April 13th, 2011
Normally on nights like these, Yu would have no trouble sleeping. The sound of rain falling against a window was an almost therapeutic experience for him, and he found that he slept easier whenever a storm rolled through.
Tonight, however, he couldn't sleep. That damned tall tale, he thought to himself, there's just something about it that rubs me wrong. It wasn't that Yu was a particularly superstitious person; if anything, he liked to think that his constant movement through Japan's school system had allowed him to hear just about every rumor under the sun, ones involving soulmates most definitely included. But this so-called Midnight Channel, where the viewer's soulmate would appear on television at midnight if, and only if, it was raining?
Surely it was all made up. Just another one of a seemingly endless number of soulmate-search fantasies, dreamt up by lonely high schoolers who thought maybe, just maybe, if they dreamt hard enough, it would come true. But what he'd heard earlier today, Yu couldn't deny, had piqued his interest. The girl with the green jacket from class, Satonaka, had mentioned her hearing that a boy from another class had seen Mayumi Yamano on the Midnight Channel. Now, Mayumi Yamano was dead. He'd walked by the crime scene himself, and while Uncle Dojima hadn't said anything about it there or earlier that night in the living room, Yu had begun to suspect that for all his assurances, Dojima and the rest of Inaba's police force were stumped.
As midnight approached, Yu couldn't help but notice his very own feeling of unease begin to creep up from deep within his stomach. If there was even the slightest bit of truth to the supposed existence of the Midnight Channel, the time to find out was rapidly approaching. The rain showed no sign of stopping, and a quick glance at the clock on his desk revealed that there were just under thirty seconds left before the Channel was supposed to appear. Yu found himself ensnared to the television as if he were in a trance, tuning out the rest of the world and fixating solely on the small black box across the room from him. He counted down in his head with each passing tick of the clock. Five, four, three, two, one…
Nothing. He almost laughed out loud until he remembered his uncle and cousin sleeping downstairs. Of course it was fake, he thought with a quiet chuckle, how could something like that be real? Yu got up from the couch and slowly walked to the TV, inspecting it almost mockingly. Nope, nothing wrong here. He turned back towards his futon, more than prepared to think nothing more of this quite frankly stupid rumor. Just as he began to prepare his bedding for the night, however, something strange happened. Even facing the wall, the small size of the Dojima's spare room made it easy for Yu to tell that a new light source had begun emanating from behind him, and it most certainly was not coming from outside. Yu slowly turned his head to look at the television.
It was glowing. Somehow, some way, the TV had turned itself on. Maybe a faulty wire, Yu thought, his mind starting to race. Could be a power surge too, but… No. There was no way. He couldn't quite place it, but the feeling in the room told him this was no mundane issue for a handyman. That TV had turned itself on, and there was no other way around it. Yu made the slow, steady walk back to the sofa and sat back down. At the very least one part of the rumor had proved to be true; now, it was time to get a look at the rest. The screen began to flicker rapidly, at first only showing small pinpricks of light. As the flickering slowed, however, more began to appear with each passing blink of light. Sure enough, there was a person on screen, but the state of the Midnight Channel didn't seem to allow its viewer to get the full picture.
As Yu focused harder, he began to make mental notes about the figure on screen with every flicker. It didn't help that they, or rather she, didn't seem all too concerned with making her identity very apparent. Still, Yu watched intently as the girl twisted and turned across the screen in a macabre dance that made the hairs on the back of his neck tingle. Slowly but surely, it came to him. The yellow scarf. The black jacket. The grey skirt. Sure, the image on the TV was tough to make out, but Yasogami High's uniform stood out clear as day. Whoever this girl was, it seemed more and more obvious that she was a local.
That seemed to settle it, then. What Yu had initially brushed off as just another rumor had apparently just confirmed its own existence right in front of his eyes, and he had absolutely no idea what to make of it. The girl continued her slow, almost stop-motion dance, seemingly on a loop. Yu couldn't quite place it, but there was something about what he was seeing that seemed to call him in. And royally creep me out, he thought as he slowly stood up from the couch. Still, a closer look couldn't hurt, could it…? The TV seemed to read his mind and answered his question with a resounding click. Just like that, the girl was gone.
Lightning cracked outside Yu's window, pulling him abruptly back into reality. What in the hell had he just seen? There wasn't much time to think about it. Whatever just happened had left behind a parting gift: an absolute monster of a headache, and a ringing in his ears that Yu was beginning to suspect wasn't just from the storm raging outside. As the ringing began to dissipate, however, something else slowly replaced it. It was distant at first, muffled by the rain, but the new sound was a… voice? It was a man's voice, emanating from the very depths of Yu's mind and with a deep, hollow tone to match. Curiously enough, it didn't scare him; after how the night's events had played out so far, he almost felt reassured at the thought of hearing another person.
That reassurance evaporated when the voice stopped being a murmur in Yu's thoughts and finally, truly, spoke. "I am thou, thou art I…" it said, filling the small room with near ear-shattering noise, "Thou art the one who opens the door." The words reverberated in Yu's mind, bringing him to his knees with the sheer weight they carried. Even without any semblance of context, there was a distinct importance to them.
Yu barely noticed the voice fading away. His head was pounding, and he struggled to get up as rain continued to fall outside of his otherwise-silent room. As his vision cleared, the only thing he could really seem to get a focus on was the television. The voice in his head had gone, but now in the silence he felt compelled to…move forward? He did just that. As he reached the TV, he slowly began raising his arm towards the screen.
Where he'd expected only the feeling of cold, hard glass there was instead little to no resistance whatsoever. It's like putty, he thought, remembering some bygone science class. Or, well, slime maybe. He poked at the screen, and it rippled almost like water. Yu moved his arm ever forward, far beyond the point where it would have hit the other end of the television. He began to panic, his arm showing no sign of stopping. He started pulling in the opposite direction, but it barely did a thing. The screen was now at his elbow. Quicksand, he thought in horror, this thing is like quicksand!
Using all the strength he could muster, Yu pulled. Whatever had been sucking him in suddenly gave way, releasing its grasp on his arm and allowing him to escape. He flew backwards, the momentary respite of freedom suddenly being replaced by the equally immediate realization that there was furniture behind him. Yu came down hard, slamming the back of his head into the coffee table behind him. His headache, briefly forgotten during the escapade with the TV, came back in full force. He wanted to scream, but all he could do was sit on the floor and try to deal with the pain.
There was a small knock at the door. Dammit, Yu cursed under his breath, the whole house must have heard me hit my head. Nanako's voice spoke from the other side. "Are you okay? I heard a noise, and…" Great. As if the throbbing pain wasn't enough, now he had to deal with having woken up his cousin.
"I'm alright, Nanako," Yu managed to say, his head still pounding. "I just slipped on something. Go back to bed, okay?" Nanako gave a brief acknowledgement, though Yu wasn't quite so sure he'd convinced her. After he was sure she'd returned to her room, Yu decided it was well past time to get some sleep of his own.
As he lay on his futon, the rain outside slowly began to subside. I'm still not sure of what just happened, he thought to himself, but I've got a sneaking suspicion this won't be the last headache that Channel causes me.
AN: Well, this is my first fanfiction. Not much to say about it, it's just a small little thing I did to get into the swing of writing. If you enjoyed it, I'm planning on writing a much larger story somewhere down the line, but I can't stress enough that it's going to be a long way off. Still, I'd love to hear your feedback on this story, things I can improve upon, that kind of thing. I'd like to thank users Solid Snake and Vocarin for inspiring me to write through their own works. If I hadn't read you guys' stuff, this little thing wouldn't exist. I'd also like to thank my friend CryHavoc21 from Discord, who helped me a ton with editing this. You're awesome, dude. Lastly, I'd like to thank whoever reads this for giving it a shot (and for making it to the end!). I've got big ideas for future projects, so if you feel like it, stay tuned.