You Only Live Twice

Prologue

Walking down the street, her straight black
hair falling slightly above her shoulders blew slightly by the wind caused by her walking pace, curtain bangs sitting on top of her glasses. Her pale skin flushed red on her nose and cheeks, the cold air making her face feel numb.

Anyone who sees her could obliviously tell she was— "Livid! I am livid!" — a little upset.

"Calm down Olive, you always get like this." Her friend giggles on the other end of the phone. "No! I will not calm down! That is exactly 2 weeks 3 days and 24 minutes of my life wasted on that stupid book! Wasted." Olivia yelled into her phone.

"Ok, ok, I get it, you didn't like the book but you could've just stopped reading at any time." Her friend said slowly. In refute Olivia said back, "No, Phoenix, I couldn't, it's just one of those books that's so bad that you need to know how it ends— and by the way, totally disappointing!"

"Alright, first stop screaming in my ear-" She was cut off by Olivia's rant, "Who in their right mind asked for a second book?!"

"The fans?"

"I would like to have a word with them."

"And..you're not listening.." Phoenix said dragging out 'and'.

"Ok listen Liv, I'll call you later after you've come to terms with the loss of your precious time. Bye." Phoenix ended the call.

"Yeah, yeah. Bye." Olivia got in before the phone hung up.

The book two girls were previously debating about was a novel Olivia found interest in after she heard one of the characters had the same name as her. Needless to say, her expectations were far from met.

The book, 'Angel of Esteban', follows Angelica Asteria—her last name literally means 'the goddess of justice and innocence'. A talented, naive girl who transfers to a prestigious magic academy in the neighboring country of Esteban. She's the average oblivious Mary Sue who catches the eye of all the high and mighty, OP main characters, who never show any attention to anyone, and a love triangle forms. Angelica is a kind girl, she is always helping others and never held grudges. She was portrayed as this holy being, except, she wasn't. Angelica always needed everything about her, she was always putting herself in everyone else's business and mindlessly putting herself in danger, she was bratty, and even after being kidnapped every other chapter she never fought back. She was obnoxious and not a very favored character of Olivia's.

And the character Olivia started the book for? She just ended up being some side villainess who bullied the female lead now and then until she just stopped showing up at all out of nowhere. The only thing that made her stand out was that she had a sad, run-of-the-mill backstory, that was given out of nowhere.

Olivia Auclair was the first daughter of duke and duchess Theodore and Genevieve Auclair, her parents never gave her much attention. Her mother, Genevieve, was originally the daughter of a marquis, she was very proud and arrogant. Always obsessing over her reputation and how she looked, since 'Angel of Esteban' is set in a fantasy setting the world is filled with people with unnatural hair and eye colors so when her first daughter came out with brown hair she thought she was unworthy of her love and affection for being 'average' the only thing that stood out on her were her dark blue eyes. Her father, Theodore, was a man who had a long history, his family had helped form and develop the empire in its early years and a few generations were war heroes. He needed someone strong and smart to continue his legacy but when Olivia was 2 she was diagnosed with a disease that made her body weak and therefore unworthy of the title of her family. Two years later her younger sister was born, Ophelia Auclair. Her golden blonde hair and sky blue eyes were breathtaking, not to mention she was completely healthy and was extraordinarily smart for her age, she shone like the sun in front of their parents. Olivia studied and worked day and night to try and get a fraction of her parent's attention, but her sister was always three steps ahead of her.

She was left behind always in the shadow of her sister, Olivia was extremely jealous of the younger but since she was the golden child who her parents loved deeply and she still longed for her parents' affection, she never did anything to Ophelia. Instead, she took it out on other people, specifically the female lead since she reminded her of her younger sister so much. A perfect, beautiful girl loved by everyone.

———

Olivia walked down a deserted road alongside a seemingly frozen river, looking down at her phone mumbling about how it should be a crime to be able to publish horrible books. Still in her school uniform, she pulled her red scarf closer to her face when a cold breeze caused her to shiver.

She kept walking kicking rocks she found along the path in front of her, reading reviews on the book she loathes more than she thought was physically possible, though Phoenix says she's just a hot head and gets like this with everything she dislikes, Olivia would swear up and down she's never hated something more than this.

She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings when she suddenly lost her footing.

All she saw was the sky, her glasses were in the air a few inches off her face and she could see her phone in her peripheral vision fallen out of her hand and flying away.

The next second she can't breath, she fell in the water. It's so cold it knocked the wind out of her she can't move.

It's cold.

So so so cold.

She willed her body to move, panic starting to set into her but she couldn't, everything was numb.

Just...just a second.

I'm tired. I'll just close my eyes for a second.

Sinking
Sinking
Sinking

The water made her vision blur. A blurry yellow blob on the surface of the water. She tries to reach for it one more time, she longs for the warmth on her face finding that ironic since she's always preferred the cold weather the snow and rain was always so beautiful to her.

Everything goes dark.