Who would've thought?
"Stop it! Hurry up and stop it from chasing me!" A girl, around the age of 17 with dark blue hair tied up into a ponytail and doe-like teal eyes, is currently running away from an unidentified beast.
"Why is it only chasing me!?" she screamed, looking upwards to the sky, as if she was asking the heavens to save her.
"I've got it! Duck, Alice!" A smooth voice called from the trees. In a flash, an arrow shot through the air, reflecting the last rays of sunlight off of its metal tip and piercing the skull of the beast, killing it in an instant.
The girl, Alice, stopped running gasping for air while she slid down the trunk of a tree to sit down on the floor.
"Thank you, Haru. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd be dead." The same smooth voice said bluntly, jumping off of the tree branch they were standing on previously, revealing a girl a bit older than the other with shoulder length, inky black hair and sharp, ice blue eyes.
"Why do you have to say it like that?" Alice pouted at her friend, knowing she was right, as always.
"Because it's true." The bluenette sighed. "Yeah, yeah I know. But, you don't have to be blunt about it all the time!"
"She does, how else would she get you to listen to her otherwise?" A squeaky, but boyish voice sounded from below the two girls. The pair looked down to see their other member of their three man team, a peach coloured, talking cat with a bowtie around his neck.
"Cherry! Why does everyone gang up on me~?" She whined, hitting the back of her head on the tree.
Haru sighed and shook her head, "Nevermind that, the sun is starting to set and now is the best time to set up camp and get back to the town and finish the job in the morning, okay?"
"Yep~!", "Okay..." The two younger members said simultaneously, starting to help set the tent up and gather firewood.
After the trio ate dinner, a slow roasted fish over the campfire, they all got into their respective sleeping bags. A few hours later Two of the three fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow, but alice wasn't the same, she was too excited to go back to the town tomorrow to see how much the mayor of the town would pay them for sorting out their monster problem.
"Hey, Haru, how much do you think they're gonna pay us for this job? I think it's gonna be a lot, do you think so too?"Silence. "Haru?" Alice shifted in her sleeping bag turning around, only to find no one there.
'How strange,' Alice started to think 'She should've woken me up if she was going out. Or I would have been able to hear someone entering the tent and the sound of her sleeping bag shifting.' Her brows furrowed, thinking of the outcomes that could happen to her best friend, 'No,' She thought, shaking her head 'Haru is strong, she can do anything.' She frowned more, "No use moping around here to see if she'll come back or not."
"Cherry! Hey, wake up." She hissed to her snarky cat friend, watching him shift around in his sleeping bag and then turning to face her while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What do you what?" He sounded annoyed, "It's the middle of the night, what do you want?"
"Haruismissing!" She blurted out, not caring if it sounded like gibberish.
"Now repeat that, but slow down."
Alice took a deep breath and repeated what she had said before, "I said, Haru is missing."
"What."
"Haru is-", "Yes I heard you the first time!" The peach cat shouted at her.
"We have to find her!" Alice shouted back at him.
"I know that, so let get the stuff we need and get going." He said as he started to put food in his small, brown backpack. Alice followed his lead, putting her essentials in her bigger, silver bag. The two then left the tent, keeping it up just incase Haru came back, if she wasn't taken by someone, which is highly unlikely. They walked through the forest with a fire torch being the only thing letting them to be able to see where they were going. "Stop." She whispered to her friend, " I heard something coming from over there." She pointed to the left of a large, hollowed out tree, that looked like it didn't belong in the forest, " Well what you waiting for? Let's go that way."
Alice stared at Cherry like he was an alien telling her that he didn't like her, even though she had never met him before. "Are you insane? What part of 'Stop, I heard a noise over there' do you not understand!?"
"None of it." He deadpanned walking to the hollow tree, "Now come on, unless you want to be left here all alone with no one with you." That struck a nerve with Alice, she didn't want to be seen as some crybaby who can't do anything for herself, 'I mean look at me, I'm the one who who said we had to find her. I have to stick with this no matter what.' She thought, feeling her resolve grow more and more to find her missing friend.
"I'm on my way, you can stop being a jerk now." she frowned at her cat, watching him as he walked. "You know I can't stop doing that, it's in my nature." She snorted at that, "Of course it is..." Rolling her eyes as she said this. "Where are we actually going, by the way? It's not like we're going to find Haru just by walking around aimlessly in the forest you know."
Cherry stopped walking and turned around to look at her, "It always works in the story books that you and Haru read." Alice blinked owlishly at him, "The story books? You do know they are absolutely fictional, right? Made up; Not real." She deadpanned at him. "Yeah, I know."
"Sarcastic little piece of-" "ROOOOOOAAR!" Alice and Cherry looked at each other, shocked at what they were hearing. "Was that-?" "Is that-?" "Monster!" the pair screamed simultaneously. The two ran in the direction of the roar coming across a tower with the monster outside guarding a door behind it. The monster was tall and round, it was a murky green colour and had floppy ears resting on its head and it eyes are round, like a large, black button. "How are we gonna get past that!" Alice whisper screamed "And how do we even know if Haru is in there!?"
"Well, for starters why would that monster be guarding the door if there's nothing important in that tower, right?" Cherry asked her, looking back at the monster. "So, what are we going to do?" Alice looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes as soon as he asked that question, "Isn't it obvious? We gotta take it down!" Cherry sighed, "No, it isn't. How are we going to take it down, then?" He looked at her, she was thinking about what she could do until she remembered that she took her knives with her. Haru gave them to her for a birthday gift a few years back, as she wanted Alice to be protected at all times because Haru knew that Alice looked like an easy target to steal from, but with those knives Alice could protect herself from them.
Alice got her bag from of her back and started to rummage through them. Cherry looked at her with interest before asking her, "What are you looking for?" Alice finishes looking in her bag and pulled out six silver knives. Their handles had carved swirl and flower designs on them and their blades at least 6 inches long, gleaming in the moonlight. "These, I was looking for these. Haru gave the to me on my birthday a few years ago, I never really used them, but I always carried them around on me because Haru made me promise that." Alice explained to her small partner in crime. "Why did she give them to you?" He asked her, genuinely curious. "D=She wanted me to be safe, so she gave me these so I could be ale to protect myself. Anyway, let's go take the ugly monster down!"
She stood up, still hidden by a tree, and aimed two knives at the monster. She threw them and they both hit the monster head on. Alice turned and looked at Cherry, "Looks like I got lucky, ay?"Cherry, of course, snorted at this "Clearly. Anyway let's go, the quicker we find Haru, the quicker I can go to sleep." Alice rolled her eyes, but at the same time, she wanted to do the same.
The two ran up to the door and opened it, it didn't creak like they expected it to do, but the first room was empty like they like they guessed. "She's not here, do you think she's all the way at the top?" Alice ask Cherry, "Most likely." He answered, already making his way to the staircase. Alice followed, not too far behind and they started climbing the stairs to the top of the tower. "Jeez, this is taking forever. Can you carry me, Alice?" Cherry stopped walking up the stairs to face Alice, he lifted up his arms like a baby would with their parent to show they wanted to be picked up. The bluenette sighed but she did pick him up and held him close to her chest as she continued with her journey up the stairs.
After 10 minutes of climbing, Alice reached the top and put the peach cat down on the floor, she made way to the door across the hall, slightly nervous if it wasn't Haru behind it. "Go on then, open it, or I'll do it for you." Cherry's snarky remark came from behind her, "Yes, I know, I'm doing it know." She pushed the door open, far enough to fit her through, Cherry right behind her as they made it to the middle of the roof top. "Haru?" Alice's voice called out, "Are you here?"
"Alice," Haru's smooth voice cut through the tension filled air like a knife to paper. "Alice," She repeated "You made it." She got up from the seat she was sitting from, looking out into the forest, she didn't move just stood there looking into the sky. "Of course I made it Haru, why wouldn't I?" Alice asked, confused on what her friend was talking about. "Why are you so far away, come closer." Haru waved them over, Alice obeyed moving closer to her friend. "Haru, is something wrong?" she asked as soon as she got next to her friend. "You pass."
"What?" Alice blinked.
"You passed the test." Haru said facing Alice for the first time since she got here.
Alice backed away when she saw Haru's face; it had a nasty, bloodthirsty smile that did not belong there.
"What's wrong, Alice." she moved closer. Alice moved backwards.
"You're not Haru," She said pulling out her silver knife. "Who are you?" Cherry looked at the two from the distance not noticing anything wrong with Haru, 'It's strange' he wondered, 'Why is Alice so scared?'
'Haru' started to back Alice into the corner of the roof, and whispered, "why don't we find out shall we-?!" The not-Haru choked on her words as blood came up from her mouth and she spat it out, trying to breathe, but feeling a sharp pain in her chest. Looking down Not-Haru saw the silver knife hat Alice had in her hand, now in her chest. She looked up at Alice and saw her crying, the last thing she heard was,"I'm sorr- "ALICE! Wake up!"
And that is what she did. Alice woke up from her nightmare, still in the tent, still in her sleeping bag.
Who would've thought, that it was all a dream?