I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Nightmare
Tyler walked down the street, stretching and yawning before twisting, cracking his back several times. He turned back to the front and looked around at the various rides and games around them. He sighed, rolling his eyes and glancing at Beth beside him. She was looking around in amazement, acting as though she had never been to one, despite the fact that they went almost every other week. There was always a fair, or a carnival, or a circus in their small town. He didn't know why. There was nothing to celebrate, besides a new opportunity to get drunk, he supposed.
"Can we go on the Farris Wheel next?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, sure," Tyler sighed. "Why not?"
They walked to the Farris Wheel, but just as they got in line, a hand tapped Tyler on the shoulder. He turned, looking up in time to see his cousin grinning at him.
"Hey Ty, mom wants you to come say hi to my new dad," Steven said.
"Great," Tyler groaned. "I'm sorry Beth. I guess you'll have to go without me."
Beth began to pout but Tyler followed Steven away from the line about fifty meters where the rest of their family was waiting. The newest addition was waiting, fat, trashed, wearing a stained wife beater, and with a borderline furious, hateful expression adorning his pudgy, red-hued face.
"Tyler," Steven's mother, and the woman who had been in charge of Tyler's life since his mother had died five years ago, said. "This is Allen. Allen, this is my nephew, Tyler."
Allen grunted in displeasure. Tyler rolled his eyes.
"Another fat drunk asshole huh?" Tyler asked. "Joy. What a wonderful piece of shit this one is."
Allen's eyes widened, his face flushing with rage as his chest began to swell, his entire body drawing up to shout. Before he could, however, Tyler's face lit up with joy, a young four-year-old girl in a pink dress and a pair of pigtails running out from behind Steven's mother, meeting Tyler with a hug.
"Alice!" Tyler smiled, picking her up and spinning, earning a squeal of delight. "My god, you've gotten so big! What are you, two now?"
"I'm four!" Alice laughed.
"Four?" Tyler said. "No way!"
"Yeah huh!" Alice said.
"Where've you been anyway?" Tyler asked.
"With Gramma Sharron," Alice said.
"Oh yeah?" Tyler asked. "Where's she at?"
"She's at the ice cream people!" Alice said, pointing.
Tyler turned to look and smiled just as Beth stepped up beside him, glaring at him.
"You could have gone to see them after," Beth said.
"And miss this beautiful little lady?" Tyler asked, looking to Alice. "No way."
"I wanna go on the Farris Wheel!" Alice said.
"I don't think you're tall enough," Tyler said.
"Please will you go with me?" Alice pouted and Tyler laughed.
"Sorry, but I gotta go and say high to Gramma Sharron," Tyler laughed. "Maybe Steven can take you on the Farris Wheel."
Alice turned to Steven who sighed and nodded.
"Sure," Steven said. "But you're going to owe me for volunteering me to get yourself out of your fear of heights. Again."
Tyler grinned and Steven took Alice's hand, leading her to the Farris Wheel. Tyler turned, walking toward the ice cream stand. When he arrive, he looked around, blinking in confusion when he didn't see Sharron.
"Where'd you go?" he wondered aloud.
Just then, several screams rang out, along with the sound of grinding metal. He turned, staring up at the Farris Wheel as it ground to a halt. He instantly picked out Alice's bright pink dress at the very top. He took a step forward as the Farris Wheel shuddered.
"Steven!" he shouted, sprinting for the Farris Wheel. "Alice!"
He reached the base of the ride in moments, shoving past the fair security guards standing around there. He jumped, grabbing the top of the lowest seat's roof and pulled himself up, grabbing the left support and pressing his feet against it in front of himself, keeping his feet sideways. Then, he began to climb, moving his right hand up the pole then his left foot, then his left hand, then his right foot.
He began to quickly scale the Farris Wheel, reaching Alice and Steven in a couple of minutes, refusing to look down. His fear of heights was rapidly eating away at his motor functions, but he couldn't focus on it right now. He'd throw up when he was back on the ground.
"Monkey Boy's back!" Steven laughed, looking terrified and trying to calm himself with humor. "Take Alice. I'll climb down after you."
Tyler nodded, climbing in and taking Alice in his arms, keeping his right securely around her and gripping the edge with his left. "Hold on tight Alice."
Alice clung to him as he began to lower himself down. Step after step, he descended. His entire body burned. He felt so heavy he might fall but he continued. Just as he reached the last quarter, the Farris Wheel shuddered again. Tyler felt his weight shift and swore. Then, his fingers slipped off of the bar as he fell backward. He clutched Alice to his chest as she screamed, only for several security guards below them to catch them, setting them on their feet. Then, Tyler picked Alice up, turning and sprinting away from the ride, eyes squeezed shut, teeth clenched. Behind him, there was a god-awful grinding, crunching, crashing noise. Finally, once the noise had stopped and the screams were dying down, Tyler turned to the ride, staring at the crumpled remains and the body parts lying scattered where they were crushed off or poking out of the wreckage.
"Steven!" Steven's mother's voice screamed.
Tyler stared in a numb silence, kneeling and keeping his arms around Alice, who was sobbing. All around them, parents and family of those who had been on the Farris Wheel, or around it, screamed and sobbed and mourned. Tyler swallowed hard. He could see Steven's face now. He could feel the despair in the air. It was practically palpable. Like a wave of negative emotion, flooding the area, dragging everyone down even more. He could practically see the waves of darkness drifting through the air. Except, he could see it. There were literal waves of darkness drifting across the ground and through the air like smoke.
Tyler stood, lifting Alice, seeing the way the darkness began to collect around the people, seeming to thicken and constrict. It began to gather around Alice as she began to cry harder, so he turned, sprinting away from the Farris Wheel and tickling her. After several moments, she began to laugh in spite of herself, the darkness leaving her just like that.
He looked back to the others as they began to sink into the ground. He turned Alice away from them, Alice hugging herself into his chest. Then, the darkness began to thicken even more. Tyler took a step backward just as creatures began to rise from the ground where the darkness was thickest. The creatures didn't look exceptionally terrifying. They were small, humanoid creatures that lay forward almost parallel with the ground at the hips, their stubby legs bowed almost completely outward with comically large feet that were pointed in the front, their stubby arms ending in two pointed fingers, and their bulbous head was almost the same size as the rest of their bodies with two round, glowing, yellow eyes and a pair of bent and seemingly crushed antennae reaching forward from their head. They moved in odd jerking fashions and if they were upright would probably reach around two feet without their antennae.
"What are you?" Tyler breathed.
A scream echoed off to the side and he turned to look, seeing that the people further from the darkness hadn't been turned into those creatures. Then, the creatures took off, swarming into the crowd, slashing with their claws and tackling people, the darkness surging toward those that the creatures touched instantly. Several sank into the ground, shooting along the ground before rising in front of someone who was running away and attacking them. Tyler turned to run, tripping over his own feet. Alice slipped from his grasp as he hit hard, a crowd stampeding past him instantly, kicking and rolling him across the ground a ways before clearing. Tyler pushed himself up looking around, panicked.
"Alice!" Tyler shouted, looking around before finally spotting her, being chased by three of the characters.
Tyler sprinted after her just as Alice tripped, the creatures leaping at her. Tyler reached toward them, but he couldn't get there in time. He couldn't. Alice was going to die.
Light suddenly blinded Tyler, making him squeeze his eyes shut. He heard a sound like a sudden gust of wind blowing through a paper tube, then the light faded. He was sitting on his knees, staring at a women who had Alice held in one arm, and a cleaver-like sword with a blocky section under the blade, the cross guard extended from the base of the block, then a pistol-grip-like handle. She wore a white military-style jacket with short sleeves, a brown miniskirt, dark blue fingerless gloves, a black sleeve up to her mid-bicep on her left arm, a sleeve-like holder for her weapon hanging from the back of a belt that was under the jacket, a brown pauldron on her left shoulder with a red cape-like cloth hanging from it, a brown armband on her right bicep, a pink turtle-neck knitted shirt under the jacket with a silver pendant around her neck, a pink hip pouch on her left side, and brown combat boots reaching to her knees with shinguards on the front. The woman had light pink hair swept over her left shoulder and soft features, yet an alert, almost cold look in her eyes.
"Who...who are you?" Tyler asked, pushing himself up.
She turned to look at him and stared silently for a moment. "My name's Lightning. You almost let her be killed."
"I know," Tyler said miserably. "Thank you for saving her."
Lightning stared at him in silence for several moments before nodding. She began to kneel in order to set Alice down just as several creatures burst out of the ground. Unlike the other creatures, these ones had blue jackets and pants, grey armor-like helmets with a single crumpled antenna sticking up from the back, and red claws. They all leapt at Lightning, who slashed three, only for the fourth to snatch Alice from her and land on its feet. Tyler took a step forward only for a dozen of the other creatures to tackle him. He began to thrash and fight, but the creatures were a lot stronger than they looked.
I need a weapon! Tyler thought. I have to save Alice!
He yanked his right hand out from under a creature, punching another and feeling the bones in his hand crack. The creature stepped backward, and he pulled. He had to get free. He had to reach Alice. He glanced at Lightning, seeing her being pinned by the soldier-looking creatures. He couldn't let her die either. He could already see the darkness gathering on her legs and reaching higher. He looked down. His own legs were engulfed in darkness, reaching all the way to his mid abdomen.
"Alice!" Tyler shouted as she screamed, darkness beginning to reach toward her from the ground. "Lightning!"
His body began to burn and fear filled him. He shouted again, feeling something drive itself into his back. He felt cold, even as something warm spread down his back. Then, he felt a weight settle in his hand. He gripped the round object tightly, swinging. He heard the sound of wind again and suddenly three of the creatures on his right were gone. He swung the object the other way. Those creatures vanished as well. He stared at the object. It was a sword-like object with a guard on the front and back that looked like white wings with gold on the bottom and a golden five-point star in a circle at the tops, a black grip, a blue four-pointed star at the top, just below the two gold stars, and a larger golden four-pointed star with a silver arm reaching out from between each of the golden star's arms, and a curved blade. The blade was curved backward slightly with dark blue at the blade then fading to violet at the end. At the end, the front edge had four spikes sticking out of the semicircle on the end, and a golden crescent moon inside the semicircle with a golden five-pointed star inside the moon. The base of the grip had a silver chain ending in a golden crescent moon.
"Help!" Lightning screamed.
Tyler spun, lunging and slashing at the creatures. He destroyed two but the rest leapt away. Tyler took Lightning by the arm, lifting her up then turning and sprinting toward Alice. The creatures that were holding her leapt out of the way, allowing Tyler to grab Alice, lifting her, seeing the darkness fall away. He turned, staring at the flood of creatures running toward him.
"What are you doing!?" Lightning shouted. "Run! Fira!"
She swung her free arm across her body, sending out a large ball of fire that exploded against the creatures, destroying a handful of them and forcing them backward. Then, she turned, grabbing him by the arm holding his odd sword. Tyler felt her pulling him and they began to sprint. He could hear the creatures behind him. After another few steps, they stopped as shadows began to gather before them. Alice began to cry and Tyler hugged her to himself, turning away from the shadows, seeing the first type of small creature swarming around them by the dozen. They didn't charge, though.
"Hey kid, I might need your help with this one," Lightning said.
Tyler turned, feeling his arms fall numb, staring at a massive pair of legs. They were as black as night, with bent and crumpled antennae-looking pieces extending from its toes, where it was standing on only its toes. The creature had a very muscular body with a gaping, heart-shaped hole in most of its torso. Its fingers were ended in claws and its head was wrapped in tentacles like a hood, leaving only a pair of glowing yellow eyes. In total, it stood about twenty feet tall.
"What...is that thing?" Tyler breathed.
"They're called Heartless," Lightning said. "They steal people's hearts in order to replace the ones they don't have. When they do, they change into a different type and become more powerful. They also destroy whatever world they infest. But for now, we need to focus on destroying this thing. This thing is a Darkside."
"That's great," Tyler said. "How do we fight that thing?"
"You've got a fancy sword, right?" Lightning growled. "So use it!"
She spun, her sword blade suddenly folding backward, the weapon folding up into a gun, and opened fire. The bullets blasted through the creatures, Heartless as Lightning had called them, and dispersed them into small wisps of darkness and smoke, which blew away instantly. More swarmed toward Tyler and he slashed them with his sword, the sword having the same effect as Lightning's weapon did, except that now he noticed that with each strike, a small flash of light went off at the point of impact, the light spreading into a small cloud of a half dozen glowing golden crescent moons made of light.
He turned, slashing another Heartless before looking to the giant Heartless as it pulled its hand back, a glowing purple aura surrounding its fist as it stared at him. He spun, leaping out of the way and the hand crashed down on several Heartless that had been about to attack him, destroying them. Then, as Tyler stood, still holding Alice, darkness began to spread from the Darkside's hand, more Heartless growing from it, as if the army already present weren't enough. Suddenly, Lightning reached the Darkside's hand, stabbing it and then slashing out of it sideways before leaping back and swinging her hand.
"Thunder!" Lightning shouted, a bolt of lightning flashing out of the sky and exploding against its hand.
"That's lightning, not thunder," Tyler said.
"Shut up kid!" Lightning snapped. "Hit the hand!"
Tyler ran forward, slashing several Heartless as he passed them then stopping at the hand, slashing it several times before turning and diving out of the way of several leaping heartless. As he stood, Lightning stepped in front of him, slashing several Heartless out of the air.
"Your movements are sloppy," Lightning said. "Do you even know how to use a sword?"
"Yeah," Tyler said. "Hit them with the sharp side. Or in the case of my oval-shaped blade, apparently, the thinner side."
"You're an idiot," Lightning sighed. "There's more to it than hitting them with the sharp side!"
"Well no duh!" Tyler said. "But I've never been trained so for now, this is the best I can do!"
Alice screamed suddenly and Lightning turned, stepping closer to Tyler and stabbing around him, Tyler hearing a Heartless being destroyed. Then, she spun, beginning to shoot as she carefully stepped around Tyler. He stepped out of the way, slashing several Heartless before Lightning tackled him from behind, the Darkside's fist crashing down again. Tyler stood, glancing down at Alice, who tucked her face into his chest, sobbing and screaming in fear. Suddenly, as Tyler turned toward the Darkside, the ground began to shake.
"Oh dear God, what now?" Tyler asked.
The sky above them began to turn a dark purple, the clouds turning black, and the ground began to crack. He looked around, seeing massive chunks of ground breaking free in the distance all the way around them and floating up into the air. Lightning swore, turning and looking around carefully.
"The world's being consumed," Lightning said, looking up. "Look."
Tyler looked up, seeing a black hole growing above them rapidly, the world around them being pulled in a few chunks at a time. He dropped his gaze to the ground again, watching as the Heartless began to approach them slowly, thousands of them. Even as skilled as Lightning clearly was, there was no hope of surviving. But Tyler would be damned if he let Alice be hurt while he still drew breath.
"What do we do?" Tyler asked.
"We need to escape," Lightning said.
"If you have any ideas, I'm all ears," Tyler said.
"Fight hard," Lightning said, holding up a small blue crystal and crushing it in her hand. "No matter what, protect Alice."
Suddenly, massive chunks of ice the size of motor cycles began to fall all around them, crushing Heartless. That seemed to be the signal, however, because a moment later, the Heartless were charging. Tyler had to react first, a soldier-looking Heartless leaping at him, only for him to destroy it with his sword. He turned as the basic type charged and slashed a pair before stabbing another. Then, pain flared through his back and he dropped to his knees, shouting. Lightning was shouting something, but he couldn't hear it. He looked to the Darkside, seeing it reaching toward him. He slashed its palm, but then his sword was gone in a flash of light. He stared at his hand in silence before tipping sideway, landing heavily as Alice knelt beside him, trying to pull him back up, crying. He stared past her, at the approaching Heartless as fire and lightning began to tear into them, along with bullets, but then darkness began to fill his vision.
"Alice...run," Tyler breathed as his vision faded entirely.
Leave a review.