(Rumi POV)
I didn't think.
I just ran.
The pounding in my chest was louder than the chaos behind me. My boots hit the backstage floor in uneven beats, breath hitching in short, shallow bursts. I barreled down a narrow hallway, barely noticing the blur of equipment cases and coiled cables stacked against the walls. My hands shook, my mind a mess of static.
A staircase appeared ahead. I took it without hesitation, my feet clanging against the metal steps as I flew down them two, three at a time. My focus was so narrow I didn't even register the cold air at the bottom until I looked up—
And froze.
"Mira?" My voice cracked. "Zoey?"
They stood there, blocking the exit, their faces pale and unreadable.
"What?" I stammered. "H-How are you here? You were just on stage." My gaze darted between them, desperate for grounding. "That wasn't you? Oh." My chest loosened just a fraction. "Oh, thank goodness—"
I stepped forward.
They stepped back.
And that's when I saw it.
Their wide eyes—mixed between disbelief and something that twisted in my gut like a knife—betrayal.
My stomach dropped. My gaze followed theirs down… to me.
To the purple lines crawling across my skin like living veins of ink.
"No." My voice was a whisper, then a plea. "No! No, no, no—"
"How…" Zoey's tone was strange, quiet, and laced with disbelief. "…do you have pattern?"
"These were supposed to be gone." My arms wrapped tight around myself, as if I could hide what was already glowing under the skin. "You were never supposed to see!"
Mira's voice cut in, sharp enough to sting. "You were hiding this from us this whole time?"
"No, I—" The words tripped over themselves, colliding with the panic swelling in my throat. "I have a plan to erase them. Jinu was supposed to—I—he was—"
"Jinu?" Zoey snapped, shock jolting her voice. "You're working with him?"
"No. No! No!" My voice cracked higher. "I was using him to fix all this! To fix me! So we could all do our duty! We could all be strong. Be together."
Zoey's expression hardened, the disbelief twisting into something colder. "How could we be together if we can't tell your lies from your truths, Rumi?"
And then Mira—
Not looking at me anymore, voice low, sad, and certain—said, "I knew it. I knew it was too good to be true."
"Mira, no!" I stepped forward, words tumbling out like lifelines I couldn't catch. "Didn't you see? See the gold? We're so close!"
They didn't answer.
They just kept stepping back.
"No!" My voice was breaking. "Don't leave! Don't leave! I can still… FIX IT!"
The sound ripped out of me before I could think—deep, warbled, wrong. It wasn't just loud; it vibrated in the bones of the air itself. The walls trembled. The honmoon outside the stadium shivered, warping as if I'd pressed my hands against it.
Both of them saw it happen.
Both of them saw me do it.
Mira's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before something inside her seemed to lock into place. Her expression hardened, pain threading the steel in her gaze. She raised her weapon and leveled it at me.
My breath caught.
Slowly, I turned to Zoey.
She had her eyes closed.
Like she couldn't bear to watch.
"Zoey…" My voice was barely a breath. "Please."
Her eyes opened—and she raised her weapon too.
The sob tore out of me before I could swallow it. My legs moved on their own, carrying me past them, away, anywhere that wasn't here.
I didn't stop running.
Not even when my tears blurred the world into nothing.
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Sable POV
The little translucent bird fluttered down to perch on a railing just far enough away to stay unnoticed, its sight bleeding into mine like a second set of eyes.
And oh boy… what a scene it tuned me into.
I didn't need to hear every word to get the gist — the tone, the looks, the distance in their stances told the whole story. Rumi, trembling, desperately trying to explain herself; the other two backing away like she'd just sprouted a second head.
Not gonna lie… I'd seen this kind of implosion before. In the show, it was already bad. Seeing it up close? It was a masterclass in personal devastation. The tension clung to the air like smoke, and the moment her patterns — those purple, curling marks — flared across her body, you could practically hear the glass shattering in their trust.
Zoey's disbelief. Mira's quiet, sharp betrayal. Rumi's voice breaking into something more than human, literally rattling the Honmoon's barrier.
And then came the clincher — both of them raising their weapons at her, like the final curtain drop.
Rumi's sobs hit harder than I expected. The way she bolted out of sight…
I leaned back against the stadium's steel beam, watching through the proxy as the scene played out. My fingers drummed slowly against my knee.
"…And there it is," I muttered. "The fracture point."
Every timeline, every version of this story I'd seen — this was the part where she broke. Where everything unraveled just enough for the big players to move in.
Which meant the clock was officially ticking for me, too.
But instead of letting the proxy fade, I kept it tethered, flitting after her like a shadow with wings. I needed eyes on her at all times now. Rumi wasn't just another pawn on the board — she was a key piece. The key piece. And timing my move would be everything.
I exhaled slowly, leaning back into the steel support, visor reflecting the city lights.
"Guess it's almost showtime."
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A/N:so it begins....
Anyway what do you think is it rushed…..I think it's rushed🤷♂️
Now leave a comment leave a review and….
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