Chapter 9 - Handbags

Keiko ran, she'd never ran so fast in her life. She'd never really even ran before in her life, not even at school when it was a PE lesson, she'd just refuse to run and hide in the changing rooms with Miya. As she ran she was destroying every heartless that appeared with a grin on her face.
I'm sweating like a bitch. she thought to herself as she puffed in and out the cool air as she ran.
She made a quick shoulder check to see how far away she was from the fight scene. She'd made it, there was no more heartless around her and she stopped to catch her breath. She looked down at her body and swayed a bit as she felt a bit nauseous. She felt weird, weird as in evil. Like she felt in the mood for a fight. Not the sort of fight you fancy when you're drunk and you catch your boyfriend talking to another girl and end up having a cat fight outside a club. No, this was the type of fight where she wanted to kill was gushing through her body, she didn't even know where she was, she looked around and found herself in a dark alley with a couple of large trash cans.
"I swear Axel can't go anywhere without causing a fuss" Keiko heard a voice from nearby, it was more higher than Axel's and sounded slightly stupid... They were obviously from the Organization Axel had told her about, she didn't just want to turn herself in...

"Ohmylife where am I gonna hide?!"

She hesrd the voices getting closer and started to panic, the darkness that she felt inside her soon evaporated when she started to panic, she got all sweaty and her mouth went dry. She looked around frantically and felt her entire body tingle, but nothing happened, no weapon, no cool ability. Then she looked down the alleyway and saw two people approaching her in those ever do familiar black cloaks, she was sure they'd seen her because she was just stood there like a deer in headlights. They got closer and closer and Keiko stood there with her heart pounding against her chest... But they didn't notice her, they walked straight past her without a backwards glance. She looked at them walk into shadows and she slowly stepped backwards keeping an eye on them, whilst doing so she crashed into a metal bin and its lid fell off making such a noise they were bound to head back and look what was going on. She hastily picked up the lid of the bin, but when she looked at her reflection, she wasn't exactly... Her.
"WHAT THE?!" She squawked, forgetting she was meant to be being quiet.

Keixko looked back at her reflection again, she wasn't mistaken. She was Miya. Well not exactly Miya, because she still thought like Keixko. So who was she?
"What is going on…" she said to herself out loud.
There was only one way to solve this, to find Miya. She needed to get to her house and fast, what if she was like this forever? What if she was the identical twin to her best friend forever?
But what about Axel?
She turned back to look where the two black-cloaked men had gone, his words echoed in her head. Telling her to run, telling her to go away. She hesitated to look away from the direction the two men had gone as she started to walk away. As she started to walk away she dwelled on what had just happened to her, she couldn't believe it. Was she drunk? So drunk that her mind created all of this? Maybe she was high? That would make more sense. But that part of her brain, the part that knew the truth, knew she wasn't high or drunk, and this was all very real. As she walked she broke into a run as she didn't realise where she actually was, and Radiant Gardens was a dangerous place to be if you accidently walked down the wrong alley. One minute you could be walking down a lovely flower filled buzzing street, and the next you could be down a dark alley riddled with heartless.
She suddenly noticed that she ran quicker than she usually did, she was never this agile before. She was average at sports at school when she could be bothered to go to the gym lessons, but never this fast. And she knew that Miya certainly wasn't fast. So what was it? She looked down at her body as she ran.
Oh fuck
Her eyes widened in fear as she noticed what was happening to her body, she was covered in a midst of swirling dark shadows, wrapping themselves around her arms and legs. She was covered in darkness, infected by it. She suddenly felt a feeling she hadn't experienced for a long time, a feeling she never wanted to experience again. Pure hatred. Pure despise for everything that had ever hurt her. She wanted to kill something. She carried on running, ignoring the darkness, with her heart pounding with adrenaline. She jumped up a wall and climbed on the rooftop, trying to identify where she was.
She looked at the town from the rooftop; she scanned for her friend's houses. She looked for Luke and Leo's flat above the restaurant, usually omitting bright lights and a sweet smelling smoke from the chimney from all the food that was being cooked in the restaurant kitchen. She looked for Miya's flower-ridden house with the terracotta rooftop. Nothing. Then she spotted right in the distance - Redd's house. She didn't really want to go after what happened a while ago. She hadn't been alone with him ever since that night, it was just too awkward. They hadn't spoken about it either. They hadn't really had the chance; they just acted like it never happened…
"I love you, Keiko."
"I love you too!"
"Jeez you guys are so stupid."
"Shut up!"
Keiko and Redd had been friends ever since high school, they were even dating for a while but it didn't work out. Ever since then there had always been a connection between the two of them. They used to sneak out of lessons at the same time and meet up down by the entrance to the science quarter. Young loves dream.
I wanna be your bottle blonde
I don't know why but I feel conned
I wanna be an idle teen
I wish I hadn't been so clean
I wanna stay inside all day
I want the world to go away
She pondered on old times whilst singing a song in her head, thinking of all the trouble her and her friends caused, the fights she got into all because of Miya's fat mouth, the parties and all the fun they had. She thought of when Redd held her hand for the first time, she felt like she was going to just explode, it made her feel like she was some sort of dumpling steamer over-heating, then her hands would get all clammy and she'd be embarrassed and yank her hand away. She looked at her hand, the dark mist had gone. She looked at her legs, they weren't the same short ones of Miya, they were her own. She brushed back her hair with her hand and then leaned back on her arms.
I wanna be a virgin pure
A twenty-first century whore
I want back my virginity
So I can feel infinity
I wanna drink until I ache
I wanna make a big mistake
I want blood, guts and angel cake
I'm gonna puke it anyway
She didn't love him anymore. He didn't love her. Keiko thought she wasn't mean to love people. She was described as "sexually out of control" when she hit 17. By then her and Redd were over. She looked across the city, looking at all the buildings, and wondering who lived there and what they were doing. She sat down and hung her legs off the edge of the roof, just thinking. Keiko never really thought, she didn't like to think because she always thought of her brother and what she could've done.
I could've stopped him leaving…
The pretty lies
The ugly truth
The day has come where I have died
Only to find
I've come alive
Come alive
Then she felt something strangling her.
"Fucking hell. Let…go…" she clawed at the arm that had wrapped itself around her.
"I'm not gonna hurt you! I have to capture you!" The voice spoke, it was the same irritating one as before.
"Please. I can't breathe" she gasped, still clawing at his arm with her long nails.
The arm loosened around her neck. She didn't waste a second; she turned around and punched him in the face. He groaned in pain and before he knew it Keiko had pounced on him and was punching him in the ribs.
"That'll teach you to strangle me!" she huffed as she kept punching him.
He grabbed her wrists and threw her off of him.
"I'm not used to that kind of fight!" he squawked.
That familiar darkness started emitting from her chest again, the man stepped back out of shock. It was painful, it felt like nothing before. It made her feel evil and feel hatred for everything and everyone.
"What… what is that?!" he asked, pointing at her chest.
"What, you never seen them before?! They're tits now stop looking at 'em!" a much welcomed voice shouted from behind him. Much welcomed to Keiko that is.
He quickly turned around to face the girl. It was Miya. Keiko's slightly vertically challenged friend with her long white hair. She was carrying her bag in her right hand, like Keiko she wasted no time and hit him round the head with her bag.
"Hey!" he shouted, clutching his head.
Keiko then jumped on his back and started hitting him.
Then a familiar portal appeared, just like the ones she had seen before.
"We want to help you! We can get rid of that darkness inside you!" the guy Keiko and Miya were beating up yelled.
"Yeah, right!" Keiko carried on punching him whilst Miya swung her handbag at him.
Keiko looked over at the portal and grabbed Miya's wrist. She knew someone was coming.
"We need to go!" Keiko shouted.
They ran off into the night.