It started out as a normal day at the beach. The smell of the salt in the sea, the sand crunching warmly under his feet as he licked away at a Sea-Salt Ice Cream bar happily with his best friends. The shore was calm and pristine, and it was impossible to determine where the sea ended and the sky began. Oh, what a lovely day it was! Small waves foaming white as the tide rolled onto the brown sand, reflecting sunlight in the little grains.
Was it meant to last? As the question rolled across Roxas's mind, everything seemed to change. The laughing faces of Hayner, Pence and Olette melted into grotesque shapes as the sun seemed to be snuffed out. An eerie twilight surrounded him as his friends shrunk into small black beasts. Ice cream dropping to the sand, his eyes widened and he backed away, tripping and falling backwards. He rotated mid-fall so that he landed on his stomach and the sight of the beach startled him.
Small, black creatures crawled around where the beach-goers once were, and it was no longer the beach he had come to with his friends. The sand was no longer golden or warm, the sea was no longer a deep blue with white tips. Everything had faded to shades of grey. His heart started to pound, and for a moment he could have sworn the beasts heard it. No... they DID hear it, and they started towards him, jumping on him and grabbing his wrists, binding him so he couldn't fight back. Flailing and screaming, they dragged him to the ocean and started to claw greedily at his chest.
How could they, why would they?! He couldn't breathe! The water filled his mouth, yet it didn't taste of salt or sea. A metallic tang was in it and he realized he was tasting blood... His blood! Panting, flailing, he looked down and saw the hole, gaping in his chest, bleeding into the ocean. His heart! They'd taken his heart!
Roxas could do no more than gape up at the cold, grey sky as he heard the small beasts pattering away through the water. Suddenly, heavier footsteps fell into the water, and Roxas tilted his head to the side and saw a man adorned in a black cloak, face hidden under the hood. Stopping feet from Roxas, he made no move to help him up.
"Come with us, your journey begins now." His voice was deep, powerful and worst of all familiar. Roxas was sinking, sinking into the sand... Though his heart had been removed, he felt a weight in his chest, he felt heavy. There was lead in his heart and blood in the water as everything, everything was falling away...
Then, quite suddenly, he woke up. Panting and sweating he put his hand to his chest, feeling for a hole or stitches or... or anything. Gasping for breath, he wiped the sweat from his brow away with his pillowcase, and looked at the clock. It was only four in the morning... He hadn't gone to the beach yet, afterall.
A few hours later, after waking and dressing he made his way to the train station to meet the others. Things were normal as normal could be.
Until he saw the man in the cloak, preventing him from ever going to the beach. Dark days were ahead.
disclaimer: don't own anything. if i did, Roxas would have really gone to the beach.