When Darkness Turns to Light

Chasing Butterflies

Recappy From the Last Chappy: "Helloooo? Hello? Sora? Hikari . . . ? Now where in the world could they be?" voiced Jiminy Cricket into the jungle with no response. Walking on a branch very high above the floor with his umbrella in hand, he searched with his heavy eyes, determined to spot his companions yet tired indeed.

He came to the edge of a branch and jumped off, opening his umbrella in order to smoothly sail down on the force of air resistance. His melancholy eyes drowsily gazed around him; since it was night and very little moonlight had made it through the breaks in the canopy, he could not see much. On the trunk of the tree on which he landed next, however, at the end of the branch he saw a small knothole where he could spend the night.

"Well," he began, "I guess I'll just have to look again in the morning. . . ."

Unknown by him, Heartless were dancing along the floor below him, searching for their forbidden fruit.

Chapter Fifteen: Chasing Butterflies

Oogie Manor was a large estate with a substantial rock base in the center of a small valley. Structured with roots, it sinuously rose as though a part of a gargantuan spooky forest. Large cage lanterns hung off "branches" or stuck to the side of the wooden ramp swirling around the "trunk."

A Powerwild climbed up the ramp, sliding along as it applied its sensory capabilities. Unlike most Heartless, this one-at the moment-was not in search of hearts. Darkness of the heart was the scent trail it followed; however its mission included a small parcel squeezed in its tumored fist.

The Heartless came up to the neon green entrance of the Evil Playroom and stopped fleetingly, staring up at the frightfully evil smile. A moment later, the door opened for it, allowing its passage.

Similar in design to a Roulette wheel, the chamber had a yellow, centered device around which the disk with multiple compartments would spin. In the compartments were pink and green shapes within which were the shadows of bugs, skeletons, skulls, and other Halloween motifs. Around the Roulette wheel were dangerously exciting traps and devices of tortuous toying.

The door closed behind the Powerwild, thus it continued around the upper level that the devices were stored beneath. Black lights, lighted jack-o-lanterns, and a couple hexagon tiles with skulls lighted the way.

On the side of the room vertical to the threshold was a chair in which the newly reincarnated Orochimaru sat. For the first time in years, he was not suffering the deathly agony of inutile, ailing arms.

Bandages nearly concealed his new countenance; a majority of his pallid skin that would not have been hidden by his yukata was in medical dressings. Short and silver, his hair no longer stuck to his skin with sweat. A single part of his visage was seeable: his purple-shadowed, yellow iris, slit pupil, right eye.

Arriving at Orochimaru's feet, the Powerwild stopped. The man leaned forward, meeting its expressionless stare with his inquisitive scowl. When the Heartless lifted its parcel, the man took it in his hand and watched the monkey-like creature disappear in a small, black portal.

The black light in the Evil Playroom caused most of the lighter colors to glow eerily. The white from Orochimaru's bandages almost appeared to give of their own light, like the moon did in capturing the light of the sun; his iris, if not for the pupil, would have resembled the eye of a Heartless almost precisely.

He unrolled the parcel and regarded the inscription with curiosity, yet mostly disinterest. The message was short, written in a brownish red liquid that he recognized to be blood.

Within moments, he finished reading and narrowed his eye. Behind his mummy wrappings, his mouth curled into a darkly amused smile. Frivolously, he tossed the note behind him and chuckled in a nigh sinister fashion. "Little Hikari Uzumaki thinks she can kill me, is that right?