Still don't own 'em. Still nothing particularly R-rated in this chapter, but hang in there, it'sa comin'. Xineko did a lovely job of improving our rough draft, praise her!
Revenant
Chapter 3: Zell, Squall, Seifer
Irvine yelped as the doors we came through shut with barely a whoosh, cutting off the light seeping down from the upper levels. "Okay, fine! We've just officially worn out our welcome."
I pulled a mini-torch from my pocket and examined the breaker box, shaking my head. "Looks like nothing has been touched in ten years." Methodically, I went through the breakers sequence, flipping each one off and after counting 30 seconds, back on. "Fucknoodle."
Irvine watched, huddled close to my body heat and I think the light. "It's not working, is it?"
I shook my head. "I wonder if it's so cold because the power is messed up, or if the power is messed up because it's so cold."
"Dunno, but Shiva's ass sounds pretty warm and inviting compared to this place right now." Suddenly, Irvine found a happy thought. "You know," he drawled slyly. "if it stays cold like this... we're gunna need to get some real body heat going."
I grinned at him. "I thought all your happy hentai thoughts had faded away?"
"They came back," Irvine said smugly. "Must have been the bad lighting that ran them off."
I looked around the room. Other than rimes of ice, I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. "All I see are simple malfunctions."
"Try taking your hand off your gunblade, then." Seifer said. "There's nothing in here for us to kill but each other... and it wants that."
"Is that why you didn't drop the spell? You thought I'd attack you?" I slid Lionhart back into the junction sheath and looked up at Seifer.
He pulled a face. "No, Dipshit, I'm cold and the lights were out."
Zell shrieked from the hall.
I charged out the door, yelling, "Status!"
"They're heeerrrrrreeeee," Seifer said cheerfully. Asshole.
"It wasn't me!" Irvine called back.
Zell was leaning against the wall, trying to get his breathing and heart rate back under control. He had dropped his light and it was rolling along the floor, casting freaky shadows along the walls.
"What are we screaming about?" Irvine whispered frantically. "Should I scream, too?"
"Hope someone has a credit card and spare pair of shorts for the Chicken," Seifer remarked breezily, ambling along behind me.
"Seifer, quick fucking around and bring the Hynebedamned light." I joined them and said, "Zell, Irvine! Status?"
"...sorry, Baby." Zell's expression of embarrassment was one of the most reassuring things I'd seen all night.
Irvine turned Zell into the red light of Seifer's spell and tried to check him over. "Let's make sure you haven't joined the ranks of the Undead, Darlin'."
Zell was still spooked and jumpy. "I cast a 'Scan' on the breaker box for giggles. I got... I saw..." His voiced cracked slightly in terror or shock, "It was a bloody screaming face. It lunged at me!"
"Are you hurt?" I asked, concerned. Seifer's 'chicken' is based on Zell's hair, not his bravery, after all. What could have upset him so badly? "Irvine, did you see it, too? Did you get a reading on it?"
"He looks ok," Irvine said, and stretched to retrieve the light, clicking it off automatically before handing it back to Zell. We were left in the flickering red aura of Seifer's Fira. "I looked away for just a sec, then saw Zell tryin to climb the wall. That's about it."
"Welcome to the Twilight Zone, Chickenwuss," Seifer said grimly. Zell was still so rattled he didn't even react to the nickname.
I reconnoitered, then pointed back to the stairwell. "Seifer, shine your light that way." The spell affect radius expanded, and Seifer turned slightly, angling his palm in the direction I indicated. "Did you trip the breaker for the blast doors? The stairway is closed off again."
"That happened before we got to the box," Irvine said. "Just after the lights went out.""Even so...," Zell mused. "The power-cycle should have reactivated them." He held up his flashlight, absently checking to see if it still worked although we'd all seen Irvine just switch it off. Zell shook the minitorch, then clicked it on, the beam unintentionally under his chin: the Lighting of Extreme Evil. I flinched slightly. I can never tell Zell how much like Adel he looked.
"Well, that was sharp as an altar candle, Chickie," Seifer frowned
I elbowed Seifer. "Can you get the power back up?"
Zell cast the beam in a more sensible direction and shook his head slowly, puzzled. "Whatever the problem is, it's either not...electrical, or not here." He hesitated, chewing his lip, before asking, "What was up with that freaky face?"
Irvine shrugged. "I'm just glad I didn't have a stroke when you shot straight up the air like a spooked cat."
"I don't know, Zell, you are the only one who saw it." That didn't sound as consoling as I'd hoped.
Helpfully, Seifer said, "Probably one of the dead guys trapped in the fucking walls."
I gave him a look possibly as cold as the ice bound toilet. "They couldn't leave a whole body in the walls, it's unsanitary." Irvine chuckled at that. "I'm sure they got that memo.""Then what's that fucking smell, Puberty Boy?" If he wasn't holding that Fira, I know Seifer would have smugly folded his arms across his chest.
"Your upper lip?" Zell said, but quietly.
"Maybe, it's like... a memory?" Irvine guessed.
"Odors stimulate memory," Seifer said. "Memories don't generate smells."
I shrugged, irritated by the whole scenario and its pretensions of supernatural menace. "Mouse. Mildew. Malfunction. Old socks."
"Is that one of those groovy beatnik poems?" Irvine looked around, watching the slow arc of Zell's powerful little flashlight beam as it searched along the planes and gaps of the corridor walls.
"There's nothing in that room." I collected myself, reasserting command of the situation. "Let's search the others. Start here and work our way back to the stairs. Seifer, you and Irvine go left, Zell and I will take the rooms on the- "
Irvine gasped suddenly, grabbing Zell's arm. "Shine your light back over there!" Zell obeyed, sweeping the beam in slow retreat, but there was only the wall, like every other in Garden, but looking strangely pristine, lacking the normal scuffs and scratches from the student population.
"What was it?" Zell asked.
Irvine shook his head. "Nothing." He edged closer to Seifer.
Squall caught my eye and I shut my mouth on the smart remark that was forming. That cost me some, but I'd get even later. Instead, I put my arm around Irvine, guiding him toward a dorm entrance. The Fira in my hand cast a rosy glow, making it seem almost cozy. I asked, "See something, Cowboy?"
"Some blood... scratches... bloody handprints and I think a face print. My imagination working over time." Irvine tightened his hold on my sleeve and closes his eyes like he could erase the memory. I let him cuddle, not like I'd complain about that, even on a good day, which this was turning out not to be fast.
I surveyed the room; to my knowledge it had never been used. I knew we were wasting time searching and I knew Squall knew it, too. On the other hand, Our Fearless Leader wanted to hang around until the witching hour, and there wasn't a lot to do in the dark in a barren dorm room.
Okay, I was with Irvine, and there was a hellova lot we could be doing. But it would be tricky holding the Fira.
Since I had the light, Irvine 'searched' by poking about in a 3-foot radius of me. He quit as soon as he realized I wasn't going to get in his shit over not checking in each drawer and shower stall.
"I... guess the death of the SeeD's made quite an impression?" Irvine asked, too casually.
I snorted. "I was 10 years old. I got assigned to help wash the walls."
Irvine stared at me, his pansy colored eyes wide with shock. "You cleaned..." his gaze cut past me, out into the hall where he'd seen the blood I remembered so well.
"Shit, you think they had the upperclassmen do it? And they sure as fuck didn't want off base help in here." I tried not to think about Cid's nervous smile, assuring me that Matron needed her Knight's assistance on this, that it had to be Our Little Secret. "Big scandal like that would have ruined the Garden." I shrugged, much as I had then. Dead is dead, blood is blood and pocket change is a very good thing to have plenty of. I wasn't Cid's Knight. It was a job, and it wasn't too bad until... "When I saw the bodies," I felt the quaver start and forced my voice to stay calm and unaffected, "One of them looked up and grinned at me and said 'you'll be with us'."
"Fuck," Irvine breathed, and for once it wasn't a request.
"So, I'm a tad hateful about this whole scene."
"How can you be so calm about it, if you were here?" Irvine snuggled to me, offering the comfort of his presence. And getting closer to the light.
I debated telling him the truth, that I wasn't handling it too well, and the incessant whispers of it mocking me and coaxing me to feed it the blood it craved were starting to carve big chunks out of my will.
I shrugged. "I shit before I came, so I wouldn't brown trou."
Thank you for the reviews! Soon, soon, we'll get the the actual plot. Or at least, the smut. Anyone besides me hate the way the scene breaks vanish upon upload?
