Asuna crept into the building. It was quiet. That was a bad sign.
She'd followed Arturia here after she witnessed the robbery, hoping to be of help, but as she opened the door she realized she was too late.
Inside were 3 corpses. Two of them men reduced to skeletons, with puddles of liquified remains beneath them.
And then… Arturia. Sitting against the wall, chin resting against her chest, eyes closed.
Asuna knelt down and felt her face. It was so soft, yet so cold now. Colder than it should've been. A faint trickle of blood ran down her chin, and her hat lay crumpled by her side.
Asuna carefully picked up the hat and went to place it on her head. She stopped, holding it tighter. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping. Such a small frail girl.
It wasn't fair. She'd done nothing wrong. Just a few days ago she'd felt the kindness of her arms, and now she was just a body. Asuna had seen death a few times before, but this felt different.
She gently placed the hat atop her head, brushed the hair from her face, and wiped the blood from her chin.
"I'm sorry your story had to end here…"
She stood up and looked down at the girl. She had to leave, couldn't bear to be there any longer.
"Poor thing. Couldn't handle the burden." Said a deep woman's voice.
Asuna spun around and a cold decrepit hand grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground as if it was nothing.
"No matter, I'll soon find another. Sad though, that one seemed promising."
The woman held her in an iron grip. She was unnervingly tall and thin, her skin pale as a corpse and her eyes a piercing yellow. No more could be seen beneath her black cloak.
Asuna kicked and struggled to free herself, her whole body erupted in flames and her eyes burned like hot coals.
"Let me-!"
"Let you go? Sorry my dear, I need something from you."
The woman's eyes glowed, and Asuna's flames died away. Her face drew a blank expression and she felt her mouth forced open by an unseen power. Something was being pulled from her, a whisper of white fog. There was a resistance, like tugging out a hair, and then…
Pluck.
Whatever it was had been taken. Asuna slumped, her hands falling limp at her sides. The woman opened wide and swallowed the small cloud, then tossed Asuna aside in a crumpled heap.
Asuna lay there, eyes glazed and motionless. She still breathed, her heart still beat, but not a single thought or emotion ran through her. Everything that had once been Asuna was now gone from that hollow body.
"I do love the taste of souls, yours was quite spicy." The woman chuckled, then vanished as quickly as she'd appeared.
Asuna's shell lay there in the darkness, just feet away from Arturia's corpse.
It didn't matter if someone found them or not.
Return to fate
Index