"The Few Remaining Strands"
Author's Note: This is the second part in a multi-part series. The first part is titled "Estranged" and it's in my profile.
Prologue
(Dark Thing)
1
The stone floor is cold under his bare feet, and the distance from the room he shares with his best friend to the room he fears seems to have expanded tonight. The others are asleep and the lights are dim, but as he approaches to where he knows his friend has gone, he begins to sweat.
He's afraid to go there.
But, he can't leave his friend to the mercy of whatever is in Matron's room. Dark things live in there, terrible things, things he knows to be afraid of even without Matron telling him so.
He calls out his friend's name, but nobody answers him. Stepping closer, he sees that the door to Matron's room is ajar.
His eyes widen and he feels his breath get caught up in his throat.
He calls for his friend again. He tries to step forward, but his legs have decided on their own that this is far enough. Matron would never leave the door open, things might escape, things might escape to find them and-
The door creaks open a little more. More. The sound makes him cringe.
He wants to run, but he can't he can't abandon his friend to the dark thing.
He abandons all caution and screams out his friend's name, and in response, black shapes start to emerge from the open door, like tainted blood oozing out of an open wound.
He takes a deep breath, he has to warn the others, to warn everyone, he breathes...
2
Selphie was pulled from the depths of dreamless sleep by the sounds she was used to, even before the month that they had shared the bed instead of the couch. She looked at him. He was on his back, body winding and springing with small intervals, a limb twitch here, a limb twitch there.
"No... no..."
Selphie rose an eyebrow. This was the first time he had spoken. The last vestiges of her sleep vanished. She propped herself up to her knees, the falling sheets making her shiver, and gently touched his shoulders.
"Squall..." she whispered, "Squall, hey..."
"No..."
Selphie sighed. She knew that there was only one thing she could do in this situation. She braced herself for what she now could do without thinking – catch him when he fell.
3
...and he's trying to scream, but his breath is refusing to go out, choking him with the scream he's trying to let out. From his throat, the knot spreads, gripping his limbs, not letting go. He can't move, he can't escape.
The dark thing in Matron's room is moving, slithering out of the door, oozing out of the opening...
Shadow-hands, clawing at the air, trying to find purchase, trying to touch, trying to grip, trying to take... coming to drag him, kicking and screaming, into the pitch-black heart of it.
It. The abomination.
A sound, reverberating in the air like icicles shattering around him, issues from the heart of darkness, and his limbs spring. His legs give out and he's right in front of the dark thing, and oh Hyne please don't let it take me please don't let it take me Noooooooooo!"
His body sprung up and he went right into her warm embrace.
4
Small hands, gentle hands, warm hands took his cheeks, arms restrain him.
"Shhhh..." she whispered, "Shhh, hey, I've got you. I've got you, it's okay. It's okay, everything's okay, shhh, you're with me."
Squall reeled his senses in and felt her warmth against the cold sweat covering his body. He sighed and eased into her embrace. Slowly, she laid him down on his back and, propped herself up on one elbow to watch him.
When he appeared to have calmed down enough, she spoke.
"What was it?"
Still trying to catch his breath, he answered.
"What..?"
"What was it? Was it the Time Compression?"
"No. No, it was... something else."
She snuggled closer. He embraced her.
"Squall, you're trembling..."
"Just a nightmare." He said, trying to keep his jaw from shaking, "Just a bad dream, that's all."
5
Selphie woke up to an empty bed.