Cris tilted his head back and looked up through the light, and picked out a small star, way in the distance.
"I...I don't know what I'm doing out here" He brought his face back down, "I just...was" He shrugged and turned away from the source of the light. Looking away from the girl he closed his eyes in thought of what to say next. But before the warm part of his brain could speak the...other part took over.
"Before it was just...Dark," He made a special emphasis on the 'D.' "I will bet you probably would not have liked it, seeing as you are afraid of the dark." This time, the smile didn't come out, but the way his eyes shone gave it away.

Requiem had stared at him with her green eyes before she would stare at him, listening to his words as a shiver went up her spine. She would then look down at her flashlight with her eyes before she looked back up at him. She then would turn and run back towards the beach from where she came, stumbling over the grass and the logs as she would hold onto the flashlight tightly. She tumbled forward and she climbed up the hill.

She jumped down on the beach as she stared up at the sky and saw a few stars, but her flashlight went down the sand as she would put it around the sand so she could see as she continued to run. "Heaven!?" she yelled, stopping for breath as the water touched her toes, cold and icy. She shivered, still panting for breath.

[Multi tasking... x-x]

Cris tilted his head to the side.
Now why'd I do that? crossed through his mind.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He appeared back where he had begun. Floating off the crests of the waves. Standing on the air. He saw the woman standing on the beach, just at the waters' edge.
He closed his eyes and exhaled. He was behind the girl, "I wouldn't advise going in there...you might freeze to death" He removed his coat, the heavy fabric hanging off his hand like snow about to fall off of an overhang,
"Please wear it Miss" He said, averting his eyes from the light, staring out into the inky blackness that was the water.

Indeed, the woman standing just beyond the tree was still standing before Heaven and now Alie, however something did not seem right. Her smile was gone, in fact she lacked any kind of expression whatsoever, as if her face were wooden and immovable. The outstretched hand that Heaven had almost taken fell awkwardly to her side, and the woman seemed to just stand there, listlessly, devoid of life - almost hanging in the air, like her feet weren't even really touching the ground.

Soon, laughter could be heard. This was not the giggly, near-angelic laughter of children as Heaven had heard earlier. This was creepy, edged with hysteria, and it was getting louder. Soon the laughter surrounded the two girls, seeming to come from all around them, from above them, from the trees and the air and the earth, harsh and loud. Suddenly, the woman collapsed to her knees in a boneless heap, the angles of her limbs falling oddly, in such a way that would be difficult and definitely painful. To a human. It wasn't until then that the shimmering lines above Dove had solidified and become more visible - now, it was quite clear that they were strings. They seemed to be made of a translucent, silvery material. They attached to every part of Dove, and then went straight up, to the boughs of the trees above them. And there, in the midst of a dark patch of shadows amongst the branches, was the outline of a figure. The only clear thing visible was a sharp, brilliant smile, and a gaze of virulent red. He was laughing.

"Run...!" He said.

Requiem had jumped and she turned behind her, seeing the man there holding out his jacket. Requiem bit her lip. He seemed persistent on following her; but he wasn't hurting her, he wasn't threatening her either. She would slowly take the jacket and put it around her bare shoulders, the wind getting blocked out by the material and she slowly pointed the flashlight down at the ground so it wasn't faced at him. "Thank you..." she said in a quiet voice. All she could do was stand there, staring at him with her green eyes as the wind kept trying to cut into her skin and she backed away from the water's edge a bit so the cold water couldn't touch her toes.

Heaven dropped her friend's hand when her eyes fell back on the strange woman just as she fell to the ground in a contorted pile. She wasn't human, she was definitely sure of that when she noticed multiple strings attached to the female....like a puppet. Heaven's hazel eyes grew wide as harsh images of her past flooded her mind, almost instantly tears threatened to spill over the rim. She remembered the look on their faces when they were in full costume, lifeless, ashes smudging their perfect makeup, the look in their eyes as if they were still alive. She had to leave, to get as far away from here as possible. The thought of puppets made her cringe, but being so close to one, not being able to look away from it; Heaven felt like she was about to go insane. She started shaking and was so consumed with fear she almost couldn't hear the male voice coming from the trees.

"Alie-" her words jumbling up in her mouth and she struggled to get them out. "I can't I have to go I'm sorry." Heaven didn't waste another second standing there, her legs felt stiff at first, but soon she found herself running through the trees. Where was she going? She didn't know but anywhere was better than back there, back with that thing. She was never very skilled at sports, but she had no problem running away. Her throat burned and her lungs felt like they were going to collapse if she kept going, but Heaven wasn't going to stop, she couldn't. Memories of her past kept mentally assaulting her, causing low sobs to escape from her mouth. She stopped when the ground dropped off in front of her, it was a cliff, below waves crashed against giant rocks.

"No!" She looked around but didn't dare go back into the woods. Could she bring herself to jump? Heaven fell to her knees and gripped at the grass, her crying growing louder. She couldn't stay here anymore. Whatever this place was, she had to leave.

Alie was pulled around by Heaven through the woods as they ran. Out of nowhere they came to a stop, as a man in a distant tree looked at them. She felt a little scared, but not like when Yui was around her. This man was a little easier to deal with, but she was still a little scared. She looked at him and the puppet like doll behind them. She started running after Heaven as she booked away from Alie. She didn't want to be by herself again, so she ran after her. Alie could barely keep up with her as they kept running.

She didn't know if Heaven knew that man or not, but whatever happened before she got there must have been scary. She saw Heaven come to a stop a little to late and ran pass her and slid off of the cliff.. "Oh no!" She yelled as she fell and looked at Heaven as she slid of of the cliff. The next thing that happened was a rush of air hitting her skin. She was falling and was about to die in some other strange world. This couldn't be happening to her right now. "I'm coming mother..." Her words dropped off as she hit the water and everything went black.

The laughter behind them only grew stronger as they ran, rising to a pitch that was frantic in its hysterical enthusiasm. It took a long, long time for the laughter to grow inaudible, as if its echoing madness chased them past the limits of mere sound. Once Heaven left the forest behind, the starlight drenched the fields in front of her in a wonderfully peaceful tableau. In fact, things seemed almost too quiet. If Heaven weren't too busy bawling her eyes out, she might notice that something wasn't quite right with the surrounding scene. It was quite beautiful, but something would just seem... static. Too quiet, perhaps.

As the girls reached the cliff, Heaven sagged to her knees and started weeping on the edge, but Alie slipped and tumbled head over heels down the chasm. There was a soft, dark chortle just to Heaven's right, and a shadow melted out of the darkness as he turned his body into the light from the moon. He stood, and walked to stand next to Heaven's kneeling form. He was tall, with angular, young-looking features that might be attractive if there wasn't a certain perpetual intensity in his gaze. His blond hair was pulled back in a long braid that draped over a shoulder and down his back. He crossed his arms and stared down at the girl at his feet. His voice was as hard as the look in his eyes.

"You run well, young lady. And I am beginning to like this place you have made," He lifted his gaze from her and looked about at their surroundings, "I can see its appeal, although I must admit, I prefer it much more in the evening." He grinned wide, showing a bright smile accompanied by wickedly sharp incisors. "I may just stay here a while. Its denizens sure do know how to amuse." He laughed, the sound echoing the one earlier in the wood, but perhaps not quite so insane, and did not last nearly as long.

Cris turned his face back to Requiem and smiled, "It's my pleasure Miss."
He looked her up and down, she was rather small, at least he thought so, and slight as well. She wouldn't be much of a threat...
He shut that thought out of his brain and turned to the girl again, his eyes cast into shadow by the light.
"You asked me earlier what I was doing out here, I suppose I should ask you the same question." He said, tilting his head slightly to the left, he was trying to shut out the thoughts that ran through him from the other side of his head...

She kept the coat wrapped tightly around her as she looked up at him and the moon seemed to suddenly come out, making a light cast across the deep blue water and the stars twinkled lightly. She slowly shut her flashlight off, to save its energy while the moon was out and she blinked tiredly. "I... don't know, to be honest. I fell asleep back at the orphanage... and then... I was here." she said and she looked down at her feet. Now she didn't know which was better; this place, or the orphanage. Things here were becoming so strange to her, she didn't know what to think of it and it only confused her even more. She would sigh lightly as she bit her lip. "It's better here then there, though... I think... so far." she said, looking at him before the wind tried to penetrate the coat again. Only a little slipped under the fabric, causing her to shiver as goosebumps formed along her pale skin.

Cris blinked, it was a long blink, and when he opened his eyes they weren't the same. The pupils had dilated to almost his entire eye again.
"Orphanage?" He asked, staring at her face with a questioning look on his face, "Fell asleep?"
It was then that he noticed her shiver, he thought about giving her his sweater too but decided against it. He focused his mind and then on the wind, he spoke with the wind, talking about what it should and should not do. He told the wind to stop blowing, and then the air was dead still.

She nodded as she looked at him and when the wind died down, she would tilt her head at him but kept his coat wrapped firmly around her exposed shoulders. "Yeah... um... orphanage." she said and she started to walk along the beach, looking around as her feet stepped on cold wet sand, the grains sticking to the bottoms of her feet.

Heaven's incessant crying stopped and she sniffled for a second before regaining her grip on reality. She hadn't freaked out like that in ages, but in that brief moment when her eyes fell on the puppet a rush of forgotten emotions rushed back to the forefront of her mind. She was calmer now and could hear rushed footsteps approaching her out of the woods. She snapped her head back and looked just in time to see Alie appear out of the treeline, but she was moving way too fast to have such a short distance between herself and the edge of the cliff. Heaven held her hands out in front of her as if telling her friend to stop, but it was too late. She'd gone right over the edge, Heaven gasped and scrambled over to the edge. Her friend had already disappeared in the blackness. Was she still alive? Could people actually die in a dream or did they wake up back in the real world?

Heaven sat back on her heels, a dazed expression on her face. This world was far from what she thought it was back on the beach. Nothing was going right, and now one of her best friends was very possibly gone forever. The brunette's eyes widened when she heard a laugh come from behind her and she sucked in a sharp breath. Was this man going to kill her? If so, she hoped she'd get to go wherever Alie went. Heaven stood up, wobbling like she might fall over, but steadied herself and forced her hazel eyes to look at him. She was relieved he wasn't a puppet, but still on edge. Whoever he was, she didn't trust him that was for sure. "Who are you?" She questioned, her eyes narrowed accusingly. She glanced up at his red eyes then immediately focused on the trees behind them.

"What did you do to my friend?" She asked him, though she knew it wasn't a smart question, it wasn't like he'd pushed Alie over the edge himself.

As the water rushed to surround her everything went black. Her eyes fluttered open and she quickly scanned her surroundings. She hoped that she was out of the dream, but she was still there. Now she was on the beach in the night. I hope Heaven is all right... She thought of her friends as she looked around. No one was there and it kinda relieved her. "How come I'm not dead...it all felt so real..." She spoke to herself as she slowly raised up. She rubbed her head a little, then started to walk back into the woods. The longer she stayed in this world the more scared she became.

What type of place was this were you could fall of a cliff and not die? It was a question that kept running through her head. Alie searched through the woods, but eventually she was back at the beach. She just walked in one huge circle. She started to get frustrated with this place. And if she saw Heaven where was Requiem? She looked around the beach, then saw her friend. "Requiem!" She yelled at her friend as she ran towards her. "Thank goodness I've found you!" She said as she hugged her friend. "Who is this?" She asked referring to the man next to her.

The young man before Heaven seemed to be watching her closely. The grin on his face slowly dissolved as he listened to her questions, one eyebrow arching delicately at the absurdity of the second one. He half-turned to look over his shoulder, down into the crashing spray of the waves at the foot of the cliff they had been standing on. He returned his gaze to Heaven, and his grin had returned. " 'Do'?" He repeated, "Why, I have done nothing, young lady. Except maybe laugh at her inability to understand inertia." The grin widened, "However, as to your first query, I suppose I should provide you with an answer." He uncrossed his arms and gave a lavish bow, picking up her hand - if she let him, he wasn't forcing this part - to place a gentle, almost charming kiss upon it. "Quite apropos, my name is Rêves. Though most simply call me Reeve. Anglophones have problems with that word."

He gently dropped her hand, and walked a small circle around her, seemingly studying her. "Do not worry. Your friend seems to be learning the rules of this place. She is safe. However, you, my dear Heaven... you seem positively petrified. Well, that will simply not do, not at all." He extended a hand, slowly, imploring her to take it. "If you come with me, dear girl, I would like to show you what you can accomplish here. I do so enjoy your presence, and scaring you into never returning is not my intention." This time, his smile seemed much more innocuous, that undeniable charm he seemed to possess lent credibility to his words. Even the sharp incisors in that bright smile seemed of an impish playfulness more than the wicked hunger they had intimated earlier.

"You cannot die, here. So why not enjoy what it has to offer?"

Heaven listened to Reeve skeptical and very untrusting of him, something about his presence weirded her out. After he kissed the back of her hand she stood up and folded her arms across her chest and thought for a moment. "So she's alive." She was relieved at the news, wherever Alie ended up after falling, she hoped she was okay. Every little voice of reason inside her head told her not to follow this strange male, but curiosity got the best of her and she figured it couldn't hurt. Alie had fallen off of a cliff an survived so Heaven felt somewhat safer. Besides, if she ever got the feeling that she was in danger, she could always just run away again like before.

"Okay, she started hesitantly, finally deciding to take his hand,"only because I'm curious to see what I can accomplish here." Heaven cast one last glance at the cliff, wondering where Alie would end up. For now, she forced herself to swallow her fear and forget about that awful puppet. If she ever had the misfortune of seeing it again, it wouldn't be a surprise if Heaven threw herself over the edge next.

The strange young man smiled widely as she accepted his hand, looking very pleased. "That is just it, my dear..." He moved quickly, taking her hand firmly and stepping closer to her, then slipping behind her. His right hand held hers fast, so their arms were intertwined around their bodies, and his left arm came around Heaven's waist, pulling her closer to him. When he continued, it was a whisper, his breath upon her ear, "Here, you can accomplish anything. The limit is only your imagination." And with that, he held her close, and leaped from the edge, taking her with him.

Down they plummeted, the wind rushing by them and whipping at their clothes. Heaven would hear Reeve laughing behind her, the sound was rich with amusement, though just barely tinted with the same creepy hysteria of earlier. As they neared the horrible rocky shore at the foot of the cliff, the wind suddenly changed direction, and with a great whoosh!, Reeve carried them both up into the air, over the water's edge and high into the moonlit night. Their bodies corkscrewed playfully as they climbed, then their altitude leveled out, and Reeve's laughter faded. When the adrenaline rush subsided and the air ceased its howling around them, they seemed to be calmly drifting over the ocean, suspended above it about 40 feet or so. From up there, the view was absolutely breathtaking. The pale moon shone over the beach spread out below them, silvery waves lapping gently and silently at the sand. The fields were beyond, flowers made colourless by the evening's quiet light dotted the grass, patches of ivory across large swathes of dark green. Behind them, the forest loomed, dark and shadowy, though from far away it looked peacefully sullen.

Reeve had quieted, and was seemingly enjoying their flight in his own right. His grip was gentle, his arm comfortably around her waist was all that seemed to be supporting her - though he still held her hand - but she didn't seem to be hanging on that arm. They appeared to be floating weightlessly, drifting lazily through the night. Reeve's whisper came to Heaven's ear again, his breath warm and against her skin, "I told you. Isn't it grand? Let your imagination take flight, here. That is the only thing keeping you from true wonderment."

Heaven gasped when they went over the edge, but soon her shock was replaced by amazement. They were twisting and flying through the air, high above the ground. She felt so happy, excited, and a jumble of other emotions all at once. When they stopped and floated over the water she looked down at the dark ocean with wide eyes. "Wow," she whispered, deciding she wanted to see what she could do on her own. She imagined multi-colored, glass steps leading down to the sandy beach and dared herself to see if they would support her. Slowly Heaven tapped the glass before stepping on it completely. She proceeded to descend the glowing staircase down to the beach and spun around in circles. "This is so cool." She felt like she was a little girl again, spinning around and laughing.

"Let's see." She looked on at the never-ending stretch of beach on both sides of her like it was a blank canvas and pointed to her right. A giant sandcastle rose up and a few feet inside it's entrance was a shiny grand piano. She practically ran inside and sat down, her face lighting up as she started playing. "There's no way I'm ever going back now, I can stay here forever." She could do whatever she wanted without anyone telling her otherwise, how could she possibly go back to Wynbran now?

He had her completely enthralled. The grin on Reeve's face stretched nearly from ear to ear as he followed her down onto the beach and into her little castle. It would be so easy now to reach into his mind and scare the living daylights out of her. Her screams would no doubt rend through the air, tearing the tranquility of this place she had created into ribbons as she ran terrified, once again, into the night without control. He could already envision it. A dozen little puppets dancing to the tune of the piano, slowly moving towards the girl. Then, just as the music reached a crescendo, they would turn on her, teeth, claws, fangs, and blood, and she would be forced to imagine them gutting her and flaying her very skin from her bones.

But, that was not how it happened.

Inexplicably, as she started playing, the young man's dark thoughts tumbled from his mind, dropping out of cognizance like snow drifting through an evening breeze. Her playing was... completely enchanting. He staggered over to the piano, legs a little wobbly, and plopped down next to piano and facing her, an ottoman of sand burgeoning from the floor upon which he sat. His elbows on his knees and his chin on his palms, he stared unabashedly at the girl as her fingers deftly flew over the ivories. His red eyes shone as he gawked, wide and unblinking as he seemed completely entranced by the music floating weightlessly through the night as they had done only moments before. There he remained, completely silent and utterly immobile, until she finished. The last few notes she played seemed to finally shake some motion into Reeve, and he blinked once, looked at the piano, then back at Heaven. Sometime during the song, two feline ears had emerged upon the top of his head, and they were now trained forward, listening intently.

"Play another," he implored, his genuineness so real it was palpable, "Please? Do you know one that is..." He paused, searching for words he had not used - or thought to use - in years, "Pretty? Like a lullaby. Slow, and lovely." His expression was completely rapt as it was trained upon her, his eyes wide and full of wonderment.

Heaven thought of another song to play but was distracted by Reeve's cat ears. She tilted her head and stared at them, "Wow are they real?" She stretched her hand out to see for herself but didn't want to be rude and turned back to the piano, laughing nervously. "Sorry, I was just curious." She couldn't help but smile, no one had seen or heard her play for years, the last person was her mother before she died. Focused now Heaven started playing Utada Hikaru's Simple and Clean, it was the first thing that came to her mind. Soon she started singing along as her fingers glided across the keys and she imagined little black notes drifting through the air. Not even a second later music notes began floating and dancing around the piano. Heaven finished the song and tried to touch one but it faded then disappeared completely before she got the chance to. She frowned for a moment but turned to Reeve with a smile on her face, "So what do you think? I haven't played in a really long time!" She was eager to get feedback, it reminded her of the good days when she was younger playing for her parents.

Reeve stared blankly at her, seemingly not understanding her question. "Are what real?" One ear twitched as her hand reached for it, just as a cat's would. Reeve even turned around to look over his shoulder, clearly not having a clue what she was talking about. But the point seemed moot, now. He settled in again and listened to her play. As he did so, a tiny little smile forced its way onto his face, and it stayed there for the duration of the song. It grew only slightly, but Heaven might notice it if she were observant, and she bothered to look at him as she sang. Reeve's gaze followed some of the little notes once they appeared, his smile growing again as he watched with restrained glee as the small black notes danced through the air, turning about the girl as she sang.

When she finished, he couldn't help but sigh, and the smile slowly diminished until it was just the barest hint of a quirk to his lips. He scratched his head as she asked him the question, seemingly thinking. "Your playing reminds me of something, but what, I cannot exactly recall. Something from... a very long time ago." His eyes cast down and his arms dropped from his knees. "But... it is simply the past, I suppose. And about as relevant to me as the future is to a man on his death bed." He flashed a grin to no one in particular, lopsided and very different from the smile that had occupied that same space a short time ago. That grin was sinister, as if a very different set of thought processes lurked beneath the surface of his mind, and was trying to push through.

Heaven wasn't exactly sure what Reeve was trying to say about her playing, but she chose to take it as a compliment. Again she found herself staring at his cat ears. It made her think of the Chesire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. She laughed quietly to herself and reached forward, abandoning her manners and pinching his ear between her thumb and index finger. "Oh wow, I thought they were fake." Satisfied she dropped her hand at her side and stood up from the piano bench. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I used to have a black kitten when I was younger." She cut herself short before she started babbling on about memories from the past, or reminded herself of one she didn't want to think about. The piano faded away and was replaced by a sandy chair, which Heaven now occupied. Suddenly a thought popped up in her mind, it hadn't crossed her mind earlier. If this was a dream, why were there other people in it? Had she been thinking about her friends before she fell asleep and that caused them to show up in her dreams? If that was the case then why was Reeve there, she was positive she had never meant him until now. "If this is a dreamland of some sort, how did you end up here?" She forgot to ask Alie earlier and now she wasn't sure where her friend even was.