Sleeping Beauty

Prologue

The day Riku left was a nightmare. Sora was unprepared. He spent the day crying at the beach just outside of town. Riku would never come back. The month following was just as horrible. He wasn't made to go to school for that time. Everyone was worried. After that first month he seemed to remember that he was a living being and not, though he wished he were, dead. He went back to school. At first this seemed good—Sora was getting better. But it turned out differently than thought. His friends, though they accepted him and stuck around for a good time, could not start a conversation with him. Everything reminded the boy of Riku and Riku was a touchy subject that was understood as not to be brought up, ever. His family and friends only addressed him when absolutely necessary, getting straight to the point. Sora didn't mind this. He didn't mind anything anymore. He was a glob of gum under a park bench. He just sat there and no one wanted to touch him.

This went on for quite some time. No one left him, no one abandoned him, for it seemed quite the opposite. After about a year Sora met some people. He adopted a social life again. Everyone was stunned; Who were these people that could get Sora to get out and about? He still didn't talk. Kairi looked betrayed when the information got to her.

The next month Sora was talking again. He added his input to conversations sometimes. Sometimes he smiled. He was no longer a lifeless doll. He left the house more often, always meeting his friends. It was still unheard of to talk of Riku around him. Sora's parents wanted to meet his friends. "Why don't you have them over sometime?" The boy just shook his head.

Sora was never home anymore. Always out with "friends". Friends that nobody knew and everyone wanted to know. The brunette boy went straight from school to meet his friends and home only hours later. He was barely passing classes anymore. His family was worried. He didn't care. In fact, little mattered to Sora these days. These were days of almost fake optimism, sneaking out, and lies. No one seemed to notice.

Soon enough they were recognized together, and then everyone knew. News travels fast in a little place like Twilight Town. The news? Sora had joined a gang. It gave him a rush, woke him up from what seemed to most who knew him to be a Sleeping Beauty slumber. Though perhaps this didn't quite fit the fairytale. After all, Sleeping Beauty didn't wake up to find a couple of bad influence gang boys, she woke up to true love's kiss and her prince returned. Sora's prince hadn't returned, he never would, so the fairytale was changed, perhaps.

The "friends" that Sora spent his time with, despite the warnings that others would give, were two boys in their twenties. One was tall and resembled a dog because of the odd hat he wore. The other was short and stout and looked somewhat like a duck with the way he usually pursed his lips. These boys, to the paranoid townspeople of Twilight Town, were trouble. Their names are Donald and Goofy. Originally from a town far away and unheard of, they separated from the larger gang and came to Twilight Town to find someone they referred to as The Key, or Sora.

No one could seem to understand, how could someone who was formerly as sweet and naïve as Sora join a gang? The answer was simple. It woke him up, he stayed alive. And so far there had been no real trouble from the boys, so his parents ignored it. They were just glad to have their son back, alive. No more Sleepy Beauty.

And then it happened. Around town people started going missing. At first it was only a few, little Rikku went first and her two sisters followed. No one could find them. They were assumed kidnapped. But it got worse. More people disappeared around town and in quicker intervals. Soon the problem spread out from Twilight Town to other towns. People were worried; what if they themselves or a loved one were to vanish next? The only clue to the puzzle was a small creature left in place of the missing persons on their beds. A black thing with long antennae and golden eyes, looking around nervously, with a small keyhole imprint on it's back. No footprints, no fingerprints, no hairs. Nothing but the unknown animal.

During that time Sora was coming home later and later and skipping more and more of his classes. Everyone was too caught up with the latest news on who'd been kidnapped last--and whether it was possible to get the CSI to come take a look--to notice Sora's own disappearances. Sora was a good boy, no need to worry. And as for his gang friends? The most they had on their criminal record was a graffiti writing "Find The Key, Find The Answer". Of course they weren't the culprits.

I know all this for myself, I noticed everything poor Sora went through. I was there the whole time, unnoticed. I took care of him at school, covered for him when he snuck away, and hoped, just hoped, that he would be his old self again. I approved of his "gang" because it brought back some of the old Sora, some of my brother. My name's Roxas.

When the disappearances first started my parents asked me to keep an extra close eye on Sora. We didn't want him going missing too. So I did just that, it wasn't hard. But when he started sneaking out more, ditching school more, coming home later, it made things tough on me. I couldn't watch out for my brother when he wasn't there. I knew what I had to do and I didn't like the idea.