Dressed In White, She Walks Through The Door

A Yume Nikki Fan Fiction

Seated, the girl scribbled and erased more times than she could count on her fingers. She drew contours madly across the paper, each drawing more disturbing than the last. Soon, papers began to pile on top of one another, covered in sketches and drawing of her encounters. Aliens with gummy-shaped teeth, vague feet-shaped creatures with eyes within eyes, a disfigured girl with arms in the wrong places and a blonde young girl with tears streaming down her eyes, the shadow of a ghostly figure manifest behind her; drawings that made no coherence save for the dreamer herself.

Spontaneously, the girl, seemingly dissatisfied, collected a hand's worth of papers and tore and crumbled them into small balls, before tossing them into the waste basket underneath her study.

She couldn't remember a damned thing.

Facing the mirror, the girl watched herself, long bangs of hair obscuring her vision.

She focused on the symbol on her pink sweater. It was a monochrome window with alternating black and whites on each frame. She pondered over its symbolism, why she kept wearing this sweater. Perhaps it was a nexus to a higher plane of existence, much like that of her dreams?

She turned back to her study, pulled out a featureless black notebook and removed the elastic band. She flipped to a blank page and readied her pen.

"for the last 4 days i couldn't dream at all.-me" the girl wrote.

Closing the notebook, the girl pushed her armchair and downed the last of her orange juice, before heading straight for her bed. Covering the sheet over her head, hiding under shelter from the outside world, she closed her eyes and tried again.

1…2…3…

The girl observed her surroundings, and realized she woke up in the middle of the street which was strangely silent, unlike her room as in most of her dreams. Eyeing around, a cloud of familiarity gathered around her. She recognized the street, and all the landmarks around it, albeit with some changes.

The city appeared completely devoid of life, and not a cicada to be heard. A strange, ethereal fog which smelled of lavender filled the air. Every building in the vicinity was covered in flora in one way or the other, algae covered windows made shelter for the small bushes growing along the wooden paths and fern grew around air conditioning units, cracks between bricks and signs. The once bright neon signs spelling out names of products and promotions were now replaced with large, owl-like googly eyes which followed the girl's every move.

Ignoring the attention, the girl headed for her apartment, located just across the barren street. There as she passed the road the girl observed a strange figure, a monochrome, ghostly female humanoid seemingly barefoot, dressed in a white dress, walking through the doors.

Following the figure into her apartment, she saw that, like the figure, the lobby had no color to it. Apart from a tea set by the counter, it was clear that no one had been here for a while.

She called an elevator, and entered. She waited as the elevator made its ascent upwards, kneeling against the wall and sitting down and making a barely audible drone-like hum. She approached her unit and entered. The girl in white was in waiting, a faint smile visible, as the door closed slowly with no human interaction.

The girl sat on the cushion, facing the figure, tracing her features on her lap with her fingers. Pushing a cup of what appeared to be a colorless liquid which vaguely smelled of green tea forward, the figure begin to speak.

-Look into my eyes, what do you see?

Taking a sip of the tea, the girl did as what she said, noticing that her pupils were asymmetric in nature and were facing in different directions.

-Out there, by the balcony, see them.

The girl stood and watched the balcony. A pair of boat shoes lay in solitude, laces blowing in the wind solemnly. She turned back, and was shocked. The figure now had color, revealing a lock of brown hair, just like her own. Her braids were similar, down to the same cheekbones and eye color. A normal looking girl in an otherwise mad world.

This was her.

-24. That's what it takes, 24 to extinguish all fires, 24 to lay in the darkness, 24 to be set free.

The figure in white stood, and abruptly, the girl put down her drink and followed suit.

Both girls rested their arms on the railing, as the air conditioning unit hummed. The sunset was picturesque, towering above the overgrown city, once her home.

-What I say will be true. Mark my words.

Shortly after that, they leapt in unison. Winds blew hard as the girl made her final descent.

She found herself against the wooden floors of her room, confused as to what happened. No oddity was to be found at the balcony, or her room.

She rushed to her study and jotted on her notebook.