KH - Pinky Promise

Sora snuggled down into the covers, his room a crowded mess of toys, books and favorite animals. His mom tucked in her tiny five-year-old son, and left him a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night, Sora. Have sweet dreams."

Sora tried to stay up later once his mom left, but he was a lot more tired than he wanted to be. Eventually, the familiar shapes of his bedroom vanished into the warm haze of sleep.



Usually his dreams were big and strange, sometimes even scary. But now, he was just on the beach, alone. He knew this was a dream because his mommy would never let him go to the island alone. And it was night, and he wasn't allowed to go at night. So he stayed where he was, right on the edge of the wet sand, and made sand castles that looked more like sand mounds.

Then, suddenly, there was another boy there. A much older boy, like the teenagers that went to the big kid school. But he was dressed funny; not in island clothes at all. He had strange metal armor on his shirt, shoes and one of his shoulders. Belts stretched across his chest, connected with an odd pointed pendant. The older boy walked towards him, and then suddenly was there. Sora thought he looked sad.

"Hi! Are you a warrior?" Sora asked. He looked a lot like one.

"I was..." The older boy sounded sad.

"Play with me!" Sora demanded, taking the older boy's hand. "Show me how to beat Riku at stuff!"

The older boy smiled at him, and Sora knew he could trust him. "I'll play, but...I need you to do me a favor."

"What is it?"

Here, the boy knelt down so that he was now eye level with him. "I messed something up...I messed up bad. So now I have to disappear."

So that's why the boy was sad! Sora tugged on his hand a little tighter. "If you mess up, you just say you're sorry. Not disappear!"

"But I have to. That's why I need you to do me a favor," the boy pleaded. "Because...I know your heart is very big. And it'll keep growing. So...so I need it."

His heart was big? Usually Riku just told him that his head was big. Sora placed a hand over his chest, his expression scrunching in worry. He didn't know that much about stuff like hearts and brains, but he was pretty sure he couldn't give it away. "But I need my heart!"

The boy shook his head. "Not to take it. I just need to stay there. I messed up, so...I'll be safe, with you. In you."

Sora considered this. "Will it hurt?"

"No," the boy said, but it wasn't the complete truth.

Sora considered it more. His mommy always told him to share, because it was the right thing to do. But he also wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, so maybe she'd get mad if he told her that he'd let a stranger in his heart. He'd once let in an older boy he didn't know into their house because he wanted to borrow something, and mommy had gotten mad at him for it.

But then again, this was just a dream, so he could probably say whatever he wanted and then he'd wake up anyway.

"Okay," Sora said with a nod. "But only if you show me how to be a warrior!"

The older boy stood and smiled. "I will."

This excited Sora even more. If only this were real, then he could finally beat Riku in games! He grinned up at the older boy. "How long will you stay?"

He didn't answer for awhile, as if he didn't exactly know. "I'll stay as long as you want."

This was almost satisfactory to Sora, but he still wanted to be completely sure. "And you hafta show me." He held out one hand, with his pinky extended. This was what he and Riku did if they ever had to really super-promise something, like that they'd always be friends or that they'd fight the monsters in the secret cave without running away. "You hafta pinky promise me."

The older boy smiled again, this time as genuine as he could possibly be. He held up a hand with the pinky finger extended, grasped Sora's own and shook. "I promise."

Suddenly, it seemed as if the beach became darker and darker. The night swallowed up the sand, the trees, all of the ocean. Sora grew frightened...the darkness was starting to swallow up the older boy, too, and he lost his grip on his hand. He reached out and tried to cry out to him, but realized he didn't know who he was.

"Wait, wait! What's your name?"

The boy's voice sounded back as little more than an echo through the dark. "My name is Sora now."



The next morning, Sora made his way downstairs for breakfast, eager for another day of playing with his friends.

His mother turned to him as he sat himself down at the kitchen table. She poured him a glass of milk. "Did you have any nice dreams last night, Sora?"

He thought about it, but remembered nothing. The dream, along with a short lifetime of thoughts, feelings and memories, had been hidden so well in his heart that he had no hope of retrieving them.

Sora picked up his fork and waved it around as if it were a sword. "No."