Awaken
Disclaimer: See first chapter.
2: Book Of Dreams
It was still cold. A light wind rushed through the air around him, chilling him to the bone. Riku coughed slightly, and gasped weakly as he saw a Heartless crawling out of his mouth. It dropped off of him; off his head. He looked around, confused. It was entirely dark, except for tiny specks of great stars floating aimlessly around him, and an unnatural light coming from nowhere. He felt like he was hung upside down, seeing for lightyears down. There was no obvious floor, and no obvious ceiling. Riku covered his eyes; the view was dizzying. He was feeling sick, and worse than when he was just locked up with Mickey. He no longer had any idea where he was or where he was going. All he could think of was to think out loud.
"What did he mean by step one?" He sighed to himself. "What was he talking about? And why did he push me under?" He looked around, for any sign of anything familiar. "Hey, Sora!" He yelled. "SORA!" He felt himself choking again, and coughed up a tiny piece of Heartless. "Ugh.... SORA! What the hell did I ever do to you?!" He paused, and laughed stupidly. "Other than try to kill you. Repeatedly. But... that wasn't my fault! They told me to!" He stared down into the emptiness. "But you had a choice, Riku." He groaned. "You could have said no, you could have just stopped, left it alone, gone home with Kairi... But I didn't want only Kairi! I wanted Sora! I.... I need Sora." He let his arms loose, floating in the nothingness. He wondered for just a second how he was still breathing; he felt like he was in deep space. Eyes roving still, he noticed something floating many yards away, small but distinct. He willed himself towards it. He realized what it was; the blank book Mickey had given him. He hadn't even looked at it until now. There was a gold imprint on the front; "Book Of Dreams". Riku rose an eyebrow. "Stupid. Overdone. Oh, well... nothing better to do." He bit the end of this index finger, let a little blood slide to the tip of his fingernail, and flipped the book open. "If this is a book of dreams, then it's only suitable I write down my dreams in it." He began to write on the first page; barely thinking about it, writing the first thing that came into his head.
"All I had, all I wanted, is what I dream of. I see Sora and myself. I want to go home. I would give anything to be home right now."
He was about to write more, but suddenly, the book closed on his fingers. "OW! Son of a-" He tried to open it, but it remained closed. "Great. A mind of its own. Was my dream not good enough?" He pocketed the book, and continued to drift in emptiness. He looked around again. The flickering stars seemed closer, he felt like he could touch one. He tried it, and found he could somewhat hold it. It was nothingness lit up, it seemed. Pure white, and beautiful, he held it close to his face. "If this is my world, then I name whatever I find in it. I name this 'hope'." He cast it out of his hands. The tiny light flew away, collecting other lights with it, and flying up. Curious, Riku willed himself to follow them. He saw all the lights forming a great structure, and there was distinctly something inside. Riku flew up and close to see what they concealed. It was exactly what he prayed it would be. Sora lay asleep within them. He reached into them, and touched Sora's face. He was cold. His skin was as light as snow, his expression empty, haunting like a doll's, yet he looked like an angel to Riku. Riku plunged into the lights, and pulled Sora out. The lights dispelled, leaving only more darkness. Yet, now, there was the warmth that Riku felt when he held Sora to his chest. It was though his heart hadn't been beating, but now it throbbed.
"Did I do this to you, Sora? Is it my fault? If so... then I'm sorry!" He held Sora tighter, embracing his lifeless figure to him. "I don't know what's wrong with you, but I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"Was that so hard?" A voice whispered from nowhere. Riku looked around. There was definitely no reasonable explanation for everything that had happened to him since that fateful night when his world was torn apart, so there was nothing for this either. He knew, as much as he hated it, it'd be easier for him to just answer the disembodied voice.
"No. I was waiting for a chance to say that to him... Now, who are you, where am I, and what are you doing?"
"For a prisoner of darkness, you certainly are presumptuous." The voice laughed. "Let's just say..." The voice changed to Sora's. "I'm a friend."
"How descriptive... I give up. What are you going to do?" Riku sighed.
"Grant your dreams as they are." Sora's voice responded. "The second step to my perfect circle." Riku saw a flash in his head of Sora smiling, of the home he'd loved, but left. "Come on. Destiny Islands waits for no one..."
"Sora, even for you, that was dumb." Riku laughed.
"Too bad I'm not Sora... and nor is what you so desperately cling to in your arms." Riku suddenly got the dreaded falling sensation, and didn't have time to calculate what the voice had said or what it meant, or even, really, to scream.
He couldn't see where he was falling or how far the fall was, but he was falling fast, still holding Sora tight. His grip on Sora slipped a little, and he grabbed Sora's hands tight. It was like a fall down the rabbit hole, with what he hoped was the same wonderland he remembered so vividly below. He finally landed- on his knees, with heavy impact- on rock solid ground. "Oooow...." He groaned, catching his breath. After a moment, Riku rose, and looked around. He was shocked to see nothing but a wasteland with a similar landscape to Destiny Islands, except the great mountain was collapsed in, overflowing with blackness, pure dark energy.
"Welcome home, Riku." The voice from above whispered in a harsh tone. The voice was nothing Riku had ever heard before; it was like pure malice, pure hatred, in a thread of words. "Welcome home."
TO BE CONTINUED...
