A/N: Hey, I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I was busy with a lot of other things in my life & I told myself that I would finish House of Melodies first.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 2: In the Ghetto

She felt a big hand grasp her wrist as she mindlessly wandered away. Out of shock, she froze, only daring to move her eyes up to the head that was connected to the arm. "Vater," she murmured, with a sudden bit of hope. Her tearful eyes continued to peer at him as he looked away in disgust.

He then shoved her towards a group of three other Jews who had excluded themselves from the rest of the crowd. "That's your new family. Now get away from me."

Namine saw the harsh formations on Roxas's features, only to feel tears, once again, forming in her eyes. Her eyes turned to look at the three people that Roxas had deemed as her new family. The lone female, a green-eyed redhead, attempted to smile at her, although it was clear to everyone that she was not happy with her current situation.

"I'm Olette," she said, and stuck out her hand for Namine to shake. She weakly took the older woman's hand in hers, and let it flop as Olette did the "shaking." After the awkward situation, she looked away, just to take another glimpse into the crowd to look for her mother. It was hopeless; the best that she could do was stick with these three.

"That's Hayner," Olette pointed to the dirty blonde sitting on the curb when Namine turned back around. She gave a little wave, and then continued to look for someone, anyone that looked even slightly familiar. Her attempt failed once again.

"And that's Pence." Olette pointed to the chubby male on the other side of her. "Since we're obviously stuck together, why don't we make the best of the situation?" Olette was trying, but for the current situation, it seemed as if she was trying too hard for the group.

Namine stood a little closer to them, still not speaking.

"So what's your name?" Hayner asked her.

"Namine." She didn't speak of anything else, nor was there time to. The crowd in front of them started to move, signaling that they were supposed to follow suit.

As they awkwardly shifted through the crowd, Namine soon realized that Pence, Olette, and Hayner were no better acquainted with each other than she was with them. Where they taken from their homes when they were alone, also? She wanted to ask, but bit her lip to keep herself from doing so.

"We didn't know each other until today, just like you." Olette spoke as if she read Namine's mind as she stared at her. "Hayner was taken here as he was walking home from school, I was taken from home while my parents were out, and Pence was wandering around outside when he was taken. They sort of just shoved us together."

Namine shivered from her words. They weren't meant to have this effect at all- just the concept of being taken without your parents was enough to make Namine want to go cry in a corner.

"I'm guessing something similar happened to you?" Olette looked at Namine with concern. She looked like she was going to burst with her emotion inside as the crowd continued to walk through the streets in the darkness.

I doubt if any of you were taken from your home by your own father! Namine wanted to scream to them. Olette, Hayner, and Pence couldn't relate no matter how hard they tried.

The crowd of Jews walked until their legs ached, not that Namine took any sort of notice. She was busy looking into the crowd for her mother, and occasionally giving a small glance towards Roxas. If there were any words that made Namine doubt her assumption of Roxas as her father, they were all gone now. Every time she looked at him, he looked and seemed more like the person that had left her and her mother so suddenly that day.

Sometimes, if she would see the side of his face, she could see that through his current tough and cruel barrier, he was the same kind person that hadn't changed- at all. She wanted to run over to him, just to be next to him, and tell him everything that was on her mind- the way that she used to, before he left and changed into a cruel monster. All monsters have their weaknesses, she told herself. And Vater is no exception.

-

"I found something that you might find interesting." This comment made Roxas look up at Axel, his best friend and fellow SS. His piercing green eyes were what made him look like he could torment you, and his long red hair was just an add-on effect. And frankly, his threats with fire were what allowed him to get what he wanted- whether what he wanted was from a Jew or anyone else.

"What?" Roxas's own blue eyes shifted to look up at his friend.

"Since you took so long getting that girl out, I thought that there might be something interesting in their home. And frankly, I was right." He pulled out a stack of papers, which were obviously artwork from a glance.

"What's so interesting about the sketches?" Roxas huffed, annoyed by Axel bringing up the subject.

"Take a closer look." Axel shoved the sketches under his friend's nose.

When he looked into the paper, he saw... himself. It was similar to the sketch that he had tore up a few hours ago, only this one was a sketch of his whole body. This was interesting; he had never seen this girl, or a man that looked just like him before. He folded up the sketch and put it in his pocket.

"Why are you keeping it? I thought that they weren't 'interesting.'" Axel sarcastically made air quotes over the word "interesting."

"I changed my mind." Roxas muttered.

"It's the girl, isn't it?"

"What girl?" He looked and was genuinely confused.

"The one that you dragged out of the home. Namine. Don't play dumb with me, Roxas."

"How do you know her name when I don't? If it's anyone around here who's interested in her, I would think it would be YOU."

"Whatever. She might be nice to have in bed, anyway." A smirked crawled onto his lips.

Roxas glared at him. Sure, the occasional Jewish girl was fun to harass, but for Roxas, the game had just become boring. It actually surprised him that Axel was still playing it.

"I guess I hit a sensitive spot." His smirk grew wider. "There's no rule saying that we can't share her, you know."

The next and last thing Axel saw before he hit the ground was a fist to his face.

-

As night fell across the street full of Jews, they continued to walk. Namine was now finally feeling the exhaustion that she didn't feel before. With every step she took, she felt more of an urge to fall to the ground. But she couldn't do that. Pence had done so a few hours back, and was left there, now forgotten- physically and mentally.

Olette hadn't spoken a word yet, but when the crowd in front of them finally stopped, she muttered a small "finally" under her breath. She looked completely worn out- there were a million little sweat beads stuck to her face.

When everyone looked around them, they realized where they were- they were in the ghetto of the city, and this was where they would be forced to stay for the night.

As the SS went around assigning families to homes and counting the bodies, Namine and Olette sat down on the street from weariness. It would be a while before they reached them, so she waited, next to Olette and Hayner. There was nothing comforting about the current situation, and no words were uttered amongst the trio.

Finally, Roxas had come up to them. He seemed to wince once he saw Namine, and then almost seemed to be hiding his face.

As tired as Namine was, she couldn't stop herself from running over to Roxas's side. She wildly flung her arms around him, and started to sob, as if she were possessed. "Vater... why did we have to walk so far?"

He coldly glared at her, and then shrugged her off. "You guys are staying in the home behind you."

With those words, he turned and left a broken Namine on the street.

Olette, seeing that the situation had gotten worse, put an arm around the crying girl. She didn't know how to comfort her, exactly, since she had no idea what went on, so all she said was, "Let's go inside. We need a good night's sleep." She then helped Namine onto her feet and held her hand as they walked inside.

Although Namine felt her tears stop physically, there was no way for her to stop crying. There seemed to be absolutely no ounce of kindness in Roxas, no matter how hard she had tried to bring out his beast's weakness. All this time she had hoped he hadn't stopped loving her, but now, suddenly, it seemed like all hope was lost.

She didn't realize that she had walked through the hallway and into a bedroom with Olette next to her until she fell onto the bed.

"I think I'll go to sleep now," Namine reassured Olette, just so the older woman would leave the room.

Olette gave a simple nod, and left.

-

"Vater?" Namine opened her eyes to see Roxas looking down at her.

He gave her a warm smile. "Yes," he said, and then pulled her into his arms into a big hug. Namine had felt tears coming again, although this time they were happy tears. She smiled through them, and whispered, "I missed you."

After their long-awaited hug, Roxas took her hand in his. "Let's go home." They walked out of the home together, and amazingly, their old home was right across the street. Namine dashed out to it, waving for Roxas to catch up.

Soon enough, as she watched Roxas run up to her, his demeanor changed- back into the one that she had interacted with for the past two days. He didn't smile, and his eyes carried a cold glare at her. When he reached her, he raised his hand to her face...

...and slapped her.

There was something wrong with him, something so completely wrong, she realized as he dragged her down the street, into the alley. As soon as he realized that there were no people around, he kicked her in the stomach.

Namine grabbed her stomach as she fell to the ground, coughing up blood. Why was he doing this? It was even more wrong than just taking her away from her home... "Vater..." she moaned, looking into his eyes.

He continued to look at her with the came cold gaze.

Namine didn't realize what was happening next. She stood up with a sudden power, and suddenly beat him to the ground, much to both of their surprises. When he landed on the ground, on his back, she heard him whisper. She dared to lean closer to hear what he was saying.

"I love you, Namine."

She was now the person doing something so completely wrong. She squat down next to his head, crying. What was she going to do now?

-

"Wake up, Namine." She heard a comforting voice in her ear- one of a woman's. When she slowly opened up her eyes, she saw bright green ones in front of them. She gasped.

It took her a while to realize that she was staring at Olette. As she got up from the bed, she only half-listened to what Olette said about what was to happen today. All she heard was something about a train, and lots of people, and they had to leave fast.

Namine had no problem with leaving right then and there, although she did not eat dinner the night before and was also skipping breakfast. She had hoped that the train might possibly have a bit of food when she felt her stomach growl.

When Namine walked out of the room she had used for the night, she saw Hayner coming out of the bathroom. "Let's go, we've taken long enough." He motioned for them to leave, then walked out and slammed the door behind them.

The crowd was moving fast, and Namine could see the train. She soon realized that they were to be sitting in a boxcar meant for animals. Why are they doing this to us? She asked herself. Why are Vater and his new friends doing this?

Olette, Hayner, and Namine were the last people to enter the current car. There might have been five hundred people cramped in there together. Babies were screaming left and right, and some people had taken the freedom to lie down on the floor; therefore forcing many other people to stand.

This was worse than her nightmare. In anxiety, she crouched down, and hid her face in her hands. Why did God allow such treatment of his creatures?

She hadn't seen the worst yet. When she finally looked up, she heard a loud cry in the car. There was a woman, holding her screaming baby... and there were men, beating it. The woman begged the men to stop, but they refused. Not until the baby had stopped crying. Namine turned her head. She couldn't bear to see such cruelty. And yet, as she turned to look at the other corner, there was another person being treated the same. This time, it was a child of about four, crying loudly for his mother. His mother was no where to be seen.

She shifted her eyes to the small window of the car, just so she wouldn't have to watch human beings torture each other in every which way. But there was something that she feared even more that she saw through the window.

Fire. There was also a faint scent of it.

"There's fire through that window..." she murmured.

Olette looked at Namine with a puzzled expression. When she looked through the window, all she saw was the usual green vegetation. "Namine? Are you alright?"

"No, the fire's going to consume us all... I can smell it in the car already."

Olette's eyes widened. "Namine, don't say that!"

Her slightly raised voice brought attention from people around them.

"What did she say?" A grouchy old man turned to look at Olette.

She shook her head nervously. "Nothing."

"I know she said something." He turned to Namine. "What did you say?"

Namine raised her hand and pointed at the window. "There's fire. It's going to kill us."

"Are you CRAZY?" The man got up and slapped her.

"No. It's the truth." Tears formed in Namine's eyes, not from the pain of the slap, but from the pain in her heart when she realized everyone's disbelief. "Why won't anyone believe me?"

"Because you're crazy, that's why." An onlooker grabbed Namine's wrists.

She pulled away from his grasp, running towards the window. Pressing herself against it, she could see a body in the fire...

Silenced, she fell to her knees, quivering. The two men now took the time to tie her up, so that she would no longer flail around wildly.

She felt something smack her on her head, and then looked back at the fire, just to make sure her eyes weren't fooling her.

There was her father, being consumed by the flames.

-

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