Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Intensity ❯ A Sign Of Hope ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11.

The timer on Edgelers clock begins to sound when it flipped up to 12:00 p.m. He pulled the blanket down off his face and smiled slamming his fist down onto the alarm clock to stop the buzzing.

The killer then walked to his closet and grabbed a blue, button down, collared shirt, then he reached further back into his closet snagging a pair of black pants with a single stripe going up each side.

"I actually had a great vacation." Edgeler was saying over the phone to whom ever he was talking to from his job. "But to tell you the truth what I really could have used was three weeks in Hawaii hahaha." He laughed mechanically and yanked a simple white t-shirt over his head listening to the guy on the other end then he replied. "Nah, I spent the day before Thanksgiving with my family up near Dollet....we had a-...really great time but what it all comes down to is I'd much rather spend it at home."

He listened to the other end and laughed. "Yeah even though I do have to work." Edgeler heard the sound of chains rattling and smiled knowing Squall was awake or Robert or what ever the hell he planned on calling himself that day. "Listen Blair I gotta go, wouldn't wanna be late....okay, bye." He pushed the button on his cell and dropped it, then broke into a mischievous smile and strolled downstairs buttoning up. Squall looked as though he were waking up as well and he heard the front door slam behind the man that left.

The gunblader instantly started to wriggle again to try to get free thinking the man had gone to work like he said he would.

Outside. Edgeler was at the back of his car unscrewing the license plate from it and then he let it hit the ground as he was walking back to his house he noticed something in the mud. They were bigger than his dogs paws so it must have been-... "The wolves." He said to himself as though he were a little panicked and then he whistled for a dog and one showed up instantly at his side looking for a face to lick but Edgeler held him back grabbing his dog collar. "Look at that huh. Just look at that." He said to the dog turning it's head towards the tracks. "Wolf tracks....you let a damn- listen to me, listen." He said when the dog started to turn it's head away from him.

"No look," he shoved the dogs muzzle into the dirt right on top of the tracks for him to sniff it. "Seeing things like that should make you guys turn cartwheels- cartwheels. Now what is going on?" He asked the dog but it seemed dumb to what he was getting at and he shoved the black beast away and sighed angrily but still a little worried as he went back inside. Squall heard the front door open and he stopped wriggled and lay his head down as though he were still asleep and just waking up.

"Hey, get up." The killer said to him.

"What time is it?" Squall asked.

"No, no, no, no. Did you see anything strange in the woods last night?" He asked him quite sanely and Squall replied.

"Aside from you?"

"Very funny. The wolves, the wolves, the wolves." Edgeler snapped kicking the table making it jump back a little. "You didn't see the woooolves?" He asked still panicked about the subject. "You didn't think it was strange how they were just hanging out back there?" Squall shrugged his shoulders wondering what the big deal was.

"These woods are a tourist spot you know, maybe they're just use to people." He suggested and Edgeler shook his head.

"They shouldn't get this close, they wouldn't come this close normally....I should have felt something when they were around.... those damn beast, nothing's ever gotten past me except them...and you...." Squall looked at the man as though he thought he may have been losing it.

"I mean I should have felt something that night, you must have made some sound...Hell even your breathing I should have picked up on. No one's ever been that invisible to me...there must be something special about you." Edgeler said crouching down and rubbing a knife to his forehead then he looked Squall dead in the eyes and asked. "What the hell is so special about you?"

Squall didn't know himself, the man did have plenty of opportunities to spot him easily but he remained stealth until he himself had messed up. "...If I were so special, would I be where I am right now?" The gunblader asked instead. The killer looked at him and then stood up saying.

"No, I guess not." He slid a chair from the table and scooted it closer to Squall. "My senses..." he was saying holding up two fingers running them gently in the air space near Squall's face and he continued saying. "are," a pause. "unusually sharp. I can feeel every movement in the air- everyone's vibration- I should have felt you...like a cool breath blowing gently across the back of my neck..... and when I break Chyna it will be like.... the universe splitting open for me.. it'll be the world."

He looked at Squalls face saying. "The stimulation of the finer nerve endings is well, I guess you could say my religion... any Nancy could pick a rose and hold it to his nose and take a whiff to enjoy the smell but, what- what if you could get just as much pleasure from the thorns." He asked. The killer sat there breathing in Squalls face and then he stated very matter-of-factly. "That is the reason we're on earth this is the reason we live."

He moved away from Squall hearing the gunbladers voice reply. "No it's not."

"Oh? Ok smarty pants you tell me then, why are we here? Huh? Why are we here?" He asked but Squall was silent. "Exactly, you don't know. Nobody knows that's why we all start assuming the worst of this and that and-..."

"I thought you were going to work?" Squall cut him off asking and the killer seemed to snap out of it and he strolled over to him.

"You're right and actually I'm running a little late, and I'm never late."

Edgeler checked the chains on Squall to make sure he hadn't loosened them while he'd slept but they were just as tight as he'd left them. "I'll be at work until 6:00 and it takes me 25 minutes to get home and like I said I'm never late, but just so you don't get bored while I'm gone. I got you a little entertainment that I've been saving up for a rainy day." The killer patted Squall roughly on the head and then walked out the door, giving Squall another chance to try to free himself.

Outside, Edgeler walked over to a ground level wooden doors that came up from the ground a little as though it were a well. It had a little house type thing built over it to keep rain water out. As the man opened it he looked down inside and said. "Things are getting kind of crazy, I'm gonna make a run for it, feel free to call the police but by the time they get here I'll be two continents away." He lied, then stood up and waved as he walked away.

A hand came up to the rim of the opened doors and he started to pull himself out.

Squall was wriggling around in the chair but then gave up on that plan of action. 'There's gotta be another way.' He thought and then looked at the table. The chain around his ankles was around the under side of the table as well. It didn't have four legs like normal tables it had more like one thick pillar on each side to hold it up. The gunblader placed his hands at the edge of the table and started to lift it so that he could free his feet.

"Rrrrrr- uh!" It wasn't working it was too heavy but he didn't give up. "C-coome ooon." It rose from the floor no more than a second and then it fell again. 'Damn it!' He cursed himself and smacked his hands on the table. Squall took a moment to collect himself then he tried again but this time. "Ow!" The rimming on the table broke off, he growled angrily to himself and pushed the broken plank away from himself. Just as he was about to try again something moving outside caught his attention. There was a man standing out there, he looked as though he hadn't seen a bath in months.

His hair was blonde and very dirty, shaggy, and unkept along with his beard which looked as though he hadn't had it from the start. He was wearing a torn blue sweater and raggedy blue jeans. "Mister!" Squall called. "Hey!" The man seemed to not hear him as he was ready to make a run for it but he didn't even move out of Squall's range before a black beastly looking dog ran up to the man grabbing his wrist and tearing into him. 'Oh no.' Squall thought watching as the man was pulled to the ground.

The first of the black dogs was joined by the other three and what Squall saw made him catch his breath. The dogs weren't just biting the man, they were eating him to the bone! His jaw dropped a second and he tried to turn away but he couldn't, the guy didn't even stand a chance and he looked as though he easily out weighed all the dogs put together along with Squall. After what felt like forever the dogs scrambled away leaving nothing behind.

The gunblader felt numb and sick thinking about what happened. His one shot at hope was gone as though it hadn't even been given to him, and what about Chyna he promised to save her and he would. Squall placed his hands under the corner of the table again and tried to lift it. Still it wasn't working.

"Hey Chyna?" He heard a voice and he looked around the room. The woman from the dream sequences was sitting next to him at the table, but it wasn't Edgelers table it looked like the one from Chyna's house. She was looking right at Squall- well maybe Chyna but Squall couldn't see the little girl just the woman looking at him.

She had a plastic knife in her hand and rubbed it up her other arm that was laying on the table with her chin on top of it. "You gotta know when your time is up." She said to him and dug the knife in deeper to caress her skin.

"Don't do that." Squall heard his own voice saying and she stopped instantly looking up at him and replied.

"Why the hell not? I mean, what have I got to stick around here for huh? There's nothin' here for me." Squall didn't understand. "You should try it Chyna, come on it feels good." She kept talking to him. "You just gotta get yourself something sharp." Squall's vision went down to the revealed nails that the broken table rim had left behind and he licked his lips then stuck his wrist to it and began to rub sighing when he felt a different pain in him. "Yeeeah baby look at you enjoying it." He was rubbing harder and harder until a little trickle of blood went down his wrist did he pull it away. The gunblader gasped at the sight of what he'd just done.

A single drop of blood fell from the nail he had been using and it hit his boot. When his eyes came back up he saw a wolf outside, the same white one from the woods. He blinked and the wolf stared at him as though it had sympathy for him and it made Squall a little angry. What could that stupid wolf do for him, howl at the moon?

"Get out of here." His voice said at a whisper from the sudden use of it. He swallowed hard and tried again to say it louder.

"Get out of here!" But the wolf didn't move, the gunbladers breathing picked up from the angered tension and he placed his hands under the corner of the table then shouted. "Go away!" And with those words he tossed the table over right to it's side and he looked at it stunned, when he turned back to the wolf it was gone! He wondered- only for a second- if that were real or was he asleep again, but he snapped out of it and quickly started to gather the chain in that dragged on the floor with his feet.

Lifting it off the ground with them he handed it to himself. 'All right, now we're getting somewhere.' He said and checked the time. '12:30.That's plenty of time to get Chyna and go.' He thought and started rocking in the chair, forwards and backwards and forwards. Edgelers demon spawned dogs were gathering at the window watching him attempt to stand.

They began to bark he glanced at them once and went back to what he was doing. They barked louder and started scratching at the glass door. "Shut up." He mumbled to them and finally was able to rock himself up on his feet, the chair on his back left him hunched over but he didn't care he could walk now. Even though his legs were a little week from sitting for so long.

The gunblader nearly stumbled on his way across the room but he kept his balance he'd gotten too far now to let this be ruined. 'I need something, anything to get this damn chair off of my back.' He thought and saw a stone fire place in the living room. 'Perfect.' He walked over to it, turned himself around then began to bang the backside of the chair against the fire place.

"Rrr, Come on!" He shouted seeing that it wasn't working. The dogs continued barking and scratching at the doors. "Break, damn it!" He swung it as hard as he could but the only thing that broke off was a leg. "Shit. There's gotta be another way?" He thought and looked around. The basement door was left open a crack and he remembered seeing that the stairs were made of strong metal. He regained his strength to walk the chair over to it. The gunblader pushed the door open wider by walking into it, then he looked down the stairs.

Squall took in a breath then let it out slowly as he turned around so that his back was facing the stairs. 'Three.' He said mentally and let himself drop. He tumbled over and around and slid side ways as he fell down the staircase. The chair was breaking up all around him just as he'd hoped it would but his face came down sharp on the second to the last stair, making one final tumble he hit the concrete floor.