Don't Close Your Eyes
Written by: zhakeena
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is Disney's and Square-Enix's property.

III : The Children

Rest… Aerith had told him. All you could do now is rest.

"How could I? It's so dark in here…" Riku thought.

Indeed, it was very dark in the place he found himself in… probably somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he concluded. There was an absolute absence of light in that place; even as he tried very hard to adjust his eyes in the darkness, he still cannot see anything.

"Is it cold in here?" he asked himself, feeling his arms. He can't distinguish cold in the atmosphere… but he was sure that it was supposed to be freezing there. After all, he was all alone. That usually follows being cold.

"Hello there."

Riku turned around sharply. "Who's there?!" he asked, his voice echoing throughout the void.

Suddenly, a yellow orb appeared out of nowhere… and above it, a face hovered. Its owner smiled. "Oh, it's you. Hello!"

Riku examined the boy, who he now realized was just carrying a candle. Blonde hair, red eyes, very pale. He was as tall as him, but he looked so much younger. But… he didn't recognize the boy at all. "Who are you? And what is this place?"

The boy smiled at him warmly, but Riku noted the coldness in his eyes. "You don't remember me?... Oh well, doesn't matter. We're waiting for you there, you know," he said, taking Riku's hand.

"What?!" Riku pulled his hand back. He stared at the boy in curiosity. "Where do you plan on taking me?"

The boy smiled mischievously. "Oh, you know… you've spent a ton of time there. Unless… you want to stay in this void?" he asked.

Riku raised an eyebrow. "No," he finally answered. "But I don't think…"

"Nonsense! You promised to play with us… my sister and I," the boy answered, taking his hand again and leading him in a direction he can't distinguish.

"Do you know where you're going?" Riku asked worriedly. He was sure that in the darkness, he was bound to hit something or lose his way, but the boy just kept going.

"Yes… don't worry about me, Riku… I practically live in the darkness…" he replied, his voice sounding very distant.

---

Finally, the boy stopped. Riku wanted his hand back, but the boy held onto it firmly.

"Don't let me go… not until my sister gets here… I might be lost again…" the boy suddenly told him, his voice hushed in fear.

Riku looked at him. "Lost? How? We're not moving," he asked.

The boy smiled sadly. "This place… we're both terrorized in this place, Riku, don't you remember? You suffered so much…" he closed his eyes. "But as long as the three of us concentrate on playing, we'll have fun! And we'll have fun, instead of being scared all the time!"

"I… was here?" Riku said, looking around. The glow of the candlelight didn't reveal any other objects in the space they're standing in. "Wait… where's your sister?"

He felt a finger tap on his shoulder.

Riku turned to face the person. And found a little girl with long black hair standing there.

She smiled, her hair covering her eyes. "Hello, Riku."

"What?" Riku asked, surprised.

"You came to play with us… right?"

Riku shook his head. "I barely remember anything… I don't know… I don't know," he said, shaking his head even more in confusion. The children were frightening him out of his wits so much that he can't think straight.

The girl's face fell. "Riku… why are you so confused? Don't you wanna be with us?" she asked, hurt evident in her voice.

"But… I'm lost! I don't have time to play with you guys, okay?" Riku said impatiently. "I'm sorry, but I really can't remember you… I don't even think that I've met you two before…"

Brother and sister looked at him with cold eyes. "We've suffered so much, Riku… but you've managed to escape. You abandoned us…" the boy said, his eyes darkening. "But we didn't hate you for that…"

"We believed that you'll come back for us, Riku. So we can play again. We saved you from being lost in the many worlds out there…" the girl said, her voice somewhat accusing.

"All we wanted to do when we see you again is to play with you… so we won't suffer so much…"

Riku blinked when he realized that the two children were hugging him tightly.

"We'll play again, won't we, Riku?" they asked.

Before Riku could reply, he felt pain surge through his veins. "Wha… what are you doing?!" he yelled when he realized that the two children were the ones causing the pain.

"You promised that we'll meet again… death is the only way…" one of them replied.

Riku wasn't so sure which of them was talking anymore. He felt his heart weakening at every breath he took… the light he saw from the candle slowly faded.

Before he knew it… he wasn't breathing anymore…

---

Author's notes: I wish that creeped you out, somehow. After all, I wanted this to be a horror story. Wouldn't be much of a horror story without a good scare. Hmm… who are the two kids? I'm still making up my mind about that.
Was this thing too short, though?... Oh yeah… I think somebody asked if there were going to be couplings in this story. I'm not so sure about any pairings yet. No shonen-ai, though. At least, I hope so.
I'm sorry if I couldn't update this story quickly enough. School's about to start, you see. Xx Panic… panic… Oh well, see you at the next chapter…