Bitter Revenge
~Screwed up Story By Kouen~
Chapter Two ~ Written In Blood
~Balamb City, Monday Morning~
The sky was gray and there was a gentle rain: a typical
day for a funeral. Seifer was standing
at the grave of one of his best ever friends, watching as the large mahogany
coffin was lowered into the ground. There had been no viewing. Raijin wouldn't have wanted people crying over his body. It had been too hacked up anyway. Few people had actually showed up at the
funeral. Selphie and Irvine made an
appearance, having befriended him after so many trips to the nightclub in
Timber, as well as Quistis, Laguna, Ellone, and a few other people from Garden
who'd respected him. There weren't more
than ten in total.
Fujin stood a ways in front of Seifer, not under his
umbrella. The rain had soaked through
her clothes and she was shivering. She
was not crying, but more or less in a state of shock. She'd never expected anyone to kill Raijin. He'd been like a brother to her, and her
best friend. They hadn't even taken
anything from the apartment; they'd come in, killed him, and left.
Without a trace.
Wasn't it funny how murderers tended to leave no clue of
who they were? It was just dumb luck
that this one hadn't even left a fingerprint.
Fujin had been like a ghost ever since it happened. After she'd choked out to Seifer what she'd
seen, he'd had to lay her down on the couch. She clung so tightly to his arm in fear, that it was another half an
hour before he got to investigate on his own.
On inspecting the body, Seifer found that, not only had
Raijin been pushed from a third story window, but he'd also had his throat slit
before taking the fall. There had been
blood everywhere. Even with all the
monsters Seifer had killed, and the few people from his time as the sorceress's
knight, NOTHING had prepared him for this…
Seifer moved slowly towards Fujin and touched her arm
gently. She turned to stare at him, and
he gently pulled her to him. It scared
him to see her so desolate. After all the
time it had taken her to soften up, to become so human… he thought he might be
losing her again. She leaned against
him gently and rested her head on his shoulder, but did not cry. She was beyond crying.
There had been something else, too, at the scene of
Raijin's death that Seifer had been loath to tell Fujin about. Something written, something chilling,
written on the wall in blood…Raijin's blood. In an eerie script that seemed to curl and twist even stone dead,
it read: "I guess the underdog never wins, ya know?" And even further below that, in tiny red
print, "Almasy will pay for his sins."
Honestly, Seifer had been freaked out. Seifer Almasy never admitted to being
freaked out, but when one's best friend is murdered under the notion to make him
pay, well, there aren't too many people who could remain uncaring under such
circumstances. Even still, he'd kept a
calm exterior.
He couldn't tell Fujin, no, he had to take care of
her. Raijin's unexpected death had been
more than hard on her. For two days she
hadn't spoken a word, hadn't eaten a crumb, hadn't slept a wink. It worried him. He often thought Fujin would want to be independent, would take
care of herself, but not now. Now she
needed him more than ever, and he had no clue what to due.
They'd returned to the hotel in Balamb, as Fujin couldn't
bring herself to go into the apartment after what she'd seen, what she
knew. They'd both continued going to
their jobs, just to keep their minds off of the whole ordeal. Still, Seifer thought about it. Day and night he brooded over it. He had, needed, to find out who'd
killed Raijin, and exactly what he, himself, had done to deserve this. Hadn't he suffered enough for everything
he'd ever done?
Experts who studied homicides and killings had inspected
the scene. There were no leads to a
killer. No fingerprints, no weapons…not
even a single hair had been left behind. They'd taken what they could from the scene and found nothing, but
promised they'd solve the crime in time.
Until then, Fujin and Seifer were to live
unknowing, suffering, biding time on an unjust crime. The posse, their group, was hardly surviving without the third
member. Neither was sure how long they
could go on.
~*~*~
~Balamb City, Thursday, Noon~
Seifer came back from work early. The hotel room was quiet, as it had been
recently. On a normal day, Raijin
would've been there, filling the room with laughter and idiotic babble. Some days he'd have fish for them to eat,
some days they'd all go get lunch together. On days when Seifer was in a bad mood, he could count on Raijin clearing
the house for him by taking Fujin out. Raijin had always been there for him. Now he was dead.
He heard slow boot-steps behind him. Fujin had come home too. He turned to look at her thinning form. He'd only convinced her to eat just
yesterday, but she'd still had yet to sleep. She looked entirely too pale, too thin, too exhausted. She didn't even make eye contact with
him. It was tearing him apart inside,
too. He'd all ready lost Raijin; he
couldn't afford to loose anyone else.
"QUIET," she stated flatly, no emotions
attached. She'd reverted back to her
one-word sentences as a form of a shield, a way to protect herself from any
more harm. "SEIFER, EAT?"
He shook his head slowly, "Just came home
to. You up for food today?"
She shook her head even slower, shoulders
slumping. "BOSS SEND HOME," she admitted. She must not have been doing well at work. She was too torn up inside. Seifer wished he could make things better for her. He wished he could make her smile
again. He wished all the pain could
just go away. He wished there was
something, anything, he could do.
Fujin sulked passed him and dropped onto
the bed where she laid unmoving, single eye open. That was when he noticed the envelope taped to the window.
With quick, noisy steps he'd reached the
window and snatched the envelope in his gloved hand. On the front the words "Ex-Knight" were neatly typed in bold,
gothic-style type. He tore the envelope
open and was greeted by more print of the same type inside.
"REVENGE, DEAR ALMASY, IS SWEET. LOOKS LIKE IN THE END, YOU'RE THE
REAL CHICKEN WUSS."
By the time he'd reached the end of the
typed letters he was shaking in rage. Fujin had sided him to read over his shoulder, but he hadn't
noticed. One thing was racing through
his mind like lightning, piercing, hot, and angry.
Zell Dincht.
Had this what he'd meant by making Seifer
pay? Had Zell been that angry with
Seifer that one night over a game of pool that he'd left the club only to
murder his best friend? He couldn't
take it anymore, he was going to snap!
Seifer crumbled the note in his fist and
turned in fury for the door, storming out like never before. Fujin followed, a tear brimming in her one eye,
as fast as she could follow.
Straight out of the city Seifer stormed, so
fast that even Fujin had trouble keeping up with him. He marched right over to Balamb Garden, didn't even bother to
make arrangements to get back in. Everyone at Garden knew Seifer Almasy, and everyone knew not to question
him, and to keep out of his way.
Seifer had one destination in mind: Zell's
dorm. If he didn't find him there, the
cafeteria was the next best choice. Most students were all ready in the cafeteria due to it being lunchtime,
so the path to the dorms was clear.
Trailing behind Seifer, Fujin smacked
directly into Rinoa Heartilly.
"SORRY!" Fujin shouted and tried to swerve
around the dark haired girl.
"Hey Fujin! Have you seen Zell?" Rinoa had
caught the considerably weak Fujin by the sleeve, "He's been missing all
morning. We saved him a hotdog…"
"LOOKING, NOW! LET GO!" Fujin ripped
free and ran after Seifer, who was all the way down the corridor now.
Just as she was about to turn into Zell's
dorm, Seifer appeared to block her way. He caught her by the shoulders to avoid being knocked into, and held her
back from the door.
"Don't go in, Fujin, don't go in,"
"WHY?" she questioned, trying to squirm out
of his grip.
"Zell didn't kill Raijin, it had to be
someone else,"
"EXPLAIN!" Fujin searched Seifer's paling face desperately, but found no clues.
"He's dead. I found him dead when I went in. Don't go in." He started
to turn her away, but she broke free, her one eye wide and frantic. She ran into the room, despite Seifer's
warnings, and saw what he didn't want her to see.
Blood, everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on the
ceiling. Zell's body, lifeless on the
floor, covered in blood and still bleeding. On the sheet of his bed, written in some odd fashion, in blood, "To
plant a flower, one must first plant a SeeD."
She didn't know whether to scream, or run,
or call for help. She felt paralyzed,
frozen with her good eye, her blood-colored crimson eye, glued to the gash from
Zell's belly button to his collarbone.
Heavy footsteps came in behind her and she realized that
Seifer must have gotten somebody. From
behind her, hands clamped over her shoulders and pulled her away. Images started to blur as she felt herself
be removed from the scene, and she was just barely able to make out the figures
of Squall Leonhart, Irvine Kinneas, and Cid Kramer. She began to feel dizzy and flailed her arms about looking for
something to hold onto. A black-gloved
hand encased one of hers and she clutched it tightly. There was no noise except a dull buzz in her ears and her heart
thudding loudly. For a second she
thought she might faint, but before she could, she was swept off her feet. Weak, scared, and sick she could do nothing
to protest, and found herself peering through her blurred eyes up at Seifer's
stone-set face. She held on for just a
moment more before she let her mind slip into sweet unconsciousness.