I can't see anything around me. I can see my hands and feet perfectly fine, but all I can see as far as the eye can see is the color black. I've always had dreams, but never ones as vivid as this. I actually feel quite cold, scared, and all alone in this place. Everything I've been feeling for the past few weeks swells up inside me like a violent swirl of darkness. I clench my chest and fall to my knees, pressing my head against the ground as I begin crying.
Images of my past admirers begin forming around me, and they begin saying nice things and comforting me. However, the black swirl of emotions I feel slowly takes hold of them all one by one. At first it's still mostly compliments, then a few insults are thrown in here and there, then every other word I hear is an insult, and finally all I can hear are insults. I cover my ears and continue to cry, but I can even hear their voices in my head. Their insults only make me cry more, until they suddenly stop and the image of my parents appear, looking happy to see me as always when I look up at them.
"Our dear Sara." My mother says, smiling bright and as beautiful as ever.
"Sara..." My father gives me the charming smile he always gives me and my mother. However, the black substance that is my emotions takes a hold of them as well. Their smiles quickly turn to scowls, disappointment and anger in their eyes, and it makes me flinch.
"Is that really our daughter honey..? I thought we had raised better..." My mother looks at me with a dark, cold gaze, and just looking at it makes me shiver.
"I agree with you my love. There's no way we raised such a pathetic girl to be our company's successor." My father doesn't hide his anger and disappointment at all, his arms crossed and he shakes his head at me. They continue saying more and more awful things that I would hate to hear from my real parents, such as, "She needs more discipline.", "Should we make her go to an elite school as well?", "If she were to have any friends, they'd be a horrible influence.", and the worst one yet, "Perhaps we should keep her locked up in her room so we can raise her to be the exact way we want."
I don't know if this is a dream or reality anymore, but I don't care, I just want it to stop. "Somebody, anybody, please help me... Please..." The tears continue to spill as I silently sob, my voice trembling, and then both my parents disappear suddenly, just like my admirers did. I look forward to see none other than Jeshan, kneeling down right in front of me so we're at eye level. "J-Jeshan... I'm so sorry for everything I've done... Could you ever forgive me..?" I give him my best smile as my tears drip onto the floor.
"Of course..." He speaks softly, as always, and his expression actually looks sad. I give him a bright smile and slowly move to hug him. However, before I can, the black substance grabs hold of him too, and then his expression becomes blank, but there are hints of disgust and coldness in them. "Of course I could never forgive you, stupid princess." Jeshan hisses, blunt as always, but his words make me feel as if I'd been shattered into a million pieces. "You're avoiding me just like the students who are scared of me, you treat me like a slave in front of everyone at school, and last but not least, you can't even tell what I'm feeling at all. If you really cared about me at all, you shouldn't have to ask me the stupid questions you ask, you should just know, like the way I do about you." He narrows his eyes. "As far as I know, your pathetic sobbing act is just some kind of guilt trip to get me to stay so you can one day betray me..."
With that, Jeshan stands up straight, turns his back to me, and starts walking away. "J-Jeshan... Wait..!" I hold my hand out to him and try to stand up, but now the black substance is keeping me rooted in place and slowly swallowing me up as well, but I don't care. I don't want Jeshan to leave. "Jeshan!" I yell as he completely disappears from my line of vision. After that, I shoot awake, reaching out my hand in front of me. "Jesha-..." I pause, realizing everything that happened was in fact a dream.
"Are you alright, Mistress Sara?" I look beside me and I see it's one of my guards, the one with the tento blade, his suit black and white themed, and his blazer is sleeveless over his long sleeved white button up. His mask also makes it hard to take him seriously with how silly it looks, even though it's not colorful at all.
"Y-Yes, I'm alright..." I give him a weak fake smile.
I don't know why, but the guard jumps slightly when I turn toward him. "See, look what you did. You probably gave her some kind of nightmare and now she's crying." He turns to look at his fellow guard at the door, the one with the katana, who has a full suit, though the inner part of his blazer is colored gold, as is his tie, and his kitsune mask is entirely black with golden highlights.
That guard steps over to me and deeply bows his head. "Please forgive me. I did not mean to scare nor upset you Mistress Sara. I was worried for your safety when I saw the boy running over to you."
"S-So what I saw wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me..? Jeshan's okay..?" I ask, my eyes filling up with joy and hope.
"Well, yes, I did stop my partner from making a rather big mistake, but your friend is...well..." The tento guard mutters.
My heart sinks as I hear him hesitate. "What..? What happened..?" I force myself to stand. "Where is Jeshan..?!" Without a word of explanation, the two guards take me right to my parents' office, and they are in the midst of working, but immediately stop when they see me enter and start rushing over.
"Oh Sara! Are you alright?!" My mother asks, about to embrace me, but I hold up my hand to stop her.
"I'm sick mother, you should keep your distance. We wouldn't want something else interfering with your work, right?" I say with a suggestive tone, and my mother gives me a confused look in response. "I'm just fine, I promise."
"Are you sure Sara? We can have a doctor here in no time if you feel badly ill." My father states.
"I told you I am fine. I'm not here to talk about myself." I narrow my eyes at my two parents. "The boy who came here, Jeshan, where is he?"
My mother and father pause, looking at each other before looking back at me. "Well, he says he came here to visit you out of worry. Right now I have him in a room..." My father mutters.
My eyes slowly widen. "What did you say..?"