Chapter 14

"Can you see me there? Cooking for smiles? Me, who use to drink children's blood as my price." –Havoc, Darker than Black

I wake up at 4am. I am wide-awake for no reason what so ever. Well, maybe not no reason. I can't say I have felt safe in my house after the heartless incident. Stephan following children doesn't help either. Who knows what could have happened if Patty and I arrived later. I don't want to think about it. Maybe he was just talking to Ryan though with no motive. I can't really see any motive behind Stephan wanting to learn how to do a good Vader impersonation. Unless, it was for normal points to get me to trust him! That must be it. Stephan has always been into the mind tricks. "He wants a demon? Be careful what you wish for. I'll show you the power of darkness!" Stephan had said before attacking Christan. "Be careful what you wish for," what is that suppose to mean…

I realize I'm pacing in my room. Oww, my head hurts. I let myself flop back on my bed. Just go to sleep. I hear a creak from the ceiling I leap out of bed. Just a squirrel, settle down, Sam. When did you get so jumpy? I am breathing heavily; it feels like some kind of pressure is steadily pushing me closer to the floor. "You are so stressed lately, why don't you make yourself some tea?" My mom use to tell me that before a test. Ugh, I hated that line as much as I hated the stupid tea. I can't believe I let her persuade me to have some of those icky leaves in my house. I guess some sleepy time tea wouldn't hurt. If I'm lucky it may even knock me out right there on the kitchen table.

I drag myself over to the kitchen, trying not to think too much about what I'm doing. It's better than taking some night cold medicine at least. I take out a mug from a cabinet, and pour water into it. I set the microwave for two minutes. I take out a tea bag, and wait. The mug spinning around reminds me of a music box dancer, and before I even take the tea out of the microwave, I'm knocked out on the kitchen floor.

I wake up a couple hours later feeling a bit woozy. What was that? Pain shoots through my skull. I put my hand on the right side of my head where the pain is coming from. My fingers feel something sticky. I look at my hand a couple dry flakes of blood are on them. I get up to walk to the bathroom. My legs are asleep, so I have to use the side of the counter to get up. I look up at the microwave. The buttons are smashed in, and a giant florescent purple diamond is sticking out of it. "Wow," I tell myself. It feels like I survived an assassin's attempt to kill me.

I try to pull the diamond thing out of the microwave. It slices through my hand. The wound burns. What the hell is that! I stare at it, for a second holding my wounded hand. I open a drawer and take out a large spoon. I poke the giant purple diamond with the spoon; it makes a metallic ring. I hit the diamond harder, it screeches. I throw my hands to my ears. I drop the spoon back in the drawer and sneakily walk away. I stare at the diamond the whole time, waiting for it to jump out of the wall. As I turn the corner the glint from the diamond disappears. I run back over to the microwave. I fall over on my way there. I look up at the microwave. The buttons are still broken and dented, but there is no sign that the diamond was ever stuck in it, or ever existed.

I walk over to the bathroom a little confused about what happened. I turn the water on and start rinsing off the scar on my hand. The blood doesn't seem to stop. The cut must be very deep. I take a giant bandaid out of the mirror cabinet and put it on my hand hoping it will stay. I raise my hand above my head to stop the bleeding. The blood starts to curl up the sides of the bandaid. I decide to ignore it and move onto washing off the disgusting scar on my head. It looks like someone hit me with a bat with nails sticking out of it. I get most of the dried blood off my face. I move my hair from behind my ear to conceal the small dent in my head.

My square bandaid falls to the floor. I look at my scarred hand. It's oozing a little, but not too bad. I take out another giant bandaid and slap it onto my hand. I throw the red encrusted one in the garbage, and walk back into the kitchen with my arm raised. I don't want to take any chances.

I glance at the clock. It mocks me by flashing a 12. Oh frick, it's 3 pm isn't it, or was I asleep for days. I better not have been a sleep for days! There would go both jobs, and I can kiss this house and collage good-bye. I turn on the computer, panicking. Please say July 18. My stomach grumbles. I groan and run into the kitchen, whip out a bagel, and throw it into my mouth. I leap back onto the chair by my computer with one arm still raised. The computer blinks to the main screen. I quickly click on the time button in the corner. It reads, "July 18, 3:10". Grr, why does it have to say three! Now I have to call Frank with some sob story about why I couldn't be at the library on time. I'll call him later; I really need to get out of my pajamas. They smell disgusting. Mental note: do laundry.

I put on a plain chocolate colored t-shirt and some shorts. I decide to take a shower. I doubt I will get into any more trouble if I'm later than I am already. I walk over to the bathroom, and reach over to turn on the water. My head suddenly starts spinning, and I almost fall into the tub. Ok, maybe I'm not going to work today.

I lock my house and drop the key into my bag. I take a seat on my steps waiting for Christan to swing by in his car to give me a lift to the doctor. I feel bad making him worry. "What! I'll be right over." He said on the phone. He sounded so flustered. It's not that bad, I'm still breathing.

"Fuck you! I don't give a dam what you say! I'm not going back." Is that Stephan? Geez, he sounds pissed. Wait, who is he talking to? I turn my head around to see if he is close by, nothing. I thought he couldn't talk to other people. I guess he did talk to Ryan. Why should I even be surprised anymore, anything can happen these days.

A man mumbles something I don't catch. "I'm not going to play the role of puppet again, hear me? Now leave me alone!" Stephan yells loudly.

"Anybody home?" I jump at the sound of Christan's voice. "Ready to go?"

"Umm, yeah." I reply and walk over to his car. We slam the car doors at almost the same time. Stephan's voice disappears behind the glass. Christan starts up the car.

"So what happened?"

"Huh?"

"To your head."

"Oh, umm something came through my window and hit me in the head. It must have knocked me out."

"Ouch, that's got to hurt." I don't respond. This is so weird without Patty. I can't say I've ever been very close to Christan. He's nice and I like him, but Patty has been friends with him forever and I don't want to mess anything up.

I spot a group of people in white clothes as we pass by the church. There are a bunch of chairs without tables scattered all over the yard, most of them are under trees. Most of the people are smiling as they talk, some children dance around the yard. One woman sits in a chair and weeps.

"Looks like they are doing some kind of wake." I break the silence.

"Nope, it's some kind of ritual thing. I think the whole neighborhood was invited. My family got an invite, too. It took a long time to convince my sister she can't go."

"Does that mean you are going?"

"Hell no. Rule number one for sacred rituals: never go unless you know and completely trust the host. Otherwise you might become a sacrifice for some stupid rain dance or something." Christan laughs a little at the end to lighten the mood.

"They seem too happy to be sacrificing people."

"Masks come in all shapes and sizes, Sam." The rest of the car ride was void of conversation.

"You know what? I don't feel dizzy at all, actually I couldn't feel better. Let's just drive back home." Seeing all the scratched up people in the waiting room for rabies shots made my stomach queasy. They are in such denial. They saw what attacked them, and it wasn't a pack of dogs. It makes me want to just rip something apart and scream my lungs out. The world is falling apart and everyone wants to pretend everything is fine.

"Sam, we waited two hours to see a doctor, we are not leaving."

"But-"

"No, buts." Christan pushes me into the waiting room and shuts the room. I hop up on to the bed covered in paper. It's not that I don't want to be here, I just would rather be somewhere else. This place is too crowded, and I feel that is partially my fault.

The doctor walks in, "Sorry for the long wait. What is bothering you?" He says in a low friendly voice.

"She had a concussion, and was knocked out for a couple of hours." Christan answers for me.

"Any nausea?"

"No"

"Blurred vision?"

"No"

"Loss of memory?"

"No."

The doctor takes out a light and points it at my eyes as he looks into them one by one. "What caused the concussion?"

"An object broke through my window and hit me in the side of the head."

"What was this object?"

"I can't remember."

"Hmm, it was not a very severe concussion. Just get plenty of rest and drink a lot of fluids and you will be fine. If you would excuse me." He smiles at us as he leaves. I glare at Christan.

"Ok, ok! I get it! 'I told you so." He mocks me. I just keep glaring.

"Ok, geez. I'll pay for food, God." Christan groans as he leaves the room. I smile to myself. I'm starving.

-"Bye, Chirstan." I wave at him as I leave the Chinese buffet.

"I don-"

"I can walk home by myself! See, perfectly normal. Bye."

"Bye." He mumbles as he opens the door to his car. "It wouldn't be a problem, seriously."

"Bye Christan." I yell at him as I start walking down the street. I hear his car door close and the buzz of the engine. It slowly fades in with the other cars in the street. I sigh, thank god I got him off my back. I need alone time without blood, badly. I breathe in the crisp air and listen in for the silence. Wait, where are the singing birds? The sun hasn't set yet they should still be out. Huh, sadly I can't remember the last time I heard the birds sing. I was in the garden the other day, maybe I just ignored them. Either that or the heartless ate them. I snicker at the image of a heartless leaping off a building trying to catch a bird on a wire, but gets tangled up in the wire and the bird flies away.

A group of blue monsters run across the street in front of me. Looks like there is about four. Each one carries a bunch of food. One of them keeps dropping a box of Popsicles and the rest of the group waits for him to catch up. Then they start going again. Looks like they are in a hurry. Where are they going? I run after them into the middle of the street. A car screeches to a stop and the driver yells at me. I ignore her and focus on the little demons. I am determined not to lose them again.

They turn around a corner. I increase my speed, and almost fall onto my face from a crack in the sidewalk. I glance at the house on the right side of the street. There are people in white clothes in the trees. Knocked over chairs are scattered across the yard. The people have twisted faces. Each one has a noose around their neck; some are as young as five. I shudder and a tear falls down my cheek. Christan was right about the ritual being a sacrifice.

I hear the door swing open. I turn my head to the church across the street. One monster is holding open the door while the others rush in. I run after them and barely catch the door as the last monster picks up the cereal and cracker boxes it left on the ground and runs in. As I take a step into the church the last monster stares at me with its red eyes then at the floor shamefully. It runs with its goods into a room down the hallway. I follow it into the dark emptiness.

As I reach the door I here a voice come from the room, "Hey!" I hear the sound of fingers snapping, "What did I say about this? Put this junk back where you found it." He orders. I peer into the room. It is full of couches and bookshelves for some kind of study group. The food that the demons brought is in a pile at the foot of a dark red couch as some kind of offering. "I said get!" The monsters race over to the pile and pick up the food and sprint past me in a matter of seconds. A figure stands up from the burgundy couch and walks over to the door. I flinch as I see him coming and jump out of the way of the door. Where is a good place to hide? Before I can think of anything he walks through the door.

"I never thought you were the religious type, Sam." Stephan says as he walks through the door. The right side of his hoodie is tattered in the chest from where his own keyblade pierced his lung. I call my keyblade and point it at his throat. He doesn't even flinch. "No weapons in the church, genius." He remarks. His tone of voice pisses me off, but I let the key disappear anyway.

"Why did you talk to Ryan?" I demand.

"Does it matter?" Stephan starts walking down the hall. I run a little to catch up to him and stand in his way.

"Yes it does matter! What were you planning to do with Ryan?"

"What are you talking about?" He tries to walk around me, I step in his way again.

"You know exactly what I am talking about!"

"I wasn't doing anything! Geez, if you don't believe me ask the kid." He yells inches from my face. He crosses his arms and waits for me to step out of the way, "You done?"

"I am not done. You are suppose to be dead!"

"Yep, that makes twice, now."

"What?" Stephan walks past me. I stand there a second. He died before? I catch up to him again. "How did you-?"

"Haven't you listened to Mercy at all? She may be little, but she knows a whole lot more than you do. I am darkness, ok? Darkness can't die, it just becomes something else." His voice trails off on the last word. He turns into a big room.

"Then what the hell are you doing in a church, you murderer!"

"They have comfy couches." He walks to a curtain on the left wall. He takes out his key and uses it to move the fabric, revealing a door.

"Where are you going?" I ask nervously, realizing I was blindly following him the whole time.

He twists the key around aiming the blade at the keyhole in the door. A light beams from the keyblade, "Want to find out?"

I gulp. He throws up the curtain and quickly pushes the door open before the curtain shuts again. He holds up the curtain as he walks through the door. Stephan holds the fabric with the keyblade, waiting for me to grab it. After a second of uncertainty I decide to follow.

Stephan uses a fire spell to light up the spiral staircase. Heat starts to build up in the small space. I keep a hand on the stone wall to keep myself from falling. At the bottom of the stairs there is a bunch of junk piled all over the giant room that seems to go on forever. Stephan leaps down the last couple of stairs. He shoots a fireball into the air, it hits a lamp and lights it before the ball vanishes. Stephan starts rummaging through the random shit. I slowly walk down the stairs, awed by how much stuff is down here. I never thought I would ever see this much junk in one room. It just keeps going. I can see shadows of picture frames, tires, and furniture beyond our little lit circle. I take a step off the stairs. Quake! I step on a rubber duck. I pick it up and smile at it. What are you doing here? I throw it back in with the other stuff. I carefully plan my steps as I get closer to Stephan. "What are you looking for?"

"Found it!" Stephan picks up a scroll and flings it at me with his blade. I stare at the scroll. It has a broken wax seal on it. "Read it." I give a weird look, but he doesn't see it. He is too busy watching his steps as he walks over to a chair.

I open up the scroll and read monotonely, "Long ago-"

"Don't read it to me." Stephan says looking back.

I start over reading it to myself. It says, "Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Thus they began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves, and darkness was born in their hearts" I glance up at Stephan, he is stabbing at a piece of wood that he found, as he waits patiently. I go back to reading, "The war over the light spread bringing the darkness with it. Throughout this ordeal the darkness began swallowing the light and many people's hearts. After the battle ended it covered everything and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived in the pure hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world into the separated world we now call home.

To protect the light that now resides in each world we have created a lock to hide it away and keep history from repeating itself. We lie the responsibility on your shoulders keybearer, to protect the keyhole from anyone trying to destroy it. Thus we shall entrust you alone with its location. Let your heart be strong and never waver."

I roll the scroll back up and throw it back into the pile of junk. "So, is that why you talked to Ryan? Planning on taking his 'pure' heart."

He snickers, "Nope. Just looking for the light switch."

"What did that scroll have anything to do with a light switch?"

"Lock, keyhole, light switch…same thing."

"Why don't you just call it a keyhole?" I ask thinking back to the reading.

"Light switch makes more sense." Stephan starts walking back up stairs. I follow. He takes the fire from the lamp with us. It hovers above our heads.

"…How?" I feel like such an idiot, asking an enemy for all the answers.

"When the heartless find it the light goes out." I remember the reading, "It covered everything and the world disappeared." Would that really happen, or just a figure of speech?

"Why are you telling me your plans?"

"My plans? Where did you get that idea? I thought you already knew my plans." He snickers as he quotes me from the night I killed him.

"You control the heartless."

Stephan grins, "I wish. I only have the four little Floods you followed here."

"You sent them to stalk me." I hiss at him.

"What! I never told them that! I'm sorry if they were following you. Sometimes I swear they have minds of their own."

"Sure." I reply sarcastically.

"If I wanted to stalk you I would do it myself." He looks over his shoulder with an evil smile, "I am very good at it." I slap him in the back of the head.

"Ow! Haven't you hurt me enough? I'm still healing from the last time you threw punches."

"Don't expect me to be a pacifist."

I trip on the next stair, falling down five steps. I barely catch myself on a wall with my foot. I reposition my legs and hands to pick myself up. Stephan reaches his arm out to me. I slap it away and lift myself up. I brush some cobwebs of my legs. Stephan stands there staring at me like a post. "What? Are we getting out of here or not?" I ask him. Stephan looks away quickly and starts heading up the stairs again.

He goes around the last bend of the staircase and disappears. Why does he always do that? I groan and open the door. The fire that hovered above me disappears. I pull back the curtain; a scrawny man stands behind it. He is glaring at me.

"If you weren't so loud, I would have thought you were stealing something."

"Umm…" I look up at him innocently.

"Not that we have anything to steal." His face changes completely. The man starts to pace. "This place is old like that, all wood and boring books. Hey, how did you get down there? I thought I locked it."

"…it was open." I try not to sound like I'm questioning my words. I step out from the doorway and let the door and the curtain close behind me.

"Really? Darn, I thought I remembered this time. I can be very forgetful, it's sad. Did you come in here for food? We have food. Good food, full of deliciousness. We even have Oreos. Oops, I ate those yesterday. See? Very forgetful."

"um…no?"

"Oh but I am! I forgot to dust the shelves yesterday and almost forgot to come today. Forgetful, forgetful!" He makes a fist and taps his head with it. Looks like some kind of memory thing. I start walking toward the door. He matches my pace. "So why are you in here, if not to steal and not for food? You must have come here for something? Guidance? Oh! I am the perfect one to give you that! I know about a lot! I forget a lot, too. Sometimes I remember though." He smiles from cheek to cheek. A Flood runs down the hall. At the end of the hall it twitches and runs into the bigger room. The man waves at it.

"Why do you let the demons in here?"

"Demon? What demon? That? That wasn't a demon. That was Envy."

"Huh?"

"Huh isn't a word, Miss. If you want an answer you must ask a proper question. That's what my teacher said to me. She was very nice, but she died of cancer last week." He looks up at the ceiling, "I won't ever forget!"

"…If that wasn't a demon…then what was that?"

"That was Envy. There are three others. Each one I call by the emotion it has. They are loose emotions in this world. They look funny, but you get use to it. Sometimes they do bad things, but then you tell them it is wrong, and they will stop. They like to do bad stuff. Well some of them do. Envy is not one of the better ones. She's not too bad though."

"If they do bad stuff why do you still let them in?"

A different Flood stands by a podium holding a binder. It starts ripping out one of the pages.

"Stop!" The man yells loudly. His voice booms and echoes through the whole church. I never thought he could make anything close to that kind of low sound.

The flood freezes and looks up at the man. Its red eyes challenge the scrawny man. The monster starts to rip the page again. "Don't make me come over there, Anger!" It drops the book. The Flood slumps down and slowly backs away from the binder.

"That was Anger. He is bad, very bad. He doesn't respect anything. Anger danced on the holy one's head. I showed him who is boss. Oh, yes I did. I did."

"Well, I'll be leaving." I say nervously. Get me out of here! This guy is crazy!

"Be careful, darkness is filling up the streets. It's bad. Have to keep the light hidden, you do. The people across the street wanted to protect the light, but they had to do something bad. They said it was good idea because it was a good cause, but I told them, 'not good idea', but no. No one listens to me." He stands by the door. His face is shadowed in grief.

"Are you talking about the suicide ritual across the street?"

"Yes, they wanted to keep the keyhole safe. They did. But they didn't know. Not what to do, not what is right. A keyhole needs to be locked to keep what is within safe. They didn't know. Even when I told them, they still didn't know." The man stares at his feet. Regretful of what he was unable to do.

I realize what I must do. I need to find Mercy, maybe she knows where the light switch is. I smile at him as I leave, "Thanks for the guidance." His eyes immediately brighten. The glass door shuts behind me. He waves at me madly on the other side. I shyly wave back. The sky is so dark. I look up at it and smile at the stars. I walk the rest of the way home almost hopeful.