Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, related characters, trademarks, etc. in any way, shape, or form…Haven't we been here already?
Ok, next chapter. You'd better review it or I'll set my evil coconuts on you.
Also, one thing. There has been some confusion among my loyal fans about how to search for me. When searching for my penname, type in Styla, not Skyler25. Styla was my old penname, and now I hate it so I changed it. However, Fanfiction (which I do not own) punished me by keeping it Styla. So just search Styla and click on Skyler25. Kapeesh?
--
I awoke to find myself on a sofa. It wasn't my sofa, though. I sat up and looked to my right. Sora, Riku, and Kairi were sitting at a table eating dinner.
Dinner? How could it be dinner? When I had jumped out the window, it had been lunch time. How long was I out?
Kairi was the first one to notice I was up. "Hey, you guys, she's not dead!" She got up and ran over to me. Riku got up too. Then Sora (after stuffing mass quantities of pasta into his mouth) came.
"What were you thinking!" demanded Riku.
"Yeah!" said Sora. "If Riku hadn't seen you fall from that tree, you'd be dead now!"
--
Flashback: Riku is walking home carrying two very heavy-looking bags of groceries. Then he sees Skyler hanging from the tree. Riku shouts "Hey!" and chases after her, dropping the groceries. Skyler screams and falls..
--
"But…wait…" I said thoughtfully. "Didn't I get swallowed up by a black hole or something?"
Riku laughed and ruffled my extremely flat long hair. "You must've been dreaming. Seems you had a nightmare."
Kairi swiftly scolded him. "She rammed her head on concrete. You're lucky she's not in a coma!"
"I rammed my head…" I felt the part of my head that I had hit. On it was a huge bandage. "How long was I sleeping?"
"Six hours," replied Riku. "Six LONG hours. Sora wouldn't stop playing my PS2, and he made me play a 2-player racing game with him."
"Riku won…" Sora added sullenly.
"Yeah," said Kairi apologetically. "Now the score is 58 to 6."
--
Flashback: Riku and Sora are sitting in front of a TV playing a PS2. "See? I beat you again. Can we stop now?" suggests Riku. "Um…No!" announces Sora. "I will beat you, I swear!" Riku sighs.
--
" Fifty-eight to six?" I asked. "Since when did he-" I pointed to Sora "-win six times?"
"He didn't. Every time they tied (which wasn't often) Riku gave a point to Sora because his score was getting so low."
"We'd better be going!" said Sora hurriedly. "Thanks for saving my sister, Riku."
"Um…anytime," Riku said unsurely.
As soon as Sora and Kairi were out the door, I asked Riku what I wanted to ask him.
"Riku, have you ever thought of leaving this island?"
"Leaving it? No…not really. Interesting idea, though…"
"Yeah…it's just that we get so much homework here…" I glanced over to an open book on his table. "Tenth Grade Spanish." Poor tortured soul.
"Hmm…that's an interesting thought. I'll sleep on it and call you in the morning."
"Hey, Skyler!" came Sora's voice from far away. "Come on! You gotta get back to "Fifth Grade Mathematics…And I gotta finish "Ninth Grade Science…"
"Bye, Riku!" I called as I rushed out into the…pouring rain? It never rained on Destiny Island…Oh well. As soon as I was far enough from Riku's house, I gave an excited shriek. Riku was going to call me!
--
The next morning I woke up to the sound of a telephone blasting in my ear at 7:00am. Getting up and yawning, I reached for the telephone.
"Hello?" I said sleepily.
"Hey! Skyler! Is Sora there?" It was Riku. He was quite energized this morning…this EARLY morning…
"Riku," I said, still tired. "It's 7:00am. Sora's going to be sleeping for another four hours. Can he call you back later?"
"No. I need to speak to him now. You see, you gave me a great idea last night. Can you wake him up and meet me at my house in 10 minutes? Really? Great, thanks, bye!"
I had never agreed to meeting him. "Riku, I never said I could-" I realized he had hung up "-come…"
Despite having a small crush on Riku, I was often angry at him. I never stayed angry at him for long, though. I woke Sora. When he dressed, we left for Riku's.
--
"Ok!" said Riku. Sora and I were sitting around his table, along with a sleepy-looking Kairi. "I propose that we build a raft and sail off this island!"
"What!" I said, slamming the Coke that I had been drinking on the table. It began to fizz insanely. I shrieked, then rushed for some napkins.
"Well, that's a good idea," said Kairi, "But we're going to have to pack a lot. What if we get lost at sea?"
"That won't happen," Riku assured her. "So, it seems I haveone vote for yes. Skyler, how about you?"
"Well, I don't know…"
"Please…"
"Oh, fine!"
"Ok!" said Riku excitedly. "Sora, if you were going to say no, you're out voted! We're building a raft!"
Sora groaned. It was way too early for him. He had lost 4 hours of sleep, and there were huge bags under his eyes.
"Don't worry, Sora!" Riku said. "We can make building it fun! How about a race to get the logs?"
"A race?" Sora was suddenly wide awake. I grinned and shook my head.
"And Skyler, how about we race to get the coconuts?"
"You're on!" I never turned down a race.
"And Kairi, one of the logs is on the outcrop with the paupu tree is. Maybe we could share one on the way back."
"Hey!" yelled Sora. "Watch it!"
He laughed. "I'm just kidding…"
"It's not funny!" Sora insisted. Riku laughed again and we set out to collect the materials.
--
"Ok!" said Kairi. "Ready…set…go!"
Sora and Riku took off, kicking up sand as they went. I coughed. "Couldn't they start out a little slower?"
Kairi laughed and followed after them, giggling. I scrambled after her.
Sora and Riku were approaching the first log. Screaming, Sora dived for the log.
"I GOT IT!" he cried. He landed inches away from it. Riku picked it up. Sora slowly pulled himself up, spitting out sand as he stood.
"Now it's…59 to…six," he panted. "C'mon…next log…I'll win."
I walked over to him. "Haven't you ever considered giving up? Riku kills you every time."
"No…I never…give up." He caught his breath. "Riku! One more round!"
"We can't do that," Riku said, laughing. "We got all the logs. Except for the one on the outcrop, and Kairi and I are getting that."
"No!" Sora insisted. "Let's race for that one. C'mon!"
Riku sighed. "Fine…you ready?"
"You bet!"
Kairi started the race. "Ready, set, go!" They took off.
--
"Hey, Skyler." It was Riku.
"Yeah?"
"Ready to get the coconuts?"
"Ok, sure!"
Riku pointed. "That tree. Over there, with the seagull egg on top. You ready?"
"Yep! Ready…set…GO!"
As we took off for the tree, I heard Sora screaming. "GO, SKYLER, GO! YOU CAN BEAT HIM IF YOU TRY! NO! GO LEFT! LEEEEFFFTTTT! TAKE THE SHORT ROUTE! THE SHORT ONE!"
Taking his advice, I turned left and swiveled around Riku. Jumping up, I grabbed the edge of a small hut's roofand lifted myself up. From there, I leaped off and grabbed the trunk of the tree. Scooting up, I finally grabbed a leaf.
You probably guessed this would happen. I was hanging by a leaf, and like all leaves, it was flimsy. It broke, and I fell.
--
Everything blacked out. When I woke up, I was in Riku's house. Sora was standing over me.
"I can't believe you fell! AGAIN. Jeez, stop doing this to your self!" he screamed.
"Hey, that's your little sister! 'Nice' is the key word here," said Kairi.
"Well, we finished the raft while you were sleeping," Riku said. "We set sail tomorrow!"
"Really?" I was excited. "I can't wait!"
"Well, go home and get some rest. And stop hitting your head."
--
As I lay awake in bed that night, thinking about the raft, I realized what was so strange about the dream I had.
There were two of me. The first Skyler was me, the one telling you this story. The other Skyler was the one who was always in my dreams. She/it could be any age. My dream self could relive my memories or live through something that the real me made up. She could even live through something far beyond my imagination.
That's when it hit me. I realized that the reason the dream felt so real was because my dream self wasn't there. It was the real me. I was in my dream, not the other me. In other words, it really happened.
The words echoed through my mind. It really happened. It was all real. The voice, the balls, the dark me…
"Skyler! Sora! Dinner!" Mom's voice broke my thoughts.
"Coming!"
I met Sora downstairs, in the dining room. As we were sitting there, contentedly shoveling down mass quantities of pasta, the room suddenly gave a violent shake.
"Skyler, don't kick the table," Mom scolded.
"It wasn't me!" I yelled back. The room shook again.
"Skyler!" My mother's scolding was harsh.
"Well, if it wasn't you, who was it? Sora?"
"Mom! Why would I kick the table?" was Sora's angry response. Then he looked out the window, behind my mother and me.
"Um mom can I be excused thanks bye be back soon," he said hurriedly as he pushed himself up and dashed out the door."
Mom turned to me. "Would you please go get him?"
"Ok, Mom." The room shook again as I was getting up.
"IF YOU KICK THE TABLE ONE MORE TIME YOU ARE GROUNDED!" she screamed at me.
But I was already out of the house. Looking up, I did not see the normal starry sky. Instead, there was a huge, black hole sucking things in. I looked around, and then saw Sora.
"Sora!" I called out to him, begging him to slow down.
"Skyler?"
"Wait up! I'm coming too!" Where were we going anyway?
"Ok. Hey, it's Riku! Over there on the islet!"
--
"The door…has opened," muttered Riku as we approached the islet.
"Huh?" said Sora.
"The door has opened, Sora!" said Riku, as if it were the most obvious thing, which it wasn't.
"Is that a good thing?" I asked.
"Now we can go to other worlds! We won't need that tiny little raft!" Riku insisted.
"But what about Kairi?" demanded Sora.
"She's coming too!"
"No…no…never mind," I said hurriedly. "Let's leave without Kairi, please?" I was not a Kairi fan. Purple/pink/red hair was not her color.
"This is a one way trip," announced Riku. "Once we step through, we may never be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. But I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
A world without parents, I thought. Yay.
A black hole engulfed Riku and began to swallow him up. He held out his hand so we could come too. But from the experience in my dream, I knew that black holes- especially ones like those- were NOT good.
I leaped at Riku to push him out of the black hole. As I was nearing him, there was a flash of blinding light. I felt funny for a second, like I was going through something, then I hit a tree.
I had gone right through Riku. Or, maybe he had just disappeared.
HOLD ON. RIKU DISAPPEARED?
"Sora," I said slowly, turning to him. "Where did Riku go?"
But he didn't answer. He was observing a giant key that had appeared in his hand.
"Keyblade," said the voice from my dream several times. "Keyblade…"
"Sora…" I was uneasy. "What's that…?"
"The…Keyblade?" he took a guess.
We had no further time to chat, as suddenly the black creatures from my dream popped up out of the ground.
"FROM MY DREAM!" Sora and I screamed together.
We glanced at each other, then at the thing.
"Well, what do we do?" I asked in distress.
"I'm your older brother!" he said proudly. "I can handle it. Stay back!"
While Sora was slashing away at the things, I noticed a glimmer of light floating next to me. It was the light balls from my dream. I shrieked. Sora looked up to see what was wrong.
Upon seeing his sister in "danger", Sora thrust the giant key at the light balls. They immediately turned into ropes and tied him to a tree.
"Hey!" I said. "Let him go!" They let him go. "Um…thanks."
I began to run down the bridge, beckoning Sora to follow. He thought otherwise.
"You'll need a weapon," he said, swinging the giant key heroically.
I began to think of what kind of weapon I would like. A sword, like in my dream? A shield? A staff? Or…a key just like my brother's? Yeah, that's it.
I held my arm out to the side. The two balls swarmed around my arm, eventually getting so fast they blurred together and there was a flash of light. Voila, a giant key.
"How did you know to do THAT!" Sora demanded.
"I did it in my dream," I replied, and we started out for a little cave, the walls of which were filled with countless doodles that Sora and Kairi had drawn.
It was no longer a cave. Its entrance was replaced by…a door.