Darkness
They dragged her along the glass streets of Esther. To her utmost humiliation townspeople gathered around to watch her. Some threw things at her, mostly missing. She was in a state of shock. Seifer couldn't possibly be dead. The image of his still form on the floor haunted her. She couldn't stop weeping.
They loaded her into a dark train car, leaving her to her thought on the way to the prison. She was numbly staring at the red crosses on the arms of his trench coat. His sent lingered there, teasing her. He was gone forever. Everything she had gone through to save him had been worthless.
Squinting against the hot sun, they led her across the sun into the metal prison. They walked her down; she noticed bullet holes still riddles some of the walls from her last stay here. This time they took her to the bottom floor. Solid black metal doors lined the walls.
"Here's your room" one of the guards growled opening one of the doors.
He shoved her forward into the pitch-black room slamming the door behind her. She stood up feeling around the small square of space. Barely enough to lie down in, and hardly enough to stand in, she could feel the ceiling brushing her hair. She said, pulling the trench coat into her lap. It was all a painful reminder of him. A reminder of Seifer Almasy. Her heart ached at the sound of his name. She said it out loud just to hear it. Just the sound of it made her burst into sobs again. She realized suddenly that those stolen kisses back at the train station had meant something to her. The painting of her must have meant something. She wept loudly realizing she was falling in love with Seifer Almasy. Now, he was dead. She was too late to even tell him. He would never know. So she said it out loud. Over and Over just to hear the sound of her own voice in the darkness.
"I love Seifer Almasy," she said. Her own voice kept her from getting lost in the darkness. She cried into the lapel of the coat breathing in his sent. How could he have died, when she had just found him? Was Quistis Trepe never meant to be happy? Was she doomed to be alone forever?
The door swung open lighting up the dark outline of a huge guard. He grabbed her roughly up by the lapel of Seifer's trench coat and yanked her out of the cell. She fought to get out of his grasp, struggling against his superior weight. He pulled her into a square room with rust running down the walls. He turned her around too look at him and with a smile he clocked her right in the eye. She reeled in shock a bit, pain exploding through her skull.
The guard grabbed one of her wrists and drug her over to the wall where a set of leather covered manacles hung. He shoved her front to the wall leaving her back facing him. She fought, struggled, kicked, nothing helped as he slid the gray trench coat off her. He tossed it on the ground leaving it in a heap off to the side. The manacles were slammed firmly around her wrists, her mind cloudy still from the punch. The guard leaned against the wall beside her holding something black on his hands. She glanced over in horror realizing that black coil was her own Save the Queen.
"Have you ever felt the sting of your own weapon?" he asked grasping the grip in his hands as he walked around behind her. The whip whistled through the air cracking as it hit her back. She bit her lip drawing blood, not wanting to cry out. He hit her again and again blood pouring down her back. She turned her head looking down at the coat on the floor. Her eyes never left the red Hyperion cross-emblazoned there.
When the guard felt she had been beaten enough he tossed her back into the little room. He threw the coat at her feet laughing. Her lips were bloody from biting them. Her back bloody from her own weapon. She cried curling up into a little ball.
She didn't know how long she had spent into the little black space. She had at last fallen asleep leaning against the cold metal wall. Her stomach wondered when the next meal was. Quistis was beginning not to care if she died down here. It didn't feel as if she had anything left to live for. She had finally come to love someone, and now he was gone.
Quistis spent a far part of the day pounding against the door begging for food, for water. She longed for companionship, the darkness seeping into her mind. She took extra care not to get blood on Seifer's trench coat. Not wanting to mar the light gray material. She talked to herself about all kinds of things, about her memories at the orphanage, about her friend's back at the garden, most of all about Seifer.
The second time she had finally fell asleep she was awakened. There was a noise in the hallway and the sound of feet. She leaned against the metal door straining to hear what was going on out there. Suddenly the familiar sound of gunblade bullets filled her ears.
"Seifer" she whispered feeling her heart flutter in her chest.
"I'm in here" she screamed beginning to pound her fists on the door. The metal dug into her skin, but she kept pounding. There were more shouts, and more shots. Suddenly all was quiet except for her beating on the door.
"In here" she called again. Suddenly the door swung open slowly letting light pour into the small space. A guard stood there a hand holding a gunblade to his throat. Her eyes trailed up the silver weapon to the man holding it. Gray eyes under a shaggy fringe of brown hair stared at her.
"Squall" she said in shock.