Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 47

LoZ_Keyblade_Master:  Thanks!  I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Springlock2:  Yeah, it's one of my favorites, too!

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I kept my face half-buried against Riku for quite some time. He rocked me back and forth slightly like I was a small child, gently rubbing his gloved hand up and down my arm. Eventually I started to become aware of my surroundings again, of the rest of the people who were standing around talking about and watching me.

"I should have seen it." Riku's chest rumbled as he spoke. "I should have seen that she was hurting, and pulled her out sooner."

"I knew they were doing something to her, every time they would take her out of the cell and she would come back hardly able to eat anything," I heard Kairi whisper. "I had no idea how bad it was, though."

"What is thing thing, anyway?" Sora asked, probably examining the band that had fallen off onto the floor. "Do you think it was using some kind of electricity?"

"Looks like it could have been," Riku mused, carefully moving my shirt a little higher on one side. "There's something else, too, though. I smell darkness on that band, like there was some kind of dark energy involved." His words were terse, fraught with anger.

I glanced down at my bare stomach to see hideous black marks stretching like streaks of lightning all over my skin. My face flushed with shame and I began struggling to sit up and cover myself. Nobody needed to see that.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Riku soothed, pulling my hands away and cradling me even tighter. I wanted to protest, wanted to stop letting him hold me, but I didn't have the strength to fight. Riku looked up at his friends. "Sora, would you...?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" Sora exclaimed. I heard him call out my name, and a swirl of green light surrounded me, breathing life back into me and greatly easing my pain.

Inhaling deeply, I tried once again to sit up, but Riku wasn't quite ready to let me go yet. "Let's do one more...just in case. There's no telling what that did to the inside of her body."

Donald obliged, and Riku was finally satisfied enough to release me. I immediately sat up straight and pulled down my shirt, though not before noticing that the marks had faded to still-ugly scars. I knew the gazes of all my friends were on me, but I just stared down at my hands, embarrassed all over again at having ended up in this situation. "Thank you, everyone. I owe you guys big time."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Sora responded.

"We're just glad we could help," Goofy added.

"I'm pretty sure it's me that owes you," Kairi put in. "You've been giving me most of your food for weeks, remember?"

I wished she wouldn't bring that up and make me sound like some kind of hero. "That was...don't worry about that," I mumbled. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"And we're just glad that you're okay," Riku answered. I glanced up at him and could see in his eyes how worried he had been. "I wish that I had been the one to give that..." He cleared his throat, his fists clenched on his lap. "That psychopath the justice he deserved, but...the important thing is that he's gone now."

"So...you two still haven't told us how you know each other," Donald piped up.

"Yeah, and somehow I get the feeling that you've known her longer than I have," Sora agreed. "Hey wait...was Riku the friend you were crying about that time? The one you said you missed, but he didn't exist anymore?"