Author's note: This one was giving me trouble, for some reason _ I honestly don't know why... But until we get to the part where Sora comes in, I will probably have a bit of trouble with these. Please forgive me T_T
Disclaimer: Kingdom hearts and all its characters do NOT belong to me. The only one I personally own is Bailey Strife. Christina Leonheart belongs to my siser: Heart-of-Memories/FlyonSilverWings.
Chapter 4:
-Day four-
I don't want to be alone anymore…
"Chrissie!"
A little girl with brown hair that was held up in a ponytail turned around before yelping as the other girl tackled her in a hug. 'Chrissie' made a slight face at her friend, but shook it off, smiling,
"Bai!"
-Why am I always alone?
"Don't go near the cliff, you two."
The girls both nodded, chiming at the same time before Christie turned and poked the little girl,
"You're 'It'!"
The little girl blinked a few times as her friend ran off, and she chased after, a wide grin on her face as she giggled. A little ways away, three teenagers were training with their various weapons, and three smaller children, around the age of Christie and the other girl, sat watching them. One of them, a redhead, was picking the flowers to bring back to her parents and grandmother. The two boys were watching the older boys fight, smiling before holding out their wooden swords to each other, trying a few of the moves they saw
-I'm lonely… always, always lonely…
A sudden scream sounded out, and the others whirled around to see Christie, but the other little girl was gone. It seemed like Christie was trying to pull someone up from the cliff, and the blonde called out, bolting over. When he got there, he could see the girl hanging from the cliff, holding Christie's hand tightly so as not to fall to the deep gorge below.
The other kids all cried out as the two boys tried to keep them from running over, fearing they might fall over as well. After struggling a bit, the blonde finally helped Christie pull the girl from the cliff, and held her close to him, swallowing hard as she sobbed into his chest. Christie looked like she was going to cry, too, and the older brunette ran over to her, picking her up and holder her close to him.
-I'm scared… I don't want to be alone… I don't want to be alone!
I sat up quickly, eyes wide. When I saw that I was in my room, I sighed to myself.
These dreams… they're new.
I looked out the window, frowning a bit. Today was the Struggle Match… I promised I would be there to cheer Hayner on… But… how could I face him, after what happened yesterday? Not only was I ashamed of what had happened, but I'd also completely ignored their calls… I'll bet I'd be the last person he wanted to see…
After a while of debate, I finally decided to go to the Struggle Match.
"Hurry up, struggle fans! The Struggle is about to start!"
When I got to the sandlot where the match was going to be held, I found that almost the entire place was completely packed. There were people on the roofs watching through windows, and filling the sidelines outside of the platform where the matches were going to be held. I took a spot near the stairs leading up to the Back Alley, leaning against one of the walls and watching. After a while of scanning the crowds, I found Hayner and the others right at the front of the crowd.
Hayner looked around at the crowd, frowning. Ollete looked at Hayner before around, and Pence sighed,
"Bailey didn't come today… huh?"
Ollete sighed and shook her head and Hayner just frowned and looked away, looking pissed as always.
Soon fireworks shot off and the crowd cheered as the announcer stepped up on stage,
"Ladies and gentleman, Struggle fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for summer's most sizzling clash!" The announcer held his arms out wide "That's right! Today is the day for the Struggle and title match! Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on the champion, Setzer!"
I could hear Rai call out loud over the crowd,
"Seifer! Y'know?"
I rolled my eyes and shook my head before looking up as the announcer continued,
"And who will leave today as our new Struggle Champion!"
Ollete and Pence called out,
"Hayner!"
A smile spread across my face.
"Setzeerrrrrrr!"
My eye twitched at the fangirl's cooing and I got a look of utmost disgust as a man with silvery hair walked up on stage, holding a belt over his shoulder.
Setzer: the man who held the title of "Champion" in the struggle. The man was even more annoying than Seifer. And that is saying something. He only ever came to this side of Twilight Town for the struggle match, but the time that he was here always put a thorn in my side. I swear; the man is completely full of himself. Maybe he's gotten one-too-many scars, and it's gotten to his head.
"Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next: Let's… STRUGGLE!"
The crowd roared with cheers, and I couldn't help but smile, myself. A second man came up to the platform and began to speak,
"Hey, now. It's time to introduce today's combatants! The four bad boys who struggled their way through the preliminaries! Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee: Seifer!"
My eye twitched.
"Completely out of nowhere-who knew he'd make it so far THIS year? Vivi!"
Vivi blushed and fidgeted at the mention of his name, and I smiled. It was great that Vivi was trying something like this. I was happy for him.
"An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! It's his first trip to the finals!"
I laughed a bit to myself, shaking my head. 'Attitude problem' indeed.
After all of the announcing and showing the prizes to everyone, and the others all went over the official Struggle rules, the first match started up.
Unfortunately, Vivi was clobbered in the first match, and I couldn't help but feel bad for him. He'd managed to hold his own down to the last second before getting knocked down.
Hayner didn't look very happy, and was lashing out at his opponent without remorse. I almost felt bad for him. You never want to get in Hayner's way when he's mad. He completely blew his opponent out of the water, not giving him any chance of fighting back.
So now, it was down to just Hayner and Seifer. I was honestly dreading this match. Because of what happened yesterday, surely Hayner would go off the deep-end. Seifer smirked,
"Alright, loser, ready to get thrashed? After what happened yesterday, I'm still pissed.
Please, please don't let Hayner get hurt, and please don't let him go too far. I cupped my hands around my mouth,
"Hayner! Don't let him get to you!"
Hayner jumped when he heard me and whirled around to stare at me, eyes wide as I continued,
"Just concentrate on the match! You'll be fine!"
He stared for a moment more before nodding and turning back to Seifer. Seifer rolled his eyes as the announcer called for the match to start. Seifer'd ended up winning the tournament, to Hayner's dismay. But he seemed happier than I thought he'd be. Almost as soon as he was finished, he came up to me,
"I thought you weren't gonna come."
I blinked before frowning a bit, looking to the side,
"I couldn't not come… I promised I'd come to cheer you on."
Hayner smiled before pouting, turning and crossing his arms,
"Oh yeah, and that helped. I lost! Some cheerleader you are."
I made a face,
"Oh, come on, Hayner. You know how much I hate cheerleaders."
He grinned, laughing and nodding.
For the rest of the day, Seifer and his gang was going around, gloating with his trophy. I have to say, I wanted to rip that trophy out of his hands and smack him upside the head with it, but I thought better of it. Apparently the announcer had taken a liking to Seifer, and was asking him to show him some of his 'super cool moves'. Tsk, yeah right. All that managed to do was make Seifer even fuller of himself.
I managed to apologize to the others about what had happened the day before. To my surprise, the only thing that they were upset about was the fact that I didn't tell them what had happened. Other than that, they were pretty worried about me. Maybe I should have just tried to face them, rather than run away. Then I would have known how worried they were about me…
God. I'm an idiot.
"What's that?"
They watched as the bottle floated out with the current, drifting farther and farther away
"A letter… I wrote it yesterday to the boy I can't remember. I said that no matter where he is… I'll find him. One day. And when I stopped writing I remembered we made a promise, something important. This letter is where it starts. I know it."
"Wow… I hope he gets it."
The redhead smiled, nodding
"He will… Starts with an "S." Right, Sora?"
The blonde turned to look at her friend, blinking,
"Kairi?"
The redhead smiled, shaking her head. After a moment, she frowned, looking down at the sand when she couldn't see the bottle holding her letter,
"I remembered something else, while I was writing that letter."
The blonde blinked, tilting her head
"What about?"
"It was about my home… The place where I'd first come from… I remember… There were these two girls that I had played with, sometimes… I remember… the one was Christie, the one who was on the island with us, before…But… for some reason, I just can't remember the other one's name. I don't know why, but it feels important…"
to be continued...