Let me tell you a story…

This story is… quite the different kind.

It's about a girl. An average teenage girl who managed to change the world.

You have probably heard about all these legends like, for example… Sora, Riku and Kairi, don't you?

Once upon a time the three of them traveled through all kinds of different dimensions in the chase for one and the same goal. Leader Xehanort and his recruit Vanitas… it was their time for salvation.
They needed to be rescued from the darkness they were surrounded by.

Sora, Riku and Kairi struck these two down and filled their damaged hearts with entire light before they were absorbed in sparkling particles.

Connected worlds with their beings within fell into a deep slumber and our heroes…

They would forever be acknowledged.

Little did they know that nothing lasts forever...
A sanctuary transformed into a satanic locality.
Collapsing realms, carnages and volcanic eruptions.
Welcome a new world domination, welcome the new rulers.

How could such an innocent boy, raised by civilians...
cause this awfulness?

Only one town remain in peacefulness…

Twilight town.

Chapter one:

"How can someone… be so pretty?"

I asked myself… no, I made the same mistake again, didn't I? Sometimes I just… could not help it.
I utter the words I was meant to think. I wonder if I ever can make a change for this habit…
It's embarrassing after all. The girl with this chestnut colored, thick hair, put up in tassels, her big, turquoise eyes, small brush marks on her baby cheeks, smooth lips and velvet dress…
How could I stare on perfection while I myself was covered in dirt, my hair was set up in a sloppy braid, my face covered in chocolate and my shoes clayey? It just… didn't make sense to me.
What was positive about this was that… even though I had awkwardly questioned this statement, the girl didn't seem to mind it. Shyly she would just cover her mouth with her hand, cross her legs and lower her head for a bit. We were alone in the sandlot, it was late and I should have been picked up from school a long time ago. Maybe my parents had forgotten about me again? After all they got to work early and came home late… perhaps they had already slept in?

"Who… are you?"

I was a little surprised. We had attended the same class for two weeks now, but still she didn't recognize me? Should I scold her as I… usually did with the boys or should I… act gentle and tell her my name? Well… maybe this could make up for before? I rushed up towards her to give her something in the classroom and since I were clumsy I tripped all over her. Of course I would apologize but every time I interact with her she would speech the same question:

"Who are you?"

Did she have amnesia?

"My name is Taree. Why won't you remember me, Toya?"

Why did she always have to avert her gaze once she were going to answer the question I added?

"I… don't know."

This wasn't regular. Normally she would come up with all kinds of different explanations…

"You, don't know?"

I tilted my head from where I sat in the sandlot with one plastic shovel in my right hand and a chocolate bar I had stolen from the bowl with candy on the kitchen table back home, after all I lived less than 100 meters away from school, in the other.

"Can I… tell you a secret?"

I felt confused, still I were curious.

"What kind of secret?"

She tip toed over the plank and jumped down on her tiny feet on the sand covered ground.
She blinked at me with her almost hypnotical eyes before she knelt down to my side and whispered something in my ear.

Till today I have always cherished these words, but now I can't even think about anything else except from… my ultimate goal.

"Would you like to…"

I tried to find the right words, after all I felt a little… insecure after her confession…

"To…"

"Become… your friend?"

She added silently.

"Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I-…!"

I covered my own mouth. My mother had told me never to talk too much and reveal too much.
To my amusement she began to laugh. I should not but so I did… I started laughing with her.

From this day on we socialized more often, it was almost as if I made my gang of guys jealous…
I will never forget that one, specific time when we slept over in her parents' house in second grade.
We were supposed to bake something, but since we didn't share any culinary knowledge a chocolate cake ended up to be a… mud cake, literally. Even though it was a failure, we always found the droll way of laughing at things. That was… basically how our friendship worked.
I still had to remember her about my name but I loved the fact that she still would acknowledge… me.
We were scolded by her parents as we received this wigging with shamefully nods.
Though afterwards we would just head upstairs to her room where we played with dolls and other toys, and on Gameboys. During the night hours we tented in the garden as we sat there, around an imaginary made up campfire and gazed up on the stars. Actually we also made a promise here… maybe I were a little too hasty but I had already brought the necklaces. It was "bff" necklaces and we would wrap them around our throats before we connected the half parted hearts with each other.

In third grade she were the "cobra" who needed to wear glasses. Many people in our grade would make fun of her but since I were a protective soul with "meat on the bones" I would defend her the best I could. My gang joined in and together we formed a pact with six people, including four boys and two girls. Once I celebrated my tenth birthday their surprise attack went wrong and something that would resemble a beach party turned out to become a suffocating shoving into the cold water in the sea. I was rescued by one of the guys named Keiji and… for once it wasn't Toya who played the "defenseless" role… To being honest I have always had a crush on him and therefore it wasn't...
such a waste I suppose? Though I'm still a little sullen about it. In the end of sixth grade we even, officially, came out as a couple. Ah, good times, good times indeed. Now I am in eight grade and we still hook up. All these sweet calls before bed time, all these "good morning" texts, all these walks together to school, all this cuddling on the breaks, all these teasing comments from our friends,
all these walks together back home since we're living in the same block, all this socializing on the weekends, all these games we pay to each other as forgiving gifts after a fight…
I never want it to end, never.
As well as… I never want our gang memberships to end. We hang out every day,
we study together for the tests, we survive classes together… what would I do without them?

Little did I know that…. things could… get an unexpected twist.

"Oh, I'm so tired of this shit!"

I complained as I headed into our little spot in an alleyway… Creative as we were we had actually furnished a gigantic carton and cut holes in it. From the outside it didn't even look like a carton, more like… eh, was there any way to describe it? It was covered with carpets, that's for sure.
I threw myself in the sofa against the left wall and drilled down my face in the pillow.
Kenji, my boyfriend Keiji's twin, and Natsume threw darts on the board on the front wall, Toru, the clever one, solved Sudoku in the right corner where he comfortably sat in an armchair, Toya installed a lamp and my dear Keiji… he wasn't even there?

"Hey, did anyone see-…"

I asked after a few seconds of "dying", though I were disrupted by Natsume.

"I think he went to the market street."

Toya even hushed at us.

"I'm concentrating here."

Well… she balanced on a ladder and with her mischance it would probably tumble over.

I sighed and looked at it with an unentertained look.

"Should I hold onto it for you?"

I had already been standing up from the couch as she assured me not to. Just like I knew her perfectly well I could tell when she was lying, so I did the opposite to her wish.

"So, what is Keiji doing on the market street?"

I wondered and gave Natsume a glance from behind.

"He was supposed to meet up with somebody…"

Kenji filled in.

"By the way, you seem awfully stressed out… did something happen?"

I raised an eyebrow and glared at Toru. It was strange for him to utter anything at all…

"What did you get air from?"

He bridled at my comment. Probably he was offended by it and the biggest sign? He lowered his newspaper and placed the pen on the coffee table.

"Have you two… been into a fight or something?"

Wondered Kenji. Yep, his attention was defiantly caught since he avoided to shot the next dart.

"Not really… I was just asking a simple question, right, Toru?"

He wouldn't reply. For a short while there I thought that he would say something… unlikely rude, but in the end he just left.

"Bad day, huh?"

Commented Natsume and laughed a bit. Even I was a bit surprised… He knew that I only were just joking, right?

"I… better go and check on him…"

I mumbled and pated the boy's shoulders.

"You support Toya if something… goes wrong, won't you?"

Them both nodded and shouted in choir:

"You can count on it!"

I sighed on ease. Yep, I could still count on my boys, even after all these years.

At first I felt scatter-brained when I reached the small pavement which were located next to the alleyway… Where could he have gone off to on such a small amount of minutes?
I viewed to my left and my right but… nothing. A thought hit me that he must have gone to…
the sandlot? It was worth a try at least. But, no… nothing. The market street? Not even Kenji seemed to be found there, didn't the others tell me what that was the place where he had gone off to?
What about the main plaza? The… train station? The underground passage? Could it be…
I've only heard about it, but… the forest outside the town? You could only head off to that place by the crack in the wall and honestly said, I have always, cowardly enough… been quite afraid of going there, but… if it's the only way to find him, then… I gulped as I touched the brick wall… It was now or never! I told myself as I squeezed myself in between and feel out on the other side.
If it wasn't for my petite body it would probably never have worked. I took a breather and straightened myself. At least I made it this… far? It was getting late and the evening hours arrived.
I bite my under lip and patted my right arm. Pep talk wouldn't work here, what I needed was my headphones which I forgot at home in the morning. I wandered further into the woods, little did I know that I weren't alone.

"Toru?"

I whispered as I saw a… silhouette before me. It was a black shadow of which varnished with the wind. I thought to myself that it must have been my brain which played me a prank, but… soon I realized that it wasn't. I will never forget the first time once I saw these yellow eyes which seemed to stare into my very soul, felt these cold paws which climbed on my body and heard this… this weird, growling sound in my ear… I couldn't control myself, not even move a muscle.
All I did was… was… to being paralyzed. Before I knew it my legs buckled, my face was pale and I fell down to the ground.

"Taree!"

Was someone calling for me? I was too… shocked to find out.

"Taree…!"

There it was again… The black creatures with the yellow eyes scratched up my legs' bare skin and I noticed how they started to surround me…

"Taree!"

Someone grabbed my arm, as this person understood that I couldn't stand up myself he or she would eventually carry me up on his/her back. I closed my eyes and held on to his/her shoulders…

"Huh?"

I felt how two hands patted my shoulders. My heels supported my body on the ground and as I watched over my shoulder…

"Hey, babe, are you okay?"

Keiji? I stared at him with big eyes.

"Oh… hey…"

I didn't get it. How could I act so… calm?

"What happened? We were just talking and then you spaced out… Soon you even fainted…
Are you alright, sweetie?"

I loved that nickname, though I couldn't express anything else in my countenance except from a simple tilt on my head.

"What?"

Where were I anyway? Had I been… day dreaming or something?

The clock rang in.

"Hey, the lesson is starting… Shall we go?"

I straightened myself and nodded silently. I supposed I just had to… agree and go with it.

(End of chapter one ^^)