Shattered. Chapter 4.
Music: Frou Frou - Must Be Dreaming.
The sky swirled with the whitest kinds of clouds on the bluest kind of sky. Everything was so vivid, so lifelike. She was looking into the sky watching as he flew away from her on a pair of magnificent white wings that blended into the clouds around him. His soft brown hair was floating gently in the wind as if caught by an updraft. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, white pants and white boots, all the same blinding shade as the wings that adorned his back. He was smiling at her with so much love in his heart as if he had found his place and was here only long enough to say goodbye. She reached out to him and his fingertips brushed her's for only an instant as he flew away into the blinding light at the center of the funnel of clouds swirling around them. Her heart was beating harder than she could ever remember and she knew with all her soul that this was goodbye. He blended into the sunlight and vanished from her sight leaving her with only the words, "I promise."
Music: Silence.
Quistis woke up in a cold sweat to the image of a skull floating in front of her face for a split second that caused her to yell out before she realized it was in her mind. She backed up to the headboard and panted heavily. She was still in his room and it was still daylight. She looked down to see that his necklace pendant was still in her hand and that she had been bleeding from holding onto it so tightly. She started to pry it from her fingers to find that her hand and the pendant were both caked in dried blood and that her hand was cramped tightly around it. Using her other hand she was able to break the seal and stretch her hand freely again. She walked over to his kitchenette sink and washed the blood off and glanced over at the broken gunblade that was still unmoved on the floor. "Where are you, Squall?"
Just then someone was slamming their fists against the door and her heart began to race again. Who could be at that door and what would they say when they saw the room destroyed like this, her wearing his blood stained pendant around her neck, and no Squall? "Screw it," she said to herself. She put the pendant down the front of her shirt and opened the door to let in both Selphie and Zell who were both in awe of everything before them.
"Quisty!!" Selphie ran over and grabbed Quistis' wet hands and held onto them with fear in her eyes. "We didn't know what happened to you!"
"What? What do you mean? I've only been gone for about an hour maybe?" She said while glancing over to the clock on Squall's nightstand.
"An hour?" Zell chimed in, "You've been missing for a whole day. The last person to see you was Selphie. She said you were going to get a bite to eat and you never showed up in the lunchroom. We thought you might have come here but we've been banging on the door for hours and..." His attention turned to the gunblade on the ground. "...What happened in here?"
"I...I don't know..." Quistis tried to compose herself but she really didn't know what had gone on here. "I came here to check on him instead of getting something to eat, he wasn't here, the room was destroyed, I ended up...falling asleep hoping he would return, but he never did." She had hoped the last part of that sounded convincing enough to throw off Selphie's lie-dar.
Zell spoke up with a wrinkle in his brow, "What do you think we should do, Quistis?"
Quistis, "We go find him."
Music: Tori Amos - Sorta Fairytale
Rinoa sat on the edge of her chair watching Squall sleeping in her bed. He had a pained look on his face and she knew that he was having disturbing dreams, but she'd woken him twice already and repeatedly disorienting him with her face every time he woke up from a nightmare was just going to make things worse so she let him sleep and hoped he could beat whatever it was he was fighting in his dreams.
She watched him with loving eyes and missed holding him and feeling him hold her, but knew that things could never be the way they had been. The whole thing had been a severe misunderstanding...a partial misunderstanding. She had made a big mistake but she hadn't meant anything by it, but her mistake had caused their breakup and she'd never get him back now.
He started to stir from his sleep and looked at the ceiling when he woke up. It was still raining outside and he blamed himself for it. He brought all this negative emotion with him and had caused the '...oh stop it. You aren't to blame for the rain' he said silently to himself.
"Why would you think you were?" She asked him with her soft pitched voice that made his skin crawl at first. He was scared of her because she had managed to hurt him on an emotional level. Something that he would never have allowed anyone else to do and he didn't know how to counter it. It's understandable that at this point being in the same room with her would arouse so much tension that he wouldn't be able to get much accomplished.
"I need you to do something for me if you are up to it." He said, changing the subject suddenly. He was going straight to the point and didn't want to mince words with her at this point. He was uncomfortable here and the fact that he fell asleep so easily in her bed scared him a little more than he liked.
"Ok." She said quietly, keeping her head down in a sign of humility.
"I think I have something inside of me. Like some kind of demon, or spirit or something, and it's trying to take control. I've been holding it back for a couple months now, but I just realized it was there in the past week. I've been holding it back subconsciously but it's fighting me violently now and I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep it at bay. If you still have any of your sorceress powers available to you at this point, I need you to take this thing out of me and give me my life back." He had said that last line and intended for it to have a double meaning, which it obviously did because she had a sick expression creep across her face as he said it."
"Squall, I want you to know how sorry I am for what happened between us." She blurted out with a tremble in her voice.
"Whatever. Look, can you help me or not? I didn't particularly want to come here. Not after I saw you kissing him."
"But...Seifer kissed me." She said with not a little bit of fear in her voice.
"You didn't look like you were fighting it too hard."
"He caught me off guard, and he reminded me so much of you that I got lost in the moment...Squall...I still love you. More than anything in the world...I wish you could see that. I don't love Seifer. I never have... Even when he and I dated years ago, I never loved him. It was always you that I loved. You that I dreamed of before we met. You that I still dream about every night and regret the mistakes that I made...please forgive me Squall, PLEASE!" She said as tears were now freely streaming down her face.
"I just want you to remove this cancer inside of me and let me move on with my life." he said calmly without making eye contact with her.
"I'll do this for you not because you asked me to, but because I love you too much to see you hurting from this."
He bit his tongue, but he wanted to say something mean and nasty to her, much like he used to do to Quistis, but whatever her feelings were, she was going to help and keeping his mouth shut was at least enough to repay her for that.
She stood next to the bed and began to perform her Draw from him. She touched the center of her forehead and felt the presence being lifted out of him. Before it entered her, she held up her other hand causing the presence to float in the air in the form of a pulsing, roaring ball of energy. Squall was knocked unconscious when the being was ripped out of him. It had a slight face and gave her an evil look as if it wanted to grab her with all it's might. "I know who you are." She said with a voice of authority. "And now I will send you back to your prison where you will stay for the end of time.
Raising her hands to the sky, she forced the presence out of the house and to it's resting place across the ocean, over land, through walls, and into a small bloodencrusted amulet that hung around Quistis' neck. She gasped suddenly as she felt the presence partially pass through her and into the necklace. She suddenly felt very sick and excused herself from Selphie and Zell and ran into the bathroom, closed the door, and threw up into the toilet.
"What was that?" she said looking up through her tear clouded vision.
End Chapter 4.
Music: Frou Frou - Must Be Dreaming.
The sky swirled with the whitest kinds of clouds on the bluest kind of sky. Everything was so vivid, so lifelike. She was looking into the sky watching as he flew away from her on a pair of magnificent white wings that blended into the clouds around him. His soft brown hair was floating gently in the wind as if caught by an updraft. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, white pants and white boots, all the same blinding shade as the wings that adorned his back. He was smiling at her with so much love in his heart as if he had found his place and was here only long enough to say goodbye. She reached out to him and his fingertips brushed her's for only an instant as he flew away into the blinding light at the center of the funnel of clouds swirling around them. Her heart was beating harder than she could ever remember and she knew with all her soul that this was goodbye. He blended into the sunlight and vanished from her sight leaving her with only the words, "I promise."
Music: Silence.
Quistis woke up in a cold sweat to the image of a skull floating in front of her face for a split second that caused her to yell out before she realized it was in her mind. She backed up to the headboard and panted heavily. She was still in his room and it was still daylight. She looked down to see that his necklace pendant was still in her hand and that she had been bleeding from holding onto it so tightly. She started to pry it from her fingers to find that her hand and the pendant were both caked in dried blood and that her hand was cramped tightly around it. Using her other hand she was able to break the seal and stretch her hand freely again. She walked over to his kitchenette sink and washed the blood off and glanced over at the broken gunblade that was still unmoved on the floor. "Where are you, Squall?"
Just then someone was slamming their fists against the door and her heart began to race again. Who could be at that door and what would they say when they saw the room destroyed like this, her wearing his blood stained pendant around her neck, and no Squall? "Screw it," she said to herself. She put the pendant down the front of her shirt and opened the door to let in both Selphie and Zell who were both in awe of everything before them.
"Quisty!!" Selphie ran over and grabbed Quistis' wet hands and held onto them with fear in her eyes. "We didn't know what happened to you!"
"What? What do you mean? I've only been gone for about an hour maybe?" She said while glancing over to the clock on Squall's nightstand.
"An hour?" Zell chimed in, "You've been missing for a whole day. The last person to see you was Selphie. She said you were going to get a bite to eat and you never showed up in the lunchroom. We thought you might have come here but we've been banging on the door for hours and..." His attention turned to the gunblade on the ground. "...What happened in here?"
"I...I don't know..." Quistis tried to compose herself but she really didn't know what had gone on here. "I came here to check on him instead of getting something to eat, he wasn't here, the room was destroyed, I ended up...falling asleep hoping he would return, but he never did." She had hoped the last part of that sounded convincing enough to throw off Selphie's lie-dar.
Zell spoke up with a wrinkle in his brow, "What do you think we should do, Quistis?"
Quistis, "We go find him."
Music: Tori Amos - Sorta Fairytale
Rinoa sat on the edge of her chair watching Squall sleeping in her bed. He had a pained look on his face and she knew that he was having disturbing dreams, but she'd woken him twice already and repeatedly disorienting him with her face every time he woke up from a nightmare was just going to make things worse so she let him sleep and hoped he could beat whatever it was he was fighting in his dreams.
She watched him with loving eyes and missed holding him and feeling him hold her, but knew that things could never be the way they had been. The whole thing had been a severe misunderstanding...a partial misunderstanding. She had made a big mistake but she hadn't meant anything by it, but her mistake had caused their breakup and she'd never get him back now.
He started to stir from his sleep and looked at the ceiling when he woke up. It was still raining outside and he blamed himself for it. He brought all this negative emotion with him and had caused the '...oh stop it. You aren't to blame for the rain' he said silently to himself.
"Why would you think you were?" She asked him with her soft pitched voice that made his skin crawl at first. He was scared of her because she had managed to hurt him on an emotional level. Something that he would never have allowed anyone else to do and he didn't know how to counter it. It's understandable that at this point being in the same room with her would arouse so much tension that he wouldn't be able to get much accomplished.
"I need you to do something for me if you are up to it." He said, changing the subject suddenly. He was going straight to the point and didn't want to mince words with her at this point. He was uncomfortable here and the fact that he fell asleep so easily in her bed scared him a little more than he liked.
"Ok." She said quietly, keeping her head down in a sign of humility.
"I think I have something inside of me. Like some kind of demon, or spirit or something, and it's trying to take control. I've been holding it back for a couple months now, but I just realized it was there in the past week. I've been holding it back subconsciously but it's fighting me violently now and I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep it at bay. If you still have any of your sorceress powers available to you at this point, I need you to take this thing out of me and give me my life back." He had said that last line and intended for it to have a double meaning, which it obviously did because she had a sick expression creep across her face as he said it."
"Squall, I want you to know how sorry I am for what happened between us." She blurted out with a tremble in her voice.
"Whatever. Look, can you help me or not? I didn't particularly want to come here. Not after I saw you kissing him."
"But...Seifer kissed me." She said with not a little bit of fear in her voice.
"You didn't look like you were fighting it too hard."
"He caught me off guard, and he reminded me so much of you that I got lost in the moment...Squall...I still love you. More than anything in the world...I wish you could see that. I don't love Seifer. I never have... Even when he and I dated years ago, I never loved him. It was always you that I loved. You that I dreamed of before we met. You that I still dream about every night and regret the mistakes that I made...please forgive me Squall, PLEASE!" She said as tears were now freely streaming down her face.
"I just want you to remove this cancer inside of me and let me move on with my life." he said calmly without making eye contact with her.
"I'll do this for you not because you asked me to, but because I love you too much to see you hurting from this."
He bit his tongue, but he wanted to say something mean and nasty to her, much like he used to do to Quistis, but whatever her feelings were, she was going to help and keeping his mouth shut was at least enough to repay her for that.
She stood next to the bed and began to perform her Draw from him. She touched the center of her forehead and felt the presence being lifted out of him. Before it entered her, she held up her other hand causing the presence to float in the air in the form of a pulsing, roaring ball of energy. Squall was knocked unconscious when the being was ripped out of him. It had a slight face and gave her an evil look as if it wanted to grab her with all it's might. "I know who you are." She said with a voice of authority. "And now I will send you back to your prison where you will stay for the end of time.
Raising her hands to the sky, she forced the presence out of the house and to it's resting place across the ocean, over land, through walls, and into a small bloodencrusted amulet that hung around Quistis' neck. She gasped suddenly as she felt the presence partially pass through her and into the necklace. She suddenly felt very sick and excused herself from Selphie and Zell and ran into the bathroom, closed the door, and threw up into the toilet.
"What was that?" she said looking up through her tear clouded vision.
End Chapter 4.