"It's so beautiful! Do you think this might be…" Platina trailed off as she stepped forward into the green foliage. They stood in a field of white flowers that spanned around them as far as the eye could see. The only sound to be heard was the rustling of the leaves brushing together in the silent, cool morning wind. Lucian thought that the sound was hollow; like sand scraping against the wall. It made him nervous.

Platina slowly turned back to him, the breeze strengthening as she did so. Flower petals floated past her, "…Heaven?" she finished her sentence, breathless.

Lucian knit his brow and shifted uncomfortably. Dawn's first light was only beginning to break through the sky, but he could still see the moon. Platina's face seemed majestically illuminated.

"It's bad luck to say such things!" he scoffed, brushing a petal past his face.

Platina turned and stepped away from him slowly, saying, "Tee hee. I'm sorry," she remained rigid and still as the flowers blew all around her, lifting her hair. Lucian swatted leaves away from his shins and then suddenly the eerie glow of the flowers caught his eye. He doubled over and laced his fingers through a couple stems.

"These flowers…they're…!" He looked up and realized Platina had knelt and buried her face into the stalks. Lucian darted up and, shouting, "Platina! We've got to get out of here!"

She seemed not to hear him.

"These flowers," Lucian went on, wildly, "all of them, they're…"

The petals in the air seemed to whip past him mockingly.

"Weeping Lilies!"

Another strong gust of wind sent them hurtling by Platina. "Weeping…Lilies?" she asked quietly.

"That's right! If we stay here, their poison will kill us!" he cried, and leaned forward to pull her up, but she did so voluntarily.

"Platina?"

She didn't look at him. Lucian blinked in horror. His vision blurred as Platina somehow ended up in his arms, weeping. She was trembling, and her voice was very, very quiet as she said, "If I were to fall asleep here, would I be able to just…slip away?"

Lucian's lips parted and he inhaled sharply, frightened by the tone of her voice and the delirium that seemed to have seduced her.

"Wh..what…"

"I can't stand it any longer!" she cried, sobbing into him, "No matter how hard I've tried… Mother and Father have never treated me with kindness!" Lucian's heart beat fast with pity. She had lost all resolve, and looked up at him pleading, her eyes swimming with tears, her beautiful face tainted by sorrow of the cruellest kind. She then pressed her face against his chest and squeezed his sides painfully.

Tears began to fall from Lucian's eyes and he began to quiver; his vision a sea of dancing petals and darkness. The feel of Platina wrapped around him, sobbing, pushed him back into a world of hurt that he believed long forgotten.

"If you care about me so much, Lucian…Do you think…"

Wetness seeped through his shirt. It was warm from the press of Platina's cheek.

"Do you think we might be reborn?" Platina's head raised and she stared at him, mouth agape and lips trembling. Her eyes were wild and Lucian wanted to kiss her and howl in terror.

"That we might be reborn…together?"

Lucian was stunned into silence and felt her small body weaken with each passing moment. He held onto her but was tempted to pull away. He didn't want to feel the life slip from her.

"I'm so glad to have known you, Lucian," she whispered, and he was drawn into her wild, searching eyes. He didn't want to look but her gaze was too strong, too maddening. She bowed her head.

"But I have too many awful memories. I just want to forget…forget…it…all…"

And then she wasn't there anymore. But his vicelike kept her from falling back completely when her body stiffened and then was devoid of life.

"No! Wake up!" Lucian screamed, shaking her, and nearly keeling over from her sudden collapse.

"I won't have it! You want me to forget?" he shouted at her frail body, "Would you forget me too, Platina!"

Anger surged from his racing heart, which seemed to threaten to burst open upon the very spot on which Platina had wiped her tears. And then all at once, it stopped.

The anger stopped, the heartbreak stopped. Lucian was sure his very heart had stopped. His body was numb and cold, pelted with the poison of the lilies blowing around him. But they had done their duty, stolen the one they preyed upon first.

Platina had stopped.

Lucian howled her name to the full moon like a rabid, feral dog, fresh tears streaming from his eyes. His head was thrown back in pain and he didn't know how long it was before he let her drop to the ground.

Her.

Platina.