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PROLOGUE – "Death"

The storm called to the fallen. As it raged in the night sky, foul things rose up from the splitting earth. Small unpleasant creatures crept around in the moonlight like shadows, unearthly yellow light shining from their round eyes. Sora had caught glimpses of them whilst sailing on his boat, their antennae twitching nervously as they moved. As dark waves crashed around his vessel, threatening to pull him under, he caught glimpses of things even there. Faint blue creatures, with bubbles for heads and two protruding tentacles, swimming alongside trident-bearing green creatures. The thing that worried Sora the most was that they almost looked human. Almost.

He was forced to abandon his boat when he reached the shore, causing the hole-ridden vessel to be whisked a little way out to sea before finally going under the tide completely. The dock that Wakka's father had so lovingly crafted years before was now gone, fragments of wood lining the shore where it had been destroyed. Sora looked up at the upper level of the island to see that most of the supports had already crumbled under the power of the wind, those too being swept upwards into the sky.

"KAIRI!" he called out, but Sora could hardly even hear his own voice, let alone hope that another might. In the night sky a sphere had appeared, casting an unearthly glow on the grey sand of the beach. As he looked up at one of the trees that lined the centre of the island, he could see branches being pulled off one by one by the wind, hurtling up towards the shape in the sky and then disappearing.

"RIKU!" he boomed, and nearby a few of the creatures turned their attention to him. The moved slowly, like stains upon the earth. The shapes that Sora had thought were their eyes disappeared occasionally, but they kept moving nonetheless.

They can't see, he thought. They're blind.

The pier was beginning to shake now, fragments of wood and board flying off at incredible speed. He looked up to the hill that it connected the island to, and could see waves crashing about its sides. The trees had already gone. All that Sora could see upon it were a few of the black creatures and...

"RIKU!" he called out a second time, and jumped up onto the shack. The creatures began to follow him, faster now. He knew that wooden swords would be no use against demons, against these... shadows.

He ran across the pier, narrowly missing a crevice in the walkway. He could feel the wooden supports, there since before they were born, shaking beneath him, and coming apart as he ran. As he approached the hill, he glanced back and saw the walkway coming apart as he ran, causing dozens of shadows to fall into the sea beneath them. Sora was forced to leap when he was but a few metres from land, as the pier finally collapsed.

"Where's Kairi?" he gasped, creeping towards his friend. "I thought she was with you!" Riku turned around, and smiled grimly.

"The door has opened..." he said.

Sora looked back at the Secret Place, where he could see a faint glow from behind the vegetation that covered it.

"What?!" he said, looking confused.

"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about? We've got to find Kairi!"

Riku smiled once more, and turned around. "Kairi's coming with us! Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

Sora's vision began to grow hazy, and light-headed. He could see the sphere in the sky grow larger, the eye within the middle all the brighter. Was that darkness? Were the creatures that attacked him darkness?

"Riku!" he cried out, but his friend did not listen.

-----

Time begins to grow slower for the boy, as the hands of the clock hit midnight and a thousand people on a thousand different worlds open their eyes and scream.

His friend holds out his hand, smiling, and Sora begins to run forward to take it. It has all been like in his dream.

Except in his dream, a man did not appear between them, his sword raised.

Sora sees him when it is too late to make any difference, the sword colliding with his neck. The head of the-
(keybearer...)
- boy flies off into the air, towards the eye of the storm. All that remains behind is a corpse, yet even that disappears as shadows flock towards it to devour its heart.

---

The sky grows dark and the sleeper grows restless.

The time has almost come for it to...