Heartless

# Prolouge

“This isn’t the Shadow I know,” he says.

She knows it’s true. But she presses her claws to his neck. “Where. Is. It?” she asks, her voice colder than the frost that shines on the grass on an early winter morning.

“I don’t,” he gasps, choking for air, “know.”

“Then you are of no use to me!” she yells. She twists his neck, the snap shattering her heart.

A lone, fat tear streamed down her face.

“I’m sorry.”

She runs from the scene, knowing if she’s caught, she’ll be killed.

“Goodbye.” And then the storm she’s been holding of comes. Tears flow seamlessly from her eyes, splashing on the grass, soaking the ground in water. She steps on the damp ground and breathes. Looking at the stars, she whispers, “Bring him back.”

They do not respond, and she loses her quiet calm. If you would call it that. “How dare you twinkle and shine when he is dead! How dare you wink! How dare you live! How dare you do not listen to me!”

They stay static, and she wishes she could die. “How could you let this happen, Lunrina?”

The trees make their noise. Swish, swish, swish. And they reveal the moon—the peaceful silver beams, shining down on her. And she whispers, her voice breaking, “I want you back.”

# Chapter One

She was not always like this.

She remembers a time where she loved, she lied. A time where she dreamed and climbed. A time where she lived happily.

Now she was just a servant. One of the darkness, that to. She would kill as many as she had to. The key.

The last one. All she needed.

And Storm could come back. If she could reach the key before Sun. But Sun was closer.

And he had no one to bring back. He just wanted it for show.

*Selfish, arrogant brat.*

She runs. Her paws skid over the fallen blossoms, and she almost slips.

The cave. She knew the poem.

The Poem of Flames.

And so she begins.

“Dancing flames.

Flickering light.

Stars so bright.

Moon entwined.

Sun away, in twilight.

A place.

A time.

A spark.”

She finishes, and a deep rumbling sound comes from within the darkness. She creeps closer, drawn by the power inside. Plants line the wall—so precise, it’s as if they’ve been placed carefully by someone.

Or *something.*

A growl echoes through the darkness, and she bolts. She soon remembers that running will get her nowhere. She has to go deeper to get the spell.

The magic would help her find the final key. But Sun is probably after it.

She wants to wail. A bit of her true self has begun to show, except it’s hidden by layers of pain, misery, and fury.

Building up over the years.

How many has she killed?

She does not know. All she knows know is how to kill, what to kill, and when to kill. She ventures, but now with less confidence.

She screams. Something has pinned her down.

“Well, hello, Shadow,” Sun says.

She growls. “What do you want, you monster!”

“I simply want the key,” he says, rolling his eyes as if that should be obvious. She kicks him. He is caught off guard and is thrown back. She flees into the cave, ready to fight again if she must. She enters the deepest cavern.

A stone rests on a cut tree, emitting strange purple light. She steps closer, intensely focused.

That’s how Sun catches her off guard. He leaps, and she fumbles to regain her balance. But Sun has already won. He snatches the stone into his mouth and then leaves without a word.

First, she notices the pain. Red, bleeding *agony*. Long scratches go down her sides.

She yells curses at him, but he is nowhere in these caves. And then she hears a rumble.

A single rock slides down from the ceiling, and she knows her time is up. She manages to slide along the ground, but the stone is not smooth. It tears through her wounds, and she screams.

That was the last thing she remembers before she faints.

She wakes up.

*What is happening?*

A memory stabs into her head.

She *remembers.*

Something from her past…

But what?

Blurry outlines and shapes form against a hazy background. The voices sound weird. Staticky, almost. As if things were pulled out.

“Sun…guilty…crimes,” a voice says.

“Trying…reputation?” another asks.

“I…so,” the first says.

“…H—” the second is cut off as another shape attacks them.

Soon, the first and second both lay on the ground, dead.

The scene cuts away. She is somewhere else. It is dark. Cold. A shape stands in front of her.

“Well?” it asks.

“…done…work…” the white furred tiger says.

She realizes that the white tiger is her.

“Dead?”

“…sure…best…should…dead,” past-Shadow says.

“…correct answer…*definitely*…go…sure,” the shape says.

Past-Shadow disappears and the memory ends. She is in a bush, another tiger leaning over her.

“Who are you?” the tiger asks. “I pulled you out of that cave…it collapsed.”

She growls. “I could ask you the same question!” Her voice rings through her ears.

*Clear.*

This is real. Not a memory, not a mirror of the past.

The tiger looks at her strangely. “Kaia.”

She is unsure whether to give her own. She says her alias, “Umbrina.”

Kaia tilts her head. “That’s a…rather *odd* name.”

She realizes my scratches are healed.

“How long have I been asleep?” Shadow asks.

“Weeks. I was worried you were dead,” Kaia says.