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Ever since they’d found out that Rumi was a demon? Takedown was never the final score for the Honmoon harmony. Not when her insecurities about bearing the markings had come to light, and especially not after they saw she was a demon herself firsthand. She didn’t have a choice but to be honest about it after that, but it had forced them to be more aware of their words. So the whole song had been scrapped, turned away into some distant corner of the room lost to the past few weeks.
But even things that seemed so simple, they were never good for long.
Preparing for their next part, Mira and Zoey had been rushed back just out of view of the audience, letting the stage crew fix them up for the next part, their makeup getting hurriedly touched up and their costumes fixed of subtle wrinkles. But still, they were watching Rumi with pride, Zoey giggling happily. “Look at her—! Rumi is killing it out there.”
Mira smiled, nodding in content as Rumi’s vocals echoed out clearly. Their attention had been dragged away by a sudden movement, however, both of their heads turning with tense shock. Bobby made a muffled noise, two larger men securing him close with one of their hands clutched over his mouth securely to keep him quiet. He was lifted up with ease and stolen away, mischievous smirks and amber demonic eyes glinting in the light as they rushed away.
Wasn’t he meant to be watching from the back?
But there wasn’t time to hesitate and think about that, not right now. “Bobby—!” Zoey and Mira were hot on the trail of the demons stealing away their manager, tearing after them. But through the whole pursuit, the whole time something didn’t feel quite— right. And when they had stopped and turned by the backstage exit doors way back and away from the stage, Mira hadn’t stopped faster, instead snagging Zoey’s arm and going rigid.
Zoey gasped when she was tugged to a stop, hurriedly scoffing and tugging at Mira’s hand in desperation. “Mira—! They’ve got Bob..by…” Zoey’s expression had fallen, words dying in her throat when she saw what Mira did.
When what they’d thought had been Bobby and two demons looking to steal a soul, had become normal demons. Including Bobby, nothing but a decoy. Sinister smiles twisting their features, and fading pink and into nothing before their eyes.
“What..-“ Zoey’s brow knotted in confusion, scoffing and looking around them suspiciously. If it wasn’t an ambush or a kidnapping, then just what was going on? “Why would they do that?” That didn’t make any sense. Why lure them away from the crowd if—
And then the lights cut. And the music with it.
And by the time the instrumental to Takedown had started, Mira and Zoey had gone pale, eyes snapping open wide in fear at the same time. The same dreaded realization. They had specifically cut this song. There was no scheduled break, no switch or blend in the stage directions. And that was enough to know, the stage crew were not going off of their instructions. Not when demons were luring them away pointedly from the main stage.
If they weren’t being attacked by now, it was clear that they weren’t the target. Their girl was.
And they’d left her out there on that stage alone.
Realization flashing over their expressions, they’d turned to each other all too fast in quick dread. “Rumi!”
—
Rumi had sensed something was off from the second all of the lights went out and the music went silent out of the blue. She tried not to react when she heard the familiar intense beat starting to raise out of the silence, her expression mixed with confusion and offense as she stared down at the stage underneath her. Trying to gather her composure. It couldn’t be.. and yet it was.
“They put this back in…?” Muttering it under her breath, something felt wrong. Or maybe that was the hurt stirring up the second the song had registered.
And the suspicions didn’t stop when the lights came on, but Rumi fell right into the role without so much as a fleeting glance despite the oddities of the stage around her. The lighting over Mira and Zoey fading to red when the song they specifically promised her they wouldn’t dare sing in her presence came on. And yet she’d ignored it, trying to press down the betrayal and uneasiness that boiled up inside of her chest.
And then the first unscripted shove came, from Zoey of all people.
Rumi withdrew entirely with surprise, eyes wide and flickering unsurely towards her. ”Zoey-!” Her complaint was short and low to try and not leak into the microphone near her mouth, Zoey didn’t show any remorse whatsoever, side eyeing her with a cruel smirk. Trying to ignore it… did not turn in her favor when Mira had followed Zoey’s shove and sent her stumbling back, her jacket starting to be thrown loose from her shoulders with their purposeful assault. Rumi was tense, and the sickness in her chest had started the burn into her patterns, a hot pink glow sparking along her markings as she felt the fear and shame clutching her heart.
It hurt, falling back a few steps as she lifted her confused eyes to see theirs. Continuously trying to turn to not face her back to either of them, circling her like prey.
Like a monster that needed to be taken care of.
Every shove, advance, and pointed jab at her sung in her ears… Rumi’s heart pounded harder and harder against her aching chest as tears stung her eyes, her calculated movements getting more erratic and fearful than planned. They wouldn’t do this, they just wouldn’t…
So why were they?
But her voice of reason was being drowned out, Rumi feeling the darkness swarming her heart in fear as they’d ripped her jacket straight from her body, exposed and horrified as her hands raced to the open arms of her sleeveless undershirt.
“You really thought we’d love a monster?” Mira’s words sounded unnatural, distorted as she leaned down to Rumi’s level, Rumi’s whole expression shifting.
Their relationship was a secret, she couldn’t say that so close to the mic. “What..?”
“A mistake? A liar..” Zoey giggled it from behind, Rumi starting to freeze up as tears swarmed her vision. “Just another demon.” One they had to kill.
No…
Even with the tears filled her eyes, they didn’t make the looks on Mira’s and Zoey’s cold faces any less clear, smirks curling their usually gentle expressions as she shied away from them. Drowning in the pain crawling her skin, shooting down her arms, up her face. It was overwhelming, breathing erratic and sharp.
The pain coursing her veins, the hot burning sensation spreading through her skin had her losing that stability to control herself.
Until she lost it.
“NO—!”
And she’d lost all control she’d had left on her fear, the ball of emotions swirling in her chest seeming to explode all at once as a scream ripped violently from her throat, feeling as if her skin was being branded in painful shooting streaks that shot across her face and all across her previously unscathed body like shrapnel. As the raw scream echoed out, the speakers malfunctioned. The lights all blew, shattering in the sounding effect cast across the stage.
Mira and Zoey had only made it as far as catching it on the monitor, freezing in horror seeing their girl clutching her arms in pain, her nails almost like claws that sunk into her own skin as she glanced around. She looked like a caged animal, eyes wide and quickly turning to look around her in a dead panic.
They were too late.
Mira shook her head, teeth gritted together as she turned away, watching Rumi run off that stage being the last straw. They couldn’t leave her alone. The Saja Boys wanted to play with fire, and hell they would too.
After they had Rumi back and safe.
“The fire exit stairs, now!” Mira knew where Rumi was going, and she wasn’t wasting time. Zoey agreed hurriedly, nodding and running with her. She was trying to get away from what she thought was them, going for the exit furthest away from the stage and tearing through the crowds and concerned stage crew trying to calm her. Bobby could only watch in worry, reaching out but not in time.
Before he knew it, she was gone.
Rumi was holding one hand to her head, trying to force back her tears at the sharp splitting pain shooting through every part of her body. She couldn’t focus, pushing through with tears falling as she reached the stairs, body slamming into the wall clumsily as she turned the corner. She had to stifle a sob at the lack of control she had over her own body, but she didn’t even react to the impact itself, feeling along the building side for balance as she forced her legs to carry her down the stairs.
She had to get out.. she couldn’t look them in the eye. They made themselves clear on how they saw her.
Rumi had known it was too good to be true. To expect them to accept her, and yet being held between them.. she’d nearly thought they’d loved her.
“Rumi..”
Zoey’s voice was soft with concern, Rumi’s eyes snapping open with a quick gasp as she staggered sideways at the end of the stairs. And seeing the two of them with unbridled concern shadowing their faces, Zoey having to cover her mouth to calm herself seeing the painful marks vibrantly staining and cracking fresh across Rumi’s face. Mira had expected it, as sick as it made her feel, taking a second to process the sight before even trying to take a slow step forward.
Rumi was definitely not stable, pupils shrunken in as she took another step back and around the railing in alarm. “No.. no you were just out there.. you can’t be here—..!” Rumi was scrambling through her memories, trying to find some inconsistency in her mind. There wasn’t any way they could have outran her through there.. she couldn’t find it. And yet they were here.
“It wasn’t you…” Rumi whispered it so softly when she realized, and yet the shame didn’t fade away. No.
Not when she’d believed it without giving them the reason of the doubt, so quickly having believed they would have turned on her. Mira’s face fell as Rumi had just backed away more when she’d tried to approach again, trying to keep an even tone. “Hey.. it’s okay. It’s going to be okay, come here…” Rumi couldn’t believe herself, shaking her head vigorously as she refused to let them near her.
“Don’t.. Mira don’t come near me.” It came as a warning, for who she wasn’t even sure. For herself? Mira? She didn’t know until she did.
When Mira hadn’t listened, not heeding the concern she should have for the words. “Rumi.. whatever you’re thinking it’s not going to happen. We’re the real ones, you know that.” And she’d tried to reach out to take even just a simple hold on Rumi’s arm.
And that was all it took, Rumi’s breath hitching in instant reaction.
“I said DON’T—!” Rumi’s lips parted back in an open snarl as her scream scraped through her throat, for once…
Not looking like herself. At all.
Her markings weren’t the only thing that burnt a violent pink the second she’d snapped, the shade pulsing and corrupting everything around her that same demonic shade that ran hot in her veins. Mira flinched. She didn’t mean to, and yet she did, watching the golden amber flicker through Rumi’s left eye as the pupil turned into an unnatural slit.
And the fangs that had formed and flashed the second she’d screamed her warning? When had she ever looked at them with a look that seemed so.. angry?
Mira’s expression wasn’t her usual, soft in surprise and maybe the smallest flicker of hurt in her widening eyes. Rumi had heard the corrupted echo to her voice, freezing and lifting her fingers shakily to her lips, touching them and almost forgetting her pain. She didn’t sound like herself. But she knew what she’d done, and she’d looked up hurriedly to her lovers the second she’d processed it. How Zoey had taken a step forward and gently held Mira still, stopping her from pushing closer just in case. But through all of this, their attention hadn’t left Rumi for even a moment.
Rumi couldn’t believe she’d yelled at them. She’d always pressed it down, found it in her to bury whatever voices she heard in her head. The hold she had on her shame had become so routine and rehearsed, that losing it even for a second had her frozen. She wasn’t in control anymore, was she?
She was just as bad as the rest of them. As Jinu… as Gwi-Ma.
Rumi emptily scoffed at herself, lip quivering as she shook her head. “I’m so sorry..—” She didn’t wait for a response before she’d taken off running, not turning around even for a second. She shouldn’t.
They’d only be met with the unfeeling monster she was, and they didn’t deserve that.
Zoey watched her run, her heart feeling itself crack. She looked back to Mira instantly when they heard the fans roaring within the walls of the stadium, but for once? She didn’t care about them half as much as she usually would. “We can’t let her go—! She could get hurt out there, what if— what if that’s what they wanted?”
Mira had her eyes shut, tightening her grip over Zoey’s hands that still held her in place. Afraid to let her go, that they’d walk back onto that stage and leave their girlfriend to fend for herself. But Mira was pacing herself, drawing in a deep breath through her nose and holding it before letting it leave her lungs.
She wasn’t losing Rumi to this without a fight, from the gentle heart inside of her to the patterns that depicted to everyone that defined the cruelties in her capable hand. She shouldn’t love her, maybe that was once true.. and yet those patterns had become one of the most beautiful things about her.
Rumi struggled to be human. But the fact she’d struggled at all? She had a heart worth loving to them.
And Mira? Anger was her demon, so was being left in the loving family she’d grown here for herself. But she wouldn’t let it control her, or get in her head. No, she steeled her expression and looked to Zoey with a firm nod after letting the breath ease her tense posture. “We’re going after her.” Mira was sure of that much, watching Zoey shakily sigh with relief and a weak smile rising on her face.
“And I think I know just where she’s going…”
—
Celine stared up at the tree before her, quiet as dismay swarmed her mind. It was once so beautiful.. but now it was darkened with the sky, the leaves practically black as they weighed down above her. By this moment, the world was supposed to be united. But the world was painted in gold, and the Honmoon did not reign sweet around them. It hung destroyed, like a sword above their waiting throne.
Everything she’d tried to build, to remember those once by her side?
Had failed.
Celine’s focus had been broken, however, feeling a cold presence coming up behind her. So silent, that if she might have been anyone else? She might have not even noticed she weren’t alone, gritting her teeth and swinging her sickle around to hold defensively in front of her with wild eyes. She saw the scattered, jagged glow, and she had instantly known it was a demon. Though, that wasn’t the part that had her stomach twist.
The familiarity was uncanny, Celine taking a moment and squinting hard with a furrowed brow, before her eyes fell wide in disbelief. “Rumi?” She swallowed dryly and slowly lowered her weapon to her side. Taking in such a fearful sight, the glowing eye that was focused on her only for a moment unrecognizable on the face of the girl she’d come to love.
Rumi’s gaze, however, fell to the ground rather than holding her gaze, stepping slowly closer before staying rooted in place. “I tried.” And maybe it could have been exactly as Celine had wanted… but no, nothing could ever go her way. “I tried to fix it, fix everything. Fix me.” Her tone rang hollow, however, every word shook with the demonic voice that leaked into her own. Maybe it was hers, what she truly was. But after a few moments it had faded into her broken voice.
Untainted, and true..
“But I ruined it. All of it…” Rumi’s feet wanted to stay stuck in the earth, but she forced them forward, dragging them with weighted movements. “They know what I am. They saw everything.. it can’t be fixed.”
It was the truth, it had been for a while. And yet Rumi had hid that from Celine for the longest time since they’d found her. Afraid of what she’d say.
But now?
It didn’t matter, not for long, her eyes lifting back to Celine’s. It almost was as if she was seeing straight through her, the only way the phrase the way she stared? Unnatural.
Celine refused it, shaking her head with a defiant glare taking her expression over. “No. It isn’t over, don’t you say that.”
Rumi didn’t take it back. She had enough of refusing what she was, of hiding the truth. And now, it was all coming to an end. With her. “You knew from the day you took me in.. that I was a mistake.” Rumi spoke the word so easily, a shaky breath that was bordering laughter leaving her, but without humor. “And you were right from the start.”
Any question of where this was going had died in Celine’s throat, when Rumi stopped just a few paces in front of her, knees buckling beneath her and falling to her knees. She didn’t dare look up from the dirt she remained in, shaking hands conjuring and holding her blade. She held it loosely in her palms, fingers curled without pressure around the sharp edge as she bowed her head, the blade held up in a silent offer.
“I can’t fix it.. but you can…” Rumi’s words shook with emotion, and yet she didn’t back down from the thing she dared ask. “So please… take the life you gave me. The one I shouldn’t have even lived.. before I destroy the lives of every single person I swore I’d protect..”
Celine stared down at Rumi in disbelief, eyes remaining open in nothing but horror. Rumi remained knelt before her, mismatched eyes staring at the ground with cold acceptance. She’d embraced her destiny, and maybe she knew deep down that this shouldn’t be the answer. But there was so many things she couldn’t be.
And most of all, she could never be golden.
“You should have killed me.. when she told you to take me. When you saw what I was.” Rumi’s voice wavered with the tears that stung her eyes, the constant sting through her slitted eye forcing them to stay that way.
And yet she stayed as calm as she could. It was her choice, it could all be over, by the hands of someone she loved dearly. Rumi couldn’t have imagined a more bittersweet relief to have in her mind, even if she could only see Mira and Zoey’s faces in the back of her screaming mind. She wouldn’t long.
It could be over.
Celine’s eyes watered at the request, beyond hesitant. She couldn’t be blamed, that was not a request anyone expected to hear from the child they’d raised. “Rumi..”
“I said, do it.” The sharp tone had gone corrupted all over again, warped and unnatural as a pink distortion waved off of her body in a heavy pulse all around them.
Staring down at her, it felt all too familiar. Celine stared at Rumi in the dark light, the braid she wore on her head a reminiscent figure of the past. It wasn’t the first time someone had pleaded for her to make a commitment that would shape the future of their worlds. The last time.. had been when she’d been passed Rumi into her arms.
When she’d promised to raise that girl for the woman she swore she loved.
Celine had herself rushed down to Rumi’s level, right down in the dirt with her as she hurriedly smacked the sword away and sent it clattering. “I can’t!” Her hands found themselves clutching onto Rumi’s arms, lifting her upright and from the ground with her.
Mira and Zoey had caught up to Rumi by this point, catching their breaths back a little ways away. But seeing Celine, Mira had been the one to stop Zoey once more, eyes narrow and unsure. “Wait.”
Zoey paused, eyes flitting between Mira and the two women with a frown. “But why..?”
“Listen.” Mira wasn’t interrupting. Not when this looked so.. wrong. Celine had always spoken out about how demons were the epitome of evil. How they were meant to kill them all.
And now, she had Rumi, the girl she’d introduced to them from the start. So why didn’t Celine even look surprised, pulling Rumi to her feet.
“I swore to protect all that Ryu left behind.. And even if I didn’t expect it to be a child like you…”
She was a demon. A monster. A soulless, heartless being.
“I made a promise.. and I will forever follow that promise. I won’t be the reason you die… I gave my everything to accept what you are, to help you before..—“
“Accept me?” Rumi repeated the phrase, some venom leaking into her words. How could she say that so easily and mean it?
Celine forced a smile, almost desperate as she’d shrugged off her cloak. “Of course…”
“You told me to hide.. to cover up— what about that is acceptance?” Rumi felt ready to scream, to sob. How could Celine look at her and insist that’s what she was doing, as if Rumi wasn’t capable of seeing it for what it really was?
“Just until we could fix everything! So they could be gone.. so the world never had to see.” Celine’s smile turned more real, taking her cloak and frantically trying to cover Rumi’s arms, the brightest burning patterns being tucked away with sickening ease under the thin cloth. Away from view. “And we still can.”
Rumi didn’t know what emotion to settle on, but none of those emotions were content. “What..?”
Mira’s stare was turning cold, white-hot anger making her breaths weigh heavy in disgust. Zoey’s face had twisted in shock, not moving an inch as they did nothing but watch. She knew.. and she was hiding them. But her next words?
They’d never felt more bitter towards the woman that had given them everything.
“We can cover these right up, and I’ll make it right again.” Celine was committed, a lost attempt to console Rumi somewhere in there as she stroked back one of the loose strands of hair that had been shaken from her braid. “I’ll tell Mira and Zoey that it was all a trick.. an illusion Gwi-Ma sent to break us all apart.”
They found out the truth, and Celine wanted to take that all away. To pretend it was all a big lie, a mistake, so that if that truth ever came out again? There would be no repairing that trust. Mira was quiet, her fists sweaty and balled up in growing distaste and fury that she wanted to cave into.
But Rumi didn’t fall into Celine’s web this time. She ripped herself back, ripping the cloak off of her pained body in a sad anger that shook her every breath. “No—! No more hiding, no more lies—!” It wasn’t just physical, the way her voice cried out with clear pain. She wasn’t fine, she didn’t know how Celine couldn’t see that, that none of what she was begging her to do was okay.
Celine’s body language was shifting, however, more like she was trying to calm a wild animal more than a scared girl. “Rumi..” It was almost scolding in a subtle way, edging towards her as she reached with one outstretched arm. “We can still fix this.. you know this isn’t you.”
“It isn’t.. me?” Rumi couldn’t believe what she was hearing, staring at Celine with so much hurt in one expression, flashing her fangs with the next yell that breached her lungs. “This is what I am!”
Celine’s eyes had gradually shifted away from her, however, stopping her advances with a shaky exhale leaving her. “Look at me.” It had started as a feeble, lost attempt to find love in the woman she saw almost as a mother her whole life. And it was the last thing Rumi needed to see when she wouldn’t, locking onto how she’d averted her eyes away from her markings that burned bright in the eternal night that spread over their world. “Why can’t you look at me?” The sob that mixed her words made Zoey sick.
Her girl…
“Why couldn’t you just love me?!“
Celine shut her eyes tightly, disdain washing over her features as she forcefully shook her head in denial. “I do..”
“ALL OF ME!” It was funny, how loud she could scream when she could finally see Celine’s true colors falling through. Rumi broken and laid out open before her eyes, and the woman was still hardly able to see her. The distortion caused by just one demon alone had never been stronger, her pain unrivaled as Celine’s eyes snapped open to see the colors pulse and wash over everything.
Hurriedly shaking her head and moving towards Rumi in a final attempt. “No.. no this is why we have to hide it.. Rumi—“
The sharp sound of a weapon being drawn cut off the words in Celine’s throat, rigid in shock as a weapon was drawn between her and Rumi, separating the two with clean ease. Rumi’s eyes watered, staring at the unusual weapon with her eyes following it to find Mira standing defensively between her and Celine. Her expression was cold and unreadable, jaw tense and refusing to budge. “You try to even touch her again.. and you will regret it.”
Celine was frozen, before shaking her head with a nervous smile forcing to her face. “Mira.. don’t be like that, it’s not real. It’s only an—“
“Illusion.” Celine hadn’t expected to be cut off, confusion fleeting over her whole posture. “Right.. sent by Gwi-Ma to break us up, is that right?” Mira repeated it coldly, watching the horror of realization dawning over Celine’s face. She’d heard. She’d been there the whole time.
Zoey had rushed to Rumi’s side from behind, clutching gently onto her arm and checking her over hurriedly. “Baby.. are you okay..?” She didn’t see any injuries, but the last time they’d seen the markings like this, it had been so easy for Rumi to harm herself even by complete accident.
Rumi had quietly leaned into Zoey’s hand when she’d ran her fingers over her face, however, staring back at her the whole time. Zoey was looking right at her… not through her, not avoiding the patterns that adorned her pale skin, every part of her. “You followed me?” She didn’t sound mad at all.
Luckily for Zoey, who just sadly smiled back in response.
Celine had heard, however, neither trying to be quiet. “Baby?” She’d coached Rumi her whole life to fear and be ashamed of what she was.. to the point she could never love herself or feel loved fully just for existing. She’d never intended it to be that way.. but it had been so. To the point that when Rumi found that love she’d cried herself to sleep for wanting, she’d never even thought it to be safe to tell Celine.
When it all could be over.
Mira didn’t even react to Celine’s echo of the nickname, her expression holding unwaveringly on her face. “So you’re the reason she hid from us.” Rumi had glanced towards them with a soft frown, Zoey keeping a gentle hold on her, but not holding her back. A silent support as her own face melted into a frown. For once.. Mira’s anger reflected their own. “You’re the whole reason any of this happened. You chose us, you said that demons were unfeeling, greedy.. and you said this every day. You made us believe it, and you said there were no exceptions. Knowing she was one?”
Any sign of being calm about this? Was thrown away, more and more anger falling into Mira’s every word.
Celine had all three pairs of eyes staring into her, looking between all of them before focusing on Mira with a slow shake of her head. “It’s not that simple—”
“But it is.” Mira wasn’t allowing Celine even a second to come up with another lie. Any reason she tried wouldn’t change everything they’d just heard. “You wanted her to lie to us. You were going to keep us in the dark like you have all these years, and you were going to make her suffer alone.”
What kind of mentor did that make her? What kind of guardian?
Celine never anticipated the day all three would turn against her, one riddled with demonic print and staring back almost sadly despite the anger she felt. And the other two? Protecting Rumi.. from her.
She was losing everything in one night.
“We didn’t destroy this Honmoon. The one you built? I’m glad it’s going to be gone tonight. Because we weren’t the ones to destroy it.” Mira scoffed, a bitter smile forcing her lips to curl as she lowered her weapon and stepped back to Rumi’s side, all three together.
Zoey was the last person Celine expected to tag onto Mira’s words, even her brighter personality dulled out with a cold accusation. “You did.”
Rumi didn’t say anything, Celine’s expression enough for her to know she’d heard exactly what she’d needed to. Rumi wasn’t even reacting to the burning pain right now, the pain in her heart somehow overbearing it all. There wasn’t time.
Rumi had been the first to turn and walk away, Celine calling out for her in desperation for her to think on what she was doing— but for once she didn’t feel like she had to listen. Because right by her side, she could feel Mira and Zoey falling into step with her. A gentle hand resting on each of her arms in silent support.
Rumi didn’t know if they’d win, but one thing she knew for sure? Was that they weren’t going down without a fight.
“We have a Honmoon of our own to build…”
Finally, real smiles were shared between them, hugging each other close by the side.