Discovery
By Alex and Dave
Sort of an epilogue to Chicken Wuss. Someone finds Zell's letter, and I think I picked the most appropriate person to do it.
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Seifer was pissed. He knew Zell had gone into his dorm, but he'd been in there for over two hours. He had to come out eventually.
Fujin and Raijin were watching him pace, fists clenched, jaw tight. They couldn't figure out why he was so mad at Zell. Fujin wanted to kick him in the shin, but was afraid that he might do to her what he had done to his nose.
"Why isn't he coming out? Doesn't he wanna go eat a hotdog or something?"
"Calm down, man. You're overreacting, ya know?" Raijin stated. He knew he had made a mistake when Seifer stormed over to him and looked him straight in the eye.
"I am NOT overreacting. He deserves what's coming to him." He said through clenched teeth.
"WHAT DO?" Fujin asked.
"What did he do? WHAT DID HE DO???" Seifer paused. "He ran into me, he could have seriously injured me.
"DIDN'T."
"Yeah, but you know he meant to."
"What makes you think that? He's scared of you, ya know. He knows you will hurt him, and that's exactly what you're doing, ya know?" Raijin responded.
"You've got a point, but still. I'm right and he's wrong here." Seifer continued his pacing.
"Irvine! GO APOLOGIZE! You really hurt his feelings!" Selphie had been begging Irvine to apologize for quite some time, but Irvine wouldn't give up his pride.
"He'll be fine. He always gets over it. We've done much worse and he's always been cool about it." Irvine sat back, convinced that he was right.
"Maybe he's better about it, but he was obviously hurt about it. He's never run away before." Selphie got in his face. "GO! NOW!!"
"Alright, alright. Where do you think he went?"
"Check the cafeteria, maybe the Training Center or his dorm."
"K. Catch ya later, honey pie." He got up and kissed her on the cheek before he left.
"OOOH MAN!" Squall fell back on the bed. Rinoa collapsed next to him. "You're amazing, you know that?"
She looked at him. "I know. I think our neighbors know, too." She smiled at him.
"What do you think Zell wanted?"
"Probably just wanted to talk. He always comes to me for that." Suddenly she sat up. "Shit!" She climbed over Squall and found her clothes on the floor.
"What?" Squall sat up and pulled a sheet around him.
"He always talks to me about how he's depressed!"
"So?"
"Well, I've always been able to talk before, but I wasn't today. I'm scared he went and did something stupid." She had gotten her clothes on and Squall was pulling his pants on.
"I'll go with you."
Quistis had left the Quad after listening to Irvine and Selphie fight about Zell for 20 minutes. She had gone to try and find Zell, but she couldn't find him, so she went to the library.
She was hoping he might come by to get a book or something. She always enjoyed talking to him, but she also felt bad for him. Seifer was always picking on him and she and the others didn't treat him as well as they should. She decided that she would apologize to him next time she saw him.
"Ok, maybe you do have a point." Fujin and Raijin had been kicking some sense into Seifer for the last 10 minutes, and he was finally starting to accept the idea that he did seem to pick on Zell for no reason.
"FIND. APOLOGIZE." Fujin pointed towards the direction of Zell's room.
"Alright, fine." He started to walk, but then paused and turned around. "You know, he's not that bad. I respect him for taking all that shit from me." He smiled faintly and continued.
When he reached Zell's door, he took a breath, went over in his head what he was going to say, and then knocked on the door. "Zell? You in there?"
Nobody answered. He tried again. Nothing. "Listen, I'm really sorry for giving you all that crap…please open up." He tried turning the knob and the door opened easily. What Seifer saw made him vomit.
When he was finished, he looked back up at the horrible site in front of him. He had never seen so much blood in his life. He covered his mouth again, holding back the urge to lose it again.
He slowly proceeded into the room. He knew he was gone, but he tried anyway. "Zell? Are…oh my god…are you still alive?" It was impossible. There was too much blood. Nobody could survive an injury like that.
He reluctantly moved closer to Zell and saw a paper on his desk. It had writing on it. "Oh, no…"
Seifer read it over, and by the time he was finished, he couldn't help but crying. He put the letter back down and sat down in the chair. He sat there for a moment and then fell forward onto the desk and covered his face in his arms, crying harder than he ever had in his life.
"Oh holy shit!" Seifer looked towards the door to see Irvine standing there with a horrified look on his face. Seifer stood up and approached him. He grabbed the note on the way.
"He wrote this before he did it." Irvine took the letter and read it.
Seifer watched as Irvine went through many emotions, and then when he finished, he looked at Seifer. He still had tears in his eyes. Irvine broke down and put his face in his hands. Something compelled Seifer to do what he did next, but he didn't know what. Perhaps he was becoming a better person. He stepped towards Irvine, and put his arms around him. Irvine responded by taking off his hat and crying into Seifer's shoulder. Seifer did the same.
They were like that when Squall and Rinoa found Zell's door opened and walked in. Rinoa gasped and said "Oh my god!" and buried herself in Squall's arms. Squall just stood there in shock. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, he couldn't do anything.
"You, you son of a bitch. You did this to him!!" Squall walked up to Seifer and pushed him away from Irvine. "WHY? Why did you kill him?"
"I didn't kill him! Look! Read this…" Seifer handed Squall the letter. Squall read it over and looked back up at Seifer. "I was gonna come up here to apologize to him, for being such an asshole. He never deserved it. I guess I just made fun of him to make myself feel better. I was gonna say I was sorry, and I found him like this," he explained.
At that moment, Quistis walked in, but couldn't see what had happened. There were too many people in the way. "Is Zell here? I wanted to talk to him about something…why are you all here? Oh my god, what happened to Zell?" They stepped aside and Quistis saw. She covered her mouth and ran out of the room. Seifer followed her.
He got to her and spun her around. "Who did that? Who did that to him!" She had tears streaming down her face.
Seifer held onto her arms, "He did it to himself. He left a note."
"I…he…why?" She broke down and slid to the floor. Seifer sat down in front of her. He lifted her face up and looked into her eyes. "I should tell Selphie," she said as she started to get up. She started running down the hall. Seifer let her go. He just sat in the hall.
Squall came out of the room. "We called the hospital. They're on their way."
Seifer sighed. "I have to change." Squall looked confused. "Look what he did because of me. I might as well have murdered him. I probably was on the inside. That should be me in there, not him. He didn't deserve that. He was a good person. I'm surprised he took all that shit from me all these years, and didn't do anything about it until now. He just gave up trying to defend himself."
"What happened to your nose?" Squall asked.
"I broke it. I was trying to frame Zell. My god, I'm such a horrible person." Seifer stood up. "I have to go." He was turning the corner when Quistis and Selphie came bounding around it.
"Where is he?" Selphie was out of breath. Squall pointed inside his dorm. Selphie and Quistis went inside, and when Squall turned back around, Seifer was gone. He looked down the hall past the corner and didn't see him. He walked down the hall.
Seifer had slipped out while Squall was watching Selphie and Quistis see Zell. He hoped nobody would come looking for him.
He was now in the garage. As he was leaving, he saw Fujin and Raijin on his way out and told them to meet him here. They were no where to be seen. He had to get out of Balamb. He couldn't stand to be here after what he had caused Zell to do. Maybe he didn't need Fujin or Raijin. He should just forget about them and go by himself. The last thing he needed was Raijin being annoying and Fujin yelling all the time.
He decided to just go. As he was getting into the car, he heard Squall call his name. He stopped and stood up.
"What? I need to go."
"That's the last thing you need. You have to stay here."
"Why? I'm who caused all of this."
"It was just as much all of our faults. He said he respected you, doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"It would if it were for some other reason. I don't want to be known as the guy who was respected by the person who he made take his own life. And that is exactly why I have to go." He started to get into the car.
"Wait." Squall held the door open.
"What now?" Seifer gave him an angry look.
Squall stared at him and then looked at his feet. "Nothing, go."
Seifer looked at him as he shut the door and started the engine. Rinoa entered behind Squall and watched as Seifer drove off. Squall looked down at her. He felt a pulling at his heart and he choked up. Rinoa pulled him into a hug and he felt tears running down his face.
"He always seemed so happy. I can't believe he'd do this to himself," Squall said. "We should have treat him better. I had no idea he was like that on the inside. He really hid it well."
"He talked to me sometimes about it, but he never really mentioned what was bothering him. He would just go on about how much he hated life sometimes. He said he didn't want to tell anybody else. He said he only felt comfortable telling me, he thought that everybody else wouldn't take him seriously, or they'd make fun of him for feeling that way. I told him that they wouldn't, but he insisted they would, so he never let anybody else know."
"Why would he feel that way? He could have approached me with this, told me that he didn't like what we were doing. I would have told everyone to stop."
"I know, but there's nothing we can do now. Lets go back inside." Squall wiped his face on his sleeve and nodded.
"You know…" Squall started, "maybe he was right."
"About what?" Rinoa asked.
"Maybe we are together too much. Maybe we are dependent of eachother."
"What are you saying, Squall…"
"I'm saying, maybe we should take a break, see if what we have is really love, or if it's just physical. See if we miss each other or what we did with each other."
"Squall, don't."
"I'm going to go away for a week. I'm not going to tell you where so you can't come find me."
"Squall, please. Isn't there another way to find out?"
"Rinoa, I think it's for the best if I go away for a little while. I also need some time to myself. I'm not going to take anything with me, I'm just going to go. Right now."
"Squall you can't leave now! Not after Zell. I need someone to go through this with." She was crying now, for many reasons.
"You have Irvine, Selphie, Quistis…I'm not the only person on this world." He hugged her and kissed her. "I'll see you later." Squall got into a car and drove off. Rinoa stood there, crying. After she couldn't hear the car anymore, she turned around and went back inside.
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The end.
If you think I should write another sequel, I will, but I can't guarantee that it will be out right away.
