Chapter Four

Suddenly, Train found himself in a strange world. He couldn't quite describe how it was strange, but everything in it seemed ever so slightly off, like they were going to jump him at the same time. Of course, he knew that was ridiculous. Inanimate objects didn't just suddenly come to life and attack people. But still, something about the world around him made him wonder if such a thing was really impossible. Could such a thing happen? Would the chairs and pictures and carpets suddenly fly into the air and attack him? But the features of the world weren't the only things that were slightly off kilter. In addition, he could hear strange noises, like the shuffling of footsteps in the background. It seemed like whoever those feet belonged to was purposely staying just out of his range of vision, and oddly enough, his range of vision seemed drastically reduced. Yet, despite all of this, he was sure that he kept seeing something out of the corner of his eyes.

Train wasn't a man easily scared. But this frightened him. It was like he was slowly being closed in on by an attack force from every direction, and there was nothing he could do about it. Suddenly, he saw a flash again. It was the same flash as before. Upon realizing that he had Hades on him, he drew it and fired three shots at the anonymous flash. The bullets just hit thin air, though. As the resounding sound of his bullets being fired slowly died down, Train's heart rate slowed down again. Little did he know, of course, that it was about to shoot right back up.

"Hiya, Kuro-sama!!" came a peppy voice from right in front of him, causing Train to jump several feet in the air, leaving him hanging on a chandelier that was in the hallway. Down below, a beautiful Japanese girl in a school uniform giggled and waved her hand playfully at Train.

"Oh, Kuro-sama, you flatter me… But I didn't think that I would scare you THAT much!!" Kyoko said in a sort of mocking tone that was positively dripping venom. Despite the fact that she had the same cheery smile on her face, there was no joy behind her eyes, only pure acid that would eat through anything or anyone foolish enough to get in her way or contradict her.

"Although, I suppose that I'd be scared of me too if I had just murdered me in cold blood…" she said offhandedly, putting a finger under her lower lip, hooking her thumb under her chin, tapping her right foot and looking off into the distance in a stereotypical thinking pose. Her every move, her every action mocked him, dared him, BEGGED him to challenge her. She was dangerous, but not only was she dangerous, she was powerful. She was more powerful than ever, and he could feel her power radiating off of her like heat waves off of a blacktop in middle of August.

She looked up and smiled politely at him, gesturing for him to jump down. Train looked back at her suspiciously and shook his head.

"No. I like it up here. The view is nice…" he lied, not wanting to face her directly. Instantly, Kyoko saw through this and smirked.

"But, Kuro-sama…" she said in mock sadness. "It would be so much easier to talk to you if you came DOWN!!" she finished, stressing heavily the last word, and before Train knew it, some invisible hand pulled him, chandelier and all down to the floor, causing the gigantic gold candle filled chandelier to land on top of him and the glass decorations hanging down from it to shatter and fly all over the floor. The force of the invisible hand pulling him had been so great that the floor was even cracked slightly from the fall.

Train groaned in discomfort and laid there on the floor at Kyoko's feet for a moment. First, his bullets hadn't hit their target, next, he was scared of Kyoko, and now, he was weak enough that a small fifteen foot fall hurt him. He couldn't understand what was happening to him. It was like Kyoko had… That was it. He wasn't in control here. She was. He looked up and saw Kyoko smile knowingly and arrogantly.

"I see that you've finally figured it out, huh, Kuro-sama?" she asked with a smirk. "That's right. I control this world. A building as big or as small as I want with hallways as long, tall, or wide and as simple or complex as I desire. If I wanted to, I could force you to run around in circles forever, lost in your own fucking dream. I would ask if you know why I'm doing this, but I know that you do… Kuro-sama!!" she said, her chocolate eyes suddenly glowing red with a feral hatred and her features warping, making them look positively bestial and animalistic. She looked like an angry wolf ready to jump its prey and tear it to shreds.

"Y-you're not real! You're not real… You're not real!!!" Train kept repeating these words as if saying them enough times and with enough conviction would make them true. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. He looked up again and saw that Kyoko was still there.

"I'm not real, am I, Kuro-sama? What is real, anyhow? If real is merely what we can see and touch and smell and taste, then reality is only electrical impulses that are sent through your central nervous system to your brain. But do you want to know what real actuallyis, Kuro-sama?" she asked with a psychotic grin that did nothing to make her look prettier, and in fact, made her look quite ugly and scary.

"You see, in this world, real is whatever I say real is! And right now, I demand that you stand up and give me the respect that I deserve, you insignificant little bug!!" she shrieked, and suddenly, Train was gripped with an agony so complete that it seemed to overcome all of his senses. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't feel the carpet below him. He couldn't see. The pain was blinding him. He couldn't hear. The ringing in his ears was so loud that all other sounds were tiny whispers at best. Slowly, Train forced himself to stand up, shakily standing in front of Kyoko, his back hunched and his arms crossed over his abdomen. Kyoko smiled triumphantly, cruelly and put her hand on Train's shoulder. Suddenly, the pain stopped.

"There. Isn't it easier for everyone when you listen to me, Train?" she asked, grinning at him and giving him a kiss on the lips.

"You know, it didn't have to be this way. I loved you. I gave you all the love in my heart, and until your meddling friends came back and found you, you loved me, too, am I right? Of course I am. I could see it. You did love me. But once your friends came back and reminded you of your past, you abandoned me. Then when I tried to convince you to stay…" she said, stopping suddenly after the word "stay". Suddenly, then, she began to whisper and she leaned in close to Train's ear so that only he could hear her. Then she said, "You murdered me…"

Kyoko then stood up straight and paced back and forth slowly as though she were a lawyer going over evidence in court. "Yes, you murdered me in cold blood Train Heartnet. Was it really so wrong of me to want you to love me that you had to put a bullet in my head, and then, to add insult to injury, you blew up my body. Now, I can never rest in peace, AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, TRAIN HEARTNET!!!!!!!" she shrieked furiously, suddenly hurling huge fireballs at Train, which he dodged, albeit slower than he would normally be able to move. After a moment, though, she stopped and took a deep breath, composing herself and dusting off her clothes.

"Ahem, I apologize for that. It seems that I lost my temper for a moment. You can't really blame me though. The wrongs you have done me are grave indeed. I am going to enjoy killing you, Train Heartnet. But… I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of dying quickly like I did. I'm going to kill you slowly, so that you can feel every last ounce of the agony that I have felt since my death, and that you so justly deserve. That spell that I used earlier, the one that made you hurt all over, it would have killed you, had I let it rack your body for a few hours. I say a few hours, but in this world, effective time moves slower than the clocks would indicate. A clock day could go by, and not even ten effective minutes would have passed. There's no set difference between the rate of my clocks, and the speed of time in my world. However, you can figure out the basics for yourself as you slowly die here."

Immediately, a chair conjured out of thin air and three hideous looking monsters with slimy green skin and five arms each came out of the doors and brought Kyoko some potato chips and other snacks. She then sat down and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, Train felt the worst pain he had ever experienced. It was like he was being torn apart at the molecular level, one tiny atom at a time. He gritted his teeth, writhing in agony on the floor, but after a while, he could bear it no longer. Just as he was about to start begging Kyoko to forgive him, he heard a voice from somewhere above him. It sounded like Eve.

"Train! Train!? Are you alright!? Wake up, Train…"

Kyoko looked up in disgust and then spat at Train, "Well, lucky you!! I suppose your new little squeeze has saved you this time, but heed my words… I will be back, and next time, you may not be so lucky. Happy days until then, though!!" she said, finishing on a cheery note. Suddenly, Kyoko's world vaporized around him and he felt himself falling into a dark abyss, going further and further into the darkness. After what seemed like hours, though, a bright light showed up and he fell into it.

"AAAAGH!!! *HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!!*" Train gasped, breathing in and out heavily as he tried to stabilize his heart rate. His pajamas were soaked with sweat. After a while, Train coughed, and then began to breathe normally again. He looked around, not seeing anyone at first, but then he realized that someone was holding him. He looked over and saw Eve sitting there with a concerned expression on her face, her crimson red eyes full of worry. Suddenly, though, she tried to smile.

"I guess even the legendary Black Cat has a bad dream occasionally, huh?" Eve asked, hugging Train closer to her. Train blushed slightly, but Eve didn't really notice.

"Man, you look awful! Is… Is that blood on your head!?" Eve asked, alarmed. She wasn't sure what he could have hit his head on to make it bleed like that while he was asleep, but it must have been fairly serious.

"Huh? M-my head? Oh, I-I… I did cut my head in my dream when I fell from the ceiling…" Train said groggily, feeling his head and seeing to his surprise that there was indeed blood there. If the two were connected, then he would also have a burn mark on his left foot. He pulled down the sheet, and sure enough, it looked like a burn mark, although it wasn't as serious as it had been in the dream, and it could be passed off as a normal wound.

"That's weird…" Train said quietly, more to himself than to Eve, but Eve heard him and questioned him further, "What is?"

"I have a cut on my forehead that's bad enough to bleed, but not nearly as serious as the same cut was in the dream, and I have a burn mark on my left ankle where a fireball was hurled at me, although I was also hurt by the fireball more in the dream than I was in real life."

"I dunno, Train… Sounds a little bit hokey to me. Are you suggesting this is like Nightmare on Elm Street, where all of the injuries the kids get in the dream, they get in real life? Your ankle looks more like it was scraped to me," Eve said, sighing. She tried not to sound too skeptical, but it was almost funny what Train was suggesting. Of course, she wouldn't tell Sven. He would just overreact.

"I understand why you're worried, Train. You feel guilty about killing Kyoko, so now you're having nightmares that seem to be transferring to reality, but really, you just got injuries in those places while you were sleeping and those influenced your dream. The proof is right here, Train. See? There's blood on your headboard. You hit your head there and made a wound during your nightmare."

"What about my ankle!!?" Train demanded. Eve sighed and shrugged.

"I dunno, but you should go back to sleep. You just got out of the hospital, and you need your rest."

"I guess you're right. You usually are. But if I die because of this, I'm coming back to haunt you."

"I'll look forward to it…" Eve said with a laugh as she patted Train on the shoulder and then left. Train sighed and then closed his eyes again and fell asleep. He couldn't really say that he slept soundly after that, but once he got to sleep, at least he didn't have any more dreams about Kyoko.