“Sora! My baby, Sora! Oh, Sora! Please!  Someone save my baby!” I watched as a frantic mother pointed to the burning building. I hate fire. The intense heat, the pulsating red and orange color, the smell of objects turning into ash, the devastation it causes. Some people think it’s beautiful, but I see it as a thing of great destruction. Fire. The thing that killed my parents. The thing that destroyed my family. The thing that destroyed my life. The thing that’s obliterating this once beautiful house that used to be on my paper route into a pile of black rubble. Apparently there was a baby named Sora in the burning building.

I’ve never considered myself a hero. I debated on whether or not to face my fear of fire. Well if I was ever going to get over it, I might as well save a life. I ran up to the mother. “Where is your baby? What floor and what room?” She just stared at me for a second with a confused look on her face. “Hurry!”

Her face clouded with uncertainty. Then she remembered who I was. “You’re Ale Bern the teenager who delivers papers right? I remember you’re ambidextrous because of the Frisbee team right? I should’ve known by your hair.” She said, turning to my gravity-defying red locks. “Sora, he’s on the second floor. See that window up there?” She pointed to a large window on the upper left section of the house. “He’s in there. But it’s hopeless!” She began to cry.

Over the sound of her sobbing, the shouting fireman, and the talk of the gathering crowd, I could have a faint cry coming from the room. I ran into the smoking building ignoring the cries of  “Stop don’t go in there!” and “No, wait!” As soon as I stepped foot inside, I knew there was no way they were going to save this house. Man, I though. This was such a nice house. What a shame…

I sprinted up the huge grand staircase in the foyer and turned left. There were five doors. I checked the first two, which were a bathroom and a closet. The black smoke was heavy up here and I coughed. The crying sounded again and I followed it to the last room at the end of the hall.

I darted in the room to find a strange man in an all black cloak holding the wailing baby, oblivious to the flames around him.

“Shh my little Roxas. You’ll be with us soon enough…” The man had long silver hair that was spiky in the back and a little on top and bright amber eyes. “Ahh Axel. How did I just know you were going to be here?”

“Okay first off: my name’s not Axel. It’s Ale, A-L-E, got it memorized? And that kid is named Sora. So-ra. And by the way, who the hell are you?” I asked annoyed, astonished, and nervous from the strange man. The growing flames that were devouring the once-nice nursery weren’t helping.

“Oh you will be Axel. You will be once you join me. And who I am isn’t important at the moment. But you did come in here for him I presume?” The amber-eyed stranger and possible pedophile said, holding up the still screaming baby. “Catch.” He threw Sora at me and I had to run and dive to catch him. I stopped inches from the fire. When he was in my arms he immediately stopped crying. I felt the heat radiating from the burning crib and started to cough some more from the smoke.

I turned around to yell at the silver-haired psycho but he stepped through a weird black and purple fire-looking thing. “Hey where do you think you’re—!” I said as I ran toward it. Then it disintegrate into thin air. What the f—?

There was a crash behind me so I turned and the roof started to cave in. I ran to the window and opened it to let some of the smoke out which made me cough some more. Down below was Sora’s screaming mother who pointed at me and shouted, “Ale! Ale! Do you have Sora? Oh God! Oh My God! Thank you! Thank you Ale! You’re a hero!”

“The roof is collapsing! Get ready!” The firemen ran under the window with their huge net. It looked about as reliable as my attendance at school, which believe me, isn’t good. Damn… That things not gonna hold us both… I took a leaf out of the mysterious amber-eyes man and yelled “catch” out the window.

For the first time, I looked at the kid. He had brown spiky hair and deep blue eyes. I placed my hand on his face and gently caressed his smooth skin. He giggled and touched his key-shaped necklace. Then he caressed my face back with hid tiny hand. He gave me a smile. He’s kinda cute. I leaned out the window and held him above the net.

“Good luck…Sora,” I whispered. Then I dropped him.

* * *

Sora landed gracefully on the net where his mother ran and picked him up. She looked at me with the same eyes as Sora’s. They were asking me to jump. Another part of the roof collapsed and grazed my right shoulder. Damn it! Another piece fell on my left ankle. I heard a sickening crack. Motherf—!I started to think, just before a piece of burning wood hit my head.

All I felt was the fire scorching my skin, burning my clothes, and eating away at my fire-colored hair. Kind of ironic if you think about it. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes, probably for the last time, was amber-eyed stranger and a young woman looking about 25 with indigo hair, violet eyes, and a purple and blue dress come out of those black-purple flame-y hole things. So they’re portals, I just realized.

“Xemnas, I don’t want to this, He’s only a boy!” I heard the woman say.

“Too bad Saxm. We made a deal here. No hearts, no sister. Besides… I have seen what he will be. Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, the chakram wielder, the eighth member,” A deep monotone voice said, which I figured out he was the amber-eyed guy.

I heard footsteps come near me. Then the woman whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry.” I then heard her say something that sounded like “release” and felt a weird sensation of pulling in my chest. Then I completely blacked out.

* * *

Ugh…What…What happened? I tried remember. Tried to remember anything. My name, where I was, where I am, anything. I looked around and saw I was in a soft, cushy, white, queen-sized bed. The rest of the room was…white. White walls, white furniture, white lights.

“So you finally decided to wake up huh Number Eight?” I turned to see a tall guy in a black cloak with a million dreadlocks in a half ponytail thing and huge, I mean HUGE, sideburns that made him look like a cross between the Wolverine and a monkey. I started laughing and Dreadlocks narrowed his eyes. “What are you laughing at?”

“Dude, you need to shave or something. A little overdue on your wax maybe?” I said in between laughs. Then a long blue spear shot through the air and stuck into the wall, millimeters away from my face. “Good aim,” I said nervously with a giggle.

“What do you mean? I missed,” Monkey Man said. “Are you ready to see the Superior, Number Eight?” Hmm… Number Eight… Why does that sound so familiar?

“Why do you keep calling me ‘Number Eight’? How ‘bout a name?” I asked for two reasons: 1) because I DO have a name and 2) because I don’t remember what it is so maybe he could tell me…

“Fine Axel. Happy?” Axel… That name rings a bell… Oh yeah! It all came back. The burning house, the amber-eyed freak, Sora, and getting knocked out after some lady  in purple apologized for something.

“But wait. My name is Ale. A-L-E, got it memorized?” I said, trying to convince myself as much as him.

“Not anymore. You’re part of Organization XIII now. Nobodies. And Nobodies don’t use their Somebody names. You’re Number Eight, or Axel now. Welcome to the club.”