-crackling sounds fading in-

-footsteps-

-sounds of struggle and shallowed breathing-

-crackling-

unknown being: 

"How does it feel...to be powerless?" 

-sizzling-

-struggling continues as the sound of  someone choking echoes the room-

"...Insignificant"

-shallow breathing and someone wheezing while struggling to move-

"completely...and utterly,

Desolate."

-pained sounds of speech-

Voice:

"..FUCK.."

-Gasping in pain-

"YOU..."

-gritting teeth-

Unknown being:

".....hmph...shame."

The unknown being tightens its grip on its victim's throat.

"I could have found a use for you...alas,

-noises of bone breaking, and stopped breathing-

...there are others."

The unknown being laughs as it lets go of the victim's throat. 

-crackling sounds fading away-

-Silence-

-Rustling of soft material and turning-

" ...N..No...Don't go...

please...

come back."

-gasping-

A young woman with faded blue-coloured horns and long layered dark blue hair opens her eyes.

The look on her face is angry, sorrowful and confused

...She looks tired.

The weather outside is dull, It's raining and the colour of the sky is that of nothing, cold and emotionless, the rain hits the window beside her as the wind howls periodically, resembling the sounds of cries.

The young woman musters up the energy to drag herself into a sitting position at the window seat she's resting at, she diverts her attention to the rain outside with a dead look in her eyes, the cold light hits her face and she seems, almost...ghostlike.

"It's cold..." She mumbles to herself.

She spends the next few moments staring into the dullness of the outside.

 A door opens.

The figure of an older woman with similar horns and long black hair enters the room. 

"Rayne darling, the royal family fest is in an hour, you should be getting ready soon. " She says with a soothing voice.

Rayne gets up from the window seat she was sitting at with a sigh.

"Thanks mom, don't worry I won't be late." She smiles half-heartedly at her mother.

"No, I know you won't.." Rayne's mother walks up to her and places her right hand on her shoulder with a sad look in her eyes.

"It's just... I know how difficult this must feel... After your brother I..We..-" Tears form in Rayne's mothers' eyes as she takes a slow breath in to calm herself. "Anyway... Let's just get through this one day okay? I'm sure Myst would want us to have fun in his stead right?" She smiles, almost as if asking for reassurance.

"..Right." Rayne smiles back.

Rayne's mother pats her shoulder and leaves the room, leaving the door slightly open. Rayne sighs, She thinks about what would be appropriate to wear for the fest but eventually, just decides to wear her normal clothes with some pizzazz.

A low black sleeveless turtleneck top and fitting black dress pants, a black leather belt which has a silver watch hanging from it. She tops her outfit off with accessories, a leather choker that wraps around, a silver crown, backless black gloves and a warm black cloak for the weather. Rayne finishes putting on her gloves and cloak and heads out into the stormy weather of the human world she finds herself in.

The Royal Family Fest is an event hosted by the royal family of the Kingdom of the Unwanted, It is held every 10 years on the eve of the anniversary of the king's crowning.

The Unwanted is a kingdom west of The human Land and South of the Eternal Kingdom.

The kingdom of the Unwanted Hosts as the name says, every being and creature deemed unwanted or evil by the rest of the world, demons, ghosts, vampires and "monsters".

 But, this does not mean they accept everyone as part of their kingdom.

Demons were among the first beings to inhabit the kingdom and their descendants have always ruled The Unwanted as their Royalty. But, that also doesn't mean that every demon is royal, there are in fact, only about a handful of Royal demons left in the kingdom. 

King Reij and his heir Tarot are the only royal demons who currently inhabit the palace of the Unwanted. The result of a war between The Kingdom of the Unwanted and The Eternal Kingdom 107 years ago which resulted in the loss of several demons including... 

The queen,

 and other royal demons.

The war ended in a peace treaty decided by the King and the Eternal Council. Even though that is the case, the Eternal Kingdom's forces still roam around capturing or in the worst case,

killing, any unwanted beings they deem dangerous.

 There are of course resistances in the Eternal Kingdom fighting this but it's long before there is real peace.

.

.

.

-chattering of people and kids playing as Rayne tries to push past them-

"I'll miss the fest if I don't get out of here fast...People really have no sense of personal space- ugh. " She thinks to herself in frustration.

-Sounds of skin and flesh being ripped apart-

Big dark grey-ish wings break the skin on Rayne's back, they're not the biggest of wings, the wings don't have any feathers, they're more vampiric and are a little broken on the edges-- seems like her wings have gone through a lot of struggle through the years. 

She spreads her partially damaged wings and flaps them once, sending herself into the air with a jump, the humans around her don't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Ahhh~ nice, You broken things still work huh?."She gleams.

"Ah, shit I can't be late again, how does this happen every time"  She thinks, rolling her eyes and picking up the pace.

.

.

-Moments later at the Royal Palace-

Rayne's mother is seen pacing around searching, wearing a beautiful wine-red suit with big golden earrings. 

"-Cannot believe I even told her to prepare early so she wouldn't be late and here I am,

 alone,

 waiting on my sweet daughter-." She trails off.

-The sound of blowing horns echo throughout the palace hall-

The hall is dark but open and is filled with beings from the kingdom of the Unwanted and other creatures. A huge silver chandelier can be viewed in the middle of the hall with golden candles. There are multiple standing tables hosting different drinks,

even, human blood... for the vampires and others. 

They all divert their attention on command to the blowing horns melody and toward the royal throne.

The throne is a tall silver one that has a symbol resembling a crest with horns representing the royal family. There is a long black carpet with golden details leading up to it.

-quiet footsteps and a whispering voice-

"Sorry, sorry! Coming through.." Rayne pushes herself through the crowd.

-sounds of annoyance and bickering from the hall as she passes them-

"You're late!" Her mother yells out.

Rayne's mother makes a face of frustration and disappointment

"Sorry!!" She gives a casual hug to her annoyed mother

"King Reij and his Heir are just about to make their entrance so be quiet now."

The hall completely quiets down as the figure of the King enters, behind him walks The Young Royal Heir Tarot and beside them is their Royal Advisor referred to as Keli. Everyone in the palace hall stares as The King gets on top of his Throne, The Young Royal stands beside him with a stoic look.

The Royal Advisor walks up to a guard beside the throne and whispers something in their ear as the guard leaves their post.

-Quiet chattering surrounds the audience-

The Royal Advisor puts his hand in the air, as to signal everyone to silence.

The Palace is quiet.

He opens his mouth to speak:

"Welcome our loyal Unwanted.

To the Decennial Royal Family Fest! 

We are honoured to have you in our presence as we descend into festivities once again.

 The last few decades have been hard for all of us,

but, The King believes that hosting this event may bring you some joy in these trying times. Have fun, 

And, enjoy!"

The Advisor lowers his hand, turning his back on the unwanted and walks towards The King and Royal Highness. He can be seen discussing something with The Royal Family.

"Seems like a lot of attention to have as a royal huh? " Rayne turns to her mother saying.

" Oh dreaming about ruling your own kingdom darling?" Rayne's mom giggles.

-I hate to bring down your dreams sweetie but we can never be royalty, only true demons have that privilege" She sighs in amusement.

"Oh wow thanks, Dad!" Rayne jokingly yells into the air.

Rayne's mother smiles,
"Unfortunately even without your father's genes, we couldn't be royalty, what we call 'royal demons' are direct descendants of the original founder of the kingdom." 

"I knew that..." Rayne mumbles under her breath in response.

Both Rayne and her mom giggle at their conversation as the orchestra starts playing music.

" Ooh, music! This is my moment to shine, follow your mom." She exclaims.

Rayne's mom takes her daughter's hand and spins her around as they start dancing with joy and laughter. Rayne follows her mother's dancing and loses herself in the music with steps she learned from her mother as a child. She spins and shakes her body while talking and having fun with her mother surrounded by others doing the same. 

A few moments go by and she dances a little bit too recklessly and finds herself losing her balance.

She backs away trying to regain her balance as she suddenly knocks into something behind her, she turns around with her hands forward trying to grasp whatever she hit. She grabs hold of some leathery fabric and quickly regains her composure, she tilts her head up to see the obstacle and sees a demon with thick wavy dark brown hair and big black twisting horns, she also notices a scar that goes over their cheeks and nose...

"Wait..." she whispers to herself.

.

.

.

Rayne realizes her mistake and quickly backs away in panic, fixing her hair and apologizing.

"Your royal highness! I didn't notice I accidentally knocked into you, I was so excited to dance with my mother, I- I'm so sorry, please forgive me!" She bows her head down nervously apologizing some more as her mother approaches. 

" Oh! your royal highness Tarot... May I ask what the situation here is?" She asks politely. The royal heir looks at Rayne and then her mother. 

"...It's nothing really, this young lady just bumped into me is all, no harm done" Tarot gives Rayne's mother a warm smile"

Rayne's mother seems surprised and turns to her daughter. " Rayne! How dare you! Be more careful." Rayne's mother scolds her daughter and turns to The Royal heir. "I'm so sorry my daughter bothered you, please, enjoy the rest of your evening your royal highness."

She scolds her daughter some more and Rayne can be heard muttering in the distance as they walk off. Tarot giggles as they watch the two leave.

"What a funny family."  They think with a slight smile.

 Their smile fades into a slow sigh.

"I need a drink,"  They say to themselves before walking away.

King Reij sits upon his throne and oversees the festivities, he witnesses Tarot get bumped into by a young citizen, the citizen can be seen apologizing as another woman walks up to them, he sees them having some sort of conversation as they part ways with Tarot. He notices Tarot looking around as they walk to the bar, they pour themselves something that's probably red wine.

King Reij stands up from his throne and descends down to the bar with The Advisor following him. He leans against the bar facing his heir. Starting a conversation.

" Well, my dear child... How are you enjoying the party?" He says smilingly.

Tarot looks up at their father with annoyance. "Not so well as you can probably see" They clink the wine glass to signal the bartender to pour more.

King Reij laughs. "Oh come on kid! I saw you flirting with some dark-haired lady down on the dance floor earlier, What happened? She get stolen from you?" He smirks.

Tarot rolls their eyes and scoffs. "Yeah right, as if I could even be friends with anyone who's not "upper class", Stop talking bullshit dad." 

"And just so you know, I was not flirting, She just bumped into me on accident," Tarot says quietly.

The King sighs disappointingly and sets his hand on his child's shoulder. "You really don't take jokes well do you, yes royals can never be associated with commoners, you know that, but you are allowed to have some fun..once in a while anyway. 

-he looks away continuing-

Don't make me sound like I'm holding you prisoner."  He says in mild annoyance as he lets go of their shoulder and walks back towards his throne. The Advisor followed closely behind.

Tarot watches their dad and advisor walk away, taking their drink and leaving the bar to get some fresh air outside the entrance of the hall. 

The night sky in the kingdom of the unwanted isn't the same as in the human world, but even the darkest of places have beauty in them. The sky is usually a simple dark reddish colour but on this particular evening the stars peek through the outer barrier of the kingdom and the sky is overlaid with purple and pink shades.

Tarot looks up at the beautiful night sky and is hit with nostalgic sentiment.

A long time ago, before the war, when the palace of the unwanted was crowded with different types of royal demons, The queen's time. The Unwanted Queen had a special interest in marking down every time the stars peeked through the outer barrier of the kingdom, she found them so beautiful and wanted to remember those special moments with her family, including Tarot.

So, every time a new star would peek through, she would call on Tarot and they would watch the stars together. Tarot was never really a fan of the stars but enjoyed the time they had with their mother, as she was otherwise a very busy queen which meant that Tarot was often occupied with studies led by The Royal Advisor Keli,

 some would call it babysitting...But don't tell that to Keli.

Tarot continued reminiscing about the times of their mother, the way her hands were always the perfect temperature,

 The way her hair smelled of lilies,

 The way she smiled when talking about the stars and the way she hugged him goodnight every night...

.

.

A tear of sadness rolled down their cheek as they caught themselves and wiped their eyes.

"I shouldn't be missing you anymore...Mom...I wish I knew what happened to you-" More tears roll down their face as they try to hold them in with shaky breaths.

"I tried asking Dad what happened but he won't tell me" They place their face in their palms while trying to steady their words.

I miss you so much" They whisper.

Tarot holds their face for a couple more minutes in silence, regaining their composure and finishing the drink they had sitting next to them.

-footsteps and rustling-

"Oh crap,-sorry! Needed some fresh air but you seem busy, Umm...I'll leave you to it, your Highness..." The owner of the voice laughs nervously as they try to exit the situation they stumbled into. 

Tarot gets up from where they are sitting and grabs the wrist of the person, noticing that it's the same dark-haired woman who bumped into them earlier. Surprised to see this stranger for the second time in one night- they forget to speak, which leads them both to stand awkwardly in silence for a few seconds before Rayne finally speaks up.

"Um...do you..need something, your highness?" She questions.

Rayne's voice snaps Tarot back into reality releasing their grip on Rayne's wrist in panic.