✯ A long time since ✯

//Prologue//

This Prologue is taking part before the anime/manga starts, next chapter is when the main plot line starts, feel free to skim this, it may have important parts tho :))

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————————3rd person————————

"Xan! Xan! up here!" a young girl, no older than the age of seven was perched in a tree, whispering to her older brother, trying to convince him for the fifth time in the last 10 seconds to climb up next to her. "i can hear you you know" was the only reply she got before a boy nearly twice her age clambered up next to her.

"why'd it take you so long?" [name] asked, giggling at herself. come on, this is the best place to hide, michelle will never find us out here" the older boy chuckled at his younger sisters stupidity, "okay, just be careful, dont fall" "i won't~!"

[name] and Xander were siblings, not related by blood, but still siblings. ever since [name] was 2, she had taken a liking to the brown-haired boy and they had became close, now it was Xanders last day at Gracefield Orphanage and the two wanted to spend the majority of the day hanging out together.

currently, they were playing tag with the rest of their 'family' the daily tests were over and they were free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day,

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Xander looked down at the sleeping girl, leaning half against a book case, half against his arm. after finishing 8 games of tag, the two siblings had moved to the library, as usual, [name] would read over his shoulder, as he held the book, unfortunately, now that he had to leave, [name] would have to read alone.

He wasnt stupid, xander knew what happened to people once they left the house, and he knew about the demons. he ripped the back page out of [name]'s sketching book, if you could call it that, as she was so young, it wasnt great, but xander was sure she'd improve over time, and grabbed a pen from his pocket.

trying not to rip the paper as he had nothing to lean on, xander wrote a short note, once he was done, he carefully lifted the girl off of him and onto the ground , putting his cardigan under her head as a pillow, then he quickly moved out of the library, into the bedroom and over to [name]'s bed.

he opened one of the drawers and slipped the note and a neatly wrapped [f/colour] box into the pocket of [name]'s spare skirt, praying that she'd be the first to find it.

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"i had a fun time here, i promise that i wont forget any of you" the young brunette smiled at his siblings with his eyes closed, his hand on top of [name]'s head.

said girl was clinging onto her brothers leg, refusing to let go, "no! you can't go xan.." was all she'd been saying for the past 3 minutes, occasionally letting out a quiet sob. xander let out a dry chuckle at her stubbornness, "come on, you're going to make my trousers wet" he started, "emma? can you hold her for me?"

he passed [name] to the mentioned girl, kneeling down to their height. Norman, Ray and Emma were all stood together, not sobbing like their [h/colour] friend but still sad, "hey, you four, dont look so sad, especially not you [name], please? for me?"

[name] looked up from the floor to meet his gaze, wiping her eyes and giving him a small, sad smile. "[name], you'll make sure to keep everyone happy, right?" he only got a nod in return

his eyes moved over to the other three kids, "make sure [name] doesn't do anything stupid, alright?"

xander got off his knees and walked over to the mother of the house, "im sure we'll meet again when you all leave this place" he said with a smile before following isabella out of the house.

the door had only been shut for a small while before [name] was running out of it, wanting to say one final goodbye. her friends shouting out for her to not go, but [name] being [name], she didnt listen. she ran down the porch steps and onto the damp grass, the warm light of her mothers lantern was still slightly visible. the wind carrying the gentle sound of her humming all the way back to the house.

it was a calming sound, but couldn't override the beating of [name]s heart in her ears.

she kept running, not slowing down despite having no shoes on. [name] finally reached where she wanted to be, at the gate.

"mother said never to go past this point...i'll just have to apologise later"

[name] stepped into the darkness of the tunnel, avoiding the ever growing puddles on the floor, the only noises she could hear being the dripping of water and her own ragged breaths, it was winter yet she could barely see her own breath before her, compared to outside where it was a snowy white

she turned a corner to be met with a horrific sight, there stood xander, isabella and...something. [name] didnt know what it was, but it most certainly wasn't good. the creature was almost human like, but had weird, bumpy, dis-coloured skin and was wearing a mask to cover it's face. [name] commonly had nightmares, but she had never seen anything like this in any of them.

before [name] had time to comprehend the thing in front of her, the monster brought out some kind of white flower, and stabbed it into her brothers chest. he didn't fight it, he just stood there, smiling, as if he had already accepted his fate, which, in a way, he had.
the ones who knew about the house had tried to make him escape, but he refused. he didnt want to abandon his family. he simply hoped that in the future, everyone could escape.

————————Your POV————————

i covered my mouth with a shaky hand before i could scream and started running, i couldn't tell mother i had been there. who knows what would happen to me. i could hear my heart echoing in my ears, i no longer cared about avoiding puddles, i simply just wanted to get out of there.

"wh- what was that thing?.. why did xan just.. what happened?.." there were too many questions for my brain to handle. too many questions and no answers. too many questions for a little kid to be asking. all i knew was one thing. the place where i grew up, the mother who had always tended to my wounds, held me when i was sad, it was all a lie. i wasnt safe, no one was.

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he was gone, there were no other possibilities. my hand was covering my mouth to cancel out any noise i was making, if anyone was awake, all they would see is a lump in my bed, no head, no obvious features, but it was me.

my head rested on my arm, an ache inside it that wouldn't go away along with the same tune mother had been humming earlier, could i even call her that anymore?

all of a sudden my blanket was pulled off of me, i tensed up, fearing the worst before i heard the voice of my normally energetic friend.

"hey..[name]? are you alright?.." i nodded, not able to form any words. i couldn't tell her, not yet. my brain was thinking of excuses i could use to avert her attention from my panicked state until i felt a comforting weight on my back.

i turned around, confused until i saw Emma looking at me, "[name]? You're crying.. Whats up?" i blinked back my tears, forcing a tired smile and replied,"I miss him already.." Emma started to move closer to me, placing her head on my chest in an attempt to cheer me up, and it worked. And almost immeditaely, she had fallen asleep on me, 'she was that tired huh?' i moved my pillow under her head and smiled, now slightly more calm.

my blanket fell over the two of us and i soon managed to fall asleep, the soft lulluby still playing on loop in my head

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'ELLO
so, yes, prologue
uhm— idk what to put here
Xander is an OC btw, he won't really appear again, but he's mentioned quite a bit
(it's for the dramatic irony and plot and fun and sad and stuff yes)

Thanks for reading :D

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