The Songs in Our Hearts Book One: Reaching Out

Chapter Nine: The Storm (Part Two)

Laying in bed in his dimly lit room, Sora thought about what Kairi had said earlier. He couldn't understand why she was acting so strange before, especially since whenever the two were alone, Kairi always talked about how fond she was of the islands. To Sora, her excitement for leaving was a little unexpected. Then again, she might just have been excited to return to her home world. As the brunette's gaze wandered about his room, he realized how messy it had gotten. Some old clothes and a few books (that he never got to reading) were scattered on the floor.

"I should clean that up before tomorrow," he mumbled to himself, not looking forward to making his bedroom tidy all night. Sora rolled his head in the opposite direction as an attempt to ignore the mess on the floor, and he found himself looking out the window.

A dark mass of clouds immediately caught his attention, and the boy jolted up. Lightning flashed within those clouds, and loud boom seemed to shake the islands.

"A storm?" he whispered under his breath. His sky blue orbs widened as he suddenly realized something: "Oh, no, the raft!" Jumping out of bed, Sora ran for his bedroom door then realized it was almost dinner time. "Ah, I can't let my parents see me," he grunted.

Sora stood in the middle of his messy room looking for a way out without his parents noticing. The only other reasonable way of leaving was the window above his bed.

"YEET!" he yelled as he rammed into the window. Somehow, by some other-worldly wonder, he landed on the ground without a scratch, even though it was littered with broken glass from his window. Ignoring the miracle that was his unscathed skin, Sora sprinted at full speed to the boats.

As he drew closer to the other island, Sora saw a large, ominous hole in the night sky. It loomed above the platform where the paopu tree was.

"What's that?" he asked in wonder, his light blue gaze fixated on the opening. When he landed on the dock, Sora noticed two other boats. "Riku's boat. And Kairi's!" he realized soon after landing. Sora turned, ready to look for his friends, but he was stopped by strange shadowy figures with sharp claws, antennae, and glowing, yellow eyes. They appeared from the ground.

Taking out the wooden toy sword, he charged the shadows. One of them crept forward for an attack, and the boy swung the blade at it. The sword, however, harmlessly phased through its body, and it continued to advance towards Sora.

"What are these things?" Sora cried out as he ran away from them. More of the shadows began to spawn out of the ground. Even though he knew the sword went right through them, Sora continued to swing at their bodies. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Riku standing by the paopu tree. Great! Riku always knows what to do, and maybe Kairi's with him, he thought to himself. Running into the shack that led onto the bridge to the tree, Sora slammed the door behind him, and he began to make his way up the stair case.

Sora could hear scratching and pounding from outside. As he quickly climbed up the stairs, he hoped that all of this was just a bad dream. Whatever those things were, they were hostile and the fourteen-year-old could not do anything to ward them off. At last, the boy made it out of the shack and he raced across the bridge to get to his friend. Looking behind himself to see where the shadows were, Sora saw that they had managed to climb onto the bridge. Sora ran even faster now, desperate to escape the monsters.

Once he made it to the platform, he shouted above the wind, "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" when he noticed the girl wasn't with him. Riku didn't seem to hear his question, or at the very least, he ignored it.

"The door has opened..." Riku spoke in a trance-like state with his back facing Sora.

"What?" Sora asked, unsure of what Riku was talking about.

The silver-haired teen turned around slowly, and Sora froze at the wicked grin he saw on his friend's face. "The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" he marvelled at the dark portal.

"What are you talking about?" Sora questioned him, confused as to how Riku was so calm over this. "We've gotta find Kairi!" he pointed out.

"Kairi's coming with us!" the boy snapped, causing Sora to flinch at his tone. Bringing his gaze up to the hole, Riku continued, "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." Riku's gloved hand clenched into a fist. "But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" he declared, bringing his gaze back to Sora. As Sora listened to Riku, the brunette could not help but feel uneasy by Riku's remarks. Something about all this just didn't seem right. Staring down upon them was the portal. It was surrounded by sinister clouds and within it, a strange energy seemed to swirl inside.

"Riku..." the boy called softly, hoping to coax his friend from going through with this.

Reaching a hand towards Sora, Riku beckoned, "Come with me." A black mass materialized beneath the older boy's feet and quickly began to consume his form. Still, Riku remained calm and continued to reach his hand to Sora. Sora started after Riku only to find that the dark tendrils surrounded him too. He couldn't move from where he was, and he desperately tried to grab Riku's hand. The darkness almost completely shrouded Riku now and started to surround Sora too, keeping him just barely out of reach; Sora tried to stretch his arm further. It felt unaturally cold in the shadows. Sora's vision began to go black.

Just before everything was obscured by the darkness, a bright light flashed in the boy's hand. He winced as it lit up the area. Cracking open one of his sky blue orbs, Sora saw two things: Riku had disappeared and there was a large, silver key with a golden hand guard in his hand.

Keyblade, a distant whisper called. Sora tilted his head in confusion. Where did Riku go? And what's a Keyblade?

Out of nowhere, one of the shadow monsters lept at him. Instinctively, Sora swung the Key at the shadow, and to his surprise, the shadow dissipated into thin air. Taking this new knowledge to his advantage, Sora charged through the other shadows— each one disappearing as the Keyblade struck them. Riku was gone now, and there was nothing much Sora could do about it. However, Kairi was still here somewhere; Sora knew it was up to him to find her.