Phantom of Dream
Disclaimer :
Touhou Project © Zun
Phantom of Dream © darkro90
Genre :
Fantasy, Supernatural, Spiritual, Adventure
Rated :
T
This story is based on the Touhou project, and all its canon characters, locations and events are a property of Team Shanghai Alice, ergo ZUN.
All characters and events in this story are entirely fictional and any possible similarities between them and real people and events are purely coincidental and not intentional.
Chapter 7
Sky of Scarlet Perception
If you were to given a choice of choosing either apple or grape,
What will you choose?
Personally,
I'll choose orange.
*RRRRIIIIINNNGGG*
The infernal howling of alarm had awoken me yet again from my deep slumber. I can already guess that judging by the sound of the alarm; it was mine, not the property of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Which is also implies that I've been back to my old dreary apartment.
Sigh…
Looks like I didn't get the chance of staying at the mansion.
Upon opening my eyes, I was greeted by the old sight of red ceiling that decorates every room in my apartment. I've replaced my blood-soaked sheet with a new one while tossing out the blood-soaked one and this particular new sheet has a distinct trait than any of my other sheets. Because of it, I can already recognize that I'm in my room after waking up.
As my senses slowly crept back upon my consciousness, I recalled how strange my dream was before I awaken in the real world. Because, with my previous experiences of shifting between worlds, I've never dreamt in the process before. Not to mention that, in my dream, I felt like someone was talking to me, but my hazy memory can't recall all of the things that person said to me. However, I do remember a part of it, which is…
"Spend your time wisely…
Because, of all the people that exists on both side,
You have the littlest of them."
As I got up from my bed and shambled to my bathroom, I try to catch the meaning of those sentences that were said by the person from my last dream. However, as I wash my face with water to awaken my already half-woken logic and rational thinking, I realize the true meaning and catches whatever message that person tries to deliver.
Of all people both in the real world and Gensokyo,
I have the littlest time?
Is that some kind of warning that I can't go into Gensokyo anymore?
Or, that my death was near?
Ugh, I should stop over-thinking things…
But I think there was also something else important that I've been forgetting.
Wait a minute, there was indeed other important word that person said to me.
But I can't seem to remember it...
Damn!
My thirst disturbed my ever pacing thoughts, and I decide that getting a cola while viewing the streets from my favorite spot would calm my mind a little bit, and gives me the opportunity to comprehend the cryptic message I got from my dream.
As I finished drying my face with the towel that is hanging beside my medicine-filled glass cabinet, I took a short walk to refrigerator in the kitchen part of my room, and opened it to take a look whether I still got a cola or not. Turns out, I was out of cola, but fortunately a was there to save the day, and I proceed to drank it slowly while I make my way to the favorite spot I've been referring to all along.
The balcony.
Although the weather wasn't exactly nice either, the roof shielded me from the unmerciful sunlight that probably could toast me in matter of seconds. The occasional cool breezes were also present even in the midst of unfriendly weather. I took a deep breath, and began the sightseeing on the already crowded streets that is filled with cars and pedestrians.
That street never change.
All of that sight when pedestrians walked by the catwalk,
And when the car moving through the road…
Although I was, at first, disliked it, I've grown to like it now.
I've even started observing them around three years ago. And now, it began to start as a habit.
It… would be a shame if I had to part from this everyday sight.
But if I were given the option to choose either this sight or a everyday life at Gensokyo,
I would definitely choose Gensokyo.
This sight was pale in comparison to Gensokyo's outstandingly beautiful sights.
And for me, I would never forget the spectacle of seeing a small patch of road that is shined by the moonlight.
I even also admire the danmaku which is shot by the youkai that's inhabiting Gensokyo. Even when it was aimed at me directly.
My train of thought was disturbed by a seemingly familiar sound coming inside my room. As I checked my computer, my suspicious was confirmed right, that is I've received an email.
"You have one new e-mail.
From: ZUN
Subject: Sorry
Read now?
[YES] [NO]"
I can already feel that he is apologizing because he can't chat with me right now or maybe for the whole week because of works or other stuffs. However, I clicked the [YES] button just to make sure of it.
"I don't think I can chat with you at the moment. Work piled up and I have to finish them as soon as possible.
We'll chat some other time later. I'll let you know if I'm free."
Figures.
I closed the email with a little disappointment, but my hunger overwhelms the disappointment I've had right now. I walked toward the refrigerator and skimmed through it to find some food. Fortunately, some leftover pizza from yesterday was still intact for me to eat, as I wasn't particularly up for a walk to find some breakfast.
I continue my internet browsing while eating the leftover pizza slowly but surely. My Anime Festival Asia 2012 report thread was already filled with over ninety replies, with half of it debating my last picture whether it was a trolling attempt or not.
Heh. They're still on it.
Still, I don't know should I felt good or bad about it.
Bah. No matter. At least the rest of the pictures showed up perfectly.
For them…
I kept on browsing the internet to kill time and stave off my boredom. But unknowingly, my sleepiness has showed up without warning again, and as I get carried away in browsing the internet, I was also caught in the wave of drowsiness, and fell asleep in front of my monitor.
"Guh…"
I opened my eyes slowly and suddenly feel uncomfortable. Turns out, I was sleeping with my forehead hitting the keyboard while drooling in it. Slowly, I raised my head and cleaned the keyboard with only half of my consciousness was back.
It took me a minute after waking up to realize that I've fell asleep in frot of my monitor after all of that exhausting internet browsing. I glanced at the digital clock that my computer have, only to find out that it's already past 4:00 PM.
Strange…
I've never been fall asleep in front of the computer before.
Could it be that I was sleep-deprived because of my trips to Gensokyo?
I peeked outside through the window as it was my habit to do so every time I woken up. The sky looks red, like it was about to change season. But, upon closer inspection, the sky was indeed red, scarlet-like. And that was highly unusual.
Whoa.
I've never looked at a sky this red.
No… red didn't describe it pretty well.
It was scarlet. Just like the Scarlet Devil Mansion's dominating color.
The sky looked like it was… bleeding.
Is this phenomenon happening everywhere?
Ha! I'd bet those conspiracy nut at the forum is flipping out right now, if they saw the same sky as I am.
I return my gaze to the monitor and pressed the power button to turn it on.
However, turns out it didn't turn on at all. I thought at first, the cable weren't plugged in quite well to the monitor. But after I hit the light switch to gain a better sight in my poorly-lit room, it became evident that my apartment suffered power outage, because the room's light didn't turn on at all.
To think it happen now of all time…
Great. The room's door was electric powered, and now I'm stuck in here.
I hope it didn't last long.
I pulled out my phone to browse the forum I frequently visit. However, the "NO SIGNAL" message made me let out a long sigh.
Now I'm not just stuck,
I was also completely isolated from the world.
I hope the street were crowded enough for me to-
Now that I mentioned it,
There was a fire-escape ladder outside the window.
I opened the window to my left to see the fire-escape ladder. Fortunately, it was still intact and isn't rusted at all. Slowly, I make my advance toward the emergency ladder outside my window. But after getting my feet outside into the ladder, I've decided against it because of following reasons:
First, my afraid of height didn't help at all.
Second, I just remembered that my mini generator should be enough to let me browse the internet for, at least, two hours, if I only turned on the computer. And that should be more than enough for me to wait for either the power back up or the apartment's emergency power generator to kick in.
With above issues resolved, I put my legs back inside and searched through the storeroom to find the mini-generator.
Found it.
After five minutes of searching, I've finally found the mini-generator, behind a small box that contains many books I've used to read before I moved to this apartment.
I hope this works.
Although it was heavy, it wasn't heavy enough to prevent me from carrying it. After a hard effort of putting the cables together, I've managed to turn the computer on. Luckily, upon checking the available connections, it seems the Wi-Fi connection was still up. It seems it wasn't affected by the power outage.
However, my happiness was short-lived as it turns out that even though the connection was available, it couldn't connect at all to the internet. It means that even though the Wi-Fi modem was up and running, it seems the Wi-Fi tower couldn't receive not send any information at all.
Strange…
It was available to connect into, but it can't connect into the internet?
First, it was the strange sky,
Second, the power outage.
And now, I can't even connect into anything at all. Neither the Wi-Fi nor my phone could pick up any internet connection at all.
What the heck happened here…?
As I grow uncomfortable with these recent happening, I've just noticed that there was barely any noise coming from outside. And that is rather unparticular, considering that my apartment was positioned directly beside the main street. As I peeked outside to see what's happening, I was greeted by a rather rare, or maybe, horrifying, sight.
Empty. The street that was used to be crowded all time was completely empty. There was practically no car crossing the street. It was even devoid of any pedestrians that usually walk in the sidewalk.
I-it can't be…
This situation really reminded me of something horrifying from a certain anime.
Closed Space, or so it was.
But if it was true, that I'm trapped in a closed space,
I can officially say that I'm screwed big time.
Panicked, I tried to use my apartment phone to call the apartment's receptionist, in a pathetic attempt of contacting or finding someone else. I can faintly hear the echoing ringing sound two stories below me, but there was no answer.
This is, indeed, was an incident.
And my instinct was never wrong.
What could probably be the cause of this? The talisman?
But I haven't read it since I woke up this morning.
And I can't even fathom the horrifying situation and future I got if I'm going to live here alone until my death in this world, coupled with that scarlet sky outsi-
Wait a minute,
Outside?
That's it!
An idea sprung up inside my head, although it wasn't exactly a bright one. Since all of my option were exhausted, this last resort plan must be done if I want to have a chance on finding someone, or maybe, escape this nightmarish world.
I quickly grabbed some water bottles that is stored inside my refrigerator, and proceeded to put it inside my already-filled-with-stuffs bag. Since stocking up was always a good idea if you want to travel somewhere far beyond your starting place, and possibly, without any real purpose.
Slowly, I opened the window that led to the emergency ladder. I managed to overcome my fear for a brief moment and crossed to the emergency ladder. However, as my left leg gently touched the emergency ladder, the ladder suddenly lets out a maddening screeching voice, cracked, and fell down. With me also falling down from the window in the process.
Shi-
Before I can finish it, I was already mid-air, falling to the ground. the falling sensation was quite different compared to the ones I've experienced when I was about to travel back to the real world from Gensokyo. This time, I can feel the wind surging through my back and flowing through the back of my head since I was falling with my back facing the ground, unlike the empty yet powerful sensation when I fell down to the void.
I can already feel that the ground was closing in, and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was the scarlet sky. I get the feeling that the sky was looking back at me while I was staring at it and awaiting for my doom.
Red. Everything was all red.
H…haha… I forgot, it was scarlet…
Besides, scarlet…
Sounds fitting.
Something hard hit my back like a fast-speeding truck hitting a guy in the back, and my consciousness lost in the midst of the shock I felt.
"Hngh…"
Instead of waking up in a place like the purgatory, or which I would prefer more, Hakugyokurou, I saw a familiar sight that I've just seen a couple of minutes ago. The ever-gazing cloudless scarlet sky hovering above me. But my vision wasn't clear enough to see my surrounding with details, as it was filled with the blurry sensation I've experienced when I was about to go back into the real world.
Although I'm sure that I've just hit the pavement hard some minutes ago, I felt no pain at all. Instead, I only felt numbness whilst I can't seem to move my body at all. It's just like sleep paralysis that I've used to experience when I was a kid.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
A man voice can be heard in the right side of mine. He's voice awfully familiar, but I can't seem to know who it was. I can faintly hear his footsteps echoing louder, indicating that he's getting close.
"Too bad though, it was already falling apart."
Falling apart?
What the hell are you talking abou-
Before I can finish my inner monologues, the scarlet sky I've been staring at was slowly cracking up like a glass that is slowly cracking. From the cracks, I can faintly see a red liquid drops from it. I assume it was blood, and now all of the sudden it was raining blood from a cracking scarlet sky.
"You're probably asking various things right now in your head. "Who is this guy?" "What does he want from me?" "Why is his voice so manly?" isn't it? Oh I forgot, you can't talk for the moment."
Hey, I didn't think about that last part of questions.
"No matter. All you need to know was this will happen if you didn't choose soon enough."
Huh?
Wait a minute… the voice, it was the same from my last dream!
I knew it! So that's why it was awfully familiar.
"Living alone in a dimension that didn't exists on both plane, while waiting to die alone filled with regrets… you don't want it, isn't it? Hell, everyone doesn't want it."
His footstep stopped, and I can barely see his body from the ground. But what I saw was truly beyond my own comprehension. His body itself, was fully scarlet colored, from the head to the leg, and was taking a form like a phantom. He was transparent, but not transparent enough to be invisible. He wears a seemingly suit that was white colored, but became scarlet due to his phantom-like scarlet appearance.
"That's why I'm here to deliver the message. Make your choice before it was too late. Although it was okay for you to be greedy, this situation was not meant to be taken lightly. You must choose one over another."
I guess that's the message I've been forgetting from my last dream.
I was on limited time, and have to choose either one of the universes.
Gensokyo, or the real world.
That is… indeed a tough decision to make.
"Rest assured. You are not forced to choose now. Everyone always get a chance to think about what choice they would make. But, like I've been saying before…"
He kneeled toward me and moved his face close to my ear, and made gesture like he was about to whisper something. Although his face was close, I can't really seem to recognize him fully because of the blurry sensation I've had right now.
"Spend your time wisely. For you have littlest of them."
He moved back his face and stands up again. He turns his face toward the scarlet sky while the seemingly blood rain is getting drencher.
"Ah, looks like our time is up. Don't worry; I'm sure we will meet again when the time comes…"
He made a hand gesture like he was about to cast some spell above me, and says something incomprehensible. I'm guessing that he was casting some sort of spell.
"Well then… see you."
A blast of energy comes from his hand and blinds my sight. For a minute, everything was so bright, but then, it was suddenly dark again, while my consciousness slipped away again.
"ARGH!"
Reflexively, I jerked off my computer desk while gasping heavily. I looked around to see if I was still alive or not. Fortunately, it seems I was already got back to my apartment room. I peeked outside through the window to see if the sky was still scarlet-colored or not, and got the sight of the normal blue sky looking out toward me while the sunlight was blocked by my transparent curtain. Judging from the weather condition, it seems it was still around midday or so.
Looks like I'm still alive…
So it was only a dream…?
But it really felt real…
I looked at the digital clock in my still-turned on monitor. Apparently, it was still 12:34 PM, and that confirms my judgment of the time.
I took the that is placed on the other side of my desk, and drank the rest of it to calm myself a bit more. Groggily, I stood up and walked right to the refrigerator to drink some other more. After I've taken a bottle of water from the refrigerator, I dragged myself toward the balcony, my most favorite calming spot.
…and still quite the spectacle.
I muttered to myself while seeing the crowded cars going through the streets with the pedestrians also walking through the sidewalk. In the end, I've managed to calmed down and began thinking about what just I've been through this day.
In the end,
I was forced to choose…
Making life-changing choice like this was indeed hard, but…
There's still one thing bothering me.
The one that is telling me all of this 'you-have-limited-time' was some a scarlet-looking guy that has some tastes in fashion too.
Not her, the one that brought me to all of this mess…
I think it was more appropriate for her to tell me all of these things.
Not a random phantom-guy that suddenly invades my dream-
"Ooh, somebody called for me?"
My thoughts were immediately disturbed when a voice came over behind me.
T…this voice!
I immediately turned back to see who's talking behind me, and what I got was-
Chapter 7 Ends.
-To be Continue-
Link Forum: ht*tp:/*/oniichan*.us*/threads/fan-fic-phantom-of-dream.878/
