CHAPTER 5 – DESPERATION
Water lily's mini theatre:
Poking on the LMTHL
Act 1 Scene 1
Celestine (pokes WL on the shoulder): Hey, the readers are getting impatient, as I have already been a zillion times over!
(Reader: Yeah! Get on with it! Or else we'll go on strike!)
WL: Oww… stop that!
(Mutters to herself) I thought that was evident enough already… guess not everyone knows my ideas as well as I do….
Celestine (pokes her on the side this time): As if they would! Not everyone is a psychic, you know? Don't make me sound like Raijin, or else!!!! Tell you what… I will personally FORFEIT my lines to let Quis appear in this uninteresting story of yours… are you HAPPY now? Don't even dream of using me before then! Hmmmph!!!
WL: ALL RIGHT already! Sheesh… I hate people poking me more than not seeing Zell every night… whoops…
Author: So… shall we begin while Water lily is being hauled to the darkest depths of poking hell….?
P/S: Words in italics represents thoughts of our main character, while words in bold…. Read on to find out.
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She couldn't stand it any longer… the falling hair, peeling skin, neck so swollen that she could hardly turn her head… all of which drives her crazy with each passing second.
But the worst of it all was the itch that raged all over her body. If it were merely pain, she might have withstood it with a little willpower. But this itch… it felt as if she was bitten from within the marrow of her bones, the inner ligaments of her muscles by a million mosquitoes, and yet there was no way to scratch it!
And scratch she did, at her face, her limbs… the entire body was covered with angry-looking wounds that refused to heal, marring her once flawless skin with raw, ugly scars.
How long had it been since she left the Garden? She could not keep count of the days. Time dragged on agonisingly in the apartment she dwelled in, where she did nothing except stare at the walls. She wondered how long she could continue to survive in such conditions. Her savings were all but gone, rapidly dwindling since she was without a source of income.
I can't very well go out and look for a job, can I? If this face of mine weren't so disfigured that it would elicit screams of horror if it were shown to the public, then I wouldn't have left the Garden in the first place! She would tell herself time after time, each time letting her heart sink to the bottom of her soul with no sight of the end.
The options left to her were meagre… so meagre that she couldn't help but wallow in the throes of her self-pity. She didn't want to have to turn to that very last thing… but she was at the end of the rope… grasping with all her effort but finding that it was ominously close to giving her the slip… and she had neither a way to turn back, nor the courage to return to her fondly-remembered Garden.
She stared at the heavens for a long time, imploring for a sign, any sign, to stop her from inflicting further damage to herself. But as always, the sky was uncaring… forbidding even in her eyes, as dark clouds gathered overhead, casting a vast shadow on the grounds below as they wholly swallowed every glimpse of light that was emitting from the sun.
This is it, Quistis Trepe. A short, intense pain is much better than a slow, agonising one. You have to do it. How else are you going to jump out of this mess?
A voice sounded in her mind… this voice that had been accompanying her in the dim hours where she kept to herself for the past months. She had almost been glad of its presence.
But why was it that she gets the feeling of déjà vu whenever it appears uninvited and sometimes, unwelcome? It was almost like the first time she saw Damien… but then again… she couldn't remember having heard this voice when she was in her younger years.
But that does not matter now, does it… since you will no longer be around to experience that feeling?
"Yes…" Quisty whispers, so softly that the only sound coming from her was the ending trail of an S. "But… I do not wish to leave just yet. So many things left undone… so many words unsaid…." She crouched down on the ground, burying her face in both her hands.
"Can't I take one last peek at my Seifer… and my friends before I go?"
Do you honestly think that they would relish seeing you in such a sorry plight? Especially Seifer… he would be devastated… certainly he would be the one most affected and destroyed by it! Do you want to do that to him? Go ahead… I won't stop you. But I will not save you from the consequences if anything bad happens.
"Who are you?" She cried aloud, hurting from the cruel words it had flung at her.
Nothing… there was no answer, not a single sound… as if it had not existed at all.
But she chose to believe it… for she couldn't bear to trouble the closest people she ever had in the world with this terrible truth…. She cared too much about them.
Especially her Seifer…
And at the rate she was going… her end wasn't that far from approaching anyway….
"Farewell, my love… I'm grieved that it has come to this. How I wish I could turn back time and relive our joyful days together. How I wish that I can tell you one last time how much I love you, and hunger for the tight embraces you always give me, whispering terms of endearment into my ears."
And how you wish you hadn't wrote that letter…
She couldn't help agreeing with that last sentence..
Step following hesitant step, she approached the rocky, jagged cliff. A glance below showed a shuddering view of sharp, jutting rocks with foamy waters from the sea splashing against them. As her left foot moved a little more towards the edge, a few tiny pieces of rock broke away, bouncing off the steeply inclined cliff and setting off a whole string of echoes in their wake.
She shut her eyes tightly, trying to quell the morbid fear that gnawed at the very core of her soul. Regret, depression, a sick sinking feeling she had become familiar with rolled into an intense ball that gathered at her stomach and pressed relentlessly.
Is this the way someone feels before that Last Step…?
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, arching her neck to lift her head while doing so. The air was saturated with the scent of impending rain.
I have no tears to shed for my pitiful end, having cried myself dry so many times.
She leaped off the edge of the cliff at last.
The rushing wind whistled past her, deafening in her ears as she plunged down, the mounting pressure squeezing her head so tightly she felt as if it would burst.
Goodbye, heartless world. This is the last I will see of you…
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You thought she was going to die? HaHaHaHaHaHa. Use your brains a little, human-mortal… this is a story revolving around her disappearance….
Who am I?You are not fit to know of my name, nor utter my name with your filthy, unworthy mouth.
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Suddenly, she stopped… or rather, she was being jerked up forcefully by something.
Or someone.
She opened her eyes with quite a bit of rage to see what or who it was that had stopped the almost certain end of her existence.
She didn't know if she should be angry that it had been so presumptuously rude to obstruct her agonisingly difficult decision… or if she should be thankful that it had saved her from something that she might not be around to regret later.
A stranger… A face so new that she could not find any suitable words to describe it.
"What do you think you're trying to do?" He said with a face devoid of emotion.
"Ending my life… what does it look like to you? And how dare you stop me?"
I don't even want to know how the hell did he manage to get up here. I don't see any cables around either.
He did not answer, instead he continued grabbing her body with an arm while floating upwards.
She felt like a piece of luggage manhandled by some reluctant bellboy… for his hold on her was not only rough, it was also lacking of any sympathy any other would have felt for a woman as driven to desperation as she was.
"LET ME GO!!" She yelled and screamed, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.
"No. Now stop doing that, or you'll drag me down with you as well."
"No~~~!! I won't stop struggling until you take your arm off of me!" She scratched at his face ferociously. A huge portion of her fury originated from her intolerance of letting any male other than Seifer touch her, and at such a compromising position.
Abruptly, he stopped, still with his arm around her. They appeared to be levitating in mid-air.
*Piiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!*
The resounding slap echoed in the surrounding mountains and valleys, creating a ten-fold effect on their senses.
She held a hand up to her cheek.
And she was boiling with rage at her attacker, having been violated in the worse way throughout the none-too lengthy history of her life.
"WHAT are you doing? How can you slap me like that? No one, I say, no one has ever slapped me before!"
"Somebody should. You need a few big slaps like this, you little wildcat." The unidentified man resumed his ascent towards solid ground.
"Well, I never…" She couldn't finish her sentence, for strangely, she couldn't move her body as freely as she wanted… as if something was controlling it instead of her.
As they touched on solid ground, he deposited her unceremoniously on it like a heap of rags.
Finding her body free again, she climbed up and dusted the dirt off her long-sleeved sweater… a constant article of clothing she had worn ever since her skin was covered with boils, scars and started showing signs of peeling.
"Have we abandoned the idea of jumping off the cliff already?" He asked with a sceptical look.
"HEY! I recognise that voice!" She exclaimed loudly.
She hadn't before… as she was too shocked by the sudden marring of her plans.
Yes… I'm the guy who always speaks inside your mind.
"How does it feel to see me in person?" He grinned, though not a friendly one, for the coldness in his emerald eyes were in direct contrast with that expression.
"But… why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you goad me to suicide, then save me again? Why do you always read my thoughts and speak in my mind? And why did you choose me?"
"My… you're a curious one, aren't you? I suggest we go somewhere less threatening first, before we begin touching on those subjects."
"Threatening? What do you mean?"
He pointed to a Ruby Dragon that was advancing menacingly towards them, waiting to pounce any minute.
She didn't feel like killing such a ferocious beast after having experienced a close brush with Death herself… and she didn't have Odin with her either, which meant that fighting it was inevitable…
Me neither…. Let's go!!
*
To:
Celestine Angelwing,
If you want your friend back, meet me at the Devil's Hollow in Gloomgrave Valley on the tenth day after the full moon. Alone. Or else you will not see her again… not even her cold, dead body!
R.M*
A/N: Well… I hope that answers your question as to why Quisty just had to leave the Garden. If not… there's nothing I can do to salvage the fic. It sucks… cos the ink is running dry… too much s***taking from the manager I guess, resulting in a mind full of rubbish instead of useful, creative things to write.
Please review… I'm surviving on only that now as my hope….