M'kay so how's it going? I know my last chapter was short, but I promise, everything starts with this chapter. In this chapter you'll how
Everything comes together. Now Charlotte's on a quest to find Gabriel, along with Cole of course. Or so she thinks.
2: Drowning.
"Are you sure we won't get caught?" I asked my daring best friend. He nodded quickly without even looking at me. "Put your foot in my hands, I'll boost you up to the window." Gabe instructed, opening the window. I sighed, doing as told. I crawled into the window, looking to see what was below me. The guys' locker room. I landed as swiftly as possible for me. The floor was a hard white tile, which usually got wet after they took showers. I left the barred room –it sort of felt like a jail- and found the entrance t the gym, where Gabe was waiting. I opened the door for him. "Where's the pool?" I asked, as I shivered at the blow of cold Fall air that rushed in with Gabe. He pointed across the gym at a door, with the sing on it. "New pool room. No Entry." Gabe read, checking to see if it was locked. It wasn't.
Gabriel pushed the door open, holding it for me. "Ladies first." I ignored him. Chills ran down my back –I guess you could call them chills of excitement- as I walked onto the white tiled floor. A large light blue pool sat in the middle of the large gym sized space. I removed my hoodie. I had a dark blue spaghetti strap shirt on underneath, along with a pair of dark denim jean shorts. Gabe chuckled. "What?" I asked him, flipping my shoes off. "I've never seen you dress like that." Gabe said jokingly. He wore a thin black v-neck sweater, and black jeans. I stared at him. "I've never seen you dressed like that." I pointed at him. He chuckled again, not bothering to take his Etnies off. "Ready?" He asked, walking up to the rim of the pool. I nodded, coming to stand next to him. "On three." Gabe said, turning his gaze back to the pool. "One." I could feel the tension. "Two." I started to breathe quicker. "Three." Gabe laughed, pushing me in. I screamed a bit, and hit the water, finding some way to make a diving motion as I fell. All went black. But I had the feeling of sinking. The water around me numbed my hearing. But I felt it as the water moved immensely. Gabe had just jumped in. But soon, I passed out.
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"Wake up!" I heard an unfamiliar voice yell in my ear. Salt burned my dry throat. I struggled to open my eyes. "Where's Gabe?" I asked, my voice raspy. My savior stopped shaking me, instead he bent down next to my mouth. "What?" He asked quietly, trying to hear me more clearly. "Where's Gabe?" I asked a little louder now. He sat up again, I could tell. I opened my stinging eyes, trying to focus on whoever was sitting in front of me. Okay forget that, my eyes are a total wreck. I'll listen instead. Waves, seagulls, and a couple of voices, far off. I was on a beach. My eyes flew open, this time they focused on the blue sky. "Where am I?" I asked timidly, sitting up.
My savior looked at me as if I was crazy. "Do you think I know? I just saw you floating out in the water. There's no one else on this island." He said, helping me to my feet. "What? Where's Gabe?" I started to panic, what would I do without him? The mysterious boy led me to a ramp, which he helped me up. We were now on a boardwalk. I sat down on the carefully nailed boards, rubbing my head. "What's your name?" I asked, looking up, like there was anything else to ask. "Cole. Cole Crander."
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"Dude, are you okay?"
I shook my head, pounding the water out of my ears. "Where am I?" I asked after a while, getting to my feet. The guy next to me smiled. "Your in The World That Never Was. Sorry to break it to ya." He said, holding his arms out towards the black sky. WE were what looked like a downtown, there weren't many stores though. Everything looked deserted. "And why am I here?" I asked, trying to get more information. "Dunno. Found you in black water down there at Port Royal." I looked up at him.
"Who are you?" I asked rudely, taking a look at his attire. He wore a black cloak, with black clothes underneath. Not much. "I'm Axel. Or number eight." He held his hand out for me to shake. I didn't. "Would you like to come back to the castle with me? Doesn't look like you have anywhere else to go." Axel offered, walking a few steps away. "Sure. Maybe it'll help me remember something." I brushed my blue hair from my face, turning to catch up with Axel. He created a dark oval shaped opening. "Get in." He said, pushing me through.
I opened my eyes to the whitest hall I'd ever seen. "Welcome to the Castle That Never Was." Axel chuckled, "Oh, I don't believe I asked your name." Axel said pointedly, turning back to me. I thought for a moment, what was my name? Oh yeah. "Gabriel. Just Gabe for short."
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"You mean I might never get to see Gabe again?' I asked desperately, my skull pounding with an extreme head ache. Cole shook is head sadly. "I'm sorry. I haven't found out why I came here either yet." I stood, walking away from the boy. It was all coming back to me. This was the boy from the news, the boy who had fallen in the pool. So it was haunted.
I walked out to the pier, coming to sit at the edge. But then I noticed something. How come I knew this place so well? I knew where the pier was. I looked behind me. All of it occurred to me at the same time. I had only been looking at the ground and Cole's depressed face before now. If I was the fainting type of person, I would have fainted. But I wasn't, so I was just a bit shaky.
"This is Destiny Islands." I whispered to myself. "That pool was a portal to……no way." It was just like those cheesy fan fics where the character –usually a girl- gets sucked into the Kingdom Hearts game. It was actually happening to me. But where was Gabe? Hadn't he jumped in too? I looked down at my right, where two boats rested. Before Cole could stop me, I jumped into a boat, unhooking the oars. Cole jumped up from his spot on the sandy beach. "What are you doing?!" He exclaimed, running towards the pier. At this moment, I realized how tall and built Cole was, maybe it was because I had full view of the black haired boy running towards me. "I'm going over to that village." I answered, paddling away farther out.
He jumped into the other boat, obviously coming to join me. "I'm coming." He said, his smile breath taking. We paddling along, Cole was giving me some room to lead. Soon we made it there, where I tied my boat to the pier. Cold copied me, jumping out of his boat to stand next to me. My arms felt like rubber. There had to be some one here who had a gummi ship. Cole followed me into the small village, which seemed to grow bigger as we entered it. There was a school, a grocery store, dry cleaners, a couple little cafes, restaurants. It was more like a little country town. Garage, I need to find a garage of some sort. Or a phone.
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"Here, this will be better than that sand covered sweater you're wearing." Axel said, handing me a cloak. "Xemnas says you'll stay in the white chamber, and he told me to give you the key to it." Axel handed me the skeleton key, a smile on his face. "What?" I asked, his sudden smile making me wonder. Axel looked to his left, than his right, as if some one might hear him. "It' strange for Xemnas to let people just come and stay here. You must be useful to him." Axel whispered, as a couple more members came up behind him. I thought for a moment, if what he was saying was true, I must be here for a reason.
"Roxas! Check it out! This is that dude I found down at the Port!" Axel called, taking Roxas's shoulder and leading him to me. Roxas stared at me. "Hey Axel, that's that guy I saw in my dream." He said calmly, pointing at me. Axel looked a bit shocked, but not enough to really get him going. "Really? Maybe that's why Xemnas wants him." Axel answered, waiting while Roxas paused, thinking. I stood there, watching them having this little talk, a black cloak draped over my arm and a bored expression on my face. "But remember, Xemnas only keeps some one if it benefits him. He maybe using Gabe as a decoy or maybe like he uses us, to fight his battles for him." Roxas explained to Axel, they were both thinking about this hard. I turned; there was some one behind me. "Hey dude, you may not want to stay here waiting in the hall all day, why don't I show you to your room?" He asked, brushing his blond mullet. I nodded, following him away down the hallway filled with doors.
"Yeah, sometimes Axel and Roxas can be real chatter-boxes." Demyx said, walking to the end of the hall with me right behind him. "It's better to ditch when they get like that." I pulled the skeleton key out of my soggy pocket, and stuck it in the white door. All the doors were white, but this one had the letters WR on it, in the some blue that covered the downtown area. I kicked the door open, since my hands were now officially full.
Like the Castle –and all the hallways, and every square inch of the building- it was white. Rightly named. There was a huge King-sized bed in the middle of the room, with white bedding. Not a speck in the room was a different color, all white. It hurt the eyes. "Welcome to your new home!" Demyx said, stepping inside. He looked strange, walking into a purely white room. Like a stain.
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"Yes? Can I use your phone?" I asked, once a lady answered the door. She nodded a smile on her lips. She had chestnut colored hair, that was spiked at the bottom, and piercing blue eyes. I bet twenty bucks that she was Sora's mother. She showed me to the phone, kindly letting Cole in too. I dialed in Gabe's cell phone number, seeing if he still had it –or if the water had taken it. "Hello?" A more older and country twanged voice answered the phone. I could have sworn I recognized the voice. "Who is this?" I asked, anyone with a gummi ship would be great.
"Cid Highwind. Are you the owner of this cell phone?" He asked, and I heard some voice in the background that sounded like Squall and Yuffie. "Cid? My name is Charlotte, and I could really use your help." I answered, feeling Cole talking to Sora's mom behind me. "Waddya need?" I sighed in relief, he was willing to help. "Do you know where Destiny Islands are?" I asked him, staring out with my problem.
"Yep. Sure do." He answered; I could hear the ruffling of paper in the back ground. A map. "Well, I'm in the town next to it, just a little ways, and I really need to leave. I lost my friend, and there's this other lost guy. I really need a gummi ship to go find my friend and get home." I explained, it all came out in a rush. Cid sounded shocked when he answered; he blocked the speaker while talking to the other's for a second, then came back. "I'm coming."