Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ramshackle's new Prefect had always been a little strange. Their metallic eyes were lightless and dead. Yuu hid it well, that cold uncaring for everything around them. Yuu didn’t care for the woes of fellow students, the grievances of the staff, not even the reprimands of the Headmage. Perhaps the Prefect fit the mold of being twisted far too well. Yuu wanted everything to end in a sea of ashes. What was the point of being here, when this world was never the wonderland it was meant to be? When the world didn’t stay as kindly and warm as it did once, when Yuu was home? Yet home was distorted, now, too. Yet, they were stuck here, so they’d have to find their own wicked, broken way in this forsaken place. Everything would crumple beneath the weight of a single anomalous being, if Yuu had any say.

The gardens in Heartslabyul were burning. Smoke billowed upwards, dispersing into the blackened sky. There was panic. An Overblot, a rare phenomenon that shouldn’t have happened, was manifesting from an oozing, black rose that blossomed into despair. Yuu simply observed as the corrupted ink dripped from Riddle’s ashen skin, tainting the ground with sickly anguish, and corroding the dying grass. How lamentable a fate, yet a beauteous fall from grace that enthralled Yuu to no end.

They turned away from the hulking beast holding Riddle prisoner, instead setting their sights on the smoldering garden. Silver-gold eyes rested on a scorching rose, weak flames eating away the coiled sanguine petals. Ashy petals crumbled to soot and were blown away by the swirling gusts of magical winds. What a pretty dispersal of death, those ashen petals were.

Ramshackle's bitter resident observed each rose that caught a spark and burned, wondering if so too would Riddle catch fire and fall away into withered ash. Yuu wondered if one day, they would also meet their own fated end in such a peaceful, cindered manner. The cries of Riddle’s name grated on Yuu’s ears, and they wished everyone would simply burn to ash and fly away in the wind. These people were so desperate to save their little rosy tyrant, and yet time was running out.

Their metallic gaze moved away from burning roses and met eyes with Riddle. He was weak, dull grey eyes lidded in miserable grief as his magic was sapped. Yuu felt something stirring in their heart, watching the once proud Heartslabyul Prefect withering right before their eyes. Oh, what a delight. What a beautiful demise! The hopelessness in the eyes of every person, the grief that would suffuse the air when Riddle finally met his end would be a magnificent sensation!

Yuu held Riddle’s dying gaze, enraptured by the pitch-colored sludge that welled up in monochrome eyes and spilled over. Black veins crept over Riddle’s pallid skin and sickened eyes, staining them muddied black. Someone screamed Riddle’s name, trying in vain to get through to him. Trey beseeched Yuu, begging for the magicless Prefect to do something. Yuu merely sneered at him, not saying a word. It would be impossible without magic, and still Yuu couldn’t find a piece of themself that could care an ounce for a stranger. Bitter pain spread over Trey’s face. Yuu ignored him, instead watching the life leave Riddle’s eyes, dismal grey engulfed with the shadowy pitch of blot.

They stood impassively as flecks of greying flesh fell away slowly, piling up on the singed ground. Riddle disintegrated before Yuu, like a cindering rose engulfed under the duress of spreading flame. Those dying, gunmetal eyes met Yuu’s cold silver-gold ones, before drooping closed and fragmenting into pieces of burning petals. Up from the ashes a single rose bloomed, sanguine petals unfurling. A beautiful demise indeed, at an end with that single rose budding in a sea of ashes.