Chapter One: Voices in the Dark

Lately things have been going good for Nanashi Murimura, a popular history teacher at a local high school in Kyoto Japan. She had just been given a raise for being one of the top rated teachers in the prefecture and she was scheduled to get married in just two months time. Just a week ago she even finally moved into the house of her dreams. She was living the life she always planned. Unlucky for her however, the Ancient God Mantorok had a different life planed for her. And like it or not, her destiny was about to be played out before her very eyes, manipulated by Mantorok like a marionette.

The day, like a classic mid-summer day tends to be, was hot and balmy. The thermometer in Nanashi Murimura's class almost at the bursting point the room was so hot. Like always the hotter it got in her classroom the longer the day seemed to drag on. Nanashi sat quietly behind her desk wishing the day would draw to draw to a close, occasionally glancing up to her students. She could just picture her nice new air conditioned home in her mid. For Nanashi, this was just part of the job. This is exactly what she had to deal with day in an day out, but she loved it non the less. It is after all what she always wanted to do with her life.

The students of class room H-4 sat behind their desks, each one staring down at a piece of paper in front of them hard at work. On the black board behind Nanashi the words "End of the Week Recap Test" were written out in large characters so the whole class could see, bellow that a recap of everything the test covered. From the looks of it they were in the middle of an ancient Roman history lesson. Nanashi kicked her feet up onto her desk and leaned back into her chair, her eyes shifting around her class room before fading back into her air conditioned day dream world when she heard it.

"Nanashi..." a voice cried out to her. The voice was a very low rumble that sounded disembodied but what startled Nanashi most was that the voice did not seem to come from her classroom, but was uttered into her very skull. Nanashi in her start kicked her feet off the desk and quickly leaned forward in her chair, eyes shifting around her classroom.

"Who ever just called me, I must ask that you address me as Murimura Sensei. Please do not use my first name while I am in the classroom. Thank you." Nanashi continued to look around the class room, waiting to see who called her.

"Sensei?" a female student in the front of the class asked curiously. The girl adjusted her glasses a bit bringing them up her nose before she continued. "No one in the class asked for you just now."

Nanashi stared at the girl, she recognized her as Mai Sakamoto, one of the brainiacs in her class. Surly Nanashi though, this girl must be playing a practical joke on her. She heard it clear as crystal, someone in the class room called out to her. And she wanted to find out who, she did not want a joke. It was too hot for a practical joke.

"Nanashi..." the voice returned, this time louder. As the voice called out to her this time, her head started split with pain causing her to grasp it tight with both hands for a second. Nanashi leaning back in her chair clutching her head. Nanashi breathed in deeply then lowered her hands to her temple, rubbing them slightly while leaning forward in her chair, looking around the room again.

"I said! Please do not call me by my first name! I mean it, if someone does it again I will send them straight to the dean!" Nanashi shouted this, as she did the pain came shooting back, and with the pain came the voice again this time louder then before, so loud that Nanashi thought her head would explode. "Nanashi!"

"Sensei?" The same girl asked again, "Are you alright?" Nanashi how ever did not answer. Instead she jumped up from her seat, staggering around for a bit while the pain shoot through out her head. Nanashi looked to the class room, her head pounding with pain.

"I have to go!!" Nanashi shouted, stumbling as best as she could to the doorway of her class room, the headache reaching an unbearable point now. Once Nanashi reached the doorway the voice returned, once again louder then the last time she heard it. This time the voice sounded like it was trying to bore it's way out of her skull. The pain was blinding now, with every throb of the headache her vision went white.

Nanashi grabbed the doorknob to her classroom door and flung the door open and quickly rushed from her room, slamming the door behind her. As the door slammed and sent echoes down the empty hallway Nanashi heard the voice again, "Nanashi!" But something was wrong. The voice sounded angry now, for what Nanashi could not figure out as the pain had reached the unfathomable limits. Nanashi tried to run to get help but as she took a step it happened...

Almost at once it happened. The pain went away in her head. Like it was never there. Just the lingering memory of it and that too slowly faded. Gone was the pain that felt as if it would split her head in two. It was how ever quickly replaced with questions. Who, nay, what had called out to her? It's very voice felt like it could kill. But Nanashi had no time to figure out the answers. With the pain, so did go the hallway to the school. Nanashi could not understand it, before her very eyes the walls of the school were melting away. Nanashi glances around as the walls just disappeared before her leaving nothing but black space. Nanashi could not comprehend what was going on. Not at all.

Then it hit her, she was dreaming. Yes, that was it. She was back in her class room, sound asleep. She had been over come by the heat and the walls melting was merely a unconscious representation of how hazy the day had been. The voice she had been hearing must have been a student trying to wake her. Yes. That was surly it. So she decided to wake her self up. She would return to her class room and wake her self up. Wait she though. How exactly was she going to manage to wake her self up? Eh she did not care, she just knew it would happen when she got to her sleeping self. So she turned around and reached for her class room door and opened it. Before her though was not her class room rather a black void. Never the less, she must get back to her body and wake her self up. What if the Dean cough her sleeping on the job?

Nanashi stepped into the black void. But what was on the other side was most definitely not her classroom. Nanashi glanced around the room quickly trying to take everything in. The ground before her was paved completely in skulls, there were no walls to this place just large pillars of human bone. Nanashi was stuck on a platform some where with no escape, none that she could see anyway. Between every bone pillar Nanashi noted a very elegant statue. The statues numbered in what had to be the high thirties, some unfinished. Then as a quick reminder of her dream the voice returned "Nanashi!"

This time, unlike the rest how ever. The voice was not based in side of her head. Nor was it accompanied by an unbearable pain. The voice came from some where with in the morbid room she was in. What kind of dream was this she was having she wondered? Why was she not having a dream with some hunk in it, those were the type of dreams she liked. Not dreams with rooms made out of bone.

"Nanashi!" The voice called out again to her. Finally! She saw what had been calling out to her. At the end of the corridor of statues as a podium clasped in 2 skeletal hands on the podium was a book. A large grayish book. The book was calling out to her, there was no mistaking it. Some dream this was Nanashi thought, instead of it being Ichiro Suzuki calling out to her it was some musty old book. How dull. Nanashi stared up at it for a second trying to figure out why she was dreaming about some junky old book. As she stared at it, the book must have realized she figured out it was calling her. Because as s he stood there dumbfounded it again called out to her "Nanashi!"

Slowly and nervously Nanashi walked towards the book at the end of the hallway lined with the statues. As she passed each statue she looked up at it and then down to the name plate. Each statue was totally different then the rest. One was a monk and the one next to it a photographer. Nanashi could not figure out what such a wide range of people had in common, but she did not care. All she wanted to do was wake up now. She was starting to get scared, the dream was starting to get a little too real. But stuff like this only happens in horror she kept telling her self. Doesn't it?

The seconds passed like hours as Nanashi approached the book, her knees starting to shake with every step towards it. It only took her 2 minutes to reach the book at her slow nervous speed, but those two minutes seemed like two hours in this hellish hallway. Finally Nanashi was standing right in front of the book, her knees shaking badly now. If this was a dream, why hasn't she woken up yet? She was starting to get scared.

Anticipating Nanashi, the skeletal hands clutching the book to the podium released their grasp on the book. This sudden action startled Nanashi causing her to take a couple of steps back. The book once again called out to her, one last time "Nanashi!" Staring down at the book Nanashi took a deep breath and reached out for it. As soon as her hand laid contact with the cover of the book she quickly shot it back away from it, staring at her hand. The book felt alive. It felt like human skin. But could it be? She was dreaming. She was sure of it. You would not feel things in a dream. Why would a book be made of human skin? But she did feel it. She was sure of that. And the book was indeed made of skin.

Nanashi stood back for a couple of seconds, trying to ponder what kind of hellish dream she had fallen into and why had none of her students had been successful at waking her up? How long exactly had she been sleeping? She was getting no where thinking to her self though, so she approached the book once more. This time she could read the title on it clear as day. "The Tome of Eternal Darkness"

Nanashi put her hand to the cover and ran it lightly across, it was made out of flesh. She was sure of it. What kind of demonic book was this? I mean, why would a book with out a demonic nature be made of flesh? It had to be logical. But why was she dreaming about this book of all books? She shrugged off the thought and opened the book, the cover opening with a thud. The binding of the book she could sense was made out of human bone. She did not want to prove it, but her instincts were usually right.

The pages to the book were brittle, they felt as if they could break in her hands as she flipped through the pages in the book. The book was long, that was for sure. Each chapter Nanashi noticed was the tale of one person and the more she looked the more she realized each person in this book was immortalized in statue forum in this very hallway. As she flipped through the book she noticed a couple of chapters were blank, but there was one chapter that cough her eye the most. One chapter that scared her to her very soul. The very last chapter in the book was about her. Fear rushed over her quickly as she jerked back...

"Nanashi!" a distant voice called out to her. Nanashi Murimura grumbled a bit, and opened her eyes. She was back in her classroom. She jerked her head off her desk and quickly looked around her room, it was empty. Whats more was she noticed it was now dark out. She was in fact dreaming and breathed a sigh of relief as she realized it was nothing more but a nightmare. But why did she sleep so long? "Nanashi!" the voice called out again, standing over her was the dean of the school.

"uhh." Nanashi grumbled, turning her attention to the Dean. "Ohh my head..." Nanashi rubbed her head a bit then continued talking "I'm sorry... I do not know what came over me..." she stated to the Dean "I just kind of drifted off. I am sorry. It will never happen again."


The Dean smiled at her, "No need to be sorry, you do not look alright. One of your students said you looked sick and then just blacked out on them. A couple of them were worried something happened to you. Were just glad you are alright." Nanashi stood up to bow to the dean, "You should go get some rest. Take tomorrow off okay?" The Dean smiled as he said this, then he left the room.

Nanashi nodded to her self, and smiled. Hey she got the day off for falling asleep in class. That was pretty cool. But wait? What if he said take tomorrow off but meant "Take the rest of your life off. Your fired." she shook that off quickly. The dean was a very nice guy. He'd not do that to her. Then it came back to her, the dream. What kind of dream was that exactly? Nanashi pondered the dream so long she did not even notice her self gathering her possessions from her class and walk out to her car. It was only as she opened the car door that she realized what was going on. And what she saw made her jump back. It wasn't a dream! Nanashi knew it now. It was not a dream. But what did this all mean? What was going on here? This kind of thing only happens in movies... Nanashi walked slowly back to her car, sure enough. There it was. Sitting on the passenger seat of her car was The Tome of Eternal Darkness...

End of Chapter One..

(OOC:That was my first attempt at non-roleplay writing. But it still did come out sort of like a roleplay. Oh well. Please let me know what you thought. Feedback would be much appreciated. And please be as brutal as you can. As I said this was my first attempt non roleplay. So I'd like to know how it went. Thanks. Oh and look for chapter two in a couple of days. )