The next day, I told my mother about the slumber party plan I had made with my friends. Surprisingly, she agreed to it. Believe it or not, my sister and I had never been to a slumber party, or any such thing, so this would be very interesting for us. When the time came, Emu and everybody else came to our house to pick us up. My mother had given us a goodbye that lasted about fifteen minutes. She kept having second thoughts, but she eventually let us go. Tsukasa drove us to Emu's house. It looked so big and fancy, I gasped when I stepped inside. The floors were shiny, and the whole place just looked modern in general.

Emu gave us a whole tour, then finally took us to her room. "I made a pillow fort for us!" Her bedroom looked so happy and colorful, it looked like her if she was turned into a bedroom. "We can watch movies on my phone, and stay up all night!!!" Emu squealed excitedly.

I picked up one of the many pillows from the floor and aggressively threw it at the back of Tsukasa's head, cackling.

"Ow!" He screeched. Picking up the same pillow and hitting me on the face with it.

I narrowed my eyes at the supposed future star. "How did that hurt you, It's a pillow. On top of that, future stars don't feel pain." I joked.

Honoka pulled me away from Tsukasa, then stood in front of him like she was a bodyguard. "Stop being mean to Tsukasa, he doesn't deserve that kind of treatment." She whined in protest.

I loudly laughed in her face. "I just threw a pillow at him. It's not like I tried to kill him!"

Honoka grabbed a different pillow, and smacked me with it as hard as she possibly could. She was quite strong, so it did hurt. "Oww!" I screamed, picking up a pillow and hit her back with it.

Nene was silently watching on the side, she seemed to be playing some kind of game on her phone.

Rui did his little laugh, but this time it sounded slightly malicious. He slowly got a pillow for himself, and whacked me with it so hard I nearly fell over.

I fought back, though I could not move him. No matter how hard I tried. "Fall over already." I ordered jokingly.

Emu hopped up on her bed, then as she jumped down hit Rui with a pillow, She managed to make him stumble. "WONDERHOY!!!"

Climbing up on Emu's bed and standing on it, I did a crazy laugh just for the fun of it. "I have the high ground!" I felt like I was five again, Honoka and I would do stuff like this.

Rui laughed and put his hands up. "Oh no! I surrender!"

"I am your new queen, you must obey my every command." I said confidently as I looked down at them.

"Oh yes, queen." Rui bowed his head humbly.

After standing on Emu's bed and making everybody give me hugs and head pats, I got bored. So we did Emu's movie idea. She turned on English subtitles for us. But Tsukasa was talking through the whole thing, and Rui spoiled the plot by figuring it out. Nene wasn't even paying attention, she was on her phone. Honoka and I kept having mini conversations about random things that had nothing to do with the movie. Then finally the movie ended, and Tsukasa had fallen asleep. He had the loudest snore in the entire world.

"Why does he snore so loud?!" I wondered to myself, an annoyed look on my face.

Nene sighed, she looked uncomfortable. "I don't know..."

We sat in silence for a while, the only sound Tsukasa's snoring from hell. I kept thinking about how tomorrow was Monday, and then I'd have to get up and go to school. I hate Sundays, they always give me anxiety. I laugh and smile, but sometimes inside I feel like crying... I think I'm stupid. My life scares me, everything scares me.

Emu tried playing truth or dare with us, but we somehow ended up falling asleep while she was talking. Since everybody else had already drifted off to dream land, she decided to go to sleep too.

-

I will now tell you about the horrible nightmare I had. Nightmares were usually normal for me, but each time they seemed scarier.

In my dream, I had woken up in a black void. Falling endlessly, I had no idea I was dreaming. I kept screaming for help, but I just kept falling. No escape, surely death would find me.

I woke up again, everything seemed normal. I was at the old apartment I used to live in. My family was there, they seemed upset.

"You're stupid, Setusko!" Honoka sneered. "Other people have problems too. You're not the only one who's hurting. You're selfish."

The world around me seemed to be spinning. Faster, and faster. I felt anxiety and fear building up inside of my body.

They then made an attempt to kill me, they ended up chasing me out of the house. I was lost, I had no clue where I was. My paranoid thoughts merged with reality. I realized I was dreaming, I tried as hard as I could to awaken myself. I started praying to God, for him to let me wake up. Begging, pleading, I did not wake up.

I woke up again in the dream, I was at the house we had recently moved to. I thought I had finally woken up and thanked God. I walked down the stairs, only to find Honoka and I when we were five. Staring into my eyes menacingly.

"You dissappoint me." Five year old me informed me. She giggled.

I tried to scream, but no sound would come out of my mouth. I felt like I would never wake up, I was so sure I was doomed. Suddenly I was tumbling down the stairs, but every time I reached the end, I was right back at the top. It repeated over and over again. Everything felt sore.

Again and again, I thought I woke up when I really didn't. Each time the nightmare was scarier. It was almost like it wanted me to be afraid, like it knew I was trying to wake up.

This time, I was so sure I had woken up, and I tried to move out of the bed, then I felt something pushing down on my body. I couldn't breathe, my heart started pounding. I couldn't do anything to break free. "G-God! SAVE ME!!" I somehow managed to scream. After that no sound would come out of my mouth. I started crying, wallowing in my despair.

The dream switched to Rui giving me a hug, I finally felt safe. I was so glad the nightmare turned into a good dream. I tried to kiss him, but he pushed me away.

"Setsuko... I'm not real." He told me with the most serious facial expression I had ever seen. I know it sounds funny, but then he literally disappeared.

I screamed a swear word, then I actually woke up.

Rui was hugging me tight in his sleep, a little smile on his cute face.

Despite waking up to something as nice as this, I was still terrified. I also needed to pee, so I tried getting up to go to the bathroom. He groaned in disapproval when I moved, and pulled me close to him again. "Rui, let me get up or I'll pee on you." I whispered to him.

Rui's eyes immediately fluttered open and he let go of me. He had obviously been fake sleeping.

I got up and went to the bathroom. Every time I took a step I thought I'd fall, the floors in Emu's house were so slippery and I was wearing socks.

While I was washing my hands, a blonde haired woman with cat ears appeared in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked deranged. She simply yelled a swear word in my face with hate in her voice.

I let out a blood curlding shriek, it felt like all of the warmth in my body was sucked out. I was so terrfied I couldn't breathe. I stood frozen staring at the strange woman in the mirror. My mind was racing, I was questioning if I was asleep.

She snapped her fingers at me. "Idiot, I'm here to give you some words of truth. YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE FOOL! You're not funny, and your little friends probably think you're annoying." She flicked her ear. "They would be right in thinking that, you're annoying as ****" The cat woman scoffed at me.

I started to cry. Her words were like a punch in the guts. "Who the hell are you?!" I asked in between sobs.

"You, *****. Or Mary the Mad..." She replied with a smirk.

I sniffled, still terrified. I didn't know why I was talking with this thing. It was probably a demon. "Who even am I anymore?! I often change my personality for others because I think they wouldn't like me." I screamed in despair. I felt like I was going insane.

Mary mocked my words. "That's right, they don't like you! Honestly, you're blessing them by not being yourself." She grumbled in annoyance. "You're torturing your family and new friends by being whatever the **** you really are." She raised her lip at me in disgust.

I cried harder, putting my hands over my face. I swore I must have been going crazy.

Mary banged on the mirror, like she was trying to hit me. "I HATE YOU, DO YOU KNOW THAT?! YOU SHOULD!! STUPID *****!!!!" Her angry voice sounded distorted, like it had an effect on it.

I tried covering my ears to drown out her yelling, but it only got louder. I started wailing loudly, it made my throat hurt.

Rui started knocking rapidly on the bathroom door. I didn't open it for him, I just kept screaming. "節子！ドアを開けてください、お願いします！" He wound up opening the door himself, and hugged me tightly, trying to make me stop crying. "シーッ...すべてうまくいくよ、泣かないで。来たよ、節子。" He told me in a gentle voice.

I finally calmed down when I saw Mary the Mad was gone. Then I told him the dream and everything that happened, crying the whole time.

Rui looked extremely worried for me. "Shh, it's okay now. You're awake, and that mean Mary lady is gone." He gently stroked my head and then we walked back to Emu's room. "Setsuko... are you okay?" He tilted his head at me, I noticed he had dark circles under his eyes.

I started crying again. "No, no, I'm not okay! I'm scared of everything, everything is scary. What if you aren't real?! Or what if we all die tonight?!!"

Rui sighed and hugged me tightly, then gave me a kiss on the head. "I'm very real, Setsuko. Nobody is going to die." It was like he thought I was his girlfriend for a split second, weird.

I basically started to tell him all of my secrets. "My parents fight, I don't like it. I want them to shut up so bad sometimes. Even if I cover my ears I can still hear them yelling horrible insults at eachother. They don't fight with fists, they fight with words, but it's just as scary. I remember reading books to distract myself. It's like escaping to another world. A better world, a happy one." I sniffled, my eyes were filling up with tears again. My throat felt weird from trying not to cry.

Rui looked sad, he ran his fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry..."

"Sometimes, I would pray that I'd go deaf..." I whispered, I could barely keep my voice sounding normal.

After that Rui didn't know what to say, he just led me out of Emu's room and into the living room. "Try sliding on the floor, it's fun." He told me with a kind smile.

I slid on the floor on my socks, then fell over on my butt. I laughed, I was starting to feel better. "It is fun..." I got up and kept sliding around on the floor.

Rui joined me, a big happy smile spread across his face. "Do you feel better now?"

"Yes! Lots." I was laughing the whole time. We kept almost falling, since it was so dark and the floors were so slippery.

Eventually we both fell down, and started sliding on our behinds, squealing in unision as we sped across the floor. We eventually fell asleep together on the couch.