Fan Fiction ❯ He Who Opens the Door ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

He Who Opens the Door

Disclaimer-I don't own Kingdom Hearts or the characters

Blackness . . . one echoing heartbeat. . .

Light flickers . . . two loud heartbeats. . .

A body, a third heartbeat . . . tousled auburn hair, fair complexion sleeps soundly, no breath issuing from his lips, no rise and fall of his chest, no shake whatsoever moves his body.

A voice whispers his name from somewhere distant in the black void. Feminine and sweet the voice. Another heartbeat and the voice grows louder, more urgent. A overly large key materializes from the air above him; his body remains still.

The voice now speaks with an "indoor voice," a loud thud of the heart crashes throughout the place of blackness. They key floats solid now, unmoving, as if waiting . . . for him.

"SORA!" Heartbeat thunders through the blackness and the voice yells.

Light explodes around the body. A hand reaches out frantically, like waking from a nightmare, and grabs the key, pulling, what seems to be him, up. They key shimmers with a bright, almost happy, light as he pants, sweat dripping down his face, crystalline blue eyes wide as if seeing a ghost.

"Something's different." He whispered, "Where -" He was cut off as he disappeared with the key out of the dark place.

The light fades with his leaving, but a body, floating in the blackness, tousled auburn hair, a fair complexion, still sleeps soundly.

\*/

Sora blinked and sat up, squinting against the bright, almost blinding, sunlight of midday. He rubbed his head which he realized was aching, "Uh, what . . . happened?" Something significant had just happened, but his memory couldn't grasp exactly what it was. Suddenly, he turned his head quickly, searching for the keyblade, it rested under his palm on the dirt path he was now sitting on. He relaxed and took in his surroundings, a long dirt path leading seemingly no where, but if one walked far enough, he knew it ended up somewhere. Lush green hills rolled across the landscape, not to big and not too small and a few trees standing tall and regal. Flowers poked up now and then and the sky glistened bright blue as if promising bad weather would never mar the perfect setting.

Sora blinked, something of a memory coming back to him; a walk, he wanted to think outside of the palace, work things out in his mind. His long journey and memory of the incident that put him in this world as the Key Bearer came back to him as if it had never gone. Now all that was missing was the memory of how he'd come upon laying in the middle of a path in the middle of nowhere. Looking down, he saw scratch marks in the dirt leading away from his position and out of site in one direction, "That's weird, how could they. . ." He stopped for a moment, realizing his headache was still present, he thought it best not to think about much right now.

Scratch marks, Sora couldn't help but notice the tingling of memory in the back of his mind when he thought of scratch marks somewhere. He waved his hand in front of his face as if smacking away a fly and dismissed the thought. Sora walked down the dirt road, holding his keyblade securely by his side.

\*/

The great palace of King Mickey loomed over him, gleaming in the afternoon sun, beckoning him into the edifice sweetly. The castle looked anything but imposing but Sora couldn't help but shiver, the last time he had seen a palace this big...

"SORA!!"

Suddenly, he was buried under dozens of bodies, all of them laughing and trying to talk at once. Hewey Dewey, and Louie hung from his neck and both arms chattering all at once about something he couldn't understand. Servants stood around in a respective ring, smiling brightly and remarking on how good it was that he was back.

"...goodness you're alive." Was one thing Sora caught that seemed odd enough, he was only gone for a little while it seemed. It was morning when he started that walk last he thought. And now it was afternoon, which meant something was wrong, or these `people' had finally lost their minds. Sora rolled his eyes and laughed, being overcome with his own jumbled mind and the friendly atmosphere of the welcome.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Everyone froze and looked up in the general direction of a duck, clad in a blue tunic and small sorcerer's hat, weilding a staff with an odd figurine adorning the top. As he stomped, things froze, were set on fire, became weighed down, or just froze in mid-action. Suddenly, the whole crowd on top of Sora was scattered into a side of the circle of servants, made noticeably wider upon entrance of the duck. Everyone trembled visibly and cast pity-filled glances at Sora.

"Heh heh, Donald!" Sora stood up, keyblade in hand, and scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "What's the matter?" Sora himself was a little nervous, knowing just what could happen when Donald was angry.

Donald wasted no time or patience on Sora, he grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down the Donald's eye-level. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEEEEEEN????!!!!!!"

Sora ripped himself free, stumbling backward. He dropped the keyblade to put both of his hands on his ears, his forgotten headache making itself known once again. "Jeez Donald!!! Don't do that." Sora felt a slight dizziness and sat roughly down, putting one hand on the keyblade and waiting a moment for the feeling to pass. "What was that for anyway, I just took a walk!" He scowled up at the duck, cracking open one azure blue eye.

Donald quaked, the hand holding his staff clenched so tightly, wood would surely snap soon. "You have been gone over three days!" Donald growled and turned his head away.

"Th-three days?! But I only left just this morning!" Sora looked down at his keyblade confused now, what was it that he couldn't remember?

"The world borders are down once again." A soft, feminine voice drifted to the ears of all present. Sora jerked his head up to look at the queen and her assistant Daisy standing on staircase leading inside the palace.

"Y-your highness..." Sora stammered and bowed awkwardly, "you mean the heartless are back?" All present gasped and took another full step back. None in the palace spoke of the heartless, it was an unspoken law.

Daisy spoke up, like the queen, unfazed, "We presume so, and they are waisting no time."

"News," Minnie continued, "has been pouring in from other worlds about all kinds of different heartless. Please Sora, I wish I never had to ask of you this favor, especially after what you endured at the hands of the heartless last time, but-"

"I am the keybearer, it's my destiny to bring light to the darkness and open the door right?" Sora looked down at the ground. A blueish green flower glistened in the sun beside his foot, he smiled, "don't worry your majesty, I'll go."

"You are the only one." Daisy put her head down, clasping her hands.

"We'll just grab some supplies and be off-"

"You'll do no such thing!" Another feminine voice called across the garden. Her soft, yet commanding tone demanded to be obeyed, but left evidence that she was only concerned.

"Aerith" Sora turned his wide eyes upon her.

"You've had something happen to you Sora, and you need at least a night's rest before leaving. She walked up to him and placed a hand on his chest and Sora sucked in a pained breath. When she removed her hand, he looked down to find scratch marks where her hand was.

"I.. . hadn't noticed them before."

"Of course not, now please, the more you rest, the better you'll feel." Aerith placed her hand on his shoulder and offered a warm smile.

"Alright, but I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Agreed." Aerith nodded and Sora was off, jogging into the palace, preparing for bed, she hoped.

"Admirable." came Queen Minnie's reply as she approached Aerith.

"Indeed, dangerously so sometimes." She nodded.

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A/N: ALL TIES WITH SCHOOL WORK NOW SEVERED! Now i'm free to write all my stories, at least until college starts.....well, we'll see.