Mirror Eyes & Bright Blue Skies | Jujutsu Kaisen

Ⅷ. Nightmares and Sweets

It was grey and cloudy, and rain pattered against the car, like thousands of tiny fists knocking at a door, pleading for entry. Countless cars sped past the window as Ikuko watched, their windshield wipers beating just as furious a beat across the glass as her family's own car wipers.

"Hey, Mom?" she asked, pulling her legs up to her chest and biting her lip, her brows furrowed.

"Yes?" came the reply.

From where the voice came, Ikuko did not know; it seemed to simply resonate in her head like an answer she'd expected rather than heard. Her father's humming sounded much the same, but as a quiet track of music playing in the background.

She did not question it.

"Do we have to move to the city?" she asked.

Her mother's sigh twirled through the air, slipping slowly as fog over her ears, "I'm sorry, sweetie. I know you like the country, but we'll have access to better jobs for us and better schools and therapists for you in the city. Remember our promise..."

"I know, I know. I just..." it suddenly felt as if the breath had fled her lungs, but she spoke on, as if automated, "...have a bad feeling, is all..."

Her mother's reply was muffled, and the scene began to melt, the grey and cloud and rain with it, pooling itself into a new scene, this one darker and yet so much redder than the last.

Screams. They replaced the background track of her father's hums. It seemed seconds and yet hours passed before Ikuko realized the screams were her own and the blood which pooled at her knees was her mother's.

A creature cradled her mother's body. It was a hideous mass of limbs and teeth, the owner of a hundred hands with which it stroked her and her mother's faces. The touch was almost as tender as its giggles were cruel, its sound sharp and grating like glass tearing at her ears.

It stared at her with its only eye, embedded into the center of its limbed body.

Staring, always staring. They always stared at her, just stared at her, no matter where she went. Eyes upon eyes. Staring, staring, staring, staring...

But now, for the first time, a creature didn't simply stare. It attacked. It hurt her mom. It would kill her mom. It would eat her.

The creature's hands slowly encircled her, drawing her toward itself, toward those countless teeth, bared and ready and salivating. She felt its hunger, but she couldn't move. No matter how she screamed at herself, no matter how slowly it drew her or how close its teeth, her body refused to move or fight back.

No, no no nonononono....

NO...!

Ikuko woke in a cold sweat, eyes flung open with the force of a cannon but her body frozen still with tension. Her breath was ragged, her mind sluggish and blank with terror. Tears had left cool tracks down her cheeks, but she couldn't remember when they had fallen.

Eventually, she blinked, long and hard, and attempted to move. Her body felt like a lead weight, but slowly, ever so slowly, she turned over onto her stomach, burying her face and tears into her pillow and taking in a long, deep, calming breath through her nose.

Of course it was that dream again. She should have expected it, what with her emotional meltdown earlier that night... or was it last night?

Ikuko cracked an eye open long enough to note the faint light filtering through the paper-covered window.

Ah, so it's morning already...

She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, only to be greeted by another flash of red from her memory. So she rolled back over with a groan and forced her tired eyes open