"This is who I really am! Me!" Her hands balled up into tight fists as she could feel her blood begin to boil and her face contort into a visage of true fury. "Time to show you what I can really do! Furore-" The commands left her mouth as if she had said them a thousand times when, in fact, this was the first time she had ever experienced anything like this. "Burn him down to ashes! Use Agi!" Her fist shot forward as fire and swirling darkness consumed her vision...
"Dad!" Arai Enomoto shot up in bed, her hands reaching out as if to grasp something that had been there only moments ago. After a moment, a soft, but audible "Dammit" passed her lips. She muttered angrily to herself, tossing the covers off her body as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. This was the third night in a row the same dream had startled her awake, or perhaps it was more appropriate to refer to it as a nightmare.
Arai wiped ice-cold sweat off her forehead as she attempted to compose herself, allowing the contents of the recurring dream to slip away from her waking mind. Once her heart had settled back into it's proper rhythmic pumping, Arai stood up and took a few shaky steps towards her bedroom door.
She firmly grasped the bronze handle and pulled it to the right, swiftly exiting her room and entering the hallway just beyond the door. Her bare feet made little noise on the wooden floor as she slowly, but surely made her way from her bedroom to the bathroom located just slightly further down the hallway.
After quietly slipping inside the bathroom, Arai made for the sink and turned the cold water on full blast. As far as she could tell, it was still the middle of the night, so staying up until it was time to get ready for school would be utterly useless. So, Arai decided, she would merely try to cool herself off, then return straight to bed to try and get in a few more precious hours of sleep before school.
She cupped her hands beneath the flow of water and caught a handful of ice cold water, then splashed it upwards towards her face. In those few moments before the water hit her face, Arai could have sworn she saw something, or someone, else in the mirror.
A vibrant, ocean blue hue caught her eyes, as did the simple silver and black of their clothing. The cold water just barely made contact with her face as Arai jerked her head back up to stare into the mirror, but saw only her own reflection. A string of curses left her lips as a balled up fist slammed down on the side of the sink.
"Dammit. Why's this shit gotta keep happening to me?" She unfurled her hands and grasped both sides of the sink, and stared directly into her reflection's lavender eyes. "I'm gonna be useless tomorrow if I don't get to bed. I can't waste time just...just staring at myself." Arai averted her eyes from the mirror as she stomped over to the bathroom door and shut the lights off.
Another silent trip through the hallway led Arai back to her bedroom, where she shut the door close behind her and flung herself onto the bed's fluffy mattress. She rolled over onto her back to stare up at the ceiling, then sighed deeply. It was going to take her forever to get back to sleep, wasn't it? And she certainly didn't want to allow her mind to wander as she waited for the comforts of sleep to overtake her.
However, that's exactly what happened as her mind began to recall the events of the dream, the face she had seen in the mirror for those brief moments while in the bathroom, and even the memories that she had been trying so hard to shove into the farthest corners of her mind. It had been months since...that incident had happened, so why was she having dreams about it only now? It just didn't make sense.
Another deep sigh escaped her lips as Arai rolled onto her stomach and groaned into the mattress, as to stifle the noise she was making. Why couldn't her life just be normal? Why did all this bullshit have to start happening just when things finally seemed to be getting better?
A sudden, but intense ache passed through her skull as Arai thought this. "Shit, why didn't I take something to help me sleep I was in there?" She cursed herself as she reached up to rub her temples, attempting to settle the annoying pain.
However, as the pain slowly ebbed further and further away, Arai could feel her strength leaving with it. Before long, she could feel her arms and eyelids grow heavy, so she tried to settle herself into a position that she could sleep peacefully in and, within another few moments, fell into a deep, absolute sleep...
The next thing Arai noticed was the sound of a piano playing and the distant, melodic hums of a feminine voice. On top of that, there was also the murmur of a large crowd of people, the clatter of silverware on plates, and the quick, but hushed footsteps of many people all around.
Her eyes shot open and revealed a scene very much unlike the one she had imagined from all the sounds she could hear. Arai found herself in what appeared to be a private booth, in an area cordoned off from where all the sounds were coming with a large, blue velvet partition. However, this all took a backseat when her lavender eyes settled on the woman sitting across from her.
The woman had pale, white skin, platinum blonde hair, and piercing golden eyes. She smiled lightly and chuckled when she realized that Arai had finally noticed her and motioned to the area around them with a dramatic wave of her hands.
"Welcome, Visitor, to the Velvet Room!" The woman allowed the words to hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "My name is Margaret, and I am a resident here. It is my duty, or rather, my privilege to assist you on your journey."
Without looking away from Arai, Margaret reached down into the booth and picked up a large, purple colored book. "Now, where did I place those notes on you? I believe they're somewhere in here. Please, allow me a moment to find them." She opened the hefty tome up and began to flip through it.
"Uhm, where am I?" Arai's voice came out shaky, trepidation and the slightest bit of fear present as she spoke. "Is this a dream? There's no way I can actually be...wherever this place is, r-right?"
Margaret huffed out air as she flipped the page once again. "Please forgive me. In my haste, I forgot a crucial piece of information." She cleared her throat. "The Velvet Room exists between mind and matter, it separates dreams and reality. Generally speaking, only those whom have forged a contract are allowed to enter. Which, in your case, is entirely true."
Arai shook her head, her coily hair shaking side to side as she did so. "Contract? I never signed any contract-especially not one that would allow me to enter some weird dream room."
The woman chuckled, the corners of her lips curling upwards in a wry smile. "Oh, but you did. Did you not allow your Persona to take up a physical form and aid you when you most needed it? Did you not say, and I quote-" Margaret looked down at her tome. "'This is who I really am. Me.' By saying these words, you acknowledged that piece of yourself and gave it life. Ergo, you forged a contract with your Persona."
Arai was at an absolute loss for words, her mouth felt as if it had been stopped with sand and her body felt unusually heavy. "How can you know about that? That's impossible."
Margaret shook her head. "As I've already said, this place exists between the physical world and the dream world, between both mind and matter. It is not particularly hard to monitor those we deem interesting and worthy of our time. Now, we must get to business, for time is not an ally of our's tonight."
The platinum blonde folded her hands and leaned forward slightly in her seat. "You, Ms. Enomoto, have a rather unusual destiny awaiting you. So unusual in fact, that my master has taken a short time off as to continue analyzing it. That is why I'm the one welcoming you here and not him instead."
Margaret leaned back and mused quietly to herself for a moment. "It has been...quite some time since a human has been welcomed to our world by someone other than my master." Her golden eyes looked back up to acknowledge Arai once again. "How uniquely peculiar. I'll have to find out how long exactly and tell you. It will make for a nice conversation piece."
Arai placed her elbows up on the fine, mahogany table in-between then and let out a shaky breath. "So...this place is real, but also not. And, somehow, you and your master know about what happened that day when my...Persona, as you called it, was awoken. But what's all this about destiny, a-and why am I even here?"
Margaret nodded her head up and down as she listened. "This place is here to help you nurture your power and hone your unique abilities. However, this is not the first time we have had a visitor in the Velvet Room. There were many, like you, that required our assistance in overcoming adversity. So, we bring them here and help them to the best of our ability."
Arai furrowed her brow. "So, am I in danger? Is something coming after me, because of my Persona?"
The attendant bit her lip. "Not at the moment, no. But my master foresaw a future in which you will play a vital role, whether you like it or not. I would like to divulge more to you, but-" She was cut off as Arai groaned and clutched her head. "We are out of time for today. Go then, return to the land of the waking world and get some rest. We shall meet again soon enough."
Arai nodded, the ache slowly subsiding, but her grip on consciousness leaving along with it. "O-okay. Thank you, Ms. Margaret."
Margaret smiled, revealing her straight, pearly white teeth. "No thanks is needed, Trickster. I, as are the rest of the attendants, are more than happy to help and allow you to become more in-tune with your spiritual side." Before she could continue any further, Arai disappeared in a flash of blinding blue flames, leaving Margaret alone, both in the booth and in the Velvet Room.
She leaned further back in the booth and sighed, then reached up to grab her tome and place it into her lap. "Such a chatty Visitor. Igor is going to have quite the time deciphering this one's destiny." Margaret flipped a page. "I too wonder how it will all culminate-the journey to which will be entertaining to watch, at the least." She frowned and ran an errant hand through her hair.
"And it would appear I'm talking to myself. It almost makes me miss having Marie around when Igor is busy. Perhaps she would be interested in...ah, there we are. I knew I would find it soon enough." Margaret set the book back up on the mahogany table. "Now, let us see what else there is to learn about Ms. Enomoto's Persona in here..."