Kingdom Hearts fic: Island Territory - Chapter 3

[mistressofmuses]

In chapter 3: Sora and Kairi talk to some other cryptids. Then a new kind of victim appears on the islands.

---

It felt weird to be out in the middle of the day for a change, but not every cryptid on Destiny Islands was actually nocturnal. Not the ones they were planning to visit, anyway.

Sora watched Kairi spin around in her sundress. She was clearly enjoying the feel of the sun, and he didn’t blame her. Neither of them was interested in trading their particular line of work, but it did mean far more nights than days spent awake. Being out in the daylight was a nice change every once in a while.

The walk was a pleasant one, a cool sea breeze keeping the heat from growing unbearable. They didn’t have far to go, only a few streets over and few streets down.

The walkway up to the house they were aiming for was lined with flowers, leading to a doorway framed by climbing vines.

When they arrived, Sora knocked on the door.

A moment later it opened just a crack, one blue eye peering out. That wouldn’t have been enough to narrow down who was on the other side of the door, except that Sora was very good at distinguishing between shades of blue.

As soon as she saw who it was, Naminé flung the door open. “Sora! Kairi! How are you?”

“Doing good,” Sora said. “We just had a few questions we wanted to ask you guys, if you have some time.”

“Of course. Roxas and Xion are both home. Come on in.”

The two of them stepped through the door. It was comfortably cool in the house.

Roxas and Xion were both already in the living room, engaged in some sort of spirited conversation that the knock at the door had probably interrupted.

As soon as Sora and Kairi came into the room, both gave them friendly waves, and Xion slid off the couch to join Roxas on the loveseat, making room on the couch for them.

Sora wasn’t sure he’d ever be one hundred percent comfortable with Roxas, though he was working his way to ninety-five percent or so. Most people never met their doppelganger. Fewer still ever got to meet them, survive the experience, and then also get the chance to visit them socially afterwards.

And by fewer, he meant that he and Roxas might be the only ones in that category.

Largely that was thanks to Naminé. Most people who did meet their doppelganger didn’t also conveniently have a witch to help them break the death-connection between them in a way that didn’t immediately kill either or both of them.

Sitting across from Naminé could have felt equally uncomfortable. When they’d first met, she’d been so intent on making sure the islands would be a safe home for her, she’d used her magic to impact everyone around her. She’d inserted herself into their memories, sometimes overwriting the memories that were already there.

There’d been a few weeks where he genuinely believed she was a long-lost childhood friend. Other people thought she was their sister, or their daughter. Finally, they’d succeeded in convincing her it would be worth creating a place of her own, made up of genuine memories and connections with people.

It had been nice, when all the memory manipulation had been righted, to discover that he and Kairi could be friends with the real Naminé, not just the false version she’d tried to insert in their lives.

That didn’t undo the strange feeling of remembering the memories of things that had never happened.

Considering she’d quite definitely saved both Sora’s and Kairi’s lives more than once at this point, she’d certainly done more than enough to make up for the less-than-stellar introduction. Now she used her powers for constructive things, and also made a lot of very nice art.

“What’s going on? You wanted to ask us something?” she prompted. She perched on the arm of the loveseat next to Xion.

Kairi nodded. “Have you noticed anything strange, lately? Particularly with the shadows on the islands?”

Naminé shot a quick look down at Xion and then to Roxas, eyes wide. Evidently there was something they’d seen or heard.

Roxas answered, “Axel asked me something similar a week or so ago. Said someone else had mentioned it to him, wondering if any of the cryptids around here had something to do with shadows.” He rolled his eyes, like it had been a foolish question. “At the time I told Axel no, of course. But…” he trailed off with a glance at Xion.

It was starting to feel like a weird game of passing the story around.

Xion dutifully caught it for her turn. “But a couple nights ago, a shadow… spoke to me. Kind of. In my head, anyway. It said something about… being hungry, but that it had plenty of prey. It wanted me to help it somehow. Said I was almost the same as it, with no heart of my own.”

The words had a bitter tang to them, and Naminé reached down to squeeze her shoulder.

“It asked if I’d ever considered eating a heart, so I’d know what it felt like to have one inside.”

Sora shuddered. Xion was an oddity even among the rest of Destiny Islands’ collected cryptids. She was a construct, a creation of wood and dried grass, held together and given human form using magic, and a few stolen drops of Sora’s and Kairi’s blood.

Evidently, there was some witch or warlock or some such out there that didn’t like Kairi and Sora. Maybe they didn’t appreciate them doing what they did on Destiny Islands, whether that was hunting the true monsters, or helping the ones who just wanted a home. Whatever it was that created Xion—she didn’t know herself—had sent her to do them some kind of harm.

It hadn’t worked, thanks to another of Naminé’s good works. Like with Roxas, she’d been able to grant Xion an independent, genuine life. No devouring of hearts required.

“Probably a stupid question to ask what the shadow looked like,” Sora said.

Xion shrugged. “It was a shadow. It was out in the trees behind the yard. Dark. Maybe there were some eyes. Gold, like a reflection off of an animal’s eyes? Or maybe there was just a stray animal out there.”

This time it was Sora and Kairi sharing the meaningful look.

“What did you say to the shadow?” he asked.

Xion scoffed. “Nothing. Well, that it could go the hell away. Then I just came back inside.”

“Probably a good idea,” Kairi said. “I think we’ve encountered this thing, and it’s likely dangerous.”

“It did mention eating hearts, so…” Roxas let the sentence trail off pointedly.

Fair enough.

“It attacked us, too,” Sora added. “Definitely dangerous.”

“I figure you’ve heard about the missing persons on the Islands lately?” Kairi added.

All three nodded.

“Heard anything beyond what’s been reported?”

“No. Do you think the shadow is responsible?” Naminé crossed her arms a little tighter across her chest.

“We don’t know. Maybe. Just wanted to know if you’d heard anything we hadn’t. The shadow thing seems to have shown up around when the disappearances started, though.”

“I told you Axel asked about the shadow. Well, he said it was someone else who asked him, someone new to the islands. So there might be someone else who just showed up.” Roxas shrugged.

Wonder if that was Riku?

They could ask Axel. But Sora wanted to ask Riku. It was almost a struggle not to reach for his phone, to try to send a text, but he knew he would meet with the same result as all the other attempts.

In the days since the shadow had attacked them, none of his or Kairi’s texts had gone through. Including the ones where they told him they realized he was a vampire, and that it didn’t matter to them.

It was silly to be broken up over a vampire they’d met a whole three times now not speaking to them. Genuinely, that sounded ridiculous. But still. He’d saved them, and he’d looked terrified when he realized they’d seen what he was. That didn’t feel fair.

Unless the terror had been because he thought they’d realize he was killing people. That still didn’t feel right, though. Yes, they’d been keeping the possibility that he was the culprit open, and they couldn’t truly claim to know him. Yet he’d been nothing except genuinely kind, interested on a quiet life on Destiny Islands, and he had pretty clearly saved them. That definitely meant something.

The shadow, by contrast, had again exuded that sense of bottomless hunger. The kind of hunger it was not a stretch to imagine driving it to devour victims, body and heart.

He decided to say as much. “We don’t have any proof that the shadow is behind the disappearances, but I know it felt hungry when we encountered it, and it said as much to Xion. It seems safe to at least treat it like a serious threat.”

Kairi nodded along with him. “If it comes back, do what you need to in order to stay safe. But will you let us know if you see it again, or hear anything else?”

“Of course,” Naminé agreed.

“We can warn everyone else,” Roxas offered. “Or I can at least tell Axel. That’s as good as telling everyone else.”

Naminé and Xion both giggled, which had Kairi and Sora joining in. Roxas certainly wasn’t wrong.

After that there wasn’t much more to say. A bit of small talk about Naminé’s art, the three’s plans for the next few days, Roxas considering a job at an ice cream stand down by the beach.

“We’ll let you know if we find anything else out,” Sora said as they left. “Or what we need to do about whatever is causing the disappearances.”

“Same here,” Xion promised. “And you just let us know what you need us to do.”

Roxas, Naminé, and Xion were some of the cryptids with the least to lose in case of undue attention being drawn to suspicious events on Destiny Islands. They could pass pretty easily for human, and in an absolute worst-case scenario, Naminé’s powers could provide non-lethal protection.

They were still unwilling to sit by while more obviously inhuman cryptids were put at risk.

Sora felt a surge of pride at the fact that there really was a genuine, if fledgling, cryptid community being built on the islands. The thought quickly darkened, because that community was being threatened. If that meant they had to get rid of a danger, they were going to do it.

---

With Riku not responding to—apparently not even receiving—their attempts at messaging him, the best Kairi and Sora could do was patrol the islands.

They’d looked for Riku, checking at Highwind and even at Materia, but he wasn’t there when they stopped by. They hadn’t quite stooped to Kairi’s suggestion of digging into property records to find his address, though honestly, the information probably wouldn’t be hard to find without going to those lengths. The island wasn’t that big. There were plenty of houses and mansions only seasonally occupied, but not all that many likely to have been abandoned for a great length of time. But if he wanted to avoid them, that was his right, and it wouldn’t have been kind to take that choice away from him. Even if it seemed likely he was making it out of misplaced concern.

If Riku wasn’t responsible for the disappearances-assumed-deaths—and neither Kairi nor Sora believed he was—then they still had to stop the real culprit. It was almost certainly the shadow-thing. Unfortunately, they still knew almost as little as they had after the first encounter.

Sand had blown across the boardwalk, and it crunched under Kairi’s shoes. The setting sun cast everything in a pleasant, gold light. Everything felt peaceful, and it was hard to imagine anything terrible happening on such a nice evening.

It had also been several days since the last disappearance. While people were still taking the advice to stay in groups fairly seriously, they also seemed more relaxed.

She wished that felt like a reasonable thing, or that she believed the disappearances were over. Instead it just felt like they were overdue.

Sora laced his fingers with hers, swinging their hands a bit. She glanced up at him with a smile. They wanted to blend in, just another couple walking along the beach. By the time they reached the end of the beach, where it gave way to a rocky rise, the sun had sunk below the horizon. The sky was darkening to a deep purple, the first stars starting to appear.

They turned around and headed back the way they’d come. Music was starting to play from some of the buildings up the hill, restaurants and clubs trying to attract the tourists who’d be coming in off the beach as the sun went down.

The victims hadn’t had anything in common, but areas like this could be prime hunting grounds. Plenty of victims to choose from, people coming and going, lots of distractions.

They’d almost made it to the opposite end of the beach, where rather than a rocky cliff face, the jungle had claimed the land.

A shrill scream cut through the early night. Sora’s hand slipped out of hers as they both ran toward the sound, coming from the border between sand and jungle.

A young woman in a sundress was staggering back from something in the dark underbrush.

“What is it? Are you okay?” Kairi asked.

“I think he’s dead!” the woman choked out, fumbling in her purse for a phone.

Kairi let the woman make the emergency call while she went to get a closer look. There were things to be aware of, like interfering with a crime scene, but if there was a chance the man wasn’t actually dead…

But he was. The body was just at the edge of the forested area, not hidden in the tangle of vines so much as left up against it. He’d been about their age, maybe slightly older. Not someone Kairi recognized, so maybe a tourist. The t-shirt he was wearing along with his swim trunks had originally been some light color, and the lower part of the shirt practically glowed in the near-darkness. The upper half, the sleeves and several inches below the neck hole, was soaked through with blood.

Kairi flicked on the light from her phone. The bright light was pitiless, showing the thick, already congealing blood coating his neck and throat, some drops splashed up over his face. More pooled underneath him, soaking into the sandy soil.

The blood originated from a pair of puncture wounds in the side of his neck.

Sora let out a hiss of breath behind her.

Calmly, perfectly aware that it felt like a horrifically callous, wrong thing to do, Kairi snapped several pictures of the body and of the wound. Then she slid her phone back into her pocket.

They joined the girl who had called for help, and waited for the police to arrive.

---

New headlines greeted them the following day: “Vampire” killer? Man found dead on beach; neck wound “like a vampire bite.”

Sora groaned and let his head fall forward against the table. They’d tried, in their time spent answering questions for the cops that showed up for the body, not to say anything about it looking like a vampire bite. Of course, they’d come to that conclusion anyway; who wouldn’t? Two puncture wounds to the neck and a victim bled out… it wasn’t exactly subtle.

Kairi frowned as she read through the same article.

“Vampire, huh?” he said.

“That’s what the article says,” she confirmed.

“But it can’t be, right?” Poor phrasing. It certainly could be: there was even a convenient vampire nearby. “I mean, it isn’t him, right?”

She shook her head. She closed the article to thumb through the photos from the previous night. She turned the screen toward him.

He winced as he looked at it. The picture was… cold. Clinical, maybe. Just an image of a dead man, and far too much blood.

“What kind of a vampire finds a victim, and lets that much blood go to waste? Between what’s soaked into the victim’s clothes and the amount that went into the sand, it doesn’t look like there’s nearly enough missing for a meal,” Kairi said.

Kairi had mentioned the same thing the night before, once they’d been allowed to return home, and looking at the pictures now led him to the same conclusion. The man had bled out, but the blood was all still there.

“Could he—the vampire—have been interrupted?” Sora corrected himself mid-sentence. He didn’t even want to imply this was Riku. “Had to abandon dinner?”

She shook her head. “I doubt it. The blood was already starting to dry when we got there, and the woman who screamed was the first to find the body. If someone else did interrupt an actual vampire, the interrupter didn’t react at all to the body.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And if the blood was already drying, he was probably killed right as it was getting dark, or maybe even a bit before. It almost seems like we found the body too early. If it had dried all the way, but we found it farther into the night, the time wouldn’t have seemed weird.”

Kairi flicked to the next picture on the roll, a close-up of the wounds. “The so-called bite looks pretty accurate, though. Right distance between the punctures, nice and smooth, straight into the jugular.”

Sora squinted at the image, then reached over to zoom in. Kairi was right about the realism of it, except… “What’s the dark stuff on the skin around the marks?”

She pulled the phone back to examine it. “I see what you mean. I thought it was just blood, but you’re right.”

The skin right around both punctures was black, like the tissue itself had been damaged in some way. Necrotizing, maybe. Sora had never heard of that as a hallmark of a fresh vampire bite. Semi-surreptitious cell phone pictures taken in the dark being what they were, it was hard to say for sure that it was anything, but it was definitely suspicious. “So this is either a vampire that’s sport hunting at sunset, or…”

“Something that wants us to think there’s a vampire out there killing people. And there’s something else, too…”

She swiped through a few apps on her phone, returning to the article about the murder. Then she read aloud: “Authorities are still looking for the man’s girlfriend. The pair were last seen together on the beach, and another tourist who spoke to them earlier recalls waving to the pair as they left, heading toward the area in which the man’s body was later found. The woman never returned to their rented room. Volunteers have begun searching the nearby jungle.”

“One dead, one vanished.”

“One new MO, one potentially matching the old,” she confirmed.

Sora groaned and slumped forward onto the table again.

---

Third “Vampire Killer” victim found, police seeking answers! proclaimed the attention-grabbing headline.

Riku let out a slow, unnecessary breath. It was better than throwing things. He wasn’t the type to have thralls around to keep his mansion in order, so if he broke a plate in frustration, he’d be the one cleaning it up.

Even underneath the anger, there was a small thread of relief as he noted the information about the newest victim. It wasn’t one of them. Kairi and Sora are still safe.

Like clockwork so far, every third day there was another “vampire” victim. Speculation was running rampant on whether they were related to the earlier disappearances, or if peaceful Destiny Islands had two apparent serial killers.

The islands only had one. He was sure of it. The first night had been sloppy; the first victim’s girlfriend had vanished without a trace on the same night, like the seven victims before. The vanishings continued since, but not on the same nights as the vampire victims, and not people those victims had been seen with.

But it was all the shadow-thing, Riku was certain. He would have known if there was another vampire on the islands, and anyway, he’d never known of a vampire who would be so careless.

Not that he expected anyone else to believe that. Not Sora and Kairi. He hunched miserably at the thought. They’d seen him reveal himself, fangs and claws on full display. What must they think, with these murders happening now?

Easy. They must be thinking how lucky they were to escape from you. How close a call they had with the “Vampire Killer.” It’s remarkable they haven’t attached your name to it, yet.

He’d disabled his phone, of course, first of all. He yanked the SIM card and the battery, so they couldn’t contact him. So he couldn’t try to contact them. It wasn’t as permanent as destroying the phone, of course, but it was enough for now. He could always replace it with a burner phone if he needed to reach out to his clan.

Not that he’d done that either. At this point, it was likely they’d simply summon him back; let whatever was happening on Destiny Islands sort itself out, keeping the clan far away from any suspicion or connection to the media coverage. Maybe in another few decades one of them could return to the islands, once this unpleasant series of events was a distant memory.

Meanwhile, Riku would be relegated to some other territory, one he likely didn’t want. He could spend years, even decades, hell, centuries, redeeming himself for the failure to control his territory.

Fuck.

He didn’t want that. Not just because it would reflect poorly on him, but because the islands didn’t deserve this. An island with monsters—cryptids, he reminded himself halfheartedly—living fairly happily. People like Sora and Kairi, who hadn’t done anything wrong besides being friendly to him.

You’ll never get to be one of the ones living in peace, though, a poisonous voice hissed in his head. He almost wished it was the damn shadow-thing pushing thoughts on him, but no, it was all him.

Unfortunately, he was right. He remembered Axel mentioning the island’s “pet monster hunters” and how they were perfectly willing to leave peaceful cryptids alone… but were also perfectly willing to get rid of ones that caused problems.

They had to be very ready to do some vampire hunting at this point, and he doubted they’d be terribly receptive to him insisting that no, of course it hadn’t been him leaving puncture wound bites on victims that bled out. Yeah, sure. No one was going to buy that someone was trying to frame the vampire.

So no matter how things with the shadow-thing ended, he’d have to leave Destiny Islands. That didn’t mean he had to slink away without any fight at all. At least he could teach this damn shadow not to mess with his clan. If that meant he was leaving Destiny Islands safer, he wouldn’t be entirely unhappy, even if he never got to be a part of it.

---

Riku lurked near the tourist district of the town, in the shadow of an overhang. He’d had plenty of practice lurking. Right now, he was keeping an eye out for several different things.

If he saw Sora or Kairi, he would have to retreat. If the shadow-creature was hunting, he planned to distract it. What he was most hoping to encounter was one of the island’s established cryptids. That felt unlikely, since he’d only met two. It would be a risk to try and speak to one he hadn’t at least spoken to.

It would be a risk to speak to Axel or Demyx, too. They would be just as familiar with the headlines as anyone else. He just hoped they’d let him get a word in before they threatened to turn him in.

Hours later, at the third spot he’d decided to wait, he came into more luck that he’d expected to find.

He’d settled himself on a low wall across the street from a club. Bright neon spelled out the club’s name—Wayfinder—and lit the street in front of it.

The club was trendy and popular, with a steady flow of tourists in and out the whole time he’d been watching. Music played from both a rooftop bar and seating area and from the main door when it opened, heavy thumping beat and high energy luring people closer.

Riku was considering moving on, finding another place to wait and watch, or maybe giving up and just hoping to catch Demyx after the next live music night at Materia, when he recognized a shock of red hair.

Axel exited the door of the club, still half-dancing to the beat of the song inside, tossing a friendly greeting over his shoulder at the bouncer.

Riku waited for Axel to make it a few yards down the street, with no one else nearby, before he approached. It was a conscious effort to make his steps audible, to not come across as a monster on the prowl.

His boot scuffed through some windblown sand on the sidewalk, and Axel glanced back, with the neutral look of someone at best vaguely curious. When he saw it was Riku, he spun all the way around.

There was no half-mocking but friendly greeting this time. Just a cool stare.

Riku stopped a couple paces away, keeping both hands clearly open and in sight. “Hi, Axel.”

Axel gave him an assessing look, head to toe. It was an odd description for a fire elemental, but his expression was painfully cold.

“Riku.”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Axel’s demeanor changed in an instant. The frigid attitude vanished, replaced by a much more fitting, yet frightening, heat. Riku barely registered Axel moving before a burning hot arm was shoving him into the brick wall of the building they’d stopped in front of.

Axel’s arm pressed against his throat. It took almost all of Riku’s willpower not to react, not to try and defend himself or shove back, even just to free himself.

“Wanted to talk,” Axel hissed. “Thought you weren’t planning on snacking on tourists. I recall you saying as much, specifically.”

He shook his head, unable quite to force words out.

Axel snapped his fingers, a spark like a lighter flame igniting. “Bet I could take care of the problem right now.”

Riku started to struggle at that. Fire wasn’t immediately fatal to a vampire, any more than it was a human. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be, and ifrit fire burned hot. He reached one hand up to pull at Axel’s arm, and tipped his head back, trying to get enough space to answer. “Not me,” he said.

Axel scoffed. “Think us cryptids don’t read the news?” But he did ease up on the pressure and pull his other hand back.

Riku stayed leaning against the wall, keeping himself very still. “I’ve seen the news. It isn’t me.”

Axel stepped back and arched an eyebrow. “So there’s more vampires on the islands. Not sure I love that answer any more.”

“I don’t think so.”

The little flame moved around Axel’s fingers, snaking around and between them. “You know, I told you how I understood that all us cryptids make our own way and all. I realize you’ve gotta eat. Just wish you hadn’t lied to me about it, when I was just giving you a friendly warning.”

He waved his hand again and the flame went out. He took a half step back. “But I don’t have to do anything about it. We’ve got monster hunters for that.”

“Can you warn them?” Riku asked, then added, “Please.”

The arched eyebrow was back. “Warn them. Is that a threat?”

“No,” Riku snapped. “But there is a threat. Not from me. I haven’t hurt anyone since I’ve been here, and it’s not another vampire out there hunting, either. Remember how I asked you abut the shadows?”

That did seem to give Axel pause.

Riku pushed on. “I told you there was something about the shadows here. There is something in the shadows. A monster. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be getting stronger. I know it’s the thing that’s been making people disappear, and it’s killing the other ones too. The ones that… look like I did it.”

“Just hates you, huh?”

“I didn’t want to help it. If you turn it down, maybe there’ll be some charred corpses turning up.”

The look on Axel’s face had returned to assessing. “You aren’t the only one who thinks it’s some shadow creature. I didn’t buy it, knowing you were here, but, well. A friend of mine said a shadow spoke to her, too. All right. So you want me to…”

“Warn them.”

“Them?”

“The monster hunters. Whoever they are. I’m sure they want me gone, and that’s fine. But even if I leave, the shadow thing will still be here, and it’s just going to get more and more dangerous. It’s hungry, and thinks all people are prey. Tell the other cryptids, too. I don’t know if it’ll come after them, but it could. Could frame you like it’s doing to me.”

“Awful lot of people asking me to tell other people things. Fair enough,” Axel said. “I can do that.” He turned to walk away.

Riku raised a hand, and stepped forward like he was going to follow, then stopped. He wanted to ask, but hesitated.

Axel sighed. “What else?”

“There are two humans. Their names are Sora and Kairi. Demyx, the siren, he knows them. If you can, can you look out for them, too? They were… nice to me.”

Axel stared at him for a moment, then started laughing.

For the first time, Riku did want to lash out. “I’m serious,” he snapped, realizing how pathetic that sounded. Like a teenager throwing a tantrum.

But Axel got himself under control. “All right.” He still sounded amused. “I know them, too. I’ll keep an eye on your friends.”

“Thank you.” Maybe it came across a bit stiffly, but he meant it.

“Any other lurking horrors you want to tell me about?”

Riku shook his head. “No. But this thing is dangerous. Whatever it is.”

“If it’s caused the disappearances and those murders, I guess I have to believe you.”

---

Riku prowled around the island for a while longer, but the shadow didn’t appear. Neither did Sora or Kairi, prompting an uncomfortable mix of disappointment and relief.

It was getting closer to dawn when he finally returned home. If the shadow had been hunting, it hadn’t done it anywhere he’d been. Not that he could really have stopped it. Sure, he’d “won” both of the physical encounters so far. He wasn’t certain that trend would continue forever.

He unlocked the front door and stepped in, closing and locking it behind him. The lights were off, but that was no problem for vampire sight.

The mansion felt empty. It was empty. That was something else that was supposed to be no problem for vampires. The fact that it was… well. He’d just have to make it not a problem.

Even so, it made him feel… wistful, maybe, to think of having to leave so soon. He’d truly wanted this to be a place to settle in, away from the eyes of his clanmates, the perfect territory where he wouldn’t need excuses not to hunt.

The discovery that there were cryptids already living here, making strangely normal lives for themselves, had given him hope that he’d be able to do the same.

But like he’d thought before, there was no way he’d be allowed to stay.

He crossed through two empty living rooms to the kitchen, where a low light over the stove was still on. He opened the fridge, grabbing the second to last of the containers of cow’s blood he’d purchased from the butcher.

He’d been thinking about needing to get more, but maybe he didn’t need to worry about that, either.

Cold, the blood was completely unappetizing, but he got some of it into his silly novelty mug and shoved it into the microwave. His silly novelty mug that really would be nothing but a souvenir soon.

The microwave beeped and he stirred the blood. Not perfect, but decent enough. He’d eaten before he went to find Axel; this was just to hold him over until the next night.

The sky was just starting to turn a pale shade of grey, sunrise just barely threatening when he walked into the dining room.

And abruptly, he was no longer alone.

Everything was still dark, but that weak, refracted pre-dawn light from the window was enough to show that there was a darker form waiting for him across the dining room table.

It was a more coherent shape than he would have expected. Not that he’d expected it; he hadn’t felt it this time, not the way the awareness of it had surged before.

Riku did not drop the mug, as dramatically satisfying as it would have been to have it drop and shatter, spilling blood and broken ceramic across the floor.

“You didn’t knock,” he said instead, voice even. His fingers tightened only marginally on the handle of the mug.

To really drive the nonchalance home, he took a slow sip.

No knock. No door. Shadows are doors. I/we go anywhere shadows are.

An audible hissing accompanied the mental push of the words. The thoughts still seemed to be getting more coherent, more structured than they’d been before.

“And why did you pick the shadows in my house?”

Show you what I/we do. You see me/us hunt. Best at taking prey. Easy to take prey. You not need that blood. Have better blood.

“You’re not a blood drinker.”

No. I/we am/are Heart-eater.

“I’ve noticed your other kills.” He remembered the thing’s derision when he’d said ‘victims.’ “Lots of people have.”

An unmistakable feeling of pride, thick and clinging.

“Not doing me any favors, making people think of vampires when they see those bodies.”

Many favors, the shadow countered. Fear of hunt, being found? Already assume guilty; now nothing to lose.

Riku felt his lip curl. It made a twisted kind of sense from the thing’s perspective.

“I already told you: I’m not interested in a partnership. And I’m not interested in anything making things harder for me. A lot of deaths? That makes things harder for me.”

Your choice. Could be easy.

The thing seemed to solidify, its previous suggestion of a form drawing together and growing more human-like by the moment.

“Not my kind of easy. And if you keep making things harder, that’s going to be a problem.”

The shadow exuded a condescending sense of amusement.

More problem for you. Not for me/us.

Riku took another deliberate sip from his mug, but his calm façade was starting to feel weak.

“You can think that,” he finally said. “But this is my territory. If I have to solve a problem, I will.” It was an odd feeling, how similar a sentiment it was to the unseen monster hunters of the island.

Not use territory. Not hunt. Why have? Why care? The impressions came almost all on top of each other.

“It doesn’t matter, and it’s none of your business. The island is mine, and I don’t need or want anything on it that makes it unsafe.”

The voice felt slimy and self-satisfied when it pushed through, Not afraid of found? Afraid of… bigger predator?

“You are not the bigger predator, and I will defend my territory.”

Vampire territory. Mean nothing to me/us. Not vampire.

“And what are you?”

Even within the flat black void of shadow, he saw the suggestion of a mouth, splitting open wide.

I/we am/are Heartless, came the poisonous answer, accompanied by a hiss that almost made it sound like it was speaking aloud.

Destiny Islands will be my/our territory. You not need anymore.

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