The first place the tongues of flame reach are her stockings. They hiss and roar, impolitely wrapping their arms around her legs and engulfing the soft, black fabric surrounding her ankles. Celestia's knees go weak, wobbling and threatening to crumble into the mass of burning hay rising around her body.

It's funny, really, how the pain isn't in her legs being burned away, it's in the fact that her clothes are ruined. One of the thousands of lolita outfits that are hidden away in her closet, outfits that she'd purchased with all that money.

Celestia purses her lips, tasting the tartness of lipstick, because where will all of her earnings go after this? A seedy, dirty man in a casino may spare a thought of her once in awhile, but really, all of her gambling will now be in vain. After all, dead girls can't gamble. They may be able to seduce the strangest of men, but they can never gamble.

She bites down on her lip, this time the sour taste of blood mixing with lipstick, and her skirts are engulfed in the flames with a loud poof. The sound of fabric ripping, lace untangling and white fabric charring.

A smile plays across her mouth, because the sound is gorgeous. That sound is somehow familiar, too. That's the sound she thinks of when she imagines beautiful girls dying. She will not be murdered messily, not have her chest penetrated by the blade of a knife.

No, Celestia Ludenberg will die like a lady.

Sweat begins to trickle down her forehead, and her skin feels hot and feverish. The fire is licking at her waist, and her hands, clasped in prayer, are suddenly burning hot and stuck together. Celestia closes her eyes, feeling wax from her fake lashes begin to drop along her face.

And even as the sirens scream and a rush of cold air suddenly chills her warm skin, Celestia Ludenberg does not open her eyes. When her castle crumbles and collapses on her, and finally, her bones are smashed and broken beneath the wheels of the fire truck, Celestia Ludenberg's eyes are wide open and terrified.

How unseemly.


i claim no ownership to dangan ronpa.