Disclaimer - I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This is made by a fan for fans. No money is being made.

Author's Note - I only have a very basic sketchy plan for this story, and it's all in my head. So, nothing in here is really very solid. This chapter is pretty much here just to buy me time to try and figure out what my next move is. I've put it in Sora's PoV...kinda. The last one was more Riku PoV. I'm experimenting with everything, my writing style, the characters, etc. I'll find something solid to go by, eventually. My "niche." Until then, thanks for reading.
Home. Mom. Dad. Wakka. Selphie. Riku. ...Kairi. Each face flashed before his closed eyes as the weight from the quicksand pressed down upon Sora and dragged him from the air above. He told Riku once that the worst death he could imagine was suffication. Go figure.

The palace. The mansion. The gardens. The tunnels. The ocean. The treehouse. ...The raft. What was this? Was his life flashing before his eyes? It had better hurry. These images were just the beginning. They were the happy times. Nothing like what came after. What came after would take a much longer time to flash through. He'd be dead before his life finished flashing, darn it! Probably wouldn't even get to see a light at the end of a tunnel with the way things were heading. He'd sufficate long before then. He imaged his face was turning blue right about now.

The quicksand was pressed into his ears and trying to get past his tightly closed eyelids. He couldn't hear a thing, couldn't see a thing, couldn't feel anything but the sand in all directions. The thought and feeling of just being in a tight, closed in place frightens a lot of people. Sora never did mind. He used to empty the tupperware cabnet in his house when he was a kid. He remembered throwing out the plastic bowls and lids so he could crawl inside and just sit there, flash light in hand, reading a book...

I'm going to die.

Kairi's image found its way into his mind. You should, she was saying, after what you did to me.

He hit the bottom of the sand trap. With nothing underneath him, the weight from all the sand piled on top of him, threatening to crush him to death before he could sufficate. Ever optimistic by nature, Sora took a small amount of comfort in this. Anything but suffication.

But, Kairi, I didn't...

Sora lost consciousness.

"Hey, Sora."

Sora kept his eyes closed. He was lying face up on a hard floor. An annoying pebble ruined the otherwise comfortable possition and pressed against his spine. He shifted his weight to get rid of it, frowning as he did so. Silly pebble.

"Sora."

That would be Riku. He sounded impatient.

"Go way, Riku. Donna like you now. Silly pebble."

Now Riku was laughing. Sora hated it when Riku laughed at him.

"Now you listen here," he said, forcing his eyes open and sitting up. He soon regretted it. The world began to spin. For a moment everything was a blur of black walls and Riku's white hair.

Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder, steadying his friend before he passed out again. This was the third time Sora had woken up, and Riku was determined to keep him awake this time.

"Riku," Sora said, the world coming into focus. "Riku, what happened?" He took a look around as he spoke. They were in a strange chamber with black jagged walls and an uneven floor. Light was coming from something, but he couldn't tell where. The black walls were mirror like. Sora found himself staring at his warped reflection on a wall far to his right. "Where are we?"

"We hit the bottom, remember?" Riku said, he was toying with the idea of telling Sora they were dead, but one look at those huge, innocent, frightened blue puppy dog eyes kept his teasing side at bay. Sora was scared. They both were. Near death experiences could do that to a person. He'd tease him later. "Look up. We fell through that."

Sora followed Riku's gaze to the ceiling. Twenty feet above them was one of the most extraordinary things he'd ever seen. The quicksand was still there, a huge circle hanging above them, but it didn't pour down on them. It hung there, as if by magic, moving around in a slow clockwise motion. But that was just the backround. A spider the size of a boulder sat in the middle, exotic designs splashed across its back, holding onto an invisible web.

Riku narrowed his eyes. "It crawled into position after we fell through. I think it normally stays there, waiting for something to fall into the trap and hit the bottom, then it reaches up and grabs it before it falls through. It was about to grab me when you fell on top of me and pushed us through. It couldn't hold us both, so we fell. We got lucky."

"Okay," Sora nodded quickly in understanding, not really caring about the details at the moment. He was alive, there was a spider the size of an island nearby, it was time to go. He walked away as fast as his tired legs would carry him.

"Noooo you're not." Riku caught the back of Sora's shirt and yanked him back. Another spider appeared in the place where Sora had just been, clacking its teeth together in disappointment. Riku pulled a stunned Sora back into the middle of the room, the spider moved back into the shadows with each step Riku made.

"The cave's full of 'em," Riku explained, "you can't walk far without them herding you in again. They want us in the middle."

Sora sat down in resignation. "That's it, then. They're going to eat us. We're going to die. Got any paper, Riku? I need to write my will."

Riku smacked Sora upside the head. "Don't be such a dimwit! Come on, Sora, I thought you were stronger than that. It's just a few spiders. I'm sure I could take a few out, but there might be a lot more. I didn't want to try it without you. Now get ready."

"But, Riku, we can't use magic."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out."

"No, Riku, you don't get it. We can't use magic! We're going to die!"

"I find it hard to believe that I'm being the optimistic one here, Sora. Get off your butt and help me fight these things."

"RIKU! I can't summon my Keyblade!!!"

For a long moment, the chamber was silent.

"We're going to die," Riku said.

Sora was busy with a sharp rock, scratching words into the floor. A will had to be written. "I'll leave Wakka the raft," he said.

Author's Note - If you see something exceptional (or horribly bad) let me know, will ya?