Squall mumbled incoherently in his sleep as he dreamed.
***
For a few hour-long moments after, all the passengers
stood in silence, trying to escape the horrible truth that was all-too
quickly dawning on them.
"Okay. Um, I don't really like what Squall has done
with the place, but then again, he never really had a good sense of style,"
Seifer said, trying to grin, but finding he couldn't at the stricken looks
on everyone's faces.
For a few more hour long seconds the other occupants
of the car were still completely silent.
"Well, let's go see what happened," Quistis said,
masking her grief and getting out of the car.
"Yeah," Irvine said, following.
Seifer also left the vehicle, taking a glance back
at Zell, who was still sitting there with his hands trembling and a sick
look on his face.
Seifer decided that it was best for him to be left
alone till he felt like coming out. Zell was never as good at masking his
emotions as the rest of them.
Quistis walked quickly over to what used to be the
proud, beautiful Balamb Garden. Now, it was a heap of blackened and still
gently smoking debris.
"Hey Quistis! There's some people over here!" Irvine
yelled from the other side of the wreck.
Quistis and Seifer hurried over to where Irvine
was standing with about twenty people.
"Xu!" she said, relieved to see a farmiliar face.
Xu smiled at her shakily.
"Hey," she said.
Quistis looked among the huddled group again, searching
for more comrades.
Suddenly, she turned and closed her eyes, taking
in a shuddering voice.
"What?" Irvine asked, coming up beside her.
"Squall's not here," she said in a tiny voice.
Irvine bit the side of his mouth. He too had noticed
this, but didn't believe that Squall, Commander of Balamb's SeeD, could
really die in a stupid fire, even though many other fine SeeD's and cadets
had.
"Don't worry," Irvine said, giving her an entirely
fake grin. "It would take more than a gay-ass fire to kill that dude, he's
tough."
Quistis tried to smile back at him, but knew that
it fell flat as soon as it hit her face. She hoped, more than anything,
that he was right.
***
Squall woke, stretching his arms and wondering why
he was so cold, and why his back hurt.
He rubbed his eyes and took a look around.
He was lying on a set of steps in the outskirts
of Esthar. The sun was just starting to show over the horizon, but mostly
the sky remained a cornflower blue.
"What?" he asked groggily, loking all around him
once more.
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he was wide
awake.
'I can't be here. It was in my dream, I can't
really be here. My dream. Laguna! No! He isn't dead, I must still be asleep.
Yeah, I'm just sleeping. I din't kill Rinoa, or do anything. Just sleep
again Squall, I want to wake up from this nightmare.'
Squall closed his eyes and tried to relax.
For a while, he drifted off, and thought of nothing, and in the back of
his subconcious, he was sure he was asleep.
'GET UP SQUALL!!! IT'S NEARLY DAWN!!!' his
soldiers training shreiked at him.
Squall sighed inwardly and wondered, for the millionth
time, why he had ever wanted to be a soldier in the first place.
He opened his eyes, and they widened in horror.
The sun was putting on a spectacular show of colors
and clouds, but Squall didn't notice, because he was still in Esthar.
His breathing became ragged and shallow, and his
hands started to tremble uncontrollably.
'That's right Squall. You're still here. Which
means, the rest wasn't a dream, just what you thought was realityturned
out fake. You really did kill them. You killed them, you killed them, YOU
killed them!!! YOU KILLED them!!! YOU KILLED THEM!!!' the horrible
voice taunted and screamed inside his head, until he clamped his
hands over his ears in a futile attempt to shut it out, but it was on the
wrong side of his hands, he would never quiet it.
But underneath the cruel voice, there was another.
Not as loud, but just as insistent.
'Don't listen Squall. You'll beat him,' Rinoa
said softly.
"How? HOW?!" Squall screamed in desperation.
'If I tell you, it won't work. You have to figure
it out for yourself. It's not as powerful as it seems. You must discover
it's identity,' she said, before leaving his mind to the control
of the voice, who was still shouting, but now, sounded just a little worried
under all it's cruelty.
***
Iya! I'm finally done this dumb chapter! For how short it is, it certainly
took me a long time. T-T