I spent the majority of my suspension and medical leave in the training center. There wasn't much for me to to there, since the use of my hands was limited, so I concentrated on lower body work. Most of the time, I spent on the track, running lap after lap until I was nearly ready to collapse. I also did a lot of strength training on the weight machines that didn't require hands, and I even took a few classes on terrorism and negotiation just to occupy my free time.
I also spent a lot of my time with Aida. I couldn't how smart she'd become for her age, and how much she knew. In that time, I taught her to read simple words, to write her name, to cut properly with scissors, and she taught me everything she knew about sharks, which was just about everything there was to know. Daddy, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but all three of us, Julian, Aida and myself inherited mom's brilliance and strength, but it seemed I was the only one to truly inherit your impulsive, cocky attitude. Maybe Julian and Aida had the tendency to be that way, but they could control it. With me, it was the only way I knew how to be.
Gabriel avoided me after his confession in the car. I was hurt that he felt we could no longer be friends, so I confronted him one day in the quad.
"Micala, I wish I'd never said it, ok?" he said without looking me in the eye. "It changed everything, and I wish it could take it back."
"We can still be friends," I said and put my hand on his arm.
"No, we can't. Now that you know how I feel, I don't think I can be around you and pretend it's the same as it was, because it's not."
"Come on," I said. "It doesn't change anything. Besides,
I need you."
"You don't need anyone, Micala. You've never needed anyone."
"That's not true," I whispered. "I miss you, Gabe. I miss our
friendship."
The truth was, I was really attracted to him. But, that attraction presented a big problem. He was identical to the one who'd I'd loved so much for so long, and betrayed me without explanation. They were two different people, with individual personalities, but at the same time, they were so much alike, and I didn't want to risk becoming confused. I didn't want to use Gabriel as a replacement in my life for what Gideon was to me once upon a time. The truth was that I couldn't be sure that I wasn't going to use Gabriel as a substitute for what was missing. Never mind the fact that I hated Gideon, that I wanted to see him dead. It wasn't something I could do if I gave my heart to Gabriel.
"I'm sorry, Micala. It's just too hard for me," Gabriel said. "I've wanted you my whole life. No one else but you, and I can't pretend to be your friend when what I really want is something more."
"Gabe," I whispered. "Don't do this. Don't run away."
"It's the only thing I can do, Micala," he said. With that, he turned and walked away from me.
I ran up to my dorm room and cried into my pillow for what seemed like
hours. I'd lost one of my dearest friends, and it hurt. Now,
there was just Irving and Delcie, and I couldn't trust either of them with
a secret. What would I do?
Because of this, I spent the remainder of my leave feeling sorry for myself.
I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything with anyone. Delcie tried
her hardest to get me to go clubbing with her, and Irving invited me to
dinner on more than one occasion, but I declined all their invitations
out of self pity. It was stupid, I know, but somewhere inside my
heart, Gabriel's friendship and support meant everything to me. We'd
been through so much together to just throw it away because of some stupid
crush.
Six weeks after my injuries were sustained, Dr. Skyzauski gave me permission to begin training and missions once more. I was thrilled to walk into the training center once more with your gunblade in my hand. I found that I was a little rusty, but I still had it. I'd wanted to train with Gabriel, but he refused, and I ended up sparing with Maia instead, who was pretty good, but not much of a challenge for me. I beat her every single time we went up against one another, and I soon found myself bored of training with her.
A few weeks after I'd been reinstated, I returned from a simple mission, and headed straight for my dorm, tired and depressed. I entered my room and turned on the shower. As soon as I began to undress, my cell phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.
"Hello Micala," a familiar voice on the other end of the line said.
"Gabe?" I asked. "I thought you were still pissed at me."
"This isn't Gabriel."
My skin grew cold and I stepped into the bathroom and turned the shower off. "You have some nerve calling me after what you did," I growled.
"I told you I'd be around. I was kind enough to wait until you were all healed up before we played a game"
"I'm not playing any game with you, and I swear, if I see you, you're a dead man."
"Oh, you'll play my game because those you love are at stake. Refuse, and they're dead."
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and I swear, daddy, the scars on my hands began to throb as if it were happening all over again. I sat down on my bed as my legs grew weak. "You've already hurt me enough. If you're pissed at me, fine, take it out on me, but don't take it out on my family."
"It's the only way to hurt you Micala. If I attacked you directly,
you'd just get back up again. I want to hurt you where it matters,"
Gideon said. "So, here are the rules. Leave your cell phone
at all times, and don't hesitate to answer it. This is the only way
I'll contact you, so should you miss a call, someone you love will die."
"I won't . . ."
"You will," he said. "Rule number two. You tell no one
about this game. You tell, someone will die."
I was too pissed to say anything, so he continued. "I will give you
a riddle and a time limit in which you must solve it. If you fail,
someone dies. You must solve the riddle within the given time and
complete the task I give you before time runs out. If not, someone
dies. Understand?"
"You're really fuckin' sick, you know that?" I asked. He had me cornered.
I didn't know how serious he was, but I wasn't about to take the chance
and let someone die. I had no choice but to play by his rules.
"I take it that you understand, then," Gideon said. "Now are you ready to play?"
"I'm not doing this."
"Then someone close to you will have to be killed."
"No. You won't do that. You want me, come get me, fucker,"
I hissed. "Come get me."
"It's more fun to do it my way," he said. "So, let's get this started, shall we?"
"No."
"Fine, I'll kill them all if you want. It's your choice."
I held back all that I wanted to say to him. I held back because Squall's words made me stop. I couldn't let my temper get in the way of my good judgment. Perhaps sooner or later, we'd meet face to face. That was the time to let him have it, not now. Not when he was full of threats of murder. I hoped that time would come soon.
"Here's your riddle. Something you dearly treasure has been stolen from it's bed. It's alive now, but in twelve hours, it will be dead. You must find it safe before, or it shall burn in the flames of hell for ever more."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean."
"It's a riddle. You're supposed to figure it out."
"This is ridiculous," I said. "You really expect me to do this?"
"If you love your friends and family, I expect that you will.
You have eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes. I'll be watching."
he said, and the line went dead. I dropped my phone on the bed and
stared at it as if it might come alive.
Something I dearly treasure. I glanced around my room to see if anything was missing, but nothing was out of place. Besides, I kept nothing of value other than my gunblade in my room, and it was beside my desk. What the hell could it be? Alive now, but in twelve hours dead. Had to be a someone rather than something.
I picked the phone up again and dialed the number at home. Mom answered.
"Mom, it's me. Listen, is anything missing from the house? Anything at all?"
"No, not that I can think of," she said. "Why?"
"It's not important. Are dad and Aida ok?"
"They're fine. Your father's watching television, and Aida is already asleep," she said, and I heard nervousness creep into her voice. "Micala, what's wrong? You're scaring me."
"It's nothing, really. I guess I'm just being paranoid," I said
and glanced around my room a second time. "Give everyone a kiss for
me, all right?"
"Of course," mom said. "Are you coming home this weekend?
Your father's having a barbecue tomorrow, and he'd really like you to come."
"Yeah, I'll be there," I said. "Good night, mom."
"Micala, are you sure everything is all right?"
"I'm sure, mom. Sorry to scare you," I said, and hung up the phone.
I stepped into the bathroom and turned the water on in the shower once more and prepared to step underneath the steamy stream of water when my phone rang again. I raced to pick it up. "Hello?" I said breathlessly.
"Micala, it's mom. Aida's gone."
"What do you mean, Aida's gone?" I asked, near hysterics already.
"She's not in her bed. She was there an hour ago, but she's not there now," mom cried. I wasn't used to hearing that kind of fear in her voice. She had always been so composed, so controlled, so unlike me, that I was sure that Aida was the treasure Gideon had spoke of.
"Have you looked everywhere? Have you searched the house?" I asked.
"Yes, and she's nowhere to be found. Micala, what is going on?
How did you know she was gone?"
"I didn't," I said, and it was sort of the truth. I hadn't known
who was gone. "It was just a hunch, I guess. Did you check
the yard? Maybe she went out to the tree house."
"Your father's out looking now."
"Look, I'll be there as soon as I can, ok?"
"I'm sure we'll find her before you get here," mom said, but I wasn't
so sure.
"I'm sure you will, but I'm still coming home."
"Ok, Micala," she said, and I could tell that she was crying. "Come soon, ok?"
I hung up the phone and dressed quickly, not caring what it was that I put on. As soon as I was clothed, I bolted out the door, and I grabbed my gunblade on my way out, just in case.
Out in the hall, I realized I had no way to get to Balamb. Delcie was at her parents as was Irving, and Hiro, he was on a mission, and I'd only ask him if I had to. That only left Gabriel. I took a deep breath and followed the corridor to his room and knocked. "Gabe, answer the door!" I called out.
After a minute or so of knocking, he answered the door and stared out
at me, sleepy eyed and wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. "What?"
"I need to borrow your car. It's an emergency."
"Mom's got the car," he said and yawned. "I've got my motorcycle though."
"Good enough. Can I borrow it?"
"No one rides my bike but me," he said and switched on the light. "Come in. I'll give you a ride."
"Thanks," I said.
"Don't worry about it," he said and pulled on a pair of jeans. "You said there's an emergency?"
"Aida's missing."
"She's probably hiding somewhere."
"That's what I figure," I said, though it was a lie. "But I don't want to chance it."
"Gotcha," he said and sipped on a pair of boots.
We were there in less than twenty minutes, and I thought he'd get us killed before we got there. He took every turn too fast, and paid little attention to traffic signs. Normally, it would have been the kind of thing that I'd enjoy, the kind of thing that would lead me to do something silly and stupid, but on that night, I only thought of getting home alive so that I could find Aida.
He pulled into our driveway, and I was off the bike and up the front steps before he'd even cut the engine off. Mom opened the door before I could fit my key into the lock. Her eyes were read and her face was pinched with worry.
"Find her yet?" I asked, though I could tell by looking at her what the answer was.
"There's no sign of her. It's like she just vanished, right out of her bed."
"Is her bear here?" I asked as I hurried inside with Gabriel at my heels. Aida never went anywhere without that bear, you know.
Mom shook her head. "It's not here. Wherever she went, she took it with her."
I took the stairs to her room two at a time, calling her name as I entered her pastel pink room. I searched the room myself, and then the rest of the house, leaving no corner or closet uninvestigated. It was as mom had said. Aida was nowhere to be found. "Shit!" I swore and peeked under the bed in the guest room for the third time.
Gideon had taken her. I could feel it in my bones that he'd taken her somewhere, and he meant to kill her if I didn't find her soon.
Frantically, I searched the house again, and this time, I opened up the little room in the basement that contained the furnace. It was empty, save a lone spider that had made the dark, dusty place it's home. It was busy weaving the most elaborate web I'd ever seen as it's next meal struggled in vain to free itself from the trap. I shuddered and closed the door.
If mom had put her to bed a little while before I called, Gideon couldn't have taken her too far.
"Where's dad?" I asked.
"He went to check the harbor. He thought she might have gone to his boats," mom said.
"All right. I'll check the yard again," I said and pushed the back door open. I climbed up into the tree house, which was empty, and then walked the perimeter of the yard, searching for any sign of her. I called out softly into the night, and was rewarded with the sound of the cicadas in the trees and the soft rustling of vegetation in the ocean breeze.
My cell phone rang and I cringed. It shook the silence of the night, and I wanted to throw it across the yard and never look at it again. Instead, I hit the answer button. "What?"
"So you've discovered your treasure missing. You found out faster
than I thought you might, therefore, I'm taking away some of your time."
"You sorry mother fucker," I cried. "I swear if you hurt her, I'm
coming after you, and I will cut your rotten heart out when I find you.
I swear to Hyne I will!"
"Not so fast, Micala," he said with a laugh. "The game's only beginning."
"Where is she?"
"Not even the fires of hell could get me to talk. Nor could molten
lava, for that matter."
"Where is she?!" I demanded.
"You have five hours to find her. If you're late, she's dead. Do you understand?"
"No, I don't understand! It's me you want, so just come and get
me. Aida's done nothing to you, so why don't you just let her go?
Please," I begged. "Don't do this."
"It's not that simple," Gideon said and sighed. "I want to hurt
you first. I want to make you hurt where it counts. I want
to break you, destroy everything you love. When I've done that, I'll
come for you."
"You've already hurt me," I screamed, "Wasn't it enough? I nearly died, you son of a bitch! What more do you want?"
"I want to ruin you like you ruined me."
"You're out of your mind!" I cried. "Look, when I find my sister, you're dead, you hear me? Dead!"
"If you find her," Gideon said and laughed. "The clock is ticking, Micala. You have four hours and fifty minutes left."
The phone went dead and I collapsed to my knees in the grass. I screamed every foul word I knew and pitched the phone across the yard as tears rolled down my face. Why was he doing this? Why? I could see someone getting even with my father, but Aida? She was a four year old girl, for Hyne's sake!
As I stood up, I knew one thing. Gideon Leonhart was more sick and fucked up than I'd ever imagined. Somewhere along the line, he'd snapped, or maybe he'd always been that way, and we never saw it. I don't know, not even now after everything's been said and done. He may have always been fucked in the head, and no one ever noticed, or maybe his failures had made him crazy enough to do it. Maybe it doesn't matter, because the end result was disastrous any way you look at it. I still want answers, but I doubt I'll ever get them.
Gideon truly became my enemy that night, in my mind at least. I'd always been his. Even when he made love to me on the sail boat when we were sixteen, I had been his enemy, though I didn't know it. His goal had always been to conquer me. But I still had a lot of fight left in me, and I wasn't going to go down easily.
And if I could help it, he wouldn't take my family down, either.
I'm sorry, daddy.
I'm really sorry.
***Notes***
Lestatsdarkrose, I think you're the only one reading this....*L*
If anyone else is reading, would you be so kind as to review? Please? Pretty please? :)
CC would be nice....*L*