Chasing Hearts -- A Kingdom Hearts Story--

Part One: Earth

Smack!

The sound of the meter stick hitting the board echoed throughout the silent classroom as the class stared wide eyed at their educator. No student dare disobey him, seeing as every one that did, was never quite the same. Mr. Dark was short, and quite round, seeming almost to be a Santa Claus with short, greased back, black hair and a handlebar mustache. His voice is cracked most of the time, making him sound like a villain in one of those fairy-tales to every person he met. Funny enough to his students, he also seemed to be one.

"Now, you little brats, just because we're two days away from finals, it doesn't mean you are to be a nuisance to me. Got it?" The class nodded rapidly, starting their assigned work with dilligence as Mr. Dark sighed, sitting back in his chair and rubbing his temples in frustration. But of course, who could blame him? Nobody respected him before he was this cruel. Nobody except, her. No, he thinks, eyes widening as his mind wanders to the mysterious woman who came to him just months ago, she'll be summoned again, Mark, don't think of her. Don't do it.

As the class dwindled on, the students began to turn in their work, one by one, filling the room for brief moments of their walking with the clicks or squeaks of shoes against the tile flooring. Eventually though, a girl arose from her seat, making silent steps as she crept up to the desk. Mr. Dark's eyes snapped up, watching the girl intently as she placed her paper full of presumably correct answers onto the stack of others, and the bell sounded, resulting in the end of school for the day. Maybe, he thought, I should have traded her over to the sorceress. It would sure have guaranteed my safety.

The girl gathered her things, swinging her practically empty backpack over her shoulder before walking out of the wooden-walled classroom and into the hallway of Walt Academy, her caramel colored hair swishing back and forth against her lower back with every step. One more day. One more day until I'm free. The girl thought, swerving through the crowd of students to her dinky locker in the very corner of the coldest part of the building. There, she took her coat out from behind the locked metal, and headed out of the torturous school.

As she walked down the street before her, she hummed to herself the theme to the current game she had been working on, for the ninth time, Kingdom Hearts. The game always seemed to capture her from her wandering mind, and open her to so many possibilities. So many new places, adventures, and solutions. Everything was finally okay. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere.

The fact of her not feeling the sense of belonging she needed was a common thought of her's. She was the only one at her school who had any idea what the game named Kingdom Hearts was, and really, the only one in general. She had searched the internet for a sequel, but there was not even a trace of the first one. Which, she found odd. The even odder part, though, was that the shop she had purchased the game from, was gone as well.

She could remember the night almost perfectly, the night she bought the game. For that night, she had started seeing things. Things no one else apparently saw. Maybe the game was a figment of her imagination as well. But, it seemed so real, as if there was really a King Mickey, Donald, Goofy,  and... him. Even though he was just fictional, she felt as if, she knew this character personally, loved him, even. Maybe it was the way his kindness and pureness of heart could bring light into any size of darkness, or the way that he of course, had so much courage. But Sora, roamed her mind freely.

As she trudged up the snow covered sidewalk to her home, she sighed. It wasn't as if something would come out of nowhere and save her from this constant cycle, with its sense of constant caging of the teen. "I'm home, dad!" The teen called as she tossed her boots into the closet beside the door, and jogged up the stairs and into her room. As soon as she set foot into the room, cluttered with a mess, she had her eyes set on the game system. Tonight, she thought, grabbing the controller and lying on her bed, stomach down and elbows propping her up, I'll kill that cursed dragon.