Sorry it took so long I had to think of where to go with this and I was
writing to Never again. I decided to get this one out of the way before I
put up my new story.
This is the last chapter so. I really don't think I'll be going anywhere else with this..
If you hadn't noticed. I've started into a writing phase dealing with rape victims. I hope that's not some kind of signal.. But I'm really sorry if you don't like the mention of the stuff but it's an angsty topic and I've decided that's my favorite topic to write on.
Painful Returns By: Life's Scar
The whole town heard Daray's scream, "Damn it!" he lowered his voice, "Riku. Riku. tell me who did this to you. tell me who."
"Who what, Uncle? Who raped me?" Riku stood up steadying himself with the wall, eyes glancing down ashamed, "You don't really want to know. It's no one's business but mine."
"Riku for God's sake tell me!" Daray demanded.
"There is no God so why should I tell you for his sake?" Riku asked not realizing his mother was in the room.
He heard a gasp and he instantly looked up at her then looked away, wrapping his arms around his bare waist. His mother hadn't heard the whole thing just hat he had lost faith. She was such a religious woman that it broke her heart to hear those words from his mouth. and then the condition he was in.. she was destroyed, "Riku."
"Mother. I'm. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Riku. just tell Daray what he wanted to know." She said walking up to him.
Something terrible must have happened to him, "I . I can't. you don't understand."
"Riku!" Daray pleaded.
"You stay out of this Uncle!" Riku yelled turning back to his mother, "I. I don't know how long I have before he comes back."
"That's no way to talk to your uncle, he'll protect you from whoever it is that'll come for you."
"I will, you know me Riku."
"Shut up and leave me alone!" Riku screamed but not at Daray like they though.
'As soon as I have my strength back Riku, I will come,' Riku's head began to pound at the memories of his words, he put his hand to his head and leaned against the wall, 'And I will have you again and again I will destroy whoever tries and stops me."
Riku crumbled to the floor, "no. Ansem please."
Daray was down by Riku holding him up, "Ansem did this to you? He. He."
"Don't say it. please don't say it."
"I'll kill him!" Daray screamed, "I told you ever since Brennan brought him home that he was evil but that man wouldn't listen to me and five years later look what he's done. I told you he looked at Riku in the wrong way and he shoved yours and his kindness in your faces by. by. by screwing Riku against his will! I'll kill the bastard!"
"Oh my Goodness! Riku! He didn't." She looked at Riku beaten and destroyed on the ground, she ran up to her seventeen year old son and wrapped her arms around him, "I am so sorry!"
"It wasn't your fault." He said, loosing al of his strength, "Please. please just let me die."
She turned to the doctor, "Help him!" She begged torn by her son's last words.
Daray gave one last look then stood up and walked outside and was instantly stopped by Sora, "Did he tell you?"
Daray looked at Sora concerned, "Did he do the same thing to you?"
Sora shook his head, "no. Ansem's gone. he won't be coming back for a long time. Riku and I made sure of that."
"What else happened? What else did Ansem do to him?"
"Beat him. tortured him.." Sora said sadly looking down at his shoes.
"He wants to die Sora!" Daray said sadly, "How long has Ansem been abusing him? The whole two years?"
"Longer." Sora said with out thinking.
They had been gone for months. all that time Riku was with Ansem. Destiny Islands did not go through that time it simply didn't exist.. So how long had Riku been with Ansem? Two years and four months. Those years had been full of pain for his best friend and he could not do anything for him, "What? Ansem was on this island doing that to him? For how long?"
"I don't know the details. you'll have to ask him.."
"Sora, Thanks you. for saving him."
Sora laughed sadly, "Not that Riku would call it that."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Daray asked confused.
"I rescued him right before he was about to slit his wrist look closely. you'll see the beginning of the cuts. If you look beside the bruises and scrapes that he caused himself by fighting his bonds so he could kill himself. He used some very colorful words towards me. then Ansem came."
"Sora."
"If he says he hates you don't listen. If he hits you forgive. and . don't tell anyone what happened to him. that he needs to know he has control over."
"Go see him, Sora," Daray said putting his hand on the boy's shoulder.
~*~ 1 week later
Riku turned on his bed to get away from the invisible hands that tortured him. On his chest, on his waist lower. lower. Inside, Out. All over him. Vile. evil. disgusting. That's the way everyone will look at him. He didn't want to be here. It would have been so much easier on his mother if she thought he was dead. He was dead inside, why couldn't he just be dead? Sora thought it would get better, thought he would be able to put it in his past. How could he when all he saw every time he closed his eyes was Ansem's face? All he felt was Ansem's hands? How?
Riku pushed himself up and looked at the sunlight shining through the curtains. He wiped at his tired eyes. He looked around his room. It was exactly like he left it. Tidy and clean, the smell of the ocean coming through the windows.
Over to the closet, he walked, his bare feet making no sounds on the wood floor. He pulled out his darkest clothing and pulled it on before leaving his room, "Good morning, Honey, do you want some breakfast?"
"No thanks, mother. I'm just going to find Sora and Kairi." He lied, opening the door.
"You have to eat something!" She called stepping out of a doorway to look at him.
"I'm not hungry." Riku said turning around to look at his mothers concerned face, "Fine, I'll have an apple."
"Thank you Riku." She said tossing him an apple.
"You're welcome, mother."
Riku jumped into his boat and began to paddle to the main island. This was the first time his mother and uncle allowed him out of the house. He was grateful that he was away from their watchful gaze. He pulled the paddle back into the boat and let the water carry him the rest of the way.
He glanced over at Sora's island and wasn't surprised to see that there wasn't a light on in the house. The whole family slept late. The lazy bums!
Riku pulled himself out of the boat and tossed the apple to the fishes. He wasn't hungry; the mere thought of food so early in the morning made his stomach turn and brought his mind back to the nightmares.
He made a quick dash for his tree before anyone saw him, he wasn't in the mood for hello's and long conversations. No one ever went to his tree. no one else dared to climb as high as he did. He wasn't afraid of death just like he hadn't been afraid of the darkness.
One foot after another he went higher and higher. He let all of his anger and pain out as he climbed it as far as he could It didn't look too high or too dangerous from first glances but once you got past the bend the tree seemed to grow. It was a good twenty feet high from that bend. And a little ways up, you could see the rocky bottom beneath the shallow water.
The juicy smell from the almost ripe fruit brought him back to reality. That was a smell he had been missing in the two years he and been gone. He stopped where he was and sat on a little bend. He leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. The rough bark rubbed against his back. He touched a brown piece and pulled it off revealing a hole. He put his hand inside and pulled out a picture of his father and the ring his father had left him. Riku looked just like him... the same eyes, the same hair. He saw happiness in his father's eyes.
What would he think of him now? Would he be disgusted that his son allowed himself to be taken by a mad man? Would he be angry at him that he had given himself into darkness? Would he still want to see his face or would he want him out of his life for betraying his friends and being bent and used so easily?
Riku could easily turn over a little bit and meet his father in his watery grave and get the answer to those questions and the other ones in his mind. Why did his father trust a man like Ansem? Couldn't he sense the evil radiating off of him? Didn't he see the way that man looked at him when he swam? Couldn't he see? Could he have saved him from this hell that he was now going through? Damn it! If he was still alive could he have warned him about following the man blindly?
That's how it started Ansem had told him that it was okay, that there was no reason to fear the darkness. His father would want him and hi friends to go with Ansem, for him to lead the way for them and to keep them safe. What a load of crap that was! Riku ran home and left a note for his mother and ran out to meet by the tree where Sora and Kairi would meet him once they saw the note on the boat. But Ansem had ripped it away right after he turned to leave. It was a miracle Sora had found him in time.
After that Ansem had him all to himself... easy enough when to break someone when you convinced them that their friends don't care enough to show up.
Yes, he should be dead for his crimes against his friends and everyone on all of the worlds. The punishment for doing such wrongs should be his death.
"Riku!" Sora called from the bottom.
"Yes?" He asked turning to look at him.
"What are you thinking about?"
Riku began to climb down, "Death," he said when he touched the ground.
"Riku... you shouldn't be thinking such things," Sora said sadly.
"Well let's see you betray your friends over a stupid lie, help and almost destroy the worlds and then get raped by the guy who had convinced you he was you're only friend and you could trust him!" Then not thinking about it Riku hissed, "you get raped and tortured for two yeas and not think of death."
"Riku you can't..."
"Don't worry, Sora, I'm not taking the cowards way out."
"Well I'm not leaving until you smile."
"You'll be here for a while," Riku said turning away from Sora.
"Riku."
"What Sora? Are you going to tell me everything's gonna be alright? It's not; these memories will never leave me!"
"Forget about the bad things and remember the good things..."
"That's easy for you to say! You didn't feel like you were going to be torn apart every time he thrusted into you!"
"You can't let that rile your life!" Sora yelled back, "It will destroy you!"
"I'm already destroyed, Sora! I can't even look at my self in the mirror wiht out feeling disgusted! I don't know how you can stand looking at me now!"
"Because you're my friend! I don't feel that way when I see you! I feel that I'll help through this the best I can! How could I feel disgusted in you?"
"I would have killed you..."
"But you didn't."
"I'm worthless.. Damaged goods."
"You mean a lot to everyone here! How can you say you're worthless? Damn, Riku I still look up to you." Riku turned to look at him confused.
"Riku many of us look up to you," Kairi said pulling herself over the edge, "You made it through a terrible ordeal... and yet you still act the same as before like nothing is bothering you... you're so strong Riku... You're fighting to stay alive and kicking and you're not going to let anything keep you down."
Kairi pulled a still confused Riku into a hug, "how... how much did you hear?" he asked in her ear.
"All of it..." she whispered back leaning her head against his chest, "We all love you for who you are not what happened to you."
"She's right!" Sora yelled tackling the two so all three of them fell in the water. Kairi swam to the top looking at the tree on the other side of the small island.
Sora and Riku wrestled for a while until they both came to the surface gasping for air and laughing, "I made you smile!" Sora cried out triumphantly.
Riku laughed even harder at the look on Sora's face. Then he was instantly quiet looking at something on the horizon. Both Kairi and Sora saw the oncoming storm, "I told you it wasn't over." Riku said.
"Kairi go home, we'll be back." Sora said touching her shoulders.
"Riku was already at the shore running toward the secret cave. He looked at the door then pulled something out of his wet pocket. He tied the wet cloth over his eyes and opened the door.
The eyes were the window to the soul.
No one was going to see his pained and broken soul anymore.
The End
This is the last chapter so. I really don't think I'll be going anywhere else with this..
If you hadn't noticed. I've started into a writing phase dealing with rape victims. I hope that's not some kind of signal.. But I'm really sorry if you don't like the mention of the stuff but it's an angsty topic and I've decided that's my favorite topic to write on.
Painful Returns By: Life's Scar
The whole town heard Daray's scream, "Damn it!" he lowered his voice, "Riku. Riku. tell me who did this to you. tell me who."
"Who what, Uncle? Who raped me?" Riku stood up steadying himself with the wall, eyes glancing down ashamed, "You don't really want to know. It's no one's business but mine."
"Riku for God's sake tell me!" Daray demanded.
"There is no God so why should I tell you for his sake?" Riku asked not realizing his mother was in the room.
He heard a gasp and he instantly looked up at her then looked away, wrapping his arms around his bare waist. His mother hadn't heard the whole thing just hat he had lost faith. She was such a religious woman that it broke her heart to hear those words from his mouth. and then the condition he was in.. she was destroyed, "Riku."
"Mother. I'm. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Riku. just tell Daray what he wanted to know." She said walking up to him.
Something terrible must have happened to him, "I . I can't. you don't understand."
"Riku!" Daray pleaded.
"You stay out of this Uncle!" Riku yelled turning back to his mother, "I. I don't know how long I have before he comes back."
"That's no way to talk to your uncle, he'll protect you from whoever it is that'll come for you."
"I will, you know me Riku."
"Shut up and leave me alone!" Riku screamed but not at Daray like they though.
'As soon as I have my strength back Riku, I will come,' Riku's head began to pound at the memories of his words, he put his hand to his head and leaned against the wall, 'And I will have you again and again I will destroy whoever tries and stops me."
Riku crumbled to the floor, "no. Ansem please."
Daray was down by Riku holding him up, "Ansem did this to you? He. He."
"Don't say it. please don't say it."
"I'll kill him!" Daray screamed, "I told you ever since Brennan brought him home that he was evil but that man wouldn't listen to me and five years later look what he's done. I told you he looked at Riku in the wrong way and he shoved yours and his kindness in your faces by. by. by screwing Riku against his will! I'll kill the bastard!"
"Oh my Goodness! Riku! He didn't." She looked at Riku beaten and destroyed on the ground, she ran up to her seventeen year old son and wrapped her arms around him, "I am so sorry!"
"It wasn't your fault." He said, loosing al of his strength, "Please. please just let me die."
She turned to the doctor, "Help him!" She begged torn by her son's last words.
Daray gave one last look then stood up and walked outside and was instantly stopped by Sora, "Did he tell you?"
Daray looked at Sora concerned, "Did he do the same thing to you?"
Sora shook his head, "no. Ansem's gone. he won't be coming back for a long time. Riku and I made sure of that."
"What else happened? What else did Ansem do to him?"
"Beat him. tortured him.." Sora said sadly looking down at his shoes.
"He wants to die Sora!" Daray said sadly, "How long has Ansem been abusing him? The whole two years?"
"Longer." Sora said with out thinking.
They had been gone for months. all that time Riku was with Ansem. Destiny Islands did not go through that time it simply didn't exist.. So how long had Riku been with Ansem? Two years and four months. Those years had been full of pain for his best friend and he could not do anything for him, "What? Ansem was on this island doing that to him? For how long?"
"I don't know the details. you'll have to ask him.."
"Sora, Thanks you. for saving him."
Sora laughed sadly, "Not that Riku would call it that."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Daray asked confused.
"I rescued him right before he was about to slit his wrist look closely. you'll see the beginning of the cuts. If you look beside the bruises and scrapes that he caused himself by fighting his bonds so he could kill himself. He used some very colorful words towards me. then Ansem came."
"Sora."
"If he says he hates you don't listen. If he hits you forgive. and . don't tell anyone what happened to him. that he needs to know he has control over."
"Go see him, Sora," Daray said putting his hand on the boy's shoulder.
~*~ 1 week later
Riku turned on his bed to get away from the invisible hands that tortured him. On his chest, on his waist lower. lower. Inside, Out. All over him. Vile. evil. disgusting. That's the way everyone will look at him. He didn't want to be here. It would have been so much easier on his mother if she thought he was dead. He was dead inside, why couldn't he just be dead? Sora thought it would get better, thought he would be able to put it in his past. How could he when all he saw every time he closed his eyes was Ansem's face? All he felt was Ansem's hands? How?
Riku pushed himself up and looked at the sunlight shining through the curtains. He wiped at his tired eyes. He looked around his room. It was exactly like he left it. Tidy and clean, the smell of the ocean coming through the windows.
Over to the closet, he walked, his bare feet making no sounds on the wood floor. He pulled out his darkest clothing and pulled it on before leaving his room, "Good morning, Honey, do you want some breakfast?"
"No thanks, mother. I'm just going to find Sora and Kairi." He lied, opening the door.
"You have to eat something!" She called stepping out of a doorway to look at him.
"I'm not hungry." Riku said turning around to look at his mothers concerned face, "Fine, I'll have an apple."
"Thank you Riku." She said tossing him an apple.
"You're welcome, mother."
Riku jumped into his boat and began to paddle to the main island. This was the first time his mother and uncle allowed him out of the house. He was grateful that he was away from their watchful gaze. He pulled the paddle back into the boat and let the water carry him the rest of the way.
He glanced over at Sora's island and wasn't surprised to see that there wasn't a light on in the house. The whole family slept late. The lazy bums!
Riku pulled himself out of the boat and tossed the apple to the fishes. He wasn't hungry; the mere thought of food so early in the morning made his stomach turn and brought his mind back to the nightmares.
He made a quick dash for his tree before anyone saw him, he wasn't in the mood for hello's and long conversations. No one ever went to his tree. no one else dared to climb as high as he did. He wasn't afraid of death just like he hadn't been afraid of the darkness.
One foot after another he went higher and higher. He let all of his anger and pain out as he climbed it as far as he could It didn't look too high or too dangerous from first glances but once you got past the bend the tree seemed to grow. It was a good twenty feet high from that bend. And a little ways up, you could see the rocky bottom beneath the shallow water.
The juicy smell from the almost ripe fruit brought him back to reality. That was a smell he had been missing in the two years he and been gone. He stopped where he was and sat on a little bend. He leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. The rough bark rubbed against his back. He touched a brown piece and pulled it off revealing a hole. He put his hand inside and pulled out a picture of his father and the ring his father had left him. Riku looked just like him... the same eyes, the same hair. He saw happiness in his father's eyes.
What would he think of him now? Would he be disgusted that his son allowed himself to be taken by a mad man? Would he be angry at him that he had given himself into darkness? Would he still want to see his face or would he want him out of his life for betraying his friends and being bent and used so easily?
Riku could easily turn over a little bit and meet his father in his watery grave and get the answer to those questions and the other ones in his mind. Why did his father trust a man like Ansem? Couldn't he sense the evil radiating off of him? Didn't he see the way that man looked at him when he swam? Couldn't he see? Could he have saved him from this hell that he was now going through? Damn it! If he was still alive could he have warned him about following the man blindly?
That's how it started Ansem had told him that it was okay, that there was no reason to fear the darkness. His father would want him and hi friends to go with Ansem, for him to lead the way for them and to keep them safe. What a load of crap that was! Riku ran home and left a note for his mother and ran out to meet by the tree where Sora and Kairi would meet him once they saw the note on the boat. But Ansem had ripped it away right after he turned to leave. It was a miracle Sora had found him in time.
After that Ansem had him all to himself... easy enough when to break someone when you convinced them that their friends don't care enough to show up.
Yes, he should be dead for his crimes against his friends and everyone on all of the worlds. The punishment for doing such wrongs should be his death.
"Riku!" Sora called from the bottom.
"Yes?" He asked turning to look at him.
"What are you thinking about?"
Riku began to climb down, "Death," he said when he touched the ground.
"Riku... you shouldn't be thinking such things," Sora said sadly.
"Well let's see you betray your friends over a stupid lie, help and almost destroy the worlds and then get raped by the guy who had convinced you he was you're only friend and you could trust him!" Then not thinking about it Riku hissed, "you get raped and tortured for two yeas and not think of death."
"Riku you can't..."
"Don't worry, Sora, I'm not taking the cowards way out."
"Well I'm not leaving until you smile."
"You'll be here for a while," Riku said turning away from Sora.
"Riku."
"What Sora? Are you going to tell me everything's gonna be alright? It's not; these memories will never leave me!"
"Forget about the bad things and remember the good things..."
"That's easy for you to say! You didn't feel like you were going to be torn apart every time he thrusted into you!"
"You can't let that rile your life!" Sora yelled back, "It will destroy you!"
"I'm already destroyed, Sora! I can't even look at my self in the mirror wiht out feeling disgusted! I don't know how you can stand looking at me now!"
"Because you're my friend! I don't feel that way when I see you! I feel that I'll help through this the best I can! How could I feel disgusted in you?"
"I would have killed you..."
"But you didn't."
"I'm worthless.. Damaged goods."
"You mean a lot to everyone here! How can you say you're worthless? Damn, Riku I still look up to you." Riku turned to look at him confused.
"Riku many of us look up to you," Kairi said pulling herself over the edge, "You made it through a terrible ordeal... and yet you still act the same as before like nothing is bothering you... you're so strong Riku... You're fighting to stay alive and kicking and you're not going to let anything keep you down."
Kairi pulled a still confused Riku into a hug, "how... how much did you hear?" he asked in her ear.
"All of it..." she whispered back leaning her head against his chest, "We all love you for who you are not what happened to you."
"She's right!" Sora yelled tackling the two so all three of them fell in the water. Kairi swam to the top looking at the tree on the other side of the small island.
Sora and Riku wrestled for a while until they both came to the surface gasping for air and laughing, "I made you smile!" Sora cried out triumphantly.
Riku laughed even harder at the look on Sora's face. Then he was instantly quiet looking at something on the horizon. Both Kairi and Sora saw the oncoming storm, "I told you it wasn't over." Riku said.
"Kairi go home, we'll be back." Sora said touching her shoulders.
"Riku was already at the shore running toward the secret cave. He looked at the door then pulled something out of his wet pocket. He tied the wet cloth over his eyes and opened the door.
The eyes were the window to the soul.
No one was going to see his pained and broken soul anymore.
The End
