So, because I hadn't written something for ff in so long, I forgot how to write my authors notes. Which is why there wasn't one for the first chapter. What I wanted to say: This is my story (obviously). I have a feeling it's going to be kind of long, but don't worry, it'll pick up. I hope. (I'm not very convincing...)
I'd like to thank supersmarah, my gloriously considerate lone reviewer. Picture the most wonderful gift basket imaginable, supersmarah. Now give it to yourself. It's a deal, my friend. I'll keep writing.
Please review!
RIP RECORDS
Accepting Applications
"Sounds good," a pretty brunette mumbled to herself after reading the sign, swishing her long mahogany hair behind her back and entering the store.
The walls were lined with shelves of thousands of CDs; little markers peeped out every now and then to indicate what part of the alphabet the customer was looking at. Bins of LPs lined the walls beneath the CDs. The girl was surprised to find the floors were a light hardwood instead of carpet, which gave the little shop a bright feel. She had always figured a record store would be dim, crowded with wannabe rockers, and filled with dingy old LPs that a previous generation had sold in order to make a buck.
An old, crackling blues song was moaning soulfully in the background.
In the back, an employee was sitting behind a glass display case, frowning at his computer. The brunette walked over to him as quietly as she could. For some reason, the fact that the store was empty and the singer was presenting his troubles so plainly made the girl anxious to be as quiet as possible to respect…
Respect what?
The moment.
The man looked up from his computer and noticed the girl tip-toeing over to him.
"Can I…help you with something?" he smiled, bemused. He was only slightly older than her; probably a sophomore or junior in college. His teeth were straight and white. He was wearing a purple shirt so dark it was almost black, and it stretched nicely over his chest. His hair was long enough to be pulled into a small ponytail at the back of his head, which gave him an artsy look instead of (thankfully) a trashy look. With the added effect of his earring, the girl figured he could be a model if he wanted to.
She tried not to blush. An irrefutably hot guy just caught her tip-toeing like a dork. And although impressing the opposite sex was not her highest priority, her hormones made it impossible to ignore them all together.
"Ah, yes," she finally said. "Could I have an application?"
His face brightened. He looked thrilled. "Of course!" He pulled a blank application from behind the cash register and handed it to her.
She murmured her thanks and sat down on a nearby chair to fill it out. The only sounds were the scratching of her pen and the blues song in the background. She could tell that the guy had not turned back to his computer yet. He was still watching her. She pressed her pen down harder on the paper and frowned, nervous.
"Not many people fill out their applications on the spot," he said conversationally.
"Really," she hummed absently, filling in her contact information.
He still didn't turn back to what he was doing previously. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Sango."
Why he didn't wait to find out when she gave him her application, she didn't know.
"Sango…" he trailed off.
She waited for him to finish what he was saying, tapping her foot to the almost waltz-y strumming of the guitar.
"You like this song?" he asked.
"I guess," Sango shrugged. "It's the first time I've heard it, so I don't know."
The young man nodded. "It's Tommy Johnson's 'I Want Someone to Love Me'."
"Ah." She knew she wouldn't remember that, and went back to her application.
"I love this song. You know why?"
Sango wondered how annoying it would be if she had to work with a person this chatty. "Why?" she asked, sighing and filling in her previous jobs. Babysitter, waitress, martial arts instructor, cashier…
"I think he's plainly saying what everybody thinks."
"Really." Almost done…
"Yes. We all," he started to say suggestively, and when she looked up at him he was staring at her intensely, "want someone to love us."
His eyes were almost violet-colored.
Weird…"Er, yeah."
"I don't want to brag, but I think I'm pretty good at loving others."
"That's cool," Sango said absently, writing down her references.
"I've kept all my girlfriends satisfied."
Didn't want to brag, huh?
"That's…" she didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. She stood to hand him the papers. He glanced at them briefly.
"I'm Miroku, by the way." He reached his hand across the counter for her to shake.
He gave her hand a few pumps, and right when she was about to let go he put his other hand on top of them both.
She stared at them. "Er…"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sango. I must say, the store hasn't been busy today, so you coming here and wanting to work here…it makes a man happy." He smiled stunningly at her.
"…Okay…"
"You seem like an incredibly sweet girl. You really light up the store. Do you want to go out on a date sometime?" He wouldn't stop smiling.
Stunned, Sango waited fruitlessly to speak after things started making sense. Wasn't he moving a little too fast? A lot too fast?! "Um…I don't know…I mean, I don't know you. I don't really have time to be dating right now, and you're a little old for me…"
"Don't be silly! There's always time for love! And you're eighteen, you're totally legal. I'm only twenty!"
That's what he looked at on my application? That horn dog, he planned this from the beginning!
Sango narrowed her eyes at the man. He looked startled. God damn pretty boy must not be turned down a lot…
"No. Thank you," she spat icily, pulling her hand out of his grasp.
The man's face portrayed the heartbroken look of a puppy. "But…you're so attractive…and you have such a nice ass…"
Heat flared to her face, and before she knew it her hand had made contact with the side of his face.
Sango stormed out of the store without waiting to see his reaction, and nearly bumped into a girl dragging a large trashcan.
"Sorry," she muttered, and tore into a jog, thinking the pervert might run after her.
Sango didn't stop running until she reached her apartment. She pushed the door open clumsily and stumbled inside.
"What's with you?" her roommate, Kara, called from the couch.
"Nothing, nothing," Sango panted.
Kara spooned some yogurt into her mouth. "I thought you were job searching."
"I was. I thought you had work."
"My shift's not till 4:30." Kara flipped the channel to a sleazy reality show. "Why are you home so early? I thought you were going to 'search for a job like your life depended on it.'"
"My life does depend on it," corrected Sango.
"Yeah, I know. I can't be paying our rent by myself. Why'd you get fired again, anyway?"
Sango busied herself searching their empty fridge for something to eat and pretended not to hear.
"Sango," Kara called, "Why'd you get fired a-"
"I DIDN'T MEAN TO SNAP AT MY BOSS!!" Kara and she stared at each other for an awkward moment. "I mean, I didn't mean to lose my temper at my boss. He was being sexist."
"You're never going to get a boyfriend with that feminazi attitude of yours. Or a job."
Sango sighed and popped a frozen mini pizza into the microwave. "Don't say that, I need a job. I can't go back to Mom and Dad. They already have enough problems taking care of Kohaku." Her mind wandered to her parents' run-down apartment, always under a cloud of financial worry: Are we raising our kids right? Will we have enough food for the whole month? Her parents had owned a martial arts dojo until Sango was fourteen. When a new, more commercialized chain dojo was built nearby, their little dojo was forced into bankruptcy and closed. Since then, her parents struggled to stay out of debt, desperately trying to find and keep well paying jobs.
Kara was the type of person who mercilessly refused to be sympathetic or pity anyone- Sango's parents were simply poor business people and unsatisfactory workers to her. Kara would have no problem kicking Sango out if she didn't find a job soon, so she shrugged and changed the subject. "And I don't want- or need- a boyfriend, so that's not an issue."
Kara rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the television, leaving Sango to eat her lunch in peace. She poured over the newspaper for job openings, finished her pizza, and grabbed her bookbag.
"Heading out again?" Kara asked.
"Yeah. The paper had a few good ads." Sango opened the door to leave, but then turned back to her roommate. "Kara?"
"Yeah?"
"If someone you don't know comes to our door, don't let them in. I don't care how attractive they may look, we're not home."
"What?"
Sango turned on her heel and left. Kara's shouts were muffled by the slamming of the heavy door, and the laugh she let out echoed loudly in the stairwell as she skipped outside.
Her lighthearted mood didn't last long, though. It had been a week and a half since she'd had a job. Almost a whole paycheck's worth of time…
Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, and she smiled when she saw it was her little brother.
"Kohaku!" she sang, her worry sliding away.
"Sango! Wassup?!" his slightly scratchy voice was an instant comfort.
"Oh nothing much, job searching."
"Found any place yet?"
"Not yet," Sango sighed, feeling her despair seep back in. "But never mind that" she dismissed, not willing to let go of her joy just yet, "Why'd you call?"
"I'm bored. All my friends are out of town. So I felt like calling you."
"I'm sorry about that, Kohaku," Sango said sympathetically.
"That's okay."
There was a pause, and she could tell there was something else he wanted. He's such a shy kid! "I'm going to be busy all day, but wanna have dinner together?"
"Yeah!!" he nearly shouted through the phone, but his reserved tone instantly returned, "And…"
"And…?" Sango prompted.
"Can I, um, if it's okay, can I sleep over at your apartment?"
Sango smiled again. "Of course!" Kohaku loved staying at her apartment, in all its run down glory. She had a suspicion it made him feel grown up.
"Thanks, sis! Aw, I'm so excited!"
Sango laughed. "Don't change, Kohaku. There's gotta be at least one sweet adult man in this world, and it's going to be you."
Kohaku asked wryly, "What happened now?"
"Nothing happened, hon. Does six sound good?"
She successfully maneuvered his thoughts away from her male issues, and they made plans for later.
Sango's good mood lasted the rest of the day. The sun beat warmly on her back as she applied at a cheese shop, a convenience store, a kid's party place…and on. Most places weren't even hiring, but she gave them applications anyway. The employees tended to frown at her with a 'I can't believe she's so pushy' look, but Sango was past caring.
Before she knew it, the sun had sunk lower in the summer sky. Sango rushed to apply to the local pawnshop that was on the way to the bus stop. It was a seedy place, but Sango had gone in there on a few occasions to pawn things. From what she'd seen, only a tall, wan-looking man with long, frizzy eighties hair worked the shop. He could use a worker, right?
Sango stumbled through the dark pawnshop, made her way to the dirty linoleum counter, and asked the man if he was hiring.
"No." His face was impassive. Not even a smile.
Sango shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Well, are you accepting applications?"
"No. I really don't need help."
She glanced around the cluttered shop, and up at the rickety fan that may or may not propel off anytime soon and chop both their heads off. I think you need a lot of help…
"Well, will you accept my application?" she probed, giving what she hoped to be a cute smile.
"No."
God damn it! So I'm not cute! Who cares?!
Sango danced on her toes, antsy. "Are you sure?"
"Quite sure," the man frowned.
"Tough!" she snapped, slamming her application on the counter. She ran out the door as gracefully as she could without tripping over the mess, and wondered why she had more than one encounter that day where she stormed out of a store.
You're supposed to be selling yourself to your future employers, not displaying your personality flaws to them! she reprimanded herself.
Sango couldn't bring herself to care for long. Kohaku was bouncing with happiness to see her. She took him to a cheap restaurant, where they both pretended it was a very fancy eatery and insisted on using high brow English accents.
"Oh, Sahn-gohh dearest, you must try the blueberry buckle. It's simply to die for."
"Oh, my pearl, if you recommended it, I daresay I'll give it a go."
They fell into fits of giggles all the way to her apartment. They climbed the stairs wearily, and she unlocked the door.
"Wait, sister!"
"What?"
"Let's go to the roof!"
"…Why?" She was tired from walking all day, and was more interested in passing out in front of the TV than anything else.
"I've never been to the top of a building before! Chase scenes in movies…they always end up on the roof!" Kohaku's eyes were bright in the dark stairwell.
"Always?"
"Always."
Sango sighed. "Fine." She tossed his bag inside. She heard the door to the roof above her slam, and laughed. He was already there.
Slowly, she made it to the roof. Kohaku must have run off somewhere else. All she heard were the cars below in the night air. The breeze was gentle. She sighed, and finally felt calm.
She heard Kohaku shout, and jolted back to reality.
"What?" she called.
He ran to her side with concerned eyes. "Sango, look!" Kohaku cried, pointing to the edge of the building.
A girl about her own age was walking at leisurely pace on the half-wall.
Sango gasped.
She wore a long red skirt and a white tank top. Her pale skin glowed almost ethereally in the moonlight. If she were to slip, she'd fall all eight stories. Sango was about to call out to her when the girl stepped, easy-as-you-please, off the building.
"No!" Kohaku yelled.
Sango convulsed forward, but stopped. The girl was standing on the air. Her chest tightened in shock. The way her skin was glowing…she's a ghost!
A thrill of fear shot through her. The girl turned to look Sango straight in the eyes. Sango took a step back, her hand clamped on her brother's shoulder, but was too frozen to run. How fast do ghosts move?
The girl smiled slightly, then turned her gaze to Kohaku. The breeze tousled her long black hair into her face. Sango tried to scream, but no sound came out.
Suddenly, her fear vanished. She glanced down at her brother, who beamed up at her with mutual contentment. She looked up at the few stars she could see. The ghost was still there, but for some reason it felt like more of a comrade. A wave of elation swept through her as the girl stepped onto the ground, approaching her.
If I were to die right now…I'd be…hap-
A swish of air blew unnaturally behind her. She turned to see two large serpent-like beings floating behind and slightly above her.
I should be afraid…
They glowed white, like the girl. She felt at once very present yet very far away.
I think I'm dying…
The thought should've bothered her more. As the serpents flew above her, the swishing sounds they made felt like lullabies. An odd, white orb floated up out from the ground beneath her feet. Sango closed her eyes and smiled.
"Ah!" It was Kohaku.
Her eyes flew open.
A white orb similar to the one that came from the ground floated out of his chest.
"Kohaku?" Her voice was frantic and thin and tinny-sounding. I can't die…they're killing Kohaku…they're killing me…
But she couldn't move. Her skin was glowing. An illuminated, spherical object was being pulled from her chest, too, just like Kohaku's. His, and the one from the ground, were now slowly approaching the girl. She tried to push the orb back into her chest, but her hands went right through it.
From the corner of her eye, Sango saw her brother crumple to the ground.
Disoriented panic flooded to her toes; she could hardly feel it…
He's dead…I'm going to die…
In a flash of white, Sango saw some kind of demon jump onto the two serpents. The three crashed to the ground.
Everything went black.
I'll try to get a new chapter out every four days. I made it with fifteen minutes to spare this time! Can I do it every time? I hope! (Again, not very convincing...)
