Prologue:
Day 5: In Which The Mansion Thwarts Its Visitors
Roxas leapt nimbly over a fallen tree branch and wended his way into the wooded forest, the pounding of his feet muffled against the grass and the earth. Late again, overslept again, longer than usual, so much longer, and he still felt barely human. After the chaos of yesterday, he was probably due for a little rest and relaxation -- Vivi's strange possession, the fight with Axel at the Struggle match, the strange robed man, and after that...
falling, or else the ground was racing up to meet him, and there was a girl in his mind
He couldn't remember all that well what had happened after that. It all felt like a blur, but Roxas was confident that he had been exhausted and gone home to go to bed early somewhere in the blur.
The point was that he had gone to the Usual Spot and, unsurprisingly, found nothing but a note, telling him to meet them to (finally) (at Olette's insistence) do their summer homework. They had been investigating Sunset Terrace and then after lunch they would investigate the old mansion hidden behind Market Plaza.
It was considerably past lunch, but he might just make it in time.
Roxas was right to hurry, because as he rushed up to the old building he found Hayner, Pence, and Olette already assembled in front of the gates.
"You guys!" he said breathlessly, skidding to a stop. "I'm here!"
"Oh, great," Hayner huffed, turning around with his arms folded over his chest, but he was grinning. "Now we can't make you do the assignment on your own."
Olette elbowed him in remonstration. "We weren't really going to make you do your own assignment," she assured Roxas. "We were just joking around."
"Thanks," Roxas said, vaguely bemused -- so they were really talking about it? "What's our paper on, now?"
"The Seven Mysteries of Twilight Town," Pence said avidly, for once forgetting to employ his 'spooky' voice. "The others were all fake, but the mansion is the real deal. Lots of people have seen her!"
"Seen who?" Roxas asked, taking in his surroundings for the first time. The gates were locked, just like he remembered, but Pence was armed with a recording device and Hayner with a butterfly net. He had seen more fearsome fishermen.
Hayner looked up at the mansion, his expression distant. "Supposedly there's a girl in that old place, all dressed in white. You can see her in the windows sometimes."
"A ghost!"
Roxas felt his heart stop in his chest. A girl all in white? She was no ghost. She was-- Namine, wasn't she? He couldn't shake the sensation that it was Namine. He looked up at the window, expecting to see her drawn features there.
he was falling off the tower and in the odd calm before his death he could see a girl who looked just like namine, or else namine looked just like
But he was ignoring Pence's profound narration: "And so they went into the mansion, four intrepid adventure-seekers just trying to do their homework assignment, and the floorboards creaked, and they heard the strangest sounds...... And then no one ever heard from them again."
Olette smacked his shoulder and Hayner exclaimed, "Now we have to go in. I can't wait until my mom hears that doing my homework killed me. Think they'd put that in the obituary?"
Roxas murmured, "I think they'd just put 'local students kill themselves on stairs of abandoned house.'"
They glanced at each other awkwardly for a moment, sharing an uncomfortable or nervous moment, and then Hayner shrugged and rolled his shoulders deliberately, staring at the gate. He finally said, "Well, nothing for it," and broke into a quick run, leaping up and grabbing onto one prong of the gate to haul himself up. The moment he was up off the ground, he let go and fell back to earth gracelessly.
There was a brief pause before Roxas could even react, shaking off the malaise to trot over to him and hold out a hand. "Are-- you okay? That was pretty clumsy..." It hadn't even looked real.
"It wasn't clumsy!" the taller boy insisted, rubbing his jaw and wincing. "There's -- some kind of force field or something!"
Pence choked audibly, but Olette said over him, "The fence is electrified?"
Roxas glanced up at the fence. He could've sworn they'd touched it in the past. He'd touched it in the past. Before, when the silver creatures had fought him, maybe. Hadn't he? Suddenly it was hard to remember what had and hadn't happened.
Didn't I -- fall off the station tower yesterday?
But no one else seemed to have noticed, seemed to think that his presence here -- his continued living -- was weird at all.
Maybe he was just insane. Maybe if he touched the gate and it was electrified, if he went into this house and saw nothing more ghostly than shifting curtains -- he would know for sure that he was just crazy. That it had all been the product of his imagination.
Olette smacked his hand, and Roxas blinked, looking down at the hand as if he'd only just noticed it. "Don't touch it!" she snapped, scowling at him. "You could get really hurt, Roxas!"
He hadn't even realized he was about to touch it. He felt a little silly, and rubbed his hand, protesting, "Well, we don't know it's electrified. And we have to find some way inside. Maybe only the gate is dangerous, and we could get over from the side...?"
Hayner spit off to the side -- he'd probably bit his tongue in the fall -- but he said grimly, "Let's do it." He moved for the wall again, less reckless this time, and waved Roxas over. "Give me a boost." He grabbed one of the vines that twisted up the bars of the fence, to help climb up.
Roxas approached and paused a beat, looking up the fence. There was nothing intimidating about it, nothing indicating an electric charge or anything out of the ordinary, but... He felt strange. Like something in his bones vibrated the closer he came to the fence. He glanced at Hayner uncertainly, but he only found the other boy glancing back over his shoulder at him impatiently. With a distracted smile, he braced himself and gave Hayner a lift.
The sensation was even stronger the more he straightened, the higher Hayner reached, this buzzing in his head, in his whole body. If Hayner actually got to the top of the fence, if he pulled away, wouldn't he--
"Wait," he said numbly, "I can't--"
"What are you losers up to?"
Hayner spun around, or tried to, nearly kneeing Roxas in the head, and in a matter of seconds they both crashed to the ground, Hayner's wildly waving arms doing nothing to stop him from nearly crushing Roxas's ribs. It was painful, but not so painful that it blocked out Seifer's laughter.
"Weeeell," the tall boy jeered, somewhere behind the roaring in Roxas's ears. "Isn't this romantic? Are we interrupting you boys?"
Pence murmured something peaceable that sounded like encouragement to ignore him while he tried to help the other boys up, but Olette seemed to step right in front of them and said firmly, "We're here to do our homework."
"Hey, you guys can report on mud-wrestling if you want," Seifer said blandly. "We were going to investigate the old mansion."
Roxas got to his feet, looking at Seifer and his gang (they were armed with a butterfly net too; was there some common knowledge he didn't know about ghost hunting?) in the beat before Hayner rocketed to Olette's side. "What! No way! We're investigating the mansion! Did you follow us?"
Rai laughed. "Follow you losers? You wish! It was Vivi's idea, ya know." Seifer hissed at him to shut up.
It took a beat for Roxas to make the connection, to really think, They took homework advice from a ten-year-old? and manage not to smirk. He shook his head and said, "Well, back off. We were here first." Mild, and he waited to see if Seifer cared enough to really push it.
Predictably, Seifer rose to the bait, smirking and saying, "Oh, but I think we're the better team--"
"Excuse me, guys," Olette said, shoving Hayner back as he bristled. She eyed Seifer like he might be contagious, but she pushed on: "Can't we -- I mean, is there any reason we can't all do our free project on the mansion? We could even work together on it."
Seifer stared back at her. "And why would we do something like that?"
Her jaw tightened. "Why wouldn't you? It's less work for everyone!"
This time it was Fuu who spoke up, around an armful of construction tools. "MISUNDERSTANDING."
Seifer nodded his apparent complete comprehension. "She's right. Just because we agreed to humor you once doesn't mean we're not still going to kick your asses the rest of the time." He grinned broadly.
"JEEZ!" Hayner snapped, shoving forward again and glaring fiercely at him. "All she said was can't we make nice for once! What's with you, anyway? What's your problem with us?"
Seifer stared back, for once not smirking or smug -- only staring flatly. "Who knows?" he said, almost philosophical. "Just looking at you lamers gets me pissed off."
That was it; Roxas stepped forward as well, calling Seifer's attention to their numbers. "The feeling's mutual. Maybe it's destiny."
Seifer laughed shortly. "Destiny? Oooh. Maybe we should be friends after all." He turned to stare into the distance, arms folded. "I'd hate to cooperate with destiny."
Roxas glanced at the others, who seemed confused as well, but Olette said quickly, "Then -- good! Let's... split up the house, then. Maybe you could take the left half, or the upstairs, or something?"
She glanced at Roxas, but he was distracting, thinking, We're all trying so hard to get into this place... Even Seifer is willing to compromise because he wants to get in here... and feeling a little sick. It was Rai who said, "Yeah! We'll take the upstairs. Right, Seifer?"
The older boy shrugged, smirking. "Okay, sure. That's where the ghost is, right? We'll let you guys know if we see her."
Roxas glanced up over his shoulder, ignoring Hayner's indignant demand for the upstairs and Seifer's smug reminder that Olette had suggested it; the second story window had fluttering white drapes, but no girl all in white. Just the wind moving...
Seifer approached the gate, and despite Hayner's whispered encouragement, Olette sighed and held out a hand. "Seifer, don't-- It's electri--"
His hand was already around one iron bar. He glanced back over his shoulder at her, frowning. "What?"
The others looked startled, but no one moreso than Roxas, who found himself hurtling forward, tearing Seifer's hand from the gate; he was shouting, "Don't touch it!" and then his elbow brushed the gate.
He was in a wide room with a rectangular table in the center. The walls were so white that they threatened to blind him, except where the startlingly bright sunlight poured in from the window against one wall to make the rest of the room glow; he put up a hand, wincing, to shield his eyes. The only color in the room came from scattered sketches posted up on the wall, made in crayon.
Roxas took a moment to absorb his surroundings, turning slowly in a circle. How had he gotten here? He shifted over to the window and peered down at the mansion garden. He was on the second floor of the mansion -- in the ghost's room. But the girl he had been expecting to see wasn't there.
He walked slowly around the edges of the room. The pictures... If he looked at them too long he started to recognize the childlike scrawls, figures from his dreams that made his stomach twist unpleasantly. This one had a figure in black with spiky blond hair (me) and a figure in bright colors that he recognized immediately as Sora, the boy from his dreams, and he had to tear his gaze away, move quicker, and then he was standing in front of another picture, with the blond in black (me) and another, taller shape with shock-red hair...
"Axel?" he said slowly.
"Yes," said the ghost, from right behind him. It should have, but it didn't even surprise him. It felt like nothing could surprise him anymore. "That one is you and Axel. I had to draw at least one... You are best friends, after all."
Roxas shook his head slowly, reflexive denial. Axel had suggested that too -- best friends. But it didn't mean anything to him. He turned to face her instead, her sad features and hands wrapped around a sketchpad in a tight embrace. "Namine," he said softly, "what's happening to me? Who are you?"
She closed her eyes. "I'm the one who started everything," she said. "Everything that's happened to you is because of me. I'm a witch."
"A witch?"
"That's what DiZ calls me." Namine looked back at the sketch that Roxas had fled from only a minute ago. "I have power over Sora's memories, and the memories of those connected to him."
That meant even less to him than assertions that he and his strange assailant from yesterday might be friends. He smiled weakly. "You can't be a very good witch. That's a pretty limited range of abilities."
It was a pitiful, pale attempt at humor, and Namine didn't overplay her response; she smiled back, small and insincere. "To be honest with you... I wish I were a better witch." She turned away and drifted to the far end of the table, sliding into the chair and finally relenting her desperate grip on the sketchbook. "Then none of us would be here."
She had claimed that it was her fault, but he couldn't be angry with her -- not when she seemed so unhappy, and when it hardly made sense to him. He felt so numb. Roxas sat across from her and looked down at his hands, the bands around his fingers. "You said, if I came to the mansion, you'd tell me what I wanted to know."
"I will," Namine assured him, "but I have just one question first."
Roxas shrugged. What did he care if she asked her question? He probably didn't have the answer to it. He didn't have any answers.
But she asked softly, "What did it feel like, yesterday, when you were falling and you saw... her?"
"So that wasn't a dream!" he started, but it flooded back to him with such startling immediacy--
he was falling off the station tower and his friends were reaching out for him, crying out, and then they just seemed to vanish, and he could hear a girl, slim and brunette, and she was reaching out for him too, one of sora's friends from his dreams of someone else's long-ago, but she couldn't remember sora's name, and then the ground rushed up and sora's voice
Roxas put his hands over his eyes, breathing quickly, and it took Namine saying his name hesitantly before he came back to himself. "What... what did it feel like?" he murmured. He thought he knew what she wanted to know. "I was-- so calm, it was weird. Like now. But I didn't feel... like... him."
Namine leaned forward, surprised and then intent. "You didn't?"
He shook his head mutedly. It was the one thing he clung to in that horrible moment, when he hadn't known anything, had been so full of confusion and presences from the dreams where he never existed.
He had, at least, been there, and been himself, in that moment.
"...I see," she whispered, and for a moment they sat there like that. Then she seemed to remember her promise, and glanced up at him. "What do you want to know?
Answers-- Roxas said quickly, "Everything." He shook his head. "Who is Sora? And DiZ? And Axel? Why is this happening to me?"
The girl hesitated several moments, long fingers caressing the edges of her book, and then she said simply, "You know Sora, much, much better than I do. A year ago... some unfortunate things happened, and Sora was -- incomplete, in many ways. He needed to be whole again, and so I put him to sleep, so that I could rebuild his memories."
Namine looked at him, as if waiting for a response, but he had none to give her. He had no idea what he was talking about. She glanced down again after a beat. "It's taken the whole year, but the chains of his memories are finally starting to come together again. In order for him to be completely whole again... he needs to be with you, Roxas. Because part of him is with you."
"Me?" Roxas echoed, and his fingers curled into fists on the table. "How could that be?"
She seemed to have to force herself to say, "You -- are a part of him, Roxas." Namine looked so sad, so unhappy, but the words that came out of her mouth... "The truth is that you're not allowed to exist. Because you were never supposed to exist at all."
Roxas stared at her, blank. He should be angry -- getting to his feet, furious, snapping at her -- but he just felt so cold. "...how can you say something like that? I'm human, right? ...don't I have a right to live? Humans..."
But Namine was so still, and she said softly, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I think maybe he was right -- some things really... shouldn't be said."
The roaring in his head grew louder, and suddenly the light flared, brighter and brighter, until everything was only white, and he thought suddenly, She's giving up--
--"What was that for?!"
"Hey, I'm the one who got tackled! How was I supposed to know what the hell he was thinking?"
"He was thinking that he didn't want you getting fried! I mean, I don't know why, I'd pay to see it, but he was!!"
"It wasn't anything personal," Seifer's voice was saying. Roxas shifted uncomfortably -- he was on his back. On the ground. ...and his face hurt. "They're called reflexes. If you had some, maybe you wouldn't suck so hard at Struggle, chickenwuss."
"Oh, that's it! Bring it on, asshole!" Hayner shouted, and the others cried, "Hayner!" and there were sounds of a scuffle.
It was so tempting to just lie there and not get in the middle of all the shouting, but Roxas shifted, groaning a little. "Can't-- take m' eyes off you guys for a min't."
When he pried his eyes open, he had a momentary glimpse of Pence and Olette hanging onto Hayner's arms, and Rai and Fuu in front of Seifer, bristling with muscle and butterfly nets.
"Roxas!" Pence said with relief, and Olette beamed. Hayner shook them off and moved over to duck down next to Roxas with one last glare at Seifer. "You okay? That son of a bitch hit you pretty hard."
Roxas thought, He hit me? His vision had started before anything like that had happened.
When he glanced over his shoulder at the window, he thought -- he saw a slim figure, standing behind the white curtain.
NEXT >>> Prologue (Part 12)