Sea Salt ice cream was the best after a long afternoon.

That was, after all, his favorite ice cream of all. Roxas found the dairy treat very refreshing, and unique, with its differing taste among many other ice creams. There were chocolate, vanilla, ands strawberry; the basics. And then it got complex with rocky road, cookies and cream, butter pecan, Neapolitan, cherry vanilla, cookie dough, chocolate chip, and many more to come. But then there was Sea Salt ice cream, with its salty yet sweet taste that seemed to make everyone's taste buds just fizz.

The sunset was setting wonderfully, as usual. It was just above the horizon, creaming the sky with colors unimaginable to man.

His friends weren't fans of sea salt ice cream, but it was a tradition to sit upon the clock tower and watch the sun set while eating his favorite dairy frozen treat. Olette, the girl of the group, preferred butter pecan. She was the softer one and the peace maker that helped everyone immensely. Whenever there were problems that arose, she was normally the one who thought rationally to fix it and evade around it safely. Then there was Pence, who liked just about any ice cream and wasn't picky. Pence was the jokster of the group, he seemed to lighten the mood at the most tension-filled times. And then came Roxas's best friend, the guy who fought alongside him whenever needed and his partner in skateboarding, Hayner. Hayner was the hot head of the group, but he and Roxas were the closest. Hayner liked vanilla—he didn't like nuts or anything to make ice cream too complex. He just liked it simple and sweet.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Olette said with a dreamy sigh, taking in the view. "Not even a professional artist could capture those colors."

Everyone agreed but said nothing. Roxas's ice cream was about to drip, but he rescued his pants from a stain by licking the ice cream to control it. He did tend to just zone out, which was a habit of his. He was a thinker.

"Tomorrow we're definitely going to need to get more money." Hayner said finally, almost done with his ice cream. The blue treat was getting thinner on the stick. "We'll do all the things were did today and just do it again."

"I liked my job." Pence assured. "It was actually fun, though I have a lot of bee stains as a remedy." He glanced down at his swollen arm.

Olette looked at his arm worriedly. "You might have to change jobs tomorrow."

"I'm fine."

"Pence, I'll take your jobs." Hayner said. "You'll just have to deliver some newspaper fast. Think you can handle it?"

"If I could handle swarming, violent bees, I think I can handle tossing some newspaper onto people's yards."

"There's more skill to it." Hayner grinned jokingly. "Sometimes you miss the doorstep and you have to do it again. Sometimes there's a crazy dog that tries to attack your bicycle tires. It's not that simple."

"It sounds easy compared to my job."

"Sure."

"Roxas?" Olette said suddenly, turning to look at the normally quiet blonde. "How do you like your job?"

His job was to deliver mail to people on the street on a skateboard, and he'd get more of a paycheck the faster he could do it. He liked his job. He was the fastest on a skateboard than all his friends, and he prided himself with that. "It's fine."

"Oh look at mister professional skateboard." Hayner said, grinning. "He has the easy job."

Roxas couldn't help but smile. "Oh really? Want to try it out for a day?"

Everyone knew Hayner was the worst skateboarder. He lacked the balance for the technique, and didn't have the patience to actual keep practicing. Instead of skateboarding, he rode around on a bicycle or just walked. Instantly, Hayner looked away. "No, you can do it."

"That's what I thought." Roxas replied back, smug as ever.

"I wish I could skateboard like you." Pence admitted, his ice cream gone. He was, instead, licking on the empty popsicle stick.

"It just takes time."

"Yeah, unless you break a leg." Pence rolled his eyes. "Face it. When skateboarding, if you make one mistake, it could break anything."

Roxas shrugged. He's never broken a bone in his body by skateboarding. He did wipe out at times, but they were never that bad. But Pence was right. You could break anything when skateboarding. It wasn't the safest way of getting around.

"Wear a helmet." Olette advised, licking her ice cream delicately.

"Sure. Okay, I'll do that. But what about my arms? Should I wear these protective shield things on them? Oh, almost forgot about my legs. More shields. Back?" Pence chuckled bitterly. "There's no way to prevent a fall." He winced. "Ugh. I could only imagine how much it would actually hurt to fall while moving and scrape some skin off."

"Pence," Hayner warned, not too keen on the image.

"I'm just saying."

"Oh, oh, look!" Olette cried, pointing at the sky. Everyone went deadly silent to watch as the sun sunk past the horizon slowly, ever so slowly, until it was gone. The area suddenly looked much dimmer, and the colors in the sky darkened.

"I guess it's time to go." Pence said finally, once the sun was set. "I gotta go home. My folks want me to get ready for school."

"Ugh! Didn't we just talk about this?" Hayner snapped, scowling. "No talking about school whatsoever."

"Can you believe school starts in three days?" Olette asked, as if Hayner had said nothing.

"Hey!"

"I know, right?" Roxas replied, standing up carefully on the ledge. If he fell off, he would surely die.

"I can't hear you." Hayner said softly, covering his ears with his hands to block out their conversation. Pence made his way to the back, walking down the steps, the popsicle stick still in his mouth.

"Hayner face the facts." Olette said jokingly. "There's nothing you can do. School's coming. Have you even been shopping for supplies?"

Hayner uncovered his ears, glaring. "No."

"You better get started!"

Roxas licked the last of his favorite ice cream off the stick, savoring its taste in his mouth. He tossed it casually off the ledge, not thinking once about littering. Normally he never littered, but he just decided that he didn't feel his getting his hands all sticky with the stickiness of the remaining stick.

"Okay mother."

"Hayner. I'm just giving you advice."

"See you guys tomorrow." Roxas waved, smiling at his friend's argument. Hayner was also the rebel of the group, though not a criminal or anything. He just disliked school with a passion. Roxas grabbed his faithful skateboard off the wall, tossed it onto the ground on its wheels, and began skateboarding.

"Bye, Roxas!" Pence said as Roxas zoomed by him. Roxas turned over his head and waved. Pence waved back.

Roxas, smiling to himself, went around the town for awhile on his skateboard. He loved skateboarding. There was just something about it, roaming around in a blur. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he just really, really enjoyed it.

He lived in the middle of town. Roxas really didn't want to go home at the moment, not because he had an abusive family or anything, it was simply because he could get carried away when it was skateboarding. He could spend hours on the thing.

He did little tricks on the sidewalks. He also couldn't help showing off in front of some random people, feeling invincible.

He went down numerous alley ways to perform more tricks on the trash cans, shocking some people who were in them.

He loved Twilight Town. Everything was always so…peaceful..

Roxas decided soon that it was getting dark and that he should head home. So he told himself that this alleyway was the last one, and afterwards, he would head home. So just as he skidded over a trash can, he caught a flash of something red below him.

He couldn't help it—he panicked.

He lost balance in mid-air, and the skateboard seemed to just abandon him. Roxas went tumbling to the ground, scraping his arm in the process, and he rolled a few times before actually stopping. He groaned, his arm burning from the fresh blood, and looked at it. There was blood, not a lot, but the scrape, he could tell, was going to be painful. It probably wouldn't heal for another week.

Great, he thought to himself. Just what I needed right before school.

And then he heard someone groan.

Confused, Roxas turned to his left to see a guy lying on the ground, his eyes closed.

He looked…like he wasn't from here. Like an outsider.

There were many outsiders who came to Twilight Town, but they were all the same. They looked foreign, acted differently, and many people who grew up here could tell from the start that they were from somewhere else. This guy was no different.

Roxas stared at him. He had bright red hair that fell back to his neck and was spiky as hell. He's never seen a hair cut like that before—it was startling. The guy was tall, that much he could tell, and Roxas immediately noticed he was skinny. Unhealthy skinny. His waist was, well, put it this way; Roxas could grab his waist with both of his hands and close them. That's how skinny he was. And he also wore this weird cloak—this black cloak with a hood and everything.

He looked…

Who was he?

Roxas crawled over to him, wondering if he was dead. He's never seen a dead person before. Please don't be dead…please don't be dead.

He stared at him for awhile, taking in the guy's features. He was pale, and looked unhealthy. He looked closer. It was weird. The guy had these two things—tattoos?—that were right below his eyes.

Who was he?

"Um, are you alright?" Roxas asked hesitantly. He sat on his knees, waiting for a response. When nothing came, he reached out to touch the person. The guy didn't move. So the blonde cautiously shook the guy's bony shoulder, shaking harder as he still got no response.

"Well shit." Roxas said after awhile. Was he dead? Unconscious? Should he bring the guy to the police station? He left his phone at the house in the morning, not thinking much of it.

"What should I do?" Roxas wondered aloud, racking through his brain to think of any clever ideas. What would any grown-up do?

His mother. She'd know the answer.

Roxas looked back at the guy. He didn't look like an adult, but he didn't look his own age. He looked older, by about two years or so.

Would he be heavy?

"Alright," Roxas said, taking a deep breath, "here goes."

He stood up, bent down, grabbed the guy's arms, and tried to put him into a sitting position. The guy's head hung, limp, as Roxas pulled him up. Shockingly, despite the guy's height, he wasn't heavy. He was very light. Roxas wasn't muscular, but he was able to pick him up and throw him over his shoulder. He was so tall that his feet almost touched the ground, so Roxas had to carefully carry him back to his skateboard.

Wait. How am I going to—

"ALIEN!" The guy shouted, startling Roxas. Roxas accidentally dropped him onto the floor, stumbling away from him like he was on fire. The guy was wide awake, his eyes open and alert, breathing heavily. "Get away, you alien!"

"Alien?" Roxas repeated, not understanding.

The guy looked at Roxas in terror. "Yes, don't think I don't know what you're trying to do! You're trying to experiment on me and dissect my brain."

"What?"

"Stay-stay away from me." The redhead backed up, eyeing Roxas like a wild beast. More like a spooked horse. "Don't come any closer."

Roxas didn't know what to do. "Do you need any help?"

"I SAID STAY AWAY!" He shouted, trembling. Roxas quirked an eyebrow. What the hell was up with him?

"Is something wrong?" Roxas asked, taking a step towards the frightened guy. He only backed up more, holding out his hands protectively as if Roxas would lash out and hurt him.

"Stay away. I'll hurt you—I swear I will."

"Please, I'm just trying to help."

"Oh no," The redheaded guy glanced around, getting more scared. Roxas couldn't understand what was wrong with him. "Zombies! They're coming! There's a whole swarm of them!" He stood up shakily, and began throwing punches around in the mid-air, as if there were invisible enemies trying to attack them.

Roxas just watched, his mouth agape.

It was then the redhead looked at Roxas, and he didn't look scared. "Well? What're you waiting for? Aren't you going to fight off the zombies?"

Roxas couldn't reply. He didn't know what to say.

"No! Help!" The guy fell to the ground, as if someone tackled him, and he began screaming bloody murder, flapping around like a fish pulled from the sea. "They've got me surrounded! No! Don't eat my flesh!"

And then he went silent and closed his eyes, as if he really died.

Roxas just stood there.

Did that really happen?

"Um, I don't know what's going on." Roxas began, taking a step towards the guy.

His eyes opened. Roxas flinched and backed away.

"Angel dust." He murmured dazedly. "Please…"

And then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he passed out.

What the hell?

Prologue

"It's most presumptuous to believe we already know all the answers and will never get any more big surprises. "

~Stanley Schmidt