Well, this is sort of the sequel to Shadows Haunt My Soul, but it's completely different, actually. In the first, the posse are staying in Balamb Hotel, and haven't gone back to Garden. In this one, they've clearly returned - ::spoiler:: Seifer's with Quistis, see? This was taken from a scene in another fanfic that I am not going to release - it seems too much like copied stuff to me. Actually what I intended was that Seifer was only comforting our poor instructor and later someone else takes her off his hands. Of course no-one told this to Fujin ... Anyway just try to enjoy the fic and [waves] come back next time!

~k@zen0~ (btw: try this hyperlink - I dunno what it'll look like in your computer. Sure as hell don't know why it became a hyperlink in the first place. I didn't do it. Stupid Microsoft Word.)

Darkness Hems My Heart

Seifer,

Pale hands grip the tabletop as it's owner struggles with her feelings ...

I don't know what to say. I have never been that good at expressing my feelings, especially to you. I'm not sure if you know that, being who you are.

What are you? Seifer, posse leader, knight, friend, brother. What am I to you? A friend, a confidante, or just a goddamn albino girl who just happens to be your friend. I can't take it any more, Seifer.

Hours ago. She hides in the shadows, watching Seifer and Quistis embracing, the slender instructor clinging to Seifer's body like it was a lifeline. Feeling the ache in her heart as the scene unfolds. Unable to take any more. And, as she slips away, realizing that that was a general statement about her life ...

What am I? I find myself asking that question often lately. What am I to everybody? Nothing, that's what. Every single person's finding their own partners, life-mates. Squall has Rinoa, Nida and Xu, Irvine and Selphie, Zell's chasing Jenna the library girl, you have Quistis now, and even Raijin is courting someone? Where does that leave me? Nowhere.

I can't keep it up any more. My indifference, my shields, my hopes. Can't take it, can't hold it, pain and loneliness and more.

Grief, loneliness to anger as she fights her way through the Training Center. Stopping at the secret area. The lovers only evoke more pain from her acid-etched heart. The wind caressing her face, like the lover it has become, decisions made ...

There's nothing else I can do to delay it. It's inevitable.

I have to leave, Seifer.

Those last words are slightly blurred as pale fingers tremble on the pen. Tears splash on the table, a silver-crowned head jerked aside just in time to avoid marring the paper. Those trembling hands steady again, enough to grip the pen, to set thoughts to paper again ...

I guess it's goodbye for us. After all we've gone through. Tell Raijin I love him as a sister.

One last thing - only for you. I love you, Seifer. Always have, and always will.

Shaking hands fasten the letter and leave it on the bed to be found. The blue-and-silver shuriken is swung on her back, and she heads out. At the Garden gate, she casts sleep on the guard, having gotten Pandemona back from Squall Leonhart some time ago. Hopping over the gate, she leaves the slumbering gatekeeper and vanishes into the forest ...

In Garden, a young man bows his head and sobs, tears that haven't appeared for a long time ...

In the forest, a clearing. A silver-haired girl in a blue suit. Sunlight from above, and wind whistling through the trees. Silence reigns until the girl steps forward boldly. The forest breaks out in birdsong and animal noises as if a spell has just been lifted ...

The wind whips around her as she summons Pandemona against no particular enemy. With a gentle whisper of sound, the girl disappears - but Pandemona does not appear. Winds swirls into a tornado, obscuring the spot.

When it dies down, only the small silvery ball of an unjunctioned Guardian Force is seen on the ground. And a blue-and-silver shuriken, jammed straight in there ...

The winds sweep into the sky, flying high and far, the wind spirit gone back to her ancestral home ...