Chapter 8 - The end of youthful innocence

Chapter 8 �" The end of youthful innocence

Rue

I only have the faintest memories of a loving and beautiful mother and a playful hard working father. My mother worked the bakery store in town and although I was too little to assist her I would spend my days in the shop. Greeting customers, sampling the goods and making recommendations. Looking back it seems like a lot of work, running the shop and freshly supplying all the baked goods herself, but Mother took it all in her stride and made it look easy.

My Father was a Conduit, before the rules were changed and they were forced to reside in the Condule. He lived with us under home residence. Still he spent exhaustive hours and long days up in the tower training under a strict leadership.

Regardless though of how hard he was being pushed in his training and monitoring of the territories, my Father would always find time to share tales of the condules exploits with me as I dozed off to sleep.

The fantastically embelished stories of Conduits performing super human feats tantilized my vivid imagintion.

I idolized my Father and worshipped the ground he walked on, but despite all the fairy tales I was being fed. There was a lot of danger associated with the Condules work. A darkness had been brewing.

Fathers hours grew longer and later with each passing day. He had less time to share his tales. When he was home he mostly slept and his temper grew short. I caught my Mother crying in the kitchen of the bakery on afternoon and she tried to brush it off. Telling me instead she was just upset she burnt a batch of her best selling gingerbread men, but I could see the true pain in her eyes.

I don't know what happened next, or perhaps i've blocked it out.

But I guess my Father couldn't spend that much time in the darkness without some of that darkness following him home.

All I remember is my parents screams and cries waking me abruptly as I slept and then Father Gamsey bundling me from my bed and rushing from our home.

From that moment on my life changed irrevocably and I did my best to understand. I've never returned to our home since that night and Father Gamsey left his position at the Condule to become my adoptive parent. The Condule changed its policy on home residence for its conduits. They believed this leniency put both the familes at risk and distracted the Conduits from their purpose. Obviously the traumatic turn of events had impacted Gamsey quite significantly as he turned away from his esteemed reputation as a Conduit and instead took up the cloth, becoming the leader of our faith.

The church that became our home stood at the end of the same street my mother used to operate her bakery. From time to time I would pass by and peer through the gaps of the boarded up windows. Closing my eyes and reminiscing how it felt to be in the loving care of my parents and how I thought those days would go on forever. Sometimes I could even imagine exactly how the bakery used to smell. Taking in a deep breath through the wooden planks, it was a scent that no longer lingered in the air.

I was always grateful to Father Gamsey for giving up his life to raise me. I became a dedicated student to the faith and served the Father in spreading his sermons. I felt like the closer I got to God the closer I was to my parents. I liked to envision they were watching over me somewhere and when I prayed I often sent them my love.

As the years passed though I think life within the church gave me to much time to dwell on the past and I never really had the opportunity to move on. My new life was one long nostalgic reflection of my old life. That was until Shinrah came to Harmony.

His methods were crude and manipulative, but somewhere deep inside of me I think I craved this chance to break loose of the bonds that tied me to my past. To embrace the role of becoming someone else, something else and just forget myself.

Even so despite my willingness to accept this new chapter in my life, I couldn't have been less prepared for the dreaded secrets Shirah whispered into my ears. I couldn't be sure every word he spoke held the essence of truth, but he made some valid points. Was it really just a coincidence Father Gamsey had been at our home all those years ago to bundle me from my bed. Was his assuming of my care really out of the kindness and compassion of his heart or deep riddled guilt for something more sinister?

One thing I was sure of was Gamsey had never shared with me the truth of what happened that night. I had never been able to move past the death of my parents and get closure, because I never truly understood the events that unfolded. Shinrah promised me those answers and even more, an opportunity to make something of myself. To stop sheltering from the world within the high walls and comfort of the church and rise anew from the misery I had been entangled in.

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[Zack Strife]

This is a partial excerpt from my chapter not the full piece