Chapter 2 ~ The Bridge Between Reality and Fantasy
That sure sucks. I would've expected more from a smart-looking guy who carries around a lexicon with him on an abduction mission, but more importantly, who's been waiting for me?
"Here," he said, pulling something out from his pocket and handing it to me.
I had noticed a silver chain dangling from his pocket earlier, but didn't pay much notice to it until now. He opened his hand, and lying on his palm was a necklace with a strangely familiar white, heart-shaped crest with a small node in the center.
"What is that? What are you talking about? Who's been waiting for me?" I asked, feeling a bit more knowledge deprived with each passing second.
He rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"Take it," he said, with a hint of annoyance.
I slowly backed away from him, my eyes fixed on the crest of the necklace.
"Honestly, please don't test my patience. I have a rather short temper, mind you," he said. "Hurry up and just take this so I can get going."
I finally found the courage to speak up again. Or rather, my curiosity got the better of me.
"What? You're just going to give me a present and leave? You're not going to abduct me or something?" I asked, my voice suddenly significantly louder. "You fail as a kidnapper."
That seemed to piss him off.
"Look kid, I know more about the sad reality of this world than you can ever imagine." He chuckled. "It's been a while since someone's insulted me like that openly without expecting any punishment."
I should have probably stop been smart and shut up, but there was just so much I wanted to ask him. Curiousity killed the cat. Again, a lie. Curiousity killed me first, figuratively speaking of course.
"You know, if I weren't under strict orders not to harm you in the slightest bit, I would've killed you already. I'll leave you with that sickening thought," the man said.
This was some kind of joke or something, right? I decided to play along.
"Haha. I doubt you could do much with a lexicon. You could smack me on the head, but you couldn't even knock me out with that," I laughed.
That was the end of his patience. He ripped a page out of his lexicon and brought it up to his face. I continued laughing boisterously.
A couple seconds later, I felt a strange sharp streak of pain right under my left eye. A moment later, I looked up and saw a long stream of blood on the page of the lexicon. I slowly felt the blood from my cut dripping down my left cheek. I lifted my finger up to catch the falling droplets of blood.
The rain kept pouring. The blood kept falling.
"Oh, screw it," he said. "The leader's going to give me a lecture for that. Damn you. But keep in mind, paper cuts can be rather dangerous, you know? Too bad for you, I have to go, but I think you're bright enough to figure out how it works."
And with that, he was consumed by a strange darkness.
"Wait!" I cried out desperately.
But he wasn't there anymore. It was just me. On the ground. In the pouring rain. With an eerie necklace sitting on the ground in front of me.
You know, most people would have dismissed my encounter as the after effect of a hallucinogenic drug or something, but the necklace in front of me was solid evidence. Again, most people with the slightest bit of sense would have ditched the necklace on the ground and ran straight home. Unfortunately for me, I lack common sense.
The necklace gave off a strange aura that attracted me to it. Ultimately, I found myself crawling up to it and touching it.
It was surprisingly cold.
I then continued to wrap my hands around it and pick it up, deciding that it wasn't some dangerous weapon that would blow itself up upon contact. Before I knew it, I was wearing it around my neck. In that instant, it was like I had broken out of some kind of trance and I realized what I had done. My first reaction was to take it off again. So I did. I took it off and held it in the palm of my hand, wondering why the stranger left it here for me.
Though I didn't trust him in the slightest bit, deep down inside, I was extremely happy that someone had bothered to speak to me of his own will, stranger or no stranger. With this in mind, I gripped the necklace tightly and walked home confidently.
The storm gradually subsided, and when I got home, I saw the most glorious sunset in the distance. I smiled, thinking about all the events that had happened today and for once, with an optimistic attitude, I approached the door to my house, hoping today would be different.
"I'm home!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Absolute silence. An awkward silence at that. The sound of a fork dropping resonated throughout the house.
My family was eating dinner. They all stopped to stare at me like I had some kind of a problem or something. My older sister was the first one who spoke.
"Um...are you alright, Ino?" she asked.
I stood there, unsure of how to respond.
"Yah...I guess," I said, a bit embarrassed at my sudden outburst.
My mother stiffened.
"Good, because for a moment there, we were questioning your sanity," she stated bluntly.
That comment left me rather displeased. Without saying another word, I retained my cool posture and stormed upstairs angrily. I could go without dinner, I'd done it a lot of times before. Anyways, I'd been smart enough to buy something to eat on the way home.
I locked myself in my room and went straight for the computer. The seconds passed slowly as I stamped my foot, waiting for the computer to turn on. I had the least technologically advanced computer in the family. My mother adored my sister. She'd always rub it in to the other mothers that her daughter was the Student Council President. I would've liked to add "with no brains," but my mother probably would have lost it and killed me. My dad was indifferent, and selfish. He had all the latest doohickeys and weird contraptions that he could get his hands on. And me? I got the old stuff that no one wanted, also known as, "the garbage." Gasp. Then again, at least I had my own room, my own computer, and my privacy.
When the computer finally got started, I searched for what the crest could possibly mean. After a couple of hours, I finally got a match.
"Kingdom Hearts," I thought aloud.
I've never been much of a gamer, so of course I wouldn't have thought of it, but I recall many of the gamers talking about it at school.
"Must be a good game," I said, munching away on the sandwich I had bought.
After more information scavenging, I had made a sufficient connection between the game and the crest.
"Organization XIII?" I read.
I scrolled down and looked threw the names. Xemnas. Xigbar. Xaldin. Vexen. Lexaeus. Zexion. Saix. Axel...
Hold on, I scrolled back up. That picture of Zexion looked strangely like that man I met on my way home. The hairstyle was different, but the hair was the same colour. I read a bit about him, stopping at the word lexicon.
"Lexicon, as a weapon?" I asked myself disbelievingly.
Recalling my conversation with whom I believed to be "Zexion," I came across another rather interesting piece of information.
The leader...
I scrolled up to the top of the page. Xemnas, leader of Organization XIII. So that's who he was going to get in trouble with. But why would he give me this stupid accessory?
My mind raced with questions. Do these people really exist? How am I related to them? What are the other members like? Why am I even bothering with this? Am I going insane? Am I seeing things I'm not supposed to be seeing? Did this afternoon really happen?
I dismissed all the questions and continued reading.
...Demyx. Luxord. Marluxia. Larxene. And Roxas.
That was it. I was done. I'd extracted enough information from the web in one day. I've always figured that you should get to know what you're dealing with first before you actually make your move. It was good to get some background information first. I sighed, clearing my mind of all that ridiculous information.
But then again, if I didn't believe it was true, why did I spend time looking them up?
My hands wrapped tightly around the necklace.
I collapsed onto my bed, dimissing the possibility that these people could actually exist. Gradually, my eyelids grew heavy with exhaustion and I fell asleep.
I hate siblings, did I mention that? They always find ways to annoy you properly.
"INO!" my sister yelled as she stormed up the stairs.
I woke up with a start. I jumped off the bed and found myself wearing the necklace. I opened the door to my room to find her standing outside it.
"What?" I yawned, somewhat awake.
"You took my teddy bear, didn't you?" she demanded.
I laughed. Did I mention that my older sister sleeps with a teddy bear named Mr. Cuddly? I find that ridiculously hilarious by the way. Of course, I steal it from time to time to make fun of her.
"So what if I did?" I asked.
"I'll tell mom," she said.
You know, sometimes, I didn't know who was the younger sister here, her or me. She asked like those kindergartens sometimes who say "I'll tell the teacher that you did bad stuff, if you don't give me your lunch" or something like that.
"Go ahead, I couldn't care less if she yells at me," I said.
And she knew every single word I said was true.
"Give it back," she pleaded like a helpless baby.
I couldn't help but laugh again.
"Go sleep, you big baby," I taunted.
I probably shouldn't have done that. I turned around and headed for my bed again, and to my surprise, she stormed in right after me.
I heard her footsteps of course, and turned around as she stood in the doorframe.
"Go away," I said firmly.
Honestly, I would've liked it if the door slammed in her face because of the wind or something. That would've been funny. My thoughts flickered back to the Organization.
Our mother always warned us to watch what you wish for.
A strong gust of wind blew right past me and slammed the door to my room shut. I heard the agonizing scream of my sister when the door slammed into her body.
I rushed towards the door and opened it again. My sister stood there, a bit bruised all over her body.
Impossible! Bruises from the door?
Both my parents quickly rushed upstairs to see what the problem was. I didn't wait from them to show up. I grabbed her stupid teddy bear from my closet and threw it in her face. My parents approached my sister and I with a horrified look on their face. I took the intiative this time.
"I'm sorry," I repeated. "I'm sorry."
Not wanting anymore attention, and slammed the door shut and locked it so they couldn't come in. I backed against the door of my room and slid to the floor.
Only one thing came to mind.
I picked up the crest of the necklace in the palm of my hand, and I was shocked to see a strange symbol pulsating in the middle of the node that distinctively resembled a lance. The symbol slowly vanished, and the node returned to it's original dark colour.
Xaldin. The Whirlwind Lancer.
I couldn't believe it.