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Flashing LEDs , lightsticks waving in a frenzy , a crowd roaring in approval.
It would have been such a pretty sight, if it wasn't the stage Sua was going to die on.
Sweat trickled down her brow, but she was fed up of being frightened. In her mind, she was just following a tainted script, a wretched play she had rehearsed time and time again.
She glanced to her side, and in the ethereal glow of the stagelights, she admired her lover. Long pink hair cascading down to the hem of her black dress. It had been Sua who decided to change their dresses last minute, besides - black was a better colour on Mizi. She couldn't bear to see her in white.
She narrowed her eyes. Suddenly aware of Mizi's expression. Her body was shaking. It wasn't in character for Mizi to get stage fright. Something was troubling her, but there was no opportunity for Sua to genuinely analyse what might have been the issue. She was in a daze - her angel was standing by her side, singing with her.
That seraphic voice, that she would soon never hear again.
"Hush, my little child,
Drift into slumber,
In your dreams, you'll run and play,
In paradise."
This was Sua's queue. Tactifully, she lowered her voice, and started slightly later than intended.
" Hush, my little child,
Gentle now... Go to sleep,
And somewhere in that moment,
The lonely moon will dream. "
Sua never picked up on the pre-chorus, she sung quietly with apprehension evident in her voice. The lyrics weren't even processing in her busy mind. Her thoughts were plagued by the pain of the gun, the look of horror on an innocent face, the end of her life.
The stadium was silent, and finally Mizi turned to Sua. Her eyes sparkling with some emotion too painful to be labelled joy, yet too loving to be labelled sorrow. In that moment, Sua's eyes widened. Mizi was too perfect.
Sua was not a fool, and however awkward she may have been : she could read people. Especially the ones she loved. There had been signs, of course, that Mizi was not the naive girl she seemed. She had surely noticed the injection scars on Sua's neck, which would explain how clingy Mizi would become after Sua had practiced her passing in her secrecy. The quiet crying Sua had overheard when she was bought to be asleep - The overly loving comments made to her on a day by day basis, so incessant that Sua had doubted any of them were truly real.
Whether Mizi knew or not did not matter to her. Sua did her upmost to make sure her partner would never find out about the horrors of the stage, but - in the end - Sua's mind could not be changed.
Not even when Mizi had begged her silently - with her teary, unblinking eyes - to attempt to stay alive, to find another way. Such credulity. To have hope in survival. There were two ways out of this world : To perish or make the ones you love perish. Sua would be the one to give her life, for once this was something she could not let anyone have.
Forget about this whole competition. Just look at her. She is what makes it worthwhile.
" The gentle wind
Sways and dances
As breath sinks deep
With quiet longing
" And without a word
You'll embrace
The sea that sings... "
Sua's mind was racing. Yet now, it was not filled with horrifiying images. She was swallowed by painful what-ifs, scenarios that could have been them if they were more than just entertainment to an alien race.
Could they have been students dilegantly studying alongside eachother? Maybe they would have been sportswoman who crossed paths one fateful day? Perhaps they would have started careers in acting, and they would fall in love on set. Sua felt her lip twitch upward as she even started considering a life where they were just ordinary people, living a quiet married life together. These lives that two people like them could have lived in any other world.
Any universe.
Any universe but their own.
It was all irrelevant now. Sua knew this was the last song she would ever sing, she was still staring intensely at Mizi - Making sure the last thing she saw would be something hopeful. Forcing herself to tear her eyes away from her hope, Sua quickly glanced up at the score.
86 / 87
Her heart lifted, It was all going to plan.
MIZI WIN
Sua exhaled. This was it. The clack of the gun being loaded, The sudden murmur among the quiet crowd.
Sua fixed her eyes back onto Mizi. Her chest welling up with emotion - Mizi reciprocated the look, but instead of the forced smile Sua had engraved onto her face - Mizi's eyes were wide and determined.
This was Sua's goodbye. Just as she had stratagised. Quietly, in harmony with the flower she loved most. Her clematis. Her universe. Her-
Mizi leapt forward.
Without any warning, Sua's frame was violently pushed back from the guns target area. Sua was entirely caught off guard, in her shock she shut her eyes tight, wobbling as she tried to find her balance.
The gun fired.
A crushing weight crashed onto Sua's body, holding tight to her shoulders. Sua felt her entire soul being gripped by ice. With unblinking eyes, she peered down at her white dress - clinging to her body with a cold sweat. It was now painted red, but her flesh was not torn in the slightest.
The warm crimson had to belong to the girl in her arms.
Mizi.
There was no time for Sua to even scream, or muster any sort of word from her shaking mouth.
She hadn't planned this.
This wasn't part of the script.
Sua was sure there must have been an eruption of noise from the crowd, she could picture the audience screaming in disbelief and fury. She couldn't hear anything, all that mattered in that moment was the limp body in her arms.
No... No, no, no.
This wasn't meant to happen.
Mizi had won. Why was Sua still alive?
She could feel Mizi's slowing heartbeat against her own chest, like the slow and sure diminuendo of a lullaby, disappearing with every drop leaving the gun wound in her right side.
Sua could hear a weak gasp escaping Mizi's throat. That same struggling voice. A siren keeping Sua in her horrifying trance.
" I... " Her lover started to strain her voice. " I resented you so. I had to keep a smiling face in every moment, pretending I was oblivious to your plan. "
This had to be a dream. Some form of cruel trick her mind was playing on her. There was another feeble noise, one that almost sounded like an attempt to laugh.
" But you were always my one and only weakness. That's why I resented you so...
" Sua, live with love.
" Embrace the pain, the frailty and the moments so unbearably shameful.
" Forgive yourself… Again and again, endlessly, my universe.
" Because everything...
" ...begins from there. "