What Lies Beneath

By Konnora11

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

-Plato

It was a cold dark night in the destroyed oasis that was once a peaceful people filled town. The rubble from the destruction admitted a mist of dirt and sand in the dark moon lit sky. Metal could be heard clashing like the smashing of hammers on a railroad track off into the distance. He released all of his power in one blow to his opponent that was standing just inches from him. His opponent's breath sent shivers on his cold expressionless face. Thousands of screams could be heard in the distance and a thick breeze of iron swept through the blood stained town. He didn't want to stop nor could he as he sunk the edge of the blade further and deeper into the thick tender shoulder of his enemy. The unfortunate man that came face to face with him was about 18 and looked like his spirit was ripped away from him. He saw the gruesome disgrace of a human in front of him while striking him down with no effort. As he watched the boy fall to the ground, terror struck the boy's face and body. It was the same terror in all the poor victims that stood in front of the murderer. Blood covered the body and face, which was now impossible to distinguish. He heard a slight moan from the soon to be deceased boy. As he bent down the boy told him something that made the words quiver his very spine.

"Wake up, wake upppppppp!"

As Kenway woke up from his nightmare he saw his sister jumping all over him like it was Christmas morning and Santa had delivered her all the presents she could ask for.

"Get off of me princess!" Kenway Replied sarcastically. He didn't mean for the demand to sound so harsh, but he didn't even think when he replied to his sister who was still bouncing all over him.

"Wow, okay you don't have to be so harsh" Roxanna replied…."Food is ready for you downstairs; and by the way, why don't you clean your room, it's starting to smell like a pig that hasn't had a bath in over a year, AKA you."

Kenway quickly reached for the closest pillow he could find in his dimly lit room and threw it as hard as he could at his little smart mouth sister. She quickly dashed off of his bed and ran out the room before the pillow even made it half way across his room. "Love you too." She replied with sarcasm.

"Also I told you to never call me princess ever again!" She demanded, then cursed at him under her breath while stomping over the oak stained floor.

Kenway knew his sister hated that nickname, her real name is Roxanna but he knew it would tease her if he called her that instead.

As Kenway started to open up his tired droopy eyes, he realized what his sister was talking about when she said his room looked terrible. The oak stained floor matched the sand colored walls that looked even darker with his blinds all the way shut. There was a basket on the right side of his bed that was placed strategically so that he could bank his clothes off the wall into his overflowing white basket. As he started thinking about when he was going to clean his room a sweet yet savory smell hit him like a truck and broke his thinking bubble. Her cooking reminded of him about the good times he had with his mom before she went off to the war and never returned.

As Kenway slipped on some pants and a shirt; that still had a stain from last night's pizza night, he paused when he heard his little sister yelling at him to come down and eat or his food was going to get cold. Kenway was eighteen now and had his own spirit animal- his was a wolf. A spirit animal describes what type of person you are. All of his family members were lions, which means family, strength, energy, courage, guardian, protector, ferocity, and authority. A wolf is described as loyal, perseverance, success, intuition, spirit, appetite for freedom and can be a loner. The loner part was true. After their mom died Kenway wanted to be alone most of the time and didn't really think of anyone other than his sister, nor did he really care to. His sister doesn't have a spirit animal but will get one in a few weeks. His sister was three years younger than him but behaved like a little child all the time.

As Kenway walked down the hall he could see his sister out of the corner of his eye gracefully cleaning the dishes. As she felt Kenway presence she looked at him with big questioned filled eyes.

"Here we go again." Muttered Kenway as he sat down and saw the steaming hot food that made his mouth water like a thirsty wolf that hadn't had water in a couple days. He sat down and she started her questions to him.

"Sooooo…can you tell me again how I get my spirit animal-?" Roxanna asked with a slight curious expression.

"This will be the third time. I'm not repeating myself anymore."

"Oh common I forget every time. This will be the last time I promise."

"This will be the last time I am telling you princess." Exclaimed Kenway in a little dry voice and an added voice crack.

Roxanna heard the dryness in his throat and the cracking in his voice and headed for the fridge that was directly behind her right next to the stove and counter. She picked up the gallon of orange juice that was on the third shelf right next to the left over pizza, from last night, and a slice of watermelon, that she was saving to eat for later. Roxanna started to poor Kenway a glass while he started talking.

"First you have to prove yourself that you can survive on your own for about a month in the wilderness. While you are there you need to make your way north to find a castle which will grant you your keyblade to help you on the journey."

Kenway then stuck out his arm and a keyblade appeared out of thin air. It was a curved and jagged sword that was about four feet long from the handle to the top of the blade. The blade had a slight texture of red mixed in with the iron blade. On the back there were sharp jagged spikes that somewhat resembled a crown. It had a dark purple and red handle with X marks -running down the middle, alternating the red and the purple colors. There was a big gold rounded circle that ran from the bottom of the handle to the other side of the handle where the blade began. It had two spikes on either side of the circle that curved upward in a sharp yet jagged point that could be used to cut the other person's arm or hand while clashed in combat. The back of the blade was jagged to the point where there seemed to be mini spikes on the back. Roxanna thought that they were used to grip onto the other blade as it clashed but couldn't speak due to the pure amazement that filled her body as she looked at the blade her brother was holding, clenched in his right hand, which had one wolf ring and one lion ring. At the end there was a keychain that had a wolf with beady red eyes that looked like it was staring right into your sole and followed every movement. Her concentration was ceased when she heard her brother start talking in a deep voice. He took a sip of his orange juice that was placed to the left of his plate and continued to talk.

"After you get your Keyblade you will need to keep heading north until you find a cave. The cave will have writing on the outside, kind of like ancient writing but it hasn't faded yet. Inside the cave you need to bond with your spirit animal. Bonding with your spirit animal could take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, oh also remember it chooses you." Kenway stated.

"Well..." Roxanna said with a question filled voice.

"Well, what?" Replied Kenway

"What do you think my animal will be? I wonder if it would be a bunny oh, or maybe a cat! What do you think? "Roxanna expected a reply from her brother but he didn't say anything. He just took a bite of his crispy, yet slightly burned piece of bacon and didn't say a word.

"Well, you're training me today!" exclaimed Roxanna

"No I am not!" Grouched Kenway who didn't even finish chewing his piece of bacon that he was spitting all over the now dirty stone counter top.

"You promised me yesterday, and the day before that. When are you going to teach me? My test is in a few weeks!"

Roxanna had a concerning voice when she was talking. Kenway noticed that she sounded upset and mad at the same time which made a blanket of guilt cover over him. He had been disappointing her when he kept saying he would teach her, but he knew deep down inside that she was not going to like the hard core training that he puts himself into. He raised his eyebrow and let out a soft whisper saying that he would train Roxanna.

"Sorry didn't hear that, speak up." She uttered even though she heard him perfectly fine but wanted him to say it again so it would please her more.

"We start training at 4:00." Grumbled Kenway

"4:00 in the afternoon?" Roxanna's face dropped into a concerning one when she heard her brother say 4:00 but she didn't know what time he was talking about.

"No, 4:00 in the morning." Replied Kenway while stuffing a hot pancake into his mouth and watching the syrup drip onto his now double stained white shirt.

Roxanna was confused at his statement but just shrugged it off and said ok. As she left to go out the door Roxanna told Kenway that she was going to the store to pick up some food and would be back in about an hour or so. Kenway threw a big piece of bacon at Roxanna that barely missed her face and flew out the door waiting to be taken home by either birds or rats.

"Nice try." Replied Roxanna as she giggles a little bit before closing the door. Kenway smiled and went back to eating his food.

"What am I going to do with her?"

After Kenway was done eating he pushed in his white chair and put his greasy plate and cup in the sink for Roxanna to wash. He walked back to his room that was about seven yards away from the small two-person kitchen he was sitting in a few moments ago. As he walked into his moist thick aired room he took a look over to the back corner of his poorly lit dark room. His Dark purple jacket hung on a small brown wooden coat rack that was missing its back leg and was being supported by his sand colored wall. Walking on the cold wooden floor sent chills up his delicate spine. Each step he took the more and more his body started to ache. He took off his shirt exposing the scars and bruises that ran all along his body, and his thick sweaty muscles. The tattoo on his chest felt like a hot piece of charcoal when he touched it. He then placed his elbows on his dresser and looked at the small one faced mirror that was attached to his dresser. Running his hands through his light chocolate brown spiky hair reminded him of his mother's long dark hair that flowed down her shoulders. Her golden highlights stood out like the moon in the black sky and added to her beautiful smooth freckled face. A single tear left the side of his red blushed face that lit up into a thousand emotions that he tried to keep tucked away in the deepest darkest parts of his heart. But something opened up the jar of darkness and all his feelings filled every ounce of his body. He didn't want to feel this way. His promise to his mom was now broken and he felt like the little boy he was ten years ago. The sweet sensitive boy that loved his parents and sister. The little boy that didn't want to harm anything because he thought all life was meaningful. Now that boy was in that very room starring at the mirror that had his mother's faced engraved into the stainless glass. Using his fear and anger he struck the mirror and it shattered all over cutting his hand.

"Please make this go away, God, please let these dreams and visions go away he pleaded. I don't want to see her face anymore. It tears me apart just thinking about her, Roxanna reminds me of her every day and I can't keep doing this."

Kenway turned and slid his back down his dresser and sat on the cold wooden floor that now had shards of glass surrounded his room as if someone had tripped over his clothes on the floor and dropped a glass of water that spilled all over. Hot thick liquid that he was all too familiar with dripped from his hand onto his chest and pants. Several minutes passed before Kenway got up and walked over to sweep up the mess that he could clean up with a broom but couldn't clean from his memory. After cleaning his mess, he walked over and; changed into his black leather pants, that had a chain and red lines running across his thighs, and threw on a pure white shirt. He took his dark purple jacket and threw it on while making sure he didn't step on a piece of stranded glass. As he put it on he noticed that the white wolf logo on his purple jacket; had that red hot liquid that poured from his hand. Not caring he just ignored it and slipped on his brown shoes that matched the same color of his wooden floor. While walking out his room he slipped on his silver plated neck-less and ring that both had his spirit animal.

Opening the freshly new painted door Kenway walked outside into the beaming sun that was rising from its mountain grave. The big ball of fire in the sky warmed Kenway as soon as he left his nice cool one story house that sheltered him from the harsh nature of mother earth, but also caged him from his feelings that he constantly left behind only to return to them as soon as he touched the door. The chilling wind blew his graceful mane of a hair which he quickly responded by putting his soft purple stained hoodie over his head and turned to walk away into the town, his home.

(Thank you for reading chapter one. This is not going to be your typical Kingdom Hearts story, I decided to take out anything that refers to Disney and this book is going to be more mature. You will see blood, cursing and some alcohol, don't worry I won't go overboard. I will be uploading probably every week on Saturday, but no promises. I do have most of the story figured out and it's going to be an intense one. My schedule might get a little crazy because of school but I will keep you updated. I am reviewing the chapters over and over to make sure they are ready for your beautiful faces.) :)