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“Is it just you?” Cathy asked, poking her head out the front door of her mansion to inspect the dimly lit walkway beyond. Heavy clouds had choked the light from the sky, dimming the afternoon to a midnight darkness.
Rio shivered under the portico. Behind her, rain thundered down on the stone path in piercing sheets of water. Her breathing faltered as an icy gust of wind howled through her, sending blinding droplets spraying in every direction. Cathy hissed at the water before retreating back inside.
The type of storm spun from the hands of an angry god, the part of herself dedicated to appeasing the mercurial ocean deities many centuries ago reminded her. A threat to swallow everything in crashing waves and cleanse the city of the inhabitants perceived wrongdoings.
Rio shuddered against the cold and her mounting sense of dread and stepped into the relative warmth of her classmate’s home.
“Yeah, just me,” she laughed dryly, shutting the door behind her and shedding her thoroughly drenched coat. She hung it on a hook beside the door, careful to duck out of the eyeline of the mirror positioned just above it.
Cathy pouted. “I was hoping you’d bring… I don’t know. Yuma perhaps? Or at least your brother…”
She held a delicately gloved hand up to her face in a poor attempt to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks. “These kinds of things work better with more people,” she added quickly.
Rio sighed. “Trust me, we don’t have to worry about this working.”
Cathy eyed her suspiciously, her tail swaying back and forth behind her. “Is that so?”
Rio nodded. “I have a feeling.”
She felt a twinge or remorse. Cathy had clearly been vying to host a Halloween party when she extended her invitation to Rio at school. But Rio had jumped at her vague promises of ghost stories and self-proclaimed expertise in séances for other reasons.
Thankfully Cathy was kind enough not to show her disappointment for long.
“Very well. Much as I dislike rain, the weather is perfect for this kind of thing,” she said with a small smile, briefly showing off a glimmer of sharp fangs.
Rio hesitated.
“Do you speak with spirits often?” she asked quietly.
Cathy hummed. “Only when I’m feeling especially lonely,” she said.
“I see…”
Admittedly, it was a difficult feeling for Rio to imagine. She had never known a life without the companionship of spirits or the responsibility of advocating for them. And her situation had only gotten worse as the centuries wore on; her own soul had been poured from vessel to vessel, other time periods and people whose lives she had shared swirling in to produce a churning whirlpool of fleeting memories and emotions she could rarely identify.
Rio smoothed out her dress, the edges still damp from her walk over. She was desperate to finally be alone, really.
The rain continued to pour down the towering front window of the manor, distorting everything outside behind a cascade of rushing water.
Cathy clapped her hands, causing the bell on her collar to jingle. “I have everything we need set up in a room upstairs,” she said. “Follow me!”
She flicked her tail toward the grand staircase before them, its dark crimson runner disappearing into the heart of the mansion. The bannister running alongside it was made of dark iron twisted into cat-shaped forms.
Rio followed behind Cathy, careful to steady herself on the handrail as she ascended. The staircase was long, but her classmate danced to the top of the flight with practiced ease, the ribbons of her dress swaying behind her.
To someone who had never met her, it might seem as though Cathy was prepared for Halloween in her shadowy dress, decorated with intricate buckles and threaded up the back in laced ribbons. But Rio had always known her to enjoy gothic fashion when she wasn’t at school.
In fact, the entire manor appeared to be perpetually ready for Halloween. The home was decorated like a traditional haunted house with billowing velvet curtains framing the windows and a large chandelier of twisted iron towering overhead, crystals chattering whenever a clap of thunder shook the house.
“Let me just grab some more matches…” Cathy said once they reached the top floor, before ducking into a side room.
Rio peered into the room after her. A sudden flash of lightning revealed a dark-colored cat at the end of the room, fangs and claws bared in a fearsome snarl, its haunches taut as though it was ready to lunge at them. Rio jumped, unable to keep herself from making a sharp squeaking sound.
Cathy followed her gaze to the painting on the back wall. “Don’t worry he’s not real,” she said, hiding a laugh behind a gloved hand.
Rio placed a hand over her heart, willing the thunder inside her chest to quiet. “I know that,” she grumbled. “It just surprised me.”
The two of them continued down the hallway as delicate golden sconces flickered, illuminating dark wallpaper patterned with cat silhouettes and casting long shadows behind pedestals displaying various feline art pieces.
Rio’s heart still hammered in her chest, seemingly getting louder the further into the mansion they came. Of all the days to have an unseasonable storm…
She twisted the ring on her finger and tried not to inspect the art too closely.
Rio always hated the way the shadows in the Kamishiro home seemed to flicker and swell as she passed, darkness building in the corners of her vision and threatening to swallow her if she lingered in one spot for too long.
Whenever she dared to face the presence behind her she turned to find the darkness vanished; though it always left a lingering uneasiness in its wake, as though the space had been altered in some way beyond perception. Perhaps the color of the wall was just a shade cooler. Or the warmth had been ever so slightly drained from the smiles in the family portraits watching over them on the living room walls.
Over time, the home began to feel increasingly hostile and distant, as though everything she remembered was being gradually replaced with hollow fakes.
It made her desperate to get out of the house as often as possible, staying out late and making plans elsewhere whenever she could. And it was the reason she was following Cathy through the hallways of her mansion now.
Unfortunately, the darkness here was no friendlier here than back at home. Rio kept her eyes ahead, fixed on Cathy and the bell tied to the end of her swaying tail, trying to ignore the way the patterns of shadows shifted behind them as they walked.
But she could only focus so long before the motion in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Rio shivered as she eyed the intricate feline-patterned wallpaper around her suspiciously, trying to determine what she had seen.
A set of amber eyes blinked back at her and she recoiled with a start, clumsily stubbing her toe on a dusty stone pedestal with a cry. The delicate sculpture of a shadowy mass of black cats curled around each other displayed atop it teetered back and forth precariously.
Cathy whirled around to give her a stern look, her ears pricking up at the noise.
“What happened?”
“I saw something move—”
The dusty gray cat with round amber eyes silently padded out from the shadows, tilting its head at Rio inquisitively and yawning as if she had just awoken it from a nap. Without thinking she shrank away from the animal, hitting her foot against the pedestal again.
Rio cursed under her breath, shaking her leg back and forth to soothe the pain. She blinked back the tears burning in the corners of her eyes, embarrassed by how unusually clumsy her fear was making her.
Drawn out by the commotion, more cats began to materialize, seemingly peeling from the wallpaper and surrounding her.
Despite herself, Rio began to whimper.
“Not a cat person, huh?” Cathy observed with a slight frown.
“N…no…,” Rio stammered. Her head swiveled from side to side as she tried to count how many cats had gathered before them. It felt like an endless amount of strays were closing in on them from all directions. She tried to keep her breathing even, but panic swelled in her chest.
“Well, nobody’s perfect,” Cathy sighed, threading perfectly painted claws through her hair.
“They won’t attack, right?” Rio asked as she stepped away from a fluffy white cat that circled around her feet, her voice a bit higher than she would have liked.
Cathy laughed. “No, there’s nothing to be afraid of! They’re just curious about you is all.” She tilted her head, looking at Rio strangely, and not unlike her feline friends. “Some people say they’re able to sense spirits, you know. I’m sure they’re interested to know why you’re here.”
Rio swallowed thickly. It was easy to find truth in her words as dozens of slitted pupils followed her every move.
She didn’t want to know what they saw in her.
Rio herself didn’t see the same person in her reflection every time she looked.
Occasionally when she dragged herself in front of the bathroom mirror in the morning, eyes still bleary with sleep, the early dawn light colored her hair a verdant green. Or in the evening she might stare into the waters of the bath she was drawing to find her reflection missing a mouth in the gentling rippling waves.
“Please just leave me alone,” she begged.
Cathy giggled, but made no effort to shoo away the cats.
“They don’t mean to bother you. And we’re nearly there now,” she said, disappearing down a corner of the hall.
“Wait up!” Rio called.
She shuffled around a couple of black and orange mottled strays before breaking into a run after her classmate.
Dozens of curious eyes bored into her as she passed, but Rio didn’t dare to look back to see if they were following.
She was panting by the time she managed to catch up to Cathy, finally falling into step with her friend.
“This is it,” Cathy purred, motioning to a small room at the end of the hallway. “This room is very comfortable and quiet. It tends to get the best results. Even if you aren’t worried about not being able to make contact,” she said with a brief roll of her eyes.
There was a short table in the center of the room covered in a dark velvet tablecloth. Despite her earlier disappointment at the size of the party, it seemed Cathy had only bothered to set up two chairs.
White candles of all different sizes and shapes lined the room. Most of them had a decent amount of wear: charred wicks and bubbling wax pooling at their bases. Cathy tossed Rio the matchbook she had recovered earlier.
“Let’s get them lit, alright?” she said, striking a match on hers with careful precision.
“Of course.”
It took Rio three tries before she was able to start her first match with shaky hands, and by the time the flame climbed to meet her fingers she had only managed to light two candles. She shook the flame out, wincing at the familiar but unwelcome feeling of fire kissing her skin.
Thankfully Cathy was much faster at lighting the candles, and it wasn’t long before the room became cloaked in a warm flickering glow.
Rio followed Cathy to the table, taking the seat across from her.
Cathy steepled her fingers and watched Rio curiously. “Did you bring a belonging of the person you’re looking to contact?” she asked.
Rio nodded, producing a worn stuffed animal from her bag.
Memories of her childhood came flooding back as she thumbed over the animal’s missing nose. She had gotten so upset with Ryoga for throwing the toy, and had never recovered the button that had sprung off when it landed. And she had always meant to touch up the worn down stitching on its whiskers…
Cathy picked up the plush cat, turning it over to inspect the different patterns of fabric stitched together. “Ah, a cat person should feel very comfortable here. We might have luck after all,” she mused. “Who did this belong to?”
Rio exhaled a shaky breath. “Someone who used to live in our house before we did. The family died unexpectedly in a car crash,” she said.
“That’s horrible,” Cathy said, her ears drooping as her face fell. She placed the stuffed toy in the center of the table almost reverently, carefully adjusting its position so it was sitting up, emotionless plastic eyes staring back at Rio just as it always had in her room at home.
“Well, I understand why they’re having a difficult time transitioning, if their lives ended so abruptly. Hopefully we will be of some help.”
She reached her hands across the table. Rio reluctantly took them in hers, grateful that Cathy was wearing gloves so she wouldn’t feel how cold and sweaty her palms had become.
Cathy closed her eyes and began to whisper unfamiliar words under her breath. Rio tried to follow her lead and shut her eyes too, but as she did the room began to darken around them, sending a familiar wave of uneasiness through her.
Her eyes fluttered open just in time to watch the flames circling them sway to one side, then the other as though a breeze had just swept across the room. She shuddered and held Cathy’s hands tighter. Her classmate continued her chant.
In an instant the rain stopped pounding on the roof. A heavy silence descended on the room, smothering all the candles out at once. Trails of smoke danced through the air from the doused wicks. Rio held her breath and watched helplessly as the stuffed cat before her slumped over in its place.
The shadows were back now, stronger and more clearly defined than ever. She could see them in the corners of her vision, leaking from the walls of the room and flooding everything around her.
Her heart raced.
“Cathy?” Rio hissed. “Something’s not right.”
Cathy didn’t respond, continuing to mutter strange words under her breath as though in a trance.
“CATHY!” she called, her voice filled with panic. But her friend didn’t seem to hear.
The shadows reached out from behind Rio and hands heavy with precious regal jewelry and the weight of majesty covered her mouth and dragged her down, strangling her cries. Cathy’s grip on her loosened, and Rio’s chair tipped back, sending her crashing to the ground that shattered like shards of ice before everything filled with darkness.
Distracted by a shifting feeling of weightlessness, it took a moment to regain the ability to breathe. Rio could still hear her heartbeat thundering in her head as she dared to open her eyes.
Gravity settled back around her, and she was no longer on the ground, but sitting once again at the table. The candles around the room flickered with quiet blue flames, casting everything in an unnatural coldness.
Across the table the sharp red eyes that glared back at her were familiar. She had seen them every day of this life when she looked in the mirror. But they weren’t hers.
“You’re…” she started in a voice that wasn’t her own.
“Rio Kamishiro,” the girl across from her finished.
Rio held up her hands, now covered in black laced gloves, with delicately painted claws.
“No… this isn’t right. What happened?” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “Where is Cathy?”
“What do you care?” the girl snapped at her. “You’re nothing but a thief, taking over the lives of whoever stands in your way. Is this really any different from what you did to me? Or Iris?”
She hadn’t meant for any of that to happen, but perhaps it was inevitable. Rio had given up control many centuries ago, to whatever powerful deity wished to venture into this world through her and speak with her people.
And control of her body had only waned with time.
She thought of Crystalzero, the powerful ancient goddess who had single-handedly saved her kingdom, now trapped within the confines of a single card. She was no different herself; her own form ill-fitting and fleeting. She wasn’t Rio Kamishiro, nor was she truly destined to become a Barian before that, or mingle within the soul of the small girl on the battlefield even earlier.
“I didn’t ask for any of this,” she insisted, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. “All I wanted was to stay by my brother’s side.”
“You don’t belong here,” the girl across the table growled, her eyes flashing in the strangely lit room.
“I don’t know where I belong,” she whispered, “nor how to get there.”
The girl pounded her firsts on the table, and Rio jumped. The glowing blue flames seemed to bob with her.
“I don’t care!” the girl from the mirror wailed. “I’m not where I should be either!”
She crumpled back down into her chair and began to weep. “I don’t know where the rest of my family is,” she sobbed, grabbing onto the sides of the table to steady herself .
“Your family… I know where they are.”
Tourmaline eyes wet with tears looked up at her. They were the eyes of a small child, but they sparkled with a faint glimmer of hope.
“Please, just take me there. I want to go home,” the girl said.
Draped across the table in her outburst and sniffling now, Rio truly understood just how young the original Rio and Ryoga were when their lives were cut short.
“I will,” she promised quietly.
The girl blinked at her, her eyes searching Rio’s as she considered the offer. Rio didn’t dare to move, but she kept her unfamiliar face as neutral as she could manage under the girl’s inspection.
After what felt like an infinitely long silence, the girl leaned back in her chair, her lips quirked in a strange smile. A gust of wind swept through the room, ruffling dark blue hair and snuffing out all the candles in an instant.
“You better!” the wind howled in her ear as it swept past with a dark laugh.
Rio’s vision swam as the room twisted around her, everything tilting on its side. She screwed her eyes shut and stumbled out of her chair for a few steps until her feet could no longer find purchase and she fell, holding her breath for a drop that never came.
When she dared to open her eyes again she was on the floor, still lying in her chair as it had fallen back. Concerned turquoise eyes blinked over her.
“Are you okay?” Cathy asked, kneeling on the floor beside her.
Rio looked around. The room was as it had been when they first entered. Though the candles were no longer lit, the room still smelled of a lingering smoke.
“I…”
She ran her fingers through long blue hair, relieved at how familiar the motion felt.
She was… herself.
Cathy embraced her with gentle arms. “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re okay.”
Rio squeezed Cathy’s hand as tears clouded her vision. A dark-colored cat rubbed his head against her leg, and she reached out to feel its silky fur as she finally let her tears fall.
Outside the storm continued. But the thunder had subsided, and the rain was no longer pouring down as harshly.
———————————
“I don’t know how these things usually go,” Ryoga admitted, his gaze fixed on the towering obelisk before them. The suit he wore was dark and ill-fitting. It had been years since he had last worn it.
Rio sighed. “I don’t know either. But we should try. No one else knows they’re really gone, right?”
She knelt down at the base of the tombstone, tracing her fingers over their parents’ names. Not their parents, the voice in the back of her head warned her. Though she felt her eyes warm with tears at the memories of their embrace nonetheless.
She placed a modest bouquet of flowers on the ground below them, a spread of white tulips tumbling to the grass. Then she positioned the plush cat beside them.
Ryoga stood stiffly behind her. He pursed his lips as though he had something else to say, but thought better of it.
Rio elbowed him roughly. “Go on,” she said.
Ryoga huffed, but leaned forward and dropped a small toy shark next to Rio’s plush.
“There,” he said, stepping back and shoving his hands in his pockets.
“Thank you,” Rio said, with an approving nod.
She cleared her throat and bowed her head, raising her hands to the heavens.
“Rio and Ryoga Kamishiro, it was unfortunate your lives ended far too soon. And while my brother and I are grateful for the new start you provided us, we’re sorry that our existence doesn’t allow those who knew you to mourn you properly. But in your memories, we’ve had the opportunity to understand your kindness and appreciate the love you held for each other and your family. So please know that you are missed, and your memory will always live on with us, in this life and beyond. We hope this allows you to find peace and reunite with your parents.”
Gray clouds rolled overhead, and a gentle breeze ruffled the flowers where they rested. The siblings looked out across the rows of headstones together in silence. Rio listened for any voices in the wind, but heard none.
Finally, Ryoga gave Rio a small smile. “You’ve always been very good with this kind of thing,” he said, an uncharacteristic hint of tenderness in his voice.
“I know,” Rio said. “I just wish it got easier with practice though.”
She took her brother’s hand as they headed home. And for the first time in a long time, she felt truly like herself.
Thank you so much to Scattered_Irises for this beautiful illustration! They captured everything I had in my head while writing this so perfectly!
I'm so thankful to have such an incredibly talented and kind friend, and so honored my story inspired you!!