Chapter 24: What Goes Bump in the Night
Ah, Halloween was so much fun. Her costume was already picked out and hanging in her closet, her friends had already made plans as to where and when to meet up for candy, and horror movie week was already under way.
A Nightmare on Elm Street was her favorite. Dreams could be so scary to people...and so different. She had seen her character's dreams before, but what about their nightmares?
She took one last look at the video game she was playing, saved it, and shut it down in favor of picking up her notebook. Everybody else's fanfic had nightmares in it. Why can't she have it too? Her pen hit the paper, and she began to write. Certainly there was enough room on Salkia Island to fit everyone!
That's right, everyone! Watch where you're walking, else you walk right into somebody's nightmare. Try not to notice how much bigger these areas get during the course of the week. Maybe you'll have time to see that Elegy Statue of the nightmare's owner behind you. Maybe not. Either way, it's going to get creepy around here.
NIGHTMARES IN THE PARK
Character Name: Atem
Nightmare: If there's anything one can be sure of here, it's the darkness. It spans forever, you can feel it. And yet it's so completely suffocating. Each breath that fills your lungs burns, each exhale is like pinpricks in your chest. You're alone. You know this. Yet you can't help feel that someone is watching you. Someone is laughing at your predicament. But there's no one there.
Every muscle in your body is stretched taut, limbs splayed in all directions, something holding you. No matter how much you try to move or pull away, it's useless. You're bound; to this darkness, to the wrongdoings in your life. And you have a feeling there's a lot of them. But every time you try to recall any sort of memory, any sort of semblance of the person you were, it's like nails on a chalkboard, a grating against your brain; a painful, hurtful rush.
You are no one. You don't have an identity. You don't have family, you don't have friends, you don't have anyone to call on. Just alone. And sometimes if you think hard enough, survive the scraping of you brain against those knives, you can see flashes. A dead, pale woman. A king with blood on his hands. An entire land destroyed; wasteland.
There's no time in this place. But you know you've been here forever. Long enough to stop trying to think about that past life, long enough to know now that no one is coming to help you. You're on your own. And you'll be here for the rest of your life. But even when you think it's okay to give in to this crushing darkness, to just let it consume you and give up- your limbs are pulled tighter, your skin feels on fire. You're jerked back into some weird state of consciousness. It won't let you forget, it won't let you give up.
You have to live with this forever. Live like this forever. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
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Character Name: Ichijouji Ken
General Area the nightmare will be: Near the makeshift soccer field
Nightmare: You'll blink. When you open your eyes again, you'll be tied to a pole, in the middle of nowhere.
Below you, there will be Digimon, of all levels, crying out and waving their arms. They call you a monster. They call you evil. They want to kill you...and there's a part of you that wants them to do it.
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Character Name: Momomiya Ichigo
Nightmare:Ichigo's nightmare is remains of a massacre. You know, bloody, fucked-up bodies of innocents everywhere and stuff. The more notable ones are of those Ichigo are more familiar with: a pair of girls wearing Ichigo's uniform, a man with spiky black hair and a woman who looks like a more mature version of Ichigo, and a group of four girls with animal parts (Hell, maybe the enemy aliens could also be there.) Other characters could probably end up seeing their loved ones if they stick around long enough.
At the center of it all is a bloodied sword (the one here http://www.sugoi-mew-mews.com/screenshots/masaya/26.jpg) thrust into the ground. This is all supposed to represent a foreshadowing of the last volume of Tokyo Mew Mew, where everyone she knew and loved pretty much died at the hands of her boyfriend... even though at this point, Ichigo doesn't even know that her boyfriend is able to turn into that guy.
Oh, and make it ominous looking, like a haunted house or forest (thick fog, dead trees, all that jazz.)
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Character Name: Usagi
Nightmare: It won't seem as much of a nightmare at first. It'll start with you on a date with Yuugi, enjoying the time together, but out of the corner of her eye you'll see a figure. You won't be able make anything out of it, but as the date continues anxiety will set in.
As the nightmare grows you'll start to see various villains from Usagi's past from Queen Metalia to Galaxia. The brink of the nightmare will put you on another date with Yuugi then him dying before her eyes as Tuxedo Mask takes out Yuugi's starseed.
Before you will be all of her senshi, Tuxedo Mask, Atem and Yuugi all under Galaxia's control--all poised and ready to attack her.
TOWN
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Character Name: Alphonse Elric
General Area the nightmare will be: Around the library
Nightmare: As soon as you enter you find yourself in a dark room. It isn't frightening, but you notice a blond boy looking at you. You can't leave the room and he isn't surprised you're there. It's dark, but you can see a chalk design etched into the floor with material in the center. The boy makes a cut on his finger with a blade and you find yourself doing the same against your own volition. One drop and it's over. Whatever this is, you're in it together. You follow him to the edge of the circle where he places his hands down. There's a reaction:
"Here we go."
You don't know what this is, but when the blue light crackles it feels right, but only for a moment. Black wisps appear and infect the reaction. It's hard not to notice. Something is wrong.
Your left arm goes first - black hand-like tendrils surge from the circle and latch on. Watch as your own molecules disassociate from the rest of your body. The pain is horrible, but not as horrible as the realization that it isn't stopping at your arm. One leg, two legs, second arm-- tendrils sink into your back, sift through your hair. You're disappearing, and you know it.
Still, you reach. It's all you can do when what's left of your body is being pulled and disassembled. The only thing you can reach for is the boy, and he reaches back-- they got his left leg, but he's more concerned about you ("R-Rebound", you hear). Your fingers are almost touching (lucky you even have fingers to reach with as the tendrils are threading through your face). Reach and reach, almost there--
Then nothing. The pain is gone, as is the screaming, the room, the reaction. You're there though. You're in one piece. There's you, there's an ominous gate, the statue, and the rest of the world is white, or, rather, nothing. The floor and walls aren't discernible from the surroundings. The pain is gone, but so is any other feeling. Numb. Sight and hearing are the only senses you have left that work. The space seems huge, but you can sense that you're trapped. It isn't a good feeling. Hopefully you aren't too claustrophobic. Even the isolation feels dreadfully confining and restrictive. You can move around freely, but where? The gate will not open for you.
The dream ends. If you venture far enough you'll leave, otherwise have fun staying there. There is no indication as to how far the outside/next nightmare is - you suddenly just aren't there.
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Character Name: Beyond Birthday
General Area: Town
Nightmare: All the buildings suddenly have text on them. Big black letters saying: "B is for Backup", "A copy stays a copy", "You're not him", "BACKUP"
In the sky there seem to be eyes with big black circles around them.
The voice known as L's in his world is speaking.
"You don't have a personality. You're only a defect copy. Why should I waste my time and accept you?"
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Character Name: Italy
General Area the nightmare will be: Town
Nightmare: Every time he goes to eat pasta it turns into hamburgers.
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Character Name: Kaiba Seto
General Area the nightmare will be: The Arcade
Nightmare: The area will be dark, with no identifying features around. All you can smell is cigar smoke, and in the distance you can hear the sounds of artillery and gunfire. When you step forward, the ground is soft. Don't look down. If you do....well...you'll be looking at a pile of dead bodies, bodies of children, specifically. Keep looking, and their eyes will open. Their hands will grab your ankles, your legs, whatever they can reach, and try to drag you down. You killed them, after all. Just because you wanted to sleep or wanted to see your brother. This is where you belong.
If you cannot get free from the corpses, you'll be dragged down into the pile. You'll open your eyes again in a dark space. All you can see is a small boy in front of you, calling for help. He holds out his arm to you, calling 'NIISAMA', and you can't help but run forward to try and help him. But no matter how fast you run, or how far your arm stretches, you can't reach him. Slowly, figures start appearing behind the boy, holding him and laughing. A large older man is there first, his cigar contributing to the smell. Then there is a Blue Eyes White Dragon, melting right on top of him. Then there is Pegasus, also seemingly sucking the boy right into himself. He's followed by another boy with teal hair, then a man with teal hair, then a man with pink hair.
At the end, all you can see is the hand of the boy, slowly being sucked into what has now become a laughing Kia's hands. You practically throw yourself at it, trying to reach that hand before it disappears. The darkness closes in, and that hand suddenly seems to belong to someone older, and Kia has turned into a cowled figure that smells of death. When that hand disappears, everything goes dark. The only sense that remains to you is the lingering sound of '-aaaaaa...', though it's hard to tell whether it's the same word that was cried before.
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Character Name: Kisshu
General Area the nightmare will be: Town
Nightmare: Everything is burning. Red and orange flames everywhere you look. They don't touch you though... You can feel the heat, but there's also no smoke bothering you.
So that you can walk through Kisshu's personal hell.
There are dead bodies everywhere on the ground. The corpses of Kisshu's family, friends, general people from his homeworld. TMM characters will recognize Pai and Taruto between them.
Occasionally those corpses will open their eyes and whisper just one word: "Traitor".
After a few times saying it, they'll be silent again.
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Character Name: Larxene
General Area the nightmare will be: Town
Nightmare: She's a slave so around her neck is a collar with a chain that anyone can grab. She can't talk back so she has to be nice and respectful and she has to follow any direction that the person with chain tells her. If she tries to talk back or tries to refuse then the collar tightens. If she's trying to talk back then it tightens until she can't breathe so she can't talk and then it'll loosen, and if she's trying to refuse to do something than the collar tightens until she has to do the activity in question. As soon as she does so, then it loosens.
Other characters can choose to take her place, or be the person holding the end of the chain.
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Character Name: Masada
General Area the nightmare will be: Outskirts of town
Nightmare: The whole nightmare is dead silent, save for the occasional noises that imply that you might not be alone. the sound of something moving around, breathing... standard horror stuff. but that is the only thing that implies that something is there. no matter how hard you look, you won't ever spot any creatures. oh, and the nightmare is completely in black and white. almost like a silent film!
upon entering the nightmare, you end up in a tunnel that only goes one way, which means that you have no choice but to move forward. a really dark, small tunnel that you might have to crawl through, depending on your size. the tunnel gets increasingly darker and smaller the further you go, but it remains just big enough for you to be able to move. eventually, it's too dark to even see anything at all.
but if you're brave enough to keep going forward, you'll find yourself in what appears to be a spaceship. there isn't much in there, just a bed, a large control panel, a giant window where you can look out into space and a table.
there's no exit in sight.
and this is where it gets interesting. by messing around with the controls (which are completely incomprehensible of course), you can cause any of the following things to happen:
1. a small door appears. but it only leads back into the tunnel.
2. a large door appears. this one will let you escape the nightmare without having to go through a bizarre event, but the problem is that it doesn't always appear, even if you use the controls correctly.
3. surprise! there's suddenly a hole in the floor and you 'fall' out into space, unless you manage to somehow avoid falling. you'll be floating around aimlessly for a while, then be teleported outside the nightmare. of course, 'a while' can end up being pretty long... but hey, at least you're not hearing those weird noises anymore.
4. oops! looks like you messed up the route! the spaceship will crash on a planet covered in enormous barren wastelands. the spaceship will be mostly destroyed in the crash and the controls will not be functioning anymore, but you will survive. if this happens, you'll have to go out and explore. once you wander far away enough from the spaceship, you'll simply 'walk out of' the nightmare. but mind you, accomplishing that takes no small amount of time spent walking.
as long as the controls are still working properly and you can reach them, there's nothing preventing you from trying again if you don't get the desired result the first time. that is, if it occurs to you to try using the controls in the first place. if not, enjoy being stuck in the spaceship until you figure it out.
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Character Name: Preston Marlowe
General Area the nightmare will be: Near city hall
Nightmare: In Preston’s nightmare it shows a burning city filled with hostile, Russian soldiers. Within the city the buildings are in ruins and being constantly bombarded by explosive artillery fire, the main cause of the fire. The buildings are prone to collapse from the large amount of devastation in the city and the punishment that they have been receiving. Along side the destroyed buildings are bodies chained to walls and hanging limp with their arms spread out and above their head.
As for the Russians some of them will be armed with, obviously, guns and explosives which they will use to fire upon anyone who so stumbles upon the nightmare. The effect these weapons have on a person should they be hit will be that they will feel the pain of the explosions, bullets, knifes and whatever injuries they should sustain. However these injuries will quickly heal should they become fatal or life threatening. And if someone were to kill one of these Russians they will crumble into dust and a zombie form of that soldier will take his place. There are also Russians who are not so normal either. Some of them will appear out of the buildings on fire running towards the person, only to fall and dissipate into ash. The third, and last type of Russian is that of a zombie/demon which are the ones that I mentioned that replaced the normal ones. These Russians cannot be killed, only be crippled or made incapable of being able to fight. These zombies follow the description of a zombie, in other words they are a walking, rotting corpse.
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Character Name: Seta Soujiro
General Area the nightmare will be: Near apartment A:13
Nightmare: On the floor there are corpses of all the people killed by Soujiro (those who are good at history may recognize Okubo Toshimichi). After a few seconds these nice persons appear and try to kill you. You can see a wakizashi you could use for defending yourself on the ground. If you attack and kill the people, Himura Kenshin will appear and start his usual "It's wrong to think that the strong live and the weak die//killing people is wrong"-jabbering. Those who don't care about that won't be attacked. And if you try to kill him he'll only block it (while the wakizashi, if you have used it, gets more and more damaged).
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Character Name: Yuugi
General Area the nightmare will be: Tinker Toys
Nightmare: Yuugi's most important wish was to have friends who'd always be there for him, and would rely on him.
Which means.. his nightmare would be the opposite. No friends. No support. No importance.
The game shop (or whatever, really) would be no more. It'd be the Turtle Game shop, his grandfather's.. but it'd be more or less destroyed. But not from outside forces.. just neglected. Left. Abandoned. Yuugi's house would be attached to it, and suffer the same fate. You have met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
He'd be alone. Forgotten.
Maybe 'ghosts' of his friends could be found around. Jounouchi and Honda with their gang lurking in the shadows of an alley nearby, sneering and cruel to him if he gets too close. Anzu, too occupied with his other self to acknowledge his existence anymore.
And the puzzle? All that would remain of that would be in what used to be Yuugi's room, the golden box cast aside, empty, on the floor.
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Character Name: Yuuki Kuran (Age 5)
General Area the nightmare will be: In Atem's room (House B:12)
Nightmare: First it'll start with a 'thud' under the bed. Nothing to be afraid of, but as time goes on the 'thud' gets louder and louder, followed by a growl.
From there slimy tentacles will reach out from under the bed you happen to be in, trying to reach you. Form under the bed you'll be able to see rows and rows of sharp, white teeth and a pair of yellow eyes.
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Character Name: Yuuki Kuran (Older)
General Area the nightmare will be: West Main Street Around House One and the Health Clinic
Nightmare: It's cold and dark. Very dark. Night time to be a bit more specific. The time? Doesn't matter, but in the nightmare once feels incredibly lost. What is this place? Where? What am I doing here? Memories seem a bit fogged up. It's cold. Very cold. Snowing, ah, snow? What is snow? White? What is white? Younger Yuuki is there. Very human, very confused, very vulnerable. There's someone else there...something else. Ah, he's scary. He's scary. He's gonna eat her, he's reaching out to her.
And then the scene changes. No longer is there snow, but it's a rather nice night. Nice except for the fact that there is a man there. I man that clearly can't be trusted. A vampire? Oh, yes, he is. A powerful one at that. A pureblood. He seems to have Yuuki pinned against a wall. Oh, look, she's older now. Yuuki's struggling. Stuggling. Why can't she get free? Where is everyone else? Where's Artemis? She can't escape and he's awfully close. Oh no, nothing's helping. She's stuck. She can't move. Oh and...there are others. They seem quite thirsty too. Mmm...how unfortunate that you appeared in this...dream. A twisted memory that didn't exactly go this way. You seem like a nice snack. A very nice snack. Delicious, fresh blood. Run away, run run run. Are you confident and caring enough to save Yuuki? Who cares, you need to get out of here. You'll be drained, and well...you don't want that now do you? Get away. Oh, but you're on the roof a building. A school? Seems like it. Can you jump off? Perhaps climb off? Whatever you choose, as soon as you set foot on the edge of the roof. Poof! You're out of this nightmare. Congratulations. You're alive.
FOREST AND BEACH
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Character Name: Hikari
General Area the nightmare will be: The beach.
Nightmare: It starts off as nothing really, just hearing a single drop of water falling into a pond. From there the sound grows until you feel like there's water raising up. No matter where you go, you won't be able to shake that feeling off.
Eventually you'll feel as though you've been brought back to an ocean all in grayscale, with no way out. If you try to scream, you won't be able to. Then one by one Hikari's friends show up, but they'll appear to be lifeless. Then final person to show up will be Ken...but as the Digimon Kaiser with Daemon at his side.
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Character Name: Kagome Higurashi
General Area the nightmare will be: The forest
Nightmare: It would start in the forest and a purple miasma (poisonous gas) will start over taking it, killing trees, destroying wildlife. As the miasma grows, it starts slowly moving towards the town. As it reaches the town, Naraku appears. He slowly starts killing the inhabitants of the town, bodies can be seen laying everywhere. Some of the these bodies will include inhabitants of the town and some of them will include her family and friends from school in Modern Japan as well as her friends from the Feudal Era.
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Character Name: Kikyou
General Area the nightmare will be: Probably in the woods.
Nightmare: Something binds you to this world, keeps you there. You are not a whole person any longer, and the emptiness haunts you. You never tire, never feel the need to eat or stop for rest. You just.. wander.
For you, life has been eternally paused. You feel nothing but regret, sadness, emptiness. The rest of the world is happy, and goes on, but you do not. You cannot. You're filled with bitterness and resentment over this, and you do not entirely understand why.
It was not your choice to do so, to be stuck this way. But you can't leave. Perhaps you can never leave this state of limbo, or perhaps you're afraid to.
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Character Name: Kohaku
General Area: Forest
Nightmare: Guignols. So many Guignols. (Very bloody, slightly doll-like humans, sometimes with missing body parts. They seem to be made of a material that slowly falls apart. But they don't really, it just looks like they will. You can't talk to them. If they speak at all they only repeat senseless phrases) The Guignols surround you and attack you.
Leaving town completely? You're not going to escape the nightmares. You might just fall into this one.