Seifer was beginning to settle in to Garden seven days later… well, as much as he could settle in anyway. In his first week back at Garden he had gone on one mission, which was far too easy in his mind. It was a simple observation mission, making sure that the election for Mayor went well in Timber. Even after a year there was still a little tension from Galbadia. In the meantime, he spent most of his time in the new addition to the training area. The new addition was stocked up with higher-level monsters, to keep the SeeDs and students showing incredible determination in top shape.
This was where he was now. He watched with cold eyes as a ruby dragon shuddered its last ounce of life out. Seifer stretched a little and decided to head back to his dorm- his and Selphie's dorm, he reminded himself- and take a shower and a nap. On his way to the cafeteria he noticed another SeeD enter, a tall man. No one he knew however and he dismissed the face quickly.
When he entered the dorm he realized he wasn't alone. The usually rambunctious Selphie sat in her room looking worried. Seifer had noticed that she had seemed exceedingly nervous lately. At first he had assumed it was because of his presence but when she didn't even acknowledge him he banished the thought. Now that he thought harder on it, Selphie hadn't quite seemed like the overanxious girl he knew before. Often he caught at in these moments, silent and twisting a ring on her finger.
"Yo." Seifer leaned against her doorframe. Selphie looked startled at his voice, perhaps she never even noticed he was there.
"Hi." Quickly regaining herself, "Good work on the last mission." This was the first bit of praise he had gotten, not that he cared.
"So when's the next one." He asked. The last took a total of four days and Seifer was getting antsy to do something.
"Not sure." She replied honestly, "I'm pretty sure we're getting new orders today." Before Selphie could elaborate a frantic knock came at the door. "Enter."
Another SeeD opened the door, wasting no time in closing it. "Ms. Tilmitt," He grasped for words and breath. His face had gone nearly white and his eyes dull with shock. Seifer realized it was the SeeD he had seen earlier. "There's been a body discovered."
"What! Are you serious Eric?" Selphie flew from her bed, almost knocking Seifer over in her attempt to reach the SeeD. "Where, when?"
"In the new addition." Eric looked like he about to throw up. "I just found her."
* * *
Within minutes all of Balamb Garden was in an uproar. It docked at Deling City and police were called in. Students gathered just outside of the training area, eager to find out who it was. Selphie, Seifer, Eric and Squall stood at the scene with two police officers. The body was almost unrecognizable it was so mutilated. Strangely the face was untouched.
"Holy shit." Seifer cringed. He had seen dead people before but this was hideous. The girl couldn't have been older than 17 was naked, staring lifelessly into the great beyond in a pool of her own blood. The torso was slit from breast to naval in a ragged tear. One arm was broken, lying in an unnatural position. The rest… Seifer couldn't even think about the rest, the poor girl was obviously raped as well. Who could have done such an outrageous act? Selphie dashed to a nearby set of bushes and unloaded her lunch.
"This is terrible." Squall smothered his face with his hand. There was silence as the officers took pictures and spoke quietly to each other about the corpse. One of the officers, with a look of supreme curiosity on his face, turned the body on its side and examined the back.
"Oh fuck. Come look at this." He motioned for his partner. Seifer felt a stab of horror when he saw it. A huge cross was cut into her back, intricate patterning set in human flesh. "Just like those other three in the city."
Seifer was the first to snap out of the trance. "Other three?" Holy Hyne, this isn't the first?
"Yeah, for the last three weeks we've been finding them." The officer took out a smoke and lit it, looking distraught. "Can't figure out who it is though. No clues to connect to the murderer at all. We can't even figure out these crosses." He took a long drag on his cigarette.
"Which brings us to another thing." The second officer stepped in. "This case is out of our jurisdiction," She got a sorrowful look on her face. "I've been ordered by the Police Chief to enlist the services of SeeD."
"It's already our problem now." Squall sighed. "Who the hell am I gonna get to take on this job?" He thought aloud, not realizing he had actually said it.
"I'll take it." Seifer spoke clearly with ill-suppressed rage. Something about this seemed so utterly wrong to him. It disturbed his very soul. Squall was about to bark out no but then he closed his mouth and opened his mind.
"You would be the best suited." Squall said rationally. "There aren't too many others that would be able to handle it."
Well at least he understands my talents. Seifer thought. It looks like we have a serial killer on our hands.
* * *
When Seifer and Selphie got back to their room, she blew up on him. "How could you volunteer for this?" Selphie paced back and forth between their two rooms. Seifer simply watched, arms crossed and leaning against a door frame. "This, this atrocity can't be handled by us! This is the work of the police."
"May I remind you that they hired us to solve this?" A raised eyebrow was Seifer's only physical response.
"And you think that we're trained to solve this?" She pointed an accusing finger at him. This event had caused Selphie's worry to overflow entirely. Seifer knew she had been on edge recently (he didn't know why though) and, not that he'd admit it, he was worried about his partner's mental health.
"We have taken classes," Seifer blocked her from being able to pass in her delirious pacing. He grabbed her arm before she was able to bolt for the door; she had the look of 'I'm going to cancel my participation in this mission'-look. "Remember, before we were SeeDs?" The tension in her shoulders relaxed a little at his words and she blushed a little. "We can do this." Selphie's blush faded as gave him a cold assessing look, as if sizing him up. He shivered a little at her gaze. He never noticed it before but Selphie was actually quite attractive, once you get past that annoying perky personality.
Too bad she was dating Irvine.
"You're right." Selphie sighed, conceding defeat. She seemed to have loosened up a little. "We'll just focus on this…" Her voice trailed off into oblivion and worry shadowed her eyes, just as it had when she was twisting her ring. "And I have had experience in murder cases. You ever read about the Galbadian politicians scandal?" Seifer vaguely remembered, through alcohol muddled memories, that one politician had covertly hired a hit man to take out the opposition during an election.
And surprisingly, the hit man wasn't Seifer. A shudder of guilt ripped through him. "Yeah, I remember it."
"That was me. I uncovered the case." Selphie's eyes lightened a little with triumph. "You'd be surprised what politicians will do to retain their power."
"I doubt it." Seifer replied, releasing her arm. Again the guilty demons poked at his soul. Manual labour wasn't the only dirty job he'd taken in the last year. He pushed the guilt out, as much as he could, and continued. "Let's take a look at our new office. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time there."
* * *
The office was located on the second floor, by the classrooms. It was sparsely furnished; a large table, chairs, a couch, and a coffee maker. Seifer knew they'd be using that a lot. The lights were dim but the room was illuminated by a large shadow box. It was used primarily for putting pictures, x-rays or letters on. The most relevant addition to the room however was the police officer standing by the table.
It was the male police officer; he was around the same height as Seifer and he had short black hair. His face was somber, and his purple eyes penetrating. There was immediate tension between Seifer and him. Authority that isn't my own… Seifer thought.
"In accordance with Deling City Police policy I will be the assisting officer on this case." His words were stern and left no room for disagreement. Seifer could tell from his mannerisms that the officer was used to giving commands and expected immediate response. At least he was professional. "My name is Officer Damian Leon."
"I'm Selphie Tilmitt and this is Seifer Almasy." Selphie introduced them. Seifer decided it would be better to let Selphie deal with him rather then getting into an unavoidable fight. Two Alpha males could never work together well.
Leon slapped down a file about five inches thick on the table, followed by a thinner folder. "This one is the pictures from the previous crime scenes, and this," He pointed to the smaller folder, "Is what little we've been able to come up with."
"Then let's take a look." Seifer said as he opened the photo folder. When he saw the first photo a wave of nausea rolled over him. This was going to be a long day.
* * *
After four hours of pouring over photos, reading reports and organizing the photos on the shadow box in chronological order Seifer couldn't come up with much. There was no physical evidence to speak of regarding the identity of the killer. No prints, no footmarks, no…anything.
"Let's get down to the motive of the killer." Leon said. "Judging by the cross carved into the victims backs, he must be religious." He gave a sidelong glance at Seifer's trench coat and Seifer in turn gave him the middle finger.
"Maybe he feels he's a avatar of Hyne." Selphie thought deeply. "Like he's performing Hyne's will by killing the sinners."
"Good idea. We'll have to check into the victims personal lives." Leon lit up a smoke and Selphie snuffed at him. She hated cigarette smoke. "We'll look for anything that might seem like deviant behaviour to the religious. Sex lives, drug use, atheism, cruelty."
This sounds like we're putting the victims on trail. Seifer thought. Deep down he believed that these four girls were victims, having not done anything wrong themselves. A shadow of an idea was coming to him but he couldn't grasp it yet. He needed more to go on. He looked at the pictures as Selphie and Leon theorized about the killer. In every case the girls had been mutilated and raped. The cross in their backs was the other connection. Their faces were untouched however, perhaps the killer savoured the untainted look of pain on their faces. Seifer's skin crawled when he thought about that. Who could take pleasure in someone else's pain? The very thought sickened him. It was true that he had tortured people before, but he always felt guilt and remorse afterwards.
His eyes caught onto one of the pictures. He examined more closely then looked at the others, checking if his assumption was right. The faces were left untouched but in each victim an earring was ripped out of their left ear. "Hey," he called to the other two. "I think I found something."
* * *
Today they found the first body in Garden. They've already found the other three in Deling city. Isn't that great Mother? I feel their Pain, the girls each found a way into my heart. Unlike the other hearts that were too black to let them in. Why did that have to happen to them? Life can be so cruel Mother, just like you were. But I learned from our time together Mother. I learned Mother. And you taught me valuable lessons Mother. So I taught those girls. And because I could teach them I saved them. I saved them from themselves. They won't feel the Pain anymore. Not like the Pain I have to feel. But if this is what I have to do, I will. No one should feel the Pain I have Mother. You and I both felt that Pain Mother. Remember when father left? He is a bad man. I'm glad you punished his sin out of me Mother, I don't want to be like him. We loved him, didn't we Mother? But he's a bad man. I don't want to be bad like him, Mother.
~* * *~
Notes: And there's chapter two for ya. In case you're wondering, I'm not going to go into the killer's mind just yet. But that little letter at the end does give you some insight into the killer's mind. They'll be lots of those. Seifer and co never sees them until the end, but because you're the readers you get to see them! Reviews are greatly appreciated and so are flames, if they're reasonable. Don't come complaining because of the content, I put a warning before chapter one so you should've stopped then. Also I changed the title because it was more fitting, I kind of just made up a title so I could post chapter one.
jade_ice17@hotmail.com
PS- if anyone can come up with a better summery, please do. E-mail me your summery and I'll choose the best. Please help me out here, I suck at summaries!