Darkness surrounded me in complete silence as I walked through an unfamiliar and eerie snowy meadow. As I walked down a narrow walkway, I could see the trees and bushes around me slowly withering away as I became closer to them. Somehow I could feel their pain and sorrow as the beautiful blue and lavender flowers where vanishing right before my eyes. It felt overwhelming; almost too overwhelming for my soul to take.

"Riku," I heard a name being shouted in the distance. It was faint and sounded urgent but had the most delicate and fragile feeling to it. Personally, I had felt like I was being drawn to it like I was in some form of trance. "Riku… Riku," The name was growing louder and louder like it was coming to me and pulling me in. Everything seemed to fly by as if I was in some sort of Alice in Wonderland fairy tale. As I kept on walking towards the familiar voice, a light seemed to present itself in the near distance. A cold shiver ran down my spine which turned my walk into a slight run.

After running towards the mysterious light for what felt like an eternity, I came to a stop to catch my breath. My lungs felt like they were harvesting embers of fire that where blazing every time I stole a breath from the air around me. I stopped at a tree, that for some odd reason didn't seem to be dead or alive. As I slid my back down the side of the tree into a seated position, the sound of dead leaves and plants being crushed under my feet pierced the silence of the darkness.

I sat there and listened for any sign of life. The voice that called for Riku became more distant and it faded more and more into the depths of the darkness.

"Riku… I know you can hear me!" the voice sprung out at me again.

This time it was different; it was full of pain and sorrow. Suddenly, I felt a warm sensation on my left side, almost as if someone were to have covered me up with a blanket. I looked at my left arm, surprised to see the transparent hand of a young girl.

"Do you remember Riku? Do you remember me?"

I slowly closed my eyes and in a soft voice whispered, "Remember you?"

The girl giggled at my response and ran off into the distance. I closed and rubbed my eyes in disbelief of everything that was happening in front of me. When I opened my eyes to try to find the girl, I was on an island that seemed to have a small tropical paradise in the middle of it. As I tried to get up to observe my new surroundings, I also noticed that I was sitting in soft, warm sand that seemed to span all the way around the island. The smell of salt water also filled the air. It wasn't too strong or too weak and every time I inhaled, it gave me a warm feeling as if this were my home.

"Who are you? I just can't seem to remember… whoever you are." I called out as I looked down and brushed the sand off of my dark blue skinny jeans and black Linkin Park t-shirt.

I looked back up at the girl only to find that she had grown to her late teen years. My eyes started to focus on her and I could finally see more than just a simple transparent silhouette. She had shoulder length red hair with bright blue eyes and seemed to be wearing something close to my school uniform. She walked closer to me with her hands on her hips and a surprised look on her face.

"Still nothing?" she asked in disbelief. I shook my head confirming that I still hadn't remembered her or her name for that matter.

"Hmm...well then you lazy bum! Maybe this will get your mind jogging!" She gracefully slid on the sand to the left of me and reveled something that caught me off guard. Sticking out of the ground was a sword with a blade that seem to distort ever so slightly and morph the stagnant air that quietly whispered around it. I slowly walked toward the blade in uneasiness and walked around it to examine all aspects of it. In my opinion, the blade looked authentically curved as if it were made for a specific purpose, but the rest of the sword looked as if it were straight out of some action anime. My curiosity started to take over. I couldn't help but to extend my arm so I could feel the hilt. Even though it was right out in front of me, I had to make sure that it was something that was real. I just had to make sure that all of this wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Just as I touched the smooth professionally made hilt, memories came flowing through my mind of the person named Riku that the voice was calling out for. However, what I was seeing in my mind was not just visions of Riku, but also Riku's memories; the memories played over and over in my mind.

I released the sword from the dead earth that it was partly encased in. It wasn't as heavy as I would have expected, but it wasn't too light either; it was almost as if it were made just for me. I shifted the sword from one hand to the other to examine it further. As I did so, I couldn't help but notice that the terrain started to shift around me. The next thing I knew I was standing back in the darkness where the girl and I had started, except for one small detail; the ground that was around the area I was standing on started to turn green. When I looked up, the tree that I was sitting next to before was taller and full of life. The trunk had turned a deep rich brown and the leaves were the most vibrant green that I have ever seen on a plant. But deep down inside, it all just felt too surreal for me.

"How does it feel?" the girl asked in an unsteady voice. "Do you remember, Riku? Do you remember when we first met? Do you remember the times that we chased each other through the sandy beach of our home? We always had so much fun... So much fun, that it made me forget all of the things that made me mad. Then we would talk under the sunset while we watched the stars slowly appear and start to light up the night's sky to form a sea of stars. Oh please tell me… please tell me that you remember..."

I glanced down at the sword that was firmly in my grasp. Then my eyes slowly made their way back to her peaceful yet serious gaze. Her face was full of uncertainty and worry.

"I'm sorry…" I said softly while glancing off into the darkness. "All of this – this weird sword, and this depressing terrain that I am engulfed in, you – none of this is real. It can't be real. I have never seen you in my life and I have never seen this sword in my life ether." I tried to sound reasonable, but it only felt like I was making the situation worse. "My name is Rukia Renae, I live in a place called Twilight Town and-"

Suddenly my vision turned to a blur and a sharp pain erupted in the center of my chest. I let out a gasp as I fell to my knees and I looked up to the girl hoping for an answer to all this pain and dizziness. Her face full of fright told me that I wouldn't be able to have my question answered simply by her.

"Why the?! FUCK!" I scream as I fell to the ground in extreme pain and agony. To give you a comparison of the pain, imagine having birth, getting punched in the crotch, all while being stabbed at the exact same time. In other words, it felt worse than anything that I could ever imagine. I looked down at the pain infected area and noticed that a thick, black liquid was slowly leaking out of my chest and onto the smooth, green ground. It was black as coal, or perhaps a night sky where all the stars quivered and faded away into nothingness. The only way to describe what I was seeing was darkness.

I look at the girl and her expression turned into a calm, hopeless look.

"You have failed us." Her voice was clam and quiet-almost as if she where to be whispering to my very soul. "You fucking weakling!" She suddenly screamed out in rage and a demonic aura developed in the air that started to fluster and taunt the air around her. "Why did you have to do it when it was right in front of you this whole time?! We all wanted you to succeed; we gave you all that we had and yet you failed us like you didn't even care at all?!"

By this time tears where streaming down her face in glistening streams of clear liquid. Clear liquid that ever so slowly turned to the color of a bright and vibrant red roses in the middle of summer. Shocked, I try to take in what exactly she was saying and what I was seeing at the same time. How could I have failed her if I have never met her before? And what was the 400 years ago about? Then, the darkness that started developing in the air around the girl slowly started to wrap around her arms and legs pulling her down into a bowing stance. "W-what the-?!"

Just as she was about to say more, a piece of the darkness wrapped around her mouth. Struggling, she threw herself left and right between her muffled screams and grunts of frustration trying desperately to free herself from darkness. Though, despite her massive attempts and thrusting, the darkness only wrapped around her even more to the point where her face was the last thing that wasn't infected by this strange black substance.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a thick strand of this substance that looked slightly different from the rest. I could barely see it moving due to the darkness that was now blurring my vision, but I noticed that it was slower than the rest of its friends who were trying to hold down the girl. I look down to try to see how bad the hole in my chest was and for some reason there was no evidence that my chest was even touched by the surrounding darkness at all.

By the time I could gather my balance, the thick strand was right next to her and seemed like it was observing her every sound. Left and right it swayed from side to side as if it where a cobra ready to strike. As soon as I got to my feet, I sprinted as fast as I could to the strand; forcing my body as much as I physically could. I tried to tackle it with as much strength as I could muster and somehow I flew right through it as if it were a hologram or pigment of my imagination. Frustrated and on the floor from tripping and falling, I got back up and turned towards my target. I had to save that girl from whatever this stuff was. That was my motivation. Whatever I did to her to make her feel the way she did about me, I had to repay her in anyway possible. I jump forward with all my might, flying as fast as possible at the strand of darkness. The air seemed to become thinner and colder as I grew closer and closer.

Suddenly the strand completely changed its path to me, and while I was lunging at it in mid-air, it stabbed through my chest and stopped me in mid-flight. I gasp in disbelief on how fast that it moved followed by coughs full of blood as it was borrowing through my body. I could feel it move in my legs and in arms; my stomach and throat burned as the it started to take over that part of me as well. I look down and found that my clothes had melted right off of my body and was showing my bare skin that was now black instead of a pale white.

The girl, now a statue of black with an expression of sadness, just stood there with no life. I thought to myself, 'Would that happen to me?'

"It will- then more. You are only a mere speck of this Universe." Wait- did it just talk to me? If it did just answer me, how can it hear my thoughts? "I am you and you are me. Two fates are intertwined and cannot be broken by a mere mortal."

As it finished talking to me I got lifted into the air. Then as I tried to speak, my chest slowly opened up and beams of light started to spray out of my chest.

"Give me your heart. Give me the key of the gods."

Five strands, just like the one before, suddenly presented themselves in front of me. Before I could move a muscle, they all shot into my chest and penetrated the light as if it where nothing. Darkness, pain, sorrow, and hatred. Was this the power of true darkness?

"Now... Give me your heart... and let my darkness consume the heavens and the earth."

I gasped in ice-cold air as I immediately sat up and grabbed the spot at which the darkness had entered my body. Numb; the only word to describe the feeling. As I looked around to gather my surroundings, the room was all in a blur. Shapes and shadows leaped in and out of my vision as if they where to be dancing in the dimly lit room. And then I came to the realization that I was in my room, under the nice warm blankets of my bed.

That morning everything was exactly the same as it was from before. The house was dead silent and the only other living thing in the house was my kitten, Amy. She is a black and white bangle with bright blue eyes that enticed me to take her home with me at first sight. I had found her down the street in a small container that was thrown into an alleyway. Her little cries for help brought me closer and while releasing her, she would not leave me my side. So, after confirming it with my parents, I took her home and gave her some food and water. After that she has been one of the only friends that I've had, and now three years later, she still hasn't left my side at all.

While I walked into the kitchen, I turned on the light due to the darkness in my dream last night. I don't know what it is, but the light always has warmed me up ever since I was a child. I walked over to the coffee machine to find that it was still on with a note right next to it:

Dear Ru,

We left the coffee machine on for you because we noticed that you stayed up late last night working and studying for your big final coming up in the next week. We also wanted you to know that your lunch is already packed and ready for you in the fridge and don't forget to take your medicine on your way out.

- Love,

Mom

"Hmm thanks Mom." I mumbled to my self as I was pouring a cup of coffee. I grabbed my iPhone and headphones and looked for a song to listen to while getting dressed. The song "Raise Your Weapon" came on by Deadmau5 and I couldn't resist singing to it. My favorite genre of music has always been Dubstep ever since I first heard it when I was 10, but I also love Linkin Park as well. The first song I ever heard by them was "In the End" and by the time it got over I was in love with the band.

While taking my bra off to get dressed, I caught a glimpse of the scar that is right in the middle of my chest. A flashback of my dad came into my mind. When I was just nine years old, my dad kidnapped me and took me to his old cabana that he had down by Newport city. There, he beat me every day telling me that the reason for all of his "fuck ups" was because of my birth and that I should have been the boy that he always wanted. So one day he pinned me down and rapped me to the point that I wasn't able to walk. Afterwards, he took one of his hunting knives, pinned me down again and slowly ran the knife down my chest. It was one of the most agonizing pains that I have ever felt. In the middle of cutting me open he was interrupted by the police. He was shot and killed right on the spot, in front of me, for taking a gun out of a nearby drawer and aiming it at them. I don't remember much after that because I blacked out from the loss of blood, but those memories still, and will, haunt me forever.

Trying to shake off the memories of my dead father, I turned on the TV and checked what the weather was going to be like for the rest of the day. "-nd the weather for today." The new reporter exclaimed, "Today will be sunny with little chance of clouds or rain. Also expect to have warm weather today because the temperatures are going to hit a high of 75 degrees and a low of 36 degrees. The temperature will progressively get higher throughout the week so remember to go out there and enjoy the sunshine with your family and friends because this week is going to be a relatively good one considering the temperatures are getting up there. Now, back to yo-"

"Hmm that's Autumn in Twilight Town for you" I said as I put down the remote on the TV and put on a different Linkin Park shirt. Around this time of year, festivals and carnivals are booming and everyone from around town gets together to have parties that would last from dusk till dawn. One of the biggest festivities in town is the Struggle competition which is something that I need to win this year. Whoever wins the Struggle competition pretty much has the highest rep in the town, and gets a trophy signifying that we beat all of our competitors in a struggle competition. This year I am up against Ryan first, son of the infamous Seifer who won the Struggle two years in a row. Then I move up to my friend David, son of Hayner, which in turn won the Struggle competition two years before that. After everyone has battled it out and only one victor remains on top of everyone else, they take the Struggle trophy of the year and also have the option to battle a secret guest contestant that has a skill rank that is unknown.

And that is the part that scares me the most out of the whole competition. While walking around putting up posters for the Struggle match during the week, I would occasionally over hear some people talking about the upcoming competition and some rumors that may be tied into them. One of them is that a class S+ Fighter (one of the highest fighters in the system) was going to attend and was quite possibly going fight the victor of this year's Struggle depending on the score that you get when you complete your final match. I have never attended a Struggle competition before because of my age, but I have seen just how badly someone could get beat down from outside of the ring; think of MMA fighting but with no limits.

Once I had my skinny jeans on and all of my text books were shoved into my back pack, I finally headed off to school, not knowing just what was going to happen to me later that day that would change my life forever.