SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Disclaimer: well, I don't own them, if you would like to give them to me as candy I would just love to eat me a seifer. ^.^ enjoy, and review if you can, they are appreciated.
Chapter 4. Insurance
After the long conversation with his insurance company he convinced them that there was an accident and that it wasn't his fault but that of bad construction. They greedily asked if he wanted to sue and he shook his head, his hair falling onto his eyes. The blonde knot had come loose long ago.
"No! Damn I told you I just want to be covered." he barked at the receiver. Hearing the next set of words, he got riled up even more.
"What do you mean you don't cover that kind of accident!?" he was screaming now, patience gone.
"Hey! I'm not your son! There were drunks at the bar and they started smashing up the bar. One of them broke some wiring, it later caused the house to go to flames and it blew up... . . . You don't cover fuses and fires!........ what kind of insurance company are you!?!" he was infuriated and was standing with his mouth to the receiver pacing up and down the living room making sure to avoid the coffee table as he did so. Ready to rip out his hair, he thought of another approach.
"Look I need to be covered, I have no money and the possessions I owned have been turned to ash. I just need enough to cover for my assets I don't want the money for the bar and the business and the furniture and all that. Just the bar or the business or the house or which ever one of those is good enough." he forced it to come out nicely, though if you were to see him and see him say that you would think he was about to pull the man on the other line out by the tongue and make him swallow it. The man on the other line asked a question and Seifer was ready to kill himself.
"No, I don't- I'm not suing I just want money for my things. Look I have paid you for insurance now I need it and your not going to help me?" he was tired of this, he didn't want to deal with this, he was depressed and sick of this all. He just wanted enough to get up off the ground again.
"Mr.Halpersy, I'll see what I can do. I can cover for the house. It will come by mail. We can give you... seven hundred thousand gil for it Mr.Halpersy good day." with that the conversation ended, Seifer starred at the phone and set it down. He didn't have the energy to fight anymore. Relaxing as he sunk into the sofa, he let the breeze and sounds of the ocean bring him to sleep. The large blanket resting on the head of the futon was pulled and he covered himself with it, letting the nightmares come and letting the past invade, I need some sleep even if it isn't so restful, he reasoned as he felt his eyes close.
The sunset tinted everything orange as he slept, the house was quiet and the door to the kitchen was open and the house held with his screams. Outside the seagulls soared above the house away from the sound, their wings sailing as they fled with sympathy for the troubled soul, to leave him to his own silent hell. The waters crashed melodically the blues and greens clashing and charging at each other, working together to color the world with their presence.
The small village only consisted of a few houses they didn't hear, they didn't[t bother. The house was a image of calmness, inside it only turmoil resided, unable to erase what had been done to him. Unable to leave the past in the past, with the guilt on his shoulders always he lived.
Seifer sat up and as the sweat poured from his face and his pallor grew less noticeable as he asked the winds, why? Why can't I have anything? First my life is ruined, my name is cursed, my soul battered and tortured and constantly infested with the evil that had taken my soul too. My heart smeared at, slashed at, my heart has left and my last shreds of love were given to Quist- . . . . . hyne I'm different, I never used to be so. . . expressive, or . . . what's the word? Poetic? Uhg! I'm going soft.
The best thing I ever did was give that to her, the last of Seifer Almasy. I'm broken, I finally broke! Moreover, even though I made it through the war, and Ultimacia, Quistis had it in her to bring me to the lowest I'd ever get. She didn't do it on purpose but she did it. Reduced me, made me seem unimportant, just something, that had crossed her path.
She seemed so lost though, when I had seen her, he thought; her eyes they were reflecting his. It made him want to efface the look. Was it the wine? They had drunk a lot, but they were sensible and making sense. He could remember it all. Every word she said and the words he spoke too; all as clear as the sky.
Quistis was getting dizzy from staring at the passing trees; silently she mentally counted the amount of money that she had spent so far. Hidden from view she didn't notice an shadow of a man as he looked at her with hate. He had to be discreet and wait, it was all in due time.
He smiled cruelly at the idea of revenge for Ultimacia. This woman had interfered with the plans. If Seifer had been able to stay at Garden, Edea would have been able to blow the garden to smithereens. Snickering at his cunning plan, he waited for the right opportunity to strike. Seeing that he would have to wait he relaxed on the ceiling and tried to meditate his plan for any faults.
The Balamb train station was empty as usual and the card queen had even decided to stay there, Quistis grabbed her stuff and went to rent a car. The sorceress follower snickered as he thought of how sly he was for going unknown even as he was dealing with seed! Grinning behind his black sweater hood he ran in the shadows as the car sped away. Knowing that she was just going to Garden, he walked and took his time as he followed, he would get her.
Quistis was confused, in the past few days so many things had changed her and her life. She had done the wrong thing, she had let the target go, and she was now planning on lying. She was sure she would have been able to catch the target in the alleyway, but his movements seemed planned and he had looked behind and actually stopped to give her time to follow. Now assuming he hadn't seen her, that he was just in a hurry, why in the world would he turn around, so that she could catch up. . This had her mind reeling and analyzing the information, she was very cautious an didn't want to come out of this dead, and when she had thought about it Eski had ran, now why would he be running in the first place, she had long ago decided that it was a trap, it was just too abnormal.
There was no way anyone would be that hurried one minute and the next completely composed and looking back for no reason then again why did he go in circles. She had discreetly followed him as he went from town to town, doing nothing except for pass by. All that passing by for nothing, all he did was walk through the towns, then he goes back to where he started. Then there was the look in his eyes, his poster, he was pleased, as if achieving something great. Did he know he was being chased? He didn't seem that way as he traveled through the towns before ending up right where he started. She tried to see if he was okay, pretending to be some concerned townsfolk, he turned and sprinted to the end of the alley and turned right at the end. Quistis saw her chance and carefully sneaked away without letting him see her. It was all too strange to go in there with the way the target was behaving.
If the man had planned that, did that also mean that the money was just a means to get a seed out here in this town? But why? What's the reason for just any seed. She was confused because it just didn't add up, a random seed, and no one would ever know; there is no point in the capture or kill, she thought as she parked the vehicle in the parking lot and exited the car. She went over to the control panel, entered her number, and signed the car in.
She would later have to go see squall and cid about the mission but it was late Two thirty a.m. She knew that everyone was out of the offices and in bed by now so she walked to her room as well. The idea of finally being in her bed at ease had made her walk more enjoyable.
The garden looked quiet, peaceful. There was no party waiting for her, she wasn't surprised. They didn't know she was coming back early. Sighing as she looked at her reflection, tracing the fish that swam the pond she watched it jump out of the water for a second, her mind deep in thought, she didn't know why but the water had struck something in her.
She didn't understand it, one look at it and she had to stop, the water was really blue but at night it looked emerald, a dark green that held depth. She had a flash of something, a nanosecond of remembrance of what? She couldn't tell, she shook it off and continued to her dorm.
The florescent lights dimly lit the corridors and she found it, her room. Sliding in the keycard, she dropped her stuff and fell on her bed. Happy to be home at last, smiling she spread her arms in an attempt to hug the mattress, the mission had taken excessively long. The months of stiff beds and chairs had her back aching and she just needed to be in her comfortable bed again.(A/n: you try sleeping in trains and chairs and crappy hotels for a few months.) sleep took her over almost immediately and she welcomed it as she was slipping off her clothes she fell into the sheets.
The room roofed with a dark Blue Ocean lit watercolor tinted the walls and objects. The window next to her bed was big but covered in a large sheet to block peeping toms; her room being in the area of the quad, it let everyone see what was going inside, it was the first thing she noticed when she looked outside and now it had a large sheet covering it. Smiling to herself, she fell asleep to the sound of the songs of crickets' wings.
Xu was at the front desk when Quistis went up to see the headmaster and the commander, Xu and her were friends, Xu knew more about her than most other people did, she could read her like a book. They had been roommates and gone through the seed exam at the same time. Quistis always considered Xu as one of her closest friends, even if she didn't grow up with her since she was three. Though they only hung out a few times a week, Quistis would consider her friendship with her like that of a sister.
Quistis waited as the elevator stopped at the floor and got out, the front offices were the first things you saw when getting out of the third floor, they had changed things a little since the bridge is permanently in Cid's quarters. Balamb's operational forces and political representatives worked out front, and then the headmaster's office was in the back. With the rest of them put down in the basement, which had become offices after the garden master's pod was removed.
"Hey Quist, how did the mission go?" Quistis looked at her friend and gave her a face. Xu chuckled and reverted to turning them into coughs after Quistis glared at her. Xu had been offered the same mission but she had declined saying that she couldn't work under such conditions. The conditions being staying in the shadows tracking a delinquent for a few months, she told the commander that she would not be able to handle the undercover and patience part, and then suggested Quistis.
"Not too well, the ass ran in circles, I lost him, failed the mission, got trapped in a bar, during tropical thunderstorm with drunks. Where: I was assaulted, hit in the head and knocked unconscious, rescued by the bartender, Buuuuuuuut, other than that it sucked. Oh, the bar was the highlight. Then as I was coming to garden, I started to build up paranoia. Pretty fun huh?" she said as she settled into the sofa by Xu's desk. Her poster was rigid but Xu knew she wasn't tense.
"Wow... . . . . " Xu blinked and got a faraway look in her eyes, she really felt for Quistis, her mission was supposed to be cake. It was simple and easy money, but it had turned, from what she could gather, bad. Quistis looked worn also she noted, she had circles under her eyes and her appearance was normal on the outside but Xu saw her jaw twitch which was a sign of discomfort. However, even though she had gone through crap, the mission itself must have worn her out she was tracking that bastard for four months, completely secretive.
Her top teeth were biting her bottom lip and she knew that she was alto in something; her eyes were focusing on her eyelashes, which meant one of three things A) that she could be trying to forget something or B) remind herself of something, or C) conclude on something. Xu shook her head and picked up the phone after it rang for the third time, the phone she had was old and broken and on the third ring, it would sound distorted and extra long, Xu and everyone else that heard it thought the sound was terribly annoying. Cid opened the door and out came a man dressed in black suit and tie, they shook hands and exchanged goodbyes, Cid motioned for her to come in.
The office was big but warm, and the furniture switched with things sturdier and harder since the war. Quistis saluted and waited for instruction.
"At ease. Sit down Quistis." Squall said, he hated the formalities and every chance he got he would avoid them but it was procedure and he had to follow it. She nodded and sat in the chair to the left of the desk cid was in, squall was standing by the window seemingly watching something, but he turned and walked to stand around the desk as he acknowledged her.
"The mission was a failure Sirs," she told them as she looked at cid, then squall trying to find a reaction. Squall was stoic but she could see he was...confused? Oh, fantastic, they don't believe me, she thought as she found the same look on cid. She felt like screaming, what?! I can't make a mistake, shit doesn't happen to me! Just everyone else? She thought better and this time she bit the upper lip in worry.
"What happened?" cid asked. He wasn't mad but seemed tired as if this had happened four times today.
"Well, sir. . ." Quistis told them the mission what happened with the target and the storm and was wise when she left out certain parts of the story. When she was done, they all seemed tired; squall shook his head in a frown and asked:
"Why didn't you try to follow him after the storm?" he asked.
"It wasn't till the next day that I was able to go outside, I went to the store to ask around and the person told me that they hadn't known the person. I went to the alleyway and found that it was a dead end. I checked it thoroughly for any passage ways but came up with nothing and after the rain there was no evidence. Not to mention that the target had spotted me. So the mission was a failure." Quistis didn't want to be there anymore. Hyne, just get me out of here, she wasn't going to let them find out the truth, they would have her position, she had just given up and she didn't know why, she didn't understand why she had boarded the train and left. She can't remember, now she wish she did. Cid was about to question her more but squall cut in.
"I don't know what happened over there Quistis. I wasn't on the mission. But I'm going to let this lay, because your usually one of the best operatives and because of all that you've done for us in the past. I don't know what you were thinking when you... ran out in this mission but it will not happen again understood?" Quistis nodded squall saluted. Quistis stood and saluted.
"Yes, sir" she received the nod to leave and turned to go.
Xu smiled sympathetically as they ate lunch, Quistis looked like death, her head in her hands and her right leg was bouncing the other leg followed because it's crossed over the right thigh. Her food untouched and her coffee cup needed refilling. I need wine, no I need coffee, no I need to stop thinking about this, she told herself.
"You don't run out on missions, Quis. Its not you. What happened?" Xu nudged at her with her elbow, resulting in Quistis' head moving a little to the opposite direction. The cafeteria was silent as they talked, not a lot of students were out of class yet. The grayish bluish table reminded Quistis of squall's eyes.
"I can't remember." she told her, as she removed her hands and looked at her friend. Xu frowned and contemplated this for a second. They looked at their food for a while and the table, silent. they had sat in the back the of cafeteria by a window.
"Well, why can't you remember?" she asked, casually.
"I think I was too drunk to remember." she said even more nonchalantly.
"Ah," she nodded understandingly, she would have been worried but she saw that Quistis wasn't drunk now, and that she was able to hold herself. Xu had faith in her friend and accepted the answer, glad that Quistis would tell the truth and that she was able to depend on her for that truth. Grabbing her shoulder in an attempt of a sideward hug she put both of their temples against the other and hugged her friend for reassurance.
"Quistis? Come on lets go out. Maybe we can catch a movie or something." Xu looked down at her friend as she got up to empty her tray. Quistis laughed despite herself.
"Sure, sorry I'm so down today. I never fail missions' Xu. You should have seen squall, he was so disappointed in me." She told her friend. Xu rolled her eyes.
"Still stuck on him huh? Gee Quistis you need a new wall to lean against." She told her jokingly. Squall? No I don't feel bad because of that Xu, its like having your family look at you in shame. Especially for something so simple compared to saving the world, she said inwardly. Plus, I don't feel that way about that ex student, but another, though the two are a look alike in some ways, they are also complete opposites in other ways; why did he some into my thoughts all of a sudden, she mused. They made their way to the parking lot.
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thanks for the reviews and to all you readers you could review, or you could read, leave me feedback and I'm happy if you've enjoyed the chapter I'm happy. I know it feels like its going slow, but be patient. Happy halloween! It coming up soon. Ah, the temperature is already changing and everything, *_* I love this time of the year.