Tsumugi's Dream

That night Tsumugi Fujimoto had a dream.

It was a dream she had almost every night, and always forgot about in the morning after. But this night she was determined not to forget. Before she went to bed, she kept a journal next to her, so she could write down whatever she remembered right after waking up before she forgot the details. She hoped doing this everyday, by writing down different parts of the puzzle, she could one day piece them together to make a connected whole.

It took her a while to go to sleep, and as expected, she entered the same dream, recognizing it immediately in her sleep.

A white wall was the first thing she saw. Unconsciously, she was already trying to note it in her subconscious mind: I am standing in front of a white wall. 

It was dark. It is dark.

It was cold. It is cold.

She turned away from the white wall, slowly trying to look around.

I am back there.

The horror started to set in as her brain recognized where she was. She was back there, back where it all started. She tried to scream but no sound would come out.

No, I can't scream, she realized. It's not a dream. It's a memory.

But she did scream, in the memory. She looked up above the white building she was standing in front of, the new hostel wing. There was a plume of black smoke rising from it.

"FIRE!"

Suddenly, she woke up, panting hard. I'm sweating, she realized, as she instinctively grabbed the journal from near her and opened it to the page bookmarked with a small pencil.

The memories fading from her head, she stressed trying to remember, but only managing to scribble down one word:

'BURNING'

"Hah, so that's what it is..." she said aloud, getting out of bed to go grab a glass of water.

As she walked towards the door of her bedroom, she stopped right before it, turning to the right. Because on the right was a wardrobe, which had a mirror on one of it's doors. She looked up and down at herself in the mirror, noticing the numerous burn scars on her body.

I've gotten old, she thought, smiling at her wrinkles and dark circles. Her once lively black hair was now grey and even white in some sparts. The burn scar on her face stood out the most, covering her chin and part of her left cheek. It had been hard to accept, but she was glad she made it out of the disaster alive; she was one of the only ones to do so.

One of the only survivors of the deadly Shiroyama Academy fire.