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Chapter 3: The Ride To The Mountain Of Nightmare

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 | 17:54 | 0 comments

As Rin is sleeping on her soft bed, she feels something tugging her blanket. Pulling it slowly from the darkest corner of her room. She begins to wonder and try to peek under her eye mask seeing only darkness fills her room. She try to close her eyes and continue her sleep, suddenly she sees a hand figure shape appearing from the darkness as it gives Rin a hellish goose bumps around her body.

Her heart begins to beat faster and faster as she sees the hand moves and tugging the blanket, pulling it away from her slowly. The hand figure then grabs Rin by her foot, pulling it into the darkness. As she watches it with horror, a head with long black hair suddenly appear from the dark corner of her room. The head gets a little closer to her and tilt as it watches her with its wicked red bloodshot eyes and a big grin on its pale skin face.

Rin scream for her big brother but nothing comes out from her mouth, not even a moan. Her fear overwhelms her as she starts to shake and kick violently to get away from the creature as much as possible. The figure growls and pulls her foot harder to its now open mouth as its sharp razor bloody teeth shows. She screams to the top of her lungs as her eyes shows only fear around her, as she feels helpless.

As the figure tries to bite Rin's foot off, she wakes up from her nightmare as she leaps away from the bed quickly sweating all over. She quickly run to the light switch and turns it on. She glances quickly at the corner of her bed but sees nothing, only an old television and boxes full of video games that she and her brother brought together years ago. "What...Was that...Was I asleep...But it felt so...Real...." Thought Rin as she turns and sees her own reflection in the mirror staring back at her, breathing and sweating. She rubs her forehead gently and thinks. “That was just a dream...Nothing more...Nothing less...Yeah...Just...A...Dream..."

As she turns back to her bed, a hand suddenly grabs her by the throat from the back. "Ahk...! L...Let...M...Me...G...G...Go...! Ahk...!” She chokes out as she gets pull into the mirror by many other hands grabbing her. She struggles and tries to escape from the grip but it only gets tighter and tighter until she almost loses her breath. As she loses her sight, the last thing she hears are the sound of children singing a traditional game song as her vision begins to blur and completely black out.

Rin quickly open her eyes as she leaps away from her bed again. She glances around her and sees nothing but only the furniture in the room. “Another dream…Please let this be the reality this time!” She begs as she tries to calm herself down from the frightful yet vivid nightmares in her mind, playing itself repeatedly driving Rin mad inside of her empty and stressful mind. She quickly then goes into the bathroom and takes a usual cold shower as she tries to make herself at ease, forgetting the frightful memories once more. Few minutes later, she comes out from the bathroom with a towel wrap onto her wet body as her long black hair is soaking wet, dripping some of the droplets onto the cold floor. She walks to the cupboard and choose her favorite clothes to wear for today. She thinks for a moment and then takes out a black sleeveless shirt with a turtleneck style on its collar, a black and red stripes color jacket and a pair of black jeans. “This would look great on me!” She thought smiling to herself.

Rin dress herself up as she wears her favorite bracelet, her Swatch watch on her left hand. As she combs her wet and damp hair, her cell phone rings. While still holding the comb, she quickly rushes to her cell phone on her study desk and picks it up as she flips it open to answer the call. “Hello.” She says out as she walks back to the mirror behind her and continues to combing her hair. “Hello, Rin. Where are you? You said you would come early than us! But now here we are standing and waiting for you like an idiot!” Shouts the voice angrily. “I’m that late already? I thought it was still early.” Replies Rin as she glances over to her golden color alarm clock beside her bed. “What! Early you say, HELLO look at the hell clock would you! I mean like, it is already late! Cut to the chase, are you going or not? All of us are waiting in the park…See you there!” Replies the voice again and ends the call shortly. Rin only blinks as she stares at the clock for a moment and finally closes her cell phone and puts it in her left pocket.

“Damn, I’m late! I am terribly late! Izumi will surely kill me when I get there!” Shouts Rin as she quickly packs all of the films into the bag pack while struggling putting on her black socks. She then takes her bag, walks out from her room, and goes straight in into the kitchen trying to find something to fill her empty morning stomach. She spot a fresh made hot toasts on a white flowering design plate and a cup of hot black coffee on the dining table that is serve. “Hmm…I wonder…Is it for me~?” She thought to herself as she approach the table, takes a big bite on the toast, and sips some of the coffee. “Hey! That’s mine!” Says Mura as he sees Rin drinking and eating on his breakfast. “Oh…Sorry about that! Anyway, the toast was very delicious. How did you do it?” Ask Rin while licking her finger. “Same old, same old. Eggs of course.” Replies Mura plainly, as he flips over his toast that needs some more cooking. “Oh….Well, see you later big brother!” Says Rin as she walks out from the kitchen with her bag pack hanging on the left side of her shoulder loosely. “Rin, Rin, Rin… Hope you won’t get into trouble this time...” Says Mura shaking his head in disbelief as he continues to flip over his toast into his plate.
Rin unlock the front door and opens it is as the door creaks loudly. “I’ll oil this noisy door later.” Thought Rin as she grabs her black sneakers from the shoe rack beside her and puts it on quickly. She then walks out from the house and closes back the door as she continues to walk to her house gates. Unlocking it with the correct key, she slides it open with a little force and walks out as she slides the gates back close.

She quickly runs as fast as she could and wishes that she‘d arrive at the park quickly even she have to be chase by group of dogs in the neighborhood. She glance at her watch quickly as she looks back up mumbling and cursing herself for being hellish late for the first time in her life. “I am so damn late! So late, that I am going to be beaten up by Izumi and the others! Why can’t this day be my lucky day?” She screams into her thought and takes the right turn as she sees the park’s billboard sign pointing straight ahead. “Almost there!” She says as she runs faster than before to get there quickly as she imagines herself gets beaten up by her friends that are waiting for her. “Please don’t let them kill me!” She whispers as she arrives at the park’s entrance.

The park is full with people even though it is still early in the morning. “Wow, never see this one coming. What a healthy lifestyle.” Rin mumbles under her heavy breathes that she takes deeply after stopping from her running routine all of the sudden. She glances around for a moment and takes a walk to the place that she and her friends would meet. Somehow, she wants to explore more of this unique park. “I think I can have a little fun walking around in this park.” Rin thought to herself smiling as she walks down the stony walk path entering a world of dreams that people call them Wonderland.

She walks around and sees a beautiful Sakura tree blooming with its Sakura flowers. “Such a beauty, I wish I can pull the tree off and put it behind my house so I can play with its leaves~!” She thought to herself smiling as she approaches the tree to see it a little bit closer. As Rin goes near to the tree, the Sakura tree rustles by the blowing wind as its petals falls to the ground slowly taking its time floating in the air as it goes lower and lower until it touches the green grass under it. Rin never feel so calm yet as happy in her life at that very moment as she sees the petals fall like snow. She twirls around like a child opening her arms wide and closes her eyes as she tries to imagine snow falling on her bare hands and face. She smiles as she feels like she is in a wonderful yet perfect Wonderland that she always wanted back when she was a mere child.

“Where is she? She was supposed to be here minutes or hours ago! Now look at the time! She is awfully late!” Grumbles Yuki angrily, crossing her arms while pouting. “Well, what do you expect from someone that wakes up late? You know how she is. She is a bit kind of lazy in these days lately, like her pet Persian cat.” Replies Misa while checking on her cell phone. “Maybe you’re right. We have just finished our big term exams last week and now she wants to enjoy her holiday with us but instead of doing that, she dozes off in her bed. That makes a very good sense, don’t you think so?” Ask Homori smiling. “Yeah...Agree!” Replies all of them with a nod.

“She better be here before I eat her!” Says Saya laughing as the others join her. Saya’s cell phone suddenly vibrates and rings in her jeans’ pocket while she is still laughing. She stops for a moment and reaches into her pocket to see who’s texting her. She slides her phone opens and pushes the middle button on her phone to read the text. While reading, the others look at her for a moment and one of them finally ask her a simple yet funny question. “So…Who’d text yah? Is it your boyfriend~?” Ask Homori playfully with her childish voice. “No, I don’t have any boyfriend yet. And if you want to know who’s texting me, try and guess the person’s name then I’ll tell you the contain of the text.” Replies Saya smiling. “Alright then, let see. Is it…..Rin?” Answer Misa with a grin on her face. “Ding ding! Congratulation my dear you just won a trip to find the mystery woman! Yes it’s her.” Replies Saya laughing. “Wow, I never knew she text. I thought that she was stingy with her money including her credits! Anyway, what did she say? Is she saying that she cannot come! I mean come on we waited for her half an hour already in this sunny day! She better coming or else I will beat her!” Says Yuki while cracking both of her knuckles. “Uh…Well she said she’s already here. However, she got loss in this park and she seems that she cannot find her way to us. I wonder where is right now. Probably wondering around she used to be.” Replies Saya with a small sigh escaping from her mouth while scratching her head. “Do we need to find her?” Ask Homori plainly while trying to look at the text from aside. “Um…Hmmm…I think she can find her own way to us. Isn’t she a smart one?” Replies Saya laughing nervously while looking at the rustling tree beside her. “I hope so…” Replies others in a small tone.

Rin walks around the Sakura tree and admiring the beauty of the tree and a sudden voice in her mind screams making her stop in her track. “Aren’t you forgetting something? Find you friends now, Rin!” Rin only blinks from hearing those words and finally replies talking in her own mind that make her feel a little crazy from other people point of view. “Who the hell are you tell me what to do! You were supposed to be quiet in my mind! I am relaxing here, can’t you see with it!” The voice grumbles and mumbles as she imagines herself glaring at the owner’s voice with anger in her eyes.

Her cell phone suddenly vibrates in her jeans’ pocket that makes her startle a bit and is now back into the world of reality. She sighs as she reaches into her pocket, takes out the cell phone, flipping it open, and pushes the middle button to read the text that she received. She reads it as a small smile curves onto her thin lips that almost make her laugh. “Alright then, I’ll go there!” She says to herself as she flips her cell phone close and puts it back into her pocket as she starts to walk to the park’s map billboard just a stone throw away from her.

Few minutes of walking later, she stands in front of the billboard trying to figure out where she is now. “Okay…I’m…Somehow right here…While they said that they are located…Here!” She points on to map and looks surprise. “T…That can’t be…That’s like…Far! How did I get here anyway?” She asks herself as she sighs under her breath seeing the distance that she has to walk to get to her friends. “What…A lucky…HELL! Day…Just…Great!” Mumbles Rin under her breath as she starts walking to the location that her friends just give to her.

After minutes of jogging around in the park, Rin finally reaches to the location that her friends said in the text. Her sweat is soaking into her shirt as she opens her jacket and ties it on her waist. “Oh my…I’m not so good at running…Note to self, do not run while using jeans! Still, this jean is comfortable to wear even though you are running.” She thought to herself as her friends’ waves to her from afar.

“Finally, I was about to give up on waiting for her here.” Says Misa smiling. “Well, what can I say? She’s always late when she has problems.” Replies Saya while waving continuously at Rin. “Yeah, yeah.” Replies Misa back.

“Sorry I’m late guys. My alarm didn’t ring…No hard feelings right?” Says Rin walking to her friends closer, breathing heavily after the running session. “What happen to you? Did you get chased by a group of wild dogs or something?” Ask Yuki crossing her arms while looking at Rin. “I…Uh…Well…You know the story…I got lost…Then when Saya gave me the location, I went here running right away after receiving the text on my cell phone. That is why I am sweating like a marathon runner. Any more question?” Explain Rin plainly. “Oh…Yes I got a question. So at what time do we leave? Because if we don’t get there before dark, my parents will be worried about me.” Ask Misa while texting someone on her cell phone. “Um…Right now if you want too…And stop texting, will you? It makes me…Well…Sick…Seeing you wasting the money in your cell phone to just texting and texting someone.” Replies Rin, rubbing her forehead gently.

“Yeah…Alright…Okay…Fine…I will stop texting if we get there. How is that? Do we have a deal my dear friend?” Ask Misa again, holding out her hand for an agreement to be made with a handshake. “Alright…You got my attention there. It’s a deal then.” Replies Rin smiling as she shakes Mira’s hand. “Okay…Before we set off to that place, did you guys bring the things that I asked for?” Says Rin as she takes off her beg and puts it on the ground. “Yup! It’s all in here, Captain!” Replies Saya laughing as she puts her beg on the ground and takes out the all the equipments. “Alright, gather your stuff here mates! I want to re-check it so we won’t go panicking when we reached there!” Replies Rin grinning. “Uh…Sure...” Reply Mira and the others as they put their equipments next to Saya’s.
“Alright then, let see…Compass?”

“Check!”

“How about…Bottles? Each person must have two bottles.”

“Check! Why do we need so many bottles anyway?”

“Well…First of all, all of us like to drink every minute or less…Hours. Second, if we ran out of water we will have a back-up supply to survive. Without water for 3 days, we will instantly die from dehydration.”

“Oh, okay then…Any other else?”

“Hmm…Ropes?

“Check.”

“Packets of salt?”

“Check!”

“Flashlight?”

“Check!”

“20 set of batteries…Heavy duty…”

“Uh…Normal ones, yes…But not the heavy duty type…We can go buy them now if you want…”

“…That will be time consuming…So…No…But remember this, use your flashlight when you only needed it most. Don’t waste the battery’s energy for something stupid…Understand?”

“Yup...”

“Will do!”

“Okay!”

“I’ll use my cell phone then!”

“Good…Now…Hmmm…A pair of clothes?”

“Check…Wait…Misa, where’s your extra clothes?”

“Why do we need them? It’s not like we’re on a vacation or something.”

“….Actually we need them….But if you insist…”

“Sorry, Rin.”

“…Not a problem my friend...”

“And not least…The map…Did you bring it Homori?” Ask Rin, holding out her hand as she signals Saya to pack the things. “Yeah, here you go! Good thing my room is filled with them.” Replies Homori as she hands the map over to Rin smiling. “Thanks, Homori.” Says Rin as she opens the map and takes out a black market from her jeans’ pocket. She then takes out her own old map and tries to compare it with the modern one as it gives her a bit of headache. She takes a deep breath, breathes it out, and circles the location that they need to go in the map as a small grin escape from her lips.

“Is there something funny, Rin?” Ask Yuki as she bends down looking at the map. “Hmmm…No…Just smiling about that I finally figure out where is this place is…And it is pretty far I tell yah!” Replies Rin with her childish voice. She puts back the old map into an airtight seal bag and finally puts it into her bag as she puts away her marker too. “What do you mean by pretty far, Rin?” Ask Homori and Saya as they look a little bit of worry. “Well…Look here.” As she points to current location, they are standing. “We are here…And…” She begins to drag her pointing finger to the location that she circles with a black marker. “We need…To go way up….” Finally stops at the mark and hits the circled area like there is an ant beneath it. “Here!”

“…Oh…Wow…That is…FAR!” Says Yuki all of the sudden as her eyes widen to see the location in the map. “How do you suppose we get there? By foot?” Pouts Misa as she mumbles that she will definitely loss some few pounds of weight from just walking there. “About the transportation…Don’t worry, I have my hidden card…” Replies Rin as she takes out her cell phone and poses it like Sailor Moon character. “This is my hidden card!” Says Rin as she flips it open and calls someone. “Yeah…Hello is this---“Says Rin as she walks away quickly from her friends.

“Hmm…I never saw that coming…And this is the second time!” Says Yuki shaking her head in disbelief. “So…Does this mean that she’s treating for ride?” Ask Misa blinking. “…I…I guess so…Wow….” Replies Yuki. “…Unbelievable…” Says all four of them while shaking their heads in disagreement.

After a few minutes of talking, she finally set an agreement and says thank you to the person she talk to as she closes her cell phone and puts in back into her pocket. She walks back to her friends that are looking a bit daze. “So…I’ve got an agreement…Pack your bags and let’s go to the park’s entrance.” Says Rin smiling as she takes the lead. “…The park’s entrance? Why there, can’t we just use the back part of the park? I mean it is just a stone throw away.” Ask Yuki as she takes her bag and puts it on her back. “Well…I forgot…But anyway…Lets move before the transport leaves us!” Replies Rin smiling as she walks a bit faster. The other three struggles a bit as they want to catch up while putting on their bags as one of them shouts to Rin to slow down a for a moment. Saya takes the chance and jogs to Rin and walks by her side as she smiles to her.

“Is this a race?” Ask Misa looking at Rin and Saya as they walk a bit further from them. “I don’t know…” Replies Homori as she sighs a bit and tries to keep up the pace without breaking any sweat. Yuki only stare Rin from behind as she thought of something. “Why all of the sudden this kid takes my place. I’m still here, you know.”

Minutes have pass, they finally reach the entrance with a huff as Rin sits down on the ground to recharge herself from the 300 meters run. “…So…Tired…” Says Rin as she struggles to breath. “Well…Whose idea was it?” Replies Misa with a mocking tone. “I thought I could take the challenge…Haaa…” Replies Rin again. “Even though you have an average size body, you aren’t an athlete! Not all of us are…” Says Yuki, wiping her forehead from the sweat with her Bunny Bee design handkerchief.

As they all were talking to each other, a taxi stops in front of them. “Huh…Is this our ride…?” Ask Saya blinking as she looks at the color of the taxi. “…Yes…” Replies Rin with a nod as she opens the car’s door and gets in. “Wow…V.I.P taxi…Nice one!” Says Yuki smiling as she gets into the car after Rin without any hesitation. “Well don’t just stand there. Get in unless you want to pay for your own vehicle!” Says Rin smiling. “Alright, alright! Yuki would you mind move a little more.” Says Homori as she gets into the car slowly trying to find a seat. After Homori went in, Misa and Saya get into the car as Saya closes the car’s door with a thud sound. The driver then drives the car away from the park as he relieves his foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal.

All of them sit quietly as the ride goes by. Couples of them are looking out through the closed window, as some others are still texting messages with their cell phones. Rin reads and studies the old map once again to check whether the place that they are headed is correct. She sighs a bit as a light headache attacks her mind while she study the map in a moving car. “I know I shouldn’t read in a moving….Car…Now I feel sick…” Thought Rin to herself as she closes her eyes to relax her thoughts from the pain. She takes a deep breath and holds it in for a while as she breathes it out after a couple of second.

The driver then suddenly asks one of them a question, “So…Where do you want to go miss?” As he glance at the reflection mirror for a while and focuses back to the road. “Hmm…Well, do you know the way to the old building on top of the hills?” Ask Rin without hesitation as she looks at the map once more. “Umm…Yes...But why do you want to go there, miss?” Replies the driver as he glances at the reflection mirror to see Rin and back to the road. “Well…We have some work to do at there so…Please…Just take us there. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you.” Says Rin without making any eye contact with the driver. “Alright miss.” Replies the driver as the atmosphere went silent again.

“Hey, Rin. Aren’t you scared…I mean…You know…” Whispers Yuki, “Well…Hmm…Not really. If I am myself is scared. I think this expedition would be only a rumor.” Replies Rin smiling. “Really…?” Ask Yuki again only now with her childish voice on. “Yup! Really!” Replies Rin again with a smile.

Few hours have pass as they are still sitting in the moving car, “…Are we there yet? Why does the road look so dark? It is only like Eleven thirty!” Ask Saya as she looks around through the closed windows nervously. “Well…I don’t know, Saya. Maybe it is because of the trees covering us from the rays of sunshine. But still, we’re almost there…I think…” Replies Rin as she looks to her left window. Seeing the darkness ahead, the driver turns on the car’s headlight as he continues to drive through it. “Well…This is fun…” Says Misa plainly, as she sighs and grumbles seeing the signal bar running low in her cell phone.

Rin sighs as she looks around in the car to find something interesting but it seems it is just an ordinary car like the others. She looks out through her closed window as she can feel something just behind that glass barrier. She quickly takes out her old camera, she then puts on the flasher on top of the camera as she aims it to the window, and pushes the button as the light flashes from the flasher making her friends stop from doing what they are doing and stare at Rin for a moment. The camera then processes the picture for a moment and then prints it out. Rin takes a deep breath and breathes it out as she takes the photo and looks at it as the photo changes it film color from black to a little of whitish. She flips the photo back and forth like a paper fan and blows it gently to make the color shows the image more. As the image on the photo shows her a clearer sight, her eyes opens wider in shock and her heart skips a beat seeing the sight that she did not even imagine to see.

The image in the photo shows a hand print on the window beside her. She gulps and slowly puts down the photo and tries to find the mark on her window. “…It…It’s not there…B…But why…In here…” Whispers Rin quietly to herself as her voice trembles in fear. “N…No…I must remain calm…” Says Rin again as she shakes her head to focus herself to the goal. She crushes the photo and puts it in her bag pocket as she takes out a piece of candy from her pocket and eats it.

Chapter 3: The Ride To The Mountain Of Nightmare

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 | 17:54 | 0 comments