Stories Never Told

November 2nd 2014; 10:23 PM

This isn't really a new story.

... Way to start off with a disappointment, right? XD Sorry.
Anyway, I thought about making one of these a while ago but only become serious about it a few days ago. This is a collection of short stories - or rather, small segments of what could possibly become long stories. It's basically a 'trial and error' kind of strategy. I present you a short(ish) segment with the main themes and ideas of the idealized 'long version' and you guys tell me what you think.

If a certain oneshot here were to get absolutely outstanding results and is full of overwhelming potential, I might even consider developing it into a full-length story. (This is however unlikely, seeing as I've already got four on-going stories.)

Knowing me, of course, many of these stories will have extremely dark themes - especially this very first example. Some of you may find these disturbing. If so, please move along, I don't want to force you to read something you don't like. However, if you do feel you are unable to read it - whether it be because of genre, length, quality, anything at all - please, PLEASE let me know by review. Or PM, if you hate it too much to review it. It would be a great help.

This fic won't be regularly updated (although what fic of mine is? ^^"). I will randomly post these short stories whenever an idea becomes too tempting to ignore. It's what I like to call... 'playing it safe'. Always use protection. Do as I say, not as I do. ...Wait, what?

Anyway, not every one of these stories will be dark and depressing and give you chills like nails on a chalkboard. Some of these stories may even turn out to be... 'happy'. e_O (Ew, happiness.) I ask you to read this with an open mind, if you please. ^^

Title: LiAR
Characters: N/A
Genre: Angst/Psychological Horror/Survival Horror
Rating: M (No, this is not a lemon.)
Subject: You're about to find out... ;)

Case #1 - LiAR

How does it feel to be puppeted beyond your control?

To be played with like dolls, following script until you drop dead?

I used to live like any other person. I used to play around freely, smile, laugh, enjoy life with the people around me. Happy, my friends and I...

Now they're dead. Or maybe I'm dead. Nothing makes much sense in this world.

All I know for sure is that, only two hours ago, we sat here in class, impatiently counting down the seconds... until our supply teacher suddenly smiled at us. "You're all staying after school today."

Why? we asked. After all, we'd been good students. None of us had done anything wrong. Tohoku-sensei laughed at us. "Because I said so!" She suddenly sounded much younger, much more childish. The way she looked at us all... Those in the back who couldn't see whispered about how bitchy our supply teacher had become. We in the front could only stare back in horror as the sweet young woman we'd had all day faded into... I don't know. A psychopath, I suppose. That seemed like the only logical thing to call her. And yet, what part of this was logical?

Not so long ago, Miki sat in the seat to my right. Now, she lays staring at me from the ground, unmoving, unblinking, clutching a piece of paper tightly in her hand. She isn't breathing, but is she dead? We don't know. We don't know anything.

"Who's next, hmmm? Yu-san?" The girl goes rigid, her eyes revealing more white than blue. Her name is Cynthia, but it's difficult to pronounce- everyone instead calls her by her initials, C. Yu. She's sweet and hard-working... It would be a shame if she died. "You're so quiet. Hm, you seem so innocent, it's hard to imagine someone like you would actually have a secret..." Tohoku Zunko looks to be in her mid-twenties. She acted like it too, until the final bell rang. Then it was as though she'd been possessed... "Do you have a secret, Yu-san?"

"Seriously? That's all C. Yu has to answer?!"

Sensei shoots the student a look. "One more outburst and I'll make sure you'll regret it." As I watch him grumble, I get the feeling he won't take that warning to heart. Everyone here is so stupid... It's almost as scary as our situation.

C. Yu's eyes begin to well up with tears and we all sit still, pitiful but helpless. Sensei seems pleased. "I'll take that as a yes! Well then, Yu-san, tell us... Why did you move here?"

She's a new student this year, having transferred from Korea. She said it was because her father received a promotion. If that's the case, then why is she suddenly hesitating?

"You remember the rules, don't you?" Tohoku-sensei teases. "You know what happens when you lie, right?"

Her gaze flickers to Miki's sprawled body and she begins to cry.

"Liars are terrible, aren't they? Let's hope your mommy taught you your lessons..." And she laughs. She's amused, excited... I stare at her and feel sick to my stomach. What happened to the kind woman who helped solve my math problem earlier? Why won't the classroom door open? When did the air get so tense? What... What's going on?

"I-I..."

"You're taking too long," Sensei says with an exaggerated sigh. "I'm giving you ten seconds... Or else you die."

She can't talk. She's sitting there with this expression on her face- I think she's stopped breathing -She'd lost it already! Someone, get her to talk, someone-

"Five, four, three, tw-"

"THE POLICE!" she suddenly yells, tears streaming down her face. "IT'S ONLY BECAUSE, BECAU-"

"One."

"WE HAD T-" The yelling suddenly stops like something's clogged her vocal chords. And then we all watch as she slumps in her chair and stops moving.

She's dead.

"What she meant to say," Tohoku-sensei says sweetly, "was that she had to escape the police back in Korea. See, Daddy got into some trouble, some really bad trouble... I believe it's called 'human trafficking'?" She smiles and lets it sync in. "Well? Who's next?"

Our class is praised for being very cooperative. Our participation in class is exemplary.

I think this is the first time nobody has raised their hand.

She paces back and forth before the class humming a childish tune, watching us from the corner of her eye. "You all want to get out, right?"

Nobody answers. A few nod.

"But aren't you having fun?"

Silence.

"That's too bad... I've always enjoyed playing with my dollies!"

She suddenly stops pacing and slowly turns to face someone in the front row. "Piko-kun," she says.

I gulp.

"You're a smart boy, aren't you?" she asks, reaching over to pet silvery hair.

I feel goose bumps raising on my skin. I've begun to sweat. My heart is beating twice as fast... and yet, I'm helpless.

"Say... Because you're so smart, I'll make you a deal. Before I ask you anything at all, you get to ask me a question, anything at all! Does that sound nice? After all, you are one of the good boys, right? Good boys nowadays are so hard to find... Wouldn't you agree? Everyone is so spoiled, spoiled rotten. It's because their parents have abandoned proper discipline- don't you think?" Her voice lowers to a whisper. "It's a good thing I'm here to offer proper punishment, right?" Oddly enough, her smile is reflected. It pleases her. "I knew you'd agree. Have you decided on your question?"

There are a lot of things someone can ask in such a situation. 'Who are you?' She'd probably lie. 'Why are you doing this?' It's not important. 'How do we get out?' Would that make her angry?

"What can I do to save myself?"

The words seem to have come out on their own. Everyone stares. Fists clench, lips tremble, rages ignite.

But in the end, I think everyone wishes they could ask that same question.

"Ha! Haha! You're a riot, darling!" She continues to stroke at silver, seeming suddenly very affectionate. "Alright. I'll make you a special deal, then. You can save yourself for this round... Or you can die. Are you ready, honey?"

"... Y-Yeah."

"Sheesh," Yukari mumbles behind me. "What an asshole. He's always so quiet too..."

"It's always the quiet ones," Dell mumbles.

Tohoku-sensei stops smiling. "Who said that?"

Dell's eyes go wide as he realizes his screw-up. He doesn't declare himself. It doesn't matter; everyone is staring at him until he finally owns up and stands. I admire his bravery- I thought he would have hid or tried to pass the blame.

"Choose someone."

Choose someone?

He looks extremely hesitant - after all, every decision has a consequence here. Minutes seem to pass. Finally, he makes his choice. "Hibiki Lui."

The boy perks at the sound of his name. I know him; he's rather small for his age and often teased for his girlish looks. His big eyes flicker back and forth from Dell to Sensei, questioning, but not all too worried. He seems filled with some kind of innocence, like he doesn't quite understand what's going on. It's Rin that reacts in his place. "Dell, you ASSHOLE!" Rin... My best friend's sister. I wonder how long it will take her to die. ...Not much longer, I'll bet.

"What was I supposed to do?!" Dell exclaims. "I had to pick somebody!"

"You could have just picked yourself!"

"Are you stupid?! I don't want to die!"

... How selfish.

"What's going on?!" Lui asks. He still doesn't get it. Dell was smart to pick him- he's so stupid, he won't last very long anyway. Or maybe it would have been best to pick someone smart... Although we don't even know for sure what Tohoku-sensei is planning...

"Piko-kun - you're listening, right? - I want you to take a good look at Hibiki-kun. He's pretty, right?" Despite himself, the boy blushes. "He's young- he has a good long future ahead of him."
She sits herself on the desk, something teachers are supposed never to do. "So... you want to save yourself, right?" She continues even though there isn't an answer. She doesn't even offer reconsideration. I guess she's decided to skip that.
"Hey... Utatane-kun? Piko darling-chan? I've always believed in a certain saying... 'An eye for an eye.' You've heard it, right? 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a heart for a heart, a little thingie for maybe a slightly bigger one..." She giggles at her own dirty joke. "In conclusion, a life for a life. That reminds me of something... Perhaps my saying that is, hm, 'hitsuzen'?" She sighs. "A shame... he's awfully pretty."

"Wait..." Rin stares. Perhaps she's smarter than I thought.

"You understand, don't you?" Tohoku-sensei says cheerfully. "Yes... 'An eye for an eye'. Piko-kun, if you want to save yourself... You understand, right?"

This isn't right. This isn't right.

"Oh, you're standing! So you're going to do it?"

This isn't right. This isn't ri- I have to. I have to do it.

"Utatane-kun, I- Wh- Wha-?! G-Get away! I WON'T LET YOU TOUCH HIM!"

And yet only she reacts. Only she tries to stop me. The rest sit there, unmoving, unblinking, stupefied, stupid. This is what humanity really looks like: Selfish individuals that can't be bothered to wrong rights because they fear hurt to their own precious bodies.

Because of them, there'll be one less body to fear about.

"Hey, Piko-kun!" Len's hand is on my shoulder. "You're only joking, right?" He tries to pull me back. I smack his hand off.

I deserve to live - not these pathetic stupid kids that can't even think for themselves. In fact, I might be doing them a favor...

Hands tug and pull on me. His throat is soft and I realize how easy it would be to slice right through it. It's too easy to kill a human being... far too easy.

"Don't hate me," I hear myself whisper. "'A life for a life'..."

He claws at my hands, staring at me with a terrified face. His face is changing colour. How... cute.

"I'LL KILL YOU, PIKO!" She's pounding on my back with her puny little fists, putting in an effort but not doing any good. Her friend dies here in my hands and she doesn't even have the courage to try the same on me, to use violence to save someone she loves.
I guess she must not have loved him that much.

"Glghh-" The gurgling sounds he makes as he struggles for even the slightest breath- Tohoku cackling away in the background- Rin's screaming, Len's panicked blubbering- I can't hear it. I can't think of anything but this life in my hands, this body losing strength because of me, his clock ticking away faster and faster-

And then suddenly there's an exploding pain in my shoulder. "What th-" Again! Fucking hell, what is thi-"

"I told you-" Rin says, plunging once more into my side. "I- Said- I'd- Kill you!" It's a... a pocket knife... Not enough to kill me, but enough to make me let go. Someone pulls Hibiki-kun away from me. Len desperately tries to do the same to his sister.

It's funny how different she looks now. She snarls and scratches, her face distorted with rage, her clothes and skin now stained with my colour.
... She looks good in red.

I'm weaker but I'll be fine. Tohoku-sensei promised to save me.

She looks so thrilled by this development, grinning on her desktop perch. It only becomes brighter when Hibiki's death is announced.

I... I killed him. His death- I caused it. I killed him.

He's dead because of me.

Rin seems to be having a mental breakdown. Len has her on his lap, keeping her there by using a broken chair foot as a seatbelt. He doesn't look very calm himself, though. His expression is hollow, he looks broken, and when he catches my eye...
I like the look on his face. It suits him.

My wounds gush, drips painting the floor in bright red. ...It's so much prettier than the plain white.

Am I insane?

"How do you feel?" Tohoku-sensei asks me.

The class goes quiet. Everyone stares at me. I can only gaze at my bloody hands. "I... I feel... dirty." It feels like my classmates are relieved. I can't quite comprehend why.

"Dirty?" She ponders this. "I guess I can relate. Still... there's another feeling too, isn't there?"

She's right, of course. Perhaps we have a few things in common- perhaps Tohoku Zunko also stood in my place, staring at her hands, feeling that same dirtiness. Perhaps she knows of that underlying exhilaration, the adrenaline that rushes through my veins, the smile that threatens appearance. "It feels good." She must have made me say those words. I wouldn't be so stupid... so honest. That's insanity.

"You... MONSTER!"

Is that what I am? And yet, I'm the only one who'll get out of here. I was the only one smart enough to make a deal.

I'm the only smart one amongst you idiots.

And then my head starts to ache - a loud twang resounding within my ears, a splitting pain in the back of my skull. Things go blurry before suddenly becoming black and I'm left wondering what could have happened.

"L-Len!"

He drops the metal chair leg to the ground. One end is now a different colour. ...It's suiting.

He covers his mouth with the back of his hand and sinks onto his knees. "I only meant to knock him out-!"

Sensei, surveying the scene, comments casually: "In the end, I guess he was the real idiot here." She smiles at the golden-haired boy, shell-shocked. His broken sister is the only one who comforts him- the rest stare with fright. He is not their saviour; simply another murderer. The second of many. "He thought he'd be let out... No, he'd only get to skip this round. But he never bothered to ask." She pauses. "Do you want to know what his question would have been?"

"We don't care," Dell mumbles, shrunken in his seat. He's almost surprised to realize he speaks truly; after what they've seen, they no longer care about each other's secrets. They just want to get out, before they end up like Piko.

"If he'd said no," Sensei says anyway, "his question would have been this: 'At this current moment in time, are you happy?'"

"No one's happy," Rin says, more to herself than to anyone else.

"You're wrong. If he wanted to live, the only answer would have been 'yes'." There aren't any gasps this time. It seems the weight of the air has only become heavier. "He really hated you... all of you." Nobody comments. They stare at the twins, still crouched over a narcissistic corpse. By the looks of it, Len has also lost this round- at least, he's lost his mind.

Is this what we are fated to become?

"So... I guess that's two more points for me." She stands and smiles. "Who's next?"

And to think... This is only Round One.

November 2nd, 2014; 10:22 PM

Ah, so... it's still a little rough. The character undergoes some major morality changes rather quickly... O_O He starts off sounding as scared as the others, then suddenly becomes this desperate bargainer, then immediately changes to become more and more arrogant... This is because I didn't have all my ideas planned out when I began. ^^" I decided on the idea of 'In this classroom, lying will kill you' and rolled with it.

I had no idea who my character even was at first. I just wanted him to be male. At first it was Len and the first victim was Rin, who would be asked about her feelings for her brother. She'd be too embarrassed to answer until Len told her it'd be best to spit it out and she'd admit her feelings. (He already knew anyway and rejected her. Asshole.) However, I wanted to show that lying would kill you, and since Rin would live in that scenario... Also, there's more.

In this series, I want to try using characters that are not quite so often used. For example, the main character in this story is Piko. I'm not a huge fan of his voice bank (although when he's used well, my gosh, better bring an extra pair of panties XD), however, I do love the character I've built around him. ... Yes, this is because of his characterization in 'Lost and Found'. However, he's not used all that much in stories. I don't know if I'd use him as a MC in one of my stories either. And so I thought he deserved a spotlight if only in this subseries. ... Even though he is portrayed as a narcissistic sociopathic killer. ... Well, better than nothing, right?

Also, Tohoku Zunko. I feel like I've doomed her and that everyone will now hate her forever and it'll all be my fault. QwQ I beg, please don't hate Zunko- I actually really like her! I made her the teacher not because I think she's a complete sadistic bitch, but only because she matched my mental picture of the teacher - long, straight black hair, to be specific. The only Vocaloids with hair like that are Zunko, Mew, VY1 Mizki (depending on interpretation, of course), aaaaaand... Is that it? Huh.
To be honest, the first thing I thought when I saw Zunko's design was: 'SHOTA-LOVER'. I don't even know why, but I'm absolutely convinced she's as bad as Pedo-Dell. ^^" I ship her with the poor, widely-hated Gachapoid, who never really got a fanon pairing for himself. Well, now he has it, Gachapoid x Zunko. XD Is this what they call a 'crack pairing'? But I swear, it looks good if you look at it my way! Because she's supposed to be this perfect straight-A high school student but she has this super terrible secret that can ruin her life and it's that she's actually a pedophile and Gachapoid just activates all of her moe moe senses and she just-
Nothing. You heard nothing.

As for the story itself, it is, as you may have guessed, largely inspired by a certain arc in the Bakuman manga. You figured, right? And so, I must kindly thank Tsugumi Ohba (as well as Takeshi Obata), for without your genius, this story likely wouldn't exist. Oh, and my thanks to Tohru Nanamine as well. XP
There's also some Corpse Party atmosphere thrown in there for good measure... You'll be seeing that a lot more often. It is one of my favorite games now, somewhat of an idol itself. You'll often in the future notice that its stories and my own will share many tropes.

As I probably mentioned before, this series will not regularly be updated- it's only here for me to test out various ideas and/or get rid of certain story concepts that never became multi-chap stories. This oneshot will not see any sequel unless I (by some miracle) decide to develop it into its own full-length story.

Anyway, it's time I explain how I'd like you to rate these stories.

In the review section (or by PM if you'd prefer), include a rating of this story from 0 to 10, 0 being such shit that you couldn't stand even to look at it, 10 being so absolutely amazing that you'll be thinking about it for the rest of the night and all day tomorrow and there's no way it could get any better.
Then, include a summary of how you felt reading it. Examples can be as simple as 'I found it really surprising' or a complete deconstruction of life as we know it. Be sure to mention any parts you really liked or disliked.

And that's it! I really can't wait to hear your thoughts! ^^

Also, I now have a forum on Fanfiction about writing. It is a forum containing tips on writing, especially within the Vocaloid fandom. We'll go in-depth about genres and figure out how to stay in character- not to mention avoiding Mary-Sue characteristics! Join me, it'll be fun! The forum is called... Uhhh... Footnotes of a Know-it-All, I think. Please, check it out!

~Naty17

(Hmm… What's next? Perhaps a oneshot based off of that Red story I was supposed to write long ago? ^^ Maybe that light-hearted story about a young writer? –Yes,Ididsaylight-hearted,it'sactuallypossibleformetowritethose- What about that story from a long time ago based off of Imitation Black? ^^ Feel free to suggest anything you'd like to see, I'll definitely consider it. Toodaloo~!)

Reviews are very appreciated.

Please see the end of the A/N above to fill out the survey... thing.

Thank you!