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Glue & Duct tape
Chapter Three . The Door's Secret
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"I think Sora was killed."

I blinked and all but gaped.

Nothing much surprised me. I had braced myself for practically everything and anything, assembled defenses and artillery to block and shoot down whatever Kairi could fling at them. Sora had gotten into some kind of trouble, whether it is a broken leg or a bruised arm – even run off drunk and passed out in some bar, as outrageously impossible as it sounded. I was well stocked to expect those things and not freak. But nothing had prepared me for this.

"That's stupid," I interjected almost immediately, regaining compatibility after my unseemly show of surprise while I studied her carefully.

"Kairi, what would make you say that? What could Sora possibly have done –"

Or, what was more fitting: What could you have possibly seen. Her eyes, big saucers and as deep as the blue sapphire of the ocean, told no lies. There wasn't a notion in them that denied what had come from her mouth in a steady waver; now the thin line of her lips quivered and threatened to dissolve into more tears.

She clasped her milk-white hands together and put them up to shield her mouth from a sob that wrenched their tenderness, though did not fully look away from me. I could see her eyes were far off and no longer intensely fixated on my mystified expression; her mind was somewhere else, perhaps reviewing an image of Sora spontaneously combusting. Dear God.

I lightly shook my head to clear it, and in a way to tell my friend that this wasn't a time for crying. But it could be one for mourning, if it was true that . . .

No. He isn't dead.

Sora's dead, you fool.

I won't let him be, dammit.

My mind fought a battle of right and wrong. One side, speaking with truthfulness from somewhere I didn't begin to have a clue about, refused to believe that Sora could have been killed. My mind, however, by registering what Kairi had told it, thought differently. I stared dully at her now as I processed these choices. Kairi was the symbol of innocence, and with innocence came ignorance, not stupidity. You looked into her telltale eyes and were sometimes tricked into believe the craziest things she said, even if you tossed them aside at first. There would be a second then, and that puzzled second would leave you doubting, 'Well, maybe sea monkeys do exist, after all.'

There was a buzz, though, tucked far away, and it told me Sora was still alive. Maybe not for long, because there was a bad feeling that followed this urgent one, but still alive all the same.

Because I felt numb on the outside. Numb similar to the time after my father had died. No, not exactly – when that had occurred, nothing but the fact had come to me. My father was dead in my life. Sora was not. I could still hear his obtrusive voice chattering away in the back of my head, his laughter floating through the island breeze.

A clammy warmth enveloped my hands that had been forgotten at my sides as Kairi took my them in her own and held them up to as close as an equal chest-level as she could get. "Riku." Her whisper was searching for a response from me, as she had said something while I was daydreaming that I hadn't caught.

"Kairi? What did you say?"

The knowledge of having to repeat herself seemed too much for her to handle. Performing the fated lower-lip-jiggle, I had my fears of her breaking down again. To steady her, I released my hands from her grasp and placed one on each of her shoulders, stooping down to peer into those blue, blue eyes. "I said," She began, biting her lip. Good girl. "I'm scared, Riku."

"Don't be. Because Sora's not dead." And that was that, in my opinion. I let my hands slip because it was uncomfortable for both of us, and slightly turned to face the ocean where that ever-darkening sky lied in wait.

"I didn't really think he was, honest," She admitted in a lower tone, returning to a remotely non-hysterical state. "But the way he looked . . ."

"Kairi, what did you see? I need to know. It'll help Sora." I couldn't do much when I was left in the dark to ponder over the different ways he could have met – or faked – death.

"I told you he walked off, right? Well, I finished my bracelet and then I wanted to go show it to him. It's a really nice bracelet," And her eyes were set alight as she began to grow excited over some stupid bracelet that I'd think would be pretty if I saw it, only because it was hers and her beautifully slender fingers had crafted it.

"On my way looking for him, I passed by our Secret Place."

Our Secret Place. Somehow, that word coming from her mouth mentioned in the same sentence with Sora made a twinge of jealousy arise in me. Not a good time, right. Especially when I was gonna go save my buddy. Right.

But still . . .

Despite the partially unintentional balling of my fist, Kairi continued.

"What I heard were . . . noises. People noises, like someone trying to make a lot of sound but not being able to. Remember that time when you put a cloth over Sora's mouth to make him quiet?" I did. He had been going on for days about the BB gun bestowed onto him for Christmas, something I hadn't gotten. I put it to my liberty that gagging him would be a sufficient way to make him shut up about it. So sometimes I bled too much. So what. I really wanted that damn little toy (because really, that's all BB guns were – just toy rifles for first graders), and I had a good laugh about it while Sora was busy making 'mum-mum-muffff' noises. He had told me afterwards that he was still talking about its slick barrel while the rag was restraining his lips from fully moving.

Besides, he had let me shoot coconuts with it the next day. As if nothing had happened. He could disregard my cruelty so easily, perhaps because he was used to the years of teasing, with the breezy casualness we had murdered those rounded furry brown fruits with. He truly was an enigma.

"I saw shadows. Two, I think. A tall figure, slightly bent over, and someone that was kneeling on the ground."

Kairi would have been a great witness if she didn't lose it just then.

"I think it was Sora, Riku! He was hurt! That . . . thing, that thing had hurt him!" And she buried her head in her hands once more, knobby knees pulled up and bent in disarray. I nearly let myself fall into a similar trap, fatigued with the never receding hopelessness.

"How, Kairi? How was he hurt?" I prodded, hoping those weren't sobs that made her bony shoulders shudder like that. This was important. I needed to know in order to determine if he was dead or not – even though I somehow knew he wasn't yet. Yes, I was playing God. But Sora's life literally was on my hands – our hands – and when Kairi broke down like this, we were only wasting more precious time. His internal clock that kept him going, the mysterious muscle called the heart, could be ticking out of existence at that moment, and here we were, sitting on the dock and doing petty things that amounted to absolutely nothing. It was killing me.

"I need you to tell me this so we can get to Sora faster, Kairi. Deep breaths," I instructed, though dreaded that it was a worthless attempt. She had seen too much, apparently, and was keeping those horrible thoughts to herself in a self-induced trauma. If only I could tease out a couple words from her . . .

To my surprise (I had been beginning to lose hope), she cooperated by bobbing her cherry head in a nod. "Whatever it was, might have socked him," She mumbled, guiltily avoiding my gaze. "But it did, it was hard, and Sora fell and wouldn't get back up." Finally her head rose enough to steadily look at me. There was a mutual understanding that passed between us just then, like a bubbling heat of electricity (though not the kind I was struck by when near Kairi sometimes). We were going to help Sora and get him back in any way possible. Even if that meant plunging ourselves into unknown danger, too.

"Let's go."

I felt my hand being grabbed as Kairi slipped her delicate one into mine. It was a subconscious gesture, I knew, from when we were younger and toddled across the shoreline, Sora Kairi Riku, her in the middle and me protecting her because she was afraid of being swept away by the waves. Sometimes if I strayed too close she'd try to pull me back, too. I guess she was worried about me also now that Sora was potentially hurt or gone. I'd like to say she didn't want to lose me, just as I didn't want to lose her and like we never wanted to lose Sora – holding onto that fact as I held onto her hand in return was good enough for me.

We both stood, sharing mutual punctuality and understanding, and veered off in the direction of the Secret Place at a brisk walk. Luckily it was less than a minute away, but I felt we had already wasted too much time and ended up breaking up my stride into a jog. The hole in the wall loomed nearer, and as we grew closer, I saw no one there.

No Sora. No cloaked, shadowy figure.

An icy shower of dismay slid down my spine, but I reminded myself that I shouldn't be disillusioned with discouragement. I held onto Kairi's hand, tight, to keep her by my side because she had begun to jerk foreward and try to break free while I stood there motionless.

"Riku, c'mon!" Her eyes turned to me, still wide with fear and determination. "Sora? Sora!" Her voice echoed into the mouth of the cave, resonated there as tremulous strings of vibration, then was taken captive by the wind.

"Kairi? Riku?

Is that really you?"

"Sora?"

I blinked at this voice of hesitant curiosity and wonderment, and realized that I had been so fully expecting my little buddy to reply that I had recreated his voice and imagined him replying to me. Was I really that desperate to know if he was not yet banished from existence?

My spoken musings went unnoticed by Kairi, who had been released from her containment while I had been unaware and was now dashing towards the small cavern's entrance. She ducked inside and disappeared out of my sight. Never once before had that dark passage reminded me of the yawning maw of a python, ready to devour whatever blissfully ignorant mouse that stepped into its mouth and crush its bones into powder. Kairi was that mouse.

A second later I heard her scream.

"Riku!"

That was enough to send me running. I swooped down through the low-hanging, narrow opening in a similar fashion to that of my shrieking friend, and found my footing on the sandy dirt path that carpeted the claustrophobic pathway rock walls. The soles of my shoes bit into the ground, vomiting up puffs of the dust that collected in this modest habitat which formed intricate designs on the natural carpet.

At first I didn't see her – my eyes had not yet adjusted to the dank darkness my surroundings carried. Not Kairi, not anything. Then I saw her, thin form molded into the far back corner of the cave as compact as she could get herself without folding herself in half. I stared at her expectantly for an explanation. Sora, had she seen him? The other – what about that? And then . . .

And then there was always the possibility of the malevolent shadows. I was guilty of spinning up images of them swarming over her slightness, contorting her into a mass of smoky black moments after her scream penetrated my ears. I couldn't rid the disturbing image from my mind, so I stepped foreward as if to envelope her with my protective arms instead of convulsing shadows (though I would never actually do such thing) when I saw just that shadowy something latch onto her wrist.

She had held out her arm to me – a stark white bone in the moonlit darkness (I hadn't thought then of the irony of moonlight when it was only seven in the evening) and now it recoiled, her chin dipping to lead her eyes down at the creature who grasped her other arm. Not a scream slid off her tongue but a quiet gasp, half in surprise and half in repugnance.

If these were the guys that took Sora, there was no way I was going to let them take Kairi. No fucking way.

Hopefully before she had the time to appear frightened, I ran to the pair with a wordless yell as my train and with nothing as my weapon. Not the smartest way to go about heroic acts. My eyes scrambled around the small circular enclosure, searching for something I could use as a fender. From past experiences, my bare hands did nothing to the airy darkness that made up these buggers.

What I found was a sword. Yes, a sword – but not exactly. It was made up of one carved piece of wood, probably stolen from an old plank in the dock. Now I remembered leaving it here yesterday after I had chased Sora into the Secret Place during one of our spars he had fled from. I taught him not to give up that easily. Two minutes into the game and he was complaining of a boo-boo on his inner-elbow that I had thwacked with my misshapen board of wood.

Well, I wouldn't be giving up already. In mid-run I crouched down to pick it up, swung it over my head and sliced the atramentous ghoul's arm . . . with an oversized key.

"Huh?" The silver spine gleamed up at me dully, as if telling me to get over the unforeseen spectacle. I took its advice and shifted my body so I was between Kairi (who was now shrinking away across the stone wall) and the squirming monster and landed a finishing blow down on its head.

What shook me up more than seeing that thing seem to melt into a puddle of ink and then somehow evaporate was behind its gravesite. For once the door hadn't been the very first thing I had noticed upon coming into the hideout. The door was ajar and no longer seemed to be comprised of humble sorrel wood. It was the passage you'd find in a palace, all elegant milk marble and architectural impressions. But the flawless porcelain was veined with blue and black like a bruise, an aura that pulsed as a heart would behind the opening.

My hand trembled and I would have dropped the keyblade if I hadn't tightened by grip just then; already it was slick with sweat. I was living my nightmare.

"Riku . . ." Her voice. I marginally turned. Her arms encircled my waist; she pressed her forehead into my chest. It was an exhausted gesture, searching desperately for some sort of sturdy comfort and confidence. Nevertheless I was frozen and could not cup the back of her head like I would have wanted to do if my mind hadn't been torn between her presence and the door.

Her heart beating through our clothes, through my skin –

The swirling darkness escaping the crack in the door –

Silky, sweet-smelling hair the colour of roses –

Advancing troops of vicious shadows –

You will be the one who will open the door –

The door was already open, dammit, already broken –

The shadows were coming.

Deftly I twisted from the teenage girl's embrace and launched my weapon at a midget shadow in mid-leap, motioning for her to stay out of the way. I didn't need anymore distractions.

I ripped off a monstrosity that had climbed onto my back and flung it at the opposite wall that it hit with a thunk. The one that took its place ended up being impaled next to its counterpart.

They were everywhere. Every time I turned around, another had become attached onto my body. They clung with a sickening assurance that soon I would no longer be able to overpower them. Soon I'd grow tired of thrashing and their weight would make my restless limbs slushy. Soon it'd all be over and all three of us would be lost to this strange darkness. All because of a door.

The momentum of the beasts caused me to face Kairi. I believe she was yelling something at me or at the creatures attacking me (we were at such close quarters so it was difficult to tell), perhaps something along the lines of "Go away!" or "Leave him alone!" Maybe if I survived this I'd take lip-reading classes so I'd be able to figure out what she was saying. The critical thing was, she wasn't going to get herself into trouble anytime soon, and I was still fighting. For now.

It actually wasn't that hard to master the flow of this bulky object. I found myself fluidly switching positions, using muscles I never thought I had in a flexible act. It was a dance, not combat. A dance with blood and gore, sure, but a dance all the same.

The two points of the key weapon dug into the stomach of one fiend and I felt it give way. I kind of leaned foreward with it, my arms growing heavy. I couldn't give up. Then I'd never get to Sora.

It was so tempting.

"Mmm, lollipop."

My eye might have twitched.

"Lollipop lollipop."

He popped the shiny red lollipop out of his mouth, examined it for his own secret entertainment, and then slurped it once more.

"Lolli lolli lollipop."

"Stop it."

I was a sucker for suckers.

"Aw Riku, why?"

"Because it's annoying." I rolled my eyes to demonstrate and reclined back against the paopu tree, rearranging my arms to that they restrainingly folded across my chest. Sora kicked his skinny legs in reply, swinging variably with amiable ferocity while on the edge of the tree trunk.

"And immature."

"You just want my lolli." He grinned, showing off two rows of perfect teeth enameled with pink sugar as he peered teasingly at me.

I did. And I was almost ready to grab it from him since he couldn't keep it in his own damn mouth. But I didn't, because every time I thought I wanted to, I saw the sheen of his saliva all over its perfect sphere surface, flawing it, and making it suddenly so decidedly unattractive.

"You know you want my lolli."

Giving up wasn't tempting anymore when I knew I wouldn't get what I truly wanted if I gave in.

That optimistic note in mind, I swung the keyblade with renewed promise and vaporized my enemy with it. The rest simply seemed to follow suit – I wasn't quite thinking, but my mind was set, and that was on one thing: destroy. They didn't stand a chance against this machine that chopped them up into little black bits that could be mistaken as ants.

When the last was gone and the frothing mouth of the door seemed to have calmed without anymore shadows spewing from its dark depths, I turned around at the sound of a delicate cough. Kairi. What had she thought of my display of violence? Was she as freaked out as I was? Really, I didn't care. Now that it was over, I wasn't going to let her hold me down from finding Sora – all though I knew she wouldn't. She wanted to find him just as much as I did, with her and that crazy adoration of him. I wasn't blind. I figured she liked him; but that didn't mean that I didn't have a chance.

Already my thoughts were being contradicted. Hypocrisy couldn't escape me even in the direst of situations; or maybe Kairi was just a siren. She had me entrapped.

"Riku," She began, her voice low and unsure. Brave to be the first to say something.

"Don't ask." I muttered, sliding my eyes to the side where the door happened to be.

"Those . . . things . . ."

"I think they took Sora."

"I know."

Her cherry blossom pink lips moved closed for a moment, and before I could even twitch to stop her –

"I'm going with you."

"No." Came my instant response. You must understand, I didn't want her to get hurt. I could barely imagine her walking into the whirlwind void of darkness and having to face what threatening things lurked within it. Alas, standing my ground once more proved to be futile. I was stubborn, but Kairi beat me in that personality trait. Seriously, she appeared to be as harmless as a porcelain doll . . . and she was. Though there was a determined flame somewhere inside her, constantly fighting to be released whenever provoked.

My expression seemed to soften. A bit. Slightly. It was hardly noticeable. "I won't hold you back. Just promise that you'll listen to me, so nothing will get to you." If I said run, she'd better run. I needn't worry, though – Kairi was remarkably obedient.

"I promise."

I forced myself to look at the beckoning door again. I stood there, the keyblade a bent presence my side, separating Kairi from me. We gazed into the indigo-tinted blackness like captivated individuals watching fireworks. Quietly, her voice sounded beside me.

"You think Sora still has a chance, don't you?"

"I know he does." My reply was confident but still modestly put out. "He's got us, right?" I nearly smiled at Kairi just then. There was just this hopeful light in her face and regardless of all the befuddling blur of stuff that was happening, it made me feel that we all had a chance. A smile of her own replaced my failed one, and she took my hand. We faced the darkness.

And were suddenly swept up by an invisible current from under our feet, sucked into the gaping hole in the Secret Place, and tumbled off into oblivion.

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N.otes
Whoo. I'm not sure what was wrong with this chapter, so much that it made me put it off for that long. I seemed to have lost my muse for a little while. Anyway, I don't think I'll have that lack of interest problem with the next chapter. I know what I'm going to do for that one. -cackles.-
I would like to take a special, gigantic thanks to Vixen2004 for her enormously helpful and appreciated reviews and pay her back for all the cookies she's given me. -dumps endless supply of fudge and pie over her head.- Really, I love stalkers. Very much.
Tatikara is also a faithful stalker. -poke.- Her RikuxKairi drabbles got me inspired. Go, read them. But don't forget about little ole me in the meanwhile. ;P