"Where... Where am I?" Kierra asked herself as she looked at her surroundings. She saw nothing but black all around her. The strange thing was, she was able to see herself fine, like the floor, walls, and ceiling of a room were painted black.

"Is anybody out there?" she called out to anyone who could hear. "Can somebody help me?"

She frantically looked around to find any source of life or a way to get out of where she was but found none. It was starting to scare her because she was alone in the dark. Suddenly, she jetted off in a direction, hoping that it would lead her to something other than darkness.

"I gotta get out of here," she told herself as she looked around as she ran. In doing so, she bumped into something and fell to the ground. "Ow," she muttered as she rubbed the lower part of her back. "That hurt..."

She looked up to see what she ran into and saw a tall figure in, what looked like, a black cloak with it's hood up. The hood made a shadow over the figure's face so Kierra could not see what it's face looked like. The figure practically blended in with the surroundings, so it was no surprise that she ran into whoever it was in the first place.

Kierra stood up with no help from the figure in front of her, and rushed off the imaginary dirt that was on her skirt.

"Who are you?" she asked, rather rudely. She just wanted to get back to Destiny Islands. "Where am I?"

She was able to see the figure shake it's head a "no."

"That doesn't answer any of my questions!" she said, annoyed. "Who are you? And where is this place?"

The figure turned away from Kierra and shook it's head again.

"Trust me. You don't want to know," it finally said. It's voice was very deep, sounding like an older man maybe in his thirties or forties.

"Ooh. The figure speaks!" she replied back sarcastically. "Is that the answer to your name or where we are?"

The figure looked over it's shoulder at her and said, "Both." Then he began to walk away.

"Wait!" she called out to him. "How do I get out of here?!"

"Find the light," it answered and then disappeared from her sight.

"That still doesn't help me!" she yelled, thinking maybe that strange figure had heard her. She collapsed to her knees and sighed. "Find the light... What light? I don't understand."

Kierra looked around again and sighed once more. She sat down on the ground and pulled her legs into her chest.

"I don't want to be here alone," she whispered as she began to shiver. She didn't realize how cold it actually was until then. "I don't want to be alone. Someone, please find me."

Suddenly, something bright hit Kierra's skin. She looked up and saw a very bright light in front of her. It was like someone opened a door to the sun. Shielding her eyes with one arm, she stood up and began to walk towards it.

.: - :.

Jolting up in her bed, Kierra gasped and began to breath heavily. She looked around in her surroundings and saw that she was back in her room on Destiny Island. Sweat was running down her face as she held a hand to her fast beating heart.

"That had to be the strangest dream I've ever had in my entire life," she whispered and her heart began to slow down. She looked outside and noticed the sun hadn't rised yet.

Slowly, Kierra got out from under her covers and walked to her desk. She turned on the lamp that stood on it, shining light onto her opened sketch book. It was still opened to the page of her last drawing. She tried to finish it the night before but ended up getting tired and going to bed. Since she was up, she decided to finish the drawing.

.: - :.

Tiredly, Kierra walked into her first period class on time. She dragged her feet to the desk beside her best friend, Kairi, and plopped down in the seat. Kairi wasn't paying attention since she was talking to Selphie at the time, but the loud "thump" that she heard from Kierra's head hitting the desk caught her attention.

"Kierra?" she asked slowly, unsure what her friend was doing. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," Kierra replied truthfully. "I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm dead tired."

"Hey there, Kierra," a flirtacious voice spoke to her that made her stomach feel naucious... in a bad way.

"Please tell me I'm still dreaming, Kairi," she practically pleaded to her friend without lifting her head from the desk.

"I'm so flattered. You dream of me," he said in the same tone.

Kierra lifted her head and glared at the tall, black-haired teenager standing beside her desk.

"That's not what I meant, Dex," she said while rolling her eyes. She stood up for more effect and angrily placed her hands on her hips. "I meant that I'd rather be in a nightmare than see your face in reality."

"That hurts, Kierra. It really does," Dex said in a fake sad tone while placing his hands over his heart. "It breaks my heart into tiny pieces."

"Why don't you go stuff yourself in the dumpster out back? That's where all the other trash belongs."

"Kierra! Dex! Take your seats right now," the teacher told them and they both did so, Kierra sitting in the chair she was previous sitting at and Dex moved to the back of the room.

It wasn't even nine in the morning and Kierra could already tell it was going to be a very, very long day.

.: - :.

"I'm going to head home. I'll talk to you later, Kairi!" Kierra told her friend before she began to run down the street.

"Bye!" she could hear Kairi say back as she was already half way down the street.

It was after school and all day, all Kierra could think about was that dream she had the night before. She wasn't sure if she could even classify it as a dream. It wasn't cheerful or happy like dreams are suppose to be, but she decided that it wasn't a nightmare either because it didn't scare her like nightmares should.

It felt more like reality. No, she didn't live in a world where it was dark surrounding her, but if felt so real, too real to be a dream, but that didn't make sense to her either. Since she couldn't decide, she was just going to continue classifying it as a dream until she figured out what it really was.

When she reached her home, she ran back into her room and pulled out her sketch book once again.

She was just about finished with her drawing. It was a rough sketch with no color but grey and white from the pencil and paper, some out of place lines here and there, and then there were also the eraser marks.

After she placed some finishing touches on it, she was finally finished. She set her pencil down on her desk and walked over to her bed, carefully studying her finished picture. Then she laid down on her bed and looked at all the details she had made.

The picture of a teenaged boy. He was standing in front a long opened window with one hand on the side paneling while he was glancing over his shoulder, almost like he was looking at her. He had semi-long, layered hair, just reaching his shoulders, and he wore a sleeveless shirt with black straps on it. The picture stopped at his waist so there was no telling how tall he was. Though the window shown dark silhouettes of homes with lit windows and stars shown brightly in the sky. That had to be one of the more descriptive part of her drawing. Next, were the boy's eyes.

Though one eye could be seen, he had a calming look to them, yet they looked easily angered. They showed bravery and courage, yet cocky. They showed so much emotions, it was hard for someone to tell what the boy was feeling at that moment. Kierra was able to see one emotion stick out more than the rest, and it was happiness. It was a simple word, but the only word to describe how the boy looked like he felt.

"Promise me we will never forget each other."

"Promise..." she whispered, remembering the dream she had just a couple nights ago. "This is him. The boy who made the promise..." she realized. She closed her eyes and tried to remember exactly what the boy looked like in her dream. "I forgot about him..."

She lowered the sketch from her sight and noticed the window. It looked exactly like the one that was in the picture. Quickly, she stood up and ran over to the window, opening it up, and looking outside. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking for, but looking at the picture somehow gave her the message to do so. But when she looked outside, all she saw was her the edge part of her roof, where she often would go in the middle of the night if she had trouble sleeping, and a small part of her town.

"I broke our promise..." she stated sadly, while looking at the ready to set sky. "I'm so sorry... Riku..."

She had no idea why she said the name, but when she did, she remembered everything. Who the boy in the picture was. What the empty feeling she had inside was. Even why she had a vague memory of what happened a year ago. Everything came back to her.

"I'm so sorry..." she whispered again and finally closed her window.

What Kierra didn't know was that she was not alone. A dark figure appeared out of the shadows between her home and her neighbors. It looked up at the window she was just looking at and shook his head before disappearing into the darkness.