Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 3

"Where...am I?" I finally managed to stutter. "What...what just happened?

The man wearing the long black coat reached up toward his face, though I couldn't see what he was doing since everything underneath his hood was completely dark. "That's not Naminé," he remarked, lowering his hand again. "But it's not Kairi, either."

"Then who are you?" the man in the red cape demanded. His face was mostly wrapped in strips of red cloth, so that all I could see was a stern mouth and one creepy orange eye. I felt like I had stumbled into an early Halloween party.

"I don't have to tell you that!" I shook my head vigorously. "Why don't you tell me who you are? And while you're at it, explain to me how I got here! I was just standing in my room, minding my own business, and then suddenly I'm looking at The Mummy and the Grim Reaper." A sudden thought crossed my mind and I gasped, pointing an accusatory finger. "Did you drug me? Is that why I can't remember how I got here? Is this a kidnapping?"

"Calm down child," the man in red replied in a condescending tone. "No one has kidnapped you. We have no idea how you got here, either."

The one in black pushed back his hood, revealing himself to be a a boy around my age, with long, silver hair that hung down over a black blindfold. "Just relax, and we'll figure this out." His voice was much more sympathetic than the other man's. "Let's start with names. I'm Riku, and this is DiZ."

I eyed them suspiciously, still not sure whether I should share my name. "Meli," I answered finally. "Could you at least tell me where on earth I am?"

Riku glanced at DiZ, if one can do such a thing with a blindfold on, as if seeking permission to answer. "Twilight Town."

"Never heard of it," I sighed in frustration.

"So, what world are you from, then?" DiZ asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "What world? The world. The only world. What are you talking about?"

The two shared a look I couldn't read. "Did you use a dark corridor to come here?" DiZ questioned.

"A dark what?" This conversation was getting more confusing and frustrating by the second. "Listen, all I know is, I was standing in front of my mirror, I shut my eyes, and when I opened them, I was here."

DiZ's one eye lit up in recognition. "Your mirror, you say?"

"Does that mean something to you?" Riku asked him.

"Perhaps." DiZ drummed his fingers on his knees and leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. "I would need more information to know for sure."

Suddenly I felt very light-headed again, and began to sway back and forth slightly. "Are you okay?" I heard Riku ask.

"Yeah," I answered, shutting my eyes and rubbing my forehead with my fingertips. "I hit my head a little bit ago. That must be what's making me feel kinda dizzy." Ugh, why did I tell them that? They seemed nice enough, but what if they were just waiting for me to be vulnerable enough to pounce? My eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape, but I would have to run right past the two men to get to the only doorway I could see.

"Here." Riku reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a vial of clear liquid. "Take this, it'll help."

I took a step backwards as he walked toward me. "Uh, yeah, sure, let me just drink the strange, unlabeled liquid that the weird, blindfolded guy that lives in my mirror is handing me," I retorted. "No thanks. I don't feel like being roofied today."

He stopped short, a mixture of amusement and embarrassment on his face. "I...I don't know what roofied means," he stammered. "But, uh...fair point, I guess." Shrugging, he returned the vial to his pocket. "I mean, I had it to use for myself, if that makes you feel any better. But you have no real reason to trust me."

"Why don't you lie down and rest until you're feeling better?" DiZ suggested. "Riku can show you to a bedroom upstairs."

"I need to figure out how to get back home," I argued.

"That's what I will be working on while you rest," DiZ reassured me. "I will have more questions for you later, but you'll be of no use if you are unwell."

Reluctantly, I nodded my agreement. I really wasn't feeling well, and a bed sounded like just what I needed. Besides, if they were offering to let me out of their sight, then maybe that was a good sign that they weren't kidnappers, after all. "Fine. As long as I can lock the door."

"This way." Riku turned and walked into the next room, which mostly consisted of a staircase leading up into a library. I followed, impressed by how easily he seemed to navigate despite being blindfolded.

"Can you...see?" I asked tentatively as we reached the top of the stairs.

"Without the blindfold, yes." He didn't seem bothered by my question. "With the blindfold, no, not really. I can make out some vague shapes and shadows. Otherwise I just use my other senses to get around."

"Oh." I really wanted to ask him what the purpose of it was, but I didn't figure I should push quite that far. We exited the library and came out onto a balcony that looked over a grand foyer. There were two sets of staircases leading down to the floor below, which was littered with broken vases and toppled suits of armor.

Riku started down the nearest staircase. "The bedrooms are this way." As soon as we reached the bottom of the stairs, however, he froze, and puffs of black smoke began appearing all over the room. I jumped backwards and stifled a scream as black, yellow-eyed monsters emerged from the smoke.

"Get upstairs!" Riku ordered.

Not about to argue, I tore back up the stairs as fast as I could, stopping to lean over the rail at the top. Riku was already making short work of the giant ant-looking creatures. Where had he gotten that strange red sword from? It hadn't been anywhere in sight a moment ago. Every time he hit a monster with it, the monster would vanish in a puff of smoke, just like they had appeared to start with. I watched with breathless fascination. Those monsters...they could have crawled straight out of one my old nightmares. Now that I thought about it, Riku reminded me a bit of the older boy from my dreams, too. He was the right age, and had the same silver hair. All of this seemed way more realistic than any of my dreams ever had before, but it was the best explanation I had come up with so far.

When the last of the monsters were gone, Riku stopped and turned his face up toward me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I called back with a smile. "In fact, everything is finally starting to make sense."

"It is?" Riku frowned. His sword disappeared from his hand like magic, which was all the confirmation I needed.

"Yep." I started back down the stairs toward him. "I'm dreaming. I must have passed out earlier, and it's that bump on my head that's making this all seem so realistic. I mean, it's gotta be, right? Because those monsters are the ones that kept being in my dreams last year, and you, Grim, are one of the boys I always dream about." Crossing my arms, I pursed my lips in thought. "I wonder where the other two are." This was the first time I had dreamed about just one of them at a time, but then again, it was also the first time my brain had inserted myself into the story.

Riku gave a slight smile as I approached. "Sorry to break it to you, but I'm real, and you're very much awake."

"Uh-huh." I was not at all swayed. "That's just what somebody in a dream would say."

Leading the way again, Riku opened a glass door between the staircases and we walked out into a courtyard with a giant statue of a winged horse in the center. Another glass door on the other side of the courtyard opened into a long hallway with many doors. "Here's a room that you can rest in," he told me, opening the second door we came across. "That is, if you still want to."

I shrugged as I walked into the room. "Sure, why not? Maybe if I fall asleep here in the dream, I'll wake up in real life." Everything inside was draped in white sheets. I yanked off the dusty sheet that was covering the comforter on the four-poster bed, and sat down. "Thanks, Grim. I'll see you in another dream, I guess."

Riku didn't move for a moment, just leaned against the door frame and stared in my direction. Finally he shook his head and turned to leave. "Alright, Meli. See you later."