Paradise Lost (JSAB)

You weren't worth saving, You should've died instead

Random Island in the West, 1002 hours

As Lumina watched her brothers screaming Tetra's name in devastated horror and anguish - she asked herself a question.

How did this happen?

All she really remembered was running along the flooded grass, panting and cursing herself. The corruption up above from the storm wasn't dying down anytime soon and was likely going to persist through a couple of hours. It was all so vivid to her, every detail, every single sensation, of heat, of cold, of pain and of fear. She felt the prickling of heat from the sweat, and the singe of pain that echoed through her limping leg.

Everything, down to the last disturbance in the clouds up above, was clear.

Until suddenly, it wasn't.

And it all happened so quickly, too. One moment she was running, the next Tetra had slammed their shoulder into her back, screaming her name. When she looked over, she noticed a spinning blur of pink that was reeling around at enough velocity to full on send someone's head flying through sheer force alone. And before she could manage to move out of its way- suddenly it rammed into them.

And after that, really the only things she could remember was a scream, droplets of something warm on her face, and suddenly a cyan blur as Tetra disappeared

...

...

Where had they gone? Lumina was shaking now, and touched the warm spots on her face. They were crimson and as soon as she realised this, something fell to the earth and landed by her feet. Tetra's headphones. If their headphones are here, then where's the person-

As soon as she looked up her face went pale as vertigo tripped her over, tumbling down onto her backside

Followed by an ear-piercing shriek of anguish.

Back to the present, Quin and Pi managed to hurl Tetra's unmoving body out of the ocean, the three of them dripping wet. But it was only when they were all on land when a horrified silence completely washed over the four.

There was a hole in the middle of Tetra's solar plexus. Not a pit, a full on hole that straight up bored straight through them. Looking inside, it seemed that a lot of the things that were supposed to be in there had disappeared somewhere into the ocean as well, serving as food for the fishes. It allowed you to see right through them, and the grass underneath their dead body could be seen through their torso, being stained with blood.

Well. That's only from the observation of yours truly, because Quin and Pi almost vomited even looking at the wound, so there was no way that they would even gawk at it long enough to get a proper inspection. No fucking way they were alive, no way.

Tetra's eyes were wide open, glazed over and no longer reflecting any light. The look of pain and horror was forever drilled onto their face, an eternal reminder of the fate they suffered. A small stream of scarlet blood leaked past their pale lips, slowly dripping down their white cheek.

Their skin was ice cold.

A hyperventilating Lumina gingerly held Tetra's frigid hand, trying to figure out just what happened to her sibling. The look of pain was still fresh on their face and every single second that passed which she had to spend looking at Tetra's face was pure agony, a pair of claws sinking deeply into her heart, a pain that rivalled even the burns acquired from the Corruption. Yet despite the pain, despite the suffering, she couldn't look away. It physically hurt her to, and it even felt like if she looked away it would be a great offence to Tetra's undead spirit. Shortly thereafter, she started to sob quietly as tears formed in her eyes, the true impact of what just happened finally hitting her.