I found myself in a large blue room, with a chain fence for a back wall.

Judging from the lights moving downwards behind the fence and the spinning dial above it, I decided I was in some kind of lift.

Ascending into madness. Now that's new.

For some reason, I was now sitting in a pretty weird chair at a table, and on the other side is a man sitting on the pimpingest seat I have ever seen.

As awesome as the chair was, though, it didn't even compare to the man himself.

The man didn't seem exactly human. His nose was long, his grin wide, and his eyes looked like he'd been sniffing adrenalin. His white, balding hair revealed pointed ears, but the thing that struck me most was his voice. It was creepy, yet inviting, and dripping in awesome.

"My name is Igor…" He told me. "I am deLighted to make, your acquaintance…" He gestured to the blonde standing on his left, her blue uniform camouflaging her in this room. "This, is, Elizabeth. She's a resident here, like myself."

The girl nodded. "Pleased to meet you."

Igor looked straight at me, smiling. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter…" he chuckled. "It's been years since we've had a guest. Now…"

Igor waved his hand, and the red book from the other night appeared on the table, opening itself. I checked the contract again. 'I, Minato Arisoto, give my word that I will take full responsibility for the consequences of my decisions.'

Igor continued to speak; "Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place… Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room."

I nodded, wondering where that music was coming from. Wherever it was from, it was damned appropriate. "You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my assistance to do so." Igor continued. "I only ask one thing in return..." I looked at Igor, all attention on him. "That you abide by the contract, and assume responsibility for the choices you make."

Now, this was something I'd been brought up to do, and accepting consequences for my actions was second nature to me. Since he was actually going as far as to bind me to a contract, I reckon that I was gonna have to accept some big responsibility for some big choices in the near future.

Either that or this Igor dealt with some shady characters. Either way, I nodded. "I intended on doing that anyway." I told him. "My turn." I noticed we are speaking in English, so I felt more comfortable speaking. Looking intently at Igor, I asked him, "You said that this place is between dream and reality, but aren't I asleep? That makes this a dream doesn't it?"

Igor laughed, not unkindly. "Precisely," He replied, his smile spreading, "You are fast asleep in the real world as we speak. This visit of yours is merely a dream. However, you will come here of your own accord sooner or later."

I leaned back in my chair, taking care not to fall off. "And how do I do that?"

"Ah, I see you like to be in control, my young guest." Igor smiled, and pulled something out of his pocket. "Hold on to this…" he told me as said hand began to glow.

Then my hand glowed, and a dark blue key appeared in my hand. I looked up to speak, but Igor merely waved.

"'Till we meet again…"

My eyes opened wide, and I was back in bed.

It was morning already, so I got up, rubbing my eyes.

Then I noticed I was still holding the key from my dream.

Yep, things can only get awesome from here.

Realising that once again I'd woken up before my alarm, I decided to do some sit ups before breakfast, opting for cereal today.

Wait, didn't I set my alarm for before half eight?

Oh crap I'm late.

And because I was late, I met up with Junpei on the train.

"What's up Minato-kun?" he laughed, slapping me on the back.

Junpei-kun was ecstatic about something, "Man, today is a perfect day!" he declared happily. "The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we're young, what more can we ask for?"

"Sleep." I told him.

"Dude, I'm not sick." he growled, before cheering up. "Forget the old Junpei, This is the real me! You should cheer up too man. After all, you've got ME as a friend!"

"Not what I meant. There'd be less war if people slept more mate."

"Oh yeah?"

We discussed my 'theory' on sleep deprivation and aggression on the way to school. Junpei-kun had an equally inane theory about the relationship between this Apathy Syndrome and homework. Both theories were equally ridiculous, but I won the straight face contest.

Oh, right, Apathy Syndrome. It's a disease of some sort that's going around this part of Japan. Perfectly normal people just lose the will to do anything other than lie against the wall and moan, like some kind of super-depression. Marina taunted that I'd catch it within a week. I doubt it, I'm not getting depression any time soon.

I slept through Mr. Ekoda's lesson today to prevent war.

I wasn't actually that tired, but the book he had us reading was utter crap. He said it was the origin of Japanese Literature, but it made less sense than Tolkien.

Actually, Lord of the Rings was good, but made no sense first time round. I made a note to slip a Japanese copy of Towers into class next Thursday. It'd probably be easier and safer to slip in something else like Pride and Prejudice, or Mice and Men, but I like to follow through on my ideas.

Also, Gimli is badass. I need to quote him next time someone asks for my name.

Hoping I might get chance to check out that Velvet Room again, I went to bed fairly early.

I couldn't sleep, so I tried to wear myself out with some push ups and sit ups, but I still couldn't sleep.

Getting bored, I pulled a shortsword from under my bed and practiced my swings.

You may be wondering, 'Hey, why the hell does he have a sword?' and I won't blame you. I actually did my Work Experience with a blacksmiths a few years ago, and he helped me make it.

It wasn't that good, light, strong or sharp, but it was good for the muscle training. I've seen someone use a lead pipe in a fight once, so I made a point in learning how to use various weapons in case I needed to adapt an impromptu weapon, though I couldn't learn how to use firearms due to health and safety laws (Boring), and knives, well, they were too easy to carry around, I didn't want to just depend on them in fights.

Yeah, I carry a Leatherman Multitool around, but when I don't want blood on my hands, I'm strict on my self-imposed 'No Knives' rule. It's about the only rule I have in fights.

I ended up getting to sleep around eleven, but a loud noise woke me up while it was still dark. I glanced out the window, and saw everything was still frozen in Coffin Time.

Now, what could make a noise like that, during this specific time?

Something worth investigating.

I pulled my trousers on and buttoned up my shirt, and was just about to put my school jacket on (leaving my tie, if you call it that, in my pocket) when someone tried to smash the door down.

"WAKE UP!" Yukari shouted, clearly terrified about something; "Sorry, I'm coming in!"

With that, she opened the door with a sword in her hand, red armband on her arm and a gun on her thigh.

Good thing I got dressed already, huh? She looked in such a panic that I didn't even consider how she'd opened my locked door. "I don't have time to explain," She told in a rush, walking towards me, "But we have to get out of here, Now!"

"Fair enough," I replied, but I'm not sure she heard me as the building shook again.

That wasn't an earthquake- something actually had impacted against the dorm. What the hell is going on?

There was an increase in the urgency of her voice this time; "Hurry! Downstairs! We'll leave through the back door!"

She turned to leave, but almost as an after thought, she offered me the sword. "Take this." she told me, her other hand hovering over the gun.

While not the best quality weapon, it was a decent blade. I knew that Yukari was scared of it; clearly she wasn't comfortable with either weapon.

However, I could also tell that she was even more terrified of the situation. "Keep it" I said, reaching for my blunt, heavy, useless iron bar shaped like a sword, "I'll use this."

Anyone who knew their swords could tell that I was making sure that she had the better weapon, and she seemed to recognise this. "T-thanks." she told me. Frankly, having a better weapon means nothing if you can't use it, but if it calms her down then there's less chance of me dealing with a panicking gunwoman while fighting for my life, if it comes to it.

However, I only took the blunt weapon so she couldn't guilt me into taking her sword; I had no intention of fighting with it.

If it came to that. I'm not sure I can take something that can make a building shake like this, but if someone, most likely Mitsuru and Akihiko, are fighting it from outside, then I reckon I can climb up its back while they distract it and stab its head in.

And now I'm hypothesising about fighting monsters. Well, at least madness is useful during mad times.

The building shook again, and we remembered what we were supposed to be doing. Running.

We started making up for lost time, and legged it.

"Q-Quick!" Yukari shouted, running down the hallway. "Downstairs!"

We ran down the stairs and reached the back door. Yukari stopped to catch her breath, but I was fine.

Appears that I'm in better shape that I thought.

"Alright, we should be safe now-" Yukari panted, but stopped. From her facial expressions, someone's talking to her.

"Y-yes! I hear you!" she replied. Ear piece and walkie talkie most likely. I tried to figure out what the person on the other end was telling her, but judging from her expression and her "WHAT?" it couldn't have been good. It probably had something to do with the fact that someone's trying to smash the door down.

I ran to the table to grab a chair and propped it under the door handle to brace it. Yeah, we're not going anywhere in this direction.

Yukari desperately tried to regain control of the situation, "L-lets pull back!"

We both ran up the stairs to the second floor, and the building continued to shake. Yukari was clearly in a panic. "What're we going to do..?"

Then we heard the slithers below us.

I was hoping we were up against a single large beastie, but something that can fit inside is either too small to make the building shake, or is too strong for me to kill.

"They're downstairs!" Yukari gasped, grabbing my wrist and pulling me up the stairs. "W-We gotta go further up!"

As we continued up the stairs, I could see that this wasn't the brightest of all escapes. For one thing, we're gonna to end up cornered at the top floor, unless there was a heli pad on the roof.

Or a fire escape I suppose. Maybe a ladder or something we can use as a bridge, but I'd prefer a Black Hawk.

It's amazing how lucid my thoughts are at this moment. I guess I'm better under pressure than I thought. I barely feel like pissing myself from abject terror at all!

Focus on surviving, Minato. Focus.

"I-it's getting closer!" Yukari shouted in a panic. "HURRY!"

We eventually reached the top floor, which consisted of a steel door. "O-oh yeah," Yukari said, panting for breath as she typed in the code to open it. "We should be safe through there…"

We went through the iron door to the open roof, and Yukari locked it behind us. She leaned back against it and sighed in relief. "Alright, we should be safe now-"

As if to spite her, the building shook again, and I realised just how safe we were not.

A blue mask poked over the edge of the building, held by a black hand. A massive hand, with a palm the size of a snow shovel.

The hand turned it left, then right, as if it was trying to see.

Then the mask turned to face me.

It moved forward a few inches as if to get a better look at me, when another hand reached up to pull itself onto the roof. The bulk rose, and I was too stunned to even swear.

It wasn't even… anything. It was just a writhing mass of limbs, all arms flailing as it steadied itself, its mask held aloft above it like a crown. I could make out the black hands scraping for hold on the roof and waving in the air, but the rest of it was black shadow. It was just a blot of darkness in the sickly glow of Coffin Time.

Okay, I've read a lot, I'm a big fan of the good Doctor and Warhammer and everything, so I've pictured things like this, but seeing it, actually for real? To see with my own eyes what went Bump In The Night?

Oh hell no. What the hell have I gotten myself into this time?

After the initial shock, I began to come up with a plan of attack.

Then the bloody asshole pulled out half a dozen swords, each bigger than me.

"Oh Bloody Hell No." I gasped, when the monster began crawling towards us. "...terrific."

I took a few involuntary steps back, raising my useless iron bar as Yukari spoke.

"Those monsters, we call them Shadows…" Yukari explained, standing up and drawing the gun.

She put it on her forehead.

She pulled the trigger, and there was a surge of light. What looked like several pillars of energy shot up, and the wind whipped around us furiously.

Yukari gasped, scared and panicking, and pulled the trigger again, to the same effect as I stared in shock.

"Eh?"

The monster- the Shadow didn't seem to care though- it just shot out and knocked her aside with a bare hand.

"YUKARI!" I shouted, stepping out to help her as the shadow turned to face me. "oh bugger."

Obviously, I was terrified.

I stepped back away from this thing.

I didn't want to show fear, I knew I needed to do something or we were both going to die, but I was doing all I could just to stop myself wearing brown trousers.

Come on, you're at your best when the pressure's about to crush you! Think, Minato boy!

Wait, why didn't she die?

Why did the monster attack her with a bare hand when it has all those swords?

Because it doesn't care about her.

Then I noticed Yukari's gun on the floor, by my feet.

It looked like a small calibre handgun, but looking at it, there was no magazine slot; it couldn't be loaded.

I had a vision of that creepy kid from the other night. "Go on…" he told me, his hand pointing its finger at the side of his head.

It wants the guy that beat down its mate ten years ago.

I didn't need to be told twice.

Bending down, I picked up the gun, holding it in my hands.

It was cold, despite the wooden stock.

It was heavy.

I remembered Yukari putting the gun to her head.

I flinched and my heart raced faster as I remembered her pulling the trigger.

I calmed myself down, and with the composure of a chess player moving a queen into checkmate, I slowly lifted the gun to my temple.

I stared into the expressionless mask of the Shadow.

My blood was coursing through my body, I was breathing like I'd just run a marathon.

My back was drenched in cold sweat.

A trickle of blood ran into my eye.

'I, Minato Arisoto, give my word that I will take full responsibility for the consequences of my decisions.'

…

As the words formed in my head I smiled. Igor was an asshole.

"Per…So…Na…"

I pulled the trigger without flinching.