Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts; it belongs to its rightful owners.
"Yes. This is it."
The doctor's face lit up with glee as we presented him with his longed for item. Flashing us a smile, he placed in inside of the heart-like cage that the other items were in. Right along with Sally's flower. I watched in silence, though, like I usually do. It felt as if it were not my place to speak. As if I were just a spectator in a scene that I wasn't meant to be witnessing. And it was the truth. We weren't supposed to be here. That was apparent after what had happened with Alice; I became part of the reason why the poor girl was missing. All because I didn't want to keep my mouth shut. So here, I was going to be quiet . . . in fear of ruining another person's fate.
Just in case.
The doctor closed the heart and used the remote control installed in his wheelchair to take a few steps back. He examined his work with a serious face. "There you go. This time it's sure to work," he said, picking up the heart once more. To my left, I could see Sora fidgeting. I didn't know whether if it was out of excitement or, like Sally, if he felt something bad coming. Bumping my arm against him, I sent him a signal as if to say relax. Though no words were exchanged, he let out a breath and nodded.
The wheels on the wheelchair spun as the doctor carried the heart to the experiment table. But, to our surprise, the wheels caught on something, sending the doctor and the makeshift heart sailing onto the floor. With a loud thud, they both hit the ground. The only difference was that the doctor didn't bounce. It bounced toward the lab exit and into the hands of a small child. Three of them to be exact. One with a devil mask, one in a witch hat, and another in a zombie mask. My dark eyebrows furrowed. When did they get here?
With a crackling laugh, the three children sped out of the door, leaving us staring in confusion. The doctor slowly climbed back onto his wheelchair, a frown now replacing his once happy expression. "The nerve of those hooligans, stealing my work!" he shouted. Judging by the way he worded it, they must have met those three before. "Go get them!"
"All right!" Donald quacked and without another word, the five of us were out of the door. However, there was nothing but silence out there. Well . . . silence and a guillotine.
"Darn, we lost them." Sora sighed, running a hand through his unruly spikes. He froze once he seen the familiar sight of the white ghost dog floating throughout the town square. "Hey, isn't that the number dog?"
"Zero?" I corrected. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
Jack shook his head at the brunet, a ghost of a smile playing on his bony face. "Zero!" he called. The dog's head snapped over to look at us, his red nose shining bright. He blinked his hollow black eyes at us to let us know that he was listening. "After them, quick!"
The ghost dog flew off and we followed behind. It was clear to see that he was floating toward the graveyard that we had found Sally in not too long ago. Jack pushed the gate open, his long legs stepping aside so that we could entre first. Though this was a dire mission, he still kept his manners. It made me wonder why I was scared of Jack a few hours ago. He's one of the sweetest people I knew.
. . . one of them. Riku was definitely up there. There were moments when I thought that he was too nice to us. The way that he would often let me when races so that I wouldn't be too bummed about it, how he would give me the little treasures he found around the islands for safe keeping, or how he would take my mind off of the difficult things. Jack reminded me of Riku. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Partly because the connection shocked me, partly because I was supposed to be focused on finding the artificial heart, and partly because my train of thought had been cut of by something hard. Shaking my head, I looked up to see what I had walked into. A pair of blue eyes stared back down at me; it was Sora.
"What?" he asked, his chocolate eyebrows pulling together with curiosity. I shook my head at him. It was nothing important. It was just something that neither of us could have right now. "Okay." He nodded and turned back forward to continue following Zero through the graveyard. "If you change your mind . . ." he trailed off, assuming that I knew what he meant.
The area was filled with tombstones, some newer that others. Some had touches of decades in their stone. Some were so old that the name carved in them were beginning to wear. It sent a chill through my spine. Only in this world are you able to aimlessly stroll through a dead site and not feel anything. Goofy shivered too, obviously thinking the same thing. I took a step closer to be by his side. However, I felt my legs turn to lead when I seen a spike of silver hair standing by one of the tombstones.
I opened my mouth, looking like a fish that had been taken out of water. Though I knew I should be mad at him for what he had done to Pinocchio, I couldn't help but stare. A small smile pulled at the corner of his pink lips, his toned arms crossed over his chest in his signature stance. "Riku?" I asked, my voice nothing but a whisper. He just kept smiling.
"What?" It was Donald who spoke. Taking my eyes away from the sea green ones, I glanced down at the white duck. When I turned back to the older boy, he was gone. It was a fragment of my imagination again. I sighed, shaking my head at the duck. I should have known. Even if that was him, I doubt that he'd smile. It was a sight that I hadn't seen in such a long time.
Zero led us to a large hill. The end of the hill curled up like one of Selphie's orange locks. Messing with one of the graves scattered around the hill, Jack pressed something, making the curl at the end of the hill roll out. I was the first to walk to the end of the now un-folded hill, balancing so that I wouldn't fall over and hurt myself any more than I have lately. Once we were on the other side, Goofy let out a breath of relief. With a bark, Zero led us to an eerie old gate that was rusted way beyond repair.
When we opened it, it let out a squeal in protest. "Ladies first," Goofy said, stepping aside so that I could go through first. I thanked him, but froze when he let Donald go in, too.
"I'm not a lady!" the duck began screaming. We ignored it. This happens a lot.
In front of us was a tree house of some sort. It was covered in jack o'lanterns, creepy branches, and distorted yellow lights. There were about twenty flights of stairs leading up to the top. Zero barked again, letting us know that those three children had went up here. Man, that was a lot of stairs.
"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind this!" Jack said. I didn't know who Oogie Boogie was, but I saved the backstory by not asking. If this was his tree house of doom, we would find out who he is soon. And, from the looks of it, he didn't seem like a good guy. Jack instantly began his path up the stairs and, after about three groans to prepare ourselves, we followed after him. This could take a while.
Once we got to the top, we noticed a room closed off by double wooden doors. We exchanged glances before looking at Zero for confirmation. The dog barked. The three children were definitely in there. Jack grabbed one knob and Sora grabbed the other, both of them counting to three before turning it and slamming their shoulders into it. As expected, the doors burst open, surprising the kids. They jumped and stared at us with wide eyes. Except for one, whom had throw the artificial heart into a hole in the wall. It was gone, lost somewhere within the tree house.
Donald summoned his wizard staff, looking rather annoyed. "Where is it?"
"We'll never tell you, old man!" The child wearing a purple witch hat pointed a finger at the duck and laughed. She balled up her fist, tilted her head to the side, and said, "You'll have to fight us first."
"If you say so." I shrugged, summoning my Keyblade. Sora and Goofy called upon their weapons, too, getting into a fighting stance just in case these kids actually wanted to battle. The one wearing a zombie mask let out a battle cry before launching at me with swinging fist. I threw my arms up to block his punches. Though he hadn't hurt me, his blows were enough to knock me back a bit. These kids were tough.
I swung my Keyblade at the zombie kid, knocking him onto his butt with a loud omph! He stared up at me as if I was the meanest person in the world and I instantly felt bad. Being good friends, the other two children shuffled over to zombie boy, clutching him as if they thought we were going to kill them. Rolling my silver eyes, I threw my Keyblade to the side, watching it disappear into thin air like I never had it in the first place. Sora, Donald, and Goofy put their weapons away too once they seen that they had surrendered.
The girl wearing a witch hat clutched her arms in mock pain. "Oh, the horror!" she cried out dramatically.
"Oh, bother . . ." Donald crossed his arms over his feather-covered chest.
The witch hat girl spoke again. "We were just following orders!" she said, her voice pretending to be on the verge of tears. These kids were terrible actors. "Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart! It was all barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart."
The kid wearing a devil mask nodded. "Yeah, that's right!"
"B-but you guys said-"
Witch hat girl cut zombie boy, who I'm guessing was Barrel, off with a scoff. "You should be ashamed!"
I held up a hand to put an end to the pointless arguing. "So where is this Oogie Boogie guy?"
"Hey, stop running so fast, guys! I can't catch up!" I could barely get a breath in as I chased after the four boys. After those kids had told us that Oogie Boogie's lair was underneath the tree house, they ran with all of the power that their legs would give them. Sadly, that was way more power than what my legs gave mine. I was huffing and puffing, my throat growing dry from the strain I was putting myself under. Jack noticed and grabbed my hand, pulling me to keep up with his six foot long legs. At this point, he was basically dragging me.
"Where is it?" Sora growled out in frustration. His head was turning every which way in search of the lair door. There were so many bridges, twists, and turns up here. It was hard to find anything at all. He ran a hand over his hairless chin before breaking out into another sprint to the right. When he did it, the boys did it, and I almost face planted on the ground from being pulled by the skeleton man.
Donald pointed to a green door, which was shaped like a guillotine I might add, and let out a quack. "There it is, Sora!" he informed him. Sora looked as if someone had offered him a lifetime supply of the best fish from the islands. His eyes went wide as his feet pounded their way to the door. He didn't even bother slowing down to open it. He grabbed the handle and raced inside, clearly annoyed with the irritation those kids were giving us. Donald rolled his black eyes. "Slow down . . ."
Jack led me into the lair. It was covered in black, like most of Halloween Town, with dashes of bright colours here and there. In the middle of the floor was a giant spinning game piece. On the other side of the game piece stood a man . . . that looked like a stuffed pillow case. I collapsed on the ground, trying to get my air back before the inevitable fight started.
"Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart!" Jack yelled at the dirty pillow case man.
The man chuckled, putting his hand on his hips. "You want it?" he asked sweetly. He seemed way too nice. Holding up the heart, we watched in shock as the man swallowed it whole. "Well, come and get it! Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless?" To my surprise, two bat Heartless appeared by his side. Though it was more than I expected, he didn't seem all too pleased with his resulted. "This is it? Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"
We summoned out weapons, jumping onto the giant game piece to start fighting the two Heartless that Oogie Boogie had called upon. Donald went for one and Jack went for the other. With four fatal hits, they dissolved into thin air, leaving nothing but trembling pink hearts in their wake. That was before the game piece that we were standing on started spinning.
I tried to stand my ground so that I wouldn't fall over. Iron spikes stuck out from the ground, keeping us where we were. Though, the most distinctive thing about everything was Oogie Boogie's loud laughter. Goofy and I exchanged looks when the ground stopped spinning, pointing us toward six guns that were pointed back at us. Not guns again! As if on cue, we all dropped to avoid the bullets. After they were fired, the ground spun again.
"What is this?" Jack grumbled, trying not to fall over like the rest of us.
Just as he had said that, the ground stopped spinning, giving us a clear chance to charge at the man. We all took it. All five of us swinging our weapons at once, we swarmed Oogie Boogie with as many blows as we could. He didn't even fight back. He just attempted to block our attacks as good as he could, knowing we were stronger than him. I raised my Keyblade about my head to bring it down on him, but stopped when he belly bumped me out of the way. I flew back, my head connecting with the dark brick wall behind us.
That was the last thing I seen.
"Hey, Sasuke? Don't you think this is a little stupid?"
I glanced over at Kairi, watching as she spun around in her purple dress. She looked unhappy just like I did. It was mainly because we were wearing matching ones, though mine was blue. It was such an ugly blue. It was the same colour blue as the sky. It was too bright of a colour, I felt as if only dark ones looked nice on me. But, Selphie's mother, who had made us these dressed insisting that all of us girls have a 'girlie day' whatever that was, wouldn't have it. She despised my love for my dark clothes, saying that I didn't know what it was truly like to be a girl. When I told her that I didn't, that I didn't have anyone there to teach me how, she practically had a heart attack.
I clutched the light blue fabric of my dress and let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I think it's stupid," I had answered Kairi. My head shifted a bit when Selphie's mother pulled my hair too hard, attempting to comb the knots out. It hurt more than I thought it would. Who knew my hair was so tangled?
"Don't think like that, girls," Selphie's mother said. She had always spoke to us like we were her daughters. Deep down I knew that it was out of pity, that she felt bad that we didn't have our own mothers like all the other eleven-year-olds on the island did. But, for once, I guess I just wanted to feel how everyone else felt. How it felt to have your mother braid your hair and hug you . . . even if I had to wear this hideous dress.
"You look pretty, Sasuke!" Selphie encouraged. I couldn't take her seriously in her orange version of our dresses. Hell, I could barely take myself seriously.
"You don't have to lie, Selph."
"I'm not lying, Kairi. You guys look like ladies now."
I bit back my tongue to keep from saying anything stupid. Instead, I just watched in the mirror as her mother placed a white headband on my head, pulling my hair out of my face like it always has been. "Woah, she has a forehead," Kairi teased, wiggling around uncomfortably in her dress. I didn't respond. My eyes just stayed locked on the reflection.
"See?" Selphie's mother asked, patting my shoulders twice. "See how beautiful you are Sasuke? You should stop hiding yourself all the time and be brave. You never know what you'll find underneath."
"Ooo! My turn!" Kairi cheered.
I watched myself in the mirror. I looked like a completely different person without my bangs. I also noticed that there was a cut on my forehead. Reaching my shaking fingers up to touch it, my mouth fell open when I realized that I was bleeding. Beads on bright red blood were rolling down my forehead and staining my ugly blue dress.
"Sasuke, you're bleeding!" Kairi panicked, placing her hands on my shoulders and shaking me. "You're bleeding! Sasuke! Sasuke, wake up! Sasuke!"
"Sasuke! Oh man, I hope you don't have a concussion. We really don't need this right now. Please don't slip into a coma. I don't think potions can fix comas."
Opening my eyes slowly, I came face to face with a black gaze. It was Donald. My hand reached up to clutch that same bleeding spot on my forehead. Was I dead?
"No, you're not dead," Jack said, squatting beside me. I blinked twice. Did I say that out loud? "Yes, you did."
I ignored that embarrassment, choosing to state the most obvious facts out. "My head hurts. Where's Ooga Balooga?" We were no longer in the lair, but the outside of the tree house. It was creepily silent compared to when I blacked out. The last thing that I remember is being shot at. Nothing else after that.
"Okay, so she might have a small concussion." Donald ran a hand over his face, motioning Goofy over to me. Without a word, the dog scooped me up off of the ground, carrying me bridal style. In some ways, it made the pounding in my head hurt even more. But, I was glad to be off of the hard ground. I let out a groan, feeling the back of my head only to see blood on my fingertips again. "We should get out of here-"
He was cut off by a Keyhole shaped light forming in the ground. They found it already. Raising his Kingdom Key, Sora shot a beam of white light at it. I shielded my eyes from the brightness. It was making my head hurt even more. Though, I could hear the locking sound that followed soon after. This world was safe. It wouldn't meet a terrible fate like the islands did. Like Selphie's mother did.
The lights in the doctor's lab were dim, but bright at the same time. If that made any sense. I covered my eyes with my hands, using the little slits between my fingers to see what was going on. Goofy was still carrying me, something about Donald not trusting me on my own two feet right now even though he had wrapped gauze around my head to stop the bleeding. I'd be shocked if they ever trusted me fighting again. This was not the first time that I had gotten hurt in battle due to carelessness. This wasn't even the second. So far I had been shot, electrocuted, and have had my head bashed into a wall. This was going way too far. For my health's sake.
Sally was here along with us. She had a knowing expression on her face; she knew something like this would happen. She seemed so genuine when she had told us in the graveyard, but we were caught up in our own discoveries of the Heartless to listen to her. In a way, this is what we get. But, at least Oogie Boogie was gone and the artificial heart was destroyed, from what I hear.
"Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" Jack was beating himself up about this situation more than anybody. His skull head was shaped into a frown and he looked as if he regretted everything.
Sally shook her head, the seams in her neck pulling slightly from the action. "Don't feel bad, Jack," her calming voice spoke. "We'll come up with another plan for Halloween." She grabbed his hands and looked up into his hollow eye hole . . . lovingly. "Next time, we'll do it together."
I couldn't help but stare at the new smile on Jack's face. Just her grabbing his bony hands made his bad mood disappear. He must really like her. He must love her. Though I felt like my brain was combusting, a small smile grew on my face. It was a beautiful sight, them being in love.
Jack turned to us and sighed. "I guess we have no choice. We'll have to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival for now." That's probably for the best. Bending down to Sora's height, he placed something in the vampire boy's hand. "Here, I want you to have something. Visit us any time, you guys. And next time I see you Sasuke, I hope you're better. Next year's Halloween will be the scariest ever."
Sora moved the trinket around in his hand. It was a pumpkin keychain. Summoning his Kingdom Key, he clipped the pumpkin on the chain, right new to the mouse-shaped one that's been there from the very beginning.
"Emotion, memory . . ." The tender moment was cut off by the doctor's upset whispering. We all turned to look at him, me wincing a bit from my headache. "We put in all the necessary ingredients. What else do you need to make a heart? What is a heart, anyways? I can't figure it out."
Sora looked at me and shook his head. He knew that you couldn't make a heart, you had to earn it. That thought brought a smile to my face. I was glad that he of all people had one. If he didn't, we'd be screwed. I'd be screwed.
Hello, sorry it took me so long to update. I have a cold that just won't go away. But anyways, here is the longest chapter yet because it's the 20th chapter special. I also threw a bit of SoraxOc in there for you, but just a hint. Big things will be happening in KH2.
Also, I have only posted this story on this website. If you have seen it somewhere else, it wasn't by me. With that being said, if you have seen it on another website, PM with with the details. I'll really appreciate it c: