I saw a world so dim that the lights were as dark as the vacuum of space. A nightmare for seraphs, yet also a Nephilim's dream. A cool breeze swept up my arms as I lifted my head in appreciation; bleak, dark, and humorless, yet also it gives me the feeling of intense security, relief, and blissful release. How could such darkness bring a feeling of respite over me? How could such otherworldly presence satisfy me? I, who spends the nights cowering wrapping myself in bed as I sleep. I, who was pampered for years by my mother, deemed unfit to leave home by my father and forever meant to be held by my grandmother.

Why? Why? Why?

No one dares answer why, that's why!

As I opened my eyes and stared at the sky. I saw a dying sun, as red as a flawless apple, with rays so weak my skin went white. The sun, I found was sad. The way his rays flicker and the way his light shines, it's nothing else but filled with utter and depressing sadness. That is also when I noticed myself lower my head; I stared at the sun for a very long time but the sun didn't blind my eyes, it just stared.

I noticed someone approach me, it was a girl wearing something very familiar to me. She approached slowly carrying a plastic bag, the kind where you put the school supplies in. She walked, step by step as I felt a chill up my spine she stopped. She continued once again and continued step by step towards me. I felt a tinge of curiosity fill my head as she was approaching me. I felt my hairs stand as she got nearer and nearer, I tried to look away but found I couldn't. The way her figure revealed itself to me made my inner and irrational fears come back. She stopped just a step away from me and took her mask off as I felt myself do the same. I saw her and beheld her, with a beauty that I would always wish for to be my wife. I can't help but notice that she looked familiar, though I can't see her eyes the light seemed to hide them from me. That's when I noticed, it, it can't be! Rika?

Those features: that delicate, small but pronounced nose; that long straight black hair; those well-chiseled cheeks; and those luscious but decent lips. She melted my heart the moment I saw her but now I kind of can't figure out why she won't show her eyes. It's not her fault I guess it's this world's fault though.

'It's this world's fault?'

This has to be a dream. This has to be a dream! This can't be real, I can't even move my neck. She took a finger and dipped it in her mouth, dripping with drool she offered it to me. Without thinking my body went forward to where her finger is. I felt my mouth open as I moved forward for the taste. But no! no! no! What is this anyway?

"Wake up! wake up! It's Just a dream! Please! let me wake up"

I jumped out of my bed to the concrete floor below. My head hurts, my nose was broken. I went face first. I was wailing in pain when I saw someone give me plaster and a bag of ice.

"It's just a dream okay, just a dream." I heard her soft motherly voice and looked, it was her, it was Rika.

"How did you get in?" I asked weakly as my nose poured amounts of blood to the floor.

" Didn't you remember yesterday?" she asked before showing me a key. I remember it now, I gave her the key just in case I wake up late.

She treated my wounds as I ate instant pasta, and we got out of the apartment together waiting for the last few minutes for the school bus to arrive. After we got in, I noticed some people look at us, particularly my nose. Lina who was sitting in the chair in front of us turned and said:

"Wow! That's a mess! Did you beat our little boy up?"

I interrupted and replied: "Nyet, I jumped out of the bed face first."

"Woah! Try to get red or bite marks next time. Not injuries okay! Heh hehe."

That bleeding vixen, I knew she would say that because Holt was so filled with red marks from a distance he would've been mistaken for a huge skin infection. But, nonetheless, the show must go on and I must let this pass. This is the first, and please be the last.

***

Late afternoon

We were approaching my apartment at that moment, and as our ritual dictates, we must stand at that fork before we separate into the two buildings in front of us in the intersection of Wester and Sallet. The one to our left is my apartment, the other to the right is her house. It is here in the open where we fulfill our relationship with the most important part of the ritual. We both loosened our masks in the cool humid wind and faced each other in the presence of the eavesdropping sun. Before the clock strikes six, I must leave a trace of my being on her cheeks or her forehead. As the minute passes, we go our separate ways and continue the day till tomorrow.

I looked deep into her bright green eyes and closed mine as the hour struck. Silent was and always was the town, wherein most a siren could've wailed. Slowly I moved my head and kissed her forehead as she was an inch shorter, suffice to say today's was longer than usual. I opened my eyes and saw her smile, only now it was more sincere than before. Her eyes were doing better than that plastic gaze she usually does. And as the minute went, so do we.

I finished my homework and my rounds. Sadly I have to wake up early as I haven't finished studying for the previous lesson. As I took my time to get some sleep I felt a cold breeze, I already closed my windows and turned off the cooler. I sat in the bed but heard nothing, I looked at the thermostat and found that it didn't even notice anything, but the breeze I still feel.

I closed my eyes and shut my mind. Only to awaken in the same place at the same time as the breeze hit me. I closed again and felt it hit me again. 'Deja vu!' I stood and approached the window, and saw a new world ahead of me, that of the dream!

The sun was somewhat weaker now, its rays weren't as good as before and it had an aura of weakness to it. Maybe it was dying.

Trying to clear my mind, I went to bed and tried to sleep. I felt like it and heard my alarm go off, so I got out and took my textbook. Only it wasn't the right one, it was a quarter a century older. I approached the window in fear of what I will witness. It bore me! just another Deja Vu!

I spent what felt like an eternity trying to decide whether or not I should go out, and after what felt like a year of sitting I decided to get some snacks below but the door just won't budge. I kicked, bashed, and even hacked the door with an ax. Sadly I only received a slight concussion to the head. Brimming with frustration I took a blowtorch and tried to melt the knob. It took another hour to realize that the blowtorch wasn't even working nor taking its toll.

I felt my bottom hurt as I sat on a folding chair staring at the knob. That is when I heard some rattling in the room. I found my protective gear next to a bag of cookies near the sink. Fortune cookies, and after I broke one it gave me a hint in three boring words: "Bloody Wear It!"

I decided to try to appease whatever is trying to do this and hoped that perhaps following the instruction could help. I put it on and tried the knob, It turned but now I could barely move, I feel like hitching a ride at someone. And my body seemed aware just where to go. I approached the place where I once was standing at and there she was approaching before halting where she stood. Once more she took her index finger and plunged it into her mouth before withdrawing it and presenting it to me. As before, I involuntarily bent and took it into my mouth. I noticed that it was mildly sweet and as my head looked up into her eyes, I noticed that her eyes were getting clearer as I could see her eyelids and cornea but no iris.

She looked very pretty despite the lack of eye color, and I felt a tinge of closeness to her. I felt my heart raced its beat, my emotions scurrying to find their lost brother and my mind at peace for I felt loved and ready to be loved.

The world collapsed right under my breath as I awakened to the sound of an alarm.

***

December 11, 2787

It has been nearly two months since the dreams came, and with each passing day, that world darkened as the girl looked clearer and Rika got closer and looked just like the girl in my dream. She looked wonderful nowadays always smiling and nearly never leaving a trail of sadness in her tender and delicate face. She's very supportive and very helpful in day-to-day affairs, not to mention there are times I would've rather want our ritual to be a real kiss and not just a platonic kiss.

As for the things in class, it's well. I'm actually holding on to dear life as my grades are fluctuating in uncertain melodies and the class was without another word normal as of late. But I must confess, I had the misfortune of witnessing Lina and Holt enjoying full-blown coitus in one of the school's storage rooms last November. And I must admit in great displeasure that they literally "FUCKED THEIR BRAINS OUT" and god forbid I noticed both dangling their faces in Ahegao. But other than that there is none.

There is something that I held in great amazement though and that is Rika presenting me a drool-covered finger instead of the usual kiss to the forehead. I was astounded but I seemed to have noticed this coming because a brother of his interrupted my walk home just after our ritual a few days ago. I learned that his and her surnames were my mother's maiden name and she might be a distant relative of theirs. I was happy to note that we were not that close and it won't be a case of incest either. But one thing did bother me, and that is the darkening tone of my dream world. With each passing day, she becomes clearer but the world gets darker. I swear the last dream I had colored the landscape in dark Obsidian shade with only her and me colored.

As I approached the usual place of our ritual my hands were trembling, though she couldn't notice it under my gloves. We got on time and precisely on the place as we removed our masks. That smile still lingers on though mine seemed to always be troubled ever since that world started to darken and darken. I felt my watch vibrate as the hour struck and she offered a finger filled with drool at me. Looking at it I did not bend like last time and instead used my hand to cast it aside and stepped forward. She now, at last, sighed as her face gloomed with the sourness of being dour. I approached closer and closer till we were as close as we were before when we started our ritual.

The more I got closer, the more her head lowered. I placed a hand on her left shoulder and my right to lift her chin, It is here that I found her in her saddest form. Though I may be the cute one in this relationship, she looked cuter to me instead today than ever before. I looked into her eyes with such uncompromising gaze that she tried to look away, my grip on her chin she could do less. And as her eyes looked down on her feet, I closed myself as well. Her eyes met my image as I kissed her lips.

Surprised and compromised I felt her tongue invade mine as I locked unto her trying to relieve myself of my feelings gathered during the last couple of months. We broke off, and I hugged her tightly with my head on her right shoulder. I don't know why but she moved my head near her bosom as she laid her cheeks on my cranium. We left satisfied from the ordeal and I saw her with tears of gladness as she left for home. The future and the future alone, that is also when I wished she wouldn't break into my room in the middle of the night and do something to me that'll leave red marks on my face.

I slept well that night, and the world was far brighter than before. It was beautiful and nice, not like my evening where I kissed Rika with rain splashing on my face. It was sunny and the wind wasn't even funny.

I went through the usual and as always looked at her eyes, it had an outline but the color wasn't there yet. I felt disturbed by this revelation and woke up earlier than expected. I noticed a scene where she would grab my arm as we stroll across the street towards what seemed to be a nonexistent love hotel. It felt like a nightmare as I struggled to breathe.

***

The next day

I visited Andrey today and luckily he was very cooperative. I told him about the drool offering and he played a tune immediately on his electric organ, oddly it sounds like the same tune and melody I hear as I leave the apartment and go on with the dream ritual every night. The circusy, waltz-like, mysterious, and heartwarming tune made me nearly think I was dreaming again. I remarked on my case and I noticed a smirk escape his once very serious face and heard him say the word "Tendril". He got out of his piano seat and took two boxes, both of which looked like old movies called anime.

They were both worlds apart in color and form, though both were stored in CDs the packaging could tell you they weren't made in the same century. Two centuries apart, in fact, he proclaimed.

" I wonder which I should give you? The classic or the heartbreaker of the century? Hmmm"

He looked at me and a face so discriminating escaped his gaze.

"Bahhh! I can't give you my treasured copy, I'll give you this instead. Mysterious girlfriend Y instead of the twenty-first-century cult classic Mysterious girlfriend X."

"What's the difference?" I asked as he looked at me unamused as if I were an Ignorant gonad.

" The old one has a kind of feel that nearly every director would like to emulate but couldn't. The later one had better graphics and took the effort of nearly eight directors and ten screenwriters just to perfect. Sad to say, the full feature movie couldn't beat the 13 episode masterpiece of the past. So for the sake of sentimentality, I can only let you borrow the new one. I can let you have the old one if you managed to give it back on time."

" I could just buy this online you know!" I said quite irritated by his stare.

" I went to an auction for these Bubi, and it nearly cost me a fortune!"

" Can you tell me more about this?" I said shocked at its value.

" I can't tell you spoilers but here I go with the history. It was some sort of a late bloomer, it didn't garner much success during the twenty-first century due to cultural reasons. Though it had a small cult following, however that changed during the twenty-third century when it caused the Romantic revolution in the colonies, the earth didn't follow, however.

People started making sequels to the original 13 and one OVA to only varying levels of success. Something was off whenever a professional makes one of this genre. Some claimed it was their schooling that prevented them instead of recreating the same feeling when one watches the original episodes. And those directors I said, were dropouts. Soon anti-earth sentiments started to arise due to various accounts and pieces of evidence pointing out that the unified government and the corporations were manipulating events and exploiting colonists for their ends.

And that's all of it."

" Well, anything else?"

"Nope!" he replied as his girlfriend entered the room in her underwear whereupon he immediately rushed me out of his apartment.

Despite today being a holiday and without classes, I still had to continue with my obligation and fulfill the ritual. It went swell and I kissed her longer than I kissed before. That enticing smile filled the air again and I'm more than just happy to be her boyfriend.

The dream was similar to the last one. The jolly atmosphere, the tune, and the drool. Just as it approached my tongue, I felt a drip on my sensitive part. It was so sweet! That despite my stiff face, I actually smiled in a dream. Now came the time when I would raise my head and look at her eyes and what I saw nearly killed me!

The girl wasn't Rika, she had deep blue eyes whereas Rika had green eyes. But something tells me this could be mom, I can feel it with her sincere smile but those eyes don't match. Mom's eyes looked similar to Rika's. This doesn't make any sense at all but considering that this is just another weird dream, I forgave it and let things unfold. That is until something odd happened, my neck is no longer stiff I can move my head.

Exploring this newfound freedom, I looked at a mirror and gazed at my image. Only it wasn't me in the mirror.

It was, someone else. And he looked kind of familiar...