I don't own anything associated with Kingdom Hearts or Silent Hill. It belongs to Disney/Square Enix and Konami respectively.

Chapter 11

The door groaned as it bulged. Harsh shrieks filled the air as the chair holding it in place was forced back, leaving deep scratches in the floor. The force vanished, and the wood returned to its natural place, but a moment later, a giant blade tore through the center. The knife ripped its way down, cleaving the door in half. Through the opening, a pale hand slipped through, grabbed, and pulled, prying the broken door from its hinges. The rest of the monster's body passed over the doorway, splintered wooden remains trapped under its giant, dragging knife.

It was a good thing Ven had already made his escape.

Although it would do little to slow the monster, Ven still slammed the door behind him as he stumbled out into the hall. Yellow eyes blinked at him from the darkness, but the neoshadows were the least of his worries. He dodged past them, dancing on the balls of his feet. They may move fast, but he moved faster.

Unfortunately, though the monster with the knife was even slower than the neoshadows, it knew the layout better than he did.

For once in his life, he was happy to have inherited his speed over Terra's strength or Aqua's knack for magic, for it was only that which allowed him to react in time when the monster stepped out from a junction in front of him and swung. Ven dove, rolling under the knife as it passed over him, so close that he could feel the air ripple. From there, he pushed off the wall moments before it, for lack of a better word, was pulverized. All that was left was a shower of dust that dyed his hair grey.

His keyblade bounced off the monster; his spells were absorbed harmlessly into its skin. The monster was an unstoppable force, as relentless as a hound on the hunt. All Ven could do was run, and run faster.

The monster followed with that slow, dragging walk, but Ven knew better than to be fooled. The monster was never far behind. Even with that massive helmet upon its shoulders, it always knew how to find him.

And the building was still burning.

He couldn't stand still for more than a second, otherwise he feared his shoes would melt and fuse with the metal floor. The heat blasted him from all sides but despite that, he was cold with terror. Each rapid beat of his heart blurred into the next, creating a frantic pace that his feet moved to, and it grew only worse as the weight of the heat and his earlier fight caught up with him.

He found himself in a long, empty hallway. A few sheets of papers rippled in a breeze from a cracked window. There were no doors to be found, only the end of the hall, so no chance that the monster would intercept him. The heat was less here, not pleasant, but bearable, and Ven wiped the sweat from his forehead. His heart continued its erratic rhythm, but his feet's pace slowed, and it was all he could do to drag them behind him.

He jerked violently when he heard the monster's knife scraping against the ground. Such a sound it was, sharp and piercing, and from the very first time he had heard it, it had been burned into his memory. It didn't sound close, but he couldn't be sure. He turned around so that he was walking backwards down the hall.

It wasn't the smartest plan.

He felt the chill first, so much more noticeable with the inferno surrounding him. But before he had time to react, the neoshadows were on him. He thrashed, kicking one into the wall and slicing through a couple more with his keyblade; but it was too little, too late. He found himself forced to the ground, claws pinning his arms, and a shadowy figure perched upon his chest. His heart seemed to stop, as if the heartless had already yanked it out. Yet the neoshadow made no move to do so; instead, it sat there, antennae twitching as it stared into space.

No, not space. At the end of the hall.

Where the monster would soon emerge.

Goosebumps covered every inch of his skin. He would rather have the heartless trying to tear his heart out than have to sit here, waiting. The shriek of the monster's knife came again, and his eyes widened in fear as he desperately craned his neck to see. Nothing at first, then, as if flames had erupted beneath the walls, the end of the hall glowed bright orange, highlighting the tip of the monster's helmet. The figure became more and more complete; the knife's howls grew louder; the neoshadows holding him quivered, and Ven wondered if they, too, were afraid.

When the monster finally came into full view, that theory was confirmed. Although the heartless refused to release him, they shrunk back as far as they could. They were all frozen in time as Ven and the monster stared at each other. There were no eyes, just slits in the metallic helmet, but it felt to Ven that the other's gaze was burning a hole in his head.

The monster broke the standoff and shambled towards him.

Pure, unadulterated terror lent him a strength he hadn't known. It was like Terra had possessed him. He bucked, twisted, and the neoshadow on his chest tumbled to the floor. The others were still there, but Ven had a little more mobility now, and the neoshadows weren't as smart as they thought. They had focused on his dominant arm; it had never quite occurred to them that Ven could summon Wayward Wind to his other hand, as he did now. Before they could react, he shouted at the top of his lungs and blasted them away with an Aero spell, and . . . the monster was right there!

He swung reflexively. The monster brought up its knife to block, and the resulting clang rang through the air. Ven's hand shot to his shoulder, and his armour enveloped him in a burst of light.

But the armour didn't prevent him from feeling just how utterly cold the monster's hand was.

Ven cried out. The monster yanked, nearly tearing off his arm. Its grip was painfully tight, so much that Ven feared it would crush the bone. The worst part was that he didn't think it meant to hurt him just yet; it was just that powerful.

But raising the knife and pointing it at his chest? Yeah, that was probably meant to hurt.

He shouted three quick spells in succession, none of which appeared to do any good. The monster held the knife steady, and then drove it towards his chest. The force slammed Ven against the wall, but before the knife actually sunk in and did real damage, the monster stopped and looked down. While Ven's spells had no effect on the monster itself, he had lit the ends of its butcher's apron on fire. He was offered a moment's reprieve as the monster dropped the knife in favour of patting out the flames. And Ven was hit with a brilliant, or incredibly stupid, idea. He aimed his keyblade at the monster's helmet, right between one of the slits, and poured his energy not into any of his typical offensive spells, but one of light.

That was it. The monster did not scream – Ven didn't think it could – but it cringed, waving its massive hands like a man clearing cobwebs from his vision. Ven kicked off, pulled, and there was horrible, horrible pain as he really did dislocate his arm. But he was free. He backed away, cradling his injured side, practically limping. His run was not much steadier as every time his arm was jolted, the pain almost made him puke.

He crawled out a window, not even bothering to see where he would land. The dead grass did little to cushion his fall, and his mouth opened in a mute scream when he landed. Without thinking, he tried to freeze his arm; anything to make the pain stop. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it didn't work.

The sound of strained metal brought his attention back to the monster. Ven stared at the building fearfully. Inch by inch, he crawled away, placing a healthy distance between them. If the monster were to attack now . . . Ven didn't know what he would do, or what he could do. He was hurt, scared, a shivering ball too weak to stand.

The clinic loomed over him like a gigantic beast as the black sky crackled and rumbled. He couldn't even recognize it. The old walls were wreathed in dark vines, which pulsed and swelled like the veins of an animal. The windows, once covered by tattered curtains, spat sparks before a bright orange background. The wooden doors had been replaced by their sturdier, metallic cousins, and they bore the distant impression of having been bolted shut. The whole world had changed into something dark and sinister, and even the ground looked as though someone had gone at it with a flamethrower.

Ven closed his eyes as the heat faded from his body. Sweat dripped, leaving icy-cold trails everywhere; his clothes were damp with it, his hair not much better. He just wanted to lie down and rest for a while . . .

Something flittered through his fingers, as delicate as a spider's web. Ven opened his eyes and gazed down at his hands. He saw no trace of what had passed. But then a dark wisp broke away from the ground and soared up into the heavens, where hundreds of others joined it. He couldn't believe what he was seeing: the vines on the clinic were retreating into the ground; the ash-covered ground was blown away; and a bright white light shone in the sky, spreading as it eclipsed the black. The fog rose, bringing the cold with it, and the first snowflakes began to fall.

Ridgeview Clinic reclaimed its broken-down, but safe, appearance. The world was normal again.

Ven dismissed his armour and laid there, too tired and pained to move. He knew he should: who was to say the monster was gone? Although common sense said that he couldn't be too careful, Ven had a feeling the danger was over. As long as he was here, with the fog and the snow, it couldn't follow. No, it was locked in that other place, with the neoshadows and the darkside and . . .

Terra.

He shot up. How could he forget about his best friend? He circled the clinic like a dog sniffing for scraps, praying that he would find Terra intact. Terra was strong, yes, unbelievably so, but that had been such a long fall, and Ven couldn't stop the parade of images featuring Terra's broken body. But Terra wasn't anywhere; there wasn't even a dent in the ground to mark where he had fallen. He sunk to his knees, despair sapping the last of his strength.

There were footsteps. Ven didn't notice, but that didn't matter since they weren't from a figure he was interested in. The source of the steps paused; orange eyes frowned upon a stern face. The hawkish intensity of the glare softened once the man looked Ven over more closely, however, the man did not take his hand off his sheathed sword.

"Ventus?"

Ven looked over his shoulder at the man. Upon seeing that it wasn't either of his friends, he nodded mutely.

The man exhaled and moved his hand off his sword. Ven blinked; he hadn't even noticed it was there – and it was not like the man had tried to hide it; it stood out rather nicely against the red sweater and white pants.

"My name is Ansem," he said, extending a hand. "I've been looking for you."

In the middle of shaking his hand, Ven froze. "For me?" he repeated. That couldn't be good, could it?

"Yes, for you. There is a young lady braving this place in search of you, and I told her that I would lend my eyes."

"Was her name Aqua?"

A brief smiled flickered across Ansem's face. "I see that I do have the right boy. Come on now, up you get." He yanked Ven to his feet before the latter could protest. Not that he could really say much with the pained whimper that escaped him.

Ansem's eyes narrowed. He released Ven, fingers skimming his clothes on their way up to his shoulder. "May I?" he asked. When Ven nodded his head, Ansem gently prodded at his shoulder, making thoughtful noises as he checked it over.

"I can fix that," Ansem said, "but it will be quite painful."

Ven swallowed. With that monster on his tail, there wasn't much choice. "Do it."

Ven expected pain, had braced himself for it, but he hadn't imagined how bad it would be. He'd been struck by lightning, burned and smacked against walls in spars with his friends, but this hurt more than any of those. This was more intimate, like an arrow to the chest.

Thankfully, unlike some of the other pains he had endured, this one boasted a short life. He rolled his shoulders, celebrating their ability to move again. They answered him by cracking. "Thanks!" He grinned at his saviour.

Ansem gave him a withering look. "Come along, now. I'll take you somewhere safe."

Safe? "Where's that?"

"Brookhaven Hospital. The same place I met your friend."

Another medical center. Ven tried to hide his discomfort. After that disaster, he planned to stay away from clinics for a very long time. But if this man said it was safe, then it couldn't be that bad, right? Of course, there was still the matter of Terra and Aqua to deal with.

"We have to find Terra first," Ven demanded. "He with me in there, but he fell off the roof."

Ansem stared at him. Ven thought his moustache twitched. "He fell off the roof?"

"Yeah, and I can't find him!"

Ansem was silent as he rubbed his forehead. "Perhaps it is for the best. Wait here; I will look around for him."

Ven vigorously shook his head. "I'm coming with you!"

Ansem's mouth thinned. For an instant, Ven wondered if he was looking at some long-lost brother of the Master. "Very well," he said curtly.

They looked everywhere, mapping out a radius that Terra could have only fallen into if he had flown. This was mostly due to Ven's incessant urging and confidence that sooner or later, they would stumble upon the older apprentice. However, though Ven's conviction was slow to falter, Ansem did not possess a similar patience.

"Ventus, I believe you are mistaken," he finally said. "It's clear to me that your friend never fell."

"I saw him!" Ven snapped.

"Are you sure? Sometimes, the mind plays tricks on the senses. You hear things, spy shadows in the corner of your eyes, see things that never were . . ."A ghost of uncertainty flickered across Ansem's face, and Ven had the sense that Ansem wasn't speaking directly to him anymore.

The strict lines of Ansem's regular expression snapped back into place, and his tone was one of doubt when he next spoke. "Unless you know precisely where Terra is and can point him out in the next second, we are wasting our time."

Ven set his jaw, ready to defend himself. But as he thought about it, he realized that Ansem was right: he didn't have a clue where Terra was. He sighed and surrendered, following the man with slow, dragging steps.

Their walk was mostly done in silence; it was not the comfortable sort that sometimes trailed the apprentices, but a tense one that seemed to hold a hollow sound of its own. They avoided looking at each other and to a passerby, it would have seemed that they were two people who just happened to be going the same way. Still, that didn't prevent Ansem from shedding his sweater and giving it to Ven when the latter's teeth began to chatter. There was no break in their pattern as Ansem did so, and he continued to move forwards with the purposeful stride of a soldier.

Brookhaven looked . . . nice. It may actually be a place he wouldn't spending the night. That wasn't to say it was a five-star hotel, oh no, it shared the rusty, worn-down theme with the rest. However, it didn't look like it was going to collapse if a bird flew into it, and that was a plus in his book.

The inside was even better. If he looked really closely, he thought that he could see his face in the walls. It made their journey take a little longer than it should have, since Ven felt the urge to beam and wave wildly at his reflections. Eventually, Ansem swatted him on the head.

"If you are done fooling around, may we proceed?"

Ven rubbed the sore spot. He hit hard. "Aren't we already here?"

"Yes, we are. . . Naminé!" Ven spun around just in time to see a flash of blonde hair disappear around a corner. Ansem sighed, "It's been much more active lately. Perhaps there is a reason . . ."

"Sorry?" Ven said.

Ansem ignored him. "Come. There is something I wish to check upon before I leave you."

They walked through twisting hallways and up creaky stairs. Well, Ansem walked, and Ven bounced. Ansem was so slow! Ven dashed ahead, and then ran back the way an exploring, overactive puppy returned to its master. Whatever Ansem wanted to show him, he wanted to see it now. Then he could stop wondering and returning to worrying about Terra.

They stopped in the middle of a hallway, in front of a closed door. "Do you see anything?" Ansem asked.

Ven frowned. "No. Do you want me to look inside?"

"You see a door?" Ansem said sharply.

Ven nodded. "Can't you?" he asked slowly.

"No, I cannot. Curious. There is some food downstairs, Ventus." He patted him on the head, turning to leave. "Stay in this building. I will look for your friends."

Ven tried the doorknob as Ansem left, but the room was locked.

Or rather, it was occupied.