a/n: wow so it's uh been a while
this story kinda got left in the dust when i started focusing on my other story, parenting, and i'm sorry for that! but i promised myself i'd finish this, which i basically have (other than a shit ton of editing that i gotta do) so yeah i'm nor abandoning it!
a-far-off-memory
~ chapter iv ~
"I don't know why they'd wanna explore this creepy old place," Demyx muttered, curling into Zexion. "I'd rather stay in here, where it's nice and light."
Axel snorted. "That's cuz you're a bit of a wuss, Dem." His eyes moved to his boyfriend, a grin pulling at his lips. "Rox and I are looking around later, right Rox?"
"Hell yeah," the spiky-haired blond exclaimed, grinning widely. "I wanna take pictures of this place for proof!" He held up his old polaroid, bringing it up to his face and snapping a picture of Axel, who'd made a funny face just in time.
"Well, Nami and I are staying in here, right Naminé?" Kairi questioned her blonde sister, indigo eyes expectant.
Slowly, looking unsure, Naminé shrugged. "I don't know, I kind of wanted to look around..."
Kairi gasped. "Nami!"
"What?" Naminé picked at the hem of her white shirt, not meeting her younger sister's eyes. "I want to investigate this place, Kai. This is the perfect opportunity!"
"You can come with us, Nam," Roxas offered with a grin.
"Yeah, and you three can stay here," Axel chortled, eyes landing on Kairi, Zexion and Demyx.
"Fine by me," Zexion grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I won't be doing any walking tonight."
Kairi sighed. "You guys—" She was cut off by a loud, short scream. Demyx and Naminé jumped, while Roxas', Axel's and Zexion's eyes simply widened. A loud bang from upstairs followed, startling them further.
"That sounded like Sora," Axel commented, fingers rubbing the purple mark under his right eye like he did whenever he was nervous. His emerald eyes darted around, looking for anything out of place.
"Do you think that something's wrong?" Naminé questioned, chewing on her bottom lip.
"I'm sure everything is fine," Zexion replied, though he looked a little unsure himself.
"Should we go check?" Kairi asked.
But they didn't have to. It was at that moment that Sora and Riku reappeared in the living room, faces smooth. Sora clung to Riku's arm, looking slightly pale, but otherwise okay.
"Sora? Are you okay?" Roxas questioned, blue eyes wide.
"We heard you scream and we got worried," Naminé added.
Riku chuckled. "He just saw a big spider, that's all," he told everyone, kissing the crown of his boyfriend's head.
Demyx's green eyes widenef, his feet moving up onto the couch. "Did you kill it?"
Riku rolled his eyes, grinning. "Yes, Demyx, but there are probably lots more where that came from."
Vanitas and Ven returned then. Vanitas was carrying a box of some sorts.
Vanitas' golden eyes rested on Sora, and he smirked. "Nice neck, little bro. What was with the screaming?"
Sora rolled his eyes, making no attempt to cover the multitude of red marks on his neck. "For your information, I saw a big spider."
"Oh no!" Vanitas exclaimed in a high-falsetto, pretending to faint. "Not a spider!"
"Oh shut up, Vanitas," he grumbled, crossing his arms.
"What's in the box?" Axel asked, changing the subject.
"Looks like old files of some sort," Ven replied with a shrug. "I found it in the attic."
"You went into the attic?" Kairi asked incredulously, violet eyes wide. "Weren't you scared of bats and raccoons and bugs and demons being up there?"
Ven laughed. "I highly doubt demons would have been up there, Kai."
"Anyways," Vanitas cut in, "let's look through them!"
"Is that really a good idea?" Naminé asked slowly, raising one blonde eyebrow. "Maybe they were in the attic because they weren't meant to be looked at."
Vanitas scoffed. "Get real, Nam. They're just a bunch of papers, what's the worst that could happen?"
"You shouldn't have said that," Demyx said quietly, groaning. "Something bad always happens when someone says that."
Vanitas set the box down, grabbing a stack of papers. "You guys are all paranoid. Look if you want to." He found a chair in the corner and headed over to it, making himself comfortable to read.
Ven was the next to grab something from the box, reaching for a large folder. He sat near the fire, opening it up.
"Grab us some stuff, Roxy," Axel said with a grin.
Roxas rolled his eyes and grabbed some folders, taking them to where Axel sat and plopping down on his lap.
Soon enough, everyone had something from the box. Not a peep was heard as they pored over the documents and reports in their hands.
"Is it just me, or does none of this make any sense?" Sora questioned, looking around.
Zexion bit his lip. "No, these are quite...strange. I have no idea what whoever wrote this was talking about."
Ven slowly lifted his eyes, swallowing hard. "The folder I grabbed is full of diagrams..." He set it down, taking a deep breath. He felt sick. "I don't want to look anymore."
"What's so bad about them?" Axel asked, reaching for the folder and opening it up. He flipped through the diagrams, reading the little annotations and slowly paling with each diagram he looked at.
"What, Ax?" Riku questioned, raising an eyebrow. "You look like you ate some bad food."
The redhead's fingers found his tattoos as he set the folder aside, closing his eyes. "That is some fucked up shit in there," he whispered.
Setting his own folder aside, Roxas wrapped his arms around Axel and started running his fingers through the crimson spikes on his head.
Sora and Riku were next to look at the folder. The brunet's eyes widened when he saw a drawing of the black oval thing he'd seen, finding the diagram labeled 'Corridor or Darkness'. His eyes locked with Riku's for a moment before they flipped to the next drawing.
"Oh God," Sora breathed, a hand flying up to his mouth.
Riku swallowed visibly and set the folder aside, clearly done with looking. "I don't think we should stay any longer, guys," he announced, sounding subdued.
"And why not?" Vanitas questioned. He stood, scooping up the folder and flicking it open. Slowly, as he got further and further in, his smirk faded more and more.
"What is it?" Kairi questioned, clutching Naminé's hand tightly.
The black-haired teen shut the folder and set it back down, eyes tightly shut. "It doesn't matter what it is. It's just...fucked up." His eyes opened. "But why should we leave? This shit is from a long time ago, it's not like these jackasses are still around."
"Because, Vanitas!" Axel exclaimed. "Look, I wanted to come here as much as you did, but this is a little much. And Naminé has had a bad feeling since we got here—doesn't that tell you anything at all about this place? We just...we shouldn't be here. It's clear to me, and I'm sure it's clear to everyone else too. Don't be a jackass, Van."
"You guys are all a bunch of pussies," he grumbled, crossing his arms.
Roxas glared. "Call us what you want, Van, but we're leaving. Stay if you want to."
"Don't give hin any ideas, Rox," Sora groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Well if he wants to stay, we can't really stop him," Kairi pointed out. "He's a big boy, Sora."
A hand raked through brown spikes, Sora's breath leaving him in a huff. "Well I'm not just gonna leave my brother here. If he's staying, then I'm staying."
Vanitas rolled his eyes. "I appreciate the sentiment, bro, but don't stay just because you're worried about me because then I'll have to put up with your bitching all night."
"Well it's either that or you leave with us," Sora told him, blue eyes hard. "One or the other, Vanitas."
For a moment, the two brothers became locked in an intense stare-down, annoyance in golden eyes and resolve in blue. Both were stubborn, unwilling to back down.
"I will drag your ass out if I have to, Vanitas," Riku threatened, aqua eyes narrowed. "Because if Sora stays, I stay. And I refuse to stay after seeing that shit." He chuckled humorlessly. "We didn't wanna freak anyone out, but looks like I have to say this. Sora didn't scream because of a spider—he screamed because he saw a person disappear into one of these!" He held up the diagram illustrating the corridor of darkness. "So we're fucking leaving, and you're coming with us."
"You're just saying that," Vanitas muttered, crossing his arms with a defiant look in his eyes. "That couldn't happen."
"But it did, Vanitas. Do you really think we'd make that up? It was...it was terrifying," Sora whispered, looking down. "We were making out, and...it felt like someone was watching us. And then we saw that, and I want nothing more than to just get out of here!"
Slowly, the defiant look faded, to be replaced with cold realization. "You're serious. You're actually serious, aren't you?"
Sora nodded, resisting the urge to cry. "Yes, so can we please just leave?"
"Sor..." Vanitas opened his arms, and Sora immediately fell into his older brother's embrace, hugging him tight.
"I wanna go home, Vani," he said softly, clutching his black shirt.
Vanitas sighed deeply, rubbing his little brother's back. "Okay, Sora, we'll go," he replied gently, kissing the crown of his head. Sora was the only person he'd act like that for—it was a rarity that anyone saw his soft side like that.
That was all it took for everyone to start grabbing their things. Sora thanked Vanitas quietly before letting go, returning to Riku's embrace. The silveret grabbed their bags, slinging them both over his shoulder and keeping an arm around Sora.
Demyx helped Zexion onto his back, deciding that it would be easiest to piggyback him. Axel grabbed their bags plus his own, and the others hurried to grab their own bags.
They made their way to the front door. Ven reached out and laid his hand on the handle and turned it—well, tried to.
"It won't open," he announced, brow furrowed.
Vanitas' eyes narrowed. "Let me try."
The black haired teen attempted to turn the handle, finding it impossible. He jiggled it, thinking that maybe something was stuck, but it didn't turn.
"Stand back," Riku told everyone, letting go of Sora and dropping their bags. When everyone had moved away, he stepped in front of the door. With a deep breath, he raised his foot and kicked as hard as he could, sending dust raining from the walls as the door was jolted. Still, it did not give way.
He repeated this a few more times before he had to stop. His entire leg was throbbing from the force of his kicks, and he knew he'd injure himself if he continued.
"Why won't the door open?" Kairi asked, her voice a terrified whisper.
Naminé's eyes slid shut, face pinched. "Because this house isn't ready to let us go."
A nervous chuckle left Axel. "Nams, what are you talking about? It's a house, it can't keep us here."
Blue eyes opened, and there was a quiet despair plain in them. "But what's inside it can," she told him, running a hand through her blonde hair and taking a calming breath. "Something inside this house doesn't want us to leave yet, and there's nothing we can do about it. For the moment...we're stuck here."
"Naminé, that's not funny," Demyx choked out, green eyes filled with fear.
"I don't think she's trying to be funny," Roxas said quietly, huddling closer to Axel.
"What do we do?" Ven questioned, shuffling nervously.
Naminé sighed. "We wait, and we hope for the best."
a/n: shit's starting to go down yo
i'll try and edit the next chapter and get it up asap! thank you to anyone who is continuing to read this piece of shit lololol
afom out~