Summary: Some promises were meant to be broken.
Spoilers: Up to Season 2 ending (though it doesn't really matter)
A/N: Lame summary, but oh well. Season 2? Terrible. Season 3? Sounds wonderful. First time in second POV. Please bear with me.
"Promises are something meant to be broken."
The words echo in your head in Bai's sweet lilting voice. You find yourself becoming sentimental as you look around. When you lay Yin's fragile body on a field of white lilies, that's the only thing repeating itself in your head. It has nothing to do with Suou or how twisted her situation was. It has nothing to do with the Syndicate or Yin's transformation.
Your sister lays on the side of the riverbed, her head tilted up at the starlit sky. The moon shines its luminescent light down on the world and you're watching it all through that telescope you found in a garbage dump one day. Your parents would never buy you one because it was frivolous, but they didn't question you when you brought one home one day.
"Bai, what are you doing?" You're asking because she usually sits right beside you and watches you watch those stars and ask questions about space. Your big brother instinct is flaring up because it usually means something is wrong.
"Big brother," she sounds tired and weak, so unlike her just a few hours ago when she was exuberantly eating candy like any other child, "if something happened to me, you would help me, right?"
Your eyebrows are scrunched together in a knit of confusion, but you don't hesitate when you say yes.
"Good." She rises from the dirt, her small white dress now stained with water and silt from the river. "You know, I always love you."
Again, you don't hesitate when you say the words back to her, but the worry is multiplying exponentially. Why is she so fatalistic? Just then, a star falls from its place in the sky. It leaves behind a thin streak of white and it is a beauty to see every time.
Your sister starts walking into the river, her small feet making tiny ripples throughout the calm surface. She stops after she is knee deep in the pool, and she simply stands there with her back to you. You have long abandoned the telescope in favor of figuring out just what the hell is wrong with your sister.
"Hey," she says it so suddenly that you jumped in shock. "I know you mean well. I want to believe you."
You start walking towards her with your arm stretched out, facial expression screaming 'why what's wrong tell me'. She stops you when she turns around with an eerie red glow in her eyes.
"Some promises are meant to be broken."
You're stiff. You're shocked. What could you do? What is this thing that has taken over your sister? You remember some old Chinese story where a demon possesses a child to damn her to whatever hell there is, but you know that has to be fake, right? Your mind races with possibilities, both logical and normal and frightening and unreal.
"Big brother, let's play with the telescope!" She runs right past you and sits in the usual spot. You're still standing there with, dare you say it, fear. "I wanna see the stars!"
You try to shake off that ominous feeling pooling in your stomach and walk back to your place right beside her. Before you realize it though, you sit right behind your beloved telescope and leave a somewhat wider distance between her and you. She scoots closer to you because she's just a child, she doesn't know any better. You though…it's fear that swallows you whole.
What's wrong? You want to scream at her, ask her until your throat aches and you can't speak. But you can't. You'd rather wait to see things through because you've always waited and saw things through.
Those words haunted your head that day and they continue to do so even now.
"Big brother, you can't help me."
"Hei, promise me that you won't let me die." Amber's womanly voice trills through your head and so do many other promises you were unable to keep.
"Hei." Yin's low voice as she tugs at your coat. She looks in pain and you swear to yourself that something didn't happen. Maybe it is just a trick of the mind.
"I didn't think you of all people would freeze up on me." The gravelly sounds of Huang echo in your head, familiar and still sounding like he was ready to scold you. "You contractors are monsters, alright, but…I think you're a bit different. Ahh…damn it," he stumbles over his words, "just…all I'm saying is don't change."
Suou's rose colored hair comes to mind and you push the thought back. You look down at the unmoving body that is- was once Yin and you try to make a promise. Maybe it's one you'll keep. You walk away, knowing full well that once you leave, you won't see her again.
Some promises were meant to be broken.