The silence between them was suffocating.
His lips curling into a crooked, almost tender smile.
His orange hair gleamed faintly under the dim chandelier light, strands slicked back in eerie neatness.
His eyes were amber and feverish.
He bowed slightly, right hand pressed against his chest.
"...You can call me Orange," he said softly.
"A pen name, if you will."
Orange chuckled lowly, straightening up. His eyes clouded, as if recalling something distant.
"I remember it clear as day," he murmured. "The beginning of the end."
And then—
The mansion disappeared.
The world rippled, bending into a memory.
---
A bell rang somewhere down the marble corridor, shrill and insistent. The air was filled with the chatter of students running through the halls of Ravenwood Academy.
The girl with bright orange hair sprinted past the crowd, her shoes echoing across the polished floors.
Her uniform was slightly disheveled, ribbon undone, breath ragged.
Something was terribly wrong.
