Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Alice In Chains ❯ Crime 4: Shaman Part II ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: MellyN

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Alice In Chains

By: Melissa Norvell

Crime 4: Shaman Part II

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"In dreams, the antagonist in a nightmare represents the dreamer's own fears and repressed desires. Some believe that this figure, commonly known as the shadow, is the self-destructive aspect of the dreamer's psyche. However, this is not necessarily the case," Alice explained her theory on Yohru's strange encounter with the alleged shaman. "It is said that the shadow tried to take the dreamer to face his or her unrealized urges or needs, which can ultimately prove helpful to the dreamer when trying to understand oneself."

"But, what if your shadow is trying to kill you? How is that helpful?" Yohru wasn't so convinced that it was a shadow since it had not appeared in her dreams until she had acquired the mysterious box.

"If a shadow is trying to kill you. It's more than likely that it's trying to kill something within you that you are afraid of, or something that you dislike about yourself. If you come to terms with your fear, the shadow may cease from haunting you. Often times you can begin doing this in the dreamscape itself. People who dream that they are being chased force themselves to turn around and see what they are running from. They often see nothing at all, but regardless of what they see, the courage you gain from facing your shadow you may use to harness when facing your fears in the conscious world. However, killing your shadow outright often does not help. An act of repressing the feat that your shadow represents and your shadow will eventually appear in a different form," Alice advised.

"Is this how the shaman works?" Yohru wondered.

"It may," the answer was simple.

"So even if I defeat it, it might come back in a different form," the white-haired girl didn't like the sound of that statement. Who knew what it would come back next as if she knew how to kill it or rid herself of it.

"It very well could but the true point of saying that is that you should try to defeat the shaman in your dream if you should happen to encounter it again," Alice replied.

"How can I do that? I'm just a normal girl." This task seemed a little impossible, especially judging from her last defeat.

"It's a dream. You can control any aspect of it. Perhaps if you defeat the shaman, it will either stop haunting you or go away completely," the stoic woman really wanted Yohru to get the advice that she had been trying to give her.

"I've never been able to control my dreams," the girl told her employer.

"Well, you should learn. Shouldn't you...and this will be a good experience for you. The shaman can't kill you, just make you crazy," Alice smiled slightly.

"So, next time I see it and it attacks me, I should fight it?" Yohru didn't find the other female's comment comforting in the least bit. If anything she found it very unnerving.

"I think you should. It would be beneficial to you and it would stop it from haunting you. Like the shadow, some shamans feed off of your fears and repressed desires."

"I'll do it. When I go to sleep tonight, I'll try and fight it," the girl decided with a look of determination. All day she prepared herself for the next visit from the shaman in question. She didn't quite know how to control her own dreams but all she could really do was try. The only thing that could possibly happen would be that the shaman would come back and haunt her again but even then it would only give her another chance to defeat it again.

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That night, Yohru lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. After a few moments passed, the girl then looked over to the box that sat on her dresser and concentrated on it, seeming deep in thought. 'I hope that I can defeat this shaman, if that's what it is. Maybe, if I beat it I can find out what it wants with me and the old woman that it haunted before.'

Those thoughts alone were her last before she dozed off to sleep.

This girl stood in the midst of pitch black once more as she entered her own dreamscape. She looked around and all that could be seen was darkness. It was exactly like her last dream.

"Well, this looks just like my dream. Now, where's the shaman?" Yohru wondered as the box in her room opened and the familiar fog-like streams shot out and circled around her bed. Through the darkness of her dream, the shaman appeared in a ghost-like light. The large, fish-like creature slowly phased in and looked at her.

'There it is.'

The shaman slowly floated down to her. Yohru decided that now was as good of a time as any to confront it.

"Why are you haunting my dreams? What do you want with me?" The curly-haired girl shouted up to the large fish, who seemed unfazed by her words. The fish simply tilted its head down to reveal its black horn, then a blinding light shot fourth in four directions from the tip of the small horn. It was so bright that Yohru had to cover her eyes to keep from being blinded.

The darkness all around her changed into that of an open field with rolling hills and a blue, cloudless sky. The sky was so bright that she still wasn't used to it. The last time she had dreamed, it was dark and now it was bright and lively.

'Here it goes...' The girl gathered her courage and leveled the shaman with a look of determination. "Time to face this shaman. What do you want with me?" She continued to ask.

As soon as the words escaped her lips, several large spikes shot up from the ground. This scared Yohru and she let out a sharp scream as she ran for her life. The girl dodged all of the spikes before she could be skewered on top of their points. She ran madly through the field as she yelled 'not this again' in frustration.

It was as if those words were magic. After that phrase had been said, the ground beneath her began to shift and change. She soon found herself falling off of a large cliff.

"Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!" She repeated. 'What do I do now? The same thing is happening. What did Alice say about this?' The girl thought back to her conversation with the shop owner earlier.

'If it's trying to kill you, it's more than likely trying to kill something within you that you are afraid of or something that you dislike about yourself. If you come to terms with your fears it may cease from haunting you. Often times you can begin by doing it within the dreamscape itself.

The courage that you gain from facing it, you may use to harness when facing your fears in the conscious world.'

Then, it hit her.

"That's it!" Yohru's face lit up at the recollection. "I can control my dream so I can change things too, just like the shaman does," the girl then closed her eyes and thought as hard as she could. Soon, she landed on a soft, puffy surface. Yohru could feel soft fabric surround her as she landed safely due to her own alterations. She slowly arose and looked at the shaman.

'I did it!' Yohru inwardly beamed but it was short lived as the soft surface beneath her shattered and the pieces flew up, cutting her bare arms and legs and ripping her pajamas.

A shocked look crossed her face.

'Oh no! The shaman can change it back as fast as I can change it to save myself. What do I do now?' The white-haired girl wondered as she plummeted into the darkness. Glancing down, her blue eyes widened in horror as she saw what she had been headed towards. No doubt the shaman was upset with her and decided to see how she dealt with a bed of spikes instead of the comforting pillow-like surface she had saved herself on before.

Now that she had the power to alter her dreams, the shaman wasn't about to be easy on her.

"Oh no! I'm going to die if I can't do anything...If I change it, then the shaman might change it back...What now? Do I just die?" She thought aloud as death inched closer and closer.

Still she fell with barely any time to think.

Her form fell downward...

...and into a pile of flower petals that floated up around her form.

'This is more complicated then Alice made it out before.' Yohru thought to herself as the shaman was in her sights once again. This time it had dove down and headed straight for curly-haired girl let out a scream and attempted to dodge the shaman in the midst of her freefall but there were a lot of petals and the large fish struck her, causing the breath to be beaten out of her. Her body rolled off of the fish's back as she was knocked unconscious. The last thing she had remembered was floating through the air and spinning around.

Her body spun around in the darkness and when she awoke, bubbles made their way past her cheek.

'Where am I now? How come I can breathe? It seems like I'm underwater.' Yohru glanced around at her surroundings. She didn't know how she got there or even how long she'd been out. The girl opened her mouth to attempt to talk but nothing but bubbles escaped. 'I can't speak...but I can breathe?'

This was definitely confusing.

The girl began to swim up. Hopefully she could reach some sort of surface to this madness. Whatever was around her form felt heavy like water and weighed her down and at the same time, it allowed her to breathe. As she broke the surface, she took in a deep breath, as if she had been deprived of air even though she had not. It was a natural reflex for the human body to act in such a way.

"Now..." Yohru looked around on the top of the liquid that looked just like water. "Where's that shaman?"

A few feet over, a spot glowed with a milky light. It was almost as if there was a moon or sun around. It was the only bright thing that stuck out in the endless darkness.

'This is just like my dream...Only this time, I'll control it.' Yohru concentrated as her body levitated up and out of the water. As soon as she had completely risen from the water, the shaman knocked her forward.

Instead of falling back into the water, her body hit rock-hard land. The girl made a disgruntled noise as she slowly pushed herself up. She sat on the ground and saw the shaman floating before her.

"What are you?" The tired and injured girl asked in a ragged voice. "If you're a shaman, then why are you attacking me?"

'Beware of the future...Bad omens will befall you if you insist on walking down the same path as you have been.' An unfamiliar feminine voice filled her senses.

"What?"

'Leave the shop and cease your contract with Alice.' The spirit advised.

"I can't do that." No way! She owed Alice her life and she wasn't about to give that up for anyone.

'Then suffer the consequences.' The spirit's voice could be heard as more spikes shot up from the ground. Yohru tried to dodge them all but there were too many that came too quickly. One of the spikes shot up at her dangerously yellow-clad girl screamed as her form was flung up into the air and headed back down towards a sharp tip. 'I'm going to die!' The frightened girl thought in a panic.

Suddenly, a pink orb surrounded her body and busted through the offending spikes, shattering their forms across the dreamscape and slowly brining the girl's form to the ground safely. The light from the orb felt warm, like a fire in the winter time and soothed her pains with its healing glow.

'You are stronger them I had thought initially. Perhaps you can handle yourself but do not allow yourself to be deceived by the wicked ways of others.' The shaman advised.

"What?" Yohru hadn't gotten any of what the shaman was saying. She wanted to question it further but by the time she was able to do so, the shaman had begun to fade back into the darkness. "What does that mean? Hey! Come back!" The girl desperately shouted after the shaman but it was no use, it had already disappeared and signaled the end of her dream.

Yohru sat up in bed and looked around. She spotted the box, opened on her dresser and the floor of her room was line in a low-lying, thick blue smoke. She slowly walked through the fog and picked up her box. As soon as she peered inside of it, the winds around her blew furiously. The girl braced herself and clenched her eyes shut as the box acted as a vacuum and began to suck all of the fog out of her room. This process lasted a few moments before she finally opened her blue eyes to see that her room was cleared of any offending fog.

The girl looked down at her box.

"What was that? Did I defeat the shaman?"

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The next day, Yohru walked along the concrete walkway with her friends, Michi and Taho. She could hear the other girl's voices but no matter how much she tried to be interested, her mind was elsewhere. She thought about what the shaman had told her and wondered what the true meaning of its words was. Was there something wrong with repaying her debit to Alice? Perhaps there was something more that she wasn't quite understanding about this whole situation and when she really looked at it, she didn't know Alice from anyone. That woman was so terribly mysterious.

"I guess we let you off here," Taho replied as the group stopped in front of the shop.

"Yeah, thanks guys," Yohru smiled, although she felt a little uneasy about approaching Alice now.

"I still don't like this place," Michi's comment didn't do her any justice either.

"Bye guys, I'll call you later after I get off of work on my cell phone."

"Alright, we'll keep that in mind," Taho replied with a smile.

"Yes, then maybe we can make plans for when you have free time," Michi told her.

"Sure thing, I'm sorry that I haven't had any time to spend with you guys," Yohru apologized. Working at the shop was definitely harder then it looked and more trouble then she had thought initially.

"It's alright. We understand." At least Taho was being sensible about it.

"Yeah, we just have to work around it somehow," Michi agreed.

"We'll see you later."

"Yeah, bye," Yohru gave her good-byes and her friend's good-byes soon followed. The girl straightened her spiral of a ponytail and walked up to the front door of the shop. When she got there, she saw something that truly surprised her.

It was a girl.

This girl appeared to be about her age, if not a few years her senior and had long, blonde hair with large, rolling waves. Her hair was pulled into two low ponytails that cascaded all the way to her ankles and she was dressed in a blue and white Lolita dress that looked like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland, complete with black Mary Janes and white knee-length stockings. Both of her ponytails were adorned with large, blue bows. She had lazy, calm eyes with moderate lashes, fair skin and a placid smile.

"Welcome to the quaint little shop," the blonde greeted. "My name is Hayabashi Ai, if you have any questions then feel free to ask and I'll assist you. Please look around and indulge in your desires." The happy voice caught Yohru's ears.

The white-haired girl just stared at the blue-clad blonde and at that very moment, only one question could escape her lips.

"Who are you?"

To Be Continued...