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The first thing Reimu saw was the pure white sky above her.
The thick sea of flower petals below brushed their petals against the edges of her face. Even though her body rested peacefully, she knew that something was off about her surroundings.
Reimu slowly pulled herself up; while she couldn't bring herself to stand up right away, she was content to sit. Either way, it gave her a nice view of her surroundings. The flower petals she felt earlier belonged to the blue forget-me-nots that spanned as far as Reimu's eyes could see. Even if didn't seem like there was anything else around, she had to guess that maybe a source of water was nearby. (As that's where forget-me-nots grew in their most voluminous quantities.)
As her body scratched up against the rough foliage of the bushes themselves, Reimu stood up and turned around. Like before, she couldn't see anything else among the ocean of small, blue flowers below.
…Except for the epitah on the tombstone that was behind her before.
Reimu Endou
Nov 3rd---
She couldn't read the year she was born or the date she died; they were both scratched out haphazardly.
May the Souls Lead Her to Eternal
Happiness.
Reimu noticed that the last word was scratched out. Not only did she face the realization she was dead, it appeared that whoever stopped by her grave didn't want her to be happy either. A cheekier person would have reminded the grave's vandal that the dead being unable to rest peacefully was a great way to create ghosts (especially vengeful ones), but Reimu couldn't bring herself to think about something like that. She only let out a small, somber cry as her tears began to blur her vision.
Even if her own grave felt forgotten, the life past her death was at least worth living for. Just thinking about the bright smiles on the faces of her friends in Ethyria made Reimu smile. She couldn't hold back the tears, but the relaxing aura of Nina, Enna's heavenly presence, and the joy Millie brought were enough to make her feel at ease.
That ease didn't last for long, however, as the bushes crunched below the footsteps of someone else nearby. Reimu looked up from her memories and the flowers below to see a shadowy figure in the distance. The shadow was blob-like and undefined, and the consistency of its figure warbled like a sketch that came to life. If ghosts have blood, Reimu's would have ran cold at that very moment; she had seen it before in the past in similar memories.
A mouth full of sharp teeth grew on the shadow in front of her. Reimu knew it was time to run; she saw what happened play out many times before in her memories. She sprinted away as fast as her legs could take her, but the tangled web of forget-me-nots below made it hard to go very far. It felt like they were made out of quicksand with how closely they were packed together and how they made Reimu come to a slow crawl.
Yet, the shadow approached Reimu faster and faster. Her pupils shrunk in fear once she realized what was about to happen. The only thing she could see were the forget-me-nots themselves; the small blue flowers looked a lot prettier when she could see them up close
A sharp pain pierced through her skull and shot into her brain. A loud scream came out her mouth as Reimu collapsed onto the bed of flowers below. Even the edges of her brain felt like they were being eaten alive, her eyes lifelessly remained open.
Reimu's eyelids slowly closed as their weight became too much to bear. The last thing she could visualize were the faces of her friends; except now they were blacked out by the shadows. Only her own face remained visible in the sea of darkness.
And eventually, that faded away as well.
Reimu's eyes jolted open. She couldn't see anything, yet the soft mattress she laid on was enough to tell her that it wasn't in the same flower field she first woke up at after her death.
She would have liked to breathe a sigh of relief, but her body wavered uncomfortably. Even though the winter air from outside was brittle and cold, Reimu knew that wasn't the reason she continued to shake. She began to hyperventilate as the tears returned and soaked through the pillow her head laid on.
It might have been a dream, yet the events felt just as real as they did when they first occurred. They were slowly distorted with each passing nightmare, but she recognized the same fear in all of them.
The fear of being alone.
Because Reimu was an ageless spirit who's no longer bound by the laws of time, she would not only outlive all of her friends, her memories of them would fade away as the years passed. Eventually, Reimu herself would disappear once there was nobody around to remember her either; even though she was dead for as long as she could remember, the concept of "the second death" deeply haunted her. The day where she would fade away as well.
Reimu's thoughts were interrupted as she felt a cold sensation surround her body. Another series of jolts shot through as she thought that the shadow from her dream began to chew on her brain again. Yet, when she raised a hand to the top of her head, the same spirit (that now resided in her hood) was fast asleep; so that wasn't it.
Instead, she felt a pair of human-like arms wrap around her. Reimu turned around to see that she slept next to her beloved Petra. It was hard to make our her black hair and matching pajamas in the room's lack of light, yet the dark blue skies (from the rise of dawn) highlighted her pale skin and light orange highlights. One of Petra's arms went past her head as it laid down on Reimu's shoulder; the other one held her in a loose embrace. The slow pace of her breathing was relaxing and helped calm Reimu's nerves down.
As awkward as it was to Reimu to admit to anyone else, sleeping with Petra was incredibly comforting. She wasn't sure if it was because the penguin felt incredibly warm or if having someone nearby ease to her troubles helped; all she knew was that the nightmares didn't last as long if Petra was nearby.
However, she knew that it couldn't last forever. Eventually, Petra would fade away like everyone else. Even though it was a day that would inevitably come in the future, Reimu felt she would never be prepared. She feared that her sadness would come back to haunt her once she's without comfort again. (And unlike with anyone in Ethyria, she couldn't take comfort in the idea that Petra could live for hundreds -if not thousands- of years. Penguins don't typically live for that long...)
...But she felt too tired to worry about that; she couldn't help but remain in the moment. Reimu's eyes returned to a close as Petra's warmth transferred to her and the bedsheets they shared.
The last thought on Reimu's mind?
That -once she wakes up in the morning- she shall remember thank Petra for being there for her.