Full Summary: Dealing with life in college and dreams that sometimes became prophecies of the future; that used to be all Uryuu Ishida had to worry about in his boring but hectic life. So when one nightmare threatens to unravel everything and sets off a chain reaction of deadly dreams and murders, will Uryuu be able to figure out what's going on in time to stop it? Or will he find himself teetering on the edge of being unable to distinguish his dreams from reality? Alternate Universe, One sided Uryuu/Orihime, Blood and Gore, Crime and Suspense.

A/N: Hey all! I'm back, and with a new project to help me rip my hair out while I continue to work on making Fragility a Visual Novel! If you haven't read Fragility and don't like graphic M rated stories, no need to check it out. If you're a returning viewer, then welcome back, and hope you enjoy!

Uryuu Ishida felt his heart leap into his throat long before his eyes opened; he could feel the icy fingers of death trailing along his spine, sending cold chills wracking through his already trembling body as he fumbled around in a panic, a thin sheen of sweat coating his constricted body. It was only when the realization of what he had seen fully registered in his mind that he froze where he lay, paralyzed by the gruesome horror he had borne witness to. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he tried with all his will to calm his erratic heartbeat, and tried to gather the courage to lift his arm again.

Finding it easier to move his head than any other part of his body, he finally managed to twist his head to the right, only for darkness tinged with a dull hue of red to meet his blurry gaze. Fighting back a whimper, Uryuu delicately sniffed at the air, expecting the metallic scent of blood but finding only the musky smell of sweat. Involuntarily gulping, encouraged by the absence of the scent of blood in the air, he found the resolve to flex his fingers around the object he had been holding onto like a lifeline. His entire body jolted upright as the memory of holding a disembodied arm flashed through his mind when his fingers lightly clenched around a warm cylinder, and with as much strength as he could muster, he chucked the arm across the room.

A shattering of glass was heard seconds later, and Uryuu shot up in bed fully awake, his lower limbs still tangled in his sheets and making it difficult to move. The darkness around him made it difficult to see, but with some groping on the small night stand beside him, he managed to find his glasses and shakily slide them up his nose. Blurs and shadows became images and outlines, and with a sheepish horror, he realized that in his frightened fit he had managed to catapult his reading lamp all the way across the room, where it lay mangled against the wall and floor. Cringing slightly, Uryuu's first thought was to glance to his left, wondering if he had woken his roommate with his nightmare, but was answered promptly by a sharp, deafening snore.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, Uryuu kicked off what was left of his sheets and swung his legs over the side of his bed, running his hands through his disheveled hair. Having finally calmed down, he glanced up, toward the dresser that housed their one and only alarm clock, its red numbers blazing down on him, unknowing of the chaos that filled his mind. With a scowl, Uryuu cursed the nature of dreams, always waking him up when he didn't want to be awake. It was too late to go back to sleep, since he had his first class of the day in a few hours, but it was too early to wake up according to his body. So with a yawn and a stretch, he sighed as he resigned himself to being up for the day, and reached for the last drawer of the dresser.

Pulling out a small blue and white booklet from underneath his slacks, he fished in the drawer for a pen before gently closing it and lifting himself from the bed. He no longer had his reading lamp to light the pages of his dream journal, but that didn't mean the bathroom light had gone out, too. Feeling slightly awkward for locking himself away in the bathroom, sitting on a closed toilet and staring at a blank page of the journal, he found himself sighing quietly.

He didn't usually have dreams this... vivid. So horrifically realistic that he could feel the blood splattering his arm and face as it happened... it wasn't normal. In fact, it really freaked him out, and in that moment Uryuu raised his hand to his face, wiping at the spot that had been covered in blood in the dream. He hoped to everything that was holy this dream didn't come true; he wouldn't be able to handle it if it did.

Ever since a few years ago, he had started keeping a dream journal because of dreams like this one. Sometimes, it was nothing to worry about, but then again, sometimes... it was. It wasn't like all his dreams came true or anything. Sometimes he had ordinary dreams, like being chased by crazy clowns or finding a pot of gold; sometimes he had dreams that didn't even come close to coming true, that made no sense after the fact that he still managed to work himself up about. Then there were... those dreams. He wasn't a psychic, or a prophet, or anything to that extent. He couldn't even honestly say he could sometimes predict the future, or that he sometimes changed it. It all seemed like it was a matter of coincidence; just a random happenstance sequence of events that just somehow managed to coincide with what his subconscious mind decided was a good idea that night.

At least, that's what he told himself. With a sigh and a shiver, Uryuu refocused his gaze to the blank page.

I'm standing on a street corner, he wrote. Its crowded, and there's a lot of noise around me and I'm next to my dorm mate, Ichigo Kurosaki. I know he's trying to talk to me about something, but I'm not listening. I wouldn't be able to hear him anyway over the sounds of a kid crying over a lost toy, or a dog barking at everything that moved a few buildings down from where we stood, or just the general hustle and bustle of the street. I feel like I'm late. Like something bad is going to happen because I'm late, but I don't know what I'm late for. Late to be somewhere, late to meet someone... I don't know, but it's probably Kurosaki's fault.

I notice the 351 bus coming around a corner a few blocks down and heading our way. Maybe we need to be on that bus, or maybe whoever we were supposed to meet is on that bus. I'm not sure why, but my attention is drawn to that bus. It's not slowing down. Then I notice Kurosaki waving at someone across the street, and I see Orihime Inoue crossing the road, heading toward us. She was smiling like always, and waving back at us, but my attention was still drawn to the bus. The speeding bus. Then somehow I realized the corner we were standing on wasn't a bus stop, and all I could hear was the sound of a horn blaring, drowning out all the noise around me.

I felt paralyzed. I couldn't think. But I watched Orihime stop as the screeching of tires tried to drown out even the sound of the horn. I watched her pretty smile fade, and finally my feet moved. She looked exactly like a deer in the headlights, and I didn't think I would make it in time. I ran out to where she stood and grabbed her arm -

Uryuu took a deep breath, trying to calm the shaking in his hand as he forced himself to recall the events of the dream. If it were to come true, (And he couldn't take any chances that it wouldn't,) then he had to remember. For Orihime's sake.

I grabbed her arm as tight as I could and tried to pull her back, away from the bus. I heard the horn whiz past me. Orihime jerked and I felt something warm and slimy hit my arm and face. I felt her squeeze my hand before her grip loosened and her arm went limp. The horn and screeching tires stopped a little way away from us, but there was screaming and yelling to replace it. I remember Kurosaki pulling on me, and without realizing I had moved, suddenly I was looking down at Orihime, her legs tangled up in a tire, lying broken and bloody in the street. People were yelling at me, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I just stared at Orihime.

At some point I remember seeing Maki Ichinose stepping out of his squad car and heading toward us all. I remember Kisuke Urahara covering Orihime's face and most of her body with his jacket. I remember Yasutora Sado asking me something. I could hear his words more clearly than anything else. He asked me what I was holding. I remember looking down at the hand I had grasped onto Orihime's arm with. I was still holding her disembodied arm.

Uryuu jumped, the pen clattering onto the tile floor when a loud succession of sharp bangs at the door sounded out, followed by a groggy,

"Hey, are you done yet? I need the shower."

A nervous, breathy laugh slipped past Uryuu's lips as he bent down to collect the pen, closing the dream journal. Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, he pocketed the journal to hide it, even though Kurosaki knew full well about his dreams, if not the extent of them. Once it was hidden, he got up and opened the door, but didn't step out from the doorway. He did, after all, have his first class of the day in a few hours, and there was no way he was going in to class after that dream without a shower himself.

"Sorry. I was writing. But I'm going to be in here a little while longer; I still need a shower too."

Kurosaki gave him a half lidded glare and grumbled out his reply,

"Well, that's what you get for destroying that innocent lamp again. Another dream?"

Uryuu felt his cheeks heat with blood; Kurosaki was right, this wasn't the first time he'd thrown the lamp across the room in the throes of a nightmare. It was, however, the first time he had done so while semi-conscious - but Kurosaki didn't need to know that.

"Yeah. I'd rather not talk about it," he finally settled on saying, averting his gaze.

"Right. Just hurry up, okay? I was gonna walk with you to the university today; I'm supposed to meet Chad just outside the new arcade for a bit before class."

Even as Kurosaki turned away from the door, Uryuu felt rooted to the spot. His heart leaped into his throat at the thought of Kurosaki walking with him and meeting Chad along the way. Everything was starting to happen like his dream, and he really wasn't sure whether he wanted to curl up in bed and pretend nothing had ever happened, or try his luck at changing his dream in reality. Swallowing back his fear, he slowly closed the door of the bathroom and locked it, and turned the shower on full blast.

It was while he was in the shower that he came to the conclusion he couldn't stay home today; in his dream, he had been the one to try and pull Orihime out of the way of the bus. Even though he trusted Kurosaki to try and save her regardless, how could he say things wouldn't still turn out the same as they did in his dream? He had to go. Besides, he couldn't take a chance on skipping class this close to mid-terms.

So with a heavy heart he finished his shower, and watched with trepidation as Kurosaki replaced him in the bathroom. Hearing the water run as he was packing his book bag for his Home Economics class and knowing that he might actually have his nightmare become reality made his movements shaky at points, and several times he dropped his pencils and books onto the floor. When he was finally ready, and Kurosaki still hadn't even turned off the water, Uryuu contemplated just leaving without him; maybe that would solve the issue? But no, even that wouldn't work, he mused to himself, pacing back and forth in the tiny room they shared.

If he were to leave early, then the bus would still run poor Orihime over, he just wouldn't be there to stop it. Cringing heavily, Uryuu turned his gaze to the clock, which showed him he just barely had an hour to make the walk to class. Considering the walk took about an hour anyway, he at least knew why he felt late in the dream. It was Kurosaki's fault after all! Embracing his forehead in his hands, he tried to stave off the oncoming headache when he finally heard the water shut off, and he found himself listening anxiously to the sounds of Kurosaki fumbling around in the bathroom as he dressed.

When his roommate finally exited the bathroom, Uryuu was already standing with his book bag slung over his shoulder, tapping his foot nervously.

"Come on, Kurosaki, we're going to be late."

"I know, I know, just gimme a sec here, okay? I still need my shoes and books."

"Kurosaki!"

"Relax, I'm going already!"

Uryuu had to resist throwing his hands into the air, and with every second that passed he felt his anxiety growing until finally Kurosaki had his shoes on and his own book bag in his hands and they were walking out the door. Every step they took toward the university had Uryuu checking behind him and to his sides, looking for any kind of deja vu that might trigger a memory of the dream that had escaped him when he'd been writing, but apart from Kurosaki talking aimless circles around him, nothing seemed the same. He had gotten used to tuning the carrot top's words out, but right now, even the care-free droning of pointless information was starting to grate on his nerves.

It took maybe twenty minutes of walking to reach the half-way point, and the new arcade that Kurosaki had been talking about, since Uryuu had been speeding up his pace and hurrying Kurosaki along. During the walk he had decided, if they managed to make it to and past the street corner before they had in the dream, then maybe Orihime wouldn't cross the street to come and say hello, and she would be fine. That was his hope, of course, but it didn't stop him from freezing in his tracks as they stopped in front of the arcade.

On the street corner he'd seen in his nightmare.

Instantly his heart began to race as he twisted his head painfully around, trying to catch a glimpse through the crowded streets of Orihime. Thankfully, he couldn't see any trace of her, and when he finally came to realize things didn't seem quite right, - No dog barking, no kid crying, - it was only then that the sudden absence of adrenaline left him trembling violently. So much so that when Kurosaki's hand came down on his shoulder, he jumped and almost punched him in the jaw as he turned to face him.

"What the hell, man? What's got you so spooked? Is it... you know?"

Kurosaki gestured with his head toward Uryuu's left, and when he glanced that way, he noticed Chad standing there awkwardly, watching the scene while trying to pretend he wasn't watching. He felt his cheeks heat up again, this time because Kurosaki had promised not to say anything about his occasional nightmares, and here he was, trying to bring it into conversation in front of everyone. He opened his mouth, trying to form the scathing words his mind was insisting he say, but his tongue, much like his body, didn't seem to want to respond to commands too well, giving Kurosaki his opening to continue,

"Well, if it is, don't worry about it. Besides, if you don't hurry, you're going to be late, remember?"

The thought of being late to class seemed to override most of his anger, but knowing that Kurosaki was once more the cause of it had it bubbling back up to the surface. By the time he could actually move his feet again, Kurosaki and Chad were disappearing into the arcade, swallowed by the tinted doors. Shivering and giving one last glance around him, deciding that his dream had in fact, been just that - a dream, he managed to start up a brisk pace toward the university, praying that he wasn't as late as he felt.

He had a feeling today wouldn't be the greatest of days.