~ The Night it Snowed ~

The sight of Aiden's spilled blood was enough to drown her. Aiden's eyes, which were formerly empty, stared at her with a warm look of affection again.

"I'm truly sorry," He told her with blood-stained lips. "Please forgive me."

Aiden's regrets left his body with every dying breath he took. Like whispers whisked away with the wind, he called out to her in hopes that his pleas would reach her heart. He was happy it ended before he killed her.

She smiled at him and held one of his weak hands tightly. The familiar touch of her brother. The hand she had held all these years. The feeling of comfort they brought one another. She didn't want to lose this.

Winter's cold tears rolled off her cheeks and fell onto his colourless complexion, each tear begging him to stay. Her tears stained his cheeks, making it look like he was crying. Like she had always done from day one, Winter cried for the both of them.

"Don't die," She begged him in between heart-wrenching sobs. "Don't leave me. It should be me- it should be me instead. I'm sorry, it's my fault. It's my fault, I-"

"No," He whispered. "It's not."

Death was not an opinion. It wasn't something she could change with a few simple words. She knew being angry or sad was a waste of time. No matter how she felt, she couldn't change the outcome. Yet she couldn't accept the fact that his life was ending in front of her very eyes and by her hands. If only she had a few more minutes. There was so much she needed to say.

"Don't leave me," She begged again. "I'll never love anyone the way I love you. How can I be happy after this?"

From day one, it was her and Aiden against everyone else. They understood each other's hearts better than they understood the world. She had only ever truly loved one person in this lifetime as Winter.

"I pray to the gods that you do," He said with a delicate voice. "I pray that you continue to love others the way you did me."

'This is my last request to you.'

"Don't, don't speak as if you're going to die. Please I can't say goodbye... I can't-"

"I won't say goodbye," He struggled to speak as his chest rose and lowered in crazed patterns. "Goodbye means I'll never see you again, but I'll always be with you."

"I should've protected you better," She wailed, caressing his face with a trembling hand coated in Aiden's blood. "I've only ever lived for you..."

She embraced his body, hanging onto him as if he was her lifeline- like they always had in the attic. The two children were still broken toys lost in a world of clutter. Only now, one of them was far more broken than the other.

"In our next life," He told her with trembling lips, slightly tightening the hold of his weak hand on hers. "I'll find you. No matter who you end up being or where you end up going... I'll find you."

Winter nodded, her silver locks of hair falling in front of tear-stained face. "Because you and I share the same soul. I know that even death can't keep us apart."

"You have to let me go now, Winny."

"I won't," She sobbed into his weak shoulder with erratic breaths. There was no way she could let go of someone so precious to her.

He smiled at her weakly. "I'll be watching you from the golden wheat fields under the blue sky."

There was fear in Winter's eyes. A good reason for it existed behind that fear. Winter was afraid of the fact that her own actions had sealed both her and her brother's fate. She lived and breathed solely for the boy she held in her arms. Everything she had done in life was for him. Now he was dying because she messed up once. She was careless once. She was stupid once.

"I'll come find you," She told him. "When the time is right, I'll come to you. I love you. I love you more than this lifetime."

Winter looked up towards the ceiling, her tears falling rapidly as she called out to the gods silently: 'I know I'm not supposed to be here. I know you all don't want me be alive, but Aiden isn't an anomaly in your ruling. I am. Take my soul instead. Give him my soul instead. Let me die in my brother's place.'

She looked down at Aiden, his face now almost completely drained of colour. His blood stained the tips of her silver hair. She smiled sweetly at her brother, silently dying with him.

"I..." He said taking in one final shallow breath. "I want to use my last breath to say I love you."

And she watched. She watched as the colour and life fled from his eyes. She felt his cold hand loosen around hers. She felt herself die with him.

Her twin brother. Her other half. The reason she believed she was brought to this world. The reason she breathed every day. It was all taken from her in a moment's time because she had lost control.

Winter placed her ear on his chest, listening for the beating of his heart. She heard nothing.

The people around Winter watched her cling to the lifeless body. Her screams echoed against the tall walls. Cries of agony. Cries of death. Cries of loss. She screamed and screamed, not caring who heard. He was gone. Her everything's heart had stopped beating.

Against the cries, subtle gentle snowflakes fell from the arched ceilings. They hit the floor carefully, beautiful in their splendour and appearance- but they felt sad. The way they fell resembled Winter's falling tears.

It was a beautifully sorrowful sight. The night Prince Aiden died, it snowed inside the palace.

~***~

Aiden looked up at the clairvoyant sky overhead. The sky was bright blue and the sun shone down on him, lightly kissing his skin with a comforting feeling of warmth. He looked at the field where grain was grown around him. The golden wheat fields stretched out further than his eye could see.

He closed his eyelids, feeling the light breeze blowing through his curls. The fields sparkled a similar colour to them in the sun: a pure gold colour that Winter had loved more than anything else in the world.

Aiden giggled, darting off through the fields. He ran and ran as fast as could, but he never grew tired. It was a feeling he was unfamiliar with.

"Aiden," A soft voice called out from behind him.

Aiden turned. "Winter?"

The woman with silver hair smiled. She looked like an angel under the rays of sun. Aiden tilted his head, realizing she was much older than Winter was. Her hair, unlike Winter's wavy locks, fell in perfect tousles of curls past her shoulder. It glimmered an ethereal shade of silver, just like his twin sister.

"Yes, I suppose she does look like me," The woman said with affection in her eyes. "Tell me, is she happy?"

Aiden hesitated. "She will be. One day."

The woman reached her hand out towards him, her curls fluttering in the breeze as she did. Aiden slipped his hand in hers. Her touch felt just like Winter's did. He thought it felt nice to hold someone's hand again.

"I can't hold your hand forever," He told the lady. "One day, when Winter comes, I'll have to hold hers again."

The lady laughed like a beautiful song. "I'm happy. It seems that she was very good to you."

"Yes," He told her as they walked through the fields side-by-side. "She was so beautiful with kindness."

"Then we'll wait for her to get here," The lady told him. "But she might look a little different when she does."

"Different?"

The lady nodded, her silver hair glistening in the light. "Winter has lived through more than one life, so I'm not sure what her soul will look like."

"I'm excited," Aiden said with a smile. "I know she'll be beautiful."

"Me too."

"But I don't want her to come right now," Aiden said with a pout, shading his eyes from the bright sun with his free hand. "She should take as much time down there as she can."

"I agree," The woman chuckled. "Aiden is beautiful with kindness as well."

"What's your name? You know mine, but I don't know yours."

"Indra," The lady replied softly. "But you can call me mom."