A tall, six-foot-something teenager stood in my way, cracking his knuckles. To his left stood a shorter, yet still intimidating teenager.

"What a great day to start the week," I said sarcastically to Ianus, my best friend.

"Not for most people," Ianus said. "We're just lucky."

I ran a hand through my shaggy black hair, thinking of who would fight who.

"You want to go against the big one?" I asked. I was on the short side, only hitting five foot five.

"Sure," Ianus said. "The bigger they are, the harder they fight."

"Right then," I said, and charged at the small one. I stopped focusing on whatever Ianus was doing, as the teen I'd chosen to fight was better than I'd expected. I ducked under his punch, landing a few good blows on his stomach, then tried to hit his face. He caught my fist, though, and hit me across the face with a left hook, his ring cutting open my cheek. I stumbled backward and the teen tried kicking me, but I caught his leg, pulled, and he tumbled to the ground.

I jumped on top of him, hitting him several times across the face, and he shouted "Uncle! Uncle!"

I stood, blood running down my cheek, and, when Ianus was finished, we walked out onto the open street.

"You okay?" Ianus asked. I figured that he knew the answer to that question just by looking at the side of my face that was covered in blood.

"This week's been pretty weird, huh?" I asked. I'm Jeremiah. My world was limited to the small town we lived in, where I spent my days hanging out with Ianus. Even though he had a pretty weird name, he was still pretty cool.

"Yeah," Ianus agreed. "Something is going to happen. The air is filled with anticipation."

I nodded. "Ain't that the truth, brother. Maybe it'll be something good."

If I had any idea whatsoever how wrong I was, I wouldn't have had the will to keep on living. Actually, I would've, because I'm the kind of guy who takes situations really lightly, but still. We talked until we got to my house, when I said goodbye to Ianus and went inside. My mother, father, sister and I were really tight, and got along very well. I know some people have relationships where they hate their siblings and stuff, but I was never like that.

"Hey sis," I smiled at Tracy, who was reading a magazine about video games. Though I hate to admit it, Tracy was a bigger gamer than I was, and could destroy me in any video game.

"Hey," Tracy said. "Is Ianus coming over soon?"

Tracy had a giant crush on Ianus, thinking that he was cute and all that. It was his attitude, she said. He was always calm, even in hard situations, acting like he always knew what would happen next. She even liked his name, because 'something about it's just so gentlemanly.' To each his/her own, I suppose. Ianus didn't know that she was head-over-heels for him, which annoyed Tracy, since she gave him valentines since she was five. I used to tell her that Ianus was a bit thick in the romance department, but she never really listened.

"Nope." I said. Tracy finally looked up, gasping when she saw the dried blood on my face.

"OMG!" Tracy said. I think she used to say things like 'OMG' and 'LOL' to annoy me. It worked, to her credit. "Mom's going to be pissed at you!"

"Hey, we got attacked first." I said. "Ianus'll vouch for me."

"You and Ianus got into another fight?" Mom asked, walking into the room. I turned to her, and she frowned at my bloody face. "Who was it with this time?"

"I, err, don't know." I admitted. I had no idea who the kids who fought us were, but I knew that, when somebody wanted you hurt, you fought back. That's what I thought, anyways. I didn't get into fights much until the week before that Monday, when I got into several fights over one week, when the world started getting crazy.

Mom sighed and took me to the bathroom, where she began washing my face. She disinfected my wound, then put a band-aid over the cut on my cheek. It became a scar after it healed, but it was a cool scar right under my eye, so I didn't complain. Dad got home a little later, and Mom told him about the fight. Dad called Ianus, who vouched for me, and that was that.

The rest of the day was normal, but, when night fell, a massive black cloud appeared out of nowhere, cloaking everything in shadow. I remember sitting on the couch, doing homework, while Dad watched the news.

"Huh. They were saying it was going to be perfect weather, but now it looks like it's going to rain." Dad said.

I had a feeling that no, this wasn't a raincloud, and yes, my life had changed forever. Then, Tracy screamed. I shot up, running to her room, and literally kicked the door open. And there, in the floor, Tracy was being attacked by some...thing. It was made of absolute shadow, darker than the darkest night, and had yellow, glowing, beady eyes. I kicked it off of her, through the window it had came in from.

"Trace, are you okay?" I asked, getting down on one knee.

"I was just playing video games." Tracy sniffed.

"C'mon, we gotta go." I said, though I knew that, in short, we were screwed. Suddenly, the shadow-creature I later learned was called a Heartless jumped back through the window and jumped at me. I sidestepped it, and what looked like a giant key appeared in my hand. It had a gold chain on it, with a gold cartoon skull on the end of the chain. The whole thing was black and gold, looking way more elegant than a guy like me would ever need.

I looked at the Heartless, then at the keyblade, and attacked.