S!CK

By Candied

Author's notes: Yay, chapter two! I really hope you enjoy this chapter, it's been a lot of fun writing it! Also, I feel the need to mention that though Sora doesn't get as much dialoge in this chapter, that doesn't mean he's not speaking. Roxas just isn't listening.

HoplesslyxXxLost, thank you for your review! Yes, Roxas has lost it, and I'm glad you like it so far.

Enjoy!

Chapter two: It's all in your head.

I felt the sunlight move across my closed eyes as it poured in the window, and grunted, pulling the sheets over my face. I heard movement in my room, and opened one of my eyes.

There he was, my intruder, sitting on the chair to my computer desk, staring at me.

At first, I didn't know who he was, but soon the memories came back, and I felt my heart once again sink into the pit of my stomach.

"Good morning," said my tresspasser, giving me a goofy smile. If he was trying to cheer me up... It wasn't working.

I grunted at him and sat up. My eyes threatened to close as I squinted at Sora, wishing he would just dissapear. My eyes then wandered to the clock beside my bed, reading the bright red numbers. 10:15am.

"Shit!" I said, immediately waking up.

"You missed school," Sora stated, plainly speaking the obvious.

I rubbed my head and groaned at him. "She didn't wake me... again."

I stood and walked over to my closet, grabbing some clothes to wear for the day; some jeans and a black sweater. I didn't really feel like wearing real colors on a day like this. I then turned to Sora, my clothes draped off my arm.

"Just don't follow me into the shower, ok?"

He grinned at me and gave me a thumbs-up. "No problem."

I trudged my way to the bathroom, grabbing a towel on the way. I undressed and got in, letting the warm water roll down my back, soothing me. My eyes glanced to my mother's razor, looking over it as though it were an escape.

"You could do it too, you know..." came Sora's voice from outside the bathroom, "Oops!" he continued with a slight chuckle, "Sorry, sometimes I can't control my self, being your inner voice and all."

I sighed and shook my head. I knew my life wasn't that bad. I just wanted to get rid of him.

"Leave me alone," I grumbled, continuing with my shower, and not looking back to the razor. I finished up, and got dressed, walking out of the bathroom only to see Sora's form sitting against the wall in the hallway. I shook my head, and walked to my room. I grabbed my keys and wallet, stuffing the latter into my back pocket, and headed for the door.

"To the bridge?" I heard Sora ask from behing me.

I nodded my head, shrugging and opening the door to leave.

I took the subway downtown, Sora following me all the way. When I got out of the subway, I could smell the sewer stench, and looked at the discusting, moldy and cracked tiles of the subway platform. Silently, we went up the stairs to the outside, where we could see the prostitutes, drug addicts, and dealers glaring at us. Me. Glaring at me.

I payed them no attention as I turned down a street, Hayner's street, walking right past his decrepid building. I had always felt bad for Hayner. He lived in the shittiest part of town, his mother had died when he was young, and his father became an abusive alcoholic. I mean, yeah, my mother drank on occassion, but not like that. Not like Hayner's dad.

I pushed him out of my mind, and walked up to the center of the bridge we had just reached, sitting on the side rail, feet dangling over, above the water.

I could feel Sora's presence beside me.

"Ya know, bottling up your emotions isn't good for you."

I closed my eyes.

"Shut up."

I opened them again, and it was as though I could still see Hayner sitting there beside me, laughing and joking with me.

He always seemed so happy.

"Happiness is the best cover for sadness," Sora responded to my thought.

"Is that why you seem so happy?" I growled at him.

He put his index fingers inside his moth, and stretched out his lips as he crossed his eyes, sticking his tongue out at me.

I chuckled slightly at his face. After all, he did look ridiculous.

"I thought I told you to shut up." I replied to him.

He shot me a pout, and I returned the favor. That is, until I heard laughter.

My blue gaze shifted to the source; a man with longish, spikey red hair. He was a fair distance away, so I couldn't make out much about his face. He was leaning against the wall of a rundown building, a shop that had gone out of business, and apparently he was watching me.

"Fuck you!" I called out to him, giving him the corresponding finger. "What do you know about what I'm going through!?"

He didn't respond, instead just simply waling away, raising a hand tom me as I watched his back, as though he were brushing me off.

Dick.

"You gotta admit though, you probably do look crazy." Sora said in a hushed whisper.

"It's your fault!" I yelled at him, jumping back onto the bridge from the railing, "Just leave me alone!"

I headed back torwards the station, angered by the footsteps I heard behind me.

I bought my ticket, and boarded the train, taking an empty seat, and Sora took one next to me. In my mind, I thought it would be funny if a real person were to sit where he was.

Sora turned to me and glared. "Hey, that's not funny!"

I chuckled, and looked away from him.

"You know," Sora continued, "You have some anger issues."

"Just shut up!" I called out, glaring at him.

It was then that I realized everyone in the compartment was staring at me. I looked up at the other passengers sheepishly, when I saw him. The red-haired creep. He was laughing again.

I furrowed my brow, glaring at him. "Freak." How could he find so much pleasure in someone else's pain?

He seemed to find this funny as well, seeing as how he chuckled some more. He took the seat beside me opposite Sora, and grinned at me. "I'm not the one talking to people no one else can see."

I crossed my arms and looked straight forward, so that I didn't have to look at either him or Sora. "What do you know?" I mumbled.

His face became serious, and he faced me. "More than you think."

I turned to look at him again, now noticing the triangular tatooes under his eyes. I also noticed his black, zip-up hoodie, with the words 'Fuck off' written across in in bold white letters. I raised my eyebrow to him, encouraging him to continue.

"Invisible people is what I do," he explained, "Getting rid of them is my business. Or, it is now anyway."

I looked him over some more, trying to take in just who this guy was. I was almost amazed by his teal eyes; they seemed so unreal. Actually, kinda creepy. I wondered if they were contacts.

"Nah," Sora said next to me, "There's no line around the iris."

I felt my face twitch at the sound of Sora's voice, and I think the red-head noticed, because he smirked.

"What's your name, anyway?" I asked the strange man. He seemed to be a few years older than me, nineteen at least.

He leaned back in his seat putting his hands behind his head, not looking at me. "Axel. A-X-E-L." He then turned his eyes to me with a grin. "Got it memorized?"

I felt my face twist. This guy was weird. "Yeah... sure. I'm Roxas."

From behind me, as I was now facing Axel, I heard Sora squeek out: "You don't really want to get rid of me, do you?"

I ignored him and looked at Axel as the train came to a hault at my stop. I looked to him, standing up. "I get off here, and I'm pretty sure that you can't help me with this. I'll take care of it on my own." I got off, and was just out the doors when I heard Axel's reply.

"Have it your way. I'll see you later then."

"What?" I asked, but before I could get a reply, the doors had slammed in my face, and the train was moving again. "Freak..." I mumbled, before I noticed Sora's face pouting at me.

"Are you going to get rid of me?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied, chuckling at his stomping footsteps as I walked out on to the city streets. I started walking torwards my home, but then I decided that I didn't really want to talk to my mother, and headed in a different direction. I walked aimlessly, Sora right on my heels. I found myself standing in front of my highschool, exactly where Hayner had fallen, staring up at the roof. I felt Sora's hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

"I watched him..." I whispered.

"I know," Sora replied.

I shook my head.

If only I could have caught him. He would still be alive.

"But that's not what he wanted."

I didn't think or speak after that. Just stared up at the roof. My blue eyes must have looked glazed. I didn't even know how long I was standing there before he showed up.

"Oh, so you were his friend?"

Axel's voice broke me from my daze, and I glanced over to meet those aqua eyes with my own.

"Yeah..." I responded, though I'm sure my voice still sounded as though I were in that daze.

"I heard about it on the news. Why'd he do it?" he asked.

"To be free." I answered. I had no idea where it came from, but somehow I knew it was true.

Axel simply nodded, and we both turned our gaze up to the roof. I was immagining what it would be like to fall, and I think Axel was too.

After some time, the man with the wild red hair turned to me again. "You sure you don't want some help with your problem?"

I shifted my ocean gaze to Sora, looking him over, before transfixing it on Axel. "What could you do?"

He grinned at me. "Well, there's a few ways to get rid of your little annoyance, so why don't we go back to my place and discuss it? Since I can see you won't be going home tonight as it is."

I sighed, and put my hands in my pockets. "Listen, how much is this going to cost? I don't have much-"

"What do you have on you right now?" he asked, interupting me. I could tell he was asking me about my cash.

I reached into my pocketand took ou my wallet, examining the contents. "Four dollars."

"Works for me." he replied, and started walking, motioning for me to follow.

"What?" I asked, "But that's as good as nothing!"

He stopped walking, and turned around. "When I said it was my business, I meant more like a..." he paused, looking for the words, "favor I could do for you.. Four dollars is enough for a ticket out to my part of town, so that's why it works."

"Oh," I replied, as we started to walk. I ignored Sora's pleading for the time being, instead remembering something my grandmother had told me before she died. "If you run into someone three times in the same day, you're destined to meet." I wondered if that was why Axel had said he'd see me later.

Great, I was destined to meet a creep.

We got on the subway after buying our tickets, holding on to the vertical poles because there were no seats left. Sora could seem so real. He was holding on to the pole as if he could be affected by gravity.

At least I didn't have to buy him a ticket.

Axel lit himself a ciggarette, and held his pack out to me. "You smoke?"

"No. Isn't it illegal to smoke on here?"

Axel shrugged, stuffing the pack back into the pocket of his hoodie. "No one cares."

I looked up at him, noting how tall he was. And skinny. I wasn't entirely sure that anyone should be that skinny. His tight black jeans didn't help either. He looked... like a creepy beanpole.

The three of us - two of us - stood in silence until we were about halfway there.

"What was it like?" Axel asked, catching me off guard.

"Huh?"

"You were there right? What was it like to watch someone die?" his eyes seemed cold, removed. It was like he was mesmorized by the thought.

"You're sick," I replied, glaring at him.

He just laughed, exhaling a bit of smoke. "Maybe I am, maybe I am."

I turned away from him, but saw him pop a pill out of the corner of my eye.

Perfect. My only hope was a drug addict.

Asshole.

We listened to the hum of the train and the small talk of the other passengers until we reached out destination, the familliar screech of the train a soothing sound to my ears.

As we left to the city streets, I silently thanked God that Sora had been silent on the train.

"That's because you were ignoring me," he replied to my thought.

That's right. And I'll continue to do so.

Then, as we reached the streets, the putrid smell of this place reached my nose.

Did I say Hayner's part of town was the worst? I lied. Flat-out, bold faced, lied to you.

The streets were littered with miscellanious garbage, and I think I even saw human feces on the sidewalk. There were more hookers, more addicts, and more dealers than I'd ever seen in my life! Quite a few homeless people walking around as well.

Axel seemed unphased by this, however, and continued walking. I felt like everyone knew that I didn't belong. I could feel their eyes on my clean clothes, my innocent face. I made sure to stay close to Axel; no one seemed to be glaring at him.

When we got to his building, I was shocked. It was completely rundown, with various stains on the walls that appeared to be urine, and another substance I have no desire to mention. There was garbage all over the hallway, and a few of the stairs at the end of this hallway were broken. I could see from here.

"Watch your step," Axel warned, skipping the first three steps, then continuing upwards.

I followed suit, and thought I had completely lost my mind when I heard a beautiful song being played upstairs.

In a place like this?

"Hey, Axel." I heard a voice say from the upstairs. When I was up there, I saw a guy a little younger than Axel leaning against the wall, plucking the strings of a sitar. Ok, that explained the music.

"Hey, Demyx." Axel replied, slightly waving at the guy. 'Demyx' had sandy blonde hair like Hayners, but blue eyes that rivaled my own. His hair was styled differently from Hayner's though. Did everyone here have weird hair?

"That your him?" he asked, nodding his head torward me as he played.

"Yeah," Axel replied, "That's Roxas. We have a lot to talk about, so we'll see you and the others later."

Axel walked up to one of the doors, unlocking it, and letting me in. I entered into the apartment, and he followed, closing the door behind him. It was rather barren, save a bad, a couch, a table with two chairs, and a tiny television.

"This will be your home until we can fix you. You should be able to find anything you need pretty easily. I'll try to remember to buy some food after work tomorrow. Until then, you can raid Demyx's fridge."

"Oh... kay..." I replied, looking around at Axel's place. "Hey, uh, do you have a phone I could use?"

The aqua-eyed man nodded, pulling out a cell phone from his back pocket and handing it to me.

"Hopefully it works," he said, "I haven't payed the bill in a few months and they're bound to cut it off soon."

I sighed, and flipped it open, dialing the numbers to my home phone. Luckily, it rang until I got the answering machine.

"Hey, we're not in right now, but leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can." I heard my mother's voice say.

"Hey mom, it's me. I'll be... out for a few days. Don't worry about me though, I'm fine." I snapped the phone shut, and handed it to the red-head. He put it back in his pocket and sat in one of the chairs by the table.

I sat in the other, and watched him as he spoke.

"Ok, there's a few ways we could do this, so it's up to you. Option one; we could try to get you over the trauma. Not very easy to do. Option two; we could medicate you, but that's expensive. And option three; you could end your own suffering. Kill yourself."

My eyes widened at him, and I nearly fell out of my chair. "Did you just tell me to kill myself?!"

Axel shrugged at me, nodding. "Yeah, well, if that's what you want. But you're on your own if you're going to do that. Assisted suicide is illegal, y'know."

I stood up, enraged. "You're crazy! You're... You're sick! Deranged!"

He sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "Is that any way to treat someone who's trying to help you?" He crossed his arms and shook his head, "Go to sleep. You can take your time to think about it. Oh yeah, you get the couch. I'm here to help you, not pamper you." He stood up, and walked over to his bed, removing his hoodie. Underneath it, he was wearing a black wife-beater. He layed on his bed, and closed his eyes.

Our conversation was clearly over. I moved to the couch and layed down. I didn't want to sleep in the bed that he slept in anyway. I could barely stand to be in the same room with him.

The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was Sora, staring at me.

Damn him.

Author's notes: There you have it, Axel's entrance into this story. I hope you liked it, I tried to keep them all in character to the best of my ability. I'll have chapter three up tomorrow, so look forward to that. Also, don't forget to review! Reviews make me want to write badly, so do it!