It Ends with Us • Kim Mingyu

[Prologue]

"You have to let me go, please! I have to save her. She's in danger," the fallen angel hollers, his eyes burning from the unrelenting calefaction of the cage that's holding him captive.

It's on fire, everything is on fire. Wherever his gaze falls, it's all colossal flames; never ceasing to truncate.

"My flower, she'll die without me. I need to save her."

His scream fades into wailing, slowly follows with feeble sobs, and then into nothingness.

He has no strength left, not enough to even cry.

"It is a flower's nature to perish." They reply indifferently.

"But I can save her! For the last time . . . please. It's too early for her to leave that world. She still has so much to see, so many things to achieve . . . you know it too. Please . . ." After a pause of heavy gasp, he plummets on his knees and clasps his hands before him.

"Please, let me go."

His black-feathered wings come in contact with the thick wires of the cage, and it seems like they're going to incinerate into fine ashes, along with his entire existence.

Yet; yet he doesn't lurch -- not for a single moment.

He doesn't capitulate.

He doesn't beg for forgiveness, for he had committed the most hated transgression one can name in this realm -- attempting to escape the underworld.

Rather, he begs for her life -- her happiness.

He begs and begs.

Even when he knows it's almost futile.

"You are well aware fallen angel, that if she dies, your sins will finally be forgiven. You will be able to return to heaven, your true home."

"I don't care what happens to me!" his voice breaks miserably. "I took the oath of protecting her with everything I have since the very moment she was born. I can't turn my back on her when she needs me the most!"

Their demeanour hardens. "If you leave now, amnesty will never be bestowed upon you. Rather, your sins will devour you. They will become the cause of your ultimate doom. It will  bring immeasurable misery to her life as well." They utter.

He freezes, as though every cell inside him has stopped functioning.

"M-misery? What misery?" Whispers he, timidly.

"She will live under the guilt of not unshackling the angel from the chains of his sufferings when she had the opportunity to do so for the rest of her life."

"But . . . but humans . . . they get over guilt, don't they? T-they forget with time. They move on." He retorts, his dire anxiousness in constant battle against the very little time he's left with.

"She is no ordinary human, fallen angel. She will never be able to move on, she will carry it with her forever. Do you think the moon spirit would want that to happen to her dear child?"

"The moon spirit wouldn't want her to die an unfair death either!" He says, as he wipes his tears with the back of his hands violently. "She entrusted me with her life. You can't just take that away from me!"

"We didn't take anything from you. You turned your back on the heavens, you betrayed the Above. You failed your duties." They state with disdain.

"And I'm suffering, aren't I?" He chokes. "But she doesn't have to . . ."

His feet can no longer bear to stay on the ground. Despite the lack of sufficient space, he tries to fly higher. Just a little high -- enough to keep his feet off of the hellishly burning surface.