First I was really, as they would say these days, "bummed out". (because of some stuff dealing with my online friends, but this ain't a story about my life), then suddenly, half way through Ayumi Hamasaki's Monochrome I just had the urge to write a new chapter...So enjoy!
Kari: Unless you hate Kikyou, like Snow White, and don't like blood and gore you might want to stop reading. Because then you can use the restroom-to throw up-of course-then leave you Kikyou hateing asshole you! That and if you don't like more hints of pairings you can already suspect are in this, then leave. There!
Sora: She's scary but I love her...
Riku: Kikyou or Kari?
Sora: Um.....Both?
Kikyou: (O.O) Now I KNOW I ain't getting paid enough to do this. Lets go to the disclamer!
Disclamer: I hate Disney, no really I do. After what they did to the Aladdin dvd and a bunch of other crap of theirs I wonder how I can even like them a bit. Aggghhhh the hate! Aggghhh the love! Me....no....own....X.X
Kingdom Hearts: Soul Taker
Chapter 10: Torn apart
Because I can't do it alone I cry out to you.
Thats just another weakness, I don't really
need to indugle in that fantasy of you and me.
Take a moment, see right through me.
I want you to see the flesh and bone that lies underneath.
Through it takes a long time, I know that if we keep searching...
We'll find what's really matters.
(chapter start)
It hadn't taken long for Kikyou to get use to this world world she was now in. Why, hadn't she adjusted quite nicely to Kingdom Hearts. Through this new one had the same rules but a few suprises.
Like how those magical little green, glowing spots on the ground got one up into there ship. Well on that one she had actted quite unlike her and held on to Riku until they appeared somewhere. And that somewhere was the Heartless, Riku, Pochantas, and Li's gummi ship. How it came to be in this world was a wonder. But it didn't really matter, no it really didn't when you got right down to it.
It was in a way just like when you got on a airplane and your bags when somewhere else. They just appeared once you reached your destionation.
Of course the "people" that had left it there could have put away a couple of painful things...Like pictures for instance. Through Riku didn't like them and Li was always complaining that one day they would fall off the shelves during battle, Pochantas put up pictures of them anyway. In the end it came down to three. When he first came (it was a picture of him first joining the force), when they got a award (for the "excilant" capture of a kidnapper that turned out to be a absent minded little kid and a lonely old man), and the aniversity of when he had came to be in Kingdom Hearts. That picture was the latest and the last.
Riku lingered in front of the pictures as Kikyou set about to see if everything worked. She didn't know what she was doing to tell the truth, but she had to do something or she would scream.
Two times she had been saved by him. Maybe even more.
She had saved him also, many times in fact, but the fact that she kept getting in trouble and he kept saving her was still in her mind.
She didn't want to be a damsel in distress. She could save herself. Kikyou knew this and had lived by it, even when it hurt, even when the roads were tough, even when she had wanted to lean on someone else...So why did it stop now?
'It's just my inexperiance...but still...I don't want to be a burden. Just like I didn't ask to be the prize in a game of tug of war either.'
Riku stared into the pictures inside the frames of silver, wood, and gold without really seeing them. Maybe he underestmatied how deep sorrow could really be. Or how much he felt for his former comrades.
"Riku shouldn't we..."
Kikyou was about to say something else when he chose not to finish her sentence, but didn't get the chance as he walked past her and started up the ship.
'I'll just have to forget about it, feelings would only get in the way. I can't aford that, I can't aford that weakness.' Thinking that, Riku sat down silently into the pilots chair of the gummi ship and started it up. It roared to life as if it had waited forever for them to come along and start it up again. Li kept it in really great shape...
The thought of that made him press harder on the accelarator.
Kikyou said nothing as he sat there stearing the ship. What was there to say? Maybe in another place, another time, maybe back when she had hid her feelings of insicrity behind the fact that this might be a dream still. That some part of her could believe that she was in a hosptial bed dreaming it up in a coma while her family cried around her and while she fixed Riku dinner or fought Heartless in the street by walking by, yeah that could be the truth. Yell at him, say for him to slow down, hit him maybe if he doesn't. Because you might never get the chance again Kikyou! Do it before you go back to the silent world of no dreams!
But all that had changed when Riku went missing. Or maybe before that...Maybe when they were at that haunted mansion and all she had was the feelings of disorientation, loss, sadness, and, and, and...
Some unknown feeling that made her feel warm inside. Like a fire was burning just beneath the surface of her skin. A fire that might never go out. That was the words she was looking for.
It was a feeling of safety, she believed. She had felt horrible and sad that he-no the both of them-had to kill that mad spirt. Even though he would have killed them and he had killed his whole family. But she had never killed before and the first time had made her feel emotionless, the second made her feel like a killer. So she had backed down and let a proffesional-no a grown up in her eyes anyway-take care of it.
And when it was over, when the lights of the souls of the lost spilled up to heaven, or what ever really was up there waiting for all of them, she had felt safe. And when Riku had felt horrible she had focused in on that. A old habit she still had from when she used to be in her safe world, a habit called focusing on someone else to make the pain go away. So she had walked up to him, no quite sure the old habit would work this time, she had held up her hands to his face and touched him softly. Saying words she herself barely heard...
Saying words of the heart some people would have said. Saying it's going to be alright because you had seen the truth and were passing them on to you. That as long as this moment held on a little longer and you believed in them, if you believed in her or yourself if you like that better, then everything would be alright.
She still remembered the warmth of his skin compared to the coldness of her hands. Like fire and ice, each melting from each others passion. After she had said her few words, he had closed his green eyes, green eyes that were burning with a fire that only he could contain. He had broke the moment a minute after that by turning away from her and mumbleing something about them getting back to the ship. And she had been left standing there for a moment, confused why the warmthed went away when he went away, and then raced after him like a little kid not wanting to be left in the dark. They hadn't talked after that until they got back and were standing out side the apartment door.
Yeah, maybe it was that night that changed everything. But the serious part in Kikyou knew it was when Li and Pocahontas died and she had been left with Riku's sleeping body and that amber eyed man talking to her. Two had died and two had lived....And was that fair?
Kikyou looked down at the red carpet and put a hand over her heart and where the jewel hung on it's beaded string. If she tried really hard and dug into her minds eye she could still feel and hear her heartbeat controled and in tune with Ansem's.
'I only survived because he wanted me. No, because he wanted the jewel and I own the jewel. Thats why I lived. Thats why were both alive...' Kikyou thought to herself as she walked toward Riku's silent form. She hadn't told him about what her and Ansem talked about and she wasn't going to. At least not yet.
Because if she did Riku might see her as a monster. Just like Ansems a monster and she is for believeing herself to have birthed a monster, the jewel. If he looked at her with the same look he had when he talked, or thought about Ansem, she would just die. She didn't want to have the only person she had left hate her.
Kikyou didn't want him to hate her.
Sitting down quietly, so he wouldn't notice her, she sat down and watched the northern lights landscape of stars and werid child block shapes in front of her. A little while later she dozed off into a uneasy sleep that was thankfully without dreams, she feel asleep and could barely feel herself lean to the left and let her head fall and rest on Riku's shoulder.
Riku didn't really mind that she was leaning on him, he was too in to driving, it was only when her head turned and he felt her breath on his neck was when he noticed her. He stiffined a little and then leaned toward her and put his head a top hers. Putting the ship on auto piolet, Riku sighed and pulled a shakey hand up to his eyes.
"You are not worthy of possessing me. Your nothing more then a tool. Your not the key."
'What do you mean by "key" Kikyou,'Riku thought to himself after replying Kikyou's words in his mind.'The way you were talking...it almost seems like something was possessing you. Was that you or someone else? What does that jewel need with souls anyway? I've got to find out, it's the only way to end this once and for all...'
Like Kikyou, Riku also only had her to trust now also. Pocahontas and Li are dead, Ansem returned, they are both in another world and another mess that may just be bigger then it seems, and the past was creeping slowly back...
"I don't care about the "pieces of this tale" coming together again. I know what I did...But I can't change that, not now or ever. You accept me, even if you don't know me. You may be a bitch sometimes, but I'll take care of you. Thats a promise."
How long had she been running? Maybe a hour, maybe two? Time seemed to stand still has she once again found herself running away.
'How long can I run this time? Sooner or later....'The girl thought to herself then stopped. Takeing a few more steps, she herself also stopped. She had been running a long time. And her twisted ankle was screaming like a siren. This was it, she was going to die.
No maybes.
No "I will stand and fight you with all that I am", since she couldn't fight. That was mens job.
No, this WAS the end. The happily ever afters were gone. And through she was a priencess, one of both the heart and the actual status, she wasn't going to bribe herself out of this. No amount of money could equal reveange, or pay off reveange either.
Looking down at the yellow and blue of her dress Snow White, for the hundredth time today and in this universe, began to cry. She couldn't stop it, even if that meant that it was now easier for the heartless, her stepmother (known simply as The Queen), Ansem (do I even spell that right? 0o), whoever it was now, to find her.
But maybe that was all right, her husband had been taken long ago. Now it was her turn. Maybe this way things would turn out alright.
Hearing heavy foot steps and the clank of armor behind her, Snow White didn't even turn around and gasp in suprise. She had grown up. She no longer was a baby gasping from the Huntsman's arrow, let what be be. Plus she was tried.
'As long as this ends quickly...'she thought to herself while closeing her eyes. She would stop running, but she wouldn't make it easy for them. They would have to grab her arm and drag her back. Or drag her dead body back, either way was fine with her.
With a small feminie laugh a voice behind her spoke into the empty clearing before the forest. "You finally stopped running, huh?"
"Yes." Through she didn't say it between clenched teeth or with anger "yes" came out with a slight his at the end. Reminding Snow White of a tried and hissing cat. If cats could be tried and his at the same time. "What ever you're going to do, get it over with quickly." This time it sounded like the sentence came out in one big sigh.
A quick snap was heard and echoed off the silent witnesses, the trees. Then another sentence was spoken by the woman that she had once called, and been slapped for, mommy. "Yes, we will get this over with, but not by my hand or your brainless soldiers. I'll let your "prince" handle you."
At this Snow White spun around to face the pervious queen of her fathers lands and the knights and soldiers that once protected her husbands land. Through her twisted ankle now screamed more shirlly. She ignored the pain and didn't feel it when she saw the object of her love for years stand emotionless in front of her.
Snow White's face twisted into something that was a mixture of anger, fear, and sadness. Then it twisted into pain as her husband stepped forward and put a hand on her left shoulder. Before she could react to his touch his hand gripped her shoulder harder and harder until a sound like a twig snapping was heard and blood quirted up, over, and between his fingers like a guyser.
The words that she had wanted to say, the words "not you too", died upon her lips some where between the snap of her shoulder blade and the blood pouring out of the damaged muscle and bone.
His hand then left her shoulder and, with both hands, he pushed her down on to the cold ground. Luckly for her, she landed on her OTHER shoulder blade. But the pain was still just as intense.
The Queen (damn, why didn't they give names to more people in that fucking movie!) stepped past the prince and stopped in front of Snow White. She lifted one foot, and stepped on Snow White's already damaged shoulder blade. This time, she did scream. It was a shrill sound, again reminding her, later on when she could think about it, of a cat whose tail you had stepped on. Only shirller. And more waterery too. Even after she stopped screaming the sound stayed in the air, and the pain after the perssure, of her stepmothers foot, left her shoulder would be worse.
Oh so worse.
Riku had dozed off a little after he turned the Gummi ship on auto piolet. And THAT was the problem. He hadn't intended to land in an unidentified world. Hell, he had been away for ten years and since then it seemed that all the worlds connected and stayed linked, they could be anywhere.
Anywhere at all.
"Just great, just great!"Riku whispered to himself, even though he didn't need to. He leaned back against his chair and the weight on his shoulder turned into the weight on his lap.
He blinked, once, then twice. What was "the weight" anyway. Then his mind thought of the answer: 'Remember? Kikyou fell asleep on your shoulder last night....Oh shit!'
If she woke up, and her head was on his crotch, two things were going to happen. One, she was going to think he had put her head there on purpose (and think some other things too). Two, she was going to beat the hell out of him.
Through that normally wouldn't bother him, he could beat her any day in the week. But could he beat a possessed Kikyou? What if she got so angry that the jewel once more took over her mind and he ended up-
Cutting off the rest of that thought, he poked her a bit to wake her up. She stirred a little bit, turned her so her face was faceing his stomach, mumbled something, and went back to sleep.
Riku, dispite himself, blushed. 'Why did she have to turn her head? For a second her lips were-'
He shook his head from side to side hard enough to throw his brain out of his skull. 'Think about that later, dammit! You're now fiffteen, remember? Not twenty-five! Plus she's only a girl really, probably doesn't even know the meaning of sex. So save those feelings for someone else, thats of age, and for another time!'
With that in mind Riku sighed and thought up another plan of action. "Sorry Kikyou,"he said as his hands gripped her arm.,"but this is for your own good!"
With that, he shoved her off him and on to the floor.
Kikyou woke up somewhere between getting shoved off of a nice, but lumpy, pillow, and somewhere between hitting the ground. She stayed on the ground for a few seconds, then stood up quicker then a film in fast-forward. Oh, Riku had been right alright, she was angry. So angry that her normally almost experssionless face flared up with anger and her voice rose to several volumes. "WHAT THE HELL, arrrrrrgggggggggg! You think this is funny don't you! Huh, mister I'll just push a sleep person? And after all I-" Her voice broke and he was greatful. It seemed that her vocal cords, that weren't used to screaming, had finally shut down for the moment.
But Kikyou didn't need her voice to express her anger, instead she kicked him in the shin and then walked quickly out of the Gummi ship and into the unknown with out him. Leaveing Riku in pain and with his own thoughts.
'Shouldn't have...pushed her...Ugh, what is she? A kick boxer? I'm lucky she didn't break my knee or something...'
"Of all the-Arg, I just can't deal with that man!" Kikyou screamed at a tree, which sent the birds in it flying off for their life. After a few moments of clenching and unclenching her fists, Kikyou sighed and regained some of her former self.
'It's not the first time you've been pushed, besides it's not that big of a deal. Now, where are we and how close to we to another one of those lights?'she thought to herself then looked around. The place they were in looked unfamiler, but of course it would. This wasn't her world...
"Maybe I should apologize to Riku...I think I went beyond being angry but kicking him. Even if he deserved it. He's my only tour guide around here any way..." Kikyou sighed again then started walking. She could apologize but that would mean giving in and letting him win, she was too stubborn to. That and he would probably start rubbing his victory in her face. He'd give her that damn cocky smile of his, that she hated, and then start gloating.
Seeing some flowers on the ground a few yards away from the ship, she stopped and started picking some. Gardening was her hobby back home, and she did love flowers. Exspecially cataglorying them and figureing out their species, then drying them out and putting them into a book. It might have been a boring hobbie to some people, but it was all she had besides reading and tv. Which she never watched anyway.
'I came, I saw, and I picked flowers. Thats one to tell mom...'Kikyou thought to herself and let her thoughts trail off as her hand touched her namesake flower. Picking it, she studied it's unsual red color. 'Just like this flower, I am now drenched in the blood of my eniemes...'
Riku sighed, how long had he been sitting here holding his knee in pain. The pain was fading, maybe it would flare up when he stood up, but he was alright. So what was holding him back?
'Why do I always not know how to react around her?' It was a good question to ask, for years he had kept his tough exterior. He should have yelled at her.
"-sigh- It was my fault, so I can't just yell at her. Still, it would be easier if I explained-no-that would make things worse. Maybe I should just let her think what she wants to think. Besides, she's not going to run off since I'm the only person that can help her.' Smileing that cocky smile that Kikyou hated, he stood up and grabbed his trench coat. He put it on and winced as the pain in his knee flared up with every step. Maybe he SHOULD yell at her after all.
Riku exited the gummi ship and wasn't suprised at all as the ship finally dissappeared into a mass of green light (into one of those save points, or the universe of ships not into use) and that he didn't see Kikyou any where. She would probably be up ahead, but she wouldn't have completely left.
They needed each other just as much as they hated each other. Or thought they hated each other anyway.
After a few yards of so or walking he finally came upon the person he was searching for. And how typical it was for her to be in a flower field. She was a girl after all.
He leaned against a tree, like he had leaned against the door frame of the room she had told her past to him in, and waited for her to acknowlege his precense by he took in the details.
The early morning light made the world seem more quite, so he could hear her words quite clearly. Through she herself might not know (and probably wouldn't ever know) that she was talking to herself. "It's not right for me to be selffish but...If one of us is to die eventually. Then I hope it is him. Everyone around me has died. No everyone around the both of us has died. Why is that I wonder?"
Her expression turned sad and relflective for a moment, then more angry and determinded. "I can't act weak and just sit here. I WON'T sit here. All I have been doing was thinking back on the past..."
A sigh escaped her lips and Kikyou looked up at the clouds. "I have to be stronger, I have to get stronger on my own."
'At least she's learning,'Riku thought by watching Kikyou,'she's learning that I or anyone else can't build her strength for her.'
After a few more moments, Riku stepped forward to tap her on the shoulder and act like he had just walked in to the dramatic like sceen, when he stepped on a tree branch that he hadn't noticed before.
Kikyou turned her head swiftly around toward the sorce of the sound and saw Riku, blinking, then frowning she asked: "How long have you been there? Were you trying to scare me to death or something?'
Riku saw that she had even drawn her bow and arrows, he hadn't even seen her do it. She was learning indeed. "No, I wasn't trying to scare you, just get you moveing is all. We should continue, we have a lot of ground to cover and me not knowing where we are doesn't help us at all."
Kikyou nodded and Riku walked toward her. He stopped in front of her and Kikyou looked up at him. "Ready to go, Kikyou?"
She nodded then looked down at the blood red flower in her hand. She look back up at him and smiled. "Here, this is for you. I'm sorry about your knee."
Riku nodded and took the flower out of her hand. He pulled her hair a little away from her face with his other hand and put the flower behind her ear with the other. Still saying nothing, he walked past her.
Kikyou was speechless for a second, that wasn't like him at all. She wasn't expecting him to do anything but that. After a second or two, the shock pasted and she stood up also to catch up with him. She said nothing about his actions the rest of the time they were walking and he didn't explain either.
They finally got through the woods, and just like in a fairy tale that Kikyou had read not quite so long ago, there was a castle. Not a realistic, medevil one, this one seemed sort of...
"Happy fariy tale bullshit, thats what this seems like to me." Kikyou rarely cussed, but this time she felt she had too. This was the second time she had walked litterly into a fairy tale she had read long ago.
"Well...Should we go in?"Riku asked and smiled by Kikyou frowned.
"Do we have a choice?"
No, they didn't. If they didn't find that light, they would stay this way forever. Well maybe not forever, but it would be a long time. And there are just somethings you can only do as a adult.
They both walked through the castle gates, side by side and with their weapons out. They had expected heartless, evil knights, hell maybe even annoying woodland critters. Instead all that greeted them was...
"Silence...It's too quite. It's the early morning so you can't honestly tell me that there are no maids around cleaning, or animals, or even people walking around!"Kikyou exclaimed, hopeing that someone would hear her. But all that did hear and come to the sound of her voice was a echo.
"It's like all sound and movement stopped at the edge of these woods...Somethings going on here."Riku said and then turned around. The last thing he wanted was either of them to be killed by a suprise attack. If possible, he would try to find a town to restock their supply of potions and rest. Then look for that sphere of light in the forest. The two of them going alone in a castle, that could house a nation, seemed like a bad idea.
Seeing that Kikyou wasn't following him, Riku turned around and asked her: "Are you coming?"
Kikyou didn't say anything but sighed and followed behind him when he started moving again. It was a bad idea to continue onwards toward the castle, but some part of her wanted to go. Almost like she was attracted like a magnet to whatever was inside there. By thinking on what to do now, she didn't notice the jewel glow a bright blood red for a second.
'Well now what are we-ow what the hell?'Kikyou was cut off from her thoughts as she bumped into Riku. He had stopped walking.
"Mind telling me when you STOP sometime?"she growled out, annoyed that she bumped into him and that she had turned into a airhead for a second.
Riku simply put up a hand to silence her and kneeled on the ground in front of something that they hadn't noticed before.
'I'm suprised I didn't notice it before...The ground here...It looks like blood...'Riku thought by Kikyou peeked over his shoulder and gasped. She gasped more at the size of it then the sight of blood. It looked like some person had taken a gigantic paint brush and painted the ground in front of them red. The blood was also in a human sized circle.
Riku dipped his fingers into the bloody ground, it was partly dried. So that meant that whatever happened had to have happened not to long ago. Around maybe last night or the day before maybe.
Riku stood up and looked down at his now bloody fingers. The black mateiral of the gloves he was wearing made it a shade darker. "We don't know for sure that this is human blood, so don't jump to any conclusions. It could be deer blood for all we know. But this only goes to prove that we should wait on going into that castle..."
Kikyou looked over her shoulder at the said castle. It looked harmless enough, with it's peach walls and flower gardens, yet for some reason she felt like it was the home of the dead. Like she was looking at a place that used to belong to people that had been happy and had suddenly died. Or worse.
"Tell me what you really think about this Riku, you think like it is human blood."Kikyou asked and looked back at him.
Riku nodded and wiped the blood off his hands onto normal ground. "-sigh-We always find ourselves getting into such messes don't we?"
Kikyou grinned and turned around. "I'm going to explore this "mess", I feel like this might be where the light were searching for is. Plus, it's the only lead we have. Would you rather search in that endless forest? Plus, what if there isn't a town around here?"
Riku frowned then sighed and turned around also to follow her. "Your right...For once."
Kikyou looked back at him once and then started running. Riku followed at the same pace and they reached the castles front doors in no time at all.
Riku pointed for Kikyou to stand next to the double doors right side and he stood next to the left. He waited for a second and gripped his sword tighter, who knew what would pop out once they opened the doors? Then he turned around quickly, stood in front of the doors, then kicked them open.
Silence...The only sound was the sounds of the doors being kicked in. Kikyou looked around the front hallway after walking inside. Suits of armor, hallways, brightly decorated doors, the usual. Yet their was a smell in here...
Riku frowned and looked around more closely at their surrondings, he didn't want to say it to Kikyou, but it smelled like decaying meat.
"Should we split up? We might cover more ground that way."Kikyou said after a few more minutes of uncomfortable silence. She was beginning to feel like this was a bad idea after all.
"No."Riku simply replied and walked toward a door to his left. Kikyou followed him, puzzeled by his silence and why he was just standing there in front of a ordinary door. After a few more minutes of silence, Riku reached out a arm and grasped the door handle. He twisted the door handle slowly and then opened it quickly. As soon as he did something, smelling strongly of decay, fell out of the space behind the door and hit the floor with a dull thud.
Kikyou, who was standing very close to what now appeared to be a human, could feel a scream coming up in back of her throat along with a acidy taste of the last meal she had ate.
It was a human, just not a alive one. It appeared like who ever the guy had been, he had been placed or died with his back faceing the door. His grinning face stared back at the two of them in a amusement, while his eyes said another story. They told something of suprise and anger.
From the maggots on his face and no doubt on the rest of him. He hadn't been died just recently.
Kikyou took a step back and put a hand to her mouth, she felt like running, screaming, and throwing up all at once. Riku kneeled down in front of the body and touched the hem of the decesed shirt, a few maggots poked out through the holes of his clothing along with the flies that were sleeping underneath.
"He didn't die inside here..."
Kikyou regained some of her former self at his words and then turned around and looked away. She still felt like throwing up. "Really...?"she managed to croak out with out hurling.
"Really. See these smears on his clothes? They're mud. It looks like he was dug up and then placed here. It also looks like..."Riku trailed off and moved his hands to the bodys shoulders. He moved down the dead mans now loose shirt collar, and looked at his neck. There was no blood on his shirt or pants or puncture wounds either. And he wasn't wearing normal burrial clothes and looked rather young to die of old age. Riku guessed that even before he died these clothes that the man was wearing must have been in bad shape. The skin on his neck didn't give him much of a clue too. If he had snapped his neck it didn't show because the skin on his neck was already discolored and rotting. So instead he grasped the back of his head with one hand and his back with the other. Once the body was "sitting up",. Riku let go of the mans head.
Normally, even if you were dead, all that would happen was that your head would now be resting on the back of your neck. But it seemed that this person was killed by a broken neck, because the head went back more then it should have and the broken bones of the neck jutted out of the skin slightly.
Riku laid the body back down before the head could snap completely off and stood up. "It looks like our John Doe died from a broken neck. From the looks of this guy, he was probably dead for several weeks before someone dug him up and planted him in back of that door as a "suprise"."
Kikyou nodded but didn't turn around. The last thing she wanted to see again was that grinning face, it's almost as if it was saying "your next". Sure, he was dead, but who ever did that to him was probably not.
Riku laughed and then walked toward her. "Don't throw up on me. After all, when your dead you will look the same way. It's just a partly decomposed body, nothing to scream about."
Kikyou turned around angrly, not amused that he took this so lightly. "Maybe to you it is, but to me the world between the living and dead isn't something to laugh about. And you-" She was cut off as Riku lifted up both his hands and touched her cheeks. Kikyou leaned away from him like he had the plague and started wipeing her cheeks with her hands and then wipeing them on her dress.
"Do not touch me with those hands! God, why are men so gross! Matter of fact, DON'T touch me ever again!"Kikyou screamed at him then turned quickly around and walked away.
Riku grinned that grin that she always hated and called after her. "Okay, but if you find another body, I would like to touch that!"
"Up yours!"Kikyou yelled back and walked into a hallway near by and disappeared.
The castle became even more silent when Riku could no longer hear Kikyou's footsteps echo off the front halls walls. Even the flies seemed to stop buzzing around their lunch for a second to think about what had just happened.
The peace (if you can call it that) and quite was broken by laughter.
It was just too damn funny! Typical Kikyou, underneath that emotionless exterior she was just a regular girl grossed out by death, bugs, and "germs".
"I-I(laughter)...haha Hop...Hope she hears that! I really do! (insane laughter)." Through if Kikyou did hear what he just said, she wasn't comeing back to slap him. Nor was she comeing back at all.
After a minute, Riku stopped laughing and put a hand through his hair. Sometimes she was a nuisance, but she was HIS nuisance. If something happened to her...
'Fuck that! "Something happen to her"? More like she would turn into full bitch mode and bitch, slap, and shiskobb (sp?) a heartless or person to death! Which is something I'd like to see actually!' With those thoughts, Riku turned to look at the dead body next to him. "I can't just leave him in the middle of this hallway, after all, what kind of reaper would I be if I did that? Can't leave the evidience and the rest of this insteresting case to be dulled by time."
Looking around, there really wasn't much to cover the body with (and leaveing it in another doorway was out of the question) incept a suit of armor, a couple of end tables, and a tapastry that showed the castle surrounded by creatures of myth. Grabbing the tapastry, Riku ripped it from the wall and hung it over the body. It was a great thing to use, since it could either help or destroy the evidence unlike plastic, but it would have to do.
Now all that was left was to find the killer and put the case to rest. Even if he was no longer a reaper, he still wanted to know. Through even if he was, there was no way he would work for Frollo after finding out about his betrayal. (I forgot to write Kikyou telling him-or sort of anyway-about what happened when he was out cold. Sorry.)
Seeing that nothing else was going to come to "greet" him, Riku walked toward the door that had opened up to the first suprise in yet another house of horrors. 'We're popular it seems when it comes to haunted houses and murder mysteries.' Laughing a little from the sarcastic thought, Riku stepped into the dimly lit hallway that the corpse had come popping out of.
Who knows? Maybe the master of the house will be waiting with milk and cookies.
Once again, she had let him get the best of her. Hadn't she learned from the headless horse man adventure? All she wanted in life was a vacation, and all he wanted in life was someone to bother.
"I don't see why I stay around him! We don't have anything in common! And he's a....a arrogant jerk that deserves whatever he gets! That's what he is!"Kikyou shouted into the walls around her. She crossed her arms across her chest and closed her eyes as a light blush creeped across her cheeks. 'What am I doing? I'm actting just like my sister that's what! Why? Why can't I act like me in front of him? Maybe my sisters so annoying because of her boyfriend Inuyasha and I'm so annoying because of my-'
"NO!"Kikyou yelled to the empty air around her and turned another shade of bright red. That thought wasn't possible! Not in this world, not in the world beyond either. It was like saying electricity and water was a match made in heaven. They were just too different!
Kikyou was quite, Riku was loud.
Kikyou liked to keep things simple and not show off, Riku liked to keep things complicated and loved to show off.
Kikyou was smart, Riku (in her opinion) was stupid.
And the list went on and on and on. They were just too different to match. Sure, opposites did match sometimes. But unlike those couples or refriegerator magnets, they met on normal circumstanses and had something in common.
"The only damn fucking thing we have in common is that we both want to go home, never see each other again, and hate Ansem..."Kikyou trailed off as she realized that she shouldn't throw herself into things. They both wanted to kill Ansem. Why not focus on that? It didn't have to be about her, just Ansem.
Kikyou sighed and took out her bow to hold it out in front of her in both hands. "The jewel too is a mutrail agreement. I shouldn't be such a baby, he was just trying to help. Just like when he comforted me by putting me down. Giving me something else to think about...I need to focus."she said, and without thinking about it, rubbed the ancient marking inscribed on the bow's wood while the jewel glowed red again, through she didn't notice it glowing.
'What does that mean anyway?....Is it something about the past....Or something yet to come?....'Kikyou thought then turned around and started walking down the dimly lit hallway she had been following for a little over a half hour. The only way to know what all of this was about was to keep walking and find out.
There was just enough light to see what was in front of her, but not enough to see some of the walls and corners aroud her. As Kikyou passed on of those said walls, she failled to notice or hear a door set into it creek open. A blood stained hand reached out and brushed against the back of her dress. The hand stopped half way down her back and a voice whispered: "So what is one so beautiful and delicate doing in The Queen's castle, hmm...And without permission...tsk tsk..."
Kikyou stopped in her tracks and a shiver went down her spine. That voice reminded her just for a second of that dead mans insane face. Trying to regain the pieces of her normal self, Kikyou took a moment to answer. "My business is my own, I don't ask yours now do I?"
Laughter, more like insane manic laughter really, filled the air. "You right little girl, you don't. Through it might be wise to ask..."
"You speak in riddles, tell me what you know."Kikyou demanded and the voice belonging to the hand chuckled a little then the hand left her back. Kikyou gave a sigh of relief then turned around to face who ever she was speaking too.
"You know not what,"The person started, then paused as something came out of the door infront and to the side of her. Something that beat the dead body by a mile. The man in front of her might have once been handsome, or sane for that matter, but spells, blood, and a little taste of "horrors beyond imagination" had turned him in to a horror himself. And it didn't help that his white royal robes were covered in dried, wet, and drying blood. "you have gotten yourself into."The Prince (hate names) continued and reached out for Kikyou's shoulder. She couldn't move, she was too shocked to try, and thus he easily grasped her right shoulder.
(I'll switch bettween characters since they're split up in this chapter, so please don't get confused.)
Riku stopped in mid step. Something was wrong. He just didn't know what.
'Hopefully, it's not Kikyou...'Riku thought to himself and then continued walking. It had been a half hour or more since they had seen each other. It was to late to turn back now. Plus, Kikyou could take care of herself. Unlike Sora or Kairi, she didn't need guidance, training, or a babysitter. She could save herself and him, and so far she had proved that. And for once Riku didn't need to feel like he had to trail after someone and act like their big brother. Through he still cared about her safety.
"She's fine. Kikyou is probably just a little lost, just like I am."And with that he didn't give it too much thought, through it did nag at him in the back of his mind. The hallway in front of him twisted and turned, and never seemed to lose that sickly sweet smell of decaying flesh. Through it did seem to get darker the more he walked, and soon he couldn't see what was in front of him.
"Dammit!" Riku cursed under his breath and reached out his arm to make sure he didn't bump into anything. He walked a few feet, through it seemed like a few inches, but he stopped when something brushed against his outstreached hand. Through he was wearing gloves, the touch of fingers could still be felt, no matter how lightly they brushed agains his own fingers.
"Who...Who's there?"
No reply, through he wasn't expecting one. He waited a few minutes and then started walking, maybe it had been his imagination.
Through it stopped being his imagination when he heard the slight hiss of fabric against the marble flooring under his feet and the sounds of someone taking a step back. That and something was dripping, Riku could clearly hear it now and wondered how he didn't before.
drip(SF)
"Hello?" It was stupid to just say "hello", but who ever it was had the advantage. You couldn't fight something you couldn't see, no matter how good you were at fighting.
drip(SF)
"Kikyou?" It could be Kikyou after all, he didn't know where the hallway she had taken led so it could be connected to the one he was in. Through it might also not be Kikyou. But who ever it was responded to the name anyway and intertwined his fingers with it's. The slimness of them indecatted that it was definatily a woman.
drip(SF)
Before he could say anything further he felt something brush against his face. It felt like cold fingers, too cold to be Kikyou's or a living person. Riku gasped and yanked his head away from the womans touch. With his arm at his side he felt along the wall to his side until he came upon what he was looking for.
A candle holder set into the stone. Using a simple fire spell, he lit the candle and closed his eyes from the sudden burst of light. When Riku opened his eyes he saw that the person holding his hand had black hair like Kikyou.
But wasn't her. Through she was familer.
The princess in front of him let her eyes adjust and then stared at him and quickly let go of him. Taking a step back Snow White put her right hand to her mouth since the other one was ummovable. "You! Why? Why can't you all just leave me alone! When I grasped you hand-"
"You thought I was someone else, and I you. It's been to long Snow White. What have you gotten yourself into now?"Riku asked in a flat tone. The last thing he needed was just another reminder of his already painful past.
"Me? I have don-Agggh!"Snow White gripped her damaged left shoulder and sraink to the ground in pain. Riku kneeled beside her and looked at her left shoulder. It was a suprise that he didn't see it before and another suprise that it was still connected to her body. The jagged, bloody, broken bones of what was once her left shoulder showed through the ripped fabric of her dress and skin like mountians and the puntured muscles and veins could also be seen. The dripping sound he had heard was her blood flowing out of the wound. No wonder Snow White looked pale then Kikyou and was so cold.
"Don't try to talk and don't faint either or you won't wake up anytime soon." Riku put his hand over her right hand and the wound and was starting to do a Curaga (sorry if I misspelled that) when Snow White stopped him.
"That...huff...huff...won't work here. The Queen, she-Agggh!"Snow White bit her lip as she tried again to talk without screaming."She came back and her spell won't alow any healing magic incept her own. It's a wonder you can even do magic at all! But then again, you are working with her!"
Riku frowned, she still had energy to yell at him. "Look, I'm not the same person as I use to be, otherwise I would have slapped you from here to Traverse town for yelling at me! And I wouldn't have tried to help you either! So stop glareing at me, yelling at me, and just accept that I'm the only help you have!"
The princess before him looked stunned. She couldn't believe that he had changed or that he was helping her. Yet he was right, right now all the help she had was his help and his alone. Snow White nodded her head and looked down at his hand over her own. Riku quickly let go of her and looked down at the ground. No wonder she thought he was going to hurt her!
"You're right, but not even your help can help me. Not yours, the Kings, or even the keyblade wielder this time. The Queen has turned everyone in me and my loves court into monsters and turned this castle into a death trap! I'm lucky I'm still alive, but that's only because I'm needed in helping her help Ansem, The Qu-"
"What about Ansem!"Riku yelled and shoke Snow White by her shoulders, even through it hurt her.
"Ow, unhand me!"
"No. Tell me what you know or I'll...I'll kill you."Riku looked straight at her and his eyes turned a dangerous shade of green. He meant every word. (ask me about the eye thing later)
"Th-th-The Queen has agreed to help Ansem in exchange for my kingdom. Acorrding to her, Ansem said that a young woman and his puppet would come here in seek of something they had lost and that The Queen was to assist in separateing them and getting a hold of some gem. Ansem also promised her power as well, unmentionable power!"
'Kikyou...Dammit, I helped separate us! I'm such a fucking idiot, jewel or no jewel, Kikyou might-'Riku cut off his thoughts and stood up to take out his sword.
"Take me to her."
Scar sat up and licked his paw and then procceeded to rub it across his forehead. Through watching Ansem watch those two "teenagers" was fun, he would rather take a bath.
Ansem smiled evilly (duh, he's evil) and turned his head toward Scar. "You find me boring don't you?"
"No,"Scar said and yawned, exposeing his sharp teeth and fangs in the process."I just find you a little confuseing. You had the chance to kill Riku and take Kikyou awhile back. Why go through all this when she and that trinket of hers was right in the palm of your hands? Why even bother with the girl as well?"
Ansem laughed at Scar's words and several heartless stirred and looked up at their master with suprise and confusion as well.
"Why? Because you can't have one with out the other. Just as peoples hearts are drawn to darkness, they are also drawn to the light. Plus,"Ansem smiled more fully, showing off fangs of his own. (He's evil, so he has fangs, so there!) "you can't use a gun if you don't have bullets. Nor a key without a lock."
Scar nodded sleeply and laid his head on his paws and yawned. "That still doesn't explain Riku."
Ansem looked thoughtfull for a moment then turned to look at the play unfolding before him. "I'm rather fond of my "puppet" and he serves his purpose. Whether he knows it or not, he is helpping the jewel, myself, and his percious Kikyou to open the curtains on this new part of the endless play."
Scar didn't say anything and Ansem didn't explain. Instead they both watched a rather upset priestess continue to fight against both something she could understand and yet could not.
"Let go of me!"Kikyou yelled at the once handsome man in front of her and tried to peel his fingers off her shoulder. Finding she couldn't, and that he gripped her shoulder even tighter, Kikyou panicked and her mind turned into a complete blank. What was once The Prince smirked evily and gripped her shoulder even tighter, feeling the bone underneath creak from the viase like grip and weight.
The thought "I'm going to die" whispered faintly in the back of Kikyou's head and she started to slowly cry. It wasn't the first time she had cried and it wasn't the first time that she was in a life or death situation, yet it seemed more real and depressing. And without Riku ever knowing about what she truly felt...
"Please...."Kikyou said slowly, not knowing really that she was even speaking."Please, you can't kill me." She reached out a half numb arm and held on weakly to The Prince's (getting tired of typeing that) blood stained shirt.
He looked down at her and the smile on his face fadded a little, something about her remained him of someone.
-flashback-
He had stopped crushing the woman in front of him shoulder and she looked up weakly at him and started to cry.
"Please you can't-"
-end flashback-
"-kill me..."
A wave of voices flooded The Prince's head. Some were his own, some were someone that he loved, and another was someone that he had thought dead repeating over and over to harm the person in front of him.
What was right and what was wrong?
He quickly let go of Kikyou's shoulder and held his head in pain. Kikyou stopped crying and looked in front of her shocked. Why did he let go of her?
"Aggghhhhhhh!" The scream echoed off the hallways and Kikyou held her hands over her ears, sure that her eardrums would break. When the scream stopped she looked at the unmoveing figure in front of her.
Maybe he wasn't so evil, but she couldn't trust him or know for sure. Kikyou waited for a few minutes then reached out a hand to touch him. "Are you....alright?"
He slapped her hand away and growled out. "What are you doing standing around for? I could change back anytime! Run!"
Kikyou took a step back, suprised from his demand, and then questioned him: "But what about you, don't you-"
He looked up at her, half crazed and half sane. "RUN!"
Kikyou took another step back and was about to turn around when she heard the clank of armor behind her. A hand gripped hers weakly and she looked down at the man that was going to kill her.
"That way...hurry..."With that, he collapsed and Kikyou ran in to the door that he was pointing too and closed the door behind her.
She didn't stop running until she heard the sound of running water and saw light ahead of her. Kikyou leaned against the stone wall to her left and tried to catch her breath.
'Whatever had happened back there I must forget, for my own sake as much as Riku and the others in this castle. But-'Kikyou stopped thinking and voiced what she was going to say out loud. "But this also means that the enemies that I encounter in this castle still have a human heart."
Snow White broke the silence bettween her and her former captor with a question. "This girl you're thinking about must be quite important."
"Wha?"Riku said and turned his head quickly to look at the princess by his side."I never mentioned a girl."
"Yes, you didn't. But you don't have to be a idiot to figure out that the "puppet" Ansem was talking about and you are the same person. Just like the girl he mentions is the one in your thoughts."
Riku narrowed his eyes at her again. "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing."Snow White quickly replyed and then smiled a little."Besides, it's not like I said you two were lovers or something, don't be so offensive Riku."
"I-I'm not!"Riku blushed and looked away from her. Her words reminded him of this morning.
Snow White giggled from his embarrassement and then looked thoughtful. "I used to say the samething to myself. "I'm not in love with him because I don't know him", "I can't, or "I won't". But in the end I found out that he wasn't just passing by, that my lover was here to stay. If this girl, Kikyou, means something to you-"
Riku turned another shade of crimson and studyed the stone paneling to his right and away from her. "She doesn't mean anything to me, were just stuck together..."
Snow White frowned then leaned toward him and smiled. "So you will not complete your love for Kikyou?"
If possible, Riku turned even redder in the face. "What!? No! NO! Hell no! That-th-"
"That's not what?"Snow White teased him further and Riku tried to block out dirty thoughts. Through one of him and Kikyou wouldn't leave him alone.
In his mind the scene from this morning mixed with the last act of sex (see chapter one through it won't give you any details) he had taken part in mixed together.
"THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!!"he yelled at the woman next to him. Snow White stopped to regain her hearing and Riku stopped to regain his breath.
When they started walking again Snow White finally smiled and Riku just yelled at her again. "Wipe that smile off your face and stop being such a fucking matchmaker! She probably has a boyfriend in her own world!"
"But what if she doesn't?"asked Snow White innoccently.
"AAAAAAAAAaGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY!!"
"That you will complete your love for Kikyou?"
Riku's mouth dropped open, she was doing this on propose. "Just shut the hell up and lead me to your bitch of a stepmother."
Snow White pouted and Riku tried to get more dirty thoughts out of his head.
He had a feeling this was going to take longer then he thought.
Agggh! And now for my own agony! Spell check and reread everything. Why does my XP WordPad not come with a spell check Lord? Why!?
Oh ahem, well Merry Christmas. I finished part of the Snow White world chapter and yes, I do enjoy screwing up Disneys heartwarming crap that they feed youngsters. No, I don't hate Snow White. But when it comes to makeing woman look pathtic, Disneys first movie Snow White takes the cake. I'm not one of those menarepigs woman but I don't really want to watch something where the main woman seems to do alot of....nothing. I perfer Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. Which I will not include in this story or ruin in anyway shape or form. And another yes for the fact that I love horror. I just ador it along with mystery and supernatrual horror. Something about horror, mystery, and the supernatrual is just so good....Just like Christmas cookies! Yay!
I guess it's because it's unexpected. Like any moment something could pop out and tap you on the shoulder or some person could decied to make you into a toothpick with something sharp because they have a very destirbed mind. Or maybe someone will steal something or hide the truth from you. We expect romance and comedy, we welcome them, but such things as death or evil we don't expect because we don't think it will happen. But most of the time death or evil happens more then comedy or romance.
But I was listening to hyper sweet songs on some parts and felt bad about my attempt at horror and blood and gore. So I added some comedy/romance and hoped that no one would hate this chapter. Through it jumps from comdey to horror a lot. And some parts just feel wrong, like how Kikyou got away from The Prince, I really can't see her crying unless Riku died or something like that...Well lets blame it on the jewel and not my sorry writing skills shall we?
Next chapter, more castle maddness as Riku getts lead to the Queen and Kikyou comes to terms with the fact that she has to kill those who still have a human life unless she lets them kill her. And that isn't happening, because that would be crappy just like this summary of the next chapter. lol
Hmmm...I haven't done this in a long time but, listen to this by reading: Anything by move and Amuro Namie's Put 'Em Up and So Crazy, because I like the beat but I don't know the words so don't look like this 0.0. And Ayumi Hamasaki's Duty and some other songs by her. What am I? Your DJ? Listen to anything you want!
And as usual (drum roll), take it away Sora!
Sora: Alright then, it's over folks! Go home and don't drink too much egg nogg! That and if you celebrate Kwanzaa (like Jazz7), or Christmas, Or whatever, then have a good weekend! Merry-insert holiday-to you all!
Kairi: And fruitcakes are good, so eat them! Yum!
Riku: Dammit! Who ate my drugged up fruitcake! It took me forever to afford that much illegal drugs and fruitcake ingredients!
Kairi: (stoned) Wha fruicak? We don' hav no friking fruicak? (falls down and begins to laugh)
Ansem: Dammit you all! Shut the hell up or I might miss Santa Claus!
Scar:...That is BEYOND stupid.
Sora: Yeah it really is and where the hell is MY Kikyou or my mistletoe by the way!?
Kikyou:....'Hope he doesn't notice me standing behind the Christmas tree...' (the jewel starts blinking like crazy)
Ansem: It's Santa! (dives toward the Christmas tree and knocks it over, exposeing Kikyou in the process)
Sora: Yay! (jumps over and latchs himself to Kikyou)
Kikyou: Goddammit! I'm not yours, I'm not your type, and you have the very drugged up Kairi!
Sora: I don't care! She left me and I like the fact that you are so strong and powerful and I can heal your heart! Plus Inuyasha said you're a freak in the bed!
Kikyou: INUYASHA!
Jazz7: Ouch, I think I know who's opening up a can of whoop ass for Christmas Eve! Please review so Sora and Inuyasha won't die and I can get Kairi into rehab for her drug addiction.
Review and Merry-insert holiday-!