Len

The town was more like a city.

I had never really gone into town. I chose to be a shut-in and not interact with other people. All I really needed was Netflix and a good book to keep me entertained. Miku was right- I was a hermit.

Shops were lined up everywhere, next to each other and seeming to never end. A few tall buildings were around, reaching for the blue sky, puffy white clouds present. People bustled by, some holding shopping bags and some stopping to look into the window of a few shops. There wasn't much traffic, but cars zoomed by every now and then. Where the shops finally stopped, there was a bridge that arched over a calm area of water. Some people were in boats, rowing across the fairly large river. There were a couple vendors at the end of a few blocks, selling a variety of things that looked good nonetheless. Miku smiled at me.

"I suppose city kind of fits the description better, don't you think?" She mused. I nodded as I looked around. The town- or city- was quite intriguing. I've seen spectacular cities with the newest of technology and filled with the grandest of people and most would kill to be there, but despite marveling and wondering about them as I stared at the pictures, I'd rather be here. Perhaps it was because of the somewhat lively atmosphere, which buzzed with excitement and happiness. Maybe it was because of the way Miku looked at everything with such a fondness and loveliness in her eyes. I felt a strange feeling in my stomach as I processed the thought. Am I sick?I thought with a frown. The feeling wasn't necessarily painful, just...odd. I was quick to brush it off- it was probably nothing.

"Hm...anything specific you wanna do or see?" Miku asked, setting her gaze upon me. I looked around for a moment, not finding anything that particularly peaked my interest. Finally, after a moment of thought, I shrugged. Miku knew where everything and all the sights- it'd be best to leave it up to the expert.

"Nah. I don't really care what we do." I told her. Miku blinked. A look of thought crossed her face for a minute before she spoke. She voiced several suggestions but immediately shot them down soon after. They all sounded like decent ideas to me. Finally, after five minutes of Miku deciding what we should do with my confirmation, we decided to go shopping.

Which is how I ended up holding a pile of clothes in my arms.

I didn't really mind, though my arms and legs were beginning to get tired from walking around so much with such a large abundance of clothes in my arms. Some of the clothes were mine, but most of it was Miku's. My eyes widened as I learned the price of everything. "T-That's a lot of money..." I told Miku as I took a few bags from her arms. She shrugged, then shot me a toothy grin.

"I suppose I got a bit carried away. Sorry." She apologized sheepishly. The corner of my lips twitched upward.

"It's fine, as long as you're happy." I answered. She smiled brightly at me, then turned away.

"Lets put these in the car." She said. She turned to me, an evil grin on her face. "Ever see a horror movie in theaters?"


The movie was more stupid than scary. Like the few horror movies that I often watched with Miku and Luka.

I often found myself rolling my eyes and pointing out the flaws in the movie, such as how idiotic the characters were and how predictable the jumpscares were. By logic, if your car breaks down, shouldn't you walk down the road in hopes of finding help rather than taking shelter in an old, abandoned mansion with a 'No trespassing' sign? Rather than hiding in your house while everyone tries to kill each other because it's legal for 12 hours, wouldn't moving out of the country or at least going extremely far from the city be more logical?

Despite the illogic and stupidity of the supernatural horror film, Miku, however, seemed to be scared by the movie rather easily. She'd jump at the jumpscares and let out terrified squeaks while clinging to my arm as if her life depended on it. Somehow, I wasn't too surprised by this. Miku tended to be scared quite easily when she's averted her full attention on something.

"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea...I thought you'd be scared, but it looks like that plan backfired on me..." Miku said as we walked down the street. We could've driven around instead, but Miku insisted that we get some exercise and that walking around is classier. Miku also claimed that she knew the town like the back of her hand, which I highly doubted. Like me, she didn't go out of the house often.

"You're easily scared." I pointed out. Miku immediately protested.

"I am not!" She denied.

"Whatever you say." I replied, slightly amused. I stopped walking, a very large crowd of people in the surprisingly nearly empty mall parking lot catching my eye. The sound of classical music floated through the air despite the odd setting. There were a few cameramen in the crowds of people, filming something in the center. Miku frowned and followed my gaze.

"What's going on over there?" She asked. I shrugged.

"No clue. Lets check it out. If there are camera men there, it can't be that bad, right?" I said. She nodded, and we made our way through the crowd. The music instead got louder and the soft sounds of people laughing and talking grew louder as I neared. I looked up and managed to get a glimpse of what was happening.

In the middle, there were several men in tuxedos playing expensive-looking instruments. A few couples danced around them. I assumed that they were attempting to dance like they were at a ball or something, but they obviously had no experience in doing so. They'd step on each other's feet and burst out into giggles and usually went out of sync. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as Miku stood up on her tiptoes, then deciding that she still couldn't see over the ocean of people, started jumping up, her teal hair bouncing up and down as she attempted to take a peek at what was going on.

"I can't see!" She whined, sounding like a little kid. "What's going on?" The woman in front of us turned. She was rather tall with dark ebony hair and tired brown eyes.

"Some of the town musicians are performing are both earning a bit of extra money and doing a sort of experiment." She explained. "They're trying to bring the town's spirits up by playing music here. People have even started dancing for fun, drawing both the crowd and the news reporters."

"They're horrible...but they're having fun?" I muttered. I didn't know exactly what it was, but something told me that wherever the hell I came from, getting something wrong could be punishable and was not a laughing matter at all. But maybe that was just my mindset, and not from my experiences that I couldn't remember.

"I wish I wasn't so short...whatever it is, it sounds fun..." Miku mumbled, pouting and crossing her arms. I blinked, then grabbed her hand and made my way through the crowd until we were near the middle, where a few of the couples danced.

"W-Wha-" Miku sputtered, her cheeks painted red. I smiled cheekily at her.

"You said it sounded fun, didn't you?" I told her as I put her hand on my shoulder. I put my hand on her back and took her hand in my other one.

"L-Len, I dunno how to dance!" I smiled at her and we began dancing. My movements were smooth and experienced, whereas Miku's were inexperienced. She stumbled as she tried to keep up with me and I decided to slow down a bit- I almost forgot she wasn't experienced in this kind of dancing.

"That's what makes it fun." I told her with a chuckle. We weren't wearing proper dancing shoes or clothes and the ground was rocky and bumpy and my partner was a blushing mess, but somehow it all seemed to perfect. I wondered why as the strange feeling from before suddenly appeared without warning. It was a feeling similar to when I went on a rollercoaster and we were just about to drop down- but nothing particularly exciting or scary was happening.

Miku stepped on my foot and winced. "Sorry..." She muttered. "Since when did you know how to dance anyways?" She asked, giving me a curious look. I shrugged.

"I dunno." I honestly answered. "Try following my lead?" She nodded.

"Alright. Got it." She said. "I'll try not to step on your foot with my freakishly big feet." I rolled my eyes. Miku had one of the smallest feet I've seen, probably because she was so short and petite. Not that I was a creep with a foot fetish or anything- she sometimes walks around the mansion with no socks on.

"Getting the hang of it?" I asked. She had finally stopped stumbling around like a drunk person that was also on every drug there was, but we still weren't in sync.

"A bit." She replied. "I finally got over my shock of being pulled in here and being forced dance with a ton of people watching. Plus cameramen." She shot me a playful glare and I grinned again.

"Ah, don't pretend you're not enjoying it." I mused. She scoffed and looked away, fixing her gaze somewhere over my shoulder.

"Yo-You're such an idiot," She grumbled, earning a hearty laugh from me.

"But I'm a lovable idiot."


The blonde girl stumbled, her clothes torn and her body being weighed down by exhaustion. Her bare feet were scratched and dirtied, having walked nearly two miles to reach civilization. She at some city-type of place. It was night, the sky pure black and the stars twinkling above. The streets were empty, not a person to be seen and not a car to be found driving about.

Rin tripped and fell with a small cry, scraping her knees on the hard and rough concrete. She crawled to the wall of a closed shop and leaned against it to examine her damaged knees. The fall was hard enough to draw blood from her left knee, but not her right.

She tore a piece of her dress off- the thing was already falling apart anyways- and tied it around the bleeding knee. She could only hope that it didn't get infected. She brushed her blonde hair away from her face only to have it come back again, covering one of her eyes. She sighed. I hate having no bobby pins on me... She thought sourly as she stood shakily.

There was a sound behind her and she spun around quickly, so quickly that she almost fell. Her heart hammered in her chest as her blue eyes scanned the deserted area around her. And she began to walk the other way, because no way in hell she was dumb enough to investigate it.

She heard another noise- like the sound of a pebble being kicked her way. She walked faster.

She heard the noise again. She broke out into a sprint this time, not taking any chances on staying behind to be caught by whatever or whoever was stalking her.

Maybe she was being paranoid, but after what had recently happened to her, who wouldn't be? Her vision swayed and spots danced in her vision, her legs feeling like they could- and would- give out any second. She stopped, finally, around the corner and leaned against the wall for support, breathing heavily.

I should be far enough now,she thought. She put her hand in her pocket to ensure that it was still there. If she lost it, then there'd be no way of saving Len without going back to that dreaded place. Her worries about losing it eased when she felt it in her pocket, and she sighed, only to hear a loud noise from behind her.

However, it wasn't from the direction she was running from. She turned, expecting to find that horrid man followed by a few of his soldiers.

What stood in front of her, instead, was far more surprising.

A small, cute looking, black animal with white spots and fluffy fur and piercing green eyes.

Rin racked her brain for the name of this animal- she knew it wasn't harmless, as humans usually kept it as a pet. It meowed at her and hesitantly walked her way. Rin snapped her fingers.

"Cat!" She said triumphantly. "That's what they're called!" The cat rubbed itself against her leg, emitting a soft vibrating sound. She smiled and bent down to rub the cat behind its ears. It let out another mew, its tail flicking back and forth. It looked at the cloth tied to her left knee, then up at her.

It headbutted her knee gently and Rin winced at the slight stinging sensation. It mewed at her again before beginning to walk away. It looked back at her, and seeing that she wasn't moving, walked toward her and lightly bit the end of her dress and pulled before letting go.

Rin was slightly hesitant to follow it, but did so anyways. She was just about ready to collapse from exhaustion. She could barely lift her feet and she hadn't eaten or had a drink ever since she escaped, and that was hours ago. With every passing minute, she got even more tired.

She stopped in front of a small, cute looking house with nice, cut green grass in front and a small garden of colorful flowers. The cat pawed at the dark oak door while meowing loudly and impatiently. Rin peeked inside the house through the window.

The interior was strange and inside something played on the television. She squinted. The word 'Live' was in the upper right corner and it showed people dancing. Then there was a close up of two people.

The shorter of the two was a girl with long, teal hair that Rin found quite unusual for a human. She wasn't as graceful as her partner. Rin's eyes widened and she gasped quietly as she processed the familiar head of messy blonde hair, warm blue eyes, and that stupid, mischievous smile.

"Len..." She quietly whispered, feeling her chest tighten upon seeing that her brother was, in fact, on this planet. Just then, the door opened.

"Jeez, calm down, Misty-" It was a male about the age of at least 15 with snowy white hair that went to his chin. Curiously, his left eye was blue, but his right eye was green. Rin's stomach churned as the human stared at her, her legs feeling like they were about to give out for real. He blinked, took in her appearance, then his eyes widened.

"My god, are you okay?!" He said, giving her a look of concern. Rin opened her mouth to speak, but found that she couldn't.

All she remembered was falling forward, the surprised cries of the man ringing in her ears, and her world being swallowed by an inky blackness.