Okay, well . . . it took me two weeks . . . but it's better than a month! But I'm seriously sorry that I haven't been as quick an updater as I used to be, everything's just been piling up and it's hard to find the time! Also, I must admit, I've been slacking a bit. DX. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Thank you once again reviewers! I know that Chapter nine seriously wasn't worth the wait, and that this story is going so unbearably slow. You're all probably wondering when the heck the Soriku is going to kick in! I'm afraid all I can do is give hints, considering the situation the characters are in. But I CAN start to add more Akuroku and Zemyx, considering those characters are going to make an appearance in the next chapter!

This chapter still takes place the same night, and it's all about Sora and Riku and Namine. This chapter has a lot to do with the supernatural part of this story.

Hope you enjoy!

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1o: All it takes is a chance.

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Maybe it was because he was angry, or maybe it was because he wanted answers. Sora didn't particularly know the reason why he was stomping around the mansion feeling an immense need to find Riku. He made his way towards the white room and flung open the door in a dramatic fashion, "Okay, I don't know what you're trying to hide, but I want to know!"

No answer. But it wasn't because Riku and Namine were silent; it was because they weren't even there. To top it off, Leon heard everything and was behind him, "Sora."

Not good. He probably thinks I'm delusional . . . or mental. He slowly turned around, grinning, "Heeeey Leon."

The stoic brunette leaned to look past Sora into the white room, "Who are you talking too?"

"Myself."

After that answer, Leon raised a brow, unconvinced. Sora just kept grinning like a moron, considering it was the only thing he could do. Then Leon finally asked, "So . . . you were yelling at yourself?"

This is . . . not good. "Err . . . well . . . Yeah." He finished lamely, feeling like a complete idiot. He knew it wasn't really his fault, but Leon didn't. Having your brother thinking you were a complete mental case wasn't that great of a thing.

Leon sighed, "You know what? Whatever. I've got some work to do."

The brunet walked away, and Sora saw him retreat into the library. Once his brother was out of sight, He let out a huge sigh. Even though Leon was annoyed, Sora was off the hook for now. He really had to remember that he wasn't the only person in the mansion and that Leon didn't know about ghosts. He turned back around to look inside the white room, and out of pure curiosity, he walked in. He hadn't been inside of the white room since the incident on Sunday, and even then, he never got a good look at it. But one thing he noticed that there was no pictures on the wall. Four pictures. One of him. One of Leon. One of Him and Riku. And . . . one of two girls. The picture wasn't clear, and it seemed like it was meant to be that way. Sora moved in closer and squinted his eyes, trying to find the meaning of this picture, but he came to nothing. He frowned as he scanned the room, but finally left.

He wasn't sure where the two ghosts were, and he was let down on the fact that they were hiding something from him. Maybe he'd just thought too much of himself, thinking that he was some important hero or something. It really was their problems and stories that they had every right to hide, but still, Sora hated it.

Maybe I'm just being selfish, I mean, seriously, me? A hero? Sora let out a bitter laugh and walked slowly towards his room, he was about to reach for the knob when he stopped, and lowered his hand. He glanced down the hall. What is really down there? I know Riku told me not too but . . .

Sora narrowed his eyes, Riku. If Riku's not going to tell me anything . . . I'll figure it out myself. He then began to slowly take steps forward, slowly, hesitantly. Then, he stared down the hall and continued forward confidently.

This is my chance.

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"Hey Sora, I'm really sorry I ran out on you but –"

Riku took a quick glance around the room and realized that Sora wasn't there. He then looked in the white room, the kitchen, and even Leon's room. Those were the only places that Sora would really go, unless, he went out, which Riku doubted. He finally ended up in the white room again, where oddly enough, Namine was gone. He sat down in a chair, trying to think his options through. He really didn't mind that he didn't know where Namine was, because she could take care of herself just fine. But Sora . . .

I really hope he'd not mad at us . . . Having Sora mad at him and Namine was not a good thing. They really were desperate for his help, and if Sora couldn't help them . . . who really could? I have to find him. After drifting around the whole front of the house at least five times, Riku just ended up back in the hallway in front of Sora's room again. It was unnerving to try to find the kid, when he was obviously wasn't inside the mansion. Sighing, Riku figured that the only thing he could do was waiting, considering he was bound to the mansion and couldn't leave.

I know he's out . . . but . . . why do I feel like he's still here? Riku shook his head, and started walking away. But then he suddenly halted. I've checked absolutely everywhere except . . . He glanced down the hallway, which was dark at the end. "No, he wouldn't do that," Riku muttered to himself, "Or . . . would he?"

One second later, Riku disappeared.

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Twitching a bit, Namine sensed some sort of disturbance. She was in a small den, for a change, and immediately dissolved and reappeared in the white room looking for Riku who had been in there. She still sensed his presence, meaning that he had just left. Then she drifted over to Sora's room. He wasn't there, and nor was Sora. She went back into the hallway, a little bothered by the fact that she wasn't sure where the two were when it was always so easy and natural to her.

Where are you? Where?

She circled the front part of the mansion, until she was simply led back into the hallway. Before she could think things over, the main door open and she quickly disappeared, becoming unseen. Leon came in, with a bored expression. He walked over to Sora's door and knocked, "Hey, what do you want for dinner?"

A few moments, and no answer. Leon sighed, "Fine, don't answer." Then the brunette turned and retreated to his own room, closing the door behind him. Namine reappeared in the hallway.

"Not anywhere. Nowhere," She whispered to herself. She knew that there was a chance that Sora was out of the house . . . but why wouldn't he tell his brother? What really worried her was Riku, who was bound to the mansion like herself, and would only linger in the little area of the front half. After so much logic, thinking and processing . . . she could only come to one unbelievable answer. She stared down the dark hall that she had learned to avoid, just like Riku and Sora. They wouldn't . . . no . . . why?

After a few seconds of staring, Namine disappeared down that hall in a gust of white.

Sora. Riku. Why?

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"I can just tell," Sora said as he slowly walked down the dark hallway. "That this is a bad idea."

He didn't like how the farther he went in, the darker and colder the mansion seemed to become, and on top of it all, he believed that he was lost. Doesn't that sound pathetic, being lost in your own house? Every time he hesitantly opened a door, he'd a crack it open a little bit at a time, wincing, as if something was going to come barreling out. But mostly all he found were closets, guestrooms, bathrooms, and dens. All were dark and coated with dust, but that didn't help ease Sora's conscious. But then, as he turned the nest hallway, and took the first door, he did see something. Laid across the bed were piles of papers and pictures. He couldn't repel his curiosity, and he stepped inside the room, inching his way to the bed. This must've been a guest room. He slowly sat on the edge of the bed and picked up a picture. His eyes widened, and his grip on the picture tightened.

Is this . . . Riku? His focus was at first on the little nine year old boy, with shining eyes and a white smile. Then he turned his attention to women in the picture that had the same exact features as the boy. His mom . . . Then his eyes drifted to the man with tan skin, and glowing eyes. This man had absolutely nothing in common with the boy and women, except maybe the silver hair. This is Riku's father . . . this is Xemnas . . . the bad ghost . . .

As he clutched the photo with one hand, he reached for another picture. This one was of Riku and Riku only; he looked 16 . . . the age he was currently shown as. The setting seemed to be fall, and Riku was in a school uniform with a pile of books clutched under his arm. He was smiling softly at the camera, but somehow, he didn't seem all that happy. Sora frowned at the picture, wondering what Riku was thinking at the time. Then he set aside both pictures on one side of him and searched through the pile. The third piece he picked up was a crisp, yellow piece of paper with slender black writing. At first, it was really hard to read, but soon Sora's eyes adjusted to the cursive to realize that this was a journal entry that Riku had written when he was 16.

September 14, 1920,

Everyone tells me that I'm perfect, and I can't agree. It's not a matter of self esteem or modesty . . . It's simply because I know perfection doesn't exist, and even if it did, I'd be far from it. That's at least what I think. Anyway, today marks my birthday and everyone has made a huge deal of it, except the person who should care the most. Maybe that's the problem . . . maybe; I just want a sense of care from my father. But he's always busy with work and such, and when I do see him, I end up wishing I hadn't. But I can't say I'm not worried, the people he's been working have proven to be dangerous, and I know that they've been planning something big. I don't want to ask though; I'd rather not be involved in his business.

Everyone seems to think that I've got the best life, but they are all so wrong. As much as my 'friends' try, they can't ever seem to get it. Maybe all I need is someone to talk too, but that can prove to be a hard task for me. I just can't give my trust to just anyone.

Sincerely,

Riku

Sora stared at the letter with a frown. It was full of so much sorrow and emotion that Sora felt as if he could feel the pain as well. To think, Riku had written this so close to the time of his death. Sora also took into notice the fact that Riku had written this on his sixteenth birthday, which was September 14th . . .

September 14th . . . that's . . . His eyes widened, and he gasped in realization, Today's September 14th . . . its Riku's birthday . . . what a coincidence . . .

Suddenly, Sora felt a cold gust from the right; he cocked his head to the right, seeing nothing there. Then he stood, and decided to leave, but before he could, another cold gust of wind hit him from the left, and then the right again. Soon, gusts of wind were hitting him from all directions, practically trapping him. Ghosts.

"Leave . . . Leave . . . leave . . ." Cold voices echoed in his mind, making his head burn and sear with pain. He dropped the letter, and held his head with both hands. Everything was spinning, turning, blurring . . . echoing. He managed to keep his feet glued to one spot, but he was still shaking violently, and the wind was pushing him around like some sort of bully. "You can't help him . . . No help . . . just go."

Their trying to scare me out . . . Between the pain in his head and the cold wind whipping at him, all Sora could manage out was to scream out, "N –no! No!" He finally caved and dropped down to his knees, holding his head, and his body shaking. I should've listened to Riku . . . I'm so stupid! Maybe I really can't help . . . maybe; I'm just a last resort . . . maybe . . .

No . . . Sora breathed in deeply, and loosened the grip on his head. If I can just believe that I'm useful . . . then I can be . . . He blocked out the cold, voices, and fear from his mind for a moment and simply forgot every single pessimistic thought in his mind. "No." He then let his hands fall to his sides and stood up breathing deeply. He could feel the ghosts stall for a moment. Confidence is key.

"I know you're out to get me . . . but I – I don't care! I'm not going anywhere!" Sora yelled out, over the cold gusts of wind that encircled him. "I'm. Not. Scared!"

Then, the wind halted to a complete stop and everything was silent. Then, an unfamiliar ghost appeared before him, but Sora knew exactly who it was. The ghost was smirking, eyes glowing, and he was extremely tall.

"Hello Sora," He said in a deep voice that echoed.

Don't even start with the nice act . . . Sora tried to maintain his confidence, and hesitantly asked, "You're . . . Xemnas, aren't you?"

"Of course," The ghost replied. "How do you like the Miori mansion?"

He's trying to make small talk . . .? Can't he just get to the point? Sora couldn't force himself to make a sharp reply, or even change the subject, "its okay . . . I guess."

"Hmmmm . . . interesting . . ." Xemnas held his smirk as he then asked completely out of subject. "What is Riku doing?"

"Uh . . . well, I don't know," It was half true at least; he really didn't know where the ghost was. But then again, he would've said the same thing if he did know. Sora couldn't help but advert his eyes from the ghost before him. He was really trying to keep his confidence, but Xemnas just had that ability to scare it all way. After a couple of moments of extreme and uncomfortable silence, Xemnas took a step forward and asked, "Pardon me for asking . . . but are you scared Sora? I thought you just said that you weren't."

"I'm not scared."

"Is that so?" Xemnas asked slyly, taking yet another step. Sora already against the bed, but he was still trying to inch his way backward. "Tell me Sora, what do you think you can do?"

"That – that's none of your business," Sora narrowed his eyes towards the floor. Xemnas just stood there, and then he said, "Is it none of my business, or do you not have even a clue about what you're getting yourself into?"

Sora looked up for the moment, "I know what I'm doing."

Xemnas smirked again, and shook his head, "No you don't. You have not a clue."

Stop it. Stop telling me this. You don't know me. Sora wanted to say something back, and show Xemnas that he wasn't as useless as the ghost thought, but the words just wouldn't come out. But then he finally brought his head up again to glare at Xemnas.

"Don't judge me."

Then, before either of them could do anything else, Riku appeared in the doorway, wide eyed, "Sora . . ."

Sora turned to look at the other ghost with wide eyes as well, and Xemnas turned his head to smile mockingly at his son. Then Xemnas simply disappeared in thin air. Riku then moved quickly forward in front of Sora, "Sora!? What were you thinking? Did Xemnas do anything? Are you okay?"

There was a mixture of anger and worry in the ghosts frantic voice and Sora felt immensely guilty, I can't believe I did this too him . . . and he's been so nice to me . . . for a ghost.

"I'm sorry Riku, I just wanted answers that you weren't going to give me," Sora sighed. "But, it was stupid and dangerous. No matter how curious I was, I shouldn't of gone to those measures . . . . I am really sorry Riku."

"It's okay," Riku said softly, but he wasn't looking at Sora when he said it. His eyes were adverted and he had a distant feeling around him. Then the ghost muttered out, "Did he do anything?"

"Xemnas?"

Riku nodded numbly and Sora bit his lip hesitating, "N – no," He lied. "He just . . . said hello. That's all."

Riku finally looked at Sora, completely expressionless, and asked, "Is that true?"

Sora bobbed his head repeatedly, and as convincingly as he could. He didn't believe that Riku was all that convinced though, seeing as the ghost was frowning and silent. "Err, Riku . . . you can get mad at me, you know? I mean, I won't leave or anything . . . but that's not very encouraging because I really am not all that useful . . ."

I'm going through a cycle, no matter how positive and confident I am at one point of time . . . I go right back to the negative thoughts again . . . Sora sighed sadly and Riku finally said, "No, just . . . please don't say that Sora."

They finally locked on to each other's eyes, and Riku continued, "You're not useless! I really, really believe that you can help us out . . . . So, please, don't back out now."

Sora bit his lip and muttered, "I'm not gonna back out, and I never said anything about leaving . . ."

Riku just smiled, "That's true." Then the ghost brought his eyes over to the pictures on the bed, then back to Sora, "So you saw the pictures?"

"Uh, yeah . . ." Sora answered hesitant. He felt uncomfortable with Riku knowing that he'd looked through his stuff, but even more so, he couldn't help but look at Riku differently after reading that entry. He didn't mean too, it was just the reaction he had to things like that. Sora was horrible at hiding his emotions and thoughts. "Wait, don't change the subject!"

Riku just laughed a little, "Sorry. Does it bother you?"

There he goes again, being all blunt and sarcastic . . . Sora hated the fact that Riku could affect him and his emotions so greatly, and also make him so embarrassed – and it was only two day since they met! But then again, Sora could tell that Riku was opening up to him, and he felt kind of special because of that. It's not every day you befriend a ghost. Or that you live in a haunted house. Or that you're attempting to come up with a plan to destroy a bunch of deadly ghosts. Sora really lost any sense of normality once he stepped inside the mansion.

"I know it's sounds stupid to ask you . . ." Riku said, looking over all the papers. "But, do you know how these got here? Last time I saw them, they were in the attic, and that's on HIS side. I doubt that Xemnas would take much interest in family pictures."

"Wait, you mean . . . that someone else put them here?" Sora asked. "How long have they been sitting here?"

Riku shook his head, "I personally have no clue. I just found them myself."

"That's weird," Sora muttered. Then a thought came into his head, and he slowly lifted his head and asked the ghost, "Riku . . . has there ever been other humans here besides me and Leon?"

To Sora's surprise, Riku nodded his head without hesitation, "Oh yeah, there have been plenty of explorers and reporters that have made their way in . . . and just never out."

Sora's eyes widened a bit, "Did Xemnas . . . ?"

"Yes, he and his accomplices wiped them all out, and only one became a ghost."

"Who?"

Riku smiled sadly, sighing, "Namine."

"Well . . . what made Namine different from all of them . . . and when did she die?" Sora asked.

"Namine simply had – HAS a strong will and is extremely confident. You know, if she were still alive, she'd be a freshmen at Twilight High right now."

Sora let in a sharp and short gasp, "Wait, she's my age? And she was a resident here? How long ago did she die? Would her death be in the papers?"

Riku chuckled and held up both hands, "Hold on, hold on. One question at a time! Let's see . . . yes, yes, one year, and I have no clue."

Sora blushed at how he blurted something out . . . again. It was just a habit that he had, and people would always continually tease him about having ADHD or something . . . which he most defiantly wasn't! Finally, Sora calmed down his nerves a bit and asked another question, "Who was Namine though? What was her last name?"

This time, Riku shook his head, "She refuses to tell me . . . I think it's a tough story for her. Maybe you can get her to open up."

"M-me?"

"Yeah," Riku said, smiling brightly. "You may not realize it Sora, but you've already helped so much."

"Eh?" Sora didn't really get what he could've done, but when he saw Riku's smile, it was sort of contagious and the brunette couldn't help but let out a smile himself, and forget about asking another question.

"Sora! Riku!"

They both turned their heads to see Namine standing in the doorway with a relieved expression upon her face. She stepped forward, looking around the room, "What are you guys doing in here? Don't you think it's a little risky being this far in?!"

Sora muttered an embarrassed, "I'm sorry." While Riku smirked slightly and held out his arms, "Why, we were looking at these oh so mysterious pictures that appeared out of nowhere. . . . You wouldn't happen to know this, would you?"

Namine rolled her eyes at Riku's sarcasm, but then heaved a huge sigh, "Okay, okay. You caught me. While I was human, and was looking around here, I came upon the attic, and found an interesting box filled to the brim with pictures and such. The attic was giving me some bad feelings . . . so I took the box downstairs into this bedroom and looked through it a little bit . . . but I didn't get much time."

"Why's that?"

Namine shrugged and answered simply, "Xemnas."

Riku didn't say anything, and just nodded. There was a horrible silence that Sora just had to break by conveniently looking at his wrist watch and exclaiming, "It's eight – thirty?! I haven't even had dinner yet?!"

"Oh yeah," Namine said. "Your brother came by about an hour ago when you weren't there, and asked. I guess your gonna have to fend for yourself."

"Gee, thanks," Sora's shoulders slumped, and the three started to walk out of the room. Sure, Riku and Namine could just reappear anywhere in a second . . . but what about Sora? They really didn't want to leave him alone. After a couple minutes of walking, Sora remembered something and brought his head up to look at Riku, "Oh yeah, Happy Birthday!"

Namine cocked her head to the side curiously, and Riku raised an eyebrow, amused. Sora grinned proudly up at the ghost, happy that he didn't forget. After a moment or two, Riku finally asked, ". . . How do you know that . . .?"

Sora continued grinning, "That's MY secret!"

Namine laughed lightly, "Wow Riku, how many candles do we have to put on your birthday cake? Five hundred?"

"Hey! I'm only one hundred and four!" Riku argued back, but yet, he was smiling.

As they continued to walk through the corridors, with Riku and Namine arguing back and forth, Sora couldn't help but feel happy and light.

I think that everything's going to be okay.

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Hope you liked this chapter, and I can try to update by next weekend, but I really don't want to make a promise that I can't keep. I just hate that! Anyway, just a reminder, we've got two days to go until the sleepover, and I'll try to cut Thursday short, and get to the sleepover part as fast as I can!

You reviewers are really awesome, and even though only about 15% of you have been hitting that button right below, it still counts! XD. (But, seriously, I don't blame the non reviewers at all . . . I do the exact same thing half the time.)

See you soon =D.