Chapter One

 

I live in small seaside town to the far south. It’s not a large trading port so the days spent here are simple, carefree and uneventful. There are no dramatic bank robberies, no sudden rise in crime or any high profile vendettas between jilted spouses either. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I consider this place heaven on earth.

As for me, aside from my being lucky when it counts, nothing is special about me either. Well my eyes suddenly changed red when I was a small kid, but that’s about it. My eyes can see perfectly fine. Here, I am an ordinary kid from the country side going with the slow pace of life.

“Good morning, Alex.”

“Good morning,” I respond back to my grandmother who is making breakfast.

I live with my grandparents. I have ever since I was little, but I don’t bother to question them about my parents’ identity. Well, I’m not particularly bothered by it, so it’s fine with me.

“I was going fishing today; want to come with?”

When I asked my grandfather this, he smiled and shook his head from side to side apologetically. “Sorry my boy, I can’t go with you today. Doc says I ought to rest some.”

“Ah, no worries then, let grandma handle this alright? You should go out and have fun, Alex.”

“I’ll guess I’ll hold you to it then.”

Turning away from there, I returned to my room and began preparing for my solo fishing trip. The only thing for me to do around here is fish during the summer. It’s hot and the beach is usually crowded so being at the docs where it’s nice and quiet is incredible relaxing.

“I almost forgot to bring that along…”

That was a fancy looking wrist guard which was colored a bright shade of red and had a blue gem in the center. I had found it washed up on the beach a few years back and it’s been in pristine condition ever since then. There were no cracks, no chips, nothing. It still looked brand new. It was my most prized material possession, something we don’t usually care too much about down here.

I consider it my lucky charm although I don’t really know too much about how that works exactly. Was it strange coincidences that I would be at the right time or place to be given something useful by a sailor or fisherman or to find something lying around on the beach when I just so happened to be wearing this thing? Well, I would rather not think about it so much.

It’s early morning, but it was still pretty hot outside. On a normal summer day the temperatures easily exceed that of 90 degrees. Even so, I decided not to break tradition and wore a modestly stylish red and white jacket which was pretty thin, a black tank top and of course the red and white which was my defining trait in terms of daily appearance. It was my favorite hat and my only one at that.

This small seaside town, with the air of salt, nearly always a constant breeze coming from the ocean and so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it would have been without. The heat, I mean.

With nothing else for it, I decided to head to the docks where the breeze was much better felt. Along the way, I met with and said hello to those people who I had grown up knowing. Ms. Baker from the General Store, Mr. Shaw the butcher, Sawyer the Fish Market owner and a few others. It was another, almost stereotypical day in the sticks.

My place was the docks, where the real fishermen were. They even sold bait on site there. Of course, I don’t have a boat or anything, so I usually just stand on the usual empty dock #4 and fish there.

Reflecting my image, the water showed the face of a boy with jet back hair and strange eerie red eyes. They were indeed a mystery, those eyes, but hey, there’s nothing for that either. I could do without the scary look, but you have what are you are given so there’s nothing more I can do about that.

And just like this, with the wind blowing against me from the ocean and a line casted my normal everyday life continues on as it has been, without change and without incident.

The heat always makes me sleepy, and with this breeze, it was something that I could not ignore for very long. It’s been a few hours at best and I’ve already caught about three fish or so, so I guess I can just relax for the time being.

“I’ll just pick up where I left off…”

…..

The sound of the ocean breeze gently carried my mind along the sky. The clouds in the sky drifted along me side by side and I really did feel as though I were flying over the sky. Peacefully, I drifted off to sleep.

….

Waking up, the sun’s position had obviously changed, and it was hotter now than before. The clear blue sky did nothing to protect me from this overbearing sunlight. I might have gotten a tan without knowing it.

Standing up, I figured that it was already well past known judging from the position of my shadow. I didn’t feel like fishing here anymore so I stood up and took off my jacket and tied it around my waist, then began gathering my fishing gear and wrapped it nicely.

“Well, I best be getting back. I wouldn’t want to die of thirst or anything. Heatstroke is pretty dangerous…”

I usually had an impulse to speak to the sky when I was alone for no particular reason. If nobody was around, nobody could comment on your strange behavior right?

A much more forceful wind blew over the docks and nearly caused my hat to fly off. It felt as though the wind were sending me on my way, so I nodded my head in response and set off back home. I took the same route of course, so I got say greet everyone once again on the way back.

“Oh, there you are Alex, I was wondering when you’d be dropping past here. Did you catch anything big this time around?”

The owner of the Fish Market, Sawyer stopped me and decided to bring up a conversation. Well, it’s not like I was hurrying or anything so…

“No, I didn’t catch anything big today. I took a nap since I wasn’t catching much though. How’s it?”

“Business as usual, but word is some official looking types just showed up at your place a while back.”

“Like big city official types?”

“Oh yeah,” he nodded his head, “Came with a whole bunch of black cars too. I bet they have air conditioned cars…must be nice.”

“What’s all that for? It sounds like something big is going to happen. I sure hope not though…”

“They should still be there I think. You can go and find out for yourself.”

“I guess I’ll have to one way or another. I’m curious now anyways.”

Saying goodbye to Sawyer, I took my leave and headed towards my house. My house was a bit on the edge of the town. It was the last house before the road lead out. The nearest city was about a few days away by foot, I wonder if that’s where they came from.

Coming into the path that would lead me to my home, a hand suddenly reached out from an alley way and in an instant I found my cheek pressed against the wall of a building and my arm firmly held behind my back. My other arm was wedged between myself the wall.

“What gives?”

I had no idea who or what was going on. It happened so suddenly that I was not even sure if I had really woken up from my sleep.

The hand on my arm pushed up increasing the pain to my shoulder.

“Just shut up…” The person speaking to me was feminine but it had a rough tone of voice to it as well. Turning my head, I could barely make out a white hat before my face was shoved back into the wall.

“Listen up boy, if you want to keep your life that is…” she said this in a threatening tone and pushed harder on my arm.

“You’re going to break my arm if you keep doing that!”

“I said shut up!”

She kneed me in the back of left thigh as hard as she could and caused me leg to buckle.

Wait, what with this unbelievable situation? Am I being rolled on by a girl? A short one at that, I don’t believe this!

“Stop squirmin’ you and close that trap of yours!”

She kneed me in the back of the leg again and brought me down a bit off of my own weight. I decided to keep quiet and listen to her. After confirming that I was being as compliant as possible, she started talking once again.

“I’m sure you heard right? Those suits at your place ain’t going away until you show up or alternatively don’t.”

I didn’t really get what she was saying, but she continued on anyway, this time tapping the metal wrist guard on my right arm.

“They want this, so they won’t leave even if you kindly say “no.” Now you’re really in it you know? I don’t really know how much you know about the situation, but I’ll clue you in on a little secret. This thing you have,” she tapped it again, “is something incredibly dangerous, so dangerous in fact that it has the potential to destroy the world.”

“Eh?”

“Get it? So they aren’t going anywhere until they recover it.”

“If it’s that important, I’ll just hand it over and say I don’t know anything.”

“Ah~ you could that, but if that is what you choose, then you should give it to me right now and you can go home without a care in the world. I am not letting you hand this over to them so easily.”

“Then you take it already!”

“But they already know you have it, and once you say “I don’t have it, they’ll assume you’ve hidden it and that’s when the fun starts…”

“I have no idea what you’re prattling on about!”

“Shut your face!”

She shoves my head into the brick wall again and delivers another kick to me leg bringing down to one knee which she then uses the opportunity to push me onto the ground. A weight is pressed down on my back and she keeps her hand on my head. The physical strength of this girl is unbelievable.

“If they don’t threaten you right away, then they’ll target your family. They’ll do it you know?”

She leaned down and whispered into my ear.

“There’s a sniper just up ahead. If you refuse to say anything, they’ll just simply send in their Cleaners to handle all the dirty work. You’ll just disappear, every single one of you will disappear. However that scenario will never happen you know why?”

“…Why?”

“Because should you not hand it over, then I’ll have no choice but kill you myself and take it from you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all…!”

Don’t make it sound so easy you know? If I give it to you, then they’ll kill me right? However, if I don’t give it to you then you’re just going to do it yourself?

“What kind…of twisted logic is that?”

“You’re just…pretty unlucky today eh?”

She gave a sort of sly laugh which echoed through my head. Kill or be killed huh? I’m pretty unlucky doesn’t do this situation any justice.

“How do I know if you’re even telling the truth? This is going rather far for a simple trick to steal you know?”

Slapping me across the back of the head then shoved her arm in front of my face.

“That’s…”

She had a similar wrist guard like mine, but this one was white and had dark black orb set in place.

“I don’t have the time to hustle you right now, kid. Just hand it over right now and that’ll be it. You can run away after that.”

“No way, girlie…”

“You dare to defy me you country bumpkin?”

“Who are you calling country? You speak the exact same way, so which town in the sticks are you from eh?”

“Shut up!”

“No! You shut up! And you can GET OFF ME ANYTIME!!”

“Argh!”

Letting out a frustrated growl at my sudden rejection, she grabbed onto me, but for all the strength in the world, she was still just a girl. She tried choking me back to the ground by wrapping her arms around my neck and with her legs around my waist she did a very good job of clinging to me.

“You’re so stupid! You’re gonna die!”

“I refuse death! Ouch! You’re biting me now? What the hell is wrong with you?”

This girl must have escaped from some mental institution and was most likely paranoid. With her arms locked around my neck, I was becoming quite lightheaded I realized I would pass out if she kept this up, especially when she began biting my ear.

In desperation mode, and unnaturally having to use all of my strength, I grabbed her arms and forced them off of my neck once I could grab her arms with a firmer grip I tossed her off of me. Flung forward, she crashed into a pile of trash loudly.

Breathing heavily I regained my head as blood rushed back to my head. The world was really dizzy for a moment, but as the girl sat up and glared at me she had a look of pure rage in her eyes.

She was, at least skin deep, a cute girl with long brown hair and was wearing a blue skirt with a sleeveless yellow shirt. On the floor, there was a white hat which closely resembled his hat which had also fallen off in the brief skirmish. It was a sun hat, but the design was obviously from the same company.

“It ain’t…my time…to bite the big one…”

“You’re so dead…you know that right? I’m going to kill you for sure now.”

As she stood up, I prepared myself for a round two, but just as she was about to come charging at me,

“Ah!”

A startled voice from behind me caused me to reflexively turn around. Standing there was man in a hot looking black suit. He had sun glasses on and a cord in his ear.

“I found them!”

“Sheesh you’re such a stupid idiot!”

After, or rather before, that violent girl said this, the man dropped to the ground at the same time she ran pass me and grabbed my hand pulling me and running in the opposite direction of my house. I saw dust fly from the wall that belonged to the building as we ran by.

Was that a bullet? I turned my head and could see a light typically casted by a reflective surface. I had watched enough television to know that it belonged to a scope of a rifle, or to be more accurate, a sniper rifle.

Turning, the girl pulled me around the corner just as another round struck the ground near my feet.  Down the way, a black car screeched to a stop and a group of men with imposing looking automatic weapons stepped out and pointed them at us.

They didn’t fire immediately which allowed the girl to place her hat on her head. I hadn’t realized that she had even grabbed it. More surprisingly was when she handed me mine.

“You can call me Heart. That’s my name.”

“My name’s Alex…”

“Forget that name; they’ll track anyone named that with your description. Your name’s going to be…Soul from now on, got it?”

“That’s more like a title or something though…”

“Whatever! Just shut up and keep your head down. We’re partners in crime now.”

After saying this, the guns pointed at us and indiscriminately opened fire.

                           ***

The girl who called herself Heart stormed into my life and essentially ripped it apart at the seams. That firefight was something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget ever again. I can’t tell how many times Heart was actually shot, but in the end, she insisted that I use her body as a shield.

When the dust settled, the street was completely riddled with bullet holes. Even more unbelievably was the fact that Heart was still standing. The same couldn’t be said for those strange people in black suits. For some reason, their car was also torn and riddled as though bullets were being fired from our end, but that was impossible since we weren’t carrying any bullets.

Normally, I wouldn’t bother questioning fate, but this was a special occasion.

“Hey…what was that just now?”

“That was me sacrificing my body for your sorry hide.” She turned around to face me and I could her bullet riddled body. Well, I say that, but the bullets actually didn’t seem to do much damage. Her forehead was bleeding and so were many other parts of her body.

“Anyways…I will be fine but now you’ve got repay me for that and find us a way out of here. You owe me.”

Right up to the end, she was being belligerent and completely incomprehensible. She herself wanted to kill me but instead decided to protect me. What’s with this girl? “Partners in crime” what is that? When did I ever become her accomplice?

I asked myself these questions as I carried her along the passageways towards the docks. She had fallen asleep I think. Well she was still breathing and surprisingly, she had stopped bleeding. She was heavier than before, but somehow I found the strength to keep walking.

She was right, I didn’t know anything about the situation, but I knew for sure two things. The first was that those Suits shot first and asked questions later, and Heart did try to talk to me before attacking me.

It was insane logic, but he could only now go with it. He wasn’t sure if there were more of them hanging around in the dark alleys and shortcuts he took. He had lived in this town his whole life and he knew it inside and out.

That wrist guard was the cause of all of this. Yet, she kept hers despite knowing that it would attract attention. I guess I was being a bit stubborn saying I would give mine up to people like that. If those kinds of ruthless people get ahold of these things, which is apparently very dangerous, well I shudder to think.

I wonder if that’s the reason she’s still alive after being shot so many times?

Luckily, I was able to make it to the docks and immediately snuck into the boating house.

“Ah Alex, there you are! There are some mighty strange people in black looking all over fer ya.”

“Mister Marino, I know this sounds a bit sudden, but I need a boat a quiet one that won’t draw too much attention. I understand this is something completely unreasonable, but I’ll pay it back for you someday.”

Mr. Marino looked at me with surprise before his eyes shifted to the girl I was carrying in my arms. After a moment, he looked back up at me.

“I’ve never seen you so serious before boy. I thought you were lacking a pair.”

“What…? Wrong time and place for jokes, Mister Marino.”

“Ah, whatever I was just getting some last quips in before I see ya go is all. I only have the rowboat though will that one do for you?”

“It will! I’ll pay you back someday I promise.”

“Don’t even worry about that! We’re all family here aren’t we? I was just hoping to see you become a fine fisherman on your own. I’ll give the others a call and see what they can do to draw attention away from this place. You should go now boy.”

 He gave me a push and picked up the phone call. The most misfortunate day in the world huh I still feel that I am pretty lucky though.

Placing Heart into the boat as gently as I could, I got into the small rowboat and rowed out to the ocean. I had no idea what direction to go in, so I just kept rowing further and further out. Gradually my old seaside town in the sticks became further and further away until it finally disappeared into the horizon.

Heart slept like a baby while the entire time I rowed us along. Eventually, once the sun set and the night became much cooler I still didn’t stop working. I was not a voyager so I didn’t know the seas to well. I had seen a map before, but I think if we just went straight south we’d end up on some archipelago. The problem was that we didn’t have any food or clean water to take us that far.

The place I could think to go was towards the port town to the west. So, that’s the direction I rowed in. Well eventually though, I had to stop and was exhausted.

The full moon was out and over the night ocean, it seemed especially large and grand and the stars were out in abundance as well. Sleeping nearby was Heart who hadn’t moved since she was laid there to rest.

Today was exhausting both physically and mentally. I had my life attempted on more than one occasion and it was in part due to this red wrist guard that I just so happened to pick up some years ago by chance. Was it really lucky then? The dark blue gem in the center seemed to glow as it reflected the luminescence of the moon.

“It’s called a Gateway…”

Startling me, Heart had woken up and was now looking up at the starlit night sky. Her voice was softer than it had been earlier. Is she some sort of hot and cold person?

“Inside it is some awful monster with God only knows kind of power. I’ve never thought of using it to hurt people or even to defend myself, heck for the longest it was just stored in my attic until one day I happened to find and put it on.”

She sat up in the boat and took off her hat and set it on her lap. She didn’t seem to have any problems moving her body.

“Well whatever, I guess I was pretty clueless myself, but I was just like you and went on without ever noticing it until they decided to come searching for me and because it was considered a family treasure I refused to give it to them. Blah, blah, blah, long story short, I summoned what was inside and it went on a rampage until it decided to give in to me and returned to the Gate.”

I listened to her story as she spoke. She didn’t seem particularly sad about it, but she did seem to regret letting that ever happen.

“If that’s how you feel…then why don’t you give yours up as well?”

“I’ve thought about that. In fact, I could toss mine over right now, but that wouldn’t change a thing would it? I’ll still be hunted and I’ll still be killed when they find me. Well leaving me alive is something they absolutely cannot do right now.”

The girl faced the stars and said, “I’ll die.” In how many ways can you kill someone though before they are actually “dead?” Being dead on the inside is merely a formality. Letting someone live having to look over their shoulder to make sure there was nobody following her, to watch the rooftops to avoid being killed by a precision bullet? I wonder if someone like that can even be called alive.

“Well that’s all in the past. I won’t be killed by them so easily. I won’t give them the satisfaction of my death so easily.”

Pulling the tip of my hat down I chuckled and relaxed back staring up at the sky placing my hands on the back of my head.

“I don’t know about this whole conspiracy thing though. A country bumpkin like me just ought to take life slowly. This Soul don’t need any worries in his sad little life.”

“Yeah you’re a true blue country bumpkin alright.” She slapped the shade of my cap roughly.

Pulling up my hat, I glared at her, “You could be a little gentler. I did as you told didn’t I? I got out of there just as you so demanded. We’re even now right?”

“This is your entire fault in the first place; let’s not try to forget that. If you had just given it to me in the beginning then there wouldn’t have been a problem to begin with, and escape? Where are we right now? We’re in the middle of the ocean aren’t we? Out of the fire but into the frying pan, I say!”

This girl…she has to be so difficult doesn’t she? I’m not used to handling such wild cases like her. She seems so sweet and innocent, but why does she have to so darn rude!

Reaching out my hand I grabbed her cheeks and pinched them. “Have some compassion will you? I’m trying to be calm here and think of something on the fly, but do you know how hard this is while I’m under this kind of pressure?”

“So?” she slapped my hands away and stood up on the boat causing it to shake eerily. I became extremely nervous as I didn’t suddenly want to go swimming in the deep blue.

“Sit down!” I grabbed her arm and the swaying of the boat caused her to lose her footing and fall forward. A pain shot through my body as her noggin collided with my noodle. Our hats were knocked off, but through some luck, there were only knocked onto the bottom of the boat. It was rather dry there as well so they were pretty safe for the time being.

Raising herself up, Heart promptly delivered a stinging slap only a woman could possibly deliver. In rapid succession, she delivered another to other cheek.

“That was for throwing me into garbage earlier and the second was for touching me without my consent.”

Sitting back down, she picked up her hat and placed it back on then grabbed the oars and began rowing. I picked up my hat and placed them back on my head. My cheeks felt like they were suffering a degree of sunburn.

There’s something strange about getting slapped by a girl. It’s like losing a bit of your pride as a man. Now that is something to scary about.

“And just so you know, those freaky eyes of yours are proof that all this is real. You can doubt my words, but you can’t deny facts right? If you tossed that thing away, your eyes will eventually return to normal…”

“You’re quite chatty…”

My snappy comment was rewarded with a sharp kick in the gut. I chuckled as I folded from the pain. And just like that, my calm and peaceful monotonous and preferred life was gate crashed ceremoniously by a strange conspiracy revolving around this Gate thing.