Authors' Notes:
NiffStral: ...
Carpe Cor (formerly OA): Does anyone here remember the show Boy Meets World? Anyone? Anyone? How 'bout you there? No?
Niff: ...What are you doing. We need to be writing our fic.
CC: This is how we write our fic, remember?
Niff: Oh, right. This is how we stay productive. Writing pages and pages every day, it's so easy when talking about Boy Meets World all the time.
CC: This is why we never get anything done... And then he jumped out of the portrait screaming, "Yatzai!"
Niff: ...No. Anyways, we do have thousands of excuses like this that actually apply, but also... We just got lazy. Plain and simple.
CC: And this fic kind of lost our attention for a bit. But then we started writing again 'cause we kept getting reviews, and now we actually have some meaning behind things instead of just throwing it in there 'cause we think it's funny.
Niff: Though that does happen for some of the jokes. :D
CC: So, this chapter is from Namine's POV, which was really fun to write. Especially the flashbacks.
Niff: Also, for the most part, it takes place during the last chapter. If you can even remember the last chapter, that is.
CC: I know. I'd feel cheated, too.
Niff: I think that's it. Oh, wait, the disclaimer! Quentin, you do it!
Quentin: DISCLAIMER: Eek, eeek eek eek eeeeek, eek eek.
Niff: That was my bat Quentin, who's been living in my window for the past couple days. He said that nothing belongs to us. As usual.
CC: D:
Niff: Oh, and after having lost our planning notes -glares at CC- and rewriting them, we changed the length of the fic to 20 chapters, including the epilogue.
CC: Sorry...
Niff: So, without further adieu, The Namine Chapter!
CC: Enjoy!
The cheap florescent lights are blinding as they glare down, blurring the room. A loud clang of a shutting door is heard. Hysterical laughter comes through the walls. The room is small, white, cramped. We're alone, they're alone, I'm alone, alone, alone...
Namine's eyes snapped open, and for a moment the sunlight coming through the curtains was enough to make her heavy panting cease out of irrational fear. She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to breathe once more.
In, out, in, out, in, out, the girl thought to herself, controlling her breathing. Hands still clenched around blankets, she slowly exhaled and reached to the desk beside her bed, only relaxing once she felt the familiar texture of her sketchbook and pencils. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and took in the sight of the gray ceiling with relief.
That's the third time this week, Namine thought, letting her body relax. I should really be more used to it by now.
Slowly sitting up and letting the comforter roll off her body, the freshman looked around. Her roommate had left, leaving the other side of the room a mess. Sighing, Namine swung her legs over the side of her bed, sliding her slippers on as she padded across the room. She bent over now and then to pick up fallen drawings of hers and food wrappers of her roommate's.
It wasn't that Namine didn't like her roommate; in fact, they were a little closer than she was with most of the other students at Radiant Garden. But that relationship was still only one of casual conversation and awkward glances outside their room.
Their interests varied greatly as well. If one were to look around the room, one would see that Namine's side was neat, tidy, and the walls were covered ceiling to floor with her pictures. It made for a very colorful little area that she was proud to call her safe haven.
Her roommate's side of the room, on the other hand, was ridiculously messy. Clothes and trash littered the floor, and the walls were full of haphazardly attached band posters, all featuring very unsafe looking people and symbols. Namine repressed a shudder as she re-taped up a half-fallen poster featuring the scarily adorable bat-vampire symbol that belonged to some popular band. With one final shudder, the artist moved away from the wall, going to her closet to get dressed.
Five minutes later, a knock was heard at the door. Namine froze, her uniform only halfway on.
"Hey, Nami? It's me! Time to start this glorious day! Yoohoo, Nami, open the door!" Axel shouted, as usual. She smiled, leaning over to grab her shirt.
"In a minute, Axel," she said, voice only slightly louder than normal. She froze as she heard the door slam open.
"Honestly, Nam, you can't expect us to- Holy crap!" Axel's green eyes went wide as he took in her partially dressed form. As their eyes met, Namine's hands flew to her chest, and her mind went blank. Another familiar voice suddenly came from outside her room, getting closer.
"Axel, I told you to not barge in like that, she's probably still getting dressed or somethi-" Riku, unlike Axel, never got the chance to see the girl shirtless as Namine's brain had decided to start working again.
"Get out, get out, get out!" she shrieked, shoving the red-head with one hand, the other leaving her chest to slam the door behind them. Once that was taken care of, she pressed her back to her door, breathing heavily.
"You idiot, what did you do this time? I told you-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, lalala, I can't hear you, trying to get shirtless- oh crap, it's back again! Riku, this is all your fault!"
"My fault? It wasn't my idea to come get her-"
"Just hang on, guys, I'll be out in a second," Namine finally cut in, quickly pulling on and buttoning up her shirt. She would be more annoyed with the two if she wasn't used to Axel's antics. It took a lot of effort to cross Namine's line, and this wasn't even close to the border.
After she had piled her homework and notebooks into her bag and straightened her shirt she jogged to her door, smiling at Axel's impatient and Riku's exasperated expressions. They grinned at her once she entered the hall, Axel only flinching a little as he met her gaze. As Riku rolled his eyes, Axel swung an arm around her shoulders, letting her know he had successfully blocked out what had happened minutes ago. As they headed out the door and across the field separating the girl's dorm to the school Namine clutched her sketchbook tighter to her chest, smiling as she realized she no longer shuddered when thinking about her recurring dream.
This, Namine thought, is what life should be like.
HOORAYFORNAMINEOHHEYTHATRHYMES!!
Namine bid farewell to her friends shortly after eating, needing to speak with Lexaeus about a small art competition. Telling the juniors to say "hi" to Sora for her when the boy arrived, she ran off towards the art room.
Having arrived in the art room about fifteen minutes before class was to begin, Namine found herself alone in the large room, Lexaeus being in his office. She let a small smile cross her face as she looked around; though she did cherish the time she had with her friends, it was always nice to have some time to herself, in a room she could freely leave and return. What better place than the art room?
Pulling out her manilla folder full of mailing information and her sketch, she walked up to the door and knocked lightly on the intimidating teacher's office.
"Come in." She heard from inside, and she complied.
"Lexaeus?" Namine began, walking up to the man with only slight hesitation. The large man lowered his book a fraction of an inch to glance at her. Namine held back a smile as she saw his lips twitch: she knew that, for some odd reason, the frightening man had taken a slight liking to her. "I have my entry here. Can I give it to you now?"
"Sure, just set it down." He replied, looking to an empty patch of desk in front of him. Namine walked over and did so. She smiled at him as she turned to leave.
"Thanks."
Lexaeus grumbled in response, but stopped her before she had a chance to exit the small room.
"Anonymous?" He asked. Namine paused, looking at the floor in shame.
"...Yes." The girl replied, hesitating. She could sense her teacher's gaze pouring into her, but he obviously did not care enough to pursue it.
"Right."
Holding back a sigh of relief, Namine exited the room and took her seat, gaze remaining on the ground even as she heard other students file in.
As Namine worked on blocking out all thoughts of the competition, bad memories and bad dreams, her idle gaze moved up and she smiled as she saw Sora walk in. She waved, and her smile grew as she saw him wave back.
He's so nice, Namine thought, hearing him take his his seat behind her. Though I wonder why he's so friendly towards us? Normally non-Seers are drawn away from our presence. Maybe it's just his unusually friendly personality.
Her thoughts concerning her new friend were stopped when she heard whispers from the boy's direction. Cautiously turning in her seat, she rose her thin eyebrows as she saw him staring behind his seat and up a little, whispering near-unintelligible words to seemingly nothing.
"...not...dangerous...as! ...-ting people!" was all Namine had a chance to hear from this one-sided conversation, before Sora wagged his finger, turned, and froze, expression reminiscent of a deer in headlights as he saw her staring at him. Namine almost felt like laughing at this. Almost.
"Sora? Were you.. are you alright? You were, um, talking to yourself... again," she added, remembering the couple other times she had witnessed him acting in a similar manner. Sora's gaze moved to his right before he responded.
"I... uh... that's just... my- oh, look, class is starting!"
His attention went completely to Lexaeus, who had come out of his office after the bell and had cleared his throat to begin the lesson.
Knowing what it was and having been prepared, Namine bent over and grabbed her own painting supplies from her bag. It wasn't that she thought anything was wrong with the school's paint and brushes, it was just...
Okay, they were horrible excuses just barely attempting to pass for "art" materials. Where were the school's funds going, anyway? The gym?
Namine let her brush float across the paper as she thought about Sora's odd actions. Not just then, but for the past week he had been at their school. She wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with him, but she had a strong suspicion it had something to do with the ghost that was trying to kill him.
No, Namine corrected herself, the ghost isn't trying to kill him, no matter what Demyx and Zexion think. Though I do think Sora knows more about it all than he's telling us.
She'd had these thoughts for a while now, about how Sora knew more than he was letting on. She confided these ideas, or, at least, a toned-down version of them with Riku and Axel, but they waved her thoughts aside.
"Namine, Namine, Namine." Axel had said after she relayed her thoughts. "How could Sora know about ghosts? Or that creepy one following him, anyway. He's Sora, for crying out loud. He doesn't even notice when he's about to run into a wall half the time.
"Yeah, as smart as he is in other things," Riku added, glaring at Axel for bringing up his beloved (though he was not entirely aware of it) Sora's faults, "he's not the most observational. And besides, if he were a Seer, surely he would've been found out by the ghost by now, and done something about it."
"I guess..." Namine muttered, though she still had strong doubts. Axel and Riku seemed to accept this, however, and their conversation segued to something about how much trouble Axel would be in if he were to burn down the science wing.
Blinking herself out of the memory, Namine focused on her painting. She was painting the stalker-ghost, or what she remembered of him, at any rate. Her memory was better than most, but it had been a while since that brief glimpse of him she'd gotten. That factor left much to her imagination.
Sighing at their lack of knowledge concerning Sora and his ghost stalker, Namine let her arm rest on top of the table, which unintentionally knocked her pencil, which had been resting next to her arm, onto the floor. Frowning, as she was usually not this clumsy, the girl bent over to pick it up, mumbling something as she did so.
Namine froze, still bent over. She heard a shuffling come from directly in front of her, followed by a crash.
"Aw, what the fuck, man?" she heard Seifer, the annoying boy who sat behind her shout as she sat up to look around.
The whole class was laughing at the amusing, she assumed, sight of Seifer covered in green paint. Namine began to smile a little herself, before she noticed that it was her green paint that had hit the unsuspecting bully. The smile froze on her face.
The ghost... She thought, narrowing her eyes. She quickly turned her head from side to side, looking for any sign of the trouble-making ghost, but to no avail. He must have his shield up. Was he trying to hit me with that paint? Namine wondered, then frowned, this time in confusion. Why would a ghost, who was supposedly trying to kill her, Axel, Riku, and Sora, do something like get her covered in paint? Annoying, yes, but not exactly life-threatening.
OHMYGAWDJUSTFIGUREITOUTALREADY
Latin was something Namine actually rather enjoyed. The presentations were funny and the ghost seemed to be playing a game with her. She had a feeling that he liked her more than he did Axel and Riku, because he didn't seem to be trying very hard to embarrass her.
It only made her that much more sure that she was right, and that the ghost wasn't trying to hurt them. Maybe he was trying to tell her so by playing this game? It was rather fun, admittedly. She would dodge things and they would hit other people and she would act like she hadn't noticed.
Half-way thought the period she'd flipped to a new page in her sketchbook, about ready to sketch a Minotaur, when the ghost picked up a pencil and started drawing a rather unflattering picture of Axel. Giggling slightly, she waited until he was done with Axel and drew an equally unflattering picture of Riku next to it. The pencil paused in mid-air like the ghost was hesitating before it dropped to the desk.
Namine frowned, but assumed that the ghost wasn't powerful enough to hold objects for a very long amount of time.
The blonde girl waited for a little while, but the ghost didn't make another attempt at their game, so she returned her attention to the presentation in time to hear the boy declare, "So then he was javelined in the groin."
Namine laughed along with the rest of the class, excluding Sora. She glanced over at him to see the boy staring off into space. She was about to try and get his attention when she heard a disembodied voice speak. It was a strange sound—not the boy's voice, but the static that came along with it. She couldn't hear everything he was saying, but she listened hard and tried her best.
"...Can't do...nymore...ra," the voice said. "It...difficu... focus t..."
She sighed as the static disappeared, assuming the ghost had stopped talking. Maybe because of the conversation that was taking place next to her that caught her attention.
"He was just having a really bad day," a girl Namine knew by sight but not by name said. "I mean, he was killed. As were his son and his horse."
"And his groin."
She heard the voice loud and clear that time, and a surprised laugh erupted from her. She applauded with the rest of the class and could have sworn she saw Sora's mouth move out of the corner of her eye, but she was unable to hear what he said.
The ghost made another attempt at the game, but Namine really did have to study. She glared at a spot where she assumed the ghost was before returning her attention to the presentation.
Namine bid Sora goodbye at the end of the hour and watched him head down the hallway with a smile, making note of the fact that, even though Sora should have run into a few people, they were all nudged out of the way by some invisible force. Really, the ghost couldn't be too bad.
MWAHAHAHALUNCHTIME
English and History had passed without any sort of action from the ghost, much to Namine's disappointment. She'd been hoping that they could continue with their little game, but he either was too tired to keep going or found her too uninteresting. Shame, she thought, because he made her classes rather interesting.
She entered the loud, bustling lunch room with a sigh and waited patiently in line to grab some food. She then cast her eyes about the room and, finding her friends, walked over to them. Sora was growling, for some reason, and looked positively mortified. He let his head hit the table and muttered something about his dislike of the school. Namine, taking pity, patted his shoulder consolingly as she sat down.
"I'm sure it can't have been that bad," she offered, then followed up by asking if he wanted to talk about it. The brunet responded with a negative and proceeded to ask the location of Riku.
She and Axel shared a look. They'd spoken only a few days before about trying some very subtle match-making if the situation got too annoying, but nothing had been decided. The pair shrugged and Namine bit her lip when she saw Sora's eyes narrow suspiciously as he glanced somewhere to the right of him.
Something was definitely going on with him. Axel and Riku could deny it all they wanted, but the female Seer had a strong feeling that they were all getting played, somehow, even if Sora wasn't completely aware of it. And how could he be? He was far too nice to even consider doing something like... whatever it was that the ghost was doing.
Axel and Sora continued talking and Namine was just about to settle back and enjoy her lunch when a loud profanity caught her attention. She looked up to find Riku—smart aleck, poised, nearly-perfect Riku—sprawled out on the floor, covered in food. It was a very good thing that she was sitting down, because if she wasn't she would have fallen over from laughing so hard.
She figured she should check if he was okay, but she and Axel were clutching onto each other and laughing so hard that it was getting rather difficult to breathe.
Controlling her laughter somewhat, Namine looked up to check if her friend was alright, and found him in the capable hands of Sora. She also noted, with a small smile, that the two were looking a little too cozy on the ground. At least, Riku was. Sora, as usual, seemed oblivious as he helped Riku get the food out of his hair.
Suddenly, Sora jerked his head up, staring at one of the lunchroom walls. Namine frowned, more suspicious than ever. Was the ghost trying to communicate with his victim?
Riku seemed to notice the boy's strange behavior as well, questioning it.
"Uhh..." Sora replied, "did you guys just hear someone yell my name?"
Namine froze again. How could he...?
"SORA!" She heard a shout, and immediately came to attention, catching the eyes of Riku and Axel, who also heard and made the connection.
"There it was again," Sora insisted, looking around. "Are you sure..."
Namine turned her shock look to Sora, noticing Axel do the same.
As Sora, most likely noticing their surprised looks and attempting to get rid of the awkwardness of the situation, changed the subject and turned again to Riku, who planned to leave for the bathroom to clean himself up more, Namine leaned into Axel, who had tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey, since we know Sora's not a Seer, do you think maybe there can be... I dunno... Hearers?" Axel suggested. Namine inwardly giggled, but thinking about it, the idea had some potential. It made her less uncomfortable, thinking Sora might be something more than Blind, even if he wasn't a Seer.
Before they could continue brainstorming the weird situation Sora was in, the boy returned. They hastily changed the topic.
"Oh! So, in English today, I was trying to see if Cloud would be interested in getting together with Leon, so all class I was trying to see if he'd be interested, so I confronted him about it."
Axel, holding back laughter, asked him, "You did?"
"Yeah, and Cloud thought I was trying to jump him or something."
Namine resisted the urge to face-palm, instead choosing to return to her drawings, now that the action had passed. She looked up again when Axel began to complain about something jabbing at him. Smiling under the cover of her hair, Namine bent over once more to put away her materials.
The ghost will accomplish more without me here, anyway, Namine thought, certain their "enemy" wasn't planning on doing anything more evil than mild pranks. As Riku took his seat, having returned from the bathroom, she stood.
"I'm just... gonna go somewhere," she explained, not feeling like coming up with a better excuse.
"Why? What's wrong?" Sora asked, concerned.
"Nothing's wrong. I just don't think-" she stopped herself and smiled. "Never mind. I'll be in the library."
She took a few steps, slowing a little when she felt the familiar coolness in the air.
"Make it good, ghost," she whispered, hoping the ghost caught her comment. Grinning in victory, she left the room.
DOESROXASHAVEAPARTNERINCRIME?IDOBELIEVEHEDOES
The fluorescent lights bleached the colors from the world, and she was back there, that place, with its white white walls and the cameras that made noise when they moved, keeping her up at night and following her everywhere. She was trapped, trapped, trapped in that small, small room, with the bright lights and blinding walls closing in and there was no way out, the door was shut, no one was coming, she was lost, alone, alone forever, caged by her silence because why talk when they didn't listen? But no, no, that's how she got there in the first place.
And then there was a girl in front of her, pretty dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Namine would have loved to draw her, doll-like and broken as she was, like her, but still there, she knew it. Not alone, she's there, there, there, and-
Gone.
Namine fell against the wall, breathing deeply, eyes squeezed shut. She hated it when that happened.
Catching her breath, she opened her eyes and quickly stood before anyone walked by. She dusted off her uniform and headed for the room at the end of the hall.
Opening the door the the library, she scanned the room, perking up when she found her target. Clutching her bag, she walked over.
"Olette!" Namine called as quietly as possible, stopping next to the brunette. Olette looked up and gave her usual distant smile.
"Hey, Nami," she said. Her voice was distant, too, far away in a place where Namine couldn't reach her. "Weird stuff in Latin, huh?"
"Yeah, weird," Namine offered, sitting next to her. She glanced at the computer screen and felt her blood run cold.
IllegalIsFaster42 says: (12:41:04 PM) Olette? You still there?
"Olette, isn't... wasn't that Pence's screenname?" Namine asked. Her head suddenly felt lighter than air.
Olette looked up at her, and Namine thought that if she were to draw the girl, she'd use dulled colors everywhere but the eyes. A bright green for the eyes, the color of anti-freeze. Vivid. Intense. Unnatural.
"Do you remember when everyone found out about your stay at the mental hospital? And everyone thought you were crazy?" Olette asked.
Yes. "I try not to..."
"Yeah, well, you're used to... weird stories, right? I mean, that's why you went there."
"...I guess..." Namine didn't like where this was going.
"Well... What would you think if I told you... that ghosts exist?"
Namine flinched back like she'd been hit.
"Olette... is Pence communicating with you? ...Through MSN messenger?" When she thought about it, it seemed like something Pence would do.
"I'm not crazy!" Olette yelled, defiant. The librarian looked up from her librarian duties behind the desk.
"Shh!" she hissed, the the manner all typical librarians shush students. Embarrassed, Olette ran a hand through her hair, trying to compose herself, and peered at Namine, cautiously hopeful.
"Have you ever felt like someone's watching you? When you're alone in the dark, and you spin around to see that no one's there? And in the back of your mind you tack on 'now' to the end of that, like if you'd moved just a little faster you would've seen someone?"
Namine remained silent, hairs on the back of her neck sticking up. She resisted the urge to look behind her. Olette typed something to Pence.
"Pence says that ghosts are everywhere, we just can't see them." She turned back to Namine.
"Is he..." Namine considered her words carefully. "Does... Pence... tell you to do things? Like, does he ever ask you to... do things he can't?"
"Um, no," Olette replied, face curious. "We just talk. He says he misses me. I... I miss him too."
Namine could see a little wetness in the corner of her eyes, and before she knew it, the girl had mumbled some excuse and ran out of the room. The bell rang. The computer flashed a new update from the conversation box.
IllegalIsFaster42 is now offline.
With a final glance at the computer, Namine logged out of Olette's account and left the room.
WHYAMIALWAYSSOMEANTOPENCE?IT'SNOTONPURPOSEISWEAR
Namine couldn't concentrate throughout the rest of her classes. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Olette, one of the Blind, stumbling through life without seeing the Half-world, but knowing about ghosts and specters. It felt... wrong, somehow; dirty, dangerous. But didn't she have a right to know? Pence had been her friend, still was, just invisible now. And if Pence wasn't evil, wasn't trying to use Olette like how some ghosts toy with the Blind, well...
She thought of Sora. All soft blues and mid-tones, oblivious to everything, even the ghost Axel and Riku thought wanted to kill him.
Didn't he have the right to know too?
The brightness was back. She was being led to her, the her that would "fix" her problem. Two men walked by her sides, Sickly thin like they belonged here, too, but bulky in the way that they were so there, grounded to the world, chained by their Blindness. Namine would have felt bad for them if they'd been accompanying her for any reason other than to restrain her should she become rowdy.
A semi-transparent girl floated just in front of her. She was talking, but Namine couldn't focus on the words. Everything was so hazy, blurry, Half-world when she was on meds. She sometimes felt like she was one of the ghosts who wandered through the world in a torrent of time flying by, never really there but unable to be anywhere else. She was just like them, really, but without the anger, and it made her hate herself, because ghosts were bad, except that sometimes they weren't... Being angry took too much effort, just like thinking. Morals were so difficult.
"How are you today, Namine?" The therapist asked. Namine hated the sound of that voice, so sickly sweet and open and understanding.
"You have to talk eventually," she chastised. When Namine remained silent, the woman made a tiny note on her paper. "It's been two months, now."
Had it really? But she knew that just a week or two ago she'd been in that old warehouse, trying to tell a ghost far past crazy that driving a knife into your lover's heart won't make her love you again, in fact. And then the knife was driven into her, and there had been pain and people were crying (when did they get there?) and lights were flashing and she'd tried to tell her parents about the ghost, but they were Blind—Blind and deaf and stupid.
And now she was here.
"Namine, if you continue this behavior I'm going to have to remove your distractions. Understand?"
Namine did understand. She understood perfectly. She felt a bubble of something rise in her chest, recognized it as hate, but then it popped and she was left feeling nothing but empty.
"Namine?" The woman slid her a piece of paper and a pencil. "Why don't you draw me a picture explaining how you feel?"
"How you feel," said a mocking voice. The girl was in front of her suddenly, face screwed into an angry mask. "Don't you hate when they ask you that? You'd better draw a good picture, Nami, 'cause after this there won't be any more distractions.
Namine grabbed the pencil and the ghost smiled. She started scribbling on the paper, softly at first, then hard dark lines. Her hand began to cramp.
"Namine?" The woman rose her eyebrows. "That's enough, now. Namine? Namine, stop. Stop!"
"Stop!"
Namine snapped out of her memories at the familiar voice. That's right, she'd come to visit Sora, make sure the ghost wasn't going to try any of his "pranks" on her newest friend. Friend... Friend with a Blind. How weird. Looking down the hallway of the dorm, she noticed Sora's door open a crack. Curious, she walked towards the sliver of light.
"Take it back! Take it back!" Another voice shouted from inside the room. Namine paused.
"Okay, fine! Just... S-Stop!" Sora cried out in response. Were those gasps of pain she was hearing?
Making as little noise as possible, Namine continued to the room, reaching into her bag and pulling out an extra sharp pencil. Just in case.
"No, say it! Say you take it back, or I'll never stop!"
Halting right outside the door and trying not to breathe too heavily, Namine peered into the room.
She could see Sora in the middle, hanging upside down, suspended in mid-air only by his shoe. His arms flailed, one coming up to keep his shirt from revealing too much skin. He slowly rotated, and Namine could see he had a red face and teary eyes.
And levitating next to him, one hand wrapped around the shoe holding Sora up, the other wrapped around a pen that continuously poked the brunet in the side, was the ghost, the ghost who was trying to kill them all. He looked decidedly un-intimidating with a grin spread across his face, dressed in a light blue t-shirt and ripped jeans.
"Okay, okay! You don't sing like Jesse McCartney! I take it back!" Sora laughed, and the ghost's grin turned to one of victory. Namine lowered her "weapon."
Wait... Namine thought, shocked. He's a Seer? But how would... Why... How...
Too confused to think, without another moment's hesitation she pushed the door open enough for her small frame to fit through and entered the room.
After about half a minute of failing to be noticed, she frowned, suddenly impatient. How could they not notice her standing there watching them? Boys...
"Ahem," she coughed, still frowning.
The two stared at her. She stared back. The ghost promptly dropped Sora onto the bed, probably out of surprise rather than the malicious intent Namine had earlier associated him with.
"Ow!" Sora exclaimed. "What was that for-"
"Silence, mortal!" the ghost cried, spinning in the air and pointing an accusing finger at the brunet. "Beware the Awesome powers of... uh... Dr. McEvilton!"
As Sora mouthed this name, face screwed into confusion, Namine pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes sliding shut.
"We've been afraid of you?" She sighed and turned to leave. What a waste of time.
I'd better tell Riku and Axel that we don't have to worry about the ghost anymore. Maybe I can finish that drawing-
"No, wait! I can explain! Roxas was just-"
"Sora, don't blow my cover!"
"It's too late for that, don't you think?"
"That's not the point, Sora!"
"Well, what is the point, Dr. McEvilton!?"
"That is the point, idiot!"
Never before had Namine been so fed up with two people in her entire life. And, after knowing Riku and Axel for quite some time, that was saying something.
"Guys!" She near-shouted, interrupting their chicanery. Thankfully, her outburst seemed to work.
"Okay, okay, we'll explain." Sora told her, calming down.
Namine pursed her lips and looked at Sora; the look that made Axel feel terrible for lighting things on fire, that made Riku ashamed of copying homework. Sora shrank back and fiddled with the end of his shirt, color rising to his cheeks. The ghost narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, scowling at Namine. There was a sort of haughty defiance she had seen in many ghosts before, the kind that told her they thought they were better because they were dead, that they were entitled to things because they'd been able to hold on and embed themselves in the Half-world instead of moving on. She'd let herself be convinced of that, too, when she was in the hospital...
"So, you see, Roxas isn't exactly... evil," Sora started awkwardly, determinedly avoiding her gaze. She sighed and forced her mind to the situation at hand.
"Somehow I think she managed to figure that out for herself," the ghost—Roxas—said.
"Yeah..." Sora proceeded to make a few flustered attempts to talk before falling silent and looking at the ghost, who took pity.
"We've... known each other for awhile," he said, and the way he said it made Namine think that maybe he didn't want to tell her anything that all, that he wished she was elsewhere, maybe lost in a Half-world of her own.
"For as long as I can remember," Sora added helpfully.
Roxas glanced at the brunet and Namine saw his eyes soften. For a second she thought she saw a smile flickering on his face, but then he was glaring at her again and she bit the inside of her cheek. She'd seen that look on people's faces before; she'd been seeing it on Riku's face lately. She'd always thought they were ridiculous, as they clouded people's thoughts and made her draw them all soft and exposed; a special kind of blindness.
But still, it was kind of sweet...
"Namine?" Sora said slowly, snapping her out of her thoughts. She nodded for him to go on. "So, yeah, I've sort of known I was a Seer my whole life, and Roxas has always been there to take care of me, even when I was little and the kids would pick on me."
The boy looked at her with those big blue eyes and Namine felt her heart melt. For a moment she let herself wonder what had happened to Sora, or what was still happening. The trio had talked about it awhile back, and assumed that being Seers meant that they were cursed, in a way—unlucky was a better term. Axel had watched his parents die and been left with only Reno to take care of him, Namine was never heard at home and never spoke at the hospital, and Riku... Well, he didn't like to talk about it. She could understand that.
"Why'd you want us to think you were evil?" she asked. The boys exchanged looks. Namine assumed there was meaning in them.
"It wasn't—I mean, we hadn't exactly planned for it to happen, originally," Roxas said. Now that she could really see him, she noticed subtle differences in him and her sketch. His cheekbones were a little higher, his eyes a little bigger. The differences bugged her. "Remember the first time I saw you? I—"
"He freaked," Sora cut in. "We hadn't met any Seers before, and—"
"You thought we were going to kill him?" Namine asked. It wasn't far from the mark; wasn't that the first option Riku and Axel had suggested?
"Something like that," Roxas said, shrugging. "And also, Sora hasn't really ever had any normal friends."
"Just the ghosts on the Islands," the brunet chimed in. "I kind of wanted to be, you know, normal, for once."
Namine replayed the boy's words in her head. "Friends with ghosts?" Sora nodded excitedly. "You know ghosts are, um, bad, right? Present company apparently excluded."
"They aren't bad!" Sora defensively exclaimed. "Just misunderstood. They just... they get mad, sometimes. Frustrated. And then sometimes bad things happen."
Namine stared at him blankly and recalled Sora's little adventure in Hollow Bastion, where he'd made friends with a homeless man. From behind him, the ghost waved his hands around and, seeing that he had her attention, pointed at the boy and mouthed 'he's like this all the time.' Namine covered her mouth to muffle a giggle. Ghosts weren't all bad, she had to remember. There were some, like Demyx and Zexion, and this new ghost, Roxas, who'd tied themselves to the Half-world to hold on to people close to them. Though the fact remained that most ghosts stayed for some sort of vengeance...
"Um... That's it, really." Finishing his story, Sora looked at her nervously. "You aren't mad, are you?"
"Mad?" Namine questioned, confused. "Why would I be mad?"
Sora looked at her as if she was crazy. "I've been lying to you guys all year! My own friends! Why would you not be mad?"
Namine shook her head, smiling gently. Even if she was the spiteful type, who could possibly blame those huge blue eyes?
"It's fine, Sora. You didn't want to let us, the ghost-hunters, know about your... Your Roxas! I'd be afraid to tell us too, even if we became friends. It was just to protect him, right?"
"Exactly!" Sora sounded relieved, plopping back down onto his bed. Namine kept her smile, looking between the two boys.
How romantic... She thought dreamily, fingers itching for a pencil as the ghost gave Sora another caring yet exasperated look, which Sora returned with a smile. Oh, how she wished she could draw them!
Just as she was turning to leave, mind racing with new ideas, the ghost stopped her.
"Wait, before you go..." He began, and Namine rose an eyebrow, urging him to continue.
"Yes?"
"Could you not tell the other two? About me and Sora, I mean. They wouldn't be as, I dunno..."
"Understanding?" Sora added helpfully.
"Yeah, I doubt they'd be as understanding as you."
Namine frowned; she hadn't thought of what she'd tell Axel and Riku yet. They probably should know, but... Staying in the dark a little longer couldn't hurt, right?
"Sure, that's fine." She told the ghost with a bright grin. From what she could observe, Roxas was surprised she accepted so easily.
"Uh, great! We'll see you tomorrow then, I guess."
"See you tomorrow!"
With a wave, Namine left the room, slowly shutting the door behind her. Walking down the hall, she continued to contemplate what this new situation would mean for everyone.
I cannot believe what Sora's been hiding from us this entire time... But, oh, those two are so cute together! Namine skipped a little as she exited the boys' dorm, hurrying to reach her own room. It's just too bad I can't tell Axel or Riku-
Oh wait. Riku.
Namine slowed to a walk, feeling the joy leave her body. She was fairly sure Riku was harboring a huge crush on Sora; what would he do when he found out the boy was taken by a love more powerful than life itself? Namine groaned, rubbing her brow. What to do...
I'll just have to break it to him easy, she reasoned, and just hope he'll understand.
This would be harder than she thought.
But all that aside... I still can't believe Sora knew this whole time! And another good ghost? All the ghosts I've met so far haven't been evil... Shouldn't they be?
Namine shook her head, taking the path filled with students still hanging out on the grounds around the main building to her own dorm. True, she, Axel, and Riku hadn't met many ghosts since "teaming up," but all the ones she knew of didn't seem evil. Not Pence, or Zexion, or Demyx...
Namine froze, hands dropping to her sides.
Zexion and Demyx! They told us about Roxas, how he wanted to kill Sora! How evil he was! Have they known this whole time?!
Slowly, it dawned on her, causing an uncharacteristic glare to cross her face. They knew! They were playing along, covering up for Roxas this entire time! They made her so worried-
"Damn ghosts," Namine grumbled to herself, turning on the spot and rushing to the main doors of the school, glad the building stayed open a few hours after school let out.
How could they do this to us? After all we've been through... They've been helping us, having fun with us in the LAIRE for ages!
The "LAIRE," as the Seers called it, was the "haunted" basement of the school no one else went to, their hideout, their "Bat Cave" as Axel put it several times, for some reason. They came down to discuss important ghost matters (in theory), and to hang out with Zexion and Demyx, who couldn't see them any other place during the week. It had proven quite useful in the past, and coming up with its name was very amusing.
"We should have a name for this place!" Axel had said, smiling at the dusty, spider-filled basement. Riku and Zexion looked at him incredulously, while Demyx excitedly nodded his agreement.
"Oo, yeah! Like, oh, The Seers' Secret Hideout!" Demyx suggested. Axel frowned, shaking his head.
"Nah, too wordy. Plus, it'll have to be misleading, so we won't get any unwanted listeners interested. It's supposed to be just for us, after all."
"Oh, right. Hm..."
Namine smiled, holding back a laugh. Riku and Zexion looked exasperated with the conversation, but said nothing.
"Oh, I've got it!" Axel announced, triumphant grin on his face. "We'll call it the LAIRE! All caps, plus an E at the end!"
"Yeah, that's so cool!" Demyx cheered, loving the idea. Riku frowned.
"Wait, why is it all caps? Is it an acronym?"
"Nah, it's just cooler with all caps. Don't you agree, Nami?"
Riku looked at her, pleading for some sanity, but Namine merely laughed.
"Sure, Axel. The LAIRE it is."
And thus, their secret hideout got its name.
Luckily, Zexion and Demyx were there most of the time, when they weren't hanging out in the Otherworld. So, Namine knew exactly where to find them.
Her shoes thudded as she rushed down the steps and through the halls, hands clenched at her sides. Finally reaching the basement, she viciously turned the knob, swinging the door open.
"Zexion! Demyx!"
Namine normally never shouted her entrance, but making a lot of noise sometimes let her feel better about things, especially when she didn't have her sketchbook on hand. She wondered if there was a way to contact the Otherworld, maybe hold some sort of seance and call the spirits here. The Seers hadn't ever really considered that possibility...
"Hey Nam," a dull voice said. Namine started, snapped out of her thoughts, and looked over to see Axel staring blankly at the floor, sprawled on his box-couch like a rag doll, limbs limply hanging over the sides.
"Axel?" she said hesitantly, moving closer and staring. He was paler than usual, crazy hair in a messy disarray, proof that he'd been stressed enough to run his hand through it repeatedly. "Are you okay?"
"We have a problem, Nami," he said. His voice was still dull and she felt tension coil in her chest. It took a lot to make Axel stressed, and the last time she'd heard him sound like this... It was after his parents had died.
"What's wrong?" Her voice shook. "What's happened? Where's—where's Riku?"
Axel shrugged, closing his eyes. "Demyx and Zexion are dead."
The words hung in the air, awkwardly stung up like a marionette. Namine licked her lips nervously.
"Yeah, Axel," she replied, still worried. "They've been dead for ten years."
Green eyes opened and he finally turned his head to look at her, eyes blank, dulled, and Namine tried not to flinch back when she saw how Blind he looked. "Not ghost dead, Nams. Dead-dead. Dead and gone and not coming back."
"I—what? Are you sure? Why would they—"
"They didn't," Axel shook his head and sat up, lanky arms flopping lifelessly to his sides. "That ghost killed them. I don't know how, but I saw it happen. They're dead, Nam, gone, and Demyx was screaming so loud..."
Namine felt her head get light, fuzzy, like it always was back at the hospital when everything was all Half-world, all the time. "Gone?" Ghosts didn't kill other ghosts, not really, not without destroying their Anchor. A ghost that could do that... what could it do to the Blind? What could it do to the Seers? "What ghost?"
For the first time during the conversation, Namine saw something flicker on Axel's face. Annoyance, maybe? Disbelief?
"What ghost do you think? The one that's been making our lives hell," when Namine continued to stare blankly, he added, "the one that's after Sora."
And suddenly everything made so much sense. She sighed, relieved, and let herself sink to the floor, holding her head in her hands. Axel made a noise of sympathy, but she ignored it. Roxas clearly didn't know Axel very well, or he would have known that this was crossing a line. Now she had to deal with a depressed Axel and a pining Riku and things would just be so much easier if she told them the truth...
But then Riku would never give up, and Roxas and Sora's relationship would be under more stress than it already was, and Axel would hit on the ghost boy non-stop and their relationship would be put under more pressure, and she bet it was hard enough as it was, with Roxas being dead, without adding two more difficulties.
"I need to go," she said, standing up. She needed to yell at Roxas, tell him he'd taken it too far, make him give Demyx and Zexion back to Axel so he would stop looking at her like that, fear and sadness warring in his eyes, a flicker of anger and hate here and there.
He nodded at her in understanding, and Namine fled the basement.
She stalked through the halls, but soon her paces grew shorter, less determined, until she was all but shuffling. Her anger left her. She always did have trouble hanging onto it, even when—
Even when they were staring at her like that, tears in their Blind eyes, disappointment and confusion dancing across their faces, she couldn't hate them. She thought she might, every once in awhile, but then it left her, flowed out of her until she was just tired and all she wanted was to be led to her room where she could sleep.
"Why won't you just talk, honey?" Her mom crouched so they were at eye level, trying one last time to bring her out of the Half-world she'd been staring into for so long. The gaze didn't hold her attention, took dull, too bland. She wondered what Axel and Riku were doing now, and when they would come visit her and if maybe they could work on things other than Seeing again.
Her father sighed and put a hand on her back, pushing her lightly towards a lady with a pointed face and Blind eyes. Namine looked away from her, avoiding the gaze of all the others in the room, clearly wondering what someone so young was doing here, what she'd deserved to be exiled to this place. She wondered, too, what was so bad about trying to tell people the truth, that she was different and trying to protect people, that she was a—
"Seer?"
Namine jumped, chest heaving. She swung around to see the ghost boy hovering in the air, face pinched oddly, and it took her a second to realize that was worry there, spread out for the Half-world to see.
"Are you alright? You look like you're having a panic attack. You're paler than I am," he said, and Namine's mind grasped that. Pale. Axel was pale, paler than usual, Axel was worried, Axel thought that Demyx and Zexion were gone, dead, not coming back.
"You ass!" Namine snapped. The ghost recoiled, surprise slipping onto his face. Namine remembered the first time she saw him, when that look melted into something feral, wild, and then he'd been gone... "What were you thinking?! Do you have any idea how upset Axel is? He thinks his friends are dead!"
"Oh," the ghost relaxed. "Is that what you're upset about?"
"Yes!" If she kept this up people would start coming out of their rooms to see what all the noise was about. "Bring them back. I know you didn't actually kill them. I know they're in on this stupid prank. But Axel doesn't, and he's been through way too much without you making it worse. Bring them back."
Something strange flickered across the ghost's face, something almost like guilt or regret, but then it was gone, replaced by a lazy boredom. "Fine, fine. Calm down, geez. It's not my fault the freak can't handle a joke."
Namine opened her mouth, color rising to her cheeks, but the ghost just smirked at her—the most infuriating smirk she'd ever seen, and she was friends with both Axel and Riku—and disappeared. She closed her mouth, pursed her lips, and closed her eyes. She leaned against the wall and held her head, which was starting to pound obnoxiously.
A cold wind blew down the hallway, suddenly, and—
A shiver ran down her spine and her head snapped up, eyes searching the room wildly as the lady with the pointed face observed her, an interested frown marring her face. Namine's eyes landed on a glowing girl with the longest brown hair that she had ever seen, a shock of dark water-falling wildly from her head, spilling over her pale, glowing shoulders .
The girl's dark, sharp eyes bore into her, really Seeing her and hearing her even though she hadn't spoken in weeks, picking her apart with that single stare, and Namine couldn't look away, hands tightening around her little sketchbook she held clutched to her chest.
What Namine wouldn't give to draw her...
EDIT: Pence's MSN screenname is taken from the amazing (much better than our) fic How I Paid For College. So yeah. We didn't come up with it. ^^ Also changed another little thing, but I can't tell you what in fear of ruining future plot. Thanks for understanding~ -Niff