Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Crimson Curse ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

 

Chapter 9

 

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Seven Hours Later…

 

 

 

 

 

Karin slowly blinks her eyes open, and glances around the room confused, `My room…? How did I get here…?', she wondered, carefully sitting up as the room began to spin, `That's right…! Vincent came to my rescue and he must have brought me home…', she recalls, holding her head and tries to force the room to stop spinning, when it does she slowly puts her feet onto the floor and stumbles her way to her door, leaning on the door-frame and looking into her living-room. Where she sees Vincent seated on her couch slightly hunched over, as if he was concentrating on something, “Vincent…?”

 

He visibly flinches and makes a spurting noise as he does, like he was drinking something and startled into spitting it out again, causing him to quickly cover his mouth in an attempt to not spray it all over the place. When he finishes choking from being startled, he turns to look at her.

 

“You're awake… How are you feeling?”, he asks, a trail of blood flowing down his chin from the corner of his mouth.

 

“I'm fine…”, she replies, bewildered, “Night's already fallen…?”, she mutters, looking out the living-room window to see the sky was pitch-black, `Crap! I interrupted Vincent's feeding!', she thinks, looking back over at Vincent and watches him as he stares at his hand covered in coughed up blood, seeing his internal struggle not to just simply lick the blood off his palm.

 

But it was a losing battle as the hunger for blood slowly began to over-run his brain, and he slowly brings his blood-coated hand to his mouth and sensually cleans the blood off with his tongue. Karin noticing his eyes glazing over in infatuation with licking and drinking the blood off his hand, when his hand was devoid of remaining traces of blood, his eyes returned to normal. He just stares at his hand in horror knowing he had licked it clean, and he tangles his other hand into his hair, pulling on it in frustration.

 

“How much longer can I put up with this shameful act, before I go insane…?”, he quietly asks himself, slumping over in mental anxiety and tears building up in his eyes.

 

`This is just breaking his spirit…', she thinks, feeling sorry from the immortal man who has been forced to live for far too long, as she made her way over to him, hugging him across the shoulders from behind, “It's alright… We'll kill Sephiroth together and free you…”, she whispers, comfortingly.

 

“Karin…”, he gasps, surprised she was comforting him, regardless of the fact she just watched him mindlessly lick blood from his hand, “Thank you…”, was all he could say to the woman who was cursed with the burden of being the bearer of the only power in the world that could destroy the very thing that ruined his life.

 

“You're welcome…”, she says, smiling as she takes a corner of the towel he had laid across his lap and wipes the trail of blood from his chin, “You're a very messy drinker…”, she jokes, walking into her kitchen to make some dinner.

 

“So what is the supplement for?”, Vincent asks.

 

Karin momentarily tenses, “It's for a medical condition I've had since I was 15 years old…”, she replies, putting a frying-pan onto the stove.

 

“I see…”, he mutters, noticing that she didn't want to go into the details, “So what are you making?”

 

“Shrimp stir-fry, I hope you like it”, she states.

 

“I had it at a restaurant once…”, he comments, “So, when did your grandmother die?”, he questions, then quickly realizes that he shouldn't pry into her business, “I'm sorry for asking…”

 

“It's alright. My grandmother died 2 years ago, about a month after I started having those dreams…”, she answers, “I found out that it was Sephiroth's second in-command who killed her…”

 

“Kadaj…”, Vincent whispers, remembering the vampire who held him by the hair when he was forced to watch Lucrecia die.

 

“What name did you say?”, Karin gasps, looking over at him.

 

“That vampire's name is Kadaj… He was the one who held my head up and made me watch Lucrecia's final moments…”, he replies, his anger audible in his voice as he clenched his teeth together; his fangs not hindering the process.

 

“These damn vampires are messing with everyone's lives and loved ones!”, she huffs, stirring the contents in the pan, “They need to be killed before they can do anymore harm!”

 

“You're attitude is rather invigorating, coming from someone's who powers have yet to return…”, he remarks.

 

“If that was suppose to be a compliment, it sure didn't sound like it!”, she retorts, silently chucking an unopened-can of soda at his head, `Hit him in the head!', she prayed.

 

But she lucks out, as he effortlessly catches the can an inch from the back of his head, “Thanks, I needed a soda to wash the nasty taste of blood out of my mouth”, he says, holding up the can to prove his point.

 

“No problem…”, she sighs, mentally kicking herself over the fact she should known better than to try throwing something at someone who has had at least 300 years of fighting-experience, “So you staying the night again?”

 

“I will, if you want me to”.

 

“You can…”, she says, splitting the stir-fry up into equal portions onto two plates, “Dinner's ready!”, she announces, carrying the plates to her dinning-room table, to already find him seated at the table, “I thought I told you not to do that…”

 

“Do what?”

 

“Move faster than the blink of an eye”, she replies, placing his plate in front of him.

 

“No, you didn't. You only told me not to use it to sneak up behind you”, he corrects.

 

“Fine, whatever…”, she mutters, sitting down and begins eating her meal in silence.

 

“How's your neck?”, he asks, deciding to change the subject.

 

“It's still a little sore…”, she hisses in pain, as she rubs the bandaged bite-wound, “But I'll live…”

 

“Don't worry, not enough blood was drank for you to become a mind-slave…”, he responds, taking a bite of the stir-fry.

 

“I know… It has to be at least a pint of blood…”

 

“And…”

 

“And, if the vampire drinks all of the victim's blood, the victim dies. Also, to become a vampire the victim needs to drink the vampire's blood… I know all this…”, she interrupts.

 

“Who was it that taught you?”

 

“My grandmother, during the 8 years I lived with her…”

 

“How would she know?”

 

“I don't know…”, she shrugs.

 

`I don't know who has it worst, me or her?', he thinks, eating in silence, `I'm cursed to live forever and drink blood every night just to preserve my sanity, and Lucrecia was killed by Sephiroth… But, Karin's parents were turned into vampires and her grandmother was killed by a vampire, and her friend is in the hospital…', going over their situations in his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Two Days Later…

-Tokyo Community College-

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Thanks for the ride, Vincent”, Karin says, as she hops off the back of his motorcycle, her braided hair trailing behind her.

 

“Just take it easy, you still haven't fully recovered from your attack”, he advises.

 

“I know…”, she sighs, rubbing to faint bite-wound on her neck through the cloth of her shirt.

 

“Do you want me to give you a ride home after class?”

 

“Sure”, she replies, lifting up her hand to show him the energy-charged up in it, “Even though some of my powers have returned, I still don't have enough to defend myself with…”, she says, loud enough for only him to hear.

 

“Around 4pm, right?”

 

“Yep!”

 

“See you then!”, he calls out, pulling away from the curb and speeds down the road.

 

“Such a gentleman…”, she whispers.

 

“You got yourself a boyfriend, I see”, Tifa's voice mockingly sings from behind her.

 

“It isn't like that, Tifa!”, Karin exclaims, turning around to face her friend, despite the blush now consuming her cheeks.

 

“Your mouth is saying one thing and your cheeks are saying another…”, the brunette teases, “Admit it, you have a crush on him!”

 

“I am not going to have this conversation with you…”, she huffs, walking away from her friend and towards the building.

 

“Sherra told me Vincent has been staying at your apartment for the past three-nights…”, Tifa states.

 

Karin instantly stops walking and stands completely still, a blush quickly darkening her cheeks, turning them dark crimson.

 

“My guess is, the two of you have been busy…”, she says, knowing that she hit a nerve.

 

“Nothing like that happened!”, she cries out in horror, as she turned around, her cheeks darken even more at what her friend was implying.

 

“Ah! Got you talking!”, she points out, “You know that I know, you're not that type of girl”.

 

“What about you and Cloud last year?”

 

“What…do you mean…?”, Tifa gasps, blushing.

 

“Oh, you didn't think I knew about the week it was just you and Cloud in the cabin, all alone…”, Karin says, using her own ammunition she had on her friends, “Tell me honestly that nothing happen between the two of you…”

 

“Uh…”, she trails off, it now being her turn to blush.

 

“You're hesitating…”

 

“I kissed him…”, came Tifa's quiet response.

 

“I can't hear you”.

 

“I kissed him on the lips when he was asleep…”, she replies, a little louder than before as the blush on her cheeks darken.

 

“I knew it!”, Karin exclaims, “Now that we're on the subject of Cloud, how is he recovering?”

 

“He woke up yesterday… He doesn't remember much about his accident though…”

 

“It's to be expected, he did have a concussion”.

 

“I suppose…”

 

“Hey, cheer up! He's going to make a full recovery!”, she says, grabbing Tifa by the wirst, “Come on, or we'll be late for class!”

 

“You're right”, Tifa nods, smiling as she let Karin drag her into the building to class.

 

 

 

 

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