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He wasn’t sure when the whispers began. When he thought back on it, they had always seemed to be there, lurking in the darkest corners of his mind awaiting their next opportunity to speak. As an only child, there wasn’t much he lacked which didn’t provide much for the voices to comment on, so he could mostly ignore them. He wasn’t envious of any other kids since he could easily acquire whatever he desired.
But when he got a bit older, his desires grew away from the material. Living possessions were more difficult to obtain. Luckily, gaining Sora’s friendship had been easy enough. While he’d lost a few friends along the way, he’d been able to retain a stable mind due to the steady relationship Sora provided, the relationship that mattered the most to him, at least for a while.
Sora was a playmate. He listened to direction, but also freely shared whatever inputs he had, such as sword fighting tidbits or knowledge about which plants happened to be edible. He was a perfect balance of follower and helper. He was also a good listener. Unlike many of the other kids, Sora was fairly bright, at least bright enough to actually understand him when he ranted about the universe or the nature of existence. Sora even went so far as to give his own ideas, not that it held much viability; still, it made enjoyable enough conversation.
For a time, this was enough to satisfy him as well as the voices living comfortably in the back of his mind. But as soon as the cute little redhead magically washed up on shore that hot summer day, the voices had twitched awake.
Their previous whispers hadn’t seemed that strange to him considering that they were simple thoughts such as, “you want this toy,” or “that kid deserves the pain he’s in”, but now Riku could tell that they weren’t exactly natural for a kid of his age. He began to look at the girl in a way he’d never looked at anyone before. When he looked at her face he didn’t see what was there but instead a fabricated image of what it would look like twisted in pleasure, of saliva trailing from her mouth and tears clinging to her eyes. Each day he would scan her clothing searching for every tiny curve emphasized, every inch of skin exposed. Being of a young still fairly innocent age, the girl never even noticed his constant scrutiny, and often unknowingly exposed more of herself to him than was best.
The voices pushed on, not content at just looking. They whispered constantly, no longer giving a care about anything beyond her and her radiate smile. Sora became an obstacle that was kept around only because the girl desired it. He played along diligently, planning ways to steal her for himself along the way.
Life carried on this way without much conflict until the day before they were supposed to leave on the raft. The plan had been a brilliant scheme concocted by the voices. He would play nice until they were well out to sea, then an unsuspecting Sora would find himself at the bottom of the sea. Kairi would be upset at first, but alone with him, what other option would she have besides forgiving him, eventually?
Thus he was hard at work preparing for the trip when he stumbled upon the other two deep in conversation.
“Let’s leave, just the two of us,” Kairi suggested.
There was a pause, then Sora replied. “I don’t know…”
“Sora, I like you! Can you imagine what it would be like just the two of us? Alone?”
“I like you too, but it still doesn’t seem right.”
“Fine, then we can tell Riku. Alright?”
“Okay.”
Riku contemplated confronting them, but the voices were perked up by something stronger. Deciding that he could deal with them later, he followed the voices' instructions to enter his secret cave. The air was musty and restricted his breathing somewhat. He glanced at the inoperable outline of a door carved into the stone. Even without the voices telling him promises of the other worlds that lay beyond it, he would have been intrigued. It had an air about it that hissed of its foreignness.
He used to often trace the outline, searching for any crag in the stone, but each time he only found smooth rock. Nostalgia led him to reach out to the door, and surprisingly, there was an unnatural heat emanating from its core dissipating along the edges. The voices screeched in excitement. Open the door.
Replicating his actions of old, he traced the outline, however, this time he found a crag easily enough. Digging his fingers in, pebbles crumbled to the ground with pitter-pattering noises, he pulled toward himself and watched as a deep recess of glowing dark purple was exposed. Energy swirled, pulling him in, and he didn’t try to stop it.
He felt a wave of tense power surge through him at the first touch of the void. He wanted so badly to enter into its welcoming arms, but first, he needed to find Kairi. He didn’t know where this door would lead him, and he wouldn’t be giving up his possession that easily.
Stepping back into the cave, he heard the first strikes of thunder mixed with a heavy wind. A tropical storm. Not unusual for these parts, but the timing was uncanny. Riku could still feel echoes of power surging through him, and he wondered if somehow he was the cause. The thought put a devilish smirk on his face.
Exiting the cave, he was met with billowing shadowy darkness. Bits would swell until they separated from the rest forming little creatures with shining golden eyes. Riku stared in wonder at them, but they didn’t approach him. Instead, they scoured the ground sniffing like a dog in search of scraps.
Free. Yes. Hearts. Yes.
Ignoring their odd comments, he walked to the end of the dock, taking in the rolling sea waves.
“Riku?” The voice wavered.
“Kairi!” Riku turned expectantly.
“Where’s Sora?” she asked, glancing around them in fear.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“We need to find him. I hope he’s okay. What is going on here? What are these things?”
“Who cares? I found a way out of here.” His face must have shown his mad ambition because she backed up. “Come with me, Kairi.”
“Not without Sora.” She shook her head, glancing around again.
“He can take care of himself.”
The billowing darkness began to wrap around his form, slithering upward like a snake. He continued to hold out his hand, but she made no move to take it. Groaning, he leaped toward her wrapping her up in an unbreakable hold. She struggled against him, but the darkness had already formed a shell around them.
“No!” she cried before going limp.
Thunder cracked loudly as the darkness swelled around them. A whoosh sounded as they took off to who knows where. Faintly, Riku thought he heard Sora calling out to them.