yeeee update.
"Now," I sighed, plopping down on my swivel chair that I pulled from my desk, resting my arms on the backrest, "You wanna tell me who the hell you are?"
For a fifteen year old girl, I think I was taking this situation pretty well— I've gotten this guy's wrists bound with one of my belts, and I also tied down his ankles with one of my scarves for good measure and to make sure he didn't run away. He look pretty steamed, with a big scowl on his face and his amber eyes narrowed; guess he didn't expect me to take his ass down. Ignoring my demand, he instead growled, "Untie me first!"
Scoffing, I rolled my eyes. "Yeah...that's not really an answer to my question. Here, let's trade. My name's Cadence. Now yours is?"
"Like hell I'm telling you," he spat, glaring viciously. Why does he have to be difficult? That's a major let down from his good looks. "Now untie me!"
He still thinks I'm gonna let him go. That's cute.
"I'll untie you if," I emphasized on the "if", lowering his hopes just a tiny bit, "You just tell me who you are. That's all I'm asking."
His struggling slowed just a bit as he considered my offer, his eyes never leaving mine. Then, a sigh. "It's Vanitas. Now keep to your word and untie me."
Vanitas? What kind of hipster name was that? I raised an eyebrow at his answer and instead crossed my arms, asking, "Where'd you come from? That's not a usual name around here."
The boy's anger rose when I asked, seeing as I went back on my word. Rolling my eyes, I stood and crouched down, undoing the belt around his wrist so he could get the scarf off of his boots. It felt good to be in charge for once, since it was usually my mother telling me what to do and how to do it (with the occasional smack on the head). Vanitas finally got the bright blue scarf off of his ankles and was rubbing his wrists, clearly annoyed with the way I handled him. Not my fault he wasn't prepared for a fifteen year old girl who knows how to bind people quickly. "Now will you answer my questions?"
"Not like I have a choice..." he muttered, pouting slightly. He huffed, saying, "I'm from another world, dipshit."
"Obviously, jerk," I shot back, pushing my swivel chair back by my desk and instead sitting down on my bed, the belt tucked inside my back pocket in case he got any ideas. "Exactly what do you mean 'another world'?"
The raven-haired boy stood up, crossing his arms. "I mean exactly what I said. Your puny world isn't the only one out there. Just take a trip to the Lanes Between." And with that, Vanitas suddenly disappeared with a swirl of blackness, oozing onto the floor until reshaping into a black cat. I jumped back on my bed, hitting my head on the bedpost as the small animal licked its paw nonchalantly.
"Y-You were..." I swallowed thickly, still confused and even more shocked at the situation, "You were the cat? No, you are t-the cat?" He gave me an annoyed look and hopped onto my side table, its tail wrapping around its legs while I tried to comprehend the whole ordeal.
"Why is this so surprising? Are there no shape shifters here?" came the same voice from the cat. I blinked and shook my head, not believing any of this. "I sure chose the wrong person..."
That caught my attention. "Chose?"
The cat narrowed his eyes, clearly frustrated with all of my questions. What did he expect? For me to just go along with everything, no problem? No way! This was weird and different and completely not what I was expecting when my mom decided to take in a black cat. "When will your damned questions stop?"
Scowling, I crossed my arms. "When this starts making sense! This isn't normal— finding an attractive guy in your room, a talking cat, said guy is supposedly from another world, this doesn't happen normally!" I may have let the attractive part slip out, but hopefully he didn't notice. I was fuming by this point, completely caught off guard by all of this. I've read a lot of book where weird things like this happen to a boy or a girl and they just go along fine with it, like it'll be fun and totally not time-consuming or possibly traumatic. Well, news flash, that wasn't exactly how it works in real life. I have my own list of personal shit to do, like I was sure he had as well.
The black cat sighed in irritation. "If I show you what I mean, will you shut up?"
I nodded at his proposition, and watched at his cat form dissolved into a small puddle of black again and the raven-haired boy stood once again in my bedroom, wearing a scowl himself. With just a flick of his wrist and small "hmph", a sword-like object materialized in his hand, only adding to my shock and confusion. It was shaped like a key - and a morbid one at that. It had chains running along the body of the weapon, along with two creepy, blue eyes placed at the top and near the center. The whole thing immediately put me off, but it seemed to reel me in at the same time. It looked so dark and so destructive, and I couldn't help but wonder if you could actually kill anyone with that. Before Vanitas could start explaining, I asked, "What is that?"
He glared, "I was getting to that, stupid. This is a keyblade. It's a weapon that only certain people can wield back at my place— and we use it to fight off people,"
"What kind of 'people'?" my green eyes skeptically observed the "keyblade" in his hand. It sort of was shaped like a key if you squinted hard enough, with the way the top part stuck out.
"People who won't shut up and listen," the teen answered, tossing the weapon to me. I scrambled to grab it at the last minute, the the metal and chains slightly scratching my arm. My eyes scanned over the object in my hands like it was a diseased puppy with an added infection - gross but interesting at the same time. The thing actually was a bit heavy, as if you'd swing it around like an axe. "Seriously, I'd rather just show you—"
"Like, take me to another world or something? Is that what you mean?" I deadpanned, tossing him his keyblade back. "If so, then no thanks, Vani boy."
His eerie yellow eyes narrowed as he caught the weapon easily. "What do you mean 'no thanks'? You don't have much of a choice, idiot." I scoffed and stood from my bed, crossing my arms over my chest as a challenge. I wasn't going anywhere - not without some better explanation as to what the hell was going on.
"What do you mean I don't have a choice? I have to have some say in this! I don't even know who you are or where you came from!" Huffing, I turned to face him with a scowl. "You don't look exactly like the nicest guy around, anyways, so maybe I shouldn't even trust you - HEY!"
My sentence was cut short when he suddenly pushed me into some black, swirling portal, then stepping in himself. I rubbed my elbow from where I landed, looking up and growling out, "You little shit!" All he did was smirk and walk around me, totally uncaring like the jerk he was. I picked myself up, dusting off my jeans and looked at the area he pushed me into; the black portal that we came though was gone and out f sight. I was not about to panic, he had to take me back home eventually, even if I had to "convince" him with my softball swinging skills. Instead if my bedroom, we were in some different place, very different from my usual house in Texas. It didn't even seem real, it looked too bright and colorful, like it came straight out of some cartoon or video game. There was a forest not too far from here, complete with a river flowing out of the bushes and trees that made up the forest. In the direction Vanitas was walking, there was a castle— a real castle! From the outside, it looked like a giant maze was held inside, what with the several towers poking out from the top. I blinked a few times before realizing Vanitas was basically leaving me behind and I caught up to him, asking, "Where the hell are we?"
"The Land Of Departure," was his simple answer. "I'm taking you to meet my Master."
"Your 'master'?" My mind wandered to other things that had to do with that word, but I shook those thoughts away.
Nodding, he pulled out a mask from seemingly nowhere and pulled it on, covering his (attractive) face. "The old man taught me how to use the Keyblade." So you had to learn how to use one of those things. Well, that sounded like it made sense, but why was he taking me to meet his master? Maybe this had something to do with the whole "choosing" business he mentioned earlier, which I was still confused about, but saw no use in trying to get any answers from him right now— since he looked pretty serious. Seems like this "master" of his wasn't that nice of a guy...
We reached the entrance to the castle, where a man stood with his hands folded behind his back facing away from us. He had a slump, or more like a hunchback when I got a better look. He was wearing a black coat over a smaller white one, and had on black pants and boots; everything was mostly black except for his white gloves and shiny, bald head, along with his gray beard.
I didn't like the looks of this guy at all.
The man turned to face us when he heard our footsteps, and I was greeted with a knowing smile and, like Vanitas, piercing, yellow eyes. I didn't like him, but that doesn't mean I was scared of him. If anything, I tried to make myself look a bit taller and intimidating in my sleeveless turtleneck shirt and skinny jeans. "Vanitas, I trust you chose your partner wisely?" His voice was crackly and raspy, a lot like his age.
Partner? The word echoed in my mind a bit angrily. I never agreed to this! The boy next to me nodded, before gesturing to me. "Yeah. She'll make the cut."
I couldn't see his face, but somehow I could tell he was smirking a bit from the tone in his voice. The man faced me, startling me a bit with his bright amber eyes. "I am Master Xehanort. And your name, miss..?"
"Oh, uh, Cadence, sir," I answered, remembering the bit of manners that my mom taught me once. I still had a bad feeling about this guy, even if he came off as the nice-grandpa-let-me-give-you-a-quarter guy. "Nice to meet you. If it's okay to ask, um, why am I here?"
If Vanitas were showing his face right now, he'd be rolling his eyes at my question. The old man before us just gave me another smile and paced began paced slowly. "Cadence, I want to take you under my wing as my apprentice, alongside Vanitas. You will act as a spy for the next few weeks, observing and reporting the on-goings of my dear friend, Master Eraqus', pupils—"
"No, thanks."
Both looked at me in surprise at my interruption. Shrugging, I stuffed my hands in my pockets and added, "I have stuff back home to do." Like school work, taking care of my mom, tumblr, and possibly try to get a boyfriend.
Xehanort blinked before asking, "'Stuff'?"
Nodding, I jerked a thumb towards the boy next to me. "He more so forced me here - I never agreed to this, guy. While I am flattered, I'm going to have to turn down this job." I expected him to have Vanitas take me back home, but instead the old man narrowed his yellow eyes a bit, obviously not amused with my answer. I raised an eyebrow; this wasn't going anywhere I wanted it to. My mom was probably already freaking out and dialing the police to get a search party looking for my ass! I know Vani boy was upset about this, hell, he's probably upset that he picked me in the first place. And exactly why me? Usually in those kind of mystical stories, the main characters have some sort of secret power that they don't know they have, or some tragic untold past, or some secret family member/friend that dragged them all into their adventures. Not me. I was just regular old Cadence, half irish, half English, likes to throw darts at a picture of Susan Downey that I have hanging in my room, that's it.
An idea struck the elderly man at that second. "Why don't we cut a deal, miss Cadence?"
"What kind of deal?"
"You act as my pupil, spy on Master Eraqus' students - this includes following them wherever they may go outside of this world - and report back to me when I summon you. Then, and only then, will I return you back home."
That sounded more like a threat than a deal. I had to spy on a bunch of kids and tell him what they do? Why couldn't Vanitas do this by himself?
Either way, it was the only way I could get back home. Whether I liked it or not, I had to agree to his deal.
I sighed before crossing my arms over my chest in defeat. "Deal."
thanks for all of the favorites, follows and the reviews! I'm having tons of fun writing this so far :3 Next chapter we get to meet Ven, Terr and Aqua!
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