Night Must Fall

          
“So. There you are! We were beginning to think you weren’t ever going to show up.” Hayner called, grinning and lightly

punching Roxas in the arm that always caused his friend to laugh and hold up his forearm for their signature greeting. “You

ready to go? Today’s bout is Seifer against Setzer. I’m all psyched!”


          
“Sorry about that. I got caught up with something.” Roxas smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Kicking the toe

of his boot against the ground, he leaned back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “So, those two are at it again, huh? They

just won’t rest until one of them concedes.”


          
“Which of course won’t happen. They both have egos about as big as Twilight Town.” Pence added as he came up to

them, patting each of their backs with a giant grin and beaming at the thought of Seifer taking Setzer down. “I can’t wait!

We need some really good seats for this one.”


          
“Now guys, take it easy. We don’t want what happened last time, do we?” Olette warned, reminding them of the time when

they were talking a little louder than they should have, and Hayner and Roxas had gotten dragged up onto the Struggle

platform to do a two on two duel against Setzer and Seifer.


          
With sparkling innocence, the three boys immediately chorused, “Noooooo.”


          
Olette gave them a suspicious glance, but turned and headed out towards the Sandlot without waiting for them to follow.

“C’mon guys. It’s about to start. This time, can we try sitting on the left side, so we don’t have to get hit with the Struggle

Bats when Seifer swings too hard?”


          
Hayner laughed, wrapping his arms around Pence and Roxas’ shoulders, moving them forward after Olette. “Honestly,

that’s only happened like, ONCE, Olette!”


          
“Yeah! To ME!” Olette called back over her shoulder, disappearing into the lot so that she could choose their seats for

them. If it were left up to the guys, they most definitely would choose something that would get one of them hurt.



~~~


          
Swing after swing, grunt after grunt, the duel raged on as the sun began its descent in the sky. Setzer and

Seifer’s duel had lasted longer than normal, having them tied each time the clock hit zero, which caused overtime bouts. It

spurred the crowd on, causing them to cheer in near frenzy for their favorites, yet everyone could see that it was wearing

each contestant down every turn.


          
Hayner and Pence were cheering for Seifer, not because they liked the guy who caused them grief on a daily

basis, but because they hated Setzer more. Seifer was an arrogant ass, but at least he didn’t take pompousness to the Nth

degree. He would, given time, admit defeat when admitting was required whereas Setzer never would.


          
Roxas and Olette were cheering in general, not really caring about much more than the fact that Struggle was

just a damn cool sport. The sounds of the bout dimmed, causing Roxas to frown in confusion and glance around, but

everything seemed normal, save for the audio aspect. A wave of dizziness hit, causing him to shake his head trying to clear

it, when he heard a whisper in the air, “Need. Need …. Him. Need….. you.”


          
Jerking his gaze up, he looked around to see everyone had vanished. “What the hell is going on around here!?”

His temper began to rise as he glared around, trying to find a reason for the anomalies. “Who’s there!? Who’s calling me?!”


          
“So, you CAN sense when we’re near?” The owner of the voice had seemed to come from Roxas’ left, but the next

whisper seemed to come from the opposite direction. “Or only when you’re not paying full attention to what’s around you.

Hmm.”


          
Pushing the pale hair out of his eyes, Roxas demanded of the air, “Who are you? What do you want with me?”


          
“Who do you think I am?” A question answered with a question. But it seemed to have a purpose. It seemed to require

something.


          
Unfortunately, Roxas wasn’t up for games and, stalking around, found a stick to use just in case he needed it. “Why don’t

you show yourself, coward?”


          
A black-robed figure stepped out of a shadow, into the light, and allowed Roxas to get a good look at what he

was dealing with. “Coward. An interesting challenge. We shall see.” Holding up a gloved hand, darkness began to coalesce

at the fingertips, gathering into a dark ball and aimed straight for Roxas.


          
Shit. Throwing himself behind some boxes, Roxas dodged the ball of shadow just in time. It sailed past

him and put a good sized dent into the wall where he’d been standing. When he pulled himself upright, the mysterious

person was gone, but had left a parting gift. Several weird-looking white creatures were heading straight for him. “Oh

great.”


          
For a few minutes, Roxas seemed to have been holding his own against the creatures, though he didn’t hit a

single one. Every time he swung, it would dodge with a boneless fluidity he couldn’t manage to beat. When he DID hit one,

it brushed it off as if he hadn’t touched it at all. Panting heavily, Roxas groaned as he realized more of the weird white-

looking things were coming. He wasn’t sure how many more he could take on and get away with his hide intact.


          
Wiping the sweat out of his eyes, he saw a flash of white and white-gold out of the corner of his eyes, before a

sweet voice called out, “Over here! This way! Follow my voice!”



          
Though he was in no way trusting yet another voice, since the first one had not only attacked him but had left him such

wonderful surprises. However, he also knew that he wouldn’t last much longer if he’d stayed put and so, giving himself a

mental shrug with the fact that the voice had sounded cute, he followed it. After all, what choice did he really have? It gave

him a direction that led him away from the white monsters at any rate.


          
Dodging around the swinging limb-things, and darting under a wickedly-spiked critter, he followed the voice through town

and into a section of forested area which had been hidden until someone had made a hole in the wall. But the white things

were there waiting for him in the forest too and so he had to take a few swings to kep them off-balance. Skidding through a

small path, he found himself in a clearing, where a mansion rose up beyond large iron gates. There was no sign of anybody

around, no voice, and no flickers of white or gold. Staring up at the mansion, he whistled low and breathed, “Whoa… what

is this place?”





TBC