Disclaimer: I don't own the novel Hannible by Thomas Harris. Or the new
song I'm using, "System" by Chester Bennington of Linkin Park off the Queen
of the Damned CD.
I don't know why
Everytime I want to fly
Somebody's gotta try
To hold me down
Hold me down
--- Tommy Lee "Hold me Down"
Chapter 3
She couldn't move. It was as simple as that. She was paralyzed by fear, rendered speechless by terror. Somehow this was all so devestatingly familiar to her.
Thinking she knew exactly who it was, she began, in a small voice that sounded as if it would shatter with the slightest offending breath from her attacker, "P-please....don't do this."
"What are you doing here?" came the venomous hiss, stinging her tender ear.
The voice that had spoken was low, dark, and deep, with just an edge of hatred slipping into it. Though the voice was somewhat recognizable to her, although she doubted she had ever heard it sound quite the way it sounded now, she knew, almost for certain, that it wasn't Zell.
"I work here," she choked out in a whisper, her bravery returning to her as it was carried along with the adrenaline pumping hastily through her veins.
Suddenly, she was shoved forward. She stumbled, unprepared to catch herself, and was lucky to grab onto a book shelf. She whirled around accusingly, only to be meet with a stranger shrouded in shadows from the darkness of the store.
"You don't work here," he insisted.
This time she knew she recognized the voice. She squinted against the darkness, attempting to regain her vision, and said, "Yes, I do. I was hired yesterday."
The figure stepped over to the wall and flicked the light switch on. Rinoa gasped as her eyes met with the enigmatic blue ones that had haunted her dreams for the past few nights. She could see only those eyes, and the way the rest of her vision blurred with color at the sudden change of light, it gave the scene a surreal effect, causing her breath to catch in her chest.
"It's you!" she exclaimed, having to tighten down on her self-control before adding 'the man of my dreams'.
He arched an eyebrow. "Yeah. It's me. And you're you."
"You...don't remember me, do you?" she asked softly, feeling like a fool. Here she was, dreaming of this man for the past couple of nights, and he didn't even remember meeting her.
"Who hired you?"
"Lyra," she answered. "What's it to you, anyway? I mean, do you go around patrolling people's stores?"
"I own this store," he answered in an annoyed voice. "But if you ever breathe a word of it to anyone, I'll fire you."
Rinoa nodded slowly. "So Lyra knew you were the one that owned the store, but wouldn't tell me because of your orders?"
"No," he replied. "You're the only one that knows."
"Why don't you want anyone to know?" she asked. "What's the big deal?"
"I have my reasons," he murmured. "Now get to work. The store should be open already."
With that, he turned and walked away, heading for a door in the opposite wall that must've led upstairs. As she was staring after him, somewhat in awe, her brain came to life again, and she ran after him, catching him just before he exited the room.
"Hey! What's your name?" she inquired of him.
He turned and glanced at her for just a moment before averting his gaze from her gentle, but probing eyes and saying, "It doesn't matter."
He left her then and, once the door was closed and firmly locked behind his back, assuring that she would not follow, he climbed the old, creaking staircase to the rooms of his apartment. He immediately headed for the door across from the top of the stairs. This was what he often referred to as his "work room", though it was really just a small, stuffy little place where he had shoved his filing cabinet, amoung other things.
He crossed what little space of empty floor there was, to the table where an old monitor sat, staring at him with its wall of forlorn grayness. He pulled out the desk chair that had neatly rested beneath the desk, and flipped a switch on the monitor, causing the ancient piece of machinery to hum loudly as the screen slowly prodouced a black and white image.
(Well, this is certainly a strange turn of events) he thought to himself, as he observed the raven-haired girl on the monitor rest her elbows tiredly on the counter, (but at least now, I can keep an eye on her.)
/////////////////////////
Down stairs, the shop was completely empty, and Rinoa was quickly becoming bored. True, it was rather early in the day, but boredom is a deadly force, reguardless of the time. After an hour or two of busying herself with anything she could think of to do, such as straightening the books on the shelves, or restocking them, she resigned herself to reading Hannible. By lunch hour, she was very immersed in her book, but also very sleeply. Thinking that she might feel more refreshed if she layed her head down on the counter and rested her eyes for a moment, she eventually drifted off to into darkness.
Once again, an odd vision of a stranger came floating past her mind's eye, but this vision was no where near as pleasant as the dreams that she'd had the evening before. And this time, she was seeing things through her own eyes, rather than from outside her own body, as was typical.
A midly chilly breeze blew up from the ocean, carrying with it the sound of the soft violins that were being played a few decks below. The rythmic motion of the waves entranced the passengers as they danced to a rythm of their own. But she wouldn't be joining them. Someone was waiting for her at the other end of the deck.
As she passed by the windows of the ball room, after giving the young captain of the ship a cheerful nod, she stopped for a moment to examine her reflection. She picked at her short, silky brown hair, making sure it was perfect, and cleared the excess mascera from the black lashes that rimmed her dark chocolate eyes. She pulled at her dark red dress, making sure it fit her form exactly.
Gazing into the window that cast a vague reflection forth for her eyes alone to witness so long as she stood there, her eyes caught on something shining in the lights that lined the upper deck. It was a silver locket with a name ingraved on the front. From her faded image in the window, she couldn't make out the entire name, only the first letter, which was "E".
Finally, after making certain that she was acceptable, she began making her way down the deck again, singing softly to herself.
"You fell away. What more can I say? The feeling's evolved. I won't let it out. I can't replace your screaming face. Feeling the sickness inside. Why won't you die? Your blood and mine. We'll be fine. Then your body will be mine."
She stopped singing as she came to stand beside the one she was supposed to meet. The two of them had sang that song together, not long ago. Just before he broke her heart. And now here he was again, wanting to start over. Who knows, maybe he had changed.
He turned to look at her, with his gleaming blue eyes. There was a dangerous glint there that she had never noticed before.
"Seifer," she began softly as she studied his face. "I'm surprised you wanted to meet me after all that's passed between us."
He shrugged and said, "I tried to find someone that made me feel like you did. But I realized after awhile, that no one could ever take your place. You're the one I've been looking for."
She couldn't help but smile. He always knew how to sweep someone of their feet. "So there's no one else?"
"Of course not. Only you, love."
Her smile grew and she said, "So, why meet me out here? Why out on the ocean?"
"Because, I thought it would be romantic," he said, moving closer to her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I thought you would like it."
"I do," she answered softly, sighing quietly as he began to kiss down her neck to the place where her shoulder meet her neck.
"You know something?" he asked casually, grazing his teeth against her shoulder.
"What?"
"I'll always love you."
Rinoa awoke with the sound of muffled female screaming ringing in her ears. She gently rubbed her temples with her finger tips as she pondered over the origin of the dream. She had seen the whole thing play out through the eyes of the victim, yet she didn't know who this victim was. Perhaps her mind just needed a good rest.
Whatever the case, she found that she had been out for a few hours. It was almost closing time.
As she was straightening her hair and rubbing her eyes, the door that led to the forbidden upstairs suddenly swung open, revealing to her the ever-present scowl that adorned the face of her employer.
"Sleeping on the job?" he asked, studing her actions for a moment before dropping his gaze to the floor.
"W-well," she stammered, cursing herself for being so terribly obvious.
"It's almost closing time," he said. "Gather your things and go home."
Not wanting to upset him, she did as she was told, but stopped when she reached the door, realizing that he may very well be firing her.
"Will I be coming back tomorrow?" she asked nervously.
"No," he replied bluntly. "Tomorrow's Lyra's day. You'll be coming back the day after." He tossed her the keys, then, and said, "Lock up on your way out, Ms. Heartilly."
She smiled at him with relief, which he looked at for all of about two seconds before intently studing the floor. Her smiled faded then, having that awful feeling of rejection return to her.
"Thanks," she said half-heartedly before walking out the door.
She did as she was told and locked the door from the outside, before turning and heading for her apartment. She stopped dead in her tracks when she felt she was being stared at again. She searched the surrounding area to find Zell sitting in the coffee shop, staring at her with absolute hatred in his eyes as he sipped his coffee. Rinoa quickly turned away from him and walked, in a fast pace, for her apartment. She then decided otherwise, and made a quick detour for Selphie's restruant.
Selphie was just getting off work when Rinoa came in, and decided to drag her off to the docks for some fresh ocean air.
"You look like you could use it," she commented on the way there.
"Thanks," Rinoa replied, rolling her eyes. "So do you know that guy that lives in the apartment above the book store?"
"Not personally," Selphie answered.
"Do you know his name?"
"Yeah. He's a mister Squall Leonhart. Why the sudden interest?"
"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone. Promise?"
When she nodded, Rinoa explained that he was the secret owner of the book store and her new employer. And that he had sworn her to secrecy. Then, something occured to Rinoa.
"He remembered my name," she said, remembering his words to her before she left. "I thought he didn't even remember meeting me before."
Selphie laughed. "The boy's probably got some kind of secret crush on you."
Rinoa shook her head. "I don't think so. He always acts like he can't stand me. Especially to look at me."
"Maybe he's just shy."
"He couldn't be that shy. Anyway, do you know anything else about him? He certainly wouldn't tell me himself."
"Umm.....I think he was in the news like a month or so back. Wait, no that was his sister I was thinking of."
"Sister? He has a sister?"
"Had," Selphie corrected. "She was in the news because she was murdered."
"Really? That must've been horrible for him. How did it happen?"
"She was on a cruise or something, for some reason. Somewhere along the way, she just dissapeared. The last person to see her was the captain."
Rinoa frowned at this information. It sounded awfully familiar after all.
"They never found her," Selphie continued. "Whatever happened to her, she was thrown overboard."
"What was her name?"
"Ellone Leonhart."
Rinoa sighed. This was certainly a strange turn of events. Better to stop thinking about it completely before it drove her crazy. It was just her mind playing with her, after all.
"You alright?" Selphie asked her as she noticed how Rinoa had suddenly fallen silent.
"I'm fine," she answered with another sigh.
"If you wanna know more about it, my boss usually keeps old newspapers in his office. He might have one about it. You want one?"
Rinoa nodded. "Yeah, I think I do. If it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"Of course not," she answered.
"Good, I'll look into it tomorrow. Until then, I've got a date, so I need to be going. If you don't mind."
"By all means," Rinoa laughed. "I should be getting home. I know it's still early, but I'm awfully tired."
Selphie nodded, and split off, heading in her own direction, with a cheerful wave in Rinoa's direction.
Even though she had said she was going home, Rinoa decided to walk for a little while longer. The sun had just set and the sky was glowing with a gorgeous, neon blue. Not only was she entranced by the heavenly layer of blue that covered the earth and hid the empty void of space, but she was in no particular hurry to get home and dream of the one she could never have. While she thoroughly enjoyed the strange, but errotic dreams, it saddened her a bit to know that he had no intrest in her in reality.
After she had done a bit of walking, she found that she was somewhat lost. She wasn't exactly sure which way town was. Silently cursing herself, she continued walking, hoping to find some kind of land mark.
The farther she walked, she began to notice that the beach was littered with small, sharp shards that were pricking her feet. The more she walked, the more numerous they became.
Finally, they started to become bigger, and she noticed that they were long, white splinters. They were brittle, but too hard to be wood. They were scattered over the beach, growing larger with every few feet, until she realized they were peices of bones. The bones themselves, that eventually appeared, seemed to belong to some kind of large animal.
She squinted her eyes against the darkness and noticed what mush have been a huge pile of them underneath a old, worn out dock. As she came closer, she realized they were tangled up in a tattered length of crimson cloth.
When she reached the dock, hoping to climb it and maybe be able to see where the town was, her foot struck something hard the was buried partially in the sand. She bent down to get a better look, hoping that it wasn't what it appeared to be. Hoping that her mind was just paranoid.
She scraped at the sand around it, uncovering it bit by bit. It was worn and had a rough, brittle texture, with a strange, dome-like shape on the top of it. When she had finally uncovered the object in question, she discovered that it was, much to her horror, a human skull. She stumbled back from it, a wave of nausea bubbling up in her stomach, forcing bile to edge its way up her throat.
After dropping it to the ground, Rinoa shook her head and stumbled away, her mind buzzing as if she'd just stumbled onto some immense, dark secret, darker than her own. She wandered back the way she had came and eventually found the way back to town, trying to shake the feeling of anxiety that was growing within her. Instead, she concentrated on getting herself back to her apartment for some much-needed rest.
/////////////////////////
Long after Rinoa had fallen asleep, sprawled out on her bed in her day clothes and on top of the blanket, in the exact same position that she had fallen into in the midst of her terror-driven exhaustion, the latch on the door that led to her neglected balcony lifted up from the outside, and the door swung opened soundlessly.
A pair of cold blue eyes looked down on the sleeping form for a moment, watching Rinoa as she slept. A gloved hand gently pulled the blanket out from beneath her and covered her with it, sensing she was cold. He bent down and kissed her forehead, having to fight down those all- consuming feelings he always felt when he saw her, then touched two fingers to her temple, whispering the words, "Dream of me."
After a moment, when he was cetain that his nightly objective had been accomplished, he drew his fingers away from her. Then, Squall Leonhart laid a red rose on the pillow next to her, and left the same way he came
/////////////////////////
I don't know why
Everytime I want to fly
Somebody's gotta try
To hold me down
Hold me down
--- Tommy Lee "Hold me Down"
Chapter 3
She couldn't move. It was as simple as that. She was paralyzed by fear, rendered speechless by terror. Somehow this was all so devestatingly familiar to her.
Thinking she knew exactly who it was, she began, in a small voice that sounded as if it would shatter with the slightest offending breath from her attacker, "P-please....don't do this."
"What are you doing here?" came the venomous hiss, stinging her tender ear.
The voice that had spoken was low, dark, and deep, with just an edge of hatred slipping into it. Though the voice was somewhat recognizable to her, although she doubted she had ever heard it sound quite the way it sounded now, she knew, almost for certain, that it wasn't Zell.
"I work here," she choked out in a whisper, her bravery returning to her as it was carried along with the adrenaline pumping hastily through her veins.
Suddenly, she was shoved forward. She stumbled, unprepared to catch herself, and was lucky to grab onto a book shelf. She whirled around accusingly, only to be meet with a stranger shrouded in shadows from the darkness of the store.
"You don't work here," he insisted.
This time she knew she recognized the voice. She squinted against the darkness, attempting to regain her vision, and said, "Yes, I do. I was hired yesterday."
The figure stepped over to the wall and flicked the light switch on. Rinoa gasped as her eyes met with the enigmatic blue ones that had haunted her dreams for the past few nights. She could see only those eyes, and the way the rest of her vision blurred with color at the sudden change of light, it gave the scene a surreal effect, causing her breath to catch in her chest.
"It's you!" she exclaimed, having to tighten down on her self-control before adding 'the man of my dreams'.
He arched an eyebrow. "Yeah. It's me. And you're you."
"You...don't remember me, do you?" she asked softly, feeling like a fool. Here she was, dreaming of this man for the past couple of nights, and he didn't even remember meeting her.
"Who hired you?"
"Lyra," she answered. "What's it to you, anyway? I mean, do you go around patrolling people's stores?"
"I own this store," he answered in an annoyed voice. "But if you ever breathe a word of it to anyone, I'll fire you."
Rinoa nodded slowly. "So Lyra knew you were the one that owned the store, but wouldn't tell me because of your orders?"
"No," he replied. "You're the only one that knows."
"Why don't you want anyone to know?" she asked. "What's the big deal?"
"I have my reasons," he murmured. "Now get to work. The store should be open already."
With that, he turned and walked away, heading for a door in the opposite wall that must've led upstairs. As she was staring after him, somewhat in awe, her brain came to life again, and she ran after him, catching him just before he exited the room.
"Hey! What's your name?" she inquired of him.
He turned and glanced at her for just a moment before averting his gaze from her gentle, but probing eyes and saying, "It doesn't matter."
He left her then and, once the door was closed and firmly locked behind his back, assuring that she would not follow, he climbed the old, creaking staircase to the rooms of his apartment. He immediately headed for the door across from the top of the stairs. This was what he often referred to as his "work room", though it was really just a small, stuffy little place where he had shoved his filing cabinet, amoung other things.
He crossed what little space of empty floor there was, to the table where an old monitor sat, staring at him with its wall of forlorn grayness. He pulled out the desk chair that had neatly rested beneath the desk, and flipped a switch on the monitor, causing the ancient piece of machinery to hum loudly as the screen slowly prodouced a black and white image.
(Well, this is certainly a strange turn of events) he thought to himself, as he observed the raven-haired girl on the monitor rest her elbows tiredly on the counter, (but at least now, I can keep an eye on her.)
/////////////////////////
Down stairs, the shop was completely empty, and Rinoa was quickly becoming bored. True, it was rather early in the day, but boredom is a deadly force, reguardless of the time. After an hour or two of busying herself with anything she could think of to do, such as straightening the books on the shelves, or restocking them, she resigned herself to reading Hannible. By lunch hour, she was very immersed in her book, but also very sleeply. Thinking that she might feel more refreshed if she layed her head down on the counter and rested her eyes for a moment, she eventually drifted off to into darkness.
Once again, an odd vision of a stranger came floating past her mind's eye, but this vision was no where near as pleasant as the dreams that she'd had the evening before. And this time, she was seeing things through her own eyes, rather than from outside her own body, as was typical.
A midly chilly breeze blew up from the ocean, carrying with it the sound of the soft violins that were being played a few decks below. The rythmic motion of the waves entranced the passengers as they danced to a rythm of their own. But she wouldn't be joining them. Someone was waiting for her at the other end of the deck.
As she passed by the windows of the ball room, after giving the young captain of the ship a cheerful nod, she stopped for a moment to examine her reflection. She picked at her short, silky brown hair, making sure it was perfect, and cleared the excess mascera from the black lashes that rimmed her dark chocolate eyes. She pulled at her dark red dress, making sure it fit her form exactly.
Gazing into the window that cast a vague reflection forth for her eyes alone to witness so long as she stood there, her eyes caught on something shining in the lights that lined the upper deck. It was a silver locket with a name ingraved on the front. From her faded image in the window, she couldn't make out the entire name, only the first letter, which was "E".
Finally, after making certain that she was acceptable, she began making her way down the deck again, singing softly to herself.
"You fell away. What more can I say? The feeling's evolved. I won't let it out. I can't replace your screaming face. Feeling the sickness inside. Why won't you die? Your blood and mine. We'll be fine. Then your body will be mine."
She stopped singing as she came to stand beside the one she was supposed to meet. The two of them had sang that song together, not long ago. Just before he broke her heart. And now here he was again, wanting to start over. Who knows, maybe he had changed.
He turned to look at her, with his gleaming blue eyes. There was a dangerous glint there that she had never noticed before.
"Seifer," she began softly as she studied his face. "I'm surprised you wanted to meet me after all that's passed between us."
He shrugged and said, "I tried to find someone that made me feel like you did. But I realized after awhile, that no one could ever take your place. You're the one I've been looking for."
She couldn't help but smile. He always knew how to sweep someone of their feet. "So there's no one else?"
"Of course not. Only you, love."
Her smile grew and she said, "So, why meet me out here? Why out on the ocean?"
"Because, I thought it would be romantic," he said, moving closer to her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I thought you would like it."
"I do," she answered softly, sighing quietly as he began to kiss down her neck to the place where her shoulder meet her neck.
"You know something?" he asked casually, grazing his teeth against her shoulder.
"What?"
"I'll always love you."
Rinoa awoke with the sound of muffled female screaming ringing in her ears. She gently rubbed her temples with her finger tips as she pondered over the origin of the dream. She had seen the whole thing play out through the eyes of the victim, yet she didn't know who this victim was. Perhaps her mind just needed a good rest.
Whatever the case, she found that she had been out for a few hours. It was almost closing time.
As she was straightening her hair and rubbing her eyes, the door that led to the forbidden upstairs suddenly swung open, revealing to her the ever-present scowl that adorned the face of her employer.
"Sleeping on the job?" he asked, studing her actions for a moment before dropping his gaze to the floor.
"W-well," she stammered, cursing herself for being so terribly obvious.
"It's almost closing time," he said. "Gather your things and go home."
Not wanting to upset him, she did as she was told, but stopped when she reached the door, realizing that he may very well be firing her.
"Will I be coming back tomorrow?" she asked nervously.
"No," he replied bluntly. "Tomorrow's Lyra's day. You'll be coming back the day after." He tossed her the keys, then, and said, "Lock up on your way out, Ms. Heartilly."
She smiled at him with relief, which he looked at for all of about two seconds before intently studing the floor. Her smiled faded then, having that awful feeling of rejection return to her.
"Thanks," she said half-heartedly before walking out the door.
She did as she was told and locked the door from the outside, before turning and heading for her apartment. She stopped dead in her tracks when she felt she was being stared at again. She searched the surrounding area to find Zell sitting in the coffee shop, staring at her with absolute hatred in his eyes as he sipped his coffee. Rinoa quickly turned away from him and walked, in a fast pace, for her apartment. She then decided otherwise, and made a quick detour for Selphie's restruant.
Selphie was just getting off work when Rinoa came in, and decided to drag her off to the docks for some fresh ocean air.
"You look like you could use it," she commented on the way there.
"Thanks," Rinoa replied, rolling her eyes. "So do you know that guy that lives in the apartment above the book store?"
"Not personally," Selphie answered.
"Do you know his name?"
"Yeah. He's a mister Squall Leonhart. Why the sudden interest?"
"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone. Promise?"
When she nodded, Rinoa explained that he was the secret owner of the book store and her new employer. And that he had sworn her to secrecy. Then, something occured to Rinoa.
"He remembered my name," she said, remembering his words to her before she left. "I thought he didn't even remember meeting me before."
Selphie laughed. "The boy's probably got some kind of secret crush on you."
Rinoa shook her head. "I don't think so. He always acts like he can't stand me. Especially to look at me."
"Maybe he's just shy."
"He couldn't be that shy. Anyway, do you know anything else about him? He certainly wouldn't tell me himself."
"Umm.....I think he was in the news like a month or so back. Wait, no that was his sister I was thinking of."
"Sister? He has a sister?"
"Had," Selphie corrected. "She was in the news because she was murdered."
"Really? That must've been horrible for him. How did it happen?"
"She was on a cruise or something, for some reason. Somewhere along the way, she just dissapeared. The last person to see her was the captain."
Rinoa frowned at this information. It sounded awfully familiar after all.
"They never found her," Selphie continued. "Whatever happened to her, she was thrown overboard."
"What was her name?"
"Ellone Leonhart."
Rinoa sighed. This was certainly a strange turn of events. Better to stop thinking about it completely before it drove her crazy. It was just her mind playing with her, after all.
"You alright?" Selphie asked her as she noticed how Rinoa had suddenly fallen silent.
"I'm fine," she answered with another sigh.
"If you wanna know more about it, my boss usually keeps old newspapers in his office. He might have one about it. You want one?"
Rinoa nodded. "Yeah, I think I do. If it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"Of course not," she answered.
"Good, I'll look into it tomorrow. Until then, I've got a date, so I need to be going. If you don't mind."
"By all means," Rinoa laughed. "I should be getting home. I know it's still early, but I'm awfully tired."
Selphie nodded, and split off, heading in her own direction, with a cheerful wave in Rinoa's direction.
Even though she had said she was going home, Rinoa decided to walk for a little while longer. The sun had just set and the sky was glowing with a gorgeous, neon blue. Not only was she entranced by the heavenly layer of blue that covered the earth and hid the empty void of space, but she was in no particular hurry to get home and dream of the one she could never have. While she thoroughly enjoyed the strange, but errotic dreams, it saddened her a bit to know that he had no intrest in her in reality.
After she had done a bit of walking, she found that she was somewhat lost. She wasn't exactly sure which way town was. Silently cursing herself, she continued walking, hoping to find some kind of land mark.
The farther she walked, she began to notice that the beach was littered with small, sharp shards that were pricking her feet. The more she walked, the more numerous they became.
Finally, they started to become bigger, and she noticed that they were long, white splinters. They were brittle, but too hard to be wood. They were scattered over the beach, growing larger with every few feet, until she realized they were peices of bones. The bones themselves, that eventually appeared, seemed to belong to some kind of large animal.
She squinted her eyes against the darkness and noticed what mush have been a huge pile of them underneath a old, worn out dock. As she came closer, she realized they were tangled up in a tattered length of crimson cloth.
When she reached the dock, hoping to climb it and maybe be able to see where the town was, her foot struck something hard the was buried partially in the sand. She bent down to get a better look, hoping that it wasn't what it appeared to be. Hoping that her mind was just paranoid.
She scraped at the sand around it, uncovering it bit by bit. It was worn and had a rough, brittle texture, with a strange, dome-like shape on the top of it. When she had finally uncovered the object in question, she discovered that it was, much to her horror, a human skull. She stumbled back from it, a wave of nausea bubbling up in her stomach, forcing bile to edge its way up her throat.
After dropping it to the ground, Rinoa shook her head and stumbled away, her mind buzzing as if she'd just stumbled onto some immense, dark secret, darker than her own. She wandered back the way she had came and eventually found the way back to town, trying to shake the feeling of anxiety that was growing within her. Instead, she concentrated on getting herself back to her apartment for some much-needed rest.
/////////////////////////
Long after Rinoa had fallen asleep, sprawled out on her bed in her day clothes and on top of the blanket, in the exact same position that she had fallen into in the midst of her terror-driven exhaustion, the latch on the door that led to her neglected balcony lifted up from the outside, and the door swung opened soundlessly.
A pair of cold blue eyes looked down on the sleeping form for a moment, watching Rinoa as she slept. A gloved hand gently pulled the blanket out from beneath her and covered her with it, sensing she was cold. He bent down and kissed her forehead, having to fight down those all- consuming feelings he always felt when he saw her, then touched two fingers to her temple, whispering the words, "Dream of me."
After a moment, when he was cetain that his nightly objective had been accomplished, he drew his fingers away from her. Then, Squall Leonhart laid a red rose on the pillow next to her, and left the same way he came
/////////////////////////