— Daisy’s POV —
“How is it, Daisy?”
Sister Celes’s voice reached softly from behind as I stood before the tall mirror, frozen in awe at my own reflection.
It had been over two months since she saved .
Since she tore apart the walls of the prison I had been forced to call ho.
We stayed in Vale City ever since, and I hadn't left the room—not once. But she never let face the silence alone. She chose to stay with , in that quiet, where healing ca one heartbeat at a ti.
But today… sothing changed.
Today, she helped into a dress she brought out with quiet reverence, brushing my hair with care I hadn’t known I missed.
And now, in the mirror before … stood a girl I barely rembered.
My long blonde hair—once tangled, once pulled by cruel hands—now fell past my shoulders in soft waves of golden strands. A crimson flower hairpin nestled above my ear, holding back a lock of hair that shimred in the morning light. My crimson eyes, once dulled by fear, shimred now with sothing fragile—hope, maybe.
The dress wrapped around like a forgotten dream. Crimson silk, soft and light, with frills that swirled just above my knees. My shoulders were bare, kissed by sumr air, but not vulnerable. The sleeves—delicate, fluttering—hugged the upper parts of my arms like petals in bloom. A necklace draped across my chest, the crimson gem at its center engraved with the shape of a flower.
It sparkled as if it rembered where it ca from.
White gloves covered my hands, and soft light-red heels adorned my feet. Beneath the skirt, a pair of red shorts offered comfort and security, reminding that I was still .
…No longer the girl in chains.
And for the first ti in years, I felt…
Beautiful.
Usually I’d hate sothing like this,” I whispered, voice soft and unsure. “But right now… I don’t know why. I feel like I want to cherish it. Like I’d regret it if I lost it. It feels precious. I… think I love it.”
My fingers brushed the gem hanging at my collarbone.
“And this necklace… it’s so beautiful.”
Behind , Sister Celes wrapped her arms around my waist.
And with a voice full of sothing quiet and fragile, she said,
“Because they were gifts.”
“…Gifts?” I blinked.
“From Mom and Dad,” she whispered, tightening her hold on . “They left them for us… for our fifteenth birthday. All three of us. Today, you turn seventeen, Daisy. So… it’s late—by two years. But still…”
She pressed her cheek to mine.
“…Happy birthday. I love you so much.”
My breath caught.
Mom…
Dad…
These gifts—they had been picked, chosen, prepared with love…
When our parents were still alive.
When we were still a family.
And they never got to see us open them.
Tears blurred the reflection in the mirror.
I didn’t rember much about them anymore. Just scents. Laughter. Warm hands brushing my hair.
But now—this dress, this necklace… this day…
It was proof they’d never forgotten us.
Even when the world tried to erase us.
Even when I was trapped in hell.
Even when I thought I was alone.
They were still reaching for .
“I see…” I whispered. “So today… is the first day of sumr, huh…”
I gently placed my hands over Sister Celes’s.
The warmth of her hands around mine, the way her chin rested lightly on my shoulder—it made sothing ache in my chest. Sothing warm. Sothing gentle.
I closed my eyes.
Let her hold there.
Like I was safe.
Like I was loved.
Like I could begin again.
And I let the tears fall.
Not because I was broken.
But because, sohow… I felt whole.
“After that day… I stopped counting ti.”
My voice wavered, barely louder than the breath it rode on.
“It felt like hope had left . Like it looked at once, then turned its back and walked away.”
Over two months had passed since she saved . And yet… I had never told her everything. Not the real things. The dark things. The kind that crawl into my mind when the room goes quiet.
She never asked. Never pushed. She waited. Gave space.
But now—on this day of warmth, of gifts, of sunlight—I couldn’t carry it anymore.
“I was scared. I still am,” I whispered, as the first tear slipped down my cheek. “I gave up, Sis. I let go of my life. Dying felt easier. Better. But they… they didn’t let die.”
I felt her hands tense around mine—but she didn’t speak.
So I kept going.
Because the words were finally rising, unrelenting, clawing their way out of .
Tears, uncontainable, coursed down my cheeks and onto our intertwined hands.
“The soldiers… they used . Like I wasn’t real. Like I wasn’t human. Every part of —they played with it. Like a toy… Every single day… Every hour… Every minute…”
My voice cracked.
“My thighs… my hands, my chest… even my mouth, even my hair—nothing was spared. They touched everything, like I didn’t belong to myself.”
I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t want to see the pain in her eyes.
“I felt filthy. No matter how much I cried. No matter how much I scread. They touched and touched and touched. I’d wake up covered in them. Inside. Outside. Everything. That heat… it wasn’t warmth. It wasn’t like Mom’s hug. It wasn’t like yours. It was sickened .”
I choked on the next breath, my shoulders shaking.
“They’d say my body wanted it. That I liked it. That I welcod them. And the worst part is… sotis, my body did react. But my heart—my mind—never said yes. Not once. And every ti I felt it, I hated myself more.”
More tears spilled. I didn’t even try to stop them.
“The cold was unbearable. They didn’t even let wear clothes. Just… naked on the stone. Alone. Shivering.”
I heard myself—detached, like I was telling soone else’s story. But this was mine.
“Then… he ca.”
My voice faltered.
“He bought .”
I couldn’t even say his na. I didn’t want to. Not here. Not when she was holding .
“He wasn’t any better.”
My hands trembled in hers.
“He raped .”
“And when he was with you—smiling with you, touching you—his butler made sure I never had peace. Not even then.”
“I used to think… maybe being trapped with the two of them was better than being passed around by the soldiers.”
A bitter, broken laugh escaped my throat.
“But I was wrong.”
“So wrong.”
“The soldiers… they hurt because I was nothing to them. They didn’t care if I broke. They didn’t even see as human.”
“But he…”
My gaze blurred with tears.
“He wanted to know what he was doing.”
“He wanted to feel every second of it.”
“He spoke to like I mattered—only to make sure I knew how much he could take away.”
Countless tears stread down my face. I could no longer restrain them, a cathartic release of the pain I had harbored within.
“He whispered about you. About how happy you looked by his side. About how you kissed him while I bled on the floor.”
“He told he’d put a collar on you too. That he’d make us serve him together.”
My breath shook.
“The soldiers used like an object.”
“But he—he wanted to erase .”
“To turn into nothing.”
My nails dug into her palms.
“To make watch you fall… and call it love.”
My breath hitched.
“And… I believed him.”
“I thought… if I just endured it… if I let him ruin , maybe he wouldn’t ruin you.”
My lips quivered. The sobs wouldn’t stop anymore.
“I told myself—if I just gave him what he wanted… if I beca what he wanted…”
My voice shaked as I gripped her hand tighter.
“I tried to be his pet.”
A whisper now.
“I got on my knees. crawled like a dog.”
“I licked his shoes.”
“I… rubbed my cheeks on his legs like so kind of obedient thing.”
“Because he said he liked that.”
“Because I thought… if I beca the good little thing he wanted…”
Tears stread down my cheeks, hot and endless.
“Then maybe… he’d leave you alone.”
“Maybe he’d be satisfied with just .”
“I didn’t care what happened to … as long as you kept smiling.”
“I just… wanted to protect your smile.”
A sob wracked my chest.
“But I still failed.”
“No matter what I did—he still wanted you.”
“He was never going to stop.”
“I wasn’t enough to keep you safe.”
And in that mont, I broke again—because I had to believe it was worth it. That all my pain had ant sothing.
But it hadn’t.
He wanted to shatter us both.
“I thought I could keep the nightmare to myself.”
“But it never stopped.”
“Every day felt like sleepwalking through hell…”
My voice trembled, barely holding together.
“And when I finally slept… it was worse.”
The words barely left my lips, hushed—like I was scared even to speak them aloud.
“Because in my dreams… I lost you too.”
Another tear slid down my cheek.
“You faded. Freed faded. Mom… Dad… they all slipped away like smoke I couldn’t hold.”
My arms curled around myself.
“I lived alone, in darkness, with no door, no voice, no escape.”
“How can I wake up… from a nightmare that doesn’t end?”
My voice fractured, sharp as breaking glass…
“How can I wake up… when sleep and waking feel the sa? Like… a mirror of my hell?”
My voice crumbled, barely more than a breath.
“Hic… Sis…”
“I didn’t want that life…”
The words spilled out, raw and trembling.
“I don’t want to live like that anymore… I can’t…”
My chest shook as I broke completely.
“Every day, I thought about dying.”
“Every night, I begged to disappear.”
“Every ti I closed my eyes… I prayed I wouldn’t open them again.”
My whole body trembled.
“I don’t want to live… I don’t want to live—I don’t—I don’t—!!”
My voice cracked into sobs, the words collapsing into broken gasps.
“I just want it to stop—I just want it all to stop—I want to die—! I just want to die—!”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!!”
Sister’s voice struck through the storm—shaking, tear-choked, desperate.
I flinched.
And then—
I felt her arms.
I felt her tears.
They dropped onto my hands—warm, shaking.
“That’s enough… Daisy,” she whispered again, her voice breaking. “That’s enough…”
I looked up at the mirror.
She was crying.
So hard.
And in that instant, I knew—
She’d been hurting too.
Celestia’s voice broke. I had never heard her like that.
“Please… don’t say that,” she whispered—not gently, but like she was begging the world to stop.
It was desperate.
“Don’t fill your thoughts with death. Don’t leave behind… I don’t want to be alone again.”
Her arms tightened around —fierce, trembling.
“You are the only reason I’m still standing in this world.”
Her voice cracked, and I felt her tears fall—soft and burning.
“We’ve finally found each other after everything… After all this ti… and you want to disappear again?”
She drew a ragged breath, barely holding herself together.
“If you die, Daisy…”
She paused, and her next words tore straight through .
“I will follow you.”
My eyes widened. I couldn’t breathe.
“So please…” she begged, voice shaking, “stay alive.”
“We can live together. Just us. For the rest of our lives.”
“We’ll make new mories. Beautiful ones. Ones that can bury the darkness.”
“We can replace the pain. We can try. Even if it takes years.”
“If you are scared towards n, then so be it.”
“If you don’t want to see the world, then we won’t. We’ll go sowhere far. Quiet. Just the two of us. We can disappear from everyone’s eyes.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“Just stay with .”
“If you’ve lost your will to live… then use .”
“Make your reason. Just like you are mine.”
I felt her hand brush my hair, trembling.
“You’re my sister… My only family left. I don’t need anything else. I don’t need n. I don’t want them.”
“I only want you.”
“I only trust you.”
Her tears hit my shoulder again.
“If you love , Daisy… stay alive.”
“If you don’t want to see broken again—stay alive.”
She pulled closer, like I might vanish from her arms.
“I made a promise to Mom and Dad—to protect you. You promised too, didn’t you?”
“Would you really break that now… and leave behind to grieve both of you?”
Her voice was a thread of pain.
“Please… stay alive.”
“If the mories co back—then co to .”
“Cry to . Scream if you have to. Let carry it with you.”
“If you can’t forget… then I’ll help you carry it.”
“So please… stay alive.”
Her words faded into silence, trembling in the air between us.
And I…
I couldn’t speak at first.
Because I realized—I hadn’t once thought about her pain.
Not really.
Not in these two months.
I hadn’t thought about how much she must have cried that night she found . How it must have crushed her to hurt the man she once loved. How it must have twisted the heart deep in her to stand over him, knowing what he’d done to .
How she had smiled for while hiding her own agony.
I rembered the fury she unleashed that night.
It wasn’t just anger—it was sothing deeper. Wilder. Like a storm that had been held back for too long.
I had never seen her like that before.
She was always the calm one. The steady one. The kind of sister who smiled even when things hurt, who rarely raised her voice, let alone her hand.
But that night…
She shattered.
And now I understood why.
That betrayal didn’t just break her heart—it broke sothing in her trust. In her belief in others. Especially n.
Maybe… in a way, she was just as afraid of them now as I was.
And that made my chest ache all over again.
Because I wasn’t the only one who was hurt.
She was too.
I’d been drowning in my pain for so long, I’d forgotten that she was bleeding too.
We were both trying to piece ourselves back together—
From different kinds of ruin.
I clutched her tightly.
Tighter than before.
“…Yes, Sis,” I finally whispered. “Let’s live together. For the rest of our lives.”
She didn’t answer.
She just held .
And I could feel the way her body exhaled—like a thread had finally stopped unraveling.
“Thank you, Sis,” I whispered. “I’m… really grateful to have you.”
She leaned her cheek against mine.
“I’m glad you’re my sister too, Daisy.”
For a while, neither of us said a word.
We just held each other.
And in that silence…
For the first ti in years…
I felt sothing warm.
Not fear.
Not guilt.
But the first quiet spark of sothing I’d forgotten I could still feel—
Hope.
I turned to face her, and for the first ti in what felt like a lifeti, our cheeks were dry.
No more tears.
Only the faint, lingering warmth of where they had fallen.
We each reached up—silent, instinctive—and wiped away the traces from one another’s skin.
And then, I took a breath.
“There’s one thing I want you to promise , Sis.”
She looked at without hesitation, as if her answer had been waiting long before the question.
“Yes. Anything. I’ll promise you anything. I’ll give you whatever you need if it ans you’ll smile again. Just tell what you want.”
Her voice was steady, but I could still hear the ache beneath it—the desperate love that held even when I couldn’t hold myself.
And I knew.
That as much as I would give everything for her—
She would do the sa for .
“Promise …” I whispered. “That you won’t carry everything alone. I want you to share your pain too.”
There was a pause.
A gentle silence.
Then—
She smiled.
A genuine soft smile.
“I see… So Mom was right.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“She told ,” she said with a quiet laugh, “that she was teaching you to take care of , just in case.”
I smiled, a little teary again. “Ah. She did… but even if she hadn’t, I would still want to protect you, Sis.”
She reached out and rested her palm on my head, fingers warm and firm in that way only she could be.
“Thank you, Daisy.”
Then, she t my eyes.
“I promise. I won’t carry my burdens alone. Didn’t I just share mine with you a few minutes ago?”
I gave a small laugh through the ache in my chest.
“Yeah… but I want you to keep sharing them. From now on. And I’ll share mine too.”
“Good,” she said, pulling into one last embrace, one that felt like a vow written in the quiet of our hearts. “No more secrets. No more silence. We’ll carry everything together.”
“Yeah…”
And for a long mont, we just stood there—
Two souls still healing.
Still broken in places.
But holding each other so gently it felt like hope.
The air between us no longer heavy with grief—
But soft with sothing new.
Sothing fragile.
Sothing blooming.
We leaned in—without a word, without a cue—until our foreheads touched.
Skin to skin.
Breath to breath.
The world around us stilled.
Our eyes fluttered closed, and we simply stayed there, holding each other’s hands as if letting go ant the world might break again.
Her palms were warm.
A little shaky.
But so was mine.
And in that trembling warmth, we found sothing steady.
A quiet promise passed through our touch, unspoken but felt.
That no matter what ca next…
That no matter what the world tried to take…
We would face it side by side.
No more silence.
No more loneliness.
No more walking forward without the other.
She gave a faint laugh beneath her breath, and I smiled with her—our noses nearly brushing, our hearts beating slow and full.
And in that closeness—
In that stillness—
We didn't need words.
We only needed one thing.
Each other.
A silent vow sealed not with fire or ink, but with tears dried and warmth shared.
Two hands clasped in the dark.
Two foreheads touching beneath the light.
And two broken souls…
Already beginning to heal.
Together.
Forever.
And even if the world stripped us bare—tear by tear, breath by breath—we would still have one another.
And in that, we had more than everything.
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