1~You have my soul

Note: the guardians are now high school guardians. It's the original gang with Nagi instead of Nade, and Rima and Kairi. Also, single quotations ( ' ) are used to convey thoughts. And the side couples are amuto, kutau, kaiya. But their relationships won't have a huge role in the story.

Rated: T, but it may eventually change to M because of violence and gore.

A/N: My first published fanfic... I feel so proud of myself! But I am aware that the beginning is kind of poorly written, because I wrote it like a year ago, but I'm pretty sure it gets better by the end. So please hold out until then. Thanks! :)

It is such a shame... you had so much life ahead of you. It is simply horrible that you were murdered so brutally by the one you loved the most.

Rima was home alone for one of the first times in her life, and she was not doing too well. Because of her parent's over-protectiveness, the fifteen year old had never been permitted to stay at home by herself. Since her dad had moved to England and gotten remarried, though, her mother had been more accepting. And because of this, Rima was sitting on the couch of her living room all alone, save for Kusukusu, waiting for the rest of the guardians to come over for their meeting.

Rima was very paranoid at the moment. Every creak or groan the house emitted caused her heart to beat just a little bit faster and her head to snap back and forth, which amused Kusukusu to no end. She had known that Amu was a scaredy-cat, but she had never before known her bearer to be one.

"Why are you scared, Rima?" Kusukusu asked, after Rima jerked her head to the right as a tree's branches tapped on the glass of the window.

"I read in the newspaper that a teenage girl staying home alone was kidnapped last week…" Rima muttered, while glancing over at the front door for the fifth time that hour to make sure it was locked, "So I'm kind of on edge."

"You'll be fine, Rima!" Kusukusu insisted, but Rima didn't look convinced, "If you need to, we can just character transform and use Juggling Party!"

"I guess…" Rima muttered. She looked at her orange cell-phone laying in the coffee table longingly; she really wanted to call Amu and have her come over early right now, but she also wanted to prove to her mother that she was old enough to stay home by herself. She inched her fingers towards it, before shaking her head in annoyance and pulling back. "No, I can do this." Rima told herself, as Kusukusu imitated Ran in an optimistic cheer. But Rima still couldn't convince herself that she was able to do this; images of her attempted kidnapping from years ago flashed across her mind, as she struggled to keep them down.

Rima held back a shudder, as she heard something scrape the window from outside. She knew that it was windy outside, and probably just a tree, but she turned around to see what it was anyway. Surprisingly, nothing was there.

"That's odd…" Rima muttered, as she stood up and slowly crossed the room towards the window, with Kusukusu following behind her, "I could have sworn I heard something."

She walked up to the closed window and unlatched it while Kusukusu told her, "It was probably nothing!"

She cautiously unlatched the lock, and pushed on the cool glass. 'Just the wind. Just the wind.' Rima told herself, as the window smoothly opened. She stuck her head through the parted glass, and was met with a face full of icy wind. 'See? nothing.' All that was out there were trees swaying back and forth in time to the breeze and dead leaves that the wind had picked up somewhere.

Rima slowly lowered her gaze, and stopped with a start. Right below her eyes was a human face, pure white, with blood pouring down it, and hollow pure-black eyes. There was a wicked smirk on its face, and Rima simply stared at it for a moment before the pure terror she had been feeling took over. She screamed a loud scream as she jerked back and slammed the window shut quickly. Struggling to lock it with her fumbling fingers, Rima quickly stumbled back away from the window.

"Did you see that?" she whispered in croaky voice to her guardian character, who nodded fiercely. Her heart thundered in her chest, as she struggled over to the coffee table and her cell-phone. As she stumbled across the room she heard a thumping sound from above her head, and she slowly moved her head to stare at the ceiling. The noise seemed to be making its way across one of the rooms, causing Rima's heart to stop. She quickly snatched up her phone and pushed her speed dial.

"Hello?" she heard a calm voice echo after the phone rang for several agonizing seconds.

"Nagihiko," Rima croaked, as she strained her ears to hear a door upstairs slowly creak open, "I need you."

Thinking back on it, Rima didn't really know why she called Nagihiko of all people. She was much closer to Amu, or so she said, and Kukai seemed more like the fearless type. But somehow her hand had guided itself over the three on her phone that was reserved solely for Nagihiko. And when he showed up at her front-door five minutes later, she was glad she had asked him of all people to come.

When she quickly flung the door open, she saw Nagihiko doubled over, his hands on his knees, panting deeply. It's was obvious that he had run all the way there from his own house upon hearing that she was in trouble and needed his help. After a brief moment of silence in which Rima felt as though she fell madly in love with him, he asked between deep pants, "What's wrong?"

"I saw a bloody face below that window-" Rima pointed to the window across the room, "and then heard something move around upstairs!"

Nagihiko thought about how preposterous this whole situation was for a moment; Rima, the strong-silent type had run into something so horrible that she was freaking out like Yaya would (her fidgeting, eyes darting back and forth nervously, and the way she chewed on her thumbnail made this clear) and she had asked him of all people to help her?

"Are you sure you saw a bloody face?" Nagihiko asked skeptically, obviously finding that too weird to be true. Rima glared at him harshly.

"No, I made it up. What do you think?"

"Besides, I saw it too!" Kusukusu suddenly burst in with a fearful expression on her face from where she floated besides Nagihiko's own guardian characters. "It was really scary!"

As Rhythm patted Kusukusu's back comfortingly, Nagihiko asked Rima, "And are you sure you heard something upstairs too?"

"Yes! I heard something moving around, and I think I heard a door open, and nobody's here right now except for me!" Rima exclaimed before biting her lip. Nagihiko sighed.

"I think your nerves just got the better of-" He cut himself off as he heard a creaking sound from above his head. Nagihiko and Rima's eyes widened as they bore into the ceiling, following the sound as it moved overhead.

"Nagihiko," Rima whimered, terrified beyond all belief. She grasped the boy's arm to her, trying to take comfort in it. Nagihiko gulped, torn between playing the hero or throwing Rima over his shoulder and running home as quickly as possible.

"Maybe it's just the wind or a mouse or something," Nagihiko speculated, although he didn't even sound like he believed himself at all.

"I don't think so, Nagihiko. I sense a weird presence in the house," Temari said in a low voice that was unlike her. The other guardian characters nodded their heads in unison, all three of them wearing the same grave expression. They could feel something somewhat like an x-character but much different than the awkward eggs. It felt, how could they put it… sinister.

"I think we should get out of here ASAP, Nagi," Rhythm said, his playful tone lost in his throat.

Nagihiko opened his mouth but stopped as the creaking intensified, almost as if it were calling out to the two young teenagers. For some reason, Nagihiko almost felt drawn to it. "I don't know… I feel like we should go look for it. Maybe it's nothing bad after all."

Nagihiko moved his arm and took Rima's hand in his. Under normal conditions she would protest this, but all she could do was squeak with the fear consuming her body. Nagihiko slowly walked towards the stairs, pulling a hesitant Rima after him. She lagged behind a little bit, reluctant to go near what was surely the bloody face wandering her upstairs.

"Are you crazy?" Rima managed to choke out as Nagihiko dragged her to what she knew would surely be her death. Nagihiko shrugged but kept walking, albeit at a slightly slower pace. As their feet stepped on the stairs leading to the upstairs, an ominous creaking echoed beneath them. Rima shuddered, trying to block out the sound and focus on something else. Kusukusu chuckled nervously by her shoulder, as if weakly trying to comfort her bearer. Rima could feel the sweat passing from her hand to Nagihiko's, and she desperately wanted to wipe it off but couldn't bring herself to let go. For some reason, she felt safer holding onto him, even though it would probably do no good whatsoever.

Upon reaching the upper floor, a loud groan emitted itself from the bathroom, causing Rima to jump into Nagihiko. He tightened his grip on her hand, and slowly pulled her towards the noise. For some reason he could not explain, he felt as though the presence there was calling out for him, almost as if they were connected.

"Na-Nagihiko," Rima whispered, intending to beg him to take her back downstairs, but she found that the words would not form in her throat. Nagihiko didn't respond but instead just walked up to the bathroom door. He gulped while staring at it, summoning up his courage. He slowly reached out with trembling fingers which in turn wrapped around the cool metal of the knob. After stepping to his right so that he was in front of Rima, he quickly opened the door, taking in a sharp breath.

Inside was... absolutely nothing.

The shower curtain fluttered with the sudden burst of wind from the open door, but other than that the room was still. The two teenagers' looks immediately changed from scared to confused. There was nothing inside that would cause such a noise… Nagihiko flicked on the light switch and the two hurried inside."There's nothing here! What the hell was that?"

"I have no idea," Rima answered in an equally surprised voice. She glanced at the mirror and saw her own face reflected in it, with unusually pale skin and a nervous frown.

"Maybe it was in the other room th-" Nagihiko started to turn around, but stopped at the sight he saw. In the doorway was a tall figure with white skin, hollow black eyes, and a cruel smirk.

Nagihiko couldn't find the words to say what was on his mind. His eyes bore into the dark hollow holes on the face of the other figure, trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at. A croaking sound exited his throat, as his mind spun at the horrifying revelation that something was indeed in Rima's house and that that something probably did want to kill her and probably even him now.

"What is it?" Rima asked, confusion evident in her voice as she turned away from the mirror to look at him. Her eyes widened at the horrified and vacant look on her friend's face. His pupils had shrunk considerably, his mouth was agape in a small "o" and lines are fear were etched onto his face. Nagihiko's eyes finally pulled themselves away from the living horror in the doorway, and met Rima's own fearful ones for just a moment. At once he knew he had to protect her, and for that reason alone he was able to snap out of his horror-filled trance.

He ran at the door, with no regard for what may happen if the figure had a concealed weapon on him. Rima snapped her head towards the door as he rushed forward, and her eyes widened as well as they met the figure once more. She let out a blood-curdling scream, one that caused the hairs on Nagihiko's neck to stand on end. Finally reaching the door he slammed it shut quickly, thankful the door opened inside, and clicked the look shut. Nagihiko leaned up against it, pushing up against the wood as though doing so would reinforce the lock holding it in place. Letting out a short sigh of relief, he tried to block out the sound of fingernails scrapping against the wood from the other side.

"Are you okay?" Rima managed to whisper, as her head spun with the shock of it all. Nagihiko panted against the door, his long, spindly fingers desperately pressing against the wood, and nodded breathlessly.

"You?" he asked in a strangled voice, as he turned around and pressed his back to the barrier between the two of them and death. After seeing Rima's head bob up and down in assurance of her well-being, he leaned his own against the door and sank down to the ground.

"What was…" Nagihiko seemed to realize that he would not be able to get an answer to that question and instead asked a different one. "Was that what you saw earlier?"

"Yes!" Kusukusu exclaimed with exuberance that confounded Nagihiko completely as Rima nodded once more.

"Well, then I understand why you were so freaked out," Nagihiko sighed, as he rested his head in a hand. He tried to calm his heart rate by taking deep, calming breaths but it didn't really do much for him at all. "Do you have your cellphone with you?"

"No," Rima looked down with a rather embarrassed look on her face, as if she wanted to smack herself for her stupidity, "I left it on the coffee table. I assume you don't have your's either?"

"I forgot to grab it I was in such a rush to get over here."

There was a long, choking silence that nearly suffocated everyone in the room before Rima could gather the nerve to speak. "Are… are we going to die?"

Nagihiko looked up at Rima standing above him with her hands clenched in fists and a stubborn yet fearful look on her face, and wished that he could say something that would comfort the poor girl.

But all he could do was answer truthfully.

"I really don't know, Rima-chan."

But there was one thing that he knew for certain: he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

A/N: Originally there was planned to be a little bit more in this chapter and then a big cliffhanger, but I decided against it because I'm leaving for Europe tonight and 1: I don't want to have a huge cliffhanger over my 2 week absence and 2: The scene that would have been in here if kinda violent and I may have to change the rating to M, but I won't have time to determine whether or not I should do that now so I decided against it.

Anyway, I've finally gotten somewhere with a fanfic so I posted one now before I could procrastinate any longer! I would greatly appreciate it if you would review and favorite, because I would love to have something to look forward to when I return from Europe next week! Please tell me how I can improve and what you liked so I would have motivation to continue this story when I get back! Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you again soon! :)