Disclaimer: I do not own Sora, Kairi, or any other Kingdom Hearts characters involved in this story. Other persons/places mentioned in this story are fictional and are not intended to name any realistic person/place.

Warning: This chapter and/or future chapters may include: Suicide, Self-Inflicted Harm, Alcohol Abuse, Child Abuse, and Minor use of Profanity

Chapter 14: The Taste of Salt

Kairi wakes and is blinded by the light coming in from the window. The light is so bright and luminous. She watches as dust floats, lifeless, around her. The room is so dark yet it appears to be daylight outside. She gets up from what she realizes was the ground and sits up right. She is feels so confused, she does not understand. What had just happened? Hadn't her father been drunk? Where is he now? How much time had past?

She stands up and decides to freshen up in the bathroom. Her eyes feel heavy and full of weariness. Kairi enters and turns on the faucet, running cold water through her hands and washing her face. She reaches for a towel and pats her face dry, as she does so, she looks up into the mirror. Her heart begins to pound faster and faster within her. She stares into the mirror in disbelief. There is no reflection.

She stares into the glass mirror, and its emptyness. Kairi takes her hand and touches the glass, yet not a glimpes of life is reflected onto the mirror. Her breathing increases. How can this be? Kairi exits the bathroom and searches for her father, or anyone for that matter. As she leaves the house, she sees Sora who is mowing the lawn next door.

"Hey!", she says relieved to find him.

Sora continues to mow the lawn. He doesn't even move a muscle, as if he had not heard her at all. She tries again to speak to him, only to be showered in failure. A salty wet tear appears in her saddened eyes. It streams down and begins to fall. The wind begins to pick up, blowing the wet tear onto Sora's lips.

He feels the wet mixture on his lips, whiping it away with his hand. The taste of salt still lingers on his mouth. He can't help but feel sorrow over come him, although he hasn't the slightest idea why.

Sora goes to school the next day and notices that Kairi's house is empty. The house looks pitch black with no sign of anyone living inside. "Where is she?", he thinks to himself. It all seemed so peculiar to him. Kairi would have never left without telling him so, let alone with her father. There must be something wrong, shouldn't there?

Days go by and there is still no sign of her at school nor next door at her house. What had happened to her? The last time he saw her was the day that they went to the movie theater, had she moved while he and his family were visiting relatives that night? If not, what had happened?

Kairi sits as she watches life go by through the faded window. She does not understand what has happened to her. Had she died the night that her father hit her? Had he killed her? If not what is going on? She must be dead, there is no other explanation. Where is he anyway?

Days, weeks, months went by and she was still trapped in this form of being. As if she were a ghost, rejected from the state of death, yet unable to take part with the living. Her soul was not at the burning depths of Hell, nor at the gates of Heaven, she was caught in between.

Kairi did not know what to do with herself, so she spent her days by the window and blankly stared as life went by without her. She used to see Sora come by and wipe off the dust off the window to look inside, but he gradually stopped as the months went by. Sora eventaully gave up on the thought of Kairi's return. It had been five months since her and her father's disappearance and figured they had moved. Meanwhile, he and Namine had become closer. Soon they started dating.

Kairi watched as the two left his house... holding hands.