Tales of Dimensia: The Witch Hunter

Prologue:

The Eternal Land of Dimensia...Earth Year 1991

Rain falls from the grey skies on the darkest of stormy nights. Each drop hits the stone road of Dimensia. The cobblestone paths glisten as street lanterns glow in the silent night. A lone figure walks along the path. The heel of her boot sinks into the puddles and water splashes with every step she takes. She stops when lightning strikes, looking to the sky so that she may admire the brilliant flash of white flames in the clouds. When thunder rolls over the night sky, she pops up her collar and proceeds, the rain hitting her head, making her hair shine in the lights. When the rain falls to a downpour rather than a drizzle, she removes her jacket and holds it up over her head to prevent herself from getting entirely drenched. Moments later she stops at a small house and lets the jacket rest on her head as she searches her pocket for a key. Another flash of white lights up the night sky behind her. The following thunder catches her off guard and she drops the keys. Upon bending down to pick them up, her jacket falls from over her head. She is left there to search through puddles of water until the keys are revealed to her.

Having finally made her way inside, she rings out the jacket, holding her arms out of the doorway so the falling water doesn't touch the floor. he then shakes the jacket, fanning it out and causing it to open as a might kobra does before it strikes. Hanging her jacket on the rack in the foyer, she closes the door behind her and drops down to a sitting position. She sighs and rings out her dripping hair then looks out the window and the lightning. She stands and walks up the stairs, on her way passing by a room with a young sleeping girl inside. The girl is small and pale. Her hair is short and blonde, done up into curls, short bangs in the front. She opens one eye as the other young woman marches up the stairs, the floor creaking behind her. "Haruhi, is that you?" The blonde asks.

"Yeah, it's me, Kokoro. Go to sleep," The other girl responds. "We need to rest for tomorrow." Haruhi, a tall, red headed girl with large, purple eyes and a narrow face, looks down the stairs to find Kokoro standing there, looking up at her. They exchange silence for the longest time. It's almost as if their stare is all they need to connect. They share an almost sisterly bond, from the looks of their gaze. Haruhi smiles warmly to Kokoro as if giving in to the innocence of her stare. "Alright, Koro, come on." She proceeds up the stairs, Kokoro not far behind.

The clock strikes three in the morning. Haruhi sits up in her bed, the glow of the television illuminating the room. She stares blankly at the screen for a moment, her eyes drooping. Glancing down, she sees that Kokoro has fallen asleep beside he, resting her head on Haruhi's shoulder. Haruhi smiles and looks back to the television screen. To her, it is no more than a flickering box of lights, the program making no difference. The light comforts her. She then closes her eyes, allowing her mind to slip off into the abyss of her dreams. But her dream is no safe haven. It's a nightmare. The twisted limbo soon spins into an elaborate memory. The young Haruhi, by age no more than six or seven years old, reaches out to her father from her mother's arms as the man is taken away to Castle Riddock. From there the scene swirls into an abyss of dark colors before mending itself into an entirely new image, this time, her mother holding her hand as her father has a role tied around his neck and a cloth placed over his face. Then, as the lever is pulled and the man's body hangs, she grits her teeth and clenches her fist. Bearing it all, she lets out a scream that would frighten a lion as her mother scoops her up before she can cause any trouble and takes here away.

Haruhi awakens to find the television on and the sun beaming in. The golden light shines onto her face and highlight her dark eyes. Kokoro lies there, still asleep. Her small and delicate body rests there as her breathing carries on peacefully. Haruhi, not having the heart to wake the girl, holds still and watches television. In her mind she sees a vision of a vicious woman with the grin of the devil and the laugh to match. Her poise unlady like and her eyes hungry for blood, this woman taunts Haruhi from within. Kokoro opens her eyes and sits up, stretching her arms. Haruhi turns her head to the gun on the nightstand. "I'm coming for you next," she says. "You'd better be ready for me because I'm going to hit you like a rain that never ends." She then grabs the gun and walks out the door, telling Kokoro to follow as she leaves. Kokoro blinks cluelessly then gets up from the bed and follows Haruhi out the front door.

"Haruhi, where are we going?" Kokoro asks as she follows Haruhi down a dirt road.

"We're on the run, remember? There's a bounty on your head just like there's one on mine...I don't get why you had to help me in the first place,' Haruhi says. "I would have been fine."

"If they caught you, they would have burned you alive like they do all Witches in Dimensia. They do it all over the world now, thanks to the reputation Dimensia's given witches."

Haruhi is silent. She continues walking but for a time, not one sound escapes her. Then she speaks. "They're all ungrateful, you know. I go around offing the bad ones and they still try and get rid of me. Furthermore, now they suspect you to be a witch because you helped me escape and they saw you. So even if you weren't a witch, they've have you killed for aiding one."

This time Kokoro is silent. She looks around at the forest again then looks ahead to Haruhi. "Haruhi," she begins. "Why do you hunt witches if you are one?"

Haruhi stops completely, not a word, not a step. She seems entirely disconnected from the world around her. She doesn't even blink. "Kokoro, I've asked you not to ever ask me that question. Now come on." Haruhi's mind rings with that question. She can't seem to shake it out. The words refuse to leave he head. Then the words transform into an image of her. That image of her suddenly mutates into an image of the witch she'd seen in a vision before. The voice of that witch caused Harui great pain. It was like someone was using her eardrums for bongo practice. She held onto her gun tightly as she and Kokoro proceeded through the forest. But something watches them from the bushes. They are not alone...