She was so in love, but what about him? He never looked her way, sitting with an otherworldly beauty, whom she once called, 'my dear friend'.

She thought if only she tried, again and again. Maybe, one day he would look at her, but she forgot to consider that his heart never belonged to her. His sparkling golden eyes always followed her friend Elizabeth, and the pain inside her chest increased the more she tried.

At last, she tried to stop but failed miserably. Why couldn't she let him go? This question crossed her mind countless times, yet it went unanswered no matter how much she thought, and that's how the story of Bella Morningstar began.

All her life, she was unable to even find out why she was a pathetic lovestruck side character. Elizabeth her lovely friend was a beauty and she loved her a lot, but when did she start hating her so much that she couldn't even bear her sight?

She doesn't remember.

It's just been so long...

Maybe in their beautiful love story, Bella wasn't even a side character. Thoughts of dying early crossed her mind, not once but many times, but whenever she was hanging on the edge, she stopped because it was painful and she was scared of death.

A bitter laugh was all that escaped her trembling lips as she was dragged to the punishment chamber right in front of his beautiful golden eyes. The eyes that stared at her coldly until the very end.

Bella thought maybe if he did not, her dad, her mom, her dear brother.... they would help her. After all, the blood flowing in her veins was the same as them. In the end, she finally cried out to her dear friend.

"I am sorry... "

But her heart sank when Elizabeth looked away, with a sorrowful expression.

Bella knew she was in the wrong because she had tried to kill her, their innocent and beautiful flower, but she wanted to ask her family once. Was her love nothing to them? Or maybe... just maybe did they ever love her for even a second? She wondered this again and again while breathing her last.

Yet, no one ever came. Not even when her soul slipped away from her body, vanishing into the empty, dark void.

Bella believed she would never open her eyes again, and she desired just that—to forget everything and everyone... perhaps even her own self.

But fate played with her again.

The resentment, anger, and sorrow that weighed down her soul like a heavy shroud, along with feelings of despair, regret, and hopelessness, kept her from entering the cycle of rebirth and finding the peace she so desperately sought.

And then, after what felt like an eternity in the darkness surrounding her, a loud buzzing voice pierced her mind, awakening her once more. But the sight Bella saw upon opening her eyes was no longer the same.

The first thing that met her gaze was blood—so much of it that it painted everything in a gruesome carpet of red.

In front of her lay a pile of corpses, surrounded by countless hideous, winged, horned dark creatures feasting upon them. She froze, watching with horrified eyes until one of the creatures in the distance lifted its head, and its pitch-black eyes locked onto hers in mid-air. Just a single glance was enough to send her into a frenzy.

"Ahhhhh, demons!"

Bella screamed and ran, pushing herself with every ounce of strength she had.

The sky above her was dark and ominous red, resembling her worst nightmare. The ground beneath her blazed a fiery red, hot enough to sear her skin. Fortunately, her feet were protected by a pair of boots.

But the creatures were faster, and why wouldn't they be? They had large wings on their backs, and before long, one of the flying creatures grabbed her head and slammed her to the ground mercilessly, letting out a loud, hungry growl.

Bella's shrill wail was muffled against the ground as blood clouded her vision, and a pain unlike anything she had ever experienced—not even in death—shot through her body. In no time, many more creatures gathered around her, and before she could struggle or cry for help, they tore her body to shreds.

It was a terrifying and excruciating experience she hoped to never endure again, for she felt that the winged creatures were the overseers of darkness, and even the strongest beings in her world could not stand against them. How could she, a mere noblewoman, hope to stand against them?

She wished for nothing more than to disappear into nothingness. It would be countless times better than this agonizing pain, but it felt like she was trapped in a cycle. After she died, she awoke once more—not in her world, but in the same hellish place again, in the very spot where she had first opened her eyes.

Perhaps the previous horror had granted her weak heart a bit of resilience, for this time Bella clamped her mouth shut before her voice attracted the creatures' attention.

She could feel fear coursing through her veins as she crawled to escape the place. Her body trembled and refused to obey her commands, as if she were not its original owner, but she pressed forward.

The moment she realized she had distanced herself enough from the demons, she ran—ran and ran—pushing herself until her legs wobbled from exhaustion. But despite it all, she didn't stop running.

The image of blood trickling from the creatures' jaws was still vivid in her mind as she climbed a dark, barren mountain.

The air surrounding her was suffocating, enough to make her retch.

But she endured. Why? Despite not understanding why she relentlessly fought to stay alive, she pushed forward.

Suddenly, she staggered and lost her balance. Her body tumbled down the rocky mountain, causing her to cry out in pain. Soon, every patch of skin on her body was bloodied from the searing heat.

She let out a wretched, self-mocking sob, knowing she was facing death once again.

With the last bit of strength she had, she dragged herself toward a uneven boulder. But then, her eyes caught sight of a small, murky red river in front of her.

Amidst the searing pain, the bloody sky, and the burning ground, she thought, the river... it was beautiful.

How strange; she didn't even realize that she wasn't thinking of the man she loved most anymore.

Bella inched closer to the blood-like water as her last breath approached.

However, her eyes widened in shock when she realized that the face reflected in the river was not her own.

Her trembling fingers caressed the gray eyes staring back at her, and she gently touched the lock of blue hair cascading around her slender body.

'How?'

She questioned with fright. She remembered her eyes were bright crimson, so why were they gray now? Her long black hair, which always swayed around her back, had turned blue. And instead of pale, her skin was tanned...

A laugh escaped Bella's lips as tears streamed down her cheeks. Because when she recalled her face, she remembered him again, but strangely, her heart was not pounding for him anymore. Was it because she was not in her own body?