On the other side of the labyrinth was a brass gate with the numerals "VII". The lock accepted the matching keycard, and Sora and Akiri stepped inside. The ground was covered in sand, and the walls were built of an old, crumbling stone. Enormous Grecian columns stood in various stages of decay, creating a network of alleyways and dead-end paths with their ruins. The two explored the area in awkward silence, Sora occasionally marking arrows on the walls with his crayon.

Sora did not think of himself as being shy at all. He loved being with and talking to people, and was indiscriminate with his company for the most part. He even liked being around girls when most boys his age thought they carried some sort of disease. Growing up with Kairi, Sora had come to appreciate the differences between boys and girls while enjoying the similarities. Kairi might not understand the rivalry between Sora and Riku, but she understood how to laugh and have fun - and to Sora, that was all that mattered. Getting older seemed to bring in a lot of complications that Sora could not understand. Sora played along with Riku's jokes (they were jokes, weren't they?) about who would get to be with Kairi - but he thought it was just part of their rivalry. Was Riku serious about being Kairi's boyfriend? What would change if that happened? Sora thought of Riku and Kairi as his best friends and hoped they would always be together. If Kairi and Riku dated, he might just be a third wheel or – even worse – forgotten about altogether. If he and Kairi dated… thinking of Kairi as more than a friend was confusing at best, embarrassing at worst.

The unfamiliar presence of Akiri brought up all the old confusion Sora had tried his best to forget. On the surface she seemed to be so similar to Kairi, but one word out of her mouth was enough to convince Sora that they could not be the same person. Akiri was bold, confident, and startlingly feminine. She was playful like Kairi, but in a way that made Sora feel nervous.

Sora pulled his axe out of the skull of a Nightmare Dusk and sat back against a wall, catching his breath. Across the way, Akiri climbed up the side of a short wall, trying to get a look from up top. Sora found himself unconsciously staring at her legs beneath her miniskirt as she hauled herself up on top of the wall.

"I can see another gate north of us," she called back to him, pointing. "But it's too dark to see anything else." Not getting an answer, she looked back and caught Sora looking away the moment their eyes met. She smirked and pushed herself off the edge, landing beside the body of the Dusk.

"So?"

Sora blinked and looked up. Akiri was leaning on her knees in front of him, blue eyes glittering in the beam of the headlight. If he looked down he could almost see down her shirt... his eyes snapped up to hers. "So… what?"

"So are you going to tell me about your girlfriend?"

"W-what girlfriend?"

"You know... what was it... Kaori? Kiri? Kiria?"

"Kairi."

Akiri stood up straight. "Yeah, Kairi! Tell me about her."

"S-she's not my girlfriend." Sora got up, dragging the fire axe behind him. They walked back the way they came, looking for a path that would lead north.

"Suuuuurrre. So? Is she cute?"

"Yeah, I guess so..."

She raised a brow. "You guess? So she's ugly?"

"No! She's cute!"

Akiri giggled. "If you think she's so cute then why isn't she your girlfriend?"

Sora swung around a column and started on a different path. "Because... she's my friend!"

"So what? Your friend can't be your girlfriend?"

Sora glared at her. "You know, you're really nosey."

Akiri laughed and pulled on Sora's arm. "Come on! Does she like you? Like, like you like you?"

Sora tried to pull his arm away but Akiri held on tight. "I don't know... I haven't seen her in a while. I don't... I don't even know what she's like now," he muttered.

"What happened? Did you guys have a fight?"

Sora thought back to Kingdom Hearts, to Kairi's hand slipping out of his own as they were pulled away, and the promise he had made. "No, we just... got separated. Now I don't know where she is. Organization... these bad guys took her."

Akiri glanced at the sudden mixture of melancholy and hatred on Sora's face. Her smile faded and she pulled him closer. "Bad guys? Who?" Sora stared down at the ground and didn't respond. "Sora?"

"I'm going to get her back," Sora mumbled.

Akiri frowned. She pulled at his cheek so they were facing one another. Slowly his eyes drifted to hers. "You have me, right? I promise no bad guys are going to get me. I'm a tough girl," she whispered. "So no more pouting, okay?" She patted his chest. "Come on, let's keep going."

Altogether, after thoroughly searching the area, they found three more gates and another keycard. Neither of the cards they had matched any of the gates, so they found themselves back in the long circular hallway. After walking a while they came to an unfamiliar open gate.

"This must be where Goofy and Donald went," Sora noted, stepping inside. It was another sandy area, with towering adobe walls. Shards of pottery and broken crates were stacked in corners, and scraps of intricately patterned drapes stretched across the walls. "I wonder if they're still here?" he added with a bit of hope.

It did not take them long to thoroughly explore the tiny area, and except for the battered corpse of a Nightmare Shadow, there was no evidence that anyone was around. They came to an archway with a wooden gate, the numerals "XVIII" carved above the lock. Sora gave the gate a half-hearted kick.

"Sora, those numbers match the card we just got," Akiri remarked pointedly.

"Huh? Oh! Right..." Sora fumbled the keycard out of his pockets - glancing at the crayon illustration of wolves howling at the moon - and placed it in the lock. The door creaked open.

They stepped into a cramped area overgrown with foliage. Trees huddled around them, their branches stretching up above. Dead leaves amassed on the ground, forming a jagged path around the trees. The air was musty with decay and suffocatingly heavy. The faint echoes of a child's laughter drifted through the trees.

"What's that?" Akiri whispered. "Are your friends in here?"

Sora peered into the trees. "Can't be, the door was locked..." He moved forward, sloughing into the river of leaves. He glanced back at Akiri, who hovered anxiously by the doorway. "Aren't you coming?"

"I... I think I'll wait outside. I can't breathe in here," she answered.

Sora hesitated. "Okay... don't move, I'll be right back."

"Hurry!"

Sora waded through the leaves, turning a corner. In the heavy silence he could swear he heard the whispers of voices and laughter around him. I'm just imagining things, he thought. There's no one here but Akiri and me.

In a corner where the path looped around, a wide tree stump rose out of the leaves. Wads of paper were scattered all around the stump; the few pieces that were not crumpled were filled with dark scribbles. The beam from Sora's headlight rested on a dark humanoid shape perched on the stump, humming a tune to itself. It looked up when the light settled on it and darted away.

"Hey, stop!" Sora shouted, running after it. Whatever it was had disappeared into the darkness of the trees. Sora strained to hear the telltale sounds of footsteps in the undergrowth, but it was silent again. Sora dropped down onto the stump in frustration. The tune the strange figment had been humming drifted in and out of his mind. Without realizing it, he began to hum along.

"Sora?" a voice whispered nearby.

Sora leaned back against the stump and sighed. "Akiri? I thought you were going to stay by the door."

"Sora, where are you?"

He pushed himself back up. "I'm right he-" he froze, staring at the trees.

A boy hovered near the tree line, just out of the light. His clothing was dark and torn, and his long hair was matted and gray. Cold, dead eyes gazed back at Sora from a shadowy face.

Sora blinked in surprise. "Ri-"

"You lied to me," the boy muttered, cutting Sora off.

"What?"

"You promised me."

Sora leaned forward, trying to get a better look. "Huh? I don't know what you're..."

"You said you'd take care of her and you lied. You forgot all about her."

"I didn't... Kairi? Is it Kairi you're talking about? No! I haven't-"

"It's too late."

Sora stood up. "No, I'm trying to save her! You have to help me! Do you know where she is?"

"It's too late," the voice repeated, and the figure disappeared into the shadows.

Sora leapt after it. "Wait!" He had barely gotten near the spot the boy had been when an Angiphyte leapt out of the trees, knocking him over. The pile of leaves and crumpled up paper cushioned his fall, and he rolled to the side as the Angiphyte made a swipe at him. Sora scooped up the fire axe where it lay against the stump and scrambled to his feet. The creature scuttled aside, reorienting itself. They regarded one another for a moment, static hissing from the radio. The Angiphyte leapt towards Sora at the same moment he swung the axe. The blade caught the creature in the neck, slamming it down against the tree trunk. It squirmed, trying to push itself off of the trunk. Sora darted around and stomped on the creature's back. There was a loud snap and it laid still, blades twitching. The static died out.

Sora panted and sunk to his knees, staring at the trees. He pushed himself away from the stump and swayed towards the tree line. Nestled amidst the leaves was another keycard, the plastic shining in the light. An illustration of a man being chased by a dog adorned the front of the card. Sora noted with some bewilderment there were no holes on the bottom of the card. Nevertheless, he pocketed it. He ripped the axe out of the stump and began to wander back the way he came. The leaves felt much heavier on his feet than they had before.

Akiri was huddled against the archway, staring into space. She looked up at Sora as he approached, squinting at the light. She took in the fresh blood on his shirt. "What happened?"

Sora snapped out his own thoughts to regard Akiri. "Huh? Oh... nothing. I found another keycard."

"That's it?" Akiri rose to her feet, stretching, brushing dirt and debris off the back of her skirt. "There wasn't anyone in there?"

Sora shook his head. "No... musta been imagining things." He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, trying to recompose himself and give her a reassuring smile.

Akiri shot him a questioning look. "Really? I thought... well, never-mind, let's just go. This place gives me the creeps." She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the archway.

Sora followed her, glancing at their hands locked together as they walked.

The search for a matching gate led them back to the area of stone columns. Sora's newly found card matched a wooden door with the number "0" engraved elegantly on the lock. The door unlocked and opened with a shudder into a curving hallway. Sora and Akiri stepped inside, their shoes tapping against the wood planks beneath their feet, warped from age and moisture. Wood paneling stretched along the walls, broken intermittently by splintering beams that held up nothing but air. The strong stench of mold emanated from the wood around them.

"Who d'you think built all this?" Akiri thought aloud, studying the worn, curving patterns in the wainscoting.

"No clue," Sora shrugged. They turned a corner into a small alcove. A broken lantern sat atop a nightstand. Its drawer had been ripped out and thrown against the opposite wall, strewing a mess of papers. Words had long since faded off the yellowing papers, but fresh crayon scribbles marked every page. In the back of the alcove, a small chest sat, a rusted padlock clamping it shut. A strong swing from the fire axe was more than enough to splinter the wooden chest along the lock and open it. Sora kneeled to look inside.

"Ohh, let me see! What's in it?" Akiri squealed, practically hopping to get a good look.

The chest was filled to the brim with photographs. They were all scratched and warped beyond recognition, and Sora's curious excitement faded to frustration as he waded through them.

Akiri picked up some of the photographs, turning them this way and that trying to make sense of them. "Who would want to lock up a bunch of wrecked photos?" she muttered, tossing them aside.

At the bottom of the chest Sora found another keycard, this time featuring a rough drawing of a sun shining down on a small figure. Nineteen tiny holes crowded the bottom of the card.

"Oh goody. Another one," Akiri remarked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Sure there's nothing useful in there? Like a ticket out of here?"

Sora leaned away from the chest, pocketing the card. "We gotta be closer to the end, right?" he replied with a stab at optimism. "I mean, how many of these could there be?"

Around a corner they found a large wrought iron gate inside a brick wall, the numerals "XII" embedded into the metal lock. Sora dug in his pocket for the card Goofy had recovered and placed it inside the lock. With a loud creak, the gate opened towards them, and they stepped inside.

They were standing inside what looked like a small courtyard. The linoleum that once covered the floor had been ripped away in places, and debris was strewn everywhere. Two long display cases stood in the center of the room, the glass shattered and their valuables missing. Marble statues in the corners had been smashed beyond recognition. The walls surrounding the courtyard were covered in maroon wallpaper, barely clinging in tattered threads to the walls. The walls stretched up but ended abruptly, as if the roof had been torn away. A large staircase to the side lead up to nowhere and looked ready to collapse. Empty doorframes opened into hallways on either side, and they chose one at random and started walking.

A few old paintings still hung in the halls, so ruined from exposure to the elements that their contents were beyond recognition. Drawings were tacked up beside some of the paintings. Most of them were too vague to make out, though Akiri could tell they were meant to be environments. One of the drawings showed stairs spiraling up out of the boundaries of the paper. Another was of a long white hall with columns on either side. Akiri glanced at Sora, who was not giving the drawings much thought.

Sora felt the uncomfortable prickle of staring eyes, and glanced to his side to see Akiri staring back. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"Sora, something's been bothering me," Akiri said. "I keep seeing these drawings everywhere we go, thrown around, pinned up... even on the keycards. And all these different mazes... you recognize them, don't you? You and your friends were saying something back there about it."

Sora scratched the back of his head, trying to think of how to answer. "Well, yeah... some of these areas look kind of familiar, like places I've been to before... but they're kind of different. It's not really the same."

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Uh..." Sora hesitated. "Well, my friends and I were actually traveling somewhere else, and we crashed back in town... we've been trying to find a way to get out so we can keep going. And I'm kind of looking for some friends of mine. Why, are you from around here?"

Akiri crossed her arms behind her back. "I'm actually from the next town over, Shepherd's Glen. I grew up there, and I was sick of it... nothing ever changed. So I ran away, and I ended up here. Pretty crazy, huh? That we ran into each other?" She smiled.

"Yeah... crazy," he chuckled nervously. "But wherever you came from has got to be better than this, right? Why'd you want to come here?"

Akiri pursed her lips and tapped her shovel against the floor. "People back home have been disappearing lately... I figured they were all like me, desperate to get out of that town. I used to hear people talk about some sort of crazy cult in Silent Hill and some old curse or something, but I thought that was just a bunch of ghost stories my mom told me to scare me out of wandering off." She glanced at Sora and shrugged. "Well, I wanted to see for myself, you know? I'm not scared of a bunch of ghosts, are you?"

Sora blinked at her and looked away. "No way!" he huffed. "What's there to be scared of?" It sounded all right in his head, but the words rang hollow once they left his mouth.

Navigating a confusing mess of locked doors and narrow halls, they eventually found themselves inside a small white room. At least, Sora assumed it was white - almost every visible space was covered in sheets of paper. They crammed the walls and littered the floor, creating a sea of colorful drawings. Sora and Akiri stood and stared as they tried to take in the visual overload. Sora stepped towards a wall to get a better look.

Many of the drawings featured what looked like stylized versions of people he knew. There were drawings of Donald and Goofy, and many of the others he had met during his travels. There were a number of drawings of people in black cloaks, which made Sora frown. He stepped away towards the middle of the room, where a large table stood above the tide of paper. The tabletop was similarly disarrayed, drawings covering the entire surface, with dozens of small crayons on top of them. Sora pushed some of the drawings aside. Most of them were of a boy with blonde hair - skateboarding, playing with other children, eating ice cream. Sora glanced away to see a number of similar drawings of him - holding the Keyblade, defeating Heartless. Some of them showed him as a young boy in situations he never remembered happening, accompanied by a little girl with blonde hair. He pushed aside some of the drawings and stepped back in surprise; a particularly large drawing of himself had been covered in black crayon, with yellow splotches over the eyes. Looking at the drawing made him feel uneasy, and he unconsciously rubbed his arm.

Nearby, Akiri was staring at another drawing. "Sora, look at this," she said, holding out the paper and tapping it against his hand. Sora startled out of his trance and turned the paper around so he could see it.

A girl with long blonde hair sat crying alone on a chair. No matter how long he stared at it, he didn't recognize the girl in the picture beyond a lingering sense of familiarity. Looking at it made him feel a crushing sense of loneliness. He quickly looked away.

"I found this taped to the back," Akiri continued, holding out a keycard.

A large circle was drawn in red, runes scribbled along the inside edge. Inside was another circle with three smaller circles inset, and a few symbols too scribbled to make out. Looking at it sparked a dull ache in his head. Ten holes were punched along the bottom of the card. Sora took the keycard and stuffed it in his pocket, eager to get the symbol out of his mind.

Akiri took one last look around the room. "There are so many... who drew all of these?"

"I wish I knew," Sora replied, stepping back towards the door. Akiri followed reluctantly.

"Whoever they were, they must have been alone for a long time," she sighed.

"Why do you think that?"

"When you're alone, your imagination is your only friend."