The chambers of the toughest prison den opened, welcoming me with the gloomiest dim radiating in its every corner.

He is just cursed. He is not a monster.

It's fine.

I hope he has been well. I wished life have been fair to him. And that he is really calling for me. I missed him... calling my name. His face and the shadows of it I most adored. And his voice that always sharply awakening. My eyes moisten cause after all the years of denial from him... he finally wanted to talk to me again.

He had the initiative to see me again.

Despite all the things he had done, my heart couldn't stop warming knowing it is gonna witness its equilibrium again.

Akin Ezar Vallono. I have longed for you, truly.

I am about to pave the trail as I suppose to do when a loud fall of someone I didn't expect to see disrupted the whole of the dungeon.

The raging firm hold on my feet almost broke my bone. The familiar spice in the owner's voice caused me a lot more weight on my shoulder.

"Reishza!"

They should not do me like this. They should do better than keeping me away from embodying my choice!

With tears threatening to fall, I gazed at the glorious beauty kneeling below me. She lived so prideful and scornfully like Damien. How impossible that she is now hardly struggling below me, humbled and demeaned. She used to be a wench in our love story. My ultimate hater and my lover's stingy sister.

And she loves him so much, so to see her in her most feeble form, wanting to keep me away of her very own brother, for my own sake, broke my soul.

"Hi, Rye..." I unhurriedly greeted with a placid smile cause her eyes were too loud of denying me my decision, and I couldn't allow us to reflect the same worries in our minds. We can't be soft at the same time. Can't be both hopeless during this tough time. This isn't the best choice I know, but its for the best.

This is what our fate is. I will try to not follow to it. But it isn't guaranteed. It has been written in our destiny. And we are just mere beings wanting to challenge our fortune.

Yet I can't help but drop my smile, as I listen to the words I kept hearing, now directly from her mouth.

"Don't enter! Stop doing this... He is not who we know anymore, Reishza. It took him!"

Her words are too much for me, almost making me root in place but the following verities moved me to stop staying still. The scar on her hand is too much for me!

I kneeled with her. "What are these?"

A cut on her neck looked so fresh, it was too deep, that it couldn't stop shoving itself on my face. I frantically traced all of her body and saw them full of long scars and dark bruises I couldn't count. Those were critical and unsightly. She is full of them!

"Ryelia, answer me! Where are these from?!" I panicked.

Her sob turned louder and louder as she shook her head. And the moment she speak of it, my hold on her weakened.

"I was just telling him to stop it all... He never listens..."

The hands I am raking her body with trembled drastically. That was not right...

There must be something wrong in this place, twisting her words in my head. Narrating things that someone's curse wants me to hear. That was not what she told me.

I braved her eyes and saw more of what I should be shaking for. It isn't as invincible as before... it changed to a duller shade of red. She is visibly stressed, unfocused, and forlorn. And that color, doesn't it mean... exhaustion and frailty?

"Please! He is not my brother anymore! Stop it! He's gonna kill you..." she cried hard on my feet.

I held her rocking shoulders and glided away the disheveled hair on her down face. My eyes moistened more when she refused my eyes after the whole state of her face revealed itself on my watch.

"Rye..." my voice broke.

She shook her head, bringing back all the hair to cover them again.

The deep claws, the nasty cuts, and the line marking her forehead until her chin.

Her shoulders started shaking fiercely as soon as I firmed my hand on it.

"Rye...until when-" I called again. "How long have you..."

How long has she dwelled these alone? How could she let it happen? Why did she hide this from all of us?

Rain is going bloodshot for this. And I will be in deep dread stopping him from killing... him.

"Don't tell them about it as you go back," she pleaded.

"No."

"You don't understand!" she roared.

I squared up.

"You cannot say otherwise to me now!"

I grabbed my hair tie and caught all of her messy hair in a bun. The correct way to show all of her state while she is frailly blockading her face with her hands.

"You wench-"

"Stop refusing Rain now. Let him bring you back to Relimenia, you are not doing well here... look at you!"

She glared at me black just by hearing his name.

But then it progressed to a weak glare... until the tears cascaded like waterfalls out of her heart.

"He's just gonna go mad for it! He would scold me to hell for these! I can't. I can't let him see me like this... he'd rather anyone else. I can't afford to see that. I'd rather us not meet again... Reishza please do not let us see each other again..." her ruffled voice shook as I brought her worries to my chest.

If only I could get her pain, I'd get it. Once and for all, I wanted to shoulder it all. From my brother, Miro, Rain, my father, and grandma... the whole of our sovereignty, I want to get it from them. For once, I want to end it all.

"He'll not forgive me-"

"I am mad too right now. For you, doing this to yourself." I hugged her gently. "And Rain will definitely go mad at you for sure. He has been since you left,"

She rudely cut off, rebelling on my wrap. "I know about that. Stop repeating it to me-"

Hence, I firmed.

Damien and she are really so alike.

"But he was only angry about what has been done, not what you've done. He was never angry with you... and your sacrifices... believe me he understood it all."

I cried with her when Rain's face slipped on my mind. And the changes it made him. The adjustments he tried to hide from all. The pain he dealt quietly by himself. The longing concealed behind his smiles. And the gazes that has been drifting somewhere... far away.

"He was just scared of what you are gonna do without him. That's what vexed him. Cause he knows you are relentless without him as your anchor and yet you chose to drift away without a promise that you are coming back, safe in his arms. "

Ryelia firmly shook her head. "My brother... I was trying to do things independently-

"It's okay. I understand," I caressed more of her shaking body.

"But know that it is also not that bad to call for him when the tides are drowning you, and you feel your independence couldn't save you from it. It is not wrong to acknowledge you couldn't do it when you honestly really can't..." my voice ran hoarse. "I know... because that is how your brother needs me. And that is exactly what I want him to say to me. That he is vulnerable and I... could be his strength during his mess,"

"You can't be this dumb!" she wailed and withdrew in my arms. I smiled when her truest color screamed even in her weakest form.

"I am indeed." I agreed, calmly tracing the cut on her neck. "And I hope this foolishness will be strong enough for us... for everyone"

Her arms snaked at me and she cried heavily on my chest again all at once. Her chest is unstoppably rising and falling while mine contracts then and there as I recall how he loves her so much he is ready to wage war just by a mere push of her.

And yet, he became the reason for her most agonizing pain.

"Where has he gone..."

I tore away the glistening tears in my cheeks as we soothe each other in each embrace. We indulged ourselves in the pain we can't ever invalidate.

"If he is indeed lost, I'll look for him. Hush now... I'll lead him from hereon. He'll be back to us" I finally vowed as I tap her back lightly... inhaling hard to prepare myself.

Cautiously lifting my arms, I swiftly injected the sedative into her back before letting go.

She tried reaching me but I am fastly out of her reach and the potion is already working mercilessly on her nerves. I gave my signal to the only guarding vampires left.

"Escort her out, please" I demanded and they instantly came for her. "Gently... and give her only to Rain,"

She is firmly shaking her head all the while of them holding her arms. "He doesn't want to be found, Reishza. Go away from him. Listen to me... look at me... Damien is right-"

"Heal, Ryelia. And please tell them I'll be alright. That I am the happiest... to be in his arms again. Fiercely go mad at them for me when they say otherwise... and please... look for them for me. Speak of my ardent love for them, " my voice broke. "I hope we'll meet again..."

"What are you fucking talking abou-"

The door closed, leaving me in darkness with only the twilight as my witness. I feebly fell on my knees when she was out of sight. My eyes darted to the farthest side and saw the cell he had been prisoned for years.

"He could never do that..." I hollered with all of my heart. "He will not lay a hand on her!"

If it is indeed not him anymore, would it be a sin to run from him? If he has really transformed into a monster, do I have to die for him?

And if our fate is indeed already written, what are the chances for us to rewrite it our way?

A deafening and clamorous unfamiliar scream reverberated nonstop, paining both my heart and ears.

Hush now.

I am coming my love.