View source for Black Cold Abyss (Reiko Touyama)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2015/12/19
|Location=Reiko's Bedroom - Nightmare
|Synopsis=Reiko dreams of a deep dark unsettling affair.
|Cast of Characters=66
}}
Reiko found herself in the aquarium. It was one of her happy places. It didn't feel as happy right now. Something about it had changed. A tank had shattered, there was glass and water everywhere---and lots of dead ocean fish. It stunk like a fish market- a horrible, ghastly fish market. The other tanks were leaking...or murky, dirty and neglected or all the fish were dead. Well. Not all the fish.

There was something in the tanks. It seemed to almost /skip/ tanks. It was a large, shark-like shadow. A Shade!? She reached for her Chroma Crystal but it wasn't there. Yet she knew it was a Shade. Something bright and orange skipped past her through the air. A koi! One of her koi! She brightened up a bit and began to chase it!

She only chased it for a minute before it flopped to it's side suddenly and began to float upwards. It took her a moment to realize what was happening. Did.. did her koi just die!? That can't happen! Can it!? Where did it leave her....?

She was in the middle of the giant reef tank area. The coral reef making up the center of the tank had rotted out and poisoned the tank- the smell was horrible. The feeling of the Shade had gone. Another koi shot past her. She brightened up a little again! She followed it upwards with her eyes where it dived back into her Chroma Crystal---wait what!? Her Crystal! Why was it up there...?

Because it was in the hands of a dark figure- profiled in shadow and black with a parasol. Was it shadows--or were there actually just a solid black void? Griselda? She called out. "Grisedla...!? You better.. give that back! Don't you dare break it!" she commanded. 

"Why would I do that? Why do you talk like you have any way to stop me!?" asked the figure. It didn't sound like Griselda. Reiko was sure this thing wasn't her now at least. It sounded like someone else. Twisted and a chorus of various voices. The figure, discernable as no one particular placed a finger to the crystal and Reiko began to feel painful inside. "Nrg---d--don't you....!" she managed to gasp out. "What are you doing..." she managed to stammer out. Her glasses fell off her face. Everything got more fuzzier. 

The bright and orange crystal began to dim and dim- and in it's placing a darkly glowing twisted mass of grey and black overtook it. There was just a speck of orange left yet. Reiko felt cold, as cold as she sometimes felt when she placed her face up against one of these ocean tanks. The voices rang out from the figure. "Why would I want to stop you when you're so much more useful to me as a Shade!?"

What!? No! "S-stop!" she pleaded. The figure did not. The figure merely just spoke. "Don't you feel it Reiko!? The hunger for color- to drive it away and replace it in lovely monochrome, nice and dark, just like the depths of a deep lake. Don't you want to go there!?" the figure asked in it's cacophony. "Just go to a nice sleep--when you wake up, you'll feel much better!" insisted the mass of weird vocal tones. 

Reiko fought hard to keep awake, but as that little tiny speck of orange began to get snuffed out, she could feel that odd and weird hunger... the cold darkness of a deep lake......

Reiko fell out of bed and woke up on impact. The resulting dream caused her to panic and fall down her face and trip over to her vanity mirror. There she was -just normal everyday Reiko in the twilight of an early cold morning. Her Chroma Crystal glowed it's dull orange but wasn't showing any signs of a Shade or anything else around. She took a breath of relief. The window was open- it was cold. Who opened that? Reiko had a few guesses... maybe a creepy doll.