She was abruptly brought back from dreamland as her mother yelled her name, shaking her viciously. "God dammit Scar! What the hell did you do last night?!"
The girl in question was having a hard time sitting up. She seemed much disoriented as she looked around her with half-lidded eyes.
"We have been trying to wake you for so many times but you wouldn't even twitch when we spray cold water on your face.
"Just…-ugh" Her mother lets out an exasperated sigh and leaves the room furiously.
Scarlet gets out of bed slowly on unbalanced feet. She enters the bathroom and looks in the mirror. She looks like a ghost. Her 16-year old body is almost bones and no meat; there are black bags under her hazel eyes which is perfect contrast with her white-as-sheet skin. Her brown hair that reaches by her ribs is disheveled and wet. She recalls her mother saying that they dumped water on her. Figures.
It was another night she slept badly. She can barely wake up as of late. Does she love sleep that much? The girl decided to put the matter of in favor to getting ready to leave. She goes through her morning routine habitually and by the time her father is raging once again at her and threatening not to give her a ride to school she is tying her shoelaces then running desperately after him through the door. There is quite a long ride from her house in the south-east of London to her school.
Scarlet sighs and places her forehead against the window of the car. The chillness of it feels refreshing against her slight fever. Lately, she has been sleeping so deeply that she is afraid one day she might not wake up. She chuckles quietly at her own pessimism. It probably comes with the weariness she has been experiencing since a few weeks ago. She sneaks a peek at her father whose eyes are fixated on the road ahead. She can tell he is angry by the deep frown he wears and by how tightly his jaw is clenched. But who could blame him, considering Scarlet just missed two classes because they were unable to rouse her. There are a few wrinkles of concern etched on his forehead as well. But she is does not worry further about it. She does not mind getting a few more hours of sleep at all. She also does not blame her unhealthiness on the fact that she sleeps too much. It might just be another symptom.
It was nothing out of the ordinary that happened that day at school. And as usual when Scarlet arrived home a powerful wave of tiredness washed over her and she simply crashes on her bed, at least having the common sense of changing out of her clothes. They didn't make good pajamas anyway. She vaguely notices her older sister has arrived home before her and is very concentrated on the episode playing on the screen of her computer. Just like any other day. The exhausted girl is fast asleep in just a few minutes.
The brunette slowly comes to again as she feels water lapping around her. She spends a moment enjoying the comforting feeling before frowning deeply, realizing something is wrong. Unless there was a severe flood that reached a bit higher than her bed. She sits up abruptly; realizing there is no way that a flood has come. Her breath hitches in her throat as her too-wide eyes meet the grayscale scenery before her. She is on an island, more exactly on the shore. A thick forest starts not too far behind from where she sits and the vast ocean is spreading out in front of her until it disappears beyond the horizon. She lifts her hands and looks at them. She yelps in shock as she sees her hands sprout 7 fingers each. And her feet are missing 3 toes. After a few minutes of trying to breathe right she realizes what is happening.
"I am dreaming." She assures herself and laughs.
"I am having a lucid dream!" She laughs in joy, her previous fright washing away
. Now she wonders why the world looks so anime-like. Maybe she has watched too much of it. She is disappointed her dream is not in color but her excitement is not subsided in the least. She has wanted to have a lucid dream since forever! She jumps to her feet and smiles widely as she throws her arms up. She notices she is dressed in the same way she went to bed earlier - in some pajamas a bit too short for her. But she doesn't care. She lets out a few shouts of pure enthusiasm before she does what she has always desired. Her feet soon leave the sand and are dangling up in the air as she levitates. Seeing as she can fly, she bolts up in the air, screaming in happiness.
But her bliss is short lived as she finds herself crashing towards the forest. Her previous scream of euphoria morph quickly into one of absolute terror. This might be a dream but it is scary as hell! It feels so real as she watches the forest-covered island expand and expand as she falls from between the clouds and air that whips her hair violently and if it were just a bit more powerful, Scarlet could swear it would cut her skin. She clenches her jaw, bracing herself for the impact. She finds comfort in her chants like: this-is-just a-dream, or it-won't-hurt and she-will-wake-up-before-hitting-the-ground. But she does hit something, but it's sure as hell that it isn't the ground. She could swear it felt rubber.
Then she ricochets in the nearest tree. She shouts in pain, her shoulder taking most of the force and bleeding from the collision. She bawls as she feels pain on intensity that she has never felt before. This is supposed to be a dream! Why does it hurt?!
There are a few shouts coming from in front of her and her cracks an eye open, her crying ceasing instantly as she sees a huge body being flying her way. Her reflexes take over and she barely avoids being crushed. She stares absolutely terror-stricken as a bunch of people holding fucking swords and two boys have their gazes locked on her. One of them seems especially furious
. Scarlet is hyperventilating by now. No-no-no-no this is quickly turning into a nightmare. Her eyes cloud again with tears. The boy wearing a straw-hat shifts his eyes and orders something to the men facing him. Something about a boat. The younger one approaches Scarlet slowly. She so afraid that she can't even hear what he says. She pulls up her knees and sobs, hoping she would wake up already. The heavens decide to once again not side with her as she feels two hands on her shoulders and shaking her; quite violently.
Her shoulder throbs even harder from the torture and she snaps her head up and catches the question asked by the straw-hat boy. "Miss, are you okay?" She freezes once again as she recognizes him. Monkey D. Luffy. What the fuck? Now she is dreaming anime characters? But she calms down a little, the fact that before her is an anime character is reminding herself this is a dream. She looks up at the boy and nods hesitantly as she bites her lower lip. Now that fear is not numbing her senses pain once again throbs through her arm.
"Whoop!" Luffy laughs " I was so surprised when you crashed into me, lady!" He says loudly.
"what were you doing up in the sky?" He gives a hearty laugh again.
"hey lady you're wearing some funny clothes." She turns red. She should have worn her good pajamas.
"W-w-wait Luffy-san! " The glasses boy next to him finally manages to draw his attention and stumbles on his words. She recognizes him as Coby, the boy who dreams of becoming a marine.
"L-l-look at her arm!" And as Luffy does that, slightly confused, and she does too. She starts crying once again at the sight. Her pajama is tattered and her arm is bloody and bruised. Her shoulder might even be dislocated or in worse shape.
"Wa-wait wait lady I thought you said you were ok!" Luffy says a bit frantic, quickly taking his hands off her shoulders and seeing his right hand coated with warm blood.
" Mentally!" Scarlet whines loudly before bawling even harder as she drops her knees to the ground and grabs her shaking arm.
"Coby do you anything about wounds?" Luffy looks anxiously at the smaller boy, feeling helpless against the pain the girl is showing. He feels a bit responsible too since he was to one that directed her into a tree. Cony looks even more at loss concerning what to do his forehead is beaded with sweat and his brows are raised. Luffy snaps his head towards the pirates who have remained still in fear and confusion.
"Do any of you know how to patch up a wound?" He yells in rage, glaring at them darkly. Some hurry over instantly and crouch down next to the sobbing girl. One of them rips the texture which is glued to her wound on her left shoulder and the other surveys the wound with agitated moves. Luffy is watching them closely, his hands fisted while Coby takes a step back.
After a while the two boys are sitting in the small boat provided by Alvida's crew, the girl is getting ready to embark with them as a member of the other party ties another bandage across her shoulder. She mumbles her thanks and gets in the boat with shaky legs.
Then they depart. Luffy no longer wears a serious expression and Coby seems a bit more relaxed as they talk about the pirate hunter Zoro and how Luffy wants him on his crew. Scarlet smiled slightly, already knowing that he will succeed.
"So lady what is your name? I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who is going to become pirate king!" He exclaims ambitiously while standing up and throwing his fist in the air.
"Luffy-san! You shouldn't be standing up on such a small boat!" Coby frets as he tries to get the captain to sit down. Scarlet laughs as the two boys stubbornly argue.
"Scarlet. That is my name. Thank you for helping me before." Luffy finally sits down and smiles widely
"No problem lady!" then his expression turns sour and looks at Coby.
"Chet...He is Coby, mister party-pooper" He points at him with a pout. That earns him another 'Luffy-san!' from the boy. They proceed to fight again and she laughs. She is filled with elation that she has met these two. Even better than flying! Which was obviously not a good idea. The sounds of their voices slowly become muffled as her vision blackens. She has taken this as an end of her dream.
Well, it wasn't bad; besides the all being thrown in a tree part. She met Luffy which is the protagonist in one of her favorite series. What could be better than that? But she has not forgotten the pain. Ah, it's still throbbing severely through her shoulder and arm. It was quite a shock to receive so much pain in a dream. She screams as her eyes open widely and she sits up quickly grabbing her wounded shoulder. She is back in her room, under her warm sheets, and her sister jumped out of her seat at the sudden noise and her eyes are frantically roaming over Scarlet's body. The pain is not gone. It intensified a great deal of times and now feels as if someone is repeatedly shoving a dagger through her already hurt shoulder. Maybe it's just her imagination that she is hurt in reality because of how realistic it seemed in her dream. But as she drags her hand away from her limb and looks at it her facial features are darkened in horror. Her palm is painted red with warm blood.