Okay, I was just running outside listen to music (Dark Knight Rises soundtrack) and when I got home and heard the song 'Dark Side' by Kelly Clarkson on the radio, I instantly thought of James and Kendall. I have no idea how is even possible, considering the two have nothing to do with each other, but it inspired me for this reason: everyone has a dark side; a side that doesn't necessarily mean we are evil, but just means that we are human and not perfect. In a way, this song reminds me of...me; not trying to sound self-absorbed or something along the lines, but I constantly struggled with my dark side, the side that harbors self-doubt, confusion, and self-hatred. I still do fall to my dark side sometimes, it's natural and I'm not perfect, but I've gotten better control over that and now love myself better, in so many ways. And so, here's an AU story idea that I think can spread an important message: You truly love someone when you can accept EVERYTHING of them, and not for even a second, think of running away and leaving them on their own...Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT OF THE ONE SHOT AND ANY OCS USED AND/ OR MENTIONED... Sorry if this sucked, was lame, too short, or all the above... Sorry if there were any grammar mistakes made during the writing, creation, and polishing of this oneshot...Note: Bold writing is Third Person POV (an OC not in the story) narration...Halloween is near, so this is an AU Halloween try, inspired by the song by Kelly Clarkson and the movie/video game Coraline...2nd Note: Italics are James' words...
There is a world connected to this one, a world of darkness and shadows...
Kendall Knight struggled to support his balance on the rickety ladder as he climbed up to the attic of his new (well, old) elegant mansion (mansion? It looked like Dracula's house of terror!) of a home along the outskirts of New York (the state, not city). The blonde coughed spider webs and dust bunnies from his throat and crawled on all-fours to wiggle under a large, long tube stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with old bed cushions, blankets molded with multiple holes and what looked like handmade string (life-like!) dolls now carrying an awful odor thanks to thousands of months of no light and pouring rain seeping from the cracks in the roof.
'Mom would kill me if she knew I was up here, but how am I suppose to like the new house if I don't explore it? Besides, there is nothing else I can do since I don't start school 'til next week.' Kendall reasoned in his head, green eyes that matched the smooth, curved surfaces of fine wine bottles widening as he finally reached a uncrossed part of the attic.
He wiggled from under the tube and rose to his feet, his slender body, in a pair of dark skinny jeans and a dark blue sweater to block from the constant chill in the house, now soiled with thick light brown dust.
"Ugh, great. So much for trying to keep this sneaking around thing a secret..." Kendall mused with an annoyed roll of the eyes.
That's when the strange things began to happen.
The large, dark brown chest in the far corner of the room soon flew open, its worn out mouth hanging at its weary hinges and creaking as gravity forced it to stay ajar.
Kendall gasped and turned to it; an oil lamp, which had oil but no use, was now bearing a hearty fire that glowed a mixture of purple, green and orange. The lamp's light extended everywhere to chase the shadows away, the blonde sixteen-year-old approaching the chest to see...a clean black turtleneck with matching skinny jeans and gray sneakers all folded up, tended to and prepped up inside, untouched by nature and time's effects on the house.
'What the...?' The blonde asked in his head, reaching cautiously into the chest to pull out the clothes. He inspected them in case of spiders or scorpions clinging to them, before sighing and pulling his soiled sweater over and off his head, leaving his firm chest and toned lower stomach exposed.
The cold air bit harshly at his pale, peach skin but he ignored it and stripped off his jeans and ruined Vans (it broke his heart too, for these black-and-neon blue ones were one of his favorite pairs) to pull on the warm, clean garments over his long, lean legs and shivering toes.
"That's better; I'll get these down to the Laundry Room and washed before Mom gets home tonight from work." Kendall noted, folding up his dirty clothes and putting them down on top of the chest (once he closed its mouth, of course) so that he would have a perfect view of them while exploring more of this part of the attic.
A long, black cloth fell to the floor, he jumping slightly at feeling it brush his ankles from the fall before turning to see a mirror.
A mirror, full-body mirror; it was made of a material he couldn't name, with strange vine-like swirls and lines in the carved black frame. Its glass face glowed blue in the lamp light and weak shine of the full moon peaking from the only barred window of the attic, Kendall's dark outline the only object being reflected.
"That's weird, mirrors usually show reflections, not outlines..." Kendall said; he took only another step forward before a small, brown-furred mouse with a long, curvy tail skirted across the wooden floor and began scratching at the mirror's face, nose twitching upwards and little sounds escaping its tiny mouth.
"Hey, don't do that! You can leave marks...!" The blonde scold the little creäture as he leaned down to scoop it up in his pale, spidery hands; the mouse began hopping up and down like a rabbit, its tail swishing about as if...pointing to the mirror's face.
"Huh what is it, little critter? Do you see something, your reflection?" Kendall asked, looking from the excited rodent to the mirror; placing the mouse on his right shoulder and picking up the oil lamp, the young blonde approached once again the mirror but at a closer angle, reaching out with his free hand to touch the glass.
It was cold, freezing as if made from ice and smooth like fresh snow on the ground.
The mouse (Kendall decided the name Coraline was nice, since he liked that movie and thought the mouse was a girl) sprinted across the blonde's slightly muscular right arm to cuddle the mirror, paws curled up to rest over her heart.
Well that was a strange way for a mouse to be acting, to say the least.
"Coraline, what's wrong? Cor-" Kendall began say but soon stopped when he saw something in the mirror, something that was nothing like his or Coraline's reflections at all.
The mouse' nose twitched and she let out a happy sound through her whiskers while Kendall forced his back prostrate and put down the lamp so that both his hands met the glass surface, green eyes wide in a combination of awe and slight fright.
"W-What...?"
A world, where spirits and forgotten souls linger to mourn over the regrets of their pasts...
What started out as an outline transformed before the blonde's eyes; the muscular body was taller than Kendall's, padded with lean, lithe curves but with a feminine streak as well in terms of his waist and hips. His skin was dark, darker than chocolate but lighter than caramel, with a mob of maple brown hair on his head. The locks were nicely brushed and styled, the boy's face (Kendall could tell, because of the face structure lines appearing out of nowhere) framed at the high cheekbones and finely chiseled chin. His nose was sharp and narrow but blunt to the right, a slope but cute slope to the right. His skin was flawless and face overall beautiful, thin eyebrows like arches over his...dark brown button eyes.
Eyes, made of buttons.
Buttons, like the dolls in the tube.
Dolls that were handmade.
Button-eyed dolls, like this boy was.
He was taller and maybe older than Kendall (still sixteen, but a few months ahead in age) and wore nothing but dark jeans that clung perfectly to his legs and a black hoodie way too large for him, yet somehow flattered his athletic physique.
The boy, the boy in the mirror, aligned his hands to Kendall's and stared into his bottle green eyes, face reading loss and curiosity at this new sight.
It's been years since he's sensed people in the house...what use to be his house, his home.
His parted his lips but no sound left them, Kendall noticing them stitched at the corner curves of his full, pale mouth like those of a rag doll's.
Coraline the Mouse squeaked from her right, upper corner of the mirror; the button-eyed boy smiled softly at seeing the familiar little critter he has grown to love over the years, her beady marble eyes shining with joy at seeing him, seeing him smile.
It's been years since he's smiled; it's been years since someone his age, someone who she believes can help him, has come to this old, memory-haunted house.
"W-Who are you?" Kendall broke the two from their shared stare at his question, the fear now gone from his eyes to holding wonder as well.
The boy looked hurt, unable to say anything that the other would understand until an idea came to him; he pressed his lips against his side of the mirror and blew, ghostly white vapor passing through his white teeth. With a finger and a small twist to the lips, he worked his finger like a pen to paper, Coraline leaping through the air to land on Kendall's shoulder once more.
M-My name is James...
A world where a boy is king, King of Halloween...
"I wish I could visit your world..." Kendall whispered, James' button eyes going wide in fear, soon he shaking his head full of brown hair.
"James, why not? Why can't I come see you on The Other Side?" That was what the brunette called his world; a world twisted and dark and unpleasant, from what he mouthed (or wrote in breath fog on the mirror) to the blonde. Coraline rubbed her tiny paws to her eyes as if wiping back tears, looking up at the brunette with sad, beady marble eyes. She wished he was here, alive instead of dead in The Other Side.
In Kendall's hands was one of James' dolls, this one of the blonde himself; it had button eyes that were green, string blonde hair protruding from the soft scalp, dressed in mourning black but still holding a wide smile on his stitched face. The Kendall doll was holding a doll of Coraline the Mouse in its hands, the critter smiling with large, abnormal teeth.
Whenever people came into the house and James watched them, new dolls that looked like the newcomers would show up in the attic; Coraline (in her mouse tongue, which thanks to James, Kendall understood just as well as English) explained that that was the only way James remembered people, through the dolls he made in The Other Side.
These little people, these works of art were James' only way to interact with Kendall's world, the world that was once his before he was dragged to The Other Side and killed, killed and left to live in The Other Side...as King of Halloween.
Where he reigned as king, but wanted Kendall to stay away from, The Other Side.
The brunette's hair went blue in sadness, he fiddling with the front of his hoodie before putting on one of his masks (He made masks too; he was a mask maker, doll maker, mask/doll clerk in The Other Side, composer and dancer, singer...so much warped into his life as king). This mask was in the shape of a heart but had two large, glowing green-and-red eyes, tears in them while the front was stained in maroon paint to represent blood. The heart was cracked down the center and had spikes around it, all either gleaming purple or shining a dull blue.
This was his Time's end Mask, the mask he made in memory of he losing his humanity and left to be a puppet, the Puppet King of Halloween in The Other Side.
And his very world, is a world which many fear but one dreams to be a part of...
I do not wish for you to come here...I hate this world and everything in it, it is a place of horror and fear; everything is wrong here, these people suffer because they were forced here as I was, please do not dream of us together here...I see this place, this world as nothing but a terrible fate...
Kendall frowned at James' written words on the mirror, the brunette boy refusing to take his mask off; he usually wore it until the blonde changed the subject, a subject more amusing or safe for them both.
"But James, I'm tired of this way being the only way I can see you! I want to see you here, right in front of me in my world! I want to be able to touch you, feel you, smell you here with me! And Coraline misses you, she's been a living dead for years now! She wants you back, wants you to come home!" The blonde exclaimed, frustrated that his boyfriend (yes he was dating a ghost from the other side of the mirror, so?) was being so stubborn. So what if he went to The Other Side, all that mattered was that he and Coraline were with James, there to love him and keep him company for many years to come! Kendall didn't care if it meant giving up his life too, he'd do anything to be with James!
Day with light
Darkness with life,
Can they really mix?
Like the hands of a clock, time grabs you by the heart
May these words tell you of a plight
Of the terrible fate I cannot fight
You are pure and bright, surely this love is not right!
I cannot live beyond this glass wall
You cannot mingle with the shadows
Face it my love, we are opposite sides of a coin
Please spare yourself of this empty void
Do not come, do not dream, do not think of this world anymore
Move on, live on but without me you both
Breathe and live, smile and laugh and let time heal this wound
Have me as a memory, have me as a fault but have me of nothing more
Let me be your twilight, your shadow but not your life's light
Believe that this will pass, take this knife in hand and break this mirror
Save yourself from this curse
Break this mirror and move on, move on on on...