Angel of a Girl Named Kokoro
Chapter One
Dream
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In which a dream is too much to bear
It is usually a nightmare
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"Happy birthday, Kokoro!" A mother with dark blue hair and matching azure eyes yelled, hugging her purple hair daughter who just turned eight years old.
"Do I get to have cake for breakfast since today's my special day?" The young girl questioned, grinning at her parents with wide, sparkling eyes that she inherited from her father.
"No sweetie, that much sugar this early in the morning is bad for you," Her father, a man with onyx eyes and plum color hair that grazed his shoulder replied, giving his daughter a quick kiss on the forehead, then his wife a peck on the lips.
The mother grinned, telling the girl in a gentle tone, "Yeah, no cake this early, honey. Sorry. You can have pancakes though with strawberries and whip cream!" The blunette chirped.
"Really?" The girl's eyes shone brighter. "How many? Where are they?" The girl gasped loudly as she spotted the jackpot: seven stacked pancakes drenched in maple syrup with whip cream pile high on top along with two neatly sliced strawberries.
The girl ran over to the counter, stabbing her fork into the pancake and taking an eager bite.
"She must get that from you," The father commented, taking a seat next to his daughter.
"Hey," The mother teased, punching his muscular shoulder. "What is that suppose to mean?"
He smirked, replying mysteriously, "I don't know... you tell me. Do you think it's a good thing or bad thing wolfing down a thousand calories this early in the morning?"
"You make it sound like a bad thing," The mom pouted, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "She'll get full by the time she's halfway done with the third one. She can never finish the whole thing." She whispered the last part in his ears, grinning slyly as she kissed her husband on the lips, wrapping one arm around his torso.
EW! I'm trying to eat here! Get a room, would ya?" The eight year old shrieked, earning a chuckle from both parents.
"I'll go check on Hiroki. When I get back we can go open presents, 'kay?" The mother glanced at her daughter, waiting for her reply.
"Okay, mommy," The girl replied through a mouth full of pancake.
-x-Dawn's Dream-x-
Darkness engulfed Dawn, nothing but blackness that stretched on forever in front of her. A cold breeze swept through the darkness, sending a shiver down the blunette's spine.
"H-Hello? Anybody there?" Where is this place? What kind of dream is this?
"Aah, aah," A quiet voice sung.
"Huh? What? Who's there?!"
"Aah, aah, aah," The voice sang again. The voice seemed to echo from all around Dawn, in every direction.
"Fire rips through the souls," The voice continued singing, the voice feminine and childish. The voice was petite but beautiful, melodic with every note sung just right. "Surrounded by dark ghouls, tears of a heartbroken mother, sorrow of a grief-stricken father."
What a… sad song. Dawn thought to herself, still looking for the source of the voice.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
"Huh?" She turned around, grimacing as there was a bright flash of light that blinded her. "What is that?!"
"Oh, oh, oh," The voice harmonized.
"Time flies by fast, as a girl gets lost in the past, A road of death, a web spun out of tears, facing their greatest fears," The girl continued to sing in her petite voice. She hummed softly, a sad hum that matched the song and lyrics perfectly.
The bright white light began to dim, a figure forming in the light. The outline of a young girl, around the age of eight, holding out her hands in front of her, upwards and open. They were open as if she was holding something in them, or waiting for someone to give her something. The light dimmed even more and Dawn was able to make out purple locks. Purple bangs covered the girl's eyes.
"Aah, aah, aah," The girl's hum turned mute as the small chime of bells became present.
"(Aah, aah, aah)," The room echoed.
The young girl wore a white cloak and was barefoot. Dawn blinked as a small fire began playing right above the girl's open palm, flickering and ghost-like, hissing and spitting all around.
Dawn screamed as the fire began spitting at the ground, the ground getting set aflame. The fire surrounded the girl in a perfect circle, trapping the girl in a wall of eerie flames. The girl didn't budge, didn't move, didn't panic. She just stood there, her palms open as flames continued to play above them. The flames flickered across her features, but the flames didn't touch her. Her eyes remained hidden from her bangs and shadows.
"Don't play with fire, or you are will get burned." The girl whispered, her voice dry and brittle.
Before Dawn could react to the warning the girl was gone, in a puff of gray smoke.
-x-End Dream-x-
Dawn woke up, drenched in sweat and shaking all over. Her breathing came quick. Her body felt cold all over and she continued shivering and trembling all over despite the heat she felt from the nightmare.
"Don't play with fire… or you will get burned… is this a warning? A sign?" Dawn questioned herself quietly, placing a warm hand on her forehead. Her forehead scorched her fingers from with the warmth of her forehead, but she didn't notice, too busy thinking of her dream.
"Ughh… I feel horrible!" Dawn whispered to herself, slumping back in her sleeping bag, dropping her hands to hold her stomach. "It can't mean anything… it was just a bad dream… a bad, eerie dream," Dawn reassured herself. "It can't mean anything!"
"Don't play with fire, or you are sure to get burned."
Even so as the girl's creepy voice replayed in her mind, goosebumps trailed up and down her arms, and she shivered.
A young man, around the age of thirteen, tossed and turned in his sleep. Sweat drenched his body, his black shirt sticking close to his chest. His hands reached out, as if trying to grab hold of something, or someone. He muttered incoherent words under his breath, continuing his tossing and turning.
"Don't go..."
-x-Paul's Dream-x-
"Where is this place?" Paul asked himself, wandering around a maze of trees, bushes and weeds. Dead trees. Charred bushes. Overgrown weeds that covered the forest with dry, spindly, spider-like weeds.
Paul grunted, grimacing as he made his way through another weed-infested part of the forest, stepping over the knee-tall nuisance, some of the weeds catching on his pants and socks.
"Great..." Paul muttered sarcastically, brushing the weeds off.
"Day will turn to night,"
Paul turned around, a chill running down his spine as everything turned darker. He turned back around, cautious as he searched to see who the voice belonged to. 'Who was that?'
"Navy and Lilac, Fire and Ice, Hot and Cold," The voice continued its melody. "Two different worlds will clash, Two is made, One is loss and one is reborn."
'What are the meaning of the lyrics?' Paul wondered, continuing to look for the source of the voice in the darkness.
"A horrible story, a tragic ending, but there's no use pretending."
A horrible story? A tragic ending? No use pretending... Paul repeated the lyrics in his head, confusion etched on his face. 'Hm, sounds like something terrible happened...'
'But this is just an eerie dream,' Paul thought to himself, closing his eyes. 'It's not real, and the lyrics... they came from nowhere. This dream, it means nothing.'
'Hm... Navy and Lilac... Fire and Ice... Hot and Cold... Two different worlds... Still, where did the lyrics come from? ...Two is made, one is loss and one is reborn. That's like... Two take away one plus one. This is all just so... weird.' Paul thought to himself, continuing to ponder on the meaning of the lyrics.
He sighed, opening his eyes.
'What the—?!'
His eyes were greeted by fire. Burning, cackling, glaring fire, less than a foot away from him. Suddenly, he felt himself sinking... sinking into... what, exactly?
He glanced down, just barely managing to stop a gasp from escaping him as he realized he was sinking into something... dark... and red... something the color of crimson... and something sticky.
Blood.
-x-End Paul's Dream-x-
Paul woke up, panting, hot and sweaty.
'That dream... that face...' He frowned, recalling the dream and recalling a... recalling an image he saw right before he woke up. A blue blur mixed with a pastel color. Even as Paul saw the image in his mind, he couldn't figure out who it was... a vague memory of someone... somebody he had seen before... but who? Who was it?
Paul shook his head, clearing the blur from his mind.
"It doesn't matter..." He muttered. "It was just a dream. A strange dream..."
"Here's the last present Kokoro," The mother handed her daughter a medium-sized box wrapped in pink wrapping paper, a red ribbon on it. The girl didn't hesitate a second in tearing off the wrapping paper and opening the gift.
"Oh wow…" The girl breathed, her eyes widening and shining with amazement at the gift in her hand.
"Did you know your name means 'heart'?" The girl shook her head. "Your name, Kokoro, is a Japanese name. The meaning for your name is 'heart' . It's how you say heart in Japanese."
"Really? Wow, that's so cool!" The girl smiled at her mother. She turned her attention back to the gold heart-shaped locket in her hand. It was gold and heart-shaped (obviously; those details were already mentioned), and it was covered in tiny, sparkly studs.
"What are these things on it?" Kokoro questioned, referring to the clear-blue like jewels on the locket.
"Those are called diamonds," The father answered for her. "This locket was very expensive, so you have to be careful not to lose it, okay? We had to save a lot of money to afford this."
"Okay, daddy!" The girl chirped. "What's in the locket though?"
"A picture," The mom grinned, continuing, "But we aren't going to tell you which one! You'll have to get it open in order to see which one we put in there!"
"Well, it must be a small picture…" The girl muttered, taking note that the locket was only one and a half inches long. "And it's heart-shaped. Hm…"
The mother smiled, taking a seat on her husband's lap. "What's with you? You look distant… as if you're thinking about something."
The dad shook his head, replying in a quiet, far-off voice, "It's nothing… I just thought I…it's nothing."
"You sure?"
"Yeah…" The man replied softly, still somewhat in his faraway land, trying so hard to recall the memory that had flashed across his mind.
'Why does it feel like something bad is going to happen soon?'
This chapter was edited. It has a few (or a lot) of changes from the original version (since I accidentally replaced the first chapter with an edited second one - oops!), but it won't affect the later chapters too much. :P