NIGHTMARE

Best read at night.

"My dearest Onee-chan, I've been watching you from afar for oh-so-many years. Mommy never spoke of me, and has forgotten this warmth that once grew inside her. But you're so alive and healthy, and I'm so proud to be your sister. However, there's on teensy little problem that stands between our love, one little problem. And let's face it, if we were meant to be, then why should fate stand in between? That cancerous sore that occupies your life, that festering parasite that leeches your love...It...It needs to be removed. And I'm sorry Onee-chan, I need your help to do this."

Hirasawa Yui's eyes fluttered open in the darkness. This wasn't her room, that much was obvious; she was laying on concrete. That, and she was naked, naked and bitterly cold. Fear struck her poor heart as she pulled herself onto her knees. The blackness around her was oozing into her soul, replacing any light that was once there with horrible, horrible fear. She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees, and began to cry.

Someone had kidnapped her from her home and taken her there, that too was obvious. An evil person had taken her from her warm, safe home, and dumped her naked into this black chamber of emptiness. For a brief second, she let go of her knee and placed her hand on the cold cement floor. Yui felt something under her palm though, something made of paper or cardboard, she couldn't tell which. Just a little bit of feeling told her that it was a matchbox. Although Yui had never used a match before in her life, it wasn't a very difficult task to light one.

A thin halo of light illuminated the once dark room. The room was small, barely the size of her own room back at home. The only furnishings were rusted bed springs heaped in the corner, and some rotting piles of black wood near them. The walls were a deep rust color, with greenish lichen and mold growing where the over head pipes had leaked onto them. All in all, this place looked like it was at least 50 years abandoned. If she was in the center of her own room back home, there was a door in this one where the one in hers would have been.

Taking baby steps, Yui slowly inched her way towards the door as the match in her hand seemed to burn endlessly. She realized that was because it was burning endlessly, the wood beneath the sulfur was not catching. While she would have loved to wonder over that, there were probably more important things to wonder over...like just how she managed to get there. The last thing she remembered was kissing Ui goodnight, then going to bed. There was the eerie voice just before she woke up, but she couldn't remember what it had said.

None of that probably meant anything though, so Yui went ahead and turned the rusted knob of the rotting door in front of her. It took some effort, but the knob turned and the naked guitarist was able to push it open. The hinges shrieked after being dormant for decades, their rusty cry was akin to that of a banshee.

Yui was crying harder now, the terror only grew. A sickening draft wafted over her skin as she passed through the threshold into the unknown. She was standing on a wide balcony overlooking a large, almost mansion like room. Dim lights were etched into the tangle of pipes over head, the glass around them cracked and filled with the husks of long dead moths. She still kept the match burning in her hands though. The balcony stretched around the entire room, with a large stair case going down the lower floor. However, as far as Yui could tell, that floor was completely flooded with inky black water.

The room was woefully cold, with the draft stinging her exposed skin. She had to be careful not to burn herself with the match as she huddled her arms against her body in a desperate attempt for warmth. With that awful draft, came whispers from far off. They had the essence of children, but in her current state, Yui could have just imagined them.

The draft picked up strength and blew the match out. In its current, Yui was sure that she heard a voice say, "Onee-chan." in a meek whisper. She took baby steps across the rotting carpet beneath her feet, slowly making her way towards the source of the sound. There was only one person who used that word frequently in her life, so without thinking, Yui cried out, "Ui, was that you Ui!"

No reply, the draft had stopped, leaving the place in eerie silence. Only the lonely sound of water dripping into the flooded ground floor could be heard. The ground creaked beneath the misplaced guitarist as she walked across the balcony across from the stairs. There were doors lining the wall next to her, but her destination was that black doorway that the draft had been coming from. Step by step, she inched forward, feeling the wood beneath her creak and groan at the unwanted weight.

Her foot fell through the rotted wood, burying it all the way up to her thigh. She cried out in pain as her legs were split at an awkward angle, and as the rusted nails and wood tore at her trapped leg. Yui used her palms to keep upright, and contort her body into a slightly more comfortable angle so that she could pull herself out. The rest of the balcony gave way, and Yui found herself plummeting into the dark waters below, screaming the whole time.

If that draft had been cold, then this water was freezing. It enveloped her like an icy coffin, and she desperately tried to kick her way to the surface. After what felt like a frozen eternity, Yui finally broke to the surface. She doggy paddled to the mildewed carpet of the stairs and crawled out of the water.

"Please help me...help me...help me...get me out of here..." Yui sobbed into the darkness. Her words were lost, her limbs were frozen, she felt her heart beating strong. Up at the top of the stairs, where they met with the balcony, Yui could just make out a girl looking down on her. In the darkness, it was impossible to tell anything beyond her gender. It was quite possible that her fright had brought that unexpected vision that shook her so thoroughly. Am I dreaming? Just how real is this feeling?

The gray colored illusion on those stairs was gone as quickly as it appeared. Fighting past the bitter cold, and her soaked body, Yui struggled after it. I heard Ui's voice, I know I did. This has to be her, it has to be!

"Ui, don't leave Onee-chan alone!" She cried out and threw herself past that threshold of darkness that the draft had been coming from. The floor and walls up here were concrete, like where she had started, and reminded her of the steam tunnels beneath their school. They had only been down there once, and briefly, but it was very akin to that.

"Onee-chan, where are you? I've been looking for you!" A disembodied voice called from down the hallway. However, Yui realized that it was not the voice of Ui. It was close, but it sounded like a more coordinated version of her own voice.

"Ui, is that you!" Yui called out again, almost wishing that it wasn't her sister. While the comforting arms of Ui would have been great, she certainly didn't want her baby sister to be here in a place like this.

"Yes, Onee-chan, now come and find me. I've missed you so much!"

"Ui, where are you!"

"I'm here Onee-chan, behind this door!" Ui replied through the inky blackness. Those dim lights from the ceiling were obscured by a thick layer of fog that coated her passage. Ui's voice ceased, and all she could hear was the sound of herself crying as she ran barefoot and naked through the puddles of stagnant water beneath her.

Yui pushed past two rusted double doors, like the ones at her school. Beyond that was the biggest room so far, a massive chamber whose ceiling Yui could barely see. Fog shrouded everything around her, making it impossible to see how far it went on. She could only make out the ceiling because of the dim lights peering through the pale orange fog. Standing directly in front of her was a girl around her own age with pale, nearly gray skin and dirty brown hair that fell in locks that covered the finer parts of her breasts; she was just as naked as Yui was. Her facial features were remarkably like Yui's own, especially the eyes. Yui may have well been looking into her own.

"Onee-chan." This strange doppelganger smiled.

"Y-you're not Ui." Yui whimpered and took a step back. This bizarre nightmare world just got a little more frightening. Now she wanted to be alone again.

"Of course I am." The liar smiled at her, "Don't you know your own sister?"

"Ui doesn't look like you, and she doesn't sound like you either. You...you're a liar!" Yui cried, then took another step back. She slipped on the tile floor beneath her and fell on her butt.

"Oh no, you're hurt!" The Yui lookalike gasped, seemingly ignoring what Yui had just said, then quickly ran to her aid.

"Stay away from me!" Yui shrieked and tried to crawl away.

"It's me Onee-chan. Ui, the real Ui, the one who loves you and has missed you so much." This "Ui" softly whispered and took Yui's hands in her own. Tears were forming in New Ui's eyes, tears of happiness. Whoever this bizarre girl was, she was truly happy to see her.

"Why do you keep calling me Onee-chan. Only Ui, my Ui calls me that. You're a different Ui, so you shouldn't say that." Yui whimpered, wondering just how sane she sounded.

"But I am your Ui, don't you understand?" She whispered, and softly stroked the back of Yui's hand, "You have me confused with that awful little girl who stole my name and my place."

"You're talking about my sister, my Ui?" Yui pieced it together, "You have to be mistaken, Ui has never stolen anything in her life. Nonetheless someone's name or place!"

In a brief moment of pure terror, New Ui's face took the guise of a one that had been dead for sometime; rotting, skin stretched over bone, empty eyes. It quickly returned to the kind, loving face that it had been, but its effects were still very much imbued into Yui. That warm face contorted into a look of sadness and melancholy, with tears flowing harder, "Onee-chan, why can't you understand who I am? I've been waiting here for you all my life, because you're the only one who can help me."

"Help...you?" A horrified Yui blinked.

Ui nodded, "Yes, ever since the flicker of light that was my candle went out, I've been trapped here, wandering these empty hallways and rooms forever. But now that you're here, I can go home finally!"

There were so many questions that Yui wanted to ask now. The girl was cold, scared, and confused, so the first question she had was, "If I help you go home, do I go home too?"

A nod, "Yes, we can both go home and live happily ever after. I'm sure mommy will be happy to see me, she was very upset went I left."

Yui could understand that, her parents would be upset too if they knew that she was here, "Do you know how I got here, though? I was just sleeping in my bed then I woke up here, it's all so scary!"

"I wished you here Onee-chan, I wished you here so I wouldn't be lonely anymore. It took longer than he said it would, but I don't care, my patience has paid off!" Ui frantically told her.

She was just as confused as ever though, "Wished me here, why? And who is he?"

Ui tapped her forehead with her palm, in a gesture of silly me, a gesture that Yui herself had used before, "I wished you here so you can help me leave. And he is the lord of this place, the bearer of light. We're not ever allowed to see him, but he can hear us, and sometimes grant wishes if we ask nice enough. He brought you here in your sleep so you can help me go home! There's something you have to do alone before we can go though. You have to go quick before he turns off all the lights again. When the lights go off, the monsters come out. There are safe places here, but we're to far. So you'll have to go quick."

"Go, go where!" Yui cried, feeling even more terrified now. This nightmare had gone from being in a spooky place, to meeting some strange girl who claimed to be Ui. Now this girl wanted to send her off on some strange quest alone in this dark place where monsters dwell.

"Not far, just a place we call The Garden." Ui cheerfully told her, she pointed across the foggy expanse that was that room, "Go that way, pass through the doors and into the garden. Keep walking down the path, but never stray from it. There will be monsters who will want to get you, but they can't go on the path because the light protects it."

Yui shakily nodded, "Then I can go home, and I'll wake up from this nightmare?"

"Yes, now go quickly before the lights go out! In the Garden is a wooden box that you need to bring back, we can't leave without it!"

Not wanting to get caught in the dark, and wanting out even more, she walked as quickly as she could into the fog; which wasn't very fast, alone. Within seconds the other wall appeared, with a rusted door covered in metal rivets awaiting her. Weathered plague masks hung from the top by tattered strings, which was quite an eerie sight. Their empty eyes seemed to stare at her as she slowly pushed through that door, releasing a horrible metal screech as it scraped against the ground.

Yui had hoped that The Garden meant that it would be outside, where there was a sky, and possibly sun. However, past these doors, things only seemed to get worse. There was no sky, everything above her was just solid, pitch black. The path in front of her was a decrepit paved walkway, with mud branching off endlessly in all directions. It was like a sea of dirt, with one lonely path going through it.

Step by step, Yui walked on, feeling that cold draft again. Her tender heart stopped when saw what was lurking in the distant dirt sea, the figure of a person. Faceless, hairless, naked abomination staggering towards her; but it was a good 100 metes away. She had to stifle a scream, at the sight of the monstrosity, and when she blinked... another one appeared at the corner of her eye. Then another, and another, and another. Soon, there were nearly a dozen of them on either side dotting the horizon. Their droning voices filled the air, and it was probably a good thing that Yui couldn't understand them. Whatever language they were speaking, it wasn't one that she could recognize.

First they were scattered, but their droning turned into a demonic chorus of chants, "In nonime satani... In donime satani... Maleus satani...Ave satani..."

Whatever it meant, it certainly couldn't be good. Yui picked up her pace and threw her hands over her ears to drown out their chanting. Even with her hands against her ears, she could hear other ones whispering more of that chant into her brain; all of them droning in disharmonious chaos, making it impossible to pick up anything they were trying to say. Her steady tread turned into a sprint, she had to get that box thing and fast, staying here any longer would make her go insane from the chanting. It could be considered lucky that they were still keeping their distance away from the path. New Ui had been right about one thing, the path was safe.

Relief filled her when she saw the path end at a circular pool water about ten meters across. In the center was a wooden lock box around the size of her school bag. For a brief moment she was terrified that the water would be acid or something, but it was just muddy, tepid water that would probably give her worms if she decided to ingest it. The chanting instantly ceased when her barefoot stepped into the icy water, it barely went over her ankles. Yui looked down at her reflection, but was greeted by something else...

In the water, she saw a scene play out before her, like a watery movie. Yui instantly recoginzed the protagonist, "Momma!"

Her mother couldn't hear her, and this was apparently a flashback of some kind. The Hirasawa woman looked much younger, and had a swell under her shirt that gave away that she was pregnant; it was impossible to tell which pregnancy it was though. She looked overjoyed as she smiled at her husband, "I think I found names for our daughters. How does Ui and Mikomi sound?"

Mikomi? Yui assumed that was the name her parents had picked before decided into name her...but that didn't add up, Yui had been named when she was born, not after Ui. If only to taunt her, the vision in the water faded, denying her an explanation to her question. It returned after she took another step. This time it showed her mother, with puffy red eyes and a pale, sad face. Next to her was a doctor, who had a grim look in his face, "I'm sorry Hirasawa-san, one of the twins is stillborn...I can't express how much it pains me to say this..."

Twins? Stillborn? This couldn't be her mother, she knew for a fact that Ui had not had an unborn twin. That was just simply impossible. The water changed again, showing her mother and father sitting over a table. Her mother had tears on her cheeks, and was writing something down... It was Yui's name, the kanji for only had been written roughly, as if to add emphasis, "Not Mikomi, her name is Yui. Our baby's name is Yui...

Yui just stood there, entirely unable to comprehend what that flashback thing was supposed to mean. It was like some bizarre retelling of when her mother was pregnant with her, except this time she had a twin who had died in the womb. Something about that didn't seem possible, there was no way her parents could hide something like that for 17 years. She realized that this was still all a dream, therefor nothing should be taken seriously. With that in mind, she picked up the lock box and turned around. The chants didn't pick up, the monsters just faced her from a distance.

Without thinking, she peaked into the box (she wasn't instructed not to). She screamed aloud, closed it again. then dropped it onto the ground below when she looked at what was inside. What she had seen inside easily outdid everything else in the world so far. The hollow eye sockets of a child's rotting carcass had looked back at her. It was nearly skeletal, but dried skin still clung to various parts of its body. The child looked like it had just been born, which made it even worse.. Yui knew she had to pick up the box and keep moving if she wanted to get out of this place, but picking up the box after knowing what in there was...Well, Yui didn't know if she could do it.

Her decision was made for her as the darkness slowly crept down the path behind her, advancing towards her. Getting caught where those monsters could go at her was worse than picking up a miniature coffin. Without any joy, picked the box back up and ran back down the path. The darkness began rapidly closing in behind her, intent on swallowing her whole. Yui was crying loudly as she sprinted back, feeling the cool kiss of blackness behind her. The closer it got, the colder she could feel the air around her get. By the time she threw herself back through the door and into the other room, the sweat on her body had begun to crystallize into ice.

Yui shivered rapidly and slowly made her way back to where Other Ui was waiting for her. Other Ui's voice greeted her through the fog, "Onee-chan, you made it."

She dropped the box and collapsed in front of the girl who insisted they were related. Tears and choking sobs were making it impossible to speak. The girl gently stroked her shoulder, "It's okay Mikomi, you're safe here."

Yui's eyes widened, and her heart skipped a beat, "No! You're wrong, you keep getting it wrong! I'm Hirasawa Yui! Not this Mikomi, Mamma even said so, I don't know who you are, but you keep getting it wrong."

Ui sighed, then tried to cradle Yui in her arms. The latter shoved her away, then quickly backed up. The Ui imposter looked hurt, "No Onee-chan, you're wrong. Mommy may have given you a different name after I left, but you're still Mikomi to me. And I'm still Ui, even if my name was stolen by the other one."

It hit her then, "Y-you...you...you...you died! You were supposed to be my twin, but you...never were..."

Her dead sister gently shook her head, "That's right Mikomi, and I've been here waiting for the day I could meet you again."

Yui began shaking even more, a rush of strange emotions were flowing over her, "You're...This...This will make it so you can go home with me? How will Momma react when she sees you? Will she even believe it's you? Will Ui have to get a new name?"

Ui chuckled, "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"H-how!" Yui cried, "You can't just come back to life all these years later and expect everyone to be okay with that!"

"Oh, I'm not coming back to life." She told her, her happy tone turned into something sinister and terrifying, "I can't just make a body out of nowhere, it doesn't work that way. Think of it this way, I've been here watching you grow into what you are now. All your memories, everything you know, everything you can do, I know it as well."

"What are you saying?" Yui took a step back.

"Only one of us got to live in that world..." She said in a low voice, "...It got to be you. You don't deserve that body, you don't deserve anything from that world. You're a pathetic, pointless, fumbling, sad mistake that just happened to be a little bit luckier than me. Only one of us go back to your world."

Yui turned around and began sprinting. Any direction would suffice, she just had to get away from her potentially murderous twin. She had brought her here to steal her body, not to help her get home. Cold arms caught in her in a headlock almost instantly, how Ui had closed that distance was far beyond her. Yui kicked her feet and tried to free herself from the hold, but this Ui was inhumanly strong. She jerked Yui back and forth like rag doll, cutting off most of her air, "The Glorious One is going to send one of us home soon, and it's not going to be you. The lights will go out right after that too. Have fun here in Hell."

"No..." Yui managed to squeak before Ui slammed her down the ground, crushing her neck with her foot. This Demon Ui laughed as she stepped on Yui's naked body, as she writhed and cried from underneath. Yui could feel the bone in her nose snap as the Demon's foot stepped on in, before finding other places to stomp on.

Ui laughed maniacally and kept her foot on Yui's neck, pressing down to the point where she was suffocating, "Aww, you had an accident Onee-chan." In her terror and pain, Yui had not been able to control her bladder. She pulled Yui up by her hair then smashed her face into the tepid puddle that had been between her legs, smearing the poor girl's face into it, "Well, I'd love to play with you more Onee-chan, but I think it's time for me to leave."

Yui couldn't move her body, and her consciousness was fading rapidly. Broken, bloody, bruised, now reeking of urine, all she could do was watch her unborn twin strut off into the fog, laughing the whole way. Even in this situation, she had to admit that the Demoness had been damn clever to manipulate her like that. She didn't know how much of that twin story was true, but it had certainly worked on her.

She blacked out.

MORNING

Hirasawa Ui, the real Hirasawa Ui was contently making breakfast for her and Yui when she realized that her sister was still in bed at 9 o'clock. They had planned to go the zoo that day, so she needed to get up soon. Ui went upstairs and found that Yui had gotten up out of bed, but was apparently using the washroom, "Onee-chan, breakfast is ready!"

"Be there in a second!" Yui said in a surprisingly clear voice that was strangely unlike her. It was still her voice, but it sounded like she was trying to talk like one of those really high class woman from a movie. As Ui started back down the stairs, she heard her sister following behind her. However, she was not aware of the razor blade that Yui had taken out of a disposable razor that was in her sister's hands.

This is for stealing my name you insufferable cunt...

NIGHT

When Yui came to, she was completely surrounded in icy blackness. It was cold, it was so cold it felt like it was burning her flesh. She frantically felt around for a matchbox like before, but with little luck.

"Fede..." She heard a deep, demonic voice say from somewhere in the blackness, "Tactus te...amor..."

She tried to scream as icy hands grabbed at her from all around, but nothing came out. Yui blinked rapidly and tried to wake up from this nightmare. Nothing, those hands kept grabbing and pulling at her, as if they were fighting with one another. She was afraid that they would literally tear her apart, but no...What they had in mind for her was much much worse.

THE END

And some notes and stuff- I hope you all enjoyed this, it was sitting unfinished on my hard drive for some time before I finally got around to finishing it. My goal was to incorporate elements of my own nightmares into one genuinely chilling story. I hope I succeeded in some degree. As ridiculous as this sounds, all the continuity problems were intentional. I tried to emulate that confusion and senselessness of dreams (or at least my own), and that was the result.

Reviews are cool too.