joy.

The familiar cry of a young man echoed in a colorless dream, his tears creating ripples upon the void’s surface.

Evangelique ran in the dark, her feet touching the nothingness. Nihility traced her flesh, causing her to shiver. Black butterflies flew up from under her feet, stroking her runaway strands of hair.

“Can you hear it, child?” asked a voice. Evangelique turned to see Eleanor standing sepulchral.

She wore a golden crown of flowers and thorns upon her head. Every strand of her starlight hair shimmered within the folds of dark fog. Gold and sea-blue eyes gazed at Eva, reminding her of a vast and abandoned sea.

“Are you a ghost?” questioned Evangelique, amazed by the sight of Eleanor.

“I am only a vision made up from Tsubaki’s memories of me,” replied Eleanor. “There is no such thing as ghosts after death.”

“Then how come I can see you?” asked Eva.

“Because of Kioku-daya’s powers that he gives his Lieutenants,” informed Eleanor. “You two are connected, but he also trusts you more than anyone in this world.”

Evangelique felt her hands quake. She had become friends with Tsubaki but did it truly mean she gained his trust?

“I am the remnants of his joyful memories; formed into dream matter,” she stated randomly. “Though I am a thing easily forgotten, I will never be gone if he recalls where joy derives from.”

The glimpse of a childhood memory flashed in Evangelique’s head. For a moment, she saw her mother smiling down at her in the halls of a church.

Though her lips moved, Eva could not hear her words.

“Why am I so alone?” cried the young man’s voice, cutting Eva away from her thoughts. Evangelique turned away from Eleanor and looked within the flight paths of the raven-hued butterflies.

“I’m here!” shouted Eva frantically.

“Why must I be despised?” mourned the voice.

“I don’t hate you!” yelled Eva. She began to run away from Eleanor, into the mysterious dark.

“Why am I lost?” he wailed. “Why must I remain a curse and curse alone?”

“I”m here!!” screamed Eva. Tears streamed down her cheeks, fading into the surrounding oblivion.

“I...I don’t want to die yet, Eleanor,” whispered the voice, sorrowfully. “I can’t die yet...”

“What...?” breathed Eva.

The mariposa parade swarmed around her body, creating threads of silk within their movements. The silk surrounded Eva, enclosing her in a cocoon of darkness. Anxiety programmed her limbs, and she tore at her captivity. Like an anchor in an ocean, she felt her body sink in despair. Monochrome effervescence flew from her lips and took her tears with the ascendence.

“Please, don’t let me die!!” begged the tormented voice.

“Please, Miss Evangelique,” whispered Eleanor. She was visible through the cracks of the cocoon and flickering fast like a candle on a windy night. She brought her hands to her chest and put them together as if to prepare for prayer.

The pockets of air caressing Eva’s lips entered her mouth; choking her and stinging her throat with a saltwater taste. Even in her submergence, she remained focused on Eleanor and her pleas.

“Remind him of that joy once more...” she cried as she faded into the tenebris of the dream.

“Eva!!” called a voice.

Evangelique’s eyes opened quickly. Tears poured from her azure eyes like an unsubdued waterfall. Ago stood over her with his hands on her shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” asked Eva alertly, wiping away her tears.

“Tsubaki is gone,” whispered Ago.

“What!?” exclaimed Eva.

“Shhh!” said Ago hastily. “The others are asleep!”

Eva looked at her companions. Augustine had fallen asleep sitting a chair, while the other three fell asleep on the second couch in the living room.

“I think I know where he went,” stated Ago grimly.

“Where?!” asked Eva urgently.

“When I woke up, I found he was gone,” began Ago. “I searched his room, and soon enough, I found these among the scattered papers in his room.”

Ago handed her a few pieces of paper. Evangelique read through them as quickly as she could. Her hands began to shake mercilessly.

“We need to find him, now!!” urged Eva, standing herself up.

Both she and Ago grabbed their coats and exited the home briskly and stealthily. The snow whistled in the midnight cold.

As soon as the front door clicked shut, a set of sea blue eyes opened. Augustine slowly stood up, grabbing his coat from the other chair.

“I knew it...” he whispered bitterly. His dour expression in the lantern light expressed his perturbation and lividity.

“Took you long enough, monster boy.”

A man with a sharp pair of blood-red eyes and a clean-shaven face smoked a cigarette carelessly.

He stood in the slums of Mumei, where the penumbra sprites haunted the visitors with disturbing chants. Run down cottages covered in cobwebs and garbage circled the two, serving as an audience. Their silence painted a picture of patience, while the snowy breeze eerily whispered.

Tsubaki panted in the cold air, leaning on the stone wall of an abandoned building. On the corners of his lips, blood had dried. With heartbeats that rattled his ribcage like the stones beside the train tracks, a faintness covered his body.

“You ain’t lookin’ so good, Cap,” mocked the man. “You’re looking mighty dead-like!”

Tsubaki scowled and gritted his teeth.

“That old hag liked you...” mused the man. “Honestly, I wonder why she wasted her tears on such a pathetic creature.”

“Who are you...” asked Tsubaki in repressed anger.

“Just some guy tryin’ to aggravate some Lieutenants,” replied the man, shrugging. “You know, torture ’em, confuse ’em, and then kill ’em. That’s my skillset and pleasure.”

“Why...?” inquisitioned Tsubaki, who was alarmed by the man’s blasé remarks.

The man grinned and threw his cigarette into the snow.

“Now now, I’d rather not get too personal just yet!” yelled the man in a charismatic tone of voice. “Though, I do know quite a lot about you.”

Tsubaki glared at the man with bemusement and animosity.

“Tsubaki, a Faerith Lied from the Fabelwesen class,” said the man in an eloquent manner. His thick leather boots paced back and forth through the snow. “You were born to two parents who hated your very being. At a young age, you took your baby brother away from your home, in hopes to save him from the abuse you faced. Unfortunately for you, you lost him. ”

The man took out a knife with a twelve-inch blade. He swung it around playfully as he walked through the snow.

“Since you were far from home, you lived in the slums of Village Zweite until you were a teenager,” stated the man. ” During your adolescent years, you fought in the Great War, and when you returned, you watched your parents hang for killing your infant sister. Shortly after that time, the old hag came for you, and you both live happily, and then I killed her!”

Tsubaki’s eyes glowed with wild hatred. His fists clenched together and shook in tremors.

“How did you--” he growled.

The man grinned manically and gave Tsubaki a sudden punch to the gut. Tsubaki gagged and fell to his knees.

“My master knows everything,” chanted the man.

“W-What master...?” asked Tsubaki, weakly. He began to cough violently.

“’Tis a shame, really,” ignored the man as he took out a cigarette from his pant pocket. “I mean, everyone dies, but you’re dying pretty fast. That makes you a boring opponent.”

The man lit his cigarette and threw the lighter into the snow.

“The old hag was kinda tough,” said the man. “She put up a fight until you came up in our battle conversation.”

He kicked Tsubaki’s back with his steel-toed boots. A cracking sound echoed in the night. Tsubaki coughed again, only this time, he had blood to show for it.

“She died because of her love for you,” he teased. “But for what?”

He grabbed Tsubaki by his hair and punched him in the face. The impact of the hit caused Tsubaki’s lips to bleed. The man let go of his grip and let Tsubaki fall once again into the snow.

“She was foolish for wasting her life on someone as useless as you.”

“Sh-Shut up....” grimaced Tsubaki. Slowly, he got to his knees, grabbing onto debris for support. He wiped the blood on his lips away forcefully.

The wind began to pick up the pace, lifting some of the snow from the ground. A light blue glow came from Tsubaki’s bony fingers.

“If you want to fight so badly...shut up and face me with your real strength,” called Tsubaki angrily.

His eyes glowed with the feral anger of a wild animal. The man’s eyes widened as pure, psychotic glee painted his face.

“Finally,” remarked the man. He faced Tsubaki with his weapon in hand and grin in full tact.

“I’ll get to see that monstrous form in action.”