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[anarchangelic]

Hello to everyone. This will be my first attempt at this type of story. I never thought that I would try fan fiction, but after reading some of the ones that are up here, I have seen that they can be much more varied in content than I had always envisioned. So I guess I was inspired to try one myself by all of you guys. Maybe some of you will like it.


Awakenings section 1

Some of her muscles were as tight as stone, and others were so exhausted that they were practically begging her to just stop, right here on the sidewalk, and lie down for a bit.

I guess I should have gone with a taxi after all, she thought to herself, but Sayumi was only two blocks from home now, so she gave herself a silent ganbare as a joke. Immediately, the soreness of her muscles was pushed back from the front of her consciousness, as her mind shifted instead to the realization that she had just actually pumped her arms with the thought, without intending to.

It brought a smirk to her face, and she unconsciously brought her right hand up to push her long black hair behind her ear. As she did this, she also took a sneaking glance up and down the road, just to see if anyone might have noticed her impromptu self-encouragement. No one seemed to be looking at her though.

She was reminded of a time when a strong wind had blown her skirt right up, exactly when an older man had been gazing right in her direction. Was that ever embarrassing! Sayumi found herself wondering though, would it have been more or less of an embarrassment if it had been a hot young guy who had seen. Or what if it had even been an obvious fan, one who would then be counting his lucky stars for Mother Nature's little fanservice.

As she continued to walk, she reflected on the lessons they had gone through today. It was another new concert tour for her idol group, and it was always exciting, even though she had already been doing this for over 7 years now. She loved the live performances, but the first couple days of learning the steps to a new routine was always a slight system shock; very tiring, both physically and emotionally. But hey, I chose this life, didn't I? she thought with a smile. She wouldn't trade it for anything right now.

Sayumi was just now getting to the front of her apartment complex. If not for the slight rustling sound, she probably wouldn't have even noticed the animal perched on a nearby fence.

As she turned her head towards the sound, her eyes widened with surprise, and then appreciation. There was a brown coloured owl, just sitting there. It seemed to be looking right at her, its eyes piercing into her. She had the urge to exclaim kawaii, but it was stifled for some reason. The moment seemed too serious, but she couldn't understand why she felt that way.

Thoughts began to come in. What was this doing here, in the city? Do we even have owls like this anywhere around here? She couldn't remember ever having seen one outside of the zoo. She had an image of the bird accidentally getting on board a ship somewhere else, and then flying for freedom when the ship entered Tokyo harbor. It was probably totally lost now, she thought, and had a moment of sympathy for it.

She wanted to show her mom, who should be at home right now. She pulled her cell phone out of her bag, without taking her eyes off the owl. It felt strange, dialing the number to her home when she was in actuality only metres from it.

She heard it ring once, but then suddenly a sharp, loud tone rang out of the phone, hurting her eardrums. She involuntarily took the phone away from her ear, but the sound only seemed to get louder. It was a high pitched shriek now, almost like a whistle of some type. She tried to hit the off button, but the sound kept coming through.

An inexplicable feeling of dread began to creep up on her, and from the corner of her eye, a dark and shimmering shape seemed to emerge from a nearby shrub hedge.

Sayumi jerked her head in the direction of it. At first it seemed like a cloud of smoke was coming out of the bush. For a moment she thought that it might have caught fire or something.

In a matter of seconds though, the “smoke” started to take on a definitive shape. The hairs on her arms and neck stood up, and her skin became flushed with a shiver, as a pair of haunting red eyes seemed to emerge from the smoke, which now had the vague outline of a dog . . . or a wolf.

Sayumi screamed. Her pitch matched the tone which was still pouring out from the phone in her hand. She wanted to run, but she was frozen in fear. She wanted to look away, but the eyes were hypnotic.

She drew in her breath to scream again, but her throat seemed to close. The sound just didn't want to come out now, as if it feared it would spur the animal to attack.

The image of the wolf was now fully formed. It was not smoky at all, but seemed a true flesh-and-blood creature. Sayumi was still rooted in place. She willed herself to move, but the muscles just wouldn't respond.

Her fear reached a peak, her eyes wider than they'd ever been before, as it appeared the animal was readying to leap for her. In that instant, a flying brown mass entered her field of vision, crashing right into her arm. She dropped her phone, which hit the ground with a loud cracking sound. The owl then leapt right onto the phone, and started freaking out, wings flapping furiously. She could only see this out of her periphery, her eyes still glued to the wolf's.

The wolf leapt . . . and disappeared into a plume of black smoke (or was it ash?), a mere metre away from Sayumi's face.

She immediately fell down onto her ass, as if all tension in her body suddenly left. She screamed on lapsed impulse, but only briefly. She looked around, and saw a young girl, maybe 10 years old, looking at her . . .

[Hexoone]

not bad. mysterious and perfect ambience. good. looking forward to this.

[oddball]

Ohh definatly an interesting start, lots of mystery already going on, wanting to find out more about this mysterious wolf now!

[anarchangelic]

Alright then. Thanks for the responses. My own personal uncertainties compelled me to wait and see what anyone said before continuing. So here we go again . . .

Awakenings section 2

“Are you okay?” the girl shouted from far away. At this point, tears were falling from Sayumi's eyes. She jerked her head around in all directions. She couldn't see any signs of a wolf . . . and there was also no owl around either, at least nowhere she could see. Sayumi turned back to face the little girl.

“Yes. I'm okay,” she said. Of course, Sayumi did not feel okay. Not at all. What the hell just happened? She crawled over to her phone and picked it up. She noticed that the little girl was hesitantly walking closer to her.

“I wonder why that bird attacked you?” the girl said quizzically.

“You saw that?” Sayumi returned, as she slowly got to her feet.

“Yeah . . . maybe it was crazy or something! Did it bite you?”

“No . . . I don't think so,” she began, her mind still not quite all back to rationality, not able to understand the reality of what just transpired. “Did you see anything else?”

“Huh . . . like what?” the girl said, full of innocence. So there it was . . . the girl hadn't seen any wolf, or smoke. Did I hallucinate or something?

“Never mind. Well . . . thanks for checking to see if I was okay. What's your name?”

“Kage,” she said. What a strange name, Sayumi thought to herself.

“I'm Sayumi. Nice to meet you Kage.”

Kage cracked a big smile. All apprehension was gone. “I really like your skirt. It's so pretty,” she said. It was so out of nowhere, that Sayumi couldn't help but laugh for a couple seconds before she could respond.

“Thank you. I think you look pretty too.” This brought a sparkle to the eyes of Kage. “Do you live around here?”

“Yeah. Just down over there,” Kage said, raising her arm and pointing. Sayumi couldn't be sure, but she thought she could tell which building she was pointing to.

“Well, kage . . . I'm going to go inside now. If you ever see me on the street again, please come say hi, okay?”

“Okay. Bye,” she said with a wave, and turned to start walking, giving a glance behind her every now and then. Sayumi then proceeded to do the same.

Once she was finally in the door, only then did she feel fully safe again. But she had imagined it, right? The wolf I mean. But why? Had her mind really been that exhausted lately? Maybe she hadn't been getting enough sleep? But nothing like that had ever happened to her before. It was so strange. Should I even tell the other girls? Or mom?

She was feeling so tired now, as she got right up to the door to her apartment. She really wanted a nice relaxing bath, and then maybe she should go right to sleep. She could decide tomorrow whether she wanted to talk about it with anybody.

She opened the door and entered the apartment. She called out a greeting. A few moments passed as Sayumi took off her shoes, but she didn't get a response. She tried another, a little louder, as she walked further into the hall. Nothing. She checked the bedrooms and bathroom. It seemed that her mother wasn't home after all. Kuso. Even if she wasn't going to say anything about the strange encounter, Sayumi had still wanted to feel the comfort of company right now. The quietness of the place was making her feel a little eerie, and she didn't want that right now.

Sayumi began the preparations for a bath. She started heating the water, and then went about getting a CD to listen to when she got in. Some people might say it's narcissistic to listen to your own stuff, but Sayumi couldn't help it. She was as much a fan of her group, as she was a member.

She began undressing, and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She had to laugh out loud. Not at herself, but at a thought she couldn't help but have every time she was naked lately. She had recently answered in a questionnaire, that if she were ever reborn as a guy, she would first want to see herself fully nude. It was an honest answer,right? Probably everyone would think of that if they were suddenly the opposite sex, right?

The fan response to the answer had been larger than Sayumi had expected. In a good way though. But now, she couldn't help but picture herself as a guy every other time she saw herself naked. Surely it would pass with time though, she thought.

So eventually Sayumi got into the bath, anticipating the relaxation. In a way, the CD that was playing, was equal parts entertainment, and work research. The songs were fun to listen to, but also were helpful for envisioning and memorizing certain dance routines.

And of course, it was always helpful to practice singing, for as good as it would do her. What Sayumi wouldn't give for one tour with Reina or Ai-chan's vocal chords! She often had thoughts like that, but it really wasn't jealousy. Everyone had their own best talents, right? Sayumi knew that hers lay more in her portrayal of her personality and beauty. Her singing would never be in a high tier, but she wanted to work hard to do as best as she could.

At this point, Sayumi was actually amazed that she had seemed to have brushed off the weird experience outside. She should be more worried about it, she thought. Perhaps she was just too tired to think on it too much.

Once she was out of the bath, she should probably do a blog entry before going to sleep. Or maybe she would just wait until the morning?

Her mind was lazily sorting through the things she might talk about in this entry. Without any preconscious thought to do so, her mind began to wander to other things. She had envisioned things like this many times in the past already, and she was beyond bothering to feel embarrassed about it anymore.

Sayumi always managed to keep these types of thoughts out of her mind when they were together. It would be so unprofessional to be fantasizing in any way while they were trying to work together, but in her private time, Sayumi didn't see any harm in sometimes thinking about her friends in that way.

Envisioning scenarios . . . was just simple fun. With all the attention they got from fans, they still all had their own type of loneliness, didn't they? It's not that she never fantasized about men, but in the end, those fantasies almost seemed too . . . painful, given that she was still not able to be near any in that way, unless she wanted to pull a Mari. But hey, she was married now, so maybe she had the right idea? Sayumi couldn't help but wonder at this sometimes, but she always told herself that there were too many benefits to staying in the group and being popular. She would have plenty of time for that later. So for now, what harm could there be in allowing a few naughty thoughts about the people she worked with so closely? She often wondered in any of the other girls ever thought about her in a more-than-friends way too.

Time passed as she allowed herself a plethora of imagery. She didn't want to delve too much right now; she was too tired to get really into it. She was finally just starting to consider getting out . . . and then everything went dark.

All the lights were off, even from the CD player. The music had stopped. It was pitch black. There was no light coming from anywhere.

Sayumi was trying her best not to overreact. This was obviously just a power outage. But then she heard a noise . . . coming from somewhere around the kitchen it seemed.

It was . . . a growling.

[oddball]

Ah what is going on, the wolf suddenly disappears and this girl acts as like nothing has happened, only, only for the wolf to re-appear!

[Glasseyelashes]

oh wow!! i really like your story! it's really pretty scary! and i don't scare easily. i guess the wolf didn't bite her when it leaped onto her arm? and that owl? it must be some sort of protector. anywho, this is really good! i hope you continue with this story.

[anarchangelic]

I'm happy to write more as long as I know someone likes it,lol.


Awakenings section 3

The rumble was low and long. Sayumi couldn't move. A few moments passed, and then she jumped when something seemed to touch the bathroom door from outside.

“Mom?” she managed to cry out. There was no response, at first. Then the growling returned, along with a scraping sound that Sayumi envisioned as claws pawing at the door.

She was crying now, though soundlessly, instincts of prey having kicked in. She didn't know what to do. Then she had a thought, and began to fumble in the dark for her phone. She had left in here thankfully, but had to get right out of the tub to fetch it. Sayumi was dripping everywhere, but there was no time to worry about drying off.

Finally, she had it in hand, but the screen wouldn't come on. What the hell? She only realized now that she had never really tested it after the incident. That owl might have broken it! She tried hitting various buttons that she couldn't see, but nothing happened. She couldn't get any type of tone from any of them either. The whole thing was dead.

A massive noise nearly made her slip and fall. It sounded like something had burst through a closed door, but thankfully not this one. All of a sudden there was a cascade of barking and scuffling noises. Something was fighting out there.

And then she heard a voice. It was a male's . . . shouting angrily it seemed. It was not Japanese that he was speaking. With the door blocking her, and the noises of things crashing into walls, it was hard to be sure, but it might've been English. Then again, it might just as likely been German or French.

The voice, and the barking (howling even) began to get farther. It seemed they were out of the apartment at this point. Sayumi was right at the bathroom door, listening. The sounds got even softer, until eventually she couldn't hear anything anymore.

She gathered her courage, and opened the door a tiny bit, peering through the crack. Finally, a bit of light. It would be coming through the window in the living room. It was very faint from here though, coming around the corner. It was also later in the evening now, so the light was dimmer to begin with.

After waiting a full minute, listening for sounds, Sayumi was convinced that they were gone, whatever they were. She opened the door fully, and used the light to grab a towel. She dried off a bit, quickly, and then wrapped the towel around her, prepared to venture out.

She ran right to a phone, picked it up. No dial tone. She tried the numbers, but none of them would do anything. She ran to a light switch on the wall. It wouldn't turn on. Neither would the TV.

So the power and the phones were completely out? Had something bad happened? The horrible earthquake was still fresh in the minds for all Japanese surely, Sayumi included. She couldn't help but wonder if another incident like that had happened. She hadn't felt any tremors, but maybe they had happened somewhere else, somewhere that had lead to repercussions in terms of electricity and telephone signals? It seemed like a stretch. Maybe it was just this building? Maybe something was broken? That didn't explain why her cell phone didn't work, but that might have already been broken.

Any of these theories though, sure didn't explain who or what had been in the apartment.

Sayumi quickly ran and put some clothes on. She needed to get out of here. Tentatively, she headed for the door, which was wide open. There was a large streak of what looked to be blood all over the door. As she exited into the hall, she could see a thin trail of more blood heading towards the stairs.

“Anybody out here!” she called. She glanced up and down the hallway, and then proceeded to walk towards the elevator, banging on doors as she went. No one answered. She decided to just flat out yell, to see if anyone could hear her. No one came out of any of the doors.

She got to the elevator and pressed the button. Just as she did, she realized it probably wouldn't work. She was right. The button, and the floor lights above would not light up, and she couldn't hear any sounds suggesting the elevator might be moving.

She turned towards the stairwell, reluctantly entering. There was more blood on the stairs, and she stopped for a moment to listen for anything. When satisfied, she began to slowly walk down the stairs.

She got down to the main floor. There was no one in the lobby area. She quickly went outside, tension and fear mounting. For all she knew, that wolf might be right out there.

She got right out into the street. There was nobody around. There were no lights on any of the buildings which might've had them.

“Anybody?” Sayumi yelled, full volume. Her voice cracked a little, as sobbing threatened to over take her. She was more afraid than she'd ever been. What should I do? Never had these words held more meaning.

And then a strange noise broke the silence. It was like a crackling of some sort coming from . . . somewhere. Sayumi began to track the noise, jogging down the street. Maybe it would be better to go in the opposite direction, she considered for a moment, but ultimately, she needed to find somebody or something.

Finally, she turned a corner, and saw what was making the noise. There was something moving on the road, slowly. From here, it vaguely resembled a tree, without leaves or needles or anything. Just a trunk really, a wood pillar. It was moving, and seemed to be cracking through the concrete as it did! What the hell was it? Sayumi began to get a little closer, and as she did, it looked up and at her! She could see now, that it had a face!

“What's happening to me?” it pleaded, shocking her. That voice . . . it couldn't be . . .

Suddenly, something erupted right out of the ground next to the “tree”. It was an undulating vine of some sort, a tentacle of earth. It wavered for a moment before it shot towards the tree, wrapping around it. The tree screamed.

And Sayumi screamed, because she couldn't see anything. It was pitch black, or was she blind? She was all wet. And then she realized . . . she was in the bath.

Suddenly, her mother opened the door in a panic.

“Sayumi. Are you okay?” she began frantically. Sayumi realized that she had screamed, and that it had all been a dream.

“Yeah mom, I'm fine. I just . . . had a nightmare I think.”

“What do you mean a nightmare? What are you doing sleeping in here . . . that's dangerous!” She flicked the lights on.

“Sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep . . . and I don't remember turning out the lights.”

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah. I'm going to get out now.”

“Okay” Sayumi's mom closed the door as she left, concerned at her daughter's strange behaviour. Sayumi got out of the tub and dried off with a towel.

At that moment her phone went off. She still felt disoriented from the dream, but she wanted to answer. She grabbed for it and clicked without really looking at who it was. “Hello?”

“Mishige-san?” There was only one person who called her that, and images of her strange dream came flooding back.

“It's strange for you to be calling me out of the blue like this,” Sayumi said, with a joking tone. The person on the other end however, sounded to be in a completely serious mood.

“You're right, but I just had to tell you something now, before I might forget any of it. It's about this strange dream I just had...”

[oddball]

Ahh, this just keeps on getting weirder and weirder!!!, just quite what is going on, and why has it happened to Sayu, and this other person?

[Glasseyelashes]

oh my gosh! this is such an interesting story! i just can't figure it out! >< i don't know that i've ever read a story quite like this, and i'm one of the original fanfic subforumers.

[anarchangelic]

I definitely appreciate the compliments of/interest in the story. They are inspiration to continue. These 3 parts were the only ones I had written in advance, so it might take me a little longer to post some more now, but I promise I will soon.

Edit: Well I managed to write some more a little quicker than I thought I would. Not sure how long this pace will hold out though, we'll see.

Awakenings section 4

Two days had passed. They had seemed so long. Because of their respective schedules, they had been unable to meet up on the day following the “dreams”. Now they were set to meet up for a late dinner, but of course, the food was not the reason for the meeting.

Sayumi was thinking back to the phone call she had received that night. The things that had been said had been shocking, to the point that Sayumi had asked the other person to stop before she said anything else. If she had heard anymore at that time, there was no way she would have been able to go to sleep. So she suggested that they talk about it in person, and preferably somewhere at least partially public.

They would have a semi-private booth in the restaurant they were going to. No one would be able to hear what they were talking about unless they got too loud, but they could also feel the comfort and safety of knowing that there were other people not far away.

I suppose . . . Sayumi felt a little afraid that to talk about it might invite a recurrence of some sort. As silly as that sounded, she didn't want to take the chance of being totally alone, just in case.

At this point, Sayumi had arrived, and was waiting just outside the restaurant. It wouldn't be long now.

A couple minutes passed . . . and there was Momoko, heading in her direction. Given the nature of their meeting, it was hard to know just how to greet her. Was this an occasion to smile and wave? Would they put on any of their traditional cutesy battle routines with each other? Sayumi decided to wait for Momoko to set the tone.

“Mishige-san.” It was said with a smile, but with an undertone of some unidentifiable emotion. So Sayumi followed in a neutral tone.

“Shall we go in?” she said, motioning her in.

“Let's go.” With this, there was a little more bravado, but that was just second nature with them. At least in Sayumi's case, she always found that she said these types of phrases with a little more idol flair, no matter the circumstances. She had noticed that at least some of the other members were the same way.

The girls entered the restaurant, and the unseen eyes which had been trailing their movements decided to take flight for now, leaving them to their own protection.

After being seated to a table, they perused the menu, sorting through options. In reality, they were both full of nervous anticipation concerning what they had to talk about.

When the waitress came to them, they had agreed on what to get, and ordered promptly. Once the waitress left, there was a minute of awkward silence, as both found it difficult to decide exactly what to say first. Finally . . . Momoko found her voice first.

“So I told you a little about my dream on the phone, but I should probably start from the beginning again.”

“Okay.” Sayumi wanted to hear the dream, but already knew that there was much more to this than just dreams. Sayumi had stayed very vague on the phone, merely mentioning that she'd had a freaky experience too. So Momoko didn't actually know just how strange things were. Once Momoko told her everything, then it would be Sayumi's turn to fill her in on things that surely were more than coincidence.

Momoko cleared her throat. “So . . . I wasn't really trying to go to sleep yet. It was still early. I was just . . . lying down.” The way that Momoko said the last words gave Sayumi the intuition that she might be hiding something, but she didn't want to call her on it now.

“I guess I was more tired than I thought, and I fell asleep. But keep in mind, that at that time, I didn't know I was dreaming, because the dream started right there, with me in my room.”

Sayumi decided that it would be better to interject a little now, to add parallel, rather than save it all for the end. “It was the same for me. I didn't know that it was a dream because I was still right there in my bath.”

“Ehhh?”

If Momoko was already surprised at that minor coincidence, then she was in for a shock.

Momoko continued, “So first thing . . . all the lights went off.” Sayumi simply nodded her head this time, not wanting to break up the narrative again. Momoko wasn't sure if the nod was simply an acknowledgment, or an indication that Sayumi had experienced the same, but kept going.

“So I thought the power had gone out, and I left my room. Right away I could tell that no one else was home. I wondered where they were, but before I had any time to think about anything else, crazy stuff started happening.

“First, a desk in the living room started rattling, and I thought it might be an earthquake for a moment. But nothing else was moving. And then, the desk . . . flew at me all of a sudden! It almost hit me, but it didn't quite move far enough. Then it started rattling again, so I bolted for the door.”

Momoko was high-spirited and actually smiling when she described these events. Sayumi figured that she had not really been that scared of the dream after all, or she was putting on a brave front now, since time had passed.

“I quickly opened the door and ran into the hallway, the apartment building hallway I mean. Just as I closed the door behind me there was loud crash, so I think the desk must have flew all the way to the door! It totally would have got me if I hadn't run quickly.

“So now I thought to call somebody. I didn't have my phone, but I wasn't going back for it obviously. So I went next door and knocked. Nobody answered for a while, and I guess at this point I don't really remember exactly how I felt. What exactly did I think was going on? All the lights out here in the hall were out also.

“So I decided to just try the next door, but as I approached it, the whole door started rattling, as if it was going to bust right off! So I ran for the stairs and went all the way down to the first floor. That's when I could see that there was no electricity at all, even outside on the street. I didn't really want to go out, but then I heard some crazy cracking noises behind me. I tuned, but I couldn't see anything. The noises got louder though, so I freaked out and ran outside.

“I saw that nobody was out there, no cars either. I was pretty scared at this point, and I was thinking 'what do I do?' And then the weird cracking noises started again, but they seemed like they were coming from all around me, so I didn't know where to run at all. Then right in front of me, the ground just split open. They way you see in pictures of earthquakes sometimes. I tried to move away from the crack, but it suddenly expanded, and I fell in. Not like I disappeared down a hole or anything, I just mean my legs were caught . . .”

Momoko paused here, as if to catch her breath, or confirm something in her mind before continuing. Sayumi figured this was the perfect place to jump in. Now was the time to test her theory.

“Before you say what happened next, Momo, I should jump in.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“Well . . . here goes nothing, but did you somehow turn into something sort of like a tree trunk?”

The expression on Momoko's face was all the confirmation Sayumi needed.

“How did you know? I haven't told anyone else!”

“Momo, this might sound crazy . . . but I had the same dream.”

“Ehhh?”

“I don't mean that I had your dream exactly, but that both our dreams were connected somehow. They lined up. I saw you as the “tree” at the end of my dream, sort of plowing through the street.”

“Yes! That's what happened! I couldn't get out of the crack on the road, but once my body started shifting into wood, I had the power to sort of crash through the road. It was like I was caught in a mud swamp or something. I couldn't get out, but I could move forward at least. And eventually I saw you on the street, so I called out to you.”

“ I remember that, and then . . . something else appeared. Like a big vine, and it grabbed you.”

“Yes, and when it got me I screamed. And then I woke up screaming. My mom burst into my room in confusion, and I realized it had just been a nightmare.”

“It ended right at the same moment for me too, and my mom came into the bathroom in a similar fashion.”

Several moments passed in silence, both girls considering the possible implications of this.

“So . . . I decided to call you. I kind of felt stupid when I first went to the phone. I mean, I've had . . . dreams with other members in it before, but I was never compelled to tell them right away. For some reason I felt something was different about this one.”

“So did I,” Sayumi said, also noting the odd pause Momo had taken before she said the word “dreams”.

“How can this be real? Momoko said, her voice reflecting her disbelief.

“I don't know. But there might be even more to it than just dreams.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well . . . something else weird happened to me a little before I had the dream.” Momo's eyes widened a bit in anticipation. She waited for Sayumi to go on. “I at first thought that maybe I had hallucinated or something, but now that I know for sure that something out of the ordinary is happening . . . I'm thinking that it was probably real somehow.”

Sayumi proceeded to recount in full, her encounter with the owl and the smoke wolf, and then the details of the dream from her perspective. Momoko listened to every detail with full attention, taking in the bizarreness.

“So think back, Momo. Did anything else strange happen to you that day?” Her brow scrunched up in concentration, eyes searching her memories, but if something like that had happened, surely it would have left an impact.

“No. Nothing happened to me. Are you . . . sure it wasn't just another dream, or . . . part of the same dream, but you just remember the timing wrong?” Sayumi thought a bit at this.

“I guess it's possible, but I'm not going to rule out other possibilities either.”

“So what do we do now?”

As soon a Momoko said this, their food arrived. By now, the girls had almost forgotten where they were, and they were startled back to reality by the intrusion.

They thanked their waitress, mirrored each other with “itadakimasu”, and began to eat. After a few bites here and there, Sayumi finally responded to the earlier question.

“I don't know if there's anything we can do right now. I mean . . . we could tell people, but they might think were making it up, or pulling a prank or something. Probably only people who've had something mystical happen to them will believe us.”

“Right.”

“So I guess it will just be our secret. It looks like people in this world can somehow share brainwaves when they sleep or something. Maybe it's not so mysterious after all.”

Momoko smiled now, a cute little toothy grin. “I wonder why it happened to us then?”

“Maybe it only happens to the cutest people?” It was out of Sayumi's mouth before she had even thought about it, and both her and Momoko were silent for a moment, before they both burst out laughing in earnest.

“Soo desu ne?” they both said in unison, which brought on a renewed fit of giggling.

And so they shared a secret connection now, one that might make them better friends. There was nothing to do but go on with their lives for now. Unless of course . . . something were to happen again . . .


Meanwhile . . . the eyes from above had found the other one. It wished that she would come to know the two who had already come together, but it somehow understood that she would take a little more prodding before she would be convinced of the necessity to meet.

[anarchangelic]

Awakenings section 5

She was at home now. Perusing on the computer. Specifically, she was at least nominally still looking for information regarding her “experience” of two days ago.

She was looking through reference sites, and browsing forums. She had found some things within supernatural lore which had contained at least some parallels to the things she had experienced. She also had found some people on sites who were discussing dreams and nightmares, and some similarities existed there also.

She had almost decided to reveal her experience to these people. It would be anonymous, right? She could make up any screen name, and use an alternate email address if she really wanted to avoid any possible contact in that way. In the end however, she opted to not bother. There would likely be some comfort in revealing these things to someone (even a stranger), and to get feedback, but in truth, the only real relief would be to actually talk to the only other person who had appeared in the nightmare (Not including the “man” in the robe of course).

It was a little silly, wasn't it? To be this obsessed over a mere dream. But there was just something unnatural about it, and something had happened that day as well, but she couldn't quite be sure that that had even been real.

Whatever the case was, she couldn't get her mind off it. She had even been distracted while performing at the theatre today, and she found herself hoping that she hadn't looked dull or uncaring in front of her fans.

She didn't want to go on alone with this eating away at her. She wanted to talk to Michishige-san directly, but there was a barrier between them, wasn't there? It would pretty much be taboo to try to contact her personally. And so she had just reconfirmed that she was willing to just try to let this fade . . . when a noise alerted her. It was . . . a flapping sound?

“Mom! Did you hear that?” she shouted, aiming her voice towards her mother's room. Her door was wide open, so she would be able to hear her.

“Hear what?”

“Never mind. I just thought I heard something strange.”

“I didn't hear anything.”

“Okay.” At this point, she got up from where the computer was, and decided to go to her room. She passed right by her mom's room, and upon glimpsing her, added, “I'm going to go to be soon, so oyasayumin. . .” She realized her mistake right away, laughing at herself internally, but her mom would be oblivious to the origin of her word. Her mother either didn't notice clearly enough, or just didn't want to bother correcting her apparent pronunciation mistake, so responded as normal.

“Oyasumi nasai, Yuki.”

Smiling to herself as she turned, Yuki entered her room and shut the door behind her. She began to undress, placing her clothes in a corner of the room. She walked over to her closet, prepared to grab the pajamas she had decided to wear tonight . . . but she was startled just as her arm was raised.

It was the same sound! But definitely louder, and it sounded like it was right outside her window. She tiptoed over to the window. It was at head-height, so there was no worry about exposing her nakedness to the outside world.

As soon as she got up to the glass, she immediately saw what must have made the noise; there was a brown owl, just sitting on the rail of the balcony which was attached to the living room.

With the windows closed, how had she heard this bird? The flapping of its wings couldn't be that loud. She was quickly reminded of the incident two nights past. The type of bird was different, but it seemed there was something odd going on here too, wasn't there? It was certainly rare if not unheard of to see an owl around here. Was this a coincidence? Or was it somehow related?

She had a momentary impulse to turn away and go fetch her pajamas, but found that she couldn't. She had glimpsed its eyes directly, and they seemed to be holding her in place. Its gaze was . . . piercing.

She suddenly felt cold. Was it just because she lacked clothes, or was something else making her shiver? She couldn't break eye contact. She wasn't scared, not like she'd been the other time. She certainly felt strange, but not necessarily in a bad way. There was something almost . . . pleasant happening. She had an odd sensation that she was being filled up with something. A warmness, from the pit of her stomach, was spreading outwards, enveloping her. Connecting with her somehow.

She had an impression that she was being strengthened in some way, that a tide of power was rising from within. Very quickly, it was almost more than Yuki could bare. She wanted to scream out, shake her head, bite her lip; anything to release the tension, but still she couldn't move. The sensation seemed to reach an apex, and then suddenly it was gone.

At that same moment, a black mass darted past her window, smashing directly into the owl. She watched in complete shock, eyes wide, as two entangled forms plummeted down to the ground. It was the raven! The same as before. The two birds were battling; a mass of feathers crashing and colliding. The exchange was brief though, as quickly the raven seemed to dissipate, much as it had two nights ago.

From the look of it though . . . the damage had been done. The owl, if triumphant, was now visibly struggling to move. It seemed unable to lift its wings in flight, short and frantic flaps getting it nowhere, as it clumsily hopped forward. And soon . . . it ceased motion entirely.

Yuki ran for her door, remembering she was naked upon grabbing the knob. She turned and quickly put on the pajamas she had nearly got to before. Not exactly outside wear, but it would be the quickest to get on at this point.

The clothes were barely over her as she streaked past her mother's room, who's door was closed now. She bolted out of the apartment, and quickly rushed down the stairwell. The outer door was opened, and her bare feet made no sound as she walked the paces towards the fallen animal.

As she got next to it, she could see its heavy, laboured breathing. Its eyes opened, and Yuki was again filled with the same inexplicable feeling as before.

She knelt down beside the bird, and gathered it into her arms. She hadn't even thought about it in advance; she just did it. She knew it wasn't going to bite her or anything. She was pretty much cradling it like a baby now, looking into its eyes.

The feeling was growing again. Not quite to the strength it had been up in her room, but still palpable. The thought to take the owl to a veterinarian finally made its way into her mind. She was about to rise . . . when the bird's eyes closed. A moment later, its breathing stopped.

“No,” she said, barely audible. Tears were pooling in her eyes. To see any animal die right in front of her would surely bring Yuki sorrow, but there was definitely something more to this one. She didn't know what was going on, but she now knew that it was still ongoing. The events of two days ago had not been an isolated incident.

The tears were fully streaming down her cheeks now. She had really felt something strange, hadn't she? It was real, whatever it was. And there was no way she was going to keep this to herself anymore. There was something clearly at stake here; these events couldn't be random.

She had no idea what was going on, but Sayumi might be a part of it. So putting aside all industry imposed rivalry concerns, Yuki was going to get into contact with Michishige-san.

She continued to sit there for several moments, not sure what to do right now. She gently took the owl out of her lap and placed it on the ground. She had the thought to bury it, but something quickly began to occur.

The bird began to decay, right before her eyes. The colouring faded, the wings molted, and its mass seemed to shrink. It almost seemed as if it were sinking into the ground now. Yuki could have sworn that the grass itself seemed to be . . . moving, parting to give the dead form access to the earth below.

As the bird sunk lower, she could now clearly see that the ground was moving. The dirt began to rise up and envelop the owl. Until finally, the creature could no longer be seen. The lump of dirt became smaller and smaller, until the ground was again completely level. And then, within the span of a minute, grass sprouted and grew until there was no longer any indication that the ground had been disturbed. No evidence that anything had even occurred, thought Yuki.

She stood up, bewildered, but not in any way questioning her sanity. Obviously something of a supernatural element was happening, and if she was going to make better sense of it, she'd better explore the angle of the dream. That was the only clue she could really go with right now, so it would be best to talk to the one who had been in it, just in case there was a connection there.

As she made her way back inside, she thought she saw someone at the end of her floor's hall for a moment, but when she fully raised her head, there was nothing there. Jumping at shadows now; I guess I can't really blame myself.

She entered her apartment, locked it behind her, and went to her room. She immediately noticed a discrepancy when she glanced at the clock. It was past 3:00 a.m.! When did that happen? She checked her phone next, to make sure that the clock wasn't just malfunctioning, but it too confirmed the hour.

She couldn't be sure of the exact time, but Yuki knew that it had been the late evening when she had said goodnight to her mother and entered her room. It certainly had not been the early hours of the next day. Where had all that time gone?

All strangeness aside, she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. She told herself to just forget about it for now. She needed to rest, and there was nothing to be done until tomorrow anyways. She was very suddenly hit with an overwhelming sense of hunger, but decided that she couldn't be bothered to put anything together; and so stomach rumbling, Yuki slipped into bed, and fell asleep instantly . . .





Somewhere . . .
A Page Turned . . .
Yume Mita . . .




(Please read the attachment next.)

Attached Files

•  Yuki Yume.pdf   14.71K   8 downloads

[Glasseyelashes]

wow! this is so crazy! but i love it! i still can't figure out left or right in this story. >< so, yuki, is she momo? or someone else? i'm a little bit lost on that part.

[anarchangelic]

With my writing style, you're not wrong to be looking for hidden allegories,lol. But no, Yuki is not a metaophor for Momo or anything like that. She is a third separate girl. The break between parts might have left ambiguity on the timing, but as Sayu and Momo are in the restaurant, the part with Yuki does happen right after that. The "eyes from above" had just flown from the restaurant to Yuki's place as Momo and Sayu were talking. If you're not sure who Yuki is a reference of, don't worry, it will be clear in the next part.

[Glasseyelashes]

ahh, i see now. either way, this is one awesome story! so well written, and so different.

[oddball]

Man this story is so confusing, but in a good way, it keeps me guessing and it's been a while since that happened, need to find out what is happening!!!!!!

[anarchangelic]

Awakenings section 6

Sayumi awoke with a start. She was instantly alert, with no sense of drowsiness or low clarity. She looked around her room. She felt . . . something. She felt as if she had to be on guard.

She unconsciously pulled her legs inwards, and proceeded to sit up against the wall. There was nothing in her room. Even in the low light, she could be sure of that. So why do I feel so paranoid?

Maybe she'd had another nightmare? That would be the most obvious explanation for her tension. If she had though, she couldn't remember anything about it.

She looked over at there clock. It was really early in the morning. What a waste! It was her day off, and she had planned on catching up on sleep. There was no reason to be up this early, but she could tell that her body (or was it her mind?) did not want to go back to sleep.

She returned to a laying position to relax for just a bit longer. Memories of last night's dinner with Momo came flashing, and it brought a smile to her face. It felt so much better to have fully discussed these strange occurrences with someone else, and of course it was even better that Momo had experienced some of the same. Well maybe it wasn't better for Momo, Sayu thought with a slightly self-chastising smirk, but it makes it easier for me to know that I'm not alone in this, whatever it all is.

They had pretty much decided to not make a big deal about their shared dream; not right now at least. Even if they were able to convince some of their friends of the truth of it, inevitably some others would be too weirded out by their story; either thinking them crazy, or liars. They didn't want to be responsible for causing any tension like that. Their lives were far too busy to let this distract them too much anyway. So best to just forget and move on.

So . . . if I'm not going to get some extra sleep, what else should I do today? She found herself quickly wishing that Momo had the day off too. It was almost strange how much closer Sayu felt to Momo because of these few days. She definitely wanted to hang out with her a lot more from now on, if possible.

Her mind wandered to Eri next, and for a moment she almost felt bad that she hadn't thought of her first. With what's going on, it's only natural that I would have thought of Momo first. And besides, things were different with Eri now, weren't they? As much as Sayu loved her, and would still obviously call Eri her best friend, they just didn't see each other as much anymore. It was regrettable, but it was just a fact of life, wasn't it? Since they were no longer working together on a weekly basis, it was only natural that there friendship had lightened out a little bit.

Even when they did get together, it wasn't completely the same as it once was. There were certain things that they just weren't on the same page with anymore. There were some internal things within the group that Eri just wasn't part of anymore, and from the opposite end, there were things that Eri was doing in her life that Sayu couldn't fully identify with.

This was not necessarily bad, just different. On certain topics, they just spoke a little differently with each other than they once did. Of course, there were still tonnes of topics where they were as tight and inside-jokey as ever; plenty of nostalgic memories to reference and play upon.

They were still a fantastic pair, always creating fun for each other. There was only a few places where they were growing apart a bit, but those types of changes are to be expected. No one stay the same forever, so it's only natural that friendships must change in certain ways in reflection of this.

Sayu was thinking through these types of things as she finally decided to get up out of bed. It was way too early to bother texting Eri, so Sayu decided to take a bath now.

It was slightly annoying that just the thought of taking a bath made her remember the nightmare. She didn't want her brain to forever link that frightening experience to the relaxation of bathing. She hoped that it would only be like that for a short while, so as not to ruin how much she enjoyed her bath time. Surely the lingering tension of these experiences over the last few days would begin to fade soon.

Sayu tried to zone out her thoughts while in the bath, with partial success at least.

After she had been in for a while, there was a knock on the door. For a second it startled her, reminding her of the wolf at the door.

“Yes?”

“I didn't expect you to be up at this time on your day off.” The voice of her mother of course.

“Me either. I'm surprised that I woke up so early,” Sayu responded.

“Do you want me to make you some breakfast?”

“Yes, please. I'm going to get out right away.”

“Okay.”

Sayumi lounged for another minute, and then got out of the bath. She dried herself off quickly. Of course her long black hair would take much longer to fully dry, so she did as much as the towel could manage, and was just going to let the rest air-dry.

She returned to her room and got dressed. If she ended up going out today, she would probably change into something else, but for now she just put something on quickly so she could go eat breakfast. Her hair would still be drying, so the shirt she put on would probably get a little damp at the shoulders.

And so Sayumi had breakfast with her mother, chatting about regular things. Her mother or course knew nothing of the strange things which had happened lately, and Sayu felt slightly guilty about it. Sitting here talking about ordinary things while there was something extraordinary going on kind of felt like she was betraying her mom somehow, but she just didn't want to stir anything up. She wanted their relationship to stay the same for now, and not be altered by the weirdness.

Sayu didn't know what it all meant anyway, so it seemed premature to talk to anyone else about it, besides Momo of course who had been in the dream. If the future brought something they couldn't handle on their own, then of course it would be time to reveal it.

When breakfast (and chatting) was over with, Sayu once again retreated to her room.

She had her phone in hand, thinking through an early text to Eri, when it rang. She looked at the display. Manager-san? For a second Sayu thought that she had screwed up her days or something; that she was getting a call asking her why she wasn't at work. After a moment though, Sayu was confident that today was indeed her day off, so wondered what this call was about.

If it was some general info on an upcoming variety show request or something, her manager probably would have at least waited until the afternoon to call her. So Sayu answered her phone wondering just what was worth telling her so quickly into the day.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Sayumi. Sorry if I'm bothering you to early.”

“It's alright. I was up early anyways . . . so what's up?”

“Well, I got kind of a strange request this morning. I got a call from another manager about getting your contact information. Basically, the girl she is managing wants to talk to you as soon as possible.”

“Who is it?”

“Kashiwagi Yuki.”

“Ehhh . . . really?”

“Apparently it might be urgent in some way, although the manager said that even she is not fully aware of why Yuki wants to talk to you, so . . .”

“It's fine. You can give her my number.”

“Okay then, I could do it that way, but they actually already volunteered her number, so you could go ahead and call her if you want.”

“Okay.” Sayumi's manager dictated the phone number and Sayu quickly typed it into her phone's database. Her manager followed by reassuring Sayu that if there was anything Sayu needed her for, to call her back after speaking with Yuki. After a couple more lines of obligatory banter about tomorrow's schedule, they said goodbye and disconnected, and Sayumi's mind started spinning with the possible implications of this unexpected request.

The timing couldn't be a coincidence; something must have happened to Yuki! But how did she know to contact me exactly? Where was the connection to her? There was no reason to just sit here theorizing the possibilities of how this fit together in advance, so Sayu selected the brand new number in her directory and dialed.

[Glasseyelashes]

awww crap! someone else shared the same experiences! AND and an akb-er too! (had to google the name, cause i wasn't sure who she was )

[oddball]

All these people sharing the same experinces but from thier own viewpoints and they all know that each of them is involved and even Kashiwagi Yuki is in it ?!?!

@Glasseyelashes: Well Yuki could of been in MM, she was in the same auditions that Aika got chosen from but was not chosen.....

[Glasseyelashes]

^ yeah, that's what i read when i looked her up.

[anarchangelic]

Awakenings section 7

It seemed as if a pattern was forming, for here was Sayumi again waiting outside of a restaurant to talk to someone who had contacted her out of the blue. As excited as she was to meet Yuki and get all the details of whatever she had experienced, she also hoped that no one else was a part of this.

She didn't want to be caught in an ever-expanding web of intrigue, but rather was hoping to at least come to understand some of its scope and dimension soon, and maybe its reasoning and origin in time.

As much as her mind could be running a mile-a-minute trying to come up with possible answers for what was going on, Sayu found herself oddly calm. She was somehow past the point of awe, and now she was prepared to just deal with things as they came up. So whatever Yuki told her . . . she would just proceed from there; there was no reason to preemptively worry.

As she stood there, she realized that maybe they should have picked a different restaurant. There was a much greater chance that they might be recognized here in Shibuya, and maybe they didn't actually want anyone to see them together. It shouldn't matter, but the media loves to scrutinize anything they can get their hands on, and some of their respective fans could get rather petty about who their idols were associating with. It's not like they weren't allowed to to be hanging out, but they probably didn't want to have to answer questions about why they were. It would be easier all around to not be noticed . . . but whatever.

“Sayumi!” She was gazing down the street towards the train station, the direction Yuki would be coming from, but the sound came from behind her. The voice wasn't Yuki's though, and Sayu turned, wondering if some fan had indeed spotted her already.

At first, she didn't recognize the young girl who was standing a few metres away, but then she smiled, and that brought the memory back to Sayu.

“Kage?”

“You remember!” It was said with such unabashed happiness, and it immediately rubbed off on Sayumi.

The girl began to shuffle close to her, and Sayu asked, “Are you here alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. You're a pretty adventurous girl for your age!”

“I'm much more mature mentally, than how old I look.”

This came out quite serious, not playful the way Sayu was expecting, and for some reason she felt the slightest hint of unease. “So what are you doing here?”

“I like to go into the stores and look at clothes, even if I don't have money to buy them now.” Kage added a little laugh at herself at the end of the sentence, and for all its apparent innocence and ring of truth, Sayu couldn't help but feel there was something . . . off about the way she had said it. The tone was strange, almost as if she had been waiting to deliver a rehearsed line. “Do you want to come with me and look at more places?” Kage asked.

“Sorry, Kage. I can't. I'm waiting here for someone else.” The disappointment in Kage's eyes was instant, and was that a hint of anger? If Sayu had been right about that, it was gone a moment later anyways.

“Okay. Maybe I'll see you some other day and you won't be busy.”

“Yeah . . . Maybe.” Sayu said it with a smile, but she found herself wishing that they never ran into each other again. Why? I love kids in general, I should be happy that one wants my attention. So why do I feel so uncertain? Could it be just because she was there the day of the attack? Is my mind subconsciously linking her presence to the unpleasant memories of those events, much the same way the idea of taking a bath had been doing it? This was probably to blame, and Sayu at once felt bad for feeling so cautious with the girl.

Kage raised her hand in an awkward goodbye wave, but quickly she lowered it and pointed behind Sayumi. She looked over her shoulder to follow the direction of Kage's outstretched arm. There was Yuki, a little ways down the road.

“Is that who you are meeting?” asked Kage, and Sayu looked back at her.

“Yep. How did you guess?”

A few moments passed . . . “She's a singer too, right?”

“Yes, but . . .”

“Okay. I'll go now. Bye.” With this, Kage turned and began walking away, before sayumi could even answer back. A second later, she heard Yuki call out her name.

A couple minutes later they were seated, looking at menus. Previously on the phone, Sayu had made it clear to Yuki that she should feel free to tell her anything, no matter how strange. Yet same as she had been with Momo, for some reason she just didn't want to discuss any details on the phone, so suggested the meeting. Maybe it has something to do with that sound that came from my phone that night, but I just don't trust it right now. I feel like something might be listening.

Yuki had been immensely relieved when Michishige-san had said that. She had been worried that she was going to think she was crazy or something when she tried to explain things, but the tone of her voice had convinced her that she would listen with an open mind. In fact, Yuki even thought that she could detect foreknowledge in Michishige-san's voice; almost as if she knew what Yuki was going to say in some way.

So Yuki wasn't afraid to talk, but just wasn't sure where to begin, so was awkwardly glancing between the menu and Sayumi's face. She was glad when Michishige-san broke the ice, but she certainly wasn't expecting what she said.

“So . . . you can't tell anyone I said this, but I'm sure Tsunku-san must be mad now that he didn't select you back then.” It was so sincere, coming out of Sayumi's lips with an ironic smile, that Yuki couldn't help but laugh. She tried to muffle it, but Sayumi laughed too, which just made it worse.

It was the type of reaction Sayu had seen of her on TV; Yuki's eyes widened to their fullest, while her right hand tried to “wave off” the comment. It was too funny not to laugh. Finally Yuki found her voice, and responded with delayed obligatory humility.

“No, no, no. I wasn't good enough then, and maybe I'm still not. He was right to not pick me.”

“Maybe. But things sure are different now. I mean . . . you recently got voted number 3, right? Out of how many girls? Congratulations.”

“Thank you. Michishige-san also, has been doing very well. You're always on variety shows, more than anyone else in your group.”

“You're right, that's true. Things are good. I'm just happy that you found somewhere else to be able to perform. And while I'm mentioning it, the same goes for Sumire. To be honest, I can still remember how shocked some of us were when she didn't get in.”

“I know, she got so close, right? We've of course talked about that with each other. It was actually harder on her than it was for me since she got further, but we were both quite depressed for a little while. But I think knowing that we made it past so many other girls, gave us enough motivation to hold on to our goals and try again.”

“I'm glad you did.”

“Thank you so much Michishige-san. I really didn't come here expecting to hear such kind words from you about these types of things. You should know that many of us, besides Sumire and I, have great respect for your group. Haruna in particular really likes you especially.”

“Thanks. It makes me happy to know that. I want us to all be friends. I wish our groups could do something together some day.”

“Me too! But I guess there's too many complications.”

“Yeah. It seems that way,” Sayu began with a sigh, “but maybe it will happen.”

At this point their conversation was stalled by the waitress. They each placed their order, and as soon as they were alone again, Sayu set the stage to move on to the next topic.

“Yuki, I want you to feel at ease. Like I said on the phone, you can tell me whatever. I think I already know what type of things you have to say, because they've been happening to me too. So don't be afraid to admit everything.”

“Okay. I'm so glad to be able to talk to you about this.”

“Just start from the beginning, and when you're done I'll tell you the stuff that happened to me.”

“Okay. It started three days ago. Basically, wherever I went on that day, whether to work or to the convenience store, I kept seeing a large black raven. It would be sitting on a nearby fence or building, and my eyes would just be drawn to it as soon as it possibly could have been in view. At first I thought that it was just a coincidence; I was obviously just seeing multiple birds. There was probably ravens everywhere if you pay enough attention, I thought. But then sometimes, I could swear that the bird was definitely not there one moment, and then suddenly there the next. I guess what I mean is that sometimes the bird would be somewhere where it couldn't have just flown down while I wasn't looking. And anyways, I now know for sure that it was the same bird, and it can disappear.”

She paused here, as if to test Sayumi for any reaction to the first mention of something paranormal.

“And then you had a strange dream that night, didn't you?”

Yuki felt as if she'd just lost 10 Kilos instantaneously. These experiences had been a baggage that she couldn't relieve herself of. She had been keeping it so close that it was getting painful, but now finally she felt free of it, at least partially. I'm not crazy, and I'm not alone!

“Yes! I did! But it wasn't even really night yet. I hadn't been trying to go to sleep . . . I was just reading. And at the time, I didn't know that I had fallen asleep.”

“The dream tricked you by starting right where you actually were.”

“Right, that's it! All of a sudden all the lights went out. I quickly realized that it wasn't just the lights though. It was all the electricity in my room, and I'd had my phone right beside me, so I quickly realized that it was completely dead as well. I couldn't get any type of display or button response . . .”

All of a sudden all the lights in the restaurant went out . . .

Normally, this would not be a frightening experience. It was daytime after all, and there was still plenty of light coming in from the windows. There were even people in view, but Sayu and Yuki were frozen with fear. It had been instant. Their skin was crawling, and they felt their bodies become flushed from within.

Yuki wanted to cry out, but she couldn't. Sayu wanted to get up, but she couldn't move. They both realized in unison that they couldn't move anything. Even their eyes were rooted in one exact direction.

They then realized that no one else was moving. At least out of the people they could see within their limited vision, everyone seemed to be frozen. And then, a shape began to coalesce, right beside Yuki. She could barely see it out of the corner of her eye. She felt as if her brain was about to explode. It felt to her as if her impulses to move were somehow being blocked by the pain centres of her nerves. Any attempt to get up or run or scream, only brought more pain.

Sayu could see what was appearing in full view. She tried to control her impulses, as she was also experiencing painful responses. It was appearing as black smoke, and she was afraid for her life. But if she couldn't move, there was nothing she could do, right? Was this the end? Had these things figured out how to attack them with them having no chance to defend themselves?