The Forgotten Hero

Chapter 18

                Verna sat up in a bed. She winced at how sore her entire body was. She rubbed her shoulder and her eyes widened as she remembered what happened the night before. Verna looked at her shoulder and noticed it was bandaged. She must have been saved. She passed out before she could see who did so.

                Verna looked around the room she was in to try and see who saved her. Her eyes narrowed, she was in Rufus’s bedroom. Was he the one who saved her? Moving out from underneath the covers she gasped from the pain it was causing her. She must have been stabbed dozens of times for this amount of pain.

                The door opened causing Verna to glance up at the person walking in. Her eyes met that of Rufus’s. He kept a cold distant look to him, not that it was unusual. He sat a glass of water down on the end table next to Verna and sat down at the foot of the bed.

                “I see you’re awake,” He spoke quietly.

                “How long was I out?” Verna bit back a sarcastic reply. Something was telling her that she shouldn’t mess with him.

                “Not long, about 18 hours,” Rufus moved some hair out of his face.

                “What’s wrong?”

                Rufus looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, “What makes you think something’s wrong?”

                “The fact that whenever you move your hair out of your face there’s something bothering you,” Verna raised two fingers, “And the fact that you avoided my question with another question. Now what’s wrong?”

                Rufus stood up and made his way to the door. He stopped once he was in front of it and turned his head to the side ever so slightly, “Don’t make me worry about you like that again.”

                Verna froze as Rufus walked out of the room. He was actually worried about her? The ice cold president of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company? She looked over at the water he placed on the end table and took a sip from it. She nearly gagged at a bitter taste that was in it. He mixed the water with a potion.

                Knowing that she’d have a hard time finishing it, Verna placed it back on the end table and slowly walked to the door in the room. She whispered an “ow” every other step before she walked outside. She heard a couple of voices down the hall causing her to stop in her tracks.

                “They know I’m a spy,” It was a males voice, but it wasn’t Rufus’s.

                “I see,” Rufus spoke. “What do you plan to do?”

                “I’d like to keep on helping them, sir. I know it may cost me my job, but I think that’s what would be best. We’re heading to the Ancient Temple to find something called a Black Materia. We believe that Sephiroth is after it.”