When Dreams Fade

 
          When dreams fade...
          She fell.
          He could still see her standing there. It was like half of her had fallen, only half crumpling to the ground, the blood bursting out of her in a sudden shower like the petals of some exotic flower, the other part of her smiling, eyes glistening with tears, reaching a hand out to him.
          Laughing.
          You know what, Cloud?
          What?
          She fell, brown hair swirling around her like waves of air. Like her name. So beautiful.
          I don't want...
          What?
          As she crumpled to the ground. Swirls of color, lost in infinite time, and black fuzzing in around the edges of his vision.
          Time stood still.
          Don't see many flowers around here.
          Her eyes.
          Do you like them? They're only a gil.
          He swallowed, trying to whisper her name. Failing.
          Only watching the blood pooling around her small form, spurting out the wound in her back, staining her thin dress with thick crimson red. The sound of it on stone. Red crawling through the stone cracks like ghost fingers, like-
          Cold, liquid blood.
          He didn't notice the green materia at first as it bounced out of her outstretched hand. A sharp, hard note as it bounced across the stone. Like glass against glass.
          It was sure to break. The materia.
          Don't die. You can't die.
          He imagined her eyes looking at him, like she used to do, the smile never far from the corners of her mouth, sparkling diamonds in her gaze.
          Cloud? Why is that, Cloud?
          Bouncing across the stone, like glass.
          Because...because I...
          He stared, frozen. Frozen like his heart in that moment when she glanced up at him and then-
          No. You can't die.
          Her voice in his mind, a phantom. It was all a phantom. All fleeting, all ending, all dying, withering, fading away. Only a dream.
          Cloud? Tell me why?
          Because I-
          He never imagined silence could be so complete. The sound of the materia on stone would burst his eardrums. He'd always had her voice beside him. She'd talk and he'd listen.
          Laughing.
          He tried to speak, but his throat wouldn't let him. His lips formed the words, empty, like everything else. It was all a dream.
          Please don't die.
          He could still see her eyes, haunted and grave, gazing into his own. They wouldn't go away. They couldn't go away.
          Why?
          Because...because...
          The materia bounced lower, faster, nearer the ground. He stared at it like a blind man, groping.
          No.
          Why?
          It rolled along the stone. He watched it as it hit, pebbles in its path slowing it even more. Slowing. Rolling against stone. As it rolled to a halt. Silence.
          Why?
          Because...because I love you.
          The tears coursed silently down his cheeks.
          Except they weren't tears. Because it was all an illusion. A dying dream. All dying...
          Cloud?
          Tears of blood.
          Please.
          When dreams fade.