Chapter IX | A Quiet Promise

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Chapter IX | A Quiet Promise

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Chapter IX | A Quiet Promise

VINCENT WAS DREAMING.

He was dreaming of blood and darkness, of monsters inside him, of chaos in his chest where his heart should have been.

He was dreaming of a broken promise, a past shrouded in darkness, a cave of crystals and a woman, frozen in time.

He was dreaming, and he was lost. Lost too deep in his head, too deep in that cold, isolating darkness, to find his way out.

Until he heard something.

A voice, cutting through that darkness to reach him.

Vincent

Vincent, can you hear me?

The voice was soft and gentle and warm, so unlike the place of his dreams.

Vincent

Wake up

Please wake up-

"Vincent!"

He blinked open his eyes, startled out of the darkness by a warm hand on his cheek and a voice that could tear through his dreams.

"Hm," he muttered, sitting up.

There was a woman crouched in front of him. A woman with eyes like stars, warm and kind. And for a moment, things in his head started to tangle, past bleeding into the present, the thorns digging deeper-

"L-Lucrecia?"

There was a faint twist to the woman's face - surprise? disappointment? - and Vincent yanked himself out of his memories, back into the present-

a present where Lucrecia wasn't alive anymore.

"No," Alya said quietly, looking away. "I'm afraid not."

Vincent clenched his fist, grounding himself. "Alya, I'm sorry," he said, fighting the urge to bury his head in his hands. He'd let his dreams catch up with him. The memories that were always there, at the back of his mind, tangling threads around his heart, pulling tighter and tighter-

"You were dreaming." Alya moved back to sit on the other bed, and Vincent couldn't bring himself to look at her.

After everything she had done for him, he was still letting those memories strangle him.

Troubled Souls | Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII) ✓Where stories live. Discover now