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Chapter 9: Haunted


Sora wanted to cry.

He had finally gotten a taste of what true happiness could look like in the midst of all of the bad news he had received lately, and now everything had gone to ruin.

In under five minutes.

Sora peered out the window he was sweeping next to, and stared.

Sure enough, Riku was there, his ghostly body sneaking beneath the windows to keep from being seen. Sora wasn't sure how he managed to get to the café without avoiding detection, but one look at the way his leg was passing through a nearby coil of a watering hose answered his question for him. Riku had probably ducked through trees, bushes and other obstructions all the way here; sliding around objects, and subsequently, the eyes of others like some kind of secret agent.

On top of being utterly mystified as to how so much stress could befall him so quickly, Sora was furious. This wasn't some kind of game to him. His best friend was dead, his body somewhere down at the harbor probably rotting to an unrecognizable mess at this point. And what was Riku doing? He was playing; enjoying his time as a ghost as if this was some kind of gift, and Sora wasn't going out of his mind with worry.

Gripping the broom until his knuckles turned white, he watched with growing agitation. Who did Riku think he was? What would happen if someone saw him just hanging around the café? People started to think the The Filter was haunted, no one would come. He, Kairi, Roxas and Cid would be out of work, left to wander around the street without food, water or a home to claim, and it would be all Riku's fault, just like so many, many other things.

Like his broken bones.

Like the bruises.

Like getting himself killed.

Sora watched for a moment longer, certain that his hair was going to fall out, when he noticed what Riku could not see. There was a man walking up the front stair of the establishment, holding the hand of his girlfriend with nothing but the thought of a warm cup of coffee on his mind.

Riku's back was to the couple. He would not be able to hide in time. The couple advanced, and Sora felt his heart jump out of his chest; in a matter of moments he would be out of a job, and events would domino until he was evicted from his apartment.

Legs acting faster than his brain, he sprinted forward and huffed out the door. The bell jingled behind him, but he couldn't care less if Cid heard him or not. In the end, he could explain that he was doing him a favor. Feet landing with a thud on the concrete, he turned and screeched at Riku with all the fury of a man at the end of his rope.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sora screamed, startling Riku from his crouched position, as well as the couple. "Get out of here!"

The man looked the slightest bit outraged at Sora's behavior and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Is there some kind of problem with us getting coffee?"

Momentarily staggered, Sora looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry sir, not you. Him." He pointed at Riku.

Confusion set on the man's features, and Sora took this to mean that shock was starting to set in. As someone who had experienced copious amounts of it relatively recently, Sora could relate. "I assure you sir, everything is fine. Before alarm sets in, I'd just like to guarantee that our establishment isn't haunted. Whatever it is you're seeing is only a one-time thing."

The man looked at Sora oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"Our little pest problem," he indicated Riku again, garnering him a glare. "He was just leaving, so if you could just pretend that you never saw him in the first place, then I'm sure you—"

"Kid, take it from me," the man said leaning in close as his girlfriend folded her arms. "Listen to me. I know it's easier said than done, but you've really got to stop. I have a brother on the south side of town who's going through the same thing, and it's hard on him, too. You've just got to have some will power."

Sora's face fell. "What?"

"That stuff will mess with your head." The man said staring at him meaningfully. "It isn't healthy, especially at your age." He patted Sora on the shoulder and walked past him, girlfriend close behind. "Take some advice from a stranger. I believe you can do it."

Sora was uncertain of what to do, so he stood staring after him in shock. Maybe if he was lucky, he would wake up and all of this would just end up being a horrible, horrible nightmare. He pinched his arm, and as he thought, he was awake, living and breathing through an impossibly challenging reality. He sighed and turned towards Riku, who was displaying several emotions on his transparent features.

One of which was amusement.

"And just what are you laughing at?" Sora said through gritted teeth. "I just tried to save you, and now this random stranger and his girlfriend think I'm on narcotics."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, floating over and laying a clammy hand on his shoulder. The smile was still on his face which rendered his apology ineffective. "I couldn't help it. The look on your face was pretty great."

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back at my apartment out of trouble!"

"I'm sorry," Riku repeated. "I was bored and…" he thought it might be best to leave out the part about how he had really come to spy on what kind of story Sora was telling Kairi and Roxas regarding this whole predicament. "Well, I decided to come here to see exactly what it is that you do all day."

"You left the house." Sora said irately, jabbing a finger into Riku's chest, who looked un-phased as the digit passed through him. "What if someone saw you?"

"Oh that," Riku said, waving him away. "I was wondering what you were yelling at that poor man about. Don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry about it? What if people think that this place is haunted? Then I'll be out of munny, and then I'll absolutely refuse to help you get back into your body."

"I meant," Riku said rolling his eyes, "that you don't have to worry about it because it isn't a problem. No one can see me."

"What?!"

"Yeah," Riku grinned sheepishly. "I discovered that on the way over here. I'm invisible to everyone around me. Imagine how great it was walking through busy streets."

Sora's jaw promptly hit the floor, and Riku wondered if he was possibly going to pass out again. If Sora was worried about losing his job over having a friendly, charming, and mighty resilient ghost around, then he might want to consider what would happen if Cid caught him passing out on the front steps.

"What do you mean people can't see you?!"

"What does it sound like I mean?"

"Don't play games with me, Riku!" Sora shouted, ineffectively jabbing his finger at Riku's chest again. "If no one can see you, then that means that I shouldn't be able to, either."

Riku shrugged. "I guess you're the lucky one?"

"Lucky?" Sora wailed, crouching down on his knees. "This is a curse!"

Riku folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think getting a second chance to hang out with your best friend would be such an inconvenience to you."

"I shouldn't have to have a second chance, Riku. There should only be one. For most people, that's enough!"

"We've already gone over this."

"Really? Because I don't think I've yelled at you quite enough about how much of an inconsiderate jerk you are. Maybe I should lecture you about how much of an idiot you are? How about I go on about how much I utterly hate you for doing this to me?!"

"Doing this to you? To you? Perhaps you haven't noticed that I'm not exactly skipping through the daisies. I'm pushing them up! Only, they're not daisies, they're crates down at the harbor in a warehouse whose only human visitation prior to me and the people who beat me up was exactly zero!"

Sora gritted his teeth, hating to admit that Riku may have had a point on that one. Furthermore, a quick survey around his surroundings proved that his little grand stand was starting to produce an audience, most of which were probably convinced that he was clinically insane. Biting back some of his anger, he threw a final glare at Riku, stuck his tongue out at him and leaned against the wall.

Riku's expression softened, and he floated to face him, blue eyes darkening with uncertainty and a touch of regret. Sora couldn't help but feel similarly. He never felt right when they fought, even if they had grown apart a bit over the years.

Sora put a hand over his eyes to ensure that he couldn't see the horrified faces of the people around him, and whispered, "So other people really can't see you?"

Riku nodded. "No one but you…so far."

"Great. Now I'm a clairvoyant." The thought of walking around in a candelabra-studded hallway wearing swaths of material that resembled a sorcerer's robe made him bitterly amused. Seeing only one ghost in a lifetime was more than enough.

Riku let out a dry chuckle, and leaned against the wall next to him, having to concentrate to keep himself from slipping through. "Looks like we've finally found you an exciting job."

"Trust me, having to watch over the ghost version of you would even spice up filing tax returns."

Riku looked at him again. Sora didn't even have to lift up his hand to know it. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Sora breathed, pushing himself off the wall, and forcing his face to remain neutral. He wasn't sure what he was feeling at that moment, and therefore didn't feel comfortable having his face betray him when he was still trying to figure out what it might show. "I've got a few more hours left on the clock. When I'm done, we'll figure out how to get you back where you need to be."

Riku's face lit up with gratefulness—as much as it possibly could, given his typically unexpressive nature—and Sora truly felt it. He knew that Riku didn't usually intend to be such an inconvenience, so he appreciated that he appeared to be remorseful. He didn't think he would need much more convincing to help him out.

Sora smiled in return. "Alright then, let's figure out what to do with you while I'm here."

Riku nodded, but his face suddenly his face fell as a dark shadow was cast over him and Sora, obscuring the sun and leaving Sora with a sinking feeling.

"Figure out what to do with what?"

Sora recognized the deep and sand papery voice of his employer, and felt his body quake at the infinite power that he held over his paycheck. He swallowed and turned around. "Hi Cid."

"Don't 'hi Cid' me. Now I know you aren't out here slacking off."

"Of course not, sir. I was…eh…" He searched around for a distraction, simultaneously racking his brain for a suitable lie.

Then Sora felt the tip of something smooth nudge his hand, and he peered behind him to see Riku sliding the garden hose between his fingers. He nodded once, and Sora immediately understood.

"Oh of course not, sir!" Sora wailed, as though such an accusation was tremendously offensive. "I would never slack off. I was merely watering the flowers." Before Cid could open his mouth to argue, he unscrewed the tip of the hose and sprinkled the flowerbeds with a through dousing of water. "It's gotten so hot lately that I thought it 'd be a good idea to tend to them. After all, it's the first part of our fine establishment that the customers get to see. If the flowers die, it's a poor reflection of our business, don't you think? We employees should be just as concerned about the outside as the inside."

Cid folded his arms, his lower jaw jutting out disapprovingly. "That was an awfully Roxas-esque response, but I can't deny that the geraniums were looking a little pathetic. Never much cared for them myself." He gave Sora a suspicious once over before blowing air out of his nostrils in much the same way as an ox. "I still don't like it. Get back in the store."

"Yes sir!" Sora felt obligated to salute, but thought that might be going a touch overboard. Instead he scurried ahead of Cid and burst through the door, hurrying towards his abandoned broom to begin sweeping.

Roxas and Kairi, who had been previously fixated on the exchange outside, immediately resumed their respective tasks, appearing as though they were working all along. Cid barged through the door a few steps behind Sora, and sent them all a scowl before heading to the back room towards his office.

Sora let out a sigh of relief, but noticed that Riku had somehow disappeared during all of the commotion. He didn't have long to wonder about where he had gone off to, because moments after Cid had exited, Kairi and Roxas trampled over to him.

"What was that all about?" Roxas said, both of his eyebrows shooting, hidden beneath his sandy blond hair.

Sora swallowed hard, and wiped the sweat that was slowly beading on his forehead. "Oh that? Nothing. Cid caught me goofing off."

"Yeah , yeah what we all do. I mean why are you outside yelling at people? That guy came in here and told me to look out for you. Can't say I haven't been thinking the same thing for years, but apparently for different reasons…"

Sora felt the sweat bloom again, and wondered if Riku was around watching this exchange; wondered if he could see the obvious stress this was causing. He pulled at his apron and fidgeted, Roxas' steadily growing excitement evident on his face. If he didn't hurry and make up something, Roxas was going to start concocting a story, so he supposed he could have told him that he was outside twisting balloon animals for all it really mattered. Perhaps he would just go ahead and let Roxas be his ticket out of this problem in much the same way as he was earlier.

As expected, Roxas delivered.

Sora merely opened his mouth to speak, and Roxas instantly cut him off, grabbing his shoulders with ferociously. "You saw them, didn't you?"

Sora didn't even have to pause to think about what he could be talking about. "I did. We were talking, but Cid showed up and scared them away. I thought they were going to kill me."

"Ugh! This is unbelievable!" Roxas released his shoulders and clawed at his own face, looking a combination of energized and unspeakably jealous. "They found where you work?"

Kairi was standing close behind, her lips a thin line; this was her worried face.

Sora saw it and felt guilty. Going along with this lie was just about as bad as making it up in the first place, and if he continued on with it, sooner or later she was going to start to want to act on this worry, and…

Roxas grabbed his shoulders again, pulling him from his thoughts. "Sora, this is intense. Are they following Riku, too? Is he safe at his apartment?"

"Ideally, he'd be there… but he left."

"He left town?!" the outrage that Roxas exuded was almost palpable. "It makes perfect sense! If I had a troop of criminal masterminds trying to kill me, I'd leave town, too, maybe to go train in the mountains for a while."

"You're getting a little carried away with this… Riku didn't—"

"Sora," Roxas hissed, eyes wide. "You've been left here to fend off droves of gangsters, and you're telling me to calm down? This is the best thing that's happened to me!"

"…How's that?"

Kairi interjected, but Sora couldn't tell if that was actually a good thing or not, considering the look on her face. "Sora, this is serious. People are following you to hurt you."

"I'm fine, really."

"No he's not," Roxas grinned. "He's in serious, serious trouble!"

"I'm fine!" Sora repeted, and pushed past both of them, heading to the back of the café. He was feeling a touch suffocated, and Cid still had an ear out just to catch them goofing off again. "We should get back to work. It would help me feel better if we kept things as uh…normal as possible."

Roxas and Kairi watched after him as he walked away, but Sora dared not turn around, lest the follow and resume their questioning.

And it would have been perfect if Riku hadn't chosen that moment to reappear, leaning against the counter just in front of him, staring at him with bemusement on his features.

Sora struggled not to make a sound, as Kairi and Roxas were still watching him, but he couldn't help the small whine that escaped his throat when Riku followed him beneath the detection of his other two friends.

Sora made the sound again as he picked up the wash rag, and mopped the counter with it, and Riku leaned against the freshly cleaned surface, eyebrows waggling.

"What is this all about?" Riku grinned.

Sora ignored him.

"Not going to tell me?"

Sora rubbed the counter harder.

"Are you leaving me to go find out for myself?"

Sora shot him a dirty look.

"Okay then. I'll take that as permission."

Sora turned towards him to shout at him—mostly visually—but he had already floated off.

Sora threw the rag down and looked about for Riku's transparent form, but he could have already been sitting inside the cupboards for all he could tell. Kairi and Roxas were only a few meters away, so if he started frantically searching, or worse "talking to himself" again, they were going to try and get him committed. He had no choice but to sit on his thumbs and hope that he wasn't getting into any trouble.

Kairi meanwhile was watching Sora with interest, while she and Roxas were refilling the napkin containers.

And Riku was watching them from the inside of the wall.

"I think all of this worrying is making him panicky," Roxas said to her, as they pretended to be occupied by the napkins and various coffee accoutrements. "I can't say I blame him, though."

"This whole situation is strange. I don't like it."

"Of course you wouldn't," Roxas rolled his eyes. You can't spell 'killjoy' without spelling 'Kairi.'"

"…Yes you can."

"You know what I mean. Anyway, how many times does your friend get chased by real gangsters? The only thing I'm worried about is him leaving town. We won't be able to check his status."

"I'm worried about much more important things. Like survival."

"You think they're going to come after you, too?"

"No!" Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm worried about Sora surviving. This is serious!"

Riku shook his head as he listened to the two of them. He wasn't sure what it was Sora had told them, but whatever it was, it sounded pretty extravagant. He wasn't sure if it meant that his previous concerns about Sora telling them unfavorable information was still necessary, but given that Roxas was excited about it, he figured that he might need to stick around the coffee shop for a little while longer.

He listened to their conversation for a few more minutes, but neither offered much of a clue as to specifics. What he gathered was that Sora was apparently in some kind of trouble by a troop of nameless sentries from an underground drug ring, and that perhaps he might need to be on the run for an undetermined amount of time.

He quickly grew tired of their idle chatter, although Roxas did include a particularly riveting quip about the potential for beastly hounds to come sniffing around the coffee shop to find Sora and Riku's whereabouts, and decided that if he was going to hang around the coffee shop for the remainder of the afternoon eavesdropping, he was going to at least try to have a little fun.

Starting with Kairi and Roxas.


Thanks for reading, all. The next chapter will be up soon.