They All Fall Down
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This oneshot is mine. This is my meek and amateur attempt at horror. There's no real plot, just like all horror movies, and my goal for it was to be suspenseful and maybe a little scary. Just to warn you, there is very graphic death in this oneshot, along with blood and, well, general horror. Writing scary is hard for me, but I'm trying to improve. Any and all constructive criticism is appreciated! Please be gentle.
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Footfalls clacked across the slick asphalt of the high school parking lot. Legs fought to propel the body farther, faster, and in less time. Arms pumped frantically, swinging almost out of control. Sweat shed of exertion and terror pulsed from overworked pores, streaming down a bloody and dirt slaked face. It stung at eyes round and bulging, half blind to the unlit town at night.
Pure adrenaline alone allowed Kairi to stay upright and running. Blood was streaming down her leg from the gash on her shin and her arm throbbed each time she pumped it for balance, her left wrist felt sprained. Her lungs pumped battery acid that burned her throat and made her nauseas as she ran.
She could hear him. Even though she couldn't see him, it, whatever it was, she could hear him. Heavy footfalls growing progressively closer, just out of sight in the fog. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, but of course she saw nothing.
"Kairi!" Around the corner ran Riku and Kairi's heart almost exploded with relief.
He had a shotgun in his hand and she could see a revolver tucked into the belt of his jeans. Blood was running steadily down the right side of his face from the gash at his hairline, and both knees of his jeans were shredded and bloody. But he was alive.
"Run! Go!" She shrieked at him, waving her arms, "It's right behind me!"
Instead of running, Riku cocked the shotgun and lifted it to shoulder height. As the barrel lifted, Kairi ducked and lost her balance, tripping and rolling hard across the dirty earth to skitter to a stop a few meters from Riku's legs. Riku leveled the shotgun and fired into the fog. The shot echoed through the night, startling a few birds, but no committal noises from the assailing target were heard.
"Get up. Kairi, get up, we gotta go." Riku snatched her upper arm in one hand and dragged her to her feet.
"Where is everybody?" Kairi cried as they started to run around the corner.
"Tidus and Wakka are dead. I found them at the arcade." Riku answered brusquely as they ran.
"Dead?" Kairi gaped.
"That bastard killed them. I don't know if—" Riku was interrupted as a high pitched scream alerted them to another victim.
"Selphie!" Kairi screamed.
Riku clamped a hand over her mouth, "Shut up, you'll give away where we are."
Kairi pried his hand from her lips, "You just SHOT at it!"
"No! No, help me! Stop! Please! Help!" Selphie's scream intermittently broke through the night air.
"Sounds like she's over by Sora's house. Come on." Riku snatched her wrist and started running in the direction of the screaming.
Kairi ran after him, even though her instincts were ripping her nerves apart. Her body wanted to run away from the monster, away from that blood thirsty murderer who'd invaded Destiny Islands. Her heart, however, overruled her body in her deep seated need to help her friend. So she followed Riku.
They ran down the main street, past the small strip mall of local diners and supermarkets, pharmacies and town houses. Sora's house was located on the farthest end of the street, three blocks at most. The entire street was black, all the buildings were dark. No street lights, no window lights, no security lights at all. It was like power had been killed throughout the entire island.
Killed.
"Don't look. Don't look. Hurry up, come on." Riku tugged her, glancing to the right.
You couldn't tell someone not to look and expect them to actually obey. Kairi involuntarily followed his glance into the arcade. A card table had been dragged out into the display area and two people were sitting at it playing cards.
Kairi's throat constricted and bile rose to her throat. Tidus and Wakka were propped up in chairs, facing each other across the table. Both were coated in blood. Tidus's head was bent backwards nearly perpendicular to his back, his throat bared unnaturally long and his mouth hanging open, eyes wide and unseeing. Wakka was slumped in his chair, limbs akimbo and his throat slit, red staining his chest and dripping down onto the table.
No words came to mind, so she just screamed. Riku's hand around her wrist jerked violently, dragging her away from the sight of her friends' mutilated bodies. They kept running down the block, and now Kairi kept her eyes on Riku's back, watching his shoulder blades dip and protrude against his shirt as he ran, her eyes never drifting to the windows they passed.
The screaming had stopped.
Riku swerved around the corner and Kairi skidded on her feet to keep up. She could see Sora's house at the end of the street, nestled near the black silhouette of the woods bordering the town. They ran down the sidewalk until they were at the base of the front steps to the house. For all appearances, it looked untouched. No blood, no broken windows or splintered wood.
Appearances could be deceiving though. Riku reached down to his belt and pulled out the revolver. He checked the clip and handed it to Kairi. She took it wordlessly in her trembling, inexperienced hands. She'd never held a gun before, much less fired one. Riku made sure fresh rounds were ready in the shotgun and started up the steps.
"Stay right behind me." He whispered over his shoulder, creeping towards the front door. "Selphie?" He called out.
Kairi had both hands clasped around the handle of the revolver, aiming haphazardly at an angle to the floor. "Selphie, where are you?" She asked aloud.
"Selphie, are you in here?" Riku pushed the unlocked door open.
It swung into the house, revealing the naked darkness that clogged the hallway. Kairi glanced around at the surrounding woods, following to keep inside arm's reach of Riku as they entered the house.
"It's Riku, Selphie. If you're in here, we'll find you. If that psycho bastard is here, we'll shoot his ass back to Hell!" Riku raised his voice at the end of the statement, the muscles in his jaw working angrily.
Kairi had no brave and aggressive words, so she just followed silently behind, trying not to jump at the shadows made on the floor by the swishing curtains. They moved deeper inside. Riku glanced up the stairs on his left as they made their way into the right side living room. He reached out to where they both knew Sora's dad's desk to be. He bumped into the corner, swore quietly, and started rummaging through the drawers, finally producing three flashlights. Finding them all to have strong batteries, he handed one to Kairi, tucked one into his pocket, and flipped the third one on.
The bright beam of light cut through the darkness like a hot knife through butter. Kairi's eyes burned with the sudden brightness and she lifted a hand. Riku gripped the flashlight in one hand, shotgun ready in the other, and swung the beam around in a scan of the room. The light moved over the wall, picture frames, the television, and the couch…where two people were sitting.
"Oh shit." Riku started, and Kairi nearly dropped her own flashlight.
"Hey!" Kairi stammered, taking a step toward the couch.
Riku swept the rest of the room with the flashlight, found there to be no other people or bodies, and started toward the kitchen. Kairi moved closer to the couch where Sora's mother and father were sitting, facing the TV with their backs to her.
"Chris? Daylia?" She reached out and touched Sora's mother's shoulder.
The woman shifted at the slight pressure and her head leaned sideways. Kairi screamed as the partially decapitated head lolled on a few stretches of muscle and ligament, dangling off the severed neck.
"What happened?" Riku ran back in.
"They're dead. They're both dead." Kairi cried, hot tears scalding her eyes.
Riku inspected them for himself, looking nauseated at the decapitated mother and the disemboweled state of Sora's father, his insides draped in a bloody display out onto his lap. Kairi lifted a hand to cover her mouth, the gun still pointed at the floor. Too late. She turned and retched violently onto the blood streaked wooden floor beside the couch.
"Come on, stay close." Riku jerked his head toward the kitchen.
Kairi held fast, "No."
He looked at her, "What?"
"The kitchen? Where knives, hooks, and other sharp objects are? Have you never watched a horror movie?" Kairi beckoned, "That's asking for it!"
Riku shushed her again and gave her a flat look. He mouthed "Fine", and changed direction, heading for the hallway again. Kairi followed him this time, the cool steel of the revolver strangely comforting in her numb fingers, even though she had no idea how to use it. They had just turned into the hallway when she heard it.
A soft, squeaking noise, like the creaking of a floorboard or the groan of wood under weight. Kairi went rigid, emitting a small whimper that made Riku turn and look at her. Soundlessly, she gestured toward the upstairs, where the bedrooms were. Riku followed her gesture and altered his course, moving in front of her and toward the stairs, shotgun held at the ready. Movement at the top of the stairs eclipsed the moonlight cutting through the upstairs window. Kairi yelped and turned her own flashlight upwards.
A mass toppled over the railing of the stairs, swinging down into the open hallway. The descent stopped with a sharp crack as the mass dangled from the stairs on a taut rope. Kairi screamed as the beam from her flashlight lit up the body, twitching and convulsing as the rope held fast around the victim's neck.
Selphie's eyes were wide and bulging out of the sockets, blood dribbling over her lips, her wrists and ankles bound by barbed wire. Her clothes were stained crimson and streaks of blood were snaking across her skin. The noose around her neck had snapped her neck cleanly, and Riku backed away to avoid being hit by her flailing limbs.
"Shit, Selphie, dammit!" Riku swore loudly, heading up the stairs.
Kairi, fighting the urge to be sick again, removed her hand from her tear streaked face, "Where are you going?" She cried.
Riku charged up the stairs, "To kill the son of a bitch!"
"We don't even know what it is! It'll kill you too!" Kairi ran after him.
They charged up the stairs and onto the second floor of Sora's house. Kairi's knee and wrist were really killing her now. Odd choice of words. To the left down the hall was Sora's room and on the right was his parents' room. In the middle were a bathroom and a linen closet. Riku leaned toward the bathroom, his flashlight ghosting over the blood smearing the tile of the bathroom floor. He pushed the door open and nosed the shotgun inside. No more bodies or body parts. Just blood.
"What's happening?" Kairi said, exhaling heavily.
A thunk out in the hallway made them both jump. Riku shouldered past her out into the hall and moved toward the linen closet. Kairi lingered in the frame of the bathroom door, shaking her head vehemently as Riku reached for the knob. Did he have a death wish or something?!
In one fluid motion, Riku pulled the door open, back stepping and lifting his shotgun again as movement was roused in the darkness of the closet. Kairi yelped as yet another body toppled into sight, landing on the floor in a boneless heap.
"Sora!" Kairi yelped, hoarse now from screaming.
Riku dropped to his knees beside his fallen friend and flitted his fingers to Sora's neck and over his mouth and nose. "He's still alive. I think he's just unconscious."
Sora began to stir, the side of his face pressed into the wood floor. Kairi stifled a cry and reached out to him. She placed the palm of her hand on the back of his neck. His normally spiky hair was matted and damp with sweat and blood. Blood was also leaking down his neck from a blow to the back of his head. He groaned and twisted away from the contact. Kairi withdrew her hand.
"Sora. It's us. Kairi and Riku." She attempted to soothe.
Riku rubbed a curt circle into Sora's back and then slapped him on the shoulder, "Come on, man. We have to get out of here. Selphie's dead."
Sora grunted something unintelligible and started to push himself up to his elbows, shaking his head to clear it and looking around. He coughed a thick mouthful of blood onto the floor and sat up, still muttering.
"What?" Kairi leaned in.
"It's still here." He repeated.
As if on cue, a deep rumble thundered through the floor, making the china in the cabinets clatter and plaster dislodge from the ceiling. Kairi looked up with Riku and Sora, toward the open doorway of Sora's parents' bedroom. The rumbling stopped and the house fell into total quiet, save for their breathing.
A dry, slicing sound broke the momentary silence. Plaster spit from the walls as a deep line carved itself from the doorway into the wall, inching toward them. Kairi scrambled to her feet and stumbled away from the wall, dropping her flashlight. It was as if something…something invisible was dragging something, a knife or a hook or something, against the wall, cutting deep into the drywall.
The beam of Kairi's fallen flashlight illuminated the empty doorway, not so much as casting a shadow. Riku leveled the shotgun and fired. Scattershot peppered the walls, disrupting the invisible hook's carving with an isolated thunder. The tearing plaster ceased for a moment, and then continued to advance, more quickly now.
"Come on, we gotta go." Riku said, grabbing Sora under the arms and hoisting him to his feet.
Sora found his balance quickly and he pushed Kairi toward the stairs. "Go, Kairi, run!"
Kairi needed no telling twice. She bolted from the second floor and hit the stairs at an uneven run, staggering halfway and nearly skidding into the wall when she reached the first floor. Sora and Riku were hot on her heels. The sound of ripping plaster continued after them, reaching the stairs and carving a path down the mahogany banister. Riku shoved at Sora's shoulders, all but bodily throwing him at the front door, too quickly for Sora to see his parents' mangled bodies just meters out of sight.
Kairi reached the front door first and threw her shoulder into it, staggering out onto the porch and letting her momentum carry her down the stairs. She reached the sidewalk before she glanced back. Sora and Riku burst out of the house, Sora bloody and Riku shooting backwards over his shoulder with the shotgun.
"What is that thing?!" Kairi screamed, somehow still holding onto the revolver.
"Still after us, that's what it is!" Sora had Riku's second flashlight now.
Riku caught up to them and they all looked back at the house. The open door swung wide open, revealing the silhouette of Selphie's slowly swaying body. Kairi couldn't stifle a sob of horror and terror and lifted a hand to her face. Sora touched her shoulder and gently tugged the revolver out of her white knuckled hands. He checked the magazine and glanced back at his former home.
"Well, I think we can rule out human beings as the murderer here." Riku remarked.
"Yeah, unless people can become invisible." Sora grunted hoarsely.
Kairi's eyes roamed over the face of the house, straying to Sora's bedroom window. A flickering shadow beyond the swishing curtains drew a scream from her. Sora and Riku swiveled around in unison and followed her gaze.
"Holy shit." Riku instinctively threw an arm out to shield Kairi.
"Mother fu—" Sora hissed but was cut off as the upstairs window shattered, sending shards of jagged glass showering down on them.
"Go!" Riku shoved at Sora, who pushed Kairi, who shot off like a bullet.
She ran blindly from the house, where flames were suddenly furling out of the windows, licking at the vinyl siding. She heard Sora and Riku's foot falls right behind her, and their heavy breathing just over her shoulder. She skidded across sidewalk and took an unexpected left turn, disoriented and confused in her terror-stricken state.
"Kairi!" Sora yelled, suddenly sounding not so close behind her.
Slowing, she half turned and glanced back just in time to see Riku hit the concrete. The flashlight in his hands shattered on the sidewalk and the shotgun clattered out of his grip and out of reach. A black shadow fell across the open space and Sora turned to go back.
"Riku! Sora!" Kairi screamed.
Riku pushed himself to his elbows just as Sora reached him. Just as Sora reached down and gripped Riku's elbow, something shiny and metal flashed between them and Kairi's knees turned to jelly, sending her to press her back against the brick wall of the arcade behind her. Riku screamed and the animalistic, unhinged shriek to his voice turned Kairi's blood cold.
Sora stumbled back and landed hard on his backside, having been standing up to pull Riku to his feet. Riku was writhing on the ground, blood flying in all directions as he rolled and convulsed, screaming incoherently. A stream of blood splattered across Sora's face and Sora started to pull himself up.
Riku's arm was in his hand, two meters from where Riku was still screaming.
A wave of nausea overtook Kairi and she screamed. She had to scream or she'd throw up. Sora retched as soon as he realized he had Riku's elbow in his hand. The rest of the arm, down to the fingertips, was connected to the part in his hand. He dropped it and cried out, reaching over to stop Riku from flailing.
Then Sora was flying backwards, uppercut by nothing short of Goliath's fist, and slamming into a parked car across the street. His back dented the driver's side door and his head shattered the window. Kairi had followed his descent with mortified eyes but she immediately looked back to Riku, but Riku was gone. Where he had been, in the throes of agony, there was only a pool of blood and a crimson trail leading haphazardly back into an alley.
Riku was still screaming.
Sora slumped off the car and hit the pavement, rolling twice on the road before pushing himself up. His head snapped up at the screaming and the thick, repetitive slamming that echoed right after.
Thluck.
Thluck, thluck.
Riku's screaming fell silent.
Sora rolled to his feet and ducked his head, running toward Kairi and snatching up Riku's now ownerless shotgun.
"Come on, we gotta get out of here." He said, limping slightly toward her.
"B-but…R-Rik—it's—" Kairi said, one hand still clamped over her mouth.
"He's dead. Go! We can't fight this thing…not here like this." Sora pushed her onward.
So she ran.
Sora ran along side her, shotgun in one hand, flashlight in the other. Kairi had lost the revolver somewhere in the commotion, but her hands were shaking too badly to handle it anyway. Her hands had clenched into terror-paralyzed fists, and she swung her arms in an attempt to run faster. Yet even as they ran to put more distance between themselves and that…that monster, she had to shelve the horror that they were also running away from Riku's dismembered body.
Their footsteps echoed down the empty street. No fog, no rain, no lightning. Only silence. The thickness of it weighed down on Kairi's shoulders like all the bodies of her murdered friends. Hot tears streamed across her cheeks as she ran, seeing Sora running beside her out of the corner of her eye.
Then Sora was gone, dropping out of sight with one short yelp.
"Sora!" Kairi slowed, skidding to a stop and turning around.
Sora was on the ground, his face bloody as he lifted himself off the asphalt. The flash light lay shattered a few feet away, the hollow top of it dark. Standing above Sora's legs was the attacker. Kairi's eyes widened and she screamed. Sora looked up at her cry and followed her gaze, rolling quickly onto his back, cocking the shotgun, and lifting it. He fired.
The lead roared out of the barrel and hit the intended target. Kairi barely heard the report. All the shots fired tonight, plus her own screaming and Riku's, had long since deafened her. The attacker stumbled slightly but immediately recovered, reaching down and ripping the shotgun from Sora's hands, gripping it and checking it like a trained gunsmen.
Sora scrambled backwards, clamoring to his knees and stumbling into a run towards her. "Go, Kairi, what are you just standing there for? Run! Ru—"
Sora disappeared in a spray of blood and muted thunder as buckshot screamed through the back of his head. All of the air left Kairi's lungs in one fell swoop, as though her lungs had stalled. Sora jerked sideways with the blow, steam and blood and—oh god—fragments of his skull splattering to the floor from the gaping hole in his head. Eyes wide and distended, Sora swung around, knees buckling, and hit the floor with an inanimate and boneless flop.
Behind him, the monster waited, smoking shotgun leveled in the air where Sora's head had been seconds earlier, now aimed at her. Unarmed, defenseless, and alone, Kairi took two unbalanced, desperate steps backwards before turning and sprinting away. No footsteps followed her.
Dead. They were all dead. All her friends were dead.
Kairi kept running. She passed the end of the strip mall and kept going. She ran past the now empty houses and didn't look back. There was nothing to see but empty buildings. Everyone was dead, a true ghost town now. The only life left in the village was that demon…and herself.
Muscles burning, arms aching, lungs pumping battery acid, she pushed to run harder, faster, farther away. No matter how fast she ran or how much blood throbbed between her ears, she couldn't escape the cold, numbing realization that poisoned her thoughts.
She was alone.
They were all dead.
She was going to die.
Considering what would happen if she survived tonight, the notion of dying was almost a comfort. That thing obviously wasn't going to stop. It—he—whatever—had killed everyone. It wasn't going to just stop because she escaped. That monster was going to hunt her down and kill her. If everyone that mattered to her in her life was dead, why was she still running?
She kept running anyway.
Kairi kept running until she reached the loamy, bleached sand of the beach. It was still dark outside, but she could hear the crashing of the waves on the shore. She slowed just long enough to register the jelly sensation in her legs. She turned her back on the ocean and finally faced what she'd been running from.
The night air was still, silent, and, most importantly, empty, devoid of any threat and danger. Seeing the empty space only seem to strike more fear in her bones. Shivering in the loneliness and choking on the terror, she turned and ran along the beach toward the dock.
There were three warehouses lining the beach, storing cargo and exports for incoming and outgoing boats. Kairi reached the door to the first warehouse and nearly cried out when she found it unlocked. Jerking it open, she hurried inside and moved the door closed as quietly as possible.
There were no lights on inside and she fumbled against the walls without finding a switch. Cursing under her breath, she hastened down the aisles of stacked boxes, feeling her way around. She tripped over her own feet and hit the concrete floor, biting her lip and tasting blood.
Staggering up to her feet, she froze when she heard the whiny sound of the door opening. Trying to calm her breathing and quiet the roaring of her heart between her ribs, Kairi moved around the nearest corner, putting a stack of boxes between herself and the demon walking through the door.
Footsteps, one after the other, slow, deliberate, drawing closer.
She pressed a hand firmly over her mouth, trying to tighten the spasming muscles in her jaw. She shifted backwards cautiously, wary of anything that might make a noise. It wouldn't do to be seized by a sneezing fit at the moment. Unfortunately, no matter how careful she was, she could hear him—it—whatever—getting closer.
Swallowing hard, Kairi reached the end of the stack of boxes and leaned around the other side, peeking out into the hallway. There was nothing. No movement, no shadows, no breathing.
The footsteps had stopped.
Straining her ears, she heard nothing and returned to her side of the box, turning around to look forward toward the door again. She saw only a shadow. She fell back, screaming as the attacker stood with one foot on either side of her legs, glinting, bloody ax in hand. There was a small hesitation, a breathy pause, and then the ax swung down.
Thluck.
Thluck. Thluck.