The moon hangs around
A blade above my head
Reminds me what to do before I'm dead
Night consumes light
And all I dread
Reminds me what to do before I'm dead
--- Kidneythieves "Before I'm Dead"
Chapter 4
Lyra Carrian was never too serious about life. It all seemed like one big joke to her. The longer you lived, the more tired the joke got, but the earlier you died, the faster the laughter fades. So she had decided long ago that she would simply do whatever it took to get through her miserable days and have a little fun along the way.
The night before, she had been to a party in an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Sure, it was a week night, and she had to work in the morning, but she saw it as an oppurtunity to get her hands on some free booze and drugs. So, at about five a.m. the next morning, she stumbled over to the book store, ignoring the pulsing pain in her head, and dug the keys to the door out of her liquor-stained purse.
Of course, she wasn't supposed to go to work until eight a.m., but with her blury vision, and impared judgement, it might as well have been noon to her.
At this particular hour of the morning, the town was still shrouded in darkness, with only dim street lights to guide the way. In fact, Lyra had run into a wall or two on her way to work.
As she reached the entrance, she leaned against the cool glass sleepily, and shook her head slightly, causing her long, dark hair to ripple in the dim light. She drew in a deep breath then unlocked the door before stumbling inside to the check out counter.
She threw her purse down behind the counter, and was about to open the cash register and count the previous day's profit (as if she could count properly) when she heard the thick glass door open and slam shut. She looked up to see to see someone faintly outlined by the light that strayed in through the glass. Lyra hadn't thought to turn the lights on.
"Heeeey," said Lyra cheerfully through slurred speech. "You crame to buy somefin'?" When there was no reply she said, "Who rar you?"
"Just an old friend," came the reply.
Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out through the store, followed by a loud thump as something heavy hit the floor.
**********************
"There are times when I want nothing more than to scream. Where I want to break down and cry. But I can't do either. I can't let out this pain I feel. If I do, there will be questions to answer, and things I must explain, but I've been ordered not to explain anything. I've been condemned to eternal silence for my own protection. There is no release, and there never will be. The guilt is eating me alive. And all I can do is sit back and wait for it to consume me."
Light shown in through the small slits in the blinds and cast eerie shadows over the walls. Crickets chirped relentlessly on the other side of the wall, disrupting the immense silence that had settled over the town like a smothering blanket of thick fog. The scent of roses filled the air with its sweet, seductive scent, brightening her dreams and dimming her hopes.
"Only in my dreams. Only then. In reality, he won't even look at me. He doesn't want anything to do with me. And there's not a damn thing I can do about it, but sit back and watch as Zell follows my every move, and he ignores my very existence. Why couldn't it be the other way around?"
She was starting to drift to sleep again when this thought entered her head. All night long, she'd been unable to sleep, for words had drifted into her head and filled her mind with bitter emotions, and that all consuming guilt that always rested beneath the surface of her thoughts..
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had been there most of the night, except for the earlier hours when she'd been in a deep sleep. She couldn't really explain it. It was like a wave of warmth and peace that washed over her earlier in the night, making her feel safe. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone, like a wave of warm ocean water in the cold dead of night, leaving her to her bitter sweet dreams yet again.
As she closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would come and save her from her misery, she heard a scream echo out at the edge of her subconcsious. It wasn't something she'd actually heard. It was almost as if she'd felt it.
She stood from her bed and crossed the room to her balcony. Taking a deep breath, she parted the curtain that covered one of the glass doors, and looked out, searching the street below for something, anything unusual. There was nothing, yet still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. It was as if someone had hit the wrong note to a silent melody that played out in her heart, and resonated through her body. She left her place at the balcony door and went into the kitchen. There, she had an impressive collection of cooking knives. She picked out her biggest and sharpest, then grabbed her throw from the couch. She wrapped it around her shoulders, leaned against the wall beside her front door, and sank down to the floor, waiting.
**********************
The scream rang out through the darkness, reverbrating loudly from the depths of his unconcious mind. His eyes snapped open, thinking he was still in that abandoned old graveyard. But no, he had gone to that run- down motel nearby. He couldn't stand to sleep in his own room. Not tonight. Not after all that he'd been put through.
He started to close his eyes again, when he caught a vision of her, scared and alone in her apartment. She knew. At least, she knew that something was terribly wrong. He shook his head and settled back into the small, uncomfortable bed. Thoughts of her danced teasingly through his mind, bringing to the surface all those long-surpressed feelings, and tormenting him to the bottomless pit that was his soul. He was condemned for the rest of eternity to long for something that he could never have.
The next morning, just before eight a.m., a set of keys jingled as they moved into the lock of the book store. Much to the owner's surprise, they found that the door was already unlocked.
As he pushed the door open, his eyes widened and he had to draw in a sharp breath. The sickening odor of blood filled his nose, and the awful crimson color dominated his vision. It was pooled up on the floor, and dripping from the front desk as if the sky had been raining death.
Seeing that the stream of spilled life seemed to be coming from behind the counter, he slowly stepped over to it, his heart pounding in his chest. What he saw, when he looked behind that desk is perhaps better left to one's imagination. Never had he seen a body so mangled, even in his line of work.
His first reaction, of course, was to pick up the phone and call the police, so this is exactly what he did. It wasn't long after that when the book store was suddenly surrounded with flashing red and blue lights.
A few moments after that, he was being interrogated. They found it awfully suspicious that he had been gone that evening. A suspicious coincidence. But he was quickly let alone after they found out who he was.
The store was then flooded with detectives who immediately began searching for evidence. They found strange finger prints inside, but that was all. They took them off to their lab to have them analized. When the results came back, just a few hours later, they had come up with one suspect. All they needed now was a motive.
**********************
Rinoa had fallen asleep in that same spot against the wall, still clutching the knife in her hand. The night had passed without further incident, much to her relief.
She was awakened late in the morning by a pounding at her door. She lifted her head slowly, and realized that it would not do to answer the door with a knife in her hand. She quickly put it away before answering the persistent knocking on her door.
On the other side of the door, she was met with a stern-faced, stiff- postured detective in a gray business suit that matched the slicked back hair covering his head. He adjusted his thick-rimmed, bifocal glasses and extended his hand.
"Good morning, Ms. Heartily. I'm Dan Mathers, police investigator," he paused for a moment to flash his badge at her as he shook her hand. "I need to ask you some questions."
Rinoa nodded and quietly invited him in. She'd been through this before, but that didn't make her any less uneasy. What could possibly have happened now? She was in a new town, living a new life. Nothing was supposed to happen. She was supposed to be safe. But perhaps she was deserving of this. Perhaps this was her punishment.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, sitting down in her living room.
He nodded. "Yes. I'm afraid there's been a murder. You knew Lyra Carrian, correct?"
"Not personally," she replied. "I worked in the same store she did, but different shifts."
"Yes, well, do you know if she had any connection with a Mr. Zell Dincht?"
"Zell Dincht?!" Rinoa choked out in surprise.
"You know him?"
"He's the maintinence man for the building. He's been following me around since I got here," she admitted.
"Has he? In a threatening manner?"
She nodded gravely. "Yes, I would say so. He asked me out, and I said no, and he seemed to be watching me when I went to work. It kinda creeped me out."
"Well, he may well have thought that you were Lyra. After all, we've concluded that it was still dark out when the incident occured. She has dark hair, about the same length as yours. Yes, I believe that's all I need to know."
"What do you have connecting him to the crime?" she asked.
"Finger prints," he answered as he stood and headed for the door. "All we needed was the motive, which we now have, thanks to you. I'll inform you if we need your assistance on anything else."
She nodded slightly, "Alright."
After seeing the investigator to the door, Rinoa sank back against the wall. It was all happening again. And it was all her fault.
**********************
"C'mon, Rinoa. You have to get out of this apartment!" Selphie exclaimed.
"Sorry, Selph," Rinoa replied half-heartedly. "I'm just not in the mood."
It had been two days since Lyra's murder. A warrant was out for Zell's arrest, but he was no where to be found. It was thought that he had skipped town after the murder. Meanwhile, Rinoa barely left her apartment. Selphie thought she was afraid of Zell finding her. Rinoa let her think that. She couldn't tell her the truth, which was that she was depressed. Death seemed to follow her where ever she went, looming over her like a cold shadow of a hellish beast.
"I know," Selphie replied. "But he's nowhere near Balamb. If he was, they'd have caught him by now."
"Yeah, I know. There's just no reason for me to get out. I can't go to work. The place is roped off, which makes me wonder how Squall managed to convice them to let him stay in his apartment."
Selphie nodded. "Yeah, especially after he was suspiciously out of town the night of the murder."
"Has he lived here all his life?"
"As far as I know," Selphie replied with a cautious edge to her voice.
"Was he always so quiet and secretive?"
"Yeah, but not to the same extreme as he is now. He got much worse after his sister's death," she said.
"I would imagine so," Rinoa said sympathetically. "Poor thing. It must have shattered him."
Selphie gave her an odd look. "You really like him, don't you? Anyway, I don't think it was so much that his sister died as it was that fact that she was murdered, and he doesn't know who."
"What did his sister look like?"
"Brown hair, brown eyes, really skinny. Liked the color red."
Rinoa frowned in thought, and even Selphie could she the wheels turning in her head. That wasn't good. No, not good at all.
"Is something wrong?" Selphie asked.
"No. I just remembered there was something I need to go work on. Didn't you say that the captain of the ship was the last person to see her before her death?"
"Ellone? Yeah. Captain Nida something. He lives down at the docks. Doesn't go out on ships anymore. Not since Ellone's murder."
"Thanks Selph. I need to go check on some things then. Do you mind?"
Selphie shook her head, but laughed. "You're going to try to solve his sister's murder? Geez Rinoa. You don't even know the guy."
(Yes, I do) Rinoa thought. (I know him from my dreams.)
"Rin, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered quickly. "I'll see you later."
**********************
Rinoa couldn't say that she wasn't somewhat scared of running into Zell. Especially near the docks, where everything seemed so quiet and isolated.
After doing a bit of research, she found out that the captain of Ellone's fated journey lived in a small, out of the way shack on the farside of the docks with his wife, who was rumored to be fortune teller.
When she arrived at the house (if you could call it that) she knocked timidly on the door and hoped he wouldn't have any trouble answering her questions.
An older looking woman answered the door wearing a silk, royal blue kimono with gold dragons embroidered into it. She had unruly brown hair that fell in her face and was tainted with gray streaks, here and there.
"Can I help you?" she asked in a raspy voice.
"I was looking for Nida, the captain. I wanted to ask him some questions."
The woman crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow. "You're not another one of those news reporter people, are you?"
"No, definately not," Rinoa answered quickly.
"Come in then. My name's Xu. My husband will be in after a bit. He's been doing a lot of fishing lately. In the mean time, let me tell you your furtune."
"I don't have any money on me," Rinoa lied.
"S'okay. I'll do it for free. You have an interesting aura that I'd like to look into. If you don't mind."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt."
Xu led Rinoa through the over-decorated living room and through a set of purple beaded curtains. Inside, was a low table covered with a richly colored silk cloth. On either side of the table was a mass of red, cushiony pillows for sitting on. On the table, there was nothing but a deck of tarot cards, and an ashtray that held a smoking cigarette, which awaited its owner's return.
Xu seated herself on one side of the table and took her cigarette in one hand, and her tarot cards in the other. She shuffled them up for a moment, then drew a few of them and laid them out on the table in their proper positions.
"My. I've never seen anything like this before. You have been through a lot in your life recently. Correct?" she asked, glancing up at Rinoa, who was seated across from her. Rinoa couldn't help but nod. "Well, despite all that you've been through, it looks like you are about to go through worse. Yes, there is a great darkness following you through life. Something of a long forgotten past. It will come back for you, soon. But in a way that you would never expect."
"Right," Rinoa said disbelievingly. "Is that all?"
Xu nodded. "Yes. And just in time. I hear my husband coming in this very moment."
At these words, a tired man stumbled into the room. His eyes were dark and dull, as if the life had slipped out from them. Thick stubble covered his chin and weathered cheeks, and his hair was black, lightened with gray. With him came the heavy scent of fish bait mingled with the aromas of the sea.
Upon seeing the stranger sitting across from his wife, he asked, "Xu, isn't past your closing time?"
"This guest of ours is here to see you," Xu replied, standing up.
His eyes darted from Xu to Rinoa, and back again. "I don't accept reporters anymore."
"She's not a reporter. She just wants to research the incident."
"Why?" he asked, turning to Rinoa all of a sudden. "Why this, of all things?"
"For a friend," she answered softly.
"Fine then," he said. "Come in here to the living room and I'll let you interrogate me. Xu, why don't you fix our inquisitive friend here a cup of tea?"
"Really, that's not-"
"Oh no, I wouldn't want to be a bad host," he said sarcastically.
Grudgingly, Rinoa followed him into the afore mentioned living room and took a seat in an over-stuffed arm chair as she studied the emptiness in the man's eyes and the lack of emotion on his face.
"So what do you want to know?" he demanded after a moment.
"What did she look like?"
"She had short, thin brown hair, and a soft, round face. She was thin, but had a good figure. But the thing I noticed most about her was that strange glint in her eyes."
"What glint?" Rinoa asked, sliding to the edge of her seat.
"It's difficult to describe, really. It was almost.... inhuman, I guess you could say. She seemed so sweet and innocent, yet there was this aura about her, this utter darkness. I don't know. Maybe it was just the mark of death upon her. I wish I would've known. I would've done something. Now I live with the guilt, and see her face everyday. I can't help but think what should've been. But it's too late to do anything now."
Rinoa was suddenly overcome with sympathy for this man. She knew all too well what it was like to live with the burden of regret. It stayed with her always, a shadow of the most bitter kind, hovering like a ghostly companion at her side. It was invisible to all who could see her, yet its presence was branded into her mind.
"I know what its like," she said, her voice a faint whisper.
He laughed sourly. "Not like this, you don't."
"You'd be surprised," she replied, her eyes misting over as she looked away, some vision of the past dancing through the scenery of the present.
He drew in a deep breath, and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when his wife entered the room, carrying a tray that held two cups of steaming pepermint tea.
"Tea's ready," she anounced, walking to the middle of the room where the two sat.
"Actually, I think I have all I need. I should be going," Rinoa said.
"Are you sure?" Xu asked.
Rinoa nodded and cast a brief glance at her husband. "Yes. I need to be going. I have things to take care of at home."
With that, she called out a brisk farewell that fell flat in the ears of it recipients, and made a run for the door.
"What was that all about?" Xu asked once she had left.
"There's something strange about her, but I just can't put my finger on it. It reminds me of Ellone, though, and the way she was before her death."
**********************
Rinoa decided, after leaving the eerie couple's home, to return to the place where she'd found that pile of bones. Something about it seemed to call to her. She studied the area carefully, and finally came to the conclusion that this could very well be the body, or at least the remains of Ellone Leonhart.. She'd been murdered and tossed over-board, another victim of Seifer's insanity. However well the peices seemed to fit together, though, she was worried about using her dreams as a guide. Could it have been a coincidence? It wasn't likely. And what was she to do about it, now that she knew?
(How do I tell him?) she wondered. (How do I tell Squall that I know who his sister's murderer is? He'll never believe me.)
As these thoughts pounded relentlessly in her mind, she slowly made her way home, too wrapped up in her thoughts of Squall to worry about Zell.
She made it home safely, to her subconcious relief. When she arrived home, there was a message on her answering machine from Selphie, who kept babbeling on about the annual town dance, and how they'd have to go shopping for a nice dress to wear.
Rinoa shook her head, laughing slightly at Selphie's cheerful and persistent attitude. She slipped her coat off her shoulders and started to open the door to her closet as she listened to Selphie's ramblings. As she was opening the door, she felt something heavy pressing against it from the other side. She allowed the door fall open, and out came Zell along with it.
**********************
A blade above my head
Reminds me what to do before I'm dead
Night consumes light
And all I dread
Reminds me what to do before I'm dead
--- Kidneythieves "Before I'm Dead"
Chapter 4
Lyra Carrian was never too serious about life. It all seemed like one big joke to her. The longer you lived, the more tired the joke got, but the earlier you died, the faster the laughter fades. So she had decided long ago that she would simply do whatever it took to get through her miserable days and have a little fun along the way.
The night before, she had been to a party in an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Sure, it was a week night, and she had to work in the morning, but she saw it as an oppurtunity to get her hands on some free booze and drugs. So, at about five a.m. the next morning, she stumbled over to the book store, ignoring the pulsing pain in her head, and dug the keys to the door out of her liquor-stained purse.
Of course, she wasn't supposed to go to work until eight a.m., but with her blury vision, and impared judgement, it might as well have been noon to her.
At this particular hour of the morning, the town was still shrouded in darkness, with only dim street lights to guide the way. In fact, Lyra had run into a wall or two on her way to work.
As she reached the entrance, she leaned against the cool glass sleepily, and shook her head slightly, causing her long, dark hair to ripple in the dim light. She drew in a deep breath then unlocked the door before stumbling inside to the check out counter.
She threw her purse down behind the counter, and was about to open the cash register and count the previous day's profit (as if she could count properly) when she heard the thick glass door open and slam shut. She looked up to see to see someone faintly outlined by the light that strayed in through the glass. Lyra hadn't thought to turn the lights on.
"Heeeey," said Lyra cheerfully through slurred speech. "You crame to buy somefin'?" When there was no reply she said, "Who rar you?"
"Just an old friend," came the reply.
Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out through the store, followed by a loud thump as something heavy hit the floor.
**********************
"There are times when I want nothing more than to scream. Where I want to break down and cry. But I can't do either. I can't let out this pain I feel. If I do, there will be questions to answer, and things I must explain, but I've been ordered not to explain anything. I've been condemned to eternal silence for my own protection. There is no release, and there never will be. The guilt is eating me alive. And all I can do is sit back and wait for it to consume me."
Light shown in through the small slits in the blinds and cast eerie shadows over the walls. Crickets chirped relentlessly on the other side of the wall, disrupting the immense silence that had settled over the town like a smothering blanket of thick fog. The scent of roses filled the air with its sweet, seductive scent, brightening her dreams and dimming her hopes.
"Only in my dreams. Only then. In reality, he won't even look at me. He doesn't want anything to do with me. And there's not a damn thing I can do about it, but sit back and watch as Zell follows my every move, and he ignores my very existence. Why couldn't it be the other way around?"
She was starting to drift to sleep again when this thought entered her head. All night long, she'd been unable to sleep, for words had drifted into her head and filled her mind with bitter emotions, and that all consuming guilt that always rested beneath the surface of her thoughts..
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had been there most of the night, except for the earlier hours when she'd been in a deep sleep. She couldn't really explain it. It was like a wave of warmth and peace that washed over her earlier in the night, making her feel safe. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone, like a wave of warm ocean water in the cold dead of night, leaving her to her bitter sweet dreams yet again.
As she closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would come and save her from her misery, she heard a scream echo out at the edge of her subconcsious. It wasn't something she'd actually heard. It was almost as if she'd felt it.
She stood from her bed and crossed the room to her balcony. Taking a deep breath, she parted the curtain that covered one of the glass doors, and looked out, searching the street below for something, anything unusual. There was nothing, yet still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. It was as if someone had hit the wrong note to a silent melody that played out in her heart, and resonated through her body. She left her place at the balcony door and went into the kitchen. There, she had an impressive collection of cooking knives. She picked out her biggest and sharpest, then grabbed her throw from the couch. She wrapped it around her shoulders, leaned against the wall beside her front door, and sank down to the floor, waiting.
**********************
The scream rang out through the darkness, reverbrating loudly from the depths of his unconcious mind. His eyes snapped open, thinking he was still in that abandoned old graveyard. But no, he had gone to that run- down motel nearby. He couldn't stand to sleep in his own room. Not tonight. Not after all that he'd been put through.
He started to close his eyes again, when he caught a vision of her, scared and alone in her apartment. She knew. At least, she knew that something was terribly wrong. He shook his head and settled back into the small, uncomfortable bed. Thoughts of her danced teasingly through his mind, bringing to the surface all those long-surpressed feelings, and tormenting him to the bottomless pit that was his soul. He was condemned for the rest of eternity to long for something that he could never have.
The next morning, just before eight a.m., a set of keys jingled as they moved into the lock of the book store. Much to the owner's surprise, they found that the door was already unlocked.
As he pushed the door open, his eyes widened and he had to draw in a sharp breath. The sickening odor of blood filled his nose, and the awful crimson color dominated his vision. It was pooled up on the floor, and dripping from the front desk as if the sky had been raining death.
Seeing that the stream of spilled life seemed to be coming from behind the counter, he slowly stepped over to it, his heart pounding in his chest. What he saw, when he looked behind that desk is perhaps better left to one's imagination. Never had he seen a body so mangled, even in his line of work.
His first reaction, of course, was to pick up the phone and call the police, so this is exactly what he did. It wasn't long after that when the book store was suddenly surrounded with flashing red and blue lights.
A few moments after that, he was being interrogated. They found it awfully suspicious that he had been gone that evening. A suspicious coincidence. But he was quickly let alone after they found out who he was.
The store was then flooded with detectives who immediately began searching for evidence. They found strange finger prints inside, but that was all. They took them off to their lab to have them analized. When the results came back, just a few hours later, they had come up with one suspect. All they needed now was a motive.
**********************
Rinoa had fallen asleep in that same spot against the wall, still clutching the knife in her hand. The night had passed without further incident, much to her relief.
She was awakened late in the morning by a pounding at her door. She lifted her head slowly, and realized that it would not do to answer the door with a knife in her hand. She quickly put it away before answering the persistent knocking on her door.
On the other side of the door, she was met with a stern-faced, stiff- postured detective in a gray business suit that matched the slicked back hair covering his head. He adjusted his thick-rimmed, bifocal glasses and extended his hand.
"Good morning, Ms. Heartily. I'm Dan Mathers, police investigator," he paused for a moment to flash his badge at her as he shook her hand. "I need to ask you some questions."
Rinoa nodded and quietly invited him in. She'd been through this before, but that didn't make her any less uneasy. What could possibly have happened now? She was in a new town, living a new life. Nothing was supposed to happen. She was supposed to be safe. But perhaps she was deserving of this. Perhaps this was her punishment.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, sitting down in her living room.
He nodded. "Yes. I'm afraid there's been a murder. You knew Lyra Carrian, correct?"
"Not personally," she replied. "I worked in the same store she did, but different shifts."
"Yes, well, do you know if she had any connection with a Mr. Zell Dincht?"
"Zell Dincht?!" Rinoa choked out in surprise.
"You know him?"
"He's the maintinence man for the building. He's been following me around since I got here," she admitted.
"Has he? In a threatening manner?"
She nodded gravely. "Yes, I would say so. He asked me out, and I said no, and he seemed to be watching me when I went to work. It kinda creeped me out."
"Well, he may well have thought that you were Lyra. After all, we've concluded that it was still dark out when the incident occured. She has dark hair, about the same length as yours. Yes, I believe that's all I need to know."
"What do you have connecting him to the crime?" she asked.
"Finger prints," he answered as he stood and headed for the door. "All we needed was the motive, which we now have, thanks to you. I'll inform you if we need your assistance on anything else."
She nodded slightly, "Alright."
After seeing the investigator to the door, Rinoa sank back against the wall. It was all happening again. And it was all her fault.
**********************
"C'mon, Rinoa. You have to get out of this apartment!" Selphie exclaimed.
"Sorry, Selph," Rinoa replied half-heartedly. "I'm just not in the mood."
It had been two days since Lyra's murder. A warrant was out for Zell's arrest, but he was no where to be found. It was thought that he had skipped town after the murder. Meanwhile, Rinoa barely left her apartment. Selphie thought she was afraid of Zell finding her. Rinoa let her think that. She couldn't tell her the truth, which was that she was depressed. Death seemed to follow her where ever she went, looming over her like a cold shadow of a hellish beast.
"I know," Selphie replied. "But he's nowhere near Balamb. If he was, they'd have caught him by now."
"Yeah, I know. There's just no reason for me to get out. I can't go to work. The place is roped off, which makes me wonder how Squall managed to convice them to let him stay in his apartment."
Selphie nodded. "Yeah, especially after he was suspiciously out of town the night of the murder."
"Has he lived here all his life?"
"As far as I know," Selphie replied with a cautious edge to her voice.
"Was he always so quiet and secretive?"
"Yeah, but not to the same extreme as he is now. He got much worse after his sister's death," she said.
"I would imagine so," Rinoa said sympathetically. "Poor thing. It must have shattered him."
Selphie gave her an odd look. "You really like him, don't you? Anyway, I don't think it was so much that his sister died as it was that fact that she was murdered, and he doesn't know who."
"What did his sister look like?"
"Brown hair, brown eyes, really skinny. Liked the color red."
Rinoa frowned in thought, and even Selphie could she the wheels turning in her head. That wasn't good. No, not good at all.
"Is something wrong?" Selphie asked.
"No. I just remembered there was something I need to go work on. Didn't you say that the captain of the ship was the last person to see her before her death?"
"Ellone? Yeah. Captain Nida something. He lives down at the docks. Doesn't go out on ships anymore. Not since Ellone's murder."
"Thanks Selph. I need to go check on some things then. Do you mind?"
Selphie shook her head, but laughed. "You're going to try to solve his sister's murder? Geez Rinoa. You don't even know the guy."
(Yes, I do) Rinoa thought. (I know him from my dreams.)
"Rin, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered quickly. "I'll see you later."
**********************
Rinoa couldn't say that she wasn't somewhat scared of running into Zell. Especially near the docks, where everything seemed so quiet and isolated.
After doing a bit of research, she found out that the captain of Ellone's fated journey lived in a small, out of the way shack on the farside of the docks with his wife, who was rumored to be fortune teller.
When she arrived at the house (if you could call it that) she knocked timidly on the door and hoped he wouldn't have any trouble answering her questions.
An older looking woman answered the door wearing a silk, royal blue kimono with gold dragons embroidered into it. She had unruly brown hair that fell in her face and was tainted with gray streaks, here and there.
"Can I help you?" she asked in a raspy voice.
"I was looking for Nida, the captain. I wanted to ask him some questions."
The woman crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow. "You're not another one of those news reporter people, are you?"
"No, definately not," Rinoa answered quickly.
"Come in then. My name's Xu. My husband will be in after a bit. He's been doing a lot of fishing lately. In the mean time, let me tell you your furtune."
"I don't have any money on me," Rinoa lied.
"S'okay. I'll do it for free. You have an interesting aura that I'd like to look into. If you don't mind."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt."
Xu led Rinoa through the over-decorated living room and through a set of purple beaded curtains. Inside, was a low table covered with a richly colored silk cloth. On either side of the table was a mass of red, cushiony pillows for sitting on. On the table, there was nothing but a deck of tarot cards, and an ashtray that held a smoking cigarette, which awaited its owner's return.
Xu seated herself on one side of the table and took her cigarette in one hand, and her tarot cards in the other. She shuffled them up for a moment, then drew a few of them and laid them out on the table in their proper positions.
"My. I've never seen anything like this before. You have been through a lot in your life recently. Correct?" she asked, glancing up at Rinoa, who was seated across from her. Rinoa couldn't help but nod. "Well, despite all that you've been through, it looks like you are about to go through worse. Yes, there is a great darkness following you through life. Something of a long forgotten past. It will come back for you, soon. But in a way that you would never expect."
"Right," Rinoa said disbelievingly. "Is that all?"
Xu nodded. "Yes. And just in time. I hear my husband coming in this very moment."
At these words, a tired man stumbled into the room. His eyes were dark and dull, as if the life had slipped out from them. Thick stubble covered his chin and weathered cheeks, and his hair was black, lightened with gray. With him came the heavy scent of fish bait mingled with the aromas of the sea.
Upon seeing the stranger sitting across from his wife, he asked, "Xu, isn't past your closing time?"
"This guest of ours is here to see you," Xu replied, standing up.
His eyes darted from Xu to Rinoa, and back again. "I don't accept reporters anymore."
"She's not a reporter. She just wants to research the incident."
"Why?" he asked, turning to Rinoa all of a sudden. "Why this, of all things?"
"For a friend," she answered softly.
"Fine then," he said. "Come in here to the living room and I'll let you interrogate me. Xu, why don't you fix our inquisitive friend here a cup of tea?"
"Really, that's not-"
"Oh no, I wouldn't want to be a bad host," he said sarcastically.
Grudgingly, Rinoa followed him into the afore mentioned living room and took a seat in an over-stuffed arm chair as she studied the emptiness in the man's eyes and the lack of emotion on his face.
"So what do you want to know?" he demanded after a moment.
"What did she look like?"
"She had short, thin brown hair, and a soft, round face. She was thin, but had a good figure. But the thing I noticed most about her was that strange glint in her eyes."
"What glint?" Rinoa asked, sliding to the edge of her seat.
"It's difficult to describe, really. It was almost.... inhuman, I guess you could say. She seemed so sweet and innocent, yet there was this aura about her, this utter darkness. I don't know. Maybe it was just the mark of death upon her. I wish I would've known. I would've done something. Now I live with the guilt, and see her face everyday. I can't help but think what should've been. But it's too late to do anything now."
Rinoa was suddenly overcome with sympathy for this man. She knew all too well what it was like to live with the burden of regret. It stayed with her always, a shadow of the most bitter kind, hovering like a ghostly companion at her side. It was invisible to all who could see her, yet its presence was branded into her mind.
"I know what its like," she said, her voice a faint whisper.
He laughed sourly. "Not like this, you don't."
"You'd be surprised," she replied, her eyes misting over as she looked away, some vision of the past dancing through the scenery of the present.
He drew in a deep breath, and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when his wife entered the room, carrying a tray that held two cups of steaming pepermint tea.
"Tea's ready," she anounced, walking to the middle of the room where the two sat.
"Actually, I think I have all I need. I should be going," Rinoa said.
"Are you sure?" Xu asked.
Rinoa nodded and cast a brief glance at her husband. "Yes. I need to be going. I have things to take care of at home."
With that, she called out a brisk farewell that fell flat in the ears of it recipients, and made a run for the door.
"What was that all about?" Xu asked once she had left.
"There's something strange about her, but I just can't put my finger on it. It reminds me of Ellone, though, and the way she was before her death."
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Rinoa decided, after leaving the eerie couple's home, to return to the place where she'd found that pile of bones. Something about it seemed to call to her. She studied the area carefully, and finally came to the conclusion that this could very well be the body, or at least the remains of Ellone Leonhart.. She'd been murdered and tossed over-board, another victim of Seifer's insanity. However well the peices seemed to fit together, though, she was worried about using her dreams as a guide. Could it have been a coincidence? It wasn't likely. And what was she to do about it, now that she knew?
(How do I tell him?) she wondered. (How do I tell Squall that I know who his sister's murderer is? He'll never believe me.)
As these thoughts pounded relentlessly in her mind, she slowly made her way home, too wrapped up in her thoughts of Squall to worry about Zell.
She made it home safely, to her subconcious relief. When she arrived home, there was a message on her answering machine from Selphie, who kept babbeling on about the annual town dance, and how they'd have to go shopping for a nice dress to wear.
Rinoa shook her head, laughing slightly at Selphie's cheerful and persistent attitude. She slipped her coat off her shoulders and started to open the door to her closet as she listened to Selphie's ramblings. As she was opening the door, she felt something heavy pressing against it from the other side. She allowed the door fall open, and out came Zell along with it.
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