Disclaimer: All characters and locations belong to their respective owners.

1.
Beautiful Dreamer

The night was broken by the slap of footsteps.

Help me, Usagi!

She pushed harder, faster, as fast as her legs could carry her. They helped her cross the street and onto the sidewalk, propelled her with the strength of stallions free as the wind.

Please help me!

She ducked and weaved past a stream of night-owls, muttering rushed apologies and excuses. Tearing up the concrete, a white and orange sawhorse barricade blocking an open manhole loomed forward. With the finesse of an Olympic athlete she grabbed the top bar, vaulted the obstruction, and hit the ground running without pause.

This way, Usagi! Keep going this way!

She panted, chest heaving up and down, down and up, white smoke billowing from dry, chapped lips. Sweat beaded in the thickets of her brow, coated her cheeks and neck in a shiny diamond film. She closed her mouth, breathed hotly through flared nostrils.

Keep going.

Keep going.

Through the bushes! The bushes, Usagi!

She dove sharply to her right, fought her way past a tangled net of branches and bumpy rocks. She emerged on the other side and ran stumblingly down a steep hill.

Hurry, Usagi!

Faster. Faster. Don't stop for anything. Don't stop.

Hurry!

The stairs! Go for the stairs, Usagi! Don't forget the stairs!

Her eyes squinted through the sweat, limbs transforming to rock and steel.

She clenched her throat, braced her weight against the edge of the step, and soared!

USAGI….

She landed on the next step and leaped again, arms spread out for balance.

Usagi….

She hit the bottom of the stairs, tripped, and crashed to the ground. Dirt and gravel spilled from outstretched fingers.

Usagi….

Like an echo, a tide teasing the foundations of a beach, retreating to the folds of the sea; a drop of water falling upon a still surface, perturbing the natural balance with a rippling epicenter.

Usagi groaned and opened her eyes. She searched her surroundings. Swing-sets. A see-saw. A jungle gym. A red, rusted roundabout. She was in one of Azabu-Juuban's local parks.

She got to her knees, one leg at a time, and slowly stood up. She brushed off her pants and jacket, studied the entrenched darkness. Her heart still hammered, lungs still burning. "Where are you?" she called.

I'm…I'm over here. Tired, dazed, a breeze in the tunnels of an enormous cavern.

"Where's here?"

By the slide. Come to the streetlight.

Usagi moved. The soles of her feet scraped scattered woodchips and dirtied pebbles, resounded like mallet strikes in emptiness. Candy wrappers fluttered along cracks in the pavement, nestled on a bed of trimmed green grass. A swing rocked on its chains stirred by the wind – creeeeak, creeeeak, creeeeak.

"Are you okay?" Usagi asked. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

I…I don't know. Everything's a blur. I think I might have sprained my ankle.

"Are you sure you don't want me to call an ambulance?"

NO! No…it's not serious. I'm fine.

"What about the police?"

M-Maybe. I don't know. I don't trust them. Quavering, hesitant: They scare me.

"They won't hurt you. They'll do everything they can to protect you and catch your attacker."

I know. I know. Just…not yet. Don't call them yet, okay? I'm still a little shaken up….

"That's fine," Usagi said gently. "We can take as much time as you want."

Th-Thank you. You're too kind.

She approached the slide, an old, twisting metal snake. Her hand grazed the crest of the curve, slithered through wetness gleaming in blinding halogen. It had drizzled earlier, when she heard the voice in her head cry for her.

She stopped under the spherical halo, peered at the bushes circling the area. "I've gone past the slide. Where are you?"

Over here. Do you see that big tree? The really, really tall one?

Usagi looked up and noticed it right away, the weeping willow with its droopy limbs and tear-shaped leaves. "Yes. I see it."

Come forward, Usagi. Go straight to this tree.

Usagi did. She paused in front of it, put a hand to its peeling grey trunk. "Okay, I'm here."

Good…that's good. So happy, safe, relieved. I can see you, Usagi. I can see you just fine.

"But I can't see you," said Usagi, peering around the tree. "It's too dark. Can you give me some sort of sign? Something that'll let me know you're there?"

Here. A small, pale hand emerged from the shadows, palm upturned, beckoning. Take my hand, Usagi. Please. Help me up.

Usagi smiled. "I can see you now." She glided past the tree, waded through the shrubs. She could just make out the shape of a young girl in what little light filtered through the leaves. "There you are. Oh thank goodness, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said the girl. "Really, I am. Never better."

"It's alright. You don't have to sugarcoat it. I'm here for you. You have nothing to fear."

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure." Usagi stepped into the light, got a good look at the girl. Poor thing, she looked so scared, as if a nightmarish creature was waiting just around the corner. "Come on; let's get you back on your feet." She reached out for the girl's hand and took it. "Your parents must be very worried—"

Click.

A sense of cold, damp darkness.

A slice of crescent white teeth dipped in thick, drooling amber.

"Oh but my friend, that's where you're wrong. The only person who should be worried is you."

Haha.

Ahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHAHA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!

Usagi squeezed the girl's wrist. "W-Wait—"

There was a sound of thunder, a flash of lightning.

No one heard her scream.

A few minutes later, Azabu-Juuban was alive with the howls of sirens. An ambulance, a fire truck, and a trio of police cars tore through the streets, firework bursts of red and blue and white tossing epileptic shadows from mounted light bars. Windshield wipers roamed constantly, casting aside sheets of pouring rain.

As they approached, their headlights fell upon a body stretched out along the sidewalk. Long blonde hair spread over her like angel wings, hands clasped together at the swell of her breasts.

If the paramedics didn't know any better, they would have assumed she was asleep.

And they were right.

Tsukino Usagi was in a deep, deep sleep, one that medicine and modern technology would not be able to wake her from.