My apologies for the lack of foursome in this chapter. The fic wants to be more horror and less smut, go fig. This is the bowdlerized version anyway. For those of you familiar with YM, I've posted the somewhat more racy (you should excuse the expression) version there.
Warnings: foul language, yaoi, NC, squick, things typical to a horror fic. Management is not responsible for scaring to young impressionable psyches. Read at your own risk.
Characters not mine, yaddita, yaddita, quack quack. I have no idea what has against spaces between scenes. I assure you I have tried everything I can think of to get the spacing correct.
Revenant: Chapter 5
Squall
Irvine dropped a few light sticks in the sink, letting the medicine cabinet mirror spread their meager green light. He slipped into the shower behind me, making a happy noise when he discovered the water was hot.
At least, I think that's what the happy sound was about.
I was standing under the downpour, letting the hot water scrub away the last of the rancid blood. It bothered me a little that no one else noticed it was there.
He wasted no time lathering me up. Irvine's body wash smelled like ginger and peaches and some pleasant herby thing. It felt good to be clean, and to have Irvine's large hands on me. I leaned against the wall, resting on my arms, and let him wash and massage my worries away. The part of me that is all about duty and responsibility wanted to protest when Irvine's soap slicked fingers started wandering. We were on a mission, after all, and this was neither the time nor the place. But I was tired, and cold with something more than simple temperature, and when Irvine wrapped his arms around me I couldn't find the strength to say 'no'.
Afterwards, when we were drying each other off, I caught his grin and rolled my eyes. "Yes," I conceded, "you were right again and sex cures everything."
"Not everything, Darlin'," Irvine confessed, "Just most things."
I took a clean tee shirt from my satchel and tied our one, sodden towel around my hips, preparatory to finding my leathers. Irvine's all over tan is a testament to his ease with nakedness, but he pretended to stalk my towel all the same, playfully making as if to snatch it for himself.
We both shivered when we left the steamy warm bathroom; the cold clawed at us. Irvine beelined for a pile of blankets; I tried to reconcile myself to clammy leathers.
Seifer and Zell had raided the nearby rooms, creating a nest of faintly dusty blankets, pillows, and even mattresses. The room was dotted with Irvine's candles and the soft glow was a vast improvement over the cold white of the flashlights or the putrid green of the light sticks. The scents were nice, too, and almost masked the faint but pervasive smell of death.
Seifer and Zell were seated in the middle of the nest, Zell in Seifer's lap, his back to him. Seifer was kissing the large bruise blossoming on Zell's shoulder, perhaps an apology, or as close as Seifer gets.
"Come on in," Seifer said, "the water is fine."
I arched an eyebrow and reached for my pants. They were cold, wet, and still slimy with blood. I hesitated.
"Don't get dressed yet, Baby," Zell told me. "We have a couple hours until Midnight, let them dry out a bit. You can wear my PJ's if you want."
"Would those be the ones with the little chickabos on them?" Irvine asked, laughing.
"And rainbows." I remembered the horrible things well.
"Hey, they're fuzzy!" Zell defended. "Good defense against eeeeeeevil ghosts."
Seifer shook his head, wonderingly. "Hyne, Zell, what does your mom have against you?"
"We all got some that Yule," Irvine laughed. "Mine had little moogles and I think Squall's had moombas."
"And you didn't pack them?" Seifer pretended to be incredulous.
"I have no night clothes," I said.
Zell fell back against Seifer's chest. "He disowned them!"
"Along with that scary nightshirt Rinoa got you, the one with the pin tucks and the ruffles." Irvine patted the space beside him and I took the hint. Even with Shiva I could feel my skin goosepimpling in the cold. As soon as I lay down beside Irvine, he grabbed me up and rolled me over so that I was wedged between him and Zell. Somehow in this operation, I was divested of the wet towel, too.
"I bet you could have made that look sexy, Baby."
"I looked like the heroine in a gothic romance. All I needed was the candle and to get lost on the moors."
Zell and Irvine swooned in unison. I was left looking at Seifer, who yawned. "We got nap time before Harpy Hour. You take Emily, there, Squall, and I'll take Charlotte."
From Seifer's arms, Zell murmured sleepily, "How come no one ever remembers the other one?"
"What other one?" Irvine asked. He wrapped his arm and a leg around me and I found I didn't much care about neglected and dead writers.
Seifer growled, "The one no one gives a fuck about. Go to sleep, girls."
Warmed by body heat and lulled by the scent and light of Irvine's seduction candles, I found myself relaxing. When I woke up, I was more surprised by the fact that I had been asleep than I was by finding Seifer's body over me.
Or was I still dreaming? On either side of us Zell and Irvine slept on. They muttered and twitched like they were fighting in their sleep.
Everywhere Seifer touched me burned, but I couldn't decide if it was with heat or intense cold. He leaned down and kissed me, pressing my lips against my teeth, pushing his teeth into sensitive flesh. When he withdrew my mouth felt swollen and bruised.
Seifer took both my wrists in one hand and forced my arms over my head. He nipped up the undersides, drawing blood more than once. I knew something was wrong, Seifer would never hurt me like this, but I couldn't make myself do anything about it. The dream had too firm a hold on me, or perhaps I was simply too astonished to react.
I could feel blood trickling down my arms and taste it on my lips. I was not sure if it were my own or his… or someone, something else's. Seifer reeked of it; even his sweat was red. I screamed, more from the horror of it than the pain. Zell thrashed violently and then lay still. Irvine whispered my name.
I felt myself splitting and ripping to make way for Seifer. My own blood was burning me now, leaving silver white scars on my flesh. I knew Seifer was close and that when he did climax, he'd spill blood instead of seed into me.
I kept screaming.
Seifer
I woke up on top of Squall. Hyne, what had I done? It was Ultimecia all over again, waking up and the real nightmare, dealing with the consequences of my actions, just beginning.
"Squall?" I said, trying to put a heart's worth of questions in one word. My voice croaked like an elderly crow.
"It's all right," He soothed. "I'm fine, it's fine." Squall opened his eyes and I swear I saw flies walking on their dead surfaces. He smiled at me, his teeth stained red with blood. "In fact, it's terrific."
I rolled off him and reached for my pants. Whatever was coming next, it wasn't going to be pretty, and there was no point in distracting the others by showing my superiority. Squall rose with his usual careless grace, taking a blanket with him and wearing it like a shroud. He made an absentminded gesture, releasing the others from the spell that held them.
Oh, this was going to be bad.
Zell was on his feet before he was fully awake, looking for a target. He looked around, tousled and bemused. "What's going on?"
Irvine woke up with a start, moving to lie on his back. "Nightmare," he whispered, but I don't know if it was an explanation or reassurance.
I zipped up the fly of my pants, trying to watch all three of them and still be my cool casual self.
"Seifer raped me," Squall accused. He drew back the blanket like a theatre curtain and let it drop, a dramatic showing of all the bites, bruises, and Oh, Hyne, still trickling blood.
I saw Zell's slight shift in balance, but was too slow to block the back circle kick. They watched me go down, and didn't see what I did – the cold little bloodstained smile.
