Let the Show Begin - 1 -

Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!

Damn, her neighbors were being noisy this morning. Couldn’t they do their house chores a little more quietly?

She turned to her other side, still half-asleep. - Man, did my bed always feel this hard?

“Crap, people are coming over here soon. Gotta find a uniform!”

Ah. Someone probably needed to rush before school started then. That explained all the noise.

“Grrr! This lid is too heavy!” A pause. “Hehehehe. Time to use my special move!”

Wait...What? 

BAM!

“What the-Agh!” She shielded her eyes from the sudden light. - Blue light? Wait. Is that fire?!

“What?! You’re awake?!”

She blinked her eyes blearily. As the blue flames dissipated, she managed to make out a small figure in front of her.

“Eh?” She rubbed her eyes. She had to be seeing things.

Because what she saw was a cat. With...blue fire coming out of its ears? With a forked tail? And it was standing?

“…”

She must’ve been so sleep-deprived that she accidentally fell asleep at her desk.

Her eyes focused on the room outside, past the cat. - I’m in a room full of coffins?! Am I...actually dead?

The cat grinned smugly. “Hah! Did the Great Grim stun you into silence, human?”

A bipedal cat called the Great Grim? Does...this mean I’m really dead? 

“Are you the Grim Reaper?”

Grim blinked at her incredulously. “Huh?”

Crap. She must've offended him.

She bowed her head down. “Forgive me for not knowing sooner. Usually, you’re depicted as a skeleton and-”

“What’re you yapping on about? I’m not this Grim Reaper guy!”

Her dread began to subside. “So...I’m not dead?” 

Grim crossed his arms and gave her an exasperated look. “Uh. No. You’re definitely alive. Are you still half asleep?” 

Ok. So she wasn’t dead. Definitely dreaming then.

“So what’s a talking cat like you doing in a place like this?”

Grim scowled and huffed. “Hey! I’m not a cat! I’m the Great Grim!”

Then Grim bared his teeth in a wide grin. “Now gimme your robes! Or I’ll roast ya!” Flames reignited in the background to make his point.

Wait. Robes? - She finally looked at what she was wearing. She had on a set of lavish embroidered black robes. 

Huh? She wasn’t wearing that earlier. She still wore her t-shirt and jeans underneath. 

She turned her head back up to Grim skeptically. “Right...Before I give you these robes, explain to me how you plan to wear them. Wouldn’t they be huge on you?”

Grim paused, eyes wide in surprise. It was obvious he hadn’t taken that into consideration. Then he shook his head and raised his arms. “Bah! I’ll figure it out! Just give ‘em to me!”

She raised her hands in a placating gesture. “Ok! Ok!” 

I really don’t want to end this dream being burnt to a crisp by a talking cat...thing...creature. That’d be embarrassing. 

It was obvious that Grim wasn’t very patient. So she hurriedly removed the robes, as quickly as she could without tearing anything.

Grim happily jumped onto the pile of robes on the ground and lifted them onto himself. Well, lifting them as best as he could with his small stubby arms and paws. “Hmmm. How do humans dress? The arms go here. And that goes over there…”

Just as Grim managed a satisfying fit into the robes and turned to leave, she called after him. “Wait! Could I come with you?”

Grim turned back to her, annoyed. “Huh? Why? You’ll just slow me down.”

She glanced around anxiously. “Well...I don’t want to go through this dark, creepy place alone. Plus, I don’t even know where I am.” Grim certainly knew more about what was going on here than she did. She didn’t want to accidentally wander into some death trap. She wanted this dream to be as painless and death-free as possible.

Grim jerked back in surprise. “Haaaah? You seriously don’t know where we are? Did you hit your head or somethin’?” Grim’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You’re not lyin’ are you?”

She shook her head. “No! Could you please tell me where we are, Grim?”

Grim continued to frown at her.

“…”

“Please tell me, O Great Grim?”

Grim’s ears perked up. “Well, since you asked so nicely...We’re at Night Raven College!”

A college? So it wasn’t a cult, then, with the robes and all.

The building they were in had Gothic-style architecture. This was probably a fancy private college. Especially with a name like Night Raven.

“Ok. Thanks for telling me...Great Grim. So could I follow you?”

Grim put a paw to his chin and took a hard look at her. “Hmmmmmm.”

She needed to come up with a good reason fast. “I could carry you!”

“Hah? I could walk just fine on my own!” Grim was growing irritated.

“Yeah, I know that! But...you need to...conserve your energy! It’d be more troublesome for you to walk around this place in those heavy robes!" She added quickly.

Grim was straining to keep walking upright with the robes on, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

"They’d just drag you down! Besides, I’d be doing all the work by walking and carrying you around.” She really hoped that worked.

Grim stayed silent for a few moments.

Crap. Did she seriously piss him off?

“Hehehehehehe.” Grim, placing his paws to his sides, smirked up at her.

Oh great. Grim's going to roast me now, isn't he? - She prepared herself to run.

“All right then! You can follow me around! You have the honor of being my first henchman!” 

She paused and blinked incredulously. - What?

But she said nothing. Fine. She would indulge Grim. She needed him to stick close to her. Annoying Grim wouldn’t help her case.

Grim took her silence as assent. He jumped up into her arms. Grim’s soft fur brushed against her hands. He felt so real. 

Grim grinned and pointed his paw forward. “All right! Let’s move, Henchman!”

✰☾

She hesitantly walked down the dark hallway. Her footsteps echoed loudly as there was no one around but her and Grim. They walked past some portraits hung on the walls. She could’ve sworn they were being watched. - Creepy.

“Um. Grim, do you know where we’re supposed to go?” - (Grim had been too happy about having his first henchman to keep correcting her on calling him "The Great Grim".)

“No! I’m sneaking into this school! I don’t know my way around here! That’s why you’re helping me out!”

“Oh.” That would explain why Grim wanted the robes. But you would think that by trying to sneak into this school that Grim would at least study its layout.

But what would happen if the school authorities caught her and Grim? There was no guarantee they wouldn’t be arrested for trespassing...or worse.

“Maybe I should change back into the robes…”

Grim’s fur bristled. The flames in his ears grew a little bigger and he bared his teeth. His grip tightened on her arms.  “No! They're mine now!” he growled.

She winced. “Ok! Ok! I'm sorry! You could keep the robes on!”

Grim’s grip loosened and the flames in his ears returned to normal.

She sighed. They could always explain that Grim’s proper-sized robes weren't ready yet because they were custom-made.

But she and Grim were still lost.

“We should go back to the coffins. Neither of us has any idea where to go. If we wander around and make it obvious we don’t belong here, our cover will definitely be blown.”

Grim thought for a moment then nodded. “Hm! Good thinking, Henchman! Let’s do that!”

Luckily, she hadn’t gone too far away. She only had to turn back down a straight path through the hallway to return to the room of coffins.

She and Grim stood in front of the coffin she’d been in earlier. Its lid had been blasted to the side by Grim.

Huh? - Although Grim's flames had blasted the coffin lid, there wasn't a single scorch mark on it.

Eh. Magic probably. This was a dream, after all.

She turned her head down to Grim. “Grim, I need to lift the coffin lid. We wouldn’t want you getting squished.”

Grim rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, Henchman.” 

She loosened her arms for him to jump out.

She crouched down and lay her knuckles near the coffin lid's sides. They had cooled off from Grim's flames.

Good. She gripped the sides of the coffin lid and heaved.

“Whoa!” To her surprise, she was able to lift the lid up from the ground with more ease than she thought.

The coffin lid was actually relatively light. “Must be magic. Or construction genius. Or both,” she noted. 

“Nice work, Henchman!” Grim jumped up and clung to the front of her shirt.

“Well, in we go.” And so, she and Grim fit themselves into the coffin. She pulled the coffin lid in, closing the coffin and engulfing the two of them in darkness.

Grim’s blue flames dimly lit the inside of the coffin. But it was bright enough that they were able to see each other’s faces. So neither of them felt alone in the darkness.

Minutes passed as they waited in silence for whoever was supposed to wake them from their coffin.

...

A lot more minutes passed.

Her body was starting to feel stiff. - Man, how long are they going to take? I’m starting to ache from having to stay still in this small space here!

Grim groaned, his ears flattening. “Henchman, I’m bored.”

She absentmindedly scratched Grim’s head, making him purr in pleasure. His fur was so soft.

What would be a good conversation topic? Well...she and Grim didn’t exactly know each other that well yet. 

“So...if you’re not a cat, Grim. Then what exactly are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

Grim’s blue eyes blinked up at her. “Really? You’ve never seen any magical creatures before?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“Oh. Well, I’m a monster.”

She frowned. “Grim, calling yourself a monster is a bit crude.”

Grim shrugged. “That’s just what I am. Not really anything mean about it.”

“But still...being called a monster isn’t really a good thing.”

Grim's tail waved back and forth lazily. “Whatever. It doesn't really bother me, Henchman.”

“Grim, I have a name.”

Grim tilted his head. “Well, you haven’t exactly told me what it is, y’know.”

Oh right. She hadn’t. She’d been so busy processing everything that was going on that she’d forgotten.

“My name is…”

...

...

“Yuu?”

“Huh? Why are you saying your name like you’re not even sure if it’s your name?”

Her head started pounding. “I-It’s not-!”

Yuu? That’s not my name! My name’s-

...

...

What's my name?

Dread pooled in her stomach.

What's my name?