A long time ago, dreams could take human forms. In all respects, they were born, lived, and died as any human would. On the street, they were essentially invisible, or at least hard to spot. But the Yume were spirits in their own right; specifically, they could, at will, enter human minds and alter reality there. Of course, the Yume were very proper, very polite creatures, and as one of their laws they never, ever took a human into dreaming without permission. Some villages scorned these spirits; others welcomed them and paid for good dreams.
Now, in this same time, there was a small village called Ouran. It sat near the sea, and to its southern border there was a forest as well. Near this forest, and still close to the town, was a Yume settlement. The Yume there were incredibly powerful and highly respected, even feared. Nonetheless, these Yume were especially proper, even-tempered, and benevolent; they often gifted beautiful dreams to the village children and to those who impressed or pleased them. Even so, every human in the village could count on falling asleep to pleasant dreams without having to pay for them. Ouran and the Yume nearby lived in harmony together.
One day, a little Yume appeared from the depths of the forest. He was small for his size, no bigger than you two are now, children, and he had strange, black eyes. Nobody had ever seen him before, and no one knew where he had come from. But the Yume accepted him as one of their own, and took care of him. He was one of their own, and what harm could another child do?
In the weeks that followed after the little dream's arrival, strange things began to happen in the village. Nightmares were not uncommon, you understand; the dreams created depended on the Yume's emotions, with unhappy feelings making unhappy dreams. In the following months, however, children began commenting how their dreams were becoming stranger, even frightening. Soon the adults started experiencing the same effects. The effect was brushed off in the moment.
"Then, one night, the whole village awoke to screams. The crowd arrived in time to see the daughter of a general throw herself, screaming, into a ravine. The general, in his grief, recalled her last intelligible words: "Don't make me go down the hole." He swore that his daughter had only woken from a bad dream.
There was a serious talk within the Ouran council that night. Eventually, a theory was circulated that a Yume had knowingly caused that dream to occur, and had knowingly driven the girl mad. What if, the council postulated, the Yume had even more power than imagined? If it was possible that they could drive men mad, then they may be capable of worse things. Despite these new-found fears, the council did nothing, and let the issue drop.
Two brothers, who feared the Yume and counted them responsible, sharpened their weapons the next night. Hidden by the new moon, they crept into the Yume settlement, intent on finding which Yume was responsible for the girl's death. They went the back way, near the forest, and as they approached, they saw three children enter its depths. Two of them were dressed in village clothes and went forward, but one stopped at the verge of the forest and turned to them. Though the child's face was obscured by the darkness, the brothers perceived a broad, wicked grin spreading over it. Neither the brothers nor the village children were seen again.
The Ouran council could no longer control its people, and riots broke out against the Yume. On the third night the men of the town raided the Yume settlement and slew all the Yume they could find. A few Yume managed to flee to the ocean, where they transformed into nightingales and larks, and flew beyond the reach of human weapons. These spirits warned their foreign brethren, who vanished from the lives of the humans around them. The Yume still exist, still grant dreams to the humans below, but they are invisible, safe from our ire.
Meanwhile, the raiders were still at work. In their fury they were intent on slaying all the Yume in their path, and would leave none alive. It only heightened their rage when they saw a Yume, the little Yume with black eyes, fleeing into the forest. The whole of the raiding party followed, weapons and torches aloft, and vanished into the leafy darkness. When the sun rose, they never returned.
"Papa, is it true?"
"It's a legend, stupid, of course it's not true!"
"No fighting, you two, not this close to bedtime. Sleep well, both of you, and dream sweetly."
The oil lamp hissed into blackness as the father left the children's room.
Author's Comments: EDIT: For the new arrivals, this creepy fairy tale is based off the spoken prologue to "Hirotoshiba Alice," better known as "Alice of Human Sacrifice." I had intended to make the song into a whole story in itself, but with school I never found the time to get past writing this. I decided that, for the sake of my sanity, I should just mark this complete. I know it's only the introduction of the song, but that's all I could do with homework and college things. If I have time, I'll revisit the story and continue it, but I don't want to leave it hanging continually.
And one other thing: I intended the children at the very end to be Rin and Len, which is why their names are in the story description. Please don't hate me too much.