Was It All A Dream?
Cast:
Cure Dream, Yumehara Nozomi – age 14
Cure Rouge, Natsuki Rin – age 14
August, 2007
"How did I end up here?"
Rin asks herself this as she hides alone in a storage closet in the old school building.
Perhaps it was when they drew lots for the test of courage. Best friend or no, Nozomi was no rock of stability. As soon as Rin and Nozomi had been paired together, their fates may have been sealed. And where is Nozomi now? Rin has no way of knowing.
Then again, Rin's chances had gone bad from the moment the drawing began. Komachi and Karen had drawn first, and had drawn each other. Once Rin's possible teammates had been reduced to only Nozomi, Urara, and Kurumi, any one of them would have been frightened by what Rin had seen and heard since entering the building.
There is no question in Rin's mind that the place is haunted. After all, Komachi and Karen had only been meant to spend fifteen minutes inside before Rin and Nozomi, but neither had come back out. Komachi had told them before they started that the old school building had once been a mansion, built by a wealthy man for his beautiful lover who died in an accident. Telling himself that she would one day return, he pined for his lost love until he took ill and passed away. Nobody still alive knew what the ghost or his lover looked like, of course, but if Karen or Komachi, or both, were to be spirited away, that couldn't be completely unexpected now, could it?
Rin is trying to be silent, but she feels as if the sound of her heartbeat is going to give her away.
A loud creak issues from somewhere nearby. Rin tries to shift further into the closet, only to find herself suddenly covered in spiderwebs. Whether there are still spiders in them, or if the spiders are a danger to her at all... she does not ask herself such questions as she bursts screaming from the closet. She does not have time for anything else, because she collides with Nozomi immediately outside the door, forehead to forehead, and both of them collapse on the floor.
The girls wake on lavishly-curtained four-post bed.
"Was there always a place like this?" Rin wonders, but Nozomi's attention is elsewhere.
"Rin, look!" There are two paintings on the wall. One is a man, handsome despite being gaunt and pale. The other painting is a young girl, in old-fashioned dress. She looks exactly like Rin.
Even Nozomi is able to make this connection. Rin doesn't need it explained to her. However, before she can flee the room, the door opens and the man in the painting appears. He is ghostly translucent, and smiles brightly upon seeing Rin.
"My love! I have waited so long! Please accept this token of my affection!"
"I can't- I'm not..."
His dismay is immediate and obvious. Behind her, Nozomi whispers into Rin's ear.
"Shouldn't you accept it? He might finally be able to move on."
Rin gives in and accepts the ghost's gift: a butterfly-shaped pin that he clips to her hair.
A moment later, Rin is shaken awake. She is outside the school building, next to Nozomi who is still unconscious. The other girls found them in the hallway, apparently having knocked each other out.
"It was all a dream?" Rin wonders, touching her hair where the ghost's gift was- is clipped. "Didn't I get this from the ghost?"
None of the others know where the pin came from.
There is no such thing as magic in this world.