For some a prologue,
For some an epilogue.
⏤ BULGAKOV
Thursday; December 15th, 2011
It wasn't often that all of the Moroi gathered in one place, only for grand and important occasions, such as funerals, coronations or on this case the 60th birthday of the Moroi Queen, Queen Tatiana Ivashkov, on December 15th, 2011. Therefore, the Dragomir Royal Moroi Family had to attend, Prince Eric Dragomir and his wife, Princess Consort, Rhea Dragomir, along with their three children, the heir to the family and his twin sister, Prince Andre and Princess Mirela Dragomir, and their younger sister, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir.
And of course, one could not forget Vasilisa, Lissa's best friend and dhampir, Rosemarie, Rose, Hathaway, who was attached to the Princess hip since they were young. The Dragomir's were dressed in matching tones while the Hathaway novice wore a more darker tone, but still matching with the Moroi Royal family.
It had been genuinely a good time, Andre had flirted with the Queen, who had playfully shot him down, the Queen had teased the twins saying that either of them were her first candidates to become the next ruler, but the fact that they were twin, an hour apart, they couldn't be wed to make the utmost best candidate for the next rulers of the Moroi Court.
Lissa and Rose had danced until their legs quite literally gave out, Andre danced with his twin, teasing Mirela that they were the envy of the court, the utmost most eligible bachelor and bachelorette in line for the throne.
They'd left relatively early, Rose and Lissa being far too tired and having already drank quite a few before the birthday cake was presented.
Instead of taking a limousine, like the rest of the people that attended the party, the Dragomir family took their SUV, without guards, without protection, acting as if they were just another normal, human, family. Though the SUV behind them held the Dhampir Guardians that were working for the family.
Perhaps that was the problem, that the family wasn't in a spacious car and with protection that were firmly aware of the dangers on the road.
Eric and Rhea were in the front of the car, Eric driving, with his eyes firmly planted on the road, Rhea keeping her husband company by making small talk to keep him awake and alert. Eric and Mira, in the middle seats, discussing the return to St. Vladimir's Academy as soon as the Winter break was over. While Lissa and Rose were fast asleep in the back seat, holding each other's hands.
"You should really decide what you want to do with that little plaything of yours Andre, instead of just stringing her along with the false hope and promise of her becoming Queen by your side." Mirela told her twin brother, turning her body to him as best she could with the seatbelt over her chest.
"And you should really get a plaything of your own sister, I'm tired of hearing my friends sigh and complain that you are there dream wife, but you are so unobtainable because you're so closed off." Andre shot back, catching his sister's flying fist before it connected with his shoulder.
"And string the poor thing along? Please Andre, you know me better than this." Mira retorted with a scoff, "You know that I don't date without the prospect of marriage in mind, I'm not you careless if I have bastard children that could ruin my future as ruling monarch."
Andre let out a loud laugh that awoke the sleeping girls, Mira used her other first to try and punch her brother's arm but Andre caught it as well. In the front seats, Eric and Rhea were laughing slightly at how different their twins were.
"Turn the music up," Lissa said loudly from the backseat, attempting to open her eyes, "Me and Rose want to dance to it."
"Rose and I, Lissa. Rose and I." Rhea corrected as she adjusted the mirror to look at her children from her seat, enabling her to see her younger daughter wave her hand that held a plastic bag on her wrist.
"Please, dad, Lissa and I are going to destroy everyone with our dancing skills." Rose called out, the endearing name that she called Prince Eric Dragomir falling on deaf ears as she'd gotten used to calling him as such when they were in private.
Everyone chuckled, Andre dropping on of his twin's hands and lacing his fingers with hers on the hand that he kept holding, despite often in the Academy being seen mostly apart, acting as if the other had the Plague, the twins were extremely attached to each other.
Eric let go of his wife's hand and lifted it from her lap, moving it to the stereo, his eyes casting down for just a moment before a car swerved haphazardly into their lane. And even though Eric's eyes lifted instantly, it was too late as the car accelerated and crashed into them.
It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion yet too fast to comprehend what was happening.
The car rolled backwards and into the railings of the curve in the road, the engine of the Dragomir's ceased to function as the whole front of the car was sent inwards into the car, the dashboard bending outwards, pushing the wheel into Eric chest with such force that he was the first one to perish. Rhea perished not long after her husband, the dashboard and windshield collapsing into her.
The other car's engine was still working, he crips sound of the engine purring alive showcased that the driver was still pressing the gas pedal, forcing the car to continue moving into the car it crashed into, sending it further into the railing.
The four remaining people alive groaned, unable to scream due to the impact that their seatbelts had done to their chests. Mira and Andre took off their seatbelts to attempt to get themselves and the two drunk but alert girls out of the moving vehicle.
"You girls okay?" Andre wheezed out, a large gash on his forehead and cheek from the glass that had flown into the car, "Is anything broken?" his concern was not unusual for him, but in this situation was just appropriate.
A degree of groans and moans of pain were heard from he two intoxicated girls, but Mira had her eyes only on her twin brother, her arm was undoubtedly broken from having been holding her brother's hand with her arm stretched, and her ribs ached from not having been seated in the correct position.
Andre moved his eyes to Mira for only a few seconds before the railing on the road gave away, the ground had trembled beneath the cars when the collision happened, most likely dislodging the concrete and earth from the concrete, which was the catalyst for the car to go out of the road and down a small ravine.
Due to the bad decision on Mira and Andre's part in taking off their seatbelts, as the car down the ravine, both twins were thrown out of the SUV, with so much force that the little air that was left in their lungs escaped when they connected with anything.
It looked like a scene from a spy movie when the car was caught by two trees, stopping the car from continue to roll down and gaining more momentum, however as it hit the tree, Rose, who had been sitting behind Andre, knocked her head against the window enough to cause her to bleed.
The other car also drove off the curve, but because the driver had his foot on the gas, it essentially flew off the flew in the mirror direction of the SUV.
Lissa groggily opened her eyes and pain shot up her body, her jade green eyes cast down to her legs, one of them was clearly broken, something that she could tell both visually and by the pain that was coursing through her body. Slowly and painfully, Lissa moved her eyes to where she knew that Rose would be sitting, only to find Rose slumped forward and to the side.
She slowly reached for Rose, her whole body screaming at her to stay still, that moving was too painful. In all honesty Lissa didn't know what hurt the most, if her broken leg or her aching and breathless lungs. But certainly Rose sitting limp terrified her more than any injury she sustained.
"R-Ro-Rose?" Lissa strained to call out to her best friend, painfully shaking her shoulder. Rose having no reaction, scared her and prompted her to unfasten her seatbelt. The seatbelt flew back off her body, but painfully so as, despite no longer bring trapped, her lungs were undoubtedly bruised from the accident.
Now free from her seatbelt, Lissa scooted closer to Rose's body, letting out a scream of pain as she attempted to move her broken leg. The youngest of the Dragomir's swallowed all of her screams and gently grabbed Rose's hands in her, slowly turning her head to her.
The scent of blood was almost too intoxicating, but thankfully Lissa wasn't feeling tempted, instead dread filled the void where the hunger should her as she caught the sight of the blood trickling down Rose's face.
"Ro-Rose... please wake up...." Lissa begged through her pain, "Please open your eyes.." Lissa's voice was breaking, as was her heart, "Rose plea-please. Wake up, Rose..."
Fresh tears fell from Lissa's eyes as she cradled Rose's face, pleading against her ability, because of her fears, her fears and her pain, Lissa couldn't help but quite literally will Rose back from Death's door. Crying in joy as Rose groaned herself back to conscienceless.
Outside of the car and not far from it, Mira quite literally screamed herself into consciousness, the tardy scream of fear and pain finally ripped through her lips as her lungs finally file with air. Her arm was bruised and had cuts, and broken from the pain she felt, she felt blood trickle down her back, head and face.
But despite everything that hurt, her first though was with her siblings and Rose, and as she forced herself to sit up, she hoarsely called out to all three of them, loudly and painfully as she got on her knees to get up.
The names of the people that clouded her mind with worry, fell from her lips in desperate screams and pleading calls. Mira's legs were wobbly and mostly numb, and it was almost too clear that she was running on pure adrenaline.
Someone who wasn't her siblings or Rose called out her name, followed by the name of all the people that had been in the car, it was her family's Guardians, their voices as desperate as hers.
"Princess!" Someone exhaled next to her, hands gently touching her arms to help her stand up tall, but a pained scream ripped through her lips, "Princess you're injured, you need to sit down." The voice that belonged to Guardian Grant Miller, the official Head Guardian for the Dragomir family.
Mira raised her blue eyes to Grant's dark ones, pain and fear ever so clear in them that it was painful to look at, he held Grant's arm with her non-injured, "Have you seen Andre? Or Lissa?" Mira begged, her eyes wide and worried. "I-I, I was holding onto Andre when everything happened."
Grant shook his head as he questioned "Where are your parents?"
The pain in Mira's eyes intensified as the image of her parents' dead body appeared before her, "The-They're gone...." Mira mumbled painfully, holding onto Grant before Lissa's calls for anyone were heard, further down the small cliff.
Despite being injured, bleeding and possibly a concussion, Mira snapped her head in the direction of her sister's voice so fact it actually gave her whiplash. She let go of Grant and darted down the steep cliff in the direction of Lissa's voice with Grant fast on her tail shouting at the other Guardians to get down to them because the family was injured.
The closer Mira and Grant got to the car, the more groans of pain that Mira knew were from her twin were heard.
A conflict brewed in Mira, to go to her twin brother or her younger sister. With a tempting glance to Grant, silently asking him his opinion, half telling him that she was conflicted, Mira began to say her twin brother's name when Grant nodded in understanding.
Grant continued to follow Lissa's voice while Mira turned in the direction of Andre's voice, thankfully coming open his severely injured body not long after leaving Grant. Andre was pinned to a tree by a car door, the door was sideways and digging into his middle, clearly cutting into his stomach, and besides that and the few cuts on his face, he was virtually unharmed.
Mira rushed to his side, stumbling over her feet, and grabbed Andre's outstretched hand with her good hand as soon as she was close enough.
"What's wrong with your-arm?" Andre questioned, despite being a much worse situation and state and his younger twin sister, his eyes were shinning lighter with the tears that he'd been spilling until them, but were now dry and locked on her broken arm.
Their coordinated outfits were ruined, although Andre's suit didn't show much of his injuries, Mira's dress was, on the other hand, ruined, tainted and ripped, a complete mess.
"Forget about me, how are you?" Mira countered, letting go of his hand to touch his face, worry ever so evident on her features, along with dread for the inevitable. Both of the twins knew that chances of Andre surviving this were low, but they were both praying that he did.
Andre looked at his sister, despite praying that he got off alive, he knew that the chances were extremely low, lower with each passing second.
"I don't think that I'll be accompanying you to the New Year's party...." Andre told his sister truthfully, he gently grabbed his sister's hand off his cheek. Instantly fresh panic swam into her features, her body stiffened and her blue eyes moved to the door the was pinning him against the red.
Andre could see the cogs turn in his twin's head, he could tell she was thinking of the best way to free him, but he stopped her, gently, yet painfully lifting her uninjured hand to his lips and placing a kiss on her palm.
Tears began to fall down Mira's face as she understood what her brother was telling her, and in all honesty she couldn't accept it, she would it. She shook her head vehemently and moved her teary eyes to the door, using the wind element that she specialised in to push the door away with all her might but to no avail.
The more she willed air to push the door away from Andre the weaker she became, the angrier and desperate she felt, until the hand that had been held to her twin brother's lips dropped her hand, and Mira could hear his breathing cease.
Her attention returned to her brother, utter despair and desperation filling her being, his name falling from her lips as in loud and desperate cries, her whole body trembled as she checked for his pulse, as she gripped at his collar and cried as she threatened him that if he dared leave her, she would haunt him instead.
But it was to no avail, her her knuckle pressed to his neck while gripping his collar, Mira felt her twin's heart stop, much like her own did for a few moments. The very same few moments that it took her to feel as if she were floating out of her body, the very same few moments that were spent in silence before a strangled and pained scream ripped through her throat as she threw herself against his body, ignoring her injuries and pain before the world darkened around her.