Alright, I rewrote this. I'm gonna start this off slower, so don't expect me to update quickly.

Enjoy~

I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

I was unable to run fast enough. That had to be the only explanation for all of this. Or maybe it was my own, foolish clumsiness. Or my stupidity…there was a good one. All I knew or cared about right now was to go faster, to run as quickly as I could. I had to get to him…to Seifer. Yet, even in the back of my mind, I knew I wasn't going to make it in time to save him.

I kept a vigilant eye on the handsome man, and it was clear that he was exhausted. More dark portals were opening, allowing more dark creatures to come. Shit. I tried to run even faster, my muscles burning from the exertion I was putting on them. But then something else occurred that nearly made me stop in my tracks.

There, in the sky, hung the large heart-shaped eclipse of what had been Kingdom Hearts. That's when it suddenly seemed to twitch to life in the air, and thousands upon thousands of yellow eyes appeared, staring down on Seifer and I as their only victims. A moment later, those very eyes vanished…then began to pour out of Kingdom Hearts like a waterfall, emerging from the darkness. I panicked as they caught sight of Seifer as he continued to fight the Heartless, too distracted to see what I had seen.

"Seifer! Look out!"

I jolted awake, my heart pounding as I sat up on the couch. Putting a hand to my chest, I tried to breathe, to relax, while still reaching for the memories of my dream as it started to disappear from my mind. I was able to catch a wisp of it, but it slipped from my grasp. I sighed, my heart still beating against my ribs. What had happened in my dream – my nightmare – for my heart to beat so quickly?

I sat there in the Usual Spot, letting my racing heart calm down while desperately reaching for even a single remembrance of what my horrid dream had been…

Nothing.

"There you are, Hayner!" I flinched and turned my head to see Olette, my only girl friend (not girlfriend, there's a difference), sticking her head in. She frowned and stomped into the Usual Place, hands on her hips. "Roxas and I have been looking everywhere for you, darn it!" she scolded.

I rolled my eyes and laid back down onto the couch, stretching lazily, my heartbeat now normal. She gave a sigh of defeat, then pulled out her phone.

"I'm calling Roxas to-"

"Already here." my best friend said, walking smoothly in.

Olette gave him a look, then nodded to me. I waved back.

"He refuses to get up, Roxas. You persuade him; he won't listen to me." She shot me a dirty look. "He's too stubborn."

"No, he's just gotten lazier than me. Come on, man. We gotta go." I closed my eyes and pretended not to listen. "Get up, Hayner. Seifer's pissed that we're already twenty minutes late, and he's even more pissed that you're the cause of it." he pointed out.

"Maybe if he got that stick out of his ass…" I sneered.

"Oh? Says the one who's desperately in love with the guy, I believe you can't say anything in your own defense for this one." Roxas smirked.

I shot up from the couch, my face growing warm. "Shut up! It's not like that!"

"Sure. I'll believe that when I'm dead." He grabbed my arm, then proceeded to escort (read: forced) me out of the Usual Spot. "Now let's go."

I groaned, but allowed him to drag me through the Alleyway, heading towards the Marketplace, where we would go to the entrance to the Woods. I couldn't wait…

Ugh.

Before you even start to tease and laugh about me supposedly being "in love" with Seifer, it's all a lie. I do not like the prick, nor do I love him. I hate his guts, and he returns the feeling back to me. It's a great rival hatred that we share and…

Don't give me that look…I know you don't believe me, but it's…

Ugh, alright! It's not true! I'm, sadly, in love with the stupid guy, okay? Happy now? But what I said about the hating me part…that's true. For some strange reason, I just seem to rub him the wrong way, no matter what I do. I could be his damned slave and he would still despise me more than the dirt he walks on.

I mean, have you seen those icy blue eyes of his? Sure, they look at me with pure hatred, but still. And he has a nice assortment of muscle, and he definitely likes to show it off. If he wasn't so hostile towards me, we wouldn't be butting heads. Just once, I want to be friends instead of having a feud over everything. My friends understood that, but not at first.

My friends, they've known for a while. I was practically killed with a Struggle bat by Olette until I slipped my secret to them .And if you thought that girl wasn't any scarier…

But my bonehead best friends are completely fine with the whole thing, and they've even tried to get the two of us in the most awkward of situation. Example: they got Roxas to trip me at the Struggle Tournament, which ended up with me sprawled all over Seifer's chest. He has quite a muscular chest…

But I'm serious. My friends can be such assholes sometimes. Roxas is your typical blonde, with blue eyes and a sassy attitude. Olette is a bookworm smarty pants, and pretty to boot, too. Got nice brunette hair and all that, but she's always trying to get me to do my homework. It can get annoying sometimes, just saying. I have one other friend whose name is Pence. He's a food addict, which leaves him on the big side, and he's really superstitious. But he's cool to hang out with, and he can be smart when he wants to be.

As for Seifer and his gang, they're actually really awesome. When we first met, our two groups clashed heads. But time went by, things calmed down. Roxas began to hang out with Seifer's group, and things went from there. We slowly opened up to each other, and we all turned into one huge group of friends. Fuu and Rai, who are both really weird, started to talk to me. We went and had ice cream together, sat around and talked, went to the beach; it was great. And now, even they know about my feelings towards their leader.

But…Seifer refuses to warm up to me, even now. He'll talk to everyone else, but he clams up and glares at me the moment I even try to initiate conversation. I wonder if he imagines a Struggle bat going through my head when he sees me, or maybe dreams of something worse to happen to me. I can never tell with that mask of his always on. Still, I can't hate the guy…though, sometimes, I wish I could punch him in the face for being such a major dick to me all the time. Nothing has changed between us.

The Woods was nothing more than a small area of trees that seemed to grow together as one whole wall. I never liked the Woods; the darkness always seemed to be growing and moving in this place. I made sure to take the lead when we had gotten there, and now dragged Roxas behind me.

"Dude, chill out. Are you that excited to see your "True Love"?" Roxas joked, laughing.

"Shut up." I countered lamely, ignoring the giggles from Olette.

We continued on, getting deeper in. Then, the trees opened up, revealing the gates hiding a destroyed mansion: the Haunted Mansion, as the residents of Twilight Town liked to call it. I remembered when, last year, Olette had forced the four of us – Pence, Olette, Roxas and I – to do our stupid report on the thing. Pence, being the superstitious weirdo that he is, helped us with the rest. Of course, Seifer and his gang decided to copy us, but whatever.

Seifer was standing in front of the rusted gates, arms folded while looking up into the cloudy sky. Fuu and Rai were off to the side, whispering to each other. Pence stood by himself, munching away at the remains of a sea salt ice cream. I took another glance at Seifer, expecting him to look impatient and pissed that we were so late. Instead, he seemed to be just…distant. I had a feeling that was about to change. Olette and Roxas were silent as we walked up to them. Both Fuu and Rai stopped murmuring to each other when they spotted us first and looked at us, Seifer turning his attention to us as well. More specifically: me. I tried to ignore the butterflies that fluttered around in my stomach at the sight of those blue eyes that were focused on me, cursing him in my head for turning me into this.

"You're fucking late." was the first thing that popped out his mouth.

My butterflies for him vanished, replaced by irritation. "Shove it, Almasy."

He seemed to ignore my comment and looked to Roxas, who now stood by my side. I could tell he was mentally rolling his eyes, but didn't say anything. Olette grabbed my arm and smiled at me, giving me moral support. Or she was trying to hold me back from punching Seifer.

"Quit making goo-goo eyes with your girlfriend." Seifer sneered.

"She's not my girlfriend!" I shot back, glaring at him.

Roxas stepped in before anything big started up. "So why did you call us here again?" he asked Seifer.

His attention shifted over to my best friend, and I struggled to squash the instant jealously I felt. I knew Roxas was only making sure we didn't kill each other, but I was envious that Seifer acted like it okay to treat me like this, yet was friendly to everyone else. It only made it more painfully obvious that he hated me.

"Fuu came to check up on the place, and she came across a…problem of sorts. Seeing as you're the only ones who would come help, we called you. Even Fuu is stumped on this one." Seifer explained, waving at hand at the gates.

"What kind of problem are we looking at, exactly?" I asked curiously.

Blue eyes went back to me, and I stiffened at the clear enmity in them. I regretted having spoken in the first place, but stood my ground. What had I done to him to make him react like this every time? Seifer was quiet for a moment, as if pondering whether or not he should tell me. Finally, though, he gave us all an answer.

"This." he said, spinning dramatically on his heel and performing a high kick at the gates.

Olette and Pence gasped in unison as the old gates – the ones that had never been opened before – swung wide open, the lock on it sliding off and falling to the ground with a muted clunk. I gaped at the sight, and Olette put a hand to her mouth in shock, her emerald eyes wide. A couple minutes of silence passed by, all of us gazing in wonder at something we thought would never happen.

The gates of the Haunted Mansion had been locked for as long as I can remember, and nothing could open it. And now…

"Who opened it?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"We don't know. Fuu came in here and found it like that. Whoever it was, they opened this without any trouble…and still might be in there." Seifer replied, glaring at me.

"Can we go in?" Pence asked excitedly.

Olette squeezed my arm, clinging to me. "I don't think that's such a good idea. It's probably not safe." she said.

I glanced over to Roxas to get his say in all this, then stopped short when I took in the look on his face. He was staring up at the mansion as if it were the plague, his hands curled into fists. But his eyes held a great sadness that I had never seen before, like he had just lost someone precious to him. I touched his shoulder, intending to ask what was wrong, but he jerked at the contact and seemed to snap out of his stupor.

"What the matter with you?" I asked, stepping closer to him.

"I…nothing. I was just thinking about…something." he replied.

I scrutinized him, trying to read his face, but he had closed up on me. My brow furrowed at my friend's reaction to this, but neither of us said anything. Directing my attention back to the others, I saw that Seifer and Pence were discussing whether or not it would be wise to go inside and inspect the place. Fuu was whispering into Rai's ear again, off in their own world.

"Seifer." He glanced over to me, his expression tight. "Let's just go inside and explore the area. If the person is still inside, we should be able to catch him. Then we can interrogate him about how he opened these gates up." I said, nodding towards the mansion.

"Yeah!" Pence cheered, pumping his fist into the air.

"I don't know, man. It could be dangerous, ya' know?" Rai jumped in.

Seifer said nothing in reply to that, but I could tell he was considering both options carefully. Fuu blinked on in silence, waiting for her leader to choose. Seifer looked to her and nodded up at the mansion.

"Well? Think this will be a good or bad idea, Fuu?"

"…not sure." she said, her red eye darting to the gates.

"Come on, let's just go!" Pence begged.

My eyes went to the mansion, its' cracked windows and vines walls giving off an aura of mystery. I gazed to the second story again…and stared, frozen to the spot. There, on the left upper story, was a young girl in a white dress, staring down at us. She seemed to almost blend in with the curtains that hung there, and I could tell she was just…watching us. Then one of the curtains fell over her figure by an invisible wind, but only for a moment. When the curtains had settled again, she was gone.

"No way." I breathed.

"What?" Olette asked me, looking up at the mansion, too.

My eyes never strayed from the window, hoping to catch another glimpse of the mysterious girl. And one question stayed in my head: Was she the one who opened the gates?

Pence continued to plead to go inside the mansion, but Olette had rushed into the conversation and whined that it was much too dangerous for us. I, however, wasn't listening to any of them. My eyes were trained solely on that window, wanting to see just another glance of the girl.

"What're you starin' at, Lamer?" Seifer cut in.

I blinked and turned my eyes from the mansion. "Uh…nothing." I lied.

Seifer eyed me, then the mansion. I said nothing at the look I received from him, nor did I care at the moment. When he had turned his head away, my eyes wandered back to the second story…and there she was.

She stayed there, her hand pressed to the glass, gazing at us. I didn't dare blink, afraid she would vanish if I did. She knows something. I know she does, I thought. I had to go inside that mansion, haunted or not, and find that girl.

"Lamer! Where the hell do you think you're goin'?" Seifer shouted after me as I walked through the gates.

"I'm going inside." I replied over my shoulder.

"And why are you suddenly the leader?" he said in a snarky tone.

"Shut up and just trust me on this, Almasy."

Silence ensued behind me, but I didn't pause to look back. I took in the area of the front of the mansion, seeing as I was finally able to see everything up close. There were crumbled pillars, simple ruins of something that had been great at one point, ivy covering them. The worn walls of the mansion were webbed with vines, but still looked sturdy enough to stay up for a couple more years.

When I stepped up to the double doors of the mansion, I hesitated. A small part of me was unsure of all this, was warning me that this could be a trap of some sort. I had no clue what to expect if I opened these doors and set foot in this place. I reached out and took the handle of the right door, then pulled. It fought against me for a moment, then finally gave way. It creaked loudly as it scrapped the ground, echoing inside the mansion.

I walked in, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the place. For the most part, the mansion was empty. The only thing I really saw was dust covering everything, from the two opposite staircases to the floor. No furniture, no plants, not even graffiti; this place was devoid of any life.

"Well, big shot? Where to first?"

I jumped at the sound of Seifer's voice right behind me, spinning around to find that they had all followed me inside, glancing around in wonder. Seifer looked slightly ticked at me, but seemed reserved for the most part. Olette was sticking close to Pence, who seemed to be bouncing around like he had eaten ten sea salt ice creams. Fuu and Rai stayed close together, gazing about the large room. Roxas just seemed…spaced out.

"I don't like the looks of this place. It doesn't seem…" Olette trailed off.

"Safe?" Rai suggested.

"Normal." Seifer cut in, his eyes narrowed. He moved to my side. "You sure about this, Lamer?"

"Come on, let's explore. We need to find the person who got in here, right?" Pence piped up, moving towards the staircase on the left.

Olette bit her lip, holding back a second before following. Seifer and I exchanged looks, and I could tell he still didn't want to do this. Honestly, though, I did. I wanted to know who that girl was, even if she was a possible threat (I doubted that, but it was still a possibility). She could hold answers for all of us, and standing around here wasn't going to get us anywhere.

With a shrug, I went after Pence and Olette, who were talking while ascending up the staircase. I caught of glimpse of Roxas' face as I passed him, and it looked like he had gone deathly pale. His eyes met mine, and I saw fear in them; what was going on with him? I stopped to talk with him, but he instantly clammed up again like last time and averted his eyes from me. I had to find out what was going on with him, too.

Roxas, Fuu, Rai and Seifer walked after me, none of them talking. As I stepped onto the staircase, my heart sped up, as if I had run a mile. Confused at this strange reaction, I looked up to the second floor, where Pence was already standing, Olette beside him. There had to be something or someone here, a clue at the least. I needed to find out what was going on. I began climbing the stairs, the wood creaking underneath my feet. Suddenly, halfway up the stairs, a loud ringing burst into my eardrums, catching me off guard. That's when I heard the step under my feet creak loudly, then snapped and broke. I didn't have time to react or do anything as I fell, the ringing in my ears still going strong.

I didn't expect hands to grab at me, snatching me up. They wrapped around my torso, then set me down. I blinked up at Seifer, who was mere inches from me, looking annoyed. I felt speech leave me as my brain caught up with the situation. I had been in Seifer's – Seifer freakin' Almasy's – arms, had been saved from possible injury or worse by Seifer. He was making it hard to not love him at the moment.

"Are you okay, Hayner!?" Olette cried hysterically.

"I'm fine." I replied, glad to see I had my voice again.

"You sure?" Seifer gave me a look. "You're an idiot for not watching where you were stepping." he added.

"Yeah. Thanks." was all I managed to say.

We continued up the stairs, getting up to the second story without any more problems. But the ringing in my ear was still there, but faint. I wasn't sure why, but Seifer seemed to be keeping an eye on me now, like I was going to drop through the floor any second. Olette jumped into my arms the moment I got upstairs, hugging me tightly and cursing me for scaring her like that. I just smiled and hugged her back.

"Which way?" Fuu spoke up.

We all took in the second story, and saw we had two options to choose from: the left door that was white, or the right door that was farther over.

"There are two doors, ya' know." Rai pointed out the obvious.

"Then let's go…" I paused and glanced back and forth between the two.

"I say we choose neither and go home and forget about this awful place." Olette said, her green eyes darting around.

I looked at the white door on the left again. It looked so odd and out of place; I had a weird feeling about it.

"We should check this place first." I said, pointing to the white one.

"Lead the way." said Fuu.

I began walking in that direction, and was surprised when Seifer, of all people, came up beside me, matching my step. He said nothing, but I felt my heart nearly fly from my chest. It was like we were almost…friends. It was nice.

When we got to the door, Seifer stopped and held his arm out, halting me. I glanced up at him in question, and he frowned at the door, as if it were going to attack.

"Wha-"

"Sh." he whispered, leaning towards the door.

I shut my mouth, straining to hear what he was trying to hear. There was no ringing in my ears anymore, but I could hear nothing. I shoved his arm away from me.

"I don't hear anyt-" The door opened, and we both jumped back. "What the-?!"

"Hello. It's nice to finally meet you all; come in."

Well, this is the beginning. Hope you like it better than the previous one, guys!