Luke is a stranger Lynne never realises exists until Luke talks to Lynne. Lynne thought nothing was wrong with him until she realised her memory was having problems with Luke, whom she couldn't remember if they weren't face to face. Just as she questioned Luke directly about the strangeness, Luke's existence disappeared like the earth had swallowed him up, and no one knew about it. At the same time, Lynne's frequent nightmares worsened, leading her to a place she had only seen in her sleep but now felt much more real. There, Lynne met a large wolf who had been chasing her. Surprisingly, the wolf changed his form right before her into the figure she had been looking for in the real world.
Chapter 1 Kind of Fairytale
It was almost like a fairy tale that suddenly made her the main character in the story. No, when she saw her form, the story was more of a legend than a fairy tale. It was hard to believe it, even though Lynne saw it with her own eyes. She kept thinking that this was some hallucination. Yes, this was just a trick, maybe hypnosis or something. No... no, this was just a dream. Well, just a dream.
A dream that always came to her every night, a nightmare where she kept running. Dreams that made her body feverish every time they appeared, nightmares that she never expected to end like this.
"Run... You have to run from here. We’ll pick you up. Quickly run and get out of here arrrgghhh ...." Lynne Utsa, a girl with shiny orange hair, woke up from her sleep thanks to a dream that was no longer familiar.
An apparition of a screaming woman covered in blood in the middle of the forest, her being told to keep running and something she couldn't remember clearly running after her. What was going on? Why did the dream feel so real? The face she couldn't remember when she woke up and the strange feeling left behind.
Sitting on her bed looking tired, Lynne looked down deeply with her hands covering her eyes. Her heavy breathing caught the attention of Anna, who entered the room.
"Morning Lynne, did you sleep well?" the woman passed Lynne's bed to the window in the centre of the room to open it.
Lynne recognised the woman as a substitute for her mother, not because she married her father. But because that woman cared for her since childhood, even though they were not relatives, she was only a close friend of her parents. Even so, Anna did not know what Lynne's parents had gone through before their death.
Smoothing out her wavy hair that was conspicuously exposed to the sunlight that broke through into her room, Lynne looked at Anna with a face that she tried to look fine with a smile. "I slept quite well today," she replied, ignoring that Anna could see through her deception.
Anna sat on the edge of Lyyne's bed. She looked at that face intently. Stroking the strands of hair that fell on her forehead and pinning them behind Lynne's ears. "Are you going to continue hiding your troubles from me?" the woman spoke softly. "Last night, you had a high fever. This happens often, doesn't it?"
It wasn't the first time Lynne had a high fever one night, and the next day Lynne's condition improved like she hadn't experienced anything. No matter how Anna tried to think about it, Lynne's condition made her anxious.
Lynne's pair of light brown eyes looked at her calmly, reassuring the woman that there was nothing for her to worry about. "Maybe it's because I'm feeling too tired. You know I've been quite active in school activities lately." Lynne took the woman's hand to clasp it, staring at the back of it as she spoke to her. Then afterwards, she lifted her face with a smile and looked back at him. "I'm fine."
Anna nodded. "Okay then, tell me if anything happens." She returned Lynne's handshake. "Don't make me the last person you tell about your condition; I’ll be very disappointed."
"I won't," Lynne replied quickly, hugging the woman.
Anna caressed Lynne's face, observing it warmly. There was happiness radiating and a look of longing in her eyes.
The warmth radiated from the palms that rested on her cheeks. There was magic that came from the woman's soft hands every time they touched her. Something Lynne was sure of was the feeling of love from parents she couldn't remember the existence of because they left too early before Lynne could even recognise them. But thanks to Anna, she could understand a parent’s love for their child. "Did I make you think of my mother?"
Anna nodded. "You look so much like her, your shiny hair colour-"
"My friends say my hair colour looks ridiculous," Lynne cut in, laughing at herself.
"Don't be friends with them anymore." Anna's face looked serious, and so did her tone of voice.
Lynne stifled her laughter as she nodded. "I know they don't mean to offend me-"
"Don't try to protect them from me," she cut in firmly.
"Fine." Lynne lowered Anna's hand from her cheek and then turned to hold it attentively. "Then what else looks similar? Say it. I want to hear."
Anna's face perked up again, the smile on her face expanding rapidly. "You also have a small nose that looks like hers and the same lips and chin. Except these eyes," Anna pointed with a flick of her finger. "Your eyes look like Connor's."
Lynne looked at herself through the reflection of the mirror. She noticed her red hair, her face and then looked deep into her eyes. She tried to imagine what her parents looked like from what she saw. "Then what do my mom's eyes look like, Ann?"
Anna followed Lynne's gaze to the reflection in the mirror opposite them. "Blue, as blue as the ocean and clear as the sky."
Lynne only asked a few questions afterwards. After waking up from the dream and talking to Anna, her day went as usual. She sat in her seat before class started. The class was quiet as she always arrived early. Only a few students were sitting at a distance from her. They were also busy in their silence.
But, something called her name so familiarly, "Lynne..."
Lynne immediately looked back to find the source of the voice calling her. "Yes?" she said, not finding anyone looking at her. It wasn't like someone among them had called out to her. None of them had seen her until she broke their bustle.
"What's wrong?" The boy behind her turned his gaze to the book he was reading.
"You called me?" asked Lyyne, making sure.
"No, I didn't call you, and I didn't hear anyone calling your name earlier," she said confidently.
"Ah, maybe I heard wrong," he said without arguing, but Lynne still felt strange. "Just continue reading."
Lynne clearly heard someone calling her. She felt certain that she heard someone calling her name very clearly. So she replied, but the girl behind her heard no voice calling her. How could that be?
"You seem to be tired. You’re hallucinating something like that." The friend across from her who heard their conversation spoke to Lynne.
"Ah, is that so? Yeah, maybe I'm just too tired." It's better to admit it, Lynne thought. It might be true that it was just a hallucination.
"Are you having insomnia or something? If there's anything I need help with, tell me." She smiled to offer.
Lynne, who turned to him, was stunned as she looked into the man's eyes. Suddenly, Anna's words were recalled in her mind. Blue, as blue as the ocean and clear sky. "His eyes are really beautiful. Anna was right."