Dmitri...

... Dmitri...!

You could have joined me...!

These people don't deserve your respect..!

Didn't you wish they were dead before..?

What's wrong with you..!?

Dmitri..!

D M I T R I !

The sound of the ominous voice woke him up in the middle of the night. Dmitri cupped his face with his shaky hands. His lack of sleep had made him a ghost for days. It was this dream, over and over that kept his eyes wide.

Dmitri pulled the blanket away from his body and stood. He needed to walk this tension away, or else he wouldn't be able to function the next day. He slid the door open, about to take a step when suddenly a tinkling sound of some sort of ceramic breaking. The floor shook by the echoes of a man hollering across the hallway. Dmitri quickly and carefully treaded back to his room. He shut the door and curled himself into a ball. The closed windows alone couldn't contain the cold weather from outside. It was starting to crystallize by the corners of the frames. Slivers of Dmitri's hair started to wave by the weak wind blowing through. He walked towards the window and covered the openings with the spare blanket inside his satchel. It was thin, but it should be enough to keep it quiet for the night.

The blizzard kept strong until dawn. While Dmitri packed up, he noticed the folded clothes on the corner of his room.

Ah, I forgot to give it to Rin.

He looked around the inn to look for Rin, but when he started to do so, the other servers were already scrambling in panic. He realized that they were also looking for Rin at this very moment. In an effort to look for him as well, he asked the old man, who was the only seemingly calm person in the inn, sitting on a cushion with his morning tea.

"Excuse me, sir," Dmitri asked, "have you seen Rin anywhere?"

For a moment, the old man's expression was cold and menacing, it was as if he didn't recognize his name. He quickly curled his lips into a frown.

The old man settled down his teacup, "I haven't seen him since last night. I'm worried that he may have left the inn."

"Does he live somewhere else?"

"No, he lives in the inn ever since he was young."

"Alright, thank you, sir. I'll help look for him outside."

"Be careful out there, young lad, the weather has been terrible."

As Dmitri slid the door to the village, an overwhelming gust of wind and thick snow splattered his cheeks. He squinted to the whiteness of the environment and carefully stepped into the deep thick snow. The villagers were all inside their houses. It was extremely cold, a normal person could freeze their skins in seconds. It wouldn't kill Dmitri to be frozen, though, he could still feel the burning of the ice that touches his face. Vlad slipped out of Dmitri's tunic and looked around.

"Could you help me look for him?" Dmitri clenched the fabrics in his hands closer to his chest.

Vlad didn't need to be told to do so.

As they kept looking around, they saw a set of footprints that led far off the village. Dmitri couldn't tell what was out there. The fogginess by the snow and the cold made everything from beyond his arms' reach become blurry. It was so brisk that Dmitri's hair clumped and fused together like icicles in an instant. Vlad followed the footsteps along with him until slowly they made into a place nearby the village Dmitri thought could never exist.

It was a mystical looking forest, everything was blanketed in snow perfectly. The tree trunks looked transparent with its thick bundles of snow by the branches like white-painted leaves. There were ornaments that hanged on the branches individually. Crystal pearls and gems dangled down to the ground like necklaces and diamonds. There was something about this frozen picture felt so melancholic, but strangely beautiful to look at. What is this place? Does the village know about this?

Dmitri suddenly noticed Vlad was nowhere on his side. He rigorously looked around for his companion.

"Rin!" Dmitri hollered, "Vlad!"

Dmitri walked further until he saw a tall figure standing underneath a tall metal arch, decorated similarly like the trees. He carefully stepped in the deep snow towards Rin, who didn't move a limb despite the wind blowing all around them. As Dmitri finally stood closer, he looked at Rin, who was staring down at a deep stone well. He couldn't tell what he was thinking at this moment, the silence around them made Dmitri worry. Dmitri rose his head back to Rin when he spoke for the first time. The last breeze swept off Rin's hair off his face, revealing a glass-like chip on his left jaw.

"He lies here."