Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 14

Wow, I totally fell behind on updating this week.  Sorry about that!  I'm always posting on time over on FFN, but I sometimes forget that I have this going on over here, too.  Anyway, here's two chapters at once to make up for my screw up.

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"Please take me with you!" I begged, bouncing up and down like a little kid. "I'm getting tired of the same old routine. I mean, spending the afternoon with Roxas is great, but I want to go with you and see what you do!"

"It's not that I don't want to take you," Riku explained. "It can be dangerous, though, and there are a lot of things to consider first." We were walking through the mansion towards the front door, ready to start our daily trek into town, but I was trying my best to convince him to let me go with him on his daily mission.

"Don't you think it's time that I actually try fighting the Heartless?" I pointed out. "I have to face them at some point."

"Yeah, but..."

"If it gets too hairy, I'll just run and hide somewhere and let you do the rest!" I promised. "I really want to try it. Please?"

Riku stopped walking and stared off into the distance. Finally he turned to face me and sighed. "Okay, you can come." I squealed and clapped my hands, but he cut me off with a wave of his arm. "But dark corridors are not something to mess around with, understand? You don't have a coat to protect you, so you have to stay right next to me at all times."

I nodded solemnly. "Got it. Wait, so that's what the coat is about? It's not just a fashion statement?"

"It protects from the darkness and makes you less visible to the Heartless and Nobodies," he responded. "Okay, now...hold onto my arm, and don't let go until we get there."

Feeling awkward, I reached out and put my hand on his left arm, then stepped in closer and wrapped both of my forearms around it. I could feel his muscles through the coat sleeves, and it made my cheeks burn slightly.

Riku must have felt the awkwardness of the moment, too, because he cleared his throat and seemed to be at a rare loss for words. "Um...yeah. Okay. Uh...here we go." Throwing his hands out in front of him, he opened the corridor and we walked through.

I had expected to go straight through and end up wherever our destination was, just like a portal, but instead we found ourselves in an open, dark space that seemed to have no beginning or end. There wasn't even a visible floor to walk on, which threw me off and made me stumble if I looked down at my feet. "What is this place?" I whispered.

"It's called the In Between. Not somewhere you want to hang out for very long." He opened another corridor, and this time we stepped out into a forest clearing.

"So, we're in another world now, right?" I looked around, taking in the trees and the colorful mushrooms growing all over the forest floor. Riku had explained the separation of the worlds to me, but it was all still a little confusing.

"Yeah, and I'll go ahead and warn you, this is a strange one." Riku left my side and walked towards the edge of the trees.

"What are we supposed to do here? Fight Heartless?"

"Only if we happen to run into some. The real mission is to keep an eye on some Organization members that are supposed to be here. See what they're up to. And to do that, we have to go through..." He was bent over, searching the tall grass growing around the base of the trees. "Here!" he announced, pointing at a tiny opening.

I laughed, thinking he must be joking. "Yeah, sure we do. What is that, a mouse hole?"

Riku straightened with a smirk. "I told you this place was strange." Crossing to a large tree in the middle of the clearing, he reached up and picked off a strange nut, then broke it in half. "Here, eat up."