Miss Tifa Lockheart." He continued, "It is our job to eliminate immediate family and friends as suspects but however, we have found that you are our prime suspect. You were the last one seen with her, and when needed for questioning you split town. Now, does that seem like something a concerned friend would do?"
"You've got it all wrong detective!" Cloud stated angrily, he wanted to take the man by the shoulders and shake him until he saw the truth. How could these people think that he would do something like this to the woman he loved? "I went to look for her myself! I want her back more than anything in the world and I didn't think that your patrol could find her faster than me!"
The man leaned back in his chair and tapped the clipboard with his pen. He sighed heavily and gave Cloud a look of slight disbelief.
"Would you be willing to take a polygraph test to prove your innocence, Mr. Strife?" Cloud nodded in agreement and was led to a room with a machine.
It was around this time that he realized just how poorly he had handled the situation just two days earlier. If he had called the police as soon as he found Tifa missing, this could have been avoided. He waited too long to call, and vanished before the police work even began, he knew how it made him look, but still, they had to understand his reasoning.
Instead he sat for hours; a million questions being thrown in his face like lightning bolts, accusations flying wildly all the while his poor Tifa lay lost somewhere, and who knew what was happening to her. After careful questioning and tiring tests it was proved that there was not sufficient evidence to hold Cloud accountable and he was summarily released, being rid of the title of 'prime suspect'.
