Disclaimer, I don't own Kingdom Hearts
"Can I open my eyes now Roxie?"
"Just one more second."
"But Roxie…" Sora moaned, flopping back onto my bed.
I rolled my eyes, tugging a mask halfway down my face.
"Alright you can open your eyes now Sora."
Sora sat up, checking me out from top to bottom, smiling widely.
"Ta-dah." I said, shrugging shyly.
"So this is what you've been working on!" He said, bouncing up and slowly circling me.
"Yeah. I tried to make it look like yours. You like it?"
For the past week and a half, I had been pricking my fingers and burning up Xion's sowing machine, working to finish up my Halloween costume. I had used Sora's default as the pattern, inversing the colors, making the pumpkin mask black and green, changing the demon wings to angel wings, along with a few other minor changes.
Why had I spent all that time killing myself for a holiday I could care less about? Because my boyfriend (Yep, after all that work at Christmas time, we're still together. Just had our 10 month anniversary too. And yeah he's still a juvenile goofball, but now he's my goofball) is as obsessed with Halloween as he is with me. A few years before I moved back, a traveling carnival called Halloween Town had passed through, where Sora had befriended the Pumpkin King, the crowned carnage horror, Jack Skellington. Ever since, Halloween had been one of his favorites.
It was actually kind of funny when you thought about it. The same guy who cried and hid whenever we watched Bambi's mother get shot, or even mentioned Bridge to Terabithia or Where the Red Fern Grows, would laugh through Saw Movies and actually scare the insane people who worked the haunted houses.
"Like it? This is amazing! We'll look awesome together. Did you do this all by yourself?"
"I had a little help from Mrs. Charming, but I did the rest." I said proudly.
I gave him a playful smirk, baring my plastic fangs.
"Scary enough for you babe?"
I would have accepted a lot of replies to this. A cute encouragement, a challenge to see who could scare more people, and spontaneous make our session. Any one of those would have been fantastic. I was ready for anything. Especially that make out session. What I wasn't ready for was Sora bursting out into laughter. I watched in confusion as Sora tried to pull himself together.
"What?"
Sora just smiled, trying to act serious, only to break out laughing again.
"What?" I demanded, annoyed.
"I'm sorry," Sora took a deep breath before finally collecting himself "Sorry about that."
"What's so funny?"
"Roxas, you're you. You're like a fluffy chocobo or a really cuddly teddy bear. You couldn't be scary if you tried."
"Excuse me?"
I wasn't scary? I was one of the most feared and respected gang (The good kind. Mostly) members back in Twilight Town, even Seifer was afraid of me.
"Oh come on Roxas, you're way too nice to be frightening. You're too cute."
Sora tried to wrap his arms around me, but I stepped away, huffing and crossing my arms.
"Just because I'm cute doesn't mean I'm not scary. I freak Axel out all the time, I could scare anybody."
Sora rolled his eyes.
"Right. Well here's your chance to prove it; everybody's downstairs, if you can scare at least one person, I'll take it all back."
"Deal."
Sora rolled his eyes.
"Oh come on Roxie, is it really that bad that I call you cuddly and cute and stuff? I meant it as a compliment, you're my Blondie Roxie!"
No it didn't really matter. While the majority was flattering, my status as top dog had been challenged, and I wouldn't be backing down anytime soon.
I turned around and started out the door heading downstairs. I stopped at the top of the stairs, looking back at Sora.
"Just to make sure, when I go and scare everybody, you'll take it all back and admit that I'm scary, right?"
Sora leaned up against the wall, folding his arms behind his head.
"If you can scare anybody, the yeah, I'll take it all back."
I nodded, silently stalking down the stairs. Halloween was tomorrow and my house apparently was the headquarters. Everyone had come here, chatting, laugh, and plotting out Halloween parties, pranks, and costumes. I had started to ask Cloud if I could throw a party, but my brother had just leaned back, crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow. Forgive and forget were foreign concepts in this house, and I doubted he would be forgetting or forgiving the disaster of my last Christmas party.
I slunk through the living and dining rooms where most of our crew ere, heading for the kitchen. Sora strayed behind me, patient and smiling, waiting to be proven wrong. If he wanted proof, this would be everything he needed and more.
My older brother, Cloud, stood in the kitchen doorway, looking out into the backyard. I wasn't going for anything big, no elaborate pranks of anything, all I had to do was scare somebody. And the easiest trick in the book was to jump out at someone. Yeah it wouldn't be my greatest work, but who cares?
I crept forward, completely silent, stopping only a few inches behind him. I took a deep, quiet breath, and raised my arms, gloved claws ready…
"Try it and you're boyfriend privileges are revoked for a month." Cloud said, still staring out at the yard.
I froze while Sora busted up laughing, again. Cloud glanced back, unimpressed.
"You can do better, honestly I hear you stomp in. You're losing your touch."
I frowned and turned back to Sora. He just smiled.
"I hate to say I told you so, but-"
"Yeah well Cloud's different. He broods too much to be scared, he's like an emo batman. I can get anyone else, just watch."
"Be my guest. Let's see just how scary you are." Sora waved me on, smiling widely.
Alright, this was just a minor setback. I took another deep breath and headed for the dining room. I pushed open the door, only to be met by empty darkness. The door swung shut behind me as I walked in, confused. Where did everybody go?
"Hey Sora, can you…"
When I turned around, Sora wasn't there. I went back to the kitchen door, but it wouldn't budge.
"Sora?" I called, anxiety bubbling up inside me. The room was starting to feel too big, the darkness swallowed everything up.
I didn't like the darkness, the hollow emptiness terrified me, especially when I was alone.
"Cloud!" I called, the fear starting to sing with my voice.
It was too empty, too dark, I couldn't breathe. I whirled around and started for the front door. Even the windows were pitch black, I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I managed to make my way to the door, and tried to find the handle.
Something scuttle across the ground behind me. I spun, but whatever it was, was swallowed by the shadows. I turned back to the door and tried opening it. Jammed.
More scuttling, and whirled around in time to see a flicker of yellow, quickly vanishing into the emptiness. "Hello?" More scuttling. And then two glowing yellow orbs opened up on the other side of the room. I blinked and took a step back. The orbs floated around, tilting, before suddenly blinking. Blinking? What had eyes like that?
Another pair of eyes suddenly opened up in the darkness, followed by another, and another, and another. The scuttling got closer and closer, and the eyes started advancing. I backed up the stairs, only for the eyes to start to follow me, slowly picking up speed, getting a little too close for comfort. I was halfway up the stairs when an inhuman screech erupted from the eyes, and a light flickered in the darkness.
In the brief seconds we had light, I made out several strange black forms with twisted bodies, crooked antennae, and thick claws, twitching and convulsing as they made their way up the stairs. And then there was only darkness and the yellow eyes.
I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I reached the top and was planning how to barricade the door and get the hell out of here, when a pair of glowing eyes suddenly flashed to life in front of me, a feral roar rasping from the creature.
I screamed.
I know it wasn't exactly the bravest thing to do, but my mind wasn't here to tell me that. It was back in an abandoned subway station right after my parents died, right after the accident. I was alone, everything was so dark, so empty, something was coming towards me, something that scuttled and had big yellow eyes…
There was a flash of light, and suddenly laughter erupted around me. My heart was beating a mile a minute as the light flashed on. Sora was standing in front of me with a camera, a strange headlamp with two yellow orbs, turning on and off every few seconds, strapped to his forehead. I slowly turned around. The rest of our crew was on the stairs, laughing with him.
They all wore the same strange headband, and were wearing skin tight black hoodies, the hoods bearing antennae, the sleeves ending in gloved claws.
"You should have seen you're face!" Sora cackled, cracking up. It was just a prank.
"You cream like a little girl, you know that?" Hayner asked, earning another round of giggles from Pence and Olette.
My heart was beating faster and faster.
"We got you good." Kairi giggled, falling back against Leon, who wrapped his arms around Cloud, smirking up at me.
More darkness, swallowing me up.
"We heard you and Sora on the baby monitors (Ever since Cloud had caught Vanitas and Ventus in the closet, every room had been installed with a baby monitor so Cloud could check up on us and make sure no more funny business went on). He had this planned earlier, and when we heard you being all macho, we thought it was the perfect time to spring the trap."
Fear was turning into fury and hysteria.
"Come on bro, you couldn't be scary if you tried." Ven laughed, bumping affectionately into his boyfriend.
"I couldn't help it, it was just too perfect to pass up." Sora was passing around the camera, they were all laughing.
Dark, too dark, too empty. I couldn't breathe.
Cloud suddenly frowned, leaning away from his boyfriend, staring up at me with concern.
"Roxas?"
I was shaking with rage, or was that the lack of oxygen?
People turned back to me, worry replacing the jovial looks.
"Roxie?" Sora asked, reaching out to me.
A strangled cry was all I could utter, before I was suddenly in my room. The door slammed shut so hard that the walls shook, pictures clattering down to the floor. I locked the door and sunk down to the ground.
I was sobbing, I think, sobbing or screaming, I wasn't sure.
The darkness. The memories. Too much.
This was all Sora's fault, Sora and this dumb costume. I tore it off, throwing away the fabric, tearing it away, before huddling up, trying to breathe again. I could hear people on the other side of the door, knocking and trying to talk to me. A few times I heard Ventus offer to go get the key or for Vanitas to pick the lock, but no one ever answered.
Eventually the voices stopped, and I was finally left alone. I stared out my window, watching out at the midnight sky, watching the stars. I sat there for hours, trying to forget. I don't know when I realized it, but somehow I eventually figured out that Sora was on the other side of the door. He hadn't left like everyone else.
A few more minutes went by before I head him quietly knock. I recoiled from the door, curling up into a ball.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Roxas. I didn't mean to… I didn't know. I'm sorry."
Leave me alone.
"I'll be right here. You shouldn't be alone Roxas. Please let me in."
Silence. I heard Sora sigh and shift around, certain he was now lying in front of my door.
"I'll be right here. I'm here for you… I love you Roxas."
I know you do. You just have a funny way of showing it. But he didn't know about this, you didn't talk to him about that night, a voice in my head said. But Cloud did. Ventus did. They should have known how I would react, the memories something like this might bring back. Anger came back to me, memories of seeing my former nemesis, Riku, kissing my Sora. Sora could have stopped him, he could have done something to stop himself from being whored out to that monster.
And then everything was Sora's fault, everything that had ever gone wrong, that could possibly go wrong, was his fault. I sat there for the rest of the night, stewing in hate, before sleep finally claimed me.
x-X-x
I'm used to being woken up in a variety of ways. "I've been tickled awake, kicked out of bed, had my mattress flipped, kissed, slapped, been hosed, and even once had my blankets set on fire when I refused to wake up for Axel.
Suddenly waking up to a gag being shoved in my mouth and a bag thrown over my head was a new one. I tried to scream and fight, but someone grabbed me, holding me as tightly as they could. I squirmed against them, trying to break away, but they managed to hold tight. Cold air suddenly whipped up, and I shivered as my feet touched the freezing windowsill. Wait, the windowsill?! "Catch!" My assailant called quietly, and suddenly I was falling. I had just been thrown out of the window. So this was how I was going to die huh?
A pair of strong arms caught me, followed by a loud groan.
"Sheesh Rox, you put on a few pounds or something?"
Axel? I pulled the bag off my head and spit out the gag, glaring at my favorite pyromaniac.
"What the hell!"
Axel covered my mouth, glancing up at the house.
"Quick, before Cloud realizes we were here!" He called.
Someone in a familiar black cloak swung out my window, carefully climbing down, throwing back their hood as they came over. Demyx smiled proudly.
"To the van!" He shout-whispered, dashing around the side of the house.
I glanced down at Axel, realizing he too was wearing the same black cloak. Axel started running, sprinting past the front yard, aiming for Demyx's old band van.
"What's going on Axel?" I asked, hopping out of his arms and into the backseat.
""You're late, that's what's going on" Axel said as he strapped himself in "Drive Demyx."
The van puttered to life and I glanced at the clock.
"Axel it's four in the morning, what am I late for? And did you seriously let that idiot throw me out a window?"
"Hey, I'm not an idiot!"
"Can it Demyx, you know it's rude to tell lies. And he didn't as much as throw, it was more of a loving toss down to me."
"I'm going to lovingly kick you in the crotch when we stop." I warned.
Axel just laughed, rolling his eyes.
"Whatever you say Roxy. Almost there."
Five minutes later, Demyx pulled up behind a building, and I found myself being shoved through its back doors.
"Axel, what is going on?" I asked again, shivering in the October cold air.
I hadn't had enough energy to put on more than pair of shorts after I got rid of that stupid costume last night, I was too drained yesterday. Axel ignored the question, propelling me into the dark space, passing large mechanical devices, dressing rooms, props, and kitchens, before pushing me out past a set of black and silver curtains.
"You're up!" Axel said, vanishing in a swirl of his dark cloak.
I stumbled past another set of curtains, cold feet padding onto a large stage. I frowned, glancing around in confusion. All of this was vaguely familiar now that I wasn't being rushed around. I took in the stage, the pristine surface, the curtains, and the strange symbol at the top of the stage. Wait a second…
"Congratulations, Roxas Strife!" A familiar voice called from the vast sea of darkness.
I whirled around as the lights turned on, revealing an enormous dance floor, a bar, perfectly aligned tables and light, and twelve black cloaked figures. I was at Club XIII, my favorite hangout. Axel and the rest of my gang had started work here at the end of summer, getting it prepped for its grand opening. After months of waiting and wanting, I had finally been able to apply for the job her, loving the club and fun that the boss, Xemnas, always promised. There had only been one more opening left, I had been obsessing over this position, and now…
"After reviewing you devotion, creativity, and resourcefulness, you have been chosen to join our ranks. Let us welcome our thirteenth and final member to the family."
Hoods were thrown off, and cheers sounds, my friends whooping and making cat calls, while the senior members either stood there smiling or looked around, bored out of their minds.
"Nice abs Roxy, they look tasty!" Larxene called, giving out a loud wolf whistle.
I blushed a little, and Xemnas approached, holding out a cloak, boots, and gloves. I eagerly accepted, throwing on and looking to Xemnas for approval.
"I am leaving you under Axel's supervision for the time being. Do not make me regret this decision."
"I won't. Thank you so much."
Xemnas nodded, turning back to the group.
"I ask that the members who volunteered to work their shifts during tonight's festivities begin their duties, the rest of you may help set up for our grand reopening. I expect you to stay in you cloaks, they are your club uniform tonight, and I expect them to catch on and grab attention. Dismissed."
The crowd dispersed, and I stood there, grinning like an idiot.
"I didn't think you'd mind the kidnapping once you realized what was going on." Axel remarked, striding up to the stage.
"This is awesome!"
Larxene rolled her eyes and said "Yeah, working for a crazy man who asks us to get up at four in the morning to kidnap our new staff member and clean up for a party that doesn't' start for another thirteen hours. Awesome."
"I can't wait to tell everybody, Sora's gonna…"
Oh right. Sora. The anger started coming back and I scowled.
"Sensing trouble in paradise." Larxene warned.
"What's up?"
I filled them in on what had happened, explaining my panic attack and the events of that night so long ago.
"You not scary?" Demy asked. "Do they even know you?"
"You should get back at him." Larxene advised, the others quickly nodding in agreement.
"Oh, a revenge plan? How intriguing." Marluxia and Luxord wander over, followed by Xigbar.
"I always admired this holiday." Luxord admitted "The idea of terrifying the innocent and being congratulated was always an appealing concept somehow."
"That's not at all creepy." Demyx muttered, only to get elbowed by Larxene.
"So, at whom is this revenge to be served?" Zexion asked, suddenly appearing beside me.
"Don't you people have jobs?" Axel asked, trying to give me some space.
Demyx and Larxene answered for me.
"Sora said he wasn't scary."
"And when he tried to prove that he was, everyone pulled this killer prank on him-wish I'd thought of it."
"And it brought back some kid trauma Roxy went through a long, long time ago, and re-traumatized our newbie."
"Sounds like quite a few people in need of a good helping of justice." Luxord mused.
"Oh and I know just how to do it! Oh, I would love to see that twin of yours freak out!"
And that's when I got it. A plan, a wonderfully wicked, glorious plan.
"You guys like to prank people, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"What if I could give you a whole bunch of people just dying to be scared to death?"
"But we can scare anyone. Why should we help you get revenge kiddo?" Xigbar asked, plucking lazily at his eye patch.
Zexion hushed Xigbar and turned back to me.
"Continue."
"Revenge is fun, especially in groups. And yeah, you guys can scare anybody, but I know how to really get inside these people's heads, I know what really terrifies them. Help me, and you'll get to pull off the greatest scare you could ever imagine."
Zexion motioned for the others to follow them and circled around a few feet away, furiously whispering. Axel suddenly leaned out of the circle asking "How many people were in on the prank?"
"Thirteen."
They went back to whispering. Finally, they turned back to me and Axel stepped forward.
"Just to make sure you know, you're dealing with a bunch of psychos, and you're giving them permission to go off and scare some of your best friends, right?"
I nodded. "Psychos are exactly what I'm looking for."
"You're accountable for anything that goes wrong, you deal with all the complaints?"
"Deal."
Axel shook his head. "Not quite. You've got thirteen victims, but right now counting you, we've only got eight volunteers. You want this done right, you need five more."
Five more? I glanced over at the bar where the other members were working.
"I've got an idea."
I walked over to eh bar where Xemnas, Saix, and Vexen were going over paperwork while Lexaeus and Xaldin worked on shining the counter.
"Excuse me, but-"
"The answer is no." Xemnas stated simply.
I frowned.
"Sir, I just wanted to thank you and I was just wondering if you could help me-"
"We heard all about it, you're friends were practically screaming the details. This is a place of business and it is opening tonight. I cannot allow myself, or my staff to be involved in such frivolous activities. I have enough problems we lack the amount of publicity we had previously anticipated."
I frowned, my hopes crumbling. Suddenly Zexion was beside me.
"Sir, what if these were scares of a different, more public manner?"
"What are you talking about?" Saix asked, uninterested.
"You said you want publicity right?"
Xemnas just kept working.
"What if we made these scares very public, if you allowed us, we could change this from a 'frivolous activity' into a publicity stunt. If we play our cards right, tonight Club XIII will be the hottest hang out in town."
That got Xemnas' attention. "Publicity stunt spectaculars… Thirteen very public, terrifying events to show off the grand opening of our club." He exchanged glances with Saix and Vexen, a silent conversation going on between them.
"Thanks." I murmured to Zexion.
"Riku."
"What?"
"I heard you mention Riku earlier. He was there?"
I nodded.
"I'll take care of him personally, tell me everything you know."
Xemnas finally spoke up "Very well. Go by the following guidelines and you may do as you please. How do you intend to enact your revenge?"
I beamed widely. Time to get revenge for yesterday, for Christmas, for every other time my friends had crossed me. You want to see how scary I am Sora? Let's find out.
Hey everybody! Just wanted to get this out there so you'd all know where to look, cause it's time for Roxie's revenge! Hope you enjoyed and look out for the other chapters coming out on Halloween! Have a great morning/day/night! P.S. if anyone out there's interested I could use a beta!
