It was around eleven-thirty, before I changed into my nightgown, finished my school work, and went to bed. Tomorrow, since I don’t have to go in for class and my school work is completed, I don’t have to worry about forgetting anything; and since my grandparents made arraignments for me to miss school anyway, all I have to do is worry about the travel needs. I think I can also sleep in later than usual too, and dream about spending time with my parents.

As I slept, I didn’t dream about the memory from being a child; this one was different. It was terrifying, full of fear. Nothing about was the same as the first dream; there wasn’t a kind voice trying to calm me down from being afraid, there weren’t any calming cherry blossoms blowing by, there wasn’t anything calm about it. There was nothing but fear, darkness, death, and destruction.

There were shadowy figures running, a fiery red and orange background, I could hear their screams in my head; it’s frightening. I feel like I’m running myself, or at the very least being pulled. I keep hearing someone’s voice, I can’t make out what they were saying but it felt like they were talking to me. I want to make out whatever I could, but it was all a blur. I can’t even make out where I was going, who was pulling me, or where I was. I know that I’m scared, but I don’t know why. I know that something was wrong, something was after me and whoever was helping me; something dangerous was coming.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in a cold sweat and shaking. I grab my cat clock and focused my eyes on the small arms and numbers; 3:15 AM. I still had several hours before morning, but that dream…what does it mean? Why was this happening?

After starring at the ceiling for a few minutes, I got out of bed and quietly walked downstairs and towards the back door of the house. I sat on the porch and stared at the sky, it was pretty cool outside, but not enough so that a jacket was needed; the sky’s clear and the moon was full, it’s so peaceful, and yet something about it made me uneasy. Was it the dream?

While I was outside, my mind started to wonder about the dreams I’ve been having. What they could mean and why I was having them? And what was the dream I just had? A warning? Then my mind started to think back to today’s events, what happened to the old men I helped find the shrine, where’d did they go in the split second of our farewell? And the cherry blossoms, what did they mean?

I spent another few minutes outside, before re-entering the house to warm up and go back to bed for, hopefully, a chance at a restful night's sleep before leaving to visit the cemetery. Just before I closed the door, I stopped and quickly turned around; out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the two old men I helped earlier, but there wasn’t anyone there. I must have thought about them too hard, or I was just exhausted from being up from the nightmare.

I shook it off. It’s nothing. I’m just tired, that’s all. The lack of a decent night's sleep is making me see things that aren’t there. That has to be it.

I closed and locked the door behind me, just in case, and headed back up to my room. Once there, I went back to my bed, turning towards the wall and shutting my eyes tightly in an effort to go back to sleep. I guess it worked because I had the dream of the man and the cherry blossoms. What is it about him that’s so familiar?