Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Dreaming of You ❯ Truth Comes to Us All ( Chapter 2 )

Days seemed to pass, but to her it was only a single instant until she finally slit her eyes to greet the dawning of a new day. The sun gleamed down on her in little shards from the curtain that was hanging half-open along with a window cracked to let the warm breeze snake its way into the room. Her face was blank as she turned her head into the direction that she felt the outside world.

"You're awake," a voice stated.

`Where was I dragged? That voice…so familiar, yet so…much like a stranger.' Her thoughts seeped into her brain and she ignored the man's voice. It wasn't rough, and rather was swept onto the wind and was emitted from the man's lips so smoothly that it could be woven into a beautiful piece of clothing if need be.

"You've been out for a couple days," he continued to speak; continued to taunt her mind. Still she ignored him, trying to figure out why she knew this stranger. Figuring that perhaps putting a face to the voice would help her confused mind, she dealt with the pain from her spine and head and turned it slowly over to the figure sitting in a chair, propping his upper torso delicately with his forearms on his knees. His blazing blue eyes fired into her soul, and suddenly an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness and loneliness poured into her tiny heart.

Her already pale skin seemed to be completely drained of any color as fright flourished deep within her wretched soul. Everything around her began to spin, the world not coming together like it once had. Everything was so different.

`A name…why can't I find a name?' her mind was becoming panicked as she was staring straight through this being in front of her. Her heart ached terribly as it tried to fight for an identity, but there was none. `A name. My name…I…I…don't have a name.'

"Tifa," the stranger asked, a look of concern crossed his face as he saw the worry in his friend's eyes. He leaned a little more forward, his eyes questioning as he searched for an answer.

"Am…I dead?" she whispered, her spirits too weak to speak any louder. She watched the stranger shake his head in reply, but still keeping his eyes constantly on her. "No…I must be dead."

"Why would you ever say such a thing?" Cloud asked, perplexed by her statements. He watched intently as she turned her head away from him. Tears were brimming in her eyes, and she was trying to force them back but the truth had struck her and fear now consumed any reasoning.

"This must be Hell…or else I would be back with my friends," Tifa explained bluntly.

Cloud sat for a moment thinking of a way to word a response. "But…I'm right here, Barret is in the waiting room along with Cid and Shera."

"No, they're gone. The names…I don't know their names…"

"No Tifa…it's me Cloud. Your best friend," he almost pleaded his response.

"Cloud…" she repeated the words. `No, you're not Cloud. You're only a duplicate of him…this is all a sick joke! Sephiroth…yes…that is who you are. A sick man trying to fool an injured woman. A wolf in sheep's clothing…You want me dead, you want us all dead. Of course…'

"Yes…it's me Cloud."

"No…you are a liar. I will never believe a worthless piece of trash like you!" Tifa rose her voice along with her body. The IV's that were stuck through out her bony arms were ripped from their location as she stood on the bed. Anger flamed in her eyes as she looked at the man that was in the chair next to her. The tears that were brimming her lids now streaked freely down her cheeks and flowed into the creases of her angered lips.

"Sephiroth…you will never fool me!" Tifa screamed reluctantly, and her body arched forward as she readied herself for any attack. In her eyes, the man standing before her changed from the kind hearted Cloud to a familiar foe. The platinum hair poured through the golden rods and the blue eyes turned to an emerald color. A black cape swept the floor, and the perfectly blood stained boots rested in a relaxed position.

"You have found me Tifa…for you are not foolish and naïve like your friends," Sephiroth's voice seemed to echo through what should have been Cloud's.

"No…No. I won't let you! NO! Help me! Somebody, help me!" Tifa screamed, her voice box cracking from the high tones and her body falling to the cushioned bed. She clung her hands tight to her head as the voice continued to plague her mind.

Cloud quickly brought himself to her trembling body and he placed his comforting hands on her shoulders. "Tifa! Tifa! It's all right. It's me…Cloud."

"Don't touch me! I won't give into your lies!" Tifa argued, and through his hands off of her. She turned her back abruptly to him, and she hugged her scrawny knees tightly to her chest. A white robe was the only thing covering her naked body, and now that was drenched with blood. Her stitches had unraveled and the IV's left gaping holes from where they entered her body.

"What the Hell is goin' on in here?" Barret yelled as he entered the hospital room. He looked around and saw Cloud with a horrified expression on his face. Barret too could not help but feel the gore that he saw on the bed.

Doctors began to poor into the room as they heard the commotion. An old doctor with a shaggy white beard went to Tifa's aid. He talked to her soothingly, and her bewildered eyes were left to stare off into the open as the doctor's words entered her head and raveled through her brain.

"Excuse me, but I think she needs some time to herself," the doctor suggested and pointed to the door. With no arguing, everybody filed out the door that they had just entered.

"Don't let him get me…" Tifa whispered, her voice desperate.

"Don't let who get you?" the kind old doctor asked. Tears now fell to her cheeks mixed along with the blood that oozed from her open wound on her forehead. The bloody tears dripped down to the ground from her chin as she faced the doctor.

"Sephiroth…"

Author's Note: Yeah, my chapters are real short. It took me a couple of weeks to finally come out with the next chapter to this story, but since school's out now…I should be able to work on this constantly. Hopefully this will end up being an interesting story and maybe even a one of a kind. Um…just a warning, but I like gore and blood…and I have an obsession with insane people because I think they are the most fascinating things in the world. So yeah, you'll begin to see my obsessions in my writing.