[ Transparent Reflection ]

A NOVEL BY RINO-CHAN

Rating: T for TEEN

Genre: Conflict, Friendship, Drama, Romance, Mystery, Fantasy

Author’s Note: This story was originally inspired by one roleplay, but I’ve come up with a better idea, and now it’s from two combined roleplays, one more dominant than the other. The romance part of the story is from a collaborative story between me (Rino-chan) and dorkbuster90210 at the end of 2006. The other roleplay was between me and Ayu Min, at the start of 2007. This is the more dominant roleplay for this story

All the characters here are mine, with a lot of help from the rest of the roleplayers. The characters that aren’t mine are: Lu, Ranit, Rionell, Lorei, Heilr, Kyithios, Sei, Laniel, Kylian, Rahzel, Argos and Takashi. Ayu is responsible for the majority of those characters. This story (supposedly) takes place years and years after the roleplay with Ayu Min. A lot of credit for this story goes to Ayu Min, by the way, and her cousin Rionell – without them, this story might not have happened. I want to re-live the joys of the past roleplay, that played a massive role to leading me to writing my own fiction. Probably the first push towards own fiction I ever had. I hope you enjoy it.

PROLOGUE

One of the main laws of life is that you can never escape Death. Death marks the End of a life, and once you face it, that’s it. Well, that’s it as far as we who are alive are concerned. But the ‘End’ is never a set time. The ‘End’ could be the end of a day, the end of a relationship, the end of eating an apple… or, in my case, the end of a true love, and friendship.

There’s a famous saying that people would never know what they had until it’s gone. Life must be lived forwards but understood backwards, but when you know when the end would be, you struggle to get the best of what you have. It’s like that with me and Storm. Though we knew that we had to separate, for life, at one point during our lives, we didn’t know how soon it would happen. All we know was that it was happening, and we tried to get through it and get the best deal possible.

It’s like that for everyone. At one point, we would surely lose everything, but we never give it a thought. I wouldn’t have, if my friendship with Storm was a normal one. But because of our natures, we were even more aware of the End than that of most.

Because Storm was a ghost trapped in my home. And I was the one who tried to get him to move on to the next plane of existence.

"Welcome to your new home, Rowen," Dr. Rainer Minke said to her daughter gently. "The servants will perk this place up once I actually pay for it, but do not worry. I think it's a grand house."

"It is beautiful..." Rowen enthused, "Do you mind if I walk around inside?"

"It's your home," her father smiled.

With a nod, Rowen stepped into the mansion, marvelling at the place she was going to call 'home' in a matter of only a few short weeks – or days, if her father would manage to sort the papers he needed. It was large, and she could see herself getting engaged with plans that her mother would have done if she were still alive. Parties, sleep-overs, regular talks and meetings with the other neighbours around… Of course, Rowen would need to be aware of her age and allow her father to take up the major role, but she still felt very excited.

The house has a certain charm to it – something very spooky but breathtakingly beautiful at the same time. Rowen wondered why it was abandoned, and why nobody wanted to claim it to be theirs. It was also a mystery as to why her father wanted the place. Rowen thought he liked their old home, but she had to admit, it was typical that her father would choose a place like this. He had always been a little strange. He spoke and acted like one who belonged to the previous century, and influenced her to do the same. But whenever she came close to asking, there was a haunted look in his eyes that forced her to do otherwise. It was just strange, but she learned to live with it.

After she finished rounding the main hall on the ground floor, Rowen climbed the steps of the spiral staircase to the first floor, inspecting the dusty place with her emerald-green eyes. Her steps echoed around her and as she was about to enter one of the rooms, she saw a sudden flicker of light from the corner of her eye. She stopped in her tracks, curious, yet surprised. She then started to advance forward, ignoring the amount of dust which started to gather at the hem of her dress. Reaching the door, she placed her hand onto the wooden frame... and pushed.

Rowen’s eyes widened and she gasped as the door showed a beautiful room, no doubt the master bedroom. The bed was a four poster, king-sized, its lacy covers coated with dust. The large double windows overlooked the lawn and she noticed the curtains covering the windows were the same kind of lace that lay on the bed, old and dusty, but elegant. The house must be very, very old… and would take a while to be cleaned out. Moving forward to look out onto the lake which could be seen from the window to the left of the bed, another flicker of light came from the wardrobe, this time, closer. Rowen looked around curiously, her lips pressing slightly together as she tried to breathe normally.

Rowen knew that the house was old, and this was starting to get to her. She was interested, excited and at the same time scared out of her mind. She knew that she was coming close to discovering something, but now there were questions running around inside her head. What did she keep seeing? Was someone in the house? Was she in danger? Was this all her imagination?

A part of her, the pessimist side of her, whispered into her ear that she probably wasn’t alone in this large, abandoned place. She hushed the voice before it could allow her to act on nothing.

Only that, it wasn’t nothing.

A pearly-grey form of a human teenager stood with his eyes as wide as hers. In the instant that she saw him, something registered in Rowen’s mind but she forgot as soon as she noticed it. Rowen backed off with her mouth half-open; her voice dying on her lips. Icy blue eyes met her green ones and she fell down, crashing onto the floor. Her hand knocked over a few dusty ornaments as she fell, creating echoes of the crash throughout the mansion.

Before she passed out, her mind registered the sound of the ghost’s voice, hard and strong as he glared down at her. She still couldn’t pinpoint the detail she noticed earlier.

"I know that you’re supposed to live here now, but I want you gone all the same. This is my house." When he seemed to move closer to her, Rowen’s mind registered another voice calling her – a human voice – and her eyes closed and she drifted into the darkness.

“Will-“

“Storm, will you? I’ve said that since the past century and you still won’t listen!”

A laugh. “Sorry, old habits die hard.”

“You don’t want to break the habit.”

“…I’ll admit that. But don’t you think that that was unfair?”

“No. Ranit is a traitor. I won’t let that girl face the same thing that Lorei faced.”

“We won’t let her face the same thing…” Another voice, a softer one, joined them.

“How would you know?”

“You’ll take care of her.” A pause. “Storm… I think we need her.”

"Rowen?!" Her father voice sounded loud and clear, and the others disappeared. Rowen felt her body shook and she opened her eyes to see her young father’s concerned face staring down at her. A strangled gasp escaped her lips and she threw herself straight into his arms, shaking with fright. "Rowen? My goodness, Rowen, what is it?"

"I don't want to live here..." she answered, tears pouring down her face. Dr. Minke clutched her daughter, not understanding the message she was trying to give. She remembered now, what she couldn’t before. That ghost… that ghost seemed to be charred, as if he was burnt to his death. She shuddered, and her father held her securely. Before he knew it, his daughter fell limp in his arms.

Storm gazed darkly at the girl, and even more darkly at the girl’s father. He wouldn’t be able to see him… or any of the other occupants of this mansion. But like Rionell had said, there was something different about this girl. He normally didn't get attached to humans, this quickly, or even at all. But he could tell even now, this wasn't going to be like any of the other times. The only trouble was that he had felt the same with Lorei’s appearance, and it was because of her that she had to die, just as how he had allowed the one before her to die. It was ridiculous.

Storm looked up and wasn’t surprised to see Heilr, Kyithios and Rionell there with him. They all watched as the doctor took his daughter in his arms and set towards the staircase, no doubt heading out to take care of her without the worry of dust. Though Kyithios was the leader of their group, Heilr was the most respected, with his sense of logic and understanding of situations. As for Rionell… he was just the one who was closest to Storm.

They were silent, as if waiting for him to speak. Even Kyithios, the most cheerful of all ghosts, was looking at him expectantly. Storm sighed heavily, “What?” he finally asked sourly.

Rionell edged closer and placed a translucent hand on Storm’s shoulder. At first, Storm expected the silvery-grey-haired ghost to speak, but it was Heilr, the black-haired, who took the first step. “What do you think? There must be a reason why they’re back. Why humans dare to cross the line of the mansion again.”

“It’s not the same. That girl is innocent,” Storm replied stubbornly.

“Lorei was as well,” Kyithios said quietly, his voice hinting that he was thinking of something else. His dark blue eyes pierced Storm’s. Physically, Storm looked a lot like Kyithios. They both had dark blue eyes and blue hair, but Kyithios was slighter, giving him the unnatural speed.

“Lorei did not have to die for Rahzel’s past, but we failed to save her.” Storm wasn’t going to give up.

He was instantly aware of three other ghosts joining them – now there were seven of them altogether. Warily, he turned his eyes to Laniel, the co-leader who hardly spoke a word in several years, Takashi, another cold ghost but with more emotion, and Sei – it was this last ghost that Storm didn’t want to face. But there was no turning back once his blue eyes met Sei’s cyan ones. The last ghost quickly read his mind and spoke, his voice soft as ever;

“I told you, Storm. This girl won’t be facing the same thing. You will take care of her.”

“But-“

“Storm,” Rionell interrupted before he could say anything else. “I know you suffered most out of us all when Lorei died, betrayed. But… let this work. At least try to work.”

“She’s innocent…”

“So are we, but life is unfair,” Rionell said, but his eyes were kind. “Aren’t you tired of this place?” he challenged. For once, Storm was speechless, and he looked at the other ghosts of the Fiaro Clan and gave a resigned sigh.