Notes: This turned out waaaaaay different then I had planned. I had hoped for a simple, dark story but I went a little crazy and it came out...a bit creepy. Feel free to flog me when you finish reading it. Written for 100 Themes Contest.

Upon Clorith's request I'd like to note this story is AU. Cloud never knew her before her death.


A trail of crimson streaked across endless white. Moans scream of such pain. Red lights are lit and women walk the streets, foul temptresses. Vacant alley inhabited by lonesome beggar only for the night. And one walks the streets, long hair in her face and white dress stained with life. Boundless white sea she walks, snow stinging her feet to numbness. Then there is quiet. On her knees, clutching her wound. Life escapes and spills all over the earth. In this suffering she wails and dies.

Early morning comes and there is no sign of light. He is so tired and can only make out a vague lump in the snow. A sleeping hooker in the road. He’d take her to Madame Valute. She’d know what to do. So he carries her up and around. To a house of a size unmatched. Such a wealthy bordello needed endless space.

“She sleeps… and needs shelter.” A bed is prepared and he studies her in the warmth of the fireplace. Her breathing is so light you’d think she wasn’t. Her skin is so pale you’d think she had no blood. He holds her still hand. It’s as if the rigor mortis had set in. But how could such a pure looking maiden be an ordinary prostitute. He lifted her eyelid to find vibrant green eye with no focus. Oh such beauty she had.

She did not wake the next morning. He held her hand, still cold in spite of staying in a warm bed over night. Madame Valute called a doctor. He would be there that afternoon. If he didn’t know better he’d say she was dead. Her dress was indeed stained red but the ladies had dressed her wound. He was so sure she lived… or at least hoped she did. He’d bring her meals but she never stirred from what was assumed to be a coma. “She’ll starve!” he cried in his mind. He eventually resolved to only forcing water down her throat. No swallowing or movement. It’s as if she had long since drifted into the abyss.

The doctor comes and examines her. After what seems to be months he calls them in. “Why this is nothing but a corpse. A few days dead, no less.” His heart stopped. The doll he had doted over was nothing but the lifeless shell of its glorious former existence. He worshipped this… thing! Suddenly his world went dark and the brilliant carcass began to rot. Maggots burst from its eyes, flesh seems to melt away, teeth decay into vile black things, clothes deteriorate, hair becomes sparse, and nails are yellow and lengthy. How could such beauty turn into something so revolting?

He ran, the abominable stench of the cadaver following him. His gorgeous china doll was no more. All that remained was loathsome pile of rotted flesh and bones. And that disgusting odor would not dissipate or subside. It hung on him, as if taunting him. He had loved a corpse. He had dreams of a dead body reanimating itself. He had even had visions of making love to it! He fell in the snowy street, throwing up from his own imagination. Those visions came back but instead of it being the bright and beautiful maiden he saw rotting remains.

Her blood was still on the street, semi-frozen. He stared at it. If only he had been there a moment sooner. Then he could really have saved her. He’d get to see a beautiful girl singing his praises. Being in his debt for he had saved her life. What a hero he could have been. He covered his face. Too little too late. A sudden wave of anger and frustration came over him. He tore his shirt to bits, scraping his body here and there.

He began scratching at his own skin. Crying out, his finger nails digging deeper trenches into the recesses of his flesh. Penance! Penance for having such foul thoughts about a dead body. With every scraping of his nails across raw body came one inch closer to forgiving and forgetting. But it was never enough. With every self inflicted wound came another thought of necrophilia. Where would forgiveness lie? But soon it came. The icy lake behind the bordello.

He returned to find the body covered with a delicate sheet of white. He took her into his arms, her body absolutely weightless. And into the chilly embrace of the semi-frozen lake he walked. At the bottom they could find peace together.

Wow, I really liked it (haha, but I like dark stories). Very effective descriptions, although I'm a little confused at the timeline. :]

This....well, I felt obligated to review, but...the subject matter...I don't like it.

It reminds me of an army of CloTis running around yelling gross. And...it doesn't really have the ethereal, spiritual quality of this couple that I like to see.

It's the difference between, hmmm...love transcending death, and love being mired in death. And it bothers me to see the latter, a little.

You didn't need to review. I feel bad for writing it but I've been itching to write a twisted, dark evil romance story and I happened to be working on this and well...eh. I'm ashamed of myself to a degree but what ever... Thanks for liking it MT. And I understand how you feel Alex but at least I tried, eh? Love isn't always smiles and sunshine. :cry:

I think it's one of those "to each their own". Just as I don't typically read Cleris fluff (I really can't view the pairing as "fluffy" so to speak), some people would prefer not to read dark/twisted/etc. stories like this one, eh? Maybe some people will go, "oh my gawd EW GROSS," but I think--if used with artistic license, like this story--it's not something comparable to a CloTi's accusations of "omg if Cloud loves Aerith he's a necrophiliac~~!!111 LOLOLOLOLZ"

Regardless, I thought the use of descriptions was fabulous, Kit, and I certainly don't think you should feel bad/ashamed about writing this. :]

Kit,

You really meant it when you said dark. I must be honest with you. I notice you have talent and give great poetic descriptions but I'm not really a fan of this story although I like both fluff and dark stories, I don't really like death being in it. Oddly enough I like Sephiroth/Aeris pairing through. :lmao:

Great work all in all, just not quite my genre. Keep writing. :gift:

I liked it quite a lot, Kit. It was creepy and disturbing, and it reminded me of 18th Century gothic horror stories. The only thing that really bothered me was the misspelling of 'foul' as 'fowl'. A fowl is a bird, so it kinda jarred me out of the story to see 'fowl temptresses' because I just had images of prostitute chickens in my head.

XD Fowl. Damn it. I'll fix it. Sorry! I'm just so...ugh...I was pained while writing it so I got a little lazy.

Ooooh. *shivers* You weren't kidding when you said it was dark! Even though the part with him realizing she was dead kinda freaked me out, it was truly effective- really good use of imagry. That part with Cloud walking into the lake carrying her just gave me goose-bumps! Congradulations for affecting me so strongly!

Too many sentence fragments, a lot of it doesn't make sense.

That was actually done intentionally as a way to set a tone. It made sense to all my friends and my writing teacher who read it so I'm not too sure why it confused you. I try to be clear but at the same time being an enigma makes a story like this better.

And thank you, Al. The scene where her body starts decomposing freaks everyone out it seems. Mrs. Raimo, my writing teacher, said I should definitely write more like this but I felt so weird afterward.

Quite personally, I thought it was great! I liked the abruptness and descriptions. It was eerily awesome. D:

Clerith isn't just fluff, guys. <333

Lol. The fact that you freaked me out only shows how effective it was! I understand- I always feel a bit weird writing stuff like this, But Lute is right; Clerith isn't all fluff and rainbows. I really think you did awesome on this- and I got the sentence fragments as part of the flow of the story- it adds to the style and the effect you were going for. I know I understood everything perfectly, so no worries my dear!

Thanks oodles everyone whose supported me. I was sitting in Mrs. Raimo's room today talking to her about this and she said that for someone to be able to appreciate a story like this they must:

- Be able to accept that there is a dark side to everything
- Don't allow buzz words like "necrophilia" to floor them too much
- Be able to appreciate poetic license and imagery
- See death as not such a bad thing

I hope that didn't insult anyone... :sweat:

God, I have a headache...

It was line 2 that got me. The reality of a cold corpse. Erk.

That's why you see me writing flowing prose about Aerith in spirit form, but never about her body.

It's an AU story where he never met her before she was a rotting corpse so her soul's presence would be a little silly since she never knew him. Besides, I try to leave spiritualism out of my writing. Augh... :(

I think that focusing on the body rather than the spirit was the whole point - I mean, what was the focus of the story? Spirit!Aerith stuff is great and all, but I think it's the best thing ever when you see new and original stuff like Kit's great story here. <333

Trust me, Kit - this story is awesome. :fangirl:

Nice writing. You created the tone very well, and I especially liked how Cloud's perception of whether or not Aerith was alive shaped how he looked at her. It's pretty darn good.

The one arena I felt that the fic lacked in was actually plot. Yes, this is a one-shot, and one-shots don't usually (and shouldn't IMHO) have long, complicated plots. But Cloud drowning himself over the dead body? Didn't grab me as a plot line.

However, what I felt was a lack in story was easily forgiven by the thoughtful writing and the fact that it was short enough so that the plot wasn't too important. Great job. ^_^

Thanks Sad. The plot sadly disappeared after I went mad with... er... creepiness. Or something. Didn't mean to gross anyone out. I just had a creepy episode is all! :D