Hunted By The Shadows
Chapter Eleven
The darkness was thick, just as it was every other night. It taunted him, seeming to laugh at him, as he lay awake for hours at night. His eyes stared at the ceiling, this white blank ceiling above his head, as if it held some kind of answer. Nothing ever did make sense. He didn't want to sleep tonight, sharing a room with Rinoa and risking her witnessing him waking up in terror wasn't what he wanted. It had become disturbingly natural these past years to wake up with these horrifying feelings. When he was younger, he would wake up screaming for her. Not tonight. Even Squall Leonhart had his pride, just enough pride to not want Rinoa to see him at such a vulnerable state.
He shifted on the sofa uncomfortably, the thought suddenly coming into his mind at why he didn't just get another room for himself, and maybe at the same time throttle that naïve receptionist. Yet he was here now, in pain on the uncomfortable sofa. Maybe if he closed his eyes for just a moment, it wouldn't matter. The dreams couldn't come that quickly. He opened his eyes and sat up from his lying position as he realised he was going to fall asleep. Standing up from the sofa he walked towards the window, running a hand through his hair. He really wished morning would soon come.
Squall opened the curtain slightly, the moonlight from the outside streamed through the window revealing some of the dark room. Outside the window, he saw the various houses below in the small town, each lit up by the street lamps reflecting off the snow-covered ground making it glow a fiery colour. The scenery set out to him was tranquil; something to maybe keep his mind away from the thoughts of sleep.
Looking up he saw the tall mountains stretching up towards the sky. Behind the mountains, the navy blue sky was filled with small dots of white glowing stars. He looked back into the dull room, yawning from the lack of sleep. He began pacing around the room for the scenery still didn't cease the tiredness. Squall stopped in his tracks as he heard Rinoa's muffled voice. Had he awoken her?
Squall turned around to face her. No. She wasn't awake, he soon realised as he saw her body turning violently. She was having a dream. He stood and observed her silently, her breaths quickening as if in panic and fear. He stepped closer to her, hearing her pleas for mercy. Took a step even closer and knelt next to her bed. Cautiously he watched over her shaking form, and pushed back the loose strands of hair covering her face. His hand lingered on her face and for a moment he stayed frozen, before pulling away. He knew there was probably nothing he could do to help her; if he got any closer to her he would start to fear losing her. So he turned away from her, unable to witness her sleeping form. He wanted to walk away and act as if he didn't care, tell her it was her burden she would have to live with, and not his. Yet he couldn't, he couldn't pull himself away. She was a victim, a living victim and not an already dead face printed in a newspaper column.
He turned his eyes back to hear the raven-haired girl in front of him call out in desperation at these strange dreams. Squall closed his eyes; he couldn't bear hearing the fear evident in her voice any longer, so he reached out to her again. He held her sleeping body in his arms, and tenderly stroked her forehead, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop the dream. So he stayed with her, held her close to him until her breathing finally calmed and her body ceased shaking. Then he held her longer, once she had returned back to her peaceful slumber.
"Squall?"
A faint voice echoed through his mind. Was it a dream? His eyes felt so heavy, so tired. Squall turned over and tried to get back to sleep, suddenly remembering the many hours he had been awake for that night.
"Wake up sleepy head"
He could hear her soft voice calling out to him. Was that who he thought it was? Her voice was so gentle, it brought back the past. It couldn't be, for she was dead. He felt someone shake him lightly, he ignored it, for the little amount of sleep he had was peaceful. For the first time in a long time, he didn't have any bad dreams. Someone shook him a bit harder, once again he ignored it. Peaceful slumber, it felt so foreign. A sharp pain entered his head and his eyes opened wide. Squall turned to see Rinoa standing over him, with his book held in hand. It wasn't who he thought it was.
He watched as she smiled when she saw he was awake and studied the book in her hands "I knew this book would come in useful for you one day," she said with a playful look in her eye. "Now get up, we need to go visit this Selphie person today"
Sighing in defeat he began to get up, then stopped in his tracks as he realised what lack of clothing he was wearing. Only his black boxers were worn. Rinoa was stood over him for a moment before realising why he had stopped, before turning away embarrassed. He gathered his clothes before entering the bathroom to take a quick shower. The warm water poured down on his face, and he felt it soothe his tiredness and the aching muscles caused from sleeping on the sofa. Quickly getting dressed, he went back into the main part of the hotel room and began gathering his belonging before leaving the hotel with Rinoa.
The frozen wind hit them both as they stepped outside the heated hotel. He watched as Rinoa shivered. "Any idea where you need to go to see her?" he asked.
Rinoa turned to Squall and smiled "Actually I do," she said looking pleased with herself. "While you were sleeping, I asked the receptionist if she could give me directions to get there."
Squall watched as Rinoa looked around her surroundings and began heading up one of the many paths surrounding them "This way," she called over her shoulder "It's not far from here."
The two walked silently down the frozen paths and eventually Rinoa stopped in front of a row of houses. "It should be that house there," she said pointing to one of the buildings. She made her way to the front of the house, the grey wooden door stood in front of her, gathering snow at the top. To the left hand side of the door, there was a small button, which Rinoa assumed to be the doorbell. Taking in a deep breath and trying to ignore the growing tension inside of her, she pressed the doorbell hearing its buzz as she did. She turned over her shoulder to see Squall stood behind her before turning back towards the door when she heard a click of a lock and the door opened.
A young woman looking in her early twenties emerged from behind the door. She starred at the two strangers standing outside the doorway with her emerald eyes. Her auburn hair made its way down to her shoulders and flicked out at the ends. Clutching the door with one hand she spoke, "Can I help?"
Rinoa took a step forward getting nearer to the young woman "Selphie Kinneas?" The young woman looked at Rinoa for a moment, a knowing look in her eyes.
"I'm not talking to any more journalists," she said taking a step back from the doorway "Please leave"
"We're not journalists," Rinoa said, clearly seeing the distraught look on the woman's face. A thought crossed her mind that maybe she hadn't thought about this visit thoroughly enough, maybe Squall was right in thinking they shouldn't go. "Selphie, we just want to know what happened. Please?"
Selphie paused for a moment and looked silently at the two unfamiliar individuals in front of her. She looked Rinoa in the eyes for a moment, and then opened the door wider to allow them both to step inside with a sigh. "Come in," she said quietly.
Stepping inside the house they followed Selphie through to a small living room. "Take a seat," Selphie said gesturing towards the cream coloured sofa. "Can I ask your names?"
"I'm Rinoa Heartilly," she said taking a seat, then looked over he shoulder "and this is Squall Leonhart." Rinoa watched as Squall nodded his head towards Selphie in greeting.
"You must be cold, I'll make you some hot drinks" Selphie said before disappearing through the doorway and out into the hall. Once she left Rinoa took the opportunity to study the room. On the wall opposite a small fire burned, its embers crackled as they flew from the flames. Around the fire there was a vintage marble mantelpiece, which appeared bare as no items were placed upon its surface. To the right, a large window, like the one in the hotel, looked up to the snowy mountains. In the centre of the room there was a small oak coffee table. As Rinoa studied her surroundings she couldn't help but feel the room was very bare. There were no pictures or ornaments anywhere in the room.
From the side of her Rinoa noticed that Squall sat silent. "Are you okay?" she asked. She looked to see Squall nodding. He looked slightly uncomfortable, but she knew that visiting a stranger wasn't something he would enjoy, so she chose to ignore it.
A few minutes later Selphie came back in the room holding three mugs, and placed them on the coffee table. Rinoa watched as Selphie walked towards a far corner of the room where there was a drawer. She took out a photo frame and handed it to Rinoa. In the photo there was a picture of two people, one was Selphie and the other was a man with long hair. Both of them were smiling at the camera looking happy in each other's arms.
"He was a great guy," she said with a small smile taking a seat on an armchair near the sofa. "Irvine liked to flirt a lot, but he promised me we would always be together. We had only been married a year when I started to notice things were going wrong."
Selphie shifted in her seat uncomfortably and kept her attention to the ground, "Sometimes I wish I had noticed it sooner, maybe I could have done something to stop them coming for him, but we can't change the past, can we?"
Rinoa listened intently at what she was saying, realising that maybe Selphie knew more than Rinoa had first thought. "Them?" she questioned.
"I'm not sure what they are, or what they showed Irvine, but they did something to him. He would wake up so scared at night, I'd hear him yelling and crying in fear. It was so strange seeing him like that, he was usually so cool and calm. At first he ignored it, he told me not to worry and he was just having a bad dream, but it went on for so long. He was scared to go to sleep, he tried his hardest to stay awake all night just to avoid them."
Rinoa looked at Selphie, she looked so sad, her voice sounded like she was going to break down in tears, yet she didn't. Her eyes looked so blank, so emotionless it was as if she was like some sort of robot recalling the facts. Rinoa suddenly felt guilty for coming here.
"I saw him deteriorate from the happy flirty guy I fell in love with, to a terrified man. Right before they took him, he couldn't do anything. He didn't like to be left alone at any point in the day, especially at night. He was afraid of the dark at this point," she turned her head away from Rinoa and Squall "I only closed my eyes for a second, I was so tired I couldn't help it but I didn't want to fall asleep and I did. When I woke up he was dead. There was so much blood all over the bed and I felt so angry with myself. If I had stayed awake, then maybe they wouldn't have come for him. Maybe he would still be alive."
Wiping away the tears that had finally managed to escape from her emotionless façade, she turned back to the two visitors. "The police told me that they think this could be some sort of serial killer, that there has been a pattern of similar killing for the last five hundred years. They think it is some sort of copy or ritual killing passed down through time, but they're wrong, and I think you know that too."
Rinoa turned to Squall and then back to Selphie, who was looking at them both with a strange look in her eye "I'm right, aren't I?
"We know that it's no human killer" Rinoa said feeling Squall's eyes on her, she ignored it and turned to Selphie, "We just don't know what it is or why"
"They search through time for you, and when they come, they take everything away from you until the only thing left to do is scream out in fear," she said clutching the photograph of her husband tightly in her hands, and studied Squall for a moment "You doubted me knowing anything like this, didn't you? I've never told anyone this before, so I hope it helps."
Rinoa gave Selphie a reassuring smile "It does help, and we're very grateful for you to trust us after turning up on your doorstep so unannounced like that."
A slight smile crept on Selphie's lips as she looked sadly back at Rinoa "You have that look in your eye," she started "They're coming for you, aren't they? I can see that frightened look in your eyes. Irvine had that same look in his eyes when I started to realise something was wrong."
She froze as she heard the words escape Selphie's lips. She knew they were coming for her. Was it that obvious? A sudden realisation came to Rinoa. She was going to die. The same things that happened to Irvine were going to happen to her. Rinoa looked back at Selphie with desperation.
"Just make sure you don't leave her alone in the dark," Selphie said to Squall, "It's not all in a child's mind when they're afraid of the dark, sometimes there is really something out there."
Squall nodded his head slowly "I won't," he said realising Rinoa's sudden silence. "I think we better go"
The three stood up from their seats and walked to the doorway. Selphie stopped them, as they were about to leave "I know a reporter who could maybe help you. She wanted me to give her information on how Irvine died, but I don't trust journalists," she said handing them her card, "Here is her card, she only came a few days ago, so if you're lucky she might still be in town. She seeks information on these strange killings, travelled all the way from Esthar to visit me."
"Thank you," said Rinoa quietly as she took the card.
"Take care," Selphie said to the two are they exited the house and shut the door behind them.
Once outside Rinoa and Squall walked back along the path quietly, she kept thinking over and over again what Selphie had said. This was real, it was really happening. She stopped in her tracks suddenly as the tears finally escaped her eyes. Squall looked over his shoulder as he saw her crying in the cold. It was beginning to snow. The pale flakes flowed elegantly down to the earth and surrounded them. He could hear her weeping as she stood still. The urges to comfort her were becoming too strong. He was already too close to her; this was something he was supposed to be doing alone. Cautiously he took a step closer to her.
"This is really going to happen," she said through her tears, "We're going to die"
Squall did the only thing his mind would allow him to do; he placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close, letting her weep as the bitter air surrounded them.
Authors note: Yay... 11 chapters... all those months of planning are finally paying off. Thank you Dark Angels who gave me advice when writing this and also thank you to all who have reviewed. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I still managed to include at least a little bit of fluffy squinoa stuff in this chapter. Thank you!