Behind The Shadows

Chapter Three

Lettuce awoke from a terrible nightmare. She was breathing heavily, and was sweating, too. It was the worst dream she had ever had before. She sat up, clutching a pillow. It wasn't real she told herself. She sighed and let herbody fall back on the bed, eyes closed.

It was the same dream she always had. Well, ever since Ryou had entered her life. Ryou...she felt strange mouthing his first name for she had been used to saying 'Shirogane-san' for quite some time now. It felt nice to say Ryou though. She felt closer to him...

His smile, he was always so kind to her...she giggled and her memories of her haunting nightmare had vanished.

Whenever her nightmare would re-occur (which it had been alot throughout the week), she would simply repeat those prosedures, thinking of him, that is. She actually didn't mind the bad dream as much, now that it was over for that night, because it always seems more satisfying to think of Ryou when she needed it most, then to just think of him for the heck of it.

And she couldn't wait until after school tomorrow. That's mostly what gets her through the day; remembering that when the last bell rings she gets to go back to Cafe Mew Mew, and see Ryou. But not just that, she gets to see her beloved friends. Her friends...they were so kind to her. Well, mostly Ichigo and Pudding were. Mint usually seemed to always be her snobby self, but Lettuce still loved her, just because deep down, Lettuce knew Mint cared for her and all the others. Zakuro was usually quiet, but Lettuce also knew that behind her lonely eyes there was a shining heart that cared for all the other mews just as much as she did. Lettuce smiled at the thought of her great friends, she was so lucky to have them.

She looked over by her window. Her curtains blew through the cool breeze that let itself through her opened window.

Lettuce shivered. It was way too cold. She got up and walked towards her window, holding her arms from shivering. She moved the curtains out of the way with her hand, and gripped the top of the window tightly and pushed down. She looked up, out the window. And that's when she noticed it.

There, staning on her porch, right outside her window, was the shadow from her nightmares.

She was sure of it. It had a white face, yet no eyes or nose or mouth or any other of those features. It was just simply white, as though an artist was drawing it yet left the face blank and went off, forgetting his creation and how beatiful it could have been...if he had remembered just to give it a face.

Lettuce then suddenly remembered what happened in her dream. She was so caught up earlier in her thoughts of Ryou that she had forgotten...until now.

The dream had began with her sitting in a pitch-black room. She found herself in a chair, when all of a sudden she would hear singing. Very quiet singing, and the song sounded as though it was in a minor key, which made Lettuce believe whoever was singing it was sad. Then, a white face would slowly drop fown from the ceiling. It looked as though it was a mask, but then it would grow a body, which was covered by black cloakish looking thing anyway. Lettuce would then find herself afraid in her dream, and begin to run the opposite direction. Then, she could see the cafe in the distance, and Ryou in front with all the mews around him. She was yelling out to them but they couldn't hear her. Just then she would see the white-faced shadow pop up from behind Ryous shoulder. Lettuce would scream, but Ryou did nothing. The shadow acted as though it was teasing Lettuce, and would tie ropes around Ryous neck and act like it would kill him by almost hanging him in her dream. Lettuce couldn't bear this, and would break down crying. And the ending of her nightmare scared her the most. She would be back in the room, alone and in the dark. The shadow would appear in the corner behind her, and would scream at her once. Only once. It was a high pitched scream, one that would make anyones ears burn and hearts crack. Lettuce would be so terrified that she would wake up, but now this wasn't a dream. The shadow was outside of her house right now.

The strange thing about this shadow, was that it appeared to be quite solid, and would move across her front yard about 3 yards everytime Lettuce didn't look. Lettuce blinked to make sure she wasn't dreaming, and it would be closer to her house with every blink.

Lettuce thought about telling her parents, but she knew what they would say. They would tell her it was only in her mind, that it was her imagination. But Lettuce knew it wasn't a fake this time. Its white face was staring right through her soul. She could feel it.

She turned around to make sure her door was shut. It was. She looked back out the window.

The shadow was gone.

Lettuce sighed in relief. She jumped back in bed, still being a bit spooked.

It was not until she heard the faint singing from her dream begin to play on a music box in her room.

She jumped up. That was not her music box...where was it even coming from? She tiptoed towards the noise to find it coming from her closet. She opened the closet door quickly. Nothing was there. But the noise could be heard in it...she glanced around the room again. She noticed her dresser was where she had put her glasses, and went over there and grabbed them and quickly put them on. When she looked back up into the mirror that was on the other side of the dresser, she was the shadow standing behind her. She yelped.

"Wh-who are you?" Lettuce said without thinking.

"You should know me by now, I've been in your dreams for a while now, haven't I?" The shadow whispered.

Lettuce closed her eyes. This wasn't real...nothing was there...

"Oh dear Lettuce...little kind, sweet Lettuce. I'm only here to make the pain go away..."

"What pain? I love my life, there is no pain in it!"

"Are you lying? I believe you are. No ones life is perfect."

"The only pain in my life is you and your stupid nightmares!"

"So do you want me to leave, or will you?"

"You should leave!" Lettuce was forceful with her words, yet tears were in her eyes and flowing down her cheeks. "Right now!"

"Now Lettuce, it is not fair to always get your way." The shadow moved closer. "What about what I desire? Does that matter at all to you?"

"N-no! Go away!" Lettuce yelled as she swiftly turned and tried to push the shadow. Of course, as you can imagine, she fell right through it, onto the floor.

The shadow dissapeared, but only from sight.

"You believe you have the strength to harm me? To even TOUCH me? How dare you even try."

Lettuce was on her floor, unable to move, as though something was pressing down on her or the pull of gravity was making her believe she was heavier than she really was. She couldn't move at all. She was wimpering softly, tears spreading onto the ground. She had just enough strength to lift her head...only to see the shadow above her.

"Enough with this foolishness. The game is over, and you're not the victor."

What happened next was all too fast for Lettuce to even try to remember. A rope was quickly placed around her neck, and she was lifted up slowly, then quickly dropped. It was over.

At least she didn't have to worry about those nightmares anymore.

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Next Victim: Pudding Fong