DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR LIFE IS STRANGE, SALEM IS AN ORIGINALLY MADE BY THE AUTHOR. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED
WARNING: THIS FAN FICTION CONTAINS DEPICTIONS THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND UNSETTLING AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR YOUNGER READERS. READER'S DISCRETION IS ADVISED
I woke up in the driver's seat of the car, the night fog was so thick I was barely able to see out of the windows. The bitter chill gnawed at the front windscreen, I want to carrying on the journey home but I'm too exhausted. I looked in the back seat and my three sisters, Kairi, Namine and Xion. Kairi holding Namine with Blanket round them both while Xion was almost hidden underneath her blanket on the car floor. I felt my fingers freeze as I saw my own breathe in front of me, the cold had started to grip me in its embrace and would refuse to let go until the heat tears it away. I stared through the windscreen and I could begin to make out a face, the skin was blue and wrinkled. The eyes were just two large black circles, it glowed in the night sky and fog staring straight at me. It looked like an old woman, but what kind of old woman walks around near the woods in dead of night? But as I stared, the face began to fade back in to the shadows then drift back in to view in a wave like motion. I shivered as I felt the full force of the cold engulf my body, after a few minutes the face was gone. I buttoned up my jacket buried my mouth in to it and crossed my arms, putting my hands underneath my armpits, slowly drifting back to sleep. As my eyes closed, the face reappeared, floating straight towards the car bearing fang like teeth, I quickly closed my eyes for a brief moment then slowly opened them to the sunlit road and woods. I swept that whole ordeal as a dream and got out the car to gather myself and tried to remember what had happened last night. It was only a brief moment of pure silence until I heard the car door fly open, Xion was scrambling over the hood and running to the edge of the woods where she began to cough violently then vomit.
"You okay?" I asked. "Do I need to get a pregnancy test?" Xion flipped her middle finger at me, giving me a reason to chuckle at her response.
"I just had a really screwed up nightmare." She panted, dragging herself over to me.
"Must've been to make you puke."
"Remember that movie where a psycho chops people up for fun? That screwed up." She began to look cautiously around, clearly on edge and that put me on edge as well. The simple fact is, we're in the middle of nowhere with no idea of why we're here in the first place. I looked at the backseats and saw Namine but not Kairi and began to wonder if she had walked off into the woods.
"I wonder where Kairi went to?" I said, but Xion's reply startled me.
"Kairi got separated from us, don't you remember? When Dad started screaming, telling us to get out and run." I shook my head in confusion, the woods began to become unsettling with it's deafening silence and morning chill. "We should probably get going, I really don't like being here." We both climbed into the car and drove off. The radio was static apart from a few muffled words here and there, the uneasiness however still lingered.
"Tell me about this dream you had?" I asked.
"I was in a dark, holding a hatchet. My hand was duct taped to the hatchet and there was a person with a bag over their head." Xion's voice began to break. "I felt like a marionette, someone tugging on a string and making me hack someone until their organs are spilling out." Xion began gag as the memory began to set in. "It felt so real, then I heard a laugh... I don't know where it came from. But it was maniacal, sadistic... It was like being back with-"
"Okay, you don't have to say anymore. If the night terrors are starting back up and if you wanna go back to the Doctor. Tell me and I'll take care of the costs, You don't have to suffer like you use to." I interrupted, I felt a strong guilt hit me but I had to ask. Before Dad adopted her, she was being used for unspeakable things. Xion is a damaged soul, the anxiety she has when anyone tries to show her any affection is sometimes fatal. It can take months for her just to get used to talking to someone, I only know a fraction of what had happened to her but even that was enough for me and I have a extremely high tolerance for the darkest subjects.
"I'm fine, I'd rather you focus on finding Kairi." Xion snapped lightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite like that."
"It's okay, we're all on edge." I looked into the rear view mirror and saw Namine still asleep. "Excluding the cat in back." I took out my phone and called Olette on loudspeaker.
"Hello?" She answered with seconds.
"Morning Babe."
"Salem?! Where are you!? There are police all over town looking for you, Xion and Namine." She asked in relieved but desperate tone.
"I'm not sure, I think we're on the old hill road. Has Kairi turned up at your place by any chance? Xion and Namine are with me" I asked.
"She did! Kairi turned up panicked, saying your dad was telling you all to get out and there was someone in the house." Olette explained, I drove past a sign saying Twilight Town was only fifteen miles out which gave me some sense of relief.
"Okay, I've just drove past a sign saying we're fifteen miles out. Could you take Kairi to the police station, please? I'll meet you there." I asked.
"Sure, please be safe. I love you."
"Love you too, see you in a few." Olette hung up and I placed my phone on the dash board.
"Salem, did you have any weird dreams?" Xion asked.
"Yeah, I did. I saw a face and it wasn't a face I remember." I replied, thinking back to all my previous nightmares. War is brutal and will do things to one's mind, as a combat rescue medic I have seen troops torn to ribbons. Those I couldn't save or revive haunt me, there is one dream in perticular that I have more than others, one that stands out and keeps me awake for almost days. In this dream I'm running to the Helicopter in a field, blue skies, green grass and cool breeze. But once I get to the Helicopter and slide open the door, blood pours out and I see all of them, sitting upright, torn to pieces, staring at me with lifeless, white eyes. But the floor of copter becomes a black pit filled with screams of the dying and those that survived, then the troops sitting upright begin to scream in agony and pleads.
"Please, I can't die here!"
"Not like this! Not like this!"
"Oh god, help me!" These screams don't stop, these faces always there, the only way to end the nightmare is to take my rifle, aim at my own head and squeeze.
"I would know the face, but this one was not the usual. this one was... pissed off." I added.
"Look who's awake." I glanced into the rear view mirror and saw stretching herself awake. "Morning sleepy head."
"Morning, where are we?" Namine yawned.
"Almost home, we meeting Kairi and Olette at the police station." I explained softly.
"Max said you would call Olette." Namine replied, I raised an eyebrow at the name.
"Who's Max Namine?" I asked, Namine didn't reply. I glanced in the mirror again and saw her smirking before turning to Xion, it was immediately off putting by the way she was staring at Xion. It was a look of extreme jealousy, jealousy wasn't an emotion Namine would show or even think of. To a degree this was honestly scary, it was almost like she was reprogrammed to feel that one thing. I kept quiet until I saw the clock tower emerging from the trees and the radio signal sprang to life with a breaking news alert.
"The Twilight Town Mayor has been declared missing this morning after police responded to an emergency call from one of his daughters at twelve o'clock last night. The other three siblings have also been declared missing, a search is underway and we shall keep you updated as information is provided." The News anchor reported.
"Dad's missing!?" Xion panicked.
"They'll find him, he can't be far." Namine said in her normal tone, indicating she was back to her normal timid self and not the jealous blonde I had saw in the rear view. I got into town and drove straight the Police station, parking out front I turned to Xion who began to show signs of almost having an anxiety attack. I slowly took her hand and began to reassure her, when I was away on deployment Xion would often end up getting in trouble with the Police. Her anxiety would get to an extreme and shouldn't know how to cope, sometimes this would lead her to lash out and the police are no exception. "It's going to be okay, If we have to skip town for a few days or weeks I have a place we can go. It's close to a town on the ocean, known for it's whale spotting and woodland. It's a quiet place and it's smaller than here."
"What's the town called?" She asked, taking deep and slowly breathes.
"Arcadia Bay." Xion's went wide and began almost literally sparkle. "So you've heard of it. You heard of this place Namine?"
"I know Blackwell Academy has the best art program going, plus by the way you describe it. I could actually do some really nice landscape painting." Namine chirped.
"I have a friend that lives there!" Xion voice almost squeaked with excitement, this in fact the first time I had ever seen her with such glee.
"Then it's settled, we'll talk with the cops, give a statement. Then we'll go home, pack up a few things and get out of here for a while." The two nodded in agreement, a plan was set but after a moment it soon felt the plan wasn't our own.
