Silvana cackled as Yuri was brought nearer to her. Yuri's breath caught in her throat as she realized that Silvana had both Chan and Afia in her grasp.
"Hello Yuri," she purred. "Ready to give up?"
She paused. Her best friend and her youngest charge were staring at her. "Uh..." Chan whimpered. Yuri bowed her head. "What do you want from me?"
Silvana smiled. "I want you to choose." She nodded to her men, who pulled Afia and Chan away, walking towards the ridge, above what Yuri knew was a raging river, with jagged rocks at the bottom. Rocks they could hide behind. Rocks they could die on.
She hesitated again. "What choice?"
Silvana smiled. "You can kill me, or you can save your friends." Yuri glanced frantically between Silvana and Afia and Chan. Who to save? Who to kill? "Clock's ticking," Silvana chided. Yuri's heart beat faster. Who, who, who? "Choose!" Silvana screamed. Yuri felt a rush of wind over her head.
"Save them Mistress! I'll take care of Silvana!" Yuri looked up smiling to see Minghao swooping down. She looked at Silvana and grinned wider. "I choose them." She ran towards the ridge as the hunters drew back their boys on Chan, and prepared to drop Afia over the side.
Silvana laughed. "Choose only one! You can't save them both!"
Minghao landed, wings spread, staring straight at Silvana. Her eyes met his, and he knew at once that this wasn't going to be easy.His mind was whirling at a hundred miles an hour. He winced.
They were in his head. They were always in his head. Everything, all the knowledge that he was never supposed to know, it was consuming him. People always say, if you take away what a man loves most, it will ruin him. But he was already a monster, so who cared?
Silvana laughed. "A little sick are you?"
Minghao growled, baring his teeth. "Sick implies that there's a cure for what I have. I'm just a little twisted, after all, no one cares about monsters, do they?"
Silvana smirked. "Of course not."
He charged at her, and she just smiled, blasting him backwards with some form of spell. She grabbed him, pulling him up. "Look at the one you care so much about." She made him face Yuri as she stared terrified at the hunters holding Afia and Chan. "She has to make a choice. Who will she choose, hmm? Best friend, or monster?"
Yuri's feet pounded against the ground loudly, heart pumping in her ears. 'Only one, only one. Chan or Afia?' Yuri didn't have to make the decision. Arrows left strings headed for Chan. If she saved him, they would both fall, both die. Afia it was. She ran, watching almost in slow motion as they threw Afia, arrows hitting Chan's chest at the same time she slipped off the edge.
"Fia!" Yuri watched helplessly as she tried to grab Afia's hand, but she slipped through her grasp and she fell into the water below. Beside her, Chan's body hit the gravel beach, missing the river entirely. Silvana cackled.
Yuri froze. Her heart was beating louder in her ears, and as she watched her best friend meet her end beneath the icy waves, saw Chan lying down at the bottom, head tilted at an awkward angle, she broke. Tears started trickling down her cheeks once again. Behind her, Silvana just smiled.
"Not able to save your monsters, not able to save your friends." Yuri turned towards her, heart leaping in her chest as her eyes fell on the witch, who was holding Minghao by the throat.
"Let him go!"
Silvana raised an eyebrow. "I knew you took a liking to your monsters, but I never knew how much. Let's test it." She tightened her grip, lifting the boy higher into the air. Yuri screamed, not being able to handle the sight of his scrambling fingers as he gasped for air. Blood ran down his neck as Silvana's fingernails pierced his flesh.
"Mistress," his eyes met hers frantically. "Run."
"No!" She ran towards Silvana, only thinking of Minghao in front of her, and the lifeless corpses of the rest of the boys.
Silvana threw a knife at Yuri, hitting her shoulder. Yuri stumbled to the ground a few feet away. She looked up, tears streaming down her face.
"You already killed so many of them. Please, just let him live," she sobbed. Silvana smirked.
"No." Yuri vaguely heard the crack as the witch snapped Minghao's neck and dropped him. Yuri crawled forward, dropping next to him and pulling him into her arms.
"Hey, hey stay with me." She buried her face in his neck, tears soaking his shirt. "Come on, we were supposed to go visit museums this week, and take the other boys rollerblading. Minghao," she pleaded desperately, yet knew he wouldn't answer, and still clinging to the hope that he would survive.
She cradled his limp body, not noticing Silvana raising another knife above her. She laced her fingers between his and rested her head on his chest. He was cold, no longer burning with the fire that he was so proud of, and Yuri's heart broke once again.
"You killed him," she whispered. Yuri looked up into Silvana's face, noting the knife, and not caring. "You killed all of them!"
"You're next." Silvana drove the knife through Yuri's chest, right above her heart, and dragged her away from Minghao's body, Yuri kicking and screaming the whole way. Silvana pulled her to her feet. "Watch." Silvana nodded at another hunter who opened the book, flipping to the pages where Yuri's monsters had been drawn.
Silvana smiled darkly. "Watch as your creations disappear before your eyes." She held up the book, where she got it from, Yuri didn't know, she didn't want to know. The witch ripped the pages from the book, dropping them on the ground. Silvana pushed Yuri to her knees, ripping the knife out of her chest and walked away, leaving her there to watch in horror as the bodies of her boys, at least the ones she could still see, disintegrated.
Yuri's blood stained the snow, spreading crimson around her, mixing with the tears still rolling down her cheeks. They were dead. They were all dead. She fell backwards onto the ground. Her boys were gone. All she registered was pain, until her heart finally stopped beating.
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Death. Angst. Oop.
BUT THAT'S RIGHT, WE AIN'T DONE YET, NO, WE GOTTA SEE WHAT SILVANA IS DOING
