Author's Note: This is just an idea I had about a new .hack story. Not sure what I want to do with it yet, but I just had to write it down. Let me know what you think!

I own nothing except my original ideas...and the games and tv series


Strange Dreams

A year and a half has passed since I woke up. Everyone was so happy, even the people at school who didn't like me were happy to have me back. Everyone asks what it was like being in a coma. "It's difficult to explain." I tell them. "It's kinda like you're sleeping but not dreaming or getting any rest from it." Then they usually look at me open mouthed and I laugh away the awkwardness of the situation. Even though I only played "The World" for a few months I've been having strange dreams lately. I'm standing in the middle of a meadow full of flowers of all kinds and colors, yellows, reds, pinks, blues and a soft summer breeze is always blowing the flower petals everywhere. I know it's a zone from "The World", but the odd part about it is that in the center of the meadow there is a girl all dressed in white. She isn't a monster and I don't think she is a regular NPC in the zone either. I think she's sad for some reason, but she is also gentle. All I can see is her back, when I try to get any closer I get pulled back and everything fades to darkness, then I wake up. These dreams started maybe a month or so after I woke up from the coma. Every night for the past month there is this sad white girl in a beautiful meadow and yet I can't get closer than 10 feet away from her. I talked to a friend at school about the peculiar dreams, but all he said was that I played "The World" too much, truth is since I came home from the hospital its been sitting in a box under my bed collecting dust. I wonder what would happen if I returned to that place. For the time I played it I felt like I had a place to go, an escape from reality. That's all in the past now though.

Another week goes by and I have the same dream. I'm in this meadow where grass and flowers span as far as the eye can see, the gentle breeze wafting the different fragrances of the flowers together in a sweet summer smell. There she was standing 20 feet in front of me, this girl in flowing white robes and lilac colored hair that moved delicately in the breeze. This time I was able to approach her and speak. "Who are you?" I asked curiously. She didn't respond or even acknowledge my presence. "Hello can you hear me?" I asked. Again no response. I extended my arm to tap her shoulder and then I heard the most annoying sound, it was as if someone struck a tuning fork in my head. The image of the meadows started to whirl and the colors began to blend, as this abyss was forming I heard one word, the girl had spoken! She said in a meek and gentle voice "Return." I woke up in a cold swear with my head pounding. "What the hell? Return? Should I go back?" My thoughts shifted to the tennis shoe box under my bed collecting dust with my headset and game controller