II
I let out a loud, aggravated groan when the familiar sound of my phone's ringtone ripping through the silence.
Turning on my side, I stared at the bright light that is emitting from the screen, the light piercing a hole in the pitch black.
Giving in to the obnoxious tone, I reached over for the device, placing it on my ear in a lazy manner.
"Hello?" I said, my voice scratchy and groggy from just being awoken from my precious sleep.
I was startled when I heard a panicked Miku on the other end of the line.
"Rin, are you asleep?" I blinked. Was she serious? I looked at my phone to see the time; it was 5:48 am on Saturday. What could she possibly want?
"No, I'm skydiving. What do you think?" my voice was brimmed with annoyance; I thought Miku knew me long enough to know that the weekends are my sleeping days. My said friend didn't quite know how to get what she wanted to say out, she kept stuttering, stopping, and re-wording her sentence. Eventually, I just stopped her completely. "Just get on with it, Miku."
Miku gulped, "I-I went downstairs and, and, Rin, just turn on your TV, and change it to channel 9." her words were breathy and rushed; I did as she told, and not surprised, found the news was on.
Miku is normally so down-to-earth, so whatever was on the news, if must have really bothered her. But what it has to do with me, I have no clue.
The newscaster went on for a couple of minutes, talking about things that lacked my interest, like the weather and reminding us that a local festival was only a few week away. It was only until I saw a familiar picture plastered on the screen, to the right of the woman's shoulder that I realized what the tealette wanted.
I was shocked to see a boy who possessed the same azure eyes I had, with bright blond hair and matching lashes, a rubber band held his hair in a short ponytail, with carelessly combed bangs hanging limply in his face. The picture was not in color, but I could not deny I knew exactly what a colored version looked like.
I had to rub my eyes and blink a couple of times to make sure what I am seeing is real.
My mouth hanged open in disbelief, was the story I created—the one I only wrote for fun—being shown on the news?
Surprising even myself, I broke out in a fit of hysteria.
My back flopped down on the mattress with a hand holding to my side firmly, the other gripping the phone to my ear. My legs kicked in the air—I was like a little kid who had just heard the funniest joke of their entire life.
"Rin," Miku's voice broke my laughter, "this is serious!"
"Yeah? How so?" I smirked; the pure triumph that came with convincing a news network that Len was real is such an extraordinary feeling, there is no way I could even think about knocking the smile off my face. I just don't know what exactly is so bad about Len being on the news.
Miku, on the other line, was not feeling my excitement and groaned loudly in frustration.
"Rin, what if they find out we made him up, what would happen to us then?" her voice dropped a pitch, emphasizing my name to get her point across, and it did. Her question made me stop and think for a moment. It is just a story I posted online, I doubt there's a prosecution for a mere piece of fiction.
Running a hand through my knotted hair, I reassured her: "We didn't hurt anyone; they'll just brush it off as a clever prank."
Miku was quiet for a moment, but after what sounded like a whine, she finally spoke up again. "I-I just have a bad feeling about this!"
I sighed.
"It'll be fine, Miku."
We had a brief conversation afterwards before saying our 'goodbyes' and eventually hanging up.
The TV was off, my phone was faced down (so if someone called again the light wouldn't be too obnoxious), and my head lay on my pillow once more. I still chuckled a little bit about the whole news thing.
My lids closed as I let the dark engulf me.
Though, before I could fall asleep there was a scratching sound coming from my window.
I sat up in my bed with a rush, and stared at the window across the room. A strange sensation of fear made its way through my bones, crawling up my spine and making its way to my throat.
Quickly I jumped out of my bed, and from a higher view, it looked like the sound was from a tree branch. However, the ambiguity held me firmly in place. I didn't want to move, but my curiosity was strong and said otherwise.
Cautiously—slowly, I made my way to the window.
I opened it with a pang of doubt in the back of my mind, but there was nothing to be seen, nothing but a leafless branch swaying with the wind. I reached out and snapped the dead wood in half so it couldn't reach my window, and I threw it to the ground with a distant 'thud' as it hit the grassy terrain below. But it didn't stop the knocking, not for long.
Every night since, I've woken to a tree branch clawing at my window. This one, though, was too high up and out of my reach so I just left it in place.
However, a couple days later I woke up startled by a knock at the front door. It was late at night (I believe around three in the morning or so), when I stumbled down the stairs in my pajamas. The knocking was frantic, but I thought nothing of it. 'It must be my mom; she probably has forgotten her keys' I thought.
As I made my way to the door, I rubbed my eyes one last time to wipe the remaining sleep away.
The doorknob was cold as ice in my hands; the click of the door opening made my tired eyes glance up, but instead of the figure of my mother, all I was greeted with was the rainfall hitting my porch.
I took a step outside, goose bumps rising instantly on my skin the minute a raindrop hit my arm. My eye scanned the porch, but nothing was there. No angry, rain-soaked mom, no strangers, nothing.
School went on like normal. I've gone to all my classes, with the exception of a few I haven't attended yet. And in all of them, I've caught myself drifting off to sleep.
Sleep has been little to none in my home lately; with the scratching at my window, I have been restless. And now it's taking its toll on me at school. I haven't been able to focus on anything. After 10 minutes of sitting down the classroom starts fading as my eyes desperately want close. I've been tempted just to go to the nurse and be sent home.
Still, even with my growing exhaustion, I persist on with my day.
I stumbled down the halls on my way to gym, in no rush at all. I wasn't even close to excited about the class, especially with my current situation.
I was late to class, as expected. And to my disappointment, today class was being held in the pool area.
I think it's obvious what that means.
Never have I liked swimming, the first time in a swimming pool as a child resulted in me almost drowning. My father had to jump into the water and save me. That fear of drowning as never left me since, even with my brother reassuring me, and spending practically all summer in the water; by fall, that boy's hair had nearly turned green. I never budged to his reassurance; the farthest I'd ever go in the pool was the first step. He gave up trying to get me in the pool a few years later.
Emotionless, I stared at the water.
It taunted me, threatening to pull me under and not release me until my lungs were filled with its fluid. I stumbled backwards and tried to get away, hoping to not be seen by my teacher. But sadly, luck was not in my favor.
My teacher caught me sneaking away, and demanded a reason why I couldn't attend class.
"Well?" the teacher demanded, making me nervous.
"I, I uh…" I stuttered hopelessly, without a good reason to give.
The teacher leaned down slightly, her mouth a straight, serious line. "Get into a swimsuit and do laps or it's an automatic F, Kagamine." the teacher warned. I nodded my head obediently and walk to the locker rooms to get changed.
When I came back out the majority of kids had already finished their laps, leaving me to be one of the last.
"Ten laps." The teacher told me, but I didn't move a muscle. I stared at the first step, weary to get in. "Do you want me to make it twenty?"
"N-no, ma'am!"
With brief hesitation, I stepped into the pool.
The water was cold and uninviting; after a couple deep breaths, I moved to the second step. My eyes shut as the water crawled up to the back of my knee, my heart rate increased. The blood pumping through my veins faster, I bit my lip and moved to the last step. By now, it was unbearable, I couldn't take it. I stepped back; forgetting there was a step there and tripped. My butt hit the second step, the water rising above my navel. My breathing quickened, and amidst of my panic, I gripped on to the metal bars, holding on for dear life. It felt like I was dying.
"I can't do it!" I admitted, tears streaming down my cheeks.
All was silent for a second, before an abrupt roar of laughter filled the room.
The reverberation off the walls only amplified their merriment, making me cry even harder in my embarrassment.
With the realization of what was happening, the teacher rushed to pull me out of the water, yelling at the other kids to be quiet. Of course, they didn't listen and kept on laughing.
In the middle of all the commotion, I caught glimpse of a girl with pink hair and blue eyes. Her face was blank; she was not laughing.
So… short... All that waiting for a short, 1,000+ word chapter. I'm so sorry! I would have extended it, but it would have felt wrong cramming more stuff into this chapter. I don't know why, when I'm planning everything these chapter seem like they're going to be nice and long, but when they're written they're very short. I don't get it.
Anyways, I'm sorry for making you guys wait so long! I wanted to get this done before my birthday (Dec 12th), that didn't happen, then I wanted to get it done before Christmas. That didn't happen either. I have a huge procrastination problem (I've been too busy trying to master extreme on Project Diva Dx), but my new year's resolution it to get rid of that. I do, however, have a couple hundred words written down to another horror story I'm working on. It's not going to have this much build up, and it's going to be a lot more violent. And you're probably going to question my mental health afterwards, but that's okay. ;)
I'm going to try to donate a hour a day to writing (or at least a 100 words a day).
As always, thank you guys for the reviews! Also, the reason I asked for theories in the last chapter is because I was a little worried that my plot twists aren't good enough. Since I'm the one writing this, nothing is going to be surprising if I reread it so that makes it a little concerning since I don't know how affective anything's going to be. I'm probably just being paranoid, I need to have more faith in my own writing. :p
In you've enjoyed this chapter (or story) please review! (What can I say; it motivates me to write faster knowing people enjoy my stories).
And for realz this time, I'm going to try to update faster. :D
What I listened to while writing this:
/watch?v=V9HqmLQQtGo (I mostly listened to this one on repeat, it's just so good!)
/watch?v=wrBEF3QLwCo
/watch?v=FFUIIfa38Yo
/watch?v=f8fUFmjqXZo
/watch?v=kSS_tDfeLOk