"Looks like it's starting to rain."
"But...it's not raining."
"Yes it is. This is rain." --Colonel Mustang and Riza Hawkeye, Fullmetal Alchemist

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Zara

I was too late.

The guards were already standing around the castle doors, making sure of who entered and exited. My heart sank.

How am I going to get past them?

I stood behind one of the trees, about twenty feet away from the door. The guards mulled about the door, just standing with very little purpose.

How they hadn't seen me by then was impressive.

I pushed a stray lock of hair out of my eyes and stepped forward from behind the tree. A few of the guards noticed me, shoving at the person next to them in hushed whispers.

I gulped. The guard's eyes searched me, examining the ripped dress I wore, inspecting every dirt smudge on my skin.

One of them lifted his sword. I glared at him and bounced my arms against my sides.

"So what now?" I laughed. "You try and stop me? We fight?" I shook my head a little. "We can, but I assure you, it won't end well."

One of the guards next to the sword holder nudged him. "Lower your sword."

The man with the sword scowled at the guy who nudged him. "The king said no others."

The rest of the guards suddenly seemed to move away from the two squabblers.

"Your king," I called to Sword-holder, "is trying to kill an innocent-ish man. Let me through."

He still didn't move.

I rolled my eyes and held up my hand. Flames flickered from my fingertips. Even though is want looking at the other guards, I could feel them back away quickly. I eyed Sword-man threateningly, trying my best to be as terrifying as I could.

"I don't want to fight you, and I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep standing there, both will happen."

Liar. There's no way you would hurt him.

But he doesn't need to know that.

"You have to the count of three!" I shouted.

"One!" I took a step forward. All the guards by Sword-man fled from my path.

"Two!" I took another step forward, leaving the poor man holding the sword shaking in his boots.

An agonizing roar cut through the dramatics of the front door. It echoed through the castle grounds, settling deep in my bones.

My blood turned cold. "Brennen..." I mumbled.

With one quick motion, I whirled back to the guard. He still stupidly stood holding the sword.

I lifted my hand and flicked my wrist. Sword-man went flying to the side, away from the entrance.

Three.

I didn't wait for the rest of the guards to change their mind about me. My feet carried me inside the castle within the span of a few seconds.

Immediately, the feeling of the castle was off.

My heart raced in fear. If the roar hadn't given it away, then the unexplainable feeling did--something was wrong.

"Brennen?" I cried.

There was no answer. Of course. There's never an answer.

The sunlight beaming in from outside couldn't cover the darkness, but it did illuminate the room enough for me to see.

For me to see the battleground.

The railing that followed the stairs was splintered into a million pieces in the middle. Black ashes covered the rugs that lay on the ground in a dark dust. Droplets of blood splattered across the gray stone floor.

Oh no.

I walked over to the burnt wall and touched it gently. It was still warm. A glint of silver caught my eye. Underneath the splintered railing was a dagger, about as long as my forearm. I scooped it up and held it to my chest. There was no red on the blade or around it. Engraved on the hilt of the dagger was the name Regol.

Vadik used this.

A loud crash made me jump. Still holding onto the knife, I ran around the corner.

There was nothing except the pool of blood in the middle of the room.

And the silver mask mere inches away from it.

My throat constricted. The blood was his. It was Brennen's.

Which meant that Vadik used the swords with vesper blood.

I thought for a second. The crash I heard was glass breaking, which means they're outside.

There was only one room with windows that big.

I took off toward the ballroom, running as fast as I could. Evidence of magic--Vadik's magic--was everywhere that I could stand to look. There were burn marks on the wall, ice-cold sections of a room.

I reached the ballroom and didn't have to bother with opening the doors. They were already blown away. I screeched to a halt, breathing heavily.

One of the windows was completely shattered, the glass shards twinkling on the grass outside. Long scratches marred the slick floor, digging deep caverns into the smooth surface.

A scream--human scream--from outside caught my attention. I darted over to the shattered window and peeked around the corner.

Brennen had changed. He stood tall, towering over Vadik. Dark brown fur covered his hands, and the claws that were normally short-ish were extended to a terrifying length. His shoulders rose up and down in time to his breaths, which were heaving in exhaustion. The dark shirt he wore was torn in many different places, some from where the Beast stretched it too far, and some from knife cuts. Blood ran down his side, clumping the bits of fur that stuck out into balls.

In Brennen's clenched fist, he held the back of Vadik's shirt, dangling him off the ground. Thin scratches covered Vadik's face, making him look like he lost a fight with an angry cat. Bits of glass stuck out from his arms. The most noticeable aspect of his appearance was the absence of a left eye. Where the eye would normally be, the socket was empty, leaving damaged skin as the remainder.

"Wa--wait!" Vadik cried. His voice squeaked like a mouse in fear. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I--"

The rest of Vadik's sentence was lost in Brennen's thunderous roar. He tightened his grip on Vadik's collar and lifted him higher.

"You killed her! I have no care for your regrets!"

Vadik's face turned a deep shade of red, bordering on the edge of purple. His eye flickered around looking for something, anything, that he could use to escape. 

His eye landed on me.

Recognition clicked behind the fear. He groaned and kicked his feet, trying to get Brennen to turn his head.

In all of Vadik's frantic breathing and kicking, Brennen glanced back to see what the problem was. His eyes red mine, red on green like a decorated Christmas tree.

But it wasn't all him.

Pain flickered behind his eyes and he turned back to Vadik. With a snarl, Brennen threw him across the grass and onto the wall of the maze, where he landed like a limp rag doll.

Brennen turned his full attention to me. His eyes, which were dark red before, lit up to the brightest I had ever seen them.

The weren't bright for joy though. The were bright in rage.

I took a step forward, out from the hiding place at the wall. I smiled softly. "Brennen? It's me."

He scowled and charged toward me.

My eyes widened and I jumped out of his way, backing away slowly. "Brennen," I gasped. "Brennen it's me. It's Zara."

It didn't help. In a fury, Brennen ran at me again, taking a swipe at my chest. I barely dodged.

"Brenn--"

"Shut up!" he screamed. "You're not her, she's dead!"

What?

I didn't move, shocked by his statement. It was only then that I noticed the dark stain on his stomach.

"You're hurt." I reached out a hand tentatively. "Please, it's me. I swear, I'm not dead."

He growled again, the hair on his neck standing up. "That's what they all say."

"It's--"

Something hit me in the stomach with enough force that I was blown back to the maze wall. Pain flared through my back at the impact. I gasped, trying to find air.

That's what they all say.

He thought me  dead. He'd seen memories before, memories of lost souls.

Brennen hadn't moved from his spot except for his hand, which he held up in the air. He swayed slightly on his feet, struggling to stand.

Magic.

I coughed, find air again. I looked up again, just in time to see his hands come out again. The ground was no longer steady under feet, instead, here was the emptiness of air.

I struggled, trying to move from his grasp. Brennen dangled me over the walls of the maze, and floated me to the center.

"Stop!" I croaked. "It's me, Brennen, please! Who told you I was dead, Vadik? You are honestly going to believe him over me?"

Brennen lowered me slightly, but I was still over eight feet in the air. "You're the vesper from the water," he said. It was more of a statement to convince himself.

"No, I'm not."

That was the wrong thing to say. His face contorted in anger and he closed his fists, dropping me.

I fell, landing in the small rose garden that I planted. The roses were sticks in the cold winter weather, but that didn't make them any less painful to land on.

Snap.

I cried out as blinding pain shot up my arm, completely overriding my sense for a split second. Black spots danced in front of my vision, threatening to fully engulf my sight.

I clutched my right arm to my chest, knowing that it was broken. Ow ow ow ow ow.

Something grabbed my neck and hoisted me off the ground. Just the slight movement hurt. My breaths caugh in my chest, unable to escape.

I stared into Brennen's bright eyes, not letting myself show the fear I felt.

"If--if you're going to kill me, then kill me," I choked. "But I'm real. I'm no vesper."

His arm shook. "I don't know that."

But he loosened his grip.

"If I was a vesper, I'd have killed you by now."

That did it. He completely let go of me, letting my feet hit the ground. I bit my lip, keeping my cry for ringing out. Still, I groaned.

Brennen backed away slowly, stopping next to the stone fountain. "I'm sor--sorry," he coughed. "I thought that you were--he said he killed you."

I reached out with my left hand and touched his arm. "I'm real." A smirk formed in my lips. "I'm not dead yet!"

The bright red left his eyes, the color replacing it the tame crimson I was used to. Some of the fur that covered his body retracted, but not all of it. His body shrank too, sizing down to two feet taller than me and not four.

Brennen chuckled weakly at my attempted joke. "That's good," he mumbled.

Then his knees buckled.

Instinctively, I tried to catch him, succeeding in only wrapping my uninjured arm around his side and being dragged down next to him. He hit his knees first and looked up, breathing heavily.

Only then did I see how pale his face was.

Only then did the blood that speckled his lips and chin stand out--a crimson dash staining the whitest snow.

I searched his eyes, his eyes which were the dullest they'd even been. The vibrant red color was blotted out by a deep scarlet that seemed to over take everything.

His mouth flicked up into the smallest of grins. "I guess I can't hold on forever, huh?"

His eyelids fluttered, threatening to close. I ran my hand over his cheek, fighting to get him to look up. "Brennen? Look at me, okay?"

He swallowed and moistened his lips, clutching at his side. "S--sorry--" A fit of coughing cut him off mid-sentence. He turned his head away and coughed, blood coming with every push of air from his lungs.

My throat constricted. Not good. My gaze traveled down to his chest, where his hand didn't cover. Gently, I moved a piece of his shirt away from the ever-growing dark spot on his chest.

"Oh my gosh..." I breathed.

A sword wound.

A sword wound that went from back to front, through his chest.

How he wasn't already dead by then, I will never know.

"That bad, huh?"

I stared up at Brennen, tears pricking at my eyes. His mouth twitched up to a weak grin that didn't reach his eyes as he nodded his head slowly.

"Ironic."

I mentally punched myself and gathered up some of my already-ruined skirt, tearing long pieces from it. I struggled with using only one hand, and wound up bracing a piece of the skirt with my foot.

"Here." I thrust out a handful of material and pressed it up to Brennen's chest and side, desperately trying to stop the flow of blood. "Hold it there, that'll help."

I didn't meet his eyes. I couldn't. Instead, I just turned my full attention to his wounds, trying my best to play doctor.

"Liza--Lizaveta, no." Brennen grabbed my left hand gently. "It's not gonna--it's not going to help, okay?"

A droplet of rain traveled down my cheek. I pushed my hair from my face and looked at the sky. No clouds. Why is it raining? It's sunny, not one cloud in sight.

He coughed again, lighter that time. His breaths came out in shuddering gasps. He touched my right arm.

Pain shot through it like a volt of electricity. "Ah!"

Brennen wiped away a stray droplet of blood from his chin. "Your arm's broken, isn't it?"

All parts of me screamed to deny it, to say that it wasn't, that I was fine. I pressed down on his side harder. "No. I'm fine."

He tried to laugh, but it turned into a choked gasp. Gently, his fingeres brushed against my injured arm, sending waves of fire through my nerves.

"Ah," he sucked in a quick breath. My arm didn't hurt anymore.

"You healed it? You didn't need to, you need to--"

Brennen closed his eyes and lay his head against the front of my shoulder. "Save my strength?" he whispered. "Lizaveta, it's too late for that."

I blinked back tears, not accepting his words. "No, it's not. You're going to be fine."

Carefully, I brushed a lock of his hair away from his eyes. He coughed once more--weakly, barely able to force the unwelcome liquid from his lungs.

He's drowning. Drowning in blood.

"Don't... don't lie, Lizaveta. We both know that's not true." With the arm that wasn't broken, he seized my hand with strength he shouldn't have possessed.

"It's ironic, really," he mumbled through short breaths.

I sniffled, more droplets of rain falling down my face. "What is?"

Brennen swallowed. "When I was... when I was living, I wanted to die. N--now that I'm dying, I want to live."

He tried to laugh. "Something got mixed up somewhere in there."

I smiled. "That's how life seems to work, isn't it?"

Painfully, Brennen moved himself so he was resting against the side of the stone fountain. "I just...want to know one last thing."

One last thing.

Oh God, no. Please.

"Don't talk like that!" I gasped. "You'll be--"

"Zara." He reached up and brushed away the wet on my cheeks. "Shh. It's okay. Don't cry."

I took a shaky breath and leaned into his hand. My hand found his chest and stopped right over where his heart was.

Bum. Bum.

Bum. Bum.

It was slow, faint.

"How did you come back?" he whispered.

I shook my head. "What do you mean?"

"How'd you come back... back to the castle?"

His eyes searched mine tiredly, trying to find an answer.

I bit my lip. "I don't know," I replied. "The woods wouldn't let me at first. I kept fighting it, saying that I had to get to you. I yelled at it before it let me go."

"Must've been some insult," Brennen muttered.

No. No insult.

"It wasn't. I--I just asked." My voice involuntarily became the same volume as his.

Brennen's breaths slowed. "What'd you say?"

I stared at him, tears steaming down my face. My fingers brushed against the side of his face, stroking his scarred cheek.     

I bowed my head and pressed my forehead against his cool one. A chill breeze blew past, barely rustling my hair.

He watched me through half-open eyelids, waiting for an answer.

"It was more of a feeling than spoken," I whispered. "That's why I came back. That's why the forest let me. That's why you can't die. It's three words."

I pulled away and laced my fingers through his. "I love you."

Brennen's face softened. A slow smile crept up into his face and pulled his mouth up. Gently, with his broken arm, he brushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear. The palm of his hand lingered against my cheek, where I caught it.

"And I love you," he breathed. The quiet words lingered in the air for seconds after he spoke them.

His eyes fluttered shut. The hand I held to my cheek relaxed, all tension gone from it.

He was still.

My breathing quickened, as if I was making up the breaths he want taking. "Brennen?" I squeaked.

He didn't move.

"Brennen, please. Wake up. That's not--" I gasped for breath through my tears. "That's not how this is supposed to work."

I lowered his hand and draped it across his stomach. "It's not cloudy. Not raining. Isn't that how deaths are? Always gray days, never sunny."

I shook my head, gasping. "'True love' is such crap," I whispered. "It's supposed to break the spell. Conquer death."

"Stupid fairytales."

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that when I opened them, he would be fine, but knowing the harsh reality.

True enough, everything was still the same when I opened my eyes. I took Brennen's lifeless hand and held it, pressing it to my lips.

"Please," I whispered, staring up at the sky. "Please. I love him. Don't let him die."

There was no response. Nothing but stillness.

I bowed my head, sobbing into my knees.

Then the cold metal of a knife pressed against my throat.

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Well, that looks to be the end of that. 😇