"Did you lie to me?" I shout exasperatedly as I manage to keep the swarms off my body. But when look to where the Angel Island intruder is, I can only see their hand as the Heartless drowns them. No, I cannot lose the only thing that is going to bring me back home. Charging through the swarm while brandishing the broken blade, I dive in after where the Angel Island intruder sunk. The small Heartless' faces dig into mine the farther I go. Diving into the pits of Darkness after someone who cannot utter a single word-that is something new for me. The Heartless' claws scratch my face and take my hood off, but fortunately there is nobody to see me hoodless and I close my eyes. "Take my sword."

Wherever the intruder is, I hope they can hear me. I swim down more, kicking more Heartless as they start to get bigger and harder to swim through. There is not enough space to properly hit anything but at least the Angel Island intruder can reach for my sword. I extend my arm out as far as I can, unsure of how I might be able to tell if there is any weight on it since the Angel Island intruder does not speak. That is when the Heartless crawl all over my arm like spiders. Their bodies begin to melt down like hot lava and drape my arm in thick black liquid. Grunting, I try shaking my arm free of the black liquid, dropping the Keyblade farther in the pit of Heartless. The phrase in the fire reiterates ubiquitously, Darkness is coming for you, Darkness is coming for you, Darkness is coming for you.

The willpower to keep on the breathing is slipping the more Heartless suppress me. Darkness is coming for you. All I wanted was to go home back to the Village of Willow. I would lose the friends I made in Metropolis but I would go back to my old life again. Even the man Don I can say I will miss but hope that I never see him again so he will not use my curse against me. Clancy is in the light waiting for me to save him, Father, Miriam, and the rest of my villagers-they all need me to save them. Mother would be so proud of me when I save everyone. They all need me more than I need them. I open my eyes and hold my breath as I use a partially solid Heartless to kick off and dive deeper. Ah, that glint in the darkness, it is the Angel Island intruder. I reach for them as more Heartless cover my arm and liquefy on it; I switch arms and finally snatch the mask. A green flame sprouts from my hand and immediately augments into a powerful flame. I have to let go because my hand is slightly singed but the liquid Heartless are still glued to my sleeves and legs; I drop back to the firm, damp ground on my back, no longer crushed by the Heartless. I sit up, attempting to shake of the purple liquid off my clothes while examining my singed left hand.

"Oh!" the light that was beneath us is a couple of feet away, smaller than I initially thought. "It was not a lie." Darkness is coming for you. I stand on feet, wondering why that statement is still relevant. No it is not, I defeated the Darkness and saved myself and my villagers. There is no more Darkness, only Light awaits me.

As I start to waddle towards the light, something else pulls me back away from the Angel Island intruder and from the light. I saved them, it is only fair they save me right? Before being submerged in the swarm of Heartless, the Keyblade reappears in my hand and I manage to slash away the Heartless. More claws lift me up from the ground and away from the white light-for a second I can see my house in there and the neighbors waving at each other. When I look toward the Angel Island intruder, they wave their hand in front of them and a fiery lime message floats: If life is what you want, fight for the Light that is burns brighter than the flame.

Why do I always have to fight? I have been fighting since I can first walk and hold a bucket with one hand. The early days are the simplest to remember. Father came home with something shiny and red in his hands, he had just come from seeing Harold about making a two-handed sword. As I questioned what is was and why he had something like that, he dropped it in my tiny hands. At first I screamed because the blade was so hot, he did not even let it cool down before giving it to me. "Wow," I whispered when I got used to the heat and held the hilt.

"It's your new sword. Try it out."

"It-heavy."

"That's an order."

There was Father being a brute once again. Why did I want to save him again? After everything he has done? Why does Mother not bring me out of the Darkness and save me if she truly loved me? I get the idea that she is omniscient so why does she not help me get to my own world? Like everyone else dear to me, I have let her down, along with Father, Clancy, and my villagers. To prove my worth I always I had to fight. All my life I have fought to be recognized, to be feared by enemies, to gain respect from other villagers, keep up Father's good name. It all means nothing if I cannot even reach the light that is my world. "I hate you!" Sia's voice echoes through the suffocating abyss as I swipe away the Heartless with the blue blade. I hate me too Sia.

"Demon Princess," says Father smugly. I thought he died, why am I hearing him again?

"I never anticipated seeing you here," another male's voice different from the hateful screams reverberates. "In my domain."

"Whose domain?" I mumble as I sink into the claws of more Heartless. The light above me is being eaten by the monsters with the yellow eyes and antennas until the Heartless above completely cover the hole that gives me a view of the bright light and submerge me in darkness. "It does not matter, I am going to get out as I did before."

"You didn't, you never left the Darkness. But your friend did. I watched him remain trapped here by another boy with a heart full of Darkness," he says matter-of-factly. "He stayed here, in this realm of Darkness for months and now his heart is coated in Darkness. He left before you came."

"Do you mean-Clancy?" I suddenly realize the identity of the man, the man I briefly I clashed with when I had to wake Mizuki up from her nightmare. "Why are you here?" I mutter, grimacing when one of the claws tear through my huge sleeve and my arm. The man laughs as if I cracked a joke.

"A piece of me has always been in your mind ever since that encounter. I've forced you to relive your most painful memories in the worst of times when you wanted to keep them in the back of your mind."

"Who are you?"

"I am Dori, the representation of dark, painful memories who resides in this Dark realm. Now let us establish that as long as you're trapped and unable to climb out of this pit of Heartless, you are going to hear and revisit more painful memories and past emotions."

"You were also the voice in my head when I became angry and lost control of myself."

"I can make that happen very easily. Back then you were in a state of confusion and fear, which allowed me to enrage your Darkness and make you a being of hatred. You are no different at this moment."

"What do you want from me?"

"Your Keyblade. I can take you out of this place and back to the world you are about to lose. All you have to do is hand over the broken blade in your hand."

"Never." I grip the hilt of the blade, pulling my hood over my face again, knowing that my gradual descent will just cause the hood to come down again. "If I am to die here, I will die trying to save my home."

J.G.P.

Shorter than the others but still packed with some meaty stuff.