The girl's neck felt itchy. They were so excruciatingly itchy that it was beyond pain. She tried to ignore it, but the pain grew larger as she attempted many times to dismiss that fact from her mind. Cold sweat ran down her shaking hands, as the girl forced away the urge to scratch, but it was no use against this irresistible power. Torturously, her fingers gradually started to move towards her neck. Streaks of painful tears ran down the girl's pale cheeks as she placed down her finger upon it. Suddenly, everything became a raging storm as she agonizingly sliced through the skin on the side her neck like rabid wolf. Screams and cries pierced through the air. Small cold lumps started to swarm down her shoulder. Her hand swept away the small white maggots as she ragingly clawed more at her neck. The futon underneath her horrendously became a large pool of blood and insect larvae. As the girl stared upon this mess, she started to laugh in a hysterical manner. She couldn't stop herself now; everything was too late. This was her fate. Oyashiro-sama's curse.
"IYADAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A scream penetrated through the morning air. Rena Ryuguu sat up in her futon, breathing deeply while cold sweat ran down her fevered forehead. The same dream that had repeated itself over and over again, from when she first came to Hinamizawa, had done so for the thirty-fourth consecutive time. Whenever the nightmare occured, Rena had felt the inevitable possibility that it was true. In fact it had happened before. Many times, she was sure. Rena slowly raised up her hand to wipe away the sweat on her head and paused midway. She stared hard at the fingers on her hand, hoping that nothing really had happened. Was it really just that same dream? Or maybe...? The girl quickly dismissed this thought as she stood up in her bed-clothes and took out her seifuku for school. She looked at the time; it read 5:32 AM. Rena sighed; she had missed out on 2 hours of good sleep. There was no use of going back to sleep now that she had woken up already. Sleeping would just be a horror, and then... That thought sent a shiver down her spine as she folded up her futon. Quickly, she took her clothes off and put on her blue seifuku swiftly. As she tied the yellow scarf around the collar, Rena promised herself not to talk about her dream to her friends. Even though she tried very hard to convince her heart that not telling anyone would be alright, it still yearned for a person to show its feelings to. Oyashiro-sama. That powerful name was etched in her mind. All of a sudden, Rena felt the same nostalgic feeling she had back then; as if someone was following her. She could hear the silent footsteps behind her and inaudible whispers.
"Gomenasai...gomenasai...gomenasai...gomenasai...", the whispers were saying. Rena held tight onto her breath as she covered her ears and closed her eyelids.
"Oyashiro-sama... Rena wa nani mou shiranai. Tasukete kudasai... Onegai... Gomenasai...". she whimpered.
Her neck started to itch. As she instinctively pulled her hand up to scratch it, a wave of horror came across her. Could this be...? ... an illusion. Rena pushed away all other possibilities and convinced herself to believe that simple feasibility of just a potential mistake. She shook her head and took a deep breath.