Disclaimer: i do not own KHR
Chapter 2
Second chance
"To make it simple, you three are dead." The little girl said.
They blink, then blink again, then blink again, and then Madeline opened up her mouth.
"Oh." The little girl's smile turned downward.
"That's it? No... Screaming, yelling, saying that I'm joking or, that can't be right or, this is just a dream and you'll wake up any minute now?" They looked at her blankly. "None at all?"
"Why should we? You're not lying, and the last event in my memory does involve an accident that was impossible to avoid, and pains, a whole lot of pain." Madeline said crunching up her nose in distaste before smiling.
This time, the little girl looked at Madeline with disbelieve in her face, looking at the little girl's troubled face, Rufina decided to help.
"Let's just say that we're not exactly normal."
"I see that already." The little girl still looked disturbed.
"Just forget it and tell us what kind of shit that will happen to us." Rufina said a little bit harsher.
"Ah, yeah... About that. You see—" she ignored Rufina's 'no, I don't see it.' Comment. "The three of you weren't supposed to die, yet." She said the last bit in a cheerful tone.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, I don't fucking get this shit! Are you trying to say that we're supposed to be alive?" Rufina's only answer is a nod.
The girl felt cold all of the sudden, she shudder then looked around, trying to pinpoint where the chill came from. It was then that she met Eleanor's cold piercing eyes, she suppress the sudden urge to shriek, she has forgotten about that particular girl, and it was only a couple of minutes passed. Eleanor's eyes hardened, and the girl release a weak 'eep!'
"Explain." Only one word, yet it manages to makes the little girl shaking in fear.
"Y-yes! Ju-just follow me!" She said with trembling voice.
And so, they follow her to a room that filled with so many books. They stopped in front of a fireplace and four sofas. They look at each other then decided to sit; the girl seems to be searching for something in one of book pile. When she founds it, she walk to them while holding a document and sit on the only unoccupied sofa.
"You see, according to this," she said while showing the document. "Madeline Nocte, are supposed to be dead due to old age and illness." Madeline cringed knowing one own dead is not a nice feeling after all. "Rufina Mond, cause of dead is old age, Eleanor Caeru—"
"Vance." Eleanor said flatly.
"Eh?"
"It's Eleanor Vance." Her cold tone daring the girl to defy her.
"O-okay, Eleanor Vance, died due to old age and illness." She closed the document. "Any question?"
"Name." The girl blinked before realization seems to hit her.
"Ah! I forgot... My name is Elise!" She said with a cheerful smile. "Anyway, let's continue—"
"Wait!" Madeline said. "If we're not supposed to be dead, then why won't you just send us back to our world?"
"Ah... You can't, because three day has passed ever since you three died." They blink.
"It's not fucking possible! We're here for only a little while" Elise flinched at Rufina's sudden outburst.
"Well, you did spend about... One hour in here, but... When you died that time, your soul refuse to come back to your body, it remains at it trance-like state, and it happens for two days, then your soul are gone for another day before it appears again and finally sent here." She sighed.
Rufina looked at her with disbelieve on her face while Madeline one of her knowing look before closing her eyes, it's like she's scolding herself for not seeing it before, her face looked weird without the usual cheerful smile. Eleanor just has those look of acceptance and sighed.
"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Rufina said, already dumping her usual cussing.
Elise looked at them with serious face. "Well, there are a few people with cases like you guys, and they're given a second chance to live again."
Madeline looked startled. "But, you said that we can't go back..." Elise smiled.
"You can't, but you could live in another world, you just have to choose the world." The three of them giving her a look full of hope, she has to suppress the urge to flinch. "But, your time is limited, and you'll be given a mission in order to pass the test to heaven. Each person is different but, sometimes you have a same mission with somebody else, or if you're lucky enough, you could have the same mission as your friends." She took a deep breath before continuing. "You'll know when and how you 'died' and you could choose the world too, any question?"
"..."
"No? Okay... Just before you choose your world, you could go back to your world in a form of a spirit for one hour to take three things that's important to you."
"What for?" Eleanor asked, honestly curious.
"Well, I don't know, but it's on the procedure..." Elise said timidly.
"Well, let's just get this fucking thing over with." Rufina said before standing.
"Sure, sure..." Then Elise clapped her hand.
Nothing happen for a few second, Madeline gave her a look of utter confusion while Eleanor just looked as blank as always but she somehow looked guarded, as if prepared for something, (at this, Rufina should have known that something's going to happen) Rufina snorted. "What was that supposed to—" then they fall.
The next thing Eleanor see is her—used to be—room, the same blue wallpaper, the same bed, everything is the same, well, except the fact that the door are wide open, then she remember what she was supposed to do. She looked around then started to walk to her desk, trying to find anything to bring with her.
For a second, she is tempted to bring her laptop with her, but quickly disposed that idea because a missing laptop is noticeable. Then she spotted a picture frame right beside her laptop, she took it.
Inside is a photo of when she was still young with her biological parent, her mother (a beautiful japanese woman) was smiling while carrying her, she was laughing and her father hugged them both. Then she took another picture frame, this time the photo contains herself and her sister Lucia.
Eleanor looked uncomfortable in the photo, but she smiles a little smile while Lucia smiled brightly. Another is a photo of Eleanor with her foster parent and she's carrying Lucia as a baby, the last one was a photo of Eleanor with Rufina and Madeline, Madeline was on her right side, she smiled brightly while making a peace sign in one hand and the other hugging Eleanor who looked a tad bid annoyed but still kept her blank face.
On Eleanor's other side, she's holding Rufina who's scowling, preventing her from going. Her lips gave a little twitch of a smile; it was then that she remember, she kept all of those photos in a flash disk. She looked around, trying to find it; she found it right beside a black fingerless glove.
She took the glove and look at it with nostalgia in her eyes, she decided to take it with her so she wear it, and along with the glove, she took the flash disk. She looked around before remembering something, she opened up her wardrobe and took a dark blue scarf, she wraps it around her neck.
She looked at the time and realizes that fifteen minutes has passed, and since she didn't know what else to do, she decided to wander around. She got out from her room and heard a muffled sound.
She followed the sound and arrived in front of her sister's bedroom. She touched the door knob and wasn't surprised to find that her hand goes through it. She shrugged and walked through the door. Inside, she saw her sister crying on the bed, her desk is full with papers.
Her long golden tresses covering half of her face, it looks messy. She walk (or float, she didn't know) towards her sister and looked at the papers, some of it are crumpled and some have too much of tears blotch to be read. But she could read some that saying 'missed you' and 'hope you were here'.
It wasn't long for Eleanor to figure out that the papers was actually a bunch of letters, and all of them were directed to her. For a second, flits of sadness came across her face, but it was gone as fast as it came, hidden in her usual blank mask. She peered at her sister; Lucia's face and realized that she fell asleep.
There's a trail of tears on her face, and she mumbled out something that she can't make out what exactly. Eleanor tried to caress her hair, but can't. Not that she's surprised, her hand just goes through just like she expected, and she sighed.
She looked around and noticed that, Lucia's room is a mess, and she knows that ever since Lucia is born, she never let her room untidy. No, the one who's untidy most of the time is her, since she's too lazy to clean up her room.
But she clean it anyway (which is rare, probably once every blue moon), her eyes drifted again and went to the calendar that was hanging on the wall. She noticed that today was circled in red with the words 'Lucia's B-day' neatly written in it. She gasps, totally forgotten about it with all that have been going on.
She walked or float (she didn't care either way) to her room once again, she looked around, she's lucky that she haven't occupied this room for five years, (except the day before she was dead, it's near Lucia's birthday and she didn't wanted to missed it) that's why the room wasn't in a total wreck.
She looked around trying to find the thing she was looking for and found it under her desk (probably has fallen) she crouched down and tried to take it, but her hand goes through. She frown, then she looked at her hand which is wearing the fingerless glove.
She thinks for a moment. How could I touch three things before but now I can't touch a thing...? She give it a thought and put her flash disk on the desk, then she reach down to take a little box covered in a lilac colored wrapper with silver ribbon tied around it.
She reach to her blue colored post-it-note but once again, her hand goes through, she put down the box and took off her scarf, then she once again took the post-it-note, along with a pen, then she writes a message and stick it to the box.
She took the box and put it in front of Lucia's bedroom door, then she once again goes to her room, taking her flash disk and wear her scarf before going down, she put the flash disk on the floor and knocked the door, after she's certain that Lucia would opened up the door she took her flash disk and put it in her pocket.
She gave the door a little farewell smile and leave the house. A second later, Lucia opened up the door, eyes swollen from the constant crying, she looked around. Seeing no one around, she frown, she step outside and felt herself kicking something.
She looked down at the little box, she take it and read the note that was attached to it. She gasped; she looked around, trying to find who put the box there with hopeful eyes. But she didn't see anyone around, she stared at the present a little longer before untying the ribbon, and tore through the paper, pulling everything off, leaving a bare brown box alone.
Carefully opening the cover, she looked inside and her eyes started to look glassy from the tears. She hugged it and once again, she walked inside her room and read the note over and over again.
Be happy Lucia, it's your birthday after all. This is a gift from the three of us; we noticed that you seem to be looking at this thing for a month with interest, so we decided to buy this for you. Happy birthday!
-M.E.R
She put the box on her desk and opened it once again, inside; a glimpse of silver colored hairpin could be seen.
Madeline sat at her bed, huffing in annoyance. She can't seem to decide of what to bring, because everything is equally important to her. Like, for example, her clothes! Or her shoes! Or the accessories she liked to collect! She sighed.
She walked to her desk and took the box filled with many accessories, she rummaged through it and sighed, still didn't know of what to bring. Then she remember something that makes her thought of how idiotic she is for not remembering in the first place.
She looked below her bed and took out a wooden box, when she opened it, there's a bunch of photos, but she ignored them for something else, she takes out all the photos and put it on her bed, then proceed to ignore them, it's not what she was looking for anyway.
She looked at the now empty box that only consist of three things that she was looking for, a little mirror (that honestly only bring sad memories), a little silver bell (a gift from her biological parent when they were still alive), and a golden bracelet (that also only bring sad memories). She took all three, put it on her bed and put all the photos back to the box—neatly—and closed it then pushed it under her bed once more.
She sighed and took those three things after done, she goes outside her room where she met Rufina who looks like she's been waiting for her and started to get bored.
"Okay, I'm done." Madeline said while smiling.
When Rufina fell into the darkness, she instinctively closed her eyes, when she felt nothing happens, she opened it and was met with the sight of her room. She blinked but shrugged the weirdness off.
She already know what to bring so she walk to her desk and took a silver necklace with red stone as it pendant. Then she walked towards her bed and took a little dog shaped doll, it's not that she liked doll or anything, but it was the first gift she has ever received from someone so she keeps it.
Then she put her hand under the pillow before retracting while holding a red marble that was inside a little bottle. She put it on her pocket and walks out from her room before sitting on one of the sofas, waiting for Madeline or Eleanor to come out from their room.
After Eleanor walk out from the house she had lived for nine years, she didn't immediately goes to her home which she had lived in for five years with her best friends. No, instead she goes to a hospital, inside she take the stairs (because she's not sure whether a spirit could take an elevator), and walk through the familiar corridor.
Even though she know that people would just goes through her, she still evades them as if they would crash if she didn't. Because it would feel weird to her if people just walk through her. She stop in front of a door with 'Kevin Caeruleo' written on it.
She walks through the door (which feels weird) and stop beside a lone bed with a fully grown adult sleeping on it. She chuckled bitterly, if only he's just asleep, then she wouldn't be these miserable. She looked at him before sighing.
"Hello... Father." She sighed. "I know that you could no longer hear me, but... I just-just wanted to see you... Before I... Before I leave..." No movement to indicate that he listens, just the same old silent. "I... I love you father, I just wanted you to know that... I don't hate you; I never hate you, so please..." She tried to caress his face but her hand goes through, she covered up her sadness, letting her hand fall to her side. "Please wake up, and when you do... Take care of yourself, because I'm not there to do that, not anymore..." And even though she know that she would just goes through, she gave him a kiss at his forehead. "Goodbye..."
She left.
long time no updating, and i wanna say that I'm sorry, i suddenly can't open ff that's why i haven't updated, sorry once again...