Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and characters copyright Square Enix and such people. Not me.

A/N:

Last Chapter! OMG LAST CHAPTER

A little shorter than before, because that's how it wanted to be.

My goodness, I can't believe that Hiena is done already. It was such a wild ride, totally different from what I usually do. I hope that those of you who have read it enjoyed it, or found it intriguing. There's a lot of things I tried to do with this and I think I managed to do something interesting here.

Yes, there are things that weren't answered exactly. Hey, sometimes these stories write themselves. That's the way it goes.

Thank you for the good times.

Review! DO IT. THE COFFEE COMMANDS YOU TO.


It is dark outside and the moon has moved across the sky but Roxas finds it impossible to sleep. His mother had stayed up late waiting for him and she had been worried and he'd been scolded worse than he'd been scolded in a long time but she is sleeping now and he is sitting on the couch in the main room and looking out the window and trying to connect the stars. His mother had said that Demyx was doing better but he had been asleep when Roxas came back and the younger boy hadn't wanted to bother him.

Roxas finds a pattern in the stars but he loses it and he tries to find it again and he is trying hard not to let his eyes slide close even though they want to badly. He wants to sleep but each time he tries he sees flames and he feels heat and there is something all around him and there is something in his hands and he opens his eyes again because he thinks he knows what would come next if he didn't and he doesn't want to see that. He is worried about Naminé and wonders if her parents are mad as well but he isn't able to do anything about it anyways. He sighs and pulls his knees to his chest and watches the stars flicker, and flicker, and his eyes are sliding closed and there is a low rumble outside his window. It is a rumble and something of a growl and he frowns and keeps his eyes from closing and the growl is getting louder. He lets go of his knees and he slips to the edge of the couch and comes closer to the window and looks outside.

There is nothing he can see that wasn't there before but there are shadows everywhere and the darkness in the doorway in the next door building looks strange. He squints and tries to see better and he hears the growl again, loud and rumbling and he can feel it in his head. He puts his hands to the window and presses his face to the glass and peers outside and he doesn't feel so sleepy anymore. There is a flicker somewhere past the corner of the building next door, a flare of bright orange that vanishes quickly. Roxas turns his face against the glass and tries to make out what the flicker was and then the growl grows louder and rumbles and it starts turning into a cackle and the flicker comes again only this time it is larger and it doesn't flicker it reaches out and it licks along the edge of the wooden fence separating gardens and dashes along the wooden crossbeams and spreads across the supports and jumps into the gardens themselves and Roxas's breath is caught in his throat. He pushes away from the window and dashes to the door and pulls it open and runs out and down the stairs in his t-shirt and shorts and socks and runs to the main doors and pulls them open and runs outside and around the corner of the house and to where the wooden fence is and he reaches the gardens and the fence is fine and the flames are gone.

He leans over and braces his hands on his knees and breathes and breathes and his heart is pounding and he doesn't know what just happened. There were flames but he can make out the fence in the light from the moon and the tomato plants growing next to it and they are untouched and everything is quiet around him. He stands up straight and looks around but he cannot see anything out of the ordinary and he is turning around when he hears the growl again. It comes from behind him and a little to the left and he turns around but there is nothing there but the growl is coming from behind him again now. It is growing louder and he hears something scratch along the ground and drag against it and he can smell smoke but he can't see any flames. The growl is all around him and he turns and turns but there is nothing but the cackling growling rumble around him and in his ears and in his head. He is cold and he is shaking and he is stumbling back towards the house and the ground under his feet is torn up and scratched up and the growl is loud and he looks up and there is a flickering in the windows of their apartment and he is dashing to the front of the house again and in through the doors. He rushes up the stairs and in through their door again. There is a flickering in the main room but it fades as he runs into it and he is breathing hard and he spins around and he looks and there is a flickering around the door to the bedroom where Demyx is and his breath catches and he runs over and he throws open the door and he can't see anything in the darkness. He makes his way over to the bed by touch and he puts a hand out and he feels his brother's arm and his skin is warm beneath his hand and he breathes again and he lowers himself to the floor and puts his back to the bed and pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them and shudders and stares at the window with its drapes drawn and keeps watch.

****

Demyx has his eyes open before the sun rises. He is aware of Roxas snoring softly from where he is curled up on the floor and he finds it surprising that he isn't surprised by it. He makes no move to wake his brother and instead watches the light rise in a line where the drapes don't meet exactly and stretch down the windowsill and slowly across the floor. There is a quiet in the air and he finds himself feeling peaceful, and yet not. There's something missing, or rather, there's something that isn't completed yet. He stares up at the ceiling and tries to figure out what it is. He is missing something, it is hovering just outside the edges of his attention. Roxas shifts on the floor but he doesn't wake.

The door cracks open and their mother steps in and she smiles softly when she sees Roxas and she steps over him carefully and puts a hand to Demyx's forehead and she looks happy.

"You're looking much better," She says and she brushes his hair back. "And you hadn't coughed this night."

Demyx smiles at her and he could tell her that he hadn't been coughing because he hasn't taken a breath since late last night but he decides against it and she leaves to get ready for work and he looks up at the ceiling again and waits for her to leave. He sits up as soon as he hears the door close and looks over at his brother. Roxas is on his side and he has one arm beneath his head and the other stretched out in front of him and he is sleeping soundly even though the floor can't be all that comfortable. Demyx knows what it is now, what is missing, undone and unfinished, and he steps gently onto the floor and stands up and leans over and picks his brother up and puts him on the bed. Roxas looks worried in his sleep and he mutters something but Demyx ruffles his hair and the boy relaxes and Demyx smiles and he turns around and gets his clothes out of the dresser and walks out of the room and closes the door behind him. He goes to the bathroom and cleans up and gets dressed.

He comes out of the bathroom and goes to the front door and puts his boots on and opens the door and goes out and closes the door behind him. He heads down the stairs slowly and listens to the sounds of the building as people are getting ready and heading out and waking up. Someone is frying up some eggs and someone else is making coffee and he can hear a clatter in the lower apartment where the young couple with their small children live and there is laughter inside and the shriek of a happy child. He reaches the bottom of the staircase and the main doors and he opens them and heads outside. He stops at the corner of the house and looks towards the gardens in back and he can see the ground out back is torn up by something and there is the lingering scent of smoke on the air but it is faded, like an echo. He heads on past the next house and there are paw prints and claw marks in the ground in front of it as well and in front of the next one too and he looks up and the moon has set but he can feel it anyway. He doesn't meet anyone on his way down the street and by the walls. There are birds singing above him as he heads out under the trees and down the path.

He steps off of the path and into the woods and walks between the trees to where he knows the stream runs. The water is clear and is running smooth and he stays at the edge of the stream and looks down into it. He doesn't seem himself and he doesn't see the surroundings reflected but he sees the water and the water is clean and pure. He walks along the stream for a little way and listens to the birds in the trees and the bubble of the water around various stones and reeds. He reaches the place where large stones form a makeshift bridge across the stream and he steps out onto them and stops in the middle and closes his eyes and listens to the water.

"So, are you coming?"

Demyx opens his eyes and sees that the red haired man is standing in front of him with his rifle slung over his shoulder and his hands in his pants pockets. His red hair is tousled and wild around his face and his eyes are glinting wickedly in the morning light. There are dark stains around the tattered holes in his shirt and the metal of his rifle is blackened and there are spots on his pants that look charred. Further behind him, half hidden in the shadows stands a man with strange blue hair, his dark uniform made darker in places with dirt and charring. His eyes are glowing a soft electric yellow. The air around the two men is charged, overloaded. There is darkness beyond them, coalescing clouds of futility and Demyx can see it visibly hanging around the base of the trees and reaching tendrils out towards the stream and the town beyond it. The stream, the stream, he can feel it now, flowing and curling and he knows what its purpose is, what his purpose is, and he can feel how far it curves and borders and separates the town from the wilds of the woods beyond it.

"You've got the wrong person," Demyx says and he smiles and the red haired man barks a laugh.

"I know that, but he isn't going to be coming, is he?" The red haired man's eyes glint dangerously and his smile is sharp.

"I wouldn't let him," Demyx says and he thinks of his brother and he thinks of his mother and his town.

"Of course. That's why you're here, even if you're not cut out for this," The red haired man shifts his stance and pulls his hands out of his pockets and the man with the glowing eyes backs a little more into the shadows and his eyes gleam. "So, come."

"No," Demyx says. He smiles and the red haired man frowns and the man with the glowing eyes growls. Demyx smiles because he knows he is doing the right thing because the red haired man looks angry now.

"So this is what you're giving me?" The red haired man's eyes seethe and there is a distinct smell of sulfur in the air.

"This is what you've earned." Demyx answers although he doesn't know why those words come to mind. He still doesn't understand what the red haired man had wanted from him, not from that first meeting and not from that second meeting and not from any meeting they had. All he knows is that he can't let his brother fall to this and he can't let his mother suffer anymore than she already will be suffering and he can't let his town fall into the hands of the red haired man and his dog.

The man with the glowing eyes is silent and the red haired man is looking at Demyx and his eyes are mirrors again and then he is sliding the rifle strap off of his shoulder and pulls the bolt and readies the rifle.

"That's that, then," The red haired man raises the rifle and places the muzzle against Demyx's forehead and Demyx knows that the red haired man doesn't understand and that he isn't able to hear the water sing like Demyx does and he smiles and looks the red haired man straight in his mirror green eyes and the rifle discharges and the stream carries the pieces away.

****

There's a hyena in the woods. It prowls from shadow to shadow, hungry and searching. It has a collar, and they say the hand that holds the chain is the devil's itself.

It used to come out to the town at night, they say it used to wander from home to home, searching for anyone out too late. It doesn't come out from the woods now, it can't cross water like it used to.

If you go to the stream at night, that stream in the woods, they say you can see someone. He stands with his back towards the town, facing deeper into the woods. They say, as soon as you see him, he'll disappear, and if you try to look for him along the banks of the stream, eventually you'll end up at the path to the town again.

The hyena can't cross the stream now; they say the price that needed to be paid was paid in blood. If you go out during the day, they say you can see its paw prints all up and down the far side of the stream. The moon is always full in the woods, no matter what its phase is outside, and the hyena is always hungry.

And when the moon is full, really full, outside the woods too?

They say the stream runs red.