Chapter 21
A familiar cloak ruffled on a bench she'd seen before. Its deep shade of black rimmed with red clashed with a noticeable contrast against the faded brown of the bench. Upon her arrival the woman stood and watched her from a distance. A distance that was a lot closer than she'd ever been. Distance in a sense that was close, as if they were connected in a much stronger way than their past encounters had been.
The woman's presence seemed to have grown. She'd gained better control of the world around her. It bent and shifted to her will, as single touches from her fingertips could bring it to a stop. Her mentality had also seemed to have grown as the world seemed more stable. Yet she was still the only one in this world. A world of thoughts where only she controlled everything.
Gumi stepped forward, but of course got no closer. Yet the sound echoed and carried as if she had. She somehow felt nervous, but her time spent speaking to the woman was something she'd been waiting for. She would need the insight of someone wise, and knew what could happen. With all the events of lately, there wasn't a thing to be left unmentioned.
"About everything on the road-" Gumi attempted to explain, but the woman raised her hand and she forgot her sentence. The words didn't bother to form and her mouth closed. She felt herself brought closer forward in the woman's direction. Yet her feet had not moved. She watched as the woman looked her up and down, examing her before facing east.
"No time for that," she began, shaking her head at whatever she could possibly be watching. This world entirely, was empty after all.
"We need to train you for everything you're about to face." The woman said beginning to walk. Suppressing the look of puzzlement from her face, Gumi nodded and followed close behind. Yet even so close she felt no difference in their distance.
"What do you mean training?" Gumi asked. To this the woman stopped and the whole world halted.
"I mean, in the state you are now, you'll fail. I need you to understand that." Unfortunately trying to understand anything these days was what confused Gumi the most. She stepped forward gesturing to herself.
"But if you know what's going to happen to me why not just tell-" She stopped speaking, remembering the woman on the floor air ripped from her lungs, tears shimmering in the air and changed the question. "How exactly are you going to train me? I'm not a quick learner, and I seriously doubt I'll be able to remember any of this afterwards."
The woman turned to face her still completely hooded, and though Gumi couldn't see her face she felt as if the woman might be laughing at her. Oh not out loud, and not entirely mocking, but smirking as if she'd said something humorous. And as she spoke her tone didn't help either.
"How can you be so sure you're not a fast learner when you've never even tried to seriously learn?" Such a statement from the woman stung. All because it held so much truth. So much truth that she felt the need to fight back. Yet proving that she couldn't do anything would only further show her uselessness. She was tired of feeling useless, tired of watching people constantly be ripped from her grasp. The cycle of uselessness felt as if it had repeated itself on and on for decades, she was so tired of feeling useless, especially infront of the woman.
"Fine then, let's do this, let's train." Instantly after she blinked the air around her shimmered and shifted. They blurred and disappeared and in an instant, cleared.
Gumi almost screamed. She thought she might be falling towards the ground from very high up. Yet, when she went to reach out to the suburban city district below her, nothing but a hard surface contacted her hands. It was as if she was standing on glass looking down into a life size, birds eye view of a model.
"What is this?" Gumi asked aloud, looking around for the woman. She was nowhere and neither was the bench she usually sat upon, or any of the surroundings she was used to seeing in her dream. "Hello?" Yet still the woman didn't respond. The room only further echoed with the solitude of her own voice.
The woman couldn't possibly have gone far. She was still in the dream, meaning that the woman was still present somewhere. Still conscious and controlling. Glancing around, she noted she was centered in a room. Four white walls connected forming a square and the model which she stood upon sat dead center.
She took a step forward and a large map materialized in front of her. It occupied the entire first wall of white. At the start of the map a small green circle had been placed. She felt a weird sense of déjà vu from the map as if she'd seen it before. Taking a step forward she heard something shift and lock infront of her.
Looking up she swore the miniature green circle had moved. Taking another step forward the sound followed her again. Glancing up the circle to had moved again. This time she watched the circle as she walked and with each step it shifted according to her movement
She stared hard ahead at the map, trying to recall when and where she'd seen it before. She knew she had somewhere, but where? It was on the tip of her tongue when a small blinking skull appeared before her green circle. Looking ahead of her, it had been like before. The same four walls, same map, same model, nothing had changed. She did however heed her sense of warning and moved forward with precaution.
If only she could remember where she'd seen the map. She felt like a lock had been placed on her mind. Something, if anything, was mentally sealing away important parts of her mind. If that was the case all she needed was a key. As if hearing her thoughts a key appeared a few feet in front of her. She almost laughed.
"Well, that was relatively easy."
Crossing the model she made her way over. Making sure to sidestep as much as possible and as a result, she ended up being able to pick up the key from behind. Staring down at the key it didn't seem to be on a pressure plate. Gumi wrinkled her nose, examining it more closely. It also didn't seem to be frozen to the ground. Little effort would be needed to pick up the tiny bronze key. Still it would be better to have a backup plan in case the keys safety didn't measure out. Last thing she wanted to do was fall into an endless black hole, or disappear beneath a trap door.
Looking back at the map she took note of the fact that she was in center town now. Instead of far south like she'd been before. It had been quite the walk over as the model stretched out for eons in their directions until they connected with the white wall at their corresponding end.
If anything at all should attempt to attack her she would run far east. Her mind throbbed a little at the mention of the direction but it was only momentary. Swiftly she bent down and snatched up the key. Then doing a quick once over of the surrounding area, deemed that everything was all right. Slowly she breathed out a sigh of relief as all the tension washed out of her.
What exactly had she been so afraid of? The key was in her hands and she was safe. Yet, why had she been so worried? This was a dream, more specifically her dream. Nothing would happen to her. The woman had even promised as much. Yet she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that loomed behind her and felt as if she was forgetting something. She shoved the bronze key into her pocket brushing the thought off.
Glancing back a final time she didn't see anyone. Paranoia was probably just welling up inside her. She had never once dreamt she had died, and the thought of it happening now was honestly absurd. Had she dreamed of being kidnapped? Grimly, yes, but it had been in fear of her fathers condition. Her mind had let her dream of many things, but none the pain of death.
She spotted a metallic door off in the distance east-wise. If it was a way out, she wasn't sure. But if it got her out of this room, it was worth a shot. As most things were worth a shot these days.
One step was all it took, but she was unable to move, and trailing her eyes down to her feet they'd melted into the floor. Merging with it as if it had always been liquid. It didn't burn or sting. Infact it wasn't even slightly uncomfortable, her feet just felt like they were immersed in water. That's when she saw the hand.
It wasn't a normal human hand, or model glass floor like it should have been. No, this hand was pitch black and bony. Gumi almost gagged at the sight of it's skin stretching and pulling the more it moved. The nails on it were long and curled, so much that they were biting into the palm. Each bone was identifiable by the lack of much skin covering it. It reeked of garbage, the stench heavy and almost sweet. And before she could cover her nose the hand wrapped around her ankle.
A scream escaped her throat. The hand was icy cold, lacking the warmth of a normal human hand. The longer the hand held on, the more it burned. She tried to kick ferociously at the hand but her feet moved as if they were trapped in a thick molasses.
Each second the hand inched slowly forward, clawing it's way up to her. The glacial iciness of its skin was eating through the bottom of her jeans. Her mind scattered with thoughts of fear.
Would she be killed? Slowly? Quickly? The thought of a slow death made her mouth feel metallic with the taste of blood, and then the scent of it hit her hard. Slowly she swallowed, trying to keep an edge on the bile that was ebbing it's way down and up her throat.
Would she wake up? Would she ever see Mikuo again? The thought made her pause and she was able to grip courage.
She glared at the hand needing to focus. Of all times in her life, that was what was most important now. She focused hard and all irrelevant thoughts of pain, fear, and death dispersed allowing her to be able to think clearly even if just for a few minutes. The ground was still flat, and from the hands position she would be able to crush it between her two feet if she positioned them properly. Even if her movements were slow the impact of the crush would still be relatively the same, hopefully anyway.
In a situation such as this, there was no alternative choice to bet her life on. Her mind couldn't process another plan other than this. For a second she regretted never truly paying attention but even that thought dispersed. In this moment she was the only one she had, and likewise, the only person she could count on.
Slowly and steadily she managed to raise her left foot upwards, still maintaining balance. Then as fast as she could, forced it downwards again. The impact was slowed but her foot stepped down on the hand. It shook violently in the model floor as if not covered by whatever melted glasslike substance the floor was made out of.
Then when the hand gripped onto her shoe with much force, and the cold seeped through them, she crushed it between her feet. Applying all the pressure she could achieve to it. The hand exploded into a cloud of dark dust and faded away into the air.
Quickly before another hand could take the lasts place, Gumi pulled a foot up and stepped on a different section of the model floor. She was surprised but thankful to find it was solid. Taking this advantage she ran.
Where exactly had the hand came from? Had the woman summoned it? Thankfully it had only been one but what if more showed up? And just as she thought it the ground, and even the walls of the room shook unsteadily. Before she even had the time to grasp the situation the floor began to divide. Each glass cracking into individual squares that began to break into more individual squares as time went on. All the shaking disheveled her and she lost her balance hitting the glass square hard. Her stomach tightened and twisted hard in nausea at the sight before her.
Millions of thin bony hands were shooting up from the cracks. A heavy urge to upchuck hit her gut as the stench of them filled her nostrils. A whole sea of flexing hands, all with skin to hand ratios gruesomely off were hungrily grabbing at her. None got close but she scrambled backwards on her cube not wishing for any to touch her again.
A wave of panic washed over her. She needed to think and fast because the floor was still splitting as she sat there. Each second grew closer to another bunch of hands clawing through the cracks. All wishing to get to her, she shivered at the memory of their inhuman cold. The metallic door flashed through her mind and she whipped her head to look in its direction. The door still existed, all she had to do was get to it.
With a quick push up off the glass she started sprinting for the door. Each minute the cubes got farther and farther from each other breaking into smaller cubes. Eventually she was jumping from cube to cube. Her heart almost stopped when she lost her balance after a jump. But almost on instinct she managed a hand infront of her for a roll. It stunned her for a second that she was able to do something like that. She couldn't remember ever rolling before, yet she'd done it. Thankfully the floor though splitting, was still flat. Else she doubted she would've been able to make that roll. Then the floor started to shift.
Gumi collapsed to her knees gripping the edges of the glass cube as it forcefully shot into the air. All the breaking cubes around her were drifting upwards and downwards in different directions. Some sank so low that hands swarmed over them. Gumi watched in horror as the blocks speeding downwards all suffered a similar fate. Then her block started to shoot downwards.
Panic took control of her legs and she was unable to move. The thought of the hands swarming around her, their cold eating through the fabric of her clothes caused her to shudder. But she didn't have enough time to worry, time to think, every second she was nearing the hands, nearing her fate.
The thought of spraining her ankle seemed a much better alternative to getting mauled by hands. And shoving her hands hard against her cube, she propped herself up again. Her block was descending and the block infront of her was already submerged in the sea of hands. All the blocks around her were sunken, and soon her block would join them. If she didn't move, she'd join them.
Her legs were still wobbly but she needed to jump. There was another block on the other side of the submerged block before her. If she was fast enough it might be possible to make it. But just the thought of having any other further contact with the hands seemed to freeze her to the spot. Still, she managed a jump just as her block split in two and slammed into the sea of hands.
Her new block shot up as she landed on it. She wobbled wildly but managed balance. Glancing back, hands viciously clawed at the block she'd previously been on, being further dragged down. Her current block split into two and her legs were spreading wide with them.
She leaped to her next block. Landing it she leaped to her next, and continued this pattern till the door was only a final block away. With one last burst she made the last block and gripped the doorknob tightly as the block she was on split into two, and those two into four. She found herself practically hanging off the doorknob for dear life.
Her heart beat rapidly in her chest in a mix of fear and happiness. She'd made it and was still here, alive, but there wasn't time to celebrate it right now. Frantically she twisted and jerked at the knob but it didn't move. Instantly the key came to mind and she reached into her pocket ripping the key out of it. She fumbled with it till it went into the lock and finally the floor fell out from under her feet, all the cubes far too small to step on and hold her weight.
Hands swarmed over her legs and the bone chilling iciness of them seared with a burning cold. Chills disintegrated her jeans and other parts of her burned. She cried out from the pain and fought against the hands to twist the key in the lock. But within seconds all heat seeped from her body, and her hands and feet froze. She kicked her legs at the hands. Constantly moving so they didn't grip her ankles or claw her down. The effort felt futile as her fingers were slipping from the knob. Finally numbness was all she could feel besides the shivers running through her.
Letting go wasn't an option, she couldn't let it be and option. If she let this stop her what would stop her next? If there even was a next. She wouldn't be able to face a serial killer if she let this stop her. She wouldn't be able to look herself in the mirror and tell herself that she was strong. She'd no longer have the right to define that word with herself. Though her body was numb with cold, she gripped the knob. With the last of her energy, she swore to herself she'd get it open. Nothing would keep her from her parents. Not this dream, not the hands, not the pain, and definitely not this stupid door!
A glorious click filled her ears and the door swung open taking her with it. She laid sprawled out on the dream ground and her surroundings blurry. The floor heated her but she still felt the lingering touch of the hands. The thought alone caused her to shiver once more.
Sitting up she glanced around. Half expecting the woman, half expecting another terrible turn of events. But the door was gone, replaced by regular air. She was looking at her dresser.
Gumi hugged herself, glancing around her bed just to make sure she was really there. What kind of dream had that been? Not even her own dreams were safe anymore. She sighed and reached out to turn off her alarm before it blared into her ears. Then she remembered and cocked her head to stare at the smashed bits of it below her dresser.
Sighing again there was no other option except to prop herself out of bed. Yet, she found herself not wanting to get out of it. Today and possibly right now she'd have to face Mikuo. Recalling how bitter she'd been about things he probably wouldn't wanna talk to her. And this was how it was, she'd said her peace and felt lonelier than ever.
Maybe if she apologized, and maybe if she was the luckiest human being at that moment, he might forgive her and they could move on. Why had she said all of that, why couldn't she have just said something else? They were friends and she didn't usually lash out at Mikuo, not ever, and not like that. She fell back onto her bed.
Turning over, more thoughts raided her mind. So what if Mikuo kissed thousands of girls? He was free to be his own man after all, free to do what he pleased and she'd no right to stop him because frankly she did the same. Yet even telling herself she didn't care, that she didn't have the right or a logical reason to care, didn't change the fact that she did. They were best friends after all, always had been. Maybe part of her was just looking out for him. Wanting him to be with only the best girl he could find.
She couldn't possibly...she shook her head not even able to finish that thought. Regardless, she'd let too many emotions control her words and actions yesterday. Too many jumbled thoughts had caused her to act and say blindly, and today she'd just have to right all her wrongs. Getting up she dreaded the very thought of working. But maybe the distraction would provide some relief, as sleeping wouldn't, not anymore.
Deciding this, she got ready and pushed any further thoughts out of her mind. The dream, the woman, whatever training she'd mentioned, and only focused on one thing; Mikuo and apologizing.