Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Intensity ❯ Pit Stop ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3.


Irvine was getting worried now, Squall didn't have dinner with them like he usually does and as far as he knew he wasn't even in the garden. Sure they made points to see each other during the day even when it wasn't at an eating time but he wasn't here and his mission was in the morning, well late morning and Seifer was home so where was Squall?

The cowboy walked down the hall of the boys dormitory. When he got to Seifers and Zells room he knocked on the door. "Hey Seif', you in there?" He called and a boy walked out of his room eye balling him and Irvine just stared back with a 'you got a problem' expression. When the boy turned his vision away he banged on the door again and finally it had slid open.

Seifer was standing there rather annoyed then he glanced down at Irvine's watch. "Well you're obviously aware of the time so what's your next excuse?" He asked him and the cowboy pushed past him going into the small living room.

"Listen man, Squall's not here and it's late, go to sleep late-..." he stressed it out meaning when he was sleep Squall was there too.

"No kidding." Seifer replied and Irvine just turned on his 'I'm not fucking around' face.

"You were the last one to see him so where is he, what happened?"

Seifer was walking back to his room calling over his shoulder. "Shit if I know, fuck if I care." The door opened but Irvine stepped in his path. "Moove Kinneas." But Irvine stood his ground until Sefier sighed and sat down on the couch pulling a cigarette from his clip that was sitting in the side table and then lit the tip using the fire from his finger.

"You do know you're not supposed to use magic in school?" He said to him and Seifer just looked boredly at him then said.

"Do you wanna know where Leonhart is or not?" With that Irvine shut up to hear what he had to say.

"Now we were on the mission, right." He started then pauses taking a puff and holding it in. "When we were leaving I offered him a ride because the car he took had left him and the house was already far enough away from the town itself anyway but he said no, something about wrapping things up."

Irvine nodded. 'That sounds like something Squall would do.'

"After that," he shrugged and stood up putting his hands on Irvine's shoulders and walking him to the door. "if he didn't come back, he probably doesn't want too. Good night." He said pushing him out the door.

"Nah that ain't the case, something happened to him I know it did." The cowboy said to himself and walked down the hall with plans to visit the basement.

In Seifer's room he returned to his bed and Zell wrapped his arms around him. "Who was that?" Zell asked and Seifer put out his cigarette kissing Zell on his tattoo.

"Irvine, he wanted to know where Squall was."

"Well?" Zell asked.

"Well what?" Seifer asked starting to get annoyed with the subject.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know!" Seifer nearly shouted. "You want me to flash the lion symbol in the sky and hope he comes to it? Worry about it in the morning Zell, good night."

Zell frowned but closed his eyes saying. "All right, all right. No need to chew my head off. Good night." With that they closed there eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

Squall opened his eyes suddenly wondering if he'd drifted to sleep again. 'Since when did I get tired?' He thought to himself hearing music start up. From the high pitched start he could tell it was opera. A piece he himself has never heard of.

"Laura, I'm gonna use this knife from your kitchen and drive it through the guys neck...when I'm done we'll go back and help your family okay?" He raised an eye brow to her but she didn't answer. Squall looked her over and saw that she must have bled to death by then with the slashes across her back and he swore silently to himself. He also made a mental note that she wasn't wearing any under garments and that who ever this guy was must have raped her.

'Sick bastard.' Squall thought turning around and cracked the small metal door carefully. He made sure to stay on his knees so the man wouldn't see him from the rear view mirror. His dark clothes helped his stealth a bit as he slid out carefully not making a sound. After he was in the main part of the vehicle he looked at the back of the guys head as he slowly closed the door back.

The man started to sing the song in a low voice and Squall knew that he was completely distracted now and wouldn't suspect him to come up behind him and stab him in the throat. He crept along the floor and felt the RV slowing down.

'Shit.' He looked beside him and there were a few steps going down to the door he had entered from. He slipped down onto the stair and sat rather uncomfortably on them. He pressed his back against the wall that blocked the stairs from being seen up front and kept his head low incase his hair might have been sticking up.

The man was whistling again as he walked out of the vehicle from the passenger side of it. Squall turned his head and looked out the blinds blocked window beside him placed in the door. The mans shadow swept past quickly and he heard the rusted creak of a metal door being open and heard the gas cap being taken off. 'We must be at a gas station.' Squall thought he slid up into crouching position and looked through the blinds.

The man walked into the gas station and Squall looked into the large window the store had on it and saw what he was doing. He tried to zoom his vision further then it could go so he could read their lips again.

"It's really fall now isn't it?" The man said to the store owner when he got up to the counter.

"Sure is. How are you enjoying your holiday?" The guy asked with a friendly smile but moved his head in Squall's view of the killer when he answered. 'Move your head.' He said to the man mentally.

"There we are," a teenaged boy was saying as he pulled two trays of microwave dinners from the microwave oven in the store. "Thanksgiving of champions." He said handing one to the store owner.

The boy looked Chinese maybe Japanese, Squall wasn't sure but he had to get out of there and get to a phone. He stood up and walked around to the front of the big RV and opened the door. When he put his foot down the height difference was unexpected and he fell to the ground dropping his knife a distance from his sprawled out body.

He reached a hand forwards to get it but the guy was coming back and Squall had to hide. He ran around to the front of the vehicle and stood there with his back pressed against the front vender. The man in fact, didn't exit the building he was just walking around a little. Squall peeked around the side of the vehicle and watched them talk some more.

"You're really good looking." The killer said with a smile to the young boy who looked utterly shocked by it but said, "Thank you." any ways.

"No I mean it, my little Chyna would love you."

'Did he just say, Chyna?' Squall wondered briefly then turned his attention back on them.

"You look just like the right type of person for her, young and fresh." The killer continued to say and the boy threw a look at the store owner who was obviously his friend, but continued to eat his microwave Thanksgiving dinner. "What is that for the holiday?" The killer then asked watching him. "You really should be at home with family, eating a nice big dinner around the table...seeing all your loved ones." He looked at the owner then asked. "Do you have a family? I do- well, there's only two of us but we're a family all the same."

"I have a daughter and son, both ten." He replied and the killer nodded. "You're gas tank is full." The man then said to him breaking the silence.

"Yeah? Let me just get my wallet from the car." The killer said, running out of the building when he went to the gas tank he noticed the metal knife shinning in the moonlight. He walked over to it picking it up and rubbed it against his face. "Hey beautiful," he began, "why are you so warm, huh?" He looked around in front of him but didn't notice anything.

The door to the RV finally opened and he went inside. Squall waited quietly until he thought he was deep enough inside then he ran to the gas station and inside. "Call the police!" He said when he got inside, "That guy is a killer." He shot his vision back out the window the killer was on his way out again. Squall's eyes widened and he started to back away from the counter holding his hands out. "Don't tell him I'm here. Forget what I said." He ran stooped over to a back row of shelves and hid away on the side of it.

"Here we are, how much is the bill?" The killer asked but heard a song start up on the radio and he started to dance around a little from it. The boy and the shop owner looked spooked by this guy now and kept throwing glances behind the shelf where Squall was hiding. "Ever hear a song that just-...ahhhh," he sighed with delight. "makes you wanna dance?" He asked the two men.

"Y-yeah." The owner replied trying to act casual by ringing up the bill.

"You know, I have had the best vacation I tell ya, the hunting is good this year."

"You're a hunter?" The owner asked, and the killer nodded.

"And I aallways like to bring home a present for my little Chyna, when I go."

'Chyna?' Squall thought to himself, he had heard right before.

"You know how the matador gets the bulls horns or ear or the whole bull once he's killed him." They shook their heads.

"I uh, I do a little fishing myself." The owner said and the killer was shaking his head making disagreement noises.

"Mm, mm, mm, noope. You have to hunt, it's the only way to get that real rush..." something in the mans voice started to change as he spoke again and Squall tensed up hearing it. "You know that look in someone's eyes when they're in pain, when those few last looks are so memorable you wanna see it over again- to touch it....you can't see that in their eyes..." he shook his head.

The boys mouth quivered lightly but he tried to relax and asked. "Whose eyes?" The killer looked at him and leaned over side ways for example and said, after a before sentence pause.

"The fish." The boy relaxed hearing that answer. "They got those glassy eyes, no feeling there- that's not the rush I'm talking about man." He started laughing to himself and dug in his pocket for something. "Here take a look at her." He said holding up a picture of a little girl that looked as though it were from a school year book.

"Whose that?" The store owner asked. "That's my little Chyna, isn't she beautiful? Yeah...I like to give her presents because she is just the sweetest little peach and the closer you get to her...ahhhh the sweeter she does smell. Hahahaha." He sighed heavily. "I keep her locked in the basement, the beauty, so I can peek in on her whenever I like- to see how she's doing."

He saw the looks on the men's faces to that, it was utter disgust and shock. "Oh no I don't touch her, noo. She's not ready yet but when she is....hho ho ho, heavy." He looked at the store owner. "You have a daughter.... Larry, you must know what I mean." He said to the man looking at his name tag. The man nodded. "Yeah, I'm rushing home to mine right now- well she's not really my daughter."

Larry was looking rather confused but the killer nodded and replied to his silence saying, "I'll bet you can't wait until she reaches her peek, huh?" He laughed heartily at his joke but the guy didn't think it was so funny. "My little Chyna is 15 now... when she reaches 16 I'l-"

"Look, the bill is 60 now get out of here, we don't want your business." The man said angrily cutting him off. Squall glanced around the shelf and the boy met eyes with him and he ducked back around it.

"You guys are waay to easy haha, did you- did you honestly believe all of that stuff I said?" He laughed harder and they pretended to laugh too throwing glances to the back of the store. "What?" The killer asked. "Why do you keep looking back there?"

'Please don't let them blow my cover.' Squall thought and the man replied solidly.

"It's those darn lights they keep flickering." When the killer turned around to see if it were true the boy leaned forwards a bit and flicked the on and off switch to the freezers up and down to make them seem like they were flickering then he quickly drew back

before the guy could turn around.

"You should get that fixed it's dangerous." He said placing his picture of the little girl on the counter.

"Well, here you are." He said pulling money from his wallet. "Now you folks be careful out here." He said going to the door but turned around. "One more thing." He pulled out a shot gun and started firing loud hard shots and Squall jumped from the surprise of it and peeked around the shelf to see what was happening. "See that's what I'm talking about, that look right there!" The killer said to the boy as the owner was on the floor struggling to breathe. "You can't get that from fish." He continued and shook his head.

The young boy panicked and reached forward into the register grabbing a small hand gun aiming it at him. "Don't!... don't, because if you do I'm gonna shove the bullets in that gun down your throat one by one, junior." The killer warned. They stood there aiming at each other and the boy knew he didn't have a chance, so he bent over to place the gun down but the killer started to fire anyway. Squall covered his ears and heard him start talking again but this time to the store owner.

"You're still alive big guy?" He said getting up on the counter to sit and look down at the blood drenched huddle on the floor.

"Well lets take a look at the situation then, huh?" He got down into the mans face. "This- this is the hunting that I was talking about. This right here when you see these people die when you feeeel it and the fact that any second- any second now someone could come walking in through that door and catch me doing this to you, man you can't buy a charge like that, that's what I mean."

The man coughed on his blood. "You should know the feeling Larry I tell ya, that's why I wear no gloves, not even the fine surgical latex gloves the doctors wear." He touched the mans face gently and continued talking. "I wanna feel the life slipping away until it runs completely cold. Do you know what that feels like huh? Do you wanna feel that?" He asked taking the mans hands and placed them to his own body. "Yeeah.... it feels just- like-....that." He laughed lightly and glanced up doing a double take seeing a video camera watching him. "Where's the tape at?" He asked. The owner coughed and couldn't answer. "Hmm I guess we're beyond that point now, huh?"

He traced the cord up the wall with his eyes and to a back door. Squall noticed that the cord would place the guy right in his view so he crouch walked around to the side of the shelf as the man walked the other side. When he opened the door to get in back Squall rushed forward but stopped at the counter, the picture of the little girl had fallen to the floor.

'So you're Chyna?' He said to himself looking it over, she must have belonged to the family he was with. 'But she looks nothing like them, and who were the people in my dream if those are her parents....?' He thought absent mindedly. 'She must be adopted.'

He crept over to the wrack and pulled off a lighter from the shelf sliding it from the package. He held it to the picture but held back when he heard the man coming and he ran back along side of the shelf. The guy was taking his sweet time opening a box of twinkies and eating one.

He held the video tape in his hand then shoved it through his belt walking over to the front desk scooping up the picture saying, "How'd you get down here, huh?" He sniffed deeply onto the picture and nodded saying, "That's okay, that's okay." He stuffed it back into his pocket and walked over to the oriental boy rolling him over adjusting his mouth, then he took a deep sniff of him as well and laughed.

The killer took a camera that was strapped on the side of his belt then snapped a couple of photos with it. "She'll love you." He stood up and took the men's microwave dinners shoving them into a bag he took from the side of the desk. Squall was watching and waiting for him to leave so he could use the phone and as if he jinxed it, it began to ring. The killer pulled out his gun and shot it to make it stop and he advanced towards the doors. Then, hearing the next song on the radio start up he leaned over the counter and punched it hard enough blowing the speakers out.

'What the hell is this guy?' Squall wondered and watched him leave. He started to whistle again as he turned off the store lights and closed the doors locking them and Squall inside. As the RV drove away Squall went to the back room to the stores back exit but it was locked as well. 'Dammit.' He thought and banged against it with his shoulder.

He had to put some force into it but the lock finally broke off on the other side freeing him. Squall ran to the pay phone outside but the killer had already yanked it out of the wall. "Fuck!" He said throwing the receiver back at it's base. The guy was good he had to admit and he'd need more than some knife to kill him he could tell and he went back inside and grabbed the gun the boy had been holding then ran back outside.

Squall walked heavy footed to the first car he saw parked in the little lot and broke the window unlocking the door he climbed inside and he looked around for a key but there wasn't one- and it didn't have any gas in it. 'What the-...' There was a picture of the shop owner and his family inside hanging from the rear view mirror, he blinked his gaze downward and climbed out going to the car next to it.

The door to this one had been unlocked and the keys were still in the ignition, a smile spread across his face as he started the thing, backing up he drove down the road after the killer.