Chapter 25

"The great loss."
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(⚠︎! This chapter contains violence, gore, murder, etc.)

Y/n still wonder how are the Kings healed so fast, but she didn't bother to ask them about it. yesterday they were so sick that they couldn't even stand up but now they're all very active and busy with each other's business.

Y/n finally finished her last task so she goes to the locker room and grabbed her things before she walks out of the room, the Palace is usually quiet at this hour.

Y/n feels that her eyelids are starting to get heavy but she shakes her head and gently slap her cheeks to keep her awake but that didn't work and she still feels sleepy.

"Y/n!"

Y/n jumps on her spot, she quickly turns around and sees Jimin who has a smile on his pink plump lips, Y/n closes her eyes and sighs, thanks to Jimin she is now wide awake.

He chuckles "Sorry, did I scare you?"

Y/n lazily nods "You did."

She then continues, "I didn't see you around here, how did you come out of nowhere?" She slightly tilts her head as she questioned him, Jimin notices she always does that every time she asks a question, he finds it adorable.

"You're too sleepy to notice that I was walking behind you the entire time." He says as he began to take a step closer.

"Why are you following me?"

He hums and brushes off the hair that was slightly covering her face and he cups cheeks with both of his hands and stares deeply into her eyes.

"You look tired swanie..." His thumb caresses the line under her eyes with a gentle touch that sends butterflies in her tummy.

"You can stay here." Although his words sound more like an order rather than an invitation Y/n still denies it.

"I'm afraid I can't. My mother is waiting for me at home."

Jimin smiled while he tries to not let his anger show. "How about I take you home?"

Y/n shakes her head and takes a step back. "It's already late Jimin, you should go to sleep."

Jimin's hands drop to his sides and he forces another smile again but this one is not too convincing.

"Good night swanie." Y/n hums before she turns around and continues to walk but stopped when she forgot to wish him back.

"Good ni-" she cut herself off when she turns around and Jimin is no longer there, she looks around her surrounding but she couldn't find anyone other than herself standing in the empty hallway.

'Ghost.'

Chills run down her spine and she quickly sprints out of the Palace.

Y/n walks over the cold pavement with her black flat shoes, her footsteps echoed through the silent night, Y/n passed some people on her way but everyone at this time is mostly at their home.

Y/n stops in her tracks when she sees a group of drunk people fighting with each other in front of a pub that isn't far from her, unfortunately, she has to go through them because if not then she has to go the other way.

Y/n sighed and she decides to turn around and walk the other way to get to her home, she is too tired to deal with drunk people now.

However, this side of the street is quieter than the other one so Y/n didn't mind as the silent atmosphere give her the soothing feeling she missed.

She stops walking again when she sees the burned bakery where she used to work, she stares at the burned store with nothing but grieves in her eyes.

Even after months, the woods and the cement are still strong, only some were broken because of the fire.

The police still didn't find the cause of the fire, Y/n doubted that they still investigating this case, so people come up with a conclusion that the Wangs forgot to turn off the fire while they were baking.

Y/n suddenly hears some noise and they were coming from the bakery's backyard, without thinking twice she goes to the backyard to see what's in there.

She gasps and covers her mouth with her hand, she couldn't believe the sight in front of her.

Her eyes welled up as her gaze stays on the white skinny horse that is tied to the tree, she carefully approach the shaking horse with one arm reaching out.

"Elsa..." The horse flinches when Y/n's fingers softly brush through her head, Elsa looks up at the maiden and immediately recognized her.

"Poor you..." Y/n looks away from her face and her eyes go to her body, she can see Elsa's ribcage and her bones through her thick skin, she has no one to feed her so she looks for her food in the trash, maybe that's why she's still alive.

"Wait here." It was almost funny when she realized what she had said, of course she would stay here because she is tied to the tree and she can't move because of her weak state.

Y/n looks around the street to find a food store, she desperately runs to find one but it's almost impossible because it's already late.

Thank God Lucky is on her side, she sees a small booth that sells bread and vegetables, she goes to the booth and sees an old lady behind the counter, Y/n mustered up a kind smile and greets her.

"Good evening." The old lady looks up but didn't say anything to her, she just continue staring at her with those dark tired eyes.

"Umm... I would like to buy ten carrots, two pieces of bread, and a bottle of water please." The old lady still didn't say anything and she grab a plastic bag and put all of her orders in it, the old lady then hands her the plastic bag and Y/n takes it.

"How much are these?" The old lady still didn't say anything which began to make Y/n feel uneasy.

"S-so...It's free?" Y/n points at the plastic bag in her hand, the old lady still didn't say anything or even make any expression on her face, so Y/n take that as a yes.

"Can...can I have one more carrot then?" The old lady twitch her eyebrows as if she was telling her how ungrateful Y/n is, but regardless she hands her one more carrot and Y/n happily puts it inside her plastic bag.

Y/n was glad that she was able to pull out an expression out of the old lady even though it's a bad one.

"Thank you!" Y/n bows to the old lady showing her how thankful she is and turns around to walk back to Elsa but not before she can take a step ahead a raspy dry voice stopped her.

"They're coming."

That voice sends chills up her spine and she quickly turns around to face the old lady again but she wasn't there.

And with that Y/n sprints off with her wobbly shaky legs.

The young maiden tries to control her breath as she stops in front of the white horse, she then goes to sit on the ground beside her and takes out one carrot and brings it in front of the horse's vision.

"You want this?" Y/n wiggles the carrot in her hand and the horse's eyes follow its every move.

She's finally done teasing her and giving her the carrot she craves, without thinking twice Elsa bites on the carrot and starts munching it, Y/n can see a visible delight on the horse's face.

She continues to feed him until there are only three carrots and one bread left.

She pats her head as she watches her drink the water from a bowl she finds earlier, she then stood up and takes a piece of bread with her.

"It's getting late, I should go." Elsa's eyes went big and she nudges her leg as if she told her not to leave, but she has to because it's already late and she has to go home before her mother decides to search for her.

"It's okay...I'll be back soon." And with that, she walks away leaving the white horse alone.

Right now the streets are empty and dark, only the street light enlightens her path to her home, in the middle of walking she finds the same lake and gazebo where she and Jimin first met.

She was enchanted by how the moon shone through the lake making the water glows and how ethereal the white gazebo looks, she decide to take a rest and goes to sit on a bench in front of the lake.

She munches her bread quietly as she admires the beautiful night view, out of nowhere she decides to close her eyes.

She feels everything at this moment is just perfect.

Y/n has everything she needs in her life and no one can ruin her fairy tale life.

She snaps out of her mind after she hears some flapping noises she opens her eyes and sees nothing, that's until she looks down at the ground.

The crow stares back at Y/n and tilts its head, Y/n looks at the bread in her lap then back at the crow, she assumes the crow wants it so she tears off the bread into a tiny piece before throwing it to the crow.

The bread falls onto the ground but the crow didn't even spare a glance at it, he just continues staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" Even though the crow can't talk she can't help but ask the little creature.

Y/n stands up from the bench and she continues to walk back home, but for not even five minutes Y/n feels some weight on her right shoulder.

She looks to the side and sees the previous crow now resting on her shoulder, the crow still has the same stare he had earlier.

"Don't tell me you're going to peck my eyes." Y/n covers the side of her face with her palm, shielding her face from the crow's point of view.

The crow starts to chirp loudly as if it is protesting so Y/n drops her hand to the side and stares at the crow as she walks.

Out of nowhere, she decides to talk again with the crow.

She looks back ahead and starts talking "You know, this day has been weird."

"I don't mean to gossip about the Kings but they're so weird, so yesterday they were sick-almost dying actually, and today they are suddenly healthy again! Isn't that insane?"

"And this morning some of my things in my locker are gone, but then I found them at different places."

"Also, this evening when I was about to go home I met Jimin in the hallway, we talked for a while but when I was about to wish him good night, he suddenly disappears, so I thought that it was a ghost."

"And lastly, a weird old lady who owns a booth also disappears but not before she said 'they're coming.' Yet I don't know what she meant by that."

Y/n continues to blabber with the crow on her way home, not long after they finally arrive in front of the thick blackthorns, the gate through the forbidden forest.

The thorns open themselves to reveal the pathway but when she was about to walk inside the crow suddenly leave her shoulder and fly up to the dark sky in a hurry.

Y/n watch as the crow flies higher and higher until she can't see it anymore, Y/n then walks inside the forbidden forest and the thorns slowly start closing, sealing the magical place from the impurity of the world.

All of them sit on their respective seats in the dark conference room, the moonlight shines through the window which is the only thing that lightens the room where the seven Kings gathered to discuss more about the plan.

"So it turns out those witches didn't trick us." Jungkook was the first one to speak.

"If I wasn't sick yesterday I would definitely mutilate their bodies." A dark deep chuckle pours out of Yoongi's mouth.

"That sounds like a party." Namjoon chuckles.

"Shame it didn't happen." Jin shakes his head with a lazy smile on his lips.

"I guess yesterday was just a side effect." Hoseok said as he tries to get all of them back to the main topic.

"Yeah, but it hurts like hell." Jimin said and leans on his seat while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Have you guys figured out what powers you get?" Taehyung asks.

They all answered with the same answer which is 'no' except for Jimin and Taehyung.

"Well in that case, I'll give all of us a month to discover our powers and practice them before we continue doing our next plan."

"Unlike all of you morons, I already know what my power is." Jimin proudly said and stare at the rest with a smug look on his face.

"What is it?" Jin asks and all of them stare at Jimin with a curious gaze, so Jimin starts to explain what power he has.

"Is it possible to have more than one power?" Jungkook turns his head to Taehyung and in return, he gives him a side-eye.

"Don't ask me, ask the bookworm who's been studying about those witches for months in his office." Taehyung's words were meant for Namjoon, Namjoon sighs before he answers Jungkook's question.

"Possibly. The witches have more than one power and other powers we haven't discovered it's also possible that some of us can get the same power."

"Is there any other question?" Namjoon continues, but all of them are quiet.

"No? Then I'm going to visit the witches." Yoongi stands up from his seat.

"Me too, I want to thank them." Jimin also stands up from his seat, the two walks out of the room with Taehyung following them from behind without saying anything.

"I need to get my beauty sleep, bye peasants." And with that Jin walks out of the room, soon Jungkook walks out of the room without saying anything.

Now there is only Hoseok and Namjoon in the room, the two didn't say anything even though they acknowledge each other presence in the room.

"Well? Aren't you going to go back to your room?" Namjoon asks after he couldn't bear the silence anymore.

Ever since the meeting in Namjoon's Palace the tension between the two Kings has been built and now increased like a fortress between them.

The two didn't even consider each other as best friends anymore, they sees each other as an enemy and also a thing to use.

But of course, they wouldn't say that in front of each other's faces even though both of them knew that they're not on the same page anymore.

"Aren't you going to stop lying?" Namjoon slowly turns to face Hoseok who is already shooting daggers through his eyes.

"What are you talking about Hoseok?"

Hoseok scoffs "Don't play dumb Kim Namjoon, I know you already know what power you have."

Namjoon's blank face slowly morphs into an amused look and a sly smirk crept upon his pink lips.

"Well then if you say so, can you tell me what I can do?"

"Why should I waste my time to tell you what you already know." Hoseok stands up from his seat.

"But, what can I expect from you?"

Hoseok's eyes drifted back again at him and he stare at Namjoon with hidden hatred from his spot, Namjoon's blank expression is back again and he waited for Hoseok to complete his sentence.

"After all this isn't the first time you had lied to all of us."

The way Hoseok looks at him makes Namjoon feel like he is being downgraded. The side-eye Hoseok gave him, the evil smirk on his lips, he was looking at him as if he is just some lowlife.

Namjoon clenches his fists under the table as he watches Hoseok walks to the door, and before he goes out of the room Hoseok looks back and speaks again.

"What can I say? I know you since we were kids Namjoon."

The soft sound of the door shutting close was enough for Namjoon to finally let out his anger and within a second, the once beautiful conference room was destroyed.

Y/n walks out of the forbidden forest with tons of vegetables in the basket she holds, the red cloak flies behind her as the chilly weather brushes past her delicate form.

"Fall is coming...how can time pass by so fast?" She asks herself as she continues walking while watching the trees around her.

It didn't take her long to arrive at her destination. the burned bakery where Elsa is.

The white horse sense her presence and she starts to get excited, over the past month Y/n has been visiting her every day to give her food and water.

She's already like a mother to the white horse, they're starting to get closer every time Y/n visits her.

The once skinny horse turns to be a very healthy one now, but she still can't stand up because she's still weak.

"It looks like you're more excited for the food more than me." Y/n giggles.

She then shrugs her shoulder "I wouldn't blame you, if I was you I probably would do the same thing."

Y/n sits on the ground next to the horse and starts feeding her like she always does.

"Bye-bye!" She waved her hands to Elsa as she stands up and was ready to walk back home, she walks out of the backyard and starts running to her destination.

In the middle of her run, she sees the familiar gate of Royal's apple farm that she used to sneak in before she gets a job at Jeon's Palace.

However, this time she sees the gates are half-open with no guards guarding in front of them, curiosity clouded her mind as her legs lead her into the apple farm as if she is hypnotized to come here.

The entire ground is covered by light fogs but that didn't stop Y/n from continuing walking deeper into the apple farm, she doesn't care if she steps into something or falls into a hole somewhere on the ground.

A familiar feeling rushes into her when she sees the tall old apple tree she used to frequently visit, she sits on the ground and leans her back onto the old tree, and stare ahead of her.

At that moment she doesn't know what she is feeling in her body, she feels like she is being controlled like some marionette doll and an unknown puppeteer is controlling each of the strings she has with a swift movement.

"Up here beauty."

Hearing the sound of that familiar voice she looks up and finds the handsome King sitting on the thick tree branch, his formal attire was off and is replaced by a casual look but he didn't look any less good than usual.

And that adoring smile on his lips with his dimples visibly appearing on his cheeks, as if it is telling her that he is expecting her to be here even though they never plan to meet here again.

He jumps off the tree and smoothly goes to sit right next to her just like his usual spot, his gaze never leaving her as he is observing the enchanting beauty draped in a red cloak beside him.

It feels like deja vu, it feels like when they first time met each other when there was nothing to worry about anything.

Was, and right now it's only them in their own world.

"What are you doing here Eve?" That deep calming voice rang into her ear and her heart already feels excited by just hearing them.

"I'm..." The maiden trails off trying to make up some lie but her head is empty and the only thing she could focus on is his alluring brown eyes.

Namjoon watches as the doe eye beauty trying to make an excuse and he chuckles when nothing comes out of her mouth.

"I could have reported you for breaking in, but I'm too lazy to shout out for those guards." He then lays his head on her shoulder and inhales her scent he grew to love.

"B-but you're breaking in too." Y/n speaks after she's finally found her voice back

"Jeon has given me access to enter this apple farm so I'm free to enter whenever I want."

"But you, my Eve, you're still forbidden to enter this property." He continued.

"I didn't see any guards in front of the gate earlier..." She tries to change the topic, Namjoon notices it but he also went along with it.

"Hm...They're probably somewhere."

"That's dangerous, no one is guarding the front gate what if it wasn't me who entered? What if it was someone else? You could be in danger." Somehow her words slightly irritate Namjoon.

He lifts his head from her shoulder and looks her dead in the eyes.

"I'm not the weak boy from eight years ago Y/n. I'm a grown man who can protect himself."

Y/n is a little afraid of his new aura that surrounds her like the fogs beneath them.

"I-I'm just worried about you..."

His heart softens when she said those words, he suddenly feels guilty for speaking with that tone so he lays his head on her shoulder again and kisses it.

"I know...I'm sorry I speak to you like that."

"Eve?" Namjoon calls out the maiden after some minutes of silence with the nickname he creates for her.

"Hm?" She hums.

"What would you do if someone you love the most dies?"

She is taken back by his question, how come he asks that out of nowhere?

"U-umm...cry?"

"Just cry? Nothing else?"

She doesn't know what to answer him because she never thought about that.

"Grieving and...all sorts of that."

She could feel the atmosphere becoming tighter and the tension becoming higher, she suddenly feel that it's hard to breathe as if something is stuck in her throat.

"Well...what if that someone you love was killed by someone you know?"

His voice sounds so light and alluring when his words entered her ears, she could feel his body heat close to her and his hot breath fanning her nape.

He wasn't this close before.

"What would you do Eve?" Despite his light tone, there is venom hiding deep inside his words, he just needs a perfect moment to strike and release all the poisons inside her.

She feels sick. She feels dizzy. She feels all those uncomfortable stuff inside her.

Y/n quickly stands up from the ground but before she can walk away she felt like something had hit her on the head and is soon followed by excruciating pain in her head.

A painful whimper escapes her lips and she stumbles back on the tree, something feels wrong. Very wrong.

When she saw Namjoon also standing up she quickly back away to create some distance between them, she looks up at Namjoon as her body trembles under his dark gaze.

She turns around and starts running as fast as she could despite her body feeling like it's about to shut off, his deep laugh echoed through the trees that are surrounding them like a maze.

"Where are you going little one?"

His voice sounds so close to her even though he is nowhere to be seen, Y/n keeps running and trying to find a way out but she couldn't.

She gets more panic when the fogs start to get thicker and she can't see anything other than the white fogs covering her surroundings.

The pain in her head increases that she can't even feel her legs anymore and within a second her body falls on the ground with a loud thud.

It's becoming harder to breathe and now she is sure that something is stuck on her throat, she hits her chest with her fist multiple times but nothing happens.

Her fear increases when she sees a tall silhouette behind the fogs, the person she expected finally steps out of the fogs and he looks down at her with a maniac smirk on his lips.

"Pretty pretty pretty..." He mumbles as he stares at the maiden who is struggling to breathe, her neck is starting to get red because of the burning sensation.

He kneels down next to her and moves a strand of hair on her face as he looks at her bulging doe eyes.

"ክዐ ዐክቿ ርልክ ነፕዐየ ጠቿ."

Shock spreads through her body as she opens her eyes and frantically looks around her surrounding.

Y/n sighs in relief when she discovers that she is in her room, still on her bed, cold sweat is all over her forehead while she tries to control her breath.

"So that was just a dream?"

Strangely Y/n has no memory of what happened in her dream last night, she can only remember the burning sensation in her throat.

She tries to remember what happened, but she doesn't have any clue.

"What is that?" Her mother's voice brings her back to reality, she looks up at her mother who is looking at her face as if she has two mouths.

"What is what?" She asks back.

Her mother's index finger pokes her forehead and her body suddenly feels light and relaxed again.

"You didn't have this bad aura last night." Her mother says as she dust of her index finger, Y/n looks down and cups her forehead with her palm, she then chuckles.

"Felix used to always does that to me."

"And now I gotta do his job." Her mother swiftly turns back to continue making her dish.

"What do you think he's doing right now?" She asks her as she leans her back onto the chair.

"I don't know, probably somewhere lost in a mountain looking for his cure." She says as if it isn't obvious.

"Can you tell me about his sickness?" From her tone, her mother knows that her daughter is desperate to know so she stops cooking and turns around to face her.

"Witches...have this curse that they will be sick at a certain age but I've never seen someone as worse as Felix, his sickness is slowly eating him alive so that's why I send him to search for his own cure."

Y/n's eyes began to sting, she somehow feel betrayed that he never told her about this.

"B-but you could have sent someone to accompany him..." Her voice began to crack as she is trying to hold her sobs.

"I did. But he refused, he said that he doesn't want anyone to get involved."

"And he also afraid that his sickness could spread to the creatures or you, so that's why he wants to get himself far away from you and all of us."

Tears began to fall from her eyes, she covers her face with her hands as she let out her sobs, her mother quickly walks to her and hugs her head while whispering sweet things to calm her daughter.

"Shh...it's okay...he'll be back soon..."

There's an uneasy feeling when Y/n steps out of her cottage.

"Good luck beasty!" She looks back at her mom and sees her waving at her so she waves her hand back before she continues to walk.

The feeling in her heart gets heavier with every step she took, she watch as the creatures around her are doing their own business, everything looks normal yet there's just something that feels wrong to her.

Y/n stops walking and turns around to face her mom again.

"Mom?"

"Are you forgetting something dear?"

Y/n shakes her head "No..."

She paused as she stares at her mother's glowing face under the sunlight.

'She's fine, she's healthy.'

"If something happens to all of you guys, alert me okay?" She says as she takes the green necklace that was hidden under her shirt.

Her mother chuckles "Like what?"

Y/n shrugs her shoulders "Like if there's something dangerous going on..."

She smiles "That won't ever happen to us sweetheart."

Y/n rush into the laundry room after she finished her last task, she gets a lot of tasks on her schedule and she has to finish it all today, she didn't think she would get to enjoy her lunch break.

She grabs the basket full of dirty clothes and pours all of them into another basket that is filled with detergent, after that she began to scrub them with a laundry board.

There is only her alone in the laundry room. when she stepped into the Palace Y/n noticed that the Palace seemed so empty and the lack of staff worries her but she didn't ask anything about it to Marilyn.

The uneasy feeling is still there in her heart and it's eating her alive, Y/n just wants to finish all of her tasks quickly so she could go home earlier and be with her mother.

She ignored the chills on her spine when she felt the temperature in the room getting colder and she also notices that the atmosphere of the room gets darker.

The light bulbs above her start to flicker but she ignores them all although she badly wants to sprint out of this room because of the creepy vibes she gets here.

Y/n stops scrubbing the black shirt in her hands and froze when she feels a pair of cold hands gripping onto her shoulder, she didn't hear someone coming in and she remembers that she is alone in this room.

Was.

She looks to the side and her eyes widen when she sees the hands that are gripping her shoulders are covered in dry blood on them.

She can feel their face close behind her head as their cold breath fanning her nape making the hair on her body stands up.

"They're coming."

A strand of blonde hair falls into her vision and it's also covered with dry blood.

Y/n quickly turns her head around but she doesn't see anyone behind her.

"W-what was that?..."

The sound of something falling to the ground made Y/n jump and she quickly sprints out of the room.

Marilyn will punish her if she knows that she didn't do the laundry.

And she can go suck a dick.

Taehyung stare at the beautiful metal dagger laying on the velvet red cushion in front of him, even if he doesn't want to he still has to carry this for an emergency.

He sighed before wrapping the dagger with a piece of dark purple fabric as he carefully tries not to touch it with his bare hands because he'll know what will it do to his skin and he doesn't want that, he tucks in the dagger in his pocket and looks at his reflection in the mirror.

"This day has finally come..." A small smirk decorates his pink lips.

"The day where I will take my re-"

"Who are you talking to?"

Taehyung looks back and finds Jungkook leaning on his door, he stood there with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Taehyung scoffs "Never learn how to knock?"

"What are you wearing?" Jungkook approaches him and touches the material that's on his body.

"Really? leather?"

Taehyung rolls his eyes and pushes his hand away from him.

"Yes." He bluntly replied.

"Are you not going to wear metal armor like the rest of us?"

"No."

"Why?" Taehyung is starting to get annoyed by his constant questions.

"Stop asking before I sew your mouth."

Their hands are itching to grab their weapons and use them to kill each other but they can't do that, yet.

"What are you doing here?" Taehyung asks.

"Namjoon wants all of us in the conference room."

"That man. Is he going to talk to us about the plan again?"

Jungkook rolls his eyes. "Yes."

When the two arrive the rest was already there sitting on their designed seats.

After the two takes their seat Namjoon began to go over the plan they already memorized a month ago.

"We'll communicate through telepathy, understood?" All of them except Namjoon replies with a hum.

"It's settled. Let's go."

Throughout the day Y/n keeps her necklace with her all the time with no intention of taking it off because she feels safe with it.

Now she's in the large storage room in the basement, her task is to gather the unnecessary files and burn them in the fireplace, and once again, she's alone.

Y/n tries to imagine happy things while she buries the scary scenario and images in the deepest part of her mind, she also tried to bury down the uneasy feeling but that was useless and the feeling kept worsening every second.

Y/n throws a pile of papers in the fire and watches them as they burn into grey and black ashes, she keeps staring at how beautiful the fire dance through the paper.

There is a glint in her eyes as she stares at the fire. as if she's looking at the future.

Y/n snaps back to reality when she hears something heavy fall behind her, she nervously gulps before turning around to see what had fallen from the shelf.

Just a book. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The cover and the title seem interesting to her, but it's not the time to read so she puts it back on the shelf together with the important files.

Miranda's ears perked up when the sound of heavy footsteps catch her attention, she looks around and sees the fairies are flying around, the centaurs are hanging out together, the mermaids are...fighting with each other, and the goblins are having a picnic, while the rest are doing their own business, everything seems normal.

She sighed and was about to continue what she was doing but then it hit her, the heavy footsteps are coming from outside the forest.

Before she could alert everyone, a giant ball of fire fly over the tall thorns and hit the ground which results in fire spreading everywhere through the grass.

"EVERYONE HIDE!"

The once peaceful atmosphere turns into chaos, everyone is running to their hiding place while Miranda curses herself for being off guard of her forest.

She uses her magic to transport herself and she appears in front of the tall thorns where she faces hundreds of army wearing metal armor and all they are carrying different weapons that are also made out of metal.

All of them are wearing a mask to cover their face but it's not a problem for Miranda cause she's not planning to get to know them, but what caught her attention are the seven males sitting on their horses and they are not wearing any masks so she can see their faces.

Hoseok smirks and gives the army a sign to stop what they're doing after he spots Miranda standing in front of the gate, they have successfully lured her out.

"Go away all of you! This is not your place." Instead of running away, they all stood there as she expected, humans did not give up so easily.

"Too late for that!" Jungkook laughs with the rest of the Kings.

"What do you want?!" Miranda screams.

The Kings went silent after her question, of course, they know what they want but they're not going to say it in front of her because Taehyung already warned them that Miranda is so protective over Y/n and she will go lunatic if they say that.

Suddenly Taehyung let out a maniac laugh which caught their attention including Miranda's, her face formed into confusion as she feels familiar with the young man, but she doesn't remember where she had met him.

"Revenge."

Taehyung signals some of the army to continue to attack the forest and the rest of them run to attack Miranda.

Miranda quickly summons her army and they came crawling out of the ground to help her attack the incoming soldiers.

"Jungkook, destroy the gate."

A second after Namjoon said that Jungkook use his magic the black tall thorns explode and soon they are on fire but they're not completely destroyed yet.

Miranda got distracted when she heard the explosion sound, she stares at the burning thorns with confusion before she looks back at the Kings who are watching the thorns from far away with a crazy smile on their lips.

'How?'

She clenches her jaw and immediately flies towards the seven males at a dangerous speed.

The Kings then went on with their plan, Jin and Jungkook goes to destroy the gate while Taehyung and Jimin transport themselves inside the forest with some of the soldiers with them so they could attack the other creatures while Namjoon, Yoongi, and Hoseok stay to distract Miranda.

She growls before grabbing Namjoon's shoulders and bringing him to the ground with her, she was about to slash his face with her claws but before she could do that her body is thrown into the air with Yoongi's curse.

The curse didn't affect her much but it still hurt her, she quickly stood up while holding her tummy where the spell had hit her.

Her green orbs glare at the three Kings that stood only five meters away from her.

The three of them began to throw a bunch of different curses at Miranda while she does the same, but she is far more skilled than the three of them combined and she could see that.

She could see that the powers they have didn't naturally born with them meaning that they stole them from someone or somewhere else.

It would be a lie if she say that each individual is not strong, they are very strong but Miranda is stronger than all of them and she could see herself winning this battle.

What she should avoid is getting close to them, the metal armor that they wear shows that they have come prepared.

A loud explosion along with the loud cries of the creatures inside the forest caught her attention, the gate is now fully destroyed and the remaining soldiers outside run into the forest while holding their weapons up in the air.

As Miranda is once again distracted the three see this as an opportunity, Miranda was about to grow some thorns to cover the forest again but was stopped when Hoseok wraps a long metal chain around her body and tightly secures her with it.

She screams in pain when she feels the metal chain burns her skin and her blood oozing out of her wounds, her breathing becomes unsteady and her vision gets blurry.

She falls onto her knees as she hears the Kings laugh at her weak state.

"That was pretty easy, is that all you got, hm?" Hoseok questions her while tightening the metal chain around her.

"Yeah, we didn't expect it to be so easy to defeat you." Namjoon then slaps her across her face, out of curiosity Namjoon touches her black horns but then she growls.

"Don't touch my horns."

Yoongi chuckles grab some of her hair and yank her head up to face him.

"After we kill you, I'll make sure to give Y/n the life she deserves."

Her eyes widen when they mention her name, she watches them as they laugh again, suddenly everything she sees becomes red.

'So that's their intention.'

'They want to take away my daughter.'

She feels her powers rush into her adrenaline and the chains around her tear off the chains around her which shocked the three Kings.

She didn't give them more time to react and she use her magic to make them fly high into the air and harshly drop them to the ground, her ears are satisfied when she hears their bones crack.

"W-what the f-fuck!" Hoseok chokes on the blood in his throat as he curses at her.

Words can't describe how much she wants to kill them with her bare hands, but now she has to go inside the forest and save her children.

Namjoon can't feel his body, the only thing he feels is pain, same goes for the remaining two.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SAY THAT YOONGI! TAEHYUNG HAD WARNED US NOT TO SAY THAT!"

If he can move his body Namjoon would team up with Hoseok and kill Yoongi right now and right here, because of him their plan is ruined.

Miranda stop walking when she heard the familiar name.

'Taehyung.'

The boy she rejected eighteen years ago.

She put the pieces together as she fly to the forest.

The man she felt familiar with.

Was Taehyung.

As soon as she enters the forest a horrified gasp left her mouth when she sees the terrifying sight in front of her.

There is blood everywhere, on the trees, on the ground, on the houses, on the rocks, even the once clear river's water where the place of mermaids is now dark red.

Most of the creatures are on the ground, drowning in their pool of blood, dead.

And the rest of them are barely alive but still fighting for their life.

Her heart aches when she sees Shela being tied with chains around her body and her mouth, she tries to fight the soldiers who are holding the chains but her energy had been drained.

Shela's similar green orbs met hers, she looks at her like she is asking for help.

"MOTHER MIRANDA!"

She couldn't process everything when Hexus's stands in front of her and within a second his blood is all over her face.

His lifeless eyes stare into hers before his body slowly falls to the ground, Miranda gasps and gets on her knees before cradling his face on her lap.

"N-no H-Hexus?..." She desperately calls his name as if it would wake him from the dead.

She looks ahead and sees that it was Jin who arrowed Hexus, his arrow gets through his skull and Hexus is instantly dead.

The smirk that decorates Jin's lips angered her even more so she throws a curse in his direction but before it could hit him, Jin disappears into who knows where.

"STOP!"

Her rough painful scream echoes through the air and that made each of the soldier's ears bleed and soon they are dropped dead on the ground except for the three Kings that are there.

The three watch as Miranda cries over the death of the creatures or what she use to call them, her children.

Taehyung clenches his fists and he has that dangerous dark glint in his eyes as he watches her cry over some creatures that are far below him.

"You two, go get Namjoon Yoongi and Hoseok back to the Palace, I feel like they had messed up."

"How about Miranda? She's still alive." Jimin spoke from behind him.

"I'll take care of her."

Although they would never admit it, Taehyung sometimes scares them to the core, he is the most mysterious among all of them, he knew a lot of things about them but they all knew so little about him.

The two didn't question more further and goes to do what he said, and Taehyung is left alone.

The once beautiful forest turns into a war field, the once beautiful scenery turns into a gore, murder scene.

The once one-piece leather armor tears into two and his dark black wings reveal themselves as he walks to where Miranda is with his boots thumping on the pool of blood of the creatures.

Without saying anything, he grabs her neck and lifts her in the air before throwing her back on the ground with full force.

Miranda groans in pain and spits out some blood out of her mouth, her head turns to where Taehyung is and she slowly chuckles.

"You've grown up." She ignores the pain in her body and stands up from her laying position.

Taehyung couldn't read her eyes, but he can tell that she's going crazy, maybe a little like him.

"No shit." He throws himself over her but before he could bring her down to the ground Miranda kicks his tummy and her kick send him flying to a tree.

He needs to do something to make her lose her focus.

Miranda grabs a handful of his hair and throws his head along with his body on the ground.

"You and your friends!" She slams his head on the ground.

"YOU ALL KILLED MY CHILDREN!" She cries in pain while she continues to slam his head to the ground.

Taehyung twists her wrist that was holding his hair and throws her off him, anger bubbling inside his veins as he regains his straight to stand up.

"THEN WHAT AM I?! AM I NOT YOUR CHILD TOO?!"

He screams the words out he's been wanting to say for a long time and his lungs are starting to hurt but doesn't care about it.

"YOU NEVER CONSIDER ME AS ONE OF YOUR KIND."

He began to throw curses at her, two of them successfully hits her on her shoulder and her chest, she hisses in pain starts throwing curses at him while she also dodges the incoming curses from him.

"YOU ABANDONED ME!"

Miranda's curse hits him on his thigh but despite the throbbing pain in his thigh he still stands on his spot as he continues to scream at her.

"WHY?!"

Another curse from Miranda hits him on his chest and his body falls to the ground, Miranda stares at him with nothing in her eyes.

"The moment you were born, I know you are a danger." Her calm dangerous voice rang through his ears.

"You weren't supposed to be born, you're mistake." Her feet slowly leave the ground as her wings bring her body into the air.

"I should've had killed you when you're still inside that woman's womb."

Before the killing curse hit Taehyung he already rolled his body to avoid the curse, Miranda kept shooting him the killing curse while dodging all of them.

He soon join her in the air and began to throw defensive curses at her while he protects himself from getting hit by her curse.

The battle between the two continues and the tension becomes higher every second, their energy and powers are draining but neither of them wants to give up.

Their bones are screaming for them to rest, but both ignore it because the battle ends with one of them having to die.

Miranda groans when Taehyung's curse hits her, she glares at the young King while gritting her teeth.

Taehyung laughs "Impressed? I learned that by myself!"

"I sense some unfamiliar powers inside you, where did you get them?!" Miranda asked him as she dodges his incoming curses.

"None of your business."

"You bring your friends and army here, are you that weak to attack me by yourself?!" Taehyung knows what Miranda is doing, he's trying to provoke him and make him lose focus, but that won't do on him.

"What do you think am I doing now? I bring those morons with me to demolish this forest and to kill all of these lowlife creatures."

Their curses accidentally crashed which make a big explosion between them and send them back flying to the ground.

Taehyung groans when he moves the sore muscles in his back, then suddenly veins start to crawl out of the ground and wrap themselves around his wrist and ankles.

He could see Miranda's silhouette through the grey smoke that is surrounding him, before he could stand up Miranda jumps on top of him and tightly wraps her fingers around his throat

He stares at the green evil eyes that always haunt him in his nightmares, her lips curl into a sick psychotic smile which shows the sharp fangs she has as she watches his face turning blue.

His eyes almost bulge out of his sockets as he opens his mouth desperately trying to get some air in his lungs, Miranda's sharp nails dugs into the skin of his neck and he could feel his blood coming out of his skin.

The veins that are around his wrist and ankles start to get tighter and stop the blood in him from flowing which makes his hands and feet also blue.

'I can't lose.' Taehyung said in his mind.

He closes his eyes to focus on someone that makes him happy, someone that made him fight through his battles, someone that is always in his mind, someone that makes him want to stay longer in this world.

Y/n.

Her smile, her words, her eyes, her lips, her personality. Everything about her was tattoed on his brain.

Just by thinking about her gives him more strength and hope to win this battle, he pulls his wrist from the vines and throws Miranda off him.

He sits up and pulls his ankles from the vines as he sucks some air into his lugs, he quickly grabs a rock before he gets on top of her and slams the rock onto her skull but not hard enough to knock her out.

A satisfying grin appears on his lips as he watches her blood oozing out of her forehead and down to her temple.

Miranda's eyes start to fluttering and her vision starts to get blurry as she tries to stay awake.

Taehyung's hand dugs into his pocket and he grabs the metal dagger without the purple fabric that was covering it, he doesn't care about the burning sensation the metal cause against his skin.

He raises his hands that are holding the dagger with a tight grip up in the air and without thinking twice, he stabs the metal dagger into her beating heart.

A gasp left her lips when she suddenly falls on her knees and she puts her hand on her upper chest as she tries to control her breath.

Aside from the pain in her chest, the gut feeling in her heart starting to grow heavier and this time she's not going to ignore it.

She gets out of the storage room and runs up the stairs to get to the first floor, she slams the basement door open before she continues to run to the main entrance.

When she was about to pass through the Palace's gates two guards suddenly block her way to run out.

"Where are you going to Miss Y/n?" The first guard asked.

"This is not the time to get back home, go back and continue your work." The second guard said.

"Get out of my way!" She tries to push through them but they grabbed her arms and proceed to drag her back into the Palace.

"Let me go!" She starts to thrash around to get off them but it was useless.

She opens her mouth before sinking her teeth onto the first guard's shoulder, the first guard screams in pain before he let go of her arm, she took that as an opportunity and she kicks his tummy hard and his butt falls onto the hard pavement.

She does the same to the second guard before she runs out of the Palace gate.

She stops running when a white horse suddenly stands in front of her.

"Elsa! Thank God you're here."

She jumps onto the white horse and she immediately starts running in the forest's direction after Y/n commanded her.

People scream and throw vulgar words at Y/n when Elsa almost runs them over, but Y/n doesn't care about that at the moment.

She hopes that everything is okay at her home, everything and everyone is fine like usual.

She hopes that the uneasy feeling she feels is just because of the nightmare she had last night.

Y/n sees a big dray cart in front of them, she thought Elsa was going to turn to look for another way but instead, she jumps over the dray cart then she continue running.

"Good girl." Y/n kisses her head and strokes her body.

She slowly stops as they neared the forest and the color drained from Y/n's face when she look at the sight in front of her.

There are hundreds of dead bodies on the ground, the gate of the forest is on fire and is completely destroyed, Y/n jumps off Elsa and she runs inside the forest without caring if she stepped onto one of the dead bodies on the ground.

She burst into tears when she sees the brutal scene inside, there are more dead bodies on the ground and she recognized some of their faces while the rest was unrecognizable.

Those faces she had seen this morning were now dead.

This time she tries not to accidentally step on them as she walks over their dead bodies.

Y/n takes out a handkerchief from her dress pocket and covers her nose and mouth with it so she doesn't breathe the smoke from the fire.

Her vision blurs because of the tears that pile up in her eyes but that doesn't stop her from looking around to find someone she cares about the most.

Her cottage was already destroyed and she hopes that her mother doesn't stuck there, she hopes that she's somewhere safe and alive.

Her eyes finally see the familiar figure with brown wings she's been looking for, but her hope came crashing down at her when she sees her laying on the ground with a dagger stabbed through her chest.

"MOM!"

Y/n runs to her mother and kneels down beside her, she lifts her head from the ground and lets it rest on her lap as she cups her cheeks and gently slaps them.

"M-mom?"

She sighs in relief when her mother's eyes start to flutter open,
Y/n's (e/c) eyes met hers but her eyes were not the same deep green as before.

"H-hey...you're b-back e-early." It was hard to speak for her because she keeps choking on the blood in her throat.

"Who did all of these?? Who did this to you?!" She asked her mother but she didn't say anything and just smiled.

"H-hold on I-I'll g-get someone for y-you." She continues, she doesn't even know if she can be fast enough to find someone who is willing to help her mother.

"Do m-me a f-favor and t-take that t-thing o-out-" she got cut off when she suddenly harshly cough out some of the blood in her mouth.

"A-are you sure?" Her mother only nods in response, her eyes shift towards the dagger in her chest then her hand closes itself around the handle before she pulls it out.

As soon as she pulls out the dagger her blood comes oozing out of the wound, Y/n quickly press her hands on the wound to stop her blood from flowing out.

"Shit!" Y/n press her hands harder on her mother's chest making her groans.

"L-Language." The more she tried to speak the harder for her to breathe.

"C-can you still do your magic? You once said you c-can heal y-your own wound..." Y/n desperately asked as she tries to not choke on her sobs.

Her mother's weak pale hand slowly holds her cheek and gently wipes her falling tears with her thumb while she tries to calm her with soothing words.

"You're g-going to make it. Just t-trust me."

"Shh... You have snots all over your face." Her mother giggles after she makes fun of her even though her life is on the edge.

Y/n could feel her chest heaving up and down against her hands and it was slower than normal, not long after that, she hear a gurgling sound follows by blood coming flowing out of her mouth.

"S-spit that out!"

Even after she said that her mother didn't do anything about the pool of blood inside her mouth and just continue to stare at her daughter's face, enjoying her last moment with her.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?! I said spit that out!"

She looks at her with a sad but content smile, as if it's her way to tell her that she couldn't make it.

"M-my...baby...I...l-love...you." She caresses her cheek as she whispers those words to her.

"N-no...you're not going to leave me right?!"

The dagger had caused great damage to her heart and the pain is unbearable, her heart feels like is on fire and her organs are slowly shutting down.

"Come on don't give up!... Please stay with me..."

Her mother's mouth starts moving like she's trying to say something but Y/n couldn't hear her voice so she leans her ear close to her face.

"Don't...trust...a-anyone..."

Y/n slowly looks back at her with confusion written all over her face.

"What?..."

'Why did she say something like that?'

Her mother's pale hand slowly falls to the ground as Y/n sees her take her last breath.

And just like that, her mother welcomes her death with open arms.

Her heart had stopped beating and her organs are completely shutting off.

She dies with her smile still there and her eyes are still looking at Y/n's, those emerald green eyes she use to look at every day were now held nothing but emptiness inside them.

"N-no..."

"Mom?"

"Mom wake up..."

-~-

"Mom wake up!"

"What do you want beasty?"

"I want breakfast!"

-~-

Everything fell silent. it was like her ears have stopped working and she couldn't hear her own painful scream as she hugs her mother's dead body tighter and press her forehead against hers.

-~-

"Can I touch your horns?"

"No."

-~-

The warm arms that used to welcome her hugs were now cold and stiff.

-~-

"What is the best decision you've ever done in your life?"

"Raising you."

-~-

Y/n opens her eyes and pulls back after she felt something is wrong with her mom's body and she was right, she is slowly reduced into ashes.

"No...What's happening?!"

'Why is she turning into ashes?'

Y/n throws a pile of papers in the fire and watches them as they burn into grey and black ashes, she keeps staring at how beautiful the fire dance through the paper.

There is a glint in her eyes as she stares at the fire. as if she's looking at the future.

Her mother's body is slowly turning into ashes just like how the paper she burned in the storage room.

The stiff body she held earlier was now just a pile of grey ashes, some are on her hands while the rest are on the ground beneath her.

Y/n was frozen as she watched her mother's body turning into ashes, she couldn't say anything or even react to what she had seen in front of her eyes.

She couldn't process anything before feeling herself falling and everything goes black.

Just then the black-winged creature stepped out of his hiding spot and walks to where the fainted maiden is and scoops her body in his arms in a bridal style and before he leaves he looks at the pile of ashes on the ground and spits on them.

——————————————————————

Word count: 10017

LET ME CLEAR SOMETHING BEFORE YOU LEAVE:

Miranda and Taehyung ARE NOT RELATED TO EACH OTHER. And she's also not related to any of the creatures in the forest, the reason why they call her Mother Miranda is because Miranda is the mother of all creatures in the world and she also treats all of them like her own children.

And let's pray for Namjoon, Jin, and Yoongi to get well soon because BIG HIT had announced that they're positive covid :(

Written:10/12/21
Published:26/12/21