N managed to calm himself down by the time everyone returned to the house with the hybrid. He watched with cold eyes as the twelve stared at the four stone originals in shock, but he focused more on Luhan’s face. In N’s mind, this was all Luhan’s fault so he hoped that seeing Bora like this hurt the hybrid. N hoped that it hurt him a lot.

“How did this happen?” Luhan finally asked, taking a step towards Bora only to have N block his path.

“This happened because you left,” N hissed, pushing Luhan away, “she never would have done this if you or one of your brothers had been there to stop her.”

“N,” Leo warned, not wanting things to escalate too much. If the pair came to blows, there was a chance something could happen to the stone originals. Leo didn’t want to think about what would happen if stone-Jiwook chipped or stone-Suji cracked.

“What do you mean my fault?” Luhan shouted, “I’m not the only one who left you know.”

“Luhan hyung,” Sehun said, wanted to end the fight for the same reasons Leo did. If something happened to the statues, did that mean they couldn’t bring the originals back?

“You left first,” Luhan yelled, ignoring everyone but N, “you left her, acting like a spoiled child who didn’t get his way. Why’d you run away, huh? Because Bora didn’t love you?”

“Don’t you are act all high and mighty with me,” N shoved the younger back, “there should have never been a doubt in your mind about Bora. But one stupid little vampire girl comes to you with a sob story about Bora turning her and you need time to think. You never even got Bora’s side of the story, did you? No, you just ran off because you couldn’t handle Bora being anything less than a saint.”

“You know what?” Luhan growled, “I’ll fix this myself. Without the help of you and the vampires.”

Luhan turned and left, calling for his brothers to follow. For the most part, they followed him, not knowing what else to do. Baekhyun and Xiumin looked at the stone versions of their friends one last time before leaving. Kris and Suho quickly apologized for Luhan and for not sticking around to help Bora before leaving.

Before the hybrid could get out of ear shot, N swore that he’d bring Bora and the others back first and he wouldn’t need help from the hybrid either.

“That was foolish,” Leo sighed, patting N’s shoulder while the older calmed down.

“Well I don’t need them,” N defended himself, “I can bring bora back without them.” Leo nodded, not really believing that they wouldn’t need help from the hybrid as some point.

Unknown to all, Mihyun had witnessed everything.

“I have to do something,” she muttered to herself, noticing how much pain the vampires and the hybrids were in thanks to the loss of their friends.

--

Bora lay stretched out on the ground, shaded by a large tree that had been her favorite when she was a child. From higher up in the tree she could hear the sound of birds chirping happily and from the nearby lake she could hear a couple of frogs croaking. The warm summer breeze blew a few lose strands of her hair around and the sun warmed her skin.

It was hard to tell how long Bora had been here. Not here as in under the tree, but here as in on this side of the afterlife. Faced with an eternity in this place, time didn’t really seem to matter so she didn’t bother to keep track. Had it been a week already? Or only a few days? At least when she was among the living, she’d been able to figure out the passage of time through the clocks and calendars humans made to keep track of the days and years and hours. Here none of that existed. Either way, Bora just couldn’t seem to make herself care about that sort of stuff. She was here for forever and a day, why did it matter how many minutes were in forever?

“You look happy,” Shin said, dropping down to lay beside her, “happier than I’ve seen you in years.”

“I could say the same about you,” she replied, glancing at her brother. How long had it been since she’d last seen that happy sparkle in his eyes? The pair fell silent, knowing that now was as good a time as any to talk about everything that had happened between them, but neither wanted to be the first to start a conversation they were sure would end in yelling.

“You know what your problem is, big sis?” Shin finally said deciding he would be the bigger person and start talking, “You control everything around you. The people, the information. If you could manage it, you’d even control the weather.”

“And you’re problem is that you’ve always believed yourself to be alone,” Bora replied, “even when people are right in front of you, telling you how much they love you.”

“Amazing how death can improve your psyche,” the younger laughed. His laugh was dark and sarcastic, but his words where true. Here on the other side, they had all the time in the world to think. Think about their problems and what had lead them to their current situation. For Shin, that meant facing his feelings of being alone and his inability to see that he hadn’t been as alone as he thought. For Bora, that meant facing her wish to control everything around her in hopes of avoiding being hurt once more.

“I regret it,” she said, looking at the sky above thoughtfully, “controlling everyone to do as I want. I’m amazed that more of them don’t hate me for it. That it took N’s confession for any of them to leave.”

“I’m amazed more people don’t hate me,” he replied, “somehow, no matter what I did, you never hated me. You were disappointed and upset, but in your heart of hearts you never managed to hate me. That’s why you kept me around, isn’t it.”

“You might be a person who has murdered hundreds of people, including the families of some of my closest friends, but you’re my baby brother,” Bora smiled sadly, “no matter what horrible things you’ve done, I can’t forget that fact. I can’t stop seeing you as the little boy who followed me around like a puppy, worshipping everything I did. I look at you, I remember what you’ve done to people, and yet all I see is my baby brother who I saved from bullies when I was seven. The baby brother who cried like I was dying when I was ten and broke my arm. The brother who stood by my side and held my hand when my heart was shattered.”

The pair fell silent.

“If you got a second chance, what would you do?” Shin finally asked, “Because I don’t know what I would do. I mean, naturally I’d stop killing people for s and giggles, but anything beyond that? I have no idea.”

“Why does it matter?” she replied, “We aren’t going to get a second chance.”

“Who says?” he retorted, “Personally, I think N will try everything to bring you back to him. And if there’s a way to do it, I’m sure he’ll succeed. Mother probably has just the thing in her spell book.”

“But they’d also need her,” she countered, “and in case you didn’t notice, mother’s been dead for thousands of years. And if that wasn’t enough, she wanted us dead to begin with why on earth would she help bring us back?”

“Just answer my question,” Shin sighed, “if against all odds you got to go back, what would you do?”

“Stop controlling the people I care about,” Bora answered after a pause, “I’ll stop controlling them, I’ll give them all the information, and let them control their own lives. I’ll stop being so scared of people hurting me.”

Unknown to the pair, their mother heard every word they had heard. A sad smile formed on her face.

A/N: suddenly, I don’t hate Shin as much as I used to (says the person who created him).