Searching for Sanctuary
chapter one
Moving day
Roxas fumbled through his pants pocket until his fingers brushed cold metal. He slipped the key out and into the lock, pressing the box he was carrying to the door with one hand so that he wouldn't drop it. He was finally getting his own place; some peace and quiet... but to be honest, he had mixed emotions. This old house was very run down, thus it was cheap enough for him to buy. He figured he could fix up the place... but he had never really been on his own before. The only sound was the buz of cicada in the dark. It was too quiet.

The wooden floor boards creaked as Roxas walked into the kitchen and set his box of belongings down. He heaved a sigh, looking around at the disheveled, run down interior. When he bought the house he heard that someone had died there... The blonde went along unpacking but still, it was far too quiet. He found himself singing softly to break the silence... which worked... atleast until he heard the thud upstairs. There was no way that was the sound of an old house settling. Roxas freezes at the sound. "wha-who's there?!" he shouts stepping up the creeking steps. his mind starting to wander with the thoughts he didnt want at the moment. "It was the dead..." he thinks, shaking his head. He reaches the door upstairs, hesitating. "That's just sillly..." he mumbles, placing a hand on the doorknob.

The boy takes a deep breath and lifts up on the doorknob as he pushes it open, that way it would swing silently on its aged hinges. He glances back down the hall to the stairs, briefly noting that the paint was peeling and needed to be redone. After the moment of procrastination, he enters the room. It was the highest in the house, entirely wooden, and covered in a heavy layer of dust. It appeared to be a small study or office, with walls lined almost entirely by books. There was a beautifully set window with a sliver of a crescent moon outside. The sill was the only seat in the room however. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and Roxas had almost forgotten his fear, gawking in awe at the simplistic beauty of this room. His foot his something hard as he aproaches the window. A black book, on the floor... surely the cause of the sound.

Roxas tilts his head, confused. A book? How did it get here. He bends down lifting it from teh floor. It was large and heavy. The blonde shuffles over to the wooden desk dropping it down onto the surface. he runs his fingers over the worn cover, unable to read what was once lettering. He hums in thought. A chill sweeps through the room. Roxas dissmisses it as a draft. This was an old house after all. A slender finger traces over the cover curiously. Roxas furrowed his eyebrows, treating the relic with such intense care. He turns to the first page and gets an uneasy feeling. The book was old and warn, but not dusty in the least. The eggshell pages were graced by a beautiful, handwritten manuscript. Black ink scrolled across the page... it was a diary.

Roxas traces over the beautiful handwriting. He leans down closer to be able to make sense of the swirling letters. It appeared as though it was written with a quil and the book itself looked hand bound, unlike the massivly manufactured ones today. He flips to the back looking for some sort of date or identification. This whole thing was really odd... Roxas' face fell as his cerulean eyes fell upon the last entry. It was nowhere near the end, but there was nothing after it. The last page looked normal at first glance, but the lettering was unledgible at the end and smeared as if the book had been closed before the ink was dry... But that was not what left Roxas stricken with confusion... The date at the top of the page was September tenth, 2008. The exact date that it was today...

"Wha-" he questions no one. He snaps the book closed, forcing all dark thoughts from his head. "I was just imagining it." he breaths out before slowly opening the book to the last entry again... nothing had changed. Roxas' breath catches. He just stared at the date. September tenth, 2008. He read it over and over, trying to find a mistake. Perhaps it was supposed to say 2003? The ink was smudged after all. Yes, that must be it, he told himself. 5 years ago today. Roxas relaxes slightly and looks up from the page. There was a bottle of ink and a feather quil set atop the dusty desk... That crushing silence was back. He tried not to think of anyone breaking into his house or anything but this was seriously strange. He had never wanted so badly to hear his nagging parents or pestering friends so much. Roxas looked down at the page. He had to know more. "I fear that everything is working toward a change. I cannot say that this is a bad thing, for I have grown so tired of wasting time here..." it says. Roxas reads on, captivated by the poetic thoughts recorded in the book. "It is growing dark out side. I only wish I could see it without having to peer through the glass of my window. So long has is been sinc-"

There is a flash of white and a startling sound as a bird flies from its perch. Roxas stumbles backward, heart racing... but he relaxes as he sees it is meerly a dove. "Where did you come from?" he coos gently, reaching out to stroke the bird infront of him. "That would explain the bird seed downstairs, huh? I supposed you were the previous owner's pet?" Roxas muses. He spies an old wire cage in the corner of the room and places it inside. The blonde turns to look back at the diary when the grandfather clock begins to chime. "Its late... I can read it in the morning..." he tells himself, heading out of the room to find his bedroom...

Chapter two
Sanctuary

The large ancient clock chimes nine, ten ...eleven times signalling that many hours. Roxas slowly shuffles down the hall to his room. he pushes against the door noticing it stuck along the top slightly, he makes a promise to fix it as soon as he is settled. He peers around the old room spotting his new bed. he walks over flopping down onto the mattress, expecting a large cloud of dust to fly up... nothing happens. Roxas sits up looking down at the newly rumpled sheets. they were spotless, clean. He shrugs it off and snuggle into the blankets. This house wasn't so bad after all... Already he could feel himself drifting toward sleep. He was perfectly able to sleep all the way through the night... but he was in for quite a shock in the morning. Roxas opened his eyes to a beautiful morning... aside from the wall adjacent to his bed. Carved into the whitwashed wood was the word Sanctuary... and it was NOT there the night before.

The blonde automatically bolts straight uppward blues eyes opened to their fullest. he mind screamed he should run get out that it wasnt safe. he sits there stunned for a moment longer before stepping out of the bed and stumbling over to the words, legs unsteady. He touches the carved surface gently. he growls suddenly fear turning into anger. "Who the fuck has the nerve!!?" he growls before a realization hit him...some one had to have been in Here while he was sleeping. a shiver runs up roxas spine as his legs give and he hits the floor with a thump.

Roxas can't find the strength to move his legs. They felt like cold stone benieth him. He whips around, examining every corner from where he sat. The room was empty... but what about the rest of the house? He forced himself upright and stumbled out of the room, tearing down the hall and down the stairs. All was quiet. After a thorough investigation he found that no one was around. They had probably left... or they were never there at all... Maybe he had imagined the carving... it was entirely possible. He needed something. Someone there. Anything to calm him... The first thing to come to mind was the bird up in the study. In a matter of seconds, shaky hands opening the door. He sighed with relief, seeing the bird eating fresh food inside the cage... he hadn't remembered feeding it last night, but he must have. He smiled faintly and looked at the desk. The book was closed... He left it open the night before...

Roxas walks over to the book, almost scared to touch it. He flips it open to the last entry, he lifts the heavy tome off the desk to look closer. He notices there has been more added to the entry. The blonde's hands begin to shake slightly, his knees feeling weak. "Someone has intruded upon the house..." he pauses, "they must leave." He stops reading, dropping the book to the floor, dove screeching out in sudden fright.

Roxas stumbles back away from the book. "Who is there!?" He shouts at the walls. He backs into the window sill and falls back on it. "Who are you!?" He sits in silence for a moment. "Some punk is trying to cheat me out of my own home!" He grumbles to the bird. "This is absolutely rediculous!" He rakes a hand through blonde spikes in frustration. Roxas storms out of the room and down the stairs, all the way to the front door. He locks it and feels for his cell phone in his pocket just incase. He shook his hands out. "I just need a distraction." He keeps speaking aloud, not wanting to be in the silence again. Trying to be rational he starts cleaning up the kitchen...

The irratated blonde pulls out a frilled apron out from the box he left sitting on the kitchen table, tying it tightly around his waist as he pulls out a bandanna to tie around his head. He grabs some cleaners, face stuck in a deep scowl. Only his eye looked worried. He sighs stepping into the old style kitchen. "Atleast it has a dishwasher" he grumbles spraying a blue goo along the counter tops, nose crinkling at the strong sent. He sets the can down pulling on gloves and setting to scrub the years of grime off the counters.

After what seemed like endless minutes of scrubbing away Roxas has relaxed... or more like blocked everything from his mind. With a spotless kitchen infront of him, Roxas needed to think of something new to occupy his time. He wasn't all that keen on cleaning more today... But he wouldn't mind the company of his new pet. He strolled casually back upstairs and into the office. The book was just as he left it... Cautiously Roxas lifted it and set it on the desk, acting as if it could bite him at any moment. His eyes flitted from the book to the ink and quil and then back. He thought about what he read the night before. A heartfelt entry about the owners life and he almost forgot about the last entry he read. A sudden whim came to Roxas. Having removed his maid-like attire and set it aside, he opened the book to a new page and picked up the quil. "Who are you?" he scrolled across the page neatly. "No one will reply." He told his bird. "...but I wish I could have known who wrote this." he tried to justify to himself. He chuckled. "I know its stupid." Roxas stood up and left the room. He needed to repaint the hallway.

Roxas slowly and methodically painted down the long hall, it took until he was a quater of the way done and covered in the warm toned paint and sweat for the diary and the carving to slowly drift from his mind. He hummed quietly nearly done with the hall, he runs his hand over his face smearing paint across a cheek sighing loudly. "Why is this hall so long?" he huffs.

Roxas drops the brush back into the canaster of paint. He walks into the bathroom down the hall and washes the paint from his hands. He looks in the mirror. "I need a shower..." He says to himself. The glass was cracked and his eye traced down the lines until he saw it. There was a shadowy figure in the door way of the reflection. Roxas gasped and spins around to confront the intruder... No one was there. He looks back at the reflection. No one was there. Roxas shivers nervously. He leaves the bathroom, looking down the hallway and going back to his companion dove. Curiously he looks at the book. It was just as he left it. He opens it and flips to the page he wrote one. There was no writing... He relaxed a little more. "Things are going back to normal..."

Roxas fills the water tray before grabbing a towel from a hall closet and stepping into the bathroom. He checks every corner and cabinet to make sure nothing was there before he closed the door, wincing at the loud screech emitted from the hindges. He turns the nob locking the door. He sighs feelign safer with it tightly locked. The blonde pulls off his shirt thinking about the past events stripping down to nothing. He bends down turning on the water for a soothing shower.

Roxas hums softly, feeling steam rising around him. After the shower he felt calm and refreshed. He stepped onto the tile floor and infront of the mirror. The glass fogged up, but there was writting on it. "Don't touch my books" The door was slighty agar and the towel was gone. Roxas freezes standing in the middle of the room stark naked. he reads the words aloud, a shiver running through him. Turning to cover himself with the towel realizing that was gone too. He hops, bare feet dashing out into the hall to the closet farther down to grab another towel.

His towel was folded neatly where he had found it. Roxas wasted no time wrapping it around his hips. He rushes into the office. "Where are you!?" He calls out. The bird was the only one there. The diary was gone though, placed back along one of the shelves of various volumes of books. Roxas couldn't help but tremble.