Len realised he wasn't actually dead shortly after opening his eyes. It was pitch black, he couldn't see anything except himself, but the very fact that he had opened his eyes was confirmation. He was floating. His arms were folded against his chest, knees brought up almost to his face. Steadily he uncurled, and the first thing he realised - rather startlingly - was that he was still wearing the dress he'd died in. How embarassing...

The second thing was that he couldn't really move. Staring at his wrists, he blinked a few times. Shackles the colour of blood wrapped around his slim wrists ("They're like a girl's, honestly!" The words were like a dream). Shifting his fingers slightly, he brushed against them. Suddenly, thoughts - words - came to him. He didn't hear them, but he felt them all the same.

Bloodshed. Anger. Hate. They seemed to be linked the these shackles; the chains leading away from them trailed into darkness on either side of him. Uncurling properly, he looked down and found a second pair of shackles. This time they were blue, a deep hue remeniscent of the sea. Len reached down to touch these, too, but his fingers could only lightly scrape at the surface.

More words. But this time, there was a voice.
"Miku? Miku! Please, wake up! M-Miku!"
It sounded familiar. It was Kaito, the blue prince, wasn't it? It struck Len that he'd seen Kaito running to Miku Hatsune's unmoving corpse mere moments after he'd hidden in the shadows, bloody knife in hand. He remembered the tears running down the prince's face, the way he shook the dead girl's shoulders. The way her eyes stared glassily, lifelessly, up at her lover. Kaito's desolate sobs had carried through the green palace as he'd ran back. These must be Kaito's tears shackling him, then.

Was he going to be stuck here forever?
If that was what he had to do to keep Rin safe... so be it. That was what he had promised himself before, right? He had to keep the promise.


Rin sighed and kicked a stone; it skittered off into the water.

She was still at the beach, she couldn't work up the energy to leave. She sat down on the sand, resting her head in her arms. She had been a princess once, the worst princess in the world, and yet Len had never left her, never mistrusted her. Why? Everyone else abandoned her the moment trouble had arised? But he had given his life for her.

That was real loyalty. The loyalty only a brother - no, a twin - could have had.

And now she'd lost him forever.


BAWWWWW.
You know a story is sad when it makes the author cry. Next one's the last.