The days went on, as did the nights. Yako was getting less and less sleep. The nightmares repeated, and each time she could swear they were more vivid and terrifying than the night before.

The parade, then the mist and the silent field. She calls out, and there are two tries in vain, one with an echo, and one she could hear. The sickening noise. And then the blackened, sticky rain. She trips, and the torn and rotting corpses dragged her down. The old barn, the boards crack. She falls, and the black water consumes her. In the red glow of the doll's eyes, she sees the mutilated face grinning down at her.

Every night it was the same, and every night she was kept up by fear, only to feel stupid about it in the morning. Yako was still having trouble concentrating on the jobs Neuro gave her, and when solving a mystery a few days back, she had even fallen asleep in the middle of her "The culprit is…YOU!" routine; Neuro had given her hell and more for that little slip-up. Still, she insisted her lack of sleep was only due to school-related issues. Yako tried her best to downplay her exhaustion, but it was not long before she had to resort to energy drinks to keep herself awake. She took care not to drink them in front of Kanae, however, for her friend was still suspiciously concerned. Yako wanted to talk to her friend about her problem with the nightmares, but she figured it would only worry her more. And so Yako was trying to help herself on her own. As of yet she had found no solution to stopping the nightmares or how to deal with them, but she did not know who she could ask for assistance. Today, Yako was sitting slumped backward on a bench outside the office and going over the options in her head while still trying to accomplish her duty of handing out fliers with Godai.

She could not enlist the help of her mother, for she was away from home on a business trip once again, and Yako felt that if she was going to speak to someone about her problem, it had to be face-to-face. Similar to her reasons of deciding against talking to Kanae, Yako knew her mother would only be worried and end up flying back from Britain immediately just to comfort her daughter.

Certainly she could not ask Neuro for assistance; Yako shuddered to think of the outcome to that—she imagined the demon handing her an odd Hell-tool that was supposedly useful for stopping nightmares, only in reality to have it either worsen them (although Yako could not imagine how that could be possible.) Or perhaps he would simply torture her in some other way. Not as if that was avoidable anyway.

She had already ruled out Kanae, and now she sighed when she could not think of anyone else to ask. Suddenly Yako sat up with an idea. Godai. The former-yakuza was not likely to get overly-concerned about anything, and he was older than her. He was bound to have more experience than her with these types of things, she figured. She glanced sideways at him; there he was, looking angry and moody as usual. Wondering if it was really such a good idea to bother him, Yako began having second thoughts, but she shook her head to herself and spoke anyways.

"Mr. Godai?" The girl asked, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"The hell do you want?" inquired Godai, only bothering with an annoyed glance at the girl before going back to his duty. "And why aren't you helping me, you little shit?!"

Yako ignored his less-than-polite question. "Um…do you ever have nightmares?"

"What? Hell no." Godai said, quickly suppressing the memory of a dream he'd had a few nights back that depicted "that shitty monster" telling him to do math problems; every time he'd gotten one wrong the tiny desk he's been sitting at would sink a few inches further towards a pit of numbers that was waiting for him. Those numbers were truly horrific, squealing little taunts at him about how he lacked a sufficient education. "Only losers have nightmares. Wimps."

"Oh…right." Yako replied dispiritedly. This was proving to be difficult. "Well…if you did…then how would you get them to go away?"

"If? There ain't no if here, brat." Godai retorted. "I wouldn't know, would I? I said I don't fucking have 'em, so how the hell should I know?!"

Yako sighed. How could she have expected anything else from Godai?

"Well…never mind then." The girl yawned sleepily.

Yako thought of the braid of hair that so often swung leisurely from the wall. Would Akane know anything? She figured not. After all, it wasn't like Akane slept anyway. And now that she was dead, was there anything for her to fear? Yako decided not to ask. She sunk down onto the bench again and attempted not to doze off. Her attempt was, however, in vain, and within a minute her eyelids had slid shut and she had drifted off into sleep, flopping over. Yako was awakened several hours later by Neuro, however, and rather painfully at that; sometime during her nap, Godai had evidently moved her back upstairs into the office, because when she awoke, Yako found that she was underneath an overturned couch on the cold floor. Neuro had seemed to find it a good idea to flip the couch over, tumbling the poor girl to the floor and landing the heavy deadweight on top of her.

"Get up, you useless bag of fertilizer." ordered the demon. "You have school tomorrow, do you not?"

"I'm surprised you actually care about that…" Yako grumbled sleepily, dragging herself out from under the couch. She stood up and yawned.

"How naïve. It is easier for me if you are not complaining about missing classes." Neuro informed her with his usual threatening grin. "Although it may be more entertaining to glue your mouth shut to prevent those complaints instead…"

"Ah, I see. No, thank you. Well then, I'll see you." Yako left the office and let the door shut behind her, hearing a rather loud "THUNK" of something heavy being thrown against the door. Even in her dazed state she could imagine the demon's blankly smiling face and a lighthearted yet malevolent comment: "Tch. Just missed her."

She headed towards home. It was only several blocks away that she realized that as she had been napping in the office, she had not been plagued by her nightmares. All the way home, the girl pondered over this. Did this mean the nightmares were over? Not likely. Was there something comforting about the office? Remembering all the torture she'd been put through in that place, Yako gave a sarcastic laugh at her own suggestion. Yeah, right. But what was it then? By the time she arrived at home, Yako had concluded that perhaps it was simply because when she had been sleeping in the office it had been day instead of night. Shrugging, she sank down on her bed and dropped her head to her pillows.

Yako was afraid to fall asleep; she did not wish to see her nightmare again, and she knew that the moment she lost her consciousness, she would. And yet she was simply too tired to keep herself up for longer than a few agonizing minutes. Her willpower finally gave out and she drifted off to sleep once more.

The parade, then the mist and the silent field.

No, no. Not again.

She calls out, and there are two tries in vain, one with an echo, and one she could hear.

No more, please no more.

The sickening noise. And then the blackened, sticky rain. She trips, and the torn and rotting corpses dragged her down. The old barn, the boards crack. She falls, and the black water consumes her. In the red glow of the doll's eyes, she sees the mutilated face grinning down at her.

But then the dream continued and Yako did not awaken. The air squeezed from her lungs and her vision faded to black; she thought she was dead. But no, she wouldn't be able to think if she was dead, right? She made an effort to open her eyes, and found that it was easy. She was, it appeared, still underneath the black water, but her breathing came straight and unopposed, as if she was breathing in clear, pure oxygen instead of deathly cold water. She could still feel the cool liquid that surrounded her touch her skin, but she was now suspended at her current depth, no longer sinking. A moon-white glow shone from beneath her, and she twisted to look at it. She gasped, bubbles pouring from her mouth, when she saw that the glow was being emitted by a familiar face; her father smiled back at her warmly, his arms outstretched from the depths of the water. Such a familiar face--tender and kindly and lively. Unscarred and as alive as ever.

Perhaps tears of nostalgia and longing came to Yako's eyes at that moment, but she was unable to tell because of the dark water surrounding her. "Father," she mouthed, but only bubbles escaped her lips. Still, her father seemed to hear her, because he nodded, his arms still outstretched towards his daughter. Yako extended her own arms towards her parent, her mind not even processing the fact that he was dead. He was here, right now, and she would go to him. She would get him back. The reality of his murder faded into oblivion, if only in that moment. That is, until his features degenerated, mutating into the pale, bloodied face of his freshly murdered corpse. The grotesque wounds on his body re-formed. The spark of life faded from his cheerful eyes—so much like his daughter's—now they were dull and clouded.

"No," Yako mouthed, but this time, her father did not respond; his body drifted downward, decomposing steadily as it fell. The last thing Yako saw was the blank, lifeless look on his grayed face before darkness closed in on her once more and fingers closed their grasp around her limbs.

Upon waking up suddenly, Yako could feel wet on her cheek; so she really had been crying. If she had to think about it, the image of her father's corpse was more disturbing than all the other elements of her nightmares combined; unlike with the numerous corpses of strangers, this was someone she knew and loved. From this, she could truly feel not just fear, but pain. Her heart ached, but there were more pressing matters at hand—she could not move.

It felt to Yako as if she were glued to her bed, and not just simply glued, but hardened and encased with cement. She felt weight pressing down on her body but she could see nothing that could possibly produce this sensation. She tried to swivel her eyes, but no matter how much effort she put into it, not a millimeter of movement would come. Fear, inexplicable, irreplaceable, true fear pierced her every fiber of being. She was breathing, she was sure, but she was stuck, frozen, and she could hear her heart thump loudly against her ribs. She could have sworn she had just heard movement in the corner of her room. She wished to turn to look for a source, but alas, she could not. Her mouth was open slightly, and she tried to cry out, to call for help. And yet her vocal cords did not budge, and only her panicked breath came from her mouth. Trying futilely to calm herself down, Yako attempted to move just a small part of her body—the tip of a finger. However it seemed that every inch of her body was truly immobile. Sincere horror flowed through her very soul; it was unexplainable, but at that moment there was nothing that she wanted more than to be able to move freely again. She felt stiff from the terror, and she would have been screaming with agonizing fear had she been able to produce a sound.

Yako lay there vulnerable and involuntarily still for what felt to her like endless, dragging hours. Finally, gradually, she began to be able to twitch her fingers, then bend her arm. After a long while and 

great effort, she wrenched her body stiffly from the bed. She was free, able to move. And yet that irreplaceable fear was still there. Curling her legs to her body, she wrapped her shaking arms around herself and cried. She was up, paranoid and frightful and mourning, for the rest of the night. In her panic she forgot to check the clock, but the time spent in that dark room along felt like forever to the poor girl.

That unsettling night, Yako made her decision.

She had absolutely no choice.

There was only one person left she could talk to.

As much as she would be reluctant, she was going to have to bring it up with Neuro.

--

Author's Note: Sorry for the late update, because I meant to have this out yesterday. In any case, internets to anyone who can tell me what phenomenon Yako experienced in this chapter (if you can't get it, don't worry, because it will be addressed in the next (and final) chapter.) Extra internets and very much pity from me to those who have experienced it themselves; it is truly terrifying.