Sora, Riku and Kairi left the school that afternoon with high spirits, bounding down the steps that led up to the prestigious academy.
Kairi and the group paused when they reached the bottom as if waiting to figure out what to do. Kairi looked over her shoulder as she unfolded the yellow paper Aerith had given her. "Trinity Magic Shop," she read out loud. "Do you guys want to go check it out?" The redhead glanced at her cell phone and checked the time. It was only a little after four. "It says the shop closes after six and it's on our way home."
"Magic shop, huh?" Riku was immediately skeptical.
Sora elbowed Riku in his gut. "Don't be such a sourpuss!"
"A sour puss? Really? That's what you came up with?"
Kairi interrupted the two before they started bickering and grabbed both boys by their wrists, tugging them down the street in the direction of the shop. "Let's save the fighting for later, huh? We've got more research to do."
"Riku's being so close-minded!" Sora groaned, his cheeks slightly red from Kairi's touch.
"It's just a bookstore, Riku," Kairi then turned her attention to the older teen as she pulled them through the crosswalk when the light was green, taking them into the city's shopping district. "It's a name."
Riku rolled his expressive, oceanic blue eyes and sighed. "Fine, fine."
"Besides, you might see something in there you may like," she added, now letting both boys walk on their own with her in between the both of them. "You like to read, right?"
Riku shrugged his shoulders and took the paper from Kairi. He studied Professor Aerith's handwriting and furrowed his brows. "I think I know where this place is."
"You do?" Sora asked curiously.
Riku nodded and handed the paper back to Kairi, folding it before doing so. "It's in that empty building between the coffee shop and print shop."
"That one?" Sora asked incredulously. "But that building's been closed forever! Isn't that the old theater where that huge fire broke out?"
"Yup," Riku confirmed. "That's the one. It's amazing that someone would actually want to take over that space. It's been deserted for more than a hundred years."
Kairi looked to both boys from answers. "What? What theater?"
"Oh yeah," Sora drew out. "You haven't lived on the island as long as Riku and I. You probably wouldn't have heard of that legend."
"I've been here since I was five," Kairi argued, raising an eyebrow. "I should know about it."
Sora shrugged his shoulders. "It was one of those ghost stories you hear when you're a kid on the island. Maybe you never heard about it because your family is from Radiant Garden."
Kairi thought over it. "Yeah, you're probably right."
Sora cleared his throat (loudly) and then began the story. "A long time ago there was a theater on the island. Somehow, a demon who looked like a human, locked all the doors shut and set the theater on fire, killing everyone and himself inside. To this day, the theater is supposed to be cursed and haunted by the people trapped inside. A hundred years ago someone tried to rebuild it but most of the construction crew died in the process. I guess everyone else just decided to leave it alone."
Kairi shuddered. "That's insane. Someone actually killed everyone inside? Why?"
Riku sighed, seeing that the theater was now in sight. "No one knows really. All the people who were there died in the fire. I'm surprised that anyone actually wanted to open a shop on that land. I'm even more shocked that it got built up that fast. The paper said that it opened up two weeks ago. I wonder how they built up that shop so quickly without any attention drawn to it."
"See!" Sora half shouted, grinning from ear to ear. "We've got ourselves an urban legend and we're part of it."
Kairi giggled while Riku rolled his eyes, eventually smiling himself as the trio came to the front of the shop. "You're way too excited about a bookstore," he said.
The three found themselves standing in front of Trinity Bookstore. On the outside it looked just like any other shop in town. The face of the store was red with huge windows showcasing various books, trinkets, and even dolls. Given the fact that this bookstore now stood in place of the theater, the group reasoned that it was probably larger than what the outside alluded to. As they stood there and peered up at the bookstore, a harsh wind whipped through the air and pushed them towards the shop, causing them all to shiver.
"It doesn't look haunted," Sora pointed out.
"That's because it isn't," Riku stated plainly. "It's just an old building that got a huge makeover that now sits on an urban legend site. Pretty smart move if you ask me. Although the more superstitious islanders will probably steer clear of it…" he trailed off.
Kairi was the first to head for the door. "Well we won't find anything standing out here. Come on."
Sora ran ahead of Kairi and held the door open for both her and Riku, entering once they were inside. Upon stepping into the bookstore, the three teens' jaws dropped in awe, even Riku's. The store (as to be expected, was enormous. It was large and spacious, taking on a rich red and gold theme. The store was neat and orderly with rows upon rows of bookcases filled with various books ranging from science and history texts, to romance novels, all the way to stories of urban legends and folktales. On the back wall from the floor to ceiling was a section full of books on fantasy novels, most of them the teens had never seen or heard of before. On the right side of the store near a large section of trinkets and dolls was a stairway leading downward. Overall, the store was a sight to see and even Riku was impressed.
"This place is so cool!" Kairi gasped, running to the far back wall and reaching for the first book she could get her hand on. She skimmed through the pages, her eyes wide with wonder.
Sora heard chimes in the distance and yawned. "This place is nice, but it's so quiet. I might end up falling asleep on one of the couches."
"You'd fall asleep in the middle of the street if you weren't afraid of getting hit by cars," Riku teased as he glanced at the science textbooks.
Sora pouted. "Really? I'm not that lazy. But I wonder," he turned around in a complete circle. "Where are all the workers?" He asked Riku.
"Can I help you with something?" A faint, almost angelic voice asked curiously.
Sora nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice. He turned around and saw a pretty, pale blonde girl with innocent blue eyes wearing a long, white, short-sleeved white dress with a maroon apron on top and tan flip flops. She offered the group a small smile and held her hands together.
"Uh, yeah!" Sora tried to quickly recover from the scare. He had just turned around. How could the girl have sneaked up on him so quickly without him noticing? "This is my friend Riku, and the redhead is Kairi," he pointed to the girl reaching for a third book. "And I'm Sora." Kairi spotted the blonde girl and put the books back into their respective spots before joining Riku and Sora.
The blonde bowed. "My name is Naminé. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Same! It's nice to see someone," Sora admitted. "I didn't see any salespeople walking around…"
Naminé lifted her head. "Right now it's only me and Roxas. Our boss is out right now. She won't be back until late."
"Did you say something Naminé?" A young boy asked, appearing from behind one of the massive glass doll cases.
Naminé waved her hand and ushered Roxas over to the pair. Like Naminé, the one named Roxas was blonde with spiky hair (although not as wild as Sora's) with bright royal blue eyes. He wore a white dress shirt, black slacks, sneakers, a dark tie and maroon apron over his clothing, the same as Naminé's. However, once Roxas got closer to the group, his focus shifted to Sora and his eyes narrowed slightly. Still, he remained polite as he stood near Naminé and offered the group a smile.
"We have guests," she told him.
Roxas nodded and turned to the group. "Are you guys looking for anything in particular?"
"One of our teachers sent us here. You see, we go to Destiny High Academy, and we're putting on some booths for the Festival of Light. She told us that we could come here to look up some information on urban legends surrounding the island," Kairi informed them. "I'm Kairi, this is Sora and Riku," she pointed out each boy to Roxas. "Pleased to meet you."
Roxas and Naminé exchanged glances, almost as if they were in on a secret. "It's nice to meet you too," he said to Kairi.
"We're here to find books on urban legends of the Destiny Islands, specifically ones that aren't well known," Sora told him.
Naminé tapped Roxas' shoulder. "Don't we have a few books on the Destiny Islands?"
"Yeah but they're not for sale," Roxas told her. "Remember? Those are in the restricted section."
"I can bring them right back!" Kairi piped up, her curiosity now fully peaked. "I promise!"
"Or they can read in the lounge," Naminé offered, still looking to Roxas. "You need approval from the boss on which books you can take out with you."
Riku arched an eyebrow in suspicion. "We have to get approval from your boss to take home certain books and bring them back?"
Naminé nodded and smiled apologetically. "Unfortunately yes," she answered. "You see…" she trailed off, trying to find the words. "Some of our books are especially precious to the boss and they're over a hundred years old. She's spent a long time collecting them so as you can imagine we're very careful about what we lend out."
"Makes sense to me." Sora yawned and placed his hands behind his head.
Riku however was still a bit unsettled. He quickly glanced at Roxas and then at Naminé. There was something slightly off about the two blonds standing in front of them but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was something about the aura surrounding them that had Riku slightly on edge. Still, they appeared to be just a couple of teenagers around the same age as them working in a bookstore. It seemed normal enough but…
"We can stay for a bit," Kairi told Roxas and Naminé. "I just want to check them out. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow and read them closer in the lounge."
"I'll come back tomorrow too." Sora grinned. "This looks like a chill place. What about you, Riku?"
After taking a few seconds to look around the shop, Riku shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I don't see why not."
"Perfect!" Naminé clasped her hands together. "How about you guys just come tomorrow and we can pull the books for you tonight? That way we can have them ready and I can even make some snacks for you all. Does that sound good?"
"Did you say snacks?" Sora's eyes widened.
Naminé nodded. "Of course! And if you come around this time tomorrow our boss will be here."
"Sounds like a plan to me. I guess we'll see you both tomorrow!"
The trio made their way to the exit while Roxas and Naminé saw them out. Roxas held the door open for the group while Naminé waved from the entrance.
"It was nice to meet you," she said sweetly.
"You too!" Kairi called, waving until Roxas closed the door behind them.
Once Sora, Riku, and Kairi were a fair distance from the shop and on their way towards their homes did they speak about the "mysterious" bookstore.
"See? Now you guys can say that you were in a once-haunted theater," Kairi teased.
"It didn't seem haunted to me," Sora sighed sadly. "Although the girl did creep me out a little."
"You were just zoning out," Kairi shook her head in disappointment. "They're harmless."
"They seemed weird to me," Riku muttered under his breath. Still, Kairi was able to hear him and asked why he felt that way. "I don't know," he replied, "it's just a feeling."
The group rounded the corner through the back end of the shopping district near a bunch of older buildings.
"Riku's superstitious?" Sora laughed. "Oh man that's a first. Since when do you get creeped out by blonde girls? Do you usually just date blonde girls?"
Riku was still a bit unnerved. "If you ask me there was something – "
Riku was cut off sharply when something – or someone – came crashing into the concrete sidewalk from above and landed with a thud in front of the group causing Kairi to scream, Sora to fall back on his rear end while Riku stepped back in horror. Now blocking the sidewalk in front of them was a young girl around their age, wearing the Destiny Academy uniform with a pool of blood forming underneath her on the cracked concrete, her limbs contorted beyond belief.
Sora's eyes widened and his lips trembled, unable to believe what had just happened. He looked up from where the girl came from and realized that they were near an older, four-story apartment building. Judging from the way the girl's body was twisted and mangled, she must have thrown herself from the top. Even worse, upon further inspection, the girl was bleeding profusely from where her heart was, her bright red eyes blank and her lavender/silver hair now stained with her own blood.
"I-Is that F-Fuu?" Kairi stammered, trying her best to hold back her sobs.
Riku nodded in a jerky fashion and was in a state of shock greatly resembling Sora's. "I think that's her…"
Several other people in the area saw the scene, and immediately someone called 911 while others looked on in horror, slowly approaching the scene.
"How could this have happened? I just saw her today in class." Sora whispered, scooting back from his now deceased classmate.
As if on instinct, Riku looked to his right near an alley and, out of the corner of his eye, spotted a dark figure he could not identify who hid behind a massive black umbrella. The person appeared to be looking at the scene from a distance and immediately turned on its heel and walked away a few seconds later, disappearing down the alley.
Riku had a right mind to follow after the individual but once he heard the police sirens his mind went elsewhere. He and Sora went to console Kairi while they waited for the ambulance to arrive, each one of them wondering how in the world this could have happened.
Author's Note: Well how's that for an ending?
I hope you guys liked what little bit I've got out now. It's my first fantasy piece in...years. I should be updating this one more frequently as the chapters will be shorter. I can't tell you how long it will be but I do believe that it'll be shorter than "Heartbreakers". Also, as a warning, I may have to bump up the rating later on. I don't know, we'll see in a few chapters.
In any case, let me end it right here. Please let me know what you guys think. Any predictions? If you can't already tell I'm super excited and hope that you all enjoy this story too. Leave me a review and I'll get to chapter three as soon as I can. I have finals this week so in between study breaks I'm sure I'll be able to get something down.
Take care everyone!