“She’s dead,” Daesung mumbled over and over again beside me. “She was definitely dead.” Red and green eyes all pointed in our direction as we headed to the stairs. Jung Min warn him to shut up while I ignored both and carefully climbed each step. Breaking legs wasn’t on my menu.

“Yuri told us she’s dead,” Jung Min grabbed me from behind when I wobbled and almost tumbled back in the crowd. “We don’t know for sure if she actually died.”

“Oh...” Daesung came forward and grabbed me from the other side “Feather , let go.”

“Why don’t you both let go!?” snapping at them became a daily activity. Good thing I didn’t yell and only whispered, or else, we would have been put in a difficult situation. Not like it mattered anymore. Time stood still as we became the only moving creatures in there that made noises and bickered until we reached the balcony.

The one that looked like Jessica rolled her eyes and welcomed us with a bow. The snake’s head was trapped in her hand as she brought it again at her lips and pecked it.

“Snake...” Daesung’s eyes literally glinted near me as he almost jumped on Jessica to take the snake and play with it. I on the other hand wasn’t feeling that comfortable around it and from the looks of it, neither was Jung Min.

“Calm down,” pushing Daesung back, I went forward and watched Jessica motion with her head to be followed. All the reapers from the ballroom finally returned to their talks about the weather or whatever reapers talk about. I guess new polishing solution for their wings would be a better subject.

We took our masks off and followed her.

“Does she remember us?” Daesung uttered at my ear. Jessica stopped, glanced at us with a small smile in place and then continued to go down the width hallway filled with portraits of past rulers.

“I don’t know,” I admitted and stopped at the sight of a large mirror. Usually, I wouldn’t pay it much attention, but that one was different. I couldn’t see my reflection in it. Thinking it was broken, I hurried Jung Min in front of it and he had no reflection as well. Jessica waited for us, clearly amused by our curiosity. Only after Daesung caught up – he was too busy admiring a lady’s bust in one of the portraits and he was lucky enough that I didn’t punch him through the roof -  had we labeled that mirror as something out of our league.

Daesung could see his reflection, though the one reflected wasn’t exactly him.

Jung Min recognized the person staring back at us and so had Daesung when his eyes widened and nostalgia caressed his features. I had seen him happy, angry, upset, but never as confused and hurt as in that moment.

“Hyung-soo...” Jung Min watched Daesung crack a smile when the reaper called out his old name.

“Yeah, that’s me...” he brought his hand and touched the mirror’s surface “how I used to look in the past.” The reflection mimicked perfectly his every move, his every twitch and even the look he gave.

"You looked better back then..." I mumbled with no protest at all from Daesung.

“It’s what the Eye does,” Jessica suddenly spoke as she put the snake on the floor and let it crawl in the darkness. “What you have been and what you will become, the Eye sees it all.”

More crap? Great.

“Jessica,” she didn’t look at me “...that’s your name right?”

“I do not know,” her eyes turned ruby “I’m here only to serve, not to be called upon a name.” Her back signaled it was time to move on. Jung Min was about to peel Daesung off the mirror when Jessica snapped her fingers. The reaper and blond collapsed when three female reapers knocked them and wrapped chains around their bodies. Jung Min struggled to get out while Daesung cursed at them and tried to get out using his powers. Nothing worked as they were both stuck in place.

“LET THEM GO!” I screamed at the reapers and Jessica. Just when I was about to blast those bastards, a sharp knife pressed against my throat and drew blood.

“They are safe,” Jessica spoke low at my ear as she pressed the knife harder against my skin “as long as you do not do anything rash.” The wound she left healed right away.

I could grab her arm and use her as a hammer against the other three reapers but something told me it was foolish to try and escape a Palace filled with reapers, no matter how strong you were. Only three of us couldn't withstand their numbers. Also, I could risk losing Daesung for good. I mean, if Jung Min knew some tricks against his own kind, Daesung was only human and he couldn’t do much, no matter how hard he tried to burn down every single reaper that attacked us.

“Fine,” I mumbled and watched the three reapers pick the boys up. I had to follow Jessica again as the reapers escorted the other two in a separate room.

Finally, at the end of the hallway, Jessica bowed again and left me alone in front of two massive wooden doors with golden decorations.

There was no turning back, was there?

Pushing them open, I was welcomed by a study room with a working fireplace and windows facing the horizon. Picturing the stars as all those Carriers which burnt a couple of nights ago, I became enraged on whoever decided it was fun to use them as bait. The doors slammed behind me as one figure stepped outside from the shadows.

“Death,” he came forward and offered me a drink which I turned down.

“Please,” he grabbed my hand and closed my fingers over the glass “Call me Junsu.”

Should I throw the drink in his face or act dignified? Either way, I gulped it down in the end, too thirsty and hungry to care anymore.

“So this little parade is your doing? Where’s the Queen?”

Death, or Junsu, strolled to the windows and watched the moon shine brighter than any other night.

“She doesn’t exist.”

“What?”

“She never existed.”

Gulped down? More like got another drink from the tray nearby and swallowed that motherer in a second.

“Now you’re just ing with me like four years ago.”

“Sooyoung,” that guy doesn’t get angry at all or what? He was too relaxed in his voice for his own good and why had he had to stand so tall and straight and I really want Daesung and Jung Min by my side. I can beat his alone too, but it was good to have back-up from time to time, right? “Do you think everything has its place in the universe?”

“Huh?”

He turned around, his face shaded by the flames in the fireplace.

“Do you believe everything has a purpose? Do you think there’s a cosmic order which shouldn’t be disturbed?”

“I...” of course there was, I learned that while fighting that demon “...guess?”

“What do you think happens to those that try to ruin that balance?”

“They have a ty life.”

“Then why do you keep running away from me?”

Hold there you pretty boy, I have a family and I’m not the type to chase every little piece of good .

“Because you’re freaking Death,” our meeting was getting ridiculous, when would I get my answers? Why were there so many reapers there? What about Jessica? And what’s the deal with the Dragon and the whole witch hunt? “Who the hell doesn’t run away from death?”

“Not for long,” he vanished when I blinked and appeared again behind me. When I wanted to kick him, he hugged me and we disappeared together on the Palace’s rooftop. If it hadn’t been for Death slash Junsu slash FREAK, I would have been squashed to the ground.

BECAUSE WE WERE FLOATING ON TOP OF THE DAMN ROOF.

“OKAY, I GET IT, YOU WANT TO KILL ME, BUT DO I HAVE TO DIE LIKE THIS? EVERYBODY CAN SEE MY UNDERWEAR FROM HERE!”

“Cruel as always,” he snickered and held me closer to his chest “you’re perfect to take over.”

“Take over what?!” there were people down there and they were ogling me. I knew I should have gotten the other , not the laced pair.

“My place” he let go “take over the Other World.”

...what?

There was no time to understand what he meant, I was too busy falling.