Dark Shadow
Ch.1
Nightmares
Riku's eyes popped open; he breathed hard as hot drops of sweat fell and stung his eyes. He brushed the perspiration away as he threw the warm, soft sheets off of him. He slowly sat up, rubbing his temples. He slowly looked around his messy, disorganized room, clothes of all shapes and colors lay all over the floor, and he sighed heavily as he heard a big "Thump!" from down stairs.
"BOY!" a gruff, low, hoarse voice shouted. "Boy get your ass down, hick, here now!"
Riku only sighed; he was used to this kind of treatment. He quickly started to look through the piles of clothes for anything to wear. He found a dark blue shirt, and loose-fitting, baggy pants. He also pulled out his old white, and yellow, over jacket. He opened his old, wooden, creaky door and headed down the wooden stairs.
He turned left into a small, hallway leading to the outside door, and a small living room to the right. The living room had stains all over the lime-green, shaggy carpet and also on the tan couch. There was a small TV placed in front of the couch, riku cursed under his breath as his toe slapped against one of the many beer bottles lying on the floor. He reluctantly started to pick them up as his father entered the room. His father's black hair was greasy, and unwashed. His eyes were red, swollen, and bloodshot. Only tiny slits could open through the swollen eyes, riku nearly gagged when he smelt his father's beer breath beside him.
"About time boy, hic, your mother would have never taken this long."
Riku rolled his eyes as his father slumped onto the couch, after picking up all the bottles he heard him start to snore, deeply. Riku peeked into the room, his heart raced as he watched his father drool from his deep, drunken sleep. He quickly ran to the door, picking up his white, tennis shoes as he ran into the busy street.
Riku lay down on the soft, warm sand. He inhaled the fresh, salty, tangy air as he lowered his feet into the cold shallows. He felt the waves lap over them then reside, lap, reside, lap, reside. This motion seemed to calm his nerves, he closed his eyes. They moved behind his lids as his world slightly darkened above him.
"Sora, don't even think about-"
His words were interrupted a large, soggy, sloppy, clump of wet sand hit him square in the face. He felt his cheeks begin to burn as he grabbed some wet sand and hurled it at sora.
"Dang it sora!" he shouted as he wiped the sand from his eyes. "I told you I don't like that!"
Sora only smiled, he quickly grabbed some fresh water from the small waterfalls nearby, and he threw the water in riku's face helping him to wash off the sand.
"Aw come on riku, I was only helping you to wake up. You looked sleepy just lying there in the sand."
Riku placed his hand on sora's shoulder, he grinned wickedly as he pushed sora right into the wet sand. He grabbed sora's arm pinning it to the ground as he used his free hand to stuff some more wet sand down his shirt. Sora squealed and wiggled, trying to get the sand out of his shirt. Riku laughed as he watched sora dance around the beach. He turned as he heard kairi running towards them.
"Hi riku!" she said as she gave him a big hug. "Nice to see once in a while." She laughed.
As kairi let go she looked into riku's sapphire eyes, then she noticed the dark rings underneath.
"Riku, have you not been sleeping well? Your eyes look as dark as the night."
"No kairi I haven't, I've been having a lot of nightmares lately."
"What are your nightmares about?"
Both of them paused as they heard a shallow splash. Sora was dancing and swimming in the water, he started to take his shirt off when riku turned back to kairi.
"I keep having quick flash backs… back when xehanort first gave me the taste of the true power of darkness, when I finally defeated the darkness, when I had to give my body up again to defeat roxas. There're always so vivid, I can feel the power of darkness flowing through my very veins, I can feel the power rise and build. The energy and glory of it, but the scary part is… that when I wake up, I realize how much I miss it, how much I actually like the feeling, the power."
Kairi tried not to look confused; she patted his back in concern. But riku could see in her eyes that she couldn't understand how he felt. Kairi shifted uncomfortably as riku looked away, she quickly changed the subject.
"How's your dad doing?"
"He's… the same as usual." He replied sadly. "He's only gotten worse after mom died, you know the story."
Both of them turned to sora as he walked out of the water, he squeezed his shirt trying to release the water that had soaked it. Riku smiled.
"So sora, enjoyed your bath?" he asked.
Sora smiled back at him, he wrapped his arm around riku's shoulders.
"Why yes riku, I did. And know I think it's time for you to have a bath."
Riku was about to reply before a high-pitched sound exploded in his head. He closed his eyes in pain, when he opened them he was standing in a dark alley; someone dressed in a dark, hooded cloak was walking away from him. The figure stopped, the image started to turn around.
"Riku… Riku?!"
Riku flashed back to the beach, he blinked his eyes in confusion, trying to remember what had just happened. He looked at sora that eyes were filled with concern along with Kairi's."
"Riku?" sora asked as he grabbed his shoulder. "Riku are you ok?"
Riku rubbed his eyes, trying to push away the flash he had just seen.
"Yea, yea sora I'm fine. Just a little tired that's all."
Riku looked around, his heart leaped as he saw the sun start to streak the sky with red and gold as it sank below the horizon.
"Oh crap! Listen guys." He said as he started to leave. "My dad's going to kill me if I'm not home in a few minutes, I'll see you guys later."
Riku started to run towards his house, he easily made, and jumped his way through the street, but his mind felt heavy as he thought about the flash.
"Who was that? Where were we? And what does this mean? Is something happening to me?"
