Where am I?

Why does it feel like I'm falling?

Hello?

Is anybody there?

Where am I?

Hello?

It's dark. And quiet, but for the gentle sounds of an ocean far away. I like this place. There's no pain. Only miles of dark, cold ocean, set beside a gray beach, accented by a gray sky. Quiet, peaceful quiet. Nothing can hurt me hear. Not even him. I feel cool sand beneath my toes, and a gentle breeze against my parched lips. With quiet feet I stride to the waters edge, and kneel there. I try to see my reflection in the waters surface, and find that I cannot. I want to drink the water, to soothe the burning in my throat, but the water is salty and tastes sour, like vomit, in my mouth.

As I kneel there, a bright light begins to fill the horizon, I peer into it's depths, but cannot see anything for it's brilliance. I squint, this thing makes me fearful, but it's too late. The light creeps toward me and I turn to run, but it swallows me up.

The beach shatters and I'm falling again, falling, falling, falling. I fall into blackness, and then into red, into pain. Into a world of hurt where the pain wracks my body and I scream. Scream, scream, scream, until my throat turns raw and burns. Something hard strikes my face, and I fall back again, into the black, into the blue.

"Wake up!" A voice barks. The voice is disdainful and sneering. It grates against my ears and I struggle to open my eyes, to move my body. A young man stands above me, he has red hair, like me, and he stands with an expression on his face that obviously hates weakness of any kind. I want to prove to him that I'm not weak, but it's hard when all I can feel is pain.

"Come on," he says. I try to sit up and find that I can't. "Come on!" he urges. The young man grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet. "We've got to move!" He gives my hand a hard tug and I nearly scream from the pain that rips through my body. He yanks me along behind him, and we're moving so fast that I can't keep track of where we're going.

Not that I'd be even able to tell you where I've just come from. Because I don't know. That room, and that awful place are all I remember. That beach, then the pain, that horrible sensation of weakness, the blackness. I remember nothing before that. Nothing at all.

Suddenly, we stop.

"It's all right now," he says.

"What's all right now?" I ask, trying to take note of my surroundings. We're in a dimly lit room, small, with a bed. Clothes are strewn all over the floor and there is no window.

The man shakes his head. "Well, your safe for now. If I'd left you there, then he would have come back and done... well... he would have come back."

"Won't he be angry?" I ask, even though I don't really care.

"It won't matter, I don't think. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose."

"Where am I?"

"That's not important right now."

"Why do you look like me?"

"That's not important either.... do you remember anything... anything beyond...?"

"No."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

The man sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. "Well... maybe that's not really all that important yet..."

"Why do you keep saying that?" I'd come to the conclusion that this was a very strange man.

"Why do I keep saying what?"

"That something's not important... right now... or yet?"

"Because it's not alright?" His voices raises a little, and I cringe in fear. "Man oh man..." he mutters. "Jeez... how old are you?"

"Um... ten... I think."

He groans and falls back on the bed. I wait a minute, hoping he'll talk again. I don't like this silence, it's awkward and thick, I think.

"What's your name?" The question startles me. For a minute I think I can't remember, but then....

"Axel... he called me Axel."

Seven Years Later

"Bring that one over here..."

"What...?"

"Hey, you watch...?"

"Look out!"

"Why... you!"

"Hey! Stop that!"

"Give that to..."

"So'd you hear about..?"

The silver haired teen scanned his radio one last time, before snarling and throwing it on the ground. Useless thing, he needed information, and the usual buzz of the city, was not information. Pointless waste of time... Riku thought. They keep sending me on these wild goose chases, and then wonder why I get nothing done.... what do they mean... local crime syndicate... illegal trafficking of human goods... what the hell... you'd think there'd be something on it somewhere!

He stopped his inner monologue for a moment. Unless.... Riku shook his head. Shouldn't think those things... get yourself killed thinking things like that... stupid... stupid. Just do as your told... better for everyone that way....

Standing up from his position on a park bench, Riku started back to his apartment. Pointless work... call back to headquarters... see about this damn mission...

"Hey Axel! Axel! Axel!"

The red around just in time to narrowly avoid being smacked into by what appeared to be a speeding, rolling, tumbling, mass of brown hair, and brightly colored clothes.

"Jeez! I've been calling your name for like... half a block! What gives?" the teen asked, panting.

"Nuthin'..." Axel kicked at the pavement with his shoe.

"Wha... what the hell?"

Axel groaned, "Isn't clear that I don't want to talk Demyx?"

"Well... yeah but..." Demyx realized Axel was walking away and scrambled to keep up. Together, they crossed the busy avenue and headed into a small market square. "So... seriously, Axel. What the hell? Oh..." Demyx stopped walking and stood on the sidewalk, staring after his red headed companion. "It's cause of your brother isn't it? Huh... didn't know you had a soft side to ya'."

Axel paused mid stride and turned around. "And I can't believe you just said that. I have my reasons for wanting to be alone, and yeah, he might be one of em'. But, you know what!? Wherever the hell he is, it can't be much worse than where he's comin' from... can it!?"

Demyx froze. He knew he'd tread into dangerous territory. "Umm... well... I mean.... Reno... he... well... we don't know... do we?" he said slowly. "We... just don't know."

"No... we don't effing know..." Axel muttered.

"So... uh... Ax... maybe there's some way... I could cheer you up?"

"Maybe find a way to remove the tracking device in my thigh... that might be helpful.. huh?"

"Sorry," Demyx, sort of half grinned. "No can do... but, maybe I can treat you to ice cream?" his eye's were hopeful.

"Yeah sure... whatever... I guess." The two teens started off down the road together.

"Hey Dem?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have any money... do you?"

"Nope."

Jesus Christ! Two missing persons cases in the last three days! What the hell is this world coming to?

Cloud Strife pushed away from his desk with a deep sigh. This week is just getting worse and worse.

"Well, you look more than just a little stressed," a voice said from the doorway.

"Yeah, well. Being police chief isn't exactly a picnic, you know?"

"Ooh, sarcasm. That really hurts." The raven haired man pushed off from the door frame and strode over to Cloud's desk. "Do you ever bother to organize this place?"

It's true that the office is a bit of a mess... but, who could blame me!? Cloud thought, taking stock of the multitude of papers that had been strewn about the small space.

"Who let you in here anyway, Zack?"

Zack just grinned. "Maybe I killed someone at the door and had to fight my way through."

"Be serious for once maybe?"

"Not gonna happen, besides," Zack leaned over so his lips were even with Cloud's ear. "You're cute when you get all stressed out like this."

Cloud shoved Zack away quickly, trying to cover his obvious blush.

"Zack! I work here... practice discretion or something! Don't you have anything better to do anyway!?"

"See, adorable," Zack declared, a self satisfied grin on his face.

"Um, Mr. Strife, if you'll excuse my interrupting, we've got new information on the missing Sinclair report."

"Thanks," Cloud muttered, shooting a glare in Zack's blond haired man followed the employee out to the main room where several people were typing almost was motioned to the side where a document was passed into his hand. Cloud scanned it quickly.

"Seems he's been involved in some local crime networks for a while, drug dealing and such. His brother filed the report, though at the time he wouldn't tell anyone who he was at first. It seems that there's really no other information on the two of them. It's all rather mysterious. They have no family, no contacts, no cell numbers, nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Shit," Cloud swore, running his fingers through his hair. "Shit," he swore again.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked, peering over Cloud's shoulder. For once the blond was too stressed to oppose to a non-criminal justice civilian looking at private documents.

"Do you know how difficult it is to have a clean record like that? No information. Nothing. Not a trace that that man even exists other than a last name, a brother, apparently, and a missing persons report."

"So. This man was involved in some deep shit." It was not a question, but a statement. The thing that everyone there was thinking, but no one dared to say out loud. The two Men's face's paled.

" Jesus Christ, what have we gotten ourselves into?"

To say that he was angry, was an understatement. To say that he was furious, didn't even come close. His assistants cowered behind him, shivering in his wake. He had been previously an unknown, safe, he'd felt. Safe from the police, undetectable. Now this? A missing persons report. The insolent teen would pay for this violation of freedom. Of trust. Because there was an amount of trust involved. An unspoken contract, do as you're told, when you're told and you won't get hurt. And you won't die.

There were certain things that you just didn't do. This was one of them. Little does he know how, detrimental, how, dangerous, this will prove for him, he couldn't help but think. The though pleased him. Maybe I'll play with Saix, he thought on a whim. Yes, that's a good idea. I have to stay calm, can't let little things like that throw me off track. He will be punished. I will have to cover his tracks, shouldn't be too difficult. Yes, he though again. It will all be taken care of.

Hi! Some may have known me as Bleueyedgrrl... maybe? Probably not.. Well anyway, that's who I was before, but I'm starting fresh. With this. Sorry it doesn't make much sense, it's supposed to be that way! I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I'll try and post the second one quickly, you know I love reviews! ;D

Constructive criticism is much appreciated. I'm currently going for a style that doesn't reveal very much. I'm trying to but some description of feelings and the like in, but, also with realistic dialogue... I think I did a good job with that... but maybe I didn't... anyway. Thankies for reading!

~SnowGeese