Disclaimer:
Meh… don't own KH (just like everyone else who writes fanfiction.)
Graveyard Shift
Chapter One: Sunshine and Daisies
Plot by: The Can-Can group
Warnings: There WILL be horror movie clichés sprinkled throughout here. Another thing to be on the look out for is hints of R/S (light shounen-ai). The last thing is that I'm NOT a Kairi basher, even though some things just might, maybe suggest it.
Summary: Going through the graveyard was a bad idea. Tree demons are out to eat them, zombies are roamin' around, and old man Jenkins is sharpening his ax.
0000
They should've known that taking the short cut through Graveyard Island was a bad idea. It was common knowledge amongst the youngsters of the island to not go into the home of the various dead… things. Even worse was to traverse during the Witch's Hour. Things happened during that period; trees turned into reedy monsters and demons waiting for children to walk into their clutches, and the graves were used a portals for the dead and undead. The most horrible of the horrors was the unnatural silence. It was close to being deafening.
Which is why it was a relief to hear Kairi opening her mouth, in spite of the fact that it was Kairi that was actually talking. "Guys…" Kairi, as per usual, was between the two boys, clutching their arms almost to the point where the circulation of blood was cut off. She shook as an owl howled softly, almost as if warning about the dangers they were about to go to. "I don't think…"
"Aw! Don't worry, Kairi," Sora grinned at the girl. "We'll protect you from the zombies-"
Kairi squeaked.
"-And vampires-"
Riku laughed.
"-And other nasty nightmarish-things."
The girl shook even harder and the circulation was completely cut off. Both boys immediately pulled their lifeless arms away from her. Sora, though, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder in loo of taking away her only source of comfort.
"We're almost there, look!" Riku waved a hand in direction of the gates marking the other entrance to the graveyard.
With the goal in sight, Kairi pulled the both of them to their exit, ignoring the protests of her friends. They quickly found out that they were locked in when Riku, being the strongest of the three, pulled on the metal bars of the gate. Kairi immediately began panicking. The small group was heading home from the movies after watching a horror movie (of course Tidus decided that they should play a few rounds of Blitzball before going home) and the anxiety and adrenaline returned to its circulating in the veins. She simpered and clenched her eyes closed.
Riku banged on the gate once more in high hopes of somehow getting the padlocks to magically fall off. They were new though and looked as if not even bar cutter would cut through the metal.
Kairi instantly clamped herself back onto Sora and whimpered.
"I forgot," Riku said over the cries with an apologetic look in Sora's direction. "That the island council instigated a new rule."
"When was this?" Asked Sora, his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as he tired to remember when the new rule was announced.
"Last week. They decided to close the gates at eleven so that 'kids will stop using the cemetery as a short cut.'" The way that Riku's face scrunched up in disgust suggested that he didn't like the new rule at all.
"That's not far! It takes two hours to get around the 'yard!"
Riku slid into what Sora called his "constiplative" pose. (Sora had meant to say contemplative, but got a mouth fart as soon as his mouth opened up. It had been named thusly since.) This particular pose needed a wall or a something flat to lean upon- the bricks of the fence were choice object for this round. Riku would lean upon the surface, his back the only part of him touching it; his lower body carried the brunt of his weight. One arm crossed over the middle ribs and the left hand supported the elbow of the right. The right hand stopped in front of his mouth with his thumb supporting his chin. The eyes shifted right and left, as if looking at a paper filled with ideas and discarding them. Eyebrows furred and what little that could be seen of his mouth was set into a frown.
It took five minutes for him to slip out of the constiplative pose. "We could just climb over the fence."
Sora gave a pointed look towards the huddled mass attached to his arm.
"Right, sucky idea…"
A sprinkle of rain- in possibly the most clichéd way- started to fall, dampening their respective hairstyles.
Sora gave another pointed look, this time at his friend. "Fine! Next time, we'll get your mom to take us!"
The sprinkle quickly turned into real rain after that, coming down harder and harder. It didn't seem like it would let up anytime soon.
Wind started to blow, dropping the temperature down by several notches.
"Could've sworn that it was clear out," Riku muttered. According to the weather reports and the fuzzy caterpillars (weren't they used to tell how harsh winter was going to be?) it wasn't suppose to rain for another several days.
"What?" Sora questioned over the howl of the wind and the pounding sound of the rain as it hit the harden clay.
"Nothing!"
"We need to find shelter!"
"I know!" Riku pondered for a moment. He had one idea, but they'd need to knock Kairi out. For sure she would cry, struggle, complain, protest, scream bloody murder (etc.) about the spot that he had in mind.
But… he had no choice. Their visibility's getting shot straight to hell from all the rain. It was almost as if an opaque window was placed in front of their eyes. He was also afraid that their wet clothes might give them hypothermia or something worse. "Sora…!"
"Right here!" Sora's voice came from his front right- of course, right where they had stopped- and though he and Kairi were only a few feet away from him, it seemed like they were standing further away. The rain fell harder.
"Com' on." Riku grabbed the smaller boy's arm, scaring both Sora and Kairi as they were suddenly being tugged in a random direction without any warning. They stumbled a few steps, trying to catch up to the quick and long strides of Riku.
"Where-?"
"Hang on."
Riku squinted. Trying to find what he was looking for through the rain. He and his family had been there a few times before; it should be right around- ah ha! There it was! IT was a dark mound springing forth from the ground. He increased the pace heading for the mound, ignoring the cries of protest from the two hijacked companions. Riku stopped in front of it upon making sure that it was the right mound. His hands felt the rotting wood as the two came close to plowing his back having suddenly losing their momentum. It seemed that he didn't notice. He was busy feeling around the object in front of them.
"Riku…?" Sora's voice was puzzled. "What're you-?"
"Gimme a moment." He's large hands continued their search, gripping at everything, but missing what they were looking for. He stepped a little to the side, hands trailing up and down until they finally were exposed to an old and rusted padlock. He pulled once to gauge just how much strength he would need and the angle he would have to pull at. Riku corrected his stance and pitched his weight forward before pulling back sharply.
It broke easier than expected.
He landed in mud as the padlock fell and splashed next to him.
The rotted door swung open.
And the earthy, moldy, death smell wafted and committed murder on their noses.
Sora bent down to offer help to his friend. "I don't think-"
Riku slapped the hand away and stood up. "Then don't. Just get inside."
When the two hesitated, the teen gave an exasperated sigh and pulled them in.
Whilst the other two were curiously looked around, trying to peer into the darkness, Riku rung out his hair and clothes, to the best of his ability, commanding the other two to do the same. Once the task was done, the younger two went back to looking around, trying to determine just why it smelt like death. Dirt fell from the ceiling whilst Riku pulled the door back in, almost to the point that the crack he left it at could make the door seemed closed.
"I wouldn't try to figure it out," Riku's soft and commanding voice whispered, almost respectful to… something. Like there was something else in the room that needed that respect.
Sora all but stormed towards his friend, face set in an upset pout. "Just where are we?"
Riku shook his head. "I'll tell you later, just right now… I don't wanna hear her," he whispered in a confidential tone. The one in reference was the huddled mass that reattached herself back unto Sora's arm. "…Screaming." He continued after the unsure pause. "Just come and sit over here." Riku planted himself onto the floor, after clearing an area to be devoid of any mice bones, right next to the door.
Sora hesitated for a second before moving to sit next to his friend. As soon as his butt hit the ground, legs stretched out in front of him and prepared to fold them into the Indian sit, Kairi planted her head onto his lap, gluttonizing the spot. Quickly her exhaustion overtook her and she fell into a slightly shuddering sleep.
Riku watched the display in disdain as Sora huffed and blushed, "Kairi!" he had exclaimed and shivered since her still wet hair wasn't doing much to dry his still damp shorts. "Couldn't you've taken my shoulder instead?"
The older teen gave a sigh before slipping his arms around Sora. His left arm wrapped it's way around the back of Sora's neck and landed on his shoulder, the right hand reached across the front and gripped just below it's partner. "Need to keep warm…" He explained upon the inquired look. It wasn't exactly the truth; he wanted a piece of Sora too.
"Right." Sora pulled his own arms to move themselves and land on Riku's cold and shivering arms. They both shifted until Sora was in a position that could support Kairi's head and still be in the warmth of Riku's embrace.
It sorta felt like cuddling. Something that boys their age, especially with each other, did not do.
Only little kids did things like that. Like when they used to have a sleepover when the power was out and the storm was so bad that one of them, pending whose house it was, just had to spend the night since the other's parents didn't feel like taking someone back to their proper home. During nights such as those, they'd huddle under the blanket and pretended that the flash of light was just enemy canons going off, aimed to hit their fort. But, when the thunder rolled around, they'd squish themselves together and waited with baited breath for it to stop.
Riku never publicly admitted that he was afraid of the storms; that the only reason they both huddled under the blanket was so that he wouldn't feel so alone. Sora was the one who loved the strange pattern lightening had when it fell from the sky with a crack. The way it light up the sky into differentiating colors. The way that made everything seem so otherworldly. Riku never saw what was so great; he was generally hiding under something to really notice.
It seemed like ages since their last sleepover.
(In all actuality, their last one was just the week before.)
"…In a crypt." Riku wasn't aware that his mouth was moving before the words were out and about.
Sora blinked and careened his neck to look towards Riku, the look of confusion apparent. "Come again?"
"Were in," Riku's voice lowered to a whisper, making it next to impossible to hear his next words, he was sure of it. "A crypt."
However, Sora had heard anyway and if it weren't for the fact that Riku was hold him down, Kairi would've been awoken very rudely.
"What were you thinking!" Sora shouted in a quiet whisper.
"This is one of the old burial spots for my family, one of the older ones," Riku ignored the question; it should be rather obvious to the reason he dragged them there. "My parents used to drag me here to pay respects to our ancestors. One of the original settlers is buried here. Dad said that our family is perhaps the only one that can trace its roots back to them."
"You're ignoring my question."
Riku sighed. "I was worried that we might get sick, had to get out of the rain as soon as possible and this was the only thing I could think of. Once it stops raining, we'll leave."
Riku cracked open the door and they peeked out. Nope, still raining. They sighed.
"Should we really be allowing her to sleep?" Sora asked, slightly worried since Kairi's cheeks were starting to flush and her breathing became just short of erratic.
"Probably not."
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Damn." Riku muttered as another, slightly stronger one rolled in.
"Can we make a run for it to the old house?"
The children of Destiny Islands, as with anything, regard the old house as something to fear. To explain, first there must be an understanding of the contents of the island. It is called Graveyard Island for it is just that, an island with the dead as it's only population (and its caretaker). This island was the original landing spot for the settlers and when they spread out to the other islands, it became the home of the first few Mayors. The last one to live there was killed. So, as per usual, his spirit haunts the place. A while after, people left and it became a cemetery, the only one for the group of islands.
"I don't want to go there," replied Riku. "It creeps me out."
"I know, but it'll give us better protection than… this place. It might even have towels or something for us to use."
"Hundred year-old towels, exactly what I want to use to dry off."
Louder thunder and lightening danced its way from the skies. Riku tensed and pressed himself closer to Sora. "You're being irrational," Sora mentioned softly, trying to not sound like he was condescending on his friend.
"I know."
They grinned and chuckled softly.
The boys chatted quietly, talking about menial things, such as Riku's latest job that he was fired from (got into a fist fight with a customer, said that the other guy was just askin' for it) to Sora's fight yesterday with Tidus ("He went 'whoosh' and I went 'HA!' and then we went 'Bam!'" This was accompanied with a few excited hand gestures.).
Sora was still talking when Riku turned his head. He frowned as his eyes caught something through the crack between the door and its frame. Might've been a headstone that he hadn't noticed before? But that isn't right. Riku has a photographic memory, that object was definitely not there before. It also looked as if-
"And then I went- Hey! What's wrong?" Sora cast another worried look towards Riku.
"Shush," Riku responded, putting up a forefinger up to his mouth for emphasis.
- The object was swaggering and swaying.
"Riku…"
"Quiet," Riku ordered, turning his head to glare at his friend. Slowly, not taking his eyes off Sora, he turned his head back to the long and thin opening. His eyes following suit just as slowly. It's gone.
"What's gone?"
Riku blinked, wasn't aware that he had said something. "Nothing, I thought I saw something, but it might've been just a mirage."
"I thought mirages existed only in deserts…"
Riku shrugged. "How should I know?"
"This leads us back to the original question, what did you see?"
"I all ready told you, I thought I saw something, but it turned out to be nothing."
They both shivered. Sora shook his head to get rid of the thoughts of horror stories he had heard, not wantiSng to make the connections between the stories and what was happening. Riku laughed nervously. Nothing's wrong, nothing at all.
… But even that thought was unsure.
Sora laid his head onto Riku's shoulder, obviously exhausted and tired (it was pretty close to twelve) from the day's excursions. His breath came out as a happy sigh and his eyelids fluttered close. "Gimme ten minutes, m'kay?" Sora fell asleep right after the words left his lips.
Riku just stared.
And stared.
"Riiight," the elder of the two muttered. "I'll wake you up in ten minutes and you'll beg for another ten. The cycle will continue on. You sleep like a rock."
Sora, for he was deep in sleep, didn't make a response.
Just watching the two sleeping and snoring (Sora's was louder, but Riku knew that Kairi snored too, from all the sleepovers the three had as kids) made him sleepy. When he noticed that he was about to nod off, he'd pinch himself. It was a great idea in theory, but one can't pinch yourself awake when you're sleeping. Sleep came swiftly.
He felt disoriented when he snapped his eyes open a few minutes later. He didn't even notice that he fell asleep and since it was still dark out and still raining, he couldn't tell what time it was.
This lead to the next question, what had awoken him up? Riku had always been a very light sleeper; it only took a change in the environment for something to bring him back to reality. He glance towards Sora and Kairi, neither had moved, except for the girl for she was in a different position than when he last saw her, but he was pretty sure that wasn't the cause. Since it was neither of the two… Riku peered into the darkness of the crypt, nothing there either. But something… something was completely off.
He looked up, back to the crack of the door and its jamb. An eye peered back and a body was obstructing the view of the graveyard.
Riku's mouth fitted into a silent "oh!" as his face turned the palest of pale. He let out a short scream and stumbled up, the startled cries of his companions not quite reaching his ears as he dragged them a few feet a way from the peering eye, into the darkness of the crypt. He took a defensive stance in front of his friends and glared at the intruder. "Get back!" He yelled. "I'm not afraid of you!"
The eye narrowed a bit and the door opened up a bit more, revealing another eye and more of the body. Images filtered through their minds, mostly from the stories and movies that often played during the summertime. Most were of zombies biting someone heads off, others were of vampires and demons ripping their victims limb from limb and drinking the fluids. The stories were there for entertainment, it was never meant to become reality. This thought caused fear to spread.
Out of the corner of his eye, Riku noticed Kairi scooting backwards, not paying attention to where her feet were stepping. She tripped on a crack in the ground and fell onto an old box. It gave leeway and broke. Landing on her butt, neither boy were surprised to hear her screaming as soon as the bony hands touched hers and the skeletal face smiled back. A minute of sensory overload caused her to faint, after screaming helplessly for a minute.
The figure moved quickly past the boys, moving to the fallen girl. Images of a demon eating (a virgin). Images of vampires sucking blood. Etc. "Get away from her!" Riku was surprised to hear the words coming from his mouth. While he didn't hate the girl, he also didn't like her. His hands grabbed onto the figure's shoulder and pulled it back. "Did you hear a-"
"Shit!" The figure shouted. "What y'all do to her?" The figure pulled himself out of Riku's hold and went back to checking out Kairi.
Sora blinked. "Mr. Jenkins?"
"Yeah!" The man tentatively touched her forehead. "Damn, she has a fever. And why didn't you tell her that you're in a crypt!"
"Because she would've screamed even louder!" Riku shouted back defensively (adrenaline still coursing through his veins, still on a high).
"Oh, and what was that display? That ain't no singin'. You should've come to my house."
Sora stepped between Riku and the man; he's the caretaker of the cemetery, the only person living on the island. He had to stopped Riku from jumping the man as said person was picking up Kairi. "We're sorry. We didn't expect the gates to be closed, or the sudden downpour."
"Whatever," the man stood up to his full height and pushed past the two boys. "Yer all comin' with me. Need to get y'all out of those wet clothes and get her fever under control." His voice was commanding and left no room for arguments.
Riku and Sora had no choice but to follow after. "That was…"
"… Rather anti-climatic."
"Exactly."
………
The caretaker has his own house stationed next to the old one, for even he dares not spend more time than is necessary in the house. Being the only one living in his house, or on the island for that fact in matter, the house is small and rather cramp.
"Riku, shift your knee!" Sora banged his knee against Riku's to make his point.
"I can't. The leg of the table's in the way."
"Then hack it off!"
"Can't. It's rather rude, don't you think?"
"Coming from the same person who didn't tell us about the crypt. Besides, I was talking about your leg."
"Hey! I was doing what I thought was best! And you-"
The old man seemed to finally have enough and turned around from the stove with an angry glare all ready in place. "It's been twenty minutes and you two are all ready at it! Will you shut up! You're gonna wake 'er up!" Kairi's position was in the bedroom on the second floor, but the floors are flimsy and sounds carry very well through out the old house.
The two boys lowered their heads guiltily and didn't say a thing afterwards.
The kettle whistled loudly, piercing the sudden silence of the small kitchen. Mr. Jenkins turned off the stove and poured the tea into the cups all ready stationed next to the old gas stove. He limped to the table and slammed the cups onto the table. "'Ere! Drink up, it's an old recipe, suppose to cure the chills."
Riku and Sora tentatively picked up the cups, grimaced at the smell, held their breaths, and downed the hot drink.
The old man smiled. "Good, ain't it?"
Their eyes gave a slight twitch as the drink burned its way down to their stomachs. Keeping their mouths closed was all they could do from barfing it all up. Once the initial burn died down and the after taste drowned out by the biscuits (provided by the old man) they smiled and nodded. "Will even make my mother cry," Riku replied. He didn't mention that his mother would cry from the sheer horrible taste.
"Next time I visit mom, I shall tell 'er 'bout your approval." The old man gave a grin, the boys tried to ignore the lack of several teeth and the few left that were discolored. Mr. Jenkins took a sip from his own cup and smiled again. "Mom was right about using brains as 'erbs-"
The boys spit the liquids back into the cups and grabbed handfuls of biscuits to be stuffed into their mouths.
"- Just kiddin'!" Mr. Jenkins gave an uproarious laugh at their faces. "Bit of cemetery humor. Don't get many people 'ere that visits for one reason or 'nother." In other words, he was hyper and joking was the only way to get the energy out.
"Jeez," Riku restrained from yelling obscenities. "Not about food, please!"
The old man waved the comment off. "Y'all need to loosen up."
"It's raining outside. Mom's probably worried and ready to kill me. I'm in a midget sized house, and you want me to do what?" Riku glared at Mr. Jenkins. "I'll loosen up once I get home, thank you very much."
The old man shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Riku!" Sora leaned his head next to Riku's and whispered.
The older of the two scowled. "What?"
"You're being rude."
Riku glared, leaned back into his chair, and angrily drunk some more of the tea, suddenly remembering that he took a mental vow to not drink anymore of the stuff. He grimaced as it hit his stomach like a nuclear warhead on a city.
"If you want to call your parents, phone's in the 'allway. Tell them that your goin' to be staying 'ere till the storm's over."
Riku stared in aghast. He did not want to spend more time than necessary in the little house, especially with a creepy old man that could pass off as a murderer, nor did he want to stay on the Graveyard Island. Damn movie.
Mr. Jenkins saw the look of disgust and horror on Riku's face and shrugged. "It's either that or 'aving to swim back. The ferry doesn't run this late and even if it did they wouldn't ferry during a storm."
Riku scowled and slammed the cup down onto the table. The chair scrapped heavily against the floor as he pushed it back. "Fine, I'll go call them," he ignored the gleeful look of triumph on the man's face. Turning to Sora he asked, "Do you want me to call your parents too?"
Sora nodded, unable to make a verbal response because of the biscuit in his mouth.
Riku ambled around the table, being careful to not bump into the table and its occupants. Upon walking out into the hallway, he spotted the phone and gave it a curious glance. "How do you use it?" He called out, walking over to the phone hanging innocently on the wall.
"Pick up the ear piece, dial the number for the operator, and ask for the person you want to connect to."
Riku eyes the phone warily. The phone itself is an antique. Wooden base, uses an old fashioned dialer (round disk with holes cut into it), mouth piece attached to the base and the ear resting on two prongs. The type of phone popular a few generations ago, before the rise of cell phones. Riku shook his head as he picked up the earpiece. He dialed the number for the operator, however the usual Briiing Briiing Briiing tone, generally associated with ringing for the other end of the line, wasn't there. "I think it's broken."
Mr. Jenkins cursed. "Damn it, that thing's always breakin'. Oh well, you're still staying here until the storm's over."
Riku muttered a few choice words under his breath before rejoining the two in the kitchen.
"We're going to be sleeping in the guestroom with Kairi," Sora announced. "That way she won't freak out completely if we're there with her when she wakes up."
"Sounds good," Riku replied. A small part of him, though, wasn't too keen on the idea; perhaps it was even jealous that Sora was worried about Kairi. He gave a fake yawn- although it turned real halfway through. "I'm going to go to bed now."
"Door across from the stairs," Mr. Jenkins gave a toothless grin. "Do you want me to show you?"
Riku shook his head. "No, thanks, I can manage on my own."
Sora gave a reassuring smile. "I'll be up in a few."
"Right." With that, the older teen left the kitchen and headed up stairs. Said stairs creaked underneath his weight, complaining about the pressure being put upon them and gave relieved sighs after a foot was picked up.
Once up on the second floor, he quickly found the door leading to the guestroom and entered. Kairi's soft snores greeted him. Fearful of waking her up, he didn't turn on the lights and stood in the doorway, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Lightning cracked, illuminating the room, and giving him just enough time to see the path to the bed. Riku strode over and gently laid himself on top of the quilt. Turning onto his side, Riku found a comfortable position and quickly allowed sleep to claim him.
………
Riku woke up, for the second time that night, to have a feeling like something was off. The light that was barely visible from the hallway was gone (the two must've went to bed) and the house had gained a silent sound. His eyes wandered over to the window where he had the perfect view of the old house.
Lightning flashed and he could've sworn he saw someone staring back at him from one of the rooms. Before his mind could process it, the flash was gone and he became surrounded in darkness.
Going through the cemetery was probably the worst ideas ever.
0000
Notes:
I got this idea from one of the prompts my English teacher had given us for SOL practice. (Although the one that I did was "It was a road out in the middle of nowhere…" I made it all abstract and everything.) And I'm tentatively putting this up since I'm slightly scared of reactions, but I'm not sure whose though.
This fanfic is going to be (hopefully) twisted. However, I will say that I'm not very good with the whole suspense thing; hell, I don't watch any horror movies because I'm a huge chicken. The horror parts are the clichés of the stereotypical horror movie, mostly from things that I think I heard.
I'm sorry if I made Riku and Kairi seem OOC. I shall try harder to make them like they're supposed to be.
Updates will sporadic. Don't expect the next chapter up for awhile and don't ask me to hurry up. Lowers my self-esteem when I just get an "Update! ASAP! Or else!"
One last thing, if you have negative criticism, please give reasons and suggestions. I do not want any flames. They will cause me to sink even further in depression (seriously, I have depression and even take meds for it.) and cause me to take even more time to update cause then I need to recuperate and etc.
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Just wanna use me for target practice? Just hit the purple button and off you go!
The Can-Can group