"How could I have let this happen?"

Sora whispered in the soft rain as he studied in fading shock the bloody heap in his arms that was Kairi. He was on his knees with Kairi lying across his lap, with the rain showing no signs of stopping. Soon tears began to form in his eyes, but Sora would not let them pass. It was all too unreal. None of it could have happened.

"Was I really gone that long to fight off the heartless? Was I really gone long enough to find and-? No, they couldn't have. You just can't be gone, Kairi."

Sora pushed back a few stray auburn locks out of Kairi's face, so he could see her face clearer. Because even though her dress was torn and bloody, and her body was covered in deep slashes, her face had only a few scratches on it, with the exception of one cut along her right cheek.

"I shouldn't have left you alone. I should have known you would have followed us eventually. I should have been there to protect you!" Sora declared as he struck the muddy earth with his free hand balled in a fist. "Why, damn it, why?"

Sora repeated to strike the ground, only to succeed in mixing his and Kairi's blood in the mud.

"Sora…"

Sora looked up to see the misty image of Roxas holding a fading Namine in his arms. His face showed an element of sadness, and silent, unwanted, confirmation that Namine was leaving.

"There's nothing you could have done." He said not looking up from Namine's face. "I'm part of your mind, Sora. I know you're thoughts and feelings. We both know what you could have and could not have done." He sighed and a few tears rolled down his cheeks. "There's no point fooling yourself. She's gone, Sora. Just look at Namine!"

Sora unwillingly obeyed, and looked down at the now barely visible nobody. It was like looking in a mirror almost, and the reflection it held was one Sora wished to disappear, to destroy. After several moments of utter silence, Sora turned back to Kairi, be sure she was still in his arms, as the last pieces of Namine faded in to darkness.

"S-see?" Roxas continued. "It's just more poof, besides her pulse or breathing, that Kairi's gone…." He stuttered as the tears began to fall more rampantly now. "N-namine's gone…," Roxas paused as he began to fade back to Sora. "A-and they aren't coming back."

With that as his last words, Roxas was gone, and Sora was left in disbelief.

Playground school bells

Ring again

Rain clouds come

To play again

Has no one told you

She's not breathing?

Hello

I'm your mind

Giving you someone to talk to

Hello

"Kairi, please…" Sora begged as he gently shook Kairi's limp body. "Please, just say something to me, or open your eyes at least. Kairi, please!"

A small trickle of blood came out of Kairi's mouth as the only result of Sora's foolish shacking. He whipped it away and began to stroke her hair again, knowing that none of his pleas had any effect.

Suddenly, Sora gave a small quick smirk at Kairi, as if she could see it. "You look as if you're-" He paused. "Asleep." Sora closed his eyes, as if to analyze something he just realized.

"Is that all this is, a dream?" He thought. "Were those strange heartless and me finding Kairi like this, hurt and alone, a bad dream?"

Yes, it had to be. Everything that had started happening that afternoon at Kairi's house was all part of some sick nightmare that Sora couldn't seem to wake up from.

Sora was abruptly brought back from his thoughts as he heard a familiar voice call his name in the distance.

"Sora, where are you?" The voice called again with a twinge of worry.

Sora turned his head to see that the voice belonged to his friend, Riku, who was running towards his direction. Riku, like himself, had tears in his clothes and his fair share of cuts and scraps. Unable to face his friend when he saw this brutal discovery, Sora turned back to Kairi.

"Sora! Sora, is that you? Are you alright?" Riku shouted franticly as he approached Sora's slumped figure.

"Where's Kairi? Her house was ransacked, and I was glass everywhere and some blood, and I…" His sentence trailed off. "Oh, God…" He'd seen Kairi.

There was a long silence between the two. It was finally broken by the sound of footsteps through mud until Sora felt Riku's presence standing right over him with his icy gaze.

"So, that's why they were here." Riku whispered low about the heartless. He knelt down beside Sora, unable to take his eyes off Kairi. Sorrow and shock etched across his face. "Sora, I-. Kairi."

There was more silence as Riku continued to study Kairi. Riku may act cold to the world at times, but even he to could feel the effects of death.

"Sora, you can't stay out here, we need to see a doctor, especially you. Hey, are you listening?"

Sora didn't reply. He just sat there continuing to stare at Kairi.

"Sora, Kairi wouldn't want you to be like this because of her. She won't be able to rest in peace either if she knew you were hurt as well." Riku attempted to place his hand on Sora's shoulder as an attempt to comfort him, but Sora knocked it away.

"No! Riku she can't be dead. Kairi just can't be dead. I need her." He paused and pulled Kairi closer into his chest. "I love her."

Finally, after so many years of concealing it, Sora told the world how he truly felt about Kairi, but now it was a little too late. Sora's held back tears now fell free.

"I'm sorry Kairi."

If I smile

And don't believe

Soon I know I'll wake

From this dream

Don't try to fix me

I'm not broken

Hello

I'm the lie living for you

So you can hide

Don't cry…

The rain had stopped while Sora and Riku waited for their parents in the hospital emergency room after having their wounds treated and telling the doctors their tale of being attacked by strange black creatures, which they apparently believed since most of the other patients had reported the same thing. Both boys were given sympathetic or suspicious looks from the people, staff and patients alike, who had seem them come in carrying Kairi. Sora's only defense was to turn away. He did not want to know their thoughts of him or their sympathy for his loss; he only wanted to be with Kairi. Unfortunately, Sora knew that would never happen the moment they took her away on a stretcher with a white sheet covering her body.

"I guess this really isn't a dream…" Sora thought as he sat on his bed next to Riku's. "It's not fair." Sora thought aloud.

"Huh?" Riku snapped to attention.

"What happened to Kairi, it wasn't fair. I should have been there to protect her. I should have died in her place. It should have been-!"

"Hey!" Riku bellowed. "If you keep talking like that they'll put you on suicide watch, and honestly I don't want another friend in the hospital tonight."

"But it's true!" Sora retaliated.

"No, it's not." Riku said sternly as he laid back on his bed. "Those heartless, with the red eyes and long claws, are called Trackers. I didn't tell you about them because I thought they were extinct. Anyway, they're smarter than other heartless, they can strategize to get whatever they're ordered by their master to find. In this case, someone ordered them to find Kairi and kill her."

Sora was stunned. "So, the heartless were attacking because the Trackers were looking for Kairi, and they knew that we were the only ones standing in their way."

"Exactly." Riku said a little more relaxed. "So they lured us away from her and when they were done with Kairi they left. If you had stayed you would have ended up injured way worse or laying along side Kairi."

Sora finally understood now, but his heart still told him he didn't understand a thing. "I still feel as if could have done something to prevent the heartless from finding her, Riku."

"You did, Sora. We went to fight them off to protect her. There was no way you could have known about the Trackers and if I'd known that they were and what they wanted I would have acted differently too. I wouldn't have acted so mean to her, but there's nothing I can do now is there?" Sora gave no response, and, in turn, Riku closed his eyes and began to rest. Leaving Sora to wander in his thoughts.

"I guess I know now why they disappeared so quickly," Sora thought. "And why Riku told me to find Kairi."

Sora swore and laid back on his bed as well. He closed his eyes but he quickly opened them as he felt something that he'd forgotten was in his pocket. Sora reached in and pulled out the now painful sight of Kairi's lucky charm. Suddenly, Sora's last memory of Kairi alive came flooding back to him.

They were all there in Kairi's house. Her adoptive parents were out for the night, leaving the house all to themselves. Kairi had invited Riku and himself over for dinner so she wouldn't be so lonely, but, as they talked about their summer jobs, they were interrupted by the sudden screams and wails of the islanders outside. Soon a small pack of heartless appeared before them, and they were quickly taken care off. Riku then ran to the door and called for Sora to join him.

"Kairi, stay inside the house, okay? Don't leave for anything. Me and Sora are going to fight off the heartless." Riku called as he stood in the doorway, ready to leave towards the distant screams of the townspeople.

"But I can help you!" Kairi called back irritably.

"I know, but we don't want you to get hurt." Riku said just as irritated. "You'd help out a lot if you just stayed inside."

"Sora!" Kairi plead.

Sora looked down at Kairi and back to Riku. "Go ahead." Sora called. "I'll stay with Kairi for a while, and I'll catch up with you later."

"Fine." Riku left Kairi's house hurriedly, with his keyblade in hand, ready to fight.

Sora shifted back to Kairi who looked on the verge of crying.

"I want to go with you, Sora." She said softly with a hint of fear in her voice.

"I know, but it's like Riku said. We both don't want you to get hurt, okay?" Sora said trying to be reassuring. "I promise we'll come back alive and one piece."

Kairi sighed. "Well, if you won't let me go then at least take this." She reached into the side pouch on her dress and retrieved the thalassa shell charm she had made for their raft journey, and shoved it into Sora's hand before he had time to decline her offer.

Sora gazed down at the familiar object in his hand and realized the other reason for Kairi's fear.

"Thanks, Kai." He said gently. I'll give it back to you when we come back, but I'm not going to leave again."

A few tears ran down Kairi's cheeks, but she quickly whipped them away. "I don't want to lose you again, Sora!" She said protectively. "I spent almost a whole year worrying about you and wondering where you were and-."

"But I'm not going to leave." Sora interjected. "Not without you."

Before Sora knew what was going on, Kairi had wrapped her slender arms around Sora's neck, and was softly kissing him on the lips. Sora returned her kiss, and placed his hands around her back, pulling their bodies closer together. That moment was better than all the random daydreams Sora had, had were he finally got the nerve to kiss Kairi, and he didn't want it to end. He wanted to stay trapped in that dream-like kiss forever with Kairi in his arms.

Like all dreams though, it ended when Kairi pulled away. Sora tried to say something, but stopped when Kairi held her finger up to his lips for silence.

"Just in case." She said simply, drawing her hand back to her side. She looked Sora straight in the eye with her violet gaze that seemed to almost hypnotize him. "Now, go. You need to help Riku. I'll be here when you come back."

Sora nodded, and ran out the front door, leaving Kairi alone in her house. The rain then began to pour, and before the house was out of sight, Sora stopped and looked back to see his last image of Kairi alive. She was standing in the bay window watching him leave, and when she noticed that he was looking back at her, Kairi buried her face in her hands and left the window. The blinds were then closed, and Sora unwillingly ran off to assist Riku.

The memory faded and Sora was back in his hospital bed. He didn't need anything to help him remember what he saw when he went to look for Kairi. He had ran back to Kairi's house as fast as he could only to find it ransacked and abandoned. In the kitchen he found the window that the heartless had broken to gain entry, and a small trail of blood going out the back door. From there, Sora did his best to figure out where Kairi had gone since the rain had washed away most the trail. Soon near the edge of the near by woods, he found her laying motionless on the ground, cold, bleeding, and alone.

Sora shook his head to help lose that terrifying image. Everything seemed to be sinking in now, but still it didn't seem to be real. Even with everything answered, besides who wanted Kairi dead, there was one thing on Sora's mind that he knew on one could answer.

"I only wish I could know…if she ever screamed for me…to save her."

Suddenly, I know

I'm not sleeping

Hello

I'm still here

All that's left of yesterday

Author's note: I wrote this nearly a year ago late at night while I was listening to this song. I'm not sure why, but I just had this picture painted in my head and I just began to write. I hope you all enjoyed.