Starlight Dream

Chapter 39

"Ume, please wake up." But, of course, she didn't. Seina hung her head, sobbing as she cradled her friend.

"Strongest magical girl, what a joke!" Seina said, her bawling turning into a bitter laugh. While they'd finally defeated the mad Yuuka, it offered Seina little comfort.

How could this have happened? It brought back terrible memories of her days before becoming a magical girl, living in a heartless world where anyone could die senselessly on a whim. She'd been powerless then, too. Seina asked herself why she'd even bothered being a magical girl.

"Even now, you're still that scared child I fought back in the arena." A voice said.

Seina jerked, her heart beating a mile a minute. Who was that? It'd been a voice she hadn't recognized. "Who are you?"

"Your death, Seina." The voice replied. Two glowing red orbs watched her from a shadowy outcropping of rock, burning with malevolence. "I am the butcher who haunts your nightmares."

"Dreven?" But the voice didn't match whatsoever. Seina peered harder into the shadows, but found its depths impenetrable.

"I thank you, Seina. You make this so much easier." The voice said. Before Seina could decrepit their meaning, her fingers twitched. She gasped, suddenly finding them empty. "Ume?"

"I'm one step closer to your destruction, Seina. It's a pity I couldn't feast on the Devil Princess too, but Ume's blood will be sweet." A shadowy figure appeared in the darkness, a stain of crimson the only color amongst the shadows. Ume hung in their arms, her blood dripping onto the rock below. What the heck? How'd they steal her friend away without her noticing?

"Hold it!" But Seina's words were in vain, the baleful red eyes vanished into the shadows. When she entered the outcropping of rock, Seina uncovered no trace of the vampire. The only clue he'd been there were droplets of blood in the dirt.

"Ume, no! Give her back!" Seina said, venting her anger at this outrage. Despite her best efforts, she uncovered no trace of the vampire, not even a trail of blood.

"No!" Seina's voice broke, pounding the ground in frustration. "No..."

"Seina, are you okay?" Paliah asked, walking up to Seina. "What happened? Where's the Devil Princess?

"Ume's gone," Seina said, her voice dead. Her body sagged, her expression languid. "Dreven stole her."

"Sorry, what?" Her partner asked. "Please start from the beginning."

"Please, Colten, can't you just take me home? I'm not in the mood to talk right now." Seina replied.

"Okay," Paliah said, grasping his partner's hand. He'd decided whatever had happened could wait. In a flash, they reappeared back at Seina's apartment building. A breeze drifted through the patched hole in the roof from when she'd fought Miko and Chō earlier. But Seina barely noticed, she just collapsed across her bed and waited for the world to go away for a while. But rest refused to come, her mind still turbulent from the day's events.

"There she is!" Takako said, annoyed. "What the hell is going on, Colten? Yuuka is dead, right?"

"So it seems," Mr. Kiyojiro said instead. "But it came at a terrible cost, Ume's life. Seina's not taking it well. The poor thing."

"Yeah, Seina needs her space right now," Colten added.

"Oh..." Takako's voice trailed off.

"Oh, Takako! It was terrible!" Neir said, throwing himself into his partner's shoulder. "Hope and I were playing cards together as usual, then she suddenly vanished into dust!"