Night 54: Main Hallway, 1-West
[From here.]
The big connecting corridor. He may be in a rush, but this hallway deserved extra caution. What would he do if he tried to get to Stefan and ended up mauled on the way there? The first night when he'd smelled blood here, it was still a bit... haunting. It meant there was a chance of something lurking, dragon or not ( Read more... )
The big connecting corridor. He may be in a rush, but this hallway deserved extra caution. What would he do if he tried to get to Stefan and ended up mauled on the way there? The first night when he'd smelled blood here, it was still a bit... haunting. It meant there was a chance of something lurking, dragon or not ( Read more... )
"Oh, my day was okay," Kairi told the boy, smiling. "I slept quite a bit ... and oh! I met a new patient today, named Rapunzel. I told her about the club," a pause, and she laughed, a sheepish smile crossing her lips. "I also told a boy about the club yesterday, too. Goku. I ... saw his response on the bulletin board. My bad. But at least he's eager to help, right?
"Anyway," she continued, shaking her head. "She was new, and she had the most beautiful long golden hair ever. Like, seriously. It was so long! Put my hair to shame, that was for sure," she smiled. "But I hope she signs up for the club. I wouldn't mind helping her out and around if she did. She seemed quite worried. I hope she found someone to travel with tonight."
She hadn't even thought about that. What if she was out there, alone?
"How was your lunch with Riku? What did you two talk about?" she quickly asked, not wanting to imagine her new friend somewhere out there, lost and afraid. "Boring boy stuff?
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He smiled at the mention of Goku. "Oh, don't worry about it! He seems kind of... inexperienced, and I hope that he's not getting in over his head, but you know we'll accept anyone!" Hopefully Roxas and Neku would be able to help the boy through his first night with the club. Sora trusted both of them, so he wasn't too worried about that.
The commentary about this other girl's hair seemed kind of strange, but it had clearly stood out to Kairi. Sora thought that her hair was great on its own, but he didn't think that was the sort of comment he could make without feeling a little embarrassed about it.
"I hope so, too. That she wants to join and that she's okay tonight, I mean." Most people made it through their first night without too many problems if they got enough advice from other patients, but...
In the end, there wasn't much they could do unless they happened to run into the girl, and so Sora focused on his friend's question instead. "Not boring stuff! Well, Riku was giving me some of his ideas on how things might change. He said Landel might get tossed out... I didn't believe him, but he was right after all." Clearly he needed to trust in his friend more. Between the two of them, Riku was definitely the one with the brains -- at least when it came to stuff like this -- and Sora knew that. "He was the one who suggested that we all stick together tonight, since he thought things might get crazy."
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However, when the mention of Rapunzel came up, her smile faltered, and was replaced with a concerned frown. "I do as well. I couldn't catch up with her before dinner to see what she was doing ... so I'll have to do so in the morning. I tried to tell her as much as I could about what happens when the lights turn off, and at first she didn't look too ... happy, obviously, but still. I hope she's okay."
There was something different about Rapunzel she didn't tell Sora about. It was almost as if she was speaking to another Princess of Heart. She felt the same way she did around them than when she was around her ... but it couldn't be. There were supposedly only seven, right?
"Riku is always right," she said in a small laugh, covering her mouth to block out the giggle in the end. "but I'm glad we're together tonight. We haven't been together in a long time," a pause, and speaking of which. Her eyes looked around the darkness, wondering. "Where do you think he is?"
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As for this Rapunzel girl, trying to tell any patient about how things were at night tended to end badly. People either didn't believe it or they got really scared about it, depending on who they were and what they'd been through already. Hopefully Rapunzel had a good head on her shoulders and would be able to stay out of trouble for at least one night, though. Sora only nodded.
It was true that Riku was right about a lot of things, but Sora didn't know if that was always the case. Still, he realized that Kairi was just making a joke. "Yeah, it'll be nice to spend a night together again." Riku's idea about the two of them heading different groups had always made sense, but...
When Kairi started acting like Riku was late, Sora wondered if that was the case. They had been talking for a little while, but it hadn't been forever either. He glanced down the hall in the direction that his friend usually came from, but all he saw were the faces of other patients. "I'm... not sure. Maybe something held him up." He wasn't going to consider any other possibilities yet.
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The longer the time went on without Riku showing himself, the more that feeling of despair came back. She had felt it before, and had forgotten about it in her friendly talk with Sora. But now that they were back on the subject of their missing friend ...
"Maybe we should go to his room?" Kairi asked, tilting her head to the side. "Though, after a few more minutes. Maybe he's just sleeping late, you know. Just like I've done before." Even though she said this, her mind was reeling. It wasn't an experiential night ... was it? Honestly, she had no idea what was going on anymore especially with the so called "project" that was currently going on. Whatever that was about was yet to show itself. More monsters? Or maybe those zombies she had heard about. Perhaps something else equally as awful.
No, she didn't want to think about that.
"That reminds me," she suddenly brought up. "What do you think about the whole ... Eagle thing? And Landel's gone ... I wonder what will happen now?"
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He was glad that she decided to bring up all the stuff that had happened, though. His lack of a roommate meant that he hadn't really been able to talk to anyone about it, and if there was anyone who he'd like to discuss it with, it was Kairi.
"It's hard to say," he admitted, glancing around them as if he was waiting for a soldier to ambush them. "That Aguilar guy... that's his name, I guess, but he hasn't even spoken to us yet. I wonder what his plan is, but... it looks like they're going to treat us like prisoners.
"I don't know if they're even going to act like we're crazy anymore." It was possible that their whole approach would shift now that Landel was gone, and Sora didn't know what to make of it or if he could even make any guesses. They had so little about these new people to go off of, after all.
"What do you think?" he asked the girl with a tilt of his head, even as he kept half of his attention focused on the hall, looking for Riku.
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Indeed, Kairi was trying to be optimistic. She couldn't think otherwise at the moment. She refused to. Especially because of how many she had lost already.
"Hmmm," she whispered softly at his name - Aguilar, a strange name. But, she knew, she had heard sillier - "I think ... I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd much rather be treated as a patient than a prisoner." Especially considering she had already been through that, in The World That Never Was. They had kept her in that locked cell, and she wasn't allowed to eat or ... anything. That was quite possible one of the worst things she had to experience.
"If they're not going to treat us like crazies anymore, maybe they'll start calling us by our real names too." That was strange to think about. She wondered if they were actually going to mention that they had, indeed, kidnapped them to be simply prisoners instead of whatever it was that Landel had been saying he wanted to do. Altverse ...
That reminded her. "Did you hear about what happened in the Sun Room? Landel said something about an ... Altverse. My roommate thought that maybe it stood for two words ... alternative universe. Though I didn't actually understand what that meant. Maybe ... different worlds?"
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It was kind of shocking to hear Kairi say such a thing, seeing how being treated like someone who was insane had hardly been an enjoyable experience so far. But Sora knew that she had been caged up far more times than he ever had; she knew what it was like, and she must have come to resent it by now.
If Kairi preferred what they'd been through before, then Sora could only imagine what the future might hold for them. It made him nervous, but he reminded himself that he would be just fine so long as he had friends at his side. They were the ones who gave him strength, and so he had nothing to fear if they were here.
Granted, there had been times when both Kairi and Riku had been gone, but Sora had made enough friends in this place that he'd muddled through all the same.
The idea that they might be called by their real names was an interesting one, and Sora honestly didn't know what to think of it. Every time the name Matthew was used, he would remember that day when he'd truly believed that was his identity. But suddenly being called Sora, as if these soldiers actually knew him -- that wouldn't leave a good taste in his mouth either.
Though it was the mention of something going on in the Sun Room that really caught the boy's attention. He glanced up, staring into Kairi's eyes with slight confusion. "Huh? Landel? You mean he was there?" The idea of an "altverse," as the girl called it, also sounded interesting -- but Sora wanted to get the answer to that first question before moving onto anything else.
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"Oh," Kairi realized, brushing her fingers through her hair before she started explaining what exactly she had seen gone down in the Sun Room. "Well, I had been napping in the Sun Room for a few hours, because I was tired, and ... suddenly I woke up to yelling. It was Landel and some guards, and they ... they said he was no longer in charge.
"It was pretty bad, a lot of yelling. They said they were going to escort him from the building ... and he didn't take well to that." That was when he had mentioned something about an Altverse ... about how they didn't know what would happen if it weren't for him. (what would happen?)
"He then mentioned the altverse. ... Said they didn't know what would happen if it weren't for him in it. I don't know what that meant. Then he said to think of the patients," she snorted in amusement. "Like he ever really thought of us.
"But that's it," she finished. "Landel is ... apparently ... gone."
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From the sounds of things, he might never get the chance again. The way Kairi was explaining it all, it really seemed like Landel would be gone for good. Well, he'd been kicked out, anyway, which didn't necessarily mean he wouldn't be coming back, but...
There was that chance. Seeing how he was the man that Sora had been directing all of his anger toward, he suddenly felt pretty displaced.
The stuff about the altverse was confusing, causing Sora to scrunch up his face as he tried to puzzle through it. If only Riku was here to hear all this; maybe Kairi should have waited for their friend to show up before telling the whole story.
"...I don't know, either," he said with a shake of his head. "But yeah, it's not like he ever thought of us in the first place." This was a moment of it being too little too late as far as Sora was concerned.
"I can't believe he's gone. But... altverse. Alternate universe. Is this world one we shouldn't have been able to get to in the first place?" Sora really didn't know how the connections between worlds worked, except that usually his Keyblade was needed to make the path. He didn't know if that had anything to do with this, but finding the truth might also find them their way back.
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They had never appeared when Landel was in charge. No, he just had large nurses carrying syringes of who knew what. Still, it was better than that horrific tear gas, as well as the frightening guards with the guns and the blank expressions. Kairi didn't know what to think when she was around them; she was almost afraid to, as if at the slightest misstep they would strike out. That was the last thing she wanted.
"I can't either," she admitted, frowning. "I mean ... I can't help but wonder if he'll come back, though. Especially because of just. ... Everything here ... he's done. To us. To everyone." Though, a part of her hoped he was gone for good. Maybe the would all be sent home? Maybe the new head of the hospital would be the complete opposite of what the were all expecting.
Wishful thinking, Kairi.
However, Sora's explanation of a world they were never meant to go to made sense. "That ... sounds good," she told him, frowning. "Almost like The World That Never Was, maybe? I can see it."
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As Kairi expressed the thought that Landel might end up coming back one way or another, Sora was quick to nod in agreement. "He was pretty invested in this place, right? If he was yelling on his way out, that probably means he's going to do anything he can to get his position back." Whether or not it would work depended on a lot of things.
While he wasn't sure if this world had quite the same status at The World That Never Was, it was probably close enough to work for their purposes. "Yeah, something like that," was what he replied as he offered a shrug.
But then the conversation lulled into a slightly awkward silence, and the boy sent a glance down the hall once more. "...Where is he?" Had it been long enough to start worrying?
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When Sora voiced his own concern, that pain from before returned; the heartsick. Why?
"I ... I don't know," Kairi whispered softly after a few moments of silence. She couldn't say the other choice. She couldn't bear it, especially after the few days they had gone through together. She didn't want to think that the friend she had spoken to only hours before was ... gone. But was it so better to think that it was either he was "released", or was currently being controlled by the institute to attack the other patients they were all working so hard to keep safe?
"Maybe we should ... go to his room?" she asked, turning to Sora as the worry officially began to show on her face. Even though she had tried so hard to hide it.
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Sora couldn't imagine that Riku had been taken from this place when he had just seen him at lunch, so he had sadly had to assume that it was more likely that their friend had been brainwashed to attack others. His chest tightened at the thought; the amount of guilt Riku would feel at being forced to turn on his allies once more was hard to imagine.
"... Yeah, we'd better check," he said after a long pause, turning to nod to Kairi. While he had not yet been to Riku's room, he knew the number: M37. It wasn't too far, just back the way he came.
"C'mon." His tone wasn't as bright as it had been before, but Sora still kept his head held high as he led them back down the hall.
[To here.]
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