Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter 8: Forest of the Dead

Figures that the first new world she went to would have a big, scary forest and that it would be the middle of the night when she got there, Mia thought as she rested her forehead against a nearby tree. The moon overhead had a pale red cast to it, so it gave a dark crimson tinge to everything below. She couldn’t see more than a foot under the trees, and she was beginning to wonder once again if the keyblade had picked the right girl to save the universe.

Just to assure herself it was still there, she summoned Cupid’s Arrow to her hand. It appeared with a burst of white and pink sparkles, seeming to make little downy feathers of light that drifted to the ground before vanishing. She leaned against the tree and ran her thumb across the blade’s edge. It didn’t draw any blood although she could feel the sharpness of the blade and individual feathers of the bit. Maybe it was a sign that she was truly its master.

A gust passed through the clearing where she stood and it felt like the fingers of a cold hand reaching down the shirt of her uniform. She surreptitiously cast a look over her shoulder to make absolutely sure nobody was there. She gripped her keyblade tighter, wondering how she was supposed to find the other masters.

Yuko’s prophecy drifted into her mind. “Finding the others will be easier than you think.” She steeled herself at the thought of the beautiful woman. She had the kind of strength that Mia wanted so badly to have, and she would never get that strength if she stood around being scared of shadows.

She gathered her nerves, telling herself that anything she met would be no match for the awesome power of the keyblade, and marched off into the darkness.

A few minutes later, she was sitting listlessly beneath a tree, trying to remember what happened to the rock-hard will that she had a few minutes ago.

Well, she thought, she couldn’t expect to be absolutely fearless the first time out. How did these people in the books she had read do it? But then it came to mind that the people in those books weren’t real, or had lived hundreds of years ago and had lives much harder than hers. Mia had lived in luxury, doted on by her parents, every whim met (to the point of sanity, of course). Everything she had considered hard back then were the things that weren’t handed to her on a silver platter.

Quietly, she began to cry once more, just a little. This was hard. Her life was in mortal danger and she had the fate of the universe on her shoulders. Mia wanted so badly to quit. To throw the keyblade to the ground, say “this isn’t real”, and go back home and pretend that none of this ever happened. But she knew she couldn’t quit this time. If she quit, as she had quit so many other things, it would be the end of everything.

There would be no home to go back to, no Radiant Gardens either. She wouldn’t be able to tell Leon that she thought he was cute, couldn’t give Vincent that smack he so dearly deserved. Couldn’t get to know Aerith better, couldn’t find that Cloud that Tifa was waiting for and tell him his childhood friend missed him. She’d never beat Yuffie or Seifer or… Roxas.

Suddenly, she was angry. The thought of that Nobody made her want to spit. She rubbed her tears away, glaring out at the night. Her fear slowly drained as she got angrier at that stupid… She growled to herself and stood, grabbing her keyblade once more. She brushed off some fallen leaves that had stuck to her skirt.

If she wanted to find another keyblade master, she’d have to find people first. She attempted to look up past the leaves to see if there were any buildings at all. But the leaves made a sheet that obscured even the stars.

Something moved behind her. She jumped a foot and whirled around with a squeak, holding the keyblade at the ready. So long as she had Cupid’s Arrow, she told herself firmly, nothing could stand against her.

A dark shape leaped out of the underbrush. Mia screamed. Birds roosting in nearby trees squawked and took to the air in a panic. The shape hit her in the chest and she was knocked backwards. The back of her head collided sharply with a tree and pretty golden stars popped before her eyes.

When her head stopped spinning, she discovered a dog sitting on her. It was a large Australian heeler, dark-furred with silvery flecks that made it look almost blue. Its eyes were dark and intelligent, and it seemed to be laughing to itself as to how easily it had scared this little blonde girl.

“You shouldn’t do that, boy,” Mia groaned, patting its head affectionately. She didn’t know if the dog was really male or not, but he did have a sort of masculine air about it. She pushed him off of her with the slightest effort and stood once more.

The dog whined and butted her leg with his head before turning and jumping back through the bush. Mia watched, bewildered, as it came back once more and grabbed her skirt in its mouth and tugged at it urgently. “Alright, boy, I’m coming…”

It barked happily and darted back into the bush. Mia pushed a branch or two aside and followed the dog as he patiently led her through the forest. She had no idea why she was letting a dog take her to parts unknown, but perhaps he had an owner she could ask for directions from.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the dog suddenly stopped, whining, and ran back to Mia’s side before hiding behind her legs. Mia looked around, not seeing anything that would have spooked the dog so much. She rubbed one of its pointed ears and patted its strong back, trying to get its courage back up again. If even the dog was nervous, her newfound bravery would die pretty quickly.

The dog seemed to appreciate the friendly gesture and inched slowly around her and trotted to a nearby tree, where it began to dig. Mia approached curiously and looked over the dog, trying to see what was under the tree that it wanted. Then it whined and hid behind her legs again.

Mia bent over to see what he had dug up. She screamed. The dog yelped. Birds roosting in nearby trees squawked and took to the air in a panic.

It was a hand.

She took a few steps back which the dog dodged, whining. This was too much. Heartless, okay. Nobodies, whatever. But a bodiless hand in the middle of a creepy forest was not what she had signed up for. It was way too much. Once again, she felt herself wishing that she could go home.

The heeler suddenly whipped around and growled at the foliage behind them. Mia turned as well, much more slowly. Someone was standing in the shadow of the trees. A bad feeling crept over her.

Mia moved slowly, summoning the keyblade once more. The dog barked viciously, baring its sharp, white teeth at the person.

The person took a shuffling step forward, and a gap in the trees cast red moonlight on his face. Mia screamed once more.

His face was pale and half-rotted, his eye sockets were empty. He walked with a hunched back, and made a soft moaning sound as it moved. He also lacked a hand. It didn’t take a genius to label it a zombie.

Her dog barked loudly, as if shouting at the thing to keep its distance or suffer the consequences. Mia glanced over her shoulder and spotted more in the trees. The dog seemed to sense them there, too, and began to circle Mia defensively, yapping and growling and snapping at any that it felt got too close. But they were slowly closing in around her. Mia was trembling, frozen in fear.

One of the zombies must have crossed an invisible line the dog had placed around her. The heeler seemed to roar with rage and tackled one of the walking corpses and latched on with its teeth. The zombie fell like a bowling pin, taking out the two on either side of it. Mia took her chance.

She ran faster than she ever had before and jumped. She cleared the writhing pile of flesh and sprinted off into the darkness, shouting over her shoulder for her dog. It untangled itself from the zombies and followed after her at an equally blinding speed.

There was a bang and something whizzed by an inch from her nose. A zombie that had appeared a few feet to her right that she hadn’t seen got something small and metal between the eyes. It fell backwards and did not get back up.

Mia stopped dead, holding her keyblade at the ready. Someone was coming towards her through the forest, but not with the stumbling gait of one of the zombies. It seemed to almost glide across the ground like a ghost. The night, which was once balmy and warm, suddenly became very cold, and a fog slowly drifted in around her and her dog. The heeler whimpered, its ears plastered against the back of its head.

She stared at the figure as it came forth from the fog. He looked shockingly like Vincent, with the same blacker than black hair—albeit shorter and better kept—and a long red coat. He wore a floppy red fedora, yellow-tinted sunglasses, and a charcoal gray suit. His pristine white gloves had identical, complicated pentagrams on the back, with wobbly symbols and words in languages she couldn’t understand.

Despite this man’s and Vincent’s physical similarity aside, this guy carried himself completely differently. Vincent looked sad, like he had something to hide. But this man was straight-backed, proud, regal… handsome.

He put a gloved hand on his chest and bowed in a gentlemanly fashion. Mia blushed at the archaic salute, not sure what to think. “Pardon me, miss,” he said. His voice was quiet and sultry, and deep thought was evident behind each word. “You may wish to shield your ears. It may get somewhat loud in a moment.”

He straightened and turned in the direction she had come from, pulling from his crimson coat one of the largest handguns she had ever seen. Mia stuck her fingers deep into her ears.

The man fired, one shot after the other in quick succession. He reloaded with the practiced ease and lightening speed of someone who had been doing it all his life. And although Mia couldn’t see a thing past the fog and the darkness and the trees, she was for some reason absolutely certain that each and every shot found its mark.

Pausing, the man scanned the trees one last time. He nodded, put his gun away, and turned back to Mia. “I apologize,” he said simply, smiling faintly.

Mia tried to stammer out a thank you but it only came out as an embarrassingly inarticulate squeak. The man seemed to understand what she meant, however, for he bowed again. “It was my pleasure, truly. I am called Alucard.”

“I’m Mia,” she managed to respond.

“Charmed.” He took her hand and, much to her surprise, brushed his lips humbly across her knuckles.

Mia’s face turned bright pink and her free hand began to wring the hem of her skirt. The man did not release her hand as he brought himself up to his (shockingly tall) full height.

The dog growled suspiciously. The man glanced down at it then ignored it once more, making eye contact with Mia past his glasses. There was something in his eyes that grabbed her and held her, the world around her fading away. Her dog’s growling slowly fell silent. It felt oddly pleasant looking into his eyes. He was slowly coming towards her.

There was a sharp pain at the back of her foot and the spell was broken. He had released her hand and was suddenly a foot away. She turned to see the source of what had caused the pain to see that the heeler had done the job it had been bred for: she hadn’t been paying attention to it, it had nipped her foot to tell her to get a move on.

“Bad,” she grumbled, cuffing it around the ears. “Bad boy! No biting!”

Alucard watched her chide her dog, eyes invisible past his glasses. “I take it… he’s not yours?”

Mia shook her head. “No. But he saved me from those… things. What were they anyway? Zombies?”

“Ghouls,” he corrected her dismissively. “Essentially the same thing, however. You had best go home and forget about this.” He touched the brim of his hat politely. “Good night, ma’am.”

“Please, wait,” Mia shouted, gripped by a sudden idea. “I’m completely lost, I don’t know where the heck I am.”

Her pleading seemed wasted on him. He pointed in a direction. “Keep going that way, you will be out of the woods in half an…” His voice trailed off as he spotted something.

Mia saw exactly what he did. A pair of bulbous yellow eyes, staring at them. Alucard stared back at it.

She didn’t waste time, however. She summoned the keyblade.

The eyes jerked towards her. Alucard moved for his gun once more, but Mia was somehow quicker on the draw.

Mia discharged a single white orb from the Cupid’s Arrow. It smashed into the Heartless and enveloped it before vanishing along with the creature.

Alucard had watched with mild interest, and now his eyes were fixed on her keyblade with a mix of mild surprise and something else she couldn’t identify without seeing his eyes. “So… that is a Keyblade.”

Mia stared at him. “What do you know about that?”

The tall man smiled, a wide sneer that revealed his teeth… rather, fangs. His canines were unusually long and sharp. Mia suddenly knew what this Alucard was. She gasped and backed against a nearby tree.

“Oh, don’t worry,” the vampire snickered with sadistic glee. “I don’t bite… often,” he added as an afterthought. He composed himself again. “Trust me. I gave up eating living humans about two hundred years ago.” He pushed his sunglasses up his nose. “You are from… out of town, to say the least? I know someone who would be… very interested in meeting the master of the keyblade.”

“Wouldn’t happen to be a spiky-haired kid in a black coat, would it?” Mia asked suspiciously. Alucard frowned at her. “Just checking,” she muttered. “Let me think.”

And she did. He waited patiently as she mulled over her options. The dog just stared at Alucard with doubt. Mia turned to Alucard. “Only if Arthur can come!”

“Arthur?” the vampire asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Good name for a dog,” Mia explained, scratching said canine behind the ear.

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

A purple Lamborghini Diablo sped through the streets of downtown London with the top down, blasting dance-rock music at as loud as the stereo would go. There was no one else out at this time of night, so the driver could speed as much as she wanted to without fear of the cops catching her. So she relaxed and enjoyed the ride, humming along with the music.

It had been ages since she had been in London. A little over a hundred years, actually, and damn, how things had changed. Sure, the Towers of London were there as usual, ravens perched on every available ledge. But the London Eye was new, she’d probably go for a ride some other time.

She had both bad and good memories in London. She’d had a great time the last time she was there… well, until four really mean dudes crashed the party and killed her dad, most of her buddies, and almost her and her sister. Well, she had always been pretty lucky as far as her kind went. Almost two hundred years of running around with the greatest vampire of all time usually helped your luck quite a bit.

The Diablo slowed and turned into a likely back alley and parked there. The driver’s door opened vertically and a pair of purple-tinted sunglasses hit the ground. A young girl, who looked barely old enough to drive the thing, stepped out, crushing the sunglasses underfoot.

She bared her fangs in a manic grin, red eyes flashing in the reddish moonlight as she looked up at Big Ben’s clock tower.

“Home sweet home,” she whispered to the night.

It would all belong to her soon. She was going to take this city for her father if she had to burn it to the ground to do it.

She poked her head back into the car and addressed the girl in the passenger’s seat. “Hey, Halo? Where’d you put the marshmallows?”