2014-08-19 - Night Terrors!
(Ail is horrible! ;) Special thanks to him for the muse~. +bbread 12/88 for on MUSH version)
IC Date: March 1st, about 2-3 AM.
Reiko walked up to the toyshop with her grandfather, holding his hand. Looking up, she received a comforting smile, and she returned it. She could not remember what occasion had brought her to the toyshop, or- if it was just a grandfather prescribed 'treat'-- Regardless, she moved to the open the door. and found herself suddenly alone, falling forward, down into blackness. She screamed out into the void but only some sort of sinister chortle shot back at her. It reminded her of that blue-haired jerk at the symphony hall. She landed into a pile of soft---- things. She had to get her wits together as she sat up in the pile, pulling up one of the items she'd landed to into her hands to give it an appraising glance. Dolls. Not new ones, like, the old style- like what her mom used to play with when she used to play with the hand-me-down toys. She slid out of the pile and looked at her surroundings with both awe- and worry.
Up to either side of her were two, gigantic walls, no further than six feet apart, extending high into the sky with no end into the black void above- making for a very narrow corridor with no ceiling. The floor itself seemed to be. Wooden. Cracked with age. There were holes in the floor, with blackness emanating beyond. On the walls, were shelves with dolls, of all sorts. She looks to her right. She looked to her left, the only two directions to go. She began to her right, looking at the dolls as she walked along.
First, things looked like one might expect in a toyshop! Dolls, neatly taken care of. New, Some in the boxes. But slowly, the boxes disappeared. Then did some dolls. Then some dolls were missing pieces--- hats, legs, arms, heads, clothes. Looking more and more misused and not taken care of- some even dirty. This sent her into some feeling of dread. It felt wrong. It felt as if-- the dolls were watching her. Even the ones without eyes. She thought, perhaps, that she'd gone the wrong way. Things would be better in the other direction.
She turned around to face some figure in the darkness that slowly approached her, hovering in mid air-- tittering as if on a string hung from the ceiling. A large, terrifying combination of something in a wide, oversized children's top, with the torso of a large doll, replete with dead eyes, it's arms crossed in front of it. It smiled sinisterly, as it made a hissing sound. "Oh No...!" muttered Reiko. "We defeated y-you at the symphony hall! GO AWAY!" she called out. She turned around to begin to run, but there was another one, this one's mouth opened in a terrifying hiss, this caused Reiko to knock over the shelving as she tried to hunker against the wall. She needs to, fight these things, to transform! Right?!
But her Chroma Crystal! She couldn't make it materialize! Panicking she'd hold her hands out as she fought so hard to make it exist--- even as she could feel those cold, plastic hands on her arms, tugging her forward into------
"Reiko!" said Grandfather Toki. "Reiko, wake up....!". Reiko woke with a start and a gasp. She could feel the tears in her eyes as she woke. "Ah!? Get away!" she called out, grabbing her pillow- and holding out in front of her as she rocketed back against the headboard.
Her grandfather slowly placed a palm to his old face and sighed heavily. "Reiko, you were having quite a nightmare. You're awake now, calm down." he urged. She peeked out from under the pillow and merely leapt against her Grandpa, holding and hugging as tightly as she could. "Ugh, it was so awful Grandpa!!! There were creepy dolls, and--- these really scary ones that..." we fought as magical girls in the symphony hall, summoned by some jerk with blue hair "...I saw in some movie I watched over at Mei's." she said.
Grandpa merely chuckled. "No more scary movies then. You were so loud, mumbling something about the symphony hall and flailing about, but are you sure what happened at the hall isn't bothering you? I heard there was some sort of fire or a gas leak, you were escorted out, right?"
Reiko didn't like outright lying to her grandfather, but she couldn't tell him the truth. "Yeah. I did, Grandpa. Maybe I just need to get back to sleep and I'll feel better in the morning." she said with a soft half-smile. Her Grandfather merely nodded in agreement. "Right. We'll talk about it in the morning. Now back to bed, kiddo. Goodnight~." he said, giving Reiko his signature pat on the head, and wink, before leaving the room in his sheep-printed PJs.
Sleep, of course, didn't come back for the rest of the night. Why did that thing bother her so much!? Was it it's eyes? Or just how uneasy it made her feel? She wished she could text Mei at this hour, she'd usually have something reassuring to say.
At least tomorrow is a half-day of school, she thought. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad....
