The Mysterious Boy

Chapter 5

Riku walked down every street he could. He hated himself for being so desperate, but he wanted to see Sora again. Hours had gone by and he had no luck yet. He kept looking and looking.

"Hey look!" Riku heard a familiar, yet unfriendly voice. "It's our favorite friend."

Riku didn't need to turn around to see that Jack, Rick, and Gary were right behind him.

"What's the matter, Riku?" said Jack. "Been all lonely lately?"

"We'll be your friends." Rick teased him.

"YEAH!" said Gary. "HAHAHAHA...we will?"

Jack and Rick rolled their eyes. Gary wasn't too bright.

Riku remained silent and didn't move an inch. What could he do? If he ran away, they would just chase after him. And he figured even if he stood still, they would hurt him. Either way, Riku felt like it was a lose-lose situation. He refused to look at them. He just continued to have his back to them and waited for whatever would come next.

"Why don't we show our friend how much he means to us?" Jack suggested. The other two laughed. Riku spun around and took a few steps back. Jack simply walked towards him, clenching his fists.

"Say goodnight!" Jack said.

Riku closed his eyes, afraid now. He waited for a fist to come and hit him in the face, but one never came. He opened his eyes. Riku was surrounded by some strange light.

"What the fuck?" Jack got angry now. He continued to try and attack Riku but the light around him was some sort of barrier and Jack could not break through. "DAMMIT! What are you doing, Riku?"

"I'm not doing anything!" said Riku, still somewhat confused at why that light was around him.

"Let's get out of here!" Jack told the other two. He turned back to Riku and said, "This isn't over yet!"

The light around him went away. He looked around until he saw Sora from far away, chuckling. Sora then walked up to Riku.

"You did that?" Riku asked.

Sora nodded. "It was my turn to save you from those guys."

"Oh...thanks." Riku was still a little shocked. He was already having a hard time adjusting to the fact that Sora could teleport to different worlds, but now he was amazed to see Sora had some kind of strange powers.

"Hey, do you want to go to another world? I know one that's different from the one I used to live in!"

"I...guess so."

After the process of teleporting, Riku found himself in another odd world. It was very...green.

"This is Deep Jungle." said Sora. "Isn't it nice?"

"I guess." said Riku. It wasn't anywhere near as nice as Sora's world. "You're lucky, you know. You get to go to any place you want whenever you want. When I was little, I used to hope I'd get to see other places one day."

"Well, you're seeing new places now, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I don't have the same feeling I had when I was little. I gave up hope of every seeing new places long ago."

"You should never give up hope." said Sora. "If everybody gave up easily, they'd never find happiness. Hope, to me, is like a light. A light somewhere in the dark that never goes out. When we search in the darkness, and find that light, we're pulled out of the darkness and into a new world of light. So, you shouldn't give up hope so easily. Not for anything! Or you'll never find your light."

He had a good point, but Riku found it hard to believe. "Yes, well what if we hope and hope and hope, but no good ever comes?"

"Well, you just have to move on and find your next light." Sora replied. "Life isn't as bad as some people make it seem. All we can do when the worst is to come, is to stay positive and move on until our next challenge to fight darkness comes again..."

Riku was a bit annoyed that he was still using the light and dark thing to explain "hope."

Riku couldn't help but ask, "Has anything bad ever happened to you? Not like something simple, I mean, has anything truly horrible ever happened to you?"

"Of course." Sora replied. "And I've had hard times moving on. But I knew continuing to be sad would only make me feel worse. There's so much more to life that's waiting for me and worrying about the past will only keep me from it. Now, I'm not saying of course, that we have to get over something as soon as it happens, but if we can at least move on afterwards, it's ok. I know some people do indeed need a lot of time to get over something terrible."

He really is strange. Riku thought. I don't know anyone who ever has a lot of thoughts on simple things like this. And what he said about what hope is to him...I've never heard anyone say anything like that before. But does that really make him strange? Or...just someone with a good heart?

Sora looked at Riku and smiled.

Why? Why do you always do that? That smile...why do you always show it to me?

"Do you want me to show you around here?" Sora asked.

"Well, actually I'm tired. Mind if we go back?"

"No that's alright."

"I know I said I wanted to go here but--"

"It's ok. I'll show you around another time."

"Right...thanks."

They then teleported back home.

"Hey, Riku," said Sora. "Can we meet again tomorrow? I mean, if it's ok with you..."

Riku could not help but smile. He had another strange feeling in him. It was another happy feeling.

"Sure." said Riku. "Tomorrow is fine."

To Be Continued...