"Mommy? Daddy?" Tears were streaming down my face as I stood, rooted to the ground in fear. Around me, men, women, and children ran about panickedly, their screams deafening.

Suddenly, there was red. Splattering the walls and the ground.

"Mommy!" Without warning, a fleeing man knocked me down, my left cheek banging hard against the tiled floor.

"Get up! Come on!" a voice shouted at me, and I was suddenly dragged to my feet by two little hands. I tried seeing who the voice belonged to, but their faces were obscure. A blur as I was pulled by my hand.

But what I could see was a young woman kneeling beside a man with blood pouring profusely out from his chest. "Please, somebody, help!"

Jolting awake, my eyes flew open only to be squinted shut again. It was the same dream as all the other ones that I have been plagued with for years. Ten to be exact.

'Just breathe,' I coaxed myself, just like Kichirou had instructed me to do whenever I needed to clear my mind.

'Bah, the sunlight's blinding me,' I thought darkly as I stretched with a yawn.

"Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-"

"SHIT!" I swore as my arms flailed in surprise-only for me to hit a funny bone and knock my phone to the ground. Ahhhh, the pain, the pain, THE PAINNNN!

Whilst I cradled my arm against my chest, I leaned over to snatch up my phone, only to discover a cracked screen. Good job me, I thought as I punched the 'answer' button.

Before I could even fully bring the device to my ear, I was deafened by furious shouting.

"Where are you, Hotaru? Do you know what time it is?!" a familiar voice barked.

In that single moment, the eardrums in my left ear were destroyed and my imminent death played out before my eyes. "Aimi?"

"We're all at the dock except you. Where are you?" the girl demanded, her fury emitting from my phone. Cringing, I shot a glance at my clock and panic seized me. 8:05, it read.

Forcing back a string of profanity which threatened to spill out of my mouth, I half-jumped, half-fell out of bed. I zeroed in on my costume and grabbed it as I made a beeline for the bathroom, all grogginess gone.

"Nohara!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in five minutes. I'm just waiting for these damn pedestrians to get out of the way," I lied, feigning anger.

"Hurry up!" Aimi shouted and the call ended. Tossing my phone onto the sink, I hastily wrestled on my costume-a navy blue dress from the Arthurian times-and quickly yanked a brush through my tangled black hair whilst simultaneously brushing my teeth like the multi-tasking boss I was.

With my face still partially wet from the washing I gave it, I flew down the stairs and out the door like a madman. In my case, a madwoman.

"Where're you going, Hotaru? You still haven't had breakfast yet!" my mom called from within the house as I hitched up my ridiculous dress and got onto my bike.

"Aimi has some muffins for me! I gotta run, be back for lunch!" I yelled and took off, leaving the gate wide open like the responsible person I am.

I biked so fast that my legs felt as if they were turning into jelly. Upon nearing my destination, I slowed my biking. Aimi was going to murder me. When a familiar little white van came into view, I quickly parked my bike and shuffled onto the dock where Aimi stood with her arms crossed over her chest, lips downturned in a scowl.

"Where were you? That wasn't five minutes! I could have done enough exercises to give me the body of a Victoria's Secret Angel's model!" Aimi snapped. Behind her, Daichi hid a smirk with a turn of his head, making my face flush with anger. I could practically hear him laughing at me.

"You're not tall enough to be one," he pointed out and Aimi glared. At only five feet two, she had a fearsome temper. Enough to burn down a whole village.

"Well, I'm sorry the pedestrians were slow," I improvised but I knew the entire crew saw through my lie. I smiled the best I could without it turning into a grimace.

"Sureee." Daichi grinned and floated away, out of my reach.

Aimi's black eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring, and for the second time that morning, I saw my death play out once more.

'Please, please, please, good Lord, spare me,' I begged silently as I braced myself for the girl's lecture about being on time. If you're early, you're on time, if you're on time, you're late, if you're late, well, that spelled a certain death; that was always the case with Aimi.

Then my prayers were answered.

"We should start filming rather than you coming up with similes," a goodhearted lad with tousled brown hair who goes by the name of Itsuki quickly intervened (I swore I could have kissed him right then and there).

Aimi huffed, then nodded curtly. Relief washed over me. "You. Boat. Now," she ordered, finger pointing at the old, rickety rowboat floating by the dock. She had specifically bought it off of the internet for her short film about two tragic lovers, a knight and a princess set in the Arthurian times. They both die in the end in case if you're wondering. Aimi doesn't sugarcoat things.

"Okay, okay, shoes first," I said, palms up as I made my way to the van where I quickly changed my sneakers for the medieval-looking shoes Aimi had gotten. Stuffing my socks within my shoes and placing it on the dock, I walked over to the boat which Daichi held steady for me.

"'I'll be there in five minutes,'" Daichi mimicked in every guy's default girl voice.

"Shut up, you moronic bastard," I snapped with a glower as I carefully stepped into the boat. "This thing doesn't look like it'll hold," I said as I slowly sat down.

"Don't be paranoid, it will," Daichi said with an overly enthusiastic beam.

I grabbed the bundle of flowers in his hand and laid down in the boat, hands folded neatly over my chest with the flowers. "If I drown and die, it will be on your heads," I muttered darkly as he adjusted the placing of my hands and arranged my hair.

"Don't be so melodramatic," he said as he straightened.

Just as I was about to come up with a retort, Daichi untied the rowboat and flashed Aimi and Itsuki a thumbs up. "We're good to go!"

Aimi nodded. "Okay, camera! Three, two, one, action!"

Shutting my eyes, I was pushed out into the water, where the steady current carried me slowly down the river. This was the last part of the film when Lady Lausanne of Winchester dies of a broken heart and is sent off into the sea on a small row boat. Cliche, and maybe a little over dramatic, I know, but what's a good movie without a little bit of both?

Though my eyes were closed, I knew that the others were driving in the van beside the river, filming. After a few minutes, I heard Aimi yell, "Cut!" Sighing, I blinked my eyes open.

"Wait-holy-LOOK OUT!" Daichi yelled, pointing at something just a little further up the river.

"What?" Sitting upright, I turned my head to see a large rock protruding out from the water. And I was heading right for it. Son of a gun. As I looked about panickedly for anything to grab onto, I was quite disappointed to find nothing. Zero. None. Nein. Shit's going down.

"Try and stop the boat! We're going to get help!" Aimi yelled then shot something at Itsuki who nodded grimly. "Just stay there!" was the last thing she said before the van sped off, leaving me all alone in the rowboat.

"Wait-"

As the sound of wood cracking invaded my ears, my eyes shot down to see water already starting to fill the boat, soaking me. Crap, my phone.

'Damn Aimi, buying the cheapest boat she could find.' Whilst I cursed the other girl, I debated between stripping off my clothes and swimming away, or drowning with my dignity intact. I went with the latter option. Slowly, I grabbed the protruding stone and carefully stepped out of the already half full boat.

Silently praying that Aimi and the others would come quickly with help, I clung onto the wet rock, shivering as the cold river water washed over me. I was going to get hypothermia for this. Suddenly, my prayers were answered as I noticed another rowboat making its way to me. MY SALVATION.

"Hey! Over here!" I shouted, letting go of the rock with one hand to wave at the approaching boat. The boy sitting within the rowboat stopped his rowing and quickly extended an arm towards me.

"Take my hand!"

Without further ado, I grabbed his outstretched hand and hauled myself into his rowboat, dripping wet.

"T-thanks," I shivered as I drew my legs to my body. It was cold.

"Are you okay?" the rower asked as he took up the paddles and began to move the boat along.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "Sorry about getting your boat all wet…" Blood rushed to my face. How strange it must be to find a girl stuck in the middle of the river, by herself with a rapidly sinking, old rowboat in a ridiculous medieval getup.

"Don't worry about it." Noticing my slight shiver, he reached beside him and offered me what seemed to be his jacket. For the first time, I fully looked up at his face and was stunned at what I saw. Not going to lie, he was handsome with golden hair and bright green eyes. But what was more, was that this boy… he looked oddly familiar…

"I'm okay… I don't want to get it wet," I said with a shake of my head.

"Take it, you'll catch your cold if you don't get warm. How did you get here? Maybe I can take you home?" the boy said as I finally accepted his jacket and pulled it tightly around my shoulders. I panicked at his proffer.

"No, no, no, it's fine. Just drop me off by the dock further up the river. You've helped me enough," I quickly muttered and the strange boy raised his eyebrows.

"I insist-"

"It really is okay, honestly. I have a bike that I need to bring back home anyways," I said. It was actually a legitimate excuse.

He fell silent for a moment as he rowed. "Pardon me for asking, but why were you alone in the river?" he inquired, green eyes peering at me curiously. I forced back another blush and met his gaze steadily.

"My friends and I are actually producing a short film which we are entering into a competition," I explained.

"Really?" Interest sparked in his eyes.

I nodded, my mouth open and ready to go into details when we came up beside the dock. "I guess I should be going now. Thank you very much for your help," I said with a bow once I was standing on solid ground. Shrugging off his now-damp jacket, I held it out to him.

The boy shook his head. "Keep it. It's the least I can do if I cannot send you home," he said. As I started to argue back, he began to rise. "Then let me accompany you home."

At those words, I was already backing away. His expression meant business.

"Thank you again. Maybe one day I can return your jacket. I should get going now," I said with another small bow and began to hurry to my bike.

"At least tell me your name!" he called from the dock.

"Hotaru!" I shouted back over my shoulder as I kicked off Aimi's soaked shoes and put on my own before getting onto my bike. "Good bye!" I called before pushing off against the grass. I was eager to get home and change.

Behind me, I could hear the boy's faint reply accompanied with something else, but the wind in my ears blocked it out.

As you could imagine, my mom was immediately on my case when she saw me coming home, soaked and shivering with a man's jacket slung around my shoulders. After I giving her a quick, crude explanation of the events that morning, I rushed into the bathroom where I cleaned up and came out nice, warm, and most of all, dry.

Except my phone wasn't, and it was far from dry. How abso-fricking-lutely lovely.

I quickly made myself a hasty sandwich and escaped to my room where I put off telling my mom that I needed a new phone. Instead, I munched hungrily on my food and settled with calling Aimi on my laptop. After one ring, she picked up.

"Where are you?!" the girl shouted with what I could detect as panic.

"Shut up, I'm at home," I grumbled.

"Oh, thank God! We were looking everywhere for you! Why didn't you call us?" Aimi asked, her tone accusing.

"I was freezing cold and my phone wasn't working," I deadpanned.

"Fine, you have a point," Aimi muttered and I sighed.

"Do we have to reshoot it?"

"No, it was actually perfect!" Aimi said brightly.

"Well, that's good news," I said drily.

Hi guys! (For those of you who's read my other fan fiction, Under the Stars, you now know that I am NOT dead and am terribly sorry for not updating *hides*. I'll try and get around to it instead of posting new sorry ass fan fictions like this one.) Anyways, if you're reading this now, chances are, you managed to read till the end of my fan fiction. Since it is new, it would be great if some of you could pop down below and leave a review to reassure my fragile soul. Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed this, you can always receive notifications of my activity by following this story!

P.S. This is my first stab at a love triangle so please be gentle.