Spectral Illusions (Naruto fanfic)

Spectral Ghosts Preview

Okay, so for some reason, I always tell fibs when I write these author's notes. Last time, I said Spectral Ghosts would be coming your way soon. How many months has it been now?

I'm sorry; I've been caught up writing something else entirely, and I've been obsessing over it- don't worry, it's probably not gonna end up on Wattpad like everything else XD (for those curious, it's a Final Fantasy fic).

Anyway, here's a quick preview of chapter one of Spectral Ghosts! Warning; it's quite dark and depressing, but I'm keeping to the mood of old Spectral Illusions for this part XD. Don't worry, fluff will follow soon (￣▽￣)

Hope you enjoy! Farewell for now!
______

It was dark. Darker than what she remembered it before she fell asleep. This wasn't home. Where was she?

She felt like she was choking. Her throat was closing in on itself, and no matter how much she tried to heave for breath, it wouldn't come. She was dizzy enough as it was, but now her head spun even more, knocking her feet off balance and stinging her knees with the force of the fall.

Both her mind and her heart ached; she didn't know which one to clutch at first. Her shoulders shuddered as she grasped to discover the root of the pain, and it didn't take her long to figure it out.

The guilt. The gripping guilt and downright shame she felt was hitting her full force. She realised then that she reason for her shaking, her heart racing, was because she could feel the stare, the glare, from the person before her.

Until then, she hadn't really realised there was another with her. They didn't seem willing to help her as she shook on her hands and knees, wheezing for breath and squeezing her eyes shut, willing the tears to stop and hoping for the apparitions to fade. Just as much as they wanted to help her, they wanted to leave.

She looked up, then, and whatever breath she'd gathered up until this point was knocked out of her in one quick swoop. Rin was standing not too far away; the look on her former teammate's face was blank, and her eyes were void of the sparkle she used to hold. She realised then, as Rin continued to stare, just why the brunette looked so... Dead.

Because she was.

An involuntary scream of terror ripped from her throat when she realised that the red on Rin's skin and clothes was blood. She couldn't look away until her eyes landed on the source of the blood; through her chest, right where her heart should sit, was a huge gaping hole, one that she could see the continuing blackness behind her through.

Clapping a hand over her mouth, she shook her head furiously and scrambled from her. Squeezing her eyes shut didn't help; Rin's figure stayed clear in her vision, burned into her brain like a smouldering iron.

"You did this."

She shrieked at the sudden voice. She threw her hands over her ears, though muffle the sound they didn't.

"You killed me."

She shook her head. "No, Rin, no I didn't! It wasn't me!"

"Why did I have to die?"

"I-I don't know! I didn't-"

"Maybe if you'd have come with us, it would have been different. Maybe I wouldn't have died. Maybe Kakashi wouldn't have killed me."

"Stop!" she cried, biting down so hard on her bottom lip that she could taste blood. She had refused to accept the fact that the hands she so loved to hold during a weak moment, the ones so so loved to kiss with a small smile, the ones she vehemently relished in feeling during a passionate embrace, had killed Rin. She wouldn't believe it.

"I wasn't the only one." Rin's voice was loud, and it carried through the endless void in an echo. It sounded like she was miles away, but the echo grew louder as it reached her, almost like she was right next to her.

"No! Stop it, Rin, stop!"

Rin didn't listen as she extended a hand to welcome another to their group. She tried to turn away as they didn't, but her head seemed frozen, stuck in its place as Obito stumbled free from the encroaching darkness. 

The image before her was framed at the back of her skull. She tried to shut her eyes but it was there to welcome her as soon as she did.

There stood Rin, and their teammate beside her, Obito. The young Uchiha should have been smiling, grinning, laughing as he always was- but that was before the accident. Before the mission. Now, his dark eyes stared blankly at her, jaw slightly agape as his whole body slumped to the one side that was still moving; the right side of his body, head to toe, was completely immobile and bloodied.

"Look at what you've done." Rin's voice hit her again like a tonne of bricks. She couldn't look away from Obito, though, to address Rin when she spoke, but she was almost thankful for that. Seeing one of her mutilated friends was horrifying enough.

"I didn't, Rin, I swear! It wasn't me!"

"Exactly. If you'd have been there, you could have saved us."

She'd thought about it many a time herself. Maybe she could have changed the past if she had been with them. Maybe she could have swapped places with one of them, or maybe even saved them.

It was just so unfair, so unjust, that two such young, aspiring, wonderful people were ripped so violently from them in such a short time of one another. It was another stabbing dagger to know that the two maybe even had a possibility of a future together.

"This is all your fault." Rin called. "All of it."

"Rin, please- please, stop. This isn't my fault, Rin."

"All of it."

"It's not my-"

"All of it."

She clutched at her hair, a shaky sob leaving her as she shook her head. "I'm so sorry," she breathed, "My God, I'm so sorry!"

"All of it, Mayako."

"I'm sorry!"

"Mayako!"

And that was when her eyes opened.