Important Announcement!

Hey all! It's Abby! I know it's been a while, but I promised myself to freakin' finish this story! In truth, I've been working on other stories in private, and I have a few more lined up to publish. HOWEVER, I have been planning to make an eventual transition to Wattpad just because I can do stories with my own characters and other fandoms (etc.). I have a couple eventual novels I'm getting ready to start churning out, so check me out/follow me! My username is Acridtaste on Wattpad (emo name, I know). 

I plan to finish the final part to this story and then I will be revamping the whole thing. I started this thing like FOREVER ago- while it isn't bad, I want to actually have content that I'm happy with. Plus, writing this so on and off has definitely affected the quality of work. I think I will be updating the chapters as I go, but ALSO publishing this to Wattpad. (Another reason to follow my profile!)

            Hatred, Hwayoung realized, was a funny thing. Her entire body was completely helpless to the energy that raced through her veins in a gallop that left her pulsing with heat, and Hwayoung’s battered body was left singed from the inside out. The hatred only grew in strength as it ate its way through her. It brought the girl to her knees, but the loss of Taemin kept her from standing again.

            Dead, the word made Hwayoung sick to her stomach, but she spat it out anyways. She wanted Jinki dead- never before had Hwayoung wished it. And yet. Hwayoung wanted nothing more than to see Jinki lying on the ground motionless instead of the boy who had spent so many stolen afternoons with her on the forest floor. She could still feel the way Taemin’s breath would blow over the shell of her ear and send butterflies soaring in her stomach. How she would smile and wind her arms around his neck and together they would jump into the free fall.

            Hwayoung still loved Taemin- she would always love him. If Jongin was the cold ground of the forest floor and heated gazes that made Hwayoung’s body draw near and hum with electricity, Taemin was the opposite. To her, the boy lying dead on the ground carried precious memories of warm kisses and meaningful touches that lingered for hours later. And without a care, Jinki had snuffed out Taemin’s light.

            So cold. Taemin, look what he has done to you.

            Hwayoung pressed her forehead to Taemin’s one last time and swallowed hard. Remember a time when you and I were infinite. In those stolen moments as children, Taemin, I’ll always hold you close like this. Slowly and fighting with every shaky jerk of muscle as she turned away from her former lover, Hwayoung met Jinki’s smirking face with the hardest glare she could muster. With hatred.  

“You,” Hwayoung’s voice shook with raw emotion as she moved her lips. “You bastard.”

            Jinki approached her with a casual smile as he loaded another bolt into his crossbow. Its metallic glimmer made Hwayoung stumble and trip over Taemin’s cold body to put any measure of space between her and death.

            “You should have just kept your mouth shut and married me,” Jinki’s mouth curled into something foul, rancid. His face was a horrible mask of rage as he approached the girl scrambling in the snow. “You should have just been a docile little and not whored yourself out to cheap hunters.”
            Hwayoung reached desperately behind her to pull at Taemin’s dagger. Jinki noticed her efforts and laughed- a cold, humorless laugh that did little more than to fan the fire of Hwayoung’s desperation. Hands shaking, Hwayoung unsheathed the blade and pointed it at Jinki; she knew how pathetic she must appear.

            “What,” Jinki pointed the crossbow at Hwayoung’s heart, taking great humor in her desperation. “Are you going to kill me? Stab me with that little needle you are holding?”

            Hwayoung tried to keep the fear from her voice as she spoke. Hwayoung refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her beg for her life; she would face death with her chin held high.

            “You disgust me. I’ll kill you,” Hwayoung felt her body trembling. “If I have to die to do it, I’ll kill you.”

            His eyes widened, and then Jinki once again burst into peals of laughter. In the same manner that a child pokes a frog to watch it jump, Jinki shot a bolt at Hwayoung that buried itself deep in the snow just by her leg. The sharp thunk of metal leaving wood, and then the wild beating of Hwayoung’s heart as she scrambled backwards. Jinki looked as though he were having fun. Whether Hwayoung lived or died clearly weighed nothing on his conscience. Her weather-raw hands formed claws in the snow.
            Surprised, Hwayoung stumbled before lurching forward to swing at him with her knife. Suddenly Jinki was no longer laughing, his face grew still. He pushed Hwayoung backwards with a hard boot, and she fell hard. Everything was screaming, her body was ripping at the seams.

            She groaned as she felt her entire body shudder against the unforgiving ground. Only wearing he