KINGDOM HEARTLESS II

[classy_cat18]

Nia Hawthorne

Lily’s Sanctuary. That’s what the owner and my boss named the bookstore I worked in. Lily was his dear wife, who was killed in a car accident. Boss grieved for a good while before fulfilling her dream to move the previously tiny bookstore to a bigger space. I was hired during the transition, being a trusted and valuable customer.

The new Sanctuary at first seems to occupy a space about the twice size of the old location, but makes up for it by being three stories tall. It’s the biggest of the independent bookstores. In addition to the old favorites (Ancient Greece’s epic poems to the works of the Great Depression), they now carry modern favorites.

Except Meyer. Sparkly vampires are not allowed.

Nerds love it. Everyone else…didn’t for a while but they got over it I guess.

But I’m babbling again. I do that a lot.

Last night I was helping with closing the store while listening to Boss’ suggestion of renting an orangutan for a day to help with promoting the store. I had to burst his bubble by telling that there was a possibility that no one would get the reference. “Plus I don’t think there’s a way of renting an orangutan,” I added. “Although the zoo may do it but then orangutans must be hard to look after. They’re wild animals and it may climb all over the place and tear apart the books and bite off customers’ noses or our noses.”

“Fine, spoil my fun,” Boss grumbled. “Ook.”

Boss, a fifty-something man with a jock’s build, hated being called Mister or Sir. “Every time you call me one of those, I get a year older,” he would say. Of course it’s not true because Daisy would’ve killed him years ago if it was.

Daisy was his daughter, by the way. High school senior. Practically cloned from her mother from what I’ve seen from pictures.

“You and Daisy keep on wrapping things up,” Boss told me. “I need to bring the car around.”

“Okay,” I answered.

The only thing that was left to do was turning off the lights, third floor first. I looked up from the first floor. The lights switched off. Daisy must’ve turned them off. She would then walk down to the second floor and do the same thing.

Instead she was rushing back down to the first floor, not slowing down until she crashed into me. She was shaking badly. “Daisy? Did something happen up there?” I asked her.

“There’s something up there!” she wailed, her voice muffled by my shirt. “I was turning off the lights and then something brushed up against me!”

“Someone hiding up there maybe?”

“No! No, it wasn’t a person!”

“Maybe we should—“

“Let’s leave!” she interrupted.

“We can’t. If it is a person then he’ll be free to steal whatever he wants. He can even let in his friends and they can steal with him. We need to—“

“RAT!” she interrupted. “I remember now! It was a rat!”

“Okay, go outside and wait for Boss. I’m going to finish turning off the lights.” I pried her off of my body.

“NO!” She cleared her throat and spoke in a quieter voice. “What if the…rat…is still up there?”

“Then we can set traps.” I climbed the stairs to the second floor. The lights were still on and it was very quiet. I reached around and flipped the light switches, then made the mistake of peering into the darkness.

Two big, round yellow eyes. Like headlights. Peering back at me.

I gasped and turned around to run, accidentally running into the wall on the first attempt. “It’s a rat, it’s a rat, it’s a rat!” I chanted to myself in denial.

That’s what I said to Daisy when I met her at the front door, and to Boss when we climbed in the car. But we both knew…

That was no rat.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day was an off-day. Weekends were my days to volunteer at the library, a space that was even bigger than the bookstore. It was a good way to shake away the dreams of swarms of yellow-eyed shadows. What was that thing anyway? Could I find an answer in the library?

I didn’t bother paying attention to my surroundings until someone bumped into me. Or maybe I bumped into them. Either way, the books that I was carrying were knocked onto the floor. “I’m sorry,” the boy said after slipping off his headphones.

That explains it. He was so absorbed in his music that he didn’t even notice me. I reprimanded him about the dangers of doing that but he probably didn’t even pay attention to half of it. I gave up and just stacked the books back to their proper order, occasionally taking one from him.

“Wow, you’re really organized!”

I paused for a moment, my ears only hearing his first sentence. “Of course. You need to be organized to work here. It’s easier to shelve and find books if they’re ordered. But some people just put books wherever they can and just knock the whole system out of order. It’s hard to find things that aren’t in their proper place.” I lifted the stack and started to leave.

Oh, he wanted to know my name.

“My name is Nia Hawthorne.”

[Crystal Tears]

♥ Phoenix ♥

Phoenix didn’t usually mind listening to Seth be concerned about her general condition, or be bothered by the man gawking over some jock or another. Actually he did it often when they went to football practice. She would draw the players in motion, while he would just admire their motion. But today was different; a similar feeling to the creepiness that had been eating away at her during the night was slithering into her spine.

She cleared her throat. “I’ll, uhh, be right back.” With that she moved away from the table, towards windows. A storm was gathering, grey clouds beginning to block out what remained of the sunlight, Phoenix could see the wind being to whip up, tugging on the trees and pulling leaves from the branches.

“A storm…”

Phoenix looked to her left; a boy was standing a few feet from her. Though she hardly thought he was speaking to him, she shrugged and responded. “We’ve had them before.”

Perhaps he hadn’t noticed her until then, as he looked at her with surprise. He didn’t say anything past his first statement, and that caused Phoenix to raise an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

He considered her for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “I didn’t see you, sorry.”

She shrugged, trying to shrug off that horrible feeling. “It’s alright. What’s your name?”

“Syd… But people tend to call me Phones.”

“Phones?” She watched him gesture to his headphones. “Oh, ha ha. I’m Phoenix… What’re you looking for?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You’re in a library.” Phoenix looked around with a smirk at the books. “There must be a book you’re looking for?”

“The new Daniel X Book.” Phones stated. “I would ask the librarian, but she’s tends to um… go on, about things.”

The girl smiled. “Come on, I’ll help ya out.”

Wary, he nodded and smiled slightly. Gesturing to an aisle. They wandered into it. Phoenix, while helping him search, glanced up at the lights. For some reason, she couldn’t help but hope to hell that they would stay on. Thunder boomed outside, causing her to yelp as her skin crawled.

Something was definitely wrong.

Texting quickly, she sent Seth a message.

Something is wrong. >
< What?
I don’t know. I just feel funny. >
< Sick maybe?

There was a crack and an explosion from outside. It didn’t take long for her and Syd to get to the window, staring out at the collapsing pole, its cables and lines snapping and blowing in the wind as the power-line pole smashed down onto the street. Seth and Anthony appeared beside them, confused. While the librarian moved up next to Syd, looking at it curiously.

“Oh, just a power-line.” She shrugged, and looked at the group. “No need to worry, that won’t cause any real damage. We just might be out of power for a bit.”

Everyone looked over at her. Anthony frowned.

“Out of power?”

“Yes.” She nodded, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “A power outage, quite irritating at times but-“

There was a hum and then suddenly the library was cast in darkness.

“Oh dear…” The librarian spoke in the darkness.

The storm had grown much darker than originally, Phoenix’s eyes were slow to adjust to the new setting. She frowned, fiddling around with her iPhone before she held it up as a sort of crude flashlight. Turning around, she froze, unwillingly to believe what she had seen.

It couldn’t have been...

An inky shadow, moving atop the darkness. It had disappeared behind the aisle of books.

“What is it?” Seth whispered to her.

“N-nothing…” Phoenix looked at him and smiled, forcing it. He frowned, sticking close as she neared the aisle, her curiosity getting the better of her. She inched closer and closer, her free hand touching the edge of the long shelf.

Her phones light flicked off, and she frowned. Looking down, she pressed the home button and looked up.

Nothing.

Phoenix sucked in a breath, half expecting some sort of monster to be there. She let out the breath, but as soon as she did she found herself on the floor. Her phone dropped from hands, flicking out again. Confused, she blinked, suddenly keenly aware of something horribly hold clutching her ankle.

Then she was being pulled, like a ragdoll away from Seth. Phoenix let out a scream as she desperately clawed at the carpeted floor for something to grab. Her right hand snatched the edge bookshelf, and suddenly all her strength was being put into not being dragged to god knows where.

“Seth!” She screamed. “Fuck! Help me!”

♥

So. Rules about Heartless:

In darkness, they cannot be really seen. The most you’ll see is a brief shadow, and that’s if you do. Your real warning is ‘something is going to go wrong’. Your body’s own intuition telling you you’re in danger. You cannot hurt them in darkness, as you can’t touch them in any way shape or form. They also don’t have yellow eyes in darkness.

They’ve changed since their first assault.

In light, they turn physical. Their forms are varying shapes of humanoids, with yellow eyes. Note: they tend to hate light, so they’ll avoid it if they can.

More to be revealed later! HAVE FUN IN THE DARK LIBRARY.

P.S Somebody save me, plz.

[ChobiChibi]

Seth Lawrence

His first instinct was to throw something at whoever had grabbed Phoenix. Normally he wouldn’t dare use a book as a weapon, but at this precise moment in time he felt it would be best. He picked something particularly dense and hard backed off the shelf, rushing forward (because he knew that he was more likely to hit Phoenix from the distance he was away from her) and throwing it into the darkness. It landed with a satisfying thump shortly after.

The satisfying thump of a big book hitting the floor.

Either he’d missed... Or there was nothing there to hit.

He didn’t have much time to think about it, because Phoenix screamed at him again. He grabbed one arm and she let go of the bookcase, clinging to him for dear life. For a moment, he seemed to be winning. Seth’s sudden, if limited, strength had caught whatever was stealing his friend off guard. He managed to pull her a few feet back towards him before he felt a tug back.

“STOP PLAYING TUG OF WAR WITH ME!!”

“I’m trying darling!” He dug his heels into the ground as much as he could, but still felt himself inch further forward. “But you yourself pointed out that physical strength is not my forte.”

“SHUT UP AND PULL ME.”

“Well, that’s a little forward of you...”

“SETH!”

“Sorry!”

Seth lurched forward, having no choice but to hold onto Phoenix with one arm, and the bookcase with the other. It felt like his arms would either just pop out their sockets, or stretch like Mr Tickle’s, but he was determined.

“Seth...” She looked more scared than he’d ever seen her, all colour drained from her face. He could feel it too, this sense of dread and horror that awaited her, or even them both, if he let go. You’ll be fine... Just keep breathing, just keep breathing, just-

He felt a strong pair of arms wrap around his torso, hauling them both backwards. Seth was forced to let go of the bookcase and grabbed Phoenix instead, his feet finally feeling firm on the ground. It didn’t take him long to realise who it was, and he was thankful that only Nixie could see his blush. He coulda sworn, for a brief moment between the terror, that he could see a smirk in her eyes. He hoped the look her gave her back was one of ‘stop teasing me’.

“Need a hand?” Anthony asked.

Yes please, and when we’re done here, don’t let me go.

“Sure, that would be very much appreciated.” Seth planted his feet firmly on the floor. “Ready? After three... One... Two... Three!”

The two boys pulled with all their might, and Seth realised that he may as well not be pulling at all. It seemed like they were winning, but this thing was stubborn. The longer this went, the more Seth was convinced this was not a person.

The release finally came as lightning flashed outside. As Nixie flew towards him, behind her he could have sworn he saw several pairs of yellow eyes staring back at him. He landed not so gracefully on top of Anthony as Phoenix crashed on top of him, like a set of dominoes. Seth looked up to see the volunteer librarian (although he’d spoken to her many a time when seeking books, he never knew her name) and some guy with giant headphones on staring down at them.

Seth wanted to get up, he’d managed to get into a sitting position, but Nixie clung to him, so he felt it would be bad to let her go. Anthony had already stood up and brushed himself off.

“We need to get the lights back on.” The guy with the headphones suggested, pulling them down off his ears to sit around his neck.

“The fuses are probably blown, best case scenario is that we just have to turn them back on.” Seth added.

“The library doesn’t have a backup generator, so if the power is down, there is nothing we can do. But there are emergency flashlights somewhere around, probably located behind the desk if we need them. This is an emergency, right? In an emergency these things are called for! I don’t suggest we evacuate though, because the storm-”

“The fuse box should be in the basement, if I remember right.” Anthony shrugged as Seth looked up at him, confused. “My maintenance job extends to the library too.”

“Not the basement.” Nixie protested, having pinched Seth’s phone from his pocket and using it for light instead of her own. “I don’t like the sound of the basement.”

“We don’t have much choice...” Seth held her tighter. “We’ll stick together, then no one will get hurt.”

--

Or so he thinks Tag everyone! Flashlights -> Basement. GOGO.

[Samchu]

Anthony
~~~~~

"Okay, everyone needs to calm down. Whoever that was back there was just some punk with a really bad sense of humour," he raised his voice at the end to make sure whoever was responsible for the prank could hear him. "I'll take one of the flashlights and see if I can get the power back on. You guys just stay here and wait."

"I'm not sure that's the best idea..." said the librarian in a quite voice.

"I second that notion," said Seth, and the boy with the headphones nodded.

"It's just a storm and a few idiots playing a prank. It's nothing to worry about. I'll be downstairs and back in five minutes, ten minutes top-" He'd taken a halfstep away from the group to emphasise his intent but something had stopped him. Looking down, he saw Pheonix's hand gripping his own tightly.

"Don't..."

She didn't look at him. In the edges of the phonelight he could just about make out her gaze; the distance and fear in it. He wanted to dismiss her fears, to tell her that it was just people playing tricks, but the fear in that one word held his tongue. He found himself pulled by a desire to comfort her and whilst he didn't understand where it came from, he decided to let it guide him. He squeezed her hand. "Alright, we'll go together. No one would try and pull something if we're in a group this big."

She released her grip on his hand and it returned back to clutching the phone. He thought he heard her mutter the word "nothing" but he couldn't be sure and decided not to press it. Instead, he asked the two remaining members of their group for their names and asked if they would collect the flashlights.

There were three flashlights in total. They kept the first two for themselves and passed the third to a small group of students huddled nearby with the promise that the lights would be restored as soon as possible and welcoming them to evacuate if they felt it was unsafe to stay. None of them took the offer. Anthony agreed with them. A storm could be dangerous and unpredictable, darkness was nothing. The only thing that would hurt you in the dark was something you weren't paying enough attention to to see.

They found the door to the basement and began their decent. The stairway was only wide enough for one so Anthony took the lead. Aside from the fact that he knew the direction by heart, most of his decision had been fuelled by a desire to put an end to his unease. No one had spoken since Syd and Nia had finished distributing the flashlights and in the absense of sound his mind had run rampant. He kept turning events over in his mind; sorting through pieces to a puzzle that didn't seem to fit. Why would someone do that to Pheonix? Of all the pranks you could pull in a blacked-out library this one seemed low, even for the kind of minds you were unforunate to come across at this particular University. And then Pheonix...he had never seen fear like hers. She had honestly believed that her life was in danger. That someone had meant to cause her harm. Or something...

He shook his head. The worries of the group were starting to get to him. What was he thinking here? Monsters? Aliens? The boogeyman? He almost laughed. And yet deep down, some little part of him couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to this than he realised. That something was not right with the world. And that somewhere nearby, something was watching him.

He reached the end of the stairs and waited. Pheonix and Seth were behind him, the boy slightly in the lead so that he could hold her hand whilst the other one kept a firm grasp on her loaned phone. Nia was behind her and Syd took up the rear with the last torch, holding it high above his head so that he could light the path for them.

I really hope any future study sessions Seth invites me to aren't like this. Although this might be an excellent excuse to call upon if I really need to sleep in. He felt a pang of guilt as the thought crossed his mind. What would have happened to Pheonix if he hadn't have been there today? Would someone else have been there to save her? Syd, perhaps, or one of the other visitors to the library? If it happened again and I wasn't there...He sighed, frustrated by the paths his mind insisted on taking just because it had a little unease to fuel its steps. Fine...I'll keep going to the study sessions. Like sleep is SO important...

As Nia neared the final step, Anthony began moving onwards. He made sure to keep in the edge of Syd's light so Pheonix could see him. He didn't know why he thought that would help calm her but he wasn't about to try anything that might make things worse. Maybe I should say something. He paused for a moment and turned back, casting his light over the group. "Almost there guys. We're going to have that light on in no time."

He felt it then. A presence. A something that shouldn't be, hovering at the edge of his bubble. He turned, flashlight in hand. The air behind him moved as he spun and whilst his light found mostly the corridor for a brief moment he could've sworn he'd caught a glimpse of something...not human. The muscles in his legs flared. Run. It screamed and the message echoed in his heart. He shouldn't be there. There was something down there. Something...something that wasn't right. Something...

"Hey, you okay?"

Anthony snapped back to reality and found Seth standing just behind him.

"Fine, fine. Just thought I heard something. Come on, almost there." And he continued walking, his pace no longer confident but steady as before. He didn't want the others suspecting that something was wrong. They just needed to get the lights back on. Get the lights back on and everything would return to normal.

He was sure of it.