Chapter Text
Choking is a weird sensation.
Hands grip tightly onto your throat, removing the air from your body, taking away all the nutrients your body requires. Your heart sinks down low and you’re gasping for air, desperately clinging onto the slim chance that you may survive.
This was precisely what she felt like.
She had no one to seek help from, no external forces could be brought to her aid. She was truly “alone”.
She tried to breathe, to calm her senses and to feel “normal” again but she was unable to do so. Her breaths came out as coughs and she could hardly take in a portion of air without her body collapsing inward.
There was a buzz, a slight hum from her collar—or was it a necklace? Whatever she was wearing on her neck was buzzing loudly, making unusual sounds that signalled “danger”.
The collar vibrated violently against her neck, sending her body into a spiral. Her breaths were becoming more ragged by the minute. The harder she tried to inhale, the harder her body rejected her attempts—her attempts to survive.
And, at some point, she couldn’t breathe anymore.
Her collar didn’t budge, it kept shaking her body while letting out a loud hum that drove her mind mad. She was about to lose herself to the insanity that was her current situation.
‘...are you okay?’
It was a voice–a voice she didn’t recognise. It was monotonous and bland, as if the stranger was forced into asking her about her unusual situation.
Hesitantly, she forced herself to look up.
Her vision was blurred due to the amount of tears that were there, some streamed down and stained her face while some were still trapped on the edges of her eye. She couldn’t see the stranger at all–the only thing she could make out was the silhouette of the person. From this knowledge, she determined that the stranger was probably her age and height.
She blinked a couple of times, letting the tears fall and ruin her face further but she didn’t care anymore. She studied the stranger as her vision had now cleared up; she could now see that the stranger had an unusual hairstyle, messy strands of light blue–or was it white?--hair fell on his face, covering the stranger’s forehead. She also noticed that the stranger’s hands were covered with bandages–whether that was a fashion statement or were their hands actually covered in scars, she wasn’t aware of it.
‘Hey, are you okay?’ the voice sounded gentle now–a sharp contrast to the initial tone.
‘I’m… fine…’ she managed to muster out at last.
Even though her heart was pounding loudly against her chest, even though the tears were spilling from her eyes, even though she was physically trembling.
‘I’m fine, don’t worry.’
Sara’s quite familiar with nightmares, she’s been plagued by them since she was merely a child. She knows that they are products of fiction and don’t exactly reflect on her reality however, her dreams lately were getting quite vivid–from dreaming about an intense game of russian roulette with her neighbourhood’s policeman to watching her homemaker kill himself as a form of “resistance”… she truly saw it all and worse.
One thing about these dreams that stood against the rest of the torture she endured during her sleep was of how real they felt–as if she was actually in those situations, relieving it all again; as if she was the person with the gun–
Sara woke up much more brightly than she did on the previous nights. This time, her dream wasn’t as dreadful as the past few ones. However, what made this dream unusual was the fact that all her dreams were with people she’d met–from her best friend Joe Tazuna to the aloof grocery store clerk–but this time, the stranger she was with harboured no connection with her whatsoever. In fact, Sara couldn’t recall a single person that has such odd hair or that sort of voice.
Her thoughts kept travelling to that person, trying to decipher her dream, piece by piece. She was so engaged by her thoughts that she forgot to pay attention to her reality. Her eyes glanced on the small digital clock that was placed onto the edge of her dressing table and that was when she actually panicked: she was incredibly late for school
It was orientation day for her–the first day of the year, signalling the start of another academic year for her. And honestly? Her dreams could wait, it’d be worse if she turned up late for her first day.
So, she hurriedly brushed her auburn hair and pulled her uniform on–not even caring if they were ironed or not. What mattered to her the most was getting to class on time.
She stuffed her lunch into her bag, thanked her homemaker–a gentle man named Kai Satou–bid him goodbye and ran out into the street.
However, it was then she realised there won’t be a bus coming for her any time soon. Since she was already incredibly late, no bus would be coming to her aid any time soon.
She sighed, defeated–guess she would be turning up late to orientation day after all.
‘Kiddo, what are you doing there?’
The voice of her neighbourhood’s policeman, Keiji Shinogi penetrated her ears and suddenly, hope returned to her. Yes, yes, yes! She might be arriving on time after all.
‘Keiji–I need your help! Drive me to school, please? I don’t want to be late,’ she pleaded, making sure to add a small smile since she knows Keiji won’t ever turn down an opportunity to help kids–especially if he finds those kids adorable. But then again, Keiji loves every kid.
She heard Keiji sigh, ‘I’d say no but you’re just so adorable… alright get in.’
At last! Keiji came to her rescue.
She rushed into Keiji’s police car, making sure to sit on the passenger even though Keiji doesn’t like it when minors sit there. When he told her to go to the back, she just stuck her tongue out as a sign of mockery and the blonde man simply gave up. Of course Keiji couldn’t resist the girl that he treated like a younger sister.
Saying Keiji was a tall man was an understatement, he was incredibly huge compared to Sara–the way he towered over her would've made anyone frightened but to Sara, that man was her best friend–he was adult she could trust and he was an adult that she trusted to no end even if he had a horrible hair colour.
‘What’s on your mind, Kid?’ he asked.
‘Y’know the usual…’ she responded, hoping Keiji would hop off her back but he didn’t–it was unlike him to miss even the smallest of details.
‘Dreams? What did you see now?’ Sara thought to herself of how incredibly sharp he is even if he appears rather distant most of the time.
‘Yeah,’ she said.
‘Don’t wanna talk about it? I understand.’
They then spent the rest of the car ride silent and she was so, so grateful that the policeman understood her.
‘Right, we’re here,’ he announced when they arrived. Sara checked her watch and let out a small cry of victory–she was not late!
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you-!’ she kept shouting as she exited the car.
‘Don’t mention it–good luck, kid!’ he said as he drove off.
The initial dread of the morning had now been washed away with feelings of joy. She was on time, she looked fine and she was going to meet Joe and Ryoko again after a summer of separation.
She rushed into the school, ecstatic.
Her eyes were fixed on the timetable she received prior to the school starting, it mentioned that she would be class 10-B on the second floor of her school so all she had to do was avoid the new freshmen and cross the large steps of stairs that stretched on for what seemed like an eternity and eventually, reach her class! With only a couple of minutes to spare, the auburn haired teen dashed for the stairs however, something unusual happened.
Firstly, she felt someone step on her red scarf that she wore–she never wore anything on her uniform but since the September weather was so terribly cold, she had no choice and it was today of all days that someone had to step on it. The action annoyed her to no end. She was already in a hurry and having to exchange a couple of “sorrys” with this irritating stranger was not on her already tight schedule.
Secondly, when her eyes met with that stranger, she felt an unusual sense of deja vu–she knew him.
She knew him from her dreams…
To be more specific, she knew him from today’s dreams–
He was the white haired boy–the same white haired boy who asked her if she was okay in her dreams. The same boy with the weird haircut and bandaged hands.
Was it really him?