Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Starla's Dance ❯ Chapter 8

"I'm sorry again for dragging you into this Vincent." Cloud lied. Sighing he continued on. "I should have seen this coming, the form he became in the end, you could tell he was not human. Now he comes back, frames me for murdering people." Cloud buried his head in his hand. "He even slaughtered children Vincent, CHILDREN! They never had any time to do anything wrong!"

Sitting to his right, sat Vincent fiddling with some rope. One who did not know Vincent would think he was not listening. Cloud knew he was hearing and analyzing every word and action. Forming his opinion, and debating whether or not to involve himself anymore. One wrong word and he would be gone. Or worse, figure out the truth.

"When you found me he had just murdered a little girl about four in the dark of early morning. She was just looking for her kitty... Make a long story short he killed her. Then her mother. Which inside of her was a baby unborn. I cut her open and tried to save it-" Cloud forced his voice to crack. "I don't know if it lived."

"How did he convince them?" Vincent asked catching Cloud off guard.

"Huh? Oh-well, I don't know. Just one day I came to town and I was accused of mass murder."

"Where's your girlfriend?"

"Around." He stated simply. "Probably exploring the hotel though she should be off that ankle. Woman, what are you to do with them?"

Vincent gave a look to Cloud that was suspicious, but then went back to fiddling with the rope into different knots.

"What is the rope for?"

"You want to make him confess without killing him... With his injuries this is the best way. If you look at him he's pale, shaky, sweaty. Clearly he's lost to much blood, and I don't know how severe his head injuries are."

"I just wish he was dead." Finally Cloud spoke some truth. "This time I will make sure he's dead. I will have his head. Bury his body six feet under, and let his head rot on a pike, in the sun no less then thirty-seven miles away."

"Hmn."

"I know it how it must sounds to you Vincent. Sephiroth has taken so much from me." Gently Cloud touched his eye. Worse off from the lack of care. "And now he has taken more."

"It's getting infected, let me have a look at it."

"No!" Cloud pulled back from Vincent. "Do you just have a potion by any chance."

With no argument Vincent handed Cloud a potion. Cloud drank it down with a twist of his face. He was never one to like how these things tasted. It seemed with time they tasted more horrible. With how many he had consumed trying to defeat Sephiroth the first time, he'd figure it should have not bothered him so much. Still it did.

"Can you get him to confess?" In Cloud's mind 'confess' was replaced with 'beg for mercy'.

"Yes."

Cloud stood. "I'm going to find Starla. She's so badly shaken over this, I don't know if she'll fully recover. Some woman don't. After the last fight with Sephiroth Tifa couldn't move on. She had seen and witnessed so much." A tear rolled down his face. "No more then a month."

No other word was spoken as Cloud walked away. For a few moments Vincent watched him, then returned to his work. He figured Cloud needed some time to be alone. His mind drifted off to thoughts of the woman he loved; Lucricia.