Crisis Core: The Novel

Chapter 20 - Black Suit

Zack was walking back to the Shinra Building at dusk when a postman approached him at the steps.

"Excuse me sir. A 1st. Are you...Angeal Hewley?"

Zack stopped. He had no idea what came over him at that moment, what malignant influence possessed him to answer like he did. Zack turned to the postman with grabbed attention.

"Yes."

A grave expression crossed the courier's face.

"I'm very sorry sir, but I'm afraid I have terrible news. Your wife is dead."

Zack froze. The man took his cap off, rubbing his brow with a slim wrist.

"The Sorceress War in the North. Oh, so many people are losing their lives over who knows what. I have this letter for you, undeliverable I'm afraid. I'm so sorry."

The man handed a stamped envelope to Zack. He recognized his own handwriting, the letter he'd written to Angeal's wife after tracking her down in Winhil. Three pages, both sides. He hadn't written essays in school that long, he'd had to make himself stop. Now it had returned to his hand, unopened, unread, a syntax error that just couldn't compute in his shocked mind at the moment.

Zack swallowed hard at the ground, getting his bearing, then he remembered something.

"Um...there was a baby."

The postman gazed into his eyes, and didn't answer for a long moment.

"I'm sorry sir."

And Zack's hand went over his mouth. That's when he almost lost it, trying hard to hold it in. He had to close his eyes for a long few seconds, and even then, he just shook his head in awe.

The courier sighed in frustration, rubbing the back of his head seemingly as upset as Zack was.

"Oh, what is this world coming to?"

Zack pursed his lips hard, gazing up at the sky. "Anything but an end."

He met the postman's eyes then as the man nodded and extended his hand to Zack. "Good luck to you, sir."

Zack shook it, and the man went away, leaving him alone there on the steps with an unopened letter in his hand. Zack stared at it for a long time, Angeal's last penance, all the proof that he ever existed was gone.

What if something happened to him, Zack wondered. Was this how they were going to tell Aerith? With a succinct letter from Kunsel or Luxiere and a sincere apology from a postman? He wouldn't die, Zack could never die, but what if he got hurt, severely wounded, broke a pinky toe or something? It occurred to him then that she wouldn't be the first to find out, that his blood-relatives back in Gongaga would be priority by default...and that killed him.

He ripped up the letter into even squared pieces and put it in his pocket, then he whipped out his phone dialing Aerith. It rang longer than usual.

"Hi. This is Aerith with Sector 5 Youth in Crisis. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 5-1-1. I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave a message I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

Zack hung up. A heavy sigh. He continued on into the Shinra Building holding his head as high as he could manage.

In the lobby, Cissnei strolled down the second-story stairs in casual-wear having just gotten off shift, and stopped when she saw Zack. He straightened up when he saw her, and his mouth hung open a little.

The incantation of office-chic, she sported lightwash Gap jeans that formed to her curvy thighs, a star-studded belt around her waist. She was a Sketchers girl with a denim messenger bag slung over her shoulder, the strap falling cross-chest over her frilled white button-down. Cissnei looked crimped up in her michrocheck suit with business-attire makeup, but once she washed that stuff off, her freckles poked through on her nose and cheeks like cherry ice-cream sprinkles, and something about them made Zack's heart flutter.