Chapter Three
The ballroom now had a very different atmosphere to that of a week ago. Gone were the celebrationary banners, disco lights and glitter ball, now replaced by black drapes and subdued lighting. At one end of the hall was a large framed photograph of Selphie, surrounded by flowers and other tributes. Among these was a large teddy bear, donated by the orphans of Trabia, to whom Selphie had shown such kindness when the Sorceress' missiles set upon their only home. The not sent with the two-foot plush said:
You are watching over us now, Selphie. Sleep well. We miss you.
Zell stood by the buffet table, but instead of stuffing himself with mini hot dogs and Balamb fish and mayonnaise sandwiches, he merely stared at the canapés and appetisers. He was hungry, yet he could not bring himself to. In fact he hadn't eaten properly since Selphie…
"Are you okay, Zell?" a soft voice asked. She seemed very far away.
"Quistis?" Zell replied, startled. His stomach cramped and he felt light-headed. "Where are you?"
Quistis' blurred shape came into form. She was just inches away from Zell's face. Zell noticed her warmth, and a small smile appeared on his tattooed face, for the first time in days. "Hey, Quistis," he croaked, sounding a little more like his usual chirpy self. "Getting a bit close, aren't we? What would Seifer say?"
Quistis' face remained serious. This was no time for jokes. "Zell, I'm worried about you," she said. "Mrs. Watts from the cafeteria says she hasn't seen you since…" The event of Selphie's death went unspoken, as if superstition dictated that, should the matter and manner of their friend's all to premature demise be discussed, a great evil would somehow be unleashed upon the world.
"I'm not hungry," Zell lied.
Quistis saw right through him. "You are, Zell" she corrected him. "Otherwise, why would you be standing here?" She held out a sausage roll to him, which he gratefully accepted.
"I can't help but feel partly responsible for what happened to Selphie," he finally confided. "You see, I know I wasn't there and all, but if I hadn't been eating so many hot dogs… the cafeteria wouldn't have needed that delivery, the van wouldn't have been there to…" His voice cracked as he tried to finish his sentence, but before he could, the tears he had tried manly, stoically, to stem the flow of for over a week, could no longer be abated.
"Zell…" Quistis embraced her tearful friend. "Is that what all this is about?"
Letting go of Quistis and looking into her sea-blue eyes, Zell nodded.
Quistis handed Zell a sandwich, which he wolfed down immediately. "Listen, this was in no way your fault," she told him. "What happened, happened, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"But…" Zell protested.
"Look, for all we know, it could have been a lorry of medical supplies heading for the Garden," Quistis suggested. "If it was, do you think Doctor Kadowaki would have blamed herself?"
Zell stared back at Quistis, her face coming more and more into focus as he helped himself to a cheese vol-au-vent.
"Of course she wouldn't have," Quistis answered for him. "She wouldn't have, because Garden needs medical supplies, just as students need food. So you see, Zell, you mustn't blame yourself."
Zell sighed, chowing down on a handful of corn chips. "I guess you're right, he mumbled, spraying crumbs everywhere.
"Zell," Quistis continued, "I was going to call it a night. I think it'll do you good to get out of here to." She grabbed a plate, piled some sandwiches and nibbles upon it. She handed it to Zell. "I know it's not the healthiest food in the world, but I want you to eat this back in your dorm, all right?"
Zell nodded.
"And not a scrap of it goes in the bin, understand?" Quistis chided soothingly. "Not even the olives. Promise me."
"Yeah," Zell stared, depressed, down at his food.
"I'll see you back to your dorm," Quistis said gently, putting an arm around Zell, and leading him out of the hall.
"Will you look at that?" Seifer whispered to a stoic Squall, who was leaning languidly against a wall, seductively clutching the stem of a wine glass.
Squall, not used to being snuck up on, squeezed the glass in surprise, a little too hard. The fragile stem shattered in his hand. "What?" he snapped, trying not to wince with the pain of the thick glass cutting into his palm.
"Quistis and Zell," Seifer continued, unabated by Squall's slight fury, as he nodded in the direction of the pair, as they wandered out of the hall. "I knew it! I knew that there was something going on! I can't wait to finish with her!" he finished angrily. He looked at Squall, noticing that his girlfriend wasn't with him, which he was pleased about; he had Squall all to himself. "Where's Rinoa?" he asked.
"She went home," Squall sighed. "She said that she was too upset to come, and she wanted some time alone, to remember Selphie in her own way."
Seifer rolled his eyes. "That sounds like Rinoa all right!" he sighed, amused.
There was silence between the two as Seifer contemplated taking Squall in his arms and kissing him passionately, not caring who saw them. He could always use the emotional nature of the day as an excuse.
Squall, on the other hand, was glad he'd cut his hand. It would give him an excuse to blow Seifer off, without having to face his wrath at his rejection. What had happened between them on the night of Selphie's death had been an awful mistake that the confused and upset Squall had made. He had tried, quite successfully to avoid Seifer all week. Luckily for him Seifer had not been angry and vengeful, rather seen it as Squall's reaction to the awful tragedy, and hoped to see him again as soon as he was over it. What Seifer didn't realise was that, apart from the fact that Selphie's absence would take a while to get used to, Squall was deeply ashamed of what he had done in that hotel room that night, and had been avoiding Seifer on these grounds. He walked across the hall and pushed open the double swing-doors with his uninjured hand.
Before Squall could pace over to Doctor Kadowaki's office, a hand grabbed his bloodied and injured one. Squall winced, and turned to face the culprit. It was Seifer.
"Hey, I know," Seifer said to him, enjoying the fact that Squall's blood was dribbling onto his skin. "Is Rinoa expecting you home tonight?"
"No…" Squall replied, the pain from his hand creeping up the sinews in his wrist. "I said I'd stay over in my old dorm room, so as not to disturb her." He attempted to tug his hand away from Seifer's relentless grip. "Now, listen…"
"That's great!" Seifer enthused, cutting Squall off. "How's about… you leave now, so people don't get suspicious of us, and meet me in the Secret Area in ten minutes?" He was hoping for another sensuous encounter with pretty Squall. He craved his warmth beside him, and wanted to hold, soothe and comfort him.
Squall snatched his injured hand away from Seifer, which only made the situation worse. He shook his hand, as if trying to shake off the pain, and some of his blood spattered all over Seifer's crisp, white shirt.
"Whatever," he croaked, as he turned and ran down the corridor, thick burgundy blood dripping from his injured hand.
Meanwhile, Quistis had retired to her dorm room and, was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth. Unhitching her hair with her free hand she shook her head briskly. The day Selphie had passed was meant to be a happy, triumphant day. There had been a wedding in the pipeline and Quistis had finally been reinstated as an instructor after over a year of dilly-dallying by Cid. She had to retake all those tests to actually get her licence back, just when she had thought she would never have to retake another exam. It was hateful, it was stressful, but it was all worth it.
She spit, gargled and rinsed before wandering into her bedroom. She rolled into bed, and read the Garden newsletter for a while, all full of the pleasant memories of the previous week, before her eyelids became heavy. She threw her glasses onto her bedside table and reached to switch off her halogen bed lamp. But before she could touch the switch, she heard a hefty bang on her dorm room door, which shook the whole wall. Although it was a single partition wall, separating the dorms from the corridor, no human could have caused it to tremble as such.
Quistis jumped out of bed, put her glasses back on and grabbed her whip from its holster, hanging by her bed, to investigate this noise. Perhaps it was a monster that had escaped the Training Centre? Yes, that seemed to be the most likely explanation.
Suddenly, the banging resumed, only this time harder and louder than before. Quistis stepped back, sure that the monster would burst in through the wall any minute. Sure enough, the wall began to splinter; a persistent hammering on it and the wood began to give way.
Preparing to subdue the monster, Quistis readied her weapon and watched as the gap between the door and its frame became wider and wider. The wooden door crunched and cracked, and eventually broke in half.
Come on, motherfucker, she muttered to herself. I'm ready for you.
But no state of readiness could ever have prepared Quistis for what she saw.
A sallow, dirty figure with dead, staring white eyes lurched towards her, moaning sorrowfully. The stench emanating from this being was incredible. Like wet earth, mixed with mouldy fruit and rank meat. Though blood was dripping from its mouth, it looked human; it was wearing a dirty, torn blue dress, and its hair was kinked up at the ends. On the ring finger of its left hand, was a once-shiny, mud tarnished diamond ring, just like the one Irvine had presented to…
"Selphie?" Quistis gasped, as the being, with superhuman strength, clamped its hands on Quistis' shoulders, and pinned her against the wall so she couldn't move. Not that it mattered; Quistis was frozen in terror anyway.
The being leaned its head sideways, and brought its rotten looking teeth towards Quistis' neck. The scream that Quistis tried to emit was lost when the creature's jaws clamped into her throat, tearing her larynx from its rightful place.
Quistis silently slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood as she went, her sightless blue eyes wide and wild. Quistis knew no more as the monster that resembled Selphie, sucked and shrugged at the gash in her throat, only leaving once its voracious appetite had been sated.
Quistis was left bloodless and rotting in an undignified pose, leaning open-legged against the wall, the very last of her blood dripping onto the floor, creating a pool between her legs.