It was the first time in weeks they took the crown off her. Or was it only days? Months? Part of her worried quietly if it had been years. Time was strange now.
Terra could remember sitting on her bed, hands in her lap after having a cup of tea, looking into his steely gray eyes which were soft. A sight she hardly saw much anymore.
Then she blinked and suddenly she was laying on top of her duvet, head on her pillows, and wearing a dress she'd never seen before. It was blood red and silky with ruffles at her knees and didn't have any sleeves. The floral pattern was pretty, with golden threads making swirling leaves and fanned-out petals.
The little clock on her mantle read near midnight. There wasn't a fire burning in the hearth.
And she was alone in her suite. A gas lamp in the corner glowed softly, revealing a pile of boxes on her coffee table and sofa stacked precariously, all wrapped in shiny papers and ribbons.
Were these an apology?
Terra tried standing, but as soon as her stockinged feet touched down from her high bed and she tried to stand, her head spun, her vision swam, and she grasped onto the nearest post at the end of her bed to keep from falling onto the beige carpet.
Why did he take the crown off her and leave her alone? Why was she alone?
She waited on shaky legs for the room to stop spinning and stumbled to her door. She had to find him. Ask him what was going on. Maybe Celes could help her if he was gone. Or Leo. Anybody.
The door was locked from the outside. The handle wouldn't budge.
No.
She banged on the door, calling for somebody to let her out.
Kefka! Kefka, please!
Silence from the corridor.
What happened? Let me out!
She kept hitting the lacquered wood, soon hitting with both fists, soon throwing herself, shoulder first against it.
Time passed, slowly. Quickly?
Her legs gave out and she slumped to the floor, still pressed against the door.
Somebody, please.
Tears fell from her cheeks. She didn't realize she was crying until the tears landed on her lap.
There was still silence in the corridor. Celes must be away or else surely she would have come to help her. Their rooms were next to each other's. Leo's was on the other side of Celes'.
And Kefka's was across the hall from Terra's. Was he listening? Hearing her cries and attempts to open the door? Or was he gone too?
Terra looked around her room and spotted her thick green curtains.
Yes! Maybe somebody can hear me if I yell!
She stood again, stumbled again across her room, and threw open her curtains even though doing so made her shoulder ache and burn when she moved that arm.
The window had a steel plate covering the glass. And there were bars placed over the plate too.
Did he do this?
More tears fell, faster than before. Terra's chest was tight, her throat scratchy from her screams. She couldn't inhale enough air. She grabbed at her face, nearly clawing at her skin.
Images flashed in her mind. Fire crackling all around her. Flames licking the sky. Magic, her magic, was thick in the air. A laugh surrounded her.
Am I being punished? What did I do?!
She teetered back to her bed and fell face-first back onto the covers. What else could she do?
Everything hurt, she couldn't stop crying, and she couldn't push away the images coming unbidden into her head. Smoking bodies. Smeared blood on the stones at her feet.
And that laugh, once full of kindness now manic and bone-chilling.