Chapter 3

Sora didn't like the way Riku's eyes welled up at that moment, the way Riku's arms were tensed to try and stop the shaking; it was obvious Riku was trying to control himself and keep as strong as he could for the sake of his two friends.

"What do you mean? Riku what the hell happened?" Sora ignored his own intentions of trying his best to remain calm. When Riku had blood splattered all over his clothes it was hardly the time to remain calm. "Is this your blood?!"

"No…"

Kairi's eyes widened. She could never imagine Riku beating anyone to bloody satisfaction without it being in self-defence. Never. "You were attacked."

"Yeah," Riku lifted his posture up and looked at the two, "and we need to go now, before it comes back."

"It…?"

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The three friends walked quickly through the white corridors, Riku carrying Kairi in his arms all the way as her body was still too weak for all this rushing. She may have had as little to eat as Sora and Riku, but she had been awake for three days with nothing more than coke and mouldy apples. It was scary how pale she was.

Sora kept his pace as well as he could. He didn't want to slow them down, but his stomach clenched in hunger and it was hard to keep up. Riku had always been slightly more athletic than Sora, giving him the advantage in almost everything they did. It bugged Sora senseless sometimes, because he was too lazy to try and be the same.

Riku turned his head a little to see Sora slowing down and he in tow slowed down for him.

"Come on Sora," Riku said with an encouraging smile.

"Heh, shut up, I can keep up."

Riku smiled but despite how strong and motivated he knew Sora was, he kept his pace down a little.

"We should go back to your place, Riku, it's closer, and you've always got food," Kairi suggested. Riku nodded and carried on walking. Kairi looked towards the blood on Riku's chest, her eyes downing slightly. "Who attacked you?"

"I don't know. It… reminded me of the day of the crash, but it wasn't quite the same. I couldn't even tell if it was human or an animal."

Kairi looked at Sora who looked equally confused.

"Whatever it was, it was vicious and loud, I'm surprised neither of you heard it. It kept reaching out to my chest and crying, then it got too dangerous and I… I had to kill it."

Kairi gave him a sympathetic look as Riku swallowed. He was quite torn, and she could tell. She laid a hand on his chest, above his heart, in a comforting effort to tell him it was alright.

They saw the exit ahead of them and they all walked quickly toward it, as if it being their salvation.

The reception area in front of the huge glass doors was totally wrecked. The windows were smashed, tables and chairs broken, bits of furniture scattered across the floor. Sora looked at it all as their pace slowed down to examine the wreck. They all wanted to ask the question, but all three knew none of them could know the answer. The mess and silence put together made the atmosphere too weird for comfort. Kairi gripped Riku's hospital shirt slowly as they walked through, feeling uneasy.

Their pace had slowed down totally and eventually Sora and Riku just stood still, brows furrowed in confusion as they stood in the ruins of the reception. The door was only a few feet in front of them yet they just stood still in a state of bewilderment.

"Hello?" Sora called, doing what he thought would be the smartest thing. His voice echoed loudly through the huge reception and for some reason, Sora regretted it badly.

There was some sudden rustling amongst the shattered reception desk and something quickly peered up from behind it. Riku, Sora and Kairi's reactions were slow and weak and they only just sensed it, jumping faintly away from it.

Riku frowned in a state of frustration and anger at the creature he swore he killed a few moments ago.

Kairi grabbed hard onto Riku's clothes at the chilling sight of the creature, and Riku held tight onto Kairi suddenly feeling very protective.

Sora kept his guard on as the creature stared straight at him with strikingly yellow beady eyes, a blank yet desperate look placed on its face. It instantly reminded Sora of the creature they encountered before the crash. Its body was just like a humans, apart from it being on all fours, and the skin being extremely dark, almost pitch black. Animal features could be noticed, like the pointy ears and the huge claws. When Sora noticed the claws, he suddenly became weary, and then remembered the blood covered bat he was holding.

"Sora stay on your guard, these things are fast." Riku stayed behind Sora, counting on his best friend to keep them all protected. Riku knew he couldn't fight and protect Kairi at the same time. Kairi watched on painfully, feeling like a huge burden. If Sora or Riku got hurt, she knew it'd be all her fault because neither of them could work together. But she had a lot of faith in Sora.

"When I say so, run straight for the exit, I'll catch up," Sora said whilst keeping his eyes on the creature that slowly crawled over the desk, breathing heavily as it starred straight at him.

"Don't be a hero!" Kairi yelled in frustration and dread, not wanting the fear of losing her best friend a second time.

Riku knew it would be the only way to get Kairi out of here, still he was weary of leaving Sora to kill it by himself. Riku had sent it flying across the corridor yet still hadn't been able to kill it. He watched as the creature reached its arm out, reaching towards Sora's chest and its eyes darkened.

"Sora!"

"Go!" With that Sora leapt forward just as the creature had and swung the bat straight at its body. The creature was thrown brutally to the left, slamming into the wall with a painful screech.

Riku frowned and ran straight for the exit, holding Kairi tight in his arms. Kairi watched with sad eyes as Sora got farther and farther away.

The creature screamed at Sora with a terrifying pitch and Sora squinted, readying himself for another swing. The creature was maddened and now as angry as ever. It ran at Sora with a speed Sora was not at all prepared for and all he could do was react as quickly as possible, swinging the pole with force. The pole only hit the creature's extended arm as it screeched again. Sora tried to ready the pole again but the creature knocked it right out of his hands with horrible strength. The only thing he could was get out of its range and avoid all of its attacks, whilst he tried to get the pole back. Judging by the creature's speed it seemed almost impossible.

The dark creature slammed Sora sideways with its other arm and Sora flew into the desk with a thud, landing on his knees with a painful cry. The creature snarled and stared at its prey helpless on the floor.

Sora cursed. His reflexes and his reactions were more than weak in his state of hunger and exhaustion. Usually this would be no problem, or so he hoped; he'd never really dealt with anything like this before.

Before he could even think, the creature had already started sprinting on all fours at him, arm slowly outstretching as it ran with only three legs. Its face was manic and Sora's eyes widened. All he could do was pathetically protect himself by covering his face with his arms, preparing for the worst.

Unexpectedly a circle of dark mist of black and silver wires appeared in front of Sora extremely quickly. The wires blurred and twisted upwards in a wicked fashion, then a figure came into focus as the wires and the circle disappeared. Sora couldn't tell if he was hallucinating or whether it was the depths of hell opening up to him already.

The Creature stopped dead in its tracks and screeched at the tall, mysterious, figure threateningly, annoyed it had interrupted.

Sora removed his arms and stared at the figure shrouded in only dark clothes. It stood with its back to him, facing towards the snarling creature in a relaxed posture. It wore only a long black leather coat with its hood covering its head and hiding its face, with long black boots. It stood there right in front of Sora calmly, fingers slowly flexing as it faced the dark creature.

Sora was now even more confused than ever. What the hell just happened?

The creature got ready to pounce and immediately the figure extended its arm and summoned what Sora could make out to be a scythe with an enormous pink and yellow blade. In one swift movement the figure had sliced the creature neatly in two halves. The creature screeched louder than before and Sora's eyes almost popped out of his head. The scythe was gracefully swung down again and this time it removed the head, causing the creature to suddenly stop its blood curdling screeching. Without time for Sora too fully acknowledge what was going on, the three parts of the dark monster dissolved into nothing but black smoke.

Sora sat there speechless as the figure walked forward slowly staring at the space the creature had dissolved from. In another almost angelic movement the scythe disappeared from its hand in a flurry of pink petals.

It turned its self towards Sora, though its face was completely shrouded in mystery by the hood of the coat.

"Wh… Who are you?" Sora asked gently, not completely sure what to think of this strange character.

The figure simply stood there and didn't answer, instead just pointed towards the exit. Sora looked to the exit and then remembered his friends were waiting for him. He'd never find them if he left it too long. Thinking of losing his friends made his mind quickly tense, not sure if he could handle being on his own if another creature should appear.

The dark circle and the wires returned, surrounding the staring figure as it simply disappeared within them.

Sora looked on in bewilderment, but didn't question it. There were far too many questions cooped up in his mind already. If Santa were to suddenly show up and tell him Christmas was all a lie, he wouldn't even question that because he was simply too confused about almost everything right now.

He slowly got up from the floor and held his arm from where the creature had hit him and winced in pain. For such an average sized thing, it sure was strong.

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Riku carried Kairi through the silent streets carefully. Things outside weren't much different from inside the hospital. The island seemed completely deserted.

Riku looked around suspiciously for anything that may be hiding behind abandoned cars that sat around the road. He had to be on his guard now he didn't have Sora to keep a watch out.

Kairi stared around the lonely island, looking for any sign of life or even movement. The only sounds that could be heard was the slight howl of the wind and the scuttling of stray litter on the floor. It was a hard thing to imagine Destiny Island being so empty, because of how vastly popular and loud it was. Yet here, in front of them the unimaginable came true.

Kairi felt Riku's arms shake a little and she looked up at his face. He was finding it difficult to carry Kairi with the limited amount of strength he had. She sighed.

"Riku I can walk, it's okay," she said making him stop.

"Honestly, it'd be a lot more of a pain to carry you if you fainted, so just relax," Riku said and looked down to her.

"I'm not going to faint," she sighed. She looked ahead of her and noticed an abandoned grocery store on the corner. "Look we can stop in there and wait for Sora. I'm sure the owners won't mind us eating some stuff."

Riku looked to where Kairi was and examined how safe it was. The windows didn't seem to be smashed and the door was wide open. The look of the countless food items on the shelves was enough to win him over. He nodded and carried Kairi toward the shop, hoping Sora would notice them in there.

"I really wonder what's going on, Riku."

Riku looked down to Kairi again and saw the torn look across her fragile features. It was clear she was scared and worried by everything. The freak car crash, the empty hospital, the mysterious creature, Sora, and now their abandoned island; it was all too much to take in.

"I don't know, Kairi," Riku said in dismay, "I really don't know."