I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I'd feared, in telling him the truth that I'd lose him. I'd feared I wouldn't be believed. "It's the truth," I said and I lit a cigarette. "I wish it weren't, but it is."
"No, this is insanity talking," he hissed. "You're upset about Aida. You need a reason for her death. Someone to blame."
"I only wish that were true, but it's not," I said and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Gideon killed them. He tried to kill me, twice."
"You can't prove any of this."
"I'm not making this up!" I cried out and held up my hands. I shoved them in his face. "You see these scars? I got them because of Gideon! He wants revenge bad enough to take everything from me, and I've got news for you Gabriel Leonhart, he plans to take you too!"
Gabriel sighed. "Micala, I know the last few months have been hard for you, but I'm starting to worry that you're losing it."
"I'm not losing it!"
"Maybe you should take a few days off, take a vacation somewhere alone and sort this all out," he suggested.
"Damn it, Gabriel, listen to me," I said, my eyes pleading with him to hear me. "You overheard the conversation the night Aida died. You must have seen him there behind her in the Fire Cavern!"
He turned and faced me, his expression one of anger. "I won't deny that I heard it, and that I saw someone. Someone is out to get you, I get that, but it isn't my brother!"
"It is your brother," I said in a quiet voice. "There are things about Gideon that you don't know. Things your mother hid from everyone to protect him, and to protect you."
"You know nothing!"
"Believe what you want to believe, Leonhart," I growled. "You'll know I'm right when he comes for you, and he will, trust me, and I may not be able to save you."
"I think you'd better leave," he said and his voice choked with emotion.
I stood there in a startled silence, staring at him. Would he, too, break my heart? Would he turn on me as his brother had? I bit my lip and closed my eyes. "Gabriel, you said you love me. But you don't trust me now, when our lives depend on it. If someone doesn't stop him, he's going to do it again and again until there's no one left. Trust me when I tell you this. Please."
"Micala, you know I love you, but right now, I don't trust your state of mind. If you had proof, I'd believe you, but you don't."
"I'm not crazy," I whispered and turned toward the door.
"I'm not saying you are, you're just stressed, that's all."
"I'm going to check on your father and make a few phone calls," I said, dismayed that he refused to accept the truth. He wasn't ready to accept it, I guess. It must have been hard to hear it. No one wants to hear someone tell them that their flesh and blood is a cold hearted killer. I should have understood that then, but I didn't. I suspect that he knew then I was telling the truth, but didn't want to admit it to himself, and I don't blame him.
"Micala," he called over his shoulder, "Thanks."
"For what?"
"What you did for my dad. It upset me, at first, but I understand why you did it."
I favored him with a faint smile and stepped inside. The phone was to the right of me and I picked it up and dialed the number of the local coroner's office. Then, I called my mother. Her voice was full of gravel, and I knew I'd woken her from much needed sleep. I felt a little guilty, but I figured she'd want to know about Rinoa instead of hearing about it on the morning news.
"Hi, mom," I said.
"Micala?" she asked, and I heard her stifle a yawn.
"Yeah," I said.
"Are you still in the brig?"
"No," I said and I felt my throat tighten as I fought back tears. "Something's happened. Rinoa . . . died a little while ago."
Silence.
"Mom?" I asked. "Are you still there?"
"I'm here," she whispered, and I heard her begin to sniffle. Her sniffles turned to sobs. "How?"
"They said it was poison."
"Oh, Hyne!" she cried.
"Mom, I need you to do something for me. I need a number where I can contact Maia. I could get it from Squall, but I don't want to bother him with that right now."
Mom took several deep breaths and said, "Of course. I'll find it and drive over, all right?"
"Sure," I said.
"How's Squall taking this?"
"Not great," I said.
"All right, Micala, I'll be there soon."
"Thanks, mom," I said. "I love you."
"I love you too, sweetie," she said, and I heard her begin to sniffle again.
I replaced the phone in it's cradle and peeked out at Gabriel, who stared
out at the ocean, a blank expression on his face. I felt terrible
for him as I watched him deal with his grief alone and I said a silent
prayer to wish all of this away.
Upstairs, Squall was still holding Rinoa's limp form in his arms. He was no longer sobbing, or even crying, but the look on his face was heart wrenching. I could see how lost he was without her to lean on, how empty his life would be without her in it. He'd told Rinoa once that she was the one thing that made his life worth living. It was a surprise to me how vulnerable Squall really was, and how much he truly needed those he loved in his life. It shouldn't have been a surprise, I guess, since almost everyone depended on others to survive, to make their life bearable, but I'd never realized that he too felt that way. But it didn't make him weak in my eyes, merely human.
"Squall?" I asked as I approached. "It's time to let her go."
"Just a little longer."
"The coroner's on his way," I said as I placed my hand on his arm.
"Let me stay with her until then," he asked as he looked up at me, his eyes bleak with sorrow. "Please."
I nodded. "Ok," I whispered. "Can I get you anything?"
"A glass of water would be good," he mumbled and placed a kiss on Rinoa's forehead. "Hyne, she's so cold."
"I'll be right back," I told him and headed downstairs for the water.
I opened one of the cabinets and retrieved a glass from the shelf. I rinsed it thoroughly, fearing that perhaps all the glasses had been contaminated by poison. Call it paranoia, but I wasn't about to take any chances.
After I'd filled the glass with ice and water, I headed back towards the stairs, and I heard the sound of my mother's car idling in the driveway. I went to the front door and peeked out the curtain. She was there, behind the wheel, sobbing into her hands.
As I placed my hand on the door knob to go comfort her, there was a bright flash, followed by a powerful explosion that shook the very ground I stood on. The window I'd just peered out of shattered, bits of glass rained in and sprinkled across the floor. The door itself rattled on it's hinges. Smoke as black as tar poured in through the ruined window, stealing the very breath from my lungs.
I let out a distressed scream and flung the door open. What was once my mother's car was now a twisted, smoking pile of metal. Tongues of fire danced where the engine should have been, leaping towards the sky. Black smoke curled up towards the sky, filling the air with the scent of burning petrol and rubber. The windshield was gone, and something on the interior burned so hot, the flames there were a vivid blue.
"Mom!" I screamed out as I ran towards the car. "MOM!"
The heat of the fire is what drove me back, leaving me unable to reach her. After a moment's hesitation, I summoned my GF, Kahuna, the God of the tides, in hopes of putting out the flames. He appeared before me, his deeply tanned skin glistening with water and he let loose a great tidal wave, a wall of water that crashed down over the wreckage.
Though Kahuna had not entirely put out the flames, the worst of them had been extinguished, and I slowly approached the car, afraid of what I might find inside. I didn't want to see her smoldering corpse in the driver's seat, but I had to know. Perhaps she'd already gotten out when it exploded. Perhaps she'd been able to escape.
Cautiously, I peeked into what was left of the driver's side window, and my blood ran cold when I spied what was left of her, which wasn't much. Her body was charred, and in some places, I could actually see bone that had been singed by the flames as her skin had burned away. Screams of anguish erupted from my throat as I fell on my ass and tried to scramble away from the car.
The sound of the explosion had brought both Squall and Gabriel to the door, and they watched me with a shocked fascination, both unable to move from where they stood. When I reached the yard, I curled up in the grass and screamed into my hands. I don't know how long I lay there screaming before Gabriel seized me and pulled me against him. "Dad, go call for help," Gabriel commanded. "Now!"
"M . .mom . . ." I stuttered as I shivered with a sudden chill. "Sh . . . sh . . . she's . .d . . .dead."
"Shh," Gabriel breathed in my ear. "Hyne, make this stop," he whispered, and echoed exactly what I'd been thinking.
It was the sound of my cell phone ringing that brought me out of my shock. I took it from my pocket. "It's him," I said and stared at Gabriel. "I want you to listen in."
He nodded as I pressed the answer button and then leaned in so that he could hear the other party.
"Hello, Micala."
"Gideon," I replied as my eyes fixed on the remains of my mother's car.
"Three down, three to go," Gideon said, and laughed. "I suppose you regret not playing my game with me."
Gabriel paled and covered his mouth as if trying to suppress a scream.
"You would have killed them anyway," I replied. "Tell me something. How could you kill your own mother?"
Gideon sighed. "That was an accident," he said. "Your mother was supposed to die last night, not mine. But, my mother knew too much anyway, so it's not that great a loss."
Beside me, Gabriel gasped and backed away from me as the truth hit him. He'd heard it. He had his proof. I watched his face crumple and his expression change from shock to rage. He felt what I felt.
"You sick son of a bitch," I murmured. "You must realize, though, that your mother gave me something before she died."
"What could she possibly give you?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.
"She gave me permission to kick your ass," I replied. "She knew what you are, and now, I do too."
"Oh, I suppose you're a sorceress now?" he mocked.
"I am," I said coldly. "Run and hide, Gideon, because if I find you, you're fucked."
Rather than hearing him gloat, I pushed the end button and stuffed the phone in my pocket as I turned to look at Gabriel. He sat paralyzed in the grass a few feet away, his face pale and his eyes empty. He was too shocked and hurt to cry, too stunned by the truth to speak.
The calm that stole over me was odd. My mother had just been torched, yet I felt nothing. I wanted so badly to grieve for her, I wanted to cry out all the tears she deserved, yet I couldn't. The part of me that felt anguish had shut down entirely, leaving me with nothing but that strange calm. It wasn't comforting, it was more disturbing than anything to feel so relaxed when I should have been a wreck. Her death should have been the straw that broke the chocobo's back, but it left me feeling stronger than before.
I must have seemed strange to you, daddy, when I called you with the
news of her death. There was no emotion in my voice when I told you
what happened, not even when I practically ordered you to go away, to the
lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope until this was all over. That
calm was my way of coping, my way of striving on through the worst, for
that had yet to come.
***notes***
Now Quisty lovers are going to flame me....*L*