It was the middle of the night and the castle lay in deep darkness. The only ones to be awake were the guards, but to be honest, they also weren’t to blame for him being not asleep. They were quiet and their presence could only be noticed, if one knew they were there. And still Junho wasn’t able to sleep.

He was merely able to feel the watch of the guards, who were standing without moving beside his room, as he escaped into the courtyard. Junho pulled the overcoat, which he had put on against the persisting cold of the early spring, tighter around his shoulders. The silk caressed his skin in a smooth sensation, but Junho wasn’t paying any attention to the familiar feeling.

Junho was silently placing one foot in front of the other. The silken slipper, pulled over his bare feet, were absorbing any sound he would have made without them for sure, as he entered the small wooden path, encircling the courtyard of the sleeping quarters to make reaching the other rooms without getting dirty feet possible.

 Something was different this night. It was quiet. More quiet than usual. Way too quiet. Junho stopped and with a low whisper the fabric of his robe also came to rest. He intensely listened into the darkness of the night, merely enlightened by the stars and still was only able to hear his own bumpy heartbeat. It was a new moons night and as Junho was glancing up into the sky, he wasn’t able to see anything abnormal between the twinkling stars.

Maybe it really just was his paranoiac self. Maybe it was just the absence of his father, the king and his older brother, the heir, what gave him a bad feeling. Junho breathe deeply, then turned back around to return to his own chamber, when he froze. He had seen something up there. A shadow. A great shadow. Gigantic…

BANG! Junho spun around, voices grew loud and at once the night was fulfilled with the patter of many feet, the shouting of the soldiers. Heat hit Junhos face. Like a wave it crushed over him and he stumbled backwards to the ground, eyes wide open looking at the chaos, which was happening right in front of him. Strong hands grabbed him, pulled him up and away from the happening. “You shouldn’t be here, Prince!”, yelled the soldier, who took him away.

“Junsu-ah.” There was barely more than a whisper coming from his lips. And then Junho began to struggle against the tight grip of his bodyguard. “JUNSU-AH!” – “You cannot help him, Prince!”, the man exclaimed, while he was fighting the princes arms, since he was lashing about, desperate to get to his twin brother. His twin brother, who was still in the chambers, which now were to be aflame. The gloominess of the night was burst by the magenta of the flames, which were reaching up into the dark sky, outlining the silhouettes of the order yelling soldiers harshly.

“NO! JUNSU-AH!” Junho broke away from the grip of his bodyguard, stumbled forward and fell down, his hands and knees crushing into the firmly frozen ground. He neither was able to hear the ripping of the expensive silk, nor did he feel the hurt in his palms, as stones were digging into his flesh painfully. He picked himself up and ran on unsteady legs back to the hot flames. “JUNSU-AH!” His voice was going over-the-top, while he tried to get near the fast spreading flames, placing his arm in front of his face, to save it from the burning heat. Pain pierced down his arm, but Junho wasn’t paying attention. Again and again he tried to get into the burning house. His brother was not dead, could not be dead. Must not be dead…

An explosion catapulted Junho backwards, pain was raging through his whole body and Junho – crying – dropped down into the arms of the guard, who took him away once more. “Junsu-ah…” It was a whisper falling from his lips barely audible, while tears blurred Junhos vision into the deep red of the flames, ere everything sunk into darkness.