POLAROIDS
PICTURE NINE
"The Price of Peace"
"AHH!"
Selphie's eyes snapped open and she sat up, her heart pounding as she looked around the room quickly, scanning around for movement, her hand already wrapping around her nunchaku that she kept by her at all times now. She whipped them out as she stood on her bed, ready to take on her enemies-
But there was nothing there. Again.
She fell to her knees before leaning back against her headboard, taking a few deep, shuddering breaths. Sweat trickled down her forehead and neck, making Selphie shiver. She let her weapon fall from her fingers and vaguely noted that now that she had nothing to hold her hands were trembling.
This was the third time she'd had that dream this week. The third time that she had woken up screaming, ready to fight an enemy that wasn't there. The dream wasn't always exactly the same, but it held the same basic structure. In every one of them she watched as dark creatures with amber eyes destroy the islands, ripping hearts out of people's chests and devouring them. Turning to her and plunging their shadow tainted claws into her chest and killing her.
The heartless.
She shuddered just thinking of them.
That hadn't happened though- the last part about her dying anyways. She had watched as they had torn her home apart from the inside out. She'd seen them attack her parents. She'd managed to fight them off for a little while with her jump rope and then just before one was about to actually get her there was this… Light. It seemed to be coming from so many different directions. The heartless- although at the time she had no idea what they were called- ran from the light, screeching as they went. To be honest Selphie thought that she had died after all and that the light was heaven. Then there was nothing.
What happened next was a bit of a mystery to her. Her memory from the time after the heartless came was patchy at best. She could remember the general parts, but the details of that year were lost to her. She did remember learning what the heartless were and what they did. She remembered getting her nunchaku from these three ducks. She remembered a boy named Irvine, and how he had saved her more times then she could count. She remembered learning about how Destiny Islands was just one of the thousands of worlds out there. How she traveled to some of the other worlds, looking for a way to save her own.
Learning about how Sora- dorky clutzy lazy Sora- was supposed to be able to save them all. That had been a total shock to her system. But it was true, crazy as it seemed.
But besides that everything was just a blur. Sometimes she couldn't even figure out if what she did remember wasn't just some crazy dream. But then she would look at the scar on her collar bone from a near miss with a heartless, see the marks and nicks on her nunchaku from her fights, feel that heart stopping fear when she thought of those dark creatures, and have to bear that horrible ache whenever she thought of Irvine and how much she missed him. There's no way she could make that up.
And then there was the matter of Kairi, Sora, and Riku. Sora and Riku had never returned the day that Destiny Islands were reformed and everyone came back. And Kairi… Kairi had never really been the same. She just always seemed so sad, and a little lost. Like her heart wasn't really here, but with her friends. It broke Selphie's heart to see her friend like that. She wanted to tell Kairi that she knew what it was like- but she couldn't. Every time she tried to tell her friend she would just freeze up. Maybe it was for the best that Kairi didn't know. But Selphie didn't really believe that.
Selphie sighed before she slid off of her bed and walked over to her window, lifting up the glass and sticking her torso out into the cool night air. She took a few deep breaths, smelling the salty ocean breeze and letting it soothe her frayed nerves. She stared up at the sky and smiled. She was glad to see those stars. It meant that everything was okay. No more heartless. No more fighting. No more people dying without their hearts, lost forever to the darkness.
But there was always a price she supposed. For peace, there was always a price.
Kairi had paid her peace of mind, always worrying about Sora and Riku.
Tidus and Wakka- who as far as Selphie knew had never left the island, but just vanished with it- had paid the price of lost time and with their current ignorance.
Squall, Aeris, Cid, and Yuffie had paid with their safety, comfort, and their whole world, lost to the darkness.
And Selphie? Selphie paid it with pain. Nightmares that haunted her sleep, scars that couldn't quite stop aching, and a heart that would always belong to a boy that she could never reach again.
There was always a price to pay.
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A/N: I would like to thank you all for reading my story, and for coming back to read the new stuff! It means a lot to me. And thank you SO MUCH for the favs, alerts, and reviews! 3 It really makes my day when I get one of those!
I think I might have to just switch the schedule to once a week- I just can't keep up with two a week and still have the stories be decent. And I'm sorry this is a day late! ACK!
I wrote this because I honestly don't think that Sora, Kairi, and Riku could be the ONLY ones to have escaped the Islands. I mean REALLY. So here it is, Selphie's time to shine! I like the start, but the ending was a bit meh. Ah well. I'm seriously considering turning this concept into an entire story. What do you think? Does it sound like something you'd read? I wouldn't start it till summer though, so I could dedicate a lot of time to it.
REVIEW REPLIES:
RecklessxDreamer: Eee! I'm so glad you like it! It's so nice to hear from one of my readers, and I'm very happy to hear that what I'm writing is making sense! I hope that you will continue to enjoy my writing, and that my writing will be worthy of your praise.
