A/N: I bet you didn't expect this story to come back!
So, background. I was re-reading my old stories and they were actually... really good. The writing wasn't the best, but the concept and the way it came across was amazing.
So, I wanted to rewrite it. My style has grown leaps and bounds the past year, so unfortunately, it won't be the same. You can take that as a positive or negative. But I'm trying to make it the same as possible.
I'm also going to keep it as my original plan. Yup: once upon a time, I had a plot in mind that was longer than three chapters. So this story is not only going to be three chapters! Hurray!
One more thing: I changed their personalities a bit. Tell me how you like them!
So yeah. I'm really excited! Let's get right into it, shall we?
I hope you enjoy Chapter 1 of Fading: Once Again!
0o0o0o0
Chapter 1: The Ghost
Rin finished putting the last box in the new house. The house was tiny, taking up only a corner lot, but it was way more than enough for her, her mom, and her sister. They didn't have much stuff, and having moved to a somewhat rural area, they wouldn't need much, anyways. She was lucky to have made it into this High School, and though she was upset she made her family move again — it was the third time in her life that she had to relocate — she was more than excited to be going to school tomorrow. It was the school of her dreams, the one she thought she'd never get in to.
That was enough for her.
"Rin," her Mom called as Rin set the final box down in her room. "Can you start unpacking your room? I want us to be moved in by tonight, tomorrow at latest."
"Sure thing!" Rin said, loud enough for her mom to hear. She must be in the living room, still carrying in the furniture. Part of her wanted to help, but the furniture was too heavy for her, and with Lily — her older sister — helping, she knew they would be fine.
And, to be honest, she liked the time she got alone. She closed the door, hoping nobody noticed. She only wanted to block out the excess sound, but her mom didn't like it when she shut the door. Her mom worried too much, in Rin's opinion, and maybe even had some sort of separation anxiety from her and her sister. Scratch that: that was a fact, considering that she had the whole family move just for her getting into the school. She even had forced Lily to take the entrance exam so they could move together. Lily was reluctant to take it, but everybody knew she would pass with flying colors. She was smarter than she made herself out to be.
Rin shook her head, batting away her thoughts. She had to do that less often; whenever she had a simple thought, she could get too carried away with it. She sat down and opened one of her boxes, seeing it full with all her clothes. She sighed. She hated putting away clothes, but she might as well get the worst done first.
It took a while, but eventually, all the clothes were either hung in her closet or folded neatly in her dresser. She actually felt proud having had put them all away. Her closet had never looked that good at any house she'd been at. She picked up the empty box and was about to throw it away when she realized it wasn't so empty. A silver chain sat inside the box, almost blinding her from the way the sunlight reflected off of it. She picked it up, eyeing it suspiciously. It was a necklace, with a treble clef charm hanging from the bottom of it. She'd never seen it in her life; what was it doing in her stuff? But she decided to keep it anyways. Though she didn't particularly care for how she looked, it was pretty enough. She wasn't about to throw something like that away. She set it down gently on her desk facing the window, and resumed unpacking.
Eventually, everything was put away, even the multitude of books she had for school. She lied down on her futon, staring up at the ceiling. Finally, everything was done... It felt like forever, and carrying her extremely heavy schoolbooks made her exhausted.
A thud scared her out of her thoughts. She sat up quickly, looking for the source of the sound, and saw that it was only one of her textbooks that had fell. She picked it up and put it back in its place, confused since it had been nowhere near the edge of the desk in her room.
As soon as she replaced the book, another dull thud reverberated throughout the room. Yet another textbook had fallen to her ground. She furrowed her eyebrows. She hadn't put them that close to the edge... She sighed as she put the book back on the desk. At least it wasn't her science textbook. She actually cared about that one.
She waited at the desk, anticipating another book to fall, but it didn't happen. She let out a sigh of relief as she headed black to her futon, hoping she wouldn't have to get up again. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw the futon. All the sheets were folded neatly, looking as if she had never touched it. There was no way she did that herself... She had got up only for a second...
Something fell on the top of her chest, making it feel like someone just put ice to it. She looked down, and saw a treble clef lying there, the silver chain freezing her neck.
Then the frost spread all through her body, and with that came fear. She wanted to run, to get away from here, to be anywhere but here; but if she was going to live here, she had to know what was going on.
"Hey, look behind you," an echoing voice whispered in her ear. She whipped her head around, scared, but curious none the less. Her heartbeat slowed down as she realized nothing was there. She must be hearing things...
"Oh, yeah," the voice reprimanded itself. "Forgot about that. There we go."
A boy with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing what seemed like a yellow and white school uniform, materialized before her. On his head were headphones with a bass clef on the right side.
But, unlike a normal human being, he was transparent, and he floated in the air, something that a human shouldn't be able to do.
"Hello," he greeted. "I'm Len, the ghost of this house. Nice to meet you."
Ghost... ghost? Rin pinched herself. She didn't wake up, and he didn't go away. This was real. But ghosts were fake. She stood there and stared, shocked. No, this wasn't possible... Had she been getting enough sleep lately? Moving stressed her out, maybe that was it...
"I see your doubt," the boy of hallucinations interrupted her thoughts. "It's fine. Everyone's skeptical at first, but I assure you, I'm real. See?"
He put his hand to her shoulder, and it went right through, making Rin shiver. This had to be some prank... but what explained the cold she felt? The Placebo Effect?
"When a person dies and still has an unfulfilled wish," he continued, "they stay on Earth as a ghost until that wish is fulfilled. That's what the legend here says."
Rin didn't know how to respond. Was she actually talking to a ghost right now? There was no projector in the room, nothing anywhere... Was he real?
"Then... what's your wish?" She asked, surprised at the sound of her own voice. After listening to his — having that weird, echoing thing to it — hers just sounded different. Maybe even strange.
"I don't know." He shrugged, swirling around her. "I don't think I have one."
"Um..." Rin thought the question she was about to ask was going to be rude, but she wanted to find out what was going on too bad. "How did you-"
"Die? Not important." She flinched at his harsh response, but he must've noticed it because he gave her a small smile. "Sorry. Didn't mean it like that. Anyways, call me Len. Just Len, no honorific. If we both live here, we're basically family now."
"Um, I-I'm Kagamine Rin, but I guess you can call me Rin..." She tried to do some type of formal gesture but realized none of them would work since, apparently, he's a ghost. She opted for a small bow instead, even if it felt awkward doing that to a ghost in her room. "Do you have a surname...?"
"I guess it's Kagamine now. I don't remember what it was before." He shrugged. "Plus, we look similar enough."
"I guess..." Rin looked at the ground. So "Len" was real, ghosts were real... what else was she going to learn today? She looked back up and saw that he wasn't there. She was relieved, seeing that maybe, just maybe she had been hallucinating, but that hope was crushed when another book fell from her desk. She ran over and put it back, slightly irritated. "Will you stop that?"
"You can't make me," he teased, inching the same book forward so it was teetering at the edge of the desk. "Chemistry? They must've upped the curriculum: that was a second year class!"
"Maybe I'm smart, okay?" Rin shot back, flinching at how harsh it sounded. She was about to apologize when the Chemistry book fell over. She almost didn't contain her shriek as she caught it. "Don't touch the science ones!" She exclaimed, sighing in relief as she set it down peacefully.
"Is Geometry fair game?" Len asked, making himself visible again. She was going to say no, but the pouting face he made just wasn't fair.
"...Fine." Somehow, the look of childish glee on his face was enough to make up for the fact she literally just allowed him to knock over her books. "Just... don't make it too loud, okay?"
"Of course!" He clapped his hands together in excitement, a grin filling his face.
"And only when I'm here," she added in a stern voice. "Otherwise, my family would be a little more than suspicious."
"Oh, yeah. Forgot about them." Len looked disappointed at the reality check.
"Rin!" Her mom called. They both turned towards the sound, surprised. "Dinner's ready!"
Wow. Had it really been that long? "Sorry, Len," Rin apologized. "I have to go."
"Yeah, maybe you want eat," he joked.
"Not funny." She rolled her eyes. "No knocking over books while I'm gone," she added in a stern voice. He nodded. "See ya."
She watched the ghost fade, feeling emptier when she had to close the door. Being without her old friends was already taking a toll on her. Sure, she had their numbers, and she could text them, but she wasn't much of a texting person, and neither were they. She had basically left them.
At least she had a ghost to talk to.
0o0o0o0
"Hey, Rin," Lily, Rin's older sister, faced her at dinner. "What was all that noise in your room? I was unpacking and all I could hear was thuds."
In any other voice than Lily's, the question would've sounded curious. Lily had a knack for sounding rude, no matter what she said. She could be talking about how great the weather was and sound insulting. Rin has gotten used to it by now: she had lived with her her entire life.
"Books," she answered vaguely. Despite that, she had forgotten that their rooms were right across from each other's. Her heart thumped. She hoped that Lily hadn't heard the talking. If she did... Rin didn't know what lie she could come up with that would explain that.
"Well, you must be awfully clumsy if you knocked over your books that many times." Lily rolled her eyes. Rin felt a wave of relief wash over her, something she had never felt when Lily insulted her.
"Lily," their mom warned, "we don't talk like that." Lily only ignored her and went back to eating. Rin knew personally that Lily could be rude, but her older sister really did try. Most of the time, at least.
"How'd you two like the area?" Their Mom asked, changing the subject. Rin guessed her mom wanted to know because their house had been on obvious downgrade, even from their old one. They didn't have the most money.
"Crap!" Lily exclaimed. Their mom gave her a look at her outburst, and Lily toned down her next sentence. "I forgot to look around!"
"It's nice," Rin offered. "There's a forest and a lake."
"I'll have to see for myself." The area was, honestly, quite breathtaking at the right parts. Around their house was swampy and a little bit ugly, but further in and by the roads were beautiful Sakura trees. Most of the greenery was next to the school, along with the lake. The school was expensive for a reason, Rin rationed. Thank goodness she got a full ride.
The rest of their meal was eaten in silence. Rin watched Lily fly out the door before she went in her own room, sure that nobody would hear her.
"Len?" She called out warily, thinking she was insane. Her fears were eased when he appeared on her bed.
"Hey!" Len greeted in an exaggerated voice. "I'm still real!"
"Guess I'm not crazy, then." She sat down next to him on her futon. It felt strange, sitting next to a ghost, but apparently this was what she had to deal with now. She might as well get used to it.
"Since when were you crazy?" He asked, acting offended. "I'll let you know that I'm totally, one-hundred percent real."
She snorted, holding in laughter. "I've just never seen a ghost before, okay?"
"I bet." He grinned and put his hands on his hands. "Then I'm also the coolest one you've ever seen!"
"Sure, whatever you think." She rolled her eyes in amusement. "Hey, serious question time: can other people hear us talking?"
"No. Yes. Okay, sort of. They can hear your voice, not mine. Kinda sucks that ghost powers can't do anything about that." He pouted. "All I have going for me is I can make myself visible to anyone I want and I can do the same with my voice. I could be invisible to you and still be able talk to you. But there's really no use to that besides scaring you since no one else could see me anyways."
"Scaring me?" Rin asked, raising her eyebrows. Len froze.
"Uh..." His face flushed, something Rin didn't think he was capable of. He looked at the ground away from her. "M-Maybe I shouldn't have gave it away..."
"Maybe you shouldn't be trying to scare me!" Despite her tone, Rin grinned: for some odd reason, she enjoyed the response she got from Len. She liked seeing him embarrassed. He was... different? That wasn't right: she'd only known him for less then a day... What was the emotion, then?
"Alright, alright, I won't scare you..." Len begrudgingly agreed.
"Great! Now that we've agreed on that..." Rin wondered how she should phrase the next question. "Um, serious question time again: why did you choose me instead of Lily?"
"This was my room when I was alive." Len shrugged.
"Did you..." Rin trailed off. Should she really be asking this? She decided why not? She deserved to know about the ghost that was living in her room. "Did you die in here?"
"What's with all the questions?" His tone became defensive with his next words. "I told you; nothing about my death matters."
"Sorry..." Once again, she flinched, and once again, he gave her an awkward apology smile.
"You don't have to say sorry! That was me..." He laughed nervously. "Anyways, who's Lily?" Len asked, his voice back to being bright and cheery.
"She's my older sister," Rin explained, realization coming over Len's face.
"The other blonde?" Rin nodded. "Ohhh. I probably should've guessed that. She's kind of... rude? I probably wouldn't have wanted to live there anyways."
For some reason, that made her feel relieved. Or glad. A strange mix of both? Why would she be feeling that?
"A-Anyways, you said you'd disappear once your... wish was fulfilled?" Rin asked, changing the subject somewhat... nervously? Was that nervousness? She shouldn't be nervous, that was just stupid...
"Yeah. I don't believe the wish part, though." Len propped his face up on his hand, elbow on his knee. "I won't last forever, that's for sure. I mean, I didn't die that long ago; and if you must know" — he looked at her with an slightly exasperated expression — "I died earlier this year. I'm not telling you anything else."
"I'm home!" The voice shocked them both, their heads instantly turning towards the door. It took them a second to realize it was only Lily. "The area wasn't that great. I guess the scenery was nice..."
"It's Lily," Rin whispered. "You have to go."
"Actually, you just have to not respond to me," Len remarked matter-of-factly. Rin gave him a look that said "seriously?", but still, a smirk grew on his face.
"Well, it would make my life easier if you didn't talk!" She whisper-shouted. He floated upwards, giggling.
Their "argument" was put on pause when footsteps were heard outside the door. Lily. They both stared at the door, Rin holding her breath, until they heard a door open and close.
"That was close," Rin breathed, turning back towards Len. This time, it was her mouth that turned into a smirk. "So you can shut up."
"Of course I can," Len said dramatically. "How do you think I got away with with pushing your books over?"
"Oh, whatever." Rin glanced at the clock at the clock, and noticed it was getting late. How Lily got away with coming home so late was a mystery. "You should get going: I need to be going to sleep."
"At nine?" Len asked incredulously. "I usually stayed up till at least ten."
"Maybe I actually like sleep," she shot back. "How do you not go to sleep that early?"
Len shrugged. "I don't know. I just never got tired."
"Do you even need sleep?" She asked genuinely, walking over to her small dress to get her pyjamas.
"Not really." Len followed her over. "I mean, I can sleep. I don't really dream, though."
Rin closed her drawer, holding her clothes. "Well, can you, um..." She motioned awkwardly. "Not be here? I kind of want to... change."
"O-Oh." His face flushed slightly. "Y-Yeah, uh, of course." In a second, he disappeared. Rin didn't know if he was still in the room or not, but he trusted that he left. He seemed embarrassed enough. It was kind of... endearing? "See ya tomorrow!"
"S-See ya." Soon enough, she was changed, lying down on her bed in the dark room. She stared up at the ceiling.
She felt... empty, once again. Like she had when she had to leave Len earlier. Did she miss him? That was impossible, she had just met him. She wasn't that attached...
She realized that it was because her old friends were gone. This ghost had replaced them, in a sense. That sounded kind of dumb — okay, really dumb — but it was the truth.
She sighed, rolling over to face the wall. She was tired, and she needed sleep, especially tonight, seeing as the first day of school was tomorrow.
She, for some reason, wasn't as excited about it as she used to be.