So the whole Xehanort mess was finally over for good. Everyone agreed that it was a trial that deserved a good rest- bringing so many people back and killing one of the most persistent old men Sora had ever encountered -so they all decided to head off to take a well deserved break.
Xion, Namine, Axel, and Roxas went to Twilight Town; Mickey, Donald, and Goofy came home much to the delight of their sweethearts and family; Sora, Riku and Kairi headed back to their beloved islands. So did Terra, Aqua, Ventus, and Eraqus, the four figuring that they'd enjoy the beaches and sunshine together.
After a day or two, everyone was called over to the islands for a celebration, and boy did everyone party. They stayed long after, but something odd began happening...
Some people were leaving on their own.
It never bothered anyone too much, since they knew some weren't exactly party ponies. Still, it gave Riku the most uneasy feeling. Sora only punched him around playfully, reassuring him as always. The list of leavers only grew... Eventually Riku vanished too, right after he tried convincing Sora something was up, and only left with the two suddenly bitter enemies.
Sora and Ventus were appreciating the sunset, leaning on the Paopu tree they always used. "Hey Ven," Sora began, taking a lick of his pink ice cream "It's been awhile since I've seen Kairi and Riku..." He sighed a took a bite, trying to enjoy the sweet flavor "And not to mention Eraqus, Terra, and Aqua just left you here."
Ventus shrugged, calmly eating his own yellow moon-shaped bar "Well, maybe they decided to go on a cruise or somethin'. Don't worry Sora, I bet they're all happy."
Sora have him a curious look, then continued offhandedly "And I haven't seen Isa today... Axel's getting worried about his boyfriend."
"Oh Axel's a worry wort!" Ventus laughed, finishing. He gestured to the shack he had been sleeping in, which used to be the place where Sora, Riku, and Kairi had kept their things when they were staying the night when they were younger "Say, wanna make some more ice cream?"
Sora finished up his bar "Okay, why not? I'm sure they'll turn up."
Ventus happily dragged him off, Sora deciding to stop worrying and just have some nice, friendly time with the boy he had shared his heart with. He was lead down into the newly added basement- to help accommodate for all the extra people -and was immediately greeted by a stench that probably tried a little too hard to smell sweet "Ugh! Ven don't you clean this place?!"
"Yeah, occasionally, now lay down on the table." Ventus said. Sora then laughed: Ven was pranking him. He was sure of it. He did as he asked "Okay, but I dunno what this has to do with ice cream."
Ventus hummed as he clamped restraints onto Sora, who only laughed mockingly "Oh no!" He decided to play along, see how well the paper mâché Heartless Ven typically used would scare him.
Sora then felt something wet under his hand "Is that water... No wait, too thick for water..." He mused aloud as Ventus skipped off. He patted it, saying a little louder "So, Ven, you gonna mix everything up on top of me like I'm some kind of table? That's cute..." The liquid felt like syrup, but maybe it wasn't... Sora felt himself shiver- what if that was blood? He'd felt that enough times to know it well, but what would blood be doing here?
Ventus then leaned the table up, saying happily "Time to begin!"
The lights flipped on, and Sora very suddenly realized with a drop in his stomach this was much more than paper mâché Heartless.
Dried blood splattered the walls- FAKE, Sora reminded himself -and there were carcasses- MANNEQUINS, Sora screamed in his head -arranged in the most gruesome ways and bloodied as well like some macabre art show. He hoped that he was just imagining those familiar faces.
Ventus pulled up to him "So, you ready?"
Sora laughed nervously "Um... Ven, you got me! Can I-"
"No, silly! You still need to help!" Ventus giggled much more freely. Sora stared at one set of corpses, a young woman with blue hair and a young man with brown arranged in some twisted dance of agony.
"Oh, you wanna see them?" Ventus asked. He then turned on a spotlight, the bodies coming out of dim lighting into full, high detail. Sora was ready to throw up- those bodies weren't breathing, but it was very, VERY clear they weren't foam or plastic.
"Terra and Aqua were just as fun as I remember." Ventus sighed lovingly "They screamed a lot, yes, but they screamed in a pretty way." He swooned a little as he tenderly kissed each corpse "They even said they loved each other! How romantic!" Ventus held out his hand "Lets see if I can share that lovely memory with you!"
Sora felt his eyes widen and his body involuntarily straining against his bonds as Ventus used the old link between their hearts to relay Terra and Aqua's screams of absolute terror and anguish. Ventus then pranced up to the convulsing boy, saying "Hey now, why the long face? We still gotta make ice cream!"
Sora stopped, taking deep breaths. He then laughed uncomfortably again, his cheery facade breaking "Come on Ven, this seriously isn't funny anymore-"
He froze when he heard a moan from behind him. He knew that voice. "I-Isa?!" He called out, panicking. Ventus rolled his eyes as he pulled out a table of tools "Oh, he's in the back." He waved his hand in front of Sora's face, the boy suddenly noting a jagged cut "He bit me earlier, so he's in time out."
Sora felt himself become terrified at what would cause Isa to moan in such agony like that, and yelled "THIS SERIOUSLY ISN'T FUNNY GUYS!" Ventus then snapped his fingers "Oh I know what you need to smile!" He walked away, Sora still staring at Aqua and Terra in horror.
God this was gonna happen to HIM. Well, maybe it wouldn't, but the way Ventus was acting and Isa's genuine moans of agony and the very realistic corpses of Terra and Aqua in front of him, he was not gonna take any chances.
He summoned his Keyblade, winching deeply when he heard a sickening crack and Ventus saying "Good night!" Isa's moaning stopped abruptly. He took a deep breath, then flipped his Keyblade, teeth aimed at the lock "You just gotta-"
Very quickly, a glowing, ethereal blade lodged itself in his hand, pinning it to the preparing table.
Sora screamed.
Ventus wheeled in two more bodies, saying testily "Sora, you said you'd help me make ice cream!" Sora pushed against his restraints, yelling "WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ICE CREAM?!"
He then froze. Those bodies... He knew those bodies...!
"Well, I guess I'll just take Kairi and Riku back then." Ventus said as if he had just been offended.
Sora shook his head "K-KAIRI! RIKU!" He screamed in terror. Kairi was full of cuts, and had several pieces missing from muscles and skin, exposing bone in some places. Her stomach was torn completely open, guts mostly removed. Possibly the worst thing was the way her dead eyes stared wide and terrified at nothing. Then there was the far from serene clash of white and red and barely recognizable mess that was Riku...
Ventus smiled "Okay, maybe I won't take them away. I bet you love them just like I loved my friends."
Sora let out a broken sob as Ventus placed Kairi and Riku right next to him, limp and bloodied hands resting right on his cheeks and shoulders in pseudo-caring gestures. Kairi had always meant something more to him than just a friend, and now she'd never know. Not to mentioned last time he'd seen Riku was when they were arguing- he never got to apologize.
Ventus then cheerily started taking off Sora's top, causing him to writhe "H-Hey! NO! NO NO NO NO NO!" Ventus only scolded him "Oh come on, you can't expect me to make the right kind of cream if I can see what you taste like." He then sighed, pulled out his sword from Sora's hand, and hacked off his garments.
Ven then moved Kairi and Riku aside, and held up a scalpel- one Sora realized was made right from Eraqus's Mark of Mastery sigil "Okay, so where to sample first?"
"How about NOWHERE?!" Sora suggested. Ventus laughed "Well, we could start with your arms I suppose." Sora wailed and squirmed as Ventus nonchalantly and skillfully cut chunks of skin and muscle from his arms. Sora could barely move his hands now- the nerves that did that job ended up getting severely cut and damaged.
Ventus ate a small sample, then grinned- bloody teeth and the same crimson liquid dripping out of his mouth and all "You taste pretty good!" Unnervingly, his eyes held no sign of madness, and his grin was perfectly normal and genuinely delighted. Sora gagged when Ventus shoved a chunk of himself into his mouth "Give it a try!" He spat it out, coughing and spluttering blood following. He was going to be sick. Ventus only tsked "Come now, it's not that vile."
Sora screamed and writhed in again as Ventus began cutting at his heart. "Sora," he said annoyedly "stop that or I'm gonna mess up!" Sora felt his hands curling as he yelled out of pain and a desperate plea for help. He suddenly made a connection- his ice cream was pink, Kairi was dead, and he was about to-
He threw up, Ventus exclaiming angrily in surprise "Sora! That's not helping!" He backed away, wagging his scalpel just at Sora's skin, leaving cuts "Bad! Don't do that!"
Sora cried out in pain, but it was a little softer now. He glanced down, nauseous once more at the sight of his exposed ribs. He felt his eyes starting to roll back as Ven said "I'm gonna go clean this up, I'll be back shortly and we can continue making our ice cream."
Sora felt numb when he woke up. Ventus popped into his vision and he asked dazedly "Ven... Where are the others...?"
Ventus only flicked the bloody scalpel between his fingers, rolling it very much like a coin "Oh, they're fine." He shoved Sora's head lower "Hey, look at what I did!"
Sora gagged at the sight. Some of his organs were gone now, the rest bathing in blood. There was a crown motif carved into his ribs, some of which were snapped clean out. Ventus then showed him a set of carvings in his hand "I bet I can hand this stuff to Roxas and Xion! Then we'd always have a part of you to call our own, just like old times!"
Sora shook his head, sobbing "Ven... You've gone insane...!"
Ventus shrugged "I have a different view, so what?" He then held out a bar of sky blue ice cream shaped like a crown "I've got your flavor down! Very tangy and sweet!"
Sora stared at it. Ventus then shoved the bar in his mouth, and leaned over to find some more tools "Oh you're just being picky!"
Sora only swallowed to keep himself from choking, but weakly strained against his bonds when a Ventus held up a knife "You know, I bet Roxas would really like this flavor, maybe I should make some for him, Axel, and Xion!"
Sora's throat was too dry to scream, so he only whined and sobbed and blubbered as Ventus scooped out more bits of him and snapped more ribs. Ventus was very tenderly removing every bit of him, but it still hurt more than anything he had ever felt.
"Please... End this already...!" He cried.
Ventus then giggled, and held up a bit of Sora's intestines "Wow, you've got some pretty good-"
"Shut up...!" Sora moaned in response "Just kill me already...!"
Ventus shook his head "Sorry, you're not dead until I say you're dead." He began cutting out Sora's heart, continuing "But if you say so, I guess I'll just take what allowed me to be here!"
Sora wailed with new energy, his eyes snapping wide open in pain as Ventus plunged his blade into the area around his heart. He strained again the straps, feeling his life fading out. Ventus gently kissed his nose as his vision faded "Good night then, Sora. Thank you."
Sora's scream gurgled out, and he hissed as his eyes slowly closed "traitor..."
Ventus backed away, examining what he had to work with. He then spent the next several hours arraigning Sora's body, until he was satisfied with a Messianic pose that had Kairi and Riku at his feet like they were his followers. He then walked out, blood and all, saying "I think I'll call Roxas and his friends over! They'll love some!"
I cannot provide commentary, as I have already been taken by Ventus, have a nice day!- Nah, JK. Oh, and this is inspired by a combo of Cupcakes and another Ice Cream story by Yakusoku-Xion(I hope I spelled that right)
and guest, I didn't COMPLETELY rip it off, I tried hard to make mine stand out some more, and the two aren't exactly the same. Similarities are there, yes, but I did change a few things.