Seven: Marble Vocaloids
Gakupo dresses up like a monster.....and then a monster dresses up as him
"C'mon Rin, it'll be fine."
"No, Len....he's out there..."
"There's no one out there. Here, look." The blonde haired boy slowly pulled open the curtains of the bedroom window. His little sister quickly covered her eyes by pulling the comforter over herself.
"See? No one's here...Rin? Rin, look. It's ok, I promise..." Len prompted, gently pulling the blanket from his sister's figure. Hesitantly, she peered out the window. It was a clear, moonlit night, said orb casting shade after shade of pale light onto the large stretch of land the two siblings called a front yard. She could see the light reflecting off her mother's car parked just outside, only growing dim when one of the few clouds covered over the space kept nightlight. She was more surprised to find nothing staring back at her through the window. Even when she looked on farther, into the acres of forest bordering her family's land. Going from tree to tree, looking for that little speck of white. So many trees. So many...
Rin shivered, looking out at the forest, knowing he was there. Knowing he was watching them at this very moment.
"We shouldn't leave the house at night..." She mumbled. Len took a deep breath.
"Rin..."
"Len, I know you and mother don't believe me about S-...IT, but I know what I saw!"
"It's not that I don't believe you, Rin. It's just...you don't have any proof that it's real."
"I think the dissapearances are proof enough."
"That could be anything from running away, to a cult, to a serial killer. You know that. It doesn't have to be him."
"But it is. I saw him. Right outside that window."
"Maybe you should just give him twenty dollars." Len began to laugh. Rin frowned and narrowed her azure eyes. She was not amused. Len had been watching too many internet memes.
"Len, I'm serious."
"I'm sorry." He quickly said, "But listen, this party won't be on for very long, and I just want to go hang out for thirty minutes. Maybe an hour."
"Of course this party has to be on the beach..."
"Isn't it easier that way?" Len raised a brow, "It's just a walk through the woods to the shore.."
"He's in the woods, Len! How many times do I have to explain this!" Rin placed her face into her palms. Len, becoming annoyed, crawled out of the bed and firmly placed his feet on the floor of their bedroom. Without looking back at his sibling he began to dress.
"Alright, Rin, this is the deal. You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to, but I'm going."
"W-what?!"
"I'll be home in an hour at the most."
"Y-you can't leave me here alone!"
"I'm sorry Rin, but even Mother says you need to learn that there's no such thing as Sl-"
"Don't say the name!" Rin quickly covered her ears. Len internally sighed, looking back at her after buttoning his jeans. He felt bad for his little sister. She was so traumatized after seeing that strange man outside their bedroom window a week ago. Ever since that time, Rin had tried everything to cover it up. Curtains, blinds, boards. Though the boards were quickly removed by their mother.
These fears would all be completely rational, if she thought her stalker was a human.
But Len had had enough. All this time he'd been trying to make his dear little sister feel better, but now he wanted to do something on his own time. And she was trying to stop him? No way.
"Sorry..." He mumbled, grabbing a hairbrush from atop the dresser and began to form his short blonde locks into his signature ponytail. Rin watched this for several moments, thinking of any excuse she could think of for her brother to stay home. Fake sick? No, he'd see right through it. Fake fainting? Nah, he'd see that too. Call the police? Now, that would just get her in trouble.
"Alright, Rin," Len said, having finished his hair, "Last chance. You coming or not?"
Rin chewed on her bottom lip. What to do? What to do? She hated the idea of going outside, but absolutely dreaded the thought of being alone in the dark. What was the bigger evil here? Finally she sighed, and pulled the blankets off of her body. Len, feeling victorious, sat on the edge of his bed and patiently waited for her to change into jeans and a T-shirt, and fix the white ribbon into her hair. He only stood when she gave him a worried look that told him she was ready.
"Alright, let's go." He whispered, opening the window.
"We shouldn't even be out this late...." Rin muttered, watching him climb out. He gently set his feet on the porch outside, making sure not to make any unneeded noise. He helped Rin through the window in much the same manner, gently setting her on the ground.
"Mother's asleep. She'll never know." He grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers with hers, and set down the steps of the front porch. Rin stuck closely behind him, her eyes boring into the cluster upon cluster of trees they were nearing. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest she thought that Len might certainly feel it. Or hear it. Her thoughts were filled with chantings of reassurement.
There's no one out there.
He's not real.
Len will protect me.
There's nothing out here.
Len on the other hand, walked calmly, though a bit rushed, toward the trees. His only fear being the one of getting caught out of bed in the middle of the night. If his mother knew that her two fifteen year old children were out of bed at this hour on a Thursday night, she would murder them both. Usually Rin would worry more about this matter, since she was the more daring one, but her fears were undoubtedly focused on something more sinister than her angered mother.
The two soon reached the edge of the forest. The way to the party Len had dragged them out for would be a five minute walk down the path to the beach. He didn't mind this distance, finding it more helpful than a nuisance. He nearly 'kyaaa'd' in pure joy when his school friend Kaito told him about the place. But he was trying to get out of that shouta phase...It wasn't working, but he was trying.
As they neared the trees, Rin's pace began to slow gradually, until Len was practically dragging her along. He noticed this of course, but said nothing, keeping a firm grip on her hand. He could feel her fingers trembling against his, and knew that she must be horrified at the idea of venturing into these woods, but still he trudged forward into the dark forest. At some point in time the fog around the area had dramatically picked up, but living near the ocean it was a normal thing to have heavy fog. Only Rin took notice of how the fog gave a dark ambience about the air. Len was completely oblivious.
The dead, and fallen leaves made soft crunching noises beneath their feet as the two siblings traveled into the forest. Twigs snapped caused both by the twins and by some other source at different points in the forest. Rin picked up her pace, sticking as close as possible to her brother, every sound she heard making her jump and look around wildly for the source. Len ignored this behavior, giving more of his attention to high roots that needed to be stepped over, or branches that needed to be held out of the way as they passed. If he didn't pay attention to every aspect of the forest, someone would get hurt. Or worse they could get lost. But he knew these woods rather well, having played here as a child with his sister.
"Half-way there...." He mumbled as they reached the half mark of the trail, noted by a small red flag. Already he could hear the pounding music coming from the teen covered shore nearby.
"Let's just hurry..." Rin replied, letting her brother continue to pull her along. She was beginning to feel a little less frightened, but not so stupid as to drop her guard completely. "You promise we'll stay for just an hour, right Len?"
"Yeah. Just an hour and then we'll go home."
"Promise me?"
"Yes, Rin, I promise." He sent her a reassuring grin, but she only sighed. They were going to be tired for school in the morning.
But they continued down the man-made path toward the beach. The knots in the girl's stomach were loosening gradually as they neared closer to the sound of people. Other people made you feel better when you're afraid. No one...or no thing would ever dare to attack in a large crowd....unless they were stupid....or very powerful. Rin hoped her stalker was neither of these things.
But he could surprise her.
Ever since a week before, when she'd first seen that...creature at her window, staring at her with eyes that weren't there, she'd seen him everywhere ever since. At home, at school, on the street, in stores, at her friends house. He'd always just stood there, looking at her. Watching her every move. She'd tried telling her mother, her brother, her friends..but no one seemed to believe her. Len's two friends Gakupo, and Kaito would only tease her about it until she either punched one of them, or Len told them off for upsetting her.
A girl by the name of Megpoid Gumi, one of Rin's few friends, had been the only one who had truley believed her. But now she was gone. Missing since a few days ago. A lot of kids went missing in the past few days actually. But now Rin's only comfort in knowing she wasn't crazy was gone, probably taken by the very thing they sought to get rid of.
This only made Rin absolutely positive that she wasn't crazy.
"Wait, Len....Did you hear that?" Rin stopped, tugging on her brother's hand to bring him to a halt as well. Len opened his mouth to say something, but shut it quickly. He listened for a moment.
"I didn't hear anything." He sighed, feeling they should be hurrying toward the shore.
"No, there it is again....A footstep..."
"It's probably just an animal-" He froze as the sound hit his ears. It was leaves crunching. Whatever was applying pressure to them....sounded heavy. Like...boots. Definitely not an animal.
"You hear it?" Rin asked, noticing the look on his face.
"Shhh." Len held up a finger, listening more closely to the noises around him. More sounds were coming forth, as if they knew they had been spotted. Shuffling. Scraping. Footsteps. Laughing. It sounded like the sounds were surrounding them from every direction. The knots were tightening again. Her body began to shake so violently, Len pulled her closer in a protective embrace.
"You see? It's him, I know it." Rin whispered heavily against his neck.
"Who's out there?! Show yourself!" Len shouted, his voice echoing through the trees. Rin flinched at his sudden outburst. From the trees came the sound of deep, and low laughter. Len's heart picked up speed at the sound, his sister shivering in his arms.
"T-this isn't funny!" He shouted into the darkness. Hearing a rustling from behind her sibling, Rin lifted her eyes to gaze over his shoulder. That's when she saw it. That horrible shape of white behind a pitch black tie. The suit. The bald, faceless head. Standing just in front of her.
She screamed, pushing away from the embrace of her twin. Landing on the forest floor, she scrambled backwards, dirtying her clothes and scraping her legs.
"Rin wha-"
"RAAAAAWR!" Len jumped dramatically as the suited figure behind him shouted and began to wave it's arms around almost blindly.
"I am the Slender Maaaaaan....Give me twenty dollaaaaars." The figure moaned, causing a couple of giggles to come from the trees around them. Len's fear quickly became anger as he shoved the figure roughly. The figure only laughed and pulled off his mask to reveal a mass of violet locks and a stupid smirk.
"Gakupo, you asshole. You scared the shit out of us!" Len shouted.
"Relax, man, just a little joke." Gakupo replied, still shaking with laughter.
"You should have seen your faces!" Another voice joined as a blue haired teen came out from behind the trunk of a tree. Kaito wiped a tear from his blue eyes caused by the humor he found in scaring the twins half to death.
"It's not funny..." Len mumbled, turning to help his sister off the ground. He couldn't help but notice how hard she was still shivering, or how tears were rolling down her cheeks.
"Are you alright, Rin?" He asked, hesitantly. She merely shook her head and wiped her face.
"Can we go home now?" She whispered.
"Aw, come on! It was just a little joke!" Gakupo said, pulling the suits tie lose from around his neck.
"That doesn't matter, man, you know it's not funny!" Len roared. "Is that the only reason you even invited us?"
"Nah, man, you can still come to the party if you want.....We just thought we'd have a little fun."
"I should kick both your asses."
"Dude, calm down."
"Len.." Rin tugged on his sleeve a little, "Can we please go home now?" Len shrugged her off, failing to see how anxious she appeared suddenly.
"Don't pull crap like that and tell me to calm down when I get angry. You two are going too far! How many times are you going keep torturing Rin for what she saw?"
"Dude, it's funny. Slender Man isn't even real! She's been on the forums too much." Kaito held up his hands.
"That doesn't matter. You still don't need to keep bullshitting around like this! You see how bad you scared her?"
"Len..." Rin tried again, her eyes glued to the forest. Her teeth were chattering in her mouth, her knees buckling, heart threatening to pound out of her chest.
"Just a minute, Rin." Len said gently enough before whirling back on his so called friends.
"Sorry. We just thought it would be a good laugh." Gakupo said, scratching his head in an ashamed fashion.
"Maybe if you spotted him a twenty, he would have gone away. Or maybe she shouldn't have been wifin' in the club." Kaito laughed, having no shame for his actions. "He just wants you to spot him a twenty until the next pay day. Don't be a dick."
"You're the dick around here. Both of you." Len mumbled angrily, sending his best glare toward the two other males. As the three continued to argue, Rin continued to tug and pull at Len's clothing, trying her hardest to capture his attention. Her attention, however, was drawn by the ominous figure standing not even a few yards away. This time there was no sinister laughter, no rustling of someone trying to hide...No intention to hide. It merely stood there. Nine feet tall. Long arms left dangling at it's thin sides. The black suit and tie reflecting in the moonlight and the white undershirt looking spotless. That faceless form looking in her direction, but without any expression....or eyes...or mouth. Just simply that pale, milky skin.
It was him.
The thing that had haunted her so relentlessly the past week. He was there, and only she was seeing it.
"L-Len...please..." She tried, merely whispering. Len, again shrugged her off as he continued to explain to the others how bad of an ass kicking they were to receive the following morning.
Rin watched in horror as the tall, slender thing raised it's left arm, holding out it's pointed fingers to her, as if he was a gentleman requesting her hand. It's spider like limbs slowly were penetrating through it's back, coming around to reach out toward her as well. It's arm began to stretch. Inching closer and closer, reaching out to her. But she wasn't going to give herself over to it's false sense of comfort.
"Len!" She shouted finally, never tearing her eyes from the figure.
"Alright, fine. We can go home now...." He replied, gently stroking her now dirty hair. He shot one final glare at the two teens before turning both his sister and himself around back towards home. As Rin turned, her visage of the figure dissolved, and when she finally found the spot he had been standing, he was gone. There was no man in a suit. No man without a face. No man reaching out for her. Just fog, and trees. As much as this should have relieved her, it only made her anxiety worsen with the thought that now she had no idea where he was. Or what he was doing.
Gakupo and Kaito watched as the twins both angry and paranoid departed the forest. Once they were cleary out of earshot, they solemly looked at one another before busting up in a fit of laughter.
"Oh God, their faces when you shouted!" Kaito managed, holding his stomach.
"I know! And I swear Len's voice cracked when you laughed like that!" Gakupo said.
" 'Rawwr I am the Slender Man!' " Kaito mocked Gakupo's previous act, waving his arms around dramatically.
"Dude, if she gave me a twenty I would have left her alone." Gakupo snickered, causing another roar of laughter from the bluenette.
"It can't be helped. Rin's gotta learn what's real and what's not. I mean, c'mon....Slender Man? She seriously believes that crap?"
"I know. It's just some old fart in a suit." Gakupo looked at his own outfit in disgust. It was feeling very uncomfortable with his normal clothes stuffed underneath it.
"And a mask." Kaito chimed, holding up the blank mask the two had used.
"And stilts."
"Or a height problem."
"...I'm gonna go with stilts."
"Whatever....we should head back to the beach. And take off that monkey suit."
"Yeah I-" Gakupo paused, hearing the crunch of leaves under feet. Seeing that neither of them had picked up a habit of shuffling he could only assume something else was listening to their conversation. Kaito seemed to hear it as well, quickly snapping his eyes to peer over his shoulder.
"Len?" He called. There was no answer. Only the pounding beat from the nearby shore. "If you're trying to scare us, it's not going to work!"
"He was really pissed..."
"Yeah, he's just being a little prick. He'll think it's hilarious tomorrow."
"You think? We scared the crap out of Rin...I doubt he thinks that's funny."
"Those two are like a couple sometimes...."
Again he paused as another noise let itself be heard in the trees. A sort of scraping sound.
"You're not gonna scare us that easily, Len." Kaito called with a stupid smirk on his face. Gakupo shook his head as he removed the suit's jacket from his shoulders. He slung it over his shoulder, watching as his blue haired companion darted from tree to tree searching for the source of all the strange noises. Gakupo rolled his eyes, figuring it to be some sort of animal rather than their blonde haired friend.
"If you don't hurry, I'm going to leave you here." He mumbled as Kaito peered behind yet another tree. Kaito either chose to ignore him or didn't hear him at all, for he darted for another thick trunk and circled it.
"Len's long gone. It's just a squirrel or something. C'mon dude, I gotta get back to Luka before she lea- OOF!" Gakupo cursed loudly as he was suddenly shoved to the forest floor. Hard. Lifting his face from the dirt he opened his mouth to begin to shout at the other boy, thinking he had pushed him, but instead his eyes met with a rather odd visage. Shoes. Large, black, shiny shoes. Those shoes were connected to a black pair of pants. His moving steadily upward he discovered the pants were layered over by a black jacket matching his own that had dropped from his shoulder onto the ground. Still higher was a tie tucked into the jacket over a white undershirt. As his eyes met the face connected to the shirt and tie, his face dramatically paled.
"Dude, he's totally screwing with us! I mean, c'mon....hiding in the trees like this is totally not-......Gakupo?" Kaito paused in his search, noticing that the violet haired teen was no longer where he left him. All that was here was his suit's jacket, left abandoned on the ground. Kaito's brows furrowed as he realized he'd been ditched. But how'd he run off so fast like that?
"Hey! Where'd you go?! Gakupo?!" Kaito called into the fog, recieving only his own echo as a reply. With a heavy sigh he scratched the back of his blue head.
"Freakin' ass.....Leaving me in the woods like this. He knows I have no sense of direction. Some friend he is.." Kaito mumbled to himself as he walked toward the fallen jacket. He picked it up, dusting it off with his free hand. Gazing at the black article of clothing he began to laugh, thinking of the joke that was the Slender Man. He never believed in any of that crap, no matter how many people claimed to have seen him. Especially Rin who droned on and on about it until he was ready to puke. Too much time on the horror forums only led to people getting paranoid. Like a supernatural version of hypochondria.
He slung the jacket over his shoulder and shoved his other hand into his pocket before beginning to trudge back toward the beach. He had no idea if he was moving in the right direction, but it sounded like the music was getting louder as he moved on. So he kept a steady path, hoping that for once he had chosen the right one.
But pretty soon he began to feel that something wasn't right. That he was missing something, or he was forgetting something. He felt cold chills itching up and down his spine, and his breath became visible as the once hot and humid air began to drop in temperature. That was odd. It was almost summer. Hot shouldn't go to cold so fast. The only source of heat was the jacket over his shoulder, and a constant puff of warm air that hit the back of his neck. Like someone standing....walking behind him and breathing down on him. In fact he turned around several times to make sure no one was there, but there was never anything odd that he could see.
He began to pick up the pace, feeling he needed to hurry toward the crowd of people waiting for him on the shore. That's when the sounds from the forest began to explode once more. Scraping, rustling, stomping, breathing, scratching, crunching.....giggling. Semi-high pitched giggles coming from the trees as the cold wind blew through their leaves, making it seems as though they were the ones shaking with laughter. He was beginning to freak out at this point as the crunching and rustling were becoming louder. As if he were being followed. But every time he turned around there would be only the fog and ground he had put behind him. He could feel more than see the thing slithering through the grounds, following him.
He started to run. Ignore the cold air beating at your face and lungs. Ignore the fact that roots keep trying to trip you up. Do not look behind you again. Just run. His mind was screaming all these things, though another part of it was telling him that Rin's paranoia was rubbing off on him and he was being an idiot. He ignored that part, and simply darted through the trees, his lungs burning, his heart racing.
Until he ran face first into something solid. He toppled backward onto the dirt, his breath hitting him, trying to catch up with him as he sat on the ground. His eyes snapped open to find what he had run into, and he nearly laughed with relief. He'd recognize that mass of purple hair anywhere.
"Gakupo, you jerk...." He grinned, pushing himself up, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" With a chuckle, Kaito let his hand fall onto his friend's shoulder. But Gakupo gave no reply. He didn't even look up from the ground he was currently facing. Kaito's smile faltered slightly in the silence.
"Hey, you ok?" He asked shakily, still trying to recover his breath. Again he got no reply. Kaito shook his friend a little, trying to get him to look up at him, but he merely stood there, staring at the ground. Finally becoming agitated, Kaito shoved him causing his limp head to topple back. The bluenette shouted, jumping back from the other teen.
"D-dear God...." He whispered, staring at where Gakupo's face should have been. It looked as though someone...or something had torn it off. The only reason the boy was still on his feet was because of some odd looking brach acting as a hook onto his clothes. Like he was some sort of bait. The front of his clothes were absolutely drenched in fresh blood.
His body trembling in absolute terror, Kaito felt nausea hit him like a truck. He swallowed several times, attempting to keep anything from rising from his stomach into his throat, beginning to take slow steps backward. He wanted nothing more than to leave the presence of the decaying corpse that was his best friend hanging before him, but the fear racking through his body would allow him no more than a slow pace. When finally he was able to turn himself around, away from the macabre sight, he was slightly annoyed to realize he'd run face first into another object, but this time not hard enough to cause him to fall over. Instead he was simply frozen against it.
It felt...soft...
Like cloth.
Instantly he knew whatever this was wasn't going to be good.
But he cracked open his eyes, and trailed up the tall figure blocking his path. He couldn't help but notice how clean this person's suit looked. When he reached the face, he nearly fainted as he found that instead of the other person, he was looking directly at the ripped remains of Gakupo's face. It was plastered on top of the real face like some sort of sick mask. It was so bloody, and beginning to peel off a little around the edges. Through the eye and mouth holes Kaito couldn't see traces of the other person's facial features. It had no face. The tall creature slowly raised it's arms, pulling the boy into an embrace that felt like ice.
He screamed.
And over the music at the shore, none of the other teens would ever hear that scream. They would go on with their party, some of them wondering where two certain guests had run off to, but never bothered to look for them. Even when they started for home, no one else ever experienced any noises, or sights that Kaito had while trying to find his way back.
No.
Only one person had heard that blood chilling scream, and that was one Rin Kagamine.
She and Len had made it back home fine enough. Still a bit shaken, but relieved to be somewhere safe. They had both gone right back to bed where they should be on this night, but of course Rin had a bit more trouble sleeping than her brother. So she had asked if he would sleep in her bed with her for the night. Being the good brother he was, he agreed.
So it was hard not to wake him up when she suddenly sprang into a sitting position in her bed. Len stirred a bit, but only fell back asleep a moment later. Rin's ears were filled with the echo of the blue haired boy's terror. Normally her mind would have told her that she was dreaming. Go back to sleep. Everything's fine.
But now that the curtain had been lifted on her eyes she knew exactly what was happening. She could feel it in her heart.
Hesitantly the girl let her azure eyes drift to her window. The curtains were still open from when they had snuck out revealing the night as well as a skinny looking figure standing near the trees. No sooner had she blinked when it was suddenly at her window, the long, bony fingers of it's left hand raised to press against the window in a light tap. And then another. And another. The sound alone threatened to drive her insane.
Facing the symptoms of her fear once more, she turned her back to the window, and the tapping creature, and instead snuggled up to her brother and tried her best to ignore it. It was hours she just withstood it, not daring to even move under the watch of the thing. The tapping grew more and more forceful as time passed. She was finally able to fall asleep due to pure exhaustion but even after her eyes firmly closed and her breathing became deep and even, the room was still filled with the constant sound.
Tap..tap..tap..tap..tap..tap..tap..tap...Crack.
An-
Dude, I've been really obsessed with Slender Man lately.
If you don't know who he is, you're lame D=
Just kidding, he's not all that popular....yet.
But he will be.
So you know, I know Slendy's main purpose isn't to steal faces. I just wanted it to be kind of humorous since Gaku dressed up as him and was making fun of him so Slendy dresses up as Gaku in revenge....sort of.
Wasn't sure if anyone would get that....