A Life With or Without You
Chapter 4: Leave me alone
By: KawaiiLeena
(Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy IX!!! They are © to SquareSoft!!! )
Chapter 4: Leave me alone
The last school bell rings, motioning everyone that last class is over for the day. Dagger looks at her watch as it says the time of 4:25 PM. She sighs as she sees their Science teacher, Mr. Yoshikawa or Yoshikawa-sensei, picking up his record books and starts to leave the classroom.
She sighs as she looks down, 'another boring night just like the past two years. Everyday, every night, every afternoon I go home, I'm always alone. Like a lonely fish in the dark ocean… all alone…'
She looks at one corner and sees her friends, Rika, Mina, and Kaori picking up their own backpacks and starts to walk to her, their blue, light brown, and black eyes twinkling with happiness that Dagger hopes she have, too.
"Hey, Dagger!" Rika greets as they reach her, ignoring Zidane. "You want some ice cream in the Ice Cream Café? My treat!"
Dagger sadly smiles as she shakes her head slowly. "Thanks, but no thanks, Rika," she replies, forcing a happy tone and a smile. "I'm not in the mood for some cold ice cream right now."
Mina's twinkle in her eyes slowly disappears as she frowns and pouts, and says in a childish tone, "Why not? That's the 15th time you turned us down! Is there any time when you are available to even hang out with us?"
Dagger giggles as she looks up to her sad friends and stares to their colorful eyes. Rika's red apple cut hair made her so woman-like, and her sweet motherly personality made people see her a loving mother soon. Mina, the bully type, who has black hair ties to two Chinese buns has a boy type personality, wearing boys clothes and attitude, but she decided to continue to grow her raven hair. Kaori is the quiet but kind type, her shoulder-length light brown hair perfect for the afternoon breeze. She has a very pretty face, making her a bit popular. She loves acting very much and is one of the model students of the school.
"I'll come with you next time," Dagger pledges, smiling as the others set to their leaves. "I promise you."
Kaori smiles as she says in her shy tone of her voice, "Are you sure, Dagger?" she asks, her black eyes filled with hopes. Dagger nods, with a smile. "Promise?"
"Promise," Dagger replies. "Now, run along you three. Heard the Ice Cream Café will be crowded soon."
The three girls giggle as they made out through the door, their colorful heads soon turning to a slight distance as they disappeared through the glassy hallway. Dagger sighs as she looks down again, completely forgetting about Zidane hearing the whole conversation.
"You don't have to force a laugh and a smile if you don't want to, you know," Zidane suddenly and wisely says, grinning, not budging from his seat even though almost everyone in the school left, except for the baseball team.
Dagger rolls her eyes as she turns to the window, "Why do you care anyways? You're not me, and of course, you're not my mother, so let me be." She cruelly spats out to him, making Zidane frown for the first time.
"I may not be your mother but I am still your friend," he says plainly, really hurt of what she said. "Like your mother, I am worried and concerned about you. Pretending of what you aren't is not good. All you have to do is to be yourself."
"I am acting like myself!" Dagger retorts back, standing up and glares at him. "I am acting like the cheerful and innocent Dagger they know! I am acting what I should be!"
"But not totally, not completely," Zidane replies back, standing up also, his eyebrows a bit furrowed. He isn't used to this kind of quarrels, but this girl really needs to have a piece of his mind. "What's your problem, anyways? I never did anything to you wrong but you act like you are mad at me! I tried to be nice to you, but you always argue with me!"
Dagger backs away as she looks down and tears flood her eyes as she growls angrily, "You don't know me… You don't know anything about me! You don't know how the sufferings I suffered until now! If only you knew, then you would understand me…"
"I am trying to understand you, Dagger, but you never gave me the chance," Zidane says. "I'm trying to help you the best ways I can, but I can't, unless you let me, or US know!"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" Dagger yells, tears flowing freely. "YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONFLICT WHAT I DO! WHY DON'T YOU JUST RESPECT ME FOR WHO I AM? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST VALUE WHAT I WANT?"
Zidane shakes his head as he picks up his dark black backpack and gets up from his seat. He looks at Dagger hard as he prepares to leave the classroom, leaving Dagger alone, crying.
Dagger's POV
How dare he mistreat me like that! He doesn't even know who I am yet, doesn't know about my past… how dare he judge me like that? My life was so okay since my parents and brother died, until he came along! What's up with him anyways?
"I'm trying to help you the best I can, but I can't, unless you let me, or US know…"
What did he mean by that? I don't understand him… does he mean that I should open up my problems to the people I love so that they'll understand me for once? I can't do that! I can't… people will look down on me and say, "Isn't that the daughter of the family who was killed by some you-know-who?"
I can't tell anybody about this, even to my best friend, even to my friends, even to HIM. Only me, the one who killed my family and God knows. Nobody else.
Should I tell him? He looks trustful enough… but yet, sometimes looks can be so deceiving! But should I or shouldn't I? I…I can't… maybe I will, when the right time comes, but not today… I can't, and even if I will, I'll get tongue-tied about it.
NORMAL POV
Dagger wipes her tears as she looks at the window, seeing the baseball crew practice for the upcoming game. She sighs as she realizes it will be late, but seeing around to it, nobody would even wait for her.
'I could commit suicide right now if I want to,' she thinks to herself as she picks up her pink backpack. She frowns as she fixes her silky black midnight hair. 'But I can't… my family would be very disappointed when I do that. And if I did, I'll blame myself for being such a coward, for not even facing the difficult obstacles I'll soon encounter'
She closes the classroom door and walks to the hallway, passing the 2nd floor to the first floor. As she walks down, she feels something tingly on her back, like someone is watching her from behind, the way she walks, and the way she moves, detail to detail.
She turns around, her brown eyes seeing nothing but the hallways and classroom doors. "Hello?" she calls, looking around. "Anybody there?" Silence greets her except the cheers of the cheerleaders and hawking of the eagles.
She shrugs as she walks down the stairs going down, seeing the school totally empty. Even the janitor left, too! The remains left are still the baseball members and the cheerleaders practicing.
She stops to the open field that is the shortcut to her home. She walks to the wide middle, but stops when a soft breeze runs pass her, making her shiver. She feels again the tingle on her back, and two eyes watching her somewhere.
She turns around seeing no one again; she puts her right hand to her chest as she feels it beating hard. Is there really someone out there watching her every step, or is it just her imagination?
"Anybody out there?" she whimpers, looking around, as she feels very scared. Now that she's alone in the middle of the open field, this is something very risky, for her opinion that is. What if there is really someone out there? And that someone is the one that killed her family?
"Are you scared, little girl?" a deep, hoarse voice whispers to her. Dagger jumps, as she knows that voice, but can't put the finger to it. She looks around to see who it is, but seeing no one once again.
"Are you afraid?" the voice goes on, but in a joking and evil manner. Dagger looks up, seeing no one up there, then… where does that voice come from? "You don't have to look for me, small girl, you don't have to know where my voice comes from…"
He can read my thoughts? But how?' Dagger thinks, scared right now, her eyes wide.
"Yes, I can read your thoughts," the voice says, followed by an evil laughter. "If you are wondering where and who I am, you will know soon… when you meet your death, of course…"
Dagger's eyebrows furrowed as she stands still and demands, "What do you want from me?" she shouts, to no one at all, well, except for that voice.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" the voice laughs. "My dear, do you still remember what happened to your family two years ago?" Dagger's eyes widen as she backs away.
"No… no…" she stammers, her eyes trembling. "You are the one who killed them are you? You are the murderer!" she shouts, pointing to the invincible air. "I can't believe you! Why did you kill my family? What have we ever done wrong to you? My sweet family gone because of you!"
"Ha! Ha! Ha! You remember, I see… well, good…" the voice goes on. "Of course, I will explain that later on…"
"Show yourself, right now!" She demands, controlling her anger to explode. She wants to kill this man to avenge her family, she will avenge them to the possible ways she can. "I want to see you!"
"Very brave you are, little girl… nobody has ever dared me to show myself to them…" the voice spats out humorously. "Of course, if you truly want, you can…"
A small light appears in front of her, making it grow wider in a few moments, making her back away. The light grows bigger until it was five-seven feet tall, as it turns to a pure black, then it melts. After a while of gooey stuff, the goo transform itself to a man figure.
Another light covers the man, until a few moments, it disappears, revealing the evil version of it. A tall man about 7 feet tall stands before her, his face covered with a dirty paper bag, with blood, and a painted face with an evil smile crossing it. His dress was partially black, like the one is Scary Movie2, and his right hand, holding a big reaper with bloodstains.
Dagger backs away, seeing such horrible figure in her life. He looks like death man, her eyes widen and smalls as she looks up to him, his ugly paper bag face grinning evilly.
"Meet…" the man, says, raising up his reaper. "… The devil of death 5…"
Dagger backs away, her eyes shivering from fear. Is this man really going to kill her? Then, the one she had read in the mirror two years ago was true! He will go and kill her, but in what reason?
She looks up, to see the evil eyes of the man behind the paper bag (You know… like Persona2?). She feels she wants to faint right away, but instead she screams…
"AAAHHHH!!"
MEANWHILE
Zidane grumbles quietly as he walks back to the school, his dirty blonde hair messy as always, his greenish-blue eyes filled with annoyance as he walks back
"I can't believe this!" he yells angrily, rising up his hands as he walks. He furrows his eyes as he adds; "First, Vivi left me for that girl, Eiko, leaving me all alone! Then, just my luck, I forgot my house keys in the classroom! I'm so damn hell stupid!"
He sighs deeply as his eyes soften as he touches a leaf fall from a nearby tree and then he stops. Well, it wasn't Vivi's fault anyways… often times; he would leave Vivi alone for some other girl he's flirting. Now, it's his turn maybe… a taste of his own medicine.
The blonde boy looks up to the orange-yellow sky as clouds drifts off to somewhere. It was a nice view for a while, until, he feels something bad is happening. Zidane is used to this since he has the gift of sensing something wrong.
Zidane shakes his head as he stares back to his path, making the bad feeling stronger. He shakes his head as he thinks, 'the aura is coming from the school! But why… no time for thinking! This aura is strong!'
Zidane immediately runs to the entrance of the school quickly, forgetting everything and even ignoring the people stares at him. Something is really, really wrong! And this aura is colored black, an evil aura, like what his father, Baku, told him.
Zidane reaches the school entrance, as he gasps for air from the entire exhausting running. But he notices something, the more he runs to the school, the more the aura gets stronger and deadlier. Also, a small, white and weak aura is with it and it seems to be fighting with each other.
"AAAHHH!!"
The blonde boy looks up to only see Dagger screaming as a man with a reaper tries to kill her. He immediately runs to the man and pushes him off, letting it to curse as they reach the ground.
Dagger stops screaming as she opens her tearful eyes to see Zidane fighting with the 'devil'. She blinks as she stares at them. "Z-Zidane?"
"Get off me, you stupid brat!" the reaper yells angrily, kicking Zidane off him, making Zidane fall to the ground. The reaper stands up and looks at Zidane's greenish-blue eyes as he gasps. "Y-you!"
Zidane stares up with a puzzled but angry look, "Hey, isn't Halloween a bit early in this time of year? What's up with that getup? And scaring a girl isn't nice."
The paper bag's evil smile soon magically turns to an angry frown by magic. "You are the Angel of Death! Time to retreat," he says aloud as he floats to the middle of the open field, making Zidane gasp.
The reaper turns to the very afraid Dagger and shouts at her, "I will get back at you, girl! And then, someday, we will meet each other in the depths of hell, together with your damn family!" then he turns to Zidane as a black aura ball covers him up. "And you, the Angel of Death, we will face each other soon and I will retrieve your position!" then, with a snap of his fingers, he magically disappears, making Zidane gawk with jaws down.
Dagger kneels down as she starts to cry. Why is this happening to her? All she ever wants is to have a nice life, with her friends, with or without her family, but why is life so complicated to her? Now that she discovers someone out there is watching her back and is plotting to kill her? What did she ever done to deserve this?
Zidane shakes his head as she comes back to his senses and hears someone sobbing. He turns around to see Dagger quietly crying, covering her face. His eyes soften as he walks up to her and pats her back.
"Hey, don't cry," he comforts in a gentle tone. "He's gone now, see? Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you, I promise." Though he isn't very sure about that.
Dagger looks up to Zidane's ocean green-blue eyes and finds trust deep within as she embraces him and cries on his chest. Zidane looks down in surprise, but seeing how scared she is, he hugs her back, letting her cry on his uniform.
"I'm… I'm so… scared, Zidane," she cries between sobs, hugging him tighter as her head rests on his manly chest. "That man is out… is out there… there in every… every corner to… to… to kill me… (Sob) I don't… want to… to die (sob) Zidane! I don't… don't want to… to experience… the… the same fate… like… like my family…!"
Zidane feels pity for the poor girl as he looks down on her. He kisses her hair as he looks up as questions stirred in his mind.
Why did he call him the Angel of Death?
And most importantly, who is he?
To be continued…Hello! Hey, guys! Thanks for reading! Also to those who reviewed! On the first chapter, you noticed there was a Rikka on it! Well, I was spaced out at that time that I didn't noticed it! So please excuse the mistake. Once again, thank you. Keep on reading, everyone!!
REVIEW!!!!
Merry belated Christmas!!!!!
And a happy new year!!!