Part One:

The Journey

Chapter One-

This was a dream, it had to be. It felt so real but around the edges of her sight it was blurry. She didn't know how she got there, she only knew that she was there now and that she wished she wasn't. The man in front of her smiled sickeningly and the fear that she felt was screaming in her head for her to run away. She couldn't though. Her body was numb, and she wasn't even sure if this actually was her body. It wasn't responding to any of her commands and she just stood there, rooted in place and unable to look away from the man's sadistic eyes as he wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed.

She couldn't see, she couldn't hear, she couldn't bre-

*Gasp*

Kami shot up in her bed, drenched in sweat and panting for air. Her eyes fantically scanned around her dark room, searching for any sign of movement. There's no man here. She thought to herself in an attempt to regain composure. It was just a nightmare. Just the same nightmare you've been having for the past two weeks. There's no man in your room. No man-

*Psst*

A screech tore itself from Kami's lips until a hand found and covered it. Kami grabbed the hand and twisted the arm, causing the perpetrator to yelp."Kami! Settle down, it's just me!" a man's voice yelled in a hushed tone.

Kami's eyes widened as they adjusted to the darkness and recognized the figure in front of her. It was her half-brother Kai. Kai and her were close friends ever since she was brought to her step-mother's retched house and he always looked after her dispite his mother's complaints. "I'm so sorry Oppa!" Kami said as she let go of his arm. Kai sat down on her old matress next to her, causing it to squeek, and patted her head. She looked up at him and found him staring down on her with his face full of concern. He was the only one who cared about her wellbeing and he was her only ray of light in this dark world of her's. "I didn't realize it was you. I thought it was-"

"The man from that nightmare of yours?" he asked her and she nodded. Kai sighed as he ran a hand through his brown, messy bed hair. "This has been going on for two weeks hasn't it? Maybe we should get you some help."

"No!" Kami grabbed his hand and frantically shook her head. "I don't want to cause any trouble, besides, mother wouldn't pay for it."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Then atleast will you let me stay here with you until you fall asleep?"

Kami bit her lip. It wan't like she didn't want Kai there, he really would have been able to help her fall asleep, but his room was so much better than hers that she felt it just wasn't right to keep him in her room. Her step-mother really didn't like her, and her shoddy spare bedroom just went to prove that. No matter how much Kami hated her step-mother and how she treated her, Kami couldn't exactly blame the woman. If her husband had cheated on her and had another baby with some woman that she suddenly now had to take care of, and then went and died like her father had done, Kami believed she would be pissed too. She just wished that her step-mother would realize that she wasn't the one to blame and would stop taking her anger out on her. "No it's fine, I'll manage. Just go back to your room."

The was silence as Kai stared at her before he sighed and stood up. "Just call me if you need anything."

"I will." She wouldn't really, she never did.

He walked out the door, and unbeknownst to her, he wished he would have stayed for his own sanity.

Kami lied there in her bed, looking up at her tiled ceiling, until morning came and it was time for her to make breakfast.

"You little idiot! The bacon is burning!" a shrill voice yelled into Kami's ear.

It's too early for this.

Kami turned to face her step-mother's small figure and bowed down in apology before she turned back to the stove and finished preparing breakfast for the 'family.'

"Seriously," her step-mother, Maerin, continued to rage as she took a seat next to her brother who was reading the newspaper. "You'd think that her mother would have at least taught her how to cook." Kami's uncle, Jinwook, hummed in agreement as he took a sip of his coffee before scowling and pushing it away from him, telling Kami to make him a better one.

Kami did as she was told, all the while trying to get ready for school. It was already past the time she was supposed to leave and that meant that she was sure to be late. Kai had already left earlier, since he hadn't shown up for breakfast. Though Kami did find it strange that she didn't hear him leaving the house considering she had ended staying up all night, but didn't think too much of it since he had a tendency to leave early so he could meet up with his friends. Kami finished serving breakfast and practically ran out of the house and towards the school.

She was in her last year of high school and worked as hard as she could to make up for always being late. Besides, actually doing her schoolwork unlike most students actually provided her mind an escape from her life. She had never been great at making friends when she was younger, always too boyish for the girls and too much of a girl for the boys, but she had always been able to make at least one or two friends through out her elementry and middle school life. It wasn't until she got to high school and started living with her step-mother that her life really changed. She had been around fourteen when her mother had passed away and her father had taken her in to live with him. That was when she had met Kai and Maerin, and Maerin was definitely not happy to see her. Kami remembered staying up several nights listening to her father and Maerin arguing about her living there. It wasn't long after she moved in that she started attending the local high school with Kai, who was a year older than her, and it was only slightly after that that her father had passed too, leaving her alone. Jinwook had moved in a month or two after to help support Maerin, much to Kami's distress, since in all honesty she didn't like him as much as he didn't like her. At least with Maerin Kami could understand where her hatred was coming from, she had no idea why Jinwook hated her as much as he did.

Ever since she had started living with them and attending the local school Kami had been unable to make frie