Nightmarish horrors forcing sleep deprivation onto her and now a little creature trying to pass off as a mascot…

  “Stop yelling,” it says as a reply to her shrieks. “You were chosen by Dream Weaver or something like that. I’m not here because I wanna be here. Just fulfill your duty and get it over with.”

  Rem is baffled by this thing. ‘Morning Dew’, a fantastic little mascot with an attitude telling others that it truly doesn’t care, has come with some sort of offer.

  “Dream Weaver? Duty?!” she barks. “I’ve got plenty on my plate tell her… him or whatever they are to look for someone else!”

  “I wish I could but she’s more of a legend,” Dew claims. “Some sort of annoying voice tells me where to go and I just do as told.”

  It doesn’t seem very thrilled either. At least it seems relaxed so there likely isn’t much more to its duties other than relaying its message.

  Rem takes a minute to contemplate. How is she supposed to fulfill her duty? When is she relieved of it? How is this thing talking? Why her? Who is ‘Dream Weaver’? Why has she chosen Rem? And does she even exist?

  “So, Dewy. How-”

  “Dewy? Don’t use that nickname. Sounds disgusting,” it snarks. It has the audacity to make itself comfortable and make demands while sipping from her bottle of fizzy drinks with attitude. “And what’s your name? You should introduce yourself.”

  Rem grabs Dewy by its cone-shaped ears staring into its empty eyes while slowly tightening her grip.

  “Speak or die, mascot.”

  “I don’t know either! I’ve only done this once so don’t expect me to know it all!” It’s fairly animated for a doll.

  “So what do we do? If you have zero experience, how am I supposed to fulfill my duty?”

  “I’m sorry.” It seems genuinely downtrodden and apologetic. “I only get told to do stuff but never how…” The stars underneath its eyes have turned into tear drops.

  Rem can sympathize with it. She’s just as clueless as it is when it comes to her life. At least she has a template and a current goal that’s telling her how to navigate life.

  “It’s fine. How about we think about it later? I have an essay to take care of and you seem kind of tired.”

  As such, this tiny fellow rests on her lap with sheep for marks beneath its eyes. Slowly but surely, she too eventually drifts off to dreamland just barely finishing her essay. Though she had planned to work on another project for this week, her lack of restorative sleep turns staying up past 8pm into an incredulous task.

  She drifts further and further, far deeper than before, into a world of slumber she had yet to visit. Once again, she’s trying to outrun a familiar foe, an old nemesis plaguing her ever since she was a child. Death, dread, and sorrow once again are on her tail engaging her as this unspeakable horror. However, this time, she’s accompanied by a freshly aquired friend. Morning Dew is panicking just as much as she is trying to outfly the monstrous figures Rem had conjured up during her childhood.

  “Dewy??”

  “Don’t call me that! And why are we running???” Neither had ever seen the figures that are encroaching on them. For all they know it could be a puppy with massive damp breaths or a snake with three heads and horns.

  “Does it look like I know?! Would I be running if I knew what these things are???”

  Rem closes her eyes again wishing it would end. Her eyes are forced open by Dewy’s little stubs for hands. Due to exhaustion he’s lying atop her head unable to fly any longer. She can see the edge of the cliff drawing closer with each breath of hers. Rem braces for their descent as she grabs Morning Dew as if she could shield it. Tears are drawn out of her as land slowly but surely draws closer and closer.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “What are you afraid of?! Tell me!”

  “Huh?” Rem is baffled over its request. “I’m afraid of heights. Why are you asking?”

  “I saw you peering out the window during class from the third floor! It can’t be that serious!” Morning Dew has unreasonable beliefs when it comes to fears. What more can you expect from a childish fairy?

  “That’s not the same thing! You don’t get it because you’re an idiot!” Rem, now that she’s stressed and at her worst, is beginning to think of obscenities to spout at Dewy. Yet its pained expression is all she needs to lay off and reconsider.

  “When I was eight…”

  She hesitates.

  “When I was eight another kid in our neighborhood died of cancer… I know I shouldn’t be that sad or uncomfortable about talking about her or visiting her grave, but…”

  “But…? Tell me more.” Without any sort of consideration, Morning Dew is asking for more.

  “But all I see is nothing. Dying and not existing is scary. It’s dreadful, cold, and disgusting. Thinking about her frail little body sitting in a casket all dolled up and waiting to decompose into nothing makes me sick. Thinking about how little was left of her personality by the end of it makes me want to puke my guts out. Thinking about how no one ever talks about her acting as if she never existed makes me gag. It’s all sickening!”

  “I can’t see a future where I don’t exist! Missing out on everything else: happiness, joy, delight, glee, bliss, elation, ecstasy, delirium just doesn’t feel right! I should have a right to live! I should be allowed to live forever! I want to be remembered forever! I don’t wanna make choices just because I don’t have the time to hesitate! I want more than eighty years! I have a right to that! It’s unfair!”

  “…”

  “And I don’t wanna hear about how I’d just experience what I experienced before birth! That’s fucking stupid! I know it’s nothing but isn’t that exactly what I’m afraid of?! Isn’t that what I’m trying to wrap my head around?? Why would someone tell me that as some form of comfort?! How could they say that when I’m so afraid of nothing??”

  “Even falling asleep feels dreadful. I hate going to bed! There are so many hours I’m missing out on by being asleep! There are so many hours I’m missing out on by sleeping! And it’s not the same thing as death! You dream and wake up! What’s wrong with these people??”

  “And don’t tell me about being reunited with a loved one! Just make a new one or meet them here while you’re alive! Reunited?! How?? As maggot shit and dirt!”

  They’re still falling yet none of their eyes are on the splattering that’s about to commence.

  “I’m sorry.” Morning Dew hugs Rem.

  Rem chuckles. “I’m sorry for laying it all onto you. You’re a brat but a nice one… At least nicer than my brother.”

  Her eyes shift to the land below. She’s trying to keep them open while tears blur her vision.

  “We’ll just have to land! Don’t think about it!” She thinks of the figurines, the magical girls that have kept her safe in nightmares.

  She’s awful at convincing herself yet it’s enough to soothe her into keeping her eyes open. Before long, something shatters. Shards are scattered around her welcoming her into an entirely seperate world hidden beneath her nightmarescape. Double helixes portraying her geneology are swirling about stretching into an infinite void of white. Several grow smaller turning into small ribbons conveniently stretching around her in every color of the rainbow. Wrapping her into a cocoon of her very own geneology till they form an all-encompassing rainbow flowerbud from which Rem emerges from.

  This blonde young woman with hair that wouldn’t stretch further than her neck now bears a ponytail stretching all the way down to her waist in a skyblue with dark blue streaks. Her eyes have gone from blue to pink with yellow hearts surrounding her pupils. Her jogging shorts and baggy shirt have turned into a one-piece skirt full of puffs and veils. Above the waist it’s white with all kinds of colorful paint splotches and hands. Veils sprout from her sleeveless one-piece giving her a semblance of coverage down which reach about halfway to her elbows. Below the waist lies the pleated skirt colored after each color of the rainbow. Finally; a veil that stretches down behind her that is somewhat seethrough, a golden cape attached to her left shoulder and arm, and a black belt with a chain afixed to the right side of her hip… A proper magical girl.

  “It worked!” Morning Dew is overjoyed. Something triggered this transformation within Rem. The space around them shatters once more as they are reintroduced to the nightmarescape. Yet, somehow, they ended up in an entirely new space.

  “Hide!” commands a lonely little girl hiding beneath a pile of clothes.

  BANG!

  A sudden bolt of lightning has hit Rem striking her down without mercy.