Warnings: Spookiness

Unchained Melody

Chapter 3: Heart's Cadence

The days in Twilight Town faded into weeks, and Medy filled his days with work. He worked himself into near exhaustion, paid the ice cream rent to his young landlords, and dropped to the couch in a dreamless sleep on a regular basis. More than anything he wanted to pretend that he was normal, and he didn't want to think about the things he could do with water. Yet it was hard to pretend when every time he spied a puddle, he wanted to shy away from it.

On the day Olette, with the best of intentions, gifted Medy with a simple recorder, he accepted the instrument with the joy of one receiving a rattlesnake. He gave the girl a quiet thank you and tucked the instrument away. Though a part of Medy wanted to play the recorder and listen to the sweet notes, he resisted. When he had time between odd jobs, sometimes he would go to Sunset Hill to sit and run his fingers over the holes as though he were working out songs. But never once did he risk bringing forth sound from the instrument.

When rain came to Twilight Town, Medy remained in the clubhouse. The drops pattered onto the roof, and in his mind Medy found a rhythm. Drip, drop, drip – nature's music serenaded Twilight Town. And Medy hid his head under a pillow to drown out that music. The effort proved a futile one, for the tune still thrummed through his head, begging for him to join in and make the water dance. And all Medy wanted was to be normal.

Thunder added its deep, bass rumble to the music. Medy rolled off the couch and stormed to the door, preparing to bellow at the sky to just knock it off already. "Hey, Medy!" a voice called out.

Medy whirled to see Hayner, soaked through with the rain water plastering his clothes to his body. Hayner pushed a few strands of rain-slicked hair out of his eyes and flashed Medy that undefeatable grin. Apparently not even the storm could dampen Hayner's spirits. "Hey," Hayner said again. "We're going to hang out at the abandoned mansion. Want to come?"

Once Hayner got an idea in his head, he was not to be dissuaded. And so, as Medy began to decline, the younger boy grabbed his arm and pulled him further out into the rain. The water fell in sheets of droplets, and within moments Medy was as soaked through as Hayner. Yet he found that he didn't mind, for the water behaved as water should. Medy began to feel foolish for his fears.

No one else stirred on the streets as the two made their way through the town. Most people had the good sense to stay in out of the rain. Not so with Medy and Hayner. The two dashed through the empty streets, paying no heed to puddles. They were soaked through everywhere else, so a little water in their shoes would be no big deal.

The boys barreled into Tram Common. Bored shopkeepers perked to attention, waving as Hayner and Medy passed by. As they came in sight of the tram after which that area of town was known for, the boys hopped on for a few moments out of the rain. Medy slumped into the tram's seat, trying to ignore the squish of his sodden clothes.

"You know, I heard from Olette that you could probably keep us dry."

Medy's head jerked up, his expression a mixture of guilt and fear. Maybe he could indeed have made the raindrops dance away from himself and Hayner, but doing so would have left him unable to pretend that he was normal. Was normalcy really too much to ask for?

"Hey, don't give me that look!" Hayner exclaimed. "It's no big deal if you can't. Besides, I was already soaked when I got to you." And with the flightiness of the young, Hayner dismissed the topic easily, peering out of the tram. "Come on! It's our stop!"

A hole in the wall which surrounded the city loomed ahead. Medy had yet to figure out the purpose of the wall. Perhaps once Twilight Town might have had enemies which needed to be repelled. But the most violence he had seen had merely been the Struggle battles. Though he supposed that those, too, could be the legacy of more violent times.

Medy leapt off the tram and stood beside the track, staring up into the sky. Droplets continued to fall, splashing onto his face and trailing down his cheeks in a cool lover's caress. If the water had a voice, he felt it would be calling out to him, asking him to make music. But Medy didn't answer that silent plea.

Instead, Medy followed Hayner through the hole in the wall and into the woods. As they dashed down the winding path between the trees, the boys had a slight break from the rain as the leaves overhead acted like miniature umbrellas and redirected the water's fall. The path opened out on a clearing and a gated wall beyond which Medy could see the mansion.

Even in its ramshackle condition, the abandoned mansion remained majestic. Worn pillars lined the walkway to the house, standing at soldierly attention. Perhaps they'd once supported a lattice-work for vines to cling to. Now all that remained overhead was sky. As the boys passed through the gate and neared the house, Medy could see tattered curtains waving from the wind blowing through broken window panes.

Medy didn't like the look of the house, but he didn't want to say anything in front of Hayner. Though Medy wanted to return to the safety of Twilight Town, he continued to move forward, albeit cautiously. Hayner reached the door first and glanced back over his shoulder. "Stop dawdling," he called out. "Nothing's going to jump out and eat you."

As the door swung open like a gaping maw ready to devour anyone foolish enough to step inside, Medy regretted Hayner's choice of phrasing. But as Hayner dashed inside, Medy followed. If anything happened to the kids, Medy wanted to try to help them. They were the only friends he could remember, and he wasn't about to leave them to the not-so-tender mercies of mansion spooks.

The foyer, Medy noted, was wide open. Apparently the mansion's original inhabitants had enjoyed having space. Straight ahead, a glass door opened onto an overgrown garden. To the left and right were a pair of doors, one with so much debris blocking it that exploration was out of the question. Near the doors, a pair of staircases curved upwards to another hallway. For all of the mansion's spookiness, the only inhabitants Medy could discern were dust bunnies.

Hayner started up the staircase on the left, moving with the ease of one familiar with the area. It surprised Medy that the children didn't use this place as their clubhouse. Certainly it was bigger than the place in the alley. But then, it was also further away, and there was an undeniable sense of being a visitor. No, Medy didn't need to wonder. The clubhouse felt like it belonged to the children, whereas this place didn't. And a place you could call your own was always better than big and fancy.

"Watch your step when you come in here," Hayner warned before entering a room at the top of the stairs. Instantly, Medy's mind was filled with worries of unstable floors. What he didn't expect was a noticeable lack of floor. A small strip of flooring was right inside the door, barely enough to walk comfortably upon. Beyond that, though, was nothing but a broken neck waiting to happen.

Cautiously approaching the edge, Medy peered down. Below was a barren room of cold metal – a sharp contrast to the cozy, if floorless, library he was in now. Against the far wall of the metal room, flush against the edge of the remnants of the library floor, was a staircase.

"Will you hurry up? Everyone else is already here," Hayner snapped, his voice brimming with impatience. He was already halfway down the stairs while Medy cowered at the edge of the floor.

Medy started down, keeping one hand against the wall to steady himself. "Why did you guys want to come here?" Medy asked in a soft whine. He could think of many safer places to play – places that he would much rather be right now.

Hayner skipped over the last few steps, jumping down to the floor. "Because it's dry here, and Seifer and I want to have a few Struggles. And Pence wants to play with the computer." Hayner made it sound as though these were the most matter-of-fact reasons in the world. Medy supposed that to a child, it would make sense. It was a way to play the games the children wanted without having to worry much about the weather.

When the boys passed through a door next to the stairs, they found themselves in a dark room illuminated by light from the screens of some sort of computer. Medy spotted Pence's wild mop of dark hair poking up over the back of the chair at the machine. Olette stood off to the side, watching Pence work at the computer.

As Hayner and Medy approached, Olette turned to wave. Hayner returned her greeting with a soft grunt and left the room. Olette just sighed and shook her head. "Boys," she muttered. Then she grabbed Medy's hand and pulled him over to the computer. "Come here. Pence was thinking that maybe you're from the Other Twilight Town, so we're checking the data to see if there's any sign of you."

"Other Twilight Town?" Medy repeated skeptically.

"That's right," Pence called out. "There's a second Twilight Town made completely out of data. And this terminal holds all the information on it. We found out about this place a while back, and it's possible for items made of data to go back and forth between Twilight Towns, so why not people?"

Olette bobbed her head in agreement. "Pence thinks that maybe when you came through to our Twilight Town, your memory was scrambled."

Medy eyed the machine skeptically. He was willing to believe in the possibility of other worlds. But he'd always assumed that each world would be different and unique, not a man-made carbon copy of an already existing world. Still, it wouldn't hurt to let the kids try. If Pence and Olette could find out something – anything – Medy would be grateful.

A clatter erupted from the next room. Medy hurried to find out what was happening. As he pulled the door open, Hayner nearly slid into him. Only the younger boy's quick reflexes allowed him to spring out of the way in time to avoid an unfortunate crash.

"Foul!" Fuu called out. She stood against the far wall, as calm and stern as ever.

Seifer's other follower, Rai, however, jumped around making a time-out motion with his hands. "Yeah! You totally went out of bounds, Hayner, ya know!"

Hayner glared at the two would-be referees, then stormed back to the center of the room. He and Seifer shook hands before dropping back into attack stances. They circled each other, waiting for a signal. "Go!" Fuu called out. She wasn't the sort to use two words when only one would do.

At Fuu's signal, Hayner and Seifer lunged for each other. The two were a flurry of motion as they performed an intricate dance known only to themselves. Struggle bats would lash out, only to be blocked. Seifer jumped higher than Medy thought was humanly possible and came down at an angle. Hayner, judging Seifer's trajectory ran straight for him rather than away. When Seifer landed, Hayner was behind him, and Seifer had to spin quickly on his heels in an attempt to bring his Struggle bat up in time.

Even then, Hayner scored a blow on Seifer's shoulder. Seifer let out a grunt of surprise as Hayner pressed his advantage. Strike after strike pushed Seifer back. Only when he was a fraction of an inch away from the area deemed out of bounds was Seifer able to remount his defense.

While Seifer fought his way back to the center of the room, Medy inched along against the wall until he stood next to Rai. "Hey, where's the short one?" Medy asked.

Rai jerked his thumb towards a second door in the room. "Vivi? He went that way, ya know; wanted to check out the white room."

White room? Figuring that he might as well see all there was to see, Medy continued along to the door Rai had pointed out. It opened onto yet another metal corridor lit by strange pods lining the walls. Medy reached out to touch one of the pods, noting that it felt like cool glass against his palm. They were rather pretty, he decided, like closed-up rosebuds.

The hall of glass rosebuds opened on what could only be the white room Rai had mentioned. Floor, walls, and ceiling practically glowed with a brilliant whiteness. Vivi was easy to find. He was a spot of color, a touch of darkness amidst the light.

Medy joined Vivi in the center of the room, crouching down beside the child. Together they stared at what looked like a giant white flower blooming up from the floor. "What is that?" Medy asked.

Vivi shook his head, his over-sized hat bobbing precariously on his head. "I don't know, but it's pretty." Medy couldn't argue with that assessment.

Desiring a closer look, Medy stood and climbed onto the flower. One of the petals drooped downwards to the floor in a perfect ramp, so Medy figured that the flower must have been meant to climb upon. As Medy stood in the center of the flower, he brushed his hands against the petal walls. Unlike the closed-up flowers in the hallway, this one held a faint touch of warmth.

"Medy!" Vivi shrieked.

Medy whirled around in time to see the petals closing up. He tried to leap free of the flower, but only rammed himself into the petal walls. While Medy beat at the walls, trying to make them open again, Vivi shrieked for help. Hayner and Seifer answered Vivi's call, rushing into the white room. They pounded at the flower with their Struggle bats, but to no avail. Fuu and Rai joined them, grabbing at the petals and pulling.

A crystalline goo rose up from the floor, swirling itself around Medy's body. He tried to pull himself loose, but with nowhere to run he only wound up caught again. As the goo closed up over his head, the world suddenly went dark. The last thing Medy was aware of was an emotionless voice saying, "Begin memory restoration."