Prologue

Kairi couldn't stop herself as she ran down the path to Sora's house. It was dark out, but the moon lit her way perfectly. The entire island was sure to be asleep at this time of night. Not that it mattered. All Kairi could hear was her own heavy breathing as she pounded down the path. People could've been screaming at her and she wouldn't have heard them.

'Sora. Riku. You can't be gone again. You just can't. I'll never forgive you. Please. Please don't be gone. Please. Please. Please…'

Finally, she was in front of Sora's door. She knocked loudly, hoping to wake someone up.

"Please be here. Please. I need you to still be here. Sora…."

Just a few minutes ago, she had woken up Riku's parents with her insistent knocking, before breathlessly asking if Riku was there.

"No, he isn't, Kairi. I'm sorry," Riku's mother had said, looking at her, confused. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but Kairi had already been running for Sora's house. She vaguely remembered Riku's mother calling after her, but she couldn't remember what the woman said. Her heart was racing, her mind filled with the dream she had just woken up from.

That dream. That horrible dream. Sora and Riku standing on the beach, side by side, looking out into the water. Kairi had tried calling to them, but neither responded. That never happened. She always got a response out of one of them whenever she called, if not both! But they had acted like they didn't hear her, didn't see her, as they moved to the water's edge. The moment their feet touched the water, the waves drew back and parted. Kairi remembered her heart racing as a huge wave gathered off shore, every part of it giving off a dark, foreboding aura.

She had screamed at them to get away from the beach, to not let that wave touch them, but again, they acted like they didn't hear her. Instead, Riku said calmly, "Time to go."

"Yep," Sora had responded. Kairi had especially noticed their eyes, burning with a conviction that she had never known her two best friends to have. Still not acknowledging her in any way, they had started down into the water, right in the path of the wave, as though daring it to take them.

Kairi had run after them, but the crest of the huge wave broke and she lost sight of them as the water flung her backwards onto the beach again. She had been right, though. About the darkness.

The water surrounded her, unnaturally cold. But just as suddenly as it had come, it receded, and she had simply sat there on the beach, shocked and frozen, her heart racing as she realized that her two best friends were nowhere in sight. She had called their names frantically, looking up and down the beach, but when her eyes came to rest on the spot where they had disappeared, she had felt her heartbeat increase even more and then—

She had woken up.

Now here she was, pounding on a door that hadn't opened yet, knowing that Riku was already gone somewhere and that, if her dream was correct, Sora wouldn't be here either….

That did it.

No longer willing to wait until the door was opened from the other side, Kairi wrenched it open and ran inside, part of her slightly amused that Sora's mom still didn't lock the door after everything that had happened to her son. She raced up the stairs and flung open Sora's bedroom door, not even noticing the sounds of a scuffle within.

Standing in the doorway, Kairi paused a moment to allow her brain to register one simple, but very important fact.