avii

What happened to forever? Or was that just another lie too?

But what stabbed her wasn't dirty demon's claws. It was bright, and was burning her insides like it wanted to reach her soul. The Honmoon couldn't hurt humans, but apparently hunters weren't quite humans either.

Gwi Ma released Rumi and Mira seconds after their blades pierced Zoey. Devilish eyes and sadistic smiles were displaced to absolute horror.

"Mimi..." Zoey cried, the pain was too much to her mind to bare. Too much to try to comfort her soulmates.

Rumi's and Mira's screams were to be heard from every place that the Honmoon could reach

-------------

They look for third place—

Oh evil evil anon. Yes >:3

One of the few things Rumi had ever seen Celine squeamish about was when a squirrel had gotten trapped in the crawlspace below the angeori—they’d gone to investigate the scratching below the floor and, eventually, Celine had just sent Rumi in with a flashlight to figure it out. The squirrel had freaked out enough to run straight over Rumi’s shoulder on its way out.

She wonders, as she hears some animal crying below the floors, if Celine had picked that up from her mentors.

And Rumi—this is her home, even this older version. Why would she think to ask permission to move in it?

The crawlspace is still sealed as far as she can tell, no gaps big enough for—what is that, a fox? Anything, really, but definitely not a fox to get in. Something tugs at her gut and she finds herself turning to the cellar doors, embedded flat in the ground beside her.

She undoes the bolt, its movement smoother than she’d expected, and swings open the door. The crying gets louder and it sounds—it sounds more human.

Rumi swallows, and heads down.

She’s at the foot of the stairs, can see how oddly clean the cellar is in this past, and—and this giant metal door set in the wall, like something out of a horror movie, when a shadow passes over the light, and someone at the top curses.

Without the maze of dust-blanketed boxes that crowd the space in her time, Rumi reaches the door- iron-banded, with a bolt thrown implacably across the front that's as wide as her arm- easily.

Was this door here in her time?

Whatever was behind the door had clearly heard her, because the crying, some mix of a yelping fox and wailing child, intensified and was given an extra poignancy by the muted sounds of nails- claws?- scrabbling against stone, like whatever was in there was desperate to get out.

Something tugs at her chest, and she lifts a hand to the bolt, the metal ice biting at her skin.

"Rumi, wait."

The other person, the one she'd forgotten about as the door and whatever was trapped behind it consumed her attention, laid a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around; one of the old (or well, now middle-aged) Hunters, a woman with merry crow's feet around her eyes who hadn't stopped bringing them platters of food, was standing there. The dim lighting of the cellar kept half her face hidden from Rumi's view.

There was a flash of white as she smiled; the crying stopped with a choking sound. "Mira and Zoey are up in the archives with the others trying to figure out what happened; why don't you join them? I'm sure you'd be a big help."

She probably would; she knew the archives almost as well as Celine, and they hadn't changed in centuries. But she doesn't lift her hand from the latch. "I think there's something stuck in there."

"Yes." The smile stayed in place, but she couldn't see the crow's feet for the shadows. "That's a pretty common occurrence here. We're so close to the woods, you know?"

She can feel the older woman's hand traveling, snaking down her arm to where her own hand rests on the bolt; calloused fingers start plucking and prying at her own. "You're our guest; wouldn't want you to have to deal with the more...unpleasant parts of our job."

Rumi stiffened, firming her grip. Beneath the Hunter's words, she had heard shuffling from behind the door, and the heavy scraping of metal.

She didn't know what was behind there, but it was no wayward woodland creature.

The Hunter's smile vanished as she pressed her lips in a line. "Well, you are a Hunter; you may find yourself in this position someday. Best prepare you in case the Honmoon continues to be ornery." She dropped the hand and waved permission Rumi had no intention to wait for.

The bolt slid easily, the door groaned open, and-

-And Rumi's hand fell limp to her side.

It was a girl. A gumiho girl who looked alarmingly like a child version of-

…okay what if the older Hunter is trying to keep Rumi from getting in the room because she expects Rumi to do what Hunters do and kill the demon?

She’s not so much older, really, in this time; Rumi and her girls have years of experience under their belts. They’re on the edge of turning the Honmoon gold when we meet them, their own next generation has probably already been born

And this is, in her eyes, a bit of a mad act of weakness and mercy and desperation, because the answer should still be to kill the demon but it is a child it is a Hunter

(And if it worked then no one should have ever had to find out. Their faults and fears must never be seen.)

And the mentor is holding her, almost protective, and says, "there's other hunters visiting. I need you to be on your best behavior, okay? Can you be good for me?"

And Rumi can barely see the small nod but then the mentor is telling Celine to go back into the room so the mentor and Rumi can talk. And Celine does.

The door swings closed and is latched again.

So as Rumi manages a strangled, “Starved?” (They are starving Celine they had starved Celine Celine always hated the cellar Celine was so so so small) she has no reason to think this Hunter would have any identification with the demon

“Soon,” she promises, seeing the shock and horror and anger and bracing herself to protect the gumiho.

“You’re starving her?” Rumi repeats, a broken record. “That—that was Celine. And you’re—“

(Celine Celine Celine that’s Celine Celine is-was a demon too Celine Celine Celine they are starving her and telling her to behave and locking her in the dark and saying she is a good girl and this happened to-is happening to Celine)

The mentor realizes, very suddenly, that this works. That Rumi knows who Celine is and is finding out right now that she was once a gumiho. And she tries to put her joy aside to sympathize.

“It must be hard to see her this way,” she says, all gentle. “She was your mentor?”

there's some bbq joint somewhere in the middle of texas, some place you wouldn't expect kpop to have touched all that much, that has rumi's photo hung up on their wall not because she's a celebrity celebrity in that she's a world famous pop star, but because she's a local celebrity at that joint specifically because she beat some eating challenge the restaurant hosts in record time

(huntrix had an extra day in between the dallas and houston stops and zoey wanted to try ✨️ authentic✨️ texas bbq and went down a rabbit hole on reddit rumira tagged along because they're all codependent like that)

a random huntrix fan stumbles upon the joint one day while just going about their day, trying some place new for dinner and then-

fan: is that RUMI FROM HUNTRIX??? on your wall??

[there's a huge framed photo of rumi in casual clothing, a plastic tiara, and a bib, posing with a spare rib next to her face and the biggest 😀 smile. the caption reads PRINCESS OF PORK in blinding gold, all caps]

waitress: idk what huntrix is but yeah that's rumi alright she's famous around here for setting the record for the 7lb bbq platter challenge, 10 minutes faster than the next winner how do you know her?

fan: she's a world famous pop star??

boop! forgot to post this here

also a lil bonus if you wanna connect it to my other post :3

YOU🫵'RE 🫵 NE->XT.!! moTHERFUCKER!!!!