I meant to upload a chapter on Halloween but somehow between going to class and watching a movie with my friend, I ended up too depressed to finish it up. So here you go, about three days late. Sorry! To make it up, it's a nice long chapter. I hope it's not too filler-y! (That's not a word...)

Disclaimers: The idea is mine but the characters are not, not until I finish this up and convert it into my own original setting. Heh! Until then, the people I'm torturing belong to Tetsuya Nomura, Disney, and Square Enix.

Part Twenty-Six: Strategy Master

Voices… that voice… I could still hear them in the back of my head… whispering, talking to me, taunting me, tempting to go with him. I was being driven bonkers by that fucking voice, by the ghostly voice of a boy that had once been my friend.

If he wasn't already been dead, I would have killed Sora for this.

I rubbed hard at my ears, trying to dislodge his voice from my head. Even without turning around on my stool, the whispers reached me anyway. Those nagging voices, the people who supposedly cared about me, kept on waggling their tongues. They made their little expedition into my uncle's shop just to see if it was true.

All they wanted to see was if top-tier Riku had actually lost it.

'Crazy. Lost his mind.'

'Seeing things that aren't there…'

'Talking to things that aren't there…'

'Never was right in the head, not after Sora died…'

Oh, sure. Like they knew about Sora. Even now, I could feel that stuff inside of me, violating me as it wriggled its way down… Somehow, some way, I knew that Sora had summoned it up. That he had made it and that he had made it go inside of me. I shivered hard, even though it was still warm outside. The temperature hadn't dipped below ninety Fahrenheit but I was still cold.

My big comfy yellow jacket was being seen as another sign of my growing insanity.

Uncle was refusing to let people in unless they bought something. Every time someone came in and asked about me, he'd send them right out with a shout about how it wasn't polite to stare and that people should mind their own fucking business. Heh. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the old man had grown fond of me.

He sure did keep people away, though.

"Riku, go to the back if you're so cold; I'll turn the heater on for you," Uncle Haru said after a few more people 'bought' some radios and walked off with more stories to tell about yours truly. He had this disgusted face when he shoved their munny into the register, like he was handling dog crap or something, but his only concern was about me. From the look of it, Uncle wanted to close up shop and spend the rest of the day nursing me back.

I didn't know if I could be brought back.

I'd seen too much. Maybe I didn't want to go back.

Picking up a pad of paper, I wrote out a message to him.

"No… it's alright," I told him back and just huddled under my jacket and a tarp that Uncle had found on a shelf with some boat parts. My voice had been almost destroyed when I had tried to talk at home. The last time I had been able to do was when I was trying to get answers from Axel. When Kairi and Selphie managed to drag me home, they had gone straight for the doctor after I stopped being able to speak. He didn't know when I could talk normally.

No one knew.

Haru rubbed his hair hard, making the silvery stuff puff up and stick up on his head like – no! I shivered harder and pulled the tarp over my head. Dammit, make it stop… I wished that someone would make it stop…!

I choked, gagging on a phantom taste that wasn't even there. That stuff was gone but I could feel it, I could feel it moving around inside of me! I could taste the Darkness, taste its bitterness and its stench, and it had decided it liked me so much that it wanted to stay… God… I could still feel it. The tightening, tightening, tightening harder and harder until my head swam from the lack of oxygen and I started seeing black stars. They danced in my vision, blurring it. Obscuring it. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't scream as I remembered how that Darkness started to move inside of me.

I felt it inside of my stomach, in my throat, in my heart.

"Riku!"

I looked up just in time to see Kairi and Selphie charge into the store, a lamp in each of their hands and a thousand glittering toys overflowing from bags on their backs. Girls…? I watched as they slammed the glass door behind them. The girls shoved useless electronics from their places on the shelves, and replaced them with…

A deep, low laugh that was nothing like my normal one ripped out of my throat as Kairi and Selphie started redecorating my uncle's store with glowing fairies and hearts.

"What the hell?!" Uncle Haru started to protest but the girls ignored him, only stopping for Kai to rip a glittery pink fedora out of her bag of shiny goodies and shove it onto his head. He stared at her and was startled enough to bend down and listen to her version of what she was doing.

I leaned in and started to grin.

Kairi was very serious as she scolded my uncle. "Mister Haru, this place is so dark and spooky, it's no wonder Riku's having panic attacks!" She snapped, folding her arms angrily across her chest as she glared at him. I'd forgotten how resourceful – and how nuts – she could be when she got going. Kairi waggled a finger in the air at the dusty room and then jabbed her thumb to me. "He needs light, lots of light, and since he won't leave the store, we're bringing it to him!"

She had the best logic sometimes.

After a moment, Uncle Haru sat down on the floor and just tipped his new fedora at the girls as they ran around the place and shoved their girly glitters everywhere. He'd apparently given up at the idea of making her change her mind. And I couldn't stop grinning.

The best part was when she pulled out the biggest, ugliest, son of a gun fairy the size of a watermelon and plonked it right there on top of the cash register. It was one hell of a monster, big fluttery eyelashes that moved in the breeze and a bright lavender tutu to top it all off. It even had glowing pink wings that threw light just about everywhere, even behind the counter. More like a disco ball than an ornament, really!

That was when Uncle Haru ran to the front of the store and locked the doors to stop anyone from getting inside.

Kairi and Selphie stepped back and admired their work. "Wow, it looks great!" Selphie cheered in excitement, clapping her hands together. The entire store was glowing pink, lavender, and white. Great was not exactly the word I would have used for it but…

Barely able to contain her giggles, Kairi jumped over the counter and sat down on the floor next to me, pressing her hand to her mouth.

I grinned and put my hand on her head, holding up a pad of paper to her. I'd already written the message down. "You have to see what I found on the wires."

Her brow furrowed in mild confusion before her fingers touched her chest and then she looked up. "You mean the ones that we were wearing last night?" Kairi asked curiously. She still looked like she had no idea what I was talking about. I nodded and waited for her to get what I was trying to tell her. Come on, it wasn't that hard, just think about it a little. After a moment, a look of clarity came over and she slapped her hands together. "You never got them back from Roxas and the others!" Kairi declared in surprise.

Yeah, attagirl! Exactly!

I nodded and tapped the message again, insisting that she read it over one more time.

She leaned back into my palm, a little frown already appearing on her face. Looking around the glittering glow on every shelf in the normally darkish room, it was clear that she thought it was a bad idea for me to be chasing after what we had seen.

To be honest, I knew it was a bad idea. But I needed to know. I wanted to know. What had attacked me? Why had it suddenly stopped? And… what had it done to Axel? He had practically been crying when we found him and he kept saying that he had gotten a ribbon, that he would be giving a ribbon to Xion soon. Had that been the gift? He kept saying that he got the gift from Sora.

If that was true, was that why Sora had suddenly stopped hurting me and disappeared? Because he had to go after Axel now?

There was something that just didn't add up… and somehow, it involved him.

Luckily for me, it didn't take long before a very worried Roxas showed up and started pounding at the door.

Axel had lost his memory.

Son of a bitch, Axel had lost his memory.

Despite how messed up he had been last night, how freaked out and just plain afraid of what he had seen, I could see that he was now completely fine. All he was really doing right now was staring at Kairi's watermelon fairy and smirking quietly to himself. There was no trace of the terrified man that Roxas and Xion had had to drag home.

He reached out and poked the fairy figure, making the lavender wings bounce back and shimmer ever-so slightly more purple.

How the hell was that fair?

"So uh… nice decorations you've got there, Riku," Axel said in a polite voice, like we hadn't been through something traumatizing together. As far as he was concerned, this was only the second time we'd ever talked to each other. He sat down on one of the stools and nudged Xion to scoot over, who was staring at me helplessly. She motioned to Axel and put her hands together in a praying motion.

Begging me to help him.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I booted up my computer again, letting the twins, Kairi, and Axel see what I was up to. On the side, I had my trusty pad of paper with some messages already written on it. "After we went home last night, I remembered that I'd had connected the wires to a recording program on here," I informed them by holding up the paper. "I have all the audio from last night and the video from my walk, too."

They all nodded, waiting for me to get to the point.

I pointed to the twins and Axel, running my hand down my chest purposely. "You three never took them off. They recorded until they ran out of battery sometime this morning." The trio glanced down at their lapels and in unison, pulled off their recorders and held them out to me. From the confused looks on their faces, they still had no idea what I was trying to tell them. Well, prepare to be amazed… I scooped them up and typed in my password, logging in while... wait…

A shadow moved behind Axel.

Like someone leaning in to get a better look.

Son of a bitch!

I threw myself to the other side of the room, backing away from the red head as fast as possible. It was there. Axel had the thing with him, it was there with him, it was here with me again, it was going to kill me! It was going to finish the job it started! I felt myself start to cry. My body started shaking uncontrollably as the memories of the tendrils circling his fingers, twisting and churning like living shadows moving inside of me ripped through my unconsciousness. I wanted to curl up and scream.

Please make him go away. Make him go away!

Someone's hands gently gripped my shoulders, making me open my eyes. I didn't even realize I had closed them. Axel made a few shushing noises in the back of his throat as he slowly pulled me away from the wall. Even though I kept shaking, even though I was still scared, I let him. For some reason I let him. He guided me to the stool I had been sitting on, picked me up, and dropped my heavy ass back onto it.

I kept shaking but my fingers somehow pulled up the editing program and started scrolling down the list of recordings. Each hour of audio had been separated into their own files for some reason. It made everything a little easier for me to listen to. There were only eight hours of audio from Axel's wire, compared to the ten or so minutes of video I'd gotten. To be honest when I first heard it, I was kind of happy that most of the audio was little more than Axel's and the twins' snoring.

There was one hour that was completely different.

A crackle of static opened up the audio file, like someone had suddenly turned on a broken TV or something. The next few seconds were distorted, broken, unintelligible even. Then it stopped. You could hear Axel's soft breathing instead. A little moan and then the bed creaking as he probably rolled over. Nothing different from the other eight hours.

And then the bed creaked again from someone suddenly putting their weight on it.

'I feel sorry for you….' A voice whispered and the moment that the little boy's voice spoke, the wire crackled again. It was clear that it wasn't either Roxas or Xion, the two other people in the room. It was too high-pitched to be any of them. Axel mumbled something in his sleep, a passing line about how he was tired and couldn't they just let him sleep. He moved again and the bed springs creaked. 'I feel sorry for you… so I'll give you a present… sleep tonight…'

Axel gasped on the audio, a noise like him trying to pull away from someone echoing behind the boy's words.

His voice was raspy and confused as he spoke. "Why… why are you…?"

'I feel sorry for you. You didn't know what you were doing…'

"Doing… doing what…? What… what is that…? What are you trying to…? Xi… Xion… wake up…!"

The next part suddenly made a lot more sense.

A low chuckle emerged from the tape, making Xion, Selphie, and Kairi huddle together for warmth as the spirit spoke. Even Roxas and Axel looked disturbed as they listened.

'This will help you forget… you can forget everything… and then when you wake up, You… won't… have to be scared… You'll be safe… for now... …'

"For now? What the hell does he mean, 'for now'?" Axel demanded but I just put my finger over my lips, shutting him up as immediately as I would have if I had slapped him. I jabbed a thumb back at the still playing computer. It paused only for a few seconds before the voice spoke again.

On the recording, Axel spoke again, but this time in a sleepier, slurred voice.

"… P… please… Xion… wake up… he's…!"

'I'm in your bedroom, wanna see what else I can do?' The ghost whispered back in a hoarse voice, like a swarm of bees had invaded his throat. The buzzing made all of us clap our hands to our ears, even me. I had heard it before, but the noise was too much, it hurt too much! Roxas started reaching out to the computer, probably to slam his fist through the screen.

All of a sudden, Axel's soft snores emerged from the speakers again.

He had fallen asleep again. Whatever the ghost had done, it had knocked him right out. And whatever it was, it had wiped all of his memories of the previous night. Zip. Nada left.

As everyone turned to him, we watched as Axel put a finger to his mouth and then frowned as if he was remembering something strange. He just shook his head no. "I… I don't remember that…" He said honestly enough. But he still started shaking, like he was unconsciously aware of it. "But… I wanted to know something," He turned to Selphie, a worried expression suddenly appearing on his face. "How long do I have left?"

"Four days is your max," Selphie said immediately before slapping her hand to her mouth in horror. The meaning of her little urban legend had suddenly become much too clear.

Axel had four days before he disappeared. None of the people that had reportedly gotten Sora's gift for their friends had ever been seen again afterward. There was a list of people from all over the island – mostly ranging from this part of the island, really – that had been claimed as his victims. Until now, I had always assumed that they had died by becoming trapped in one of the caves under the sand or even by drowning. That they'd never found the bodies.

But now… I knew that there must be something that might have taken some of these people away. A spirit or something, bringing them to a new place from which they had never been heard from again. No one knew if they died. The only thing they knew was that someone would bring a small length of ribbon to a named person from the victim. But no one knew where they went. No one had ever found the bodies.

And the red head standing in front of me was the very next person on that same list of missing people.

Roxas looked like he was about to pass out; Xion looked like she was about to cry. Axel just nodded and stood up, rubbing an obviously aching shoulder thoughtfully. "Believe in ghosts now, Riku?" He asked curiously, giving me a vague, cold smirk.

I grinned and just held up my next piece of paper.

"Sure thing, but we have a way to beat 'im."

Axel arched an eyebrow but leaned against the counter, watching me closely. He looked suspicious, as if suspecting some sort of trap. To be honest, I had been the one to get him into this mess, even if he didn't exactly remember what happened. It was only fair that I get him out of it… but it was completely understandable why he didn't trust me.

Still, it made me feel a lot better when he spoke up again. "I'm listening," He said softly, just as Roxas and Xion got up to grab his hands. From the terrified looks on their faces and his completely calm one, Axel was trying not to be upset. For their sakes. The twins clung to him in a way that I hadn't seen since they were five and freaking out because Sora was dragging them to kindergarten. It was that same fear, that fear of being left behind and irrationally believing that they would never see their beloved friend again.

Only this time, they were completely justified. And like hell I would let them lose someone else!

It was with a grim smirk that I wrote out my final message and slid it over to Axel.

"We beat him at his own game; constant surveillance."