Disclaimer: I don't own FF8 or its characters.

A/N: Thanx to all who reviewed!  Here's the next chapter!

            Rinoa's dorm door had been left open, so she saw Squall walk past it towards his own dorm rather hastily.  She set her book down on the table beside her bed and went over to the door, only sticking her head out to watch Squall as he entered his dorm and fairly noisily shut the door behind him.  It perplexed her as to why he was angry.  She could understand him being disheartened because of the funeral, but mad?  It didn't make much sense.  She crept out and down the hall, stopping in front of Squall's door.  "Squall?"

            "Go away," he said rather impolitely.  "I just…  I don't feel like having company right now."

            Rinoa blinked in surprise.  Why was he being so malicious?  "Well can you at least tell me what's wrong?" she said softly.

            "No.  Just leave me alone."  Squall laid down in bed and drew his knees up to his chest and sighed.  He closed his eyes.  Somehow he knew Rinoa was still standing on the other side of the door.  "I'm sorry Rinoa," he said, "I'll tell you later.  Right now I just wanna be left alone."  No tone of annoyance was in his words.

            Rinoa sighed noiselessly.  "All right.  I'll see you later Squall."

~*~*~*~

            It had been four hours, and Rinoa still hadn't heard from Squall yet.  Every now and then she'd walk back up to the dormitory and listen at his door to make sure he was still in there.  Each and every time, he was.  She was actually starting to get apprehensive about him.  Since when had he started isolating himself again?  She secretly hoped it was only a temporary thing and would eventually go away. 

            "Hey Rinoa!" Selphie shouted as she came bouncing up to her.  She had a cheerful look on her endearing face.  "Wanna go to the cafeteria?  Irvy was supposed to go with me, but him and Zell have to fix something up in Headmaster Cid's office.  I think it's the intercom system or something, I dunno."

            "Umm… sure.  I'll go with you."

            Selphie titled her head to the side quizzically.  She noticed Rinoa's manner was different that day.  "Somethin' wrong?" she asked naively.

            Rinoa shook her head.  "No.  Not with me anyway.  It's Squall.  Ever since he went to that funeral, he's locked himself up in his room and hasn't come out in four hours.  I hope he's all right."

            "Maybe it just made him gloomy.  Even though it doesn't always seem like it, I'm sure Squally has a soft side about things like that."  Selphie giggled a bit at her own words.

            "It just seems like there's… I don't know… more to it than that.  He was fuming at first, then he got all melancholy.  It's…  It's strange."

            "When you get the chance, you'd better ask him about it."

            "Oh don't worry Selph.  I will."

~*~*~*~

            Rinoa had waited another hour and a half, spending most of that period of time with Selphie at the cafeteria.  She tried to pay attention to what her good friend was saying, but her mind kept drifting back to Squall.  She greatly wanted to find out what was wrong with him.  She also wanted to help him with whatever it was.  She just hoped it wasn't something that was beyond her control.  Then, she would really feel powerless.

            Rinoa unhurriedly made her way back to Squall's dorm door.  She put her ear to the door, straining her ears to listen for any noises inside.  She heard footsteps, then all of a sudden, the door swung open.  Squall blinked, shocked to see Rinoa standing there.  "Um… hi," she said.  He didn't say anything and just sighed.  "Squall, what's the matter?" she asked tenderly.

            "The funeral.  It was… worse than I thought it would be," he replied.  He went back into his dorm and sat on the edge of the bed.  Rinoa did the same.  "Why do I feel so awful?" he asked, his blue eyes pleading to her brown ones.  "I didn't even know her, Rin.  Why do I feel like this?"

            Rinoa hoped she didn't sound heartless when she spoke.  "Maybe it's because she didn't die of natural causes.  She was… murdered."  The last word she spoke hung in the air heavily.  It clenched Squall's heart and that's when he knew Rinoa was right.

            He nodded.  "I guess you're right.  But I can't even do anything about it.  And…"

            Rinoa waited for him to speak.  "And what?"

            He shook his head.  "No.  Forget it.  It's ridiculous."  Rinoa put her arms around his neck.

            "Squall, nothing you tell me is ridiculous.  Now, what did you wanna say?"  Squall stood up and paced the room leisurely, rubbing the back of his neck every now and then.

            "Do you remember that night when we were walking at the beach?  And that wolf that appeared out of nowhere?"

            Rinoa thought a moment, then nodded.  "Yeah.  I remember."

            "Well, after the funeral, I saw that same wolf.  It was really weird, because it left me with a sense of… I don't know… tranquility I guess.  It kept looking at this cliff on the other end of the beach."  He looked over at Rinoa, who was listening to him intently.  "It's stupid, I know."

            Rinoa stood up and took his hands in hers.  "It's not stupid, Squall.  If you think that somehow that wolf means something, then maybe we could try to find it."

            Squall didn't say anything.  He only nodded.

~*~*~*~

            It was already after one in the morning.  Squall and Rinoa walked up and down the beach to no end.  Rinoa was desperately trying to hide her drowsiness.  She didn't want Squall to think she didn't believe him about the wolf, but the idea was slightly far-fetched.  He seemed to wholeheartedly believe that the wolf held something important about his sister.  He insisted it was going to show up again.

            "Squall… it's late.  I think we should -- "

            "Shh!"  His eyes darted around the environment.  "I heard something."  He strained his eyes and ears to see if there was any trace of anything that could've made the noise.  He gave up and turned to Rinoa despairingly.  "I guess this was stupid.  I'm sorry for dragging you out like this.  Let's go."  He sounded outright miserable.  Rinoa looked past him and her coffee eyes grew wide.

            "Squall!" she whispered, "Oh my God!  Look!"  Squall turned to where Rinoa had been looking.  His eyes widened as well.  Standing before them was the wolf.  This time though, the creature wasn't a soothing sight as Squall had felt before.  It was a chilling and disturbing scene.  The wolf, previously pure white wolf, was now soiled with scarlet blood.  It splattered its entire body, but the animal didn't seem to be hurt or injured in any way.  It held something in its muzzle.  They couldn't distinguish what exactly the object was from that distance, so Squall let go of Rinoa's hand and slowly walked towards the wolf.  "Squall, don't!" she cried.

            Squall didn't listen to her and still made his way towards the bloodied animal.  It didn't move or even make the notion it was about to run away.  In fact, it let out a whine as Squall knelt down in front of it.  "It's all right," he murmured.  "I'm not going to hurt you."  Squall held out his hand, but before he could even touch the object the wolf was holding, it dropped it at his feet.  Squall picked it up, seeing it was a bloodied dagger.  He turned it over and over in his hands, not caring that blood was soiling his hands.  "Rinoa, look."

            Rinoa was fearful to come over to him, but she did and knelt beside him.  Her face holding a shocked expression as she saw what Squall held.  "Oh God…"

            "I wonder if this is how Hannah died," Squall said emotionlessly, "I wonder if she was stabbed to death."

            Rinoa put a hand on Squall's shoulder.  "Oh Squall…  I'm so sorry."  The both of them looked back up at the wolf, only to see it had once again disappeared.

Gettin' a bit creepy, ain't it?  Haha, just wait and see what happens next!!!!  Mwahahahahaha!!!  Review please!