Chapter Two- Encore (In The Shadows)

(( I've been w a t c h i n g, I've been w a i t i n g, in the s h a d o w s for my t i m e ))

The first thing Sora noticed when he awoke was that it was dark.

Very dark.

And yet... he could see everything around him, which was amusing in a strange, disconnected sort of way. This was a dim place, barren and damp-smelling. Bare trees stood in gnarled clumps on grassless knolls; there was no sky, no stars, only a dull stone roof. Everything had a dank, earthy sort of smell to it, like a root cellar in the middle of a humid summer. Sora took a step forward, and nearly fell- his legs felt like lead. Puzzled, he stopped moving, shivering and wrapping his arms around himself; he was still dripping wet, and still only clad in his swimming trunks. He hazily remembered going for a swim, but... how had he gotten here?

Almost instantly, he remembered the other worlds. Aah, that was probably what had happened! Bizarre, but it made sense, all the same: he'd somehow been accidentally transported to another world through some freaky wormhole something-or-other. Hey, it could happen. All he had to do was figure out where he was, find some friends he'd made in that world, hitch a ride home on the first gummi ship he could find, and he'd be fine. Yup, he wasn't going to have any problems whatsoever.

Confidently he strode forward (the drag on his limbs seemed to be lessening now, thankfully) and started down a well-worn path. He paused as he saw the silhouette of someone else walking ahead of him. Then he grinned, relieved. Surely this person could tell him where he was!

"Hey! Hello? I need help!"

In the freakish non-light, he could see the silhouette turn slowly around to face him. For a moment, it stood stock-still. Then, suddenly, it whirled about and broke into a startlingly fast run, careening straight toward a solid wall of rock. Sora gasped, knowing full well that it was going to crash, and at that speed, it would either injure itself horribly... or die.

"Wait, sto- huh?!"

Sora gaped in shock at the place where the person seemed to have disappeared into the stone. Disbelieving, he ran down the path, skidding to a halt before the rock face. He didn't understand; it was totally solid. There was no way for him to get through, so how had someone else done it? Squinting, he leaned closer to the stone. Wait- there it was. A slender fissure in the cliff created a small passage, barely visible unless one looked at it closely. Smiling to himself, he inched into it, edging along sideways. It seemed to take forever to get to the end; once he did, though, he found himself standing in what could only be described as a natural fortress. Sheer cliffs encircled the entire clearing; the only way in or out would have been through the crack he'd just come through. And, much to his relief, there were other people here, and lots of them. He spied someone nearby, hunched over a fire. It only took him two seconds to recognize the profile: it was the "disappearing" person from the path.

Silently thanking whatever higher power had influenced such luck, Sora stepped up to the stranger and tapped them on the shoulder. The person turned around; the flames from the fire illuminated their face as they looked up at him.

Sora screamed.

The man- his features had revealed him to be male- looked just fine. Until, that is, you got to the butcher knife buried almost to the handle in his forehead.

The man got slowly to his feet, arms outstretched. Sora panicked and scrambled away, his bare feet skidding on the rocky floor. His yells, however, had alerted a handful of other peple, and they shuffled forward, cornering him near the entrance. Sora pressed himself against the wall, scanning their faces quickly. They were all dead.

He felt as though he'd been doused liberally in cold water. His mind was reeling. What was going on? Why were all of these people dead? Then it hit him- he was probably in the Underworld, in Olympus. That even accounted for the weighty feeling he'd experienced earlier. Feeling a new surge of energy now that he knew what was going on, he called for the Keyblade, ready to do a little asskicking.

The Keyblade didn't appear.

Eyes wide, he tried again, calling upon his weapon more urgently. Still nothing.

Terrified, he looked for an opening among the undead attackers. Spotting a gap to his right, he lunged, arms outstretched.

The man with the butcher knife in his forehead tripped him.

Sora yelled, stumbled, and went down, smacking his forehead on a rock. The last thing he saw as the already-dim world around him began to fade back to black again was the ring of dead people leaning in over him. A hand reached out and clasped his shoulder firmly; he lashed out feebly as his consciousness wavered unsteadily. "No," he mumbled. "Wait, stop..." He fell silent as he passed out again. The group of undead, meanwhile, moved in closer...

((I've been s e a r c h i n g, I've been l i v i n g, for t o m o r r o w s all my l i f e ))

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Author's Note: Muah, cliffhanger. xD Okay, I'm thinking that I'm going to try and get into the habit of updating with two chapters every Friday. Works pretty well for me. And on another note... SUMMER VACATION HAS STARTED. AND I PASSED. (Much to my disbelief. xD) Just thought I'd throw that out there. ;D - Salem