As the lightning slowly faded the darkness around the castle returned, restoring some of the vision back to the girl. As she looked ahead of her, the witch sat on the pillar just as she had moments earlier. Rima didn’t understand. She knew she fired the gun. She knew for a fact that the finger wrapped around the trigger squeezed it as tight as it could. She heard the gunshot and she also heard the howl that followed.

The howl.

Panic flooded through her as she slowly turned her head, looking down at her companion that she expected to stand ground beside her, but ultimately knew better. Her eyes widened at what she found instead. Baekhyun laid there on the ground, holding his arm as his nose cringed in pain. He panted, inhaling and exhaling faster and faster while blood seeped through the sleeve of his shirt. Rima dropped to her knees and crawled over to the injured boy, tears unconsciously falling down her cheeks and hitting the concrete floor. Tearing off a piece of the cloth from the bottom of her cape she tied it around the wound and tightened it as much as she could, making the boy wince in pain.

“B..Baek…” She mumbled in the lowest tone possible, baerly audible to even herself. Embracing his head she slowly moved it to lay in her lap and watched as his chest rose and fell with every breath he took.

His eyes opened slowly and he forced a smile to cross his face. He placed his hand upon her’s and shook his head lightly, going almost unnoticed.

“I’m a wolf. I'll be fine."

Rima nodded with a sad smile when his head fell back to the side. If it wasn’t for the constant rising and falling of his chest she would have easily believed him to be dead. Placing the boy carefully on the floor next to her, she spun around on her knees staring dead at the other woman.

“What did you do.” She stated in a commanding tone. The witch tilted her head at the girl, confused as to what she might be referring to.

“Me?” She questioned pointing the wand to herself. Rima’s eyes bore holes through her skull as she sat there and snickered. If looks could kill, not even superman could protect the witch from Rima’s glare.

“You didn't really think a simple bullet like that stood a chance, did you? Sweetheart, I controlled 12 wolves at one point. What exactly can a bullet do against me?”  a serious expression flushed her face and with the flick of a wand green lightning appeared in the sky and struck only inches from the boy. He laid there motionless while Rima flinched and covered her head, squealing like a little girl. The witch gasped making the girl peek up at her.

There she sat, grinning from one ear to another while her free hand covered .

“Oops. Did I almost hit him?” Rima’s eyes grew as she watched the witch flick the wand once more in Baekhyun’s direction and, out of instinct and without a second thought, Rima threw herself on top of Baekhyun.

The girl screamed from the top of her lungs as the thunder struck her, electrifying her entire body sending pulses through her veins and boiling the blood that rushed through her system. From the top of her head to her pinky toe she could feel her entire body shaking involuntarily in pain as her nerves and muscles slowly started to lock on her. Her screams echoed throughout the forest, throughout the fairy tale and further, loud enough to send birds scattering into the air trying to escape the blood chilling sound.

As the electricity slowly started to wear off she could feel her body collapse on the boy, feeling numb and immobile. She wanted to scream. Wanted to cry. Wanted to kill the witch even if it was the last thing she’d do but right now, she was just happy that she could still breathe. Quick, short breaths but breaths nonetheless.

She never noticed how the witch sat on the pillar, holding her stomach from laughter. She had enjoyed the show Rima had given her.

She never noticed how Baekhyun’s eyes grew wide underneath her or how he hurried to sit up, lying her in his lap and shaking her back and forth trying to make sure she wouldn’t lose consciousness.

She never noticed how suddenly five other figures towered over her, looking down into her red eyes which ever so slowly faded into gray.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. It was the only thing going through her mind at the moment. That and to make sure she hadn’t hurt Baekhyun while she was laying on top of him. She didn’t care. She promised someone that she would meet him at the end but she had come to love these wolves so much that she wouldn’t mind dying for them. A small smile crossed her face and she took a deep breath as the boy helped her sit up right. Unable to move anything else but her eyes, they wandered around in a circle and she could feel a tear run down her cheek as it electrified her on it’s way down.

Before her stood Goldi and the children, smiling sadly at her and bent down to eye level. Gretel spoke but the only thing Rima could hear was a low mumble and a constant ringing. When Goldi pointed behind her, Rima’s gaze followed down her arm to Goldi’s index finger and finally they connected.

Two large creatures, one black and one gray stood in front of them, their fangs the witch while their backs faced them. Looking back at Goldi, the blonde smiled and knew just what exactly Rima was thinking.

“They saw everything. We saw everything. Something clicked and suddenly instead of chasing us through the forest all of us froze when we saw what you did” Goldi stated calmly, placing her hand on the youngers cheek. A sad smile formed on Goldi’s face as she turned toward the children, both of whom nodded and joined the wolves sides. Sighing, Goldi turned her attention back toward Rima and ran her hand through the girls beautiful black curls.

“Ah, I’m so going to regret not being the one to tell you the truth. I love you though, my little sister.” She whispered as a tear rolled down her own cheek. Standing to her feet the blonde her heels and stood in the middle, a wolf and a child on either side of her.

“B...Baekhyun….” Rima finally managed to mumble and the boy looked at her.

“We have to get you out of the way.” Rima didn’t have the strength to fight him so she easily obliged when he swung her arm around his unhurt shoulder, walking her back and out of harms way. He was careful not to hurt her when he sat her down, making her back lean against a small brick wall that seemed to have been part of the castle at one point of time.

She gripped his wrist as hard as she could when he tried to stand up and he turned to look at the girl sitting on the floor.

“I..I have...have to help” Her voice sounded hoarse, broken, dead as if was being burned with every letter she spoke. The tears started to pour down her cheeks as the last of her strength slipped her body and she knew. Knew that she would no longer be able to do anything else. She was done. This was her ending and she knew it. Xiumin would kill her if he saw her like this but to her surprise, instead of regret and sadness a smile formed on her face. She couldn’t have thought of a better way to end her own fairy tale.

Baekhyun smiled sadly as he bent down and wrapped his arm around her neck, burying his face in her hair. He kissed her forehead lightly and kneeled down in front of her tilting his head.

“Red...no, Rima. You’ve been such a big help to all of us. All 12 of us and I promise, everything will be fine but right now if you really want to help end this once and for all I need you to do us one more favor. Can you do that?” He asked softly making sure Rima understood every word.

Inhale…….Exhale……

Rima forced herself to nod at least once so Baekhyun could see. He grinned and she could see the shimmer of a tear in his eyes. He grabbed her hands and held them tightly looking into her eyes. There was only one thing Rima had left to do. One simple thing he absolutely needed her to do to win this battle. In a soft voice he gave her his last instruction.

“Wake up”