There were five stages of grief, it was common sense in all of the creatures who had a heart. Though, you would think that the Vergessene family did not have a heart at all.
Adreanna thought she could not feel emotions, it was proven wrong when she saw the little brother she used to despise died. She felt something, something tugging her cold heart, and without realizing it, she was already crying a river.
Axel slept peacefully with black roots coming out of his body. He slept in a comfortable bed, surrounded by a glass coffin that covered his sleeping body. They knew he was not sleeping, but they would burn the world to bring him back.
It was not supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be a war that they obviously would win. They did ignore the kid, leaving him alone, and turning their back on him. But they never thought that he would die that day.
He was not supposed to be dead. He was supposed to try fighting them and lost again because the kid was not that strong compared to his other family members.
He was supposed to betray his own family again. But regardless, was he the one who betrayed them, or was they the one who betrayed him?
They did not have time for that, for there had to be a way to bring Axel back. There just had to be, and they would find it.
They would.
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Denial.
They had spent days trying to find something that could bring their kid back. Kiaran would still go to Axel's sleeping self and read him a story, muttering how everything would be okay like he should have done it before.
There would be a hot chocolate beside Axel's bed, steam went up as the hot chocolate got replaced so many times when it went cold.
Adreanna would just stand there, staring at Axel's sleeping body with emotions hidden behind her cold eyes. She stood there as if waiting for the boy to wake up because he was not supposed to die.
But you had left him to die, didn't you, Adreanna?
She pushed the thoughts away and got out of the room, recognizing the mess they had made. Books scattered everywhere as her father searched for a way to bring people back.
Kiaran was out, making a way with his words, forcing people to give him pieces of information.
A loud sound of the door opening harshly made Adreanna and Cain looked over to the main door. There was a fluffy black-haired demon with a black wing on his back, staring at the two of them with a triumphant smile.
"I found a demon who could bring back other demons to life."
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Anger.
"So what you are saying is, you can't revive him?" Gritted Kiaran as he stared murderously at the trembling demon.
Adreanna was holding the demon at a sword point, a couple of drops of blood already running down her neck from the little cut. Cain was just standing in the shadow, watching the event go on.
The poor demon was already at the edge of crying as she stared at the floor, her red eyes did not even dare to look at Kiaran.
"He-" The demon chocked, her grey hair was glued on her forehead with sweat forming on there. "He was cursed with the cursed arrow, therefore I can't-"
She could not even finish her sentence as Cain angrily came out of the shadow at an inhuman speed and slashed the demon's chest.
The demon gasped as she stared wildly at her own bleeding open chest. Adreanna's sword was still at the demon's neck, blood still oozing through from it.
Adreanna took away her sword from the neck, making the demon feel relief for a second, just to notice that her head was already falling to the floor.
The first-born child finished the job as the blood from the demon's head trailed down her sword, she beheaded the demon's head coldly. Though, if you squinted your eyes, you would see the fury in her red ruby eyes.
Kiaran screamed angrily as he burnt the demon's house down.
On their way back, Kiaran's glowing red eyes watched in madness as Cain and Adreanna wiped out the whole village where the demon lived.
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Bargain.
"There must be another way, right?" Kiaran gripped his hair, he chuckled brokenly.
"Right?" He whispered in silence.
The three of them stood there, watching their youngest's dead body lie on his death bed.
Maybe this was their punishment, was it? Maybe his death was supposed to happen? Maybe it was a way this world let Axel rest in peace so he could not hurt more?
Or maybe this was not supposed to happen, maybe they were not supposed to fall in despair. Maybe there was another way- another way to-
"Let's bury him." Adreanna's monotone voice rang through the room.
That night, the sky was crying, thunder was trying, and a family lost their youngling as Axel went six feet under.
A cup of hot chocolate, a book, and a hair tie stood on the boy's grave as a family tried to bargain the boy's soul.
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Depression.
Adreanna started wiping out many villages, killing demons as she went mad. She was trying to fill the hollow feeling in her chest, she was supposed to be the cold murderer, not a-
Not a...
She cut the face of a demon in front of her as she tried to compete with her heart. And when she shed a tear once or twice as she killed more and more, trying to fill her heart with something- nobody needed to know.
Kiaran kept coming back to the grave. A bag under his eyes was visible as he tried to keep the boy company. He read many books to the boy, trying to make the boy feel like he was wanted.
"Rien n'est éternel." His croaked voice read the phrase. He smiled at the grave as he started to translate the word. "That means nothing lasts forever, just like-" He cut himself off.
His face went white as he stared at the words in the book. His eyes were getting blurry as he tried to force a smile on his brother. "That's it for today. See you tomorrow, Axel."
Cain was making hot chocolate every day for Adreanna and Cain. He would make three cups and then stare at the third one so long until it became cold.
One day, the hot chocolate spilled from his hand when his thoughts were filled with the boy's face. He could not remember any memories about him, he did not know what he liked, he did not know what he despised, he did not know anything.
He threw the cup away, making a loud shattering noise. The liquid of the cup ran around through the floor, making a mess everywhere.
He sighed at the mess he had made. The demon took a nearby cloth and wiped the floor carefully. He followed the trail of the hot chocolate until it stopped under the dining table. He wiped the rest of it away as his eyes caught something sharp and black near it.
His bloodshot eyes raged in fury as he looked at the cursed arrow. He took the arrow angrily and threw it away, smashing a big mirror in their dining room.
Cain's breath was ragged as he brushed his face. His heartbeat thumped loudly as he remembered the boy dying in his arm. His black wavy-length hair was messy as it shook alongside his trembling body.
Kiaran ran to the dining room upon hearing the voice. His red eyes moved over to his father who was sitting on the floor in despair. He inspected the dining room and found shattered glass from the cup and the broken mirror.
He sighed in understanding. Their family was not in the best state at this moment. Adreanna had not come back to the house for a week and he kept hearing news about so many deaths, which he knew was his sister's doing.
Kiaran kept reading books for Axel, frustrated if he could not find a new book to read. He would chuckle madly and then cry silently.
His father was the same as them too, though. They had their ways to cope with Axel's death.
Kiaran lowered his body to Cain's level, wing fluttered shut as he squatted beside his father. "Father, are you okay?"
His father moved his eyes to his secondborn. He smiled weakly at the boy, ignoring how almost identical Kiaran's look to Axel's that made his heart ached.
"I'm fine, just a little bit frustrated," Cain assured the boy as he tried to stand up.
Kiaran helped his father stand up as his eyes locked on his father's face. His father, though, father was looking behind Kiaran with startled eyes. Cain's mouth was agape; he was at a loss for his words.
"Kiaran, look at the shattered mirror behind you and tell me if you see the same thing too." His father commanded him in a terrified voice.
Kiaran frowned upon Cain's words. He slowly looked behind him, it was as if the world was in slow motion, his eyes staring at a boy in the mirror.
He gasped loudly upon seeing that. He saw Axel perfectly healthy, eating something from his plate as he stared boringly at his own food.
Kiaran walked to the mirror, ignoring how the shattered glasses around him were cutting his feet. His hand touched the mirror on the wall, he could see his hands bleeding from cuts, but he could not care less.
He brushed his hand on the shattered mirror, clearing the broken glass that was still intact to the wall only to reveal another mirror behind it.
Another mirror with a boy they had lost.
He did not notice how his father was already beside him, staring at the boy they had lost who was eating lazily in a dining room that was almost the same as their own.
Kiaran looked behind him to see the boy, but they did not find anything.
He frowned upon that, looking back to the mirror, almost startled as he saw Axel standing in front of him.
He was tidying his clothes in front of him, looking right at the mirror. Kiaran touched the mirror, hands trailing on Axel's face longingly.
He was the same Axel, yet different. There were no wings behind his back, no red eyes, only a pair of soft blue eyes.
"Axel?" His father whispered. The boy looked startled a little bit and looked around his dining room.
"Father? Is that you?" He asked quietly as Axel looked around behind him, turning his back on the mirror.
"Yes, it's me, son," Cain answered as he tried to reach the boy through the mirror, only to fail.
"You come back already?" The boy asked as he went away from the dining room, furrowing his eyebrows as doing so.
"Father, where are you?" The sound of Axel yelling was getting further away as the demons watched Axel turning their back on them.
A beat of silence surrounded them as they saw the boy, who was supposed to be dead, vanished from their sight.
"Yes, father, I see the same thing too." Kiaran broke the silence as he answered his father almost too late.
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Acceptance?
They thought they would get into acceptance, but it was proven wrong when they saw their kid healthy and alive.
Though he did not have black wings or red eyes, he had bright blue eyes that could describe an ocean and was sitting on a table, eating something that they could not describe.
They broke another mirror in the house with the cursed arrow, experimenting if they would see Axel again in a different part of the house.
They did.
Adreanna had already come back from her killing spree upon hearing the news. She stared at the boy who was sleeping in his bedroom. She could not see the boy on the bed in the room she was in, but she could see him on the other side of the mirror.
He was sleeping and was not dying.
Adreanna was staring without a word in the mirror as her father walked in with three cups of hot chocolates in his hand. He gave the cup to Adreanna and Kiaran, leaving one cup in front of the mirror where the sleeping boy was.
Kiaran read a book for Axel when he noticed his little brother was having a nightmare alone. They kept staring at him in his sleep, and Axel would wake up looking around because he swore he heard Kiaran talking.
Even though Axel looked healthy, his face was etched with obvious sadness. It was like when Kiaran manipulated him, Adreanna left him to die, and his father abandoned him.
They could not bear a thought on how this other Axel, no-
Their Axel suffered in another world too. Axel deserved to be happy, Axel deserved the world, and they realized it when it was too late.
Or could they really make Axel happy?
They should have realized sooner, they should have realized their kid was suffering. Maybe this was their second chance. Was this a redemption? Was this guilt?
Was this a redemption, or did they never actually make it past through denial?
That night, the one-way mirror had become a two-way mirror, and three demons smiled wickedly.
They finally had their youngest one back.