From the classroom window, Artemis' gaze drew lazily over the school grounds and over the woods to the horizon, where some damp red sun simmered and gave the world its light. Her literature teacher was absent today due to his house flooding from an unusually strong evening rain, the fourth occurrence this school year. The substitute obviously was shoehorned in at the last minute - he had the class wrapped up in an honestly entertaining debate about their favorite books but not much else. So Artemis took to watching the outside scenery, and wonder...

The class suddenly decided they wanted to hear her opinion, so they asked her about her favorite book. She gave a pretty mundane response, so the class left it alone then chattered about someone's eccentric taste. BURRRRR - went the steamboat as it made its way from the city down the river adjacent to the school. The amber lights scattered across its decks and holds, the most significant swaying on rope on the front desk, illuminating the heavy fog, would be a welcome sight for any person with the misfortune to render themselves lost in this area. Artemis found the lights on the steamboats that passed through the city quite comforting, in a primeval way. She rarely had to depend on lights scattered on the streets and rivers to make her way home, but just the thought of them, the seeing of a golden beam that cut its way through darkness, made her feel something warm and sad deep inside. She wondered if anyone else felt the same...

The bell rang, the final bell of the day, and everyone leapt into the hallway and to their lockers. Artemis trudged along, being swept to her locker by the wave of overeager students. She opened it to take her backpack, her books, and...familiar

Her fencing equipment was gone. She had fencing lessons today, and she didn't like using the school's equipment, as she found them to be of poor quality. Maybe I left them at home. There's no way I would have left them outside my locker; that's crazy. Someone must have stole it if I did bring it to school... What am I going to do? She despaired. Sabers, masks, and other fencing gear were very expensive, and her mom had worked oh so hard to buy them. I MUST have left them at home; I positively MUST have. Her heartbeat quickened as she began to doubt. I know. There's this other fencer, Rose. She doesn't have anything to go to today - I'll ask to borrow her equipment for now. Rose was her childhood "friend", as Artemis liked to call her as she was the one person she consistently made contact with throughout the years. Through marvelous coincidence, they shared classes with each other for as long as Artemis could remember. Everyone else either forgot about Artemis or she forgot about them. For some yet-to-be revealed reason, Rose was the only one who appeared distinct in all the waves of people that inhabited the city of Foghorn Ferns to Artemis, apart from her own mother and some others. While musing on this, Artemis suddenly wondered if her childhood "friend" thought the same about her, if she too appeared to the fellow fencer as distinct from other people. Probably not - Rose was very popular; there usually was a small crowd of girls or boys accompanying her. They flattered and obeyed Rose, and Artemis would too if she ever had it in her mind to tag along with her. Thus, she must appear as plain and mundane as any other to Rose.

Artemis began to hurry to Rose's locker. Halfway, she encountered her turning around a corner to her direction, followed by a usual crowd of students. "Hey," she began to call, "Ro-" The harsh school corridor light gleamed on an all-too-familiar blade resting against Rose's hip, and revealed distinct, also familiar, elaborate marks on the fencing shoes she wore today - a different pair from usual. Artemis stopped dead, letting Rose brush past her without giving her so much as a glance, despite the width of the hallway being more than enough to allow passage without contact. The other students followed, all of them gruffly brushing against her to get to Rose. What should I do? She thought. I can't just confront her outright...Or can I? She slipped into the crowd. There is something in the air, she noticed. Something I can't see but it's heavy and choking and thick. Her head ached. She found herself walking at the same pace at the others, and it was difficult to change speed or movement. She had to make significant effort to run up to Rose, lest she be trapped in endless walking.

Rose was having a conversation with two boys of unremarkable stature. From what Artemis heard of their chat, those two boys were obviously trying to score a date with her or something. Then they began praising her for her fencing.

"Wow, Rose! You're so pretty...uh, pretty good at fencing! Yep! You're going to be the best fencer in the city, that's for sure."

Rose gave a little hmpf and said, "Everyone, especially I, knows that. I'm the only fencer in this school and all the other fencers in the other schools are pure crass compared to my ability."

She is not the only fencer here, Artemis thought. Has she forgotten about me? ...No, she knows where she got that saber.

"That's a different sword you got there," a boy said. "It's really nice-looking! Where did you get it?"

"I just got it this morning. It really does look so nice, doesn't it? I saw it this morning"(She saw me carrying it around, Artemis realized)"and I HAD to get it! I had to pull a few strings to get it - you know how these things can be expensive - but now it's mine. It's mine. It's mine."

It was so too much for Artemis to handle. She asked rather loudly, "Oh, Rose, wasn't there another fencer in this school?" That made her stop suddenly, causing everyone in the crowd behind to bump into each other. Rose replied without turning around to face Artemis.

"Really? Hmm, perhaps there is another fencer. But he or she must fight so much like crass that they don't dare challenge me. Until then, they may well as not exist. Thus, if they were leave anything related to fencing behind, it belongs to nobody until someone, like I, who has a use for it, claims it."Everyone in the crowd started nodding, and Artemis found herself nodding, and then stopped herself. Rose continued walking, and so did the crowd and Artemis. This was not the first time Rose had stolen things from her, and nor would it be the last... Time after time, Rose would snatch things from her and everybody else, and few did anything about it. In fact, many people seemed happy to be doing a "service" to her. It boggled the mind. Artemis knew that now, now would be the time to change all that. Would another come up to the plate? She had no way of knowing, but now that she had the idea, she must do it. She took a deep breath. She took the leap.

"Rose!" She shouted sharply. "Give me my fencing equipment back."

Dark murmurs went through the crowd like a wave. Rose didn't turn around. "Excuse me?" She asked. "Did a little cricket talk?" She laughed and the crowd laughed too.

"Take off my boots," Artemis demanded, "give back that saber, and return everything else that goes along with it!" She put her hands on her hips.

Rose turned toward her. She was smiling. She looked at Artemis, made eye contact.

"Okay then," Artemis said, "so do we-"

Everything went black.

Daylight peeped into whatever it was Artemis woke up in. Underneath her was something black, cold, and crackly. Her fingers clenched tight around a plastic ribbon. When she tugged on it, the thing she was on was pulled. She was lying on top of a garbage bag. She was in a dumpster.

Artemis had been left in a dumpster.

After freeing her fingers, she pushed open the dumpster door, then climbed out onto some concrete. She scanned the surroundings while dusting herself off. Her school uniform was torn at the sleeves and the skirt hem, with scuff marks on her socks and shoes. As far as she could tell, she wasn't hurt other than minor bruises and scratches. Her pigtails were undone, although someone had the courtesy to place her hair ties around her wrist. Her backpack was missing. The cramped narrow space of the alleyway plus the tall buildings around told her that she was in the actual city part of Foghorn Ferns. She heard the steady chugging of a steamboat and the shouts of workers managing cargo, and knew she was right near the docks. Maybe they're trying to tell me something by putting me in here, she thought. Maybe I should leave town and become a sailor. She sighed and cursed herself.

Why had she decided to stand up to Rose? It was a bout of momentary madness; she ought to have known it would end up like this. It was not the first time she stood up to her (in elementary, she had accused her of stealing, jokingly, however but she faced persecution), but it was the first time in a really long time. Such sudden boldness was evident in the surprised look on Rose's face when she turned to face get, just before it turned into a look of wrath. Will it be the last time I try to stand up to her? Artemis asked herself.

She decided to focus on the present issue which was how to get herself home. She looked at herself again, then shuddered in disgust at her dirty condition, and then tried to clean herself up as much as she could. She took off her uniform shirt, as she wore a tank top underneath,and tucked it under her arm. There was a towel laying unused on a windowsill so she took that and covered her tattered skirt with it. She tied her hair back into a ponytail. If no one noticed her dress shoes, she would evoke the image of an everyday jogger.

She decided to follow a river home, catching a bus if it happened to come along her way. With luck, it would not rain and no suspicious characters would be encountered. Mom is so going to be mad, Artemis thought. Has she reported me missing yet? Are the police looking for me? A police patrol boat suddenly drifted down the river. Artemis braced herself. A policeman with binoculars stood on an elevated pedestal on the boat. He waved to Artemis and then the boat was just on its merry way. Oh.

There was a bridge she had to cross to get home. It was a small stone bridge, mostly used by pedestrians, that could fit about four cars, two each way. Below it a branch of the river moved swiftly with a foundation of large, jagged rocks. A fall from the bridge would not be pleasant.

This bridge was significant to Artemis' memory. On it, she had encountered people she actually remembered. They were strange folk; their striking choice of clothes showed that they were definitely not from Foghorn Ferns. They were two boys, one with brown spiky hair and the other with silver hair (a hair color Artemis had never seen before on a teenager), and one girl, with red hair. They had been doing something, something that Artemis could not recall; she could not recall even if it was good or bad or even pointless. Something significant (or at least she knew it to be significant) had happened after that, and that was it. That was what, a year and a half ago? Artemis did not have much hope that she would meet them again. It was not like the meeting in itself was significant in any way, and it certainly was not like that it would have any effect on the future.

When Artemis got home, she found her mother lying on the couch, watching TV. "Hello, Artemis," her mother said. "I didn't know you would be back so soon."

"Uhh...I thought you would be worried about me," Artemis said.

"Oh, your best friend Rose called me yesterday after school and said you were having a sleepover. She seems so delightful. It's nice that you've had a lifelong friend." She grinned. Umm. What. Mom is acting weird, Artemis thought. Usually she would tell me to hang up my jacket by now or take off my dirty shoes. And why hasn't she noticed my current dirty condition?

She went up to her room, removed her clothes and put them into the laundry hamper, grabbed a fresh towel, and proceeded to take a badly needed shower. On the exterior side of the small bathroom windowsill, there was a bird happily snuggling up on her eggs in a nest. This little family of birds had been living there since the start of the spring. In fact, the birds who came to snuggle on the windowsill each spring probably came from the same family. For generations, Artemis liked to think, and generations, a family of birds made its home on that windowsill. It could be great real estate - it was too high up for cats to climb, and the roof jutting out above it from the building secluded it from the sight of preying avians. It was one of the very few things in her life Artemis was proud of.

In the shower, Artemis tried to connect together the events of yesterday and today's awakening. Okay, so Rose probably got really mad at me and knocked me out. The other students probably roughed me up a bit, and then when they were finished, they threw into the dumpster! There was a banging on the door. "Artemis!" It was her mother's voice. "Someone wants you on the phone!"

"Tell them to wait until I finish!" Artemis yelled back. Footsteps retreated from the door. Who could be calling me? Nobody ever calls me. Anyway, hmm, they dumped in the city, near the docks, which is about an hour walking from the school, and half an hour by bus. I doubt anyone would be willing to lug me all the way there while walking, so they must have used the bus. But why did I wake up so late? I must have been out for more than twelve hours. It would have been fair to mark me dead or comatose. Why? I've been getting a proper amount of sleep, I haven't felt fatigued or tired, and overall I've been in pretty good health. Suddenly flashes of luminescent colors popped up in her mind, and she recalled a sensation of falling and floating. I think I was dreaming...a pretty long dream. I think I was holding something. What was it again? Was it my saber? Was it something else? I think there was another person there. He was telling me something. I don't remember what it was...

More banging on the door. "I'll be right out!" Artemis shouted. She turned off the shower and put on the towel. Something, or rather, nothing on the windowsill caught her eye. "What the..." The nest and its inhabitants were gone, leaving only some sticks and twigs behind. They seemed to spell out something. As Artemis read them, an all-too-familiar sensation of heavy, choking fog weighed down on her. The twigs say LEAVE! She realized that she hadn't hear any footsteps going away from the door when she shouted. It might not be my mom outside... I need to be prepared for whatever happens. She took a spare curtain rod from the cabinet underneath the sink. She gulped. Well...Here we go. She opened the door, left hand tightly gripping the curtain rod.

Nobody was there. But the atmosphere did feel different - murkier, actually - so Artemis hurried into her room, which she had left open, before anything else could happen. She threw on some proper durable clothes - a crisp white polo shirt, a tough waterproof jacket, and jeans - and she did her hair into one braid, which would make her hair harder to grab than with two pigtails. She sat at her door and listened for noises outside.

She heard dark murmurs, similar to what she had heard before in the confrontation with Rose, but they felt far more sinister to her, and for some reason, more incomprehensible. They chilled her on a instinctual level; bestial even. The murmurs threw and lay exposed the deepest of fears every human being had from the beginning of time, and kept it there beating, naked and cold and visible. These fears, if exploited enough, could drive the sanest and sturdiest of men into blind despair and madness. Artemis didn't want to hear it anymore. She could hear a lot of footsteps; obviously they did not belong to the same person. Or did they? Rose? Rose might be doing this. Why? She had to go out some time. She went over to the window. Since when was it night? The buildings around were immersed in shadow. Artemis couldn't make much of anything outside except the lights of a distant steamboat. It's never been this dark before...Or has it? She couldn't help but get the feeling that it had always been this dark, day in and out, with only the lights of steamboats to guide one. Artemis' room gradually became submerged in darkness; she watched in paralyzing fear as malevolent figures formed out of the shadows, promising her a swift end, and benevolent-looking objects like dolls and especially the bed twisted and gnarled into gruesome parodies of themselves. The dark murmurs continued, louder this time. They seemed to come from everywhere. It occurred to Artemis that she had been living within the dark murmurs all her life, that they had been influencing her all her life. "Stop it," she cried out into the darkness. "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it." I have to get out through the window, she thought. There's no way I'm getting out the front door with my sanity intact. She looked out the window. There should be the porch roof right underneath. I can't see it, though, but come on, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.

I guess I'm actually doing this. Here goes.

Artemis opened the window and then brought herself down against the exterior wall, hanging to the windowsill. Her legs frantically scrambled to find some footing, but to no avail. I have to drop to get to the roof. Oh my gosh... She took a deep breath - no, several deep breaths - and counted to three.

The drop was surprisingly very short. Once she got her balance, Artemis clambered down the porch roof and climbed down a pillar. She was now on the porch. She lit a lantern resting on a small table. The small yet helpful light let her see the front door. Wait a second, the curtain rod! I completely forgot about it. Wait a minute. Suddenly her right hand gripped something. She looked at it. At first, it glowed too bright to see, but after the initial glow died down to a comfortable level, she saw what it was. This was in my dream, Artemis realized. She looked at it in near reverence and awe. It was a key-shaped blade with a golden handle and a silver keychain at an edge of the handle. The Keyblade, it was called. This is exactly what I need. She opened the front door. It was completely pitch-black inside. She didn't hear any dark murmurs or any footsteps. "Mommm?" She called out.

The light from her Keyblade revealed a giant dark red smear on the center rug. Artemis put a hand to her mouth. "No. No! Mom!" Tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her face. "I never...I never...I never got a chance today to tell you I love you!" She bawled. "Noooo!"

"Rose is very mad at you." A voice behind her said.

Artemis turned, tears still running down her face, to see a pair of luminescent yellow eyes in the shadows. "She really is all behind this?" She asked.

"Nobody challenges or defies Rose without paying the price. You've gone too far with this rebellion."

"But it was just this one time!"

"Plus four times in elementary school."

"No! I didn't mean it seriously."

The pair of eyes blinked, and whoever was host to them looked around as if to make sure nobody else was around. "You remember that, but you don't know. Rose is behind that. She really did do terrible things to you, and you were young and naive enough to believe that standing up to her would change anything, so you accused her in public. Nobody believed you, then Rose punished you terribly and made you believe that you didn't really mean it, making you even more fearful of her wrath. Rose has had enough of you now that you've gone ahead and confronted her while knowing the consequences."

"What can I do now?" Artemis wiped away her tears.

"Leave. If Rose doesn't want you here, we all don't want you here."

"What about my mom?! What did my mom do to deserve this?! It's all my fault! It really is!"

"...Oh. Your mother. Too bad. Now leave, before the rest of us come back and get you good! Rose is very mad at you! We are all very mad at you!"

Artemis bolted. But to where? It was raining now, and the only light to guide her was her Keyblade and a distant steamboat. There it was. She would follow the steamboat, maybe get on it, see where it would take her outside of this mad land. She ran to the river the steamboat sailed on. On the way, she noticed that all of the buildings were immersed in darkness, and that its inhabitants -if she spotted any- were yellow-eyed shadows themselves. She saw no animals or plants, and there was constantly some thick, heavy fog threatening to suffocate her. It has always been like this. I never noticed until now. There was a small dock at the river, so she would wait there for the next boat when she arrived. When she arrived, however, she noticed a faint spark lighting up in the sky. The light grew stronger and stronger until Artemis realized that it was heading toward her. She ducked in time, and so found a strange glowing star-shaped object lying in the dirt. Some pieces of metal had caught on to it, and it was red-hot, so she waited until that cooled down to pick it up. It was translucent, and it emitted a wonderful pleasant hum that perfectly contrasted with the dark murmurs. In fact the hum washed the noise out, because it was getting louder and louder and faster and faster. The glow of the star became stronger and stronger. "Oh boy." Artemis tittered. "What's going to happen noOOOOWWW?!" She was suddenly submerged in a fabulous light, lifted up into the air, and hurled out of this world and into the next.