Near the Lake

By Hidden-Pen (Original by Allquall)

Chapter Twelve: Sound

"That sounds a lot better, I'm actually surprised you're learning this fast Crystal." Rayne spoke, those were possibly the nicest words she has said to me at this point.

I tuned the instrument in my arms, it was a gift from Eric, however Rayne didn't know where the money came from, and I figured it was best to stay that way, as if she found out I had access to a small fortune, I'm sure she wouldn't hesitate to fight tooth and nail for it from me.

Still, it was a nice guitar, Eric was even sweet enough to have it custom made for me, and it was just my color, red. (As if that much wasn't obvious by now?) The bottom was fashioned with my clan name on it, and the strings hung from the neck, as apparently that was what was in style these days.

"Come on let's hear some of that world class singing I keep hearing about from Thief." Rayne instructed.

I had only been playing for nearly 3 weeks, and I understood most of the chords and notes, and was pretty good at memorizing it all. I was a fast learner.

I did as told and began to sing for Rayne, it felt awkward none-the-less. I decided to sing a song I knew, that Rayne knew as well, I decided to do something from Disturbed since she liked that band.

"Tell me exactly what I'm supposed to do,

Now that I have allowed you to beat me?

Do you think that we could play another game?

Maybe I could win this time?

I kind of like the misery you put me through."

I sang a simple verse and Rayne simply grinned.

"Well, it looks like you really can sing, that's good. Means you're good for something to me. I suggest you don't lose that voice of yours, or that might not be all you'll lose." Rayne's eyes were are furious as ever, you could feel the flames burning in them.

"Go home, I'm done with you for now, just remember to keep practicing, or you'll regret it." She glared.

I nodded and headed out the door putting my guitar on my back. As I walked I heard my phone ring, and instinctively answered it, it was my favorite person.

"Hey there." He said.

"Hey, what's up?" I smiled.

"Not much, what are you up to??" Eric questioned.

"Just got back from guitar lessons, what about you?" I answered.

"Got back from a meeting with my dad, and of course he's still a hard ass about everything." Eric laughed.

"Heh. So what did you need?" I asked.

"Well, I wanted to let you know I ordered you some cloths to help you with your band, and blending in all together." He replied.

"Blending in?" Said I.

"Well yeah, think about it, you've been dressing like you're still in Japan, and although I personally love it, your goal is to not stick out you said, so you got to start dressing like the locals if you don't want to be noticed." He pointed out.

"Makes sense." I replied.

"They should come today, also have you cut your hair yet?" He asked.

"Nope." I smirked.

"Haha, well I actually think it suits you well, you got that rocker look going on. I think it's sexy, and so do people in your area." Eric's words were rather flirtatious, and made me giggle.

"Alright, thanks for the help. I love you." I said making a kissing sound through the phone.

"Love you too." He said ending the call.

I arrived at home to see a package sitting there with my name on it, so I carried it up to my room and slit the tape open with my fingernails.

I removed the contents to find an assortment of cloths that looked similar to the ones Rayne wore, except they were mostly custom made. Some even with my name on them. I decided to try some on since I had the free time.

I slipped on a pair of black jeans and a shirt that had the shoulders cut out, but the sleeves covered my palms, it also had my name on the front side close to my waist.

I gazed in the mirror to get a better look at the appearance I was giving off. I actually was quite satisfied with it, I actually did feel sexy wearing these cloths, of course it might have been cause Eric said so.

"Hello, hot stuff." Whistled a voice from the window.

I turned to see my "friend" sitting in the window sill. She had dyed her hair once again, it was a sleek black with blue highlights in the front now. Still as good looking as ever.

"You don't knock?" I asked.

"I don't want to scare my prey away." She said playfully as she stepped inside.

"I wasn't planning on going anywhere." I commented.

She stepped closer and placed her hands on my cheek and touched her forehead to mine.

"You sure look bad, but can you back it up?" She smiled.

"See for yourself." I smirked turning red.

"Exactly what I had in mind." Said she leaning in and touching her lips to mine. Another night of "snuggling" awaited me.

"Hey, I missed you!" Was the words of Eric on his next visit which was nearly a month from his last, however I didn't blame him, as he was a busy person.

"I missed you too!" I spoke as I dived into his grip.

"Heh, I love the new look. You look amazing." He complimented.

"Really? You don't think my hair looks too untamed?" I asked.

"Are you kidding, your hair looks great, I mean I can't figure out how you see through it, as I can only see a sliver of your left eye, but it still looks fantastic." Eric praised.

"Heh, I actually can see a little through the right side as well." I laughed.

"You must have magic vision." He said poking my forehead.

"So how's the band going?" He asked.

"Well actually I'm still working on writing our song for our first gig." I laughed.

"Oh? Got anything yet?" Asked he.

"Yeah, I should have it done by tonight, if you stay long enough you can hear us play." I smiled.

"I think I can manage that, I'm not supposed to be back for another week, so I can stay here for a while." He replied.

"Awesome, we're going to be performing on Friday." I informed.

"So in five days from now?" He asked.

"Yeah. The others are going to practice with me every day until we get it down. Rayne refuses to accept any slacking anyways." I laughed.

"Rayne, she's the mean racist one right?" Asked he raising his brow.

"Unfortunately…" I sighed.

"Well I'll be there to listen to you play for sure, you'd better get to practice, I got stuff to take care of while I'm in town anyways. Take care of yourself." As he spoke he kissed me on the cheek during his last sentence and he headed off.

"Alright, shit heads, you earned a break." Rayne said to the group, who were already tired out.

They all emitted a sigh of relief as they went into the other room to get a drink, I was following until I heard Rayne call out to me.

"Except you Crystal, you get your ass back over here." She demanded.

I did as told and sat down in front of her.

"Your part is the most important, so I'm going to make you work like a dog until we get this going. After all, it IS your band isn't it?" Rayne asked.

"I beg your pardon?" I replied.

Everyone stopped, and looked back at us, as all was silent. Everyone waiting on our next words.

"This band wouldn't be possible without you, and you're the lead vocals and guitar, you also are the one writing the songs, so it's your band, right?" Rayne questioned.

I was silent. Rayne was letting me have the privilege of being the leader of the band? Or was this a joke?

"Yes… Yes I suppose it is." I answered.

"Then shouldn't you give your band a name?" Rayne added.

"Alright, we need a name then." I said standing up, the other looking over at me.

"It's your choice, you're in charge." Thief smiled.

"Yeah, we're good with anything you pick." Silver chimed in.

I closed my eyes and thought deeply. What name would reflect something that has meaning to me? What name would I never forget?

Suddenly I was taken back to the police report, stating my parents were murdered, and a few words on the document stood out to me. "Killed by an unknown killer." Those words, they were the key. I opened my eyes and spoke up.

"The Unknown Killer." I said.

"I like the sound of that." Rayne smiled.

I didn't think I'd ever see Rayne smile and not be planning something devious at the same time, let alone get her support on something.

"It's perfect, I like the ring of it." Thief said.

"Then it's settled, that is our name from now on." Rayne spoke up.

"No complaints here." Silver winked.

"Let's get back to practicing." Rayne scolded.

The group moaned in annoyance and did as told.

We had practiced day in and day out for the next few days, we were one day away from the gig on Friday. Rayne thought we had it down, and told us to take the day off, and we'll practice a little more before the performance.

I took this chance to go find Eric, but instead I ran into my "friend" in the middle of town. She stopped me and initiated conversation.

"Well hello there, fancy meeting you here." Her smile was warm.

"Yeah, I was jus heading through town." I replied.

"Actually I was about to look for you." She added.

This was strange, she didn't normally visit me unless I was home, and she had gotten used to figuring out about what time I was there.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to have lunch with me." Said the gorgeous woman.

"Oh, of course, I'd love to!" I was rather enthusiastic about it.

We sat down eating at the outdoor patio part of a restaurant in town, enjoying the food that was made it what seemed to be record time.

I realized, this was the first thing I had done with this woman besides sex, it felt rather strange. It felt more strange thinking me of all people even had sex in the first place. Some reason since I came here, I've had slight increase in desire. I find myself fantasizing about this woman at least once every week or so. Sometimes I'd even find myself gently rubbing between my legs when I thought about it. However I recently started looking at porn on the computer, it seemed to be the only way I could control these urges now. I wouldn't do it often though, maybe once every two weeks or so.

This woman would sometimes send me emails with a long description of what she planned on doing to me the next time she saw me. It always made me blush.

"I heard you're a part of that Raven Clan?" She asked.

Something was different today, she never asked me about myself, nor I about her.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I questioned.

"No reason really." She smiled.

I decided to take advantage of this moment.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Hm?" She replied.

"What am I supposed to call you?" Said I.

I really wanted to put a name to this face, however I couldn't think of a name to match that gorgeous face, no name would be heavenly enough.

"You can just call me your sweetheart for now." She winked.

I figured that was the best answer I was going to get out of her, so I shrugged it off.

"Well, it's good to see you again. I'll pop in again tomorrow night." She said as she stood up.

"See you later." She waved walking off.

"You too, sweetheart." I returned the wave while sporting the new nick name.

That night I was talking to Eric on the phone. We were both being flirty and making joke after joke. One would think we were drunk.

"So what're you wearing?" He growled as he spoke.

"Nothin'" I giggled.

"Seriously?" Asked he.

"No." I burst of laughing. "I'm just in my night cloths, as always." I added.

"The red panties too?" He laughed.

"You know it." I flirted.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Just this stupid suit." He sighed.

"Always a business man." I joked.

"Yeah, but blame my father for that one, it's just how I have to dress I guess." He sighed. "At least I don't have to go to school like this." He laughed.

"Well it's getting late, I'll see you at the performance tomorrow?" I asked.

"Wouldn't miss it if I was dying with cancer." He replied.

I smiled and made a kidding noise over the phone before I hung up. Tomorrow was a big day,

"Alright, everyone this is it. You all better be ready, we've been practicing all week for this. You don't know what kind of strings I had to pull to get this chance, so anyone fucks it up, they won't live to see tomorrow, and that's a promise." Rayne scolded as we stood behind the stage.

"You ready Crystal?" She asked.

"As I'll ever be." I sighed.

"Let's hope you're as talented as they think you are." Rayne spoke as she walked past me.

I took a deep breath as I followed her and the others onto the stage. The crowd was rather larger than I was used to, but then again we were in LA, it's a big city.

I could see Eric in the front row, and to my surprise I could see my "sweetheart," in the back.

Something else caught my eye however, a young girl, probably no older than thirteen with blue hair. She seemed to stand out for some reason, something about her was different from the rest.

Shaking off the feeling I stood up to the microphone and adjusted my guitar for a moment before speaking.

"How's every doing tonight?" I asked politely.

I was answered with a wild roar of excitement, I interpreted it as they were feeling pretty good.

"Well some of you may have never heard of us, we're 'The Unknown Killer,' and well most of us grew up around here, except for me. I was born and raised in Japan when I moved her a few months ago, and well you always get that feeling of where you wish you had more control over things in life. Well I found that control by sort of becoming a computer addict, and well this is a song I wrote about it, and we hope you guys enjoy it." I spoke.

I did a few test strums on my guitar, and that seemed to get the audience screaming even more. I finally looked over at Rayne to give the signal to start. She nodded and pointed to Thief who tapped her drum sticks together as the others followed.

"I love my computer

you make me feel alright

every waking hour

and every lonely night

I love my computer

for all you give to me

predictable errors and no identity

and it's never been quite so easy

I've never been quite so happy

all I need to do is click on you

and we'll be joined

in the most soul-less way

and we'll never

ever ruin each other's day

cuz when I'm through I just click

and you just go away

I love my computer

you're always in the mood

I get turned on

when I turn on you

I love my computer

you never ask for more

you can be a princess

or you can be my whore

and it's never been quite so easy

I've never been quite so happy

All I need to do is click on you

And we'll be joined

in the most soul-less way

the world outside is so big

but it's safe in my domain

because to you

I'm just a number

and a clever screen name

all I need to do is click on you

and we'll be together for eternity

and no one is ever gonna take my love

from me because I've got security,

her password and a key

Go away"

--

A/N: Ya this chapter looks pretty fast paced, but it's mostly because there was a lot going on, the next one is going to take it more slowly, there just wasn't much that was note worthy going on. The song isn't mine, it's written by Bad Religion, but I don't intend on writing songs just for this story, so I'm just going to borrow them, with credit of course.

Fun Fact: The original first song was going to be Animal I have Become, however I think this fit better for what Chikaru said about computers to Eric earlier. Also from her mention of how she was finding herself looking at porn earlier, I figured the line "You can be a princess or you can be my whore" would fit that, because it implies that she's done a few questionable things. Hopefully we're all seeing Chikaru is slowly adjusting to her new surroundings.