Emptied Promise PART 1

~-------Sora's POV-------~

       The moon loomed overhead menacingly and every shadow seemed to jump out with teeth and claw as Sora nervously sprinted to the Secret Place cave.  He desperately wished that Riku had come with him, even if it was the older boy’s fault that Sora was out here anyway.

How was poor Sora to know that Riku’s awesome late-night party would have scary stories?  Didn’t anybody do anything ELSE late at night but try to scare one another?  Nine-year-old Riku had entered the “I-know-everything-there-is-to-know stage and frequently told the Eight-year-olds Kairi and Sora that they just were old enough to understand the deeper things in life and therefore couldn’t appreciate a good story.  Kairi had protested this vehemently but Sora was quite happy to accept his too-young-for-scary-stories position.  Still, Riku was going to make him play the “game” anyway.

This “game” wasn’t deep or very smart and its whole purpose alluded Sora. He finally concluded that Riku and Tidus must hate him.  A lot.

Riku and Tidus had come up with the whole idea.  It was a late-night party so they just HAD to tell scary stories.  Kairi and Selphie had so readily agree so Sora had been forced to go along with it.  He just HATED scary stories… but he could bare them.  Barely.

It wasn’t the telling that scared Sora (although it was quite bad).  Tidus came up with a way to make the stories seem real… each person would go to a different location on the island to get some story inspiration.  And he sent Sora to the Secret Cave.

Ok, sure.  He’d gone to the cave plenty of time before with Kairi and Riku.  But he had been five, young, naïve and fairly obvious to danger and he hadn’t gone in the middle of the night alone.

Now, as he stood before the cave opening he noticed that its dark nothingness seemed to encourage the shadows to grow into huge, intimidating shapes.  He and said intimidating shapes initiated a staring contest where the loser would have retreat into the cave… and Sora lost.

Regardless, Sora was just about to turn around and go back to Riku’s house, maybe beg for forgiveness when he heard Riku and Tidus walking back to the house on the path above the Secret Place.  Laughing, they seemed to be discussing the great ideas their midnight journeys had given them for spooky stories.   Why they thought getting scared was so much fun was beyond him but he couldn’t stand disappointing Riku… again.

After a few years of sword-fighting lessons, Sora was still the worse fighter on the Island, Riku being the best.  Here was his chance to prove to Riku (and himself) that he deserved to be Riku’s best friend.

Taking a deep breath he turned around to face the monster of a cave.  He closed his eyes and marched straight into the darkness…

… And a wall.  Rubbing his head where he and wall collided, he slowly opened his eyes… or at least he thought he did.  Blinking a few times to make sure his eyes were opens he anxiously concluded that it didn’t matter if his eyes were open or closed, the totally black darkness had engulfed him.

After a moment of panic he felt sure enough to continue… slowly.  Stretching his arms out before him, he continued into the cave despite that he was still trembling all over.  He almost laughed when he realized that he already had a part of his story: it’d be something about mummy and a dark, dark cave.

“Maybe this won’t be so bad…” Sora thought out loud for no particular reason and jumped as his voice echoed off the walls.

Regaining his composition, Sora kept going, making up something of a story as he inched down the dark corridor.  He was so into his story that when his out-stretched hands brushed the wall of the cave he yelped in surprised and withdrew his hands to his chest.  His own cry was ringing in his ears from the echoes as he laid a hand on the wall… no, on the door.

That totally random door that been here every time he’d gone in the cave.  It wasn’t connected to any walls but the floor yet it stood up perfectly straight on its own.  No matter how hard to pushed or pulled on it, it wouldn’t open.  

With his story still on his mind to cancel-out his rising fears, Sora regretfully decided that while the door was pretty mysterious and scary, if it didn’t open he couldn’t fit it into his story too well.  Which meant that he’d have to stay here LONGER to finish the story up.

Some rocks fell off the wall to his right, reminding him of the dead silence and darkness once again.  Leaning against the door, Sora look nervously around in the darkness and wondered if he just made up some stupid ending whether or not Riku would be mad at him.  His heart was racing and he just wanted to get out of the cave and back into the light.

Without warning the door opened up behind him.  Losing his balance, Sora tumbled backwards into the doorway.

~-------Riku's POV-------~

“Alright!  So, if we’re all here let’s begin the scary stories!”  Tidus pumped his fist into the air and grinned madly while Selphie rolled her eyes.  Kairi gave the group a quick look-over.  “Wait, Sora isn’t here.”

Riku’s head snapped up from where he had been drawing illustrations for his scary story.

Selphie sighed.  “You know how he is.  Probably wimped out at the last moment.  He’ll crawl in and ask for us to go on without him soon enough…”

But Riku wasn’t listening.  He was out the door and running by the time Selphie have finished her first sentence.

~-------End of Part 1-------~

Finished in Part 2!