Musa ー no, Rin ー twitched a bit, her breathing slow and calm as she opened her eyes. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, her hands running through her hair and over her wolf earsー
The thirty-one-year-old cursed to herself and quickly vanished her wolf ears. Rin thought she controlled it by now. Guess not.
Rin rolled off her bed, quite literally, and crashed to the ground with a grunt, laying there for a few moments and wondering why on Earth she was so tired today. She wasn't a morning person, but she wasn't that tired. There were times when she would just straight up roll off the bed but she would usually wake up when it happened, but not like this.
Then she remembered Igor.
Of course. The odd man decided to drag her out of her dreams and summon her for a small chat. Sometimes, Rin was quite tempted to strangle him for interrupting her sleep. She liked her sleep. None of her friends and, Rin thought with a strange mix of hatred and sorrow, her familyliked waking her up for this fact because once she almost blew up Adrian's head for waking her up.
Sound magic is a dangerous thing sometimes.
There was a knock on the door. "Rin? Wake up, everyone's ready except for you. We have a long day today." It was Annabelle. Rin still had a hard time calling her 'Raven' instead. It was easy to slip up if she wasn't so quiet.
Rin groaned in reply.
"Oh, please don't tell me you rolled off the bed again! I'm going to chew off Igor's head if he drags you away from dreamland for a chat, " The woman groaned and walked inside. "I knew it! Get up Rinー"
"No," Rin grumbled. "Go to hell, Bella."
"Rin, I told you not to call me that again," said the brunette, sounding exasperated. "Just Anna. And please just get up."
"There's another Anna here and it's confusing. Now go away." Rin wasn't exactly kidding when she said she wasn't a morning person. She's generally a quiet, snarky (but let's face it, no one knows this), loving (to friends and family, but to others, she's just super quiet), determined, ambitious, and resourceful person but when she's super tired, she throws all these aside and just wants the person to go away.
"No boba fresh milk tea for you then," Annabelle deadpanned. Rin twitched and she was sure Annabelle smirked at this.
"...just let me get ready and I'll be there," Rin muttered, rolling onto her stomach and getting up to her feet.
Annabelle snorted and walked out of the room. "I'll get the boba fresh milk tea ready for you!" She yelled, her voice fading.
Rin sighed and checked her wrist. The Black Roses managed to grow to her elbow. She didn't know why. She thought it was to restrain her magic, but everyone who had powers didn't have the Black Roses tattooed on their skin.
And so the Black Roses slowly grew every day since The Black Musical arrived and she had no idea why. It just keeps on growing and growing.
Rin didn't want anyone finding out about the Black Roses, so she used her jacket sleeves to cover them up (her off the shoulder tank top just reached to her elbow) and later, makeup when they were healing injuries (she slipped away before they noticed).
As she put on her jacket and slipped on her shoes, her gaze fell onto an old photograph of a laughing college student and a young teenager smiling faintly at the camera. She remembered taking that photo. It was of herself and her big brother. It was back in her senior year of High School before she was disowned by her father…
Rin forcefully averted her eyes to her headphones and put them on. To anyone, it was useless, but it actually restrains her magic a bit and prevents her eardrums from bursting.
Due to her magic, she could hear all sounds, all conversations, and footsteps in the entire building, but due to the constant arguing from the Demon Siblings, she couldn't sleep at night and therefore, grumpy and nearly blew up their eardrums several times until Ann had enough (by that, she meant screaming at the top of her lungs to get them to shut up) and enchanted an old pair of Musa's headphones so that it'll reduce her hearing to 10 meters.
Adrian had taken one look at the headphones and said they look like crap, which Rin returned that the headphones may be crap, yes, but at least they weren't as ugly as his face. The result was Annabella and Ann roaring with laughter at the look on Adrian's face.
She's very quiet (which can annoyingly be seen as shy), yes, but that had people underestimate her, so they'll be too shunned that she insulted them to find a good comeback, so win-win. How Slytherin of you, as Annabelle would say. Rin once took a quiz after that to find out what House she got and had Slytherin ("Wow. That surprisingly fits you." Adrian earned a punch to the shoulder a second later.)
Rin searched through her drawers for her spear and pulled it out, grimacing at the blood. She needs to clean that soon.
Fun fact: She was actually the reason why Kate had a spear in her knee. Kate had startled her, Rin threw her spear clumsily (The Wraith had smashed her good arm before their encounter with Kate) and it managed to go through her knee ("I am so sorry!" She had shouted over and over) and they weren't sure why it wouldn't come outー
Back to the story!
A letter slipped out and landed on the floor as Rin cleaned the blood off her spear with a disgusted look (it was Kate's blood! Kate's). She blinked and scooped it up after cleaning her spear and read through it.
Dear Rin,
Aph and I got engaged! I managed to gather up my courage and propose to her! She said yes! We're planning the wedding and Aph wants you to come! She really wants to see you again, it's been years.
All our friends really want to meet you, Rin, so please come.
Melissa sends you her love and mom says she wants to kiss you goodnight like old times and she hopes you're doing alright on your own.
Listen, I know you won't be happy about this, but dad wants you to come home. To our family I mean. He says he's sorry and he's wrong and he wants you back.
We can be a happy family again.
From your big brother who wants to hug you again,
Aaron~
Rin remembered the emotions she was going through when she read the letter a few days ago. She was, of course, ecstatic when she heard about the wedding was prepared to write a 2 paged letter about it, but soon felt reluctant to come home after reading towards the end and wasn't sure to feel about it.
She barely thought about writing a reply to the end of the letter when Ann opened the door, let out a sigh of relief when she saw Rin awake (because who wants to wake up a person who can very easily blow up your eardrums?), and said everyone except her and Angel's ready.
That's when Rin had a sudden thought. Can they write to their families to get help? Can their families help them before it's too late? Rin planned to write a reply after meeting with everyone, but after the whole mess with The Black Musical, she didn't get a chance to. Maybe she can write a reply afterward? She snatched up Aaron's letter and hurried out of the room, determined to find out.
"There you are," Ann said upon seeing Rin, "here's your boba fresh milk. It was finished a while ago."
Rin wasn't very surprised that it was finished early and eagerly reached out for the drink. Annabelle has ways to finish making a boba tea faster that she wouldn't tell (much to Adrian's annoyance).
"Is it still early?" Rin muttered to Ann so nobody could hear, starting to drink. "I was wondering why she wasn't shouting for me to wake up."
Rin was referring to The Black Musical, but she didn't want to say her name out loud. Annabelle still had the rope burns from yesterday.
"It's 9:40 AM," she muttered back, "I checked the time of the other two hunts and it's always at ten."
"You could have given me a few more minutes of sleep," Rin frowned, swallowing.
"It was 9:20 AM when I sent Raven to wake you up, you mutt," Ann snorted. "Raven said you didn't want to wake up until she said she wasn't going to make you boba fresh milk tea."
"I was lucky you didn't blow up my eardrums for waking you up," Annabelle muttered sarcastically.
Mason snickered to himself, pointedly ignoring Ariza, who was throwing him a mix of hurt and confusion. Rin winced, remembering the loud argument last night.
Ann looked between them, looking torn, then said, "Did Igor talked to you last night?" she asked, low enough so that nobody except Annabelle, Adrian, herself, and Rin can't hear (Annabelle had shooed away Mason and Ariza so they can have a private conversation)
Rin knew the sudden change in topic was to shift the conversation from Mason and Ariza and nodded, "Yeah. He wanted to talk about her."
"Has she shown any signs of it?" Annabelle asked, her voice barely above a whisper but, due to advanced hearing (Ann was sitting next to her, so all was fine), they can hear her just fine.
Adrian glanced over his shoulder. "Think so, yeah."
"Has Igor told you anything about Vivian?" Ann asked, frowning.
"No," Rin shook her head. "Blasted man said I'll find out soon."
Ann frowned, "Damn. Without Vivian, we can't defeat her."
"It's really strange not to hear Vivian singing and howling in my head," Rin said quietly. "And to think I used to complain about it."
"I still can't believe the Wolf of Hope, Faith, Worship, Grace, Storytelling, Poetry, Song, and Art as well as the Spirit of Chance is your Persona," Adrian snorted. "In case you haven't noticed, you aren't exactly a figure of hope, faith, and worship."
Musa's response was to reach over Ann and give him a hard smack.
Annabelle snorted with laughter at the look on her twin brother's face, which made him glower at her.
"You'll get her back soon, Rin," Ann muttered, ignoring Annabelle's snorts ("Why do you never laugh in front of everyone!" "I did laugh last night, you idiotー").
"Hey, Musa," Aiden said abruptly. "What's that in your hand?"
Rin swore under her breath ("Rin! Language!" Annabelle hissed). She had forgotten about the letter clutched in her hand.
"Oh, this?" Rin said, lifting the letter. "It's a letter from my brother. I was wondering if we can send letters to our families to get help."
Jace pounded on that at once. "Why couldn't you say that before? We could have gotten out of here sooner!"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Rin snapped. "I got this on the day she arrived and I was going to send back a reply when joy! Crazy psycho comes out of nowhere and tries to murder everyone! I like to see people with brains try to remember a letter after that ー oh wait, you don't have one."
Rin tried not to snap ー she really did. But this guy was getting on her nerves the moment he stepped inside. She couldn't understand why the Order was friends with him. They seem like nice people.
Jace was mouthing wordlessly at Rin, too shocked to say anything. Rin sat back and silently enjoyed the effect of her words as everyone who is a guest stared at her.
"Nice," Angel, who was the first person to get over her shock, snorted with laughter.
Aiden's lips twitched. "Very nice. Never seen Jace so speechless."
"Seriously though," Lukas cut in, "The letter idea is brilliant! We can send letters to ー"
A knife came out of nowhere and nearly hit Lukas, who dodged out of the way with a yelp just in time.
"Don't even think about it."
The Black Musical appeared on TV again, this time, without her usual crazed smile. She wore a blank look instead.
"You can send letters, yes. It will be suspicious if you suddenly stop writing letters to your loved ones. But, if you send help, and I will know, well…" The Black Musical shrugged in a way that said 'Imagine it all you want, I'm not saying anything."
Rin's hand shot up to her arm, feeling a slight pain in her lower arm. She could practically feelthe threat in her words.
Thankfully, no one noticed her hand going up to her arm except, Rin thought with a cringe, Angel and Jesse, who stared at her hand in confusion and something else that Rin couldn't identify.
"Now," The Black Musical smiled, "as you all have your fun from yesterday," A fair few people shifted comfortably, "I will assume you are ready to play another round. Everyone, please check your pockets for any missing possessions!"
Jesse and Angel took their eyes away from Rin to check their pockets (which was a relief because those unblinking, bright, silver and emerald eyes can get a bit unnerving after a while) and Rin checked hers.
Rin's spear was still here, as well as her MP3, pen, headphones, and photos, so what was the item for this round?
"My sword!" Jesse said abruptly. "I can't find my sword!"
"You have got to be kidding me," Jace groaned. "You had several traps protecting that stupid sword ("It is not stupid!" Jesse protested) and nowthey get stolen? You should stick it somewhere else!"
Rin heard Angel mutter a suggestion to Jesse to help her stick it up his arse, which made Rin fight down a mad desire to laugh as Jesse sniggered under her breath, because Angel was the girl who attacked him with a chair (actually, she broke off a chair legs and started hitting him with them; the only reason why Seri was so nervous was because she didn't know what to make of Angel) which means she will try to stick a sword up his arse later on.
"That's right everyone!" The Black Musical cut off Rin's thoughts said gleefully and completely ignoring Angel's sarcastic muttering. "Jesse's sword is the missing item for this game! Here's a picture of her sword!"
The Black Musical was quickly replaced by a brilliant aqua green sword glowing brightly. The blade was snatched from constant use and the grip was worn and didn't stand out much except for a little piggy charm hanging from the cross-guard. Rin thought the piggy charm was absolutely adorable.
"Now, as for the victim," she popped back on and laughed the laugh that Rin despise with all her heart. "Just watch and see what happens."
"Ack!" A web attached to a long thick string came out of nowhere and, to Rin's horror, wrapped itself around Ariza's waist and dragged her away roughly. Before anyone of them could react, several more webs appeared and dragged the screaming guests away.
"Oof!" The black haired female had felt the web lash out like a whip, had felt the string broke off, and landed harshly on the ground and thanked the gods that she had landed on a web softened her landing.
Others weren't so lucky.
"Olivia, get off!"
"Sorry, sorry!"
Rin heard Angel grumble away from where she was flattened on the ground by Olivia, and Rin chuckled a bit when she heard "Goddammit, Olivia. Know where you land first," alongside the grumbling. Everyone else came dropping in ("Gerroff me, Axel!" "Sorry, Lukas!"), then, The Black Musical came on, beaming.
"Welcome to the Spider Room! I'm sure the reason for the name will become very obvious soon. Don't bother trying to free yourself from those webs, Ariza. They're indestructible."
Ariza was stuck on a spider web, which explained the name of the room. Webs were holding her wrists, ankles, and waist in pace so that she wouldn't escape. There was also a web over her mouth so that she won't scream for help. Rin felt a bizarre desire to laugh at this because it was very fitting for Ariza because one of the main characters in her stories was a spider hybrid. Then, a sudden thought came to her and Rin found her eyes searching for a spider.
"In this round, you are to find Jesse's sword and bring it to her in time. There are the usual killers, but if you fail to find the sword in time, well… you'll see soon," The Black Musical said, tilting her head and smiling.
Rin was right about the spider being a part of the trap because a gigantic spider came crawling out of the shadows and started climbing around Ariza, who was trying to subtly avoid it. Ann's streak was a bit more obvious now due to her rapidly paling skin that was obvious even in the dim light. She didn't like spiders that much. Tiny spiders were okay, but spiders the size of a coin will make her run and hide.
Adrian once made fun of her for her fear, but after Ann set off an army of spiders on his bed, he never made fun of her again.
But this spider is definitely huge.
"This spider will suck Ariza's blood from her body and surround her in a cocoon if you fail to find the sword in time. I'm sure her corpse will be a nice treat for the babies~ "
Even more spiders appeared (smaller, but still huge), Ann now looking as though she could faint. Ariza looked like it too, but Musa suspected it was mainly because of the treat comment since she wrote about spiders.
Rin had to agree with Ariza; she was feeling rather green and from the looks of things, so did everyone else (Seri, Anna, and Olivia had vomited farther away; poor girls)
"Anyway," The Black Musical seemed to be the only one to not look like they'll throw up or actually throw up at the treat comment (how sick is she?!) "Please to your teams. Angelina," said girl stopped in her tracks from where she was headed to the Blaze Rods, "go to Rin's team, please."
Angel looked shunned and a little suspicious. "Why? I can just go to the Blaze Rods," she said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"Oh, they'll be fine, sweetheart! ("I'll show you, sweetheart, when I-" Angel stopped mumbling when Maya bumped her shoulder against hers) They know about the Killers. What do you think?" The question was directed to Ann.
"We don't mind," Ann said simply, determinedly staring at the floor. "It would be nice to rely on actual information rather than instinct."
Angel shot a concerned frown to her friends, then walked over.
Rin was about to protest and say they'll be fine, that she can just go back to her friends when a sharp pain went through her entire arm. She hissed silently and grabbed it, breathing heavily. No one noticed except The Black Musical, who smiled and lifted her wrist to reveal a single black rose.
Rin felt blood drain from her face and quickly followed Mason, Angel, and Ann to the nearest black circle to teleport ("Please go and stand in the black circles, everyone!" The Black Musical shouted) which only made her smile widen.
The arm that had the Black Roses on it was wet with what Rin was sure was blood.
