Ch.1 - The
World of Dreams
The sky was
dark with storm clouds while the sea rocked a lone ship precariously during its
maiden voyage. A storm was brewing
overhead; heavy rain was imminent. Twin
gunshots pierced the air, just as a thunderclap sounded nearby. Two figures, one masculine, the other
feminine, silhouetted by the lightning, slowly bent forward, by no will of
their own, and toppled into the raging sea.
Another figure in a long overcoat was standing near the edge of the
boat's cabin wall, a gun in each hand.
The figure silently put the guns in the holster pockets of his
cowboy-fringe pants, and walked inside the cabin to the ongoing party. Meanwhile, the two figures were dropping
lower and lower into the depths of the ocean until nothing could be seen of
them...
***
Haruna Shouri
woke up with a start, sweating like a cold drink during a heat wave. Her eyes were still wide with the horrific
misery that her latest dream had presented to her. Wondering if she was still dreaming,
Haruna looked around in icy apprehension, heart pounding harder than ever. Looking to her left, the first thing she saw
was a crystal-clear window and many more like it on that same wall. Outside, she glimpsed an ongoing basketball
game, most likely for a P.E. class. Her
heart made a few sound beats. Suddenly,
she faintly heard something repetitively screeching, and someone’s monotonous
voice, a female voice. Haruna whirled
her attention to what was almost directly in front of her. Squinting, she slowly recognized the back of
the figure; Ms. Dortsmouth, her English teacher, was
writing something on the whiteboard while talking at the same time. English teacher? That must mean...Haruna looked quickly around
the rest of the room.
Five rows of five seats were all
occupied by listless students, between her and her teacher. To her right, a student was trying to
scribble notes as quickly as he could.
One seat over, Haruna found relief as she looked into the bright blue
eyes of her near identical sister, Haruki.
Haruki’s chin was resting on her right hand,
elbow on desk and head turned to face Haruna.
Her wavy black hair cascaded down along the back of her hand. Seeing that Haruna had finally noticed her,
Haruki mouthed the question of whether Haruna was okay or not. Haruna nodded shakily in response; she had
not fully recovered, but she didn’t want her sister to worry about her. Apparently, this had not convinced her
sister, but casting one uneasy glance at Haruna, she
nodded and turned back to listening to the teacher. Haruna continued her survey of what she now
knew was her English classroom.
She felt a sense of security wash over
her when she caught sight of her only other sister, Haruka, staring at the
slowly ticking clock with her ankles crossed on the surface of her desk. Her hands were clasped underneath the high
ponytail that pulled together her straight, jet-black hair, as she leaned her
chair on the small bookcase behind her.
As if by instinct, Haruna, too, turned
her attention to the clock. With another
small tick of the little red hand, it was now just barely...fifteen minutes
into class. Spacing off as she usually
did after having strange dreams, Haruna rested her chin between her two propped
up hands. It was now that she pondered
what had brought this dream to the surface of her subconscious. Maybe not in those exact words, but she did
wonder why she dreamt what she did.
After several minutes passed, something clicked within her memory. For some strange reason, unapparent to her
now, she remembered the day she heard that her parents were leaving on a trip,
one that was much longer than expected.
Constantly slipping between happy and sad moments, Haruna made a quick
trip down memory lane concerning her parents.
***
Haruna and her sisters were only five
at the time of their parents’ disappearance.
The few happy memories they had were vague, only going to the extent of
the feeling of happiness; no pictures, no videos, no known confidantes of their
parents, nothing whatsoever to look towards for comfort. Even their precious home had been sold, and
the family inheritance gone with the wind.
Virtually nothing had been left to the three little girls, not even each
other, at one point. They had been brought
to the same orphanage, and had been adopted on the same day, but each by a
different type of person. The day they
left the orphanage, they vowed that they would someday reunite and live their
lives anew.
***
Haruna smiled upon remembering that promise. By next Friday, it would be seven years that
they had lived together, without the interruption of death. Bringing this to mind, Haruna also remembered
that today was the "anniversary" of the death of the last caretaker
who had taken them all in. She sniffed
in memory of that kind old lady who let them live on her son’s property, her
retirement home. Her son was the
president of a very large oiling company, and the mansion they stayed in was
really just his summer home. Haruna lost
herself in memories of the past, mesmerized in a dream-like state.
---
All of a sudden, the
door near the front of the room slid open, snapping Haruna out of her
reverie. The teenage male that entered
looked to be the stereotypical gangster or punk. His black hair was smoothed back with slick
mousse; his piercing black eyes were shadowed by his sunken eyelids; a spiked
collar fit his neck like a pit bull; he wore a black leather vest over a torn
sleeveless white shirt; leather pants fit tightly around his lower body; ending
with worn black loafers. To top it all
off, he wore a black bandana with a red design over his hair.
Raising a hand only high
enough for his fingertips to be parallel to his broad shoulders, while he set
his weight on his opposite hip, he addressed the teacher with a sense of
boredom, "Yo.
The name’s Anrui Nanashi;
call me Anri. I’m new here-- where do I
sit?"
Ms. Dortsmouth
stopped writing and nodded. Looking over
the array of students who had suddenly straightened up when the door first opened,
the teacher spotted the only empty seat left--right between Haruki and
Haruka. When the teacher told him to sit
at that seat, he looked over and did a visible double take.
"Whoa. I must’ve drunk too much last night ‘cause
I’m seein’ double here."
Haruka scoffed as she
rolled her eyes. Haruki heard her mutter
that with a voice like that, he could be
"mistaken" for a drunk beer addict.
Haruki only smiled while Ms. Dortsmouth
quickly explained that they had a set of triplets in the room. Anri nodded and walked to his new seat with a
carefree air about him. As soon as he
slumped into his appointed seat, Ms. Dortsmouth
continued her lesson. Anri immediately
tried to talk to Haruki.
"Triplets
huh? Well then, how ‘bout a
triple date with me?"
Haruki rolled her eyes a
little and sighed as she shook her head.
She kept her eyes on the teacher in front of the class. Anri persisted a little more but was only
ignored. Giving up on asking Haruki for
the moment, he turned and was about to ask Haruka a similar question when he
was cut off by Haruka’s slowly-enunciated reply. "Just shut up."
This, however, only
seemed to intrigue Anri further. He was
even more insistent with Haruka, saying that he "liked ‘em feisty." At
one point, Ms. Dortsmouth turned and gave Anri a
dangerous glare that said, "Be quiet or leave." She enforced this look with the actual words,
in a menacing tone.
Anri mockingly faced
forward with hands clasped together on his desk, and spine as straight as the
back of his chair. Once Ms. Dortsmouth turned around again, he slouched in his seat and
stared at Haruka with a dreamy look in his eyes. Haruka ignored him, but it made time seem to
pass a lot slower, from Haruka’s point of view
anyway.
---
A few minutes before the
bell rang for lunch, Haruki looked over at Haruna. She was startled by what she saw. Hunched over the desk, Haruna’s eyes were
bloodshot; her right hand was clutching at her heart; her other hand had the
edge of the desk in a death grip; and she was taking several laboring breaths
of air at a time as if trying to steady her breathing in vain. Glancing at the clock, Haruki wondered if she
should just wait until the bell rang, or excuse both of them a few minutes
early as to not waste time. When Haruna
made a sound as if she might throw up, Haruki decided instantly. She signaled Haruka to look over in Haruna’s
direction. Haruka caught it and
understood. Standing up, she quickly
asked the teacher for permission.
"Excuse me, Ms. Dortsmouth? I think Haruna really needs to see the school
nurse. Is it alright if I go take
her?"
Ms. Dortsmouth
looked at Haruna, started, and then quickly glanced at the clock like Haruki
had just done. She nodded in
assent. "Be quick, and take your
things. Now class, before I forget, for
homework, you are to write a 5,000 word essay on..."
As the class copied down
their homework, Haruka ran over and helped Haruna up. Shakily, Haruna got to her feet, stumbled,
got back up, and was escorted back across the room. As they passed her, Haruki whispered,
"Don’t worry about your things; I’ll get them for you."
Haruka nodded before she
and Haruna made it out the door. Once
the door slid closed again, Haruka told Haruna that she’d give her a piggyback
ride to the nurse’s office, since it’d be much quicker. Haruna was in no condition to complain.
#
Before long, the lunch
bell rang its usual toll. A deluge of
students emptied into the hallways, all pushing and shoving to get a good spot
on the school’s spacious lawn. Haruki
collected her sisters’ and her belongings and headed out the door with the
rest. Whether it was known to her or
not, Haruki was followed. Haruki trusted
Haruka to take care of Haruna and tell her what had happened when they met up
later on. With this trust, Haruki made
her way to where the triplets had chosen to sit every day, as it was the best
place.
***
Even with 5,000 square
yards of green grass to sit on, there was only one cherry blossom tree that was
surrounded by a stone wall. This stone
wall was just the right size to sit on and have lunch or simply talk with
someone. The tree itself was the oldest
tree at the high school, having been planted when the school had first opened
fifty years ago.
The school as a whole
had a generally artistic design to it.
Coming in from the black steel gates, one cobblestone path broke into
three near the end. At the end of each
fork was a seven story, square, gray building similar to the other two, but
each was for a different grade level.
The one to the left was for freshmen and Home Ec.
classes; the middle for the faculty and juniors; and the far right for the
seniors and lab equipment. Regardless of
grade, Home Economics was only taken in the freshmen
building, while the science labs could only be used in the seniors’ building.
Right in front of the
far left path was a straight row of ten perfectly spread cherry blossom trees,
identical to the ones along the far right path.
Bordering the stone walls of the school perimeter were tall willow trees
planted for shade. Behind the school
buildings was the two part gym—an inside basketball court and inside swimming
pool. Adjacent to this gym was a pair of
soccer fields, a couple of baseball diamonds, and one long football field
separating the two sets. The remaining
space on school grounds was scattered with randomly placed oak trees, fewer in
number, but just as shady.
***
Meanwhile, Haruki’s stalker, Anri, was called over by a male classmate
of the triplets. The huge quarterback
slung his arm over the leaner, shorter new student. In a deep voice fitting for his appearance,
he greeted, "Hey, what’s up? Anri, right? Call me Benji. So how you likin’ our school so far? Dig any chicks yet?"
"Well actually, I’m
startin’ to like those set of triplets in muh class. Ya know ‘em?"
The quarterback backed
up and put his hands in front of him, as if gesturing him to go no
further. "Dude,
you serious?" When he
nodded, Benji shook his head as if Anri were too far
gone to save. "You’d best back off
now, Anri, before it’s too late."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"I mean,
stop now before Haruka comes after you."
"Who’s that?"
"Ah Geez...you don’t even know their names yet?"
"It’s only been
like an hour since I met them..."
Benji
let out a small sigh before launching into a quick description. "Haruka’s one
of the triplets. You noticed the one
with a lot of spunk and attitude, right?"
"Oh! You mean the one that took the other one out
of there right before the bell rang?"
"That’s the
one."
"I could take
her."
"Trust me, no guy
could. Even less so for a girl, but she
goes easy on most of them."
"What makes you say
that?"
"The triplets have
been here since last year. Most guys saw
in them what you see; beautiful triplets each with a desirable quality. Well, they ignored everybody but each other
the first day, though some people were more persistent than others. Those guys came to school the next day with a
bruise or two or three somewhere on their body.
And that must’ve been at least fifty guys who were my friends."
"Harsh. But how do you know Haruka did it?"
"For one, I heard
that on her first day here, after school, she challenged and beat every single
team captain from every sport here, one-on-one, and beat them all within ten
minutes each. We have ten of the best
sports teams in the state, too. Second,
the bullies at this school give her the money they’ve taken, even if she
doesn’t ask for it. She’s gotta be trouble if even school bullies do her untold
bidding. And lastly, I’ve never heard of
any one of them going on second dates, and the ones that are lucky enough to
date one of them never tell why there hasn’t been a second date. Dude, I’m tellin’
you, it’s like a ghost is haunting you until she’s out of your sight."
Anri raised an eyebrow
as if his interest was highly piqued. "Really?
Well, I love a challenge. The one
sitting over there isn’t Haruka though, right?"
Benji
looked to where he pointed and shook his head.
"Nope.
That’s Haruki. You can tell by their
hairstyles, if not by their attitude.
Haruki always has wavy hair and she's the smart one. Haruka has straight hair in a ponytail; she's
the fighter. Haruna lets her hair down,
but sometimes puts a bow in it; she's really friendly and a great cook. But be warned, since Haruki's
the smartest of the bunch, or the school for that matter, she can easily defend
herself verbally, if need be. I heard my friend once say that if she had
the desire to, her words could hurt just as much as a pummeling by three
thugs."
Anri started to walk
towards her with a few last words to Benji. "Good, a study buddy then. Well, I’ll take my chances. Later Benji."
Benji
sighed and shook his head hopelessly before going back to his friends.
#
While this was all happening,
Haruka was holding Haruna’s hand in the nurse’s office. Haruna had calmed down considerably, but she
was far from being fully recovered.
Seated on a nearby chair, Haruka asked what had happened.
Between deep breaths,
Haruna explained that she had a strange dream where there was a big ocean liner
in the middle of a storm at sea. Two
people, she couldn’t see who they were, were shot by this other figure, and
they fell overboard. When Haruka asked
if this was the extent of the dream, Haruna shakily nodded and continued to the
events of the classroom. When Anri had
entered, she felt an incredibly large sense of déjà vu come over her. That was what overwhelmed her, along with
waves upon waves of danger and fear churning inside of her. Haruka was alarmed by this. It had happened once before, as she
remembered it.
Once, Haruna told her
sisters after she had an attack similar to this one, that she had recently
dreamt of a black cat with a scar across its eye, and then later on saw the
same black cat run past her. Suddenly, Haruka’s memory locked onto something Haruna said before.
"Wait, you mean to
say-"
Haruna nodded before
Haruka could finish. Haruka didn’t
finish that sentence, but instead gripped her hand tighter around Haruna’s to
show her firm support. Trying a feeble
attempt to joke, Haruka chuckled as she said, "Maybe you’re just afraid of
the color black. If you couldn’t see the
figures, they were shadows basically, right?
And shadows are just about as black as the cat you saw before. Same goes for Anri."
Haruna realized that
there was some truth to that, even if it was meant to just lighten the mood a
bit. As if suddenly thinking of
something, Haruka took from behind her back, a wolf plushie. Haruna’s eyes lit up with glee. "I know you sleep better with this
little guy, so I took him for you just before we left the apartment, in case
something happened. You should try to
get some more sleep; not scary dreams though, okay?"
Just as the nurse came
in, Haruna nodded as she snuggled with her wolf plushie. Haruka took this as her signal to leave. "I have to go tell Haruki what you told
me, okay? I’ll pick you up after my club
meeting. Sleep tight, and think happy
thoughts!"
With that, Haruka waved
and was out the door. After the nurse
checked her temperature and breathing pattern, she diagnosed that Haruna was
just a little under the weather and a little sleep should do the trick. Having done her part, the nurse, too, left
the little bed to resume her paperwork half a wall over. Haruna got into a comfortable position in bed
and easily fell sound asleep.
#
Anri’s
debonair style was evident as he made his way towards Haruki. In the distance, girls swooned, giggled,
and/or whispered excitedly. Haruki simply
continued to eat her lunch while reading a large book, as if she didn’t know
what or who was coming. With the
elegance of a male during mating season, Anri seated himself right next to
Haruki. He decided to make his move
through academia.
"Hey, Haruki, I
hear you’re the smartest girl in school.
Wanna be study buddies?"
Haruki looked at him
with a single look of disdain before turning her head the opposite way, to look
at the front gate of the school.
"Aw come on. I could really learn a lot from you."
Her reply was swift and
past the border of being judgmental.
"It’d be a waste of my time.
A rat could learn faster than you." As an afterthought, she
added, "It’s more decent, too."
Anri drew back a hiss
through his teeth. "Ouch. That guy was right, your insults sting like a
punch to the stomach."
Haruki didn’t respond to
this as she started to pack up her lunch and book. When she stood up, Anri stood up as
well. "Wait, at least let me take
you out on a date; I know this really cool place downtown."
As Haruki started to
walk away, Anri followed her. Haruki’s answer was firm.
"I don’t date liars."
When Anri asked how she
knew if he was lying or not, Haruki replied, "Your heart is beating a lot
faster than it should, you’re sweating, and this town has no
‘downtown’. You'd know that if you were
telling the truth."
Anri stopped in his
tracks at that. He was impressed by how
right Haruki really was. Surprisingly, he still refused to leave her be. Slumping his arm
around her shoulder, he tried to regain his usual cool composure, and not
act like a needy little wimp.
"Whaddaya say to some one-on-one tutoring time then? You can teach me some honest geography of the
city. Your place or
mine?"
Haruki stopped. Eyes closed in his self-pride of his
redeeming sentences, he didn’t notice that for the
slightest second, his hand moved a little, unguided by the body it belonged to.
With a voice as sweet as
poisoned honey, she suggested, "Alright, but for now, let’s go somewhere a
little more private, hmm?"
Inside
Anri’s mind, the words "Alright! Score!" rang loudly.
With a hint of
sultriness, she added, "Oh, and could you keep your eyes closed? I want to show you something."
Ego blown sky high, Anri
quickly agreed and allowed her to lead him by the hand to wherever she
wanted. Anri heard snippets of whispered
conversations, and caught some phrases like "he’s in for it" and
"I feel almost sorry for him".
A few minutes later, she
told him he could open his eyes. His
first observation was that they seemed to be in something like a dark alley, so
probably between the school buildings.
His second observation was the distinct gut reaction that the girl with
him was not Haruki. Anri’s assumption was enforced by the fist that met his
stomach, and the menacing words that now came out of her mouth. "Look, maybe you had some trouble
listening before: Stay away from my sisters. I heard from Haruki that Benji
recently warned you the same thing, and you ignored that warning. Maybe this warning will leave a more
lasting impact on you. Know this: I really
don’t like you right now. In fact, I’d
go as far as to say I hate you, and believe that you are lower and more
loathsome than a pile of garbage in the sewers.
So if you don’t do as I say as far as staying away from us..."
Haruka stopped to make sure her dangerous glare was locked with Anri’s eyes.
"You’ll really learn the meaning of ‘trouble’."
With that, Haruka took
her hand off of Anri’s shirt, and took a step
back. Giving him one more meaningful
glare, Haruka turned and left the alleyway.
Anri watched, hands still plastered against the
wall, as Haruka flung her shining black hair over her shoulder, and walked
off. After regaining some breath and
sense of movement, Anri unruffled his shirt, shook off any remaining sense of
burden, and sauntered off to find some perhaps "easier prey", for the
time being.
---
Haruka sighed. Looking back at Haruki, she said, "Now
that that’s taken care of, I should finish telling you what Haruna told
me. According to her, she dreamt that
two people were killed and fell overboard during a storm at sea. She couldn’t see any of the faces, or much detail of the figures at all. But, Haruna did say that when Anri
over there came into the room, she had that nauseous déjà vu attack
again."
Haruki gasped. "Are you serious? Oh my g- Wait. Are you saying that-"
Haruka nodded. "She must sense that he’s related to her
dream somehow." Both sisters turned to watch Anri making moves on the head
cheerleader, who giggled and purposely appeared flustered to his comments. "He doesn’t look like the killing type,
and he’s obviously not dead..."
"A
friend maybe? Or
a relative of some sort?"
"That’d be the most
likely case, I think. What do you think
we should do?"
Haruki sighed. "There’s nothing we can do. There’s no evidence to do anything to Anri,
so the most we can do is wait things out and see what happens."
"I have a bad
feeling about this," Haruki stated as she ran her fingers through her
hair.
"Me too," Haruka
responded, "Me too."
---
The triplets watched
Anri from afar the rest of the lunch period.
From what they witnessed, Anri managed to get a date with Kyoko, the
head cheerleader, and make fast friends with the football team. When the bell rang, they joined the slower
rush of students walking back into the classrooms. It turned out that Anri shared their PE and
Science class as well. The two sisters
did everything in their power to make sure that Anri did not get anywhere near
them, as did he.
After school, Haruki and Haruka ran to
make a quick check on Haruna. She was
still sleeping, but the nurse told them that she could go home with them
later. Agreeing to this, they both
rushed their goodbyes as they headed off to their after-school activities. Haruki had gymnastics, while Haruka took off
to her fencing club. Both were the
co-captains of their sports team. As for
Haruna, she was the star player with the flute in orchestra.
---
After club, Haruka
picked up Haruna and left the school grounds for home. Haruki had extra practice to do because of an
upcoming competition, so she had to stay a bit longer. Soon enough, the two sisters arrived at home. They had stopped at a large pagoda-style
apartment complex. Waving a quick
‘hello’ to the receptionist, they went clear across the clean black marble
floor to the elevator in the center of the building. The outside may have looked like a
traditional pagoda, but it was almost just as modern as an American five-star
hotel on the inside. Haruka and Haruna
came out on the fifth floor, where they only had one other neighbor.
By the time they had
reached their apartment, Haruna insisted on making a full-course dinner. Haruka verified with Haruna to make sure she
was feeling well enough. Haruna assured
her sister that she had rested more than enough and wanted to thank her sisters
for taking care of her. Far be it from
her to complain, Haruka closed and locked their front door and excused herself
to go take a nice long bath.
Upon returning, she found
that the table was already set, Haruna and Haruki were at the table, and
delicious food sent their enticing aromas directly to Haruka’s
sensitive nose. Roasted chicken
marinated with a special teriyaki blend was the main course, to be complimented
by a supple salad with Romanian Lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and other such
toppings. Haruna had further shown her
mastery at swift cooking by baking a chocolate cake for dessert. Haruka immediately sat down, and dinner was
served.
It turned out that
Haruna’s sisters had also remembered that today was the death anniversary of
Mrs. VanSchneider.
Together, they shared the happy memories that they had of the time spent
with her. Even just with reminiscing, it
was long past ten before they headed for bed.
Haruki wouldn’t allow any of them to stay awake any longer than they
already had, considering the day’s events.
Haruka may have been born two minutes earlier, but Haruki held the
decisive control in the family.
The three sisters went
to bed relatively early from certain people’s perspective. However, Haruka and Haruki were awakened in
the dead of the night by a scream that pierced the still air like a knife
through the heart.
<End Chapter>
