Here's the next chapter guys. Like I said before this is when the story is really show to be 'M' rated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts: Race to the Keyhole
Ch.3 It Begins
Sora woke up with a pounding headache. He quickly brought a hand to his head and let out a groan, his stomach was in a knot, his throat was completely dry and he could taste stuff he didn't know he had eaten, yup, he had a hangover. Somehow he had decided that attending another of Axel's parties would be a good thing, how wrong he was.
Resisting the urge to vomit he got off of the bed and made his way to the bathroom. Like always, things were completely quiet throughout the house, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He opened the door to the bathroom and turned on the sink, splashing his face with water and closing his eyes. He let out a shaky sigh before flipping on the light switch but nothing happened.
"Come on," he sighed out as he flipped the switch on and off but to no avail. He exited the bathroom and stomped over to his parent's room, throwing the door open. The good thing of being alone was that he could do whatever he wanted on the house with no repercussions. He walked over to the light switch and flipped it on, only to get the same results as before. There was no electricity.
"Fuck," Sora cursed when he saw a note sitting on his parents' bed. He walked over to it and took it in hand, reading its contents out loud, "Son, we had a business trip and had to leave-without telling your son of course-we will not be back for two weeks. Your uncle will be home to pick you up in a couple of days. Hell no."
Sora exited the room with a scowl on his face. He had no intention of going to his uncle's house, if he ended up going there then he wouldn't get to do anything crazy for a few days and that was out of the question. If his uncle was really coming to get him then he would do so at all costs, he was the kind of man that would always keep his word. Staying at Axel's seemed like the only thing he could do since his uncle had no idea where he lived.
The teen threw off his shirt and entered his room, picking up his school uniform, the class representative had given him a lecture about wearing the thing and he didn't feel like having a repeat of the conversation. He thought of just not showing up at all but he didn't feel like going to those extremes, part of him actually wanted to graduate with his classman.
Once fully clothed, Sora exited his room before walking out the front door. The air was cool against his body and he suppressed a sigh, he really hated cold weather, it always seemed to radiate a kind of sadness. The air would always take away dried up fallen leaves through the deserted streets of town with only the sound of the leaves against the pavement. Sora hated days like this, it reminded him of himself somehow, he wished he could be like summer again and be full of warmth and life but that part of his life was in the past and all that remained was the cold and dead winter.
Sora let out a sigh before digging his hands into the pockets of his pants. His school bag was strapped to his right shoulder, and his hair moved slightly from the light breeze. He locked the door of the house and set out to another day in school, he hoped that Riku and Kairi wouldn't bother him today, he was feeling more melancholic than usual.
The teen made it to school and gazed at the building, it was full of life. Students entered the building with mixed expressions, some calm, other wearing smiles on their face while others, like himself, dreaded entering the building. He watched as the students broke into small groups and talked amongst each other, what they talked about he didn't know but they appeared to be completely entertained. His life had once been like that, talking and being surrounded by friends but it wasn't until now that he realized how hollow it had really been.
Back then he simply moved with the crowd, doing what they wanted. His friends had wanted a happy-go-lucky boy and he had given it to them. He had acted like a fool for years to make his 'friends' smile and feel better when they were down. It had all been an act, he concluded, there was no way he had actually been that kind of person in the past, it didn't make sense. His life hadn't been the best for as long as he could remember. Unlike other kids, his parents didn't seem to change through time, they had been assholes all of his life. So there was no way that he would willingly want to make others feel happy.
He remembered a time when seeing kids have fun with their parents seemed foreign. Why they seemed to enjoy each other's company he didn't know until his parents sent him to his uncle and aunt's home. They had a son about his age, Roxas, and they were a close family. Their relationship was odd to him at first but it wasn't until they included him into their lives that he began to understand what the other kids felt, he was happy to have someone around who seemed to care about his well-being.
When he was taken back home the warmth and happiness had been cut off. He began to yearn for the same attention but his parents never gave him anything. During this time he acted out in school, getting in all kinds of trouble to make people laugh and soon became the class clown. It remained that way until he entered junior high.
Sora shook his head, ridding himself of the trail of thought. He didn't want to remember anything else. Quickly pushing through the crowds he made it inside the building, letting out a content sigh when he felt the warm air of the building envelop his body. It was possibly the only good thing of school at the moment.
"Attention students!" loomed the speakers of the building. Sora let out an annoyed growl, remembering why he had actually been early to school, "Go to the gymnasium immediately. The student council has some announcements to make."
The teen made his way to the gym with a scowl plastered on his face. He would need to sit in a room full of people who didn't know when to shut up. How he loathed student council announcements. It wasn't that he hated the student council, even though he did, but he specially hated the people who seemed to think that they had to blurt something out every ten seconds. Penis, fuck, vagina, and you're gay, seemed to be the most common thing idiots liked to blurt out.
He entered the gym to see it filled with hundreds of chairs with some people already on them. 'Alright, think Sora. This doesn't have to suck, I can find someone I know and just talk the rest of the time here,' his eyes scanned the room until they landed on a tall muscular teen with dark skin and orange hair, 'Good.'
Sora quickly took the seat next to the teen. "Hey Wakka what's up?" he greeted with a smile. The bigger teen smiled back and patted the brunette's back, earning a glare from said teen.
"Sora!" he greeted with a laugh, "It's been a while."
"It has," the teen answered with a small grin. There were certain groups of people in school and each served its purpose. Unlike any of those teenage dramas in T.V there weren't any of those popular groups of people who could somehow 'run' things in school, such things were just blatant lies. Instead there were the club members, cheerleaders, sluts, nerds, goths, and the douches. Each liked to hang out with their own though they still hung out with others from time to time.
Wakka was a rare breed, he was the kind of person who nobody seemed to hate and was easy to talk to. Something about his easy-going nature seemed to affect people around him and you couldn't help but let out a chuckle every time you saw him.
Soon the chairs were filled with chattering students and unfortunately for Sora, the 'funny' guys who in reality were the douches, sat right behind him. It would be a long day for him, he just hoped that the announcement wouldn't take too long.
His train of thought was broken when he saw the council walk to the large stand that had been put on the gym. He let out an annoyed grunt. The council consisted of Riku, the president, and its members; Kairi, Tidus and Selphie. He noticed that the redhead seemed to be throwing glares at the clueless Selphie who seemed more interested in looking her best for the gathered students.
Riku approached a wooden stand and cleared his throat. "Good morning, I'm glad you could make it today," he began with a polite smile, "We, the student council, have some important announcements to make."
"PENIS!"
"Here we go…" Sora muttered with a growl. Behind him the douches laughed their asses off as if it had actually been funny. Riku continued talking as if nothing had happened but the brunette wanted to leave the place as soon as possible. By the chuckles coming from the idiots he had a feeling that it would be a long assembly.
"What's wrong Sora?" Wakka suddenly asked, making the brunette raise a brow, "Ya' look or depressed and what not."
The brunette found himself chuckling. He guessed that the word 'depressed' could be used to describe himself. "I guess I am," he stretched his arms and set them behind his head, letting out a yawn, "But I'm used to it now."
Wakka simply nodded with a sad look on his face. He had known Sora for a long time, since they were both young, and he had been a happy kid. Not only was he a happy person but he did his best so that others around him would be so as well. Things had been great with the brunette around but it wasn't until junior high that he started to act more cold and secluded. His friends had been concerned and knew that something must have happened to him, something bad that made him look at life differently. What it was? They had no idea.
It had been an hour since the assembly started and, much to Sora's rage, it was still going with no sign of stopping. His right eye twitched as he did his best not to fall asleep, he didn't know what kind of assembly went on for so long but what he did know was that he was about to snap. The douches behind him didn't seem to shut up and they were still shouting nonsense whenever they had the chance and worst of all Kairi had found him amongst the crowd and smiled.
Sora didn't know why she had smiled but he hated it. His heartbeat rose, his hands became sweaty and he felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. He had quickly turned his head away and noticed that he had had a blush on his face.
'Dammit, I'm losing it here," Sora crossed his arms and looked around the room, trying to find something to entertain himself with. Riku was still talking, something about a festival, and wore the same polite smile that he hated. The brunette wished that he had gotten drunk or high before any of this, at least then he would probably not care about anything going on.
'BOOM!'
It happened as Sora tried not to fall asleep. It happened as Riku talked on the stance, loving the sound of his voice. It happened as a teen gave another a 'wet willy,' making the brunette chuckle. It happened so suddenly that the whole room broke into complete silence.
An explosion had just rocked the area, followed by piercing screams and the sound of tires screeching. The whole room remained quiet, even the douches appeared to be in shock, nobody knew what was happening and that was the worst part, the unknown is the scariest thing after all.
"ATTENTION STUDENTS AND STAFF!" The principal, all but spoke through the speakers around the school, "Staff, lock all doors of the gym and do NOT let anyone out. Students, you are to remain calm and listen to anything the staff says. Under NO circumstances you are to go out of the room. We will contact your pa-AHHHHH!"
The announcement was suddenly cut off by the principal's scream, followed by a thump and a low growl. The school staff stood frozen in fear and shock, some with tears on their eyes. Sora noticed that the students around the room seemed the same, all held fear and couldn't move.
Sora found himself feeling numb. He wasn't scared but he was still worried, whatever had happened was big. This numbness didn't bother him, in fact he was relieved he felt nothing about the situation at hand, whatever it was, since it meant that he would keep a clear head. For now the best course of action would be to get out of the school and find Axel since he was the only person he knew with a car.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the room, making everyone turn their heads to find a teen with black hair approaching one of the doors. "What are you doing brat?" a teacher yelled in panic, "We are not to get out of here!"
The teen scoffed. "Do you really think something is going on?" he chuckled and placed a hand on the door, "It's just a stupid prank"
All eyes watched as the teen opened one of the doors of the gym. "See, there's nothing wrong," he laughed. He was right, there was nothing but silence coming from the outside. The teen turned to the crowd with a smug look on his face, "You guys are just a bunch of cowards."
Sora gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. The guy with black hair was an idiot. There was no sound coming from outside, when the place should be filled with cars and people yelling profanities at each other. Something was obviously wrong to have such level of silence. His eyes suddenly widened when he noticed a circular black shadow approaching the teen's feet.
The shadow suddenly rose and took the shape of a small creature with a round face, two antennas and piecing yellow eyes. Sora tried to warn the teen but found that he couldn't utter a sound, he noticed his hands were shaking uncontrollably and his breath had become ragged. It was the same creature he had seen on his dreams.
"I'm outta here!" the teen announced as he turned on his heel before being tackled to the ground. He emitted a groan of pain before letting out a scream. The creature stood on the teen,s chest with its eyes staring hungrily at his body. "What the fuck is this? Help!" the boy trashed violently before the creature raised a clawed hand and dug it into his right bicep. Blood splattered out of the wound as the teen screamed in agony, trashing against the creature.
The creature's eyes lit up in glee as it lowered its face to the wound and opened its mouth. "Help me! Help me please!" the teen screamed through tears before the creature bit the wound. "AAAAHHHHHHH!" the creature chewed on the teen's flesh with blood sticking all around its face, emitting groans of pleasure at each bite. It suddenly moved away from the wound and approached the teen's face, glaring into his eyes. The teen could do nothing but cry as the creature pounced on his face.
The crowd of students watched as the creature bit the face of the helpless student restlessly. He continued to cry in pain but nobody could do anything to help, in fact a large part of the crowd had left the building. "AAAAHHHHHH HELLLLP!" the teen screamed in agony as the creature chewed on his face. Blood stained the gym's floor as the creature hissed in glee before moving away from the face, revealing a mess of blood and tattered skin. It raised its clawed hand before bringing it down on the teen's right eye and digging it through his brain. The creature's eyes lit up in glee as it took out its hand to reveal a piece of gray, almost purple, muscle.
Sora fought the urge to vomit as the creature brought it to its mouth and chewed. "GET OUT OF HERE!" a teacher screamed. The brunette didn't need to hear it twice as he sprinted for one of the doors. He slammed it open and ran outside before stopping dead on his tracks.
The town he had grown up in was in a state of chaos. The remains of cars were on the street with clouds of smoke emitting from them, buildings were on fire, lifeless bodies were scattered through the streets and people ran in panic, not even knowing where.
"What happened?" Sora muttered, his whole body trembling and tears gathering on his eyes. He was scared, no, terrified. It had been a normal morning only an hour ago, how had it ended up like this? What the hell was he supposed to do?
His head suddenly snapped to the side, hearing a scream. It wasn't the scream that got his attention, but the voice that did it. "Kairi!" Sora yelled as he ran to where the scream came from. He didn't know what was going on but he wouldn't let her die, she was still important to him. Upon turning a corner in one of the school's buildings he saw Kairi and Riku standing against a wall with three students walking towards them.
"What the hell are you doing?" Sora yelled in anger. Riku and Kairi turned to him with looks of shock. The brunette gritted his teeth as the students turned towards him, their school uniforms stained with blood. His eyes widened when they glared at him, their eyes a piercing yellow and their faces full of black spots that seemed to be spreading throughout their bodies.
"Run Sora!" Kairi yelled with tears on her eyes.
Sora gritted his teeth as his eyes darted through the area. The corpses of students were dragging themselves towards him and he had no way to defend himself. His eyes quickly landed on the gym's supply room, not waiting a second he ran away from the zombified students.
Kairi watched him leave with a hint of relief on her eyes. She could do nothing but watch as the corpses walked towards them with their mouths open and grunts escaping their mouths every once in a while. Sora would live and that was all she wanted, it wasn't until now that she realized why she had missed him so much. She loved him.
Suddenly one of the 'zombies' had its head bashed by a bat, with blood splattering out of it before it fell on the ground. Sora had a determined expression on his face as he held a bat on his hands, his uniform now tainted with blood. He ran at another 'zombie' and jabbed it on the face with his bat, making it stagger backwards. Another 'zombie' pounced at him with a growl but was knocked aside by a bat to the face. Blood splattered onto Sora as he moved to the right and swung the bat once more, hitting the last zombie on the side before kicking it on its chest.
The 'zombie' fell on the ground before Sora ran at Riku and Kairi. "You guys alright?" he asked through pants.
"We are," Riku affirmed with a nod before gasping in shock.
Sora turned around to see a rather large 'zombie' glaring its yellow eyes into the brunette. "Wakka…" he muttered with a pained expression on his face. The 'zombie' howled before running at the three teens. The brunette turned back to his once friends, "Find a way out. I'll keep him busy."
The two didn't have a chance to counter as Sora ran at the 'zombie.' Riku looked around the area, with Kairi doing the same. If they wanted to survive whatever was going on they had to find a way out quickly. His eyes suddenly landed on manhole, leading to the sewers.
"Kairi," he called as he ran at it with Kairi following after him. Riku pointed at the manhole cover with a relieved expression on his face, "Help me open this thing. We'll get Sora when it's open."
"Right," Kairi agreed as the two teens bent down and tried to lift the round metal plate.
Meanwhile Sora met the sprinting Wakka with a bat to its stomach. It emitted a growl before punching at the brunette's face. The teen couldn't dodge the blow and was struck on the nose, that instantly started to bleed. Sora took a few steps back, holding his nose in pain, before the 'zombie' ran at him once more.
"Fuck," Sora cursed as he let go off his nose and gripped the bat with both hands. 'I have to time this right,' he watched as the 'zombie' got closer and closer before tightening his grip on the bat, a clear shot at his face, "Now!"
"Sora!" he greeted with a laugh, "It's been a while."
Sora's stopped mid-swing with his eyes widening. 'I can't do this,' the 'zombie' took the opportunity and tackled the brunette to the ground, landing on top of him. The teen cried in pain from the impact before staring helplessly at Wakka, his bat was still held on his right hand but he couldn't' bring himself to kill his friend.
It's eyes seemed to light in glee before it leaned its head back. Sora recalled his dream and quickly brought the bat in front of him before the 'zombie' brought its face down on the teen, making the 'zombie' bite into it. It pushed against the bat with a growl, making Sora wince as he tried to keep a hold on Wakka. He had no chance when it came to pure strength and killing him would be out of the question, the only thing he could do was make sure that it wouldn't kill him.
'Got it!' Sora raised his left hand to push against the bat, making the 'zombie' apply more pressure into it. Using all of his strength he pushed against the bat, pushing Wakka away from his body. The teen managed to smirk as he suddenly brought the bat away from the 'zombie,' making it dive straight for his face.
"Take this!" Sora exclaimed as he pushed the bat into the 'zombie's' mouth with a smashing sound. Blood splattered onto the teen's face before the 'zombie' moved away from him with a howl of pain. The teen instantly stood up and watched as it retreated with its teeth smashed.
"Sora!" Riku called, getting the brunette's attention. Sora smirked when he saw the passage to the sewers, his once friends weren't stupid. He nodded and ran over to them with a weary expression, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," he answered as he wiped the blood off his face, "You go in first, I'll keep watch." Riku nodded and climbed down the ladder that led to the sewers, leaving the brunette and Kairi alone.
"Sora…" she muttered with a small smile on her face. Sora turned to her with his head cocked to the side, one of the habits he had discarded when he isolated himself. Kairi's smile grew, there was still hope to having him back, "Thank you."
"Wh-…I," he stumbled over his own words as Kairi climbed down the ladder. A blush crept onto his face but he quickly shook his head, all of these conflicting emotions wouldn't do him any good right now. The world around him was changing dramatically and he had to find a way to be safe.
He looked around the area once more, making sure that there were no 'zombies' around before moving towards the manhole. His chest ached horribly from the tackle he had taken but he had bigger things to worry about. He bent down and dragged the metal place near the hold as he climbed down the ladder. Using one hand he managed to cover the manhole before climbing down, having a 'zombie' stumble towards them would lead to big trouble.
The three teens walked through the sewers with blank looks on their faces. They had no idea where exactly they were going, all they knew was that they had to get away from the school. It had been about an hour since they entered the place and none of them had uttered a single word, too shocked to say anything. The smell of the place was horrible but they had gotten used to it by now, same with the bad lighting of the place.
"What now?" Riku suddenly asked in a defeated tone.
Sora kept looking at the path ahead with a thoughtful expression. "I'm going to get Axel…" he began, "He has a car so he'll be able to get me out of here… What about you guys?"
Kairi got a worried look on her eyes as she trailed behind Sora. "I have to see if my parents are alright," she stated.
"Me too," Riku informed with a frown on his face. He looked at the two people walking with him and managed a small smile, "Nice to have us all together again though."
Three kids ran through the play island with smiles on their faces.
"I'm gonna beat ya this time Riku!" a boy with brown spiky hair declared with a determined yet playful look on his face.
The young Riku turned his head back to see his friend trying to keep up. "You wish," he said through pants, "I'm already winning."
"No fighting you two," Kairi scolded as she tried to keep up with her two friends.
"Right," Kairi agreed with a small smile, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the back of Sora's head.
"Hey Riku," Sora asked as he sat on a curved papou tree, his two best friends sitting next to him, watching the sunset, "Do you think there are people who look like us far away?"
Riku smiled with his arms crossed. "Of course," he nodded, "And I bet they're best friends like us."
"I wish we could meet them," Kairi sighed out with a smile on her face.
"Whatever," Sora grunted with a single tear sliding down his cheek, memories hitting him like a pile of bricks.
"Sora?" Kairi gasped in surprise as she opened the window of her room. Said boy smiled and jumped into her room with puffy red eyes, "What are you doing here?"
Sora looked down. "Can I stay with you?" he asked in an uncertain voice, "You don't have to let me if you don't want to…"
"They're fighting again…" Kairi stated with a sad smile. It was dark outside and she wouldn't let him on the street alone. She walked to her bed and laid on it with a light blush, "You can stay Sora."
"Thank you," Sora muttered as he laid on bed next to her. Kairi threw an arm around him with a small smile. The boy sniffed before tears streamed down his face, burying his face on the small girl's shoulder.
The three continued to walk through the sewers not knowing if things would get better in the world and between them.
Ch.3 End
That's it for now guys. I was kind of glad with how this turned out but I'm not sure what you'll think. I know that the chaos came out of nowhere but that's how things are, they don't wait for anyone. If I had written more chapters to prepare the characters for this then there wouldn't have been any kind of character development. That's why I decided to make it happen out of nowhere since that's how things should work. That doesn't mean that I won't explain why it happened but it will be explained later on the story.
Also the reason I referred to them as 'zombies' is because I'm still not sure what to call them, if you have any suggestions then please let me know. Next chapter will be out by next week so pay close attention to this.
Thanks for reading and I hope you liked this chapter, remember to leave any questions if you have any.
