End

"I...need...blood..."

Levi had been lying on the cold floor of her office for hours. It was now close to midnight and the whole facility was silent, and empty. The deafening silence was only occasionally broken when Levi started coughing violently that a bit of blood would splatter the floor. It felt as if the inside walls of Levi's throat were being rubbed with sand from the grounds of the hottest desert known.

There was barely enough energy to even crawl. Levi's arms were dead, her legs lifeless. Her eyelids were getting heavier by each passing moment. Her mind could only fill of pictures, memories of Sae whom she missed so much. Her heart twisted, causing her to dig her nails into her chest in annoyance.

"Damn it...I broke my own promise..."

Unrequited love was an experience Levi never imagined she'd ever have to know. She had confessed to a man who already knew of her true feelings that not even she could fully understand. The time she had known Sae, she despised him. She was afraid, attracted, mortified, and had completely lost it.

Levi closed her eyes for only a moment, but that was all it took. her mind went blank but her body felt light enough for her to push herself up. Her surroundings seemed somewhat unfamiliar. The entire room filled of a foul smell of blood and that was when the exhausted woman saw the many small splatter of her own and Mr. Amari's blood staining the furniture.

"Blood...blood...I need...my precious slave..."

...

The young mistress and Sae had been battling for hours and yet neither of them gave the other a single scratch. Even after a cycle of blows, kicks, and attempts to knock the other down, they were getting nowhere.

"Did I really ask too much when I said I wanted to go home?" Sae had a small smile on his face, seeing how ridiculous it was to be fighting with a woman like two kids fighting over some petty argument.

"I already told you Sayrid, I can't allow you to go back to that place. To Miss Clyde."

"Cause being with you is sooo much safer, huh? Look, I get that there's some stupid crossfire between you and Levi, but I shouldn't have to keep on being caught in the middle of it."

"I thought you already accepted your role."

Sae chuckled, "Yeah, as a slave. I'm not a slave anymore. I never accepted nor did I need to accept being a puppet to women who think using their fists and kicks instead of what's in their thick heads."

Sae's life as a slave was supposed to be different. He imagined being forced to do house chores, the flesh and his nails peeling from scrubbing the floors with the rags he called clothes. He imagines his body to have started collecting scars from being whipped for the smallest mistake or for no reason at all other than to bring some sort of satisfaction for his owner. But with having to ask himself so many new questions, and finding out so many revolting things, Sae had quit imagining of the life he was supposed to have.

"You won't grant my wish of returning home and I refuse to grant your wish of staying by your side when I can't trust that you are the woman I am supposed to serve. But, I'm getting bored of this, so I'll offer you a deal-"

"I have no intention of making deals with you, Sayrid. I simply want what's mine."

"God you don't get it, do you? I'm not yours. I belong to me whether the damn world or you or Levi realizes that simple FACT." Sae had a hand on his hip and head slightly tilted back as he took a good look at the stone-cold statue standing a hundred feet away from him. Her aura was invisible, showing Sae nothing and of course he couldn't use her eyes to see what she felt as they were covered like he wanted.

"Tch...you're really making me wonder. Shit...if I go with you, where will you take me?"

The woman in black took a few quiet moments before she replied with words that stunned Sae, "To your parents."

Sae's feet were rooted in the ground.

'...you've gotta be shittin' me...' thought Sae. He knew that Azallyn had murdered his parents seven years ago. He remembered being ten and he also remembered that he had mixed feelings about them being gone. With the unfortunate but common problem for families in Coveford was that many of what used to be "happy couples" soon grew their hatred for each other after their first child is born. Many knew of the "curse" and many children ended up resenting their parents for falling under it without even trying to fight it even though no one knew how to cure or even prevent that from ruining their family.

"I don't resent them in any way, shape or form. But I do know that they're long gone. I don't care what you say, or what you show me, they're dead."

Behind the mask, the woman wore a soft smile. In no way was she amused by the heartbreaking words of a broken man, but the fact that Sae spoke with such a calm demeanor. His voice and breathing were steady and his facial expression showed of no fear. However, his eyes showed the slightest sparkle of pain. To her, Sae's eyes were most beautiful at this very moment.

"What makes a person dead, Sayrid?" Sae scoffed at this but the woman waited patiently. She stepped over to a pile of large rocks and sat down elegantly. Seeing she was serious, Sae pinched the ski between his brows, "You don't have to die to be dead. People's lives don't end when they die."

The woman was pleased with his answer, but she pushed him to see what more he could say, "Then when does it end?"

Sae sighed. The questions were questions he had stopped asking himself the day he became a slave. When he stepped into Levi's territory, he saw the other men of different ages and races all with dull eyes and broken spirits. They no longer had any glimpse of hopes in their eyes and it didn't take a genius to know. Even a child could easily tell that they were upset for reasons so many understood but could never explain.

"I remember on the day I buried them, some old man came up to me. He stood behind me with his hands patting my shoulders. He told me that people's lives don't end when they die. Their lives end when they lose faith. At first, I didn't really pay attention to what he said, cause I thought he was talking about my parents...but he wasn't."

Sae clicked his tongue and clenched his fists while staring at the floor. "Tch...I never deserved to meet such a kind man like him..."

The young mistress took a deep breath then stepped closer to Sae. She was able to see Sae's eyes glistening because of the tears that were forming and on the verge of flowing.

"You're right," Sae looked up to see the woman's eyes where his widened which caused the tears to finally fall...

"What most people find beautiful, they instantly become greedy."