The Final Fantasy

To Make it Through

I opened my eyes, a surge of relief flooded through me. The night before, I had been unaware of the fact the Angeal had unconditionally left, gone to track down Genesis. Angeal was my friend. My closest friend. Thoughts of him entered my mind as I lifted myself of the floor.

An unexpected smell filled the air around me, “Cinnamon pancakes,” I thought. A smell that a person like me wasn't accustomed too.

Zack introduced me into solider 5 years ago. Zack was another one of my closest friends,...but he died in the Great Fire. Soldier is an elite group of specially trained men who work to protect every person in Midgar. Soldier was once admired by everyone, it has recently became hated for letting the world slip into chaos. I was the only pure thing left in Soldier..I am now the last one left from my unit. The only one that wasn't tracked down and killed by the Turks, besides Angeal. Angeal was a person who felt he could do things on his own. And most of the time he could, because of this, he was a prized possession of Soldier, he was known as a one man army, they could use Angeal for missions that needed to be kept a low profile and not cause alarm. But right now he was considered MIA (missing in action). I knew that wasn't true. At least that’s what I wanted to believe.

As I stood up I became dizzy, staggering from side to side, I clung onto the wall hoping I wouldn't fall. As my vision cleared and I became stable, something out of the corner of my eye caught my interest. It was Tifa. She was so beautiful. Her ravishing beauty was natural. Her eyes were my favorite thing about her. It complimented her dark brown hair. She was wearing a white tank-top with a black over coat and blue jeans.

“Finally up sleepy head?” she said to me.

It took a moment to catch my breath, “Yeah, the floors a little more comfy than I thought,” I said with exaggeration. “Whats that smell?”

“Oh, I'm making breakfast,” she said, “i figured that its not every day you get a nice meal.”

“Yeah that's nice of you,” I said as she walked from the room to check on the food.

I stood there for a second until I found a chair that looked the best. As I sat down the chair exploded with dust telling me that this house wasn't used very much. Before long I was wondering where this house even was. I got up and looked around, “I've never even seen this place,” I thought to myself. After investigating the lonely dust covered living room, I made my way up the crooked staircase which lead me into a dark narrow hallway. The walls were lined with pictures of unfamiliar faces. Pictures that seemed to of been hanging for a very long time. As I kept walking down the hallway I passed room after room until I came to one that was open. I looked at the door. It was barley ajar. I started to reach for the knob slowly, the floor boards below me creaked as my weight shifted from one foot to the other...my hand grasped the knob. Just before I opened it an arm grabbed my shoulder and I flung around ready to fight. It was a little boy.

“Ahhh,” the boy screamed. He was wearing an over sized Shinra jacket with a wooden sword in one hand. His brown hair covered one of his eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked

“Who am I?? Who are you?!” the boy yelled, “This is my house!”

As I was about to apologize Tifa came from behind with flour now covering her hands.

“It's OK Denzil, this is Cloud, he's going to be staying with us for a while.”

“Actually I'll be leaving soon,” I said with regret.

Tifa's happy face became a bowl of sadness at my words. She looked at Denzil and ushered him back down stairs. She came back with her arms at her sides and her face distraught, “What do you mean your leaving?” she said coldly.

“Tifa, we've had this conversation.”

“Ya but...” I interrupted her.

“Nothings changed since the last time. You knew I would have to leave. So stop filling your head with lies that can never happen.”

“Cloud....”

“Tifa,.....” there were a few moments pause, “I can't,” I said as I walked passed her. Pass all the doors, and pass all of the portraits on the walls. I hated making her feel as if I didn't care, as if I wanted to forget our old life. I didn't. But I had to leave, I couldn't stay here. Every second I was with Tifa and Denzil I compromised there lives. I had to leave.

After our conversation, I sat down again in the dust covered room. I sat there with my eyes closed letting thoughts of Angeal come back into my mind. A few minutes later I heard Tifa come down the stairs. As she passed the living room to the kitchen I caught sight of her face. She'd been crying, but I couldn't show concern. I couldn't let emotion get the best of me.

About 20 minute later called me into the kitchen. When I entered I noticed Denzil sitting at a small 4 person table cutting up some pancakes Tifa had laid out for him.

The kitchen was very small. There were small cracks in the tiles on the floor. And the walls were painted an old peach color that gave the old white cabinets the support they needed to make the kitchen look decent. The only great thing about the kitchen was the small island in the far left corner of the room away from the table.

I took a few more steps into the kitchen and Denzil looked up at me with a mouth full of pancakes, but almost instantly went back to his food. I looked at Tifa. Her eyes were still red from when she was crying. She was laying two plates out. One for me and one for her, and then placed to steaming pancakes on both our plates. There was an awkward silence while we ate. The only sound there was, was our fork sliding across the plates. Denzil finished before either of us. I ate as I watched him leave the room, then turned back to find Tifa staring at me intently.

“How soon are u leaving?” she said.

“Tomorrow morning,” I replied.

With those words Tifa stood up and threw her plate across the room with it smashing against the wall. A few moments later Denzil was back in the room but was quickly swished away by a stern look from Tifa.

“Stop running!” she yelled, “You think you've got it so damn hard! Yeah you may not answer the phone when I call but I don't see you throwing it away either!!”

That night, Tifa's words circled my head. She was right. I was running, but I did care. But their lives were more important than mine. My decision was final. I was leaving.