It was a quiet night in the bar, and Tifa found herself pushing a damp rag around the counter idly and glancing at the clock more frequently than she'd like. Music floated in the background, and the TV attached to the wall was showing some kind of sporting event that no one really cared about. A couple of burly guys were playing pool, laughing amongst themselves. Her job tonight had pretty much consisted of making sure they had plenty of beer and cocktail peanuts, well, after a couple of jazzed up party girls had come and gone on their way to ladies' night. Sighing softly as she scrubbed at a stain in the counter that she knew would never come out, she wondered if she shouldn't have followed them.
She was grateful when the door swung open, and looked up from the counter with her welcoming, customer service smile, glad to finally have something to do, until she froze solid when she recognized the man coming through the door. A look of panic came into her eyes for a split second, but fortunately, her smile didn't falter as he approached the counter.
"Calden!" She exclaimed, her surprise evident in her voice. "Hey!" She tried to sound enthusiastic, but even to her own ears she just sounded kind of…awkward. The truth was she had hardly given him a thought after their date last night; she'd had other things on her mind.
"Hey," he answered, and Tifa couldn't help but wonder if that was a little awkwardness on his part too? At least she wasn't alone. "You talked about this place a lot last night, I figured I'd come by and check it out. It's…nice."
Tifa chuckled a bit, setting her rag aside and leaning forward on the counter. "Nice? Really?" She glanced around, specifically towards the men playing pool, who had now settled down at one of the tables for an arm wrestling contest. Her bar wasn't really one of the finest establishments around Edge, it had a kind of industrial feel, just like the patrons who frequented the bar.
"Maybe nice isn't the word…but I like it." He settled down on one of the bar stools.
"Well, you can't truly enjoy the Seventh Heaven experience without a drink." She pointed out, straightening up and turning to grab a glass. "What'll it be, cowboy?" It was Calden's turn to laugh at her.
Once they got past that initial awkwardness, Tifa was glad for the company. Before she knew it, it was just past two and everyone else had stumbled out of the bar, headed home. "You don't have to help, you know." Tifa insisted as she picked up a chair, flipping it upside down to rest on the table.
"'Course I do. S'only polite." He insisted, even though it was clear he'd had a little bit too much to be trying to lift things over his head. She smiled, shaking her head, but her smile turned to a frown when there was a loud crash, clearly audible with the music turned off and the bar silent. She turned to see him pinned under not one, but two of the bar chairs, aware that something was wrong even before she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye, muscles tensing as she twirled around.
The lighting in the bar was dim with half the lights turned off for close, making the shapes that lingered in the shadows indistinct, but as she tried to focus on them, Tifa had the impression these shapes were not entirely human. Something that had snuck in from the wastes around town? A groan of pain from behind her told her that Calden was still alive, thankfully, but who knew for how much longer if she didn't deal with these things.
With a ghastly shriek, one of them lunged forward, and Tifa dodged to the side, delivering a swift strike with her fist, but when she made contact with the thing, it was so soft that she didn't even really make contact with anything, and it just slithered by. Her hand came away slick, however, and after a few seconds she was aware of an acute burning sensation. She hurriedly rubbed her hand on her jeans to get the viscous liquid off, although a tingling remained in her hands. Avoid skin contact, right.
Twirling to follow the creature as it tumbled behind her, having missed its intended target, she got a better look at it in the light. It was roughly human-shaped, but that was where the resemblance ceased. It was kind of blue in color, and had translucent skin –if you could call it skin—that glistened with wet. The whole thing looked like little more than liquid in a sack, but there were dark portions in each limb, where she supposed the bones must be, to hold the thing upright. It rounded on her, and she noticed that it seemed to be missing parts…fingers, toes, the limbs just seemed to taper off into nothing, and most eerily, it seemed to have no face, or other features. Not even eyes. It didn't even have a mouth, yet it was somehow making that terrible screeching noise again, as it fixed its sightless face on her and lunged again.
She dodged it again, this time running past it to grab the heavy fire extinguisher from behind the bar. Armed, she vaulted over the bar and brought the weapon down on its head, apparently crushing it. But it didn't stop there, reaching out with its arms towards her, and she had to recoil while she took a horizontal swing. She made contact with the arm, but like before when she'd hit it, the fire extinguisher just seemed to slide off it, and she threw it down, lifting herself up onto the bar and sliding back, away from its grasp.
Blunt force was out, which was a shame, since that was her specialty. What would work? She glanced over towards where she'd left Calden, and saw another of the monsters creeping closer to the disoriented man. Crap balls.
Scrambling, she grabbed a knife , slashing at the arm that was reaching for her, surprised when the blade went clean through it and the arm fell to the ground…with a splash? Her eyes widened as the thing in front of her deflated, the liquid running out of it from the hole, turning to steam even as she watched, horrified. Immediately realizing what she had to do, she threw her knife towards the thing that seemed about to engulf Calden…only to have it hit the thing handle first, bouncing off harmlessly. Tifa didn't know the first thing about throwing knives.
She was still scrambling for a second knife when she heard something on the stairs, and her eyes widened; had one gotten to the door that led to the apartment she shared with Cloud and the kids? Her worries were appeased when Cloud appeared in the doorway, his hair mussed as though he'd just rolled out of bed, but to her great relief, carrying one of his patented blades. He looked confused in the doorway, so Tifa pointed to the thing advancing on Calden.
"Stab it!" She ordered, and without hesitation, Cloud rushed forward, impaling the creature and watching with a look that was a mixture of fascination and horror as it burst, and then seemed to evaporate. Tifa sighed, looking around the bar for further enemies, but when she found none, she breathed a sigh of relief. There weren't even any bodies…which was very, very odd. "Thanks." She looked at Cloud, who was looking at her with about as much confusion as she felt.
"What was that about?" He asked, glancing towards Calden's inert form as though wondering if he should stab him, too. Tifa hurried around the bar to check on him.
"No idea…those things just showed up while we were cleaning up." She hefted the chairs off of him haphazardly. "Could you get the lights?" Once they were illuminated, she could see that the thing had definitely gotten a hold of him, parts of his face, neck and arms were slick, and turning red as though it was burning. She used her sleeve to wipe as much of it off as she could, before she went back to the bar and grabbed her dish rag, getting the rest off. Calden was out cold, but he was still breathing, which was a good thing. Once she was confident he wasn't going to melt before they got him to the hospital, she turned to Cloud, who had gone to a window, still clutching his sword and looking alert. When he turned to look at her, his eyes went down, and he frowned.
"What happened to your jeans?" She looked down, and only now noticed that the fabric had burned away not just the pieces of fabric she had wiped her hand on, but had burned through almost the entire thigh portion of her right leg. So it wasn't just corrosive to human flesh.
She turned when she heard a hissing noise, followed by a loud bang. She remembered pain, stabbing in her leg, but then she fell and things went oddly white, before the world faded into darkness. She almost thought she could hear someone yelling her name.
Her head was throbbing when she woke up, in a place that was decidedly not her own room. The first thing she noticed were the lights, bright, florescent, and the room was totally white. Hospital. Her mind immediately told her, and she lifted a hand to her head, trying to remember how she'd gotten here. She was surprised when her fingers brushed against cloth…no, not cloth. Bandages. She didn't remember hitting her head, though she could remember…she looked down, lifting the thin sheet with one hand, and sure enough there was another set of bandages wrapped tightly around her thigh, protruding out just beneath her crisp hospital gown.
"Tifa!" She dropped the sheet when she heard Marlene's voice, a smile just reaching her face before the little girl propelled herself to her side, all but throwing herself onto the bed to wrap her arms around the woman. "We were so worried about you!"
"It's okay, I'm all right…" Tifa assured her, wrapping her arms around Marlene and stroking her hair affectionately. Behind her, Denzel approached, slightly more reserved but still appearing happy that Tifa was awake. Tifa smiled at him, then turned to her other side as Cloud seemed to just materialize there, but she realized he must've just walked. She must be slightly out of it still. "What happened? Did more of those…things show up?
"Nah, but if I may give a word of advice? Don't use fire extinguishers as weapons." He suggested, sitting down in a chair next to the bed. Marlene had already curled up on Tifa's side, although Denzel had similarly found a chair.
"My head hurts too much for riddles, Cloud." She responded, she didn't want to try and piece things together now.
"The monsters didn't come back, but the fire extinguisher blew up. A piece got lodged in your leg, and you head your head on a table when you fell." Her brow furrowed. So they beat the bad guys and she got taken down by a fire extinguisher and a table? She was never going to live that down. "Not your most impressive victory, I'll admit." It was almost like he knew exactly what she was thinking.
"What about Calden? Is he all right?" Cloud had clearly escaped unscathed, but she didn't see the other man anywhere. Cloud didn't seem particularly pleased by her inquiry.
"Yeah, he's fine. Doctors say he has minor burns, and he hit his head, too, but he woke up sometime this morning. They were more worried about the amount of blood you lost." She breathed a sigh of relief, then tensed up again.
"All right, give it to me straight…how bad is it?"
"Your leg? The doctors said you should be through the wors-"
"No, not my leg! I've had way worse than this little scratch and you know it. My bar! With those things, and an exploding fire extinguisher, and now blood stains to worry about! How bad is my bar?" Cloud stared at her for a minute…then two…then started laughing. Marlene and Denzel joined in. Tifa just frowned.
"I'm serious!" She protested, but they just kept laughing. Oh, her poor bar….
A/N: Finally something exciting! Let me know what you think!