Jiho gave in, his legs were pleading to beg and his voice ranaway with his courage. Minhee's eyes burned holes into his mind. She didn't scoff or stare at him pathetically, she was only shocked. The person who aided her was only being told to do so. There was dullness in her eyes, her limbs wanted to attack, but he was limp. He was a body bag and he could be used any other way. It was only because someone else took the soul of his body. 

"You, a king? Don't you think you're ill-fitted?"

Her voice rang in his ears. She knew his demons. She was the Shadow Man. She controlled every puppet. Every puppet had misery written on its lips. Her voice told lies into his ears, but lies were fears that he always believed in. 

"You'd never be as good as your brother."

It was dangerous territory. She crushed his limbs in only two statements. But it wasn't enough, she had to make his rib cage collapse, fill it with glass and crushed hopes. It would never be the final blow. Her mind never liked average. She wanted overachieve. She fed off the extremities. It was how she breathed. 

"You're not really good at anything, are you? Just a waste of air."

When he entered the room, she only stared behind her mask. And while it wasn't as mindless as her bird mask, it was still frustrating. She hid her face behind a full face mask, decorated in gold and red. It was strange to look at an empty face. An empty face lacked any ability to have feelings other than bitterness and hate. She was only beautiful behind a masquerade. 

"You posess no ability to rule. You're just wasting away days by hoping in dreams that'll never come true. How pathetic, you must be desperate for loveliness. Too bad."

"Welcome to the Hall of Mirrors," she whispered behind her mask. The walls were overgrown with vines and green. The mirrors were placed in an octagon, surrounding the small space. Every turn had each angle shown and every little detail couldn't be hidden. The Hall of Mirrors was the prettiest of all. The tiles were etched with a mixture of colors, the greenery filled the spaces among the mirrors. The light was dim and if one was close enough to the other, they would see every detail. "Drop the cage," she commanded, her hands threw the masque away. Her smile was bleeding red and her hair was as dark as a crow's. 

But his eyes looked up, a bird like cage was being lowered. It wasn't terrifying, but the inside would be dreadful. There would be no light, he knew of the cage. His brother threw him into it one day after he saw Jiho smoke another cigarette. There was no light being emitted from it. There was nothing but darkness. 

"Three suitors decided to steal your brother away. Though, I  never understood why. He had a superiority complex. If anyone touched him, he would groan and moan. He was a narcissist. Though, he's safer than you are. He's off amusing harlots and drinking until the nightmare goes away. I already broke his spirits."

She rolled her eyes and came closer to Jiho. Her eyes were foggy with indifference. She wasn't evil, she was only playing a game with everyone. It was harmless. She only needed some petty amusement. 

"Except, you weren't the same. But nonetheless, your fears and insecurities are only childsplay. You're envious of your brother. You're envious of quite a lot of things. Freedom, hopes and dreams, you only stare and dip your soul into a never ending game of hopelessness. When will it ever end? Your dreams are invalid. A middle prince ever becoming king? Please. Find a new occupation. You're wasting time in things that will never come true." 

She broke him already. She didn't need to tell him of words that only escalated his fears. It wasn't as though he didn't know those words. She was only trying to break him completely. And it was working. Her words had done their deeds. She was addicted to people's misery. He was only hanging on a tiny bit of string. With a smirk, she opened the rustic doors of the human sized birdcage. The guards came to life once more, and they forced him into the rusting doors. 

"I've broken beasts as easily as I steal kingdoms. Goodbye Prince Jiho," she smiled. 

"It's a shame that you break so many things, Sora. I thought you were more civilized than that." 

Standing in front of them was Minhee. Her eyes were focused on the bird cage. He already surrendered. And Sora only shut the door. 

"Well, if it isn't pretty little Minhee. I thought I broke you the moment I brought up Hanyoung. I heard he hasn't found that sibling of his."

With a gesture, Jiho was lifted off the ground and hung from the ceiling. It was dark. His breathing shallowed. There was nothingness but sadness and regulations. The words Sora murmured locked him into a state of careful depression. He could only listen to the conversation. He could only try to find the key that was in the dark. But his fear only breathed louder than he ever could.  And he could feel it on his shoulder blades, leaving nail marks and hickeys to let him remember every single doubt. His fear loved him more than anything else could. 

"I mean, I chose you out of all the peasants without a home. You were always the prettiest. You took my place for appointments and told me of your own worries. You never complained. You only smiled and petted me and it was so endearing. You were such a perfect little slave. Until you made contact with that wretched Hanyoung."

Black, black, all he could see was black. All he could hear was Sora's whispering evils. She knew how to speak, she knew how to break limbs. And it would never be enough for her to say goodbye to such worries. Minhee was trapped in Sora's game. And he was still locked with a partner that would never leave him alone. 

"Well, are things still the same?"

 

Minhee only stared blankly. Her words were nothing. She was only a servant. She was only Sora's servant before Hanyoung told secrets. He was someone else's servant. He was some other family member's servant, but he was the youngest. And Minhee always had a strange fascination with ghosts. They were to escape. They would leave their bruised feet somewhere else. And they would be together for only a few moments. It was always a plan. They exchanged messages in secret codes, left the quarters at dawn, and appeared in the kitchen at eight. 

"You were mine. But then he came along. It was a burden."

Minhee watched as Sora's disgust continued to show. One had to be patient with a dragon slayer. A slayer's eyes knew what was fragile and what was not. Except, the last time Minhee saw Sora was the second to last performance at the circus. She had no troubles knowing other people's insecurities, but only if Sora asked for demons. Her dark hair knew only of the past and what scared her then wouldn't scare her now. 

"And now you're all by yourself. Aren't you sad?"

There was complacency in her words. But Sora knew nothing, she was only trying to believe that she was making an impact. The puppet strings on her old slave were cut. 

"What are you afraid of?" 

It was the first question Sora asked. Her aritifical smugness did nothing. She was trying to pry open her ribs. She was waiting to inject fear into Minhee's veins. It was simple. And the only fear Minhee had was staring back at her. Her eyes were like those who won battles. Those who destroyed dragons in the past.  

"There was a legend that a Fairy and a Dragon mated, and all their children were of the strong Dragon descent and the beautiful fairy descent," Minhee stated. She glimpsed at the bronze bars of the cage. He called her Fairy for too long. She was in front of  a slayer. She was staring at the dark haired beauty who wrote fairy tales about people's miseries. She had no remorse for those she killed. There was no broken smiles. There was danger and swords. Sora killed people with her words. "You're a dragon slayer, why else would I cower?" There was a smile painted onto Sora's face. She found the fears. And she was going to use it to her advantage.

Minhee was afraid of being thrown into her own prison. Sora would take her away once more like when Minhe was twelve, and Sora bounded her feet so they could be as pretty as she was. Everything done to the Fairy was so Sora could find a minion who was exactly like herself. A pretty little thing that knew how to pay with misery and careful decisions. 

There was a careful smile on Sora's face. She came closer, her strides were longer and each step was stronger than the last. Her smile was perfect. There was time to escape from the fear now. There was time to escape to the Circus once more. There was more and more time. But there was no escaping such horrors. Sora would continue to plague the lands if no one stopped her. 

"I was third in line for my crown. The only reason why I never got it was because I was a female. They thought I was going to be useless. It seemed as though my kingdom thought I would never be an decent ruler. I've watched kingdoms destroy others because of this stupidity. I knew how to rule though. Idiots."

It became quiet. Limbs didn't shake and eyes didn't disappear from Sora's bitter gaze. It was the silence that killed Sora. Her fists made contact with a mirror. Her body quivered and stared at the fragments that stared back her. She wasn't broken. She was still breathing and her stares twisted into malice. There was no kindness in her smile. There was only vines that grew onto her arms and flytraps that swallowed happiness. Her fist that bled was only a scarlet that Sora could ignore. Minhee only watched as she strode towards her. Her glides became prettier, almost graceful. Her long dark gown only emphasized her beauty. 

Blood fell onto the ground. Red blinded Minhee's vision. And Sora's palm brushed against her cheek. Only red in her view, only red everywhere. It dripped onto her hair and smiles became delirious. Red like the circus tents, red like the cuts on Jiho's face, red like the gowns in the ball. Red, red, red, people were blinded by red. 

"Come back to me, Minhee."

People became red. Sora was only derranged by red. Wrath, power, people's misery, she fed and she swallowed fear. Oblivion was someone else's calling. Sora continued to her hair, Minhee's curls would be inked by red. She stole breath from the air and she changed it into red. She lost oxygen. Minhee was losing the ability to breathe. (Breathing was natural, there was no anxiety in breathing. Why was her heart telling her otherwise?) Was she only allowed to see red after this meeting? 

"Well?" Sora asked. Fragments of the mirror appeared on the ground. Snow White had lips of red, the evil queen wanted to be the fairest in the land. There was a blur of thoughts that ran through her thoughts as Sora continued to leave red on her body. Only until there was red in Sora's eyes and fire that burned Minhee's arms. 

Sora was a dictator. Her body only knew how to control others. And all Minhee could feel was red. Red, red, red. It was a game of some sort. It was a game. There was only red and the glass only reflected imprisonment. There was no lock to undo the misery from. Crumpled words ran through her mind. Sora picked up the glass, slowly raising the shard to her cheek. It was impossible to win. It was impossible. The dragon slayer stared back at her. 

She was going to be killed by her fears. She was going to have to lock her body into her prison. A dance where her feet only bled. The only show that involved her hands to be pricked by thorns every waking moment. Sora was a dragon slayer and Minhee was nothing more than a goal in her life. What happened next was a blur. Minhee stole the shard of glass from the dragon slayer and forced it into Sora's heart. Twisting the shard until there was no more red to see. Until she didn't see her chest breathe in and out anymore. Until the dragon slayer couldn't say anything anymore. There was no more red. There was no more prison. There was no more cowardice. 

(And so Minhee breathed.)

 

It had to be somewhere. It had to be somewhere. Jiho's arms wandered in the dark, his breathing became hollow. The stench of metal only whispered into his nose. And he could never feel for his escape. The Beast didn't die. The Beast had souls to comfort his being. But his worries only breathed on him. He would never find his way out of the cage. The darkness consumed him. He would rot and there would be no such thing as fears or breathing, only nothingness. 

He was ill-fitted to be king. He was ill-fitted to be anything more than a prince. It was nothing more. It was only a belief that one person had. He saw his brother break down, he saw how his eyes became filled with rage when it came about. His father's words sung into his thoughts. There was more than anger filled rants. There were more good than worthlessness. But his body urged him to stay put. To play damsel until someone could release him from his fears. But the key was on the inside. But the key was inside the cage, in the darkness, in the nothingness. No one would save him unless he had a key. 

There was no time to drink wine with his fears. There was no minute to be wasted. As crippling as his fears were, he had to slowly find his own passage. The soothing words of the two below only came to his aid as he fumbled around in the cage. It was somewhere. He would not cower like he did when he was fifteen. His calloused hands would find the golden key in the prison. It would be somewhere. His demons pressed onto his back, whispering depression into his ears. When would they ever leave him alone? When would the missing pieces find a complete mirror? His demons still laughed at his attempt. The hinderance had to wither. His fingers trembled.

But on his knees, he felt the metal. The cold key whispered wonders into his ears. There was giggling from its golden tint. But other things had to be done. He couldn't open the door without someone else. He felt the cage tilt. Someone else was on the cage, hanging. 

"Are you okay?" he heard a voice whispered. The conversation died. There was no more worries lingering in her voice. There was only Minhee's lost question.  And he hummed a yes before sliding the key in the tiny speck of light. "Lovely," she hummed. He heard the key twist and click. The Fairy unlocked the gates. He could smell the scent of frigid air. The brightness blinded him. There was a loss of worries, the demons screamed for darkness. But Minhee's bright eyes stared back. And carefully, she hugged the boy. There was warmth, there was more than death. The air was kind and she was kind to him. There was relief. 

He pulled away, a nostalgic smile appeared on his face. 

"My name is Park Jiho, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Jiho."