"I saw the mannequins again"

Pururu wasn't looking at Taruru when he entered the room, but she stood and turned at the statement.

"There was one extra. Just like the night before"

The nurse frowned in thought, but said nothing.

"They were closer to the bed than usual"

Pururu's frown deepened. Taruru had been having this same hallucination every time he woke up for four and a half months now, and in recent weeks they had been getting more and more disturbing. Pururu couldn't quite work out why these dreams tormented him so; or what caused them.

"You've been taking the pills I gave you…?" she asked, knowing the answer already.

"Yeah"

Pururu sat down again and put her head in her hands.

"I don't know, Taruru. I'm not sure what else there is to try. The REM scan showed nothing. I just don't understand" She sighed and looked back to Taruru.

"All I can suggest is that, just for tonight, you should stop with the tablets. Just to see what happens"

Taruru nodded and left the room, looking as relaxed as usual. Daytimes were a relief from the dreams, after all.

Re-entering his room, he simply stood at the door and surveyed it for a while. He did this every day, knowing that there would obviously be no sign of the mannequins that plagued his dreams. Their ship was far out in space, and it's not like there were any-

But then why, this time, were light pressure marks visible on the floor?

They were dotted all over his carpet, he noticed, exactly where the figures had been in his most recent dream.

He'd left his room straight away and locked it, this morning. No one had been in here. Only Zoruru could break in, and he'd been in Tororo's room all night while the tadpole worked on some major damages from a recent battle.

He crouched and looked at the imprints. They were similar to the marks a table would leave in a carpet after long periods without being moved. But they weren't there when he left his room this morning – that was the other time he checked his entire room.

"This carpet is old" Taruru told himself aloud, before pushing them out of his mind and getting on with his day, remembering not to take his tablets before bed that night.

Surveying the carpet one more time before bed, he found that the marks had disappeared.

"It's my mind playing tricks. I have to stop thinking about them, and then the 'evidence' will go" He told himself, getting into the right mind set to get to sleep. He was going to bed slightly early, so the lights from the halls of the base would still be on while he tried to sleep.

Snuggling into the extra pillows he'd nabbed from Tororo's room, he was reminded of his mother, and how warm she felt when she cuddled him when he was small. This thought relaxed him, and he closed his eyes.

'God dammit, I forgot to switch off my room light' he cursed internally, sitting up. But when he opened his eyes, the lights were already off.

He sat there for a while, allowing his eyes to adjust. He must have switched it off after all, but how could he not have noticed. He closed his eyes and was about to lie back down when he thought to himself; 'Why didn't I see the hall light through my door?' opening his eyes again he tried hard not to scream at the blank, plastic face just inches from his own.

He was asleep, then. He had to be. This was the dream. Only this time, his room was almost invisible through the sea of hollow, hard shells in the shape of Keronians. He tried to control the tears welling in his eyes so that he could see properly, and shakily slipping through the cold maze of stiff figures and get to his door.

Opening it, zipping outside and closing it, he let out a cut off sob. That was the most real that dream had felt before. He had to wake up, he had to-

After what felt like a blink, he found himself on the floor outside his room, curled up. Perhaps he really was awake now. Had he really sleepwalked out of his room?

Tasting salt, he touched his face, and felt warm tears rolling down them. These hallucinations were becoming too much. He needed to request a sick leave.

Swaggering sleepily through the dimly lit halls, he spied the time on a nearby clock.

He'd only been out for ten minutes?

Ignoring this, he moved through the halls, which he didn't seem to recognise properly in his tired state in an effort to find either Pururu or Garuru. There was a long stretch of corridor that felt even longer than the ship itself, with almost no doors along it, it seemed. Assuming he was probably in the wrong part of the ship, he turned to see the hall that led to his bedroom door only inches behind him.

Had he passed out again? He rubbed his eyes and focussed on keeping them open as he went down the other hall, taking the familiar door to the branching hallway leading to Tororo's room. Maybe he'd pop in and ask if Tororo would come with him, just to make sure he didn't pass out again on the way there.

Approaching the door, he brushed off the fact that it opened by itself as just a breeze. The halls were rather cold tonight, it seemed.

He was surprised to find Tororo alone. He was sat on the floor tinkering with something, but it didn't look related to Zoruru's cybernetics.

"Tororo" He said so quietly it was almost a whisper. He must have been subconsciously afraid of the empty halls he had just walked through.

"Flecks" Came the tired response as the salmon tadpole turned to face the visitor, his glasses, though well lit, looked unusually dim and foggy.

"Where's Zoruru?" Taruru asked instinctively, not really caring that much and just wanting to get on with filing his request.

"Gone"

"Um… okay. Tororo, if you're purposely trying to creep me out, that is NOT cool, dude"

Tororo looked at him incredulously before leaning back a bit and sighing.

"What do you want, Taruru?" He said. He sounded very tired, despite the fact that being up till the early hours of the morning was commonplace for him.

"I need you to come with me while I find the boss to ask him for sick leave. I keep passing out and I could really use some help staying conscious"

"Why do you need sick leave?"

Taruru stared at him with a raised brow. The tone Tororo used was light, indicating that he actually wanted to know. But why would it bother him that much?

"It's the dreams, they're-"

Taruru was interrupted by a hand gesture from the tadpole before him.

"You're still letting the dreams get to you? If you took it off, every once in a while, it'd be fixed" He said, pointing to his head. Taruru absently took one of his hat flaps in his hand. How would taking off his hat help with anything? He was starting to believe that Tororo's fatigue was effecting his judgement.

"My… hat?" He asked, to point out how strange he thought the suggestion. Tororo gave an exaggerated look of exasperation.

"Your head, you idiot" He said, as though it was obvious. What kind of weird figure of speech was that? Maybe Tororo had one mixed up again.

"Interesting idea" Taruru said, sarcastically, prompting a disgruntled huff from the tadpole before him. The salmon hacker seemed to rest his head in his hands, only his hands were in a weird position so that his fingers were below his jaw rather than his palms. Taruru was reminded just how peculiar Tororo was.

"You're so simple, Taruru" Tororo said quietly, before digging his fingers into his jaw. Taruru simply watched in bewilderment, unsure whether Tororo thought he was being funny. That was, until, a muffled, wet tear was audible.

The blue frog stood deathly still, trying to work out where the sound had come from. He didn't even voice his concerns about the viscous, white liquid trailing from the bases of Tororo's fingers.

More tearing, and then a sudden chorus of snapping bones. Taruru was unable to move as Tororo's head broke contact with his shoulders, shards of spinal cord drifting down the streams of the foul smelling gel that was now erupting from the wound like blood.

"Tororo this isn't fucking funny" Taruru warned, his voice gaining volume. Tororo was jerking around, he just knew it.

He was still frozen to the spot, even as the last of the liquid was purged from the tadpole's decapitated body, soaking, almost burning into the carpet.

"T-Tororo?" He breathed quietly, uncertain, as he managed to move himself towards his friend. He shakily picked up his glasses, which had fallen to the floor during the horrific scene, and reluctantly turned towards where the head landed.

Empty eye sockets seemed a reasonable explanation for the foggy glasses.

Trying to control his breathing and keep his eyes dry enough to see, Taruru stumbled clumsily from the room and shut the door behind him, leaning against and letting out shaky, violent sobs. He remained there until he was calm enough to move on.

As he continued his trek, he questioned his subconscious. Why was it showing him all these things out of the blue? He couldn't quite put his finger on what could have possibly triggered it. He was an unaffected young man most of the time… maybe he'd seen something in his peripheral at some point that hadn't registered until just now. But he was sure he would have remembered something that grotesque and horrific – he wasn't that dim.

A sudden shudder down his spine, and everything went black.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up. It was his room, warmly lit by the light of the rising sun through his curtains. He breathed and incredibly heavy sigh. He'd HAVE to tell Pururu about that one.

Groggily heaving himself out of bed, he rubbed his eyes and stretched, revelling in the usual emptiness of the air around his bed – no mannequins. Well, except for the oddly familiar looking one in the corner by the closet, but he didn't particularly notice that.

Leaving his room and taking a deep breath, he made his way down the hall leading to Pururu's office. He noted that there was a wall on the way there that seemed blank, but he couldn't work out why. He shook his sleepy head – he had enough on his plate without his mind playing tricks on him while he was conscious.

Knocking quietly first, Taruru entered the room. Pururu was jotting something in her notebook, but turned when she heard the first class private enter the room.

"Anything to report about your dreams, Taruru?" She asked gently, a precaution encase he's had a horrible vision. Taruru nodded at her.

"Yeah. It was way different this time, because Tororo was in it, and that hasn't-"

"Tororo?"

"Yeah… I went to find him in his lab to ask him to-"

"Where were you in this dream?"

Taruru paused and looked at Pururu. She had her eyebrows furrowed. Did this mean she's worked something out?

"You know, the ship. Like usual. I just made my way to his room, hoping Zoruru might be with him too. You know, as an extra escort to the boss's office"

Pururu watched Taruru for a moment.

"Why did this 'Tororo' have a room in our ship? Did that not stand out as peculiar to you in the dream?"

Now it was Taruru's turn to observe Pururu for a moment. What did she mean by that? Pururu saw his expression and attempted to elaborate.

"You know… did it not occur to you in the dream that whoever Tororo is doesn't reside here?"

"Pururu what on Keron are you on about?" Taruru asked, trying as hard as possible to stay calm. There was a tense pause in which the two stared each other down before Taruru spoke again.

"I'm talking about our Tororo. You know, the buck private? The fifth member? You know!"

Pururu watched him as he babbled, growing more and more confused by the minute.

"Taruru, you know there's only ever been four of us in the platoon. Do you still need time to wake up?"

Taruru frowned deeply, and turned suddenly to look out of the door and into the hallway. So that wall had looked blank – the door to Tororo's room was supposed to be there.

"Pururu stop this. Tororo's been in the platoon for as long as I have and you know it! How could you have forgotten him? How else could we have gotten past so many cyber defences on our missions?"

"Taruru, I think you need more sleep-"

"Pururu, I'm telling the truth!"

Taruru's gaze upon Pururu gradually became more horrified, before he left the room in a mad panic.

"Zoruru! Zoruru where are you?!" He yelled as he ran, hoping to god that he'd make some sense.

"What do you want, Private" The assassin spoke in his usually gritty tone as he landed almost silently behind the panicking frog.

"Pururu – she's forgotten about Tororo! Talk some sense into her, Zoruru!"

Zoruru tilted his head in a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

"What the heck are you talking about, now?" He asked.

"I went to Pururu's office this morning and told her about my newest dream. It had Tororo in it, but when I told her she said there's only four of us in the platoon or something" Taruru explained again, slower and more calmly than before. His face fell even further when he noted Zoruru's expression.

"You really are sleep deprived, huh? To think your imaginary friend or whatever is in this platoon…?"

Taruru blanched.

"You liar"

Zoruru stared blankly forward as usual, waiting patiently for an explanation.

"Tororo is your best friend, how can you not remember him?"

"Taruru, I've never heard that name before, I don't what you're talking about. You need more sleep. I'm not going to hang back and drag you around during missions" Zoruru finished before shooting back up into the roof of the ship, leaving Taruru alone. The blue frog shook slightly as he backed to the wall, slowly sliding down it. Had he really had a dream so vivid that he'd invented a whole new person and genuinely believed he existed? It couldn't be. He had too many memories of him. Or had this mystery tadpole been in his dreams before?

Taruru clutched his head in confusion, before remembering his previous dream and whipping them down to sit on them. This was so confusing, he was almost certain that he had a dorky friend who was part of the platoon he was in. He was the one to fix up Zoruru, and argue with that yellow dude in the Keroro platoon. He'd even play games with him, if the scientist was bored enough to comply.

"I'm going to bed" he whispered to himself quietly, slowly getting to his feet and shuffling back towards his room. He needed to have a proper sleep for once. It would clear his head, and stop his brain from concocting any more 'imaginary friends'. These figments of his imagination were taking over, and he realised now that it may even be affecting his perception of reality itself…

A/N

OKAY, this was weird as hell to write. I don't know what compelled me to attempt to write a horror fic, and a CHAPTER one at that (it was going to be just one whole story, but this section itself is around 3000 words long alone). I'm actually not a fan of horror in the slightest, but recently I've developed a kind of morbid interest in horror stories, such as creepy pastas (the ones that are actually scary XD) and (one of my main obsessions) the SCP Foundation. I've also had a go at several indie horror games, most of them pixelated, because I'd much rather visualise it internally rather than see a realistic portrayal (the version of horror I hate)

So, just as a note, this story could end up being SUPER bad, since one, my fiction isn't really immersive at all, and two, I just blatantly have NO experience in this genre at all. Still, I'm gonna attempt to complete this (as well as the other things I need to finish, AND preparing to apply for my cartooning degree course…bnidpofbkjvx

ANYWAY, I hope you like. This A/N is getting too long.