more fic, but for a different communtiy
its all sjen's fault. using some wonderful art from the last round over at yaoi_challenge, she so talked me into joining the fun. right now, they're running the "halloween mashup." this is my little contribution to that.
Title: Monsters
Author: eerian_sadow
Prompt: Kingdom Hearts - Horror: vampires/werewolves/zombies/etc. are real
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,995
A/N: this took a bit longer to write out than i had anitcipated. and even then, i'm not sure how well i conveyed the horror element of it. emotions? yes. horror? i think i missed the mark.
but i think i like it.
It had started out as just another trip to another world, doing their level best to find a way to stop the Heartless. Just another day in an extraordinary life that had long since become routine.
Until night fell.
On this world, even the Heartless didn’t come out at night.
The longer he was here, the more he wished he could go home. The Darkness permeated this world like a plague and nothing he did put even a small dent in it. The Heartless never attacked the citizenry-even children were exempt from their prediations. There was nothing of light or goodness about this world.
Sora didn’t even know its name.
Leaving, however, wasn’t possible. Their ship was gone; destroyed by several large wolf-like creatures soon after he, Donald and Goofy had arrived. They were trapped here, unless someone managed to mount a rescue party.
And with Riku and King Mickey missing, that seemed as likely about as likely as …No, there wasn’t an appropriate metaphor. They were stuck here and nothing was likely to change that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why Sora and his friends had traveled to this god-forsaken world, Riku didn’t know. But when he and Mickey had figured out what had happened to them, he had gone after them almost immediately, hoping to rescue Sora before something terrible happened to him.
The Heartless had found this nameless world early on, but even Maleficent had warned him to stay far from it. Apparently there were things that even the Heartless were afraid of.
It was dark when his powers deposited him on the world, which he knew was bad, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to find Sora, Donald and Goofy before it was too late.
They’d been here for a week already.
In a move that had proved effective during his early searching for Sora and Kairi, he began knocking on the doors of the street he was standing on. With luck, someone would have seen them; Sora was pretty unforgettable and Donald and Goofy made him even more so. If the locals would be helpful, finding his lost friend and his traveling companions would be easy.
After five unanswered doors and one far-too-cheerful offer to drive a stake through his heart, Riku was forced to revise his idea. The locals were not going to be helpful. He was going to be on his own finding Sora.
He was going to have to use even more of his dark powers.
“Only for you, Sora…”
“Sora…that’s a lovely name,” said a smooth voice behind him. “Is that your girlfriend?”
Riku’s aqua eyes grew wide with surprise and he spun around to face a tall, pale-skinned woman. Something about her seemed off, but he couldn’t place what it was.
“My best friend,” the teen replied, giving her a wary look. “Who are you?”
She shrugged a shoulder dismissively. “I don’t see where that’s going to help you.”
“What?” Riku didn’t try to hide his confusion.
The woman gave him a wicked smile, revealing a pair of bright, white fangs. “Because tonight, you die.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He hadn’t come all this way from Destiny Islands and Hollow Bastion to get taken out by some fanged freak. In a blink, he was covered in his dark armor and Soul Eater was in his hand.
“Ooh, a feisty one. Its been far too long since one of you humans wanted to fight me. Too bad it won’t be a challenge.” The woman took a step towards him.
Riku didn’t wait for her to take a second. With a burst of speed granted by the Darkness, he moved behind her and struck. She hissed as Soul Eater sliced cleanly through her shirt and into the flesh beneath. He was surprised by the lack of blood, but he didn’t stop. He took a step back to give himself room to swing again, but when he completed the strike, his target was gone.
Riku’s eyes went wide as he felt fingers lace into his hair and wrench his head back.
“Very good, little boy. But not good enough.”
He screamed as he felt fangs sink into his neck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donald had disappeared during the third night they were trapped on this world. The only trace of him left near the shack they had holed up in was a single white feather lying near the doorstep. There were also several large paw prints in the dirt and claw marks on the steps.
Sora and Goofy exchanged a panicked look.
“Donald’s gone,” the boy whispered. “What happened?”
“Looks like he was attacked,” Goofy replied, fear evident in his voice.
“Yeah, but by what?”
For the next several nights, long howls answered that question. And a new one rose in the keybearer’s mind: why had Donald gone outside when it had been proven to be hazardous?
He sat, sleepless, on his pallet with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was scared, in more ways than one.
The boy was surprised out of his fear by Goofy standing up suddenly. “Goofy, what’s up?”
The dog didn’t answer. He just walked to the door and opened it.
“Hey, Goofy, stop!”
Unheeding of Sora’s cry, Goofy walked outside into the night. Quickly, the Keybearer scrambled to his feet and followed, though he stopped at the doorframe.
“Goofy, what are you doing?!”
He watched in horror as Goofy ignored him and continued walking into the darkness. A moment later, a dark shaped lunged at the dog and bore him to the ground. Quickly, he stepped inside before whatever it was noticed him.
And before he had to watch his friend die.
He panted for long moments, in fear and from the adrenaline coursing through his system. Then he broke down in racking sobs, finally losing any hope that he had left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riku woke to darkness. It was actually a slightly familiar sensation after having been taken over by Ansem. But this time was definitely different.
Ansem was gone.
He wasn’t just repressed, pushed back by the light that Mickey had helped him carefully cultivate. He wasn’t just imprisoned by his own force of will. He was just…gone.
And replaced by something wholly different and distinctly evil.
Ansem had been bad, but the Heartless hadn’t been truly evil. This was…
Riku screamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sora screamed.
He had been dreaming of darkness, not surprising considering his current circumstances. He had been drowning in it, pulled completely under by the sheer enormity of it. It filled him until it spilled out of his pores; he lost himself in it the way Riku had done before.
He snapped his eyes open and locked on to a pair hovering just above him. Eyes that were more aqua than true blue. Eyes that he had been trying so hard to find for so long.
“Sora, I finally found you,” Riku said.
“Riku?” Sora couldn’t keep the confusion and disbelief out of his voice.
“Its really me, Sora. I came for you.”
Sora threw his arms around the other boy and sobbed. He poured all of his fear from the last two weeks and all of his sorrow onto his friend and let it go. Riku returned the embrace and held Sora close.
When Sora finally quieted, he raised his head from Riku’s chest. “How did you find me?”
Riku shook his head. “It wasn’t me. Mickey found you guys.”
Sora moaned at the mention of the King. “How am I going to tell him what happened to Donald and Goofy?” His voice caught on their names, close to crying again.
The older teen traced gentle fingers down the tracks of Sora’s tears. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to tell him. You wont’ have to tell anybody anything.”
The younger teen’s face crumpled in confusing. “Riku, what are you talking about?”
Riku gave his friend a sad smile. “Heartless aren’t the only monsters on this world, Sora.”
Sora’s confusion turned to horror. “No, Riku. Not you too.”
“Don’t worry, Sora. It only hurts for a second.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riku’s master smiled as he and Sora walked into the room. He hadn’t even learned her name during the night she had spent “teaching” him about what he was now. The vampire’s lessons had been shallow at best-hunting, feeding, what would kill him-but that had taught him all he needed to know.
He was stronger and faster than she was. And if he was, so was Sora.
“Welcome home, Riku. I see you found your friend.”
“Yes.” He saw no reason to elaborate further. He had Sora and that was all she needed to know.
“Come, Sora,” she said. “Let me see you.”
The younger boy-vampire-turned to Riku for approval. Riku nodded; he could be the distraction while Riku attacked her. They had spent the few days since Sora had risen learning the extent of their powers and planning to kill Riku’s master.
He would never truly be free as long as she existed.
Sora stepped forward and let Riku’s master look him over. “I should have known where he went when Riku left my side for so long,” she said, running her fingers over his cheek. “He came here looking for you, beautiful boy.”
Sora flinched at her touch but didn’t back away. “I know why he came here. And you ruined everything for us.”
“I?” The female vampire looked affronted. “Riku, have I ruined anything?”
“Everything,” Riku replied, calling Soul Eater to his hand. “But you’ll never ruin anyone’s life again.”
“Do not test my patience, boy. I command you.”
“Please. You’re barely strong enough to control your slaves in the basement.” He was aware of Sora calling his Keyblade as he talked. “I’ve been manipulated by better than you before. It won’t happen again.”
She rose from her throne to advance on him. Sora took that opportunity to strike.
The master vampire shrieked as the blade struck her. Light flared from the strike and she began to smoke.
Apparently being a vampire didn’t do much to deter Sora’s power with the Keyblade.
Riku watched in wide-eyed surprise as Sora completely disregarded their plan and began beating his master with the Keyblade. Each strike was followed by a scream of pain and the smell of burning flesh. After several minutes, Sora let the vampire fall to the ground.
Both boys stared at the creature who had been Riku’s master. She was nothing more than a writhing mass of burned flesh now that Sora was done with her.
But she was still “alive”.
Calling up the magic Maleficent had taught him-not the Darkness Ansem had forced him to embrace-Riku cast a fireball at the vampire. He felt the tiny magic thread that had bound him to her snap free as she burned. He turned away from the sight before the flames were extinguished.
“C’mon, Sora. Let’s get out of here.”
Sora turned from the fire as well. “Where will we go? I’m not exactly worthy of being the Keybearer anymore.”
Riku glanced at the Keyblade in his friend’s hand. “I think the Keyblade disagrees with you. Besides, I think Mickey needs to know what happened here.”
Sora nodded, almost numbly. “Yeah. I guess he deserves that much, huh?”
Riku concentrated for a moment and opened a portal to darkness. “He does. Besides, it doesn’t look like this whole vampire thing has really changed our powers too much.”
They stepped into the Darkness together, but Sora gave Riku an accusing look. “I didn’t ask for this, you know.”
“Neither did I.” Riku had the good grace to look ashamed. “But I did what I thought I had to do. If I had known the Keyblade would do that…”
The younger boy sighed. “I would have helped you, no matter what had happened to you.”
“I know that now. And when I think about it, I have to wonder if I’m as much of a monster as she was or if I’m more.”
Title: Monsters
Author: eerian_sadow
Prompt: Kingdom Hearts - Horror: vampires/werewolves/zombies/etc. are real
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,995
A/N: this took a bit longer to write out than i had anitcipated. and even then, i'm not sure how well i conveyed the horror element of it. emotions? yes. horror? i think i missed the mark.
but i think i like it.
It had started out as just another trip to another world, doing their level best to find a way to stop the Heartless. Just another day in an extraordinary life that had long since become routine.
Until night fell.
On this world, even the Heartless didn’t come out at night.
The longer he was here, the more he wished he could go home. The Darkness permeated this world like a plague and nothing he did put even a small dent in it. The Heartless never attacked the citizenry-even children were exempt from their prediations. There was nothing of light or goodness about this world.
Sora didn’t even know its name.
Leaving, however, wasn’t possible. Their ship was gone; destroyed by several large wolf-like creatures soon after he, Donald and Goofy had arrived. They were trapped here, unless someone managed to mount a rescue party.
And with Riku and King Mickey missing, that seemed as likely about as likely as …No, there wasn’t an appropriate metaphor. They were stuck here and nothing was likely to change that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why Sora and his friends had traveled to this god-forsaken world, Riku didn’t know. But when he and Mickey had figured out what had happened to them, he had gone after them almost immediately, hoping to rescue Sora before something terrible happened to him.
The Heartless had found this nameless world early on, but even Maleficent had warned him to stay far from it. Apparently there were things that even the Heartless were afraid of.
It was dark when his powers deposited him on the world, which he knew was bad, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to find Sora, Donald and Goofy before it was too late.
They’d been here for a week already.
In a move that had proved effective during his early searching for Sora and Kairi, he began knocking on the doors of the street he was standing on. With luck, someone would have seen them; Sora was pretty unforgettable and Donald and Goofy made him even more so. If the locals would be helpful, finding his lost friend and his traveling companions would be easy.
After five unanswered doors and one far-too-cheerful offer to drive a stake through his heart, Riku was forced to revise his idea. The locals were not going to be helpful. He was going to be on his own finding Sora.
He was going to have to use even more of his dark powers.
“Only for you, Sora…”
“Sora…that’s a lovely name,” said a smooth voice behind him. “Is that your girlfriend?”
Riku’s aqua eyes grew wide with surprise and he spun around to face a tall, pale-skinned woman. Something about her seemed off, but he couldn’t place what it was.
“My best friend,” the teen replied, giving her a wary look. “Who are you?”
She shrugged a shoulder dismissively. “I don’t see where that’s going to help you.”
“What?” Riku didn’t try to hide his confusion.
The woman gave him a wicked smile, revealing a pair of bright, white fangs. “Because tonight, you die.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He hadn’t come all this way from Destiny Islands and Hollow Bastion to get taken out by some fanged freak. In a blink, he was covered in his dark armor and Soul Eater was in his hand.
“Ooh, a feisty one. Its been far too long since one of you humans wanted to fight me. Too bad it won’t be a challenge.” The woman took a step towards him.
Riku didn’t wait for her to take a second. With a burst of speed granted by the Darkness, he moved behind her and struck. She hissed as Soul Eater sliced cleanly through her shirt and into the flesh beneath. He was surprised by the lack of blood, but he didn’t stop. He took a step back to give himself room to swing again, but when he completed the strike, his target was gone.
Riku’s eyes went wide as he felt fingers lace into his hair and wrench his head back.
“Very good, little boy. But not good enough.”
He screamed as he felt fangs sink into his neck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donald had disappeared during the third night they were trapped on this world. The only trace of him left near the shack they had holed up in was a single white feather lying near the doorstep. There were also several large paw prints in the dirt and claw marks on the steps.
Sora and Goofy exchanged a panicked look.
“Donald’s gone,” the boy whispered. “What happened?”
“Looks like he was attacked,” Goofy replied, fear evident in his voice.
“Yeah, but by what?”
For the next several nights, long howls answered that question. And a new one rose in the keybearer’s mind: why had Donald gone outside when it had been proven to be hazardous?
He sat, sleepless, on his pallet with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was scared, in more ways than one.
The boy was surprised out of his fear by Goofy standing up suddenly. “Goofy, what’s up?”
The dog didn’t answer. He just walked to the door and opened it.
“Hey, Goofy, stop!”
Unheeding of Sora’s cry, Goofy walked outside into the night. Quickly, the Keybearer scrambled to his feet and followed, though he stopped at the doorframe.
“Goofy, what are you doing?!”
He watched in horror as Goofy ignored him and continued walking into the darkness. A moment later, a dark shaped lunged at the dog and bore him to the ground. Quickly, he stepped inside before whatever it was noticed him.
And before he had to watch his friend die.
He panted for long moments, in fear and from the adrenaline coursing through his system. Then he broke down in racking sobs, finally losing any hope that he had left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riku woke to darkness. It was actually a slightly familiar sensation after having been taken over by Ansem. But this time was definitely different.
Ansem was gone.
He wasn’t just repressed, pushed back by the light that Mickey had helped him carefully cultivate. He wasn’t just imprisoned by his own force of will. He was just…gone.
And replaced by something wholly different and distinctly evil.
Ansem had been bad, but the Heartless hadn’t been truly evil. This was…
Riku screamed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sora screamed.
He had been dreaming of darkness, not surprising considering his current circumstances. He had been drowning in it, pulled completely under by the sheer enormity of it. It filled him until it spilled out of his pores; he lost himself in it the way Riku had done before.
He snapped his eyes open and locked on to a pair hovering just above him. Eyes that were more aqua than true blue. Eyes that he had been trying so hard to find for so long.
“Sora, I finally found you,” Riku said.
“Riku?” Sora couldn’t keep the confusion and disbelief out of his voice.
“Its really me, Sora. I came for you.”
Sora threw his arms around the other boy and sobbed. He poured all of his fear from the last two weeks and all of his sorrow onto his friend and let it go. Riku returned the embrace and held Sora close.
When Sora finally quieted, he raised his head from Riku’s chest. “How did you find me?”
Riku shook his head. “It wasn’t me. Mickey found you guys.”
Sora moaned at the mention of the King. “How am I going to tell him what happened to Donald and Goofy?” His voice caught on their names, close to crying again.
The older teen traced gentle fingers down the tracks of Sora’s tears. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to tell him. You wont’ have to tell anybody anything.”
The younger teen’s face crumpled in confusing. “Riku, what are you talking about?”
Riku gave his friend a sad smile. “Heartless aren’t the only monsters on this world, Sora.”
Sora’s confusion turned to horror. “No, Riku. Not you too.”
“Don’t worry, Sora. It only hurts for a second.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riku’s master smiled as he and Sora walked into the room. He hadn’t even learned her name during the night she had spent “teaching” him about what he was now. The vampire’s lessons had been shallow at best-hunting, feeding, what would kill him-but that had taught him all he needed to know.
He was stronger and faster than she was. And if he was, so was Sora.
“Welcome home, Riku. I see you found your friend.”
“Yes.” He saw no reason to elaborate further. He had Sora and that was all she needed to know.
“Come, Sora,” she said. “Let me see you.”
The younger boy-vampire-turned to Riku for approval. Riku nodded; he could be the distraction while Riku attacked her. They had spent the few days since Sora had risen learning the extent of their powers and planning to kill Riku’s master.
He would never truly be free as long as she existed.
Sora stepped forward and let Riku’s master look him over. “I should have known where he went when Riku left my side for so long,” she said, running her fingers over his cheek. “He came here looking for you, beautiful boy.”
Sora flinched at her touch but didn’t back away. “I know why he came here. And you ruined everything for us.”
“I?” The female vampire looked affronted. “Riku, have I ruined anything?”
“Everything,” Riku replied, calling Soul Eater to his hand. “But you’ll never ruin anyone’s life again.”
“Do not test my patience, boy. I command you.”
“Please. You’re barely strong enough to control your slaves in the basement.” He was aware of Sora calling his Keyblade as he talked. “I’ve been manipulated by better than you before. It won’t happen again.”
She rose from her throne to advance on him. Sora took that opportunity to strike.
The master vampire shrieked as the blade struck her. Light flared from the strike and she began to smoke.
Apparently being a vampire didn’t do much to deter Sora’s power with the Keyblade.
Riku watched in wide-eyed surprise as Sora completely disregarded their plan and began beating his master with the Keyblade. Each strike was followed by a scream of pain and the smell of burning flesh. After several minutes, Sora let the vampire fall to the ground.
Both boys stared at the creature who had been Riku’s master. She was nothing more than a writhing mass of burned flesh now that Sora was done with her.
But she was still “alive”.
Calling up the magic Maleficent had taught him-not the Darkness Ansem had forced him to embrace-Riku cast a fireball at the vampire. He felt the tiny magic thread that had bound him to her snap free as she burned. He turned away from the sight before the flames were extinguished.
“C’mon, Sora. Let’s get out of here.”
Sora turned from the fire as well. “Where will we go? I’m not exactly worthy of being the Keybearer anymore.”
Riku glanced at the Keyblade in his friend’s hand. “I think the Keyblade disagrees with you. Besides, I think Mickey needs to know what happened here.”
Sora nodded, almost numbly. “Yeah. I guess he deserves that much, huh?”
Riku concentrated for a moment and opened a portal to darkness. “He does. Besides, it doesn’t look like this whole vampire thing has really changed our powers too much.”
They stepped into the Darkness together, but Sora gave Riku an accusing look. “I didn’t ask for this, you know.”
“Neither did I.” Riku had the good grace to look ashamed. “But I did what I thought I had to do. If I had known the Keyblade would do that…”
The younger boy sighed. “I would have helped you, no matter what had happened to you.”
“I know that now. And when I think about it, I have to wonder if I’m as much of a monster as she was or if I’m more.”