He had found them in his locker that morning, along with a note in a plain envelope. The letter's author left no name, but the style was unmistakable.
She had told him in the letter that their love for each other was real, but given her noble heritage, she simply could not just give herself. She had to be won. No matter how many times she resisted, no matter how many times she denied him, she knew he was the only man for her. She knew he was the one. She waited for him. Pined for him. In the letter, she had pled for him not to give up, never to waiver.
In payment for his devotion and care, she left him something precious to her. It was pink and soft. Frilly, silken. Divine. It had touched her in the most intimate of ways, in the most private of places, showing that she was all woman. It bore a bit of her playful side, as well. Rolling pandas and beach-balls adorned it, providing a whimsical tableau. It even bore her name in strong, bold Kanji along the band.
He brought it to his face for a moment, to take in her wonderful scent. It was a payment, yes, but also a promise. Her favor had once held her and caressed her smooth skin, as he would soon do in time. She had wanted him to know that.
-----
"What's up with him?" Daisuke lounged against the wall, carefully posed, doing his best to impress, "It's like Kuno's in a daze or something."
"Don't know, man." Hiroshi leaned against the wall, his pose nearly identical, "Don't care. All he's doing is leaving more for us." He flashed a smile. A pretty brunette rolled her eyes.
Daisuke carefully shifted his position, trying to remember exactly how it had looked in the magazine. "Are you sure we're doing this right?" He glanced at Hiroshi.
"Of course, man. It's driving these girls wild, I'm sure of it! They're...just..." Hiroshi trailed off as a blonde snorted in disgust when she passed the duo, "Umm...really good at hiding it?"
"Jeez. We coulda been listening to the tapes. We've got several nights' worth of backlog, man."
"Dai, the dead can wait. Sometimes you just gotta get out and enjoy the living."
"I'm going inside, Rosh. If you need me, you'll know where I'll be." Daisuke groaned.
"Hey man, wait up!"
The two trotted up the steps, passing a pair of girls in their class.
"Hey Yuka! Hey Saiyuri!" Dai grinned at the two as he headed for the front door.
"Hi!" Yuka blushed.
"Hey Yuka, wanna go out Friday night, we got the new place you wouldn't believe!" Hiroshi waggled his eyebrows.
"No way, creep!" Yuka growled.
"Your loss," Hiroshi shrugged.
"If you don't like his friend, why do you like Daisuke? They practically share a brain!" Saiyuri leaned over to her friend.
"Hiroshi just...really makes me uncomfortable," Yuka mumbled, "Daisuke at least gives you some space."
The two pushed open the doors and stepped in after the boys.
"Hey!"
Yuka and Saiyuri looked up to see the two boys at the other end of the hall.
"Do you want to hear something really neat?" Dai shouted.
-----
"Be careful, please. This stuff's pretty old, but it does the job, and we get to use it for free." Daisuke explained.
The four teens carefully stepped over cables and in between television sets as they made their way to the back of the audio/video room. They reached a bank of tape players and sound mixers, their cords snaking out, winding around table legs and pedestals, reaching for the outlets behind the cabinets.
"Pull up a chair." Hiroshi drawled, pushing a couple of old vinyl office chairs to the girls. Saiyuri frowned in disgust at the cushion sticking out through the seat. Yuka turned to Daisuke as he hunched over several tape players.
"Don't worry about Rosh. He's just trying to be helpful." Dai looked over his shoulder. Roshi leered at the two girls. "We record things. We've been going by the old Hitori place for the past few weekends, the one where the family moved away after their kid died? We've been setting up tapes in every room."
"Why? I mean risking breaking and entering to do what, get blank tapes?"
"Ladies, we're smarter than that. Do you know what EVP is?" Hiroshi asked.
"Some kind of weird party game?"
"Nah." Daisuke chuckled. "Electronic Voice Phenomenon. It's...like sitting around a campfire and telling old ghost stories, or playing with a quija board at parties." Daisuke pushed play on all five tapes. The girls jumped as hissing filled the room, blasting from the speakers above their head. "The results can be pretty spectacular."
"Or spooktacular, if you prefer." Yuka shook her head at Hiroshi's grin.
"Hah! See there? We got a spike!" Daisuke pointed at the screens as the spike traveled from one channel to the next. "All five of 'em, too!"
"We got one, man! Awesome!"
"What? I didn't see anything?" Saiyuri groused.
"Let's just play with some of the settings here," Daisuke mumbled, barely audible over the hissing as he rewound the tapes.
The hissing started again, and changed gradually as Daisuke adjusted nobs, sliders, and dials on the sound mixer. The four teens strained to hear what was slowly being uncovered from the background noise of creaking floor and groaning frames.
They leaned in as Daisuke twisted one last nob and rewound the tape.
There. Faint. Just below the sound of the rest of the world. The teens followed it from one speaker to the next as the it circled all around them.
The crunch of a child's Big Wheel. The sound of a little bicycle bell. A child's laughter, bouncing off the quiet walls.
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(Posted Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:55)
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