Review Replies are posted as reviews. I highly recommend you read at least the first chapter after this, if you haven't recently, just because some things will sink into place. Just a suggestion, though.

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Life Isn't Enough

Chapter Ten: Whispers in the Dark

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It was then, lying in a heap on the sand and crying into the unforgiving storm, that I remembered it. I remembered the dream. Not the one from before with the doors and all the strangeness thereafter, but the one I'd had the night before Riku went missing.

I was standing in some dark place, on what seemed to be sand, with Riku standing across from me, in front of that door from the other dream. It was white, with thousands of miniscule designs imbedded in the wood. Riku was smiling, talking, but about what I'll never know. He looked up suddenly, and I realized that someone was standing beside me, someone in a dark cloak. At the words from the stranger, Riku's aquamarine eyes grew sad. Can't I stay with Sora for just a little longer? he asked in a wheedling tone.

But the cloaked man shook his head. This is as far as we can go. You'll have to go the rest of the way on your own, he explained. Then he hesitated, his head turning to one side in what seemed to be concern. You won't get lost, now, will you?

Riku rolled his eyes, waving a hand dismissively. I know the way.

All right. The strange man turned and walked away, vanishing before he had gone three steps. I watched him go, then turned to Riku, my eyes pleading.

He walked up to me, putting his arms around me with care, as if I would break if he were any less gentle. I have to go now, Sora, he explained, and I felt his fingers threading through my hair. You're gonna have to take care of yourself, all right? I can't be here anymore. But don't let it get you down. I need you optimistic, all the time! Okay?

Okay, I managed in a whisper, for some reason feeling it necessary to whisper in this strange darkness.

All right. Bye now, Sora. He looked at me for a moment, then stopped long enough to place a small, chaste kiss on my lips. Then he started away, moving with his natural grace toward the white doors. He opened them, letting out the bright light within, and looked back at me.

I'll be thinking of you.

His silhouette flashed before me, like at the airport so long ago, and then the doors swung ponderously closed. But his words remained, silent crystals hanging in the silence of his absence.

I'll be thinking of you.

Okay…

Cloud was there suddenly, his fingers going through my damp strands comfortingly as I lay there on the island, feeling the wetness of the rain and my tears. I wasn't listening to what he was saying at first, still thinking of Riku running away, and now disappearing behind that door. And I realized, that was it. That was his parting message to me. Riku never lived past that first day when we realized he was gone. He was already dead even then. So that dream was the last I would see of that hair, those deep aquamarine eyes…Riku.

I looked up at Cloud, seeing his lips moving with a small smile on them. "It's okay," he was saying. "It's all going to be okay, Sora." I smiled back, and my eyes filled with tears again. Because it was. It really was going to be okay.

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I'll never know what happened to Riku, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that he and I lived together, that we cared for one another, and that we may have even loved each other. What matters is that I got through it, I got through everything. Mom and I got out of debt and bought a new house, even though it wasn't as big as the first one. I kept seeing Cloud a few more times, but he declared me fully healed shortly thereafter. And Aunt Muffy never did move into Riku's room, since the Yumes decided to leave it the way it was, as testament to the fact that he existed. That his life meant something to all of us.

I don't remember much of the funeral, the dirt landing on the empty black coffin with unsettling finalty. It seemed almost as if Riku was already buried somewhere deep inside my heart, and it didn't hurt as much to have that realized in the physical world. I thought I would become attached to that cemetery, visiting it over and over to talk with him. But I didn't need to go there, because that's not where he was. An empty grave yields little solace. And Riku was with me. He always would be, somehow.

After a while, I started remembering things. I remembered strange things about other worlds, and Kairi, and precious, precious memories of Riku. Kairi came back long enough for a visit, and we talked it out until we both understood what had happened. Apparently, Riku had had those memories erased from our lives to try to end the pain they had caused. But I was never happier than when I remembered some of those things. Like when Riku saved me from Ansem, and when we fought together even harder than ever before.

Time passed and we broke apart. Kairi returned to her new home, Selphie and Tidus moved away to go to a new school, and Wakka graduated with a scholarship in Blitzball. I gathered up my pictures of Riku and all my memorabilia and put it in a special spot, the frozen moments of time depicting Riku standing there with me or with Mom or the Yumes. They offered little emotional help, but I wasn't going to lose them. As I grew older, they were no longer as sacred. It didn't matter so much if someone else wore his clothes or fooled around with his computer. It wasn't a big deal whenever someone said, "Yeah, Riku used to do such-and-such!"

I accepted the fact that he was never coming back.

And yet, he had, in a way. If for only a moment, I had seen Riku again, but then he had to go. His promise was fulfulled, and therefore annulled. I asked Cloud once about how it had happened, and he gave me a strange look. "You know, when Riku was running—"

But he put a finger to my lips, shaking his head. "Whatever you saw out there that night was for you," he said then, "and you alone."

"But how did you do that?" I persisted, intent on an answer.

"Sora, I didn't do anything. I intended to convince you to let go, and nothing more. What you saw out there…" His eyes seemed to grow distant. "That was from someone else."

I felt my eyes well up, and he took me in his embrace. It was different—not quite the same intensity, as though he was holding back—but it seemed somewhat familiar. He smelled sort of like mint, and faintly of the sea.

He wasn't the Cloud from before, I knew that much, but he and I grew older and exchanged glances more and more often and were soon well on our way to a serious relationship, even if we did goof off more than necessary most of the time. At times, I looked for Riku within him, but I knew that wasn't fair. Cloud could never replace Riku in my heart, and so I healed and moved on.

Life isn't enough, I thought as I stood alone on the beach, watching the waves. I could have lived with Riku for years and years and years, but I'd still be upset when he died. It would always feel like it wasn't enough time spent. But at least it was time spent. At least I talked to Riku and we became friends, instead of just glancing at each other once through a car window and then leaving without a word, wondering. Wondering what might have been. If Cloud's life turned out to be short, at least I knew him and I didn't let that chance pass me by. It's better to have loved and lost, I thought wryly as I kicked off my shoes onto the beach. After all, it's one thing to know a person. But love? Love's enough.

I took a deep breath, looking down the empty beach at the trail of footprints from the new island children.

Let's race, Riku.

And I tore off down the beach, hearing the soft sound of his footsteps next to mine.