Child of an Ancient Chapter 6
By Shigan Lee
Where am I?
So dark, so cold… What kinda place was this?
He looked around there was only darkness, as long as he could see. He tried to reach out after something solid to grab onto, nothing. There was no ground, nor any walls to support him. He was floating around in this dark abyss like a powerless puppet. He struggled against the invisible chains that hold him, it was no use, he was to weak. The thought left an echo in his aching head…
Weak, weak, weak….
The echo died out when he suddenly felt the change, the feeling in his stomach and the way his body tensed automatically, preparing for physical pain. His head began to spin as his other senses caught on and it got harder to breath.
He was falling, towards somewhere he couldn’t see and didn’t know. He held his breath and braced himself for the coming impact that probably would smash him to smithereens. It never came, instead there was a growing pain in his head that became stronger as he fell. It came more and more frequently until it was almost unbearable.
The first memories hit him as his first scream escaped his throat. An enormous wave of pictures, smells, feelings and other things identifiable by senses slammed into his mind, it felt like being run over by something big and heavy as the memories tumbled around in his head. Each of them flashing past him in a few seconds, then tearing into his head and burying themselves in the depths of his mind. He could see his whole life flashing past him as all the old memories, happy and sad ones, whirled around and he could slowly identify himself.
His childhood; the absence of his father, the other children’s scornful words and remarks, the fights, the other adults loathing, his mother’s tears, the girl with the brown hair…smiling at him, gently, unsure but caring.
His departure for Midgar, to become famous, to join SOLDIER, to become like the great Sephiroth, to show her that he was worthy… He wanted show the girl with the brown hair…
His training, the other boys’ continuous loathing, the failing, the shame…Zack…his friend…… The mission to Nibelheim, Sephiroth going berserk, the burning town, his mother’s body, finding the brown-haired girl and Zack deeply wounded, Sephiroth in the reactor, the fight, the capture by Shinra, the experiments…Hojo…
He screamed, cried out the terror those deep-buried memories brought back. He felt every battle, every bruise, every loss, and every event that he had gone through as if it was the present. The sorrow and pain all those years had brought him, the few glint of happiness that he had had…
Aeris… Her name hit him like a tidal wave with all the feelings he had felt during the time he had known her. Her smile and kindness…her innocence and beauty…her brightness and her …death…
He screamed again, a cry of deepest agony and guilt.
Their journey to defeat Sephiroth, his guilt, the girl with the brown hair… Pictures of her taking care of him, consoling him, waking him from nightmares, crying with him in his time of despairs… Her beautiful face soaked in tears for his sake, his heart twisted in pain by the very sight. The way those wine-red eyes shone with love and caring for him…why had he not seen it before? Another cry escaped him as the name, which matched with the girl’s face finally, hit him, running him over like a behemoth.
Tifa….!!!
He continued to fall as the memories faded and finally came to rest in his head.
Light, there was light in front of him. He suddenly realized that he could smell something…grass? Trembling like mad, he realized that one and one of his senses were returning to him again. The coldness of a wind, the dampness of the grass that was pressed against his palms, the sound of his own breathing and …crying?
He dove into the light as he let it engulf him, let it take him back to where he hopefully belonged.
He opened his eyes slowly and stared right into a pair of wine-red ones. Her eyes, the brown haired girl’s… His angel’s… Darn she was beautiful…
They stared at each other, neither of them talking. Words couldn’t have described the joy and relief that Tifa felt at the moment. She caressed his face with her hands as her tears poured down on his chest, but those were of joy. He only smiled tiredly at her and seemed to struggle to move his arms. Slowly, he managed lifting them and put them around her neck, dragging her down towards him as he kept their gazes locked.
He pressed a light kiss on her forehead and let her cry out against his chest. He strokes her hair and straightened out the tangled ringlets as he whispered her name over and over again to console her.
No more talk was needed as she cried herself to sleep in his arms. God, this felt good, felt so right. He smiled as he thought of all the detours life had taken, all those years it had taken him to understand himself in the most painful of ways.
He smiled at the irony of fate as he held his childhood love in his arms. Stroking her long soft hair as his eyelids became heavier and heavier. He let out a sigh as he finally drifted off; their breathing joined together in a perfect synchronization.
I love you…