Dear Demon, Love Demon
The canine growl had an odd, almost synthetic sound coming from three throats. Cerberus, guardian of the Realm of Death, was growling at something. Vincent looked up slowly. He never rushed these nightmares anymore. It wasn't worth it.
A young woman stepped out of the peripheral darkness. Cerberus's heads sank back onto its paws, but it didn't move its eyes from her.
"Who are you?" He asked her. Though, upon saying it he felt that he ought to know the answer. She looked familiar. She was pretty, fair skinned and had long, brown hair. Her eyes were a luminous green-blue and had a cold, harshness which seemed alien to Vincent.
"Who I am doesn't really matter." She took a few steps closer to Vincent, Cerberus's eyes never wavering. "What matters is that you know I have your best interests at heart, always." She stepped even closer—close enough for their bodies to almost touch—and tilted her head up, breathing in his ear. She put an arm around his waist and dragged the fingertips of her other hand across his body.
She breathed so softly that he could barely hear her. "I love you, Vincent."
He turned to look at her, but his cheek touched hers and he woke suddenly.
Vincent's eyes opened to see the gray light of early morning shining through his window. He sat up and shivered, holding his upper arms as though cold. He felt slightly sick, as if something terrible had happened, but the memory of the nightmare was already fading.
He ran a hand across his snarled hair in an attempt to brush the feeling away and stood, but as he did so the very feeling worsened. There was a knot in the pit of his stomach and all he could see in his mind's eye was the woman's cruel, icy, blue-green eyes.
Vincent opened his door and stepped out into the hall. For a moment he thought he might still be dreaming, then he thought he was hallucinating. After several moments of trying to accept the scene before him his breath caught in his chest and he fell to his knees, shaking, in a pool of fresh blood.
Shelke was most certainly dead.
Vincent could remember very little of the next events. However, he knew that he had left his home and had been found staggering, stunned, covered in someone else's blood. Not a good way to be found. Luckily, Yuffie caught up with him before someone from the WRO was called, and he was brought back to Seventh Heaven.
"Have you ever seen someone ripped apart like that?" Tifa asked Cloud softly.
"...Yeah." He said. She looked up, surprised. "When Vincent turned into a monster," he explained.
"You don't think..."
"No, I don't think. I know. Nothing else could do that. Did you see the paw prints?"
Tifa swallowed. She hadn't stayed at the scene very long, but she had seen the tracks. "Yes."
"Galian Beast," Cloud said, not looking at her, "and... the tracks came from Vincent's room and returned there."
"Cloud, you can't—"
"No." He looked at her in the eye now. "I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now, but we have to be careful."
There was a long pause as both of them pondered the implications of what they had just discussed.
"Why Shelke, though? I can't see Vincent doing that to her... he loved her..."
"She was closest. An easy target."
Vincent was curled up on a bed in a vacant room above the bar. He was no longer covered in blood, but he still felt like he was. The vision of Shelke's body, torn open like that, was burned into his mind, only punctuated by the sudden appearance of a hazy image of those green eyes.
Vincent looked up to find that Cloud was leaning in the doorway, watching him shrewdly.
"How long have you been there?"
"About five minutes."
"I hadn't noticed you. Good job."
"I've been practicing." Cloud's expression didn't soften, and he hadn't moved. Vincent was slightly unnerved.
"Is something wrong?"
"No." Another long pause then, "Vincent, where were you?"
Vincent was surprised by the accusatory question. "I was asleep."
Cloud nodded. "Are you sure... nothing happened? You don't remember anything?"
Vincent was silent for a moment. "I had a nightmare."
"One where—?"
"No. I... it's the kind of nightmare... I have a lot. Just... talking to someone."
Cloud looked a little disconcerted. "Who?"
"Usually just... anyone. But I didn't know who it was this time." Vincent looked down, not making eye contact with Cloud.
"What did they say?" Cloud asked.
Vincent shook his head, and didn't look up. After a couple of minutes, Cloud left.
He was dressed in his old uniform, but not formally. His tie was loosened and the dark blue jacket was off.
He surveyed the surrounding darkness, wondering where and when tonight's apparition would emerge.
"Hello, Vincent." A soft, almost teasing voice said in his ear. Vincent startled and stood up from the throne of darkness over the back of which the midnight blue jacket hung. Somehow, the woman apparition had managed to sneak up on him in his own realm.
She was smiling, her emerald eyes flicked up and down. "You look nice." She said lightly.
"What do you want?" Vincent asked, sounding more accusing than he had intended.
She looked hurt. Vincent looked away.
"I'm sorry..."
"You shouldn't be."
There was an awkward pause.
"I wanted to see you again." She said softly. "I needed to see you again. I love you."
He looked up at her, but her bright eyes were disconcerting and he looked away again.
"Vincent, please don't... blame yourself."
"For what?"
But she was gone, and Vincent woke feeling sick again. This time he recognized the feeling. When he had woken from death he had felt like this. It was the feeling of having swallowed large amounts of blood.
Everything inside his head was dark. He couldn't bear the thought of opening his eyes, of knowing whether or not the nightmare was a reality. He felt someone standing over him. He finally opened his eyes.
Barret's adoptive daughter, Marlene, was looking at him in deep concern. "Vincent, are you okay?"
Vincent sighed and sat up to speak to her. "No, Marlene, I'm not okay. But thank you for your concern." He expected her to leave, but she didn't.
"Do you need anything? I could bring you something?"
"No, that's alright, Marlene. I don't need anything."
"Okay…" She looked almost disappointed.
Vincent sighed again. "…Maybe some water, thank you, Marlene."
The pink ribbon in her hair bounced as she nodded once happily and turned and ran out of the room to get it for him.
Vincent couldn't remember how old little Marlene was, but she looked older than Shelke had.
Shelke.
Vincent couldn't believe what had happened, least of all that he was blamed for it. Nothing was making sense. Vincent lay back down and put his arm over his face as though to simulate the darkness of night.
"Vincent?" The voice surprised him and he was instantly sitting up and checking his side for Cerberus. The gun was gone.
When he saw that it was Tifa, Vincent made a show of pretending to relax, but he was more on his guard than ever. He noted her dark expression.
"More bad news, Tifa?"
"Did you leave here last night?"
"No," Vincent said smoothly, "I was asleep."
Tifa swallowed and looked at the ground. "I heard you leave last night. I assumed it was some… vampire thing… but…" Vincent resisted a look of disgusted incredulity at being accused of being a vampire. "Vincent, two more people were killed. The same thing that happened to Shelke…"
Vincent stared at Tifa. He felt like the floor was dropping out beneath him. It was hard for him to breathe.
"Vincent, Galian Beast's claw marks were on the girl's… skull."
"Lock me in then, if you think it's me!" Vincent put his hands in his hair, looking down in frustration.
"No use." Tifa held up a busted deadbolt with three bullet holes in it. "And we found your Cerberus at the scene." There was silence. Vincent stared at the floor, unseeing. "Vincent, we need to know the truth," Tifa said, as though trying to soothe an animal, "did you leave last night?"
"Please leave me." Vincent whispered, not looking up, not moving.
"Vincent?" Marlene skipped into the room and Vincent finally looked up. She handed him the glass of water. "Do you need anything else?"
"No… thank you. Thank you, Marlene…"
"Come on, Marlene, let's go now." Tifa guided her out of the room with a hand on her shoulder.
The little girl glanced back at Vincent, a look of deep concern on her face.
Vincent lay back on the bed again, but he didn't dare sleep.
Ten hours alone was nothing to Vincent. Ten hours alone, in the home of a friend, accused of murder, felt nearly as long as thirty years.
Vincent paced back and forth for a while, and then stopped. He could cause a rut to form in the flooring at this rate. He sat on the bed, got up, made the bed and sat back down. He got up and started pacing again, then stopped himself. He lay down on the bed, but didn't dare let his muscles relax. He stared angrily at the glass of water Marlene had brought him.
Vincent started at the sound. It was the sound of something landing hard on a table. Possibly a fist. He got up and was starting to leave the room when he heard shouting voices.
"You can't do this Barret! You can't just... He's our friend!" Tifa seemed to be defending someone.
Who were they talking about? Vincent opened the door of the bedroom silently and slipped into the hallway.
"I'm not sayin' nothin' 'bout him! I'm just worried 'bout Marlene."
Tifa and Barret were arguing in the back room of the bar. Vincent stayed outside the room, listening.
"I know we need to be careful, but he doesn't have anyone else. Where do you expect him to go? Even if he did kill those people, he has the right to at least explain why!"
Vincent stared at the floor, listening numbly. They were sentencing him.
"Ain't safe keepin' 'im here."
"He's not sane, we have to at least try to understand!"
"Barret is right, Tifa," Cloud said calmly, "it's not safe to let him stay anywhere near us. Or anyone. Next it'll be Marlene... or Yuffie, or... you."
"No!" Marlene shouted, "Not you too, Cloud! You can't just leave him, he's our friend! Don't you care anymore?"
"You're in danger, Marlene. You have to realize—"
"What if it was me? Would you kick me out—or... or execute me—because people kept dying around me?"
"Marlene, if it were you it wouldn't—"
"Why not? What's wrong with Vincent?"
"Marlene!"
Marlene ran out of the room, crying. She had her face in her hands, so when she rounded the corner she ran into Vincent. She looked up at him, then hugged him, crying anew into the front of his cape.
Soon, she regained her composure enough to look up. "You didn't kill those people, right?"
Vincent looked down at her, not able to lie and tell her he hadn't. "I... I don't know."
Marlene let go of him and looked up at him sadly. "What are you going to do, Vincent?"
Vincent looked away from her guiltily. "I'm sorry, Marlene..."
"Vincent!"
Tifa, Cloud, Barrett, even Yuffie and some of the others were calling his name.
"Vincent!"
The WRO was on the lookout too, based on the searchlights.
Vincent huddled deeper into the dark corner, cape wrapped tightly for comfort rather than warmth. He fingered the stem of the flower he'd gotten from the old church in the slums. He had to find his way back to Seventh Heaven.
He swept across the upper level of Edge silently, roof to roof. Back to the refuge from which he'd been banished. He perched outside Marlene's window, looking through it at her sleeping shape. Sleeping unaware of the shadow watching her.