Chapter 4: Hope. LESS
The pain in my chest was immense. I groaned and tried to move from the dirt but I was pined down by the Dusks.
"Sora!" I heard voices scream my name. I slowly opened my eyes.
"Who are you?" I heard Leon shout at the cloaked man.
The cloaked man simply laughed at him, I turned my head slightly to look at him. The man was still facing me; his hand was by his side. I cringed slightly, remembering his hand by my heart, why did it feel like this was supposed to happen to me? I always followed my heart and it never lead me wrong but what was going on?
"I'm sorry that it has to be this way master your heart is going to go through much suffering before this journey is done." A voice sounded in my head.
Why? Why me? What did I do to deserve this! I responded back to my Keyblade.
"I'm very sorry about this master but it has to be this way. I knew from the first day you wielded me, that this would happen to you and I have despised this day ever since. You have such a good heart, Sora you really don't deserve this. No one does, but fate is cruel, and your path is a harsh one."
I don't get it, what's going to happen to me?I asked.
"You'll find out soon enough."
I had been paying so much attention to my Keyblade that I had forgotten what was happening outside my head. I lifted my head again, but I could still hardly move it. I could see that Leon, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy pinned down by dusks. They all had a look on their face but I couldn't quite place it. Before I could determine what it was exactly a black boot appeared in front of my face, he waved the dusks off of my back. I still couldn't move, but he flipped me over by putting his boot under my shoulder.
I gasped out in pain as I landed on my back, I didn't realize it before but I was bleeding. I had figured that what the man had done was similar to a Heartless attacking my heart, but apparently I was wrong about that. My blood made a stain on the sliver and black Final Form outfit that I was still in, my Keyblades having long since disappeared, I tried to move my arms to get to my chest, to try to stop the bleeding.
My fingers had twitched, but that was all that had responded to my feeble attempts. The cloaked man looked at me, and laughed as he figured out what I was trying to do.
"I thought that that Keyblade of yours would have explained things to you." He turned away and started walking towards my friends. I turned my head so I could see what he was doing. He continued talking.
"You aren't meant to survive this Sora, but if you keep trying to live, I will kill them." He was by Yuffie, the nobodies that were holding her down vanished as the man bent to pick her up by the neck.
I stopped trying to move fearing the man's threat to come true. Not that my attempts were doing me any good anyways. I noticed that the bleeding was stopping slowly, which didn't make sense to me. The cloaked man had said that I wasn't supposed to survive this. Why am I healing? How am I healing I guess is the better question. Plus I had thought that the wound would've been deeper all things considering.
The man slowly walked over to me and bent down, looking at the wound. For a minute I thought that he was going to be outraged that it was healing but instead I heard a sigh of relief.
"Good the bleeding is stopping." He chuckled at me. "We can't have you dying now can we?"
"But I thought you wanted me dead?" I sputtered. He got up and turned towards my friends.
"What do you want with me?" I shouted at him.
"I thought I already told you, I want you dead." He replied coldly.
"Why?" At that he turned back towards me and harshly whispered.
"Because you must die in order to be reborn Sora. We can't have you being your normal self."
"But what you said to me just now..."
"Will be kept between you and I, unless of course you want one of your friends to die. That would be quite tragic wouldn't it?"
"Sora please don't say anything I don't want anything to happen to your friends, besides he will kill them to keep you quite." My Keyblade said.
I didn't reply, instead I looked towards my friends; the same look I couldn't place was there, until it clicked. Hopelessness. Their face was laced with it, and it stung my heart to see it on them. I realized that I probably had it on my face as well, a look I tried not to show very often. Somewhere a long the road I knew that no matter how many journey's I would take, the darkness would never go away. A thought that my friends would no doubt try to convince me otherwise of.
My smiles as of late were nothing short of fake, but I had years of smiling behind me so practicing wasn't necessary. I wonder when my real smile began to fade away? I guess my searching had finally gotten to me, and even though I knew Kairi was waiting for both Riku and I back home, somehow I knew that the next time that I would see her was very far off, but yet I still left. I went onto a journey not knowing what I would find, or what would become of me.
The next thing I know I wake up in the old mansion in Twilight Town, and I see Donald and Goofy telling me to wake up. I figured that a year had passed since the end of my first journey. A whole year of my life, just... gone.
I had gotten up to this point in my journey and it felt like I was just giving up for no good reason. What else could I do but give my friends the reassurance that I didn't give up, but that I simply died trying to help the worlds? I looked away from my friends and looked towards the innocent blue sky that blocked the view of the worlds during the day, and quite simply gave in to hopelessness.
The Dusks having seen that I was no longer a threat, slowly got off of me. My friends couldn't see me clearly so I figured that they thought I was dead.
"No! Sora! Oh god he can't be dead! Sora say something!" I heard Yuffie yell. I didn't say a word.
"You might as well give up. He's dead and my part here is done, the only thing left is to take his body with me." The cloaked figure said. He looked down at me and his look said it all. I was dead. I was no longer meant to walk the path of light. Me no longer walking the path of light, who would have thought of that? The thought of it made me want to try and fight, but I squashed the urge.
The man bent down and threw me over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes I had to fight off a scream. My chest still hurt like hell so it wasn't easy in the slightest.
I heard the sound of a Dark corridor being opened and I assumed that he was just going to throw me into it, but instead he kept carrying me. I looked at my friends for what felt like might be the last time, and I saw their anguish. The Nobodies started to vanish and Donald and Goofy tried to run after me while Leon and Yuffie watched in silent horror.
The Dark Corridor closed behind us, and the man sighed, he placed me on the ground gently.
"Look I know that must hurt like freaking Hades right now but we have to get moving." He said. He grabbed my arm and supported me, I didn't even ask about the sudden mood changes he was having.
We started walking through the darkness, and I started to become edgy. I never liked the Darkness, so being in this Corridor had me on high alert.
"Relax nothing is gonna get you in here." The man said. I simply stared at the man in disbelief.
"You're kidding me right? I'm leaning on the shoulder of the guy who just put his hand into my chest and you're telling me to relax?" The figure chuckled a little.
"Hey it didn't kill you did it? Besides I had to do that, orders are orders, no matter how unpleasant they may be." He replied. He sighed and put his hand ontp his face which was still covered by his hood.
"Orders? Whose orders?"
"Well that can wait until you meet her. She will be pleased to see you." He said. I didn't ask any more questions as we walked on, our pace was slow, but it gradually got faster. We walked for what felt like hours, and I felt my strength returning to me, and something else...
"We're here." The man said. I looked up glad that we were going to be somewhere else than in the Dark Corridor, but I saw a figure standing in the way out. The figure started walking towards us, with stealth like precision I had never seen before.
"Ah Lavinia, she sent you?" The man said to the figure.
Lavinia laughed. I looked at her, and it shocked me. She looked to be my age maybe a year older, with long blonde hair down past the middle of her back. She had piercing dark blue eyes, the outer rim was the darkest part besides her pupils, and the insides were a shade lighter. Her lips were a bright red, with slightly tanned white skin, her nose curved up slightly. She wore a black long sleeve shirt, a dark purple and black plaid mini skirt with black socks that went up past her knees slightly, and dark purple ankle length high heel boots.
She had stopped laughing and was conversing with the cloaked man when I was reeled into the conversation by the sound of my name..
"So James this is Sora?" She asked.
"Indeed it is, I did everything exactly as I was told by her." James replied.
"That's good, were there any problems?" She glanced over at me.
"No, but there started to be, although he acted as we predicted though. Threaten his friends and he didn't fight."
"Figures, something I didn't want to happen, happened." She sighed. "Oh well, nothing can be done about it now."
"Who are you?" I asked after keeping quiet throughout their conversation. The girl turned and laughed softly.
"I thought James had already said my name? The better question to be asking is: 'What are you?' That's simple really; I'm a Reaper, and a very rare one at that. There's maybe two or three of my kind at a time." She gave me a look that said she clearly thought something to be funny.
"I guess it make sense though, there's a reason sorrow runs rampant among living things. There isn't enough Sorrow Reapers to make a difference." She started laughing slowly. I stared at her, I had seen crazy things before, and crazy people, but she seemed to be dwelling in crazy. It didn't look like it was a big concern to her though, or her partner. She stopped laughing and composed herself; she walked away from James over to the doorway.
"Wow I really need to stop doing that, I'm starting to sound a lot like a certain clown that I know. Next thing you know we'll have Mr. Vengeance knocking at our door, and we DON'T want that." James visibly shudder and Lavinia just looked thoughtful. I didn't know whom she was talking about but it didn't sound like I wanted to meet them.
"Alright back to the matter at hand," She clasped her hands together. "Let's go, oh and you might want to stay close, where were going to is a lot darker than this Corridor." She grabbed me by the arm, and I had to stifle a gasp. Either it wasn't a very convincing cover up, or she seemed to realize that I had some kind of wound a second too late; but she released me.
"Oh sorry should have known that would have been a bit sore still." She gave me a glance that was seemingly laced with an apology, but it flashed out of her eyes, returning them to the menacing blues eyes that they were. I looked away from her to the Corridor, giving it a wary glance, still not willing to go through there. Lavinia sighed, and started walking away from me towards the corridor, she turned around stared at me.
"You just had to be stubborn didn't you?" She lifted her hands above her head, her features started to shadow, her eyes started turning an ominous purple, a smirk graced her lips. A scythe materialized in her hands, she whipped it around and she held it in one hand. Her head came out of the shadows and her mouth was no longer in a smirk but in a crazy, twisted smile.
"Death Awakening!" She shouted, her scythe cut the air in front of her, a wave of darkness came at me, I couldn't move so I was hit head on by the blast.
"You know I really didn't want to have to do this." My vision started blacking out and I could feel my body falling, but the last thing I heard was her chuckle.
Hey guys so this is a very late chapter but life… well its life. Anyways I don't think I will able to update again in January, my high school band was invited to play in the inauguration festivities and march in the inauguration parade… so life is getting REALLY busy for me. Well I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
~Love and Darkness~
-Moon Stealer