Riku's Side of the Story

-:Chapter 1, Questions:-

Riku opened his eyes slowly. His back was very sore, and as he looked around, he realized that it was because he was lying on painfully cold, hard, white floor. As he stood up and stretched, he saw that everything around him was the same whitish-green color. In fact, everything was so similar that it made him disoriented, and it was a few minutes before he realized he was looking at a set of stairs.

'Where am I?' he thought, trying to remember what had happened. All he seemed to remember was darkness that wasn't really dark. Or was it light that was dark? It was no use, he couldn't seem to think of anything else. His name was Riku and...he was traveling with the King! That was right, but where was His Majesty? And what was this place? And why were he and the King traveling anyway? Sora! He was looking for Sora!

Before Riku could think of anything else, there came a voice, seemingly from out of nowhere. "Riku, so you've finally decided to join us in the land of the waking."

Riku looked around trying to pinpoint where the Voice was coming from, but it was no use. Whoever it was, was either invisible or could throw their voice extremely well. "Who are you? Or what are you?"

The Voice laughed, "Those are good questions, neither of which I can answer at the moment. Welcome to Castle Oblivion."

"Where?"

"Castle Oblivion. What exactly it is and what that means are things you will have to find out yourself. I wish you luck." The voice said and disappeared. Why Riku thought disappeared and not just went silent, is because a feeling about the room that he hadn't noticed before was suddenly no longer there. But it was soon replaced by another feeling...one of terrible...there was no other word for it, wrongness.

"Ah, my dear Riku, are you forgetting again?" A different voice said, as a hazy image appeared in front of Riku.

"Ansem! You again?" Riku protested as he remembered what had happened in the twilight.

"Don't pretend you didn't miss me." The image said, smirking.

"Leave me alone." Riku said, as he tried to fight off a wave of nausea from the scent of the darkness.

"Oh, I don't think so, you're much to interesting to be left alone. Besides, if not for you, how else will I take over the world?" Ansem paced around him. "I will consume the world in darkness, and you, my dear Riku, will get blamed for it."

Riku glared at him. "I won't let you use me anymore!"

Ansem laughed, "Oh, but you will, and I'll be waiting... You fear the darkness to a point where it's not healthy. We'll have to fix that." With that, his presence left the room, but to Riku's horror, he could still feel it inside him, like a volcano waiting for the most inopportune moment to explode.

Was Ansem right? Did Riku really fear the darkness that much...? Riku tried to brush away the feeling of darkness, and yes, fear, and as he did, he saw that there was a card lying on the ground in front of him. He bent over to pick it up. It was almost the same white color as everything else around him, but it had an engraved picture on it that looked a lot like Hollow Bastion.

Wondering what he was supposed to do with the card, the Voice came again and simply whispered, "The door..." before vanishing again.

'What door?' Riku thought, as he looked around. Then he realized that he had been looking at a door for a while that was right above the stairs, but it had blended in so well with everything around him, that he hadn't noticed it until he was actually looking for it.

Since there was no point in just standing around, he walked up the stairs. "Now what?" Riku asked aloud, and in reply, the card in his hand started to shimmer and the door in front of him seemed to melt away, leaving a clear doorway. With nothing to lose and questions needing answered, Riku stepped through the door.

-R-i-k-u-'-s-s-i-d-e-o-f-t-h-e-s-t-o-r-y-

Well, what do you think? Please review so I know if I should put some effort into continuing or not...