"Dream…?"
"Huh?"
"This is a… But– I– A dream…" The girl started quietly rambling, muttering words under her breath.
"Hey…"
"I can't… How did this– Am I…"
"Hey!"
"!" She flinched, as if suddenly shook awake.
"Are you alright…?"
"S-Sorry…"
"Okay… I'll worry about that later… Anyways, now that I have your full attention, I figure we should introduce ourselves. I'm Lucen, what's your name?"
Lucen extended his hand.
"A-Auribel…"
She hesitated a bit before eventually reaching hers out to shake his hand. Lucen noticed the feeling of her hand, cold, small, and rough.
"Auribel… Alright Auribel, nice to meet you. So do you think you could explain this well… place we're in? A completely white room with nothing else but us in it. Anywhere I look, it's just pure white."
"I don't know… At some point I… I was just here.. I didn't think I'd see someone else here…"
Something is still bugging me here. I know I'm definitely in my room on the outside. Two different times I woke up immediately after but this place, it feels real somehow.
"Are you… a human?"
"Well yeah— wait, you're a devil, aren't you??" She reminds me a bit of Lia and her sisters but like, if they looked more like haunted spirits than anything.
"Yes… I was, at least."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I died…"
"Huh?"
"The last thing I remember before I was here… I was killed… along with my mother during the war. I don't know how long I've been in here, to be honest…"
"What…?" War? What war? And she was killed? She's dead…?
Suddenly the room became shrouded in black once again.
"Ah damn it… I think I'm waking up. Listen, I still have a lot of questions but I'll be back, I think?"
The girl nodded and Lucen waved before his vision became covered in darkness. A moment later, he woke up in his bed.
"Ughhh…"
Lucen, for some reason hot and sweating, got up and checked his phone.
It's 7 already… I slept a good bit.
Lucen walked downstairs and found Laura sitting on the couch watching TV.
"What'cha watchin'?"
"Just the news."
Lucen took a seat next to Laura on the couch and gazed upon the TV screen.
"Now covering a more recent case, we take a look at the disappearances that have been happening in Merfield Park. Authorities confirm eight missing reports had arrived at the station and two more were just recently added. The park has been closed off and investigations are ongoing so please be rest assured this issue will be handled soon."
Laura frowned. "That's so scary… I used to go to that park all the time when I was younger…"
"Khara just told me about this, apparently those two new reports were police officers who went missing while investigating."
Laura's eye's widened. "You're kidding… That's so scary!"
"Yeah… Khara had told me about it before she left for work."
"She started working at that detective agency, right? I hope she won't have anything to do with this…"
Laura suddenly paused and glanced at the glove on Lucen's right hand.
"I guess I never noticed it but what's with the glove?"
"Huh? Oh it's just an um… a fashion choice."
Laura looked at Lucen skeptically. "A fashion choice…?" She looked at the glove closer. "Is it some off-brand Luis Vuittan? The V looks pretty similar, does it not?"
"Uhh no, it's a… handmade original."
"Where did you get it from?"
"I stole it."
"What?!"
"Kidding! Kidding!" Lucen said quickly. "A friend gave it to me."
"Alright…"
Laura studied it for a bit longer before smirking. "How about we call it, Lucen Vuittan?"
Laura chuckled as Lucen blankly stared at her.
"That was awful."
She scoffed. "Not like your puns are any better!"
"You're right. Seems I get it from you, unfortunately."
Laura laughed and stood up. "Anyways, I have to sleep early. Got to wake up pretty early in the morning for work. I left dinner for you in the fridge. Don't stay up too late because you do have school tomorrow."
"Ah right, tomorrow's Monday…"
"Night night, Lucen."
"Good night."
~3 Nights Ago at Merfield Park~
It was 11 o'clock at night and the park was empty. Barricades and yellow tape issuing warnings kept civilians from even attempting to get close. Footsteps echoed around the dark, silent park as two men, seemingly police officers, crossed through the barricades and arrived at the entrance.
"Nothing seems unusual…"
"Yeah, it's just quiet..."
The men flashed their flashlights at different corners of the park. They roamed around the park for a bit, not finding anything.
"Something's off…"
"Well yeah, we're in a dark, creepy, and quiet park with our only lights being these tiny flashlights. Everything feels off."
The other officer sighed. "What were they thinking? Only sending us two here. I didn't even ask to investigate, you dragged me into this."
"Well, I sure as hell wasn't doing it alone. Besides, you've got nothing else to do."
"Let's just hurry up so I can go home… I just bought a game and I'm using up the time that I could be spending playing it."
"You play games? Never pegged you as the type. What game did you buy?"
"This new one that just came ou-"
Suddenly, the sound of bushes shuffling put the two on alert. They immediately took their firearms out of their holsters and held them at the ready.
"Who's there?! Come out!"
The shuffling noise moved in circles. The officers tried to follow the noise with their flashlights but each second, it would move.
"What the hell…"
Panicking, one of the officers shot at the bushes.
POW
POW
The gunshots rang throughout the park and outside of it. The sound of the bushes shuffling continued though.
"ARGH!"
One of the officers screamed and what followed was pure silence.
"Hey… you alright? Wiggins…?"
No response.
"Fuck fuck fuck… I gotta get outta here!" The remaining officer made a beeline for the entrance of the park, using his flashlight as a guide. Suddenly, loud and fast footsteps were heard behind him as he ran.
"Chief chief! Come in! I'm— GAHH!!"
And again, there was silence after the scream. Any trace of the officers were their pistols, flashlights, and pagers which dropped on the ground.
~The Next Day at Ridgepoint High School~
Lucen walked through the hallways of the school, deep in thought.
Strangely enough, I didn't have that same dream or whatever that was this time…
"Oi, Lucen!"
Lucen's friends, Jace Anders, blonde, wearing his uniform loosely and Theo Tran, black hair, wearing jewelry and piercings, approached Lucen from behind.
Lucen sighed. "I know what you guys are about to say and look, my fault, alright?"
"Where the hell were you?? You know we needed THREE people to get into the event, right??", Jace said, pissed.
"Listen, something came up."
"And you didn't tell us?!"
"Well, I couldn't use my phone."
"Ugh, everyday I hate the fact that I can't drop you because I know you can beat my ass! I hate you, friggin' bastard!"
"Alright alright, just cool it a bit. There'll be another event next month, we can just make that one.", Theo said, attempting to calm Jace down.
"Fine, I'll let it slide this time…" Jace settled and the three began walking down the hallway together.
"So...?", Jace said expectedly.
"What?"
"What happened??"
"I got into a fight with some thugs on the way home from school and got hurt. Phone was dead and I didn't get to charge it until yesterday."
"Seriously?" Jace looked at Lucen skeptically.
"Yeah, they were harassing this really cute, office worker looking lady and what else would I do other than what I do best?"
"So, did you score?", Theo asked.
Lucen sighed. "Nope. She left pretty quickly. Didn't even get a chance to talk to her alone. All I was left with was those three stooges."
"And then you got jumped."
"Well not really but–"
Lucen suddenly stopped walking. "You guys go ahead, I'll meet you in class."
"Uhh okay…"
Jace and Theo walked ahead as Lucen looked ahead of him. In the distance, a girl with dark black hair was leaning against the wall. Her face though was very familiar.
"Is that… Lia?"