[Halloween Fics] - ONE
There wasn’t a night where Riku dropped off to sleep not worrying about waking up a murderer.
He especially worried on nights like this, where the moon howled and the air was as still as a coffin. There was no movement in the air, no shadows sliding across the floor. Not even nothing.
Riku’s heart was pounding so hard that he thought it would explode within his chest. Nothing frightened him more than the sound of his own heart beating, but Riku had never told anyone that. Not even Sora. Especially not Sora. How would he make his friend understand that his beating heart throbbed not life, but death?
Oh Riku… Why don’t you untie us so that we can have some fun?
He squeezed his eyes shut. Ignoring Ansem sometimes helped… not always, but sometimes…
Come on, Riku… I know you can get us out of those ropes if you want to.
“Shut up…” Riku could tell that the voice was not to be silenced tonight, so he hissed at it. “I’m not helping you do anything.”
But we had so much fun last time… Admit it - you liked playing in the darkness.
Riku stayed resolutely silent, refusing to let Ansem win. He wasn’t real… just a voice in his head… He shouldn’t listen, but he couldn’t trust himself not to listen. That’s why he made Sora and the others tie him down before he slept…
He could almost feel Ansem on his skin, moving restlessly across his body like the malevolent spirit that he was. Ansem had pried Riku open before, pried him open like a Paopu fruit to get to his core. And once he had succeeded, he had twisted himself into Riku’s soul and lay there dormant, like a snake in winter, waiting… waiting… waiting…
It had started slowly, like rot, then had slowly grown worse until Riku began to wake up in the back alleys of Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion covered in blood. There was no explanation, no alibi - just memories of nightmares and restless sleep.
Eventually, Riku had begged Sora to chain him down while he slept. Sora had been hesitant, but had eventually yielded to Riku’s request. Riku was terrified, but he knew that while he lived, there would be only death.
For a while, the killings stopped and Riku began to sleep at night again.
But then the voice came.
Go to sleep, Riku… You’re so tired and it’s such hard work to keep a demon at bay…
“Shut up.”
But Ansem was right… Riku had kept himself up for days, hoping to stave off the voices, stave off the blood and the killings that he didn’t remember committing. His eyes drooped despite himself and he struggled to keep himself awake, but the ropes used to hold him down also served to prevent him from waking himself up. He felt his eyes close and his body go limp
“Sorry… Sora…”
~
When Riku fluttered back into consciousness, his body was throw ingoff the ropes and standing up, running his hands over new body. He tried to still his hands, but he found that he couldn’t. He wasn’t in control.
No! Riku screamed. NO!
But no sound escaped his lips.
He was trapped inside his own body. Helpless to watch as Ansem ran his hands over the smooth flesh and smiled with Riku’s lips.
“Younger than I like, but you’re still a growing boy, aren’t you?”
Ansem walked past a mirror and smiled into it, admiring the aqua eyes shot through with orange. Within him, Riku shuddered at the sight. Himself, corrupted. Himself, violated. It made him want to vomit, but he couldn’t. To Riku’s dismay, it didn’t take Ansem long to find Sora’s room and push open the door to find the boy sleeping on the bed. Unguarded… Innocent… Vulnerable.
“Hey Sora?” It was Riku’s voice who called into the dark, Riku’s hands that held the rope, but it was Ansem’s smile that glittered unseen in the dark.
“Riku? What is it?” Sora was awake almost instantly, looking through the shadows at Riku in the doorway of his room. “Are you okay?”
Riku screamed inside his own head for Sora to run, to fight, to pick up his keyblade and slice his body in two. Don’t trust me! It’s not me, you idiot! Can’t you see that?!
Ansem’s fingers tightened on the rope. It would leave such lovely marks on Sora’s neck...
“I was having a nightmare. Can I stay with you tonight?”
~