All the world's a stage.
And all the men and women merely players.
—Shakespeare (As You Like It)
An unconventional "romantic horror!"
Introduction
When the night sky's fills with glamour, a lovely story awaits you
…Have you heard about this scary rumor? They say, if you fallen into a dream and don't wake up before you land—you die in real life.
A man with a certain "curse" has a terrifying week. Our hero in this story is Sasuke Uchiha, age thirty two. He's an earnest a kind man… But one day, we begin to see him have terrifying nightmares. On top of that, a torrent of sweet seduction swoops down upon him… What a playboy huh?
Will he be able to overcome all the "blocks" in his life? His outcome… depends on you, viewers.
Prologue
His eyes were opened wide. He stared at a woman's slim fingers, tapping her index red painted nail onto the surface of the dark wooded table. Cakes, tea and sugar cups were displayed above the furniture. Tapping sounds kept tapping, echoing enough for he himself alone to hear in the cafe room. His black midnight eyes looked up to the lower half of her face, the red colour of her hair standing out. He watched her lips move.
"Hey… Where'd you go?" she spoke. "Snap out of it…!"
With that, he did by blinking a couple of times in slight confusion from dozing off. He looked up to the woman once more, directly in her pasted red eyes.
"Were you even listening?" she scolded him, her nose scrunched up slightly mad.
"Uh… Sure." he replied quite nervously.
"You know, you've been a little out of it lately…" her brows furrowed half way down to the middle between her eyes. "Is everything all right? You've been spacing out left and right."
"Oh, sorry…" Sasuke lifted an arm to rub the bridge of his nose with the curve of his index finger and his thumb to prevent his tired eyes to blur his vision. "I, uh, had to work early this morning…"
The woman with glasses, right across the table in front of him, smiled.
Nightmare sheep
Nightmare
1st—day "Stage 1: Underground cemetery"
0:47 23 seconds
He opened the old ancient looking door from behind. As he got out, he looked around his surroundings and realized that he was standing small on the large staircase. He held a pillow and he had sheep horns on both sides of his head and—wearing nothing but his boxers. He was freezing cold that even the heat of his body was smoking out of his bare skin.
Suddenly, the opened door behind him shut close pretty hard and loudly. That made Sasuke whip his head to the exit a little startled from the harsh thump, his eyes furrowed as his eyes widened confusingly. He tried twisting, pulling, pushing and more twisting the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge even a centimetre. And so, slowly, he dropped his hand and turned his head around to identify the place he was went through once more. He was surrounded by sculpted rocks that reached the eyes could never see. Crooked trees were seen dead with hanging light lamps. Up above, blocks were built, also so crooked, and unorganized. And he was the one standing on a few of those big blocks. He narrowed his eyes at the sight.
I seriously don't have a good feeling about this. He thought to himself. "Just what the hell is this place."
The whole world he was now in shook just like an earthquake. His eyes shot down at the bottom of the endless ground. Rows of stairs kept falling one after another—the bottom of the stage kept falling. He backed up quickly, his back firmly pressed again the body sized block.
"...Wh.. What?" he dug his nails. And then, in thin air, the door puffed away. He snapped his head to the missing exit, his hair slapping his face. Now where was he supposed to go now, now there was no way of getting out? "Fucking hell, man!"
A voice shouted. "Hurry up and climb."
"Who are you, what the hell is this place!" Sasuke shouted back in confusion with a slight hint of stress and anger.
"Save your breath and start climbing. If you fall, you're dead."
"I'll die?" he raised a brow at the thought of death. Raven hair been ruffled and pulled furiously in sweating panic How could this happen?. "Are you fuckin' serious!"
"You'll have to move the blocks to make a path. You can climb one block at a time right?" the statement made the Uchiha's eyes roll, like he was dumb enough to not know that. But...
"And exactly how am I supposed to move things, huh?" the half-naked man growled arrogantly. But since he wasn't getting any instructions and directions after moments later, he had to learn himself. And so, he did as he was told.
By after seventeen rows—or steps of climbing the unproperly placed blocks, a voice called out again. "Don't just push around without thinking about it!" Right, am I really that dumb enough to do such brainless method? "—They'll collapse, and you can put yourself in impossible situation."
"Hn, collapse, huh." Sasuke murmured lowly as he placed the curve of his index finger to his lips. "So moving the blocks around carelessly can make things more difficult for me. I should try pulling a block to make some footing."
Five more steps on climbing, the same voice interrupted him again. "This is very important, so make sure you remember what I'm going to tell you!"
"Now what is it..." the man on the staircase groaned loudly. Couldn't the stupid voice could have directly just told him everything at the very beginning instead of every five steps he took?
"These blocks aren't normal—"Yeah, like I haven't figured that out already. "—They'll lock into place and support your weight, even if they're only touching by their edges!"
Sasuke's head snapped up, pushing his thoughts aside. "What? What the fuck does that supposed to mean? They 'connect' at their 'edges'?"
With no answer for the second useless time, he sighed and thought again carefully solving some strategies. "Hmm, even if a block has nothing directly under it, as long as it's touching an edge of another block, it won't fall. From what I see, the edges glow bluish-white when making a connection."
At the step twenty-eight, the annoying voice came in. "See how the edges connect?"
Really? Still bothering me?
"This really doesn't make any sense." the adult sighed and crossed his naked arms together. "How the fucking hell is it not falling? I mean—gravity?"
"Don't think about it. Just use it to your advantage. They won't fall, so make stairs with them! Just get used to it."
Like that's of any help. He rolled his eyes again and made another thought of fixing the puzzle of this wretched nightmare..."So, quickly making stairs is the core of successfully scaling the tower. I should use the edges to make stairways."
Nonstop, until the 32nd step, the bell kept ringing. It started to irritate Sasuke's concentration. "What is this stupid ass annoying ringing? Can't it shut up for once!"
"Well, as you near the top, you will hear ringing. The exit is near. Hurry." The voice spoke. "Good luck. If we both make it out here alive, we'll meet again."
After all the shit you caused me? Like hell I'd wanna meet you again!
At the last 38th step, Sasuke finally reached the exit. "Hmph, I can get out through here?"
He opened the door, bright flashing light blinded him. Glancing charcoaled eyes below the bottom, giant arms and hands were reaching up, climbing up the blocks. At the very top of the tall built blocks, Sasuke was there, standing, half-way watching in horror.
"…What?" he turned to the flashing light doorway and went in. "Oh shit!"
Doubt he knew he was half naked.
1st—day "Sasuke's room"
8:10 14 seconds
His eyes were tightly closed as he received a nightmare. When it snapped opened widely, his whole eyes were red, his black pupil was larger than average and also in a form of a rectangle horizontally. Then a second later, his eyes were back to normal, pure black eyes.
Blurred and unblurred as his eyes stared at the ceiling completely frightened, panting heavily and sweating. He looked around his small room, absently wondering where he was. He brought up his arms, hands under his pillow and buried his ear at the ends of it. Again he was in his boxers.
"What a terrible dream…" he moaned panting.
His eyes widened once more and he quickly bolted out of bed in realization. Gripping his pillow against his side, he stared at his bed and growled. Sighing, his eyes landed on the bed again and his free hand pressed onto the surface of it a couple of times. When he was done, he dropped himself on the floor on his knees sighing in disbelief.
Fucking hell! He stood back up to throw his pillow down before he heard his cellphone ringing.
Walking over to a side of his room, he picked up his ringed phone and flipped it open to his ear.
"Uh… Hello?" he answered. "…Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be in today's code review meeting."
His voice echoed in his small room speaking about a rendez-vous.
"Really? …No, no, I'm… I'm just a little under the weather," walking around his room some more, he picked up his red tee from the chair and put it on. "No, no, I'll be right there. Yeah."
Opening the door of his restroom, he switched on the lights as he entered then shutting the door behind him. The water started running—he took his shower. Why did he bother putting on a shirt anyway?
1st—day "Chrono rabbit"
16:32 09 seconds
At the coffee shop—this is related to the prologue, which wasn't really one. This happened just right after the prologue, the resume of the story—both Sasuke and his little red headed friend in front of him were having a little chitchat, or trying to make a conversation.
He was very nervous somehow, and he didn't know why himself. It just sneaked up on him just like that with a snap of anyone's fingers—middle and thumb pads. People say Uchihas are never nervous—wrong! Why do they think they have stoic faces? To hide any emotional feelings from any embarrassments, of course.
"So," the woman started. "—are you getting any extra for this?"
"For what?" The male dipped his head toward the lady brows furrowed in confusion. He didn't seem to understand what she was asking him. Since he wasn't listening to her, as well as for himself.
"For all this overtime you're doing."
"Oh, uh…" Sasuke gotten back into the course of the conversation. He leaned back onto the café's customer's chair relaxing. Rubbing his head, he replied sighing. "Not this time…"
He noticed the twisted expression formed over her face. "'This time'? Do you usually get overtime pay?"
"Well, no, but…" the raven haired man dropped his hand.
"So you don't get anything…"
This woman was quite of a pushover, didn't he thought of it?
She sighed, her head dropped hung by the spine of her back neck. The Uchiha kept his stoic face, but he rose a brow when she deeply sighed. He thought that she seemed—disappointed? Picking up the tea cup filled with coffee, he took a sip then made a grimaced face from the sweet, sweet taste of the coffee. He never liked anything sweet like candies and chocolates. It disgusted his tongue.
Politely, the maiden with the glasses switched her coffee with his, she never touched her, so it was still dark and bitter—just the way he liked it. But out of the blue…
"Hey, Karin…" he frowned slightly, recalling his so-called nightmare last night. "Have you ever had a dream where you… died?"
At the last word, Karin listened his voice sounding uncertained, awkward, confused, yet bizarre. "You mean, like… where you're in danger?"
"No… no," the man glared at his coffee, wrinkling his thick brows together. He really didn't understand himself, but he tried. "—where you actually die. You're being killed, or something."
"No…" his partner's eyes trailed around, her brows shrugging at his curiosity. "I usually do the killing in my dream."
"Huh? Haha…" he chuckled lightly as he dropped his head behind. "That sounds just like you..."
Karin smacked the surface of the table playfully. "What's that suppose to mean?"
"Hey," she smiled, just only it reached her cheeks than her eyes. She brought up the knuckles of her fist near her chin. She sounded like she was dreaming like. "How many years have we been together?"
Now that totally caught him off guard. His eyes widened the looked around for an excuse. He didn't know himself, he hardly keep track of things no matter how ever good guy he was. A bead of sweat ran down his temple to his chin, he swallowed hard. Oh, man… how long has it been? It's been so long. I can't remember.
"Hn," he nervously rubbing the back of his head through his spiked hair. Oh, she was not going to like this. "—how long has it been?"
He saw her frown in deep disappointment. Yeah, she really didn't like where this was going. "I'm asking you."
"It's just…" she pressed the palms of her fingers against her forehead to prevent any coming headache. "My mother's been calling me up and asking how we're doing."
"Oh…"
She's worried about me. She knows I've got a career that keeps me busy, but…" she trailed off as she put down her hand back on the table.
"Yeah…"
"I mean, it's easy to keep things up like they are now, but…" she trailed off again, including her eyes. Her hands brought up also—one hand over the other with the bald of her elbows on the table.
"Don't know," Sasuke flicked his hands in the air secretly hiding a little something. "Sometimes easy's best, right?" This clearly shows he wasn't so interested in dating nor dealing with them. He shrugged. "I mean, who knows what'll happen in the future."
She frowned again, now seriously disappointed at his statement. "…I suppose."
It was dark and pitched black in a room full with investigations. Light flashed by an evidence camera by a police, showing a man spread on his bed. His hair decoloured, faded brown to a light one. His skin paled, rippled and dry. Mouth wide opened with no sense of saliva through his thin cracked lips. Body skinny, no meat included, all but visible bones through the sticker of skin. And his eyes completely wide, the contour of his iris with no pupil was as small as a little marble.
The man was dead in bed.
And more flashes filled the unlightened room.
The breaking news on television posted recent news. An Accident or murder? of Lonely death of young man was written through the screen brightly at the bar Golden Playhouse.
1st—day "Stray sheep"
21:05 50 seconds
"And another news, we have more on the recent string of unexplainable death that seemed to be exclusively involving young man. Cause of death is unknown. And while police are investigating accidental causes, foul play has apparently not been…" the waitress's voice trailed off and cut off by men calling out their orders at the bar and maids spoke out loudly in reply.
"Karin keeps telling me how her mother's constantly calling her." Sasuke spoke to his two buddies sarcastically at the few words he said. "She says she's not worried about it, though."
"Oh, Feather's totally gonna take it, right, Vinnie?" a random customer's voice loudly spoke through the men's conversation.
"What do you think?" He continued.
"So, who are you bettin' on? C'mon, pick one!" a blond friend of Sasuke named Naruto blurted proudly. Really, he never listens at all, did he. He took another bite of his finger food—his best friend, sandwich then looked back at one of the multiple televisions.
"You kidding? Women wrestling?" Sasuke frowned a pout at the thought of his girlfriend. "How would I know…"
With no words exchanged, another man with a tie hair spiked up high, named Shikamaru, blew smoke out of his lips. He brought up his cigarette inches away from his mouth. "Sounds to me... like she finally wants ya to tie the knot."
Sasuke sighed dipping down his head with his shoulder held up. "You think so, too...?"
"What else could it mean?" the man with the smoke replied."I've known you since we ere kids, but wow... You, married, huh?"
The raven waved a hand lazily at the idiotic childish thought of marriage. "Hey, nothing's set in stone yet."
"What... You don't want to marry your girlfriend?"
"It's not that," Sasuke shrugged watching his blond friend drinking up his beer. "I love her, but... we don't have to run out and get married."
Now, that completely proved that he was not ready for something that big event at all.
"You know... It's like we're comfortable where we are." he continued.
Shikamaru raised a brow, unsure of the man's answer. "Are you?"
"That's what she said..." The Uchiha hummed nervously. "Her job's always most important to her... You know she's always been the ambitious type, right?"
"It doesn't mean she'll always be like that." the smoker took a shot of his sake.
"That's not what I mean." Sasuke pressed his cheek against his fist and snorted a chuckle. "...Besides, you're single, too."
"Hey, I'm still looking for my soulmate... I'm not like you." a chuckled passed his fuming lips. "I already told my girl that I'm not interested in marrying her."
"What if you never meet your 'soulmate'?" Sasuke rolled his eyes as he said the word of relationship which bounds the mates an ever after unbreakable love.
"Then I will never get married. So what?"
Really, Naruto has been pretty quiet. Must be too busy watching those women on TV.
"That sounds just like you, Chief!" The blond grinned widely.
Spoke too soon.
"Anyway..." Shikamaru's voice suddenly went low and quiet. "Did you hear about Genma? He's dead."
Sasuke's eyes shot wide open at the familiar name. Shock burned his skin. "Genma...? Wait... that Genma! He's dead?"
"Yeah. I heard he got divorced, but he looked healthy. It's a complete shock."
"What happened to him? An accident?" Sasuke asked as Shikamaru shook his head before he received the question.
"I dunno... Apparently his friend just found him dead in his room this morning."
The raven haired man's eye snapped open in some what fear. "This morning..?"
He looked up at the news breaking television screen and spoke again. "Wait, you mean..."
"Yeah... The mystery death on the news." the smoker closed his eyes. "That was him."
"Holy shit! No way!" Naruto sat up straight and shouted whipping a hand through the air.
"Maybe we'll all wind up dead tomorrow, too." said Shikamaru.
"Shut the hell up." Sasuke rubbed his forehead from his messed mind.
"Man, I hate the news!" the blond man whined. "They're always trying to push their agenda for ratings!"
"Naruto, you really are easy to mess with." Nara chuckled as Uchiha took a drink of his cocktail and his other buddy Uzumaki finishing his beer.
"Well speaking o crazy stuffs this morning..." Sasuke trailed off as Shikamru gave him his full attention. The raven played with the lobe of his ear. "I pissed the bed for the first time since grade school."
"Wh—" Shikamaru laughed. "That's messed up, man."
"I had a really scary dream... But I don't remember what it was about."
"Oh, man. How old are you?" the other man couldn't help but muffle his laugh.
"Thirty-two."
"I know that."
"You know, I don't think I need to hear this." Naruto mumbled while rubbing his head
"Shut up. It was really fuckin' scared, all right?" Black coals glared at blue orbs.
With that, Shikamaru put away his boxes of cigarettes and Naruto deposit some money as he stood up off his seat. Sasuke frowned slightly and stared at them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa... Where you guys going? Stick around. I don't wanna go home just yet."
"So? Why don't you have Karin meet you here?" said Shikamaru as he scratch the side of his nose with the nail of his thumb.
"I just saw her today," Sasuke rubbed his temple. "Besides, she'd just get mad at me if I told her..."
"Ah, geez. What does she see in this poor fool?" the man on his seat placed a hand on his forehead sighing. Then he stood up. "Sorry, but I gotta be in early tomorrow. Don't drink too much okay?"
"All right, take care, Sasuke. See you later." Naruto bowed his head lightly and with that both men walked away to the exit of the bar as Sasuke waved them off.
1st—day "Stray sheep"
21:20 28 seconds
Beeps kept replaying and the phone vibrated through Sasuke's pocket of his loosed jeans. Pulling out his cellular mobile out he flipped open his phone and noticed a message. It was Karin.
From: Karin
Subject: Checking in
Like I said before, I'm having dinner with some old friends. It's surprising... Most of them are already married, and almost half of them have kids. They're all showing off pictures of their families and it makes me feel left out.
Maybe it's time for us to get out of the comfort zone, too.
The man growled at the subject 'Checking in'. This wasn't about that at all, it was all about marriage. Didn't they spoke about that in the morning? He sighed. He clicked the reply botton.
To: Karin
Subject: Re: Checking in
You're overthinking it.
We don't need to be tied down.
I'm pretty tired right now...
So... yeah.
At the thought of thinking the message was all right, he sent it. Then he flipped closed his phone and shoved it back in his pocket. Calling to the waitress, he ordered a cola to spend the rest of his free time at the Golden Playhouse. He thought back again at the time this morning—his morning meeting with Karin.
'...Hey. How many years have we been together?'
Those words rung in his head.
Marriage, huh. He mentally thought. I figured this would happen eventually, but... I just changed jobs. I don't want to giver her trouble.
He heard his phone beeping a message. He took it out again and checked it. Spam? He raised a brow. He flipped it, ignoring such none-sense. He heavily sighed.
Bringing up her parents out of the blue... It's not like her... He checked the time over the bar counter. Hn, it's late.
1st—day "Stray sheep"
22:36 36 seconds
Sasuke continued drinking his cola. But unconsciously there was someone who spoke loud enough from afar.
"Wow... There's a lot of people here..." the woman's voice was sweet and soft. "But this really isn't m crowd."
The raven turned his head around at the unknown voice he heard, but shrugged it off.
"I'm sorry miss." a man replied as Sasuke checked his phone once more. "Oh, are you with him? Then please, go ahead..."
Soft tapping sounds marched his way. Steps gotten louder and louder by the second, she was walking towards him and—
"Uh... Hi, excuse me. Mind if I sit here?" Sasuke's eyes shifted to the woman, her appearance was just something he couldn't describe. His brows knitted and his eyes hadn't widen fully. He noted that she was wearing a cream coloured dress which completely fit her curved body completely. Wide red ribbon around her upper waist yet right under her rib cage. She was just—beautiful? Well in his eyes actually.
From afar, the bar tender was consciously listening while whipping the dusts off the glass with a thin cloth. He posed it upside down as he was finished then picked up another one to clean.
Sasuke and the woman had a real nice chitchat along the way. He happened to enjoy speaking with her, she was funny, kind and not so pushover. Her giggles was like grass whistling in the breeze and her whole features was something he wouldn't forget for a long time—not because of her beauty, but just there was something about her that mesmerized him. She just seemed so free in her own will. But what really caught his attention was—
Her pink hair.
Self reminder: 24 minutes total.
A/N: Alright, I know I need to continue xxx Affairs, but you know that it's difficult to make ideas on the spot right? Please, don't be upset with me if I don't update it quickly.
*This story is a fanfiction base of a PS3 and Xbox game name Catherine.
And please don't bother the grammar and vocabulary, I didn't bother re-reading it for the third time.