𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐰

Don't Leave Me

"Aether!" Dew rushed forward and nearly toppled his mate with his momentum.

"I'm sorry, firefly, you tried your hardest but it didn't work," he was crying. Aether, the strongest ghoul Dew knew, was fucking crying. And it was Dew's fault. It was his fault — he didn't try hard enough, he didn't do all he could, he wasn't going with.

"I'll fix this, I'll bring you back," Dew sobbed, his voice barely an octave above a whisper. "Please come back to me."

A sibling stood in the doorway, hands folded over her habit and emotionless eyes fixed somewhere past the two of them. "It's time to go, Aether."

"No! No, don't take him," he was clinging to Aether's chest now, claws digging into clothes and most likely tearing them. The temperature rose steadily around them and the sibling sent to escort Aether to the pit was sweating. "I won't let you."

"Dew, you have to let him go," the sibling stepped forward, and realized what a grave mistake she'd made when Dew bared his teeth.

"I will fucking kill you, do not take another step forward."

"Dew, my love," Aether peeled the smaller ghoul off of him and kissed both of his cheeks, leaving the residue of quintessence on his cheekbones. "It'll be okay. As soon as I'm safe I'll find a way to communicate with you. You'll be okay."

"No, I won't, I can't do this without you. I love you, Aether."

Before Aether could respond, Sister Imperator came up behind him and slit his throat with a serrated knife. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Dew watched as blood, Aether's blood, poured over her hand and his once vibrant, powerful eyes soon dulled to nothing. He exploded into ash before he even hit the floor. She clapped her hands together, ignoring Dew's screams and sobs as he tried to gather all of Aether's remains in his hands.

"He was taking too long. Back to your wing, little ghoul. And wash that ash off of you, it smells disgusting."

Dew watched helplessly as the same thing happened to Rain, blood pouring over Void's fingers and spilling into the ground below them, painting the grass and dirt red. Rain's eyes were trained on Dew, and they conveyed a thousand thoughts.

He distantly heard Phantom groan and Void laughing. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and his vision tunneled, going dark at the edges. He tried to stand, but blood loss forced him back down.

It was all made worse when Void shoved Rain's limp body forward so he landed right next to Dew, lifeless, lightless eyes staring into his own.

Then he was gone.

The ash stained everything a dark blue, the only other thing indicating that Rain had been there the smell of petrichor hanging heavy in the clearing.

Then that was gone too.

He slowly regained awareness, and someone was screaming. He looked towards Phantom, thinking it could be him, but his eyes were closed and his limbs shook like brittle leaves in the wind.

The edges of his vision darkened and he took a deep breath, and he realized he was the one screaming. Void lifted Dew's chin in between his fingers, wiping ash all over his face.

"Clean that up, little ghoul, it's disgusting."

Void backed away into the shadows of the forest, leaving Dew to mourn Rain and now possibly Phantom, seeing as how his chest barely moved and the low whimpers that were coming from him steadily through the entire ordeal had quieted.

Dew groaned and crawled towards the younger ghoul on hands and knees, rolling him onto his back and running his hands gently over Phantom's cheekbones. "Why would you do that?" He whispered, voice hoarse. "Why wouldn't you sever the bond?"

Phantom was quiet, his beautiful purple eyes were dulled to nearly nothing and the stars that Dew loved connecting into constellations were dark. "Ant, please," Dew's tears splashed off of the little quintessence ghoul's pale cheeks. "Please, I can't lose you too, please."

His eyes slowly cracked open, and he shot up from where he was laying on his back. "Where is he?" He looked around frantically. "Where's Rain?"

"Phantom, he— I—"

He tried to stand up on shaky legs, almost immediately collapsing back into Dew's arms. "Where is he? I can fix him, I can fix this, where is he?"

"No! Phantom, he's gone. You can't fix that." Dew felt tears well up in his eyes but refused to let them fall. He had to be strong, couldn't break down in front of Phantom. "I'm sorry I did this to you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"We can find him, we can bring him back." Phantom was frantic, breathing hard and stumbling over his words. He shot to his feet, swaying slightly.

"We can't, Phantom, it's not possible."

"Yeah, yes it is. Void would always come up to earth when we were together, I don't know what he was doing but," he broke out into a coughing fit, blood coming up and lighting on his arm and chin. "There has to be a way back—"

Dew's eyes widened. "There's a way to bring him back."

Phantom nodded his head, eyes glazing over temporarily before clearing again. "I think I probably need to—"

And then he collapsed.