The Perfect Duet - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Crimson


Rin opened her eyes, emerging from a deep unconsciousness to the little bit of sunlight that siddled it's way through the small window. As she woke, Rin felt her blood flowing freely throughout her body and hear heart beating steadily. All the fatigue and aching in her body had been stilled. For a moment, Rin did not move from her bed—she simply stared at the ceiling. Even though her body did not move, her mind had already wandered miles. The moment she had awakened, her thoughts had turned toward the lips that she had tasted the night before. She remembered the blue eyes that surveyed her, the golden hair that brushed against her skin, and the touch that made her tremble in awe. Her belief that hearing Len sing would rejuvenate her had turned out to be true. She felt a new energy coursing through her.

She rose from her bed in a daze, seemingly staring into nothing. She turned and looked at the mirror once more, still dreaming that Len would walk through it and touch her with his loving lips once more. Rin had not realized how long she had stood in a daydream in her room, for a steady knock came at her door.

"Rin? Are you awake?"

Shaking her head back to reality, Rin turned away from the mirror.

"Miku?" She said rubbing her eyes. She realized how groggy she was.

Miku opened the door, dressed in full costume. When she saw Rin still in her nightgown, she gasped.

"Rin! You do know that rehearsal starts in ten minutes, right?"

Those words took a little bit more time than usual to fully register in Rin's mind. When they all fell into place, however, she jumped in shock and frantically put on some slippers and rushed past Miku to the dressing rooms. As Rin flew through the opera house, she received many absurd glances, both of shock and disappointment. Rin quickly slipped into her costume for the first act on her. She had almost fixed her make-up and hair by herself as well, but her assistants had made it in on time. When they had finished their hasteful work, Rin quickly ran out of her dressing room and stumbled on stage.

"Oh, just in time, my dear." The maestro before her said in a tone painted with sarcasm, "We were just about to start."

Rin flushed and was still attempting to compose herself when the orchestra began to play the accompaniment. Her first few steps on the stage were stumbles, but slowly Rin regained her composure. When Kaito began to sing, she could most definitely tell that he was singing with all his heart towards her, conveying, to what seemed to her, empty emotions to her resistant heart. When Rin's entrance approached, she had felt a feeling that she was very unfamiliar with—dissatisfaction.

Even though Rin was singing with possibly the best vocalists in the country, and even though she was in a position many girls have dreamed of getting, she found that she was not as excited as she was before. It was as if there was a newly discovered hole in her chest that she could not fill as she rehearsed. The only way she could fill it, she found, was when she sung with Len. Otherwise, as she sang her duet with Kaito, Rin felt as if she was performing with nothing more than dolls. As Kaito approached her to act as her lover, Rin no longer became ruffled or flushed. In fact, hardly any feeling came from her. When Len was apart from her, Rin felt as if her soul was asleep—and the only way to wake it was to drift into the world of night. As Kaito stroked her hands, she remembered Len's plea of changing production, and throughout the rest of the song until the next break, that's all that was on her mind.

When the break had come, Rin pushed her way through the bustling crowd of cast members, finding her way to the opera house managers' office. Everyone was still running around, frantically looking for missing props and costumes that kept disappearing. The artisans who worked worked quickly with the date of the performance looming in their mind. Unlike before, the stress of her surroundings did not affect Rin as much—the lingering memory of Len's voice had helped her keep her composure. When she had reached the office, she found the two managers fumbling and sifting through papers, occasionally tossling their hair. At the sound of the door squeaking open, both of them looked up in surprise, as if a tax collector had come to take all the profits. At the sight of Rin's face, they both slouched back in relief, but still had an air of tension about them.

"Is there something you need?"

"I was just thinking about the letter the Opera Ghost sent..."

The sound of a hand slamming on a desk snapped the remaining silence in the air as both of the managers said at once, "And what of it?"

Rin was still clutching her hands together at her chest from the sudden sound before she softly spoke, "Well, maybe perhaps... we should change production. If it would stop the costumes, props, and set pieces from getting stolen."

"So you're suggesting we give in to this prankster's demands?"

"If it would stop—"

The other opera house manager stood up, "That's exactly what he wants! That's what all these devils who play jokes want! They want their demands met so that they can laugh to themselves in the shadows while watching others pressed down under their thumbs! We will not have this!"

Rin imagined Len's face at that moment and along with it, she remembered his wording of bringing "more grief" in his note. She was almost certain that he didn't forever want to merely steal Romeo's props or Juliet's costumes from act three. A boy whose eyes carried much deeper meaning seemed to have much more ambition than that.

"What if he goes beyond what he's doing now, though?" Rin feared what Len would do and was genuinely concerned for the well-being for the people of the opera house at that moment.

"What could he possibly be capable of? For all we know, he probably can't even spell 'opera.'"

Rin flinched, wondering if Len was watching them now and if he had heard that. Her concern for the managers grew slightly more.

"Now get back to rehearsal, I'm sure break will be ending soon."

Without another word, Rin left the office which slowly began to fill with the sound of shifting papers again along with grumbles and murmurs. Closing the door behind her, Rin looked around herself to see if Len were there staring, but she quickly realized that even if he were there, he'd be concealed to the point where not even she could see him.

And he was indeed looking... and listening.

From a place where Len was perfectly concealed and able to hear and see everything that happened in the managers' office, he smirked to himself. A soft chuckle passed his lips as he peeked down at the managers rustling through papers and running around their office frantically.

"You will regret not listening to my Rin..." He murmured, then brushed his fingers through his hair, "And I can't even spell 'opera', hm?"

---

That night when Rin found herself opening the door to her room after another long day, she found something had changed. All the dead flowers that she had kept to remind herself of Len all had vanished. However, Rin was hardly distraught, for every surface had been covered with new flowers. This time beautiful yellow roses and white lilies adorned her room. Smiling to herself, Rin slipped behind her screen and changed into her nightgown quickly, so that she could catch another glimpse at the flowers that surrounded her. She turned toward the mirror and smiled, as if she knew she was looking into Len's eyes. Slowly she approached it and gazing up toward it, she whispered,

"Len..."

She now found herself looking into a different pair of blue eyes and a smile other than her own.

"What is it?"

Rin knew immediately what she wanted... she wanted to fill the emptiness that had been crying out to her, "May I sing with you again?"

Len's smile broadened as he held out a hand toward her, "Yes..."

Rin stepped through the mirror into the realm of night and added, "And thank you for the flowers..."

Every night, Rin found herself approaching the mirror and asking to sing with Len. And every night, he would lead Rin to his throne of music, and play a new song that he had written for her. The would sing with each other until Rin grew fatigued. Len would then warm her with his sweet kisses and she would drift to a peaceful sleep. And when Rin woke in the morning, she found herself more and more in a foreign world as she rehearsed in the opera house.

As she suspected, more of the props and costumes were missing, but she feared something more would happen as the night of the performance drew nearer. The day before the performance, all the tailors, tailoresses, prop makers, and stage workers spent a restless night completing all their work, replacing all that which had been stolen. To Rin's surprise, none of the newly made pieces had been stolen the day of the performance.

The audience beyond the curtain was completely unaware of the opera house's drama from the past few weeks and was completely unsuspecting. And even though everyone around Rin was relieved that they had made it in time for the performance, Rin couldn't help but feel suspicious and worried about what was to happen. She was hoping that Len wouldn't make any backdrops fall, or crash anything else down onto the stage during the performance.

The curtains finally opened and the audience moved into an applause. The orchestra began to play and Rin began to make the counts to her entrance. When it was her time to come out onto the stage, naturally she had the whole audience mesmerized once again. Rin, however, found herself less enthusiastic. She was living her and her father's dream, but she knew it was not enough. Then Kaito's entrance came, and he had followed her on stage, singing as passionately as he had in rehearsal—if not, it was more passionate. Rin tried her best not to grimace, because she could feel Len watching from a short distance.

To her surprise, however, they had gotten through their first duet without any interruptions. There were no backdrops that had fallen or anything that happened out of the ordinary. For a moment, she wondered if Len would even dare interrupt a performance since he was such an enthusiast when it came to perfection. She had expected something to occur whenever Kaito came out onto the stage, but against her expectations, nothing happened. The stage-workers moved the props back and forth from off stage to on stage with ease and all the cast members had their costumes prepared. Had Len decided to deal with his dissatisfaction now that the performance had come?

The climatic moment of Rin and Kaito's duet finally came—the audience was at full attention and all the cast members fully into their parts. Even Rin had turned her mind a little more to the performance. It was just before the orchestra was to begin playing and Rin and Kaito were exchanging lines of spoken dialogue with each other and the stage workers moved set pieces on and off stage. The orchestra had finally begun to play when suddenly everything was interrupted by a loud, shrill scream. The violins squeaked to a stop and murmurs erupted in the audience. Rin and Kaito were immediately drawn away from their act and both their eyes turned toward back stage to the turned around set piece that had suddenly stopped moving.

A horrible chill traveled up through Rin's spine when she saw the sight. A deep terror ripped at her heart and her knees suddenly gave out. She couldn't fully register what she saw before her, but all that she was able to register was a vast amount of crimson splattered everywhere, and the word, "opera" etched onto a chest. The screams around her suddenly faded into nothing when she fell to the ground.

---

"Father?"

Fifteen years-old, Rin had just returned from spending the day with Miku and had just arrived at her home. When she had knocked, no one had come for her, even though she knew her father was indeed home. She had turned the handle and pushed the door inward, finding that it was unlocked. The candles were out and even a window was open. Immediately, when she had stepped in, Rin could feel that there was something wrong in the air that surrounded her.

"Father, are you home?"

Had he forgotten to lock the door and shut the window? It was odd for him to do so. Rin went and fetched a candle and a match. Lighting it, she made her way further into the house. Her home had never felt so distant to her before. The lingering, familiar scent of it had seemingly gone away. She went further in.

Then turning into the living room, where he usually taught lessons, was where she found him.

Twisted and mangled into a strange, grotesque position he sat in a chair. Blood had been spilled nearly all over the room as if it was purposely painted and in the center of it all, her father remained. Trembling, Rin thought she was seeing an illusion, but as she moved in front of her father, the chills that attacked her assured her that she saw reality. The face that now gazed her was gaped open and caked with blood and a knife protruded from his chest. Dropping the candle, a terrible scream ripped from Rin's lungs...

Rin gasped as her eyes shot open, taking in air like she had not breathed in years. Over her came the faces of Miku and Kaito, staring down at her with deep concern and subtle surprise to Rin's sudden reaction. Rin breathed heavily, still halfway in her dreams. Miku placed a hand on her forehead.

"Rin! Rin, it's all right..." Her voice gradually grew softer, attempting to soothe her.

Rin's breathing gradually slowed and she closed her eyes, realizing that she was far from that place. Now she was in her bed, dressed in her nightgown and illuminated by the candles that hushed away the darkness and the moonlight.

"What happened?" She murmured.

"You fainted after..." Kaito began, but hesitated to continue.

"There was a body on stage—a murder." Miku attempted to suppress the trembling in her voice.

"Who did it?" The moment Rin spoke those words, her mind kept screaming "Len." She didn't want to believe it.

"We don't know..." Kaito added, "We're not sure of anything at this point."

Rin wanted to be less sure of things at that point. Len's face kept running through her mind, yet she kept telling herself that perhaps a murderer had broken in and done this... someone that was not Len. Even though Rin had escaped from the depths of unconsciousness, she was very exhausted from the thoughts that plagued her mind.

"Miku, Kaito... please, I need rest..."

Hesitantly Miku sat up from Rin's bed side and walked toward the door. Kaito followed and when he had left, Rin felt something brush away from her hand—had Kaito been holding it? She flinched at how Len would react. Once she heard the door gently click, her eyes rolled back and she fell into a deep sleep.

---

It had taken a full day for Rin to fully recover and regain her composure from the shock. Due to the traumatic event, even rehearsals were put off for a week, but music had been handed out to all the chorus members. Trying to get her mind off of things, Rin decided to go to the chapel down below to go practice. She was thinking of many things—everything but the bloody body that she barely registered a few days before. All her attempts were in vain, however, when she passed by two chorus members talking with each other.

"There was something familiar about that body..."

Rin couldn't help but stop and listen from a short distance.

"The way it was positioned in that odd pose...and did you see the way the blood was splattered? It was almost as if it was painted."

A familiar chill came over Rin.

"Yes," the other chorus member said, "It was exactly like the string of killings that happened three years ago... to all those famous musicians."

"They didn't catch the killer back then did they?"

"No—apparently they almost did, but he apparently escaped and went into hiding. He hadn't surfaced since then. Well that is... until now, perhaps—"

Rin couldn't bear to listen to the conversation further, her breathing sped up to a state of hyperventilation. She sped down the corridors, tears welling up in her eyes. She clutched the score she held tighter to her chest and when she had made it to the chapel, she collapsed in front of the alter, the sheet music crashing to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her head and wept. How could all this be? Rin's mind burst along with her heart as she swelled with every emotion possible. Len was the man she loved—then why...?

That night, Rin approached the mirror just as hesitantly as she had the first time she had seen Len. If not, she was more hesitant. For a moment, she stood silent. Then she decided she could not wait for Len this time. Touching the glass, she slid the mirror open and stepped through it, walking into her world of dreams. The pathway seemed much colder and more lonely now without Len guiding her hand, even though she knew the way. Down and down she traveled until she had reached the lake where Len had just come with the boat. He eyed Rin with a bit of confusion when he saw her walking the corner.

"You couldn't wait for me?"

Rin said nothing—she only accepted his outstretched hand and sat into the boat that Len held the oar to. She did not say a word to him as Len rowed to the shore of his lair. And when they had reached their destination, as he helped Rin up with him, he said,

"Why are you so silent?"

"Len..." Rin's voice was trembling, "Did you kill that man from the other day?"

Len froze at that moment. Rin couldn't bear to look at his face—his eyes which she knew would hold the truth before he could speak any words. The sound of his voice had never pierced the silence so fiercely before.

"Yes."

"And the previous divas..." Rin continued, "They didn't just disappear did they?"

"I escorted them away... to the afterlife, that is."

Rin clutched her hands tighter to her chest. The sound of his whisper had frightened her for the first time. She nearly couldn't bring herself to say what she wanted to say next.

"And... did you murder a vocalist named Kagamine?"

The silence that followed was enough to smother Rin—it seemed to push on her from all sides. She could feel Len slowly bring his face close to hers, lean his forehead up against her as he murmured,

"Yes..."