IC Fiction #1


It began as it always did. The nightmares, or daymares, whatever you want to call them, flit through her mind as she slept. Her eyes darting around furiously under her closed lids. She moaned quietly and turned over.

Suddenly a loud crash.

She sat bolt upright to see a lamp smashed on the floor and a small creature scramble out of the room.

"Baka Neko!!" She shouted and threw her pillow in the direction the creature ran.

She sighed as she lay back down. She slowly rubbed her eyes and looked at her watch. It was still an hour before sunrise.

"Kyoko? Are you alright? What happened?" called a voice from down the hall.

"I'm ok, stupid cat knocked over the lamp."

The voice down the hall simply groaned, obviously annoyed.

"It's still an hour til' sunrise, go back to sleep. I'll clean it up."

She heard a door close down the hall. Slowly she sat back up and examined the wreckage. She walked to the closet and grabbed the broom. Still half asleep, she grumbled to herself as she swept up the broken glass and porcelain. Wandering down the hall into the main room she threw the remains of the deceased lamp into the garbage. She paused a moment. Slowly and carefully she lay down the broom and dustpan and closed her eyes. In a flash she ran over to the couch, reached underneath and grabbed the cat cowering in the back corner.

"Hiding won't do you any good" she said, pulling the cat out by the scruff of it's neck. "You've bothered us enough for tonight, you're going outside."

The cat growled as she moved the beams barring the large steel door. She swung open the door and began to climb the stairs beyond. At the top of the stairs she began to remove the bars blocking the trap door while making sure the cat's continued escape attempts went unfulfilled. Once the bars blocking the trap door were removed she slowly swung the door open. She winced and jumped back, it was still too bright out. She gently tossed the cat outside and grabbed the chain to pull the trap door shut. She stopped a moment when she noticed the sunbeam hiting the opposite wall of the staircase. She stared at the line the sun made with the shadow of the edge of the door. She gazed at the light, first in terror, but then in curiosity. She looked up, she could see the particles of dust dancing in the sunbeam. Slowly, as if in a trance, she reached up to touch it. She stared in sick, twisted facination as the tips of her fingers began to sizzle. She heard a voice, a faint voice, calling her name; but, she was somewhere far away, someplace warm and happy.

"Kyoko!"

She snapped back to reality and pulled her hand away.

"Yeah? What?" she shouted down into the bunker.

"What are you doing out there?" called the voice from earlier.

"I'm just putting the cat out."

She pulled the chain and slammed the trap door shut with a loud clang. She replaced the bars on the door and went down the stairs. A girl in her early twenties stood just inside the steel door, a look of concern on her face.

"What?"

"Kyoko? Are you ok?"

"Fine, why?" she replied, trying to look cute, and hiding her hand behind her back.

"Don't pull that crap with me, I know you better than that. I was calling you for a while. What were you doing up there?" the girl said as she put the beams back in the slots in the steel door.

"Nothing, really. It's still pretty bright out, it hurt my eyes a bit. I'm ok though. Don't worry."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I'm ok. Really."

The older girl gave her a hug.

"You know, you really scare me sometimes."

I scare myself sometimes, she thought to herself.

The girl then turned around and walked toward the garbage.

"Oh, it was the white lamp the cat broke?"

"Yeah, it was."

"Awww... I liked that lamp."

"I know." she said as she started back to her room.



"... What's that smell? Is something burning?"

"Hmmm? I don't smell anything."

She picked up the pillow left in the hallway and shut the door to her room.



Written by : Petra Sphinx 07/09/02


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