Chapter 2: The Stroke of Midnight

I walked through the door, calling to my mom that I was home. I was immediately tackled to the floor by my little sister as he cried out, "You're home!" I yelped in pain when my head hit the floor.

I pushed the overly hyper girl off of me and picked myself up, dusting my uniform off. My mom walked in at the moment, most likely wondering what all the racket was. I walked past my mom greeting her and kissing her on the cheek as I did so.

"So, how was your day?" She asked me, something that she did every day. I paused when she asked me this, pondering whether or not I should tell her the events that occurred in the roof.

Feeling that it would be best to not to speak of it, I casually said, "It was a just a normal day, nothing special." I could tell that my mom didn't entirely believe my delayed answer. But she simply shrugged and walked into the other room.

Sighing in relief, I walked into my room, slumping on my bed. I stared at my ceiling for a few seconds in silence before my cellphone rang. Looking at the picture that had appeared, I saw that it was Drake, my best friend. Answering the call I placed the phone to my ear.

"What do want, Drake?" I asked with a smidge of boredom in my voice. I knew that he wanted me to either go to his house to see something he bought, or to watch a certain show. Those're pretty much the only reasons why he would call me.

"Terrence! You won't believe what I saw!" My model like friend shouted, nearly blowing up my eardrum.

I waited a second for my ears to stop ringing before saying, "What did you see?" sounding even more bored than before.

"This girl was fighting these black things with some type of key-sword-thingy!" he exclaimed, sounding like a nerdy fan boy.

At first, I wasn't really interested in what my friend was saying, but then I thought about the sword he mentioned. The sword that Vanitas used earlier that day did somewhat resemble a key. I sat up in my bed, becoming more interested, "Are you sure she was using a key shaped sword?"

"Yeah, it was so awesome! You should've seen it!" Drake cried out in excitement.

"Where is she now?" I asked as I leaped off my bed, grabbing my keys to the house.

"She's actually standing in front of me right now. We're at that old abandoned ball park." He replied sounding a little confused at me interest in the conversation.

"Make sure she stays there." I said as I ran toward the front door. "I'll be there in five minutes." Without waiting for a reply I hung up and opened the front door. "Mom, I'm heading out for a while." Once again not waiting for a reply, I dashed out the house, locking the door behind me.

When I arrived at my destination, I immediately looked around the dusty abandoned baseball park. I ran through its halls pushing cobwebs out of my face.

"Terrence! Over here!" I heard a familiar voice call out to me. I looked toward the voice's direction, seeing a mess of blonde hair in the distance. Recognizing the hair style, I ran toward Drake, seeing an all too familiar girl standing next to him.

"Oh great…" I said upon realizing who the girl was as I slowed my movement.

Said girl looked over to me. She must have remembered me because the first thing she said upon seeing me was, "Hey! You never messaged me!"

My blonde haired friend looked at the two of us in confusion. "You guys know each other?"

The girl pointed a finger at me, shouting, "Yeah, I know him! This idiot knocked me over, earlier today!"

"Yeah… it's good to see you too." I said sarcastically as I looked the girl up and down.

Even though she was annoying, she was kinda pretty. Her bronze skin seemed to have certain glow to it. She had large doe eyes that seemed to give her a look of innocence. Her long auburn hair was pulled back into a large ponytail, allowing only two thin strands of hair to fall in front of her face.

Remembering the reason of why I was there in the first place, I asked her, "Your key-shaped weapon. Can I see it?"

She gave me a suspicious look before hesitantly saying, "You mean my keyblade, right? I guess it would be alright." She held out her right hand, causing a large mass of light to appear in her hand. That light then shaped itself into a strange weapon.

The design of the guard and shaft reminded me of a fairy tale castle, with the shaft being in the shape and design of a long tower. Wedged into the shaft near the top of that "tower" was what appeared to be a large snowflake that served as the key's "teeth." Connected to the weapons guard was what I could only describe as a keychain, the actual charm being a glass slipper.

The sword seemed to glow as she announced what I could only assume to be the weapon's name, "Stroke of Midnight."

"So cool…" My friend said, ruining the moment.

I was about to tease my friend about his antics, but my speech was halted when I felt something knick my cheek. I looked down to a black ant like creature with a large head, small body, and stubby arms.

The strange girl leaped in between me and the creature, dropping into a fighting stance. "Get back! I'll handle this!" She pointed her sword at the creature, a flame slowly forming at the tip of it. "Fira!" the girl shouted. A flame shot out form the sword burning the small creature alive.

When only a pile of ashes was left, Drake cried out like a fan boy, "That was awesome! How did you do that?"

Ignoring my friend's question, the girl looked over at me, "Are you okay?"

I touched the thin cut on my face, wiping away the drop of blood that was bleeding out. "I'm fine. What was that thing anyway?"

"There called heartless. They're creatures of darkness that lost all the light in them." The girl explained as her weapon vanished from her hand. "For some reason, they always show up around here so I come here to train sometimes."

Just as she finished her sentence, a group of heartless appeared, surrounding us. "The only downside is that they just keep coming."

I quickly counted the number of heartless. "Fifteen of them, you sure you can handle this?" I asked feeling a little worried.

The girl summoned her keyblade back to her hands before speaking, "I should alright. But you guys should try to get away. It'll be easier to fight if I didn't have to protect you." I stepped in front of her holding my right arm in front of her, "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering, I summoned my winged shape sword to my hands in a flash of black flames. This time, unlike the others though, I saw a couple of words flash through my mind. Without thinking I said the words that I later deduced as my weapon's name, "Soul Eater."

I heard a clicking noise from behind me, I glanced over my shoulder to see Drake holding up his phone, as I gave him my best annoyed glare I heard another click. "Really?" I asked upon realizing that he was taking pictures with his phone.

He laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. "S-sorry. That just looked so epic."

Turning my focus back at the problem at hand, I held out my left hand, releasing a flurry of black flames at the things called heartless. With the attacks hitting its mark, the group of creatures burned down to nothing but ashes.

The redhead looked over to me in shock, "What was that just now?"

I really didn't know what to say. I looked at my hand, not even knowing how to reply. I didn't even know myself what I did. I just acted without thinking.

I replied after a few seconds of silence, "I have no idea…"

The weapon in her hands vanished in a flash of light as she said, "Well whatever it was it got the job done." She looked over at me smiling, "I'm Monica by the way."

I held out my hand towards her saying, "I'm Terrence." As we shook hands I could feel her trying to squeeze my hand. She was probably trying to see how strong I was. I glanced over at my friend and said, "The fan boy over there is Drake."

Hearing his name, said fan boy walked over to us. He flipped his blonde hair and flashed his best smile, his teeth shining in the moonlight. "Nice to meet you ma'am…" This is something he did whenever he wanted to flirt with a girl. With his model like looks, it worked almost every time.

But this time his plans backfired, "Why are you looking at me like that?" Monica asked, unfazed by my friends advance. "Do I have something in my teeth?" She pulled out a toothpick from seemingly nowhere and picked at her teeth.

I couldn't stop myself from laughing at my friend's failure. For once, he didn't have a girl fainting into his arms, but my laughing ceased my when I heard something. It sounded rhythmic and somewhat hollow… like clapping.

The sound of clapping was then accompanied by the sound of footsteps. The two sounds got louder and louder, a man then came walking through one of the corridors in the hallway. He finished clapping with one final clap that echoed through the abandoned corridors. He looked at us in silence, and eerie glow radiating off of him. His very presence just screamed "ominous."

He wore a long black leather hooded coat. I was able to see black leather pants underneath the coat. He also had black leather gloves on his hands and black, sliver trimmed boots. The coat had silver zipper and was adorned with silver draw strings attached at the hood. With his hood up I was unable to tell what he really looked like.

"That was quite the show kiddies." He said seemingly looking at Monica and myself "You two are naturals. But Monica here has a bit more experience than you, Terrence."

Stroke of Midnight flashed into Monica's hands as she dropped into a fighting stance. "Who are you?"

I tightened my grip on Soul Eater, which was still in my hands, "And how do you know our names?"

The mysterious man chuckled before saying, "When you got good informants you can learn pretty much anything you want to know." He looked over at Monica, "I even know your bra size."

A blush appeared on Monica's face. "You perv!" She lunged at the man, preparing to slice him to bits with Stroke of Midnight. But her assault was stopped by the man with the aid of strange circular weapons.

He shoved her back chuckling at the growing blush on her face. "Relax kid. I was just joking." He paused, seeming to be thinking about something before saying, "But now that I think about it. I probably could get my informants to tell me that too."

Monica's face became as red as her hair. She charged at the hooded man once again. But this time, a portal of darkness appeared between the two. Unable to stop herself in time the redhead went flying into the portal with it closing behind her.

"What the hell? What happened to Monica?" I heard Drake ask in the distance.

The hooded man looked over at Drake and began a slow advance toward him. "Oh I didn't notice you before. If my informants are right, you're Terry's best friend, right?" He placed a hand on his chin, thinking to himself before saying, "Yeah. It'll probably be best to send you away as well." He held out his hand, summoning another swirling mass of darkness.

He walked over to my best friend and picked him up by his collar. "What're you doing?" Drake asked with fear and confusion dripping off his voice.

"Quick squirming…" The hooded man stated simply before tossing the blonde into the mass with it vanishing after him. The man then turned to face me, placing his hands on his hips while saying, "So are you going to make this easy?"

In reality I had no idea how to reply. I really had no idea what was happening. I didn't know if I should try and fight the ominous man, or if I should try running. He obviously didn't feel like waiting for a reply, because he began a slow advance toward me. My instincts finally choose "flight" and I went running down the abandoned corridor.

I kept running and running, not even looking back to see if he was following me. I couldn't understand what was happening or why it had to happen to me of all people. There are billions of people on the godforsaken planet, and all the supernatural bullshit had to happen to me. First those weird ass dreams, then the creepy foreign student. And then this freak in the hood who summon dark portals? I mean, when was it gonna end?

At that point, I was knocked out of my thoughts with a fist smashing into my face. I came crashing into the ground, looking up at my attacker, the hooded man. He looked down at me, from my position I could see him smiling from under his hood. It had the creepiest thing I ever saw.

He obviously saw the fear in my eyes because he his smile faded. He just there for a second, frowning at me, before saying, "Relax. I'm on your side."

Without another word, he snapped his fingers, causing a swirling mass of black to appear at my feet. It slowly worked its way up my body, making me shiver at the cold feeling it gave me. I looked up at the man with pleading eyes, giving the most pathetic look ever. But he just stared at me. As though he was waiting for something.

As my torso began to get covered by the swirling blackness, the man slowly pulled his hood down, revealing unruly red hair and squinted green eyes. He smiled at me one last time before saying, "We'll meet up later." With his final words in mind, the blackness consumed my face. I could remember only one hearing once last thing before passing out, I remember hearing a clock chime loudly, signifying the stroke of midnight.

Author's Note: The next chapter will take a while to finish. I'm going through a major case of writer's block. So it'll be like… a month before I finish the next chapter. I'm also working on like three other stories so make sure you check those out. Seeya! (-.-)

-TKJMC