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Puppet in the Corner
Author of 10 Stories |
Catch me if you can
Part one of my A/U Kingdom Hearts Universe.
Synopsis: A/U. A Spectral Phantom forever anchored to the living world, and a vengeful Vampire on the edge of losing it. Would you believe they were once best friends?
Notes, Please read: This story is actually sort of based off a poem I wrote of the same title. You’ll see the entire poem throughout the story itself. The Time frame is also rather confusing, so just think of the first portion as the feudal times or something. Oh, and this changes Point of View a lot, so be prepared to be, uh, confused a lot at some points.
italics Poem/Quote
“...” Flashback
Enjoy.
Part One: Innocence and Seduction
“ I hope you understand that the last thing you’ll ever see is my face smiling at you, before that lid comes to a close.” -Ardelis Noir
It’s not like you’ll ever get any nearer,
So let’s play this game of hide-go-seek,
Or should I say, ‘hide-go-shriek’?
Believe me, it’s not something you’d want to deal with. It can be really quick and clean, like dying in your sleep, or something really nasty and prolonged.
Like, for instance, murder.
I know from personal experience. People who died in other circumstances, such as murder, pass on to the next life, either to purgatory or paradise, mattering on how you were in life.
However, if you stay upon the living plain after your body is dead and gone, it can be a truly difficult problem to deal with. Especially if you died a rather messy death. Your astral body looks exactly like you did the second before you died. So, if you had your eyes gouged out, or a limb missing, you don’t turn back to the way you were before you died.
Yeah, get it now?
Another interesting little tidbit is that after you die, you can’t cut or grow your hair. Lucky me, since it was down to my waist.
I’ve only met a few specters before, but some of them were incredibly uncomfortable to look at.
Then there’s something else to talk about; why do you become a specter?
Truthfully, I’m not exactly sure how many ways you can get stuck on the living plain. Most specters only stay because they died so suddenly that they hadn’t had the next life planned out for them, but after that is resolved, they go where they were supposed to.
Unfortunately, that was not the case for me.
I was unlucky enough to be born under a bad omen, so, for some reason, I had this anti-next life curse type of thing on me. So, I have to stay and watch the world. For how long?
Well, pretty much forever.
Now that just fucking sucks, doesn’t it?
Kairi blinked, not understanding what was going on. Being dressed in a brand new black kimono was strange enough, but what she was wondering even more was where her older brother was. Turning to her mother, she asked in her innocent, five year old voice.
“ Mama, what’s going on? Where’s Aniki?” At these words, her mother froze, the traces of dried tears still visible on her face. She looked down at her daughter, not sure how to explain it.
Kairi blinked innocently again, wondering why her mother was so sad. She hadn’t seen her brother in a long time, and knew her mother hadn’t either. That must have been why everyone was so sad.
Her mother cleared her throat and wiped her eyes, even though there were no tears. She had to word this carefully.
“ Oh, Sweety, we are at a... funeral.”
Kairi’s small, childish mind still didn’t understand.
“ What’s a funeral, Mama?”
Another hesitant pause.
“ It’s when you... come and respect the dead, Dear.” Kairi’s eyes widened when she saw her mother’s own start to water with tears.
“ Dead? But... I don’t know any dead people... Who are we... respecting?” She was almost hesitant to ask, since she didn’t exactly know what death meant.
“ Oh, Sweety... I’m so sorry...”
She paused, wiping her again tear stained face with her sleeve.
“ It’s your big brother... Baby, I’m so sorry.”
Kairi eyes widened in fear, an unreadable expression forming in her large, childish eyes. The next thing she knew, her mother was embracing her tightly, and her mother’s crying was the only thing she heard.
About ten seconds later, it started to rain.
How fitting.
After the funeral was over, and the pale yet obviously torn body Kairi wasn’t allowed to see was buried, Kairi’s mother took her hand and started the walk back to their home.
What was strange to Kairi, when she looked back one last time, was even though she was sure they were the last to leave, she could make out the shadowy outline of someone standing in the rain, near the freshly dug grave. They were looking down on it, as if wondering what was going on. She could see long hair that was plastered over their face, probably from the rain, obscuring it, and reaching their lower back.
When she almost couldn’t see it anymore, it looked up, revealing a face that looked rather familiar to her. She blinked twice. She couldn’t see their eyes but already knew what color they would be. They gave her a sad smile, before raising a delicate hand garbed in bandages, as though to wave good-bye to her.
She saw the gesture, and only thought it polite to return it. So, she let go of her mother’s hand for a moment and raised her own, waving good-bye at the enigmatic figure near the grave. And just before they vanished, she yelled.
“ Sayonara, niichan!”
I highly doubt you’ll ever fully understand,
That I’ll slip through your fingers just like the sand,
That you’re chasing a dream so far away,
A dream that doesn’t care to stay.
It was not, would not, could not happen.
So why was he sitting in front of a freshly dug grave?
His hair was plastered to his face, but the chill seemingly didn’t bother him. It was easily drowned out by the shock.
Even the sound of rain didn’t reach him.
In his mind, this was not happening. He was not sitting in front a grave marker, he was not in the freezing cold rain, and most certainly...
His best friend wasn’t dead.
He had no idea how long he simply sat there, as if waiting for something to happen. Anguish tore through his body, particularly his heart, and momentarily, he placed a pale hand to the numbing pain in his chest.
This had to be some sort of joke. Some sick dream perhaps. After all, had they not just been playing around with each other earlier this morning? What had happened?
He didn’t know.
Head bowed, face unseen, and not flinching at all from the assault of the heavy and cold rain.
He lightly lifted a nearly blue finger to his lips, as if reliving a moment, a small, almost invisible smile on his visage.
It had been his first kiss, quick, a little sloppy, but ended with a shy and nervous apology. An apology for what? Kissing him? He had liked it very much, and had been looking forward to later that day, when they would see each other again.
Of course, this was rather impossible considering the other was no longer on the plain of the living anymore.
All he had gotten was a small taste, teasing him with a promise of something more. So where was that promise now?
He would go insane if he never received what was supposed to be a gift. He never knew what he truly had, and it had slipped right through his fingers like sand. Could he have prevented that? Of course, it was all his fault...
He figured it should have been himself being withheld by the unforgiving earth. Not...
He dug his fingers into the soft and moist earth, ignoring the creepy sensation he felt when he dug them deeper. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this. Because of the pounding rain, which he still ignored, it was impossible to tell if he was crying, if there were any tears falling from his brilliant orbs...
“ I miss you.”
In the distance, whether he imagined it or not remained questionable, he heard a soft voice.
“ I miss you, too.”
Never bringing my shadowed secrets to light,
I much prefer the dark, thank-you,
So many things about me you never knew.
Exactly one year has passed, since, well, you know...
So many things have changed; Mother remarried and is now pregnant, Kairi has grown up faster than I expected her to. She acts so much older than her age, perhaps since I’m gone now, maybe because she doesn’t have a role model anymore.
And finally... Him.
He’s not here anymore.
The last time I ever saw him was the night of my funeral. I was rather disappointed he didn’t come, since we’d been best friends as far back as I can remember. He only came when everyone else left, though I don’t know why.
The moment I saw him... I felt so helpless, watching him break down near my grave marker (You have no idea how disturbing it felt to have my name on that thing) while I could do nothing to comfort him.
I was also nervous seeing him here, something had happened between us earlier that day... I didn’t think he’d want to ever speak to me ever again. It’s so funny, when I think about it, he said he missed me...
I miss him, too.
Ever since that night, he vanished, completely. No one knows where he is, they searched everywhere, but he’s completely gone now. I want to know where he is, that he’s safe and sound, not...
Not dead. Like me.
I just hope he can forgive me for leaving without saying good bye.
A lesson of mine that I always teach,
Yet you still come crawling back for more,
And now I wonder, why is it me you adore?
He stood tall, at least over six feet, as he exited the black Mercedes. He wore nothing but all black, and a pair of dark sunglasses covered his eyes(1). It was nearing midnight, and many people, had they been outside and able to spot him in his pure black clothing, would have probably been wondering what a young man such as he was doing out so late.
Especially since he had parked his car outside a High School
He quietly shut the door, as it made no sound as it was expected too, and strode the school purposefully.
As he came to gate, he came to what one might have called a problem. It was shut and locked tight, as to stop vandals from entering. But not for him, as without breaking his stride, he merely waved his hand haphazardly, and the lock fell open. He pushed the gate and entered the school, troubled by nothing else.
Right before he entered to doors to the high school, though, he said something to himself under his breath, as though there was someone else listening to him.
“ So... have I found you at last?”
Maybe it’s this thing called ‘love’ that keeps you going merrily,
Without regret nor hatred, not even capable of a drop of sorrow,
Watching you this time, wondering what will come with tomorrow.
Well, he couldn’t really fault them, after all, they couldn’t see him. Though, if he wanted to get a cheap thrill, he would stand in a hallway just before the bell rang, and any student (rest assured, there would be quite a few) who ran through him would get a chill down their spine. It was amusing to watch the other students looks of confusion at their fellow classmates hugging and shivering to themselves on a 90̊ day.
But that got really old, really fast.
Sure, he wasn’t always transparent, as he could physically manifest himself, but that was still only useful if people could see him. He could hold a physical form for almost a day now, as his ghostly power had dramatically increased over the past few centuries.
Especially considering that he had run into a wish granting ‘genie’ of sorts who transferred quite a bit of his power to him. What was more interesting was that the ‘genie’, so to say, was incredibly powerful. Now, as to why the genie had made him more powerful than he really needed to be was still a mystery, even to him.
All the wish granter had to said to him before he left was, “ You’ll need it in the future.” Whatever that meant, he wasn’t one to dwell on it.(2)
Sometimes, he wondered why he had ended up inhabiting a High School, of all things. It had started innocently enough. He stayed near the graveyard where his body was buried, though the grave had long ago faded and vanished away, as his...
They soon built a temple near the small cemetery, and he amused himself by reading the books and scrolls that monks would hold in their hands, by looking over their shoulders. He was sure quite a few of the monks knew he was there, but all they did was smile and spread the books and scrolls out on the floor, as though to make it easier for him to read. He had self taught himself, by watching others being taught katakana, and also calligraphy. He doubted he would ever use the writing in the future, but he never forgot it.
Now that it was night, however, he amused himself by singing in the halls. Hell, it had gotten so boring that he had begun to sit in the classes and actually listen to what the teachers were saying. He’d learned some interesting opinions. He could only think of them as opinions at the moment.
As he couldn’t go outside into the real world and find out himself.
He laughed at the irony of it all. Students often said that school was a prison. For him, it was.
Literally.
For some inane reason that he couldn’t imagine, he just could not leave the doors of Pandora High School. It was the same with the temple, though he supposed he wasn’t that bored because the monks would leave books out for him to read.. Now, however, it was just getting increasingly annoying.
He didn’t even want to attempt to escape his unlikely prison again. He disliked the slingshot effect. No, he most certainly hated the slingshot effect(3).
However, he was pulled out his reverie when he felt something... inhuman. If he could breathe, he would have been gasping for air, but instead, he fell through the floor in his surprise.
Something was here, and it felt... familiar.
For even the light is not always what it seems,
But I know that eventually I’ll lose you to insanity,
The same that stripped me of my humanity.
Absence makes the heart grow stronger had never been more correct.
Over the years he’d nearly driven himself insane by trying to find what was so important. Death would not prevail over him again. He would not allow it to win.
He would not let Death take away what it had stolen from him once before.
It was so close... There! There it was!
His imaginary breathe hitched, as he watched the doorknob turn. Apprehension and fear filled his very being, yet at the same time, he wished to know what lay beyond the door. Yearned for it, yet in his heart, or what was left of it, he knew not to raise his hopes.
Time had consumed all that he ever loved.
The door creaked open eerily, and though he just assured himself it was the janitor, he just couldn’t convince himself to, since the janitor never came this late at night.
His eyes widened, and he wanted to faint in shock. But that luxury is reserved for the living.
Wait...!
The silver, almost tarnished hair... The luminescent aquamarine eyes he somehow knew lay concealed behind the dark sunglasses.
It couldn’t be...!
It was...
He hadn’t changed, even after all these years. There was still that childish and somewhat feminine look about him, especially with his hair.
His hair was a chestnut color that might have seemed almost plain at first, until you looked closely. What had once been untamable spikes when they were children, he’d convinced to grow out, till they reached his waist. Now, the spikes hung down and covered one eye, as though perpetually soaked.
But what was most striking about him were his large blue eyes. They were so innocent and childlike, he might have thought that five centuries hadn’t passed since he last saw them.
He smiled, taking off his sunglasses to reveal his cat like orbs. The other boy blinked, but made no made otherwise.
Slowly, he sauntered over to his chestnut haired companion, and held his hand to raise his company’s chin to eye level, seeing as he was at least six inches shorter(4). The shock evident in the other’s blue eyes was not lost on him.
“ Missed you, Sora.” He spoke softly, as though this were a dream to him, which, in a way, was.
He slightly tensed, nearly unnoticeable, when he saw that the other boy was shaking. However, this flew out the window when he saw his eyes...
...He was crying. Ghostly tears fell down his pale cheeks, and he smiled, laughing almost deliriously as he did.
And, imagine his surprise, when the smaller boy, nearly faster than his eyes could see, dove into his chest, sobbing, while tightly holding on to him, as though he might disappear before his very eyes.
“ I... Riku! Oh my God! I missed you, so much...! Don’t leave me again... Because I... I...” He broke off, silenced by the kiss that Riku had given him.
And in distance, Riku could have sworn he heard singing, but ignored it in favor of kissing the smaller, effeminate bot in his arms.
"I’ll chase away your nightmares and terrors,
I’ll make it up since in your life I’ve made so many errors,
I can’t truly say I’m sorry, even when this crazy game began,
So try and catch me, my dear sweet dreamer, if you can."
Oh, the sap...
1) Because you know only he is badass enough to wear his sunglasses at night. XD
2) Bet you can't guess who this is... don't worry, though, this fic takes place after the year 1999...
3)Slingshot Effect. I’m sure those of you who are fans of Flare Dancer will recognize this. Those who don’t... you’ll see. ;D
4)So I made him short, like the other thousandsof fanfics out there...
So, part one is done, but the rest is yet to come... I actually have no idea where I’m taking this, seeing as I basically stuck them both together in the very beginning... Oh, and how can Riku touch Sora? Don’t ask me, ask the ebil plot bunnies...
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