Sana looked out the window of the car solemnly, watching the funeral-goers walk teary-eyed before they entered the building, the faint noise of music and conversation getting carried by the wind. The makeshift funeral seems sadder than an actual one, weirdly enough. Something so empty and hollow over the circumstance of its existence. Dahyun notices the expression upon the demon's face and figures that she'll need a little push to go with her.

“Come on,” Dahyun says, nudging Sana on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

The girl in question turns around in mock horror. “Are you implying that there’s actual people in there that don’t think I killed her?” Dahyun flinches at her tone, and Sana changes her sarcasm into sympathy. She gives her a small smile. “It’s not the best time for me to go, Dubu,” she sighs, shrinking into her seat, thinking back to everything that has happened. “You know that. Besides, this is a place meant for someone like you, not someone like me.”

“But what if there’s never a ‘best time’?” Dahyun tries to convince her, “What if this place is never yours?”

Sana groans, hating how she can’t help but agree with Dahyun. “Ugh, you never let me be a pessimist,” she starts, looking through the front window with an annoyed pout. “And, gee, thanks for reminding me.”

Dahyun tries once again. “I don’t wanna go alone, Sana, I… I need someone-”

“I know that!” Sana’s words are as sharp as a knife. “But your family, Dahyun, your family is in there too. You won’t be alone without me. With me, it’ll be like we’re back in hell again.”

“Sana,” Dahyun pouts and, oh, Sana doesn't have the heart to say no to that.

“Oh, fine,” she says abruptly, taking off the seatbelt. “But don’t expect to spend a nice evening with a demon by your side.”

You’re only part demon, sweetheart, Dahyun thinks quietly, a satisfied smile on her face. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she says out loud.

~

If there’s one thing Sana knows about Dahyun, it’s that the younger girl knows how to be the life of the party.

Even with the loss heavy in her own heart, Dahyun does her best to converse with the others. She easily talks about happier moments, sharing stories of the deceased to those who didn’t know them that well. She mourns differently from others, as if she was jumping into the void of memories and pretending it didn’t hurt. Sana stayed close to the entrance, not wanting to get too close, but she couldn’t help but feel amazed over how Dahyun wore her mask perfectly and made it seem as if she wasn’t the daughter of that corpse lying in the casket.

Instead, Dahyun made mourning easier for everyone. Teary-eyes have smiles reaching them, and a bittersweet happiness courses through the room swiftly and smoothly like a cheerful wind. Sana can’t help but notice how Dahyun’s mask only ever breaks when she glances to the front and sees the casket.

“That girl, she’s the daughter, right?” one of the newly-arrived guests ask Sana.

“Kim Dahyun. That she is.” Sana crosses her arms over her chest, momentarily wondering how long it will take for people to notice who she is. It won't be long until a riot consumes the funeral, turning sadness into hatred. She turns to who she’s talking and sees that it’s a young man, about the same age as her, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Dahyun.

Upon his chest is a pin with a dual-winged crest. “I’m Kim Myungsoo,” he gives her a small, polite smile. “I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“I’d ask who you are, but I get the feeling that I don’t want to know,” Sana uncrosses her hands from her chest, dropping them to her sides. “You shouldn’t be here,” she warns.

He nods once, his smile never dropping. “I understand your concern, but I’m here for my little sister.”

Sana shakes her head. “She doesn’t want you here- doesn’t need you here.”

“I’m also here for you,” he continues, pulling out a small silvery item out of his shirt pocket, keeping it hidden behind his fingers so as to not spoil the surprise. “I had something I wanted to tell you before it’s too late.”

Sana raises an eyebrow. “Sounds ominous. What’s up?”

“Don’t blame yourself,” he says in a single breath, all too quick and all too honest. “It’s not your fault, no matter what they say. Don't live through their lies. Their rumors are not your truth.” He puts the item in Sana's palm, closing her hand so as to keep it a secret.

Sana just looks at him with a bored expression, though inside those words warm her heart a little. “Is that all?”

Myungsoo nods, gives her another smile. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

As soon as he leaves, Dahyun walks back to her. “Who was that?” she asks immediately.

Sana smiles at how protective the younger girl is being about her. “Don’t worry about that for now.” She turns to look back to the casket in the front. “Can you go with me?”

Dahyun hesitates, confused by Sana’s request. “Uh, sure?”

Trying to ignore the anxiety in her heart, Sana looks down at the item in her hand. It's a silver box, and when she opens it there's a gray pendant. Realization dawns on her and Sana quickly passes the item onto Dahyun's hands. The younger girl looks down, seeing the pendant and quickly removing it from the box. Dahyun pushes it up her sleeve, understanding what to do. The two of them walk towards where the casket lays.

Sana isn’t sure how to feel when she looks down at the body. Dahyun’s mother resembles her a little too much, so much so that Sana can’t help but feel as if she killed a bit of Dahyun through her. She knows it’s not true, but she can’t ignore the facts. It’s still a death she caused, whether is was by accident or not.

The woman was by no means old, but age still showed on her face. She had the wrinkles of a smile detailing the edges, bringing a sort of beauty in her desolation. She wore a red dress, the color bright enough to be seen through the thin sheet covering her body that was hiding away Sana's mistakes. Sana recognized the dress as being the one the woman had worn the first time she had met her, and that detail laughed in the face of death now.

“I’m sorry,” she says, muttering the words underneath her breath, the heaviness of it all catching up to her like a downpour.

Maybe if she could change time, maybe if there was a way to change things… Sana momentarily entertains the idea of asking Death to do so, but she knows that it’s probably not a request that’s worth the effort. It’d be the second time Sana visits Hell since she’s left and she’s never heard of anyone successfully convincing Death to do anything like this. Sana could go and become chaos, bring destruction to the humans, take their lives like it’s nothing but a game to her, but she can’t be good to them. She has the immense power to become everything she doesn’t want to be. Darkness is in her very blood, flows through her life as much as it flows through their deaths. And for that she can’t help but feel like the antagonist of her own story, no matter how much she wants to be the hero that saves the day.

The maybes and what-ifs have haunted her for the past days since the death. She knows better than to dwell in these thoughts, but knowing better doesn’t mean she’ll stop any time soon.

“I’m sorry,” Sana repeats, a little lower this time, keeping it more to herself than to the world.

Dahyun wonders if Sana's apologizing to herself.

“Demon. How dare you strut into here as if you have a right-”

“Time to leave,” Sana says cheerily, the moment gone and lost, bumping her shoulder against Dahyun’s. The younger girl hesitates to move, looking at the casket for a moment longer. “I’ll take you back, don’t worry, but we need to leave-”

Someone calls Sana a murderer, and it doesn’t take long for it to spread.

Sana turns to the casket for the last time. “I’m sure we’ll meet again,” she says before turning away.

Even though Sana knew that walking into a funeral filled with people that believe she’s the killer was not a good idea and would never be, she sorely underestimated how bad it would get.

It quickly turns violent and Sana has to jump onto the wall to dodge a chair that was thrown at her. Her nails grow into claws, scraping the thin wood behind her and successfully sticking her to it, gravity paying to mind to what she does. Sana stares down at the broken pieces of the chair that barely missed her. “What did the chair ever do to you?” she growls, smiling in her confidence as her voice is distorted through the change of her form.

She drops back down, picking up one of the broken legs of the chair and baring it like a knife. Someone else throws a vase filled with flowers and Sana tries to swat it with her makeshift weapon, but it breaks onto the casket with bits of glass and flowers flying in every direction. It leaves harsh marks on the metal of the casket, and although Sana can’t see inside from her position, she suspects that it might have scratched the body. “Oh, that is no way to treat the dead.”

Dahyun ducks down next to her, slipping the pendant out of the inside of her sleeves and passing it back to Sana. The gray jewel is shining with darkness. “Done. ‘em up,” Dahyun says slyly, but there’s not enough time for Sana to react to her curse.

Sana pushes herself to the side to avoid impact with another innocent inanimate object. “You know, Dahyun-ah, it was nice to get to know your mother and all, but I’m gonna have to leave earlier than expected.”

Before anyone can do anything, Sana’s already changed. Her physical form deconstructing itself, morphing into dark ashes of her former self. She jumps through the room’s shadows, leaving nothing in her wake except for an eerie chill.

As she falls outside, she finds herself face to face with a boy who has a dual-winged crest pinned on his chest.

And then there’s nothing.