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Into the Abyss	By : blackharu2 Category: Final Fantasy VII > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 1046 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, nor any characters owned by Square Enix. I do not make any money from the writing of this story, though I wish I did.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
Epilogue: Completing the Journey
Glass doors slid open before the raven-haired male, revealing pristine white walls, air filled with the scent of medicine and the sound of illness. God, how he hated hospitals… But he had to be here, getting the call only about an hour ago about his friend and his condition.
Zack pushed his hands into his pockets and strolled up to the front desk of the first floor, the old nurse behind the counter wearing flower-design scrubs, wrinkles covering her face but most concentrated at the corners of her eyes, Zack knowing why when she smiled. "How may I help you?" She asked, her voice shaking only a little, along with her hands that held a small stack of papers she had been tapping against the table-top to straighten them out.
"Uhm, I'm looking for a friend of mine… I can't remember the room number they told me on the phone though." He said softly… For some reason, he always felt inclined to soften his voice inside hospitals, like the very lives held within them would shatter at the softest whisper.
"I can look him up if I can have a name, please." She said, turning towards the computer and typing in something to get her to the right page in the directory, cursor flashing.
"Cloud Strife." Zack said, the woman's fingers moving over the keyboard, a slight smile flashing across Zack's lips when she mumbled 'oh shoot!' under her breath, probably the result of a typo her unsteady hands had made.
"Ah. Here he is…" She said, turning back to Zack and giving that smile again, warm and welcoming… genuine. A rare thing to see in a hospital… "He's in room seven seventeen."
"Thank you." Zack replied, smiling in return once more, before heading towards the elevators. His eyes stayed glued to the floor and his feet as he walked, not exactly feeling like meeting the eyes of nurses or patients, their looks always too grim for him to stand. Even when they were smiling, he could feel the sense that it was a bad day all around… Hopefully he wouldn't look like that after this visit.
He entered the elevator and pressed the button for floor seven, looking up at the green numbers above the door, it squeaking slightly as it closed, a harsh and distant coughing from one of the rooms following him inside before they closed fully and he began his assent.
2
3
4
Zack sighed as he watched the numbers climb to seven, feeling the elevator slow to a stop beneath his feet, eyes falling back to the floor as the doors opened and he stepped through. He looked around for a sign to the rooms, but couldn't see any immediately, so instead he just stepped up to the seventh floor help desk, this time seeing a woman slouched down in a computer chair, wearing pink scrubs, and flipping through a magazine, not really looking at the pictures, just turning pages and looking bored. "Uhm…" He prodded, her eyes not lifting from the pages, just flipping another couple before he continued. "Can you tell me where I can find room seven seventeen?"
The woman stopped flipping… and gave a long, irritated sigh, before pointing across the hall from her desk.
Zack just blinked at her, then turned around to look over his shoulder, a sign with arrows pointing to which rooms were where hanging up just behind him. "Oh…" He said dumbly, feeling the same as his words as he turned around to look back at the uninterested woman, scratching the back of his neck shamefully. "Eh heh heh… Th-Thanks."
But she didn't say anything, just kept flipping through her magazine… Zack watching for a second, before deciding to sigh and turn away from her to go in the direction specified. But as he walked away, the other muttered "Moron…" beneath her breath, glancing up to glare at who she deemed to be a fool… Only to blink and stare as he walked away, looking him up and down slowly and leaning forward to watch his form disappear around the corner… Before smirking slightly to herself and sitting back down in her chair. "A hot moron…" And with that, she returned to her magazine once again, flipping pages.
Zack looked from room to room to find Cloud's, 713, 715, ah! There it was… 717. The door was closed, so Zack peeked through the long window beside it, cupping his hands around his eyes and peering inside to see the blonde inside, motionless and hooked up to five or six little machines, tubes coming out of his wrists and a clamp over his index finger… Zack sighing and feeling his heart sink.
But he swallowed it down. Cloud didn't need more depression walking through his door, more bad news… he needed cheering up. He needed a distraction. Or at least that's what Zack thought as he opened the door, the other's head turning to look at him with a distant, blue gaze that widened slightly in surprise at his arrival. "Zack…?" He asked, trying to sit up, but just wincing as the scratches in his back screamed in his ears.
"Whoa there Cloud!" Zack said, half-jokingly, moving quick to come to the other's side and support him as he eased back down in the bed. "You don't have to get up for little ol' me."
"But…" Cloud muttered, still looking a little surprised. "What're you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be gone for at least another half a week…"
"You thought I'd stay there when my best friend's in the hospital? Please!" He laughed a little under his breath, grabbing a chair by the back and scooting it over to the side of the bed, turning it so he could sit with his arms crossed and propped up upon it's back, legs strung through the arms of the wooden furniture. "So…" He started, Cloud wincing again slightly as he straightened out his torn-up leg, thigh throbbing. "What the hell happened to you man?"
At that, Cloud felt a chill run through his skin, body going rigid for a moment, before he swallowed and settled himself completely back down upon the mattress. "What've you heard?"
Zack shrugged, Cloud pressing a button on the side of his bed to make the back of it slowly incline, easing him into a comfortable sitting position. "I haven't heard much, to tell you the truth. The only people I've talked to are the doctors here, and they won't tell me shit. They think I'll get freaked out or something, I guess… Not that hearing your friend was in the hospital wasn't scary enough…" He laughed that same laugh as before, running his fingers through black hair, before he sighed. Maybe he was going to leave with one of 'those' smiles after all…
"Sorry…" Cloud said softly, keeping his eyes off of the other, Zack looking up to watch his friends solemn features.
"Hey… It's alright." He reassured softly, smiling a little. "It's not like it's your fault some creep did that to you… Whatever it was he did exactly. You don't have to apologize for it."
Cloud's eyes lifted to look into Zack's for moment, his friend holding that smile… making him give a slight smile of his own.
"There you go!" Zack said, making the other snort and shake his head. "Now, don't worry about it… If you don't want to tell me, if you don't want to talk about it right now or whatever, that's okay."
"No." Cloud interjected, looking back up into Zack's eyes. "You should know what I do."
The other blinked, before giving a nod. "Okay… Then go ahead and tell me what happened."
"Well…" Cloud started, staring at his knees. "I don't actually remember a lot of it… I remember that it was raining and that I had fallen asleep on the couch… Then the doorbell rang, and I got up to answer it, but I can't really recall who was there, or if anyone was there at all…" He began, Zack listening intently. "But I remember the kitchen, and blood, and… I don't know… I remember a lot of pain and things spinning… Then nothing."
"Well…" Zack interrupted briefly, Cloud looking into his eyes. "When the paramedics called, they said you had suffered a head injury… probably why you can't remember anything, and probably also why you were knocked out." Cloud nodded in agreement.
"Yeah… And the police said they didn't find anything else but blood, and all of it was my own… That they found me in the bathtub, bleeding to death and extremely dehydrated… But…" Cloud paused, brows furrowing as he thought, Zack almost able to see the cogs churning in his mind. "I don't remember anything about the bathroom… Nothing important anyways."
But the other's words were cut short at the feeling of a hand upon his own, Cloud jumping slightly and turning to look down at his friend's hand, heart thudding in his throat at the action, before his eyes flickered to meet Zack's gaze. "Cloud…" The other said softly, his grip tightening ever so slightly. "I don't really care about what happened… I just care about you getting better and about that sicko being thrown in jail for what he did to you. Don't think about it too much or else you'll just drive yourself crazy… Okay?"
Cloud kept staring at the hand around his own for a few moments… before he swallowed down his beating heart and nodded, turning his hand over to hold his friend's hand back, smiling softly. "Thank you Zack…"
The other just smiled in return and squeezed Cloud's palm a little tighter briefly in a sign of encouragement before loosening his grip. "No problem." He said with a smile made to melt the heart, Cloud's wavering a little… before their contact was gone just as quick as it had come. "Now!" Zack said, sighing and leaning back. "Can I get you anything?"
Cloud quickly got over the fact of how much colder his hand felt without the other's fingers around it and shook his head a little. "I can't ask you to get me stuff, you've already ditched your business trip for me…"
"Pfft!" Zack protested, waving a hand through the air as he stood up. "Come on man, name something… You want some steak? Beer?" Cloud just blinked before laughing a little under his breath. "Cheesecake…? What do you want? I'll get it." But he just blinked when he realized the blonde's reaction, a hand lifting to cover his laughter. "What…?"
"Hahaha, oh come on Zack… You know they won't allow that stuff in here." Cloud answered, looking up to the other and smiling.
"Oh, don't worry about that." Zack assured, grinning. "One of the nurses I talked to totally checked out my ass when she thought I wasn't looking, I could sneak stuff in with her help." He said with a teasing wink, Cloud just giving a snort of amusement.
"You're crazy Zack…"
But the other only shrugged, "Yeah, but who really cares…?" earning another soft sound of appreciative enjoyment from the blonde. "Now, seriously…" He said, letting Cloud calm to a simple smile, the sparkle back in his eyes… A sparkle that Zack had missed on the way in. "What can I get you?"
Cloud thought for a second… before answering. "Water… And some form of fruit that isn't in a can or cup would be great."
"Smirnoff and Applejacks coming right up!" Zack replied brightly, twirling on his heel to head for the exit, Cloud chortling softly under his breath before calling after his friend, the door swinging closed behind him slowly.
"Behave yourself Zack! You're in PUBLIC!"
"Yeah yeah, I know!" He heard the other yell back, the blonde snorting and shaking his head, smiling to himself slightly.
But… as the silence began to fill the room once again, the smile slowly dissipated, guilt weighing heavy on his chest.
He hated having to lie to Zack, but… But what he could really remember wasn't something anyone else but he could believe… He and that… that creature.
Cloud sighed and ran a hand absent-mindedly over his shoulder, fingertips ghosting the bite that had dug deep into his skin… right down to the bone, actually, he had found out from the doctors, bandages covering it now to help it heal and stop the bleeding. Everyone had told him that if he had been left in that tub for another two hours, maybe even less than that, he would've been dead from blood-loss, a strange form of toxin running through his veins that kept it from clotting fully and soaked up the very water in his flesh. It was like nothing the doctors had ever seen before in any hospital, but that wasn't surprising considering it wasn't a natural venom, but more like supernatural.
But… had that all really happened?
He kept asking himself that ever since he had woken up yesterday, the hospital only just allowing him visitors today, apparently calling Zack to inform him on the change in condition. But even though he hadn't told his closest friend about the man changing from a teenager… about how he gave in and accepted death in the throngs of pleasure… it wasn't all a lie, what he had said. After his second orgasm with that demon, he couldn't really recall anything clearly. He assumed the blood-loss had made him too brain-dead to remember that far, and the head injury had indeed knocked him out because he really didn't remember anything about the bathroom… being cleaned free of semen and sweat… nothing.
But that wasn't the only thought on Cloud's mind as he went over it again and again in his head… Because every time he went over the initial legend, first told by the woman in the downtown square, he remembered the fact that every single victim was found dead and dried completely in the morning. Every. Single. One.
So… Why was he still alive?
Why had that creature told him his real name…? Cloud still too afraid to utter it, even thinking it giving him shivers down his spine.
And… What did he mean by "mine" when he had whispered it so close to his ear?
But Cloud's thoughts were cut again as the door swung open, blue eyes turning to see his friend re-appear, closing the door behind him with one hand, balancing a foam cup and an apple in the other, Zack turning to the other with a smile. "Phew…! Man, that girl was totally into me. She was about ready to give me a banana and some melon balls as well before I told her you were allergic to banana's and that apples are your favorite."
Cloud blinked. "How did you know that?" He asked, looking a little surprised by the apple comment.
Zack blinked at him in return, before laughing and handing the other his drink and snack. "How else? I'm your best friend! I just know these things about you." He said with a smile, Cloud taking his drink and having a sip.
"Mmm… Good alcohol." He joked, Zack laughing a little as he sat back down.
"Thought you'd like it."
"So how was the part of your business trip you actually attended…?" Cloud asked, putting his drink down on the side table, before looking around for a knife.
"Not so bad… Boring as any other business whatever in the world, but not so bad." Zack replied, fishing through one of his pockets before producing a plastic knife for the other to use, Cloud thanking him before cutting into his apple.
And the two conversed quite a while, sharing the apple, joking back and forth about past business meeting horrors and hilarities, moving on to how Cissnei was doing and where Zack and she were in their relationship… right up until Cloud's dinner was brought to him by the nurse Zack had flirted with to get him his snack, the woman seeming a little more than shocked by the gorgeous men sitting together in one room… But as the sun started to fall, Zack took his leave, telling Cloud he'd come back tomorrow to chat some more and check in on him…
But what neither man realized in all that time was the pair of emerald eyes hungrily watching the hospital's blonde patient, a tongue circling yet another set of lips, form thin this time and hair long, its silver coloration gleaming in the rays of sunset. "Soon, my possession…" He thought to himself, smirking. "Soon… I shall taste your sweet flesh once more, before I save you yet again for later… My perfectly tormented little soul." He continued his musings in his mind, turning and disappearing into the trees surrounding the hospital parking lot, a cool fog rolling in from the mountains.
And as the last strands of his hair melted into the black, a luscious chuckle was carried upon the wind, blue eyes widening as it slithered inside his ears… pleasantly poisoning his mind, sending chills down his spine, and making him turn to look out into the darkness of the night, fearful… Yet his heart still thud for reasons unbelievable to him, swallowing them down before the nurse spoke up.
"Do you want anything else, sir…?" She asked, fluffing his pillow slightly.
But Cloud just shook his head, giving her a half-assed smile. "No thank you, not now anyways." He replied politely, the woman smiling in a similar manner – just to be polite – before adding in:
"Maybe later then?" Standing away from him, letting him lay back as she moved towards the door… retreating, almost.
"Yeah, maybe later. Thanks though." Cloud said in reply, keeping that fake smile until she had completely left the room… his eyes falling back upon the window of his room, staring out into the trees and fog, feeling that chill yet again… speaking softly to himself.
"Yeah…maybe later…"
"…or just too soon."
- 4
- 5
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Into the Abyss