Author's note

So, like I said on my profile here is Chapter 2! I made a schedule so that I can post somewhat regularly. If you want to know when the last chapter will be posted, head over to my profile and check it out, i'll also write how far along I am in the writing process so It's a good way to kep you guys Updated! Hope you enjoy this new chapter, reviews always welcome folks!

Chapter 2 - Illusions

Aspen was woken up by a shrill alarm. Her mind was still foggy, her thoughts and vision unclear. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark room, small ligaments of light peaking through the blind, she remembered the events that took place the day before. Questions filled her thoughts as she slowly sat up in her bed. Was it all just a dream, an illusion she made up, trying to make her life more interesting? Her gut told her that what she saw was as real as the warm light brushing against her cheek. Her eyes skimmed through her room, landing on the game she bought.

"Kingdom Hearts…huh" A long sigh fell from her lips as she got up from her bed and toward her window where she hastily opened the blinds.

The sun was already high in the sky, informing her that she had probably missed breakfast already. She turned around and went into the bathroom for a quick shower, after choosing her clothes for the day. She didn't have anything planned, and since it was summer break, Aspen was free to roam the streets of Roselake, the small town where she had lived for as long as she remembered. She slipped on a light blue sweater dress with some white sneakers before bolting down the stairs as she chose to go on a walk around town. She ran past the living room, finding is empty as her parents were probably already off to work, as they often were, and grabbed her house keys from the counter. She locked the door and stuffed the keys into her front pocket before skipping through the streets, a happy bounce in her steps. While she was still thinking over her destination, her phone rang, warning her of a new text. Pulling out her phone, she was greeted by a short, kind of enigmatic, message.

"Hey there girl, we need to talk. U free tonight? It's important -M"

Aspen decided to answer right away, the text was from her best friend Mycah and she knew better than to keep the girl waiting.

"Sure, we can meet up earlier if u want, I'm free since I already did all my summer hw lol -A"

She barely had the time to blink before her phone went off again. "Awesome! Let's meet up now then, see you at Josie's café in 5 -M"

She locked her phone and put it back into her pocket, changing directions and heading toward the café. As impatient as she was to learn about whatever was so important from Mycah, she was a bit skeptic. The timing was too perfect. She sped up her pace a little, already catching a glimpse of the café a few blocks further. Astrid spotted Mycah thanks to her long red hair and waved at her from where I was. She had been very quick, unless she was already here, which made more sense since she lived farther than Aspen did. As she came closer, she couldn't help but notice how quiet the streets were for summer vacation, they would usually be bustling with life on a Saturday morning, but today it felt eerily empty.

She heard a small yelp and snapped back to the taller girl, seeing her starting to trip over the foot of a chair. Thankfully She wasn't too far and only had to skip a little to catch her friend.

"Dammit Mike, I'm the smaller one, you should be looking over me not the opposite" She steadied the brunette and broke into a grin as Mycah gave her a sheepish smile.

"Sorry" Mycah apologized, laughing with Aspen, "It's not my fault I'm so clumsy you know!"

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes and entered the café, the tall brunette following close behind and trying her best not to trip on anything else. They chose an empty table in the corner of the mezzanine, where they were sure to not be bothered by other people. It was their favorite spot in the whole town. The owner, Josie, came to greet the two girls and their order before dashing back to the counter to make their drinks. A few minutes passed in complete silence, Aspen was starting to feel uneasy when she saw the creases starting to form in Mycah's forehead from overthinking. Their drinks came and she decided she had enough.

"What's wrong?" She saw Mycah snap her head up to meet her eyes "spill the beans Mike you're acting weird", the small tilt of her head along with her last sentence cause Mike to let out a sigh.

"I…" She hesitated, 'Do you know Kingdom Hearts?" She started, she was about to stat explaining what she was talking about when Aspen cut her off.

"The new game that just came out, right." She muttered, kind of disappointed that this whole thing was only about a silly game. "You really wanted to talk about a game? Seriously?" The short teen ran a hand through her pink locks, the events of yesterday shoved into the "you're crazy" category of her brain.

« I- Yes! But it's more than that just listen to me!" Mycah defended, afraid her friend would just dismiss the whole thing, "I bought the game alright?" She didn't leave any time for her best friend to interrupt before she continued again, "I thought it seemed familiar."

Aspen's ears perked up when she heard the last part. Familiar? She wasn't the only one to have felt like that? What happened to her now seemed more into the realm of reality than she thought…

"When I played the game…I remembered I had already seen the protagonist before." Mike was looking at her cup as if it held the answer to every question in the universe, fearing the look she would see on Aspen's face if she looked up.

"You…" Her bright green eyes were wide open, shock evident on her features "You saw Sora? Where did you see him? When- When was it, how did He look, are you sure it was him- "

"Hold on- One question at a time please" raising a hand, Mycah interrupted her friend, "It was about a week ago I think, on the beach." She could see the other girl opening her mouth so once again she stopped her, not wanting her to ask any questions until she finished telling her everything. "I was on the way back from our holiday trip with my family when we took a break. I…I don't know if it was real...But for a while now, the world around me is always changing. I don't know it's…Weird." She finished, sipping on her ice coffee to calm her nerves.

"The beach" Started Aspen, voice barely above a whisper, "What did it look like?"

Mycah thought about it for a moment, trying to remember anything out of the ordinary, anything that seemed worth mentioning, when she finally remembered. "There were trees, with…star shaped fruits…" she trailed off, knowing very well that this was just like in the game.

"Like..Like in Kingdom hearts? I only played for a bit yesterday but…You're talking about paopu fruits, no?" Aspen was really starting to worry, just like the friend in front of her. Both their faces showed obvious signs of worry, Mycah was chewing her nails and gripping onto her cup.

"Yeah…You think I'm going crazy?" The brown-haired girl's voice was shaking, her eyes boring into Aspen's looking for any sign she wasn't actually crazy.

Aspen's lips turned into a small frown "No. you're not crazy…" An uneasy feeling washed over her "I've... seen a few weird things lately too…" She thought about that promise, about the times where she thought she saw some weird black shadow things in the corner of her vision, her life had been really full of unexplained occurrences during the summer break.

"What's happening to us…I'm scared 'Pen." Although the older girl's face showed only slight signs of fear, she felt terrified inside, she didn't want to end up like those people in the Roselake's nutthouse.

"It's going to be okay, I promise. We'll be okay." The pink haired teen cooed, trying to reassure Mike. She didn't really believe her own words, but she wouldn't let her friend see that.

"You think so? Gosh I'm the older one I should be the one helping you, again, I'm sorry." She had stopped chewing her nails, starting to feel better after what the younger teen had said. She cracked a joke about how they were probably drinking too much coffee at such a young age and it was making them hallucinate.

After the uneasiness went away, both teenagers just talked about what had been going on in the town and shared the gossip they had on other townspeople. The tension was completely washed off as they laughed together in the small café.

After that day, they didn't talk about the weird occurrences again, choosing to enjoy their last week of summer vacation. The week went by quickly, they went to the local amusement park and played truth or dare with their other friends. It was the day before the beginning of the new school year that they went out for the last time. Mycah had offered to play a bit of Kingdom Hearts before school took all of our time away from the consoles. They were both sprawled out on her bed when Aspen cast a glance out the window, noticing the sky turning a dark pink shade. The sun was starting to set, which meant the pinky haired girl needed to get home.

"Hey Mike" She grabbed her friends shoulder from where she sat up "The sun's setting, I need to go back before it gets late"

"Okay, come on I'll walk you home" She insisted, even though we lived in a quiet neighborhood, Mycah always preferred to be with the slightly younger girl when it was dark outside.

They got up from the bed, slipping their shoes and jackets on before leaving by the back door. The back door led to another street which was better to get back to Aspen's house. Halfway through, Aspen caught a glimpse of someone who looked quite familiar, though she couldn't be sure why. She was trying to find where she could have seen such a unique hooded figure, when she noticed them leaving. Without a word she ran after the tall figure, leaving a very confused Mycah behind. She called after her before following suite. The two girls came to a halt when they reached the hooded figure which turned out to be a man whose face was hidden by the shadow oh his hood.

"What're you doing Aspen, let's leave I don't feel safe…" Mycah was gripping onto her friend's arm, trying to tug her away from the mysterious man but she wouldn't leave.

"No, wait he looks familiar" Aspen shook out of her friends grip and slowly inched forward, closer to the man, it was only then that she noticed a sickly smirk gracing the man's face. But by the time they noticed, it was too late. The two teens only had time to share an uneasy glance before the man looked at his feet then back at them, sending a rapidly moving pitch-black hole their way. Their screams fell onto deaf ears as the hole swallowed them whole.

Author's Note: What did you think? Kind of a cliffhanger I left you guys here. We finally learn our girl's name! If you guys have anything you'd like to point out like grammatical errors, inconsistencies, you name it: Just leave a review and I'll do my best to make it better ;)

AnimeQueen82: Thank you, I hope you enjoyed this chapter too. If you have any advice for me I'll take it!