Donald and Goofy lagged behind Sora as he strode confidently through the thick fog, their footsteps beating hollowly on the asphalt in a discordant rhythm. Goofy watched in bemused fascination while Donald made a vain attempt to straighten out the kinks and curves in his 5-iron. His cheeks puffed as his thin arms strained against the metal, muttering up a storm under his breath.

With a burst of frustration, Donald pulled together all his might and threw the club at the ground. It struck with a resounding metallic clang and bounced straight back up, striking the bottom of Donald's bill. "Ow ow ow!" he cried, clutching his chin. He gave the club a hearty kick, sending it clattering across the pavement. "Stupid thing! Why can't I use my magic?"

Goofy lumbered over and picked up the dejected golf club, tilting it his hands. "Hrm... maybe it's 'cause this world is too close to the darkness?"

Donald folded his arms, staring daggers at the club in Goofy's hands. "Maybe..."

"We'll get it back, h'yuck! It can't be gone for good, not while there's still light!" Goofy chimed, holding out the club to Donald.

Encouraged but still dubious, Donald grabbed the club out of Goofy's hands. "I just want Cure back, at least," he sighed.

"Scared of that er, Pyramid thing?"

"Of course not!" Donald huffed, pushing up his sleeve. "That James guy was funny in the head. He probably made it up just to scare Sora."

"Aw shucks, I thought he seemed alright to me."

"All-right?!" Donald squawked. "He shot you!"

Goofy pawed at his ear. "Well, we woulda done the same if we thought we saw a Heartless, wouldn't we?"

Donald's response was cut off by a distant cry. Startled, the two looked around, trying to make sense of the curtain of fog around them. "What was that?" Donald croaked, swallowing a lump in his throat.

Goofy nibbled on the fingertips of his gloves. "Hey, where's Sora? Sora! So-ra!" Goofy called out. Clutching the trash can lid out in front of him, Goofy charged into the fog, disappearing.

"Wait for me, Goofy!" Donald cried, dashing after him. Buildings crawled by -- a large, decaying sign of a bowling pin advertised Pete's Bowl-O-Rama. Dusty cars leaned on flat tires outside a gas station. Finally, a cluster of dark shapes began to emerge from the fog.

Sora was standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by a pack of hunched-over creatures. Donald's first impression was that they were Dusks, the common-place Nobodies they had run into so often during their journey. They were all bent over with their heads facing the ground. A spider-web of blue and purple veins tainted their usually silver skin, some seeming to bleed out onto the skin. The opening for the hood, with its jagged zipper, gave the appearance of a grimace; dark splotches above it looked like hollowed-out eyes. Their slender arms and sharp, fused fingers were tied back with barbed wire, forcing the creatures into a near crouch. They lumbered towards Sora on their thin legs, silent. Donald could hear the radio clipped to Sora's belt pulsating with static. The dark substance on Sora's arm was beginning to spark back to life in tiny black flames.

As Donald and Goofy watched in fascinated horror, one of the Dusks leapt at Sora. Stumbling backwards, Sora swung the pipe against the creature, sending it flying into one of its companions. Thrown off balance from the swing, Sora fell back onto one of the Dusks. They began to swarm around him.

"Donald! Goofy! Help!" Sora cried, kicking one of the Dusks off him.

"We're comin', buddy!" Goofy called, leaping into the fray, slamming the trash can lid against one of the Dusk's heads. Brandishing his club, Donald charged in as well, bringing it swinging down on one of the fallen Dusks with a crack.

Sora struggled to his feet, and the three were soon surrounded by a pile of corpses, blood seeping onto the asphalt. The static fizzled out, leaving only the sound of the three panting above the bodies. Donald shot a glance at Sora's arm, where darkness engulfed everything from Sora's fingertips to his shoulder. Still clutching the pipe, Sora strode towards one of the Dusks splayed on the ground. He stood watching it writhe for a moment, before raising his foot and stomping it down hard onto the Dusk's head. Blood exploded out from under his shoe in a thick current.

"Sora!" Donald cried out in alarm.

Sora spun to face Donald and Goofy, chest heaving from a mixture of exertion and rage. Donald was struck by an odd yellow glow in Sora's eyes as he stood snarling at them. "Where were you guys?"

"I'm sorry, Sora," Goofy began, brows wrinkled with worry. "Me and Donald were talkin' 'bout magic, and we musta gotten left behind..."

Sora smeared a splash of blood across his cheek with the back of his hand, glaring at Goofy. "Oh yeah? Well next time, don't fall behind! I coulda been--!" He shuddered and dropped to his knees, clutching his arm. Donald ran forward, leaning down in front of Sora. The darkness clinging to Sora's arm was slowly burning off between his fingertips.

Donald placed a hand on Sora's shoulder, peering down to try and get a look at Sora's face. "Sora? Are you okay?" When Sora looked up, his eyes were back to their usual shade of bright blue.

Sora looked slowly from Donald to Goofy, still clutching his arm. His face split into a weak smile. "Y-yeah, I'm fine!" he replied with mustered enthusiasm. "What about you guys? Are you all-right?"

"We're okay, but you don't look so good..." Goofy said, offering a hand to help Sora up.

Sora waved it away, pushing himself to his feet. "I'm fine, really. We should get going before any more of those things show up." His eyes strayed to the pipe lying on the ground and he scooped it up, swinging it over his shoulder. Picking his way carefully around the bodies, he began to set off down the street, Donald and Goofy alongside him.

"This place keeps getting weirder and weirder! First Heartless and now Nobodies! Do you think the Organization is here?" Donald thought aloud.

"I don't know... maybe..." Sora responded absentmindedly.

"What would the Organization want here? There don't seem to be many people around..." Goofy added.

"And why did those Nobodies look so weird?" Donald said. "They were like -- like -- Nightmare Dusks or something!"

"A Nobody is a Nobody! Who cares what it looks like! You're letting this place get to your head, Donald!" Sora scoffed, grinning.

"Hey, look! I think this is it!" Goofy cried. They all stopped and looked up at a 3-story building towering above them. A walkway and a series of steps led up to a set of double doors.

"Brookhaven Hospital..." Sora muttered. He gestured towards the door and the three walked up. Donald seized one of the doorknobs and pulled. The door swung open slowly with a loud, rusty creak, and they stepped inside.

It was nearly pitch dark inside, the door letting in a stream of pale light. The air hung thick and heavy with dust. Goofy let out a sneeze so violent it knocked him back a few steps.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Donald called out into the darkness.

Sora's ears pricked for the sound of static or movement, but there was only silence. "Let's take a look around, you guys... but first, we're gonna need a light." From what little Sora could see, he could make out a door in front of him next to a curtained counter. Sora stepped forward and tried the door handle. It opened easily, the hinges creaking. Squinting, he tried to make sense of what little he could see in the dark -- a desk, some cabinets. There was a small door on the left wall, but the lock rattled and the door didn't move. Donald and Goofy filed inside the cramped space. "Look for something we can use," Sora instructed, turning away from the small door.

"Right!" Donald replied, pulling open the doors on one of the cabinets.

Sora turned to the desk and pulled the curtains over the counter window aside, letting in dim light from the open entrance door. A public address system and an old computer sat on the desk; the rest was covered in papers. Sora decided to pass on the computer -- it looked too banged up to run, and he wasn't going to risk unleashing his technical ineptitude on another piece of unfortunate equipment. He started rustling through the papers, throwing up more dust. Goofy doubled over into another sneeze. He tried to hold the papers up to the light, but most of them looked useless: patient files for a Stanley Coleman, Leonard Wolf, Mary Sunderland -- he tossed them aside.

Goofy was rummaging through a cardboard box so worn that the label scrawled on the front now only read "Lost". He pulled out an odd contraption and held it out, squinting. "Hey, what's this thing, Sora?" he asked, holding it out.

Sora and Donald looked up at the thing dangling from Goofy's hand. It looked to them like a thick headband with small boxes attached to it. "Let me see!" Donald said, stretching his hand up towards Goofy. Goofy obligingly handed it over. Donald turned it around in confusion. "It's... uh..."

"It's a surgical headlight," Sora interrupted.

Donald and Goofy looked over at Sora, bemused. "A what?" Donald said, incredulous.

"Here, let me see it." Sora held out his hand and Donald reluctantly passed it over. Sora turned the device around and flipped a switch, and a bright light flashed out of a small disc on the bottom of the headband.

"Ow!" Donald cried, shielding his eyes. Sora squinted as he slipped the headband onto his forehead, the beam of light shining past Donald and Goofy.

Donald blinked up at Sora, eyes adjusting. "Oh, it's a flashlight!"

"How did ya know what it was?" Goofy asked, sounding impressed.

Sora bit his lip and looked back to the desk, the lighting turning with him. He started to shift through the papers. "Oh, uh... I... I knew... someone... who was a doctor..."

"Really? You've never mentioned that before!" Donald said.

"Because it doesn't matter." Sora gave them a reassuring smile and looked back to the desk. "Keep looking, guys."

Donald and Goofy exchanged a glance. Even though they had been through so much together, the two couldn't help feeling there were things about Sora they still didn't know -- things he kept secret. They had come to know Sora was the sort of person who followed his heart instead of his head, ignoring logic for passion. Most of the time, this made Sora an impulsive airhead -- too caught up in what was going on around him to bother with thinking things through. Hearing something so sophisticated come out of his mouth stunned them, to say the least -- and the way he turned away and tried to cover up his discomfort told more of a story than he let on. Donald was eager to know what Sora was hiding, and moved as if to speak again -- but was silenced by an unusually stern look from Goofy. Grumbling, Donald turned back to the cabinet.

Now that Sora had cleared away some of the papers, he noticed something sticking out of the middle of the desk. A pair of surgical scissors had been stabbed into the wooden surface, the edges rusty and crusted with a dark substance. Pinned beneath the scissors was a blank doctor's prescription. Something had been scrawled on it with a messy hand, in a liquid that had long since browned. Tearing the note away from the scissors, Sora read aloud,

"From below to above

Gather together one by one

Count the hours on the clock

Until midnight is struck"

"What's that, Sora?" Goofy asked, clutching a small stack of paper.

"I don't know, I found it under this..." Sora pointed to the scissors embedded in the desk.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Donald snorted. He pulled the scissors out of the desk and looked them over. "Hey, look!" He pointed to just above the blade, where a number one had been carved crudely into the metal.

"I wonder who woulda done this..." Goofy thought aloud, scratching his head.

Sora stared hard at the paper, eyebrows furrowed, before handing the paper to Goofy. "I'm not very good with this poetry stuff. I slept through my literature classes," he yawned.

"Sora! You should pay more attention in school!" Donald chided.

Goofy read the poem over, and looked at the scissors. "I think it wants us to collect something like this! If it has a number, there must be more than one, right?"

"I guess that makes sense, but what for?" Donald asked, tapping his foot.

"Yeah, what if we don't?" Sora added.

A loud creaking broke into their conversation. All three turned to look out the reception window as the entrance door swung shut. Flashes of light burst along the seams. Sora burst out of the room and slammed up against the doors. They didn't budge. Stepping back, he stared in stunned bewilderment, Donald and Goofy walking up alongside him. A network of wires now criss-crossed around the double-doors, intertwined and fused with the handles. The metal around the edges of the door had been warped and welded.

"What happened?" Goofy gasped.

Donald pulled at the door handle, webbed feet slipping along the ground. There was a bright spark and Donald suddenly let go, falling backwards. "Wak!" he cried as he hit the ground. "Ow ow ow ow!"

"Looks like we're not getting back out this way..." Sora sighed, giving the door a half-hearted kick.

Goofy reached down and pulled an agitated Donald to his feet.. "That's right, Sora! There's gotta be another way out! Maybe this riddle is a clue!" Goofy said, holding out the slip of paper to Sora. Sora gave Goofy a skeptical smile, but took the slip anyway and folded it carefully into his pocket.

"Who set this up?" Donald thought aloud, looking around the floor for his 5-iron. "I'd like to give them a piece of my mind!"

"The Organization?" Goofy suggested.

Sora scoffed and turned away from the door. "Whoever it is, we'll just have to play their game for now. Come on, let's keep looking. There's got to be a map or something around here."

The three turned away to follow the beam streaming down from the headlight, illuminating the stained and splotched walls and the doorways of the narrow corridor. As the light turned with Sora around a corner, the radio fizzled to life with the low hum of static. They froze as the light settled just below a humanoid figure standing down the hall.

The figure stood with its back to them, bent over at an odd angle, limbs twisted. Its form was distinctly feminine, the stiletto heels on its feet pumping up the curves of its legs. The skirt it wore was way too short, and the outfit looked uncomfortably tight. The dim light gave the material a dull, leathery sheen.

"Hello?" Sora called out, too stunned by the sight of another human to consider the meaning of the radio static. He tilted his head so that the light drifted upwards from the floor to the figure's back.

The figure gave a shuddering twitch, and started to turn towards them. Sora was stunned not only by the way it moved in unnaturally sharp jerks, but by the figure's face -- or rather, lack there-of. Where there should have been a woman's face, a mass of twisted flesh wiped away any recognizable facial features. Sora recognized the outfit as a nurse's uniform, too bizarre, too revealing to be on any nurse he had ever seen. The alluring appeal of the outfit and the figure's proportions was tainted by the grotesque pallor of the creature's skin, pale and covered with branching dark blue veins. Light shone off the rusted metal of a scalpel dangling from the nurse's right hand.

Donald and Goofy flinched back in response to the nurse's movement towards them. "W-what is that?" Goofy stuttered.

"Is that a Heartless?" Donald cried, clutching the golf club out in front of him.

"I've n-never seen a Heartless like t-that!"

"Me neither!"

"Is it a N-nobody?"

"Sora! What should we do?"

Sora didn't respond. He watched the nurse approach slowly towards them, its feet shuffling across the dusty floor. The hum of static grew louder and louder, the sound intermittent with odd clanks and gurgled breathing, and what began to sound like a human voice. It wavered in and out of the static.

"Sora," a female voice called.

He froze, a shiver running up his spine. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the twisted skin of the nurse's face, coming closer and closer to him. The static grew louder.

"Sora. Sora, honey." The nurse gave a violent shudder as it stopped in front of him, raising the scalpel. The voice grew louder and more desperate. "Sora, where are you?"

"Sora, watch out!" Donald shouted, breaking through the static.

Sora snapped back to life as the creature swung the scalpel towards his neck. He leaned back just enough for the blade swing past him. Sora leapt away and renewed his grip on the steel pipe. The nurse's blank face followed the light, quickly regaining its composure. It made to swing at Sora as he slashed the pipe to the creature's side. Sora winced as the scalpel grazed his upper arm, drawing a red line across his skin. The nurse stumbled, emitting a harsh scream from beneath its warped skin.

Donald knocked the 5-iron against the nurse's kneecaps, bringing it crashing to the ground. It writhed against the floor, arms seeking purchase. Sora raised the pipe above the creature's head, willing his arms to send the pipe swinging down, but they didn't move. The figure lay on the floor twitching and he could only stare wide-eyed.

Goofy looked hopelessly from the nurse to Sora. "What's wrong? Sora!"

"Come on, Sora!" Donald pleaded.

Sora's arms slowly sank down as he stepped back. It was starting to pick itself back up. Frustrated, Donald swung the golf club hard against the creature's back. The spine snapped and splintered ribs burst through the skin and clothing, blood spraying through the rents in the skin. The nurse collapsed to the floor with another agonized scream. Blood bubbled from the wounds as the figure shuddered and stopped, the static and the harsh sounds of breathing fading out with its movements.

They stared in silence for a moment at the corpse. Goofy shut his eyes and turned away to check Sora. He had backed away against the wall, knuckles white from clenching the pipe, his gaze still fixed on the creature's head. "Sora? Are you okay?" Goofy asked. He placed a hand on Sora's arm, and Sora shuddered, his eyes breaking contact with the sight of the corpse. He was pale and covered in a cold sweat.

"I-I'm sorry guys, I... I don't know what's wrong with me..." Sora wheezed, stepping away from the nurse's body. "I mean, it was just a Nobody, right? We've seen human-shaped Nobodies before."

"Why did you freeze up like that?" Donald huffed.

"I... did you hear that voice?"

"Voice?" Donald repeated. He and Goofy exchanged glances and shrugged.

"I didn't hear anything, Sora," Goofy replied.

Sora looked from one to the other in dazed confusion. "What? But I heard..."

"We need to get you something for that!" Goofy pointed at the cut on Sora's arm, which was oozing blood.

Sora looked down at the cut on his arm and tried to wipe the blood away, smearing it across his skin. "O-oh, yeah... I forgot..." He looked up and around, the light settling on the doors. "Well, one of these doors has got to be a pharmacy or something... there should be medical supplies..."

"Then let's look!" Goofy encouraged.

Sora nodded. He stepped away from the wall to regard the door closest to him. Faded lettering printed on the wooden surface spelled "Pharmacy". It can't be that easy, he thought. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted. It didn't budge. Locked. Of course. He glanced down at the steel pipe in his hand and tried to imagine a Keyblade there instead. It remained a rusted, blood-stained steel pipe. "There should be a key somewhere," he thought aloud.

"One of these rooms has got to be open," Donald remarked.

"Let's try them all!" Goofy exclaimed. He started to move down the hall, the sound of broken locks rattling as he moved.

"All of them?" Donald grumbled uneasily, following Goofy's enthusiastic form.

Sora's eyes wandered back down to the corpse at his feet. The scalpel clutched in the nurse's hand glinted in the light. Curiosity peaking, he pried the tool from the creature's grip and held it up. Carved into the handle was a number two. "Hey Donald, do you still have those scissors?" Sora called as he walked down the hall after his friends.

Donald patted his vest pockets, pulling out the scissors and holding them up.

Sora held up the scalpel in response. "Found another one. How many do you think there are?"

Donald shrugged, handing the scissors to Sora, who put the two items carefully into one of the pockets that hung off his pants.

Goofy was pulling at the door of a stairwell -- locked, but mercifully not broken. He tore his attention away to Sora and Donald. "The answer must be in the riddle!"

"The riddle?" Sora repeated. He pulled out the prescription note from his pocket and held it up to the light. "'Count the hours on the clock / Until midnight is struck'," he read.

"Right!" Goofy nodded, holding up a finger. "If you count the numbers on the face of a clock..." He began slowly counting on his fingers.

Donald followed along on his fingers, stopping short at the number eight confusedly.

Sora stared upwards, working through the idea slowly. "So there are... twelve?"

Goofy nodded broadly. "Yup! See, Sora, it's not so hard!"

"Easy for you to say..." Sora muttered. He wandered away and pulled at a set of double doors idly. They opened with a screech, catching Sora off-guard both with the movement and the noise. "Woah!" he exclaimed before falling through the doors. Donald and Goofy hopped around him into the corridor on the other side. "Sure guys, don't help me up or anything," he grumbled as he clambered to his feet.

Donald and Goofy had already forged ahead, pulling at more broken locks. Goofy pulled at the door of a room labeled "C2" and the radio crackled with static. A Nightmare Dusk tumbled out of the room. Startled, Goofy instinctively kicked the Nightmare Dusk away. It hit the wall with a snap, and lay still on the ground. The static died out. Goofy blinked sheepishly. "Gawrsh," he peeped.

"Way to go, Goof'," Sora whistled. Walking up to join them, he peered into the room. It was relatively empty, with the exception of some overturned bed frames, and a large light fixture that had fallen from the ceiling. Sora stepped into the room, light sparkling along the glass shards. Hidden amidst the field of glass was an empty hypodermic needle. Carefully, he picked up the needle and held it the light. A number six had been etched into the glass. Turning away from the room, he held the needle up for Donald and Goofy to see before pocketing it. "Got number six."

It didn't take long to check the other doors in the hall -- all broken shut or blocked. A set of double doors at the end of the hall was locked, as well as another small stairwell door. A small elevator at the end of the hall failed to respond when the buttons were pressed.

"What are we gonna do?" Donald sighed. "We can't go up without a key."

"Let's go back to the other hall, we didn't try all the rooms there," Sora suggested.

They filed back through the double doors. Next to another unresponsive elevator was an open door labeled "Doctor's Lounge". In wonder at finding an open door, the three poured in. The small room had a dank, musty odor, and was crowded with a large table, a small refrigerator, a sink, and some low cabinets. Inspecting the fridge, Donald pulled out a glass bottle. The contents inside were a brick red color, and flowed with a thick consistency. "'Health refreshment drink'? Like a Potion?" Donald read skeptically. He twisted the top off and sniffed, sticking his tongue out in revulsion.

Sora tried to quell his amusement at the sight of Donald sniffing the bottle. Isn't he a duck? Where's his nose? "Hold onto it, maybe it will come in handy."

"I'm not gonna drink that!" Donald protested, but pocketed it anyway.

Sora's attention wavered to a single piece of paper on the table, torn from a notebook. He held it up to the light. Part of a name had been torn off at the top, but the rest of the notes were intact. They were scrawled in a carefully controlled, looped writing, and it took Sora a moment to decipher what he was reading.

Presenting strong autobiographical memory loss and emotional dissociation. Suspicion of split ego states.

Calm and behaved unless provoked. Very strong sense of justice and delusions of grandeur. Obsessions with strong ideology sometime leads to violent behavior. Exercise extreme caution.

Apparent distrust of adults and authority figures. Possible roots in childhood development. Investigate further.

Sora frowned. Doctors are always looking for what isn't there. What a quack, he thought bitterly, and tossed the note aside. On the table where the paper had been lay a silver pen, a number three engraved on the top. Picking it up, he was startled by a sudden rustle of papers in front of his face.

"Look, Sora!" Goofy's voice chimed from the other side of the paper. "A map!"

Sora's focus readjusted to take in the lines and text that jumbled together in front of his eyes, forming a map. "Great!" he replied, trying to inject the same sort of enthusiasm into his voice with marginal success. He snatched the papers dangling from Goofy's hands and spread them out on the table. Pulling the red crayon from his pocket and exchanging it for the pen, he started marking the doors they had tried so far. Goofy and Donald peered over his shoulder.

"Okay, if there is a key, it should be... somewhere around here," he drew a large circle on the right side of the first floor map with his finger.

Goofy tried to make sense of the confusion of squiggles and checks Sora had already drawn onto the map. "Why d'ya say that?"

"Because it's the only place we haven't checked!" Donald answered, unimpressed with Sora's deductive reasoning. His eyes strayed to a large room in the lower right. "A kitchen! I'm starving," he groaned. Drool began to leak from his bill as if to punctuate the grumbling sound emerging from his stomach.

Sora leaned away from the drooling duck. "I wouldn't expect anything edible here, Donald..."

"It's worth checking!" With that, Donald made a mad dash out of the room and around the corner into the dark. Sora and Goofy stared as he disappeared out of sight.

"Hey, wait up!" Sora called. Scooping up the map, Sora and Goofy stumbled back out in the hall. They caught a glimpse of tail feathers as they disappeared through a door. "Can't he think about anything else besides his stomach at a time like this?" Sora muttered, following the feathers through the doorway. His shoes struck something hard and he wind-milled his arms wildly trying to regain balance. Caught off-guard, Goofy slammed into Sora and the two went down in a mass of swinging arms. "Woah--!" Sora cried before hitting the hard tiled floor. He hissed in pain and looked up at the cause of all the trouble.

Donald was standing just inside the doorway, staring fixedly in front of him. Following his gaze, Sora craned his head upwards.

The beam from the headlight split and bounced in several directions as they caught what was hanging from the ceiling over a large kitchen island. Dozens of knives of every size turned and rattled in the breeze from the door. Interspersed amongst them were large hooks. Chunks of what Sora hoped was meat clung to the hooks, shriveled and rotting. The stench hit Sora like a punch to the stomach, and he doubled over in nausea. Goofy turned a violent shade of green.

"Urp!" Sora choked. He stumbled to his feet, swaying. Reaching for the door, he was stopped by a tug on his sleeve. Fighting the urge to run, Sora turned and looked back at Donald. He was gesturing up at the knives hanging from the ceiling. Swallowing his nausea, Sora looked back up. Hidden amidst the sea of cutlery flashed a number five. "Oh!" was all he could manage to force out -- the thought of breathing in order to speak induced more panicked flight feelings.

Sora moved shakily around the island, taking in the rest of the kitchen. Food stains littered the walls and clogged the grout in the floor. Large cooking pots cluttered the huge commercial ranges, many of which seemed to still be filled with a variety of gag-inducing stews. He looked up at the ceiling, where the numbered knife hung just out of reach. In a stroke of nausea-induced genius, he reached up at it with the steel pipe.

Goofy stood back, turning the trash can lid around in his hands. "Sora, be careful," he whimpered.

The steel pipe swayed precariously around the knives, before finally striking -- right next to the target. There was a roar of sharp clanks and clangs as the knives began to rebound against each other -- and, one by one, fall from the ceiling.

"Waaaaaah!" The three screamed and took cover as the knives began to bounce off the metal island. A paring knife ricocheted off the counter and struck the center of Goofy's trash can lid, which he clutched protectively over his head. Donald scrambled about in a dizzy panic as knives fell around him, splitting his tail feathers. Sora cowered under the enormous industrial sink he had been standing over moments before as a butcher's knife struck the tiles at his feet. The rain of cutlery trickled to a stop. The blade of the butcher's knife still rung with vibrations as Sora crawled slowly out from his hiding spot.

"You guys okay?" Sora called out.

He was answered by a blather of unintelligible obscenities from Donald.

"I'm alright!" Goofy responded shakily, peering out from under the trash can lid. The paring knife had imbedded itself in the aluminum.

Sora sighed in relief. He pawed through the mess to recover the prize. A glint in the corner of his eye lured his attention to the sink.

The enormous metal sink was stained with blood, smearing towards the drain. Sora peered through the hole to see the blades of a garbage disposal -- and a key.

Wrapping the knife in a soiled dish rag with some disgust and shoving it in his pocket, he leaned over the sink. Donald and Goofy came up beside him, Donald panting from his tirade and Goofy still shivering. Sora held his hand out over the drain, hesitating.

"What are you doing now?" Donald wheezed.

"There's a key in there!" Sora replied.

"Wah? In the garbage disposal?"

Goofy eyed Sora's hand nervously. "Uh, maybe that isn't..."

Ignoring them, Sora shoved his fingers in the drain. Unable to see what he was doing, the blades of the disposal and the key felt relatively the same -- and the drain was too small to move his thumb. Ugh, come on. He could feel his fingers pushing at the blades, clicking and twitching at his touch. His fingertips grazed the key and he struggled to keep it between his fingertips.

"Hurry up!" Donald pleaded.

"Sora..." Goofy whined.

Sora finally got a good grip on the key between his fingers. Got it! At that moment, he began to hear a growing hum. What the...?

"Watch out!" Goofy yelped. He yanked Sora's arm away from the drain just as the garbage disposal roared to life, spraying bits of debris and blood.

Sora stared in shock from the key in his hand, to the garbage disposal, which was grinding to a halt. Goofy sighed in relief and let go of Sora's arm.

Donald began pummeling Sora in the back with his fists, which was about as high as he could reach. "Sora! What moron goes and sticks their hand in a dark hole?!" he vented.

Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with his free hand. "Sorry, sorry... but we got the key, right?" He held it out for Donald to see.

Donald eyed the key warily. "What does it go to?"

Sora turned it around in his hand and tried to wipe it clean, but there were no distinguishing marks other than its silver color. "Uh, I don't know..." he admitted. Donald's posture sunk in dismay. Sora looked around, eager to share his victory; his face fell. "Where's Goofy?"

Donald and Sora were alone in the knife-strewn kitchen. Donald looked about in confusion. "Goofy? Where'd you go?" he called out.

"I'm in here!" a muffled voice called. Sora and Donald's attention turned to an open door not far from where they had come in. Shoving the key in one of his pockets, Sora ran through the door, Donald on his heels.

On the other side of the door was a small cafeteria. The dead air hung with a rotting stench. The light played over a number of small tables and tipped chairs. Standing amongst them was Goofy. Relieved to see Goofy was alright, Sora walked up to join him -- and froze.

On the table next to Goofy lay the corpse of a Nightmare Dusk on a large platter, burnt and mutilated beyond recognition. Cut into the corpse's skin were the words "Eat Me"; a health drink next to the body was labeled "Drink Me". An enormous roasting fork had been stabbed into the corpse's flank, a number four burnt into the wooden handle.

"Did you... did you do this, Goofy?" Sora whispered, suppressing the urge to gag.

Goofy flinched in shock. "N-no! I was just lookin' for something for Donald..."

"I think I lost my appetite," Donald groaned, clutching his stomach.

Sora ripped the roasting fork from the Dusk's flank, shuddering at the way the body twitched and the skin oozed. "Well, that's number four..."

Donald picked up the health drink and tossed it to Goofy. "Drink this, Goofy!"

Goofy shook his head, ears tossing from side to side. "Nuh-uh, not until you drink yours!"

"No way!"

Sora grabbed Goofy's arm and began to drag him towards the door. "Good job, Goofy, now let's get out of here."

"Hey, wait for me!" Donald huffed, running after them.