~ Murder, I Write! ~
Chapter
Five ~*~*~*~*~*~ Flying Like Heaven
~Train
to Deling, Sunday Evening~
She felt like the wind was choking
her.
Selphie Tilmitt stood at the railing
of the train, as usual, but this time she didn't find the rocking of its
movement soothing. The wind seemed to
smack her on the face as if it wanted her to wake up, realized the truth. Irvine was dead. Dead meant not coming back, ever. She didn't want that. She
wanted to pretend Irvine was here, standing beside her, like before.
Damn Seifer Almasy for ruining her
life! If he hadn't done whatever it was
he'd done to get this cereal killer on his case, then her Irvine would still be
alive!
She shook her head. She couldn't go blaming all of this on Seifer,
not now. He wasn't even sure why this
was happening either.
Where was Seifer, anyway? And Fujin, for that matter? They were supposed to be on her team. They shared a train cabin, and weren't supposed
to go anywhere without each other. She
looked around her subtly. Nothing. Seifer, she remembered, was taking a nap in
the cabin. He'd ordered Fujin to stay
near her in the time being, but Selphie couldn't find Fujin anywhere. Maybe she should go back to the cabin? No, Seifer would flip out if she woke
him. Maybe go find the others? No, she wasn't sure where their cabin
was. She sighed deeply and shook her
head. After a few minutes, she decided
on making a quick trip to the bathroom, then going back to the cabin, whether
or not she woke Seifer.
The water was cool and inviting. She splashed water on her face gleefully
from the faucet, and sighed in relief. She couldn't wait for everything to be done with.
Swwft.
She thought she heard something. The tiniest rustle of a noise. She shook her head, straightening, dismissing it as one of the train's many noises. Then she saw it in the mirror: a dark shadow. Her eyes widened and she spun around.
By then, it was too late.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Rinoa ran into Fujin in one of the hallways on the way to her dorm.
"Fujin!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing out here alone!"
"SAME QUESTION!" Fujin barked.
Rinoa narrowed her eyes; "I'm on my
way back to the cabin, from the bathroom. What about you?"
"LOST," Fujin told her
dismissively.
"You'd better get back to your cabin,
ASAP," Rinoa scolded the albino.
"SELPHIE, SEEN?"
"Oh God, don't tell me Selphie's
missing!"
"NO,"
Then why did you ask where she is?"
"LOST," she repeated.
"Do you mean you're lost, or Selphie's
lost? Why don't you just speak in full
sentences, okay?"
Fujin sighed. "I left the cabin with Selphie. Corridor was narrow, thought she was behind
me. Disappeared. Looking for her, got lost."
Rinoa rolled her eyes at Fujin's
broken sentences. "And Seifer? Where's he?"
"Cabin, asleep."
"Oh shit, you mean your entire party
is separated?"
Fujin nodded solemnly, and Rinoa
caught her wrist, pulling her the rest of the way down the hall into the cabin
she was sharing with Squall and Cid.
"Fujin? What're you doing here?" Cid asked mildly surprised.
"She got separated from Selphie, but
they're entire party is apart." Rinoa
explained in a rush.
"I knew we couldn't trust them,"
Squall muttered under his breath. "Come
on, let's all go to their cabin and see if anyone's there."
The foursome headed down the narrow
halls, Fujin leading the way back to her train cabin. Squall opened the door, but no one was there. "Maybe he and Selphie went to look for you
together," he told Fujin.
They decided to all wait in the cabin
together. A few minutes later, Seifer
sauntered in.
"Hey, having a party or something?" he
asked, casually.
"No, what where you doing out
alone?" Squall snapped.
"Men's bathroom, sheesh," he
muttered.
"SELPHIE, WHERE?" Fujin asked directly.
"Thought she was with you,"
"LOST!"
"Great!" Squall snapped. "Just
great. She's missing, and with our
luck, she's probably dead!" Rinoa
smacked his arm for that one.
"Come on," she rallied, "Let's go look
for her."
So they set out, following on Seifer's
idea about the bathroom. Rinoa knocked
gently on the door.
"Selphie, you in there?"
There was no answer, so she carefully
opened the door. She was greeted by the
growing to be familiar sight and smell of death. The white tiles on the floor were splashed with the crimson red
of her blood. Rinoa screamed.
"Shit," Seifer groaned, "Shit, shit,
shit, shit, shit!"
Squall hauled Rinoa away from the
door, catching Fujin's wrist as well and pulling her away. This left Cid and Seifer to inspect the
scene. Cid knelt by the hardly
recognizable body.
"It's Selphie all right," he thumbed
her blood-caked brown hair. "Multiple
stab wounds to the chest and stomach. Probably fell backwards and smacked her head off of the sink, too." He scanned the entire pool of blood. "Not even a footprint. How does this guy do this?"
Seifer shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me. What's that there on the wall?" It was written in blood, but was merely a
jumble of letters, "I can't tell what it says."
"It's backwards," Cid told him. "Read it out of the mirror."
Seifer read it once with his eyes,
then again with his voice. "Knight in
shinning armor."
"Do you think they mean Squall?"
"Either him or me," Seifer's stomach
felt like it was quivering. Was he
next? No, he'd defend himself. He was a gunblade expert!
The train continued on, top speed,
barreling towards Deling, into the sunset. On the top of the train, the 'messenger' stood, laughing at the bloody
appearance of the sky.
~*~*~*~*~*~
~Deling
City Hotel; Sunday evening~
Seifer closed the door behind him. Fujin was curled up in a little ball on the bed adjacent to his. The others were sharing a room. He sat down facing her, and she spoke up so quietly he almost didn't hear.
"It's you, isn't it?"
"What?"
"You. You're the killer, aren't you, Seifer?"
He couldn't believe she'd accuse
him. "What the Hell, Fujin?! How could it have been me?"
"You were alone in the cabin! You could've very easily snuck out and
killed Selphie!"
"I did not! This whole thing is a plot against me!" He reminded her.
"It could be a set up," she snapped,
sitting up. "So you could get away with
murder! You sneak out and kill
Selphie! I found you alone that
one night after Quistis was killed! How
do I know what you did before I came down there? How do I know you weren't out and about hanging Irvine off of the
roof! And when Quistis died! That could've been you too! What did you do, Seifer Almasy, after
I fell asleep up in Cid's office? Picked the lock so you could drown the instructor, and then taped a
phony note to the window? How else
would it have gotten on the window of the third floor? You did get there before I did with
Zell, but I doubt that you were able to kill him that quick! Maybe while you were supposedly at work,
Hm? And you came home early so you
could tape another false note to the window of our hotel room?"
"I'm surprised in you, Fujin, such a
well thought out accusation. And you're
so right. I'm the killer
Fujin! I killed Raijin when I came home
to pick you up before we left for the club, and didn't even go inside the
apartment! Of course that's
it! And I even killed everyone else
too! Well ain't that fine and
dandy? How do I know it wasn't you,
bitch? You could've easily
killed him before I came to get you. "Raijin's sick!" you called and told me! Well that could've been a lie! Same to you with everyone else! Killing Zell instead of being at work, Drowning Quistis before coming up
to that room in the first place, hanging Irvine while I was sitting there thinking,
then coming to get me so I didn't suspect anything. Not to mention, you lead Selphie out of the cabin! I didn't even know where she went! Great, Fuu, you lead her out of the cabin,
push her in the bathroom and stab her to death! Oh, and by the way, the next clue is 'A
knight in shining armor,' so I don't think you'll be alarmed when you wake
up and find me dead!" he finished with great rage, laying down and
crossing his arms over his chest.
He thought he heard her whimpering, but ignored
it. What if she was the
killer? She did have all the
opportunities to commit every single murder… Regardless, he was going to stay in this room, and sleep in this
room. If she was the murderer, then he
might wake up dead. At the moment, he
didn't care to stop her either. At
least the whole thing would be over. Still, another side of him couldn't face that fact… Fujin? A murderer?
It was very late when Seifer Almasy finally drifted
into sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
While the most of Deling slept, a
messenger plotted. Two more kills to
go, and he'd have Sinner Almasy just how he wanted him. Alone, sad, broken. He had to chuckle when he overheard him
bickering with the albino girl. They were
quite loud, and walls didn't seem to prevent any of their argument from
reaching his ears just outside the door. He grinned widely, and moved next door to peek in the windows.
And there he lay, asleep, tortured by
nightmares. His Angel had brought him
his next victim, God have mercy on his soul.