The black dog

Chapter 6

Mizore looked at Souta in surprise.

'I have something you need? I don't even have stuff with me. Except what I have on and the standard.'

'I'm not talking about your stuff. I'm talking about that dream you had.'

'How do you know what I dreamt?'

'My friends, who only you can see, told me.'

'You are certainly talking about that dream with that little boy.'

'Yes, I am indeed talking about that. At least you're quick on the uptake.' With an offended look, Mizore continued the conversation.

'So, you know a bit more about my dream?'

'I know what it means and what you have to do. Unfortunately, your gift is almost undeveloped.'

'My gift? What gift.'

'You're full of questions, aren't you? Anyway. You have the gift of seeing souls, just as I have the gift of hearing them. We both have a problem. I can only hear them and you can only see them. So, if we're going to help that little boy.'

'We need each other.' Mizore finished his sentence.

'Exactly, but that still leaves as question of whether you want to.'

‘Why would I want to do that. I don’t even know if you’re telling me the truth. Yes, you give me shelter, but we’re not friends. I don’t know you. ‘Mizore crossed her arms, looking away from him.

‘It would be in your best interest to help, because if you don’t, that dream will keep coming up until you do.’ Souta explained and waited for her reaction. Mizore was silent for a moment.  Thinking about that dream, how scared she felt and really didn’t want to experience that again. Besides this guy seemed to know a lot.

‘Fine, I’ll help you. So, then my gift needs to get better, right?’

'Yes, you're right about that and I'm going to help you with that. You do need to know what we have in front of us first. Our dreams fit together and we need to figure out how. Are you up for working with me?'

Mizore softened a bit more up and wanted to give Souta a fair chance. He didn’t seem like a bad guy and he does want to help. So slowly and cautiously she let her rude attitude go.

'Ah maybe we'll make a good team too. So why not.' She had a small smile to seem more friendly.

'From where all of a sudden this wanting to work together?'

'It just looks like you really mean it and I want to give you at least a fair chance. Don’t waste that chance.'  

'At least a step forward. Baby step, but a step none the less.' Souta got up and walked to his room which was strictly off limits to strangers.

'Hey, where are you going?’ without an answer Souta walked into the small room and slammed the door. Not even a glance was allowed to enter the room. Mizore continued to stare at the closed door. She didn’t get a handle on his behavior. It was clear that he was doing what he was doing, paying no attention to the wishes of another. When Souta returned, he had pen and paper in his hands. He walked over to the table where the two mugs stood with the drinks in them. He put down one of the papers for her and the other for himself. He also put a pen next to it.

'I want you to write down exactly what happened in your dream. I'll do that too, then we can compare them and see if we see any similarities.'

Mizore looked surprised and confused.  She wasn’t sure what he meant, but wanted to try and keep up.

'You should communicate more, but that's a good idea, even though I'm not sure if I can remember everything about that dream.'

'Then try as hard as you can. I'm sure you've remembered the most important things. Consciously or unconsciously, that doesn't matter.'

'Um well, then I'll just try.' Mizore's surprise still hadn't subsided. Rather, it was getting bigger and bigger. She began to write and as if everything went by itself, she couldn't stop. Unconsciously, she remembered every detail and with her tongue partly out of her mouth, she wrote the sheet full until both sides were completely filled.

'Once you start, you can hardly stop, can you?'

Panting from writing and thinking at the same time, she answered him.

'I don't know what came over me, but everything came naturally. Every detail came out of my hands.'

'Write more often and writing isn’t that hard, stop panting' he said, clumsily filling his own sheet with letters.

'You don’t even know what’s hard for me. It’s my first time writing like this and why am I telling you?'

'Apparently you trust me more than you think you do. Besides, your grammar and spelling are horrible.’ Souta glanced over what she wrote.

‘Why are my grammar and spelling important to you.'

'Because that's what they are.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that those things are actually musts. There is no "may" in that case. Besides, I'm done too so we can go discuss.'

'I'm surprised that through it all, we sort of get along.'

'We're each other's opposite. So that makes sense.'

'Each other's opposite?'

'Yes, but I'll explain that to you later. First, get to work. We'll talk later.

'You sound like my dad, but fine, we’ll get to work. How do we go about this?'

'We read each other's dream and then we see if we see anything that matches. And look wider.'

'What do you mean? You're just giving me questions.' Mizore looked at him questioningly.

'You need to ask less questions and start thinking more. Just do as I say.' Frightened and indignant, Mizore began to read his dream. She didn't want to lose her sleeping place just because she didn’t keep her mouth shut. So, she held back firmly, no matter how hard this was for her.

'Look at that.' Fell into the silence that was there for a moment.

'What?'

'You're learning fast.' Souta smiled at her. She knew what he meant and smiled back. After that one smile her head snapped up.

'I smiled at him. I smiled at the boy I see as a creep. No, I still do.' The thoughts shot through her head, she no longer understood herself.

'Have you read him through yet?' She was pulled from her thoughts by the question Souta asked her.

'Huh, oh, yeah, almost.' She quickly shoved the paper in front of her face. When she actually started to read it further, she wanted to know more and more. She didn't say a word. Only when she had read everything there was to read about his dream did she speak again.

'It must have been a violent dream for you.'

'It certainly was, but yours isn't exactly easy to experience either.'

'True, but have you found anything that was also in your dream?'

'No, not yet. I think that's mostly because with you it has a lot more useful detail.'

'That's true. Your dream is rather lacking in that.'

'Wait a minute, you know what to look for?' Souta was surprised by how quickly she caught up with him.

'Yes, of course. You just explained that to me, didn't you?'

'No, no, I mean, you really see a story in my dream, right?'

'Um, yes, but that's normal, right?' Mizore didn’t get why Souta was acting this way.

'For you that's normal, but so many people can't do that. It does prove that you do have a gift.'

'Yeah, about that, when we've researched this, I really want you to explain that to me, because I don't understand it at all.'

'That's standard with anything new. I'll explain it to you once we have what we want.' Again, silence had come. Both were busy trying to find answers. This lingered for quite a while until Mizore found the answer they were looking for. She found the connection between the two dreams.

‘I've got it!’

‘Really?’ Souta was surprised that a newcomer found it before he did. Actually, his pride was badly hurt by it. Somewhere he managed to find the strength to persevere and not let himself be distracted from what the goal was. He ground his teeth to try and not show anything.

‘You found it?’

'Yes. Once you know it, it's not so hard.' Mizore had a big smile on her face.

'Then tell me.' Souta was getting impatient with it. It's bad enough that she found it before I did, he thought.

'In your dream, a black shape appears and hangs from a chain. Right?'

'Yes, but...'

'Hey, let me finish.' She interrupted him placing her hands on her hips to show that she wasn’t happy with his interruption.

'That little boy in my dream must be that black shape. You said it yourself. You can only hear and I can only see. That's why you only saw a black shape.'

'You are smarter than I thought. You have indeed found the solution.'

Mizore was a bit offended that he thought so low of her, but ignored it for this time.

'So, the conclusion is that there was a little boy in an asylum and died there and we have to go and help him. We just have no idea how.' he said.

'Well, you can ask those friends of yours about how and what, can't you? They're sitting next to you.' Mizore fell silent. She couldn't believe what she was seeing and saying. Two figures were sitting next to Souta on the chair opposite of her. They were like people, but much lighter. As if they were stars and a silver thread hung from the center of their bodies. It was broken. Mizore wondered why the thread was broken.

'So, you can see them. Didn't expect your gift to surface so soon. Especially since your soul hasn't even left your body yet.'

'What exactly does that entail?’ She asked without taking her gaze off the shapes. To her their lips were moving, but there was no noise.

'To make it easy for you, I will explain it simply. At the first time, you see your own body from above and temporarily cannot go back and after, at most a few minutes, you are sucked back towards your body.' In the meantime, he studied the two texts again in concentration.

'So, then I guess I've had that.' Mizore looked up at the ceiling with her mind on the afternoon where she fell asleep on the grass. For a moment it didn't occur to Souta what she was actually saying. When her words hit his conscious, he shot out of concentration.

'You’ve, had it? No wonder you can see them so quickly now. How was it?’ All his curiosity was drawn to her experiences in the world he will never be able to reach because of his lack of being able to see souls.

'Calm down. Not that much happened. I didn't even realize my soul was out of my body. I didn't know it was possible.' Her big eyes radiated the truth she was speaking.

'That's really a shame. Will you please tell me if you go out of your body with your soul again? I want to know everything about that world.'

'If it happens again, sure?' Mizore was confused why he was excited. Souta pulled back from his excitement right away.

'Thank you, I appreciate that.' He said in a calm tone and continued to study the texts.

'What are they all actually saying to you?'

'Who?'

'Those friends of yours sitting on the chair.'

'They're having a discussion, with each other. I'm not interfering with that.'

'Ehm, okay? Ehm, Souta?'

'Yes?’ He didn’t look at her. He was too busy reading texts a few more times.

'What are you looking for? And what are we going to do now?' Mizore’s feeling that he was strange was getting less and less.

'To help, we must go to the facility and see what solution the soul needs to pass.'

'That promises quite an adventure.' Mizore said looking a bit at the ceiling.

'Then I hope you like that, because tomorrow we're going there.'

'Tomorrow already?’ Mizore was surprised how quickly Souta wanted to go to that place.

'Yes, so take a good rest. You can sleep here on the couch. It's time to go to bed.'

'But it's only 6 o'clock?'

'You should get used to that here. Sometimes you hardly sleep and sometimes you sleep a lot. Like now. Good night.' Souta got up and walked to his bed room.

'You too goodnight.' She called after him, but he didn't hear that anymore. She lay down on the couch, which despite being dilapidated, was soft and comfortable. The large pillow she was leaning against, she now used to sleep on.

I’m not even tired. She thought, as she laid her head down. With the peace and quiet, her eyes began to close and she gave in to the tiredness that walking had given her. Mizore slept so deeply that she didn't notice when Souta came back for a moment to put a blanket over her. At last, she had found her peace.