This just came to me one night. It's kinda weird, just a warning. Rated due to violence, don't read if your squeamish. I don't own Kingdom Hearts

Beta-ed by: xXxSorrowful RemembrancexXx

A World of Darkness

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Chapter One:

Into The Darkness

Marluxia stepped out of the dark portal and into more darkness. He was in a dark alleyway; he heard the footsteps of people out on the street.

For a second he thought it odd that he was still wearing his organization uniform. Wasn't the portal suppose to make his clothes so that he blended in with the surrounding people? He shrugged and walked out onto the street.

He grabbed the shoulder of a man walking by, "Excuse me? Could you tell me where… I…" his voice trailed off as he looked at the face of the man. Or where his face should have been…

The man had no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears, instead was a blank, shiny, skin color, plastic-like surface.

Marluxia let go of the man who turned and kept walking. He looked around. Everyone was faceless, everyone looked glossy and plastic, and everything was perfectly symmetrical, like child's toys.

It was like he had been dropped into the mind of a five-year-old.

"Am…" he finally finished in a whisper as he watched the faceless people walk by, or drive…

Yes, they were driving cars.

Marluxia turned and walked at a brisk pace.

The people had no faces. He was walking proof you could live without a heart, but no face? Of course, he'd seen some pretty weird things, just one more thing to add to the list…

To keep his attention off of the people he named a few things off of this list.

1: A giant waffle eating tiger.

2: A man getting his eye gorged out with a spoon (Why else do you think Xigbar wears an eye patch?).

3: A short white haired woman 'accidentally' swallowing the freshly gorged eyeball and, after almost barfing, commenting on how it tasted just like chicken.

Marluxia stopped as something fell in front of his face. A raindrop? He knelt down to examine it.

A black raindrop! Translucent, but pure black!

Marluxia looked up. The sky, too, was pure black. There were just faint grayish outlines that suggested clouds. He put up his hood as more of the black raindrops came down. The faceless people around him put up there hoods, got out umbrellas, or ran into nearby buildings for shelter.

As Marluxia walked around a corner he saw a small building labeled 'Food'.

'Of course' he thought. He decided to check it out. He wasn't hungry: he was more interested in seeing if a place like this had real food. And seeing how these faceless people could eat.

He walked into the restaurant to find it full of empty tables and an empty bar. He walked up next to the only other 'person' there. The faceless man was sitting at the bar. He was just... sitting there.

Marluxia sat down on a bar stool next to him. The bar tender, a blond faceless woman, seemed to be looking at him.

"Just something to drink," he said, wondering if she could even hear him.

She nodded and reached under the counter. She pulled up a mug and set it in front of Marluxia at the same time a fat faceless man wearing a chefs hat and uniform came out and set a covered platter in front of the man next to him.

Marluxia watched as the man rubbed his hands, which were nothing but spheres on the end of his arms, and lift the lid of the platter.

A rather good smelling steam rose up, but the food itself was… strange.

On the plate was a pile of black, lumpy, slimy looking gunk which immediately set off Marluxia's gag reflex. A black line started to form where the man's mouth should be, and Marluxia watched in awe as black claws reached out of the… mouth/line/hole thing and opened it wider until the front of the man's head was a black hole.

The head that belonged to the claws was perfectly round with round white eyes and triangular teeth in it's grinning mouth. It had twisted pointed black ears sticking out of the sides of it's head.

The creature reached out so that it was half hanging out of the man's face; it picked up the plate and shoveled the gunk into it's mouth.

Marluxia looked down into his mug to see the same black water that poured from the sky. He brought it his nose, it smelled fresh and clean.

He swallowed, building his nerves, and slowly brought the liquid to his lips.

'On the count of three,' he thought to himself, 'one, two-'

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you…" a female voice said. Marluxia looked over to see who had spoke.

In a dark corner of the restaurant a girl leaned against the wall. She wore jeans and a dark gray hoodie with the hood up. Marluxia was glad to see that she had a face, although the hood cast a shadow so he couldn't her eyes. She was smoking a cigarette, the white-gray smoke twisted lazily to the ceiling, and she had long curly orange hair that flowed out of her hood and past her waist. The one ear he could see, her right ear, was pointed and elf-like; it had a chibi-ish skull earring that dangle on a chain a half an inch below her earlobe.

The fat chef walked out from the bar and started jabbing his spherical hand at a 'No Smoking' sign. The girl scowled at him and walked out.

Marluxia got up and followed her, when he got out the door, everything was different.

Black rain still poured from the heavens onto the faceless people, but now black creatures wove between them. They jumped in and out of people. The people didn't even seem to notice. Marluxia watched as a faceless wearing ragged clothing pulled out a gun, shot another faceless's head off, and then run away. The person with no head stood there for a second, and then blew up, sending chunks of plastic into the air and revealing a black creature at least sixteen feet tall.

Marluxia stood, frozen, as the monster walked past him, opened a hole in a person's back and climbed in, causing a hole to open up in the person's chest and several smaller monsters to fall out.

The little monsters scattered, one running into a dark alley, one jumped into a random passer by. Marluxia gasped as one of them jumped onto his chest, looked up at him, and then jumped away.

Marluxia looked around and saw the girl walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. He wove between the monsters and people and dashed across the street, almost getting hit by a car. The person in the car stuck his heads out of the window and waved his fist in the air. Marluxia apologized as a monster stuck it's head out of the man's face. It tilted it's head to one side, then the other, and then it growled and snapped it's teeth at Marluxia.

Marluxia flinched then turned and dashed after the girl. He followed her around a corner as he slowed to a walk right behind her.

"So you are real." She said, halting so abruptly he almost ran into her. They were the only ones in the dark street. There was a hissing noise as steam rose from a vent in the sidewalk behind him. The whole thing was making him ill and he felt dizzy as she continued to speak.

"You shouldn't have followed me. They don't like it when souls are together."

"Excuse me?" Marluxia said as he felt himself sway slightly. What she said made no sense. Who were 'they'? Did she mean the monsters? Why did she call them souls?

"It's not often two souls bump into each other," she continued, ignoring him. She turned around, Marluxia could see bright green eyes looking coldly at him. "And even when they do…" her voice trailed off and she reached up towards his face. He felt her soft fingertips brush his cheek as a wave of dizziness hit him and he felt himself falling.

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When Marluxia came to consciousness he remembered everything, although he wished it was a dream. He felt pain along his back and the back of his skull.

'Okay, maybe Axel pushed me out of a window again,' he tried to convince himself. He opened his eyes and saw pitch black darkness. 'I could be in a dark room,' he continued to convince himself, 'I could have went blind, maybe that's why I fell out of a window!'

His vision started to clear and he made out the tops of buildings. 'Shit'

He tried to sit up but his back popped and he fell back again.

"You fell pretty hard," the woman said. "You might want to lay for awhile."

Marluxia ignored her and stood up. He looked around the dark street. Steam was hissing from a different vent down the road.

"Can I ask you," he started, and then paused. When she said nothing he continued, "Just what is this place?"

The girl looked up at him. "That," she said, "is a very good question."

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*The three lings Marluxia listed off belong to xXxSorrowful RemembrancexXx. I used them with permission.

More to come. Review please.