When I Shall Cease To Be

One day, Rin Kagamine simply ceased to exist. The moments leading up to this event were the most terrifying things in her entire life. The moments after were less than nothing.

Pairings: MikuxLen, GumixPiko

Rating: K+

Gernres: Angst, supernatural

Characters: Rin K.

I had a week-long writing class a few weeks ago. This and one other story are the results. Both end in not-so-happy ways (every dies in the other). I just found this on my jump-drive yesterday and decided to upload it. I just named it according to some song I was listening to (which is and was When Shall I Be Free? by Shpongle).

Well, I suppose that's all. Read if you want. Review if you want. No, I will not continue this. It is a one-shot. Do not follow this.

Okay, then. Moving on.

Hope you enjoy!

/

Rin Kagamine was by no means a shy girl. She liked attention and she knew well how to make herself known. Often times, she was more wild than entirely necessary. This is how she grew up; a bit too loud and a bit too brash. She was okay with it, and people around her were okay with it.

It wasn't until high school she really started to settle down, though. It was a gradual transition. Some days, she'd refrain from making a joke in class, though she was quite sure everyone save for the teacher would enjoy her humorous approach to the lesson. Other days, she'd allow a passing comment to stick in her mind and eventually be forgotten in order to let a friend finish speaking. At first, it was all quite intentional. Before long, this all became second nature, and Rin became far quieter than she had ever been in her life.

People noticed occasionally. Her brother, a younger twin, most of all.

"What, nothing to say?" he demanded, red in the face as he announced that he had finally asked out the girl he liked. Rin simply smiled and offered a congratulations before turning her back on the embarrassed and slightly stunned boy to focus on her (irritating) homework.

It was soon accepted that Rin no longer had much to say. People seemed fairly accepting of this recent turn of events. Had she been that talkative before, that annoying? She hoped not. It would be horrible to be remembered as that one annoying girl who talked too much.

Soon enough, Rin would come to think that she could settle for simply being remembered.

It started slowly, the forgetting. Sometimes Len would only set three places at the dinner table. She thought the boy was joking around until she saw the look of genuine confusion he tried to hide behind a grin she recognized well. It was his teasing grin, though the one he used when covering up a lie was also evident. She quickly decided to forget about it. What was one time, after all?

Except it wasn't one time. There were occasions when even her best friend pretended not to hear her request that they scoot down to make room for her at the lunch table. Her mother ignored her offer to do the dishes and her tired father took up the job instead, even after her insistence. If she could manage to be loud enough, people generally recognized her, though this tactic was slowly becoming less and less useful. In time, it became entirely unserviceable, and Rin could not make herself heard no matter what.

But this was only the beginning.

The next step in this slow process of mass overlooking became clear when Rin finally lost it. In a fit of anger, the blonde girl reached out a hand to yank her best friend's arm. Rin froze when she noticed what had happened to her arm.

Doing a quick once-over of her visible frame (she couldn't see her head or back, of course), Rin determined that it wasn't just her arm. Her entire body had become glassy and transparent. Her colors had faded, mirroring the same glassy look the rest of her body had taken on. It was strange; almost as though she were made of water. But above all else, it was frightening. The thought that she was slowly vanishing was beginning to nag and bite at her in a violent way, but she simply couldn't accept it. She had people in her life that loved her. Sure, it was true both Len and Gumi, her best friend, had their respective boyfriend and girlfriend, but they would never just forget about her because of that.

Would they?

No, they was silly, They would never. Rin meant too much. To all of them. They couldn't just forget.

Though she was scared that's exactly what they were doing.

The lonely days dragged on. The teachers wouldn't ask to pass out papers any longer. Usually, they themselves forgot to deliver Rin back her test papers and assignments. And each day, the terrible, gut-wrenching thought that she really was being forgotten continuously got harder to ignore. Until one day, when Rin Kagamine simply ceased to exist.

It wasn't painful. It was scary and difficult and resulted in tears being spilled down over ruddy cheeks, but there was no pain. She saw herself go; her arms, which were just barely visible then, faded into the background starting at the tips of her dry fingers. It sent an odd tingling sensation up over her shoulders and down her back, almost as though her entire body was slowly falling asleep. Rin could do nothing to stop it and continued to cry desperately as the feeling sunk over her and became an overwhelming mass of pins.

And then she was gone. From Earth, at least.

In a place no one really properly knows about, so very far away, yet a moment's travel between Earth and there, Rin once again appeared, shaking and sobbing. She couldn't believe the relief that the sight of her hands brought; they were whole and solid, full of color and very much there. Very much not invisible.

But she couldn't escape the fact that she had no idea where she was.

Wherever she might be, she couldn't see for miles and miles. It was all white on white; a flurry of crisp paper in an Arctic snowstorm. Rin couldn't begin to guess at what she stood on, because even below her feet there was nothing but white.

This was nearly as terrifying as vanishing.

Before she had a chance to properly panic, she turned to examine her surroundings completely and came face to face with another girl. This girl was a fair bit taller than her, with long pink hair and the smile of an angel. She was lovely, though Rin could not decide what made her so.

"Who are you?" Rin demanded in her softest tone.

"I'm one of the Forgotten. My name is Luka," the girl, who was more of a woman, really, replied. "And you are also a Forgotten."

"What's a Forgotten?" Rin asked. She could have figured it out, though her brain didn't seem to be functioning properly.

"Those people who have been forgotten come here to live. It's nicer here," Luka explained in a vague way that would normally drive Rin up the wall. There were no walls, but that wasn't why Rin was so calm. Her mind was simply relaxed and there was no explanation to it. She has stopped crying, though drying tears still stung her skin and her eyelashes clung together. It was uncomfortable but standable.

"So I was forgotten?" Rin asked as though finalizing the whole ordeal. Luka nodded. "Oh. Okay."

Luka's smile remained, though turned slightly sour with sadness. "I know it hurts," she sympathized, "but you can live here now. Everyone here understands what you feel. Isn't that wonderful?" Luka blinked large blue eyes, as though desperate for Rin to agree with her.

"Yes," Rin replied after a very long, heavy pause. "I think that's wonderful."

The smaller blonde girl did not even hesitate when Luka offered her hand. As soon as skin touched, the two vanished, leaving not a simple thing behind in the massive void of white on white.

Back on Earth, a certain blond twin was glancing over one of the many family photos. It confused him why he was turned at such an awkward angle, as though there was someone meant to be there. This phenomenon had occurred in several other photos, though he had no memory of anyone ever accompanying him in any of them, nor was anyone in a single one of the pictures.

With a sigh of defeat as he was clearly never going to discover why this was, Len turned to leave the living room. He had a date soon, after all.