Whispers in the Dark
Chapter 7: Blinded By You
I find myself staring nervously at the crowded front doors of Sani High.
I ignore the nauseous feeling sinking deeply into the pit of my stomach as I rip my gaze away from the school and onto my Mom's gentle eyes in the rear-view mirror. I choke, "Do I really have to go today?"
She faintly smiles at me. "Yes, of course you do. Nothing bad is going to happen, Miku. After all, Mr. Shion will be there with you."
I spit, "I don't need a babysitter." She doesn't reply, so I stare out of the car window again. Even though it's morning, the sky is dyed with dark grey clouds. It hasn't rained yet, but it's bound to happen sometime today. The shadows that blanket the school make it seem even less appeasing than it is already. A sigh escapes my lips.
As soon as the school bell faintly rings from inside the school, the front doors open and students casually walk in with smiles painted on their faces. A few students laugh along with their friends, a few hold hands smiling warmly at each other.
Through the crowd a blindly small object scurries through them, but none of them seem to pay any mind to it. It's as if it's not there at all to them. I'm about to bite my lip but quickly resist the sudden urge and grit my teeth instead.
Suddenly, the small object pops out of the crowd, but a moment later it jumps back into their tangle of legs.
A sudden urge of hatred stabs into me as I glare into the crowd. No wonder no one's noticing the object - no one else besides me can see the small black cat pouncing around the students feet. The cat that only I can see.
The cat that I once trusted.
"Honey? Are you going to go? You'll be late," I can hear my mother's sweet voice say. I groan, flip my book bag over my shoulder, and get out of the car. I walk slowly towards the large glass doors making sure I'm the last one in so I won't get tangled into the same crowd Mr. Kitty is in.
As soon as I walk into the loud, buzzing building, I ignore the other students and walk straight into the office without a second thought. But as soon as I walk through the doors I wish I never had.
Mr. Shion meets my gaze and faintly smiles at me. "There you are, Miku. I already gave the school your excuse for being absent for a while, so you can go ahead and head to class."
I stiffen the longer I stare at him. Is he really going to be following me from class to class? Just because I'm a simple suspect? I shake my head and immediately bolt out of the office, the detective hot on my heels. Irritated, I walk back outside the school and wait for him to join me.
The sky gave out quicker than I thought. A gentle shower of rain pours down from the dark sky and begins to flood the streets and ditches. I stand under the school's front entrance so I don't get showered on. As soon as Mr. Shion walks out of the front doors to meet me, I snap my harsh gaze to him.
"Do you seriously have to follow me in school? Go take a break or something, I won't let you follow me in a place where it's not even necessary to watch me. There's cameras here anyway," I hiss at the man annoyed.
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. I begin to wonder how long he has been a detective to be trusted at such a young age. He could even pass as a student here at this high school - but young or not, he has no right to stalk me.
"You're a suspect, you know that -" he starts.
"Do you always stalk those people you suspect of being a murderer? Or am I currently the only one for this case?" I ask, interrupting him. I don't even care if someone is listening to us - the thought of being so distrusted to the point where I have to be followed is, well, irritating.
He breaks our locked gaze and stares off into the fazed distance. A few moments of silence pass by, and I clench my fists at the sudden idea that pushes into my head. I lower my voice down so only he can hear me, "Or is it because I'm not normal and you think I have gone crazy and killed a little girl I never knew? Because I'm different?"
He flicks his eyes back to me. "Of course that's not it, Miku -"
"Then what, Mr. Shion?"
He calmly keeps his gaze locked onto me, "Call me Kaito. Anyway, that's classified." I hold my head with the palm of my hand and remain silent. He doesn't bother to try to press it further, which I'm grateful for. The scratching headache dying my mind hurts too much to say anything at the moment. After a few moments I finally mumble, "Why can't you just tell me, Kaito?"
"Because you aren't worth wasting my breath on. You're a pathetic little brat."
My gaze snaps up to him, but his gaze is off in the distance again. He still wears a patient expression, still waiting for me to calm down. I'm about to ask him to repeat what he just said, but his voice rings out again without him moving his lips, "You should'nt even bother with school. No one likes you here anyway."
Oh. The voice ringing around my head isn't from Kaito - even though the voice belongs to him. Kaito isn't saying anything at all, it's in my head. No one's talking to me. No one that anyone besides me can hear.
"Hurry up and stop your tainted breath."
Without catching myself, I roughly bite my lip and look all around me, but no one's there. There's always a person the voice belongs to, but they just aren't in my sight. Who is the one mimicking Kaito's voice? "Shut up," I hiss without voice.
Kaito seems to notice my sudden alertness. "Miku? Everything okay?" He asks, his voice wavering in worry. My throat seems too dry to speak, so I just nod but never look at him. I'm about to walk past him and back into the school, but the faint slam of a car door grabs at my attention and I stop myself.
A lean figure dressed in a soaked black raincoat sprints away from a small black car and rushes past the parking lot towards the school. The increasing weight of the rain makes it almost impossible to see who it is. My breath catches in my throat and I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My body stiffens seeing the dark figure jog towards us - well, not exactly towards us, but in our direction.
It's not until the figure gets close enough to see features of a girl when I finally calm down. For a moment, I actually thought that the girl was the twitching figure I saw in the hallway - the figure that tried to snatch me.
Rain trickles down her pale cheeks and short blonde hair as she flutters her gaze to mine. She blinks away the rain that fogs her eyes, but turns away before I can actually look at her. She seems to ignore mine and Kaito's presence as she sprints past us and into the school. I can't help but watch her pace down the hallway and around the corner, out of my sight.
"You know her?" Kaito asks, the worry in his voice has drained a little bit. I flick my eyes back to his deep, rich blue ones, which are firmly locked onto me. It's his voice that has finally come back - not the one who mimics it. I shake my head.
"But don't you think that girl will change the subject. I'm talking to you after school," I say. A grin spreads across his pale lips. I continue, "And please don't come with me to class. At least wait outside the door or something."
After a moment, he finally nods and I release a breath I didn't realize I was holding. I walk past him, but before I can walk back inside the school I can feel his strong grip clasp around my wrist. I whip around to face him, confused. His face is dim in the shadows of the clouds and rain, which makes him look a little frightening.
"Miku," he starts, his tone serious. "About the name Kagamine, I'll do the research for you. It is probably best for me to look it up instead." His eyes seem dim, which makes his offer seem more like a command. I'm tempted to ask why he thinks it's better for him instead of me, but the tardy bell blares around the school in a stinging ring. I groan and sprint back inside the building, breaking from his grasp.
• • •
I stare out of the window at the glistening raindrops that slowly slide down the slick glass. It's as if it's a race, a race between two gentle drops of water. A few moments later, more raindrops join the two until the window is just a hazy blur. The calming sound of the heavy rain pouring down outside helps me clear my head.
I turn my gaze back to our algebra teacher. He has his back to us reviewing the chapter we have already gone over numerous times already. There's no point in being here today.
In the corner of my eye, I can see a few students glance in my direction. As soon as they turn away, they mumble something into another's ear, sharing a secret I can't hear. I can feel myself grow curious at what they are talking about. Have they heard about what I witnessed in my backyard? Perhaps they're saw Kaito following me around and have a few questions?
A gentle voice speaks over the mumbles, "Hey, you got a minute?"
I turn my gaze to see Luka's warm smile from the desk next to mine. She has her long pink hair in a messy bun today, something she usually does when she has a test to take. With the bangs out of her face, her blue eyes seem to stand out even more than usual. I smile back at my neighbor and breathe, "Um, sure. What is it, Luka?"
She seems to stiffen a little bit as soon as our eyes meet, but she quickly shakes it off and looks past me out the window; but there's nothing to look at since the sky is still covered in black clouds. "So there's a rumor going around, and I want to know if it's true or not. Do you mind?" Her voice slowly drains a little quiet, making sure the rest of the class hasn't overheard her.
I raise an eyebrow. Honestly, I want to tell her it depends on the rumor itself, but instead I say, "Not at all. What is it?"
She flicks a stray piece of hair away from her eyes and leans in closer to me. "Is it true that you are schizophrenic?"
I can feel myself stiffen as soon as her soft words process in my mind. In takes a few seconds to understand what she just asked, maybe because I didn't hear her right. "What?"
"Do you have schizophrenia?"
I force a smile to tug at my lips push out a laugh - which sounds like I'm choking - to escape my mouth. I shake my head pretending to have no idea where that idea came up. But for as long as Luka has been my worrying neighbor, I can tell she is a trained professional at detecting when someone's lying. My heart pounds against my ears.
I have never been in any special classes, mostly because I refused to be labled as different as a child. Also because my parents didn't want me to feel like I wasn't normal, so they put me in regular classes with normal kids. I haven't told anyone my condition, ever, and I'm afraid that if I take one wrong step, I will be forced to be in those classes.
Before I can defend myself and try to climb back up from the pit of being caught, the bright lights in the small classroom flicker several times before they finally shut completely off. For a few seconds, we are left in the darkness of the classroom - not near enough time for my eyes to adjust until they dimmly flicker back on...
But the classroom's empty.
I snap my gaze around the entire room, but it's just me. I immediately jolt up from my desk and keep gazing around the empty classroom. I can feel my heart pound even harder in my chest. Suddenly the sound of the door handle rattling snaps my attention to the door.
It slowly begins to creak open as I stand frozen behind my desk. The door opens wider, and the lights twitch again. After a brief moment of flickering, all the lights whip back on and I am back inside my regular classroom. I can feel everyone's gaze locked onto me, and I realize I am the only one standing - but I never leave my gaze from the opened door.
A figure begins to walk in with their black hoodie tugged on over their head, but before the figure can enter the classroom the lights dance again and I am suddenly back into the dark, empty classroom. It's as if every time the lights go off, everyone hides from me; but when they flicker again they pop out as if nothing has happened.
Well, it would be empty if the hooded figure didn't continue to walk in the dim classroom. But instead of the person that was walking in before, this pale figure twitches and struggles to stand as it walks inside the classroom with me.
I choke on my breath as soon as its beady eyes catch sight of me. The familiar wide smile slices onto its distorted face as it stares at me. As soon as our eyes lock, the lights flicker again - only much faster as if they're programmed to do that.
For every half a second they switch off, I am alone in the room in complete darkness; but every time the flip back on, the setting of the classroom changes. For one moment, I am back in the complete light of my classroom with my classmates, teacher, and the hooded girl standing in front of the class - but after the lights quickly flicker off and turn back on, the classroom is dim again and I'm alone with that... thing... standing in her place. That same thing from the hallway.
Both the hooded girl in the light with the rest of my class and that thing in the darkness alone with me are always in the same place... as if they're the same being. The lights begin to switch off and on even faster making me nauseous - but I can't look away from the figures that stare at me.
Soon enough the lights twitch so fast that I can't even be clear of the figures in front of the classroom anymore. But soon I begin to notice the hooded girl from my normal classroom slowly bringing her hands to the rim of her hoodie and slowly beginning to lift it off her face - while that thing in the empty classroom copies her motions even though it has nothing to move away from its pale face.
The hooded girl finally flips back her hoodie away from her face... and dim sky-blue eyes meet mine. I can feel my hands shake as I glare at her eyes - both the girl's and that thing's. But I don't even worry about the demented figure in darkness anymore. I don't bother with looking at any of the girl's facial features except for her eyes. There's no doubt - I know her eyes.
Even though the lights continue to flicker and leave me in two different versions of the classroom one after the other, I can only think of the way her dulled eyes stare at me in confusion, as if she's innocent.
My minds begins to fall into blank nothingness as I walk away from my desk and towards the two flickering figures. I ignore the pale thing from the hallway - it doesn't even faze me now. All I can focus on is the girl. I don't even notice when my numbing hands wrap tightly around the figure's neck as I slam the body under me on the tiled floor.
The lights continue to quickly flicker changing the girl into the thing then back to the girl again. Both figures firmly stare up at me, the girl seeming to be in pure shock as the thing widely grins up at me. If it was any other time, I wouldn't even get close to this pale creature as it shows me its sharp, small rows of teeth to me. But I'm not trying to choke that figure, I am only focusing in the girl.
"Miku!"
The faint voice in the distance reaches my ears and suddenly the lights finally stop flickering - I am left in my regular classroom with the the girl under my grasp. Slowly, the faint buzz of several dulled voices and screams I haven't noticed before reach my ears, but I ignore them and squeeze even harder around the girl's throat.
I begin to recognize her from this morning - the girl in the black raincoat who rushed in the school. She turned away before I could see her eyes this morning, but now they are firmly locked onto mine. Her short blonde hair is scattered all over the dusty floor as her pale face begins to show a hint of purple. A faint smile spreads across my lips. She struggles under my tight grasp, fighting to escape, but I ignore her violent clawing at my hands and the way tears roll down her cheeks. Her innocent eyes stare up at me in fear.
But as innocent as she looks, she can't trick me - her eyes can't trick me. I don't know how he can do this, but if he can make me suffer through nightmares I'm sure he can mirror himself through a girl like this.
I don't want her to look up at me any longer than she has to with those eyes, so I squeeze even harder hoping to get her to close them. I don't want to see them. She has the same dim eyes as his.
Suddenly a small jolt of pain stabs into my neck and I can feel something cold shoot into my throat. Moments later, my eyes become blurry and I can feel my entire body begin to numb. I want to scream but before I can, my vision is immediately dyed black and I can no longer hold my own weight. I fall over off of the girl as all of my senses collapse at once. The last thing I see before everything drowns in black is Kaito's arms wrapping tightly around my body and him yelling something - but I can no longer hear.
No longer feel.
No longer see.
