Butterfly Wings

Departure

His mother had seemed surprised when he showed up with a black haired doppleganger in tow, but agreed she could stay the night without further comment, agreeing to bring her to the mayor the next morning.

They'd headed up to his room. Sora had been embarrassed by the mess, but the girl didn't seem to even notice. She looked thrilled, turning around slowly.

"I can see the whole thing!" she said to herself, sounding pleased by this. "I'm really here!"

She was weird, Sora thought. He flopped backward onto his bed, then jerked upright against at the sound of a thundercrack. Looking out his open window he could see more lightning bolts flashing across the sky, the light reflecting off what looked like a black stormcloud over the island they'd just left.

"Oh no, the raft!" Without a second thought Sora grabbed the windowsill with one hand and vaulted out.

"But you said you weren't leaving yet!"

Sora looked up from the ground to see the girl clambering out the window after him. She jumped to the slanted first story roof, like he had, but unlike him, she didn't then jump to the ground. Instead she wobbled, tried to catch her balance, failed, then fell over the edge.

He lunged, just managing to catch her before she hit the street face-first. The force knocked him backward hard.

"Ow," the girl said thoughtfully. Then, rather than 'Thank you' or 'Sorry' or anything else a sane person would say, "You told me you weren't leaving yet!"

"I'm not! I'm just going to make sure the raft's safe!" He stood up. "I don't have time to argue!"

He started running to the beach where the boats were. The girl ran after him.

"But this isn't supposed to happen yet!" she argued. "Not until the raft's finished!"

"The raft is finished!" he shouted back, feeling more and more frustrated. "But then you showed up so we weren't going to leave!"

At the beach, the boats were gone. After a second of looking about to see if they were anywhere near, Sora plunged into the water and started swimming.

The water had looked calm, but after he swam out a short distance he found himself being swept out. He panicked, but within a minute he found himself nearly at the island with the raft rather than swept out to sea.

He reached the pier. "Riku's boat. And Kairi's!" he gasped. They lived closer than he did. They must have headed down as well before him.

The girl climbed up next to him. Then black monsters started to ooze out of the ground.

He stumbled back, terrified, and the girl at his left shouted, "All right! Finally!" and took off, jumping off the pier to run wildly across the beach.

Sora didn't have time to consider chasing her. The twitching black things were creeping closer. One skittered toward him and he stumbled backwards, falling. His hand landed on the hilt of the wooden sword. He swung at another monster as it jumped and the toy passed through it, like it was made of mist. Then it hit him, horribly solid, with icy claws and teeth digging into his chest. The other two were crouching and leaping now, and he kept swinging and nothing, it was like they were ghosts. They were gathering around him, clawing him, they were going to drag him back down into the dark like his dream, and he ran.

New ones popped up under his feet but when he spun, expecting one about to leap for his back, he saw old ones melting away behind him. And so he turned and ran again as the new bunch twitched and shuddered and jumped for him, all teeth and claws and dead yellow eyes.