Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid...

At dinner that evening Mum tried again to talk about moving. They were sitting at their usual places in the kitchen, Mum at one end of the old pine table, Rin at the side, next to her, facing the place where her father had always sat. But his chair was empty, as it had been for the last year.

"We'll probably only be able to afford a flat" Mum was saying. "Still, the estate agent said we should be able to find something nice, maybe on the ground floor with two bedrooms and a garden. She left me some details. We could have a look at them later if you like, see what you think."

"You already know what I think," Rin muttered, poking at the pasta with her fork, refusing to meet her mother's gaze. "I don't want to move."

Mum put down her own fork and sighed. "I'm sorry, Rin," she said quietly,"but it's going to happen whether you want it to or not. Listen, I'm sure it's the right thing for the both of us. I wouldn't be doing it otherwise."

"Fine," said Rin, and shrugged. She raised her head and looked at her mother with cold eyes. "Go ahead then. Just don't expect me to like the idea."

Mum didn't speak for a second, her eyes locked on to her daughter's. "Ok, love," she said at last. "Have it your way. I know you're upset about what's happened. So am I, although I had a feeling it was coming...but remember, you won't ever be happy again till you stop being angry. And that's what I want. I want my old Rin back – my happy, smiling, laughing Rin."

Rin dropped her fork into her bowl and pushed it away. "Can I get down from the table, please?" she asked. "I'm not hungry." She didn't wait for an answer, but immediately stood up and marched out of the kitchen.

It was dark in the hall and darker on the upstairs landing. Rin went into her room, and was glad that she'd left the bedside lamp on earlier, it's warm, golden glow keeping the menacing shadows penned in the room's corners.

She hit the stereo system's 'power' switch, then lay on the bed. She took a book from the bedside table, but didn't open it. She was even angrier now. She would love to be the Rin her mother had described. She was fed up with being miserable, wished she was happy again. But her old life had been stolen from her, and all her happiness and laughter had been taken along with it. Including her father. She couldn't think of anything that could revive her from her misery.

Then suddenly that image of the Lily doll bobbed up to the surface of her mind, and Miku's words along with it. A bit of the old voodoo magic...

"Voodoo," Rin muttered. She liked the sound of the word, the buzz of the 'v' between her front teeth and the bottom lip, the spooky 'oo's separated and at the same time linked by the 'd'. But apart from a few vague memories of things she'd seen in films, she didn't really know what it meant.

Rin put her book down, swung her legs off the bed and went over to the desk. Next to the stereo were the monitor and keyboard of a computer, a recent present from her father. She knew he'd bought it out of guilt, so she'd barely used it. She remembered that it came with a range of CDs, mostly games she'd never play. But there was an encyclopedia too.

She switched on the computer, found the right CD case, loaded the disk in the stack under her desk. Soon she was reading the entry headed 'Voodoo'.

Religion developed in the Caribbean by Africans taken there as slaves...mixture of African and Christian elements...often depicted in horror movies as sorcery, a magical means to harm enemies...

She searched for a mention of voodoo dolls.

Figures made in the likeness of someone into which pins can be stuck, supposedly to inflict pain on an enemy, or to cause death...

She had come to the end of the entry. Rin sat still for a moment, absorbing the information she just read. Her face was bathed in the pale blue light of the monitor, her hand poised on the mouse. A creepy smile crawled onto her face.

Why not? It would be simple enough, I'm sure. All I need is an old doll to work with, and I have a few of those. Besides, it's just a little bit of fun, a mere game to make me feel better. It's not like it's going to hurt anyone.

"Yes, do it, do it," a voice hissed in her ear. "hurt her, hurt her!"

Rin looked round at the radio, but she knew the voice wasn't coming from there. It was as if someone else was in the room with her, someone invisible. She closed her eyes and shook her head, but the voice persisted, buzzing in her other ear now like an irritating insect, repeating the same words.

"Hurt her, hurt her, hurt her" ... until at last she clamped her hands over both ears – and the voice stopped. Rin opened her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she sat up, breathed out and decided she must have imagined it.

Although for a second the voice had seemed very real.

Mum checked on her later, said it was time she turned of the radio and got into bed. Rin went to the bathroom and cleaned her teeth. Back in her room she changed into her orange and yellow striped pyjamas and slid beneath the duvet. She tried to read, but her mind was racing. After a while she realized she'd been stuck on the same sentence for five minutes, and put her book down once more.

Rin switched off the lamp, as she usually did. The shadows in the corners of the room eagerly leapt out and merged into a velvety blackness, the only light accompanying her being the soft blinking from the green numerals of her alarm clock and the winking dots between them. It was always like that, of course. But tonight it was somehow far too dark, and she sat up and switched the lamp back on.

She sat on her bed and thought for a moment. "Oh, why not?" she muttered.

And that is chapter 2 :) It was kinda hard to describe the 'voodoo' word, but I got there in the end :D I actually do like the word voodoo because it sounds funny x) Review and as you all know, criticism is accepted :D