As David nestled into his blankets in the night, his body suddenly felt the frigid cold winds.

He tucked himself closer to himself in a cradle position, snuggling himself further into the sheets, making him feel warmer again.

He thinks someone is calling him from downstairs but, he's asleep and he's not gonna waste his sleep for dinner, for now.


It's now the badge ceremony for Sparrow Scouts.

As scouts lined up towards the hall in order to receive a badge for the earlier Baywatching Activity, David finds himself to be in the middle of the line.

As he turns his head over to the back, he finds Hilda is now at the front while Frida is just there at the back.

He suddenly felt a push.

"Move it," A boy shouts.

David proceeded to move forward, amidst the boy's orders, and as the line become shorter and shorter, his end of the line finally arrived.

"David Coyle," Raven Leader shouts, exclaiming his name over the microphone.

David walks up, and as his nervousness grows like a plant on his gut, he then sees his parents sitting over at the left side of all the seats in the hall, clapping alongside the other parents.

As David made a small wave, he then stands before Raven Leader, holding a badge.

"For your excellent pictures and notes of the Trolberg Bay, I award you of the Baywatching Badge."

Then as Raven Leader dons the badge unto his sash, the clapping at the seats became louder than before, intensifying like an aftershock with every clap.

And then he sits down on a seat, which is right behind Hilda's at the front and as David makes himself comfortable, Hilda turned her head over and did a little wave at him before looking back at the crowd, something he knows Hilda hasn't done before.

Then after everyone got their badges and everyone returned to their life as normal, David finally got out of his seat and went out of the stage like everyone else, and after being greeted well by his parents, he then returned to his friends to make small talk.

Then as he keeps finding the others, he can't seem to find Frida, which is odd because she's always around here, and as he keeps looking for a dark-skinned, fluffy tied hair girl around the premises, he somehow encounters Hilda on the way.

"Oh, hello," David greets, putting his hands on his pockets to look formal.

"Hi David, did you see my badge?" Hilda enthusiastically asks, stretching her sash forward to let David see the only badge in it.

David examines the badge a little closely.

The badge itself has navy blue waves and curves, trying to symbolize the ocean that is the bay, and the yellow that is at the left, is probably the sand, which are pretty hard to discern like the grains of sand themselves.

"Yeah, it looks good," David compliments, trying to make everyone's day good.

Then as Hilda about to hug David for the compliment, Raven Leader suddenly whistled at the scouts, halting any socialization temporarily.

As everyone gathered around Raven Leader, Hilda seems excited today, probably because it's the first time she got a badge, and after forming a circle with everyone else, Raven Leader finally spoke.

"As an unofficial tradition of the Sparrow Scouts, we will have a round of-"

"Stingball!" A boy yells, interrupting Raven Leader in the process but also made the other scouts cheer along with him, chanting the word.

David decides to keep quiet about this and keeps looking for Frida within the circle, and as the chanting grows louder and louder as the claps earlier, he still can't find Frida in the circle.

Strange.

Then as Raven Leader pulled the whistle, everyone was silenced for now, allowing Raven Leader to speak.

"Now that we have finished the badge ceremony, I would like to announce this round of Stingball to begin!"

Then the whistle blows once again and the entire court is thrown into the midst of an intense stingball round, with Hilda seeming to target David every time she got a ball.

Then as the games end and the kids exit, David decides to see if asking Hilda where Frida is would do the trick. She seems to not be here despite being in the line earlier.

David approaches. "Hey, have you seen Frida lately?"

Hilda looks at him after straightening her hair. "Maybe."

David raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean, maybe?"

"I think I know where she went."

David leans forward. "Where?"

Hilda leads David at the back of the Sparrow Scout court, near the dumpster, and it's very clear that Frida wasn't here.

"Hilda, she's not here," David points.

"What, I know I saw her here before, I swear she walks around this area," Hilda said, frantically looking at the area to prove that Frida's here.

David rolls his eyes at this, he never rolls his eyes before but this time, it's for a good reason.

"Hilda, I'm telling you, she's not here."

Hilda didn't hear him, keeping her momentum of scanning and searching every corner of this backyard until she stumbles upon a little pathway that at the end, shows Frida.

"She's here! I know it!" Hilda exclaims, pointing out her finger at the pathway.

David peers inside and also sees Frida, but in a mirage like image, making it unsure if Frida is at the other end or not.

David walks into the pathway, trying to get a better look on Frida at the other side but it feels like even if he gets any closer, the blur still stays.

His eyes try to adjust but even with these adjustments, it still looks like Frida is a mirage of his imagination at the other end and while he's approaching her slowly, Hilda tags along and keeps talking about badges.

"You know, maybe I could've gotten that First Aid Badge if it had not been for that incident."

"Like, if we switched badges, at least Mum would be proud."

"Maybe getting badges is a bad thing, maybe that's why Frida freaked out over a book."

All he hears while walking towards Frida, or what he perceives as Frida, is badges badges badges, and as he felt like he had to cover his ears with his own fingers, he stopped.

It seems like he can get a better resolution at Frida from this distance.

As he turns around, the only thing behind him is just Hilda and a strangely far away start, which felt like hours and as he turned again towards the front, the end seems to extend itself yet keeping the clearer version of Frida at the other end.

David tries to make a run for it, but he's never a good runner, and as he stumbles and fumbles throughout the seemingly vast pathway, he can felt as if he's being grabbed.

From behind.

As Hilda tosses him over to the Sparrow Scout court wall, Hilda begins to look at the badges in his sash obsessively, drooling over the sight of each and every one.

"Ma–may I have, these badges, badges, you have, enough to be, a Sparrow Scout, a–anyway."

He knows this isn't the Hilda he knew, he felt as if Hilda got corrupted by someone, something, anything to explain it to himself, and as David kept pushing Hilda away from him, he felt as if his world is collapsing on its own and he's being crushed by Hilda alone.

Then try as he might, Hilda then begins to pluck out every single badge from the sash, sometimes not even carefully.

In fact it was so careless that it hurts him, like being slashed by a knife as a badge is being pulled out.

Even though his cries for mercy was heard, Hilda didn't care, and continued plucking the badges until she removed the sash itself, forcing David to let out a hurtful scream.


"aaa–OOOwww!"

As he continued to scream in what may be described as imaginary pain, his parents went up to check on him to see why he wasn't going down and as they entered his room, they saw their son.

Holding his chest like it got ripped off from its body and screaming like it actually did.

They rushed towards him and then decide to wake him up by screaming his name lightly, which worked.

As David gasped for breath like being underwater for a long time, he immediately checked his chest and shirt, which was untouched but it did felt very real to him.

"Son, what happened?" His father asks, worried about David's nightmares.

David tries but he can't seem to find a starting point, each one sounds like insanity to them and as he struggled, he cried a single tear out from both of his eyes in response.

His mother sat close to him, soothing hik by rubbing her hand through his back, which only brought him temporary comfort.

"Whatever it is, we're here for you."

Then as his mother and father hugged their son like it was the first time, David joined along, shedding a tear while sharing his hugs between his parents before they all separated and ate dinner downstairs.

After dressing up to his simple garments, he then prepared his bed for sleep and even though he already encountered his dream, he seems to have forgotten how, like he suddenly can't close his eyes.

As midnight slowly goes nearer by the minute, David tries to make himself go to sleep through tossing and turning, drinking warm milk and cold water, washing his face, closing the lights, anything and yet his eyes are still open.

As he wandered his eyes throughout the darkness that is his room, his eyes finally dart off to a state of sleep and the rest of his body followed.


June 24, 1997

Another Summer Day

7:00 AM


David woke up, finally getting some sleep after what happened last night and even though he slept, the dream never reappeared into his sleep, which was comforting for him to know.

After serving up his breakfast and setting his Sparrow Scout uniform for the actualbadge ceremonyof today, which brought a wave of plight into his confidence, fearing that whatever happens in his dream would happen as well in real life.

But after counting to ten, he got downstairs and went to the Sparrow Scout Hall with his parents and suddenly, everything that happened in his dream went as followed, though with the difference of Frida existing this time.

As they all lined up towards the stage, Hilda decides to turn hher back towards the back to find David and there he was.

Seeing as she can't talk to him about the dreams they both had without revealing it to the public, they bothh remained silent and everything at the stage also went along as previously mentioned.

Then after David got to his seat, did he find an opportunity to talk with Hilda.

"Hilda, did you also have a-"

She just nodded at him, which brought concerns that they both may have shared the same dreams under different circumstances.

After being brought down from the stage afterr everyone is done with the badge, David decides to look at his badge first before going to his parents.

Navy blues curves and waves and the yellow at the left.

The badge looked the same as the one before in the dream and then he called Hilda over to see if they both share the same badge.

"So, what happened in yours?" David asks while also showing the badge to Hilda which her facial expressions show that she wasn't happy seeing it too.

"It went along like how it happened today but this time, it's you forcing your badges on me."

David is shocked at her dream, it may not be as terrifying as his but that is horrifying.

"And yours?" Hilda asks, wanting to know his dream as well.

He proceeded to start over at the start of the dream and then explain over the endless pathway at the back of the Hall and as they both continued their deep conversation of dreams, Frida suddenly existed.

"Hey, how's the ceremony?"

Both flinched at her presence and jumped away from her in surprise of her sudden reappearance, making them a little angry about that habit.

"Frida, please excuse yourself before showing up." David politely says to Frida, not wanting that this would become a thing.

"Sorry, but anyways what are you guys talking about?"

Hilda and David looked at each other in the eye to try and excuse their way out of this can of worms.

"We were talking about, uhh, uhhh Hilda what was that thing we're talking about?"

Hilda pretended to think like she's trying to remember what they were discussing.

"Oh yeah, we were talking about the badge, uhh it looks cool, see?"

Hilda lies, showing off the badge to her too as a result.

Frida also showed the badge to the two and it was the same badge, which implies that everyone got it, which made the badge less special.

Then they were called in by Raven Leader for the stingball match and the matchh went as usual, thankfully Hilda was helping with David and Frida in the matchh, winning several hits while also suffering some too.

After the match, everyone went off but while everyone else went to their parents, Hilda and David went over to the dumpster area to show what David was talking about and also to discuss a plan.

"It's right around here."

Hilda then moves one of the cardboard pieces aside and shows nothing, just another piece of the wall the hall already has.

While they were searching the area, Hilda concocted a plan to try to explain how these dreams become a thing.

"David, I think the marras are doing this to mess with us."

David look at her with a confused face. "Elaborate."

Hilda sighs before going into theory mode. "So we already got 4 dreams of the exact same event these days and since only us got affected by this, I would say that the marra are behind all of this." Hilda theorized, explaining why it's the marra.

"And also we're the ones that foiled their plans and maybe they want some sort of petty revenge on us."

David gave himself time to think about it before he finds himself nodding his head in agreeement involuntarily, making it a yes to Hilda's plan.

"Okay, so by around 9 PM tonight, we go off to the Huldrawood, I know where it is so don't be afraid we'll get lost, and once we've confronted the marras, boom, mystery solved."

David unanimously agreed to it and as Hilda and David shook hands, which both of them felt awkward because their dreams tainted that outlook but they did so anyway and went back to their homes to set up a plan.

A plan to catch the marras red-handed.