Excerpt: The Holy Deception

Barret's heart was thundering in his chest as he ran through the seemingly endless maze of winding alleys and roads toward the heart of Kalm. Marlene, his precious baby - Dyne's precious baby - dead? He could never imagine it, no matter how dark his thoughts often ran. He could imagine Tifa dying; he could imagine the brat dying; he could imagine Cid or Cloud dying; but he never, ever, in his whole life, for once, imagined his baby dying.

He rushed through the scenery, never pausing to look at the dead people scattered on the road, nor the collapsed buildings that had killed the people. He did not dare to stop and look, in fear of seeing his Marlene in one of those clutters of dead bodies. He simply rushed mindlessly and blindly into the centre of Kalm, where the tallest tower of Kalm stood.

But if Barret had taken a moment to stop and take a look, he would have found out that the tower was gone.

By the time Barret reached the heart of Kalm, his heart was lodged up in his throat. He saw it - the tower, or the remains of it actually.

The gunman stared.

Sprawled over the stove, still holding a stirrer in hand, was Elmyra, the elder woman whom he had entrusted Marlene with. Elmyra was already dead, her rib bones broken and fractured in many places. She must have been cooking when Meteor struck the Planet. With a heavy heart, Barret tore his eyes away from the elderly woman, looking around the rubble, even more desperate to find Marlene.

He found her after a quick glance. Marlene was lying on a bed covered with a pink flowery coverlet, her face pale and slightly tinged with pink on the cheeks. She looked as if she had committed suicide by burning coal, but Barret knew better. His heart had stopped beating and it hurt to take in another breath.

He took a tentative step towards his daughter. Something snapped, and Barret looked down at his boots. He had stepped on a framed photograph. Lifting up his foot, he bent down and picked the photograph up, brushing aside the broken shards of glass. It was a photograph of Marlene and him, enjoying an ice cream together on a beautiful sunset in one of those early days when their missions were fewer. He still remembered that it was Tifa who had taken it.

Barret looked up. His heart lurched. Marlene's eyes were staring directly into his. The gunman glanced back at the photograph in his hands and tears formed in his eyes.

Even before dying, his sweet Marlene was looking at her surrogate father for support, for help.

And he had failed her.

With an ear splitting cry, Barret tripped forward and pulled Marlene's cold and unmoving body into his arms, sobbing into her hair, weeping bitterly for the loss of his daughter, and for his failure to keep his promise to Dyne.