Soulless Beauty Aorta

MY HEART IS BEATING

The bridge room began to rotate, and as it turned on its side, the less secure pieces of metal began to fall from the bridge, hurtling into the nothingness below. Hyacinth and Rose frantically scrambled to get around to the underside of the bridge, which was slowly becoming the top, as bits of flesh fell from above, battering the makeshift structure even more. Suddenly, the movement stopped, the momentum causing Rose and Hyacinth to fall and tumble across what was the bottom of the inverted bridge. Hyacinth stood, and brushed herself off, extending a hand to help Rose up,"You alright?" "Um... yeah".

A chunk of flesh and metal, clinging to a steel cable, broke loose from one of the walls, and slammed into Hyacinth, knocking her towards the pit. She grabbed the edge of the platform as she tumbled over the edge, the aftershock of the room continuing to loosen her grip as she dangled above the abyss. "HYACINTH!!" Rose flung herself over to the edge and grabbed Hyacinth's hand as she began to fall, the front side of her body grinding against the bridge as it came to a stop. Rose's whole form lay face down against the bridge, her remaining right hand and the tips of her back horns poking out over the side. She could just barely look up and see Hyacinth's hand clutching her own at the edge. "I won't let this happen!" Rose screamed, "I- I refuse to lose another person!"

Shit... Hyacinth waited a moment, then spoke solemnly. "Rose," Rose looked up at Hyacinth's trembling hand, her eyes filled with tears. "You're missing your arm. You're hanging from the edge of a crumbling bridge, you... you can't save us both-... and don't say that you'll just die then! You're a good person, you're... much better than me. You held on so strongly through all of this while the rest of us... crumbled under the pressure. Even- ..." Hyacinth sniffled, "Even Gardenia couldn't stay cool during our fight with that first monster." Rose couldn't do anything but drop her head and slowly turn it back and forth, scraping against the bridge as the tears began to flow more heavily.

"You need to keep going, Rose. You don't have to die to save me. You can still help one other, and you can still help yourself. Besides," Rose could hear the smile in Hyacinth's voice, despite not being able to see her face, "It would be pretty anticlimactic for us both to die here, yeah? That wouldn't be much fun... Only one of us can live at this point, and your life isn't the one that should end." Hyacinth paused, taking deep breaths to try to keep her voice sounding calm in spite of the terror and grief that clawed and ripped away at her mind. "We will see each other again. I promise you."

Rose didn't know what to say or do. She was stagnating, again. She carefully peered over the edge, just barely able to see the girl whose life she held. With tears streaming down her face, gliding along a beaming, platinum smile, Hyacinth whispered her final words, the loudest thing she had ever spoken, just barely managing to reach the ears of Rose and no one else. "-."

Hyacinth let go of Rose's hand.

.........

In utter shock, Rose slowly turned her head to her left shoulder, her empty eyes holding in her gaze both MANNA's black nameplate, and the bloody stump remaining of her missing limb.