The very first chapter of La Luna, El Sol! Yayz!
I don't own Lea, or Isa, or anything else Kingdom Hearts related. Except for Lea's world in the beginning. That belongs to me. Oh, and Lea's siblings. But they aren't important. Now, enjoy!
"The horrors of that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts."
~Dr. Joseph Warren
Screams pierce the air, joining together in a terrified chorus as I tear down the street. My thoughts are a jumbled train, strung together and trailing along behind me: Where are they what's going on what's happening what are these things gotta get home gotta go fast oh my god there's on now get away from me get away get away get away… Panic seizes me as I leap to the side, narrowly avoiding one of those scuttling things. It pauses, looks at me as though it's sizing me up, and then scurries off, deciding I'm not worth it. I can feel my heart thumping wildly against my chest, threatening to explode at any moment. There's another scream somewhere, and I take off, feet slapping the gravel as I sprint toward home.
"Lea?" Voices croak as I fly by. "Lea- Lea, is that you?" I know these people. God, I know these people –these are people I've grown up with, people I've delivered papers to, people I've gotten in fights with or had defend me or just known them because of my parents. These are my neighbors, my schoolmates, everyone I've ever known is here –dying.
"Lea! Lea, please!" I can feel the prickling heat, burning the corner of my eyes. I want to help. I want to do something, but I can't. I don't have time. More screams explode around me, and I force myself to move faster, faster, forever faster. Any second now I will recognize those screams. Any second now those screams will be coming from them, and I can't let that happen. I have to get home, have to go faster, but my feet won't move as quickly as I'd like.
At some point I ditch my shoes, kicking them off, not bothering to watch them sail away or even to see where they end up. That doesn't matter. Nothing could matter less than that right now. I have to get there, have to move, but nothing seems to be fast enough.
People stand in crowds, circling around children like elephants around their young, beating off those monsters with anything they can find: baseball bats, fire pokers, golf clubs, hell, even boxing gloves! Anything that can be used as a weapon is utilized. Out of the corner of my eye, I swear I see one boy smacking one of those black things around with his shoes. I swallow the enormous lump that's sitting in my throat, because I know that boy, went to school with him and even told a bunch of older kids to leave'm alone. Got the crap beaten out of me for it, but I'd done it. I'd know his scream anywhere.
Forget about him that doesn't matter gotta get home where's mom where's dad oh please let them be okay please let them be okay gotta be faster gotta get there please don't be too late please oh please oh please…
Kids race the streets alone. Adults race past, shouting the names of their children. I see kids my age, kids years younger than me, tearing past with tear-streaked faces, screaming their lungs out as they call for their parents. I can feel the scream rumbling in my throat, dying to come out, but I fight it back, racing toward the house in the distance.
Standing stark and lonely, my house seems like a safe haven from this mess. Fear and adrenaline are coursing through me. I can't feel my fatigue, I don't feel tired at all. Just numb. Numb with an unspeakable terror.
Dirt flies as I skid to a halt, breathing ragged. A scream hits me like a bullet, the scream of a small child, and next thing I know I'm exploding through the door, ignoring it as it falls from its hinges and clatters against the floor. Frantic, feral, I focus in on the enemy: those things. Their glowing little eyes whirl to me, their antennae snapping curiously as I leap at them. I'm not thinking now, just acting.
"Lea!" Voices sob, some with terror, others with relief. Little hands cling to me, voices smother me; I ignore them.
"Get out of here." I snarl, shoving the tiny bodies away. Those monsters are filing in through the door, scurrying around like big fat ants. Vicious, blood thirsty ants. One makes a move, pouncing at my sister. Next thing I know, my Frisbee is embedded in its head. I watch as it squirms, then fades away, dissipating into shadows.
"L-Lea!" Lana sobs, her hands tugging on my shirt. "Lea, what about mommy?" My blood goes cold. "Th-Those monsters took mommy, Lea! Wh-Where is she?" I can't think, can't feel. Oh God. God, no, please oh please no. Not mom. No, no, no!
"Where's dad?" I manage, Frisbee digging into another one of those things and lopping its head clean off.
"Up-Upstairs," A younger brother, Sen, croaks. His eyes are wide and full to the brim with terror. All of them are terrified. Fire is coursing through me, a white hot instinct, and suddenly, I want to kill all of these miserable monsters for what they've done. Nobody does this to my family. Nobody hurts my little brothers and sisters. Nobody hurts mom!
I'm whirling and leaping and hacking and tearing these creepy black things to pieces, but it's never enough. They keep coming and coming, and no matter how many I mow down, more keep piling in. Screams are spilling down the stairs, and out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of Kosa as he stumbles down, collapsing onto the floor. Lana shrieks in terror, and suddenly I'm watching a herd of those monsters swarm his body.
"Kosa!" A scream tears out –from my throat this time –and I'm upon him in seconds, tearing those things off and tossing them away, like they're nothing but dolls or pillows. I watch as they dig their claws into him. I watch as my older brother begins to fade.
"Kosaaa!" Lana is sobbing, on her knees with tears rolling down her cheeks. Sen is cornered against the wall, screaming for help as those things crawl closer. I can feel my legs carrying me between them, slicing through them automatically, without even thinking. I can't get that image out of my mind: Kosa vanishing like that. Gone. Lana screams, and before I can even look up, those monsters are on her. A strange sound rips from inside me, and the next thing I know, I'm pulling that thing off her and tearing it apart.
Screams echo around. I can hear Sen screaming, Lana sobbing, my dad bellowing from upstairs for all of us to run. An older sister barrels down the stairs, clutching Ari in her arms as she kicks a few shadow-monsters out of her way.
"Lea, get up!" She snarls, her hand grabbing my shoulder and tearing me up from where I was beating the shadows.
"Wh-What about dad!" She's silent, pulling Sen up into her arms and pushing Lana's hand into mine. "Hanna? Hanna, what about dad? And Chrissa? Where's Silas?" I can feel my breathing growing more and more ragged, my voice catching on the ever-growing lump in my throat. Hanna isn't answering. She won't look at me. The world is blurring around me as water rolls down my cheeks. "No. No, no, no!" Lana is crying hard beside me, her hand holding onto mine like a lifeline.
"Pull yourself together Lea!" Hanna snarls, shoving me toward the door, kicking more and more monsters aside. I'm fighting to hold back the tears now, heaving Lana into my arms and carrying her with me. I can feel the heat of her tears as they slide down my back, trickling sadly behind us.
The sky is thick with a blanket of darkness. Everywhere, now, the little black things swarm. There's a terrible feeling welling up inside me, a horrible sickness that's turning itself over in my gut. My body quivers under Lana's weight, but I don't dare let go. I can feel them watching: millions of glowing yellow eyes burrowing into me, waiting for me to stumble, to fall or drop Lana, to lower my guard. I can't think, can't breathe, I can only run. It's like my feet have minds of their own, and they're doing all the thinking for me.
Kosa is gone. Mom is gone. Dad, I'm pretty sure he's gone too. Silas, Chrissa- oh God, poor Chrissa. And Uncle Lars, what happened to him? He'd left this morning, said something about visiting a friend, but had he come back? How could I know?
Hanna screams in front of me, jolting me out of my nightmare and back into this one: there are more of the shadows, leaping on her and pushing her down. Sen and Ari are howling. I don't think, I only act: Lana falls and I leap forward, tearing shadows off and tossing them away, grabbing for Sen's hand and trying to pull him free. Not Sen Not Sen Please not Sen, please oh please oh please not Sen! I can hear his muffled cried, the fear hanging heavily around them, but Hanna's not there any more. Panic seizes me and I let out a strangled cry, yanking Sen out and thrusting him behind me, hacking through the shadows and screaming.
"Ari! Ari, Hanna!" Tears are streaking down my face and Sen is pulling on my arm, hiccupping loudly and shouting something about Lana. Lana. Oh God, no. Turning, relief nearly drowns me when I see her standing behind Sen, hugging tightly to him, tears streaming down from her bright green eyes.
"L-Lea, what's happening?" She sobs. My head is throbbing with images, and I'm still seeing Kosa vanish in my mind, as well as Hanna and little Ari. Why Ari? Why Chrissa? They were little, so little… Why did it have to be them?
The dark things keep coming, scurrying over where Hanna ought to be, and once more instinct takes over me. I'm shrieking like some sort of demon, slicing and hacking through those shadowy monsters and screaming for Sen to take Lana and run.
Time doesn't seem to pass as I shred my way through, banishing those little demons back into the darkness. And they all thought my Frisbees were stupid. I can hear my heart pounding wildly, the blood roaring through my head, and I can hardly breathe. I want to collapse, but I can't, because as soon as I do I'm dead. These things will kill me –they'll make me disappear. I don't know where I'll go, really, but I try not to think about it.
Kosa. Hanna. Chrissa, Ari, Mom and Dad… My knees start to buckle as tears roll down my cheeks, but I fight it, digging the sharp side of my Frisbee into the head of one shadow and tearing it out quickly before turning and running. The only thing going through my mind now is the terrified looks on Sen and Lana's faces. All I can imagine is how scared they must be, and suddenly I'm overtaken by a horrifying thought: What if those things already got them?
"Sen! Lana!" I scream, my voice cracking and my throat aching. "Sen! Lana!" There is no response. The screams that filled the air have died, and all I can hear is the haunting scuttling sound of the shadows as they move around, some chasing me, others ignoring me. "Lana! Sen!" Oh God, please don't let them be hurt. Please don't let them be gone!
"Lea!" Lana's shriek sounds from somewhere, and immediately I turn toward it, following it like a beacon. I plod through shadows, ignoring their groping claws as I mow them down.
"Lana!" No response. "Lana?" Still nothing. There's an eerie silence, so much scarier than the screams, and my heart skips a beat. It's the only thing I can hear: pounding angrily in my ears, threatening to explode. "Lana!" My foot catches on something, probably one of those shadows, and I crash through the bushes, scrabbling quickly to my feet. My arms and legs ache, my vision is blurring: I'm just so tired, but I can't stop, can't rest. "Lana!" I choke, scanning wildly. "Lana, where are you?" Why won't she answer? She can't be dead, I promised I'd look after her! I told mom and dad I'd make sure she was safe! I- I…
"Lea…" A soft voice croaks, and I feel myself dying inside.
"Lana?" I whimper, trying to find the voice. No, that's not Lana's voice… "Sen? Sen, where are you?" I choke, pulling branches aside and batting shadows away. My hearts stops, and an inhuman sound comes keening from my throat. "Sen!"
Sen manages a weak little smile, just before his body begins to turn to darkness: fading away. "Sen!" I'm screaming now, trying to grab him, but my hands pass straight through him. "Sen!" I sound like an animal. I feel like an animal, too. Rage is burning inside of me, flying through my veins.
"Bring him back!" I scream, flinging myself at the nearest shadow and tearing its head off. "Bring him back!" They're climbing all over me, but I knock them away: ripping heads off, hacking them in half, destroying as many as I can. I am completely feral, nothing but raw instinct. "Bring him back!" But they won't. And I can't. Because he's gone. Just like the others. Like everyone, everyone in this town, in this world. Gone.
"Sen! Lana! Hanna, somebody, any one!" I'm sobbing now, shoving the shadows away and trying to make a break for it. "Somebody! Somebody, please!" Sobs wrack my chest; I can feel myself caving in piece by piece. "Somebody!"
Nobody answers, though. Because there's nobody left to answer. I'm on my knees now, crying as the shadows swarm, swirling around with a terrifying curiosity.
"Get away from me!" I feel my arms fly about, feel my Frisbees dig into the shadowy flesh and then rip back out. I don't know what to do. I'm all alone. Everyone is gone. I couldn't protect my family.
I failed.
;; For those of you who are confused, Lea's world is being destroyed by Heartless.
Uhm, I'm not really sure what I should write here. This is my first attempt at a real, long story. And no, it will not be yoai. If you read this, please review. Constructive criticism is valued, and flames will be used to ward off Heartless. Thank you!
~Ip
