Chapter 1: The Third Bell Rumor
Part 3: A Lost Doe
Maaya's disbelief was evident in her quivering words. Impatience tinged her voice as she muttered, "This... This can't be real. You guys are just messing with me, right? Come on, Miyo! Hana! Enough with the pranks, you can come out now." She forced a nervous laugh, desperately hoping for a sign from her friends, but the unnerving silence remained, unbroken.
Then her gaze snapped to Yui, whose innocent eyes met hers. "And you. I don't know how they talked you into this, but it's gone too far. Just drop the act and tell me what's really happening."
Yui's head tilted slightly, and her brows knit together as she pondered, "Umm, who are Miyo and Hana? Are they your friends too?"
Maaya was taken aback by Yui's obliviousness. For some reason, Yui seemed to be almost enjoying this bizarre daydream, while Maaya's horror only deepened. It felt like she had never left her classroom, yet a nagging sensation insisted that reality couldn't be this twisted. Yui's comment about a different school triggered something within Maaya, making her realize that various elements around her clashed in discord.
The walls, seemingly unremarkable at first glance, on closer inspection, bore a network of scratch marks and cryptic symbols that grew in complexity as they ascended towards the darkened ceiling. Despite the time of day being morning, the classroom was shrouded in a somber atmosphere, the gloomy sky and pitch-black rain clouds outside casting a veil of muted light. Distant orange streetlights struggled to penetrate the windows, their glow barely brushing the floor.
Every desk in the room bore the signs of neglect, cloaked in veil of dust and branded by claw marks, as if mauled by an unforgiving bear. Maaya’s very own desk also shared the same fate, despite her bag remained in the same place. The floor beneath was a chaotic tapestry of descending dark hair strands, an ethereal cascade that eluded any reasonable explanation. Amidst this unsettling scene, it became painfully clear that Maaya was an intruder, a figure displaced within the surreal stage of this enigmatic reality.
“The rumor,” Maaya grasped as the reality finally sank in, “It’s actually true.” Maaya’s voice carried a heavy helplessness as she sat down hopelessly onto the peculiar floor of hairs. Beside her, Yui also took a seat, though her expression indicated a lack of comprehension regarding the seriousness of Maaya's words.
“Are you okay, Maaya-san? You look pale,” Yui wondered, genuine concern evident in her voice.
"I don't know, Yui. I really don't," Maaya's voice wavered, tears teetering on the edge of her eyes. "It's as if I've tumbled into a nightmare, and there's no way out."
Yui, idly brushing off nearby strands of hair, chimed in,
"Oh, don’t be like that. There’s always a way out,"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Maaya's desperation tinged her voice, curiosity overriding her fear.
Yui turned to Maaya, her golden hazel eyes attentive as she offered her perspective,
"When I was a kid, my Nana used to tell me bedtime stories. Some were silly, some were scary, but almost always none of them were real. That didn’t stop me from having nightmares about them though. And whenever I am in those nightmares, I’ll almost always think there’s no way out. Like you did just now,” Yui lightly flicked off a few clinging hairs from her raincoat before continuing, “But that just isn’t true. Nightmares, no matter how terrifying they may be, can only hunt you if you dream. You just need to find a way to well, stop dreaming. But I don’t think you’ll do it by sitting down here though.”
With her utterance resonating, Yui gracefully stood, advancing in front of Maaya, her hand extending with a pleasing smile.
In her state of horror, Maaya fixed her gaze on Yui and uttered, "If what you're saying holds any truth – that I'm trapped within a nightmare – then, Yui, ... what are you?"
Yui, a girl with an air of enigma, stood poised in front of Maaya. Her vivid yellow raincoat mirrored the hue of her dress, a beacon of brightness amidst the nightmarish surroundings of the classroom. An unspoiled smile graced her lips, and her eyes sparkled with a spectrum of colors that danced just beyond Maaya's comprehension.
“Your friend, of course,” Yui held Maaya’s hand and pulled her up. Maaya felt reluctant to trust anything in this bizarre world she fell in. Even so, Yui was right, sitting here being all depressed would accomplish nothing. With a deep breath, Maaya regained her much needed composure.
"If you're, like you said, my friend," Maaya hesitated, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, "could you help me figure out how to, you know, get out of here?"
"Oh, absolutely,” Yui replied with a reassuring smile, and an assuring grip, “I mean, I'd totally try my best. Still, Dreams, well, they can be pretty strange. Personally, I find that munching on something in the dream usually jolts me awake. But for you, well, I can't say for sure."
Maaya contemplated the instances when she managed to wake herself from the clutches of a nightmare. Usually, it was either due to her brother Ani's intervention or the timely jolt from her alarm clock. Both of which were absent right now, as luck would have it. Yui’s advice, on the other hand, might just work.
"So, just munch on something, huh? Not like there's a buffet of choices here. Just dust and these random hairs, seriously, where are these even coming from?" Maaya half-heartedly remarked, her fingers swiping off a fresh cascade of hair that seemed to be trickling from the ceiling.
Yui suddenly looked upward, her index finger pointing towards the twitching shadowy expanse of the ceiling as she spoke, “That,”
At that moment, a realization clawed its way into Maaya's consciousness, drawing her gaze upwards to the ceiling. There, a grotesque figure lurked, its limbs contorted in unnatural angles, swathed in a tangle of hairs that dangled like sinister vines from a decaying tree. Its posture mimicked that of a slumbering fetus, nestled in the womb of some unholy nightmare. Claws resembling bony fingers stretched outwards, tracing a pattern across the ceiling akin to the delicate spread of a butterfly's wing. Whatever this abomination was, it existed solely in the realm of her darkest dreams, a manifestation of pure, chilling terror.
Maaya's body seized, a frigid grip of horror sinking its claws into her thoughts, a chaotic tempest scrambling her mind like a haphazardly flipped omelet. She felt herself teetering on the precipice of losing control, the edges of her reality blurring into an indistinct whirl. Just as a scream threatened to erupt from her constricted throat, Yui swiftly intervened, her words forming a fervent whisper.
"Maaya-san, whatever you do, ... don’t ... scream,”
Despite Yui's urgent plea echoing in her ears, for Maaya, that was the last straw.
And so, she screamed.
Part 3: End
