Painting love with Blood

Chapter 1

When Cloud stepped out of the car the first thing that hit him was the stench. Midgar stank; it stank of pollution, despair, unwashed bodies and underground dealings. The towering, angular shapes of skyscrapers and towers loom over everyone, giving the feeling of being trapped and unable to escape. The skyline has an angry orange glow from streetlights and neon signs. It was well known that Midgar had the highest crime rate in the country. Looking around at the dark streets and broken windows it was easy to believe. It was very different from the open spaces, tall rock outcrops and clear skies of the mountains that Cloud was used too. Hefting his bags over one shoulder Cloud started towards the apartment complex that he had rented for the next 6 months. He was planning to use his increased city wage to afford somewhere better after that.

The stairwell had paint peeling off the walls and ceiling. The banister was so dirty it was impossible to tell what colour it used to be. As he walked up to his apartment Cloud tried to avoid touching the walls with his shoulders. The graffiti that was splashed across them displayed numerous repulsive images and phrases, the stark colours a contrast to the dim and dismal surroundings.

“Let’s see... 14, 15, 16, here number 17” Reaching his front door Cloud set down his bags so that he could search through the pockets of his blue cord trousers. After pulling out a train ticket, some coins and a chocolate wrapper he managed to find the key. When the door swung open it squeaked lightly from the hinges. ‘Note to self: oil the hinges on the door, that squeak is creepy’

Cloud’s furniture and a majority of his bags and boxes had already been brought in by the company. They were sitting in what would become his living room with the overflow in the spare bedroom. It was a relatively small apartment two bedrooms, one bathroom a living room and the kitchen along with the corridor that connected them and the front door. Setting down his luggage Cloud bent over to pick up the first box that was marked ‘Kitchen’ his navy t-shirt riding up slightly to show a line of pale flesh at his back.

“Need some help, yo?”

Startled by the sudden voice behind him Cloud dropped the box on his foot, swearing he spun round but lost his balance and fell backwards with an ‘eep’ noise into the box. The lid ripped and he found himself sitting on top of wooden spoons and other kitchen implements. As he slowly got up, wincing at the pain in his back, the sound of laughter reached his ears. Standing in the doorway was a man with the brightest red hair Cloud had ever seen; it was in a strange style too, cropped short at the front but in a long pony tail at the back. Currently he was bent over double holding his stomach as he laughed hysterically; there was a still smoking cigarette on the floor. The cigarette must have fallen from the man’s mouth after he started laughing. Finally, after Cloud had been stood, blushing, for 5 minutes the man managed to get his breath back.

“That, yo, has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen since Elena came out the toilet with her skirt tucked into her polka-dot pants and Rude tripped up when he noticed. I’m Reno, yo; I live at hellhole number 15 two doors down. You’re the new kid, right?” Reno had two tattoos beneath his eyes, an earring in one ear and a pair of goggles on his head.

“Cloud Strife,” Cloud eyed Reno warily, he was tall and lanky. Well, he was tall in comparison to Cloud which in all honestly, was not very hard to be. Cloud had a feeling that Reno was generally quite tall anyway, it made his ego feel better. Cloud then turned back to the box he had just sat on and started putting things back in so he could carry it to the kitchen.

“So how old are you, 16 or younger?”

At this statement Cloud span round, blue eyes flashing with anger, before walking over to where Reno leant against the doorframe.

“I’m 21, dammit!” Cloud yelled. That induced another bought of laughter from the redhead.

“Seriously, yo? But you’re... such a midget,” Reno pats Cloud’s head, oblivious to the death glare that came from Cloud’s direction. “I mean look at you, you’re tiny.”

‘Hang him up by his eyelids using fishhooks before using a bat with nails coming out of it to bludgeon him to death’ Devil cloud decided to introduce himself from the position he had taken on Cloud’s shoulder. Cloud had a sinking feeling that the little devil would appear a lot more often around this person.

By the time all the boxes had been placed in the appropriate rooms and the furniture set up in the right places. Devil cloud had devised 153 different methods on ‘How to kill Reno’. Most of them involved using violent and painful torture methods to draw out his death as long as possible. Cloud’s desire to kill Reno grew with every comment he made.

“So is your hair natural or do you just use a bucket of gel, yo?” ‘Dangle him out of the window by his ankles and let the crows peck out his eyeballs.’ “It’s natural,” Cloud ground out through gritted teeth.

Finally all when everything was in the right room and Cloud had started unpacking Reno set himself up on Cloud’s couch lifting his feet to rest them on the armrest.

“Oh yeah, why did you move to this shithole anyway?” Cloud turned his head towards the sprawled figure; his eyebrow had started to twitch two minutes ago and was increasing in velocity.

“I was transferred to Midgar police force. I originally come from Neblihem.”

If Reno had had a drink, he would have spat it out across the room. Cloud was thank full he had told Reno earlier that there was no beer in the house. “Police force? What’s a soft looking kid like you doing in that?”

Turning to the man while brandishing a wooden spoon he had been putting away, Cloud’s glare was enough to have Reno putting his hands up in defence and sitting up properly on the couch so that he could escape quickly if things got nasty. “I would prefer it if you would refrain from making immediate assumptions on me based upon my appearance. How I look does not influence in any way my carrier choice.”

“Whoa! Hold up man. No need to get your feathers ruffled,” Reno obviously had no sense of self preservation as he stood up and bodily placed a fuming Cloud where he had just been sitting. “Well it was great meeting ya. I like you kid. I’ll be in number 15 if you need someone to smoke or just bitch with. Oh yeah, be careful around Midgar. There are far too many people who would take advantage of a naive cute kid like you. Plus, stay away from the high-ups; they’re all fucked in the head.” With that he walked out of the door, leaving Cloud to realise that he had just been pushed around in his own home. Suddenly unpacking seemed like too much effort. He grabbed his blue PJ’s from the suitcase and collapsed into bed.


Cloud had gotten lost twice before he managed to arrive at his new headquarters that he was supposed to be working at. After getting directions from the secetary, he headed up to the main office. When he arrived outside he became aware of raised voices inside.

“Come on cheif, it’s not like he managed to escape!”

“No but in the process of catching the bugger you not only managed to destroy one of the companies cars, you brought the suspect back covered in feathers, fucking feathers dammit. How the hell did that happen?” That must be the chief.

“Umm, he smashed into a lorry full of pillows. But, hey, no harm done in the long run,” The voice sounded far too cheerful for Cloud’s liking and he hoped that he would not have to work with this man too often, he sounded insane.

Knocking tentatively on the door Cloud opened his mouth to ask for permission to enter. The door was flung open and cloud was greeted with a sight of wild black spiky hair and a pair of violet eyes, all set above a mouth that was currently pulled into a huge grin.

“Ooh a newbie, and a cute one at that. Chief! Newbie here to see you!” The stranger was still grinning stupidly in the doorway.

“Right, you must be Strife. Get your ass in here. You too Fair this involves you’re slaking ass as well,” Upon entering the office Cloud saw that ‘Chief’ was a unshaven blond man with slate blue eyes and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He was sitting at a desk holding onto what looked like a cup of tea, still hot.

“Right. Fair, this is Cloud, your going to be babysitting his pansy, newbie ass for a while. Strife, this is Fair, he’s gonna be your partner and I hope you will be able to stop him from killing himself in some harebrained idea that he thinks is fun. You can introduce yourselves properly when you get your asses out of my office. You are both working in the homicide section so if anyone decides to slit anyone’s guts you two are going to be who we are calling, got it?” He then took a gulp of his tea before he started muttering something about ‘spiky haired idiots with suicidal tendencies’.

“Yes, Chief Highwind, sir,” both of them gave a salute then Fair grabbed Cloud by the arm and proceeded to pull him out of the office and down the corridor.

“Ok! I’m Zack pleased to meet you, what’s your name or can I just call you Spike?” Zack was still wearing that infuriating grin

“Cloud Strife,” Cloud could tell he was blushing, his face felt hot and Zack’s grin just got wider.

“Cloud? Cool name Spike, let me introduce you to the rest, they’re going to love you,” With that Zack dragged a blushing, stuttering Cloud down the corridor.


Yeah, not too much gore, blood and sex here but that comes later. Can’t go abusing my characters too much. Sephiroth comes later as well. He doesn’t really know about Cloud yet but that will change. Hehehehe.