This same path again.

Nightmare 03 – This same path again.

I woke up from my bed, bolting upright immediately. My head was fuzzy, and I used my thumb and middle finger to press my temples as I recall…

"I died…?" I muttered, then swallowed a lump in my throat. "Was that a dream?"

Memories of event that happened—in a dream had flooded inside my head. I met a girl in white, been stabbed with a knife, and then died.

"A nightmare."

This might be a better term for it. That was not a dream. It was a nightmare where I had all my senses making it unbelievably realistic.

I let out a deep sigh escape my chest, then looking at the curtain, which was illuminated by the sunrise, I rose up from my bed.

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I have found you already. So, hey… When will you find me?

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The girl in white resembled a ghost called white lady.

But that didn't really matter. What was important was that the voice I heard yesterday morning was the same voice of that girl. I was certain about this. So, what did this mean? I heard that voice and caused me to experience that nightmare? In the first place, was the voice I heard real or just my fantasy?

If it was my imagination, then everything last night was just a pure fantasy meant to scare me. Nothing more. If it was something else. Like a message from a real person then it must someone who knew about me. Someone from my past, was what I thought.

The girl in white was someone who knew me and probably, I knew her too based on how she talked. I heard her voice and it triggered my some of my memories to resurface. It was still strange though, would a supposedly normal dream to recover bits of memories result with my death in it?

Really, losing all my memories was just a huge problem.

Now, I didn't even know what I had done to her that made her hate me enough to kill me—well, that was all a hypothesis though. It was because even if the voice wasn't my hallucination, there was always the possibility that that dream was a pure product of my mind.

So whether she was just a character in my nightmare or a real person, I could not be sure yet.

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The girl in white was inside my nightmare. A colorful nightmare.

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"Reiji," Masayuki called out to me as I changed my indoor shoes to my outdoor ones. "Let's have some ramen."

"That's okay but," I glanced at my side where Yuka stood having finished changing her shoes. "Will you come too, Class rep?"

"She's probably minding her weigh."

"I will go," she replied in a cool manner as she peered at Masayuki. "Once in a while isn't a bad thing."

"I knew you would say that." Masayuki grinned as his taunt had worked on Yuka. "Let's go to the one near the station then."

We walked down the wet slope. It rained hard last night due to the storm but it lessened this morning. Still, it continued raining until it stopped several minutes ago. Masayuki grumbled as well since the classes wasn't suspended like he was hoping.

As I looked forward to the road, seeing other students walking to their respective destinations, I quietly whispered without the two hearing it. "This same path again."

The road I walk everyday was the same, single road to the train station. I had never taken a different path nor did my friends lead me to a place that could be considered far to this road. Weekends didn't let me explore my hometown too since my parents wouldn't allow me to go outside. They were probably scared that something might happen to me again.

Since I was involved in a certain accident six months ago, my world had just been my house, the school and this path.

"Maki, Yuka, can we go somewhere?" I asked them after we had just left the shop where we ate ramen.

"Sure you bet, I'll take you to the station," he joked.

"No, I'm asking seriously. I want to go the park."

"Reiji-kun, what's wrong?" Yuka asked with a worried look. "You know that your parents asked us to watch you so that you will go home straight from school, right?"

Yes, my parents did give the two that responsibility. Actually, going to the ramen shop was a kindness from the two of them. But…

"I…" It seemed that these two wouldn't let me go after all so I switched back to a joking manner. "I just want to explore the city. You know places like the park, cinema, or the riverbank…"

'Wait, cinema and riverbank, why did I suddenly thought of those?'

As I was bewildered, I saw a glimpse of their expression. I was surprised.

They were both shocked, but most of all, Maki had an aura of animosity from him and Yuka was somehow threatened.

"We-well, I was just curious. That's all." I smiled wryly at the two of them.

"…All right, Reiji, I'll take you next time somewhere," Masayuki grinned.

"He-hey, Maki—"

Masayuki glared at her before facing me again. "But not today, okay?"

"…I understand."

We walked silently after that as we head to the station. The time did little to register in my mind as I thought of various things and soon, we were in our neighborhood already.

Masayuki was the first one to separate from us since his house goes into different direction. And when we reached the intersection where our path diverge, Yuka suddenly spoke.

"Reiji-kun… No, nothing." She smiled at me. "See you again tomorrow."

"Yeah."

She trotted away as I stood and watched her back.

"Why are you two using a fake smile?" I silently asked.

With no one to answer, I slowly started walking to my house's direction. I gazed above. The sun was starting to set and the sky was red, different from the blue that I admired. Somehow, this sky that I was seeing was different from the usual sky of everyday.

Something was changing. Is it myself, or the things around me?

Both, I thought.

If this would continue, my memories might just come back. And the reason why I suddenly thought of exploring the town was probably because of that nightmare. It was because of that girl.

'A phantom that leads me to my past. I hope so…'