When Darkness Turns to Light

Riddled in Darkness

Recappy From the Last Chappy: Alice watched after them, brow furrowed. As an afterthought, she called, "The Cheshire Cat I met in the forest might know something, too!" She was responded to by Sora's nod and then turned her head toward Hikari. "My name is Alice. What is yours?"

"Call me Hiki. Alice? Remember their names: Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They're the ones we'll be haunting if they somehow mess this up and we lose our heads."

Meanwhile, somewhere, someone painted. It was of Kurenai's profile, with her eyes closed and chin raised. Her hair billowed about her, yet she seemed listless, almost lifeless. She also looked to be encased in darkness. In front of Kurenai's chest, it looked like the painter's brush strokes were forming a heart.

Chapter Six: Riddled in Darkness

Kurenai led the group through the maze silently, showing no hesitation at any of the forks or intersections as if she knew exactly where she was proceeding. For her, there was absolutely no confusion, whereas Sora, Donald, and Goofy had lost track of where they had tread.

Sora was a few feet behind her, gazing at the hedges with his Keyblade hanging at his back. His eyes soon found the sky that was filled with surprisingly vivid and defined clouds (ranging in many shapes.) He could imagine the worlds alternate to this one, Traverse Town, and his own home, Destiny Islands.

He wondered how many were out there. How many possible worlds were there that Riku or Kairi could have ended up on? How many of those worlds had submitted to an apocalypse, like his own? Another thought occurred to him as he lowered his gaze to Kurenai.

"Um, excuse me . . . Kurenai?" he asked. The woman acknowledged. "How do you know Hiki? Are you from her world?"

"Her name is sort of familiar, but I don't recognize her. Due to her presence of chakra, she must be. I'm sure I don't know her very personally, though," she replied, once thinking it over. "It has been three years . . . I can't say I remember everyone." Pause. She asked in an almost tense undertone, "How did you meet Yakumo?"

Goofy answered, "Well, uh, we saw her paintin' pictures before we were attacked by Heartle-" He covered his mouth as Donald glared at him, furiously jumping up and down in silent squawks. It was in a whisper that the knight was reminded by the magician not to meddle.

However, Kurenai had already caught on to what he was going to say. "Heartless? So they are here. . . ." Yakumo. . . .

Donald stopped jumping, having fallen behind a little, and quickly waddled to catch up. "You know about them?"

"They had begun attempting to invade our world for at least twelve years, before they destroyed it," she explained. After leading them into another left turn, she brought them through the path, toward the end. A stone door was in the hedges. "We're about to enter the Lotus Forest. We should reach Yakumo soon."

She walked up to the rock and braced herself against it, using her strength to move the door out of its place. Nearly effortless, an opening in the hedge was soon revealed, and they took a few steps inside. Everything was terribly gargantuan, with flowers as tall as Sora holding buds as large as his head.

The boys looked around. A pond was nearby with lily pads twenty times normal size, and surrounding the clearing were blades of tall grass colored like clouds at sunset, around the size of trees. The trees, for that matter, were large enough that it was impossible to discern their true height; the sky was eclipsed by the trees' canopy. To the right of the entrance, there was a short, but wide, tree trunk.

Kurenai took a few steps ahead, when a cat suddenly appeared out of thin air, bobbing with an impossibly wide grin of white teeth. It was colored pink and purple. Both Sora and Kurenai each took a step back as it disappeared, and then reappeared farther away.