Yuki knew that everything that had happened was a dream, at least for him it was.
The boy cried, wanting, pleading to whosoever was regulating his fantasies, to stop.
Nevertheless, Yuki did understand that sobbing like a child was never an answer.
He knew that the tears would not wash away the gloom.
His frail heart sunk, just like him, sinking in the darkness.
If only he could turn back time.
Even if it was all fiction, for whatever the reason that made Yuki decide.
Recovering an imagination was worth more than his sanity.
He attempts to recollect every part of when his star was still alive-
When the boy's happiness was at its peak.
That smile of hers, a heartwarming sight that made Yuki feel like home.
Her soothing voice, a calming tone that deafened him against the voice of anguish.
A mother-like figure that tended to him, loved him like her own son.
Everything.
The aroma of the black coffee that she would buy at Yuki's Aunt Alice's café.
Her right eye a shade of pink, just like the Azaleas that she had cultivated in her garden.
Weird.
Her right eye a shade of pink, the image kept circling in his abyss.
Its likeness attaching itself to him.
It felt like a distant memory.
It was a novelty that he had significantly had the chance to catch a glimpse of once.
For him, it was real, though he was unsure.
Was it all still a dream? A mere figment of imagination?
Yuki wasn't sure anymore.
His memories felt so off.
Like it was planted systematically.
It acted like a dream, almost.
Weird, indeed.
------------
A searing pain wafted like a scent around his eyes, it refused to leave as so. This was it, he thought that he was going blind.
The wretched throbbing was unbearable for an instant.
"Ahhhh!" Yuki screamed, his muffled breaths were racing along with his beating heart. Cold sweats forming on his forehead as he tried to catch his breath whilst the pain gradually subsided like smoke.
Yuki, are you okay? Thank heavens, you're finally awake!
The ball of fluff climbed onto his lap.
Until it ran away with little to no notice as to where it was heading.
It wasn't a dream at all, rigid thoughts crossed his chasm, a bridge of darkness that bitterly corrupted the poor soul.
"Yuki! You're awake, finally." A woman peeked through the gap of the door, she was the same woman from before though her eyes were pitch black.
"Anyways, I hope you're doing okay. I'm Taara, by the way." the woman shook his hand, a stern gaze clamping onto Yuki's amber-like orbs, "Violet Taara, Dean Ebony's personal secretary."
Violet leaned closer to the boy, her intentions unclear. She seemingly wiped something from under the boy's right eye, a haze of confusion swirled in the boy's mind.
She raised her index finger, a splash of bloody red meeting with Yuki's eyes.
The boy was frightened, it haunted his thoughts like a ghoul, slowly gnawing his notions away.
Was he going to die?
The mere idea was all too feasible, it struck his core like a bowstring. It scared Yuki to no end. Like a faucet, he was dripping blood.
Though, oddly enough, the boy digressed.
"Uhmmm... Ms. Violet, do you happen to know where Shiro and Mr. Moru are?" He asked, expecting an answer that would appease him.
"Moru..." she trailed off as if she had noticed something unusual.
Light little snores came from under the bed, it sat on its paws that were almost non-existent. It was hidden under the cat like a treasure.
"Shiro? Your cat?" Yuki nodded.
She pointed at the snoring cat, it was indeed a bizarre sight. A snoring cat. However, something bothered her, it wasn't the oddness in the air, nor was it the boy that was emotionally troubled.
The cat reminded her of something, more so someone. A memory that refused to resurface, like a fugitive that didn't want to be found. Nevertheless, without reluctance, she evicted the very thought out of her head, because to her it was irrelevant.
Yuki peeked under the damned bed, it held a captivating warmth that covered him, a nostalgic feeling that he hadn't felt in a long long time.
The white feline was awakened by the abomination that was the perception of being watched.
It meowed with little to no meaning, not even daring to speak to Yuki and Violet.
Hehe.
"Wow, your snoring is pretty loud." The boy remarked.
To Violet, it was an odd sight, something that brought back her memories. Memories that were once locked away by the plague that was amnesia.
For her, they were indeed a striking pair.
"Follow me, we're going to Moru and the other... you'll know soon enough. Pick up your cat, the nurses said that you're fine to leave." She motioned to Yuki while she turned to face the nurse that was sorting out seemingly random files.
Shiro eyed him, a mischievous smirk forming on its cheeks.
I chased the rat, but I found a bigger one instead.
It chuckled in Yuki's mind, the poor boy was being toyed upon by the fluff that was a weird existence in itself, and along with it a personality that was even bizarre.
Seeing the human as a rat.
Odd.
A cat is a cat after all.
"Follow after me, the both of you," Violet announced, her eyes bouncing back and forth between the both of them.
Yuki stared at the cat.
There was a bandage enveloping the injured cat's limb. This made the boy beam.
They had properly helped the cat. Which, was the source of Yuki's smile.
Hope was still alive, somehow.
Something that he had lost, a relinquished possibility that his world had somehow encountered. Which much against the odds failed him. It was humanity, though what sometimes failed him wasn't always going to fall flat. Like the planet that was earth, it wasn't flat, it kept turning, rotating endlessly, it was constantly moving on. At that moment he had learned something so valuable, something that he had not been able to do which haunted his very heart.
A part of him needed to move on.
Move on, but never forget.
-------------
Time felt oddly slower.
It was the dreaded fear of people that had relatively triggered the sensation. He avoided the gazes, concentrating on Violet's back was the quickest and simplest solution that he seized in order to partially remedy his anxiety.
Whilst avoiding the gazes, his eyes had been met with the luxurious interiors that resembled Victorian marbling, this place reminded him of a palace. Though this one was unusually modernized, a perfectly blended vintage and contemporary.
It was of a tremendous extent which made his tiny stature even more miniature.
Yuki marveled at the beauty until Violet pulled him to her side.
The purple-haired woman placed her head near the boy's ear.
"You shall not utter to a single soul of where we are going, nor should the passage be ever revealed. If so whatever the reason that this will happen, I will personally dispose of you." She whispered into the poor boy's ear, a menacing tone outlining the very tip of her words.
At the end of the narrow hallway was a mirror that was singled out from the rest. Its placement was of an unnatural alignment, it overlooked a series of numbers that were below it.
The hallway was now relatively empty, thus, Violet proceeded without hesitation.
"3460" he mumbled under his breath, the numbers were of the same value that the bag Moru had given.
Coincidences.
"Fairly odd." He spoke, unaware of the presence that was with him.
Shiro was now clawing the boy's fabric on his leg, it wanted to be carried, it's limping had somehow subsided, though the boy's worry was still ever-present.
He hoisted the feline up, making sure not to cradle the wounded part of its leg.
Hey! Don't touch the peen peen!
The boy had accidentally fondled Shiro's private part which made him chuckle. The cat, on the other hand, did not take this very well.
Yo-
You scoundrel!
Yuki giggled, even more, he busted with intense laughter.
"Enough," Violet said nonchalantly.
Yuki covered his mouth whilst Shiro was still glaring, both claws ready to scratch.
They swiveled their heads to focus on their reflections in the mirror.
"Quadringentorum sexaginta trium," Violet mumbled a series of gibberish words, at least to the boy's ears it didn't make sense.
Shiro was visibly frightened, the slight tremors that had occurred with the chanting somehow scared it.
The series of numbers that were once reflected by the mirror revealed a staircase leading under. A faint light gleamed in the distance, the underlying darkness sent chills down the boy's spine.
Darkness?
No.
The fear of the unknown.
As he had once laughed, unaware of what lied ahead. Uncertainty now grew dominant within the boy's heart. It was back again, that putrid fear.
"I do not know why Ebony would treat you with high regards, and would even go as far to reveal herself," she stared at the boy for a brief moment, an exasperated sigh following after.
She laughed to herself, a smile forming.
"Ebony does indeed trust odd people," she grabbed Yuki's wrist and began to descend the dimly lit stairway.
She stopped on the third flight of stairs, she moved left next, unfazed by the chanting. It was like a maze, a perplexing misdirection from left and right.
Every time she would turn, the light would eventually develop brighter, the once dimly lit set of staircase now illuminated by the light that seemingly came from somewhere within.
Yuki anticipated what was at the end, could they be hiding a secret, a confidential object that was supposed to be locked away from the world?
Nevertheless, the curiosity he did not mind, not a single bit.
Alas, a room unfolded itself to both of the drifters that deciphered the seemingly infinite maze. A considerable-sized room with a splash of random books scattered all around, the fireplace that emitted the faint glow, such are all the contents of the minimalistic European-inspired textiles of the office.
Paintings hung from each side of the walls, all indicating a single focal point. The table that was situated right in the middle of the room, a wilted flower sitting in the far left of the table, a man on the right, the familiar man who was chatting with the indigo-haired individual that was casually nodding to the words of the man that little sense to the boy.
"Violet!" The woman eyed the boy that was beside Violet, "Ahhhh, it's Yuki!" Her way of uttering reminded the boy of an earthly accent, something that he had heard before on the television.
The indigo-haired woman prompted an urge to recall, to him it sounded Italian. Her pale light skin contradicted the intense aura that surrounded her very being which scared Yuki. Her pointed nose, a Roman-like feature that outlined her pretty traits, her face was in perfect symmetry, an absolution of harmony.
The boy was in pure shock, how can somebody be so, "Pretty?" Moru finished for Yuki.
The latter shyly nodded.
"Flattering, though I digress, something's been bothering you, all of what's happening probably. After all, things were pretty abrupt." She confided, a sigh following after.
"I am Ebony," she stood from the chair she was reclining at, her bluish eyes exhibiting a worried manifestation.
Ebony held the boy's palm.
"There is an evil in this world, and it will not stop until it has caused havoc everywhere." She followed.
She's weird, Yuki.
But, so are you!
The cat chuckled.
"In time you will know the truth, and that truth will disappoint you." She warned.
"Violet, lead the boy to his quarters, but wait," she reached her hand into her pocket. A simplistic lace tied together a centerpiece, a gem that gleamed a bright iridescent pigment.
Ebony deposited the bracelet in Yuki's palm.
"Bu-!" The purple-haired intervened.
"No buts, for now, let it be. You will come to know him, Violet. And you forgot yours." Ebony caressed her hair, an obedient woman displayed rather than Violet's usual self.
"You can enter this place easier with that bracelet. Keep it safe, hide it from everyone, use it when you really need to talk to me."
She unhurriedly headed to her seat.
"Moru, Violet, and Yuki, you are dismissed." Reality warped the very second she dismissed them. Unknowingly, they were now facing the mirror that had been on the end of the hallway.
Weird.
"I'll be on my way you two," Violet nodded, turning the way from the Japanese man. Yuki smiled, a wave of goodbye following the man's departure.
"I do not know what Ebony sees in you. You are lucky she even talked to you." Violet rushed off in the distance, a hint of annoyance in her tone, her silhouette gradually vanishing.
Cruel.
The cat spoke.
"What are you still waiting for? Stop standing there like a tree!" Violet warned and continued to stride.