Prologue: Bestial Lament

This is it, huh? I guess I get to see everyone, at last.

Pale, broken lips tilted up into a small smile; blood trickled in one corner of the mouth.

Looks like I'll never learn who did the deed, anyhow. I'd like to congratulate them….

"Brat. We're getting there."

Glazed, misty blue eyes opened slowly, peering up at the endless grey horizon.

I know you are, my friend.

"Brat! Don't you dare giving up on me! You hear?! We're coming!"

I'm not giving up on you, Partner…I miss them…him…and I'll miss you too….All of you…

Lids fluttering, and with one small sigh the still smiling lips went frozen.

"Brat! Don't…!"

The voice started, choked, stopped. Trying to find that warm beacon that had always lead them home without fail; it had never fail before; only to find…coldness and terrifying emptiness.

…

There was a howl.

A keening, heartbreaking, devastating howl.

The kind of howl that stopped you on your tracks as it chilled down your spine and seeped deep into your core of being. The kind of howl that made you rush to your loved ones and hold onto them with everything you've got. The kind of howl that told you that the end is here.

And then there was another howl.

And another.

Another.

There were howls everywhere at once.

And everything shattered.

It was like the earth and sands and stones and water were all frozen and began to crack around the edge.

It was like the sky and clouds and sun and moon and stars were all halted and began to turn the wrong way.

It was.

Quite.

Eerily quite.

And then there was only white.