Three days passed quite monotonously, to Demyx's dismay. He took Leira out to the dining hall for meals, and they would still go out for walks outside together. However, she was still not responding to any advances of his, and she always seemed rather distant, not to mention uncomfortable. Clearly her mind was not him, not yet anyway.
The rest of the time Leira preferred to spend in her bedroom with the door closed. This was her valued alone time, which everyone else in the castle had learned to respect. This was also the time during which she would try to clear her mind of Riku...it ended up having the reverse effect. Rather than forgetting him, her alone time became the time during which she recalled being with him.
It was after dinner time now, and Leira was laying down on her bed, as usual. She was reading an interesting but old book, bound in leather with faded pages. She had found the castle library and stole a collection of novels, they would give her something to do during her alone time. However, she had not exactly planned on the type of english that was used in the ancient stories. Thee, thou, thy...
She nearly had the shock of her life when she saw a dark portal appear suddenly at the foot of her bed, just from the corner of her eye. She dropped the book and got ready to scream when she saw a black cloaked figure step out, although he had his hood on. Glaring at the figure, she crossed her arms.
"I don't like being bothered during my alone time," she pouted.
The figure just stared at her. It was very disturbing actually, how she could not see his face. Yet, she believed that it was just some Organization member bothering her, and trying to frighten her on purpose. That is why she decided not to call for help.
"Leira..." the figure mumbled.
"Who are you? Zexion?" No...the figure was too tall to be Zexion. "Xaldin?" No, too thin around the waist to be Xaldin. "Vexen?" The figure would match Vexen all right, but Vexen always kept to himself. Leira gave up.
"None of the above," the man responded. His voice was apart from any that Leira could remember, but that could just be one of the men trying to conceal their identity.
"What do you want?" she asked, bothered.
"I was hoping you would ask. I have come to warn you and help you, Leira."
"Warn me about what?" Her voice held anger but also curiousity.
"You are in danger. There is a plot, that Maleficent and Saix are conspiring, concerning you. G-" He began to say something else but then was interrupted by Leira.
"What are you talking about? People here are so kind, and Demyx..."
"Demyx is just a pawn to get to you."
"You are lying!" Leira exclaimed.
"No, Leira, I am not. I can't explain it all, because I am not sure of it all myself, but I know that something bad is going to happen if you don't get away. It is something dealing with the darkness within you."
"You are crazy..." she balled her hands into fists and stood to her feet, so that she was right next to the hooded figure, staring into his dark hood. "Just go away," she hissed.
"I will not leave until you just listen."
"I will not have you insulting the people here. They have always been nice to me, especially Demyx...I think he loves me, actually."
"He doesn't have a heart, he can't love you...we can't love."
"You are seriously stupid if you think I am going to believe you when you say Demyx doesn't have a heart," Leira was seriously fuming now. "And you said 'we'. You are a member of the Organization, then?"
"Fine, don't believe me about Demyx, then...and, I was a member of the Organization, I smartened up, though. They are all horrible, feelingless monsters, I regret ever being in with their lot." The regret could be heard in the figure's voice.
"Don't you dare talk about them like that!"
"Leira, Leira...you poor thing. They have brainwashed you, but there is still hope. Please, leave here. Don't let them hurt you."
"Why should I even trust you? I don't know who you are." In an instant her hand zoomed up to the figure's hood, with the idea to pull it back, but the figure's reflexes were extremely fast, and he caught her wrist.
"Uh-uh. That is not very polite, now is it? Look, you can trust me. I will take you back to Riku, back to Destiny Islands. You will be safe there." His voice was soft, caring, and yet Leira despised him, yanking her arm out of his grasp, he let her go.
"Riku doesn't want me there...at least I am wanted here."
"Yes, you are wanted here, but not in a positive way, as I have mentioned. And you are wrong about that first statement, I have seen Riku...I paid him a little visit, although he did not see me. He is absolutely devastated, thinking you are dead. He has basically boarded himself up in his house, won't even talk to Sora or Kairi."
Leira looked away, refusing to allow this person to see how affected by the talk of Riku that she could be. He was devastated...he missed her. After several minutes had passed in silence, she shook her head. She had made up her mind.
"He broke up with me...I'm not going back."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I can't let you stay here. You may have no sense of self-preservation, but I am afraid that you may not be the only person hurt if Maleficent's plan is successful," he replied. A dark portal appeared behind him, and out of nowhere he tightly grabbed Leira's right arm with both of his hands.
"Let go!" she shrieked, as he attempted to pull her towards the portal.
"Come on!" he shouted, exasperated. Even with all of her strength, Leira was having trouble trying to escape. She screamed, suddenly, feeling a burning sensation where the guy's hands were on her arm, as if her skin was being touched with red-hot rocks. In all of her fury, she quickly put all of her might into pulling away...she was successful this time.
She accidently pulled away so hard that she flew backwards. She screamed very, very loudly. When she looked back up, the figure looked unsure, and silently disappeared through the portal. As if on cue her door opened all of a sudden, revealing a worried-looking Demyx.
"Leira-Liera! Are you okay? I heard shouting and..." he turned, noticing her on the floor, and hurried to her side.
"There was a man here, he wore a black cloak like your's...he tried to take me away," Leira explained quickly, the fright very evident in her voice.
Demyx did not respond right away, instead his eyes had fallen upon the marks on Leira's arm. He lifted it gently with his own hands. Leira did not pull away.
"What happened to your arm?" he questioned.
"The man, he grabbed it." Leira gasped when she looked down to her arm.
"Burns.." Demyx whispered. They were nasty-looking burns in the shape of two large hands.
Carefully, Demyx began to stroke her arm where the burns were evident. His cool hands immediately soothed her, and she watched wide-eyed as the burns began to disappear, until they were actually gone.
"How did you do that?" Leira breathed, stretching out and inspecting her arm.
"It is something I learned when I used to live with a short-tempered pyro."
"So he was a member of the Organization then..."
"Yes."
o-----------------------------o
A/N: So, the person who guessed Axel was clearly correct. I just could not leave him out of this story, he is such a darling. "Got it memorized?" Teehee.
Anyway, I was busy writing a chapter and then I was like...uh oh, I promised that Riku would be seen soon, so I had to change the entire thing, just to make you readers happy. . Riku will not be in the next chapter, but the one after that. Don't worry, you will be hearing from him before you know it...even if I havn't written the chapter yet. Perhaps I should start that now.
