A/N: Sorry about the delay. I was out of town for quite some time.

How can I chase away
All these fears deep inside?

Chapter 3: Fears Deep Inside

Pallas tilted her head into the wind and took a deep breath. Her nose twitched and she closed her eyes, letting her mind go to work analyzing the various scents that she found in the air. Pine, that one was abundant and obvious. It had an almost sweet quality but managed to remain distinctly fresh, just like the forever green leaves that poked from the tree branches. Under the pine there was snow. How to describe that? Cool, clean, and maybe even...she searched her mind...tangy. Yes, that was the word. Definitely tangy.

Her nose pressed against the cold air, urging it to give up secrets before she hunted the ground.

Smoke. Something was burning somewhere, perhaps a fireplace or a campfire. Both of those options were unappealing to her. She was in search of something very specific, and she highly doubted she'd be led to it by smoke signals. Too obvious.

"Anything?"

She looked up and jumped back with a start, the snow crunching underneath her weight.

Thero tilted his massive head to one side, gazing at her with his penetrating yellow eyes. They were surrounded by a halo of thick, black hair. It extended down the length of his body, bulging a little at his rounded tummy before sweeping out to the snowy white tip at the end of his ebony tail.

"Not yet," she replied. "You?"

"Maybe," he lowered his head. "Picked up a trail that could be him. Hard to tell."

Pallas trotted over to her companion, thinking about how so far they had always been just a little too late. They were shadows among darkness when they needed to be stone gargoyles.

"Alright," she glanced around. "Lets follow it."

Thero nodded.

Snow flew up into the quiet forest air, disturbed by their passing as they darted through the trees as mere fragments of thought. Weaving, running, advancing...they were getting closer. Pallas ground her wolf's teeth and kept that thought in mind.

***

Bella Cevario was momentarily enchanted with the rustic town of Ekalaka. The calm streets, mom and pop stores, and friendly (albeit curious and sometimes invasive) faces all reminded her of the place she had grown up in. Balamb was much bigger than her tiny home in Galbadia, and the hurried pace had taken her a long time to get used to. Landing suddenly in the middle of nothing brought up a nostalgic buzz in the pit of her stomach.

She could almost feel the arm of her doll against her palm, and her mind distorted the piney smell into dust and sea breezes. Halfway across the world, and she suddenly felt at home.

"Where was it we're supposed to meet this guy?" Darshan asked.

"What guy?" Bella was caught slightly off guard.

"Lee," he rolled dark eyes at her. "You know, the EPD guy."

"Oh!" she shook her head. "Right! Umm...I don't really know." She shrugged and looked around. "I don't imagine we're too hard to find though."

Every resident that they walked by stopped whatever they were doing to stare. Some paused as they were walking down the street and actually turned around to watch Bella and Darshan continue in the other direction. One brave fellow had even walked up to them and brazenly asked where they were from and why they were in Ekalaka. It wasn't intended as a threat, although his statement in any other context would have seemed as such. Rather, he was insanely curious, like old tribal Galbadians meeting Esthar explorers for the first time.

Bella smiled at that thought, mentally dressing herself up in the textbook outfits she had seen of ancient Estharians.

Up ahead of them, standing in front of a two story building, a man lifted his arm and waved vigorously toward them. He was blonde (although not naturally) with a hazel kind of complexion. His upper body was wrapped in a gigantic, black gortex coat that rose in big marshmallow waves around the stitching. Poking out from sleeves were blue and white patterned mittens. His pants were khaki slacks, cleanly pressed with a crease running strait from thigh to toes. He looked an odd combination of business man and snowman.

Bella waved back.

"Mr. Lee?" she called out.

He nodded. "That's me!"

Bella smiled and extended her hand as she approached him. "Bella Cevario, SeeD. Nice to meet you, Mr. Lee." He pumped her hand energetically with his own mittened hand.

"You don't have to call me that," he insisted. "Patrick is fine. Since we're going to be working together for a while, we might as well do away with the formalities."

Bella nodded and cocked her head at her partner, figuring he probably wouldn't bother to introduce himself. "This is Darshan Zinnovy."

Lee nodded and motioned toward the door. "Lets get inside and I'll brief you and what we're going to be doing."

Bella looked up as they entered the building. The Ekalaka County Court House, it was apparently as good a place as the police officer could find to hold their briefing. Warm air wafted out of the building when he opened the door, enveloping them in the sweet delight of a heater on a cold day. The wooden floorboards creaked in certain places as they walked and the high traffic areas were well worn into deep grooves.

"Right here." He pulled out a chair at a small, round table and sat down.

Bella and Darshan sat across from him.

"We were told that we were coming here to capture a monster," Darshan grunted.

"Yes," Patrick nodded. "A very unusual monster."

He reached into his black leather bag and pulled out a thick manila envelope, spreading it's contents out in front of him.

"This," he said, laying a picture in front of them, "was it's first victim."

Bella couldn't help but let her stomach roll as she looked down at the crime scene photo. The woman laid sprawled on her back across taupe carpet. Her blood had soaked down into the fibers, making the expanse of nearly the entire photo pink and crimson. Her face was slashed but was relatively intact compared to her torso, which had been violently torn open. The shreds of her nightgown still clung to her shoulders and arms in an incongruously happy cartoon print.

"Linda Redle," Lee said. "Pronounced dead at the scene on June 14 at approximately 10:04 AM. She was discovered by a neighbor earlier that morning." He flipped a map in front of them and pointed to a blue dot. "She lived here, in Sulfur Springs."

"That's only a few miles from here," Darshan noted, tracing one finger over the map.

Patrick nodded. "The second victim."

Another gruesome picture, this time of a man, although that wasn't entirely easy to determine. He was in much the same condition as the woman before, only this time the victim was outside, his form making an indent in the snow.

"Red Borman, pronounced dead on the scene July 23 at 2:56 PM," Lee announced, shaking his head. "This one, we have a little more evidence from. Because the attack occurred outside, we managed to recover these footprints and a little bit of hair that was probably pulled out in the struggle. This victim seems to have put on a bit more of a fight than any of the others."

He handed them more photos of the prints.

"We have had both analyzed and they are unrecognizable as a known monster living in the region," he waved a hand through the air. "So, this monster must be new to the area. That should make it easier to find. Also, it left an path as it escaped. Men followed it into the forest but the tracks didn't lead them to a den or any hiding places."

"So, it stays on the move then," Bella surmised. "Where was this attack at?"

He pointed to a place on the map, just south of the first attack.

"There was a pause in the attacks come autumn, but we're not sure why," Lee continued. "We were hoping that they were over when winter started and we still hadn't gotten another report. But there was a third attack in White Pine just the other night. Exact same pattern, this time a woman named Patricia Marin who was found laying face down on her bathroom floor."

Another picture came sliding across the table toward them. The woman was in a white terrycloth bathrobe, her face poking out from a mat of blonde hair. The toilet peaked into the photograph from the right and on the left the white bathtub.

"Right here," Lee jabbed a finger at the photograph, "the bathtub was dented. The first men on the scene thought that it was where her head hit as she was attacked, but we're running a new theory right now." He took a breath and swallowed. "The material the bathtub is made out of is too hard for her head to have been able to dent it. And her head wasn't that badly cracked open. Plus, this attack happened in a more cramped space than any of the others. Right now, our theory is that the dent was made by the monster during the attack...by arms or body, we're not sure."

Bella failed to see how that fact was important but didn't say anything about it. Darshan, on the other hand, rolled his eyes elaborately.

"Right," he sighed. "Is that all?"

Lee's calm expression didn't falter. His dark eyes instead roamed around the inside of the Court House, taking long moments to caress the long wooden studs that lined the ceiling and peering out the smoky windows to the street beyond. Bella followed his gaze, almost unaware of time passing. As the two of them looked out to the rest of the world, leaving Darshan hanging in suspense, a large man passed by the glass. He was wearing a long, gray coat and had a knit hat pulled tight over his head. But his profile had an odd hint of resemblance to it.

"Mr. Zinnovy," Patrick finally brought himself back to the table. "I would just like to remind you that you are under contract with the EPD and you'll work with me or be sent back to your Garden."

Darshan tilted his head. "I do what I have to."

Lee pushed one more paper across the table. "I hope you won't mind if I don't take your word for that," he said. "This is your contract...sign it." He looked to Bella. "You, too."

***

Seifer burrowed deeply into bed that night, the wind howling by his window. The white sheets his landlord had graciously lended to him for the night were wrapped tightly over his legs, holding him down onto the bed. Hidden under layers of quilts and comforters, he felt almost physically restrained -- which was exactly how he wanted to feel.

After departing from the airport that morning he made a beeline for the cracker box blue house where (once upon a time) he had lived for a modest rent. His landlord lived next door in a bigger, gray house. He owned both plots, originally having bought them so that he could bring friends up to what he termed as his summer home. That idea proved to be less than brilliant and he eventually began renting out the second house. This solution wasn't much better, seeing as Trabian houses for rent weren't exactly in high demand. So, he lowered the rent he was willing to accept until finally Seifer came along.

The little boxy house was sparsely furnished with a couch and recliner in the living room, an old table in the dining room, and a bed and dresser in the bedroom. There were a few other odds and ends Seifer had managed to collect along the way, but they made little impact upon the Spartan essence of the house.

Even the bed, piled with everything he could find, including his coat, felt cold. He was almost positive that nobody had set foot in the house since he'd left.

He rolled over, pushing his cheek against the pillow.

The moment he closed his eyes, the ghosts came screaming out of the shadows. They had come to him every night since Ultimecia, floating about in the personal space inside of his head. The phantoms came at him in all manners of locomotion. Some penetrated and dove, while others crept their way to prominence. None were quite so bothersome, however, as that of the black winged demigoddess. Her glowing amber eyes and seductive words floated about his head to remind him forever that he'd given away his soul.

Seifer Almasy was no longer his own man.

He was at the mercy of whims, the half beaten and molested dog of hell.

He rolled over uncomfortably in bed, covering his face with his hands.

You're just a child...

Her voice rang out in the darkness, echoing from an impossible loop in time. She was familiar and exotic, and as much as he wanted her words to cease, he couldn't help but dredge more of them up from his memory.

I'll make you a man...my knight. Would you like that?

His stomach clenched.

I'll give you dreams...spectacular dreams like you've never imagined.

He remembered them only in essence. The details of the dreams she had gifted him with were lost somewhere in the depths of his mind, but the feelings that had produced within him remained. They were like an addiction one never truly got over. His body still yearned for them.

Kill them!! You weak, miserable fool!

He spiraled.

I'll make you mine...forever.

Seifer's eyes shot open and he shook his head violently. The vivid image of Ultimecia receded a bit, enough to allow him a stabilizing breath. Some nights were worse than others, and he always dreaded the moment he would have to climb alone into bed. There was nothing to occupy him in the darkness except his own tortured thoughts.

Abruptly, his mind snapped to another subject. The SeeDs that had arrived that morning, they were certainly something to keep him occupied. A concern to say the least.

Settling down, he looked up at the ceiling.

He'd thought the one was Quistis Trepe. The blonde girl looked so much like her, they could easily have been related. Not exactly impossible, he reminded himself. They had, after all, grown up in an orphanage. Everyone in their generation was the victim of violence. He figured it wasn't really much of a surprise that a person like him had grown from it. The conditions were perfect for breeding people like him. Only, he was different from them now.

Those SeeDs would have to go, he decided. Even the Quistis look-alike. Even though that flash of blonde has excited him in ways he hadn't ever expected (was he really that lonely?) he couldn't risk keeping her around. He'd been struggling for quite some time for a normal life. Although he knew it was impossible for his life to be normal, he felt that he deserved the chance to at least get as close as he could to really feeling happy.

Black wings flared out with a snap.

I'll give you dreams...