Despite his best efforts to quell the bleeding form the contents of the box, the floor was soon half covered with blood and leaking out onto the deck.
After two days, he gave up and had his servant mop up the mess each morning but locked the desk, knowing the man’s curiosity was only increased by Erik’s nonchalant appearance after giving up.
Erik did not trust the man at all, yet his mind was occupied with being torn between what the bleeding box portended and whether he’d keep his life in his risky venture.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
"And aye me lad’s a’ woe me lasses, I be wed and wed to the sea. She hold no ring, but she hold me heart an’ she hold me soul. A sailor’s life I’ll lead an’ a sailor’s death I’ll take. The sea, she leaves such anger in her wake…" Cid forgot the rest of the tune and was sure he’d skipped a line or two and went to whistling the rest of the song as he spun the steering wheel.
"’Tis a fine impression of a goose drowning," he heard behind him. "That bird must be putting up a fierce fight."
"Vincent," Cid greeted the man in black, ignoring the insult.
"I be Black Valentine," Vincent said coldly. "Only my children can call me by that name, and I know not if they be even alive."
"Yer chill’un be grown by now, if they be so," Cid said. "I akep’ hopin’ that pendant be a compass. We be lost as Moses in the desert."
"At least we will not be here for forty years," Vincent said.
"How ya figger?"
"We fall dead long before."
"Cheerful you," Cid said.
"My apologies," Vincent said. "I did not mean to sound contented at the notion of you all dead like I."
"Ya ain’t dead," Cid said. "Yer jus’…"
"I have not bled from my wounds for twenty years," Vincent said. "If I be not dead, than what be I? I have wished to know for far too long."
"Ye had them slices fer twenty years?" Cid asked, taking his hands off the wheel. He had no idea where they were anyway, so he deemed it no loss to leave it for a few minutes.
"Aye, an' Cloud be ahavin’ one fer three now," Barret said, somehow managing to sneak up on the two despite his huge bulk. "Someone has answers an’ I want ‘em."
"I got nuthin’" Cid said.
"I have but few answers, and I doubt they could ever be enough," Vincent said.
"Will ye knock that off?" Barret said, slapping Vincent on the back.
Vincent did not move and he kept his eyes downcast.
"Ain’t no one gonna kill ye."
"For I already be dead," Vincent said, walking a few feet away from the two.
"A man walks ‘round on his own wishes and speaks his own mind ain’t dead," Barret said. "Zombies got them puppetmasters."
Vincent laughed, though it was obvious he found no humor in anything.
"I ain’t one fer vi’lence usually, but you don’t talk ‘bout what you do happen ta know an I’ll be seein’ if there be strings to cut," Cid said.
Again Vincent laughed, this time finding not only humor, but far too much. He laughed so loud and hard Cloud and Nanaki came on deck and Yuffie poked her head out of the crow’s nest.
"The only stings to cut be those holding my guts in my stomach," Vincent said, mocking cheer. "A man who walks on his own volition? Speaks what be on his mind? Oh if you witness my deepest wish be granted I shall prove you wrong. I be the only dead upon the ship, true. The boy, he holds the curse the same. He bleeds for he still has his heart in his chest. Mine was taken from me by the very man that took my life and destroyed it first."
"You mean Erik?" Cloud asked.
"What do you know of him?" Vincent hissed.
"I saw… I mean… we… there was something a few nights ago. We saw you and Lucretia and…"
"Do not speak that name!" Vincent yelled. "Leave me be! If you knew anything of her and I, do not speak her name! How do you know of her? How do you know Erik?"
"We saw somethin’," Cid said. "That pendant popped open and we saw the whole damned shebang."
"Ye were shot an’ then ye closed the pendant an’ it all disappeared," Barret said.
"Then I did hear that noise indeed. I feared I was going mad, remembering the time," Vincent said. "True. The man I pledge my life to kill be Erik. If the dream you saw ended at the gunshot… then the tale be not over, though I wish not to tell it. I say this only: how he hurt me only began that night. The wailings of his creature were nothing compared to mine under his torment. He took my heart and sealed it away. What fate you would have met after the gallows had you not been rescued I faced alone and awake."
"Then those slices…" Nanaki whispered.
Vincent said nothing and did not even nod, however his gaze took on a more steely sight to it than before and they all knew who had given them to him.
"If Shinra had hanged you and given your corpses to him to study he would not deign to take the bodies of the dead. He has had more than me. He has taken my crew; he has pressed his foul lips to each of my men and seen what lay inside, then brought them out to the cave and shot them all through the heart while that creature held them down. I was tied down and then left in a further alcove while the rock was placed over me. I was given my pistol, loaded for me to put myself to a true death in the coffin he had saved just for me."
"You know not why you bleed now?"
"Oh I know. That pendant be black magic as I have said. He drained me of my blood. I have felt nothing in my veins for over two decades and yet now I have bled for two days straight."
"If ya’ve thrown it away yet I’ll see that you truly are dead!" Cid yelled.
"I be dead and I have respect for others just the same, even if theirs brings them more peace than I. I have not tossed it away, and I cannot bring myself to do so. I wear it now to keep another from ever opening it and releasing it’s magic."
"Magic it be, but not black!" Barret contested. "I see my Marlene alive when I open it. It brought us this ship with its own wind and carries the stars by night and clouds by day."
"Then prove it. I be already dead and bleeding. What more could come to me? Who dares to open it?"
The crew all looked about them. They had all either opened it or, in Nanaki’s case, already had their wish. All save for Cloud and Tifa who was not present. It had failed for Shera and Yuffie. Cloud kept silent, agreeing with Vincent but not wishing to speak against the others or with Vincent so soon after their quarrel.
"Then let me, and we shall see what color the magic be!"
He opened the pendant and tossed it at the others. No one moved to catch it until the last second; Cid’s hand was suddenly in the air grabbing the chain, his face unchanged.
Vincent stood there, just as in awe as the day he say Erik adjusting his false leg, and just as frightened as the day he had caught Erik’s mermaid in the man’s room.
He turned and ran to the bow of the boat.
"Ya is not gonna take a leap?" Yuffie yelled.
Vincent seemed to be looking for something, or perhaps someone. He seemed as if he were about to be taken upon any minute.
"I can hear nothing," Nanaki commented. "That man is either man or holds powers beyond anything we know."
"He ain’t magic," Cid said and walked over to Vincent.
Barret followed.
The two were about to grab Vincent when he finally spoke. "I can hear her."
Cid and Barret looked at each other, utterly baffled.
"What’s’at?" Cloud asked.
Cid and Barret looked away and left Vincent to listen to the wind.
"Bless my soul!" Barret said, pointing. "Jus’ like what I saw when I opened a knew Marlene still be a live."
"Cannot be a lighthouse," Nanaki commented. "How is there a twinkling across the sea in broad daylight?"
"That be what she mean!" Cid said. "Aeris always said she sailed by the stars. Not the ones in ta sky but the ones she said she saw when she amade ‘em."
"Land!" Yuffie yelled. "Is land!"
"Land!" Cid yelled. "Fresh water! Food even! Port! We kin find a port. Zombie, yer gonna git off me ship soon ‘nough!"
"Aww, I jus’ been takin’ a liken to ‘im," Barret said.
"He be a fine man, dead or not. He just bleeds all over me ship an’ I dun care fer it," Cid said.