Disclaimer: Refer to previous chapters.

Random note: THANK YOUUU FOR THE REVIEWS, READERS! I love ya all, I was genuinely touched and not to mention so happy when I saw the reviews and reception for last chapter! :) This chapter is dedicated to all of you.

"The Red Spade" - Act 10: Vanishing trick

Kagamine Rin gazed blankly at Len; what was he babbling about? She knew he was a sadistic nutcase, but… this? Seriously, this?

It was like a rotten fairytale or something, where demons and trolls with horns would appear randomly out of nowhere in the storyboard.

It was crazy.

Unbelievable.

Bullshit.

"How can it be empty?" She questioned, her eyes filled with disbelief at his claims, "You were there. She was there. It can't be empty. Never, Len, never."

Len rolled his eyes and shot her a glare. "Your grandmother wouldn't be able to see me. You are the only one with the capability to see me so far, Rin. She wouldn't know of my existence… she couldn't have ran away from that cottage."

Rin gulped. What on earth was that supposed to mean? Did it mean that her grandmother was already gone to begin with, or did it mean that something else had happened to her, and it didn't involve Len?

Her throat was dry. She didn't know what to say next; she was just as confused as him! She didn't know what she should ask so get her answers because there were just too many unresolved questions.

Len decided to be the one to break the silence. "This brings us to another question—where did she go? If neither you nor I have seen her or taken her, then, who did?"

Rin decided to toy with the hem of her shirt. She dug her sharp nails into the fabric of the shirt, pulling the fabric back and forth with her nimble fingers.

This was an unconscious act that she'd do each time she was nervous or confused.

Len continued, "Of course, it is possible that she might just have wandered off by herself. But if she had done that, why didn't she return? If we consider this possibility to be valid, then there is also a possibility of her being taken away by something or someone else…"

"I don't get it." Rin bit her lip nervously, fingers tracing the outlines of her shirt. "What's that supposed to mean?"

With a growl, Len pulled her hand away from her shirt and brought it close to his face. "Stop doing that. You're ruining your shirt."

She noticed the close proximity between their faces, and she felt herself blushing scarlet once more; it was making her feel really uncomfortable.

Len's smirk didn't make her feel any better.

When he released her hand, he went straight back to the topic again, his face turning dead serious.

"I don't know what it means either," He admitted, a wicked grin appearing on his face, "Perhaps there is someone else out there, lying in wait for you, Rin… Perhaps somebody else wants you to be his meal maid, or worse still, his personal servant…"

When he finished his sentence, he eyed Rin up and down suggestively, causing Rin to turn pink from his unusual stares.

"Shut u-up, Len!" She stuttered, slapping him playfully on his shoulder, "I'm going to go home!"

She didn't see how serious Len was looking at her.

One, two, three, four…

Kagamine Rin traced the jagged outlines of the newly formed cracks on the wooden table she was lying her head on; they weren't there yesterday morning, but when she had came back yesterday night, she noticed those prominent ugly cracks marring the surface of the table.

Well, there had been a few possibilities. It was either done on accident, or… on purpose. Rin decided that the latter would be the more believable out of the two, because there was only a single person in this house that would do something like this, and that person was coincidentally in a foul mood for the whole of yesterday.

Meiko.

She frowned, digging her nails deeper into the cracks of the table. There were so many complications, and yet so little things she could do…

"Rin, when I went into the cottage… Your grandmother was already missing. It… was empty."

"Your grandmother wouldn't be able to see me. You are the only one with the capability to see me so far, Rin. She wouldn't know of my existence… she couldn't have ran away from that cottage."

"This brings us to another question—where did she go? If neither you nor I have seen her or taken her, then, who did?"

"Of course, it is possible that she might just have wandered off by herself. But if she had done that, why didn't she return? If we consider this possibility to be valid, then there is also a possibility of her being taken away by something or someone else…"

She broke out from her thoughts of yesterday's conversation with Len; she had been thinking about that ever since she had came home yesterday night, and even as she slept, she could not stop thinking about it.

Something about what he had said had made her shiver with fear. There was just… something… that seemed odd and out of the picture.

And, she could try to deny it, but no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that Len was only speculating things, she could not help but believe that whatever Len had told her yesterday night had made complete sense to her.

But… what was it? What did it mean?

Damn it. Damn that Len for making everything so confusing and so complicated.

Rin let out an annoyed whine and dug her head beneath her arms. She needed some quiet time to herself to be free from all of the malevolent thoughts. She was already as stressed enough as she was, and she certainly did not need something else to be added to that pile of stress she was already facing right now.

She grunted when a few knocks on the door broke her concentration and distracted her from all of her thoughts. With a roll of her eyes, she strode to the wooden door nonchalantly and pulled it open—

—only to find nobody standing there.

This only served to infuriate her more and dampen her mood more than it already was. She cursed under her lips, showing off her wide range of colorful vocabulary, and secretly swore to amputate whoever was playing that stupid lame trick on her.

Rin was about to slam the door shut, but a tug on the hem of her shirt prevented her from doing so. She looked down, and gasped when she saw a small little girl with fish braids waving back at her with a cute little grin.

Oh, she thought, I couldn't see her.

Her mood started to brighten up when she saw that adorable kid smiling at her with the cutest face she had ever seen in her life. The tips of her lips twitched, and before she knew it, Rin was smiling back at the innocent little kid; she could never bring herself to vent her anger on children because children always had this strange vibe that would appease her anger each time she was in a foul mood.

"Ragamino Kin? Ish that chu?" The little girl chirped, revealing her set of teeth, and Rin nodded slowly, vaguely noting that the kid had lost both of her front teeth.

Wait—what? Ragamino Kin? What kind of a name was that? A vein popped out by the side of Rin's head, and she scoffed, but she still kept that friendly demeanor she had in order not to frighten that small kid away.

"Here ish a letter for chu." The girl turned down to remove a neatly folded note from her shoes, and passed it gently to Rin; she had to tiptoe to hand it over to her.

Rin blinked in confusion, staring at the note in her hands. "What… What's this?"

"Someone told me to pass it to chu," The girl answered, trying to balance her weight on one foot, "I make my coins this way!"

Rin eyed the note with a suspicious look. The note looked new, and there was a strange wooden scent that lingered on the piece of paper in her hands. The scent was not completely unpleasant, but it was not exactly common, per se. The front of the note was blank without any addresses or anyone's signature on it; it was exactly because of this reason that made Rin kind of suspicious of it.

Who would it be from? Who would send the little girl here just to give her that piece of note? Well, it could be Meiko… Meiko had connections with the villagers, and besides, she had been pissed with Rin yesterday, so she could have written this note to her since she could not bring herself to talk to the offending female.

Rin started to unfold the note gingerly and cautiously while constantly reminding herself not to tear the note by accident.

It was a mistake.

Scribbled on the note were a few words in crimson red ink. The handwriting was slightly unstable and messy… it looked like whomever had written it was in a hurry, or shaking horribly. Whether it was ink, or blood, she couldn't tell, but that was not why Rin gasped in the first place; it was the content and the words on the note that made Rin startled.

'HELP ME.'

She gazed at the words on the note with an expression consisting of shock, horror and disbelief. Then, as if she had found the note to be cursed, she quickly folded the note back to the way it was and stuffed it inside the pocket in her trousers.

When she turned with the intent to speak to the little girl, the little girl was already gone. She didn't know how the girl could get away so quickly without her realizing it, but if she was gone, then there would be no one else to answer her questions; she would not be able to find out the identity of the mysterious man or woman that had passed her this letter.

How would she know if it was a prank?

Yes… that was right. The note itself might be a horrible prank played by one of the kids in the village. She couldn't dismiss this possibility; children in this village were notorious for being devilish imps because of the lack of entertainment in the village.

But… but there was something odd about the note that made Rin's heart flutter with apprehension.

With quivering hands and palms soaked with cold sweat, Rin pulled the note out from the depths of her pocket, smoothing the creases on it before attempting to unfold it again.

She inspected the strokes of every single letter on the note closely, being careful enough not to miss out any specific detail. The strokes were cursive, albeit a little too closely packed, but it was legible enough… and somehow, Rin found this style of handwriting to be painfully familiar; it was as if she had seen this handwriting a thousand or a million times before already, but… but where?

It could not be Meiko's; Meiko's handwriting was completely illegible. Even she herself admitted it once before; the way she held the feather pen was just like the way she held a knife, and with that amount of force exerted on the pen itself, Rin swore that the feather pen could snap into two anytime and anywhere.

If it weren't her, then whose handwriting would it be? Who would write like that?

Then it all seemed to come to her in a moment.

Miku.

It was no doubt Miku's handwriting on the note. She was sure of it; in fact, she was absolutely certain of it. Only Miku would be able to write such refined and beautiful cursive letters and make it legible at the same time… yes, it had to be hers.

Straightway Rin's eyes begun to widen with astonishment and the sudden realization of why Miku had left her on that day began to hit her; what if she didn't leave on her own accord? What if she had been taken away by someone? Apparently that 'someone' had kidnapped her and misled Rin into thinking that Miku had actually went home, and Rin had fell for it, being stupid and dumb enough not to consider this possible scenario.

Rin started to panic. This was trouble… this was real, true trouble. She had to do something, because if she didn't, Miku's life could be at stake… Miku could be in danger right now.

She needed to find help.

"Meiko!" Rin desperately called out, looking in all four directions, "Mei—"

She stopped shouting when she remembered that Meiko wasn't home; she had already been out and she hadn't returned when Rin did. She was probably out somewhere venting all her anger at some unanimated object, perhaps a tree, or she could be in a tavern, drinking all her sorrows away without a care in this world.

This meant that Meiko could not be located. She had to find somebody else to help think of a solution.

Len.

Without thinking any further, she darted out of the house, not bothering to slip into any shoes or scandals. She received numerous stares on her way to the forest, but she didn't stop to think about her image or reputation; she just whizzed past those strangers and ran to the forest with all her might.

Once she was in the forest, she began to walk briskly to where the cottage was. She couldn't run in the forest because there were tons of sharp, entangled vines that may cut her or cause her to trip and fall, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen, especially during a crucial time like this.

A silhouette in the corner of her eye caught her attention; there was… an outline of somebody—she couldn't tell whom—leaning against one of the tree trunks on the top right hand corner of where she was standing. Upon closer inspection, she could make out the shape of a man in the distance, but his facial features were slightly blurred and unclear.

All Rin could see was the distinct color of the man's clothes—black, just like Len's.

"Len?" She blurted out without a second thought, hoping to receive a response from the figure not far from her—she was approaching him, and she realized that he was not moving at all; he was just standing there like a dummy, ignoring her cries, and looking at the opposite direction instead.

"Len," She repeated, this time louder, hoping to elicit some form of acknowledgement from him.

He didn't reply.

When she finally managed to stand facing his back, she tapped his shoulder gently, and when she did, it was the greatest mistake of her life.

Standing in front of her, and facing her, was not Len; no way did he look like Len at all. There was no cocky smirk, no alluring crimson bloodshot eyes, and no blond hair; instead, the man had a scar on his face, and a ferocious look. His eye color was in a complete contrast with Len's—it was dark, although there was a tint of midnight blue in it.

Rin let out a gasp. This man… was somehow frightening her.

She saw that cheeky grin on the man's face before something hit her—hard—on the back of her head.

The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was that of her own voice, calling out for Len, before she felt her limp body coming into contact with something solid and rough.

The white ribbon on her head slipped to the ground.

A/N: Okay, like, I was considering to post another chapter but I was evil enough to leave it as it is in order not to ruin the suspense, because if I had posted the next chapter, it'd kind of... destroy... the impact that I originally wanted readers to have. /Evil

So, how should I begin this... Hmm, well, see, Chapter 9 was the turning point for me. I was very happy (and actually, shocked) to see the number of reviews I've gotten when I logged into my account. SERIOUSLY, YOU GUYS JUST MADE MY DAY; 28 reviews is seriously something that I'd never dreamed of having... And speaking of which, this fic has hit a 100 review mark kind of thing, which makes me so touched and happy because it's the first fic that I have that hits the hundred mark T_T -sobs-

So, I'd like to thank all of my readers and reviewers! Thank you guys, I shall dedicate this whole fic to all of you!

And, well, see, after logging in to my account, I was too amazed by the reviews that I started writing Chapter 12 immediately. I could get Chapter 11 posted up on Friday or Saturday, I guess.

By the way, I didn't manage to reply everyone's reviews because I've fallen ill halfway through. Apparently I have hypotension and a tendency to faint everywhere I go because I don't have enough red blood cells, not to mention I have gastric issues probably to my poor diet and also the crash diet that I was on a few months ago. It has taken a toll to my health. :/

Anyway, I'll try to reply your reviews this time round, though I can't make any promises! Now, see ya next time! And remember to leave a review :)

MQ—Medusa Queen.
Formerly "Flyingcrane"