Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting Pieces ❯ Ghosts of Me ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Author’s Note:This fic was originally partially posted at the end of 2010. Since then, I have rewritten every single chapter and done a serious edit as well as finished the story. If you have not visited since October of 2010, I recommend that you start over. It’s worth it (05/2012).

Warning: Some suggestive themes here. Hope you enjoy and please review!


Chapter 07: Ghosts of Me

Ken had fallen asleep easily while curled in Daisuke’s arms. The feel of the tight unbreakable grip wrapped around him was enough to make his heart flutter in joy as he slipped into a dreamless sleep for the first time in weeks.

He could feel the hot breath on the back of his neck and hear the snore that was so perfectly Daisuke. It was more than enough to lure him into what he knew to be a false sense of security.

Ken wanted nothing more than to freeze this moment and live in this blissful state of denial forever. As he slowly gave into sleep, he allowed himself to believe that Daisuke and Wormmon were right about his troubles. It was all just stress and a lack of sleep. He was too tired, too over worked and probably just sleepwalking.

In the morning everything would be just a faded memory and he could enjoy his time off with the people he loved.

Even Wormmon, who was now curled up against his chest, was making soft happy sleep sounds. Add in the warm lump that was Veemon stretched out at their feet and this might possibly be the happiest and safest bed in the world.

He should have known better.

Wake up.

Ken jolted hard and staggered as the world suddenly came into sharp focus and he found himself on his feet rather than curled up in his nice warm bed.

He was standing in the middle of his room, which appeared to have been cleaned up and reorganized, fully dressed and feeling refreshed as if he’d just showered and washed up.

The Digimon were still curled up together on the bed and sounds from the hall indicated that Daisuke was in the bathroom washing up as well. The sun was coming in through the blinds and his desk clock indicated that it was well into the late morning.

Ken felt a surge of confusion and panic rush through him as he looked around frantically. He couldn’t remember waking up much less getting out of bed and getting dressed.

Reaching up out of habit to brush away a stray lock of hair, his fingers brushed against cold metal.

Ken froze and suddenly he could see that his room was framed neatly in thin silver rims and slightly blurred. All his time spent wearing those purple shades had gotten him used to seeing through a narrowed focus.

Trembling fingers slowly slid along the edges of the cold metal frames. His instincts were telling him to rip them off and toss them away. To put them where they couldn’t come back to haunt him anymore. He was just about to follow that instinct when he noticed a fresh sheet of paper waiting for him on the desk with thick black writing on it.

No. I won’t. I won’t. He refused to play into the hands of whoever was tormenting him. If he didn’t look, then it couldn’t affect him. Yet his feet forced him forward until he could easily make out his own neat handwriting laughing up at him.

You can’t escape your sins.

“What’s the matter, Kenny boy?” A voice full of honey and vinegar glided up out of the darkness.

“Who are you?” He felt sick just breathing out the question, not wanting to know the answer.

His reflection appeared in the dark screen of his computer monitor, distorted slightly by the glasses. The reflection smirked and tilted its head back slightly until the glasses caught the light and obscured his eyes. The figure’s hair was a mess of haphazard locks and spikes. Chaos.

Ken let out a shaky breath and tried to form a word but his voice died in his throat too quickly. He licked his lips and tried again. “Osamu?” He sounded so small and so far away.

“I’m flattered, but I doubt he would waste his time with the effort of haunting you.” The reply was amused yet cold. “Then again… I suppose I have him to thank for creating me.”

Ken was momentarily relived. He had started to believe that maybe his dead brother had come back to haunt him. That maybe… He shook his head, refusing to go down that path again.

The relief didn’t last long as he came to the next conclusion. “That’s not possible. You’re me.”

“Okay, now I’m just insulted.”

“It’s not possible.” He clung to reason and logic with frantic desperation.

“Just keep telling yourself that. Your denial is so pathetic.”

The bathroom door clicked open down the hall and a surge of panic rushed through Ken.

“Daisuke.” How long had he been out of it? Had Daisuke noticed? Had he tried anything like last night again?

He couldn’t stand the thought of trying to apologize for anything he may have done since he’d gotten up this morning, or of explaining why he was carrying on a conversation with his own reflection. With a quick jerk, he pulled the glasses off and shoved them into his pocket.

“What’s the matter, Ken? Scared? Are you afraid he’ll see your chaos? Maybe we should pick up where we left off last night. I think he’d like that…”

Suddenly, Ken fells a pull as if he were being yanked down and away from himself. His head swims as he’s overcome with dizziness and the sensation that he could fall forever.

“No.” Ken fought back against his unseen assailant. He wasn’t about to give up so easily this time.

Staggering forward, he leaned heavily over the desk as he felt himself being pulled and pushed from the inside.

Behind him, the door opened and Daisuke walked in noisily. “I will never get used to how that shower works. One of these days you’re going to have to show me how to have a nice hot shower without getting blasted with ice cold water first!”

“If you’d wanted a hot shower, you should have said something. I could have warmed it up for you…” Ken hears his own voice purr and he can feel himself starting to lose the fight.

“Daisuke…” He managed to force out a quiet whisper. He wanted to cry for help, shout out a warning, anything to let Daisuke know…

Not this time, Kenny boy. The darkness started to close in on him and he felt like he was drowning.

A giggle escaped his lips and he knew that he had lost the battle.


---


Daisuke felt wonderful. He had just had the most amazing night’s sleep in his life and when he woke up, he had been treated to Ken’s face just inches from his own looking serene and calm.

Though he was sad when Ken and woken up and climbed out of bed, despite Daisuke’s clinging protests, he was pleased by the promise of a bright sunny day. Everything just looked so much better after last night.

Ken had been quiet as he cleaned up the room, which was alright by him. Daisuke wasn’t a morning person by any stretch and the most intelligent thing he could have mustered would have been little more than a grunt.

He had watched through sleepy eyes as Ken tidied up the room and then waited patiently for his turn in the bathroom, stretching and still clinging to the pillow that smelled so wonderfully of Ken.

After returning from his shower that he suspected Ken had sabotaged, he’d been surprised to find Ken hunched over his dark computer and looking pale and strained.

He had been about to suggest they head outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine when Ken had made a comment about the shower that was no where near as innocent as it sounded, and it didn’t sound all that innocent to begin with.

Flushing brightly, Daisuke tried to form some sort of stammering response when a desperate little gasp had taken him completely off guard.

“…Ken? Are you alright?” And then he’d noticed the way Ken’s hair was tossed about and the grin on his face reflecting back at him in the monitor. It was the same cocky arrogant grin from last night.

Ken laughed at that. It was an odd sort of sound that brought back memories of being chained to a cliff or being on the verge of being blown up or eaten by some crazy monster.

Ken turned around and walked up to him, a predatory look in his eyes as he licked his lips. Daisuke found himself backing up instinctively in response, though this only made the Ken that wasn’t Ken laugh harder.

“I Remember why I like you, Motomiya.”

Daisuke found his back quickly pressed to the wall and he swallowed hard. Any other situation and he’d have known exactly how to respond, but he couldn’t keep bashing Ken in the head. That was bound to make the problem worse as the problem already seemed to be with his head in the first place.

“Ken… Now wait a minute… This isn’t you.” It was still far too early for him and his brain was stalling as he tried to give it a hard jumpstart.

“Wrong again, Daisuke. I can assure you that it most certainly is me.” The Not-Ken was now inches from him and leaning in closer. “I missed you, Daisuke.” And the Not-Ken’s lips met his own in a hard demanding kiss.

Daisuke’s eyes went wide as he tasted Ken for the first time. The lips were soft and smooth with a very distinctive force behind them. Daisuke couldn’t help but notice the slight minty taste behind that kiss lingering from the morning’s toothpaste and he wanted desperately to explore that taste further. He was quickly distracted as he also noticed the way Ken was leaning down into him and how his hands were clenching into the damp folds of Daisuke’s shirt. Even better was the way that Ken’s body pressed into his own and he could feel the lean muscles behind the misleadingly small frame moving so fluidly.

Not-Ken, as Daisuke had decided this was the best way to think of him, pulled back and slid his hands down Daisuke’s chest and sides slowly. The look in his eyes scared Daisuke and he suddenly realized just how full of lust they were. There was a cold fire burning behind those deep dark amethysts that would not take no for an answer.

“Daisuke… Do you have any idea how much I want you? How much I want to own you? I want to hurt you and make you scream my name. I want to watch you writhe and squirm and see the fire burning inside you again and again. I want to make you bleed and I want to make you shiver in need.” Not-Ken was kissing him again and this time he felt sharp teeth sink into his lower lip and pull.

Daisuke cried out and shoved the boy back roughly. He may not stand a chance against Ken the Judo god, but he knew his own special brand of Daisuke crazy tactics and he was fully prepared to utilize them.

A bitter metallic flavor filled his mouth and he realized his lip was bleeding. “Ken. You have to wake up. This isn’t you. You’re acting like…” What did one say to someone who had apparently just had some sort of mental malfunction and become someone else? Someone very familiar that he didn’t want to name just yet.

The Not-Ken laughed. “When are you going to get it?” He licked the red from his lips and seemed to relish in the taste. “I am Ken. Or at least a part of him. But if you would rather we simplify this for your small little brain, we certainly can. You were just about to call me something, weren’t you? I believe it started with a ‘K’ and it wasn’t ‘Ken’.”

That worked for Daisuke on more than one level. His fist clenched and before he knew it, Not-Ken’s lower lip was now bleeding and Kaiser was laughing that laugh that used to bring his blood to a boil.

“I’ve defeated you once, Kaiser.” He slurred the name, finding it tasting foul and ugly on his tongue. “Don’t think I’m scared of you. You… I don’t know what you are… But you aren’t Ken. You’re just a figment!” He remembered once how Ken had tried to explain it to him. How Ken had tried to find an explanation for himself.

“It was like I wanted to watch everything burn. I was so full of my own rage and fire and I wanted to let it out on the world… And suddenly I wasn’t him anymore. It wasn’t me. I was just that little boy trying to figure out where the flames were coming from so I could put them out again.”

Daisuke, of course, hadn’t understood a word of it, but he did understand what it felt like to have your own fire. He had his own fire burning deep inside and right now it was telling him to pummel this delusion back into the nothing that he was supposed to be. When he was Ken again, he could kiss it and make it all better.

“I hadn’t forgotten how you made me bleed. You were the first to make me bleed, Motomiya. To make me feel like I was alive. He craves it, you know. Late at night he remembers how you made him burn inside and he craves it. He just can’t accept that he’s still tainted. It’s why he’s weak and pathetic and I will always be stronger than he is.”

“You still talk too much!” Daisuke growled out as he tackled the Kaiser back. He wanted his partner back and he would find him in there somewhere. It was just a matter of figuring out where to look.

In their scuffle, the two Digimon had woken up and were now huddled in confusion at the edge of the bed watching sleepily. Daisuke wished Wormmon didn’t have to see this. He’d already suffered enough and he shouldn’t have to deal with another moment of this royal pain in the ass.

Somewhere in between the manic laughter and rolling across the floor in a fight for dominance, the computer was bumped and knocked out of sleep mode.

One of their bags was knocked over and a digivice tumbled out beside them. There was a brilliant flash and both boys froze as the device activated. Daisuke knew what was coming and he doubted that it was going to be fun. The thought of seeing his old enemy as he truly was… Giving him back that power… It was not something Daisuke wanted.

“Wait!” He reached for the device desperately but it was too late. The light poured out of the computer across the two boys and sucked them all in.

After the familiar disorienting sensation of falling through the computer and digitizing, Daisuke wondered if the fates were laughing at them.

They were back in the desert.

This was a place of lasts and firsts, all of which were still fresh on the hot stale wind. The last act of a desperate monster. The first tears of a lonely and shattered soul. The last moment of self sacrifice. The first beats of a shared heart.

The two digimon were squirming in the sand in front of him, Veemon complaining about the sudden sand in his mouth and Wormmon flailing his little pod feet about as he tried to find purchase in the shifting dunes.

Daisuke wiped the sand from his eyes and wondered why Ken always seemed to return here. Why he just couldn’t let go and leave this place behind.

Speak of the devil, there in the sand to his right was Ken, stretched out and slowly blinking up at the sky looking completely dazed and disoriented. His hair was back in that familiar soft straight style that Daisuke loved so very much. Thankfully, there was no sign of a cape, whip, or shades anywhere.

He became hopeful that maybe the transition had knocked him right again. “Ken? Is that you?”

Ken slowly sat up and looked at Daisuke. He looked about to answer when his eyes locked on something directly behind Daisuke. His face slowly twisted into a sickeningly familiar expression of horror and Daisuke felt a horrible sinking sensation.

Slowly, he turned and found himself looking into another pair of deep dark eyes.

These dark eyes held a dangerous calculation about them, along with the same dazed and confused look that Ken had about him. Although there was the familiar chaotic mess of hair, Daisuke was comforted in the fact that there was still no cape, jumpsuit, or whip. Comforted and confused as all get out.

The second Ken blinked at Daisuke then at Ken in what could almost be amazement, and then he started to laugh. Daisuke was getting tired of hearing that laugh.

The digimon looked just as confused as Daisuke probably looked, though Wormmon seemed to mirror Ken’s obvious distress.

Daisuke staggered to his feet quickly. He always felt it was better to face any situation while standing and prepared to fight. “Ken?” He didn’t sound nearly as tough and confidence as he was hoping.

Both boys sat back and answered in the same voice, though they had drastically different tones.

“Daisuke…”

“This is bad.” It was the understatement of the century.




--------
Disclaimer: According to Wikipedia: Akiyoshi Hongo was the creator of the Digimon concept. Bandai, Saban Entertainment and various other entities that are not me own Digimon. I am in no way making money off of this and am strictly using the characters and world for my own fan based fiction.


Converting /tmp/phpDcLums to /dev/stdout