Trigger warning: major character death. Unedited and poorly written. I will  fix in the morning . I need sleep.

THERE WAS SOME TERRIBLE BEAUTY ANOINTING YONA'S HEAD LIKE A BRILLIANT HALO. The dancing wind in her hair, moonlight twinkling in her smile, tears of pure joy in her eyes. Euphoria looked good on her. As did death.

Somehow it had all happened so fast. Yet drawn out in painfully slow motion. The car erupted out of the night like a phantom. Striking Yona's petite body unforgivingly.

She was still laughing when her body took flight. Before teary eyed confusion and shock settled in. She'd landed at the foot of a cherry blossom tree. Which had no business bursting into full bloom mid- autumn.

The car crashed into another tree, all too close. Where Levi's cruel eyes shone triumphantly from Dean's body. Which had been ghastly thrown half way out of the car window. A river of blood pooling from his head.

"Don't Yona!" Every leaf that crunches under Gola's weight as she races to her sisters side is but an echo of her heart. Shattering again. Again. And again. "Please don't leave me!"

"Mama?" Yona croaked in between rugged breaths at her younger sister, outstretching a hand to  desperately reach for her.

Gola intertwined their fingers, and pushed bloody curls of hair out of Yona's face. "I'm here, Yona!" She coaxed gently. "Your gonna be alright. Just hang on a little longer!"

"Someone get some help!" Nyx called out, kneeling on the other side of Yona. She couldn't decide what was more dreadful to see, Gola's grief stucken face or her fathers mangled body. "They are gonna be—ok. Yeah, ok." She sounded as though she were trying to convince herself more than Gola.

Whose eyes trailed slowly to her father whom she'd momentarily forgotten about. His eyes were still, glassy and lifeless. A permanent look of terror etched into his handsome futures. Gola shook her head violently, eyes clenched shut tightly.

This isn't a dream. You can't wake up. Levi's voice was like a knife in her mind. "I warned you to turn away little dove."

Plump beads of teardrops slid down her cheeks and her fist clenched. "And I warned you not to hurt my sister." She spoke low with enough venom to poison an empire. I am coming for you shadow demon and may all the godless souls of the sunless world know my name as I set them ablaze.

The echo of his cold chuckle bounced off her skull. "Very well then, come and get me."

The ambulance had arrived in the blink of an eye. Hauling both unresponsive Dean and Yona into the back of their wailing trucks. All around students lingered. Most typing away on their smart phones, spreading the news of the tragedy like wildfire onto any platform they could claw out sympathy. Others wept with their heads in hands, or bawled at the sky. Mourning the death of their queen.

Pitying stares were aimed carelessly in her direction. Along with whispers too much like prayers. But, "Yona isn't dead." Gola stated with a fire blazing in her voice to the growing murmuring crowd, wiping her tears fiercely  as the paramedics closed the doors. I'll find her. Bring her home. And kill him.

——

Empty hospitals at night we're just as haunting as hospitals. It was deadly silent, quiet, freezing and eerie beyond words.

The clock kept ticking. And toking. Somewhere someone was feverishly scribbling on a note pad. Nyx, anxiously tapped her foot while muttering to herself. Gola, did nothing. Nothing, save for starring blankly at the endless white walls all while her mind grew and twisted black.

She pretended she didn't she the female figure standing under a tree across the parking lot. Her eyes alight like suns in the night.

She focused merely on breathing in and out. Along with the feel of her heart sinking like an anchor in her chest. Ignoring her emotions for as long as possible. She wished for nothing more than to be numb to it all. Afraid of what would happen if she allowed herself to feel the tsunami of emotions flooding her mind.

This isn't happening. This has to be one of those pesky shadow demons false tricks. Yes! That's it. She reassured herself. 

A black cat scurried through the motion censored hospital doors. Whimpering deafeningly all the way. Out the corner of her eye, Gola witnessed the cats silhouette on the wall shift and grow into a woman. Sylvia.

There was a shriek. A 'why' so agonizingly fierce it demanded answers from the gods. The power stuttered as if it itself struggled to find words for the grief stricken woman.

To which Gola rose quickly to her feet. Her exhausted eyes trained firmly on the hospital door. There wasn't much more of this she could bare.

"Good or bad news first?" A female doctor with dirty blonde hair and familiar sad azure eyes questioned, clutching her clip board close to her heart.

Do I know this woman? She wondered through squinted eyes.

Seeing the way Gola was glaring at the doctor, Nyx shot to her feet. "Uh, how about bad first."

"Dean Smith has passed. However —his daughter Yona Smith is in a coma."

"I would like to see her." Gola spoke at once. "Now."
————
"I knew that you weren't dead." Gola whispered, her voice thick with emotion as she stroked her sisters cold cheeks. "But everyone, they just kept and kept saying—"

It seemed the wind for once was silent. Listening in. The room however breathed. Humming with the heat of few heartbeats.

Someone. Something. Waited beyond the shadows. Them too, listening.

She chuckled sadly then retreating slowly from Yona's still form. "Hell is no place for the prom queen."

If she closed her eyes and her broken heart wretched apart just a little wider she could hear her older sister sassily quip, "agreed." With an eye roll of course.

"Your sweet tears beckon me like moth to a flame." The shadow prince finally spoke as he quite literally stepped out of the shadows. His voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper. "I drink them in like wine."

at first he was a mere silhouette, and then he was a man.

Gola stopped dead in her tracks. Her soft features warped with distaste. "Oh so you admit you enjoy seeing me tormented...And by your lover nonetheless."

His chuckles filled the room. She could hear his footfalls as he calculatedly made his way closer. "I relish above of all in your life. There is no euphoria greater to me than to hear your heart beat, your uneven breaths—" He paused seeming to recall something which spread a knowing grin across his face. "Those eyes wet."

"Then why?" Elenora all but growled. "Why do you stand by and do nothing while your devilish thugs destroy me?"

The shadow prince was on her then. Vanishing within the blink of an eye. And then appearing Flipping her around and slamming her against the door, trapping her in between the cage of his arms. Something about the way he gritted his teeth was all too human. "I've protected you since the day you were born—You know nothing!"

"I know enough!" She bit back, defiantly glaring up at him. "I know that my mother and father are dead, I know that my sisters soul has been stolen—By vile creatures in the night who can't get over someone who's in one way or another moved on."

The hurt that flashed in his eyes was unmistakable. "Just what are you indicating?"

Within a flash the tables turned. Gola used the entirety of her body weight to flip the shadow demon around so that his back now rested against the door. A pocket knife now rested at his throat. "Leave me alone. Move on, forget Elenora—Just as she has forgotten you."

There was no sincerity in her voice, only melancholy.

"Never."

"Before night's end, I'll carve out this heart you so dearly crave and thrust it into the ancient fire encased in the bleeding willow. we will both perish. our souls lost forever. And that will be the end of your monstrous reign."

"To die at your hands is a honor above all...but I cannot let you do this. Yo—"

The shadow prince never got to finish his sentence "Try to stop me." Was all that was said. And then she was gone.