Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Price for a Memory ❯ Ghosts? ( Chapter 17 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
17.

Silent footsteps made their way down the darkened corridor.

Each slight sound stopped the trespasser cold. Waiting in utter silence until any impending danger had left.

All that could be heard was the intruders hushed breathing. Even at that, he could barely hear the sound of his own breath’s.

He thought the changing of the guard would aid him in a swift pursuit to his destination. He was wrong. Guards were everywhere.

Stealth was the key. Slipping through the shadows. Clinging to the walls and often hanging from the pipes running along the ceiling, he moved undetected.

Albeit he was a powerful man. General of the entire ShinRa corporation. But this? This was unchartered territory. He shouldn’t be here. Not here. He couldn’t be here. Nothing in these rooms beckoned for wandering eyes to see. ShinRa’s secrets were not for anyone to see. Especially the green eyed man in question.

Each shadow caused the silver haired male to jump. Even though he was alone in this said corridor, he felt like even the shadows were following him with their serrated talons bared.

“Hey! You hear something?”

Sephiroth paled.

“What? Where from?!”

Sephiroth stopped breathing and searched frantically for a place to hide.

“I think it came from down there!”

“The access corridor to the labs?!”

“Yeah. Lets check it out.”

Sephiroth glanced down at his feet. Sanctuary sat below him. A small grate. Barely big enough for a person like Cloud to fit through but, alas, beggars can’t be choosers.

Crouching down swiftly, Sephiroth eased the metal grate off and wriggled in backwards. His well built frame struggled to get through the small gap.

“Why the hell am I doing this? I shouldn’t be slinking about in the dark. I shouldn’t be getting stuck in small air vents!”

Pulling the grate back in place, he held it there with his finger tips and tentatively listened to the approaching foot steps.

“There’s nothing here!”

“Weird….I was sure I heard sounds coming from this corridor….”

“Bet it was the old ShinRa ghosts huh?!”

“Don’t say that! This place scares the shit outta me as it is! Let’s go!”

Sephiroth stayed perfectly still and cramped until he could no longer hear the SOLDIER’s footsteps. Forcing his body from the small gap, wincing as his hips go stuck, Sephiroth finally popped out from his hiding place.

“Why such heavy guard? And from first class SOLDIER’s no less?”

Darting down the blackened corridor, Sephiroth didn’t pause again to search his surroundings for danger. He just ran.

The entrance to the labs seemed to be clear. Odd. Sephiroth thought this place would have the most heavy guard. Nobody was in sight. His heightened senses didn’t even pick up vibrations in the stagnant air.

With a clear shot to the entrance, Sephiroth took his shot. Darting to the door, he quickly pressed his body flat against it. He seemed to almost deflate into the door.

Still no one was about.

Removing a black, leather fingerless glove, Sephiroth placed his hand on the I.D. panel beside the door. Of course the doors swept open. He had got in this way earlier on in the day. However, something bothered him. Why was there such heavy guard? Everyone knew he could gain access this easily. A trap maybe? Were hundreds of SOLDIER’s waiting in here, in the darkness to capture him and slice him to pieces?

Swiftly entering the empty lab, Sephiroth almost lost his backside to the closing frosted glass doors.

No lights were necessary. Sephiroth could see almost everything clearly. One of the benefits of having almost super human senses.

Now, Sephiroth was no fool. He knew the ‘good’ scientist was more than paranoid about his creations. He didn’t leave anything to chance. He was almost obsessive about his privacy and secrecy.

However, with a little bit of luck, maybe the silver haired male would find even the tiniest sample of whatever was in that canister earlier that afternoon.

Zipping over to the workbench he was eyeing up earlier, he almost plastered his face to it to try and see something….anything.

After a few painstaking minutes, jade eyes widened with glee.

“Aha! There you are!”

Realising he was shouting, Sephiroth shut up just as quickly.

Reaching into his short sleeved, cropped black jacket, he removed a small glass test tube and metal spatula.

“Why I keep things like this….I will never know….”

With such precision, Sephiroth proceeded to scoop the microscopic stain of gooey liquid into the test tube before sealing it and sliding it back into his breast pocket.

A small sound from the corner of the room shook Sephiroth out of his state. It almost sounded like nails scratching off of the sterile tiled floor.

Sephiroth felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Tiny goose bumps formed on his bare arms. A shiver slithered it’s way down his spine. He was frightened, although he would never admit it.

The sound persisted. It grew closer. That same scratching.

Still rooted to the spot, Sephiroth remembered the finger nail marks in the basement of the ShinRa building.

“Fuck….”

Closer and closer. The sound edged it’s way towards the petrified General.

His skin felt like it was crawling as the scratches and scuffling across the floor came to a halt.

Whatever it was, it was right behind Sephiroth.

He shut his eyes, took a deep breath and made to turn round. He was expecting to see a mangled corpse of a SOLDIER. The thought of that almost made his day. He had been terrified of ghosts and the paranormal ever since he could remember.

Swallowing his pent up fear, Sephiroth spun round.

“FUCK!”

------

Hojo sat alone in his private lab. No one knew about this place. He could hide away here, away from prying eyes and ears.

Writing frantically onto a small note book. He scratched his head almost nervously. His hands shook. His palms were sweaty. His head throbbed.

“I think I’ve almost got it!”

Writing faster, Hojo jotted everything down before they were lost to his genius mind, never to surface again.

Barely able to read his own writing, he stopped and scanned through all his notes.

“Yes….I finally have it. Oh Sephiroth, your role in my play is far from over.”

Smirking slightly, he quickly realised something.

“I must find another test subject, one is not enough….”

Something hitting off his window shook the raven haired scientist.

“What?”

Turning round, he peered over to the window.

Gasping, he jumped up and dashed over to the tiny hole in the wall window.

“What or who was that?”

He was convinced he saw gleaming green eyes framed with midnight black staring right back at him.

Wrapping his arms around himself, Hojo glanced around the room. It wouldn’t be long before he could get out of this place. This hell hole of his own manic desires.

------

Swallowing his pent up fear, Sephiroth spun round.

“FUCK!”

Gleaming bottle green eyes stared into his own. Black hair swept around the others face as he stared into the General’s unblinking aquamarine orbs.

“What….” Long, slim fingers to his mouth silenced him.

The other, shorter, younger male let out a loud gasp for air before falling to his knees on the ground.

Sephiroth looked down, blond hair matted with sweat clung to an equally soaked bare back. Trickles of blood ran down the contours of the naked flesh before him.

The younger male panted wildly, still on all fours.

Sephiroth tried to not look at the enticing body. He felt his own breathing become laboured. His bit down on his bottom lip, using all his will power to stay in control.

The smaller male finally caught his breath and stood up. His eyes blank and unblinking.

“C-Cloud?”

Silence greeted the General.

“Cloud?”

The blond’s head moved slightly, though of it’s own accord. The same head tilted to the side slightly. Eyes unblinking, seemingly staring straight through the silver haired male.

Sephiroth was scared again. Was this Cloud?

Taking hold of the boy’s shoulders. Sephiroth shook him slightly.

“Cloud? What are you doing here?”

“….I-I-I don’t k-know……”

“You don’t know?”

“I woke up.”

“What?”

“I woke up. He said. I woke up.”

Sephiroth looked on utterly dumfounded by Cloud’s vague speech. He sounded as if he was high. He couldn’t form a coherent sentence. Not to mention, that was not Cloud who had approached him from the farthest corner of the room. No….that male had black hair and darkness that had long since died.

“He said what? What did he say?”

Sephiroth had no idea who ‘he’ was. Still he persevered.

“He said to me.”

“Tell me Cloud? What did he say to you?”

“To kill….”

“Kill who?”

“You….”