"Sincerely, Nobody" by ladydemelza

Chapter 6

Reminder: this story is in the process of being updated from how it was originally posted. Thank you for your patience as I continue to work on it. Love to all who have read and/or reviewed so far!

"See? We need your help."

Yuri eyed the man reproachfully. "You need…me? Are you sure?"

He sighed exasperatedly. "YES! I asked you to pay attention. Were you?"

"Of course I was," she assured him. "I just…it seems like you're just some stranger who broke into my house and is trying to get a very freaky laugh out of this…or maybe, you're—"

"What kind of a creep would make up a story like this?" he asked.

"Hmm, true," she admitted. "It's hard to believe that stuff like this actually exists, though. You really can't blame me for being skeptical."

"I don't have any choice but to try," he said. "Will you help, or not?"

Yuri thought on this, but only for a moment. In the same way that something had always drawn her to Roxas, she felt strongly deep down that it was her duty to help this man. "Sure, I'll do what I can. Quick question, though."

"Someone evil is around here, I can sense…but I'll do my best to answer it."

"You're sitting here, in the flesh, telling me this to my face, right?" Yuri said. "Well, I still don't believe it, really—how will I get them to believe it's more than just me being crazy?"

He smiled. "Yuri. These are the types of things you're good at. Or, at least, you were. You can do it."

More thoroughly confused than ever, Yuri shrugged. "Not entirely what I was looking for, but better than nothing. I'll take it."

He continued to smile, as though he had done her a great service. Right. Vague assurance, super helpful.

"I'll try," she said, smiling a little as she thought of her friends' reactions.

"I'll be watching, so just call for me if you need me," he said. "I told you someone evil is here, and I have to keep you guys safe."

"Why do I need to be kept safe? It sounds like my friends are the important ones, not me."

"This," he said, looking somber, "is only the beginning. That's why."

Yuri nodded slowly. "I still can't believe I'm actually going to do this…"

"Just get them to Sora's and I'll explain everything."

"Easy enough," she shrugged. "I'll get them there. Should I just call for you?"

"Sounds good, I'll be waiting!" Without a sound, he disappeared, leaving a confused and disbelieving Yuri in his wake.

That evening, Naminé sat in her room, curtains flung open, staring at Riku's illuminated window across the street. She knew he was up; it was only 9:00. She grabbed at her cell phone, and sent him a quick message. In a matter of minutes, she was walking purposefully across the street. He was waiting on his front porch for her.

"How are you?" he asked her, sitting on his front step.

She seated herself next to him. "I guess," she replied vaguely.

"What's up?" he asked, a line of worry etched between his eyebrows.

"I woke up this morning with a really bad feeling in my stomach… and then I went to school, and had this weird feeling when Korin looked at me…"

Riku, thankfully, seemed to understand what she was saying. "I think I get what you mean. I feel tense when she's there, like I need to be ready to spring at any moment."

She watched him bite one of his fingernails. Why did everyone's feelings seem to align when it came to Korin? Why did each of them besides Yuri seem to feel that tension separately? It seemed impossible that they would all have the same feeling about a stranger. Naminé had never heard of such a thing between friends.

"Besides all that, Yuri told us today that she is moving on from Roxas," Naminé said.

Riku's eyebrows raised in surprise, but in the set of his jaw she could see he was relieved.

"I know," Naminé said in response to his expression.

"How did that come about?" he asked. "Not that it's my business."

Naminé paused. "It was a bit odd, actually," she said. "She had mentioned feeling some sort of connection to him, and the she had always thought it meant something, but now she wasn't sure and she wanted someone who valued her."

Riku whistled. "Wow."

"I know!" Naminé said again.

He half-smiled. "This is good news, though."

"I understand what she means by connection," Naminé said without planning to. "I feel connected to you guys."

She could feel Riku's eyes on her as he thought about what she had said. "Me too," he said quietly. "Me too."

That night, Roxas continued to read the writings of mystery girl. For the first time, he ran across description of one of her dreams, and found himself slightly disturbed.

A frightening dream somehow managed to wake me up last night, which never happens. Usually, I'm out like a light faster than you can tell me to get to sleep. Last night, though, was different. I turned out my light and lay down, and started to feel extremely odd… almost as though I were about to be sick. It took quite a while for me to finally drift off to sleep. When, at last, I was sleeping well, I was interrupted rudely by this dream… Only after I had it last night did I realize that I have had it many times before…

A woman with shining black hair accuses me of killing someone she loved. I look positively frightening—my eyes are glowing red, and my hair was much shorter than it is in real life. The wind began to blow as she cursed at me. Before I could argue with her—real life or not, I'm not a murderer—she attacked me. I fought back best I could, using complex magical spells that felt very familiar to me. She hit me with something I wasn't expecting, and I was killed.

I can't believe I have this dream of fighting this woman so often, and that I never remembered it until just now. Perhaps that could be because I've never died before tonight. I think I would remember if I had died, maybe…no, the others ended with me winning and boy's voice thanking me, but I never did remember seeing the boy's face.

Why did I choose last night to die?

Roxas couldn't help but think of Korin. She seemed as though she could kill you, if she really tried…

Feeling disgusted with himself, Roxas put away the diary. What would he say if she asked him if he had read it…?

Yuri woke up the next morning, not entirely sure she believed what had happened to her the night before. Sure, the guy had seemed perfectly believable, but… things like this just didn't happen in real life. Everyone wished they did, until they actually did… because once they did, there was no waking up from it. It was reality, and dangerous, and Yuri didn't like to hear that there was a woman around who would hurt any of them.

She readied herself for school, preparing what she would say to her friends in her head. It wouldn't be difficult to get them to Sora's house after school, but to explain to them what was actually going on was going to be difficult.

The moment Sora, Riku, and Roxas arrived at school, they ran into Korin. "Hey, morning guys! Morning, Sora!" she said brightly.

"Morning," he said unenthusiastically.

Roxas noted the tone but didn't react.

None of them seemed keen to talk to her, and she got the picture pretty quickly—she disappeared with a quick wave goodbye just as quickly as she had appeared.

Yuri turned up just after that, startling Roxas.

"Hey, Roxas, can we talk?" she asked nervously.

Great, here it comes… "Sure," he agreed reluctantly.

Sora and Riku were exchanging looks as he walked away with her. Both looked guilty, like they knew something he didn't.

"This isn't really what you're expecting, probably," she began softly. "I mean… I kind of wanted to…apologize."

"Oh, really?" Roxas said, trying to mask his surprise.

"Yeah," she affirmed. "I have probably made you feel really uncomfortable at some point or another, so… I wanted to say that I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to do that."

"It's… it's all right, Yuri," Roxas said, overwhelmed by the feeling that was creeping up his stomach and tugging at his heart. He wanted to be her friend and always had, but he was suddenly feeling his connection to her becoming strained in a way he couldn't describe. It made him feel uneasy and exposed in some way.

"I'm glad you don't totally hate me," she said, smiling a little. "I really thought you would."

"I would never," he said, placing his arm on her shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"Friends?" she asked.

"Friends," he said, reaching for her and giving her a quick hug. "Thank you."

She smiled again. "So, I'm hoping we can all hang out in Sora's basement tonight. Can you be there?"

"Definitely," he said. "Who else will be there?"

"Oh, just you, Naminé, Kairi, Riku, and Sora obviously."

"Sounds good! Some time as a group will be fun."

Yuri knew this was the right thing to say, because it was true—everyone would be pulled in by the idea. Sora had immediately agreed when she asked him, and so far, everyone was on board. She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going according to plan so far. How she was going to work up the courage to tell them what she needed to tell them, though, she didn't know.

That day, during passing before the last class of the day, Roxas noticed Naminé walking on the opposite side of the hallway alone.

"Hey, Naminé!" he called out to her.

Her head turned, and her face lit up in a smile when she saw that it was he who had called her name. She fought her way across the hallway to join Roxas.

"Hey, how are you today?" she asked.

"I'm all right," he said. "You?"

"Happy," she said. "I think Sora's after school is going to be a good time."

"I agree, actually," Roxas said. "Yuri apologized to me earlier, so I'm actually really excited."

Naminé didn't look surprised. Roxas figured Yuri had already told her she was going to. "I'm glad she talked to you directly," Naminé said.

A tall, muscular boy pushed past where they were standing, knocking Naminé's messenger bag from her shoulder, spilling its entire contents on the floor.

"Excuse you!" Roxas called after the boy, immediately bending over to help a flustered Naminé pick up her belongings.

Suddenly, Naminé understood how she had lost her diary. That very same thing had happened to her the day that it had disappeared from her bag. Feeling blazingly angry with herself for being so quiet and transparent, she thanked Roxas for helping her and breezed off to class. Being at school was the absolute worst place you could possibly be when all you wanted was to be alone.

She sat, fuming, for her entire last class. She knew that this would be it—she would never try to be invisible again. It was just then that she noticed how many times she had actually been knocked into or mowed over in the school hallways. She wanted desperately to be the type of person who commanded attention, or the type of person you could never accidentally plow over…but getting to that point would be difficult for her. Even the fact that she had just obtained a parking pass and had driven herself to school for the first time today didn't calm her down. She hoped she could calm down before she saw her friends.

When the last bell finally clanged, Naminé rushed from her classroom to the bathroom, intending to make a quick stop before leaving for Sora's house. She wove her way in and out of other students in similar hurry, scowling to herself as she imagined each and every one of them seeing right through her. Anger re-kindled, she shoved her way into the nearest bathroom, which was, thankfully, deserted.

She was scrubbing her hands with soap, and suddenly, Korin popped out of one of the bathroom stalls. "Naminé, nice to see you," she said, sounding bored.

Naminé looked up at her, hatred burning deep in her stomach, though she couldn't completely say why. "Nice to see you, too," she said in similar tones.

Korin's head snapped in Naminé's direction, and she made fierce eye contact. Naminé was slightly taken aback until she remembered she didn't want to feel invisible anymore. She stood her ground and stared right back. Korin's face suddenly cracked into a sickening smile.

"The red stirred behind your eyes. I saw it."

Naminé stared, confused.

"That must be why you hate me so, little witch. The real you has broken free."

Her eyes widened. Witch? What in the world was she talking about?

She laughed softly. She pressed her hand to the dazed Naminé's forehead. As Naminé tried to shove it away, she felt a sharp clap ripple across her brain, and her vision started to tunnel in. The horrible dropping feeling in her stomach was all that she felt as her vision went black and she crumpled to the ground, the image of Korin's smile still burnt into her brain.

Everyone impatiently awaited Naminé's arrival at Sora's house. Sora paced worriedly in the basement—he was the type to worry. Riku continuously told him to calm down, and Kairi wrung her hands nervously. It had been over an hour since school had finished, and she was nowhere to be found…

To top it off, Yuri had been nervous and skittish since they had arrived at Sora's place. The four of them waited in his basement, throwing around topics of no importance as they tried to keep themselves from worrying about Naminé, whose cell phone had about twelve messages from members of the group.

As Kairi brought up a math test that all of them had taken that day, the strange man popped up right next to Yuri, looking wildly infuriated.

"They've got her," he said in a low, angry voice. "I tried to stop it but I couldn't get there fast enough."

"Leon!" Yuri said in surprise. "Who's got who?"

"Naminé. The witch got her… She's gone."

Roxas immediately felt his windpipe close up in shock. He tried to speak, but couldn't make a sound.

"Wait, witch? What the hell are you talking about?" Sora demanded.

"Yeah, care to explain?" Kairi added fiercely.

"Uh, Yuri, who is this?" Riku asked loudly, standing up tall and trying to look threatening.

"Guys, um…this is Leon…he's actually the reason I wanted all of us to be here today. I mean…oh man, you guys are never gonna believe this…"

Thank you so much for reading!

Love,

ladydemelza