Chapter 14

Making sure that nobody is around, she silently tip-toed out of her room. The hallway, dark and forlorn. Apparently, the guards had given up guarding her door, trusting that she probably wouldn't be able to wander off beyond her boundaries anyway. She walked quietly along the hallway in expertise secrecy, making sure that every step taken was so light that it could hardly be heard above the silence of the night. She made her way down the staircase as sneakily as possible so that the wood board would not squeak under the weight of her steps. Letting out a soft sigh of relief once she'd reached the ground floor, she quickly made her way across the living room to the front door. Carefully pushing the door open, she snuck out and closing the door gently behind her. She froze in her spot when she saw the guards at the gate, before she quickly hid behind the dark shadows of the mansion and made her way to the back yard.

And there, the Dark Gate stood, in that very same secluded corner of the mansion, still tightly packed with guards, fully armed with whips and guns. I'm going to find out what you're hiding in there if it's the last thing I do…she thought silently to herself as she progresses quietly towards the gate. Leaning against the wall, she pondered of how she was going to get past those guards unnoticed. She decided to wait for a perfect timing, where nobody would look, but after waiting for over ten minutes, she realized that it is almost impossible. Looking up the tall wall, she started to shiver. There was something eerie about this place that caused her skin to crawl. She pressed her ears against the wall, listening hard. Then, she heard it, wails and screams with great pain and fear. Quistis froze, and then, she noticed a small gap within the wall. Moving closer to the gap silently, she decided to peak inside, and was terrified at what she saw.

It was a huge courtyard of some type, but rather than there being a beautiful fountain or statue in the middle of a courtyard, instead, there was a man, lying on the floor, his clothes ragged and soaked with blood. Around him stood four guards, whips in hand, striking at him as he screamed out in agony. But the guards kept beating at him, never seeming to stop. Around the courtyard were walls, full of cages, and in them were more people. Men and women alike, in ragged clothes, crying and screaming at the scene in front of them. So they are the missing people from those attacks.

"Speak!" she heard one of the guards commanded at the man. "Where are the others?"

But the man said nothing, he could hardly move from the pain of torture.

"Continue whipping him…" that same guard command his comrades. And the other guards took out their whips. Quistis' blood turned cold at the sight in front of her. She gasped as she heard the sharp sound of the four whips hitting the man's flesh. As she moved away from the wall, she felt her heart stopped beating as she felt a very familiar presence behind her.

"S-Seifer…" she breathed out in a gasp.

Seifer grabbed her wrist and dragged her along the grass away from the wall.

"Seifer, stop! You're hurting me!" Quistis cried, meanwhile trying to pull her wrist out of his grasp.

Seifer glared at her in fury, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO NEAR THAT WALL!" he bellowed. Seifer continued dragging her along the grass as Quistis fought to get out of his grasp. "Enjoy the fresh air while you can, Trepe, because this time, you're NEVER going to get to feel it ever again!"

Quistis' eyes widened in terror at the Seifer she saw in front of her; his face full of fury, his eyes red with anger. Like the devil, she thought. With all the strength she could mutter up, she swung her wrist away from him and took off towards the back gate, pushing past the guards. The guards, once realized what was happening took out their rifles and aimed.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Seifer bellowed at them as he watched her retreating form running towards the forest.

…………………………………………

Quistis didn't know where she was going; all she knew was that she needed to get out of here. She cannot stay any longer. The look in Seifer's eyes, it couldn't possible be a look of a human. And from what she'd just seen, May be Squall is right, Seifer is actually a cold blooded murderer. As she ran, Quistis felt an unfamiliar wetness in her eyes. Then, she realized what it was, tears, of pain, and disappointment. There's no way that she could reach him now, he was beyond her reach, in a world she dared not enter, or stayed. There's no way that she could keep their little promise now…

She was snapped out of her thought when she heard an all too familiar laugh from behind her. A few seconds after that laugh, an eerie air of dark forces consumed her as she fell to the ground in pain. The giant creature moved closer to her, its green tentacles waving in front of it. It swung one of its tentacles towards her, only to be cut off by a very sharp blade. There, between Quistis and the creature, Seifer stood; his Hyperion ready. The monster growled in pain before throwing other tentacles his way. While Seifer moved swiftly to cut them all off, one of them slashed at him, opening a wound on his left arm. He lifted his arm up in front of him in pain, casting a fire spell, throwing the Marlboro off guard before dashing in swift movement towards it with a deadly blow. "No Mercy…" he muttered, landing close to the burning creature, waiting for it to burn into ashes. Clutching at his arm, he moved towards Quistis, bending down to examine her. Quistis stirred slowly as the sleep spell effect was wearing off, but Seifer sensed that there was something wrong with her. Her eyes glowed in red as she stood up, and she started to charge at him in fury.

"Quistis!" Seifer called out to her as he ducked her flying fist. "Stop!"

But Quistis was in no condition to understand what he was saying; she continued attacking at him as Seifer reached into his coat pocket, searching for the small bottle of Remedy he often kept with him. He threw it at her just in time to stop the heel of her boot flying his way. Quistis collapsed onto the ground as the effect of the Remedy sunk in. Quistis rubbed her temple slightly before she looked up to see Seifer looking down at her, panting slightly. "Seifer?"

But before Seifer could say anything more, he felt a surge of pain through his arms before he collapsed onto the ground. Quistis rushed over to him, pulling him up, trying to support his weight against her. She let out a sigh before starting to head back towards his mansion.

A/N: thnks to Gemimi Dragonheart 5, I was inspired to continue writing and have this chappie up in no time :).. thnk you so much for your great comments looks like Seifer isn't really the nice guy we thought he could be… or are there some other reasons behind this? – well… wait and see wink wink