1619 words this time! Not much to say here, so all characters belong to their respective owners.
A faint jazzy piece filled her ears, gradually growing louder. It was not familiar to her. It was pitch black. Suddenly, faint lights glowed all around her. Candles, she came to realize. Karma sat in a high-backed armchair, her fingers drummed along with the beat of the music. A black and red checkerboard pattern appeared on the floor below her. She had never been in this room before...
An eerily familiar figure walked out from behind deep red curtains from across the room. A short, red-skinned man with horns, wearing a double-breasted coat, he danced a little jig out of time with the music. "Welcome, welcome!" he said. "It's nice to finally meet you, Karma..."
The scythe was suspicious of the odd man. "Where are we? How did I get here?"
He tapped his head. "We're up here. In your mind," he replied with a creepy grin.
"Okay? Then how do I leave?"
"Silly girl. That would mean losing yourself, wouldn't it?"
Karma frowned. "If I am here, that means I entered this place. If I entered, means there's an entrance. Means I can leave from there..."
"You are such a gifted weapon," the man continued, ignoring the scythe's words. "But you can become stronger..." A door appeared behind him. "Follow me. I'll show you to the way... to strength... to courage... to revenge..." He made his way to the door, motioning for her to follow him.
"I don't trust you..." Karma stated.
"But I am a part of you. Here, from inside your mind."
"And what a fucked up place it is," she replied. "You're probably not real, just the product of all the craziness in the last twenty-four hours."
"No, my dear. I hate to disagree with you, but I am quite real. And you'll want my help someday. So I'll be here if you need me..." He bowed and backed out through the open door. Immediately, darkness began engulfing the room.
The scythe reached out to the man although he was gone. "Wait, come back! I don't want to be alone!" she called out to him. He did not return. She was frightened, scared of the overwhelming darkness. As she cowered, frozen by her claustrophobia, she heard a small girl crying. She wasn't alone! Quickly,t he weapon followed the sound of the girl's sobbing. "I'm here! Don't worry! I'm coming!" she shouted to the girl. She saw an overhead light up ahead and ruched towards it. Once she stepped into the light though, the crying stopped. All was silent.
Another overhead light appeared a little ways away from her. Nothing was there, no sounds. Karma crept towards it cautiously. As she got closer, she started to see a figure and hear noises. The sounds of cracking and snapping... The figure came into focus, a huge, furry, white beast. She looked at its feet. Most of a small, human skeleton lay there, all its flesh stripped from it. She was going to be sick. The beast above her grunted at her, having noticed her presence. The remaining parts of the skeleton lay in the beast's claws, flesh hanging from the bones and the beast's teeth. Karma was too afraid to even wretch. It was the same monster from her dreams. It threw the skeleton aside and grabbed her arms roughly, pulled her up to its face, opened its mouth, and -
Karma screamed, trying to claw at the hands grabbing her arms. "Let go! Let go of me!"
"Karma! Karma, it's me! Just Sayuri!"
The scythe stopped her struggling and looked up to find the worried, blue eyes of her meister staring back at her. "Sayuri...?"
"Are you okay...?"
Karma sat up in the bed slowly. "Just a bad dream is all..." she whispered. She was confused for a moment, forgetting she had stayed at Tatsuya's apartment. "How'd you find me?"
"Stopped by your place and Michael told me you were probably still here. Don't worry, he hasn't told your parents." The meister got closer to her weapon's face, a silly grin on her face. "So, how was your evening with Tatsuya?"
The scythe pushed her away. "Nothing happened. Nothing ever will..."
"Oh, come on now, don't be such a Debbie Downer!" the meister sang. "One of these days he'll realize how awesome you are and fall for you!"
Karma jumped up and covered her friend's mouth. "Shh! What if he heard you?!"
Prying Karma's fingers from her mouth, Sayuri said. "Relax, he's not here. Michael gave me his key to get in before he went to school."
The scythe leaped out of bed. "School! Damn, if I'm late, Black Star will give me detention and I'll probably have to see Death!"
"Actually, we're excused today!"
Karma stared at her, confused.
"How 'bout a mission?"
The scythe grinned. "Haven't gone on a mission in a long time..."
"Would be kinda nice to do that again, huh?"
"Why are we still standing here?"
"There's the Karma I know!"
…
"Where the hell are we?" Karma muttered staring at a pile of rubble. The weapon-meister pair stood in the middle of a desert in front of what appeared to be ruins of an old building.
"Daddy said it was once a dangerous research center before it was destroyed. Death said it was clear for missions since their might be some research still hidden or even souls left from when it was destroyed," Sayuri explained. "Might be an easy mission if we can just find some souls lying around!"
"There 'sposed to be an entrance here somewhere?" the scythe asked, pushing aside some rocks.
"Sid-sensei said he had been in the building when it originally blew up. Obviously he got out somewhere, so that's where we get back in!" She joined her partner in sifting through the rubble until they came upon an opening. "After you!" Sayuri offered nervously, making Karma roll her eyes before crawling into the hole.
As most would, the scythe began to think about how dangerous the mission really was. The passage could cave in, leaving them stranded in the ruins. Or something too strong for them could have crawled in first without Death's knowledge. She shook her head, ridding herself of such thoughts. Thoughts like those instantly made it more dangerous because they would psych her out.
Finally, they made it to a large room and were able to stretch. Karma struck a match to light their way. The remains of a torch hung on a wall nearby, and Sayuri grabbed it to hold out to the scythe to light it. "Well, back to work! Onward and forward!" she said with a smile.
"I think it's 'sposed to be 'onward and upward'."
"But we can't go upward yet! So forward it is!"
Karma sighed and followed her meister in the dark. She could feel it swallowing her up, just as it had in her dream. But Sayuri was there with her. She would be fine.
Rats scurried around them, frightening Sayuri every time one ran across her boots. They were only dumb animals, the pair knew that. But they both could not shake the feeling they were watching them intently, trying to figure out their reason for being there.
Karma stared at a group of rats in the corner, gnawing on a small pile of bones, and once again was drawn back to her dream. While lost in thought, she tripped over something, falling flat on her face. Blindly, she felt around for what she had tripped over until Sayuri brought the torch over.
"What are you doing on the floor?" the meister asked, crouching down next to her.
The scythe spotted the item and grabbed it before answering, "Tripped over this... book?" Both stared at the object in her hand, a book just as she had said.
"What does it say...?"
Karma turned over the book in her hand. "Cover doesn't say anything. Should I open it...?"
Sayuri nodded.
Carefully, the scythe opened the book. A sketch of a young woman stood out to her. "'The Rooster'?" she read aloud from the top of the page. Sayuri read over her shoulder. "Evelyn Wycliff, huh? Salem, Massachusetts. Looks like she lived during the witch hunts."
"Nuri? Her bird is a phoenix? But phoenixes don't exist!"
"The next page is blank," Karma observed. "It just says 'The Dog'."
The meister ripped the book from her hand and handed her the torch. "Let's go to the beginning and find out what this is all about." She flipped to the front and read "'Zoida'? It looks like a roster. You know, like info on members of a club. But it looks like it's not full. Like they're missing some members."
A rat jumped up and bit Sayuri's hand, causing her to drop the book. A group of rats pushed the book intot he shadows as the meister dropped to the floor, holding her hand in pain. "What was that?" she cried.
"We need to find that book! I dunno what this 'Zoida' group is, but Shibusen might want to know about it!" Karma shouted, waving the torch around in search of the rats. The light caught a tall figure in the corner, and Karma swung the lgiht back around to see it clearly. A man in a black and white striped outfit stood in the corner, the book in his hand. "Who the hell are you and how did you get in here? Forget that, hand over the book and no one gets hurt!"
"Chi chi chi..." the man chuckled.