My Soul's With You

Rina Fernandez had been fidgeting in her dressing room while her maids fussed about her when the news had arrived. The gown was for some annual ARMP ball, blah blah, and naturally she hated it. However, she still had her goody-two-shoes reputation to uphold, so she hid it with a simpering smile.

When an unfamiliar owl had swooped in, pooped on one of the maids' heads (much to Rina's disguised delight), and dropped a crisp letter, Rina had resigned herself to the fact that the day couldn't get any worse.

She was wrong.

Within a span of a minute, the dainty young woman had shredded through her gown in haste to get out of it, grabbed her much more comfortable clothes, and dressed herself while running out in five-inch heels. Her fingers were trembling, and she briefly thought that the ceilings had sprung a leak until she realized that she was crying. Tears splattered the front of her blouse as she zigzagged through the halls, dodging unsuspecting servants and tittering guests. She paid no heed to any of them, and completely dissed her maids' calls.

*She can't be...She can't be...This is some prank...Diyos ko, papatayin ko kung sinuman gumawa nito...*

She skidded to a stop in front of her older brother's bedroom door, ignoring the protests of his bodyguard, and pushed it open.

Valentin Fernandez looked up drowsily, having only been awake for less than ten minutes. His clothes were mussed and his hair was an utter mess and Rina would've lectured him if it weren't for the dire circumstances.

"**Rheine's dead**," She all but wailed before he could get a single word in on why she was barging into his room. "Patay na siya. It's a prank right? Kuya, please. Sabihin mo na kalookohan lang ito ng sinuman!"

It took Valentin an entire ten seconds to register what his sister had just said, and the impact of them was evident. The dregs of sleepiness vanished and all the color drained from his face. As if on cue, an owl dropped through his open window, hooting urgently and holding its leg out.

Valentin was up on his feet in a flash, handling the bird roughly as he yanked the letter from its leg. If Rina wasn't already in hysterics, she would've been absolutely mortified. Valentin *never* handled any animal roughly, no matter how nasty they were. The owl let out a reproachful hoot before flying off to wherever. Rina could pick out every little detail now, and it scared her even more to see that Valentin's fingers were trembling as he opened the envelope with a letter opener.

With bated breath, both pairs of their eyes scoured the contents desperately. They hung on to the last inkling of hope that it was all just some elaborate prank and they could laugh it off over dinner. Their minds couldn't comprehend the idea of it alone. That their friend was dead, was gone, and that she was never coming back. That she'd never say anything sarcastic again. That they'd never hear her wheezing laugh caused by the asthma she'd contracted not so long ago. That the girl who had been one of the smartest in her year, and had gotten nearly all Os in all fourteen subjects she had taken in Hogwarts was gone. That they'd never hear her smartass quips and sassy remarks again. That her heart - no matter how shattered - and that her spirit - no matter how tattered - had lost their spark of life. That her eternally unreadable eyes would not be unreadable anymore, and that they would be...dead.

That Rheine was gone, merely a whisper in the world of the living.

*Dear Mr. and Miss Fernandez,**We offer our sincerest condolences and are sad to inform you that a close friend of yours, Rheine Kassyra Kögler, passed away yesterday night. We believe the cause of death is suicide. Her body was found in her apartment. The funeral will occur within a week in her childhood home, Kögler Estates. Please respond to alert us of your attendance. Again, we are sorry for your loss.**Truly yours,**Kögler Funeral Services*
Rina didn't know how long they stood there numbly, letting the words sink in once and for all. The first thought that she finally formed was that Kögler Estates wasn't Rheine's childhood home. She wouldn't have wanted to be buried there. Shivering, Rina raised her chocolate eyes to her brother's hazel ones and knew he was thinking the same thing.

Rheine would have wanted to be buried back here - her true childhood home. Here, in the Philippines, where the happy portions of her childhood had occurred. She wouldn't have wanted to be buried in Britain, a geographical symbol that represented her broken family and all the trials she had gone through. Rheine had found a lot of things in Britain, but none of them had been true happiness.

**She wouldn't have wanted to be buried in the place where she had gotten her heart broken.**

Rina jerked at the sound of shredding paper and blinked. Valentin was ripping up the letter with all the viciousness he could muster, his breathing ragged and his expression one of anguish.

"She was only nineteen years old," He said, his voice softer than a feather. It was in heavy contrast to his fierce movements.

Rina's lower lip trembled. The waterworks started up again, brimming in her big doe eyes, but she held back. Held back from breaking right now, because Rheine would have hated to see her like that, would have hated to know that Rina was "wasting" precious body fluids over her.

*If she had known I would cry and she must have, then why did she go through with it?*

Yalith Corinne Fernandez did not cry. She had never been a crybaby, always keeping her chin up. She had vowed to herself that she would not be a classic princess that needed saving and she refused to cry in the direst situations.

But now, she felt like forgoing that vow even for a moment. And looking at her brother, who never expressed himself in anything but words, was speechless and his expression contorted, she knew he would not mention it if he saw her cry.

Rina distantly heard the sound of china breaking and her legs fell out from beneath her, her entire world spinning. In the distance, she could also hear the most piercing shrieks being transmitted into existence. It took her an agonizing moment to realize they were hers.

Far away somewhere in Bulgaria, a young man, barely of twenty-four years of age, sat reading the same letter. Once he finished, he set it down on his desk, his body eerily calm. Kale Justin Ashworth was a tough cookie, and he knew it. He had learned from first hand experience that taking grief impulsively could destroy you. He had watched his younger sister die in a car crash that he had survived. He had been an Auror for almost half a decade now. He had been the same age as Rh- her when he had been recruited. He had seen death and destruction that the likes of civilians could never even dream of witnessing. He'd lost so many brothers-in-arms on the field.

But if there was anything else that he knew other than that life was a cruel bastard, he knew miracles existed.

He had watched his young wife rise from her deathbed and live through childbirth with the help of no one but her own, and perhaps some divine entity. He had seen babies survive bombs where no one else had. He had seen men leap from the tallest buildings he had ever set his eyes on and survive without as much as a scratch.

And though his heart threatened to burst from the pain that swelled up now, KJ inhaled deeply and steeled himself.

He had experienced many varieties of pain in his short life. None of them, he had long since discovered, were ever the same. They all differed, whether it be the way they pricked or jabbed at his insides both figuratively and literally. The way sometimes emotions exploded and flooded him, leaving him useless. The way when he realized that another person had passed on and he could have saved them, but he hadn't been able to.

Agony clawed at him from within, but he set his jaw against the tears that threatened to spill. He had already lost one sister and had moved on.

And despite everything...

He wasn't sure he could do it again.

WIP