Eh heh, what happened to Riku's body?! Freaky. But I love seeing that you guys are so into the story, it just makes a person want to totally forget about finals and write fanfiction instead. Not that I'm doing that…ahem…on with the story, ya? Thanks to all my reviewers! yasu-yasu, earth2water1element, Randomasdf, Kaida Shade, Jynxer120, Murd3r4lyf3, Twilight Emo Wind Goddess 801, Smiley Smackdown, b9 iNe, chibi heishi, Kanpa, key46812, bliss, vamprincessmiyu, DramaQueen1193, Misz Lovely x0x, Miah The Storm Wolf, ZSAngel. You guys are awesome like always! Keep on reviewing and I might even get inspired to write up an epilogue! Not that I'm thinking about that yet, but you know, just thinking toward the future…
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8 June 2007
As it turned out, Leon would have to wait a little longer to learn what had happened at the graveyard. All of the dark energy in the graveyard and the following chase had drained Namine and so the ghost team was making a side trip to her and Demyx's apartment to drop her off so that she could rest.
When they got back home to their own house, Cloud ushered Sora into the kitchen so that he could clean up the blood on the teen's ankle. Sitting up on the counter, Sora let his feet dangle over the edge as Cloud dragged a chair over. Looking at the deep scratches, Cloud let out a worried sigh and began to unscrew a bottle of antiseptic. "Let's just hope that there was nothing infectious in these cuts. Does it hurt very badly?"
Sora bit his lip then shook his head, "No, actually it's kind of cold…"
"Well I shouldn't have expected it to be normal. Now hold still, this will probably sting."
Sora couldn't help but let out a sharp gasp as the antiseptic hit his wound, gripping the lip of the counter to fight back the sting. Cloud murmured a low, comforting noise but continued to clean out the wound, trying to make the process as quick as possible. Wincing but keeping in a small whimper, Sora looked down at Cloud worriedly. "Cloud, do you know if Leon's okay? One of those things tripped him so he might have gotten hurt too."
Cloud glanced up at him, a frown flitting across his lips before being replaced with a smile. "He hasn't told me about anything, but I'll make sure that he's okay. Don't worry."
Nodding, Sora bit his lip as Cloud began to wrap his ankle. Another good thing about having a nurse for a father was that there was a chance of having a large amount of medical supplies somewhere around the house. Once Cloud had finished the wrapping he patted Sora's leg. "Alright. I think you'll live. Now, why don't you go upstairs to see what Roxas is up to while I go check to make sure Leon isn't silently bleeding out somewhere?"
Sora grinned, the expression straining a bit as he slid off of the counter and put weight on his ankle. It wasn't an unbearable pain by any means though and so Sora managed to climb up the stairs where Roxas had gone. The house had remained quiet since they had come home, though still just as tense as when they had left it that afternoon. The air seemed to almost be pressurized as Sora reached the second story, it was almost as if Xemnas's control over the house was becoming tangible. With a shudder, Sora shook off the dark feeling, reaching his room to find Roxas pulling his shirt off. "Um, Roxas, what are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a shower."
"A shower? Do you want me to come with you or-"
"No!" Rolling his eyes, Roxas kicked off his shoes, "I'm fourteen, I can take a shower by myself Sora. And don't tell me I don't need one. We were tripping over tombstones and I'm covered in dirt. Plus if I don't get one in now, I'd have to wait until Axel left and I'm already tired."
Sora bit his lip, watching as Roxas wrapped a towel around his waist. "Okay but if anything happens…"
Roxas rolled his eyes. "I'll be sure to let you know. Thanks for trying to make me paranoid." The blond paused at the door, his eyes darkening a little as he glanced down at Sora's bandaged leg, "How's your ankle?"
"Oh, it's fine. Cloud took care of it." Sora tilted his head to the side as he caught a touch of guilt in Roxas's eyes and his voice softened. "It's fine, really."
Roxas frowned but nodded after a moment, "Fine. Let me know if that pedophile shows up while I'm in the bathroom, okay?"
Sora nodded and watched as Roxas left the room before looking over at his desk. Now, what should he do? He could do some homework, but that would just be depressing to do on Friday night. He could go downstairs to watch TV, but then he would be further away from Roxas and he wanted to be nearby his brother in case something happed. Biting his lip, he looked out the window. The sun had just set recently and Riku didn't usually appear until at the earliest eleven. Sora wasn't sure if ghosts had rules about when they came out at night but what he really wanted to do was see Riku.
Pursing his lips, he moved over to sit on the edge of the bed before calling out gently, "Riku? Can you come out? I want to tell you how everything went…"
There was a familiar chilling sensation before Riku stepped out from the wall beside the bed, the ghost shaking himself off before looking over at Sora with a stern expression. "You shouldn't call me so freely. Not while Xemnas is so strong."
"But we went to the cemetery-"
"Your leg, what happened to it?" Sora blinked, surprised as Riku had suddenly rushed forward, the ghost bending down to look at the wound.
Sora flushed a little, scooting back on the bed. "Um, when we were at your grave some of Xemnas's shadows showed up. One of them tripped me and scratched me a bit…"
"Does it hurt?"
"It's a little sore, but that's probably because Cloud just cleaned it up." He let out a small squeak as Riku's brows furrowed; the ghost's hands moving down to cup Sora's ankle. The ghost's touch was freezing, his transparent hands not actually resting on Sora's skin but rather hovering. The care behind the action was apparent enough and the cold felt good, numbing the pain away. Feeling blood rush to his face at an embarrassingly fast rate, Sora tried not to squirm, finding it almost hard to breathe as Riku's elegant face turned up toward him.
"How does that feel?"
"G-Good."
Riku nodded, his eyes traveling down to the ankle. "Do you know what Xemnas's shadows were doing near my grave?"
"No. Well, Axel and the guys might, but they won't be here for a few more minutes…Um, would you know why your body might be missing?"
"My body was missing?" Riku blinked then frowned, "Hold on a moment, you opened my casket?"
Sora's eyes widened at the other's possible anger. "I didn't look, I promise! But they had to look because they felt a dark presence and they wanted to see what had happened to you but your body was gone!" Taking a deep breath, Sora clenched his fists into his lap, "I'm sorry if you're mad but they really thought it would be a good idea at the time."
"I'm not mad…"
Sora let out a sigh of relief, "I hope not…Do you know what happened to your body though?"
Riku shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment. "No, I don't. The last thing I remember is fainting in my father's arms after…after I had been shot." One of his hands left Sora's ankle to move up to his chest, absently rubbing the spot where a silvery stain had soaked the shirt around a bullet hole. "I don't remember anything that happened to my body, the next time I came to my senses, I was here in my bedroom, in this state. I only assumed that my father had taken proper care of it but if Xemnas was involved somehow…" He paused then shook his head, "I do not understand how that would be possible though, he died at the same time as me. Perhaps I missed something during those last moments."
"I'm sure they'll figure out what happened to you!" Sora's optimistic voice brought Riku's gaze back up to his face. The ghost let out a small sigh, looking like he was about to say something when a knock from the front door echoed up to the second story. Although inwardly a little sorry that their private conversation had to end, Sora smiled. "I bet that's them!"
Riku nodded then made Sora's breath stop in his throat when he leaned down and brushed his lips over Sora's ankle. Smirking up at the bright-red Sora, Riku slowly pulled away. "Well thank you for taking such an interest."
Struggling for words but hearing little other than his pounding heart, Sora managed to stutter out, "I-It's no trouble!" His ankle was tingling from the supernatural touch as he stood up, glancing over at Riku who had drifted over to the window. "I-I'm just going to go, um, go downstairs now, okay?"
Riku nodded, still smirking as he sent Sora a small wave as the teen left the room.
Trying to smother the blush that was burning on his cheeks, Sora walked over to the stairs, brightening when he spotted Axel, Demyx, and Zexion in his front entry-way. Leaning over the railing, he waved down to them, "Hi! Is Namine going to be okay?"
Demyx nodded, "She'll be fine. Now it's time for a group meeting! Is Roxas upstairs with you?"
"Ya, he's-" Sora froze. Roxas was going to kill him. "Um, I'll get him."
Walking quickly over to the bathroom, Sora pressed his ear against the door, hearing the shower going and Roxas's muffled voice coming from behind the wood. Sora rapped on the door, "Roxas? They're here! Hurry up and finish!"
Hearing no sounds the Roxas had acknowledged his presence, Sora frowned, about to go tell the other's to start without them when an amused voice hit his ear. "Hey, what's taking you so long up here?"
Squeaking, Sora twisted around only to see Axel standing behind him. Putting a hand on his chest to try and calm his pounding chest, Sora pouted up at the red head. "You scared me! And it's not me! Roxas needs to finish taking a shower so you should go back downstairs!"
Instead of going downstairs though, Axel smirked and knocked on the bathroom door as Sora winced. "Hey, Roxie! Come on out! What, is he ignoring me or something?" Getting no response, Axel pressed his ear against the door as Sora shook his head.
"No, he's probably just singing. He probably can't hear us."
Axel's smirk spread as he caught Roxas's voice, "That kid's got himself a pair of lungs! Making me fall in love with him all over again!"
Shaking his head at the other's teasing tone; Sora pushed him away from the door toward the stairs as he heard the water shut off. "Go downstairs! We'll come down once he's dressed."
"What, you're not going to let me have any fun?"
"I'm his big brother, of course not! Plus he would kill me if he knew I let you up here…" Sora muttered under his breath, crossing his arms as he watched Axel go back down the stairs. Not a second later, Roxas came out of the bathroom, his towel wrapped tightly around his waist, his blond spikes limp from the weight of the water. Grinning at him, Sora quickly ushered him to the bedroom. "Okay, they're here so you should go get dressed then we can go downstairs."
"They're here?! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried! You know you never hear me though." Sora pouted as he followed Roxas into their bedroom. Riku was nowhere to be seen, perhaps he had disappeared after he realized Roxas would be coming in to change.
Roxas changed quickly, and in no time they had made it downstairs to the parlor where everyone else had gathered. Leon looked none the worse for wear, although Cloud was sitting close to him, meaning that the blond was still worried about his husband's health. Leon had the bad habit of hiding any aches or pains, so they could never be certain that the man was telling the truth when he said that he was okay.
When he spotted Roxas, Axel smirked, leaning back in his armchair. "Hey Roxie, never knew you had such a boy band voice!"
Roxas flushed bright red and sputtered before pointing at the college student, "You…you will tell no one of what you heard."
"No, I mean it, you have a great singing voice."
Roxas's eyes narrowed and sensing that his adopted son was becoming homicidal, Cloud patted the seat beside him. As Roxas silently stalked over, Sora leaned over Axel's shoulder, murmuring quietly so that Roxas couldn't hear. "Roxas doesn't like his singing voice. He's more into the emo-punk, you know?"
Axel chuckled but switched topics. "We were talking to Namine on the way back to their apartment. I have to admit, none of us really know what's going on, this case has gone above and beyond any other thing we investigated before."
Nodding, Demyx continued where Axel left off. "The best we can guess is that Xemnas somehow used Riku's body in some dark magic." He sighed, leaning his chin on his hand, "There have been cases where if a body was used for dark rituals, it would decompose at a decelerated rate. Some curses also have been known to completely consume the victim's body. But whatever Xemnas managed to do before he died bound Riku's soul to this house. Then when Xemnas died, it seems that his malevolent spirit became the dominant force, probably because he was so evil while he was alive."
"So, how are we supposed to get rid of Xemnas?" Roxas asked.
Axel glanced over at Demyx, his voice uncharacteristically hesitant. "There are a few Wiccan ceremonies Demyx and Nami know that might be able to work. That could be getting us into more trouble than we would be able to handle though, and I'd rather not lose anyone in the group to paranormal mishap. It'll take a while to get a real professional to your house though, but if you really want to get rid of him, that's probably what it's going to take."
"The only question would be rather or not you would be able to live in this house until they came." Zexion murmured.
Rubbing his temples, Leon leaned forward on the couch. "I don't think we have much of a choice at this point. We need this thing out of our house, so we'll have to be willing to wait."
"Alright." Axel reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen, "I'm going to leave you with my cell phone number. We'll visit every few days to make sure things stay safe here but you can go ahead and call for any emergency situations and we'll be here as quick as we can." Scribbling a few numbers down onto the paper, he handed it to Sora. "Before we go, Demyx can put up a few charms around your bedrooms to keep anything supernatural out."
Cloud tilted his head to the side, "Why can't you just do that for the entire house"
"It would be hard," Demyx explained, "Xemnas seems to be ingrained so much into the house I'm not sure that we would be able to separate him from the structure." His face brightened, "But the charms should help for your bedrooms! You'll be able to sleep without any worry about seeing any ghosts!"
Shuffling his feet, Sora looked down at the ground. "Um, actually, you don't need to do anything to my room." Noticing that everyone was looking at him, he smiled sheepishly. "It's the only place Riku can hang out. I wouldn't want to ruin that for him. Besides, he hasn't done anything bad yet and he's actually really fun to talk to!"
Roxas rolled his eyes from across the room. His brother was so obvious.
"Sora, I think it might be best just to take the proper precautions…" Leon said. Sora swallowed, shrinking a little under his father's intense gaze. He hated that soul-searching stare, it always made him want to blurt out the truth. He looked up as Leon spoke up again. "But you're old enough to make your own choices. Do what you want."
Sora bit his lip. Leon knew, or at least suspected that he liked Riku. Which meant that Cloud had probably already figured it out. Trying not to let his embarrassment show, he smiled lightly, "Thanks. I think I'll pass on the charm though."
Demyx shrugged. "Alright. I should probably set up the other two rooms though. Do you have any salt in the house?"
Cloud nodded, "We should have some out on the kitchen counter…"
"Yay! This will be quick and easy then!"
Seeing the family's confusion, Axel shrugged. "Salt on the thresholds of rooms keeps evil spirits out. You'd have to ask Demyx or Namine for a full explanation but I've seen it work to have full confidence in it. Just make sure to step over the line instead of kicking it all over the place."
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13 June 2007
A few days had passed since the trip to the graveyard. After they had left, Axel had called the next morning saying that professional help would arrive in two weeks. The house had stayed quiet for the most part, though Sora suspected that things were going to be acting up soon. The footsteps had started up again but even worse than that was the scratching.
Every night the walls echoed with hundreds of scratching things. Roxas had gone back to his own room and apparently Sora's room was the only one being affected because his little brother hadn't mentioned strange sounds.
Lying in bed, Sora let out a particularly frightened squeak as something scratched right behind his head, scrambling to the middle of his bed, burying his face in his pillow. A second later, he felt a familiar presence sitting beside him and lifted his head to find Riku sitting next to him. Pouting, he hugged his pillow to his chest, "I'm tired of not being able to sleep…"
Riku frowned, his eyebrows drawing together as he looked at the wall then back at Sora. "I wish I could stop Xemnas from bothering you so much. I hate that he seems to be targeting you in particular."
"D-Don't wory, I, I can handle it!" Sora stuttered, curling up more as the scratching only seemed to get louder after hearing his claim. The truth was that the sounds were terrifying him, but Riku wouldn't be able to do anything about it, so he didn't want to bother the ghost with his stupid fear. He also didn't want to admit that what he really wanted was to hide against Riku, but that was impossible too. He gasped as the scratching started on the ceiling over his head. Maybe he could sleep in Roxas's room for the night.
Getting off the bed, Sora ran over to the bedroom door, opening the door as Riku let out a warning shout. "Wait, Sora, don't-"
As soon as the door had opened a crack, it burst open, Xemnas's shadows crawling on the other side, filling the doorframe. Shrieking, Sora fell back, eyes wide as Riku ran over beside him, the ghost waving toward the door and slamming the door shut again. "Sora! Are you okay?"
"Y-Ya…"
Riku let out a sigh of relief, crouching down next to Sora. "I was trying to tell you. It is no longer safe to leave the room during the night. Xemnas owns the rest of the house and right now he is drawing up all of his power. Please, promise me you won't leave."
"Alright. I promise."
