I know this is short, but I just really wanted to share a little bit of it tonight. Thank you for reading, (▰˘◡˘▰) 

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There was no scream, just an eerie silence that resonated through the hollow castle. Xiumin stirred uneasily in his sleep, his dream of a sparkling lake distorting into a bloody nightmare, and though he was no prophet, he knew that something was very wrong. As he jerked up in a cold sweat, ten guards clad in black cloaks burst into his room, simultaneously telling him to get the hell up and out. 

"What's going on?" Xiumin asked desperately. His ten protectors ignored his questions as they hurriedly ushered him through the corridor. He kept spinning his head left and right, searching for answers in the dim light, finding none. 

They were approaching the hallway leading to the grand double doors of the king and queen's chambers, surging forward with even more urgency than before. Xiumin peered into the dark, making contact with a figure whose grin reeked of sick pleasure. His gaze bored into Xiumin's eyes as he whispered, "It has begun." And in the next instant, the man vanished, and Xiumin-whose shapeshifter brain was hard-wired to remember every detail of every person he saw-nearly doubled over from the agonizing pain that particular face was causing him. 

"Where is the queen?" Xiumin asked, refusing to believe that he had only imagined the intruder. "I am your prince! Tell me, where is the queen!" 

"She was killed, your highness," a guard replied. 

"By who?" 

"We don't know."

"And my father?"

"He left this morning to meet with the new King of Matsu." 

Xiumin mounted his horse and they rode into the night. He had seen his mother's killer, he knew that to be true. Xiumin wondered how he could find him, that nauseating shadow, in the world that was being consumed by darkness. His insides burned with rage as he pictured the man, smiling at the end of the hall, his daunting words echoeing in his head. 

"It has begun." 

As Xiumin tried to imagine what was beginning, he realized that he was almost crying. He bit the inside of his cheek and focused on his breath, refusing to become vulnerable. 

"You cannot afford to rule with your heart. When you become king, you must rule with your head, or become a slave to love's whip," his mother had once said. 

The troop slowed once they were concealed in the thickness of the untamed forest. Xiumin clenched his jaw. There would be another time for tears.