Chapter Text
It’s been so long and Emily Armstrong still doesn’t know- or, better yet, understand how it happened.
How he came back.
WHY he came back.
But that was a lie because she knew well enough; enough to realize that he came back for a reason, even if that reason was in the form of a relic from the past. In just three short weeks with him, the young vocalist learned so much, despite it coming from a loud-mouthed, playful, athletic little kid. Emily was meant to meet him, one way or another. The universe warned her that in a way; through the wind's chill, the random signs of cryptic messages, and those blackbirds…following her everywhere she went. Like a siren, telling her she was going the wrong way. The universe works in mysterious ways, you know? And it did so on that peculiar day of March 20, 2025.
- THE BEGINNING -
Emily groaned as she woke up, light streaming through the curtains and shining on her icy blonde hair. Her alarm clock continued to blare next to her, reminding her of the long day she had ahead. Honestly, she was hoping she’d “accidentally” sleep through it, but oh well. Emily scratched her hair and glanced back at the clock- 8:20 AM. “Perfect. Just in time for breakfast…” She grunted before jumping out of the bed to jolt herself awake. Unfortunately, that did the opposite, only blurring the whole room and making her sway slightly from the dizziness of getting out of bed too quickly. She turned off the alarm, pushing the clock aside as she went downstairs. Her home was decent-sized; not as big as her wealthier band members’ houses, but it was nice and cozy and it was good enough to be able to distract her from all the clutter and mess she had made along the way.
_
“So what’s going on with “Up From The Bottom”? When are we going to get that up and running?” Emily asked into the phone as she battered her eggs aggressively with a fork, quickly pouring it into the pan with a hot sizzling sound. “I don’t even know, Em’, you know how Mike is…” Colin Brittain sighed, his voice coming out scratchy from the electronic device. The vocalist smirked, saying together with her friend,
“Always doing something but never anything time-worthy!”.
“Ha! Yeah…But seriously though, I’m pretty lost too on what we’re supposed to do now. Good thing we got the music video done first, but now all we have is a free day.” “Yeah, well, it’s better than doing long cold hours of boring producing work…” Emily grunted comfortably, struggling to balance the phone on her shoulder while she cooked with her two hands. She was a very good multi-tasker, after all. “Well, it doesn’t make it any better considering what day it is.” Colin yawned from the other end. Emily raised an eyebrow, staring at the yellow egg as it cooked. “Why? What’s today?” “You don’t know?...” Colin asked in a slightly shocked manner. Emily didn’t like the cryptic tone of her friend’s voice but just shrugged it off with a laugh, “No, I don’t. Is it another one of those “Linkin Park” fan holidays?”. “No, not this time. Did Mike…n-not tell you why he wasn’t attending band practice today?” Colin stumbled. Emily hesitated for a moment before responding, holding the phone to her ear with one of her hands now, “Colin. What’s going on, dude.”. Brittain didn’t respond for a moment, only hearing a few low breaths and shuffling around before he finally spat it out.
“...Emily. Today’s Chester’s birthday.”
Armstrong stopped at that, her shoulders slumping at the news. Well, that just ruined her entire mood. “Really?...” She murmured in a quiet tone, unlike her usual upbeat voice. “Yup…Heard the guy would’ve turned forty-nine today if it wasn’t for…you know.” Colin trailed off. “Damn…Now that’s just sad. I feel bad for the other guys.” Emily sighed, shaking her head as she thought about the late singer who came before her. “I know me too. It’s been years since he died but it must feel like just yesterday for them. Sometimes I forget that they’re all still mourning his loss. That they knew HIM and he wasn’t some kind of ‘dream’.” Colin sighed in a disappointed tone. “Yeah, I sometimes forget too…” Emily admitted lowly as she dropped her eggs sloppily on a plate.
Emily knew it’s been about eight years since he died and the world had moved on from Mr. Bennington, but in a way, she missed him too. She never got the chance to meet him, of course. But with her being the new lead singer of Linkin Park after him, she feels…connected to him somehow. Like from singer to singer, ignoring the differences between them. Like in some far-away fantasy, Emily would have met him and he would tell her that she made him proud…
But that’s all bullshit anyway! Right?
“Listen- I gotta go take a shower. I’ll see you at band practice, Armstrong.” Colin blurted out suddenly, snapping Emily from her thoughts. “Uh- Yeah, I guess I’ll see you there too, loser.” She smirked jokingly. The drummer then said goodbye and ended the call, leaving Emily alone again with new thoughts about Chester’s “birthday” and if her other band members would react differently today. But now, all she wanted to focus on was the half-assed breakfast beside her that was gonna taste delicious.
She pulled out a chair and grabbed a fork, putting some pepper on the food before quickly shuffling it into her mouth. The warmth of the eggs clashed with her now cold runny mood, making her smile again fondly. Emily was far from a cook, but she could make a mean egg! She washed it down with some soda before going back upstairs to her bedroom, trying to find something to wear. She opened her closet door, rummaging through all the old shit before she found an outfit that caught her eye. A white graphic t-shirt, whithered at the ends for a more “alternative” look, some black leather pants that shined through the sun, and a black leather jacket with a light grey zipper in a glossy finish. Emily smirked at what she found before she made a grab at the clothes and changed in a rush.
_
The vocalist walked out of her house, clicking a button on her car keys to unlock her white convertible. She put her sunglasses on and opened the door for herself, twisting the key in and turning on her car. It made a growling sound before calming down, indicating it was ready to drive. Emily looked back, smiling as she steered out of the parking lot and started making her way over to the studio. It was a beautiful day out, perfect for driving and letting the wind blow through her hair, giggling along like a schoolgirl. But still, in the back of her mind, she couldn’t forget what Colin had told her. “I still can’t believe he would’ve turned forty-nine today. He had so much life to live for, I will never understand why he did what he did…”
But she understood plenty. It wasn’t like Emily hadn’t gone through painful trauma too; her parents indoctrinated her into the ‘church’ of Scientology when she was a kid, for Christ’s sake! And imagine what it was like when they found out she was a lesbian…
Emily shuddered. She didn’t even wanna think about that. All she wanted to think about was all the pretty cars on the road, the bright blue sky, and peace…
Then her eyes spotted something up in the light blue sky. Birds, plenty of them! All flying out in one big clump, all dark black. “Ravens? Well, that’s something I don’t see often here…” Emily muttered under her breath as she turned a street. Then just as she did that, three birds hit her windshield with a large thud and a loud “cawing” sound, completely blinding her! “HEY!- WHAT THE-” She turned on her windshield wipers, trying to move the birds away from her. The last thing she needed today was to get into a freak accident because of a few birds! Soon, the blackbirds flew away, still cawing at her irritably as they went, leaving her in complete traffic. About three cars were behind her, honking at her convertible angrily to get moving and yelling at her. Emily flashed them a nervous smile, saying a quick “sorry” before moving away. She shook her head in annoyance, “How was that my fault? I was getting blinded by crazy birds, they would’ve done the same thing if they were me!” Armstrong muttered bitterly, now paying closer attention to her surroundings. The birds were gone now, and everything was back to normal…or so she thought.
The vocalist turned on the radio to calm her nerves, and in a weird coincidence, it was a Linkin Park song! One of the old ones from “Meteora”. Emily smiled nervously at that, turning the volume up more to let Mike’s younger voice drown out her thoughts.
“You never forget-STATICmy-STATICblood, sweat and tears.STATICMy-STATICheart full of pain-”
Emily raised an eyebrow at the radio and how it was changing the song and skipping parts. She reached out and tried to change the station, but it wouldn’t let her! Now it was playing Chester’s parts, skipping and switching on its own!
”Everyone ignores me-STATICbut-STATICyou-STATICit’s-STATICcomin’.”
“Hey! What the hell’s going on?!” Emily snapped, trying to stop the music, but no matter how much she pushed and turned the knobs, it kept playing. And the more and more it sang, the weirder it got. As if it was trying to speak to her…
”You-STATICare-STATICnot-STATICLISTENING!!!”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Emily yelled before giving her radio a hard kick. It turned off quickly, making Emily sigh of relief. But now she was even more on edge. “Just a couple more minutes and you’ll be there. You’re just messing with yourself, Armstrong. It’s all just mind tricks…”
_
Emily pushed the door open, walking into the studio in a rush.
“Hey, sorry I was late! Something came up-“ The vocalist stopped short at what she was seeing. The others were huddled together, solemnly watching a video from Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell’s phone, not even realizing Emily was in the room. Cries of laughter and faint sounds echoed through the walls, sounding like the past voices of the eldest band members. “Damn, I completely forgot about that time…” Emily heard Brad Delson murmur. “How could you forget? He almost killed all of us!” Joe Hahn chuckled. Brad shrugged, “Yeah, well I don’t remember it being THAT high of a water cliff. How old were we in this, Dave?”. “About twenty-four and younger…” Phoenix answered, replaying the short video again.
Armstrong coughed, getting everyone’s attention. “Hey, guys! What are you doing?” Emily asked cheerfully with a smile. The other guys waved and said a quick “hi” before going back to the old videos on Phoenix’s phone. “Oh, hey Em’. We’re just looking at some old stuff…” Farrell responded with a nervous smile, pointing to his phone. Emily dropped her bag on the ground, walking over to them, “Like what?”. Brad then chortled as he spotted a video, clicking on it, “Like this!”. A video then popped up on the screen, starting by itself. It first showed a recording of what looked like a hotel hallway, then the camera turned shakily to…Chester?
That’s right. It was an old footage of the man himself, blond spikes and pierced ears like the “good old days,” as Mike would call it. Though Chester looked tired and annoyed in this video. “Just a little over here, Chaz!” Rob’s old voice said behind the camera, obviously the one filming this whole thing. Chester rolled his eyes but continued to walk with him, “What did you guys do this time?”. Rob held in a chuckle, the camera shaking more and more as they got to a specific door. Chester shook his head tiredly as he took the hotel key from his jeans pocket and clicked it in the door, opening it. Suddenly, loud music blasted through the place, and, of course, it was “Careless Whisper” by George Michael. What seemed to be Chester’s room was covered with rose petals leading up to the bed, where none other than Mike Shinoda was posing with a rose clutched in his teeth as if he were in some kind of ‘sexy’ photoshoot. Meanwhile, Brad stood in the corner like a statue, holding the radio that was blaring the song.
Brad, Joe, and Phoenix were practically dying of laughter at the old recording while Colin and Emily watched from behind, giggling at the scene. “W-Wait for his line!” Joe interrupted giddily, pointing shakily at the screen.
The video then focused on Mike, with Rob behind the camera cackling hard. Shinoda then turned his head to Chester, putting on the most ridiculous face imaginable.
“...Hey.”
Bennington stared blankly at Mike and what had happened to his room, blinking twice before comically shutting the door, marking the end of the video.
Dave, Joe, and Brad were now on the floor, laughing like maniacs, with the newcomers laughing as well. “W-What the fuck?” Colin chuckled as he went back to a clip of the video. “H-He looked at him and he was like-” Brad then grabbed Hahn’s shoulder and attempted to imitate what Mike did, “Hey.”. Joe pushed him off gleefully, shaking his head. “No, no, no! He wasn’t like that! He went to Chester and said-” Phoenix corrected, now holding Brad’s shoulder.
“...Hey.”
The three then went into another fit of laughter, almost crying now. “Was that fake?” Emily asked, laughing with them. “Nope! We used to pull pranks like that ALL THE TIME back in the day!” Brad answered, now getting up and wiping a tear from his eye. “Chester loved them! And his were always the best, before he…” The guitarist then started to trail off, his smile disappearing from his face. The others began to quiet down too, their smiles washed away as their minds went back to the disturbing memory all three shared.
Delson looked to the ground darkly. “Before he…”.
He then snapped his head back to the others. “Uh- we should probably start practicing for the next show.”. The other two men quickly agreed.
“Yeah, we’re getting off track…”
“You’re right...”
Phoenix then put his phone back into his pocket, shaking his head regretfully at the memory of Chester before walking away with the others. Emily stood there quietly, confused by what had just happened. She turned to Colin and saw the same expression of loss in his eyes. She mouthed, “What happened?” to him, and he mouthed back, “Don’t ask.”.
_
“Alright! Good run, everybody!” Brad called out, putting his guitar back in the old battered case. Everybody else agreed, putting their things away and walking out the door. Emily was about to do the same before she felt a sudden tap on her shoulder. She looked back, smiling at the person behind her, “Hey, Phoenix, what’s up?”. Phoenix smiled back nervously, “Hey. Before you go, I just want to apologize for what happened earlier…You see, today is-”. “I already know, don’t worry. You don’t have to apologize, dude, I get it. It’s hard without him.” The woman interrupted in reassurance. The base guitarist blinked before letting out a nervous laugh, “Y-Yeah…Good. I just hoped you and Colin wouldn’t notice that I and the others aren’t in the BEST of moods, today.”. Phoenix sighed before continuing, “I suppose that’s why Mike didn’t come today.”. Emily nodded, “Yeah…”.
There was a long awkward silence before Farrell finally awoke from his thoughts, “Oh, yeah! I also wanted to give you something!”. He then started to rummage through his old bag, “Now where did I put it…Hmm…Oh, there it is!”. Emily watched in curiosity as her older friend pulled out some kind of trinket from his bag and held it out for her…
It was a bracelet. A metal one that had tons of things attached to it; tiny ornaments, strings of tied leather, and rusty old things you can't even tell what it is anymore, all strung up to one clasp. It seemed homemade. It was overwhelming but she couldn’t lie, she found the piece of “jewelry” interesting.
“A-An old friend of mine made it a long time ago and gave it to me. I never wore it, but it seemed like…you, in some way. You don’t have to have it of course, but-”
“I’ll take it,” Emily said quickly, interrupting Phoenix again. Dave chuckled nervously before giving it to Armstrong, “Well, alright then!”. Emily grabbed it, deciding not to put it on yet. She instead stuffed it inside the pocket of her leather jacket. “Thank you, Phoenix. It’s really pretty, but you shouldn’t have given it to me,” Emily murmured with a smile. “Pfft- baloney! I never wore it. It’s nothing special. I’ll see you later, yeah?” Dave reassured, giving a thumbs up as he walked out. Emily watched him leave, “Y-Yeah. See you then…”.
She gave the now empty studio one look before leaving herself, locking the door behind her.
The rest of the car ride seemed normal with no paranormal activity happening this time. Just a normal car ride as the sun began to set, with no radio weirdness or anything. Just peace. Emily had almost completely forgotten about what happened in the morning if it wasn’t for the occasional black birds resting around the streets she was in, but she’d look away every time she saw them. Perhaps ignorance is more blissful than contemplating.
_
12 PM
The house was completely silent, except for the occasional sounds of bed-tussling and snoring. Emily was asleep, in the middle of her usual peaceful dreams of somber skies, making her calm down a bit more. At that moment, everything seemed perfect. No distractions, just sleep…At least, until she heard the sound.
BANG!
Emily jolted awake at the clashing noises from downstairs with a “H-Huh?!...” sound. She paused as she heard a slight yelp from downstairs and scurrying, which made her even more on edge. “I-Is someone there?” She called out. ”Oh, way to go, Emily! Now the person who’s probably fucking robbing your house knows you’re awake!”
Despite Armstrong’s condescending thoughts, she decided to get up from her bed and go downstairs to investigate the noise. She grabbed a flashlight from her drawer and a random pocket knife she kept in her purse for emergencies before leaving her room, closing the door quietly behind herself.
As she made her way downstairs she started to hear the noises more and more clearly to the point where she couldn’t deny that somebody else was in her house, but it was too late to turn back now…
The shuffling grew louder and was predominately coming from the kitchen. Emily could see pans and pots on the ground, which was probably what made the sounds that woke her up in the first place. She had her knife up and ready, practically shaking now as she drew closer and closer. Emily put her back to the wall as she tried her best to stay completely quiet so that the intruder wouldn’t hear her. Meanwhile, the trespasser didn’t seem too careful at all, not even noticing that a woman was creeping up on them and what they were doing. Emily’s fingers fumbled to the light switch, turning it on with one flick...
The kitchen brightened, revealing the person hiding in the shadows, frozen as they were caught in the act.
And the one who broke into her house was a…little boy?!
Yup. A kid; with tanned skin, short dark curls, and chocolate brown eyes, suspiciously holding the bracelet that Dave had given Emily like a prized jewel. He couldn’t have been any older than eight.
Emily and the kid stared at each other for a long while, both in paralyzed shock. Then the boy turned away and suddenly tried to make a run for it with the bracelet! Armstrong then snapped awake, pointing at him as she attempted to chase after him, “HEY! COME BACK HERE!”.
The kid was fast, running with all his might to get away from the woman chasing him. Meanwhile, Emily was struggling to keep up with the fast kid, desperately trying to pull him back with his collar or something like that. They circled the house for a while, playing cat and mouse until the boy finally reached the front door and ran outside. Emily watched him as he got on his bicycle, stuffing the bracelet into his breast pocket before turning back to Emily and blowing a raspberry at her then speeding off into the night, leaving the vocalist with nothing but confusion and questions.
Emily stood there for a long while, trying to decipher what had just happened before she gave up and went inside, slamming the door behind her angrily as she groaned.
But little did she know, that wouldn’t be the end of the strange occurrences.
In fact, it was only just the beginning.