Kairi had a lot of spunk for a girl her age. She was the type who would have had a lot of friends and would be popular amongst the boys…if it weren't for her situation. Every so often you could hear the locals whisper about the mayor and his adopted daughter, the one who didn't belong here, the one who doesn't actually do enough to be considered important, the one who would be better off if she'd found some friends, the one who didn't know how to make any.

When she was younger, Kairi had spent most of her time on the beach collecting shells and fashioning them into different trinkets like necklaces and various charms as she watched the sunset and the birds fly to and from the not-so-far-off Destiny Islands. The islands were very close to the town and if you had a small raft and some friends you could probably sail there in no less than ten minutes. However, Kairi had neither a boat nor some friends. In one of her summers when she was younger, Kairi met two boys who carried a wonky-looking wooden boat with them and would use it to row themselves to the islands every morning. Sometimes she wanted to ask them if she could come along, or what they were up to, but most of the time they didn't come back until after sunset, when Kairi had long since trailed back home. It was actually a long time until Kairi actually met these boys and talked with them face-to-face.

It was a special day from the start, Kairi made sure of it. She was making a new seashell charm out of the prettiest shells she'd collected over the past week. She'd known this charm was indeed lucky because it was as she had just finished placing the last part she heard a friendly voice over her shoulder.

"That's really pretty!"

It was one of the boys that go to the islands every day. He had a very sweet face and soft brown hair that stuck up in every direction and he wore the goofiest smile that brought out the sharpness of his bright blue eyes.

"Sora, boys don't say pretty!"

Behind him a tough looking boy with silver hair stood with crossed arms and pursed lips. He looked really irritated for some reason, but the boy he had called Sora just kept smiling down at Kairi. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wooden doll that somewhat resembled the silver haired boy, all was recognizable except for the expression which was calm and collected—not at all like the face the real version had on right now.

"I make things too. This is Riku."

"It doesn't look anything like me," Riku muttered.

"It looks cute!"

Kairi giggled. It would soon become a very familiar sound among the three of them. After Sora had invited her to the island with them she became a regular guest and Sora and Riku had become two of her closest and dearest friends. Her life was so simple and clean, she would have never imagined a day where her life would be changed forever. However, it was night—not day, and her life certainly wasn't the only one that would be changing.

Kairi had been up far into the night, too excited about their trip to sleep. Soon, she and her friends would be leaving on a raft to discover new worlds. It was never Kairi's idea to leave the islands, she was happy here and didn't mind knowing where her real home town lie, but there was a strange stirring in her, a longing for other worlds that had formed over the years from listening to Riku and Sora talk of them. They had spent forever on the preparation and finally thought they were ready. Everything was perfect and Kairi knew she was ready. She gazed out the window and looked for tomorrow but it was still dark out, too dark. Not even the moon shone on the waters of the Destiny Islands.

A bolt of lightning split the sky, a storm was making its way over the islands. It was almost certain that the supplies Kairi and her friends had gathered would be scattered and destroyed. Whether Riku or Sora were up at this time was a mystery, so Kairi thought it was her duty alone to secure the raft and the supplies with it. It hadn't started to rain yet, so the short trip to get there would not be too difficult, but if she waited any longer then certain doom was sure to come.

The lucky charm Kairi had made when she was younger lay on her bedside table. It was the reason she had a raft out there to save. She grabbed the star shaped charm and rushed down to the beach. Two small personal boats were tied to the dock, pulling on the ropes that attached them, trying to float away to Destiny Islands. The winds grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment. One of the boats was Kairi's, which meant that either Sora or Riku had already made their way toward the islands.

It was no doubt Sora who'd gone, it was just in his heroic personality to do something like this, and by the way his sleep patterns had been changing lately, there was no doubt he had been awake at this time of night.

When Kairi arrived at the islands she quickly located the raft through the darkness. Oddly enough, it had not been secured yet. Picking up what supplies had been scattered, she hid them, along with the raft, in a small cave-like crevice in the wall to shield it from the winds. For further protection, she moved a large rock in front. Kairi was pretty strong for her age and the loose sand and high winds did give her some advantage in moving the large object.

Though still quite calm, the waters across the shore had become more rapid while Kairi was busy. If she left now there's no telling what could happen on the way back. She needed to take refuge somewhere safe where the winds wouldn't threaten to sweep her off her feet. She headed toward the secret place, a cave reachable through a small crawlspace behind the fountains.

Sora had shown her this place when they were little. He said that he and Riku would come here all the time and draw on the walls with the rocks they found in the fountain, and since Kairi was his friend now too, she should draw something as well. They had sat in the cave for most of the day doodling different things in different places. The very last thing they'd drawn was each other. Sora's drawing of Kairi wasn't bad, after all they were just kids, but to this day Kairi is still proud of her clean drawing of Sora, and it was probably Sora's fault she felt that way about her 4-year-old drawing. He went on and on about how amazing it was and that there was a real special place in her heart that had given her the gift of drawing. He went on and on until Kairi's sides hurt from laughing and her eyes had become tired from rolling them.

The air was still inside the cave and Kairi took the time to smooth down her hair and clothes. Glancing at the drawings she and Sora made when they were little, she began to smile from the memories of their childhood, but her smile faded fast when she heard a noise behind her.

An old wooden door was placed at the back of the cave. It had never opened, and no one ever thought it did considering its lack of doorknob and odd shape. Many thought it was just some driftwood that had embedded itself into the walls, or was part of the cave itself. No one thought it lead anywhere—there was no evidence that it did, so it was strange to find Riku trying to pry open the door with all his strength.

"Riku!" Kairi shouted, but he did not turn around. He focused all his energy on the task at hand and when he spoke it was through short grunted breaths.

"Kai—ri, give me—a hand, why don't—you?"

"Riku, what are you—," Kairi was cut short. The door had flown open revealing an impossible abyss, darker than the moonless sky. A strong wind coming from within and shot through the cave. Kairi raised her arms to shield herself from the darkness that began to fly out. Each shadow seemed to go around her or phase through her. Slowly, Kairi raised her head to see Riku standing in front of the open door.

"What did you do, Riku?" Kairi demanded to know. The two were shouting, trying to be heard above the rushing winds.

"I opened it! I opened the door! Now we can go see the outside world, we can visit the place you came from! It's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"No! I never wanted to leave the island. Riku, since the beginning you were the one who—." Toppled over by an especially strong gust of wind, Kairi had lost sight of Riku. There was a pain in the back of her head and through blur of her own vision she saw Riku standing over her with a menacing look on his face. The whole world seemed to quite as he whispered down onto her.

"You were never supposed to come here."

Everything went dark. As if she'd been sucked through the door into the darkness itself.

It was too dark to tell when Kairi had finally opened her eyes. She couldn't see her hand as she waved it in front of her face, and she couldn't feel the ground beneath her—as if there wasn't any at all. Nothing could have added more confusion to the situation than a small light from her chest that slowly began to glow. The necklace she'd worn since she was little—before she'd come to the islands—emitted a soft white light that lit up the darkness of the cave around her.

Drawings her and her friends had done when they were little plastered the walls around her and a door that had once never been opened stood tall above Kairi, leading the way into eternal darkness. Shadows raced out the door and out of the cave, stuck to the ground, passing right under her feet. She could feel them—she could feel the cold touch of each demon, and the sinking feeling that each one brought upon her, making her sick. She touched the back of her head and winced slightly, dizzy still from her earlier fall.

Something had to be done about the door and whatever was escaping it. If it can be opened then it can be closed. At least that's what Kairi thought, but every step she took toward the door became more difficult than the last. The light from her necklace dimmed to a small shimmer that beat in pulse with her heart. She felt her body weigh down on her as each foot step became heavy in the sand. The currents felt numb on her face and her feet had become too heavy to move. The feeling in her arms had long gone, so she couldn't tell when her fingers pressed against the wooden back of the door. And through her dimming, blurry vision, she couldn't tell when the shadows had ceased and the door shut close. And whether the numbing winds had stopped, she never knew, but she could feel something was right—something had been fixed and she smiled and she knew she was because she could feel a warmness on her cheeks. She relaxed at the tingling sensation she could feel in her fingers. While she lifted her feet with ease and took two steps back.

She just needed to secure the raft and take shelter. Never would she have thought to end up in a situation like this, but everything was alright now. By this time the light in her necklace had completely gone out. She felt her body drop to its knees in exhaustion and the cold touch of the sand beneath her. In the still of the dark she heard her heart beat begin to calm and Kairi recalled the one person that might still be on the island with her.

A loud crack of lightning shook the cave and the sand beneath her knees. Her necklace began to glow again, not any brighter than before. As Kairi rest in the cave, safe from whatever elements might be outside. She began to pay less attention to the weather's behavior. Every now and then the cave would become lit and she would gaze at the drawings on the wall only to be covered with darkness a moment later. It pulsed on and off like this for a while, she almost didn't notice the scratchy sand under her knees begin to shift out from under her. Grain by grain, it rolled out the cave entrance, slowly at first, then all at once until it took Kairi's balance from under her. She stood back up to dust herself off, looking back toward the entrance.

She thought maybe the winds had been pulling out the sand, but the way it moved…it was too peculiar. She took small steps toward the mouth of the cave, trying to figure out what was going on. If the winds were this strong here, it was worrisome as to what was happening outside. A noise behind her grabbed Kairi's attention. It was a short rattling sound that stopped as her head whipped around and her gaze met the door. Things were quiet for a while save for the soft sound of sand shifting beneath her feet and out the entrance.

She stood there waiting.

Watching.

The door burst open with a vengeance and a gust of wind strong enough to carry Kairi back and out the entrance along with every grain of sand with her. Shadows spray from every direction, they filled the floors and smothered the walls. Kairi fell back onto the ground of the fountain outside the cave. She inhaled more than one or two drops of water as she tried to regain the breath that had been knocked out from under her.

The state of the island was overwhelming, even though there wasn't much to see, but that was exactly the problem. Trees had been uprooted, the shack had been ripped straight from the ground, and there were various bits and pieces of the island missing, literally missing, and more still began to disappear up into the air. It was the winds—it tore pieces of the island off and into the sky where a monstrous storm brew. A big black swirling storm of heat and lightning engulfed the sky. Kairi looked over to the dock which was expectedly gone along with her and Riku's boat and she looked only for a second before she found herself staring back up at the thing that was consuming her world once more.

There was no turning back. The only safe place on the island was a haven that was no longer a shelter. Kairi realized she could no longer save herself and the only other person that could was nowhere to be found. Riku was long gone and even if he was here, there's no way he'd be any more helpful than he had been before. What was trying to do? Why did he say those things to Kairi…what did he mean?

You were never supposed to come here.

In any case, hewasn't the one Kairi needed, nor was he the one she was looking for. But there was no telling whether Sora had been awoken by the storm, and the chances that he was awake and had decided to come out to the island in such a storm were dim.

And yet Kairi found herself speaking softly his name in the dark…

"Sora…"

…until the light from her necklace pulsed no more. What could a girl like her do? She'd lost two homes, who knew where she would end up next? Who knew if she'd lose her memories again? She couldn't remember anything from her previous town. The thought of forgetting her friends was enough to pull a tear from her eye. So Kairi brought herself down to the sandy shore and tried to recall every day with Sora and Riku so they were fresh in her mind and so close to her she could feel them.

Kairi sat on the sand and looked out toward the waters until there were none left.

She looked up to the sky and tried to find a nonexistent star to count on.

She clutched her lucky charm close to her chest, hoping it would bring her friends back to her.

She could still see their smiles as the ground fell from beneath her.

And as everything else faded, she kept their memories alive in her heart.