Worlds Apart

Chapter 9

I sipped my coffee slowly. I was standing outside on the balcony, staring off into the distance. My balcony faced the woods; behind the woods a busy high way. Luckily, it was just far enough away that the cars weren't too loud.

I jumped, feeling a pair of arms wrap around me. I sank into the feeling, quickly realizing who it was,

"Why'd you leave me?" Cloud asked sleepily.

"You looked comfortable, I didn't want to wake you up." I replied, turning to face him.

I smiled. I went to touch his cheek, when I felt something strange. It was quick, but it felt as if there some invisible force around Cloud suddenly. I was easily able to push through it, but it still gave me an odd feeling.

"Everything okay?" He asked. He grabbed my hand gently, making me snap back to reality.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine." I said, my fingers lightly brushing his cheek.

He still felt the same. The strange feeling slowly melted away. We stared into each other's eyes, our lips finding each others after a few moments.
Clouds fingers entangled themselves in my hair. He kissed me harder, softly pinning me against the door.

"Hey now," I said, breaking away and smirking at him, "don't start what you can't finish."

Cloud suddenly pulled away, turning his back to me, "do you hear that?"

I listened for a moment, "yeah, it sounds like...people screaming."

Cloud and I looked at each other, "we should go check it out." He said, heading back inside.

"And do what exactly?" I asked as I followed him.

Cloud pulled his shoes on, "maybe we can help. Let's go."

Cloud practically dragged me out of the apartment once my shoes were on. The screaming sounded close, so he just followed the sound, eventually seeing people running towards us. A man bumped into Cloud. He fell, but Cloud only took a step back,

"Y-you better run! It's a monster!" The man said, quickly scrambling to his feet and running away.

Cloud took off ahead of me. I struggled to keep up, almost getting trampled by the crowd of people running in the opposite direction.

"Cloud! Wait!" I called after him. I eventually made my way to him, seeing the source of the problem.

"A Deathclaw..." Cloud and I said simultaneously.

A large humanoid figure was standing in the middle of the road. It stood on two legs, the knees bent backwards like a bird. It had a large, round torso, eight spider like appendages protruding from its back. It let out a roar, the beastly sound drowning out the screams for a moment.

I froze in fear. Not only was Cloud real, but now the monsters were too? The monster took a few steps, its gaze slowly meeting mine. It let out another roar, charging straight for me.

I closed my eyes tight, waiting to be sliced to pieces. I heard a loud clang, like metal against metal. I opened my eyes, seeing Cloud standing in front of me. He'd picked up a metal shovel, using it to block the Deathclaw.

"Run!" He yelled at me, forcing the Deathclaw back. I scrambled to my feet. I took off in the opposite direction, hiding in an alley. I was away from danger, but still within eye shot of Cloud.

Despite Cloud being in the real world, he still fought like he was in his game. Sure, he didn't jump as high and he couldn't do inhuman gymnastics, but his strength and sword skills were unmatched. He easily wailed in the monster, barely giving it time to react to being hit.