A/N: So, the music for this chapter is a bit different from the usual songs I pick, but if you've seen the television show "Castle," you'll understand why I found this song fitting for the final chapter. As usual, I also would recommend putting the video on loop. 

As her eyes stared to him, she watched metal fly through the air once more. She couldn't look away; her (e/c) optics were wide, and her lips parted. His red-painted left nails reached out as his arm stretched across the snow. Setting sunlight glinted off of the metal as it swung all the nearer. Why couldn't he get up; why wasn't he moving? No, she knew why.

That first blow would've taken a human's head clean off, but his head ... Ether's only had a dent in it. The undeniable difference in strength between Callest, Ether and her was made crystal clear. Callest's help truly was the secret weapon. If anyone else had made that blow, the creature on the ground still would be standing. So, why ...

Her breath got caught in her throat. "(F/ ..." Metal slammed into his head once more. His words got caught off, and his left hand stopped moving. Slowly, his optics closed, but they never left her. She felt her limbs shake, and she wished that she could break her gaze from him. It seemed like she couldn't even swallow. Those were ... Those were ... tears ... He was ... crying ...

Why did that affect her so much? It shouldn't have. He had done terrible things, but why did it feel like she was losing all of her strength? Was it because she had passed his death onto another; did her being his murderer really mean that much to him? If so, why? The question, "Why?" kept repeating in her mind about everything. Hadn't she set herself on this objective?

Lacking balance in her legs, she took a step back only to collapse onto her knees. Her eyes remained glued to his fallen form. He was lying there ... motionless. His short, nearly white locks fanned around his head in a sloppy, matted red mess, and his ghost white lips were parted as if he was forever crying out her name while his eyes shut into a deep sleep.

Right arm leaning on the fence, it supported her up despite the slight pain in it. She didn't move out of shock, though. Sunlight reflected off of the snow around him, and his very pale skin would've blended in with the snow if it weren't for the crimson pooling around him. It seemed like a dream, something far off. "Interesting." Callest's voice didn't snap her out of her trance. Why ...

"You're not feeling guilty, are you?" That time, his voice woke her up, which was right before a sea of whys invaded her mind again. Slowly, she broke her attention from the creature on the ground and stared up to him. He rested the old crowbar over his left shoulder. "Perhaps, I should've given you the final blow if you had made such an arrangement with him."

"... W-W-What?"

"You had agreed to be his murderer." Callest diverted his eyes to Ether. "And, I just took that from you, from him." His eyes narrowed a bit, but they didn't fit his otherwise bored expression. "I almost feel bad for him in that regard." He crouched down and wiped a tear off of Ether's face. The male examined it on his left index nail. "He obviously cared about that quite a bit."

Finally, she broke her attention from both of them. She stared at her lap, at her hands. They were clean, yet they felt disgusting. No ... that wasn't the right term. (F/n) didn't know how to feel. Wasn't she supposed to be relieved, celebrating? So, why did she feel ... Well, she didn't know how to describe it, but it wasn't happiness. It was like one of those moments where something important flashed through her mind, but it passed so quickly that the thought didn't stay. Rather, she eternally was left wondering what it was. Are you sure?

Almost, her lips parted to ask what the voice meant, but she reminded herself that it was only a voice: a trick of her mind, nothing more. But, why did she feel so ... exhausted, maybe? Like a heavy weight being lifted off of her shoulders? No, that wasn't it either. Just what felt so wrong about the scene before her? Was it because she had broken a deal with him, taken something sacred away from him?

Nearly, she released a bitter laugh. She couldn't feel bad if that was the case. He had stolen so much from her; he deserved what he got. A painful ... betrayal. It would follow him into death, and she hoped that it seared into him like a never-ending fire, yet those words seemed hollow to her. Not understanding herself, she leaned her head against her arm. The truth is ...

"No," she muttered out, shaking her head lightly. "That's not it." She frowned at herself and clenched her hands. "I can ki ..."

"No, you can't." Sharply, she averted her gaze to Callest and winced in the process of it. Her headache from before almost returned full-force. "I've already done that." She moved her eyes over to the crimson dripping off of the tip of the crowbar. "Or ..."

"Or?" she inquired, furrowing her brows. Her mind was foggy from all of her thoughts, and the scene before her was one that her mind still couldn't quite accept for some reason that she ... You know. A scowl met her lips before she shoved the voice aside.

"Or, I should say that you can't kill him because I won't let you." Confusion dominated her expression. His countenance stayed neutral, and she gradually stared back to Ether's form. Just barely, she could see him breathing, and the flow of blood from his head was slowing. "At least, not yet anyway, but probably it'll be never. I doubt that you'll get to that point." More puzzlement filled her eyes as she looked to him again.

"I don't understand," she spoke in a quiet, uncertain voice.

For the first time, she saw him quirk a brow before a taunting smirk ever so slowly grew on his lips. "No, I guess that you wouldn't. Someone like you." A pit began to form in her stomach, and the crowbar over his shoulder no longer seemed like a tool of aid. "You've become too trusting of my kind because Ether spoiled you." Words left her out of shock and steadily growing anger. "He spoiled a worthless human." Callest stood to his full height, and she couldn't help but admit how intimidating he looked from her sitting position. "He even cried for you."An angered scoff left him. "It disgusts me to see one of my kind fall so low, but I suppose that I can't blame him entirely."

Again, he crouched, and (f/n) pushed herself back a little using her left hand. Callest brushed back some of Ether's locks, not minding the blood in the slightest. "You had respected him to a degree even if you don't want to admit it. You didn't choose a name based on an insult for him, and you didn't call him an 'it.' You believed in all of his deals and trusted him to uphold them." His eyes glanced to her briefly before he focused back on Ether. "You in essence put your life and your future in his hands. And, that's very rare for a human to do for our kind. His mother and you are oddities, but," his optics pinned themselves back to her, "that still nauseates me. To think that humans can have such bonds with us."

Callest brushed back more of Ether's locks before he paused and sighed. "But, I still need to punish him for everything he did, for his carelessness." Carefully, she rose to her feet, but she still felt small even standing before his crouching position. His eyes followed her every move. "Just in another way. A way to prevent something vile from occurring."

All of her body tensed severely, and her legs shook. His usual neutral or bored expression no longer existed. A fire of glee and wrath burned in his very pale blue optics, but her own rage was beginning to rise. "Spoiled me?!" she managed to shout. "He ruined my life! He took away my future and placed me in a constant state of torment!" She clenched her fists hard and felt her nails dig into her skin, but she ignored the pain. "He brutally killed my best friend, he plans to kill and torture another one of my friends along with his friends, he threatened my parents' lives, he ..."

"Shut up." His tone was cold and uncaring. Steadily, he rose to his feet, and she felt her confidence slip away. "Your response now just proves my point. He spoiled you because he kept you in the dark. He let your ignorance run wild." She was about to argue, but he cut her off. "He concealed you from the truth that I could figure out within just viewing a few minutes of his interaction with you, but if you want to remain locked away in your own fantasy, be my guest."

"Fantasy?!" she barked out, stepping more and more away from him.

"Yes," he answered simply. "But, I don't plan to explain that to you. Rather," he tapped the crowbar against his shoulder and grinned a smile of pure hatred. "I might just break you out of it or just break you." She felt her heartbeat pick up, and he could hear it. "You're scared, and you should be. I never intended to keep my promise with you. I wanted to back you into a corner and make sure that Ether couldn't interfere because he needs to learn a lesson." His grin widened. "And, you'll be his punishment."

Terror ate at her more than fury presently, and she spun on her heel too fast in the process. Before she could hit the ground, however, she gripped the fence and supported herself up. Her left hand reached for the zipper on her backpack to remove the knife, but she never retrieved it. Instead, a hand gripped the back of her jacket and threw her across the street. She slid through the snow and looked up to see him closing the distance between them.

"I honestly didn't expect to knock him out so easily. I was expecting more resistance, but he had been so distracted by you. He had wanted so desperately to keep you safe while you stood there and betrayed his deal with you second by second even though he had kept his deals with you, right? He had given you so many free passes, right?!" Wrath controlled his voice as the crowbar swung through the air at a slower speed than before. She managed to dodge the blow and hold back the soreness in her body. "Otherwise, he already would've won your game with him. You would be truly at his mercy."

"I am!" she shouted back, getting to her feet and racing down the street. "He's ..."

"Shut up! You disgraceful human! He's held back for you, a worthless piece of trash, yet you're too blind to see it. No, you refuse to see it, to accept it, but he goes along with it!" Almost, she heard the voice in her head, but she pushed it away before it could say anything. She focused on turning a corner in the distance as she regretted ever believing a new creature, but she didn't make it. A sharp pain erupted through her back and knocked her to the ground. The crowbar rested nearby, and he picked it up before she ever had a chance of doing so.

Not a word left her mouth as his booted foot rested on the back of her head and pressed her face into the snow. "It's time to treat you how you deserve and show Ether not to be careless again in the future." A low, scratchy chuckle parted from him, but there was no amusement in it. "You're going to wish for Ether's treatment when I'm done with you, but you might be too broken ever to get it back." She struggled underneath him and attempted to get his foot off of her head, but he pressed in more, and she thought that her skull would crack.

Immediately, a gasp parted from her, and it was muffled by the snow. Pain shot through the back of her head as the pressure of his foot left and was replaced by cold metal. Her vision began to vanish, but she tried to crawl forward regardless; however, she didn't even make it a foot before her body gave out. "How absolutely revolting," she heard him mutter before crunching in the snow hit her ears. Barely, her eyes saw the setting rays cross over the snow on the ground. It glittered before her eyes and numbed her body as it soaked her clothes.

Out of instinct, her right hand reached forward as if she could pick herself back up, but it dropped back to the ground before it could make any real progress. Her eyes glanced out further, and she found that he had knocked her down across from the creature ... from Ether. His body was horizontal to hers, and she saw the nearly white locks of his hair bathed in a pond of red. Words slipped out of her mouth, but she couldn't hear them. And in her fading state of mind, she didn't even register what she had said to him. She wasn't given any time to think on it either before darkness claimed her.

Peering down to her, Callest scowled in repugnance. It was too late for her words. She had made her decision, and it would work in his favor. The human girl finally would know not to mess with his kind; she would learn that she wouldn't be spoiled by all of them. And, Ether ... He stared over and down to the fallen, still breathing male. Ether would understand not to permit a human the ability to cause him to be consumed by such an infectious devotion.