a/n: Lest we forget.
God. I feel terrible for not updating earlier. T^T I was working on another fic, but I have yet to post it. It will be a short project, because I needed break from The Doll Maker. I'll be posting that soon enough, and updating it regularly! :D
So now the chapter I was promising! Please enjoy~
Miku's POV:
The moon hung somberly in the inky sky, and the wind was fooling around with my mind. I decided to stop the car.
I rubbed my eyes with my hands. It's been almost an entire day, and I wanted to fall over and cry. It wasn't very considerate of me to do that though, after what Rin had been through. To her, loosing Len was like loosing my library, and to have him forget her after everything...it must be hard. I was still slightly pissed of what Rin did, but upon looking back on what I said, I felt terrible.
"Rin?" I whispered, turning to the backseats to check on her. She was lying on her side, eyes wide and unblinking.
At first, I was startled. Thinking that she had somehow died, I was panicking until my eyes caught her chest rise. She was sleeping! A wave of relief washed over me, but also disturbance. Was that the way she ALWAYS slept? It was unsettling.
The fourteen-year old was shivering. With each breath she took, trembles rocked her body. Rin had nothing on but a cloak that was starting to smell, and a dress. I had to debate on the idea of lending my white sweater to her, but that would leave me with just a bra.
"I'm sorry, Rin. And I also forgive you." I rubbed her arm, twitching at the iciness of it. I closed her eyelids, even though I still shivered from her dead-eyed sleep.
"Her eyes were so pretty", I observed. They were glazed with a hard look when she's awake, but as she slept they were like paintings. True windows to the soul. Rin seemed so innocent as she is sleeping, but who knows what she's dreaming about.
"I shouldn't park on the main road. What if the police are heading along this route?"
I drove on a bit further, the two headlights reminding me of the eyes of a wolf. Eventually, I came upon a humongous lake. The moon was a gleaming sphere in the cobalt water, shimmering in an enigmatic manner. It was as if the place was inhabited by fairies.
"Goodnight, Rin." I slept in the driver's seat, with my feet propped up on the other. My consciousness seeped into the cushiony smell of flowers...
Rin's POV:
Something urged me to wake up. Rubbing my eyes drowsily, I was in no mood for anymore surprises. But once I looked outside, my hopes were proven wrong.
The car was on a LAKE. ON TOP OF IT. Somehow, we were held up by the water and nothing else. Why would there be ice in the middle of the summer?
I exited the car to investigate, letting myself test the strange surface. It was smooth, but not freezing. And it was far from wet, the glass-like surface reflecting my own face back at me...
That's it! It was a mirror. We had, in some way another, ended up on a single lake-sized mirror. The night sky and the trees were reflected in it was well, making it look like an entire chunk of the Forest had been replaced with deep space.
"Miku!" I padded across the clean glass, towards the car. I wondered why on earth Miku had parked onto a lake. And most importantly, how.
"What is it, Rin?" She cracked an eye open, underneath her arm. It was the first thing she said to me all day.
"H-how did you stop the car on a lake?"
"What?" Miku was instantly awake. "But I only parked NEXT to it!" She stuck her head out of the window, absorbing the same sight that I had.
"This lake...CAN'T be an ordinary lake..." Miku panted.
"It's a mirror, for some reason. Come on, we have to get back."
"I'm so confused."
"I know."
Miku and I held onto each other as we carefully crossed the lake, each small step taking us closer to shore. But once we got to the edge, the glass gave away. The two of us were falling, descending an endless pit of nothingness. There was no sound but our screams (mostly Miku's) as we fell.
"RRIINNNNNNN!"
"Grab onto me!"
The drop never seemed to cease. I knew for a fact that Oliver, or someone associated with him, was behind it. It reeked of death, and more importantly, roses.
My arm was the only thing that kept us together, like a rainbow connecting two clouds. Though the literal prospect of the metaphor was utterly inappropriate, for the situation.
Finally, we landed onto a pile of cotton. Even though Miku was glad that our landing was cushioned, I immediately felt sick to the stomach. I will never look at cotton the same way again.
"Where do you think-"
"Shh..." For a sixteen year old, she sure loved to talk. I, too, didn't know where we are. This place felt deeper than deep. I was beginning to feel as if we had journeyed past the Mirror World...and somehow entered another realm?
Walking around the vast space of dimly lit space, massive bodies of white appeared in the distance. The ground, I had discovered, was a crimson red hue. Miku and I ventured into the valley of cotton mountains. I did not like this at all.
"Getting a bit lost, are we?" I couldn't see the voice, but I could hear it vibrate through emptiness. A voice so familiar, it filled me with rage.
"Kaitokaitokaitokaitokaitokaitokaito!" I cried. Miku looked at me, lifting an eyebrow. Apparently, I was the only one who could hear him.
Kaito chuckled."Nice try, Skinny," He used the stupid nickname my aunt had first called me. "But I'm afraid my power has extended past that point. Unless you broaden your horizons, my name has no power against me."
As I seem to lessen with power, Kaito seems to gain more. "Gakupo...Gakupo killed-"
Kaito continued talking. "Wondering how I managed to get out of the Workshop, huh? Well, the Master is but a small child. An easy chiding, not to mention a valued reputation lead me to my freedom. With the exception of killing you, of course. And to help me with that, Oliver has given me Len's energy."
I was fuming with him. However, I couldn't see him. It must be his shape-shifting abilities, with invisible effects too.
"It was such an easy night, and such a fun mission. I was all about fun, you know. So when fire and fun were mixed in one, the answer was already there."
"Kaito..you will pay for this..."
"Why would I, with new found power? The Workshop isn't a pleasant place, Rin. I had to agree, to get myself out of there."
Now, I had to do the same to Len. My cries traveled across the darkness, somehow reaching someone I couldn't see. "Where is the Workshop?"
"You, my dear, are in it."
"Rin? Who are you talking to?"
Kaito's presence was gone, restoring a sense of emptiness. It didn't settle the rage in my heart, though.
"KAITO!" He was gone. "Karma doesn't let go easily, Kaito. YOU WILL PAY!"
"Rin, calm down!" She looked around, shivering as she held onto me. "W-was that him? Kaito?"
"He...he was brought back by Oliver. In exchange for Len..." I slapped myself across the forehead. I...WE were too late. If I came before, would I've been able to stop the transfer?
"No, Rin." She grabbed my wrist. "No self-harm please. Now, do you have any idea where we are?"
My eyes narrowed, but I could still feel adrenaline coursing through my blood. "The Workshop. I thought Kaito would be lying, but this seems it. It feels...familiar, somehow?" I didn't have an actually memory of the Workshop...just the feeling. Like deja vu...
"Well...if you had died may times, maybe one of your past lives ended here." Miku suggested. She was a point, I thought, walking deeper into the dark space.
"Let's explore this area, and try to find an exit. Or Len, although it might be dangerous for you to come along."
Miku huffed. "Why am I the weak one? I'm two years older than you! And your chances of living are just as bleak as mine! You're only human, Rin."
I sighed. I didn't want to get into another fight with Miku, not like yesterday. "I guess you're right. Just stick together, no matter what, okay?"
We continued walking. Each time I blinked, some piles of cotton would disappear and new, fresher batches would appear. I can only imagine what happens from there.
"Rin...are they moving?"
"Shh...just keep walking." Just the cold, ominous silence made me shiver. Eventually, we arrived to a keyhole, with light spewing from it. Nodding at Miku, I stood up taller to look through it.
Red. Everything was a sickly, solid red. I looked back to Miku, telling her what I saw. She too looked through the keyhole.
"What are you talking about, Rin? It's just white." Miku said. "I think there's an entrance around here. Let's check out back, shall we?"
"Sure..." Before moving on, I decided to look through the keyhole one last time, just to confirm what I saw. But all I saw was white, like Miku had said. As I stared at it, I noticed a little girl with milky white skin crying in the corner. As she turned her head to grin at me, I saw that her pupil-less eyes were indeed red.
I backed off, nearly vomiting. I turned and ran after Miku.
Miku's POV:
The darkness that surrounded us finally ceased. As Rin caught up to me, it turned out to be a hallway. Filled with light that gave it a sepia feeling, it looked welcoming.
"Rin, is this the..."
She walked in, disregarding me. I shrugged at her hasty behaviour. She seemed disturbed at something she had previously seen, or still intrigued by that keyhole.
"Miku..."
"What do you see?" I ran through the hall myself, as a musty smell descended upon me. I coughed. A sudden chill was evident.
The scenery changed. Instead of that almost angelic hall I had seen earlier, the room was flooded with inky black. I threw my hands against the wall, feeling the stone. I shimmied along it, trying to find Rin.
A fire suddenly went up. Rin stood on the other side of the room, in front of a hearth. On the hearth was a pot, full of body parts. The being inside started screaming.
Rin fell back, as she didn't notice it earlier. "I'm sorry! I just needed some light!"
A black aura sprang out from the pot, slamming Rin onto the ground. Whimpering, the creature hauled the pot out of the fire, rolling away inside of it.
"Rin!" I ran over to her, helping her up.
"I'm OK." She simply said, although she didn't look fine to me. "I better be careful. And you too, Miku."
I crossed my arms, slightly annoyed about her giving orders around like that. But whatever bored expression I had on vanished as we looked around the room
It was like a cellar, except HUMONGOUS. The stone room was vast, and had wooden tables everywhere. On the tables were sheets, stained with blood or other fluids. Cotton piled up everywhere. And above us was a gruesome sight: Bodies and faceless mannequins dangled, sometimes just the individual parts. From the hooks, the ones who still had heads gave us eyeball-popping stares. Blood dripped from were the hooks carelessly protruded.
My hand felt the top of my head. It was soaking wet.
But before I could throw up, Rin covered my mouth. She herself didn't seem disturbed by the horrific display.
"There's something in the hearth, after the thing left." Rin lead me to the black iron furnace. She snapped her fingers, the fire disappearing. In the little moment of terrifying darkness, Rin relighted a tiny flame in her palm. Bending over, she examined the rancid ashes.
"I feel something here..." She knocked on the ground in front of the fireplace. It gave a hollow response.
The blonde instantly became suspicious. She reached into the ashes again, bending over at a daring angle.
"Rin...be careful."
"I am care-"
A puff of disgusting debris indicated that Rin was gone.
"RIN!" Why doesn't the girl scream? I have no idea where she could be.
"Rin? Yell if you can hear me!"
No answer.
A lump formed in my throat. I didn't want to be left alone in this hellhole, this cursed and gory room. The fire had completely gone out, leaving me with foul darkness. There was a constant dripping as lifeless eyes stared at me in the black.
"RIN!"
Rin's POV:
I was having the strangest dream.
I didn't feel a thing. Falling through the fireplace was like Mirror-Traveling, something I actually missed doing. But something separated from me, something I knew was important.
I opened my eyes to find my vision hazy, like the world was engulfed with fog. But one thing was clear.
My body was lying the in the center of the darkness. Blood oozed out from my head, but there was no pain. My eyes were open, the blue orbs the only colour besides the blood. I gasped. Moving my body freely, I found out I could travel around the person on the ground.
My voice was choked. Did I die, again? Except so suddenly, that my spirit didn't even realize it was dead?
I put my hands out, but there was nothing there. Then the outlines of them flickered back and fourth, like bad lighting. My palms were there and gone, but they looked strange. The life lines from them were missing.
"I am...dead? I can't be-"
For several attempts, I tried to return to my body. But each time I did, a yellow field blocked me. This was what must have kept me protected from the dolls, I thought. Reading between the lines, that must have meant that even in death, Len was still shielding me from harm. From myself.
"Miku!" I suddenly thought. I couldn't hear her call me. I must have fallen soundlessly, I thought. Why didn't I scream?
I focused for my entity to move up. Surprisingly, it was very easy. I ascended, like traveling through clouds and water vapour.
Very faintly, I heard sobbing. It was like my world was muffled, like when you wrap a pillow around both of your ears, attempting to sleep. Everything moved slowly, like molasses.
"Miku..." I made a weak attempt to call her. She responded:
"Rin? Where are you?! Why didn't you answer?" She started shuffling. "Where are you?"
"I...don't know..."
I strained to hear her reply. "What do you mean?"
"I think...I think I'm dead. Miku...please find an exit. I'll find Len."
Her voice managed to penetrate my failing hearing.
"I don't believe this! Rin, come out!"
Miku's POV:
A fire broke out in front me. I leaped back, terrified. It wasn't funny that she was teasing me like this...
"Miku..." The voice in my head said again. "Please...take...light...I...find...exit, please..."
I stared at the fire. It was weak, dying out. Like her voice.
"..take...light...please..."
I closed my eyes. I cupped the flame into my palm, and it worked. It was like picking up a small creature, a warm pulsing bundle. I held the light, waving it around, to find Rin.
"Rin, it worked! I can't believe it worked!"
No reply. I was left on my own again. Was it true? Was it true that Rin was separated from her human body?
I argued between going down there for Rin, or finding the exit. As I approached the the fireplace, the flame started dying. But once I walked away from it, it grew in size.
A sign. "Exit it is," I gulped.
Rin's POV:
Don't worry, Miku. I knew she was smart enough to understand how the fire worked. As long as she keeps walking to where the fire burns strongest, she's bound to find it soon. Fire is powered by oxygen. And what better place to find oxygen than in the world of the living?
And as for me, I was in a bigger dilemma. Having to be unable to return to my body, I decided to go on like this. Being a spirit enables more freedom in movement, even though everything feels numb and muffled.
But for finding Len? Let's say that Len found ME.
From my third person view, I saw a dark figure approach me. I was afraid that it would be Kaito, but soon realized it was Len.
It was horrifying looking at him like that. His hair was intact, but with spiritual fire burning on top of it. Parts of his body were replaced with the limbs of others, and he had scythe-like claws. The look in his eyes showed death, and blankness. The eye that Kaito had taken out was replaced, but with one of a lizard. His entire body was colourless, except for black ectoplasm.
The size, stature and face of him were the same. Everything was torn off and sewed onto him, in a process that can only be described as painful. He approached my body, looking at it as if it was dinner.
Then his eyes caught the rose. A thorn of had penetrated my eye, as I had fallen on it. I winced, thankful that I couldn't feel the pain of it now.
He sniffed it, like a dog. Then he poked it, cocking his head. He pulled off a petal and tasted it. His behaviour looked like an animal, not like the demonic things I fought in the mirror. With him, I could instantly tell that he was familiar with the rose.
I leaned in next to him. "Rin." I whispered.
He looked around for the voice, looking back to the rose. "Rin?" He said. His voice was the same as I had remembered it, just hoarse.
I nodded. "Rin."
He removed the flower, tugging it a bit to get it out of my eye. I was startled as he turned around to look at me.
"You are Rin?" He questioned.
"You can see me?" I neared him, and he just looked at me with expressionless eyes. He nodded.
I found myself smiling, just the tiniest bit. "Yes, I am Rin."
Len blankly looked at me. He turned back, ignoring me, to whatever he was doing before. This was actually the cell he was in. Feeling slightly hurt, I tried to enter his heart, to see what was contained in it.
It looked easy in the movies, but it was like trying to fight a tidal wave or tornado. Screams resonated around me, as well as voices. The darkness and disease swarmed around, like swamp water in a blender. I broke through the muck, trying to find him. I didn't know how long I dug, before I almost decided to give up.
"No!" I pushed against the unconquerable, like an ant fighting with the weather. I reached, but didn't know where. Finally, finally, it all cleared.
Like the eye of the hurricane, the expanse was peaceful. I even felt a little breeze as the rest of the madness spun around in the background. And he was there, back turned, facing against it all. This must be his heart.
"LEN!" I flew up to him, as he turned at his name. His expression looked like he had broken out of a spell.
"Rin...?" I tried to embrace him, but he got me first. Around the shoulders.
"What are you doing here?!" His voice was hard and demanding. I looked at him, confused. Shouldn't he be happy to see me?
"Miku and I came to find you. My body is not with me right now, that was how-"
"You shouldn't be here! Get out! Get out NOW!"
He was frightening when he was angry. But as I tried to move, Len pushed me through the swarm. I fell out of his body, facing the emotionless creature once again. Then the real Len exited the body, looking around. He bit his lip fiercely, as he saw my body on the ground.
"You have to go back! There's a certain amount of time before it's lost forever. Or you'll would be dead, and end up like me!" He lifted my by the shoulders, forcing me back into my body. He didn't seem to see the yellow aura. "Please go back. Please go back..."
"Len, the field!" It hurt, as he pressed my back onto it.
Len's eyes widened, and it disappeared. Instantly, chaos broke loose. Now that the barrier was gone, I was vulnerable. Anything could come in to get me.
"GET IN!" He screamed. But for some reason, my body was pushing it BACK out.
But then something else pushed Len, causing him to collide onto me. With one forceful heave, the both of us fell into my body. Thunder broke out, as the protective yellow aura returned.
"The plan..." I heard him say. Pain returned to me, and the feeling of something wet. Consciousness was like a spark in the brain. As I returned, I was greatly aware of Len in me.
"Excellent." Oliver chuckled.
Then the world was engulfed with water. Miku has found an exit.
a/n: The Red Eyed girl was a reference to a popular horror story, as you may know Q.Q
CS: Miku and Rin enter the Workshop through a Lake. Rin experiences an "out of body" experience, and finds Len after he was reconstructed Then the Len he had used to be tried to get her back into her body, but something wrong happened...then Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, the end.