Chapter Two
Ever since she and her friends cancelled their plans due to the sudden storm taking over the island, Yuki has been nothing but uneasy. She turns down her mother's infamous dinner, claiming that she isn't feeling well, which isn't a whole lie. Her mother had offered her a cup of hot water to warm her up from the cold shivers she'd been feeling all morning. The dreams, no, nightmares of her friends vanishing, the island vanishing have been happening the past few days, and have only gotten worse after she'd passed out on the beach yesterday. She had avoided Kairi and Riku's watchful eyes all day, knowing deep down that they knew something is wrong.
Yuki spent the rest of her night, glancing at the green glow stars she'd placed on her ceiling with her parents when she was a child. Just like the water, the stars also gave her a lot of comfort on her off days.
This world will disappear soon. Maybe, ever since hearing that in her head yesterday was the main cause of her unease.
A clap of thunder jolts her from her thoughts, now completely awake. She wonders if her friends had fallen asleep. She glances out her window, feeling rain prick at her skin as she opens it. The boats that were always tied up by the docks were gone. No... Yuki frowns. They couldn't have gone in this kind of weather!
With worry for her friends deep in her mind, she bolts out of her room, still wearing her blue nightgown and blue boots as she left her house, and towards the beach. Sure enough, she didn't make it up in her mind, the three boats were gone, with hers still there. What the hell were they even thinking?! She reaches the island, trudging through the harsh waves with her boat, and didn't even tie it up. She watches as the waves pull her boat further from the dock. No going back now. Not without Sora and Riku.
"Sora! Riku! Kairi!" She cups her mouth with her hands, calling out to her friends.
No response. Where were they?
Yuki cries out with alarm as a shadow with, piercing yellow eyes as tall as her springs up from the sand. She shields herself from the attack, and dodges as it swipes at her. The hell was -?! She whirls around to find the shadow gone. Tied to the darkness. An inner knowing. She's seen those creatures before, not on this island, but in her dreams.
More kept springing up from the ground, surrounding her. She's trapped in the circle. She glances around for an escape, helplessly, and finds none. Is this really it? She couldn't die yet, not knowing if her friends were okay or not. One of the shadows jumps at her, and she raises her arms over her face, expecting an attack. Instead, she hears a sharp, twing of a sword nearby and a flash of light floods inside her eyelids. "Yuki!"
Sora?! She gasps, and opens her eyes, finding the boy in red standing in front of her protectively, with a giant, glowing key in his hands, and the shadows gone. She sighs with relief.
"Thanks, Sora!" she exclaims, and gives him a quick hug.
"No problem," he smiles at her, but his blue eyes are serious. She's never seen him so serious before. "Where's Riku and Kairi?"
"I thought they were with you," she frowns. Sora mimics her frown, and tenses as even more shadows pop up around them. Now she wishes she'd taken up Riku's offer to join them at training, because she doesn't know what to do.
"Stay close!"
"Got it!" He didn't even need to tell her twice. She and Sora manage to take a quick breather inside the shed, huffing and puffing. For some reason those strange creatures didn't appear anywhere near it. She glances out the small window, at her favorite spot, and her eyes widen when she sees swirls of dark smoke with occasional green lightning wrapping around someone. Someone with silver hair. "Wait, Sora!" Yuki grabs Sora's arm, forcing him to look out the same window. "Isn't that..?"
"Riku!" Both she and Sora exclaim in unison. She and Sora nod at each other, and leave the shed, rushing towards their friend. Sora calls out Riku's name again, but the tall, silver haired boy makes no acknowledgment that he'd heard.
"The door ... is open," Riku speaks as if he were in a trance, and maybe he is, with the way he kept staring at the swirls of darkness. "Don't you see this is our chance to leave?!"
What was he talking about? Leave where exactly?
"Riku, what's going on with you lately?" Yuki asks him. He's been more secretive than she's been, and she's worried. It didn't help that the darkness around him made him appear more sinister than he is.
"I'm not afraid of the darkness," Riku says.
She is.
She glances at the swirlilng mist, and at Sora who's trying to reach for Riku, trying to grab his hand to pull him out of there. Sora's light is too bright for him to reach. She knows what she has to do.
Do not be afraid.
But she is.
"Sora!" she shouts, gaining his attention, and he stares at her helplessly. "Go find Kairi! I'll handle this idiot!"
"I'm not leaving the two of you here," Sora says stubbornly.
It brings a small smile on her face. Sora always was the selfless type ...
"Don't be afraid, Sora," she repeats what the voice tells her, soft and reassuring. "We've got this."
Before Sora can protest, Yuki grabs Riku's hand, and oddly enough, there's a burst of white light surrounding the two of them as the darkness swallows them whole.
This isn't the Destiny Islands she knows. There were floods of people, children like her, crowded around a tall fountain in a courtyard. This place has tall, white buidlings with blue rooftops, and a huge, silver clock tower overlooking the town.
A small, walking, talking, grey striped cat is following her, and several other children.
"We need your help, Yuki."
Again? Leave her alone.
"We can't."
Yuki wakes up with a pounding headache, and to the sound of rushing waterfalls around her. She jumps up, and finds herself sitting on a floating rock, and a castle, nothing like the one in her dreams, above the waterfall not too far away. What is this place? She glances around. She's by herself. She knew going through that portal was a bad idea. She calls for her friends again like she did back on Destiny Islands, but all she hears is her own voice echoing back at her almost mockingly.
Riku. He came with her. He had to be somewhere nearby. She hasn't lost hope yet. She glances around again, and swears she sees silver hair sleeping on a floating rock nearby. Her heart pounds frantically. She calls to him, takes a deep breath, and jumps towards the nearest rock, and again until she reaches him. Riku's sleeping on his belly. She calls for him again, shaking his shoulder. No, he couldn't be ...
"Perhaps I can be of assistance," a deep, feminine voice startles her.
Yuki whirls around, jumping in front of her friend protectively, but still spooked. A woman with green skin, and green eyes, wearing a long, black coat, with matching horns on top her head is smiling at her. Yuki isn't that much of a fighter, but if she had to...
"Who are you?" she asks bravely.
"You can call me," the woman brings a tall staff with a glowing green orb closer towards her.
"Maleficent."
A/N: Thank you so much for the follows and favs, I appreciate it so much!
