[ She catches a laugh in her throat, as if this is all pushing her to the edge of a cliff and she's about to dive full into the madness of it all. Maybe she is, because Aerith considers what Claude asks: Did they share a lifetime beyond this one? Maybe, she muses to no one but herself, and if they did, she'd like to think they were friends. Instead of letting the laugh free, she has to turn her head again to look at him, smiling in a way that crinkles the corners of her eyes without offering any real consolation. ]

I was scared of him... I had never seen something like that. But I knew that he came to say goodbye to someone he really, really loved, and I had to tell her as soon as possible. [ A ghost, then, and she truly believes herself crazy now. She's glad he's prompted her, rather than offering the information herself. It feels a little less crazy to tango in this manner. ] I think that person was... my mom? [ But she could not find any recollection of that man as her father. Not one bit. Then again, Aerith wouldn't have ever recognized either of her parents; not before now, at least. ]

Was that your only one? [ Terseness decorates her question like bullet holes in a door. This was a point she had wanted to bring up but there is no natural way to ask if one has had other hallucinations. ]