Skeleton Keys, Chapter 2

Chapter II:  The Strange Visitor

Scenes of my dreams from that night passed on a screen in the middle of a hexagonal table within a dark room.  Not a single bright light shone in this room, except for the screen and the glint of the evil eyes watching it.  Several beings surrounded the table, contemplating what they were seeing and making secret plans (as well as wagers on the outcome, apparently).

“He’s good, as I had told you he’d be,” one of the beings, a pirate, said.

“You never told us that,” shot back the second, a wizard.

“Of course I did.  I even bet you three sapphires on the boy.  Now pay up!”  The wizard groaned and handed over the jewels.

“Will you two stop making complete clownfish out of yourselves?” growled the third being, a half-woman, half-octopus mermaid.  “You’re making us look bad, and not in the evil way.”

The fourth being, a dark-clad stranger with a flickering hairstyle, chuckled and replied, “You don’t need any help there.”  The other three present, except for the mermaid, joined him in a round of laughter.

A fifth figure joined them, a tall, enchanting, and darker-clad sorceress carrying a long magic staff.  “Time to get serious,” she said.  She stared at the picture of me on the screen and said, “This new discovery could put our plans on ice if left unchecked.  We must find a way to subdue it before we end up like that feeble Heartless.  I have a plan that involves the implementing of that heart of his to our advantage, as well as the heart of one of our pawns.  Oogie Boogie, see to it that our prisoner is properly dealt with.”

“By your command, boss,” he replied.  He stood up and walked away from the table on two stumpy legs.  

“We all need to be on our toes.  Anyone with a heart like that is incredibly resilient to the lure of darkness.  We’ll need brute force to defeat him, or just another kind of lure.  Our pawn will find out what that should be.  As for the rest of you, go back to your business and prepare your schemes.  We cannot allow this meddler any allies other than those two royal fools.”  She turned on her heels and walked away from the table, as did the others gathered.

As I approached the top of the stairs, I looked out the large window above the front door.  Here the newly fallen snow was even more unforgiving in its harsh radiance, but I could still see a figure coming towards our house.  He was a boy a slight bit older than me in a black vest with short white sleeves, a red shirt and matching pants, fingerless gloves, and yellow clodhoppers on his feet.  The footprints these shoes left in the snow unmistakably marked his trail.  His spiky, brown hair had amassed a number of snowflakes.  A humongous key-shaped object was stuck in his hand.  

I flew down the stairs and to the front door as fast as I could.  I opened the door, and the figure was standing right on my porch, shivering violently.  “Who might you be?” I asked him.  

“I’m S-S-Sora,” he answered.  “M-M-Mind if I come in and w-w-warm up?”

“No, I don’t mind; go right ahead,” I answered.  

I led Sora into the family room and got him a towel from the adjacent room.  After wrapping the towel around him, I strolled into the kitchen to make some breakfast for the two of us.  I opened the freezer and took out a pair of waffles for Sora and me.  After popping them in the toaster, I walked back to Sora and sparked up a conversation.  

“Where did you come from?”

Sora seemed hesitant to answer this question, but he replied with two words:  “Destiny Islands.”

“Oh, so you’re from Japan?”

“No, not exactly.”

“That would explain the fluent accent… How did you find your way here?”

“I was given directions.”

“From who?”

“Ah…”  The waffles popped up in the toaster and interrupted him.  

I ran to get them, putting them on two plates.  I grabbed the syrup from the cupboard and handed one of the plates to Sora.  “That ought to warm you up some.”  After almost drowning my waffle with syrup, I remembered the lack of silverware.  I ran back into the kitchen and came back with a fork and knife as quick as a flash.  I even had a pair for Sora.  I handed him his pair and started to cut up my waffle.  

“Do you know any of the guys around here?” I asked him before I took a syrupy bite.  

“No, I just moved here.”

I nodded in acknowledgement and swallowed my bite of waffle.  With a clear mouth I asked, “Why aren’t you in decent clothes for this weather, anyway?  Or aren’t your snow pants unpacked yet?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”  He put down his key and took up his silverware.  

“Why are you carrying that key?”

“It’s a special delivery for someone.”

“Who- Oh, pardon me for being so rude,” I said.  “It’s just that I haven’t had anything interesting happen around here for a while.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, now that you mention it, I did have a weird dream last night.  A pair of weird dreams, actually.”

Sora’s interest seemed piqued by this.  “Why don’t you tell me about them?”

“Okay.  It all started when my family watched a movie last night, a Disney movie by the name of…”

My story continued well into 10:00 with absolutely no details spared.  Sora hung on my every word, apparently very interested in my dreams.  “…And the next thing I know, I’m back in my bed.  I still don’t know why those attacks actually hurt.”  I took the final bite of my waffle, stood up, and took my dishes to the kitchen.  The irking object in my slipper continued to annoy me the entire time.  When I got back into the family room, I took off my slipper and shook the object out into my hand.  The object was a miniature glass heart light red in color.  It was the heart Guard Armor left behind after our fight!

“What’s this doing here?”  I showed the heart to Sora.

Sora inspected it and said, “Maybe your dream wasn’t a dream after all.”

“What are you talking about?  There’s no way that all of those events could have been truly happening.”

“There is one way to find out.”  He pulled back my right sleeve.  “See?  You said you got a strange mark in one of your dreams.  If it didn’t really happen, why is it there now?”  

I looked at my wrist in disbelief.  Sure enough, the dark mark of the Heartless was clearly visible there.  I drew my arm back and tried to rub it off, but it was held fast.  “Oh, no, not again.”

“This has happened to you before?”

“Three times, as a matter of fact, although not exactly like this.  I’d tell you about them, but the plotlines may get a little complex.”

“Go ahead, I don’t mind.”

“Well,” I began, “these adventures started about a year-and-a-half ago—“

Footsteps on the steps interrupted me.  Someone was coming!  

“Come on!  We have to hide you!”

Sora looked a little hurt by this abrupt statement.  “Why?”

“My siblings are the biggest tattletales in Pennsylvania.  If they see you here, they’ll be sure to tell my mom, and she’ll tell my dad, and I’ll get busted by both of them!  Just hide behind the chair.”  He leapt out of the blanket and hid behind my dad’s chair in the corner.

The disturbance was my brother Andy again.  He was carrying another movie and being followed by my younger sisters.  The movie in his hands was The Nightmare Before Christmas.  “Mom wants you to work this for us,” he told me.  

“Sure, why not?”  I took the tape from him and walked over to the television opposite the opening into the kitchen.  I located the VCR and put the tape inside.  After pressing play, I sat in the couch Sora was hiding behind to enjoy the movie.  An eager smile crossed my face as the music began…

…

After the movie, I looked at the clock.  The time was around noon, and the others ran into the kitchen to scrounge up something for lunch.  I got up from the chair to join them, when I remembered Sora behind the chair.  “Do you want anything else to eat?”

“No,” he replied.  “I have to be getting back to my mom; she’ll be wondering where I am.”

“I understand.”  I helped him to his feet and snuck him over to the door past my busy siblings.  “See you later,” I told him as he walked out the door.  I closed it behind him and turned around towards the kitchen.  I could already taste that garlic bread.

Sora wandered back through the snow and across the street.  He walked aimlessly through the woods until he got to the lip of a snowy cliff.  Here, another person was already waiting, a person in dark robes and holding a staff.  “So, what news do you bring?” the other person asked.

“Your target is very fond of Halloween Town,” Sora said.

“Then perhaps we should send him there.  I’ll warn Oogie Boogie, while you dance your little dance for us.”

Sora turned away and walked back towards my house as the stranger disappeared.  A scowl crossed his face.  “What a demon that one is,” he muttered.  He trudged once again through the snow and to my house.  

He knocked on the front door, and I soon answered it, munching on a piece of garlic bread.  “Back so soon?”

“My mom’s not home yet, I just remembered.  Could I bunk here for another hour or so?”

“Sure, I could always use a partner for Nintendo.”  I took him by the hand and almost dragged him down with me to the basement and to the entertainment room.  None of it was ready for company, but then again I hadn’t been expecting any.  I dropped Sora on the couch and picked up two of the four controllers connected to the Nintendo.  

As I wired the proper connections, I felt an alarmingly sharp blow to the back of my head.  All of my actions ceased immediately.  I dropped the controllers and slumped forward onto the television screen.  Before I blacked out completely, I heard this final message:  “Sorry it has to be this way.”