It is a dark and stormy night. Feet pound harshly on the uneven ground, a pause, she thinks she's safe. A shrill scream echoes in the thick forest. He pulls out the gun, a sharp bang, and silence sings.
Three days later a group of adolescents, runaways, are hiking in a forested part of their homeland. Their home; an oversized island named like a beach resort, half covered in virgin soil and untamed forest, had grown dull to them as quickly as thought impossible. Their names were strange for where they lived. Riku, Kairi, Sora, Roxas, Namine', Axel, and Zexion were their names: their appearance as unique as such. They were only together still because of the fate entwining paopu fruit. At the age of four, they each shared one, forever entwining their destiny.
"Hey Zexy- smell that?" Axel called across the group to Zexion, the teen with the strongest sense of smell. Blue eyes narrowed with concentration as the slate haired owner focused. His brow wrinkled in disgust.
"Smells like a decaying body." He claimed. Unknowingly, the teens had been nearing the girl's body. Her name, when she was alive, had been Selphie. Nobody knew she was dead yet, just that she had been missing. She hadn't been very popular with her peers, her cinnamon hair curled unnaturally and her eyes green. She had a small figure, and people tended to ignore her. The runaways were two yards away, when the dirty, yellow sundress came into view. Immediately the group pushed Riku towards her, him being the leader of the group. Slowly, the aquamarine-eyed albino neared the source of the horrid smell. Suddenly, as the body came into view, he stopped, and paled (which wasn't thought possible).
"Riku, what is it?" Namine' whispered, silvery, sun bleached blonde hair falling over her fair skinned face.
"What's there, what did you find?" Kairi said, slightly louder than the timid Namine'. She stepped forward, crimson hair sliding over her shoulder. Sora put his hand on her shoulder, holding her back, cerulean-blue eyes flashing with protectiveness. Stepping ahead of the group, Sora stopped by Riku, eyes widening. He then became so pale, his spiky brown hair almost turned silver.
"It's a g-g-girl!" Sora and Riku stuttered in unison. A temporary wave of shocked silence fell over the group. The wave passed, and the guys all leapt forward, struggling through the brush to drag the corpse into a clearing.
"Is she dead?" Namine' whimpered.
"I think so." Roxas replied softly. "Zexion, find out how she died." He continued. Said slate haired teen crept to the corpse scanning the body with his eyes.
"Shot in the head." He told them, surprised that nobody noticed the wound before. "Kairi, call the police, it was a murder." She pulled out her purple razor.
"There's no battery left!" She yelped.
"What?!? Let me see that!" Sora ordered, examining the cellular device. "Namine', check yours." He continued. Doing as told, Namine' shook her head slowly.
"Same here." She told them. As if as one, they all checked their own. All was silent, as a sense of dread fell upon the group.
"No way! This has to be a joke! Who called in Scare Tactics?" Axel whined.
"Nobody, Pyro," Riku claimed, "we're all in this together."
"Yeah," added Sora, "All for one and one for all!" His chipper words echoed
grotesquely in the empty forest. Riku, the undisputed leader, stepped forward.
"Let's keep going, maybe there's a town nearby we can stop at."
They had been walking for hours, and as the sun set, they found a clearing just large enough to set up a fire and the girls' tent. As nobody wanted to watch for intruders, the fact that this was Destiny Island's forest, nobody kept watch.
Sora found himself being awakened from a small yelp from Kairi. His protective nature kicked in, and he rushed to his violet eyed companion. Inside was Kairi, the sleeping Namine', and a man… A man with a knife. Sora leapt onto the man's shoulders. Kairi's eyes widened, fear for her love's safety acting like a sort of adrenaline, as she pranced around, unable to keep still. Through the brawl that followed, nobody awakened.
"What have you done to them?!" Sora interrogated, pushing the knife away from his unprotected neck. The shrouded man pulled out a tranquilizer gun, laughing menacingly.
"They won't come to rescue you this time, impetuous boy!" he exclaimed, laughing with gory mirth. Sora, fed up with this mad murderer, slugged him in the face, knocking him out. Smiling, he turned to Kairi.
"It'll be fine," He told her, urging her to calm, "He's unconscious now, I can handle him." He whispered. His eyes widened as a sudden bang came from behind him.
"Sora!" Kairi screamed in terror, holding onto her love's body as he began to fade.
"K-kairi…" He was cut off by another bang. And so they fell, arm in arm.
Namine' screamed in horror. Her fraternal twin sister was dead. Roxas rushed in, blond messy hair entangled with leaves. He crouched to embrace Namine'.
"Oh, God… Please no! Not them!" Riku had come in, "No, no, no, please, no!" He collapsed next to the couple, his shaking frame weakened in this state of high emotion. He sobbed, unable to feign a calm demeanor, for his best friends' lives. As they wept in unison, the noise woke Zexion and Axel, who walked in expecting that the girls had just awakened from a nightmare.
They spent that whole day and night sitting vigil for the two. At the rising of the next sun, they gathered what little the murdered couple had brought and continued their trek.
"Why didn't any of us wake up?" Roxas questioned to himself, quietly letting a single tear be shed for his brother and his girlfriend's sister.
"I found some darts on the ground around the site. The murderer must've tranquilized us." Riku replied, as calmly as he could muster. Namine' whimpered, again on the verge of crying.
"Why would somebody do this?" she whispered "They'd have to be some homicidal freak!"
"They were intending to do this all along," Zexion stated "otherwise they wouldn't have had the tranquilizers. I think he- or she may be stalking us, manipulating us." Axel's eyes widened, having realized he wasn't he only one suspicious. "In fact, they might be nearby listening to our conversation."
"Zip it Schemer. Nami's already freaked out enough." Roxas snapped.
"I am only stating the honest truth, and my opinion." He replied calmly, though he disliked the use of his last name very much. Along with their first names, they had unique last names as well. For Sora and Roxas, Desdinedfate. Kairi and Namine: Lightheart. Riku's was Darklight, Axel's Dancingflame, and Zexion's Schemer. Their names matched their personality, a thing they greatly disliked. Steadily, the area grew brighter, they were nearing a meadow. At the sight of the sun, Namine' perked up significantly. She sprinted into the sunlight, and sprawled out on the grassy ground.
"It's so beautiful here!" She exclaimed, sitting up "Can we stay here for a while?"
She turned to Riku, hope radiating from her.
"I don't see why not, in such an open space things will be much easier to see." He replied. Namine' leapt with joy and sprawled back out.
Eventually it began to get darker. Roxas had stepped outside of the, now too small for it's inhabitants, tent for first watch. Just as everybody inside the tent began to nod off, a pained cry was heard from Roxas. Namine', naturally was the first outside to see him. A thickly shrouded figure was digging a machete through Roxas' bloody shoulder. As she stepped out, the figure pulled it out causing a squelching sound, and swung it at her. She yelped, a thin red line across her cheek bones having formed, nothing more than a scratch. Riku had been the second to get out, his pocket knife in hand. The murderer snarled, obviously he hadn't expected them to awaken. He then looked at Roxas and laughed.
"He won't survive tomorrow!" He exclaimed zealously, and dashed into the forest. Everyone rushed to Roxas' side searching for wounds.
"Oh, Roxas…" Namine' trailed off. He had a total of five stab wounds, one just below his knee, deep and ragged; another in his back, and one in his stomach, both deeper than not. The worst were the last two, one in his hand that went directly through it, as did the one in his shoulder. In both, one could see the cut tendons and broken bones like jagged branches.
"Namine'…you're hurt…" He whispered.
"It's nothing, just a scratch." She replied. Then tore the sleeve of her gray shirt off, using it to bandage his stomach and shoulder. Tearing off the other sleeve, she used it to bandage his knee and back. Riku willingly gave up his glove for Roxas' hand, and told Axel to take his knife and find the river near by.
"Leave a trail, we'll follow." Riku ordered, gingerly lifting Roxas' weak body and causing his breathing to become raspy and shallow.
"Don't die on us, Roxas, please don't!" Namine' whimpered.
They had finally reached the river found by Axel, and Roxas was fading faster and faster. Axel was now iller than a berserker.
"Come out, you weakling! Having to use weapons to fight, killing anybody who you see, you're no better than some animal!" He called provocatively. A rustle behind him was heard. "Come out and fight with your hands, you -!" His voice was replaced with a gurgling choked sound.
"You wanted me to use my hands, did you not?" The shroud was holding Axel to a tree by his neck, at least a foot off the ground. A thud, his fifth murder was complete.
"Riku, Where'd Axel Go?!" Namine' yelled across the small river. "He was here a few minutes ago!"
"I don't know to be honest with you…" Riku replied, knowing this was never a good thing. A scream, Namine' was pushed into the river by a shroud. "Zexion, the murderer!" As if floating on top of the swift moving water, the murderer flew at Riku, digging a knife into his heart. Roxas' breathing came faster, and faster. Namine' couldn't swim. Feebly trying to sit up, he toppled over the small cleft and into the frigid water. Laughing with insanity, he turned slowly to Zexion, the only one left.
"Pity you saw the girl's body. You were my only friend." The shroud pulled off it's hood, revealing dark green eyes framed by sandy fly-away bangs. Zexion gasped.
"Demyx, why have you done this?! I thought you were my friend!" He inched to Riku, his knife still on the ground next to him.
"You picked these losers over me. You aren't my friend, not anymore!" Demyx leapt at Zexion, knife in hand, just as Zexion lifted Riku's.
"I thought you were my friend. I was mistaken." He pulled the bloody knife out of Demyx's neck, forever saying goodbye.
:end:
Rawr. Ness. This was actually for my GT teacher, and she has yet to let me read it in front of the class… I know the end was rushed, but that couldn't be fixed. Ehrm… I'm back! You dinn't notice I wuz gone??!! Oh well… Yesh, the charas are slightly OOC, and this might be continued by another one-shot on Demyx's side. Sorry, Mooncry! Pleez dun kill me! Any and all spelling mistakes were not found by a total of five peoples.
