Day 14

Stepping Into the Illusion

Sora rubbed his pounding head and groaned. His surrounding were now dark and creepy, the complete opposite of where he just was.

Realizing that Sota was still gone, Sora called out in a lower voice, "Sota? Hey Sota, are you here?" When he got no reply, he sighed; something must have drove Sota to keep moving. But what?

"I'm not sure where he went. . . But maybe if I just keep moving forward, I'll run. . . into. . ." Sora's words were cut short when he saw who was standing directly across from him.

It was Kiari.

She was there, staring at him with a pained look on her face. She didn't say a word, nor did she move. Her blue eyes looked moist with tears, but none were brimming in the corners of her eyes. She looked different from when Sora had saw her last. She looked normal.

She looked like his friend. Not the evil creature that the Darkness had made her become.

"K-Kiari. . ." Sora gasped, not believing what he was seeing.

That being said seemed to snap her out of her frozen stance. She blinked her sad eyes slowly and then let fresh tears stream down her cheeks. "Sora. . . Help me. . ." she said. Her voice cut a deep gap into Sora's heart; it sounded so weak and helpless.

"Kiari. . . What's wrong. . ?" Sora took a step towards her but she took a quick step back.

"He's. . . He's coming after me. . . And when he finds me. . . He's gonna kill me. . . Oh Sora, you can't let him do that. . . You can't!" she panicked.

"What. . ? What are you talking~"

Kiari's scream cut him off. A look of pure terror came to life on her face and she quickly backed away. "No! Don't come any closer! Stay away from me!"

When Sora went to reply, he silenced himself when he saw someone else.

Riku, who seemed to just appear out of nowhere, walked passed Sora and advanced toward Kiari. He was taking his good old time in heading towards her, one calm step after the other. His dark frown transformed into a freakish, crescent-shaped smile. His Keyblade was gripped tightly in right hand and resting at his side.

"Riku. . ." Sora began, but Kiari's screams interrupted him again.

"Sora help! Help me! He's gonna kill me! Sora! Please help me!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face.

Sora stood motionless. He was confused and scared. Where had Riku and Kiari come from? What was Kiari talking about? Why was Riku acting differently? Something was wrong, terribly wrong, but Sora couldn't figure out what it was. He was frightened by the scene that was playing before him, and he didn't know what he could do to stop it. When Kiari began to race off, Riku followed, and Sora decided to trail behind the two slowly to see what was happening.

Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

Kiari was continuing to run away, but then she tripped and fell to the ground. She desperately tried to stand, but was only able to back away as Riku approached.

Sora wanted to run towards his friend and see if she was all right, but it was as if something was preventing him from moving. When he tried to take a step on his own, his legs felt heavy.

Spinning herself around, Kiari gazed up at Riku who was now standing above her. He looked down at her with that same twisted look, and then raised his Keyblade. Kiari screamed and pleaded for help, but no matter how hard Sora tried to act, nothing would break him out of his frozen place. He was glued to where he stood, only being able to watch what crazy nightmare would unfold in front of him.

Riku seemed to halt for a few moments. All the while, Kiari screamed in horror, "No! Please stop! Stop!"

Sora finally swallowed the lump that had formed his throat and then was able to spit some words out of his sewn shut mouth. "Riku, what are you~" His question was left to floating in the foggy air when he finally realized what was happening.

Blood splattered onto the ground as Kiari's body instantly went limp and fell back onto the ground. As Riku continued to chop at Kiari's already dead body, blood seeped into his clothing and stained his silver hair. Some of the red liquid even ran over his white teeth. As he slashed and sliced in a remorseless way, he let out an evil, wicked laugh.

Sora took a couple steps backward until he found himself pressing his back against one of the rugged hedges. "Riku. . ." Sora shuddered. When Riku severed Kiari's left arm from her body, a spray of blood changed the color of the ground to red. Some of the red droplets splattered onto Sora's face, mixing with some of his tears.

Even now, the silver-haired boy continued to slice Kiari's body into more pieces. You could hardly tell that the bloody figure had once been a human being. "Riku! Stop!" Sora finally screamed in terror.

To Sora's surprise, Riku stopped. His Keyblade dripped blood from its tip. He turned around and faced Sora. He still had the same malevolent face that he had before. Now, this time he made his way slowly towards his sixteen-year-old friend.

"Riku. . ." Sora's voice was unsteady, full of fear.

Riku's smile turned even freakier.

"Riku. . . wait stop! No!"

The older boy licked away some of Kiari's blood that ran down onto his lips.

"Riku!"

He held up his blood dripping Keyblade.

Sora went to run, but there was no where he could go. Riku closed in on him. Sora knew that he could only try one more time to stop his friend from committing another murder. "Stop Riku! Please stop!" Sora begged, tears streaming down his face. "Don't do it Riku! Please don't! No!"

Riku made no reply and then made his move.

Sora screamed in agony. His screams echoed the entire way through the Labyrinth. When he realized that he had is eyes closed, he snapped them open.

Riku was gone, and so was Kiari.

Everything that Sora had just witnessed was gone. Riku and Kiari, all of the red blood, Kiari's shredded body, gone.

Vanished.

Sora didn't understand. He had saw everything with his own two eyes. Was he possibly dreaming? Was he hallucinating? Sora blinked and then finally remembered what Sota had told him about illusions. The Labyrinth could somehow sense what frightened people the most and then it would create an illusion out of it.

That's what must have happened. . . It was an illusion. I guess one of my fears is having Riku and Kiari both dead. . . Never having to be with one of them again. . . If I had the choice to save one of them. . . Who would it be. . ?

Sora shook his head; he couldn't think about things like that.

When he went to move, a sudden weakness ravaged his body and he fell to his knees. "What the. . . hell. . ?"

Sora's eyes widened when he saw a knife sticking out of his side. The left side of his blue tank top was soaked in red blood. When. . ? When the hell did that get there!? How did I get injured? Shoot. . . This really hurts. . .

Sora hesitantly grasped it, biting his lip. He gave it a yank and tore it out of his body, throwing blood droplets onto the ground. He muttered a few curses and took some deep breaths to calm himself down and ease some of the pain. He placed his hand over the wound and then stood up.

Thankfully, that wasn't very deep at all. . . Still, Sota will have to bandage it so it doesn't get infected. . . Wait a second. . .

Sora looked around. "Sota?"

The man was gone.

That's funny. . . He's the one who told me not to get separated. And there he goes, getting lost. Crap. . . I wonder if this pocket knife belongs to him. Sora folded the bloody knife back up and put it in his pocket. I remember those vines attacked, and Sota must have saved me. . . I heard him walk away, but where'd he go?

Sora sighed; nothing could be easy. He looked forward and then back. Once again, a thought crossed his mind. Should he trace his way back to the entrance and go on his way, or should be continue forward? He knew he had to keep going on. The only was he could keep moving was forward. If he went back now, he would be choosing defeat.

The sky had grown darker since they had arrived and Sora knew that it was around midnight. As he walked, he couldn't help to think that he and Sota had some kind of connection. . .

But it was weird because he had never met Sota before.

There was something on the tip of his tongue, but Sora just stopped, cracked his neck, and continued off into the night.

Ryan, Zack, and Taylor advanced through the Labyrinth. While the two younger boys chased, pushed, and shoved each other around for fun, Ryan sighed. He turned to face his brothers. "Can't you two be normal for once?"

"Aw Ryan, that's mean," Zack frowned. "You should know by now that we're not normal."

"Anyone can see that," Ryan muttered.

"No Ryan, we told you," Taylor said. "We're unique."

Ryan sighed again. "You two are idiots. I don't know why I try to communicate with you. I should just stay with the smart people instead."

"Ryan! We're not stupid!" Zack protested. "We're just. . . well. . ."

"Dense," Ryan replied. "I've had enough of this. Tell me, do you even know why we're out here?"

The two boys paused and thought hard for a moment. Taylor replied first. "Aren't we just taking a stroll?"

It took all of Ryan's sanity not to punch his youngest brother. Still, he calmly replied, "No Taylor, we are not out here for a stroll. We are out in this godforsaken maze of death because we were sent to go and find Sora. Didn't you listen to a word Kiari said?"

Zack responded first. "Well, I try to block out most of her words. Usually, she just insults us in violent ways so I just decide not to listen."

The oldest boy shook his head and mumbled to himself, "Why? Why was I cursed with such foolish brothers?"

Taylor was the next one to talk. "Why do we even listen to Kiari? All she does is treat us like we're trash. I don't see why we let her push us around. I mean, that's Dad's castle, not hers."

Ryan turned to him. "Taylor, try to understand. We can't leave now. Kiari has the power to easily make the Darkness in someone's heart corrupt. If we try to leave, she can make one of us turn on each other, and I'm not taking that risk. We've gotta stay." He knelt down and whispered to his two brothers, "I know that it may not be now, or anytime soon, but still, if Kiari thinks that she can get away with everything she's up to, she's wrong. Somehow, someway, that castle will belong to us again, and we'll have our original life back, but for now, we have to play along. It's just like Joshua said; 'The only we can hope to survive is if we obey her order. I promise you, I'll find a way out of this. I always do. Just hold tight until I can think of something.' Both Amiamon and Lee are believing it, and so are we. She'll be defeated sometime, but for now, all we can do is wait. Understand?"

The two Thompson boys nodded at their older brother. They knew that if he had gotten them this far, he could do the rest of the way.

Ryan stood back up and stretched. "Let's go," he directed. "Sora's around here somewhere, and our objective is to find him and take him back to Kiari."

"But where do you think he~" All of the sudden, Zack was falling towards the ground, and there was a loud splash. He had fallen into a pond.

Ryan and Taylor were silent at first, surprised. It was only moments before Taylor fell to his knees in laughter. He laughed even harder when he saw Zack's soggy figure.

Ryan, more matured than his youngest brother, held out his hand and pulled Zack to his feet. "You all right?"

Zack nodded, a look of embarrassment on his face. But that look was quickly replaced by one of pride. "Yeah, I'm fine. I knew that pond was there. I just wanted to see what you guys would do if I fell into one. I wanted to see if you would be generous and help me out, or," he turned to his other brother, "sit there and laugh while I almost drowned to death!"

Taylor was finally able to stop laughing and he stood up. "Sorry, but you're such a klutz. I don't know how you do it, but you always manage to trip and fall. You are stupid."

"Hey Taylor, can you hand me that map that I gave you earlier of the Labyrinth. I don't remember seeing a pond," Ryan stated.

Taylor blinked a few times. "What map?"

"The map to the Labyrinth. Remember, I told you to grab it before we left."

"Oh. . . That map. . ." Taylor ran his fingers through his hair nervously, "Well, you see. . . I kind of forgot to grab it. . ."

"You dumbass!" Zack shouted. "Now who's the stupid one?"

Ryan was silent.

"I'm sorry," Taylor apologized. "I was going to go back and get it, but I didn't think that we'd need it."

"You idiot! We're stuck in here because of you!"

Ryan watched his brothers bicker until he couldn't take it anymore. He placed himself between the two and yelled, "Shut up! Both of you! I got plenty of yelling from Mom and Dad and I don't need it from you."

Zack sighed and straightened himself out. "So, now what?"

"Well, I suppose we keep moving. . ." Ryan replied. "We just have to be cautious when moving ahead. Stay behind me just in case."

Just when the three Thompson boys went to move on, Zack stopped them. "Hey, did you hear that?"

"What?" Taylor whispered.

"It sounded like a splash. . ." Zack pointed straight ahead, through the fog.