It was dark.

It was cold.

As it always has been.

The prickling feeling of death that’s always biting at her. The distant warmth of life that she so yearned.

Her senses are starting to become aware. So does her mind. Yet the darkness still hasn’t dispel. No light came through. Where is she?

Knock! Knock! Scratch!

Stirring from her slumber, she felt her eyelids flutter yet she saw nothing but darkness.

Again, she heard the rattle from right in front of her. She breathes in and out.

‘... What is making that noise?’ she thought in her head as the rattling continues in such a persistent manner that it made the inhabitant of what feels like a box, turned slightly annoyed. Behind the seemingly thick layer in between her and the outside world, she heard a faint murmurs of someone talking and it’s about uniform?

“Agh!!! Why is this lid so hard to open?!” frustrated, the oddly child-like voice yelled as they banged on the lid. What lid? The one inside hardly knows.

“Hmph! If it comes to this then---!!!” the voice suddenly came to a halt and then,

FLARE!

Immediately panicked came to her like the fire that briefly illuminates the COFFIN?!

Wait why is she in a coffin?!

And why is there fire?!

The lid swung open and surprise of the one inside, what she saw right then and there is not a person, or at least not a humanoid being but a bipedal creature the height of a a six-months-old babe with silver flames around its neck to its perky ears and a pair of round huge silver eyes with cat-like pupils staring at her.

“Gyahh!!! Wait, how are you awake?!” the creature shrieked in a wild panic as it looked straight at the girl, youthful girl in a black uniform that he really want. Her platinum blonde hair disheveled as the look of confusion remained on her pretty face.

“A… dog? On two legs…?” the girl in the coffin murmured responded quickly with an offended look on the bipedal creature’s cat-like face - its whiskers all stood up as it hisses at the one inside the Coffin.

“Who the hell are you calling a dog?! I’m Cath! Anyway, gimme your uniform or I’ll burn you!” the creature calling itself Cath said with a wide grin. The girl from inside the coffin frowned. What uniform?

She looked down her body and saw the fully black school uniform she’s wearing. This is utter confusion. Why can’t she remember anything about anything at all? She looked around and to her surprise, she saw countless coffins floating around her very own coffin to the very top of what seems to be inside of a tower.

“Oi!!! Don’t you go thinking off far away in my presence, you dimwit human girl! Give me your uniform right now or I’ll burn you!” the creature, Cath threatened her again. Yet again, she gave it a frown.

“Are you deaf?! Or are you a mute?! Can’t you respond at all to me except for that frown!” Cath said again now a lot more annoyed than before.

“Sorry… I was wondering why a dog like you would want a uniform worn by a human” the girl flat out snapped Cath’s logic. She only stared with what looks like pity in her silver eyes as Cath froze before trembling ever so slightly as it stood in front of her.

“Y-You!!! Whatever, just give me your damn uniform!!!” it yelled and immediately everything around them burst into silvery flames that shocked the girl. She backed away feeling the abnormal seeping coldness around her. Her legs run off past the flames and outside of the tower - crashing towards the door in a frantic manner to try and escape the growing flames behind her. Only after a few steps, she fell flat to her face onto the ground.

The girl who hadn’t been able to cast off her initial confusion only looked at the tower going up in silver flames as the little monster walked out with a smug grin on its face.

“Nyahahaha!!! Tremble before Yours Truly might and ingenuity! Now obey me before I burn you too!!!” it announced with such pride, only to notice that the girl it was trying to intimidate was nursing her scraped elbows instead.

“OIII!!! Can you just pay attention to me for one goddamn second you---” it shrieked at the girl who was holding her head in her palms with the ever-present confused look on her face.

“Where… Am I?” she asked, tears falling from her eyes - making the creature look at her with a shocked look that was soon followed with troubled one.

“O-Oi! I know I’m scary but there’s no need to cry! Yours Truly won’t know what to do if you cry!” Cath said when it noticed the girl was already up and running away with her surprisingly fast legs.

“Wha?! Oi! How dare you trick me!!!”

Where is she?

Why is she here?

No, in the first place…

Who is she?

She honestly couldn’t think of any answers to her questions, her head is simply empty. It is either a fully black or white canvas and she is only confused. She trusts her instinct and run - as far as her legs could bring her from the creature.

What is it even?

A dog? But it walked on its two hind legs?

It looks more like a cat, but with a mane. A fiery mane.

She came to a stop after a while, simply crashing open a door her guts told her to and hide in there. She later finds out she was in what seems to be…

It’s a place with a lot of shelves and books. It was hardly dim but there are a lot of shadowed areas due to the amount of tall shelves lined in seemingly never-ending rows. Her shoulders heaved up and down in a slowing rhythm. What is this place called?

She concentrates, trying to form at least a semblance of thought in her otherwise completely empty head. Oddly enough, her body feels so light - fatigue didn’t even bother her after all those running around. Though, the damn fog in her mind is starting to make her a little frustrated.

“Hah! I found you! Do you think running in a library would save you from me?! The great and mighty Cath?!” the creature is at it again and it struck her then.

“AH! It's a library! How did I forget such a simple word!?” she said to the shock of Cath who looked more annoyed with every sentence that came out of the girl’s mouth. It screeched in frustration, gaining the girl’s immediate attention.

“FINE! I’LL BURN YOU! I’LL BURN YOU AND THIS WHOLE LIBRARY ALONG!!!” it screamed when suddenly a loud piercing whipping sound halt its rampage.

“GYAHH!!! WHAT IS THIS STRINGS?!” Cath shouted.

“It’s a whip. Hardly a string. Finally, I found you new student” a new unfamiliar voice attracted the attention of the two figure - one completely devoid of any proper semblance of thoughts in her head and another that wanted to burn everything.

“... New student?” the girl said, the baffled tone in her voice never so clear. The rather eccentric man wearing a mechanical bird mask and cloaked with a feathery coat. The second person she met that evening hardly looked normal either. First it’s a raccoon and now a bird man?

“Uh… This is such a weird dream” the girl said. She couldn’t even recall her own name. The pain fluttering about in her temples just become more and more intense each seconds passing.

What exactly is happening…

A girl woken from what seems to be a slumber, chased by an odd cat/raccoon-like creature standing on its two hind legs. And now, an unknown man wearing a bird’s mask appeared?

She closed her eyes, her breathing starting to calm as she stared ahead.

Her instinct hums within her as the pain in her head starts to feel like the phantoms causing it are now gone.

“... Live…” the soft chime in her head sounds like a calming chant moments before it completely disappeared from her mind.