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It started off slow. One hair at a time. One tired muscle after another. Signs of their age catching up to them. They weren’t destined to be hunters forever after all. All of them had to come to an end eventually, that was the cycle of life. All of them except Rumi.
While Zoey and Mira had progressively gotten older and older, Rumi stopped changing in her early 20s. It was as if someone had just pressed the stop button one day and prevented her from following the loves of her life to their death. When they’d gotten married, they’d promised. “Til death do us part.” But now Rumi was bound to her youth. Cursed with the knowledge that one day, she would be left with only memories of the other girls. Nothing more and nothing less. She wouldn’t let herself forget them, but there was still something frightening about the idea of moving on with her life without them.
No.
She couldn’t think like that. Mira and Zoey were only nearing fifty. Not even close to dying yet. Rumi couldn’t start thinking about life without them when she still had time. But she needed more time. While she had all the time in the world to love her girls, they only had fifty odd years at best to love her. She couldn’t bear to picture a life without them.
So she turned to loving them with all her heart every day of the rest of their lives. And got twice the love back from Zoey and Mira. They were all aware of how much time they were losing with each day that passed. Mira grew more and more depressed at the idea of Rumi being alone while Zoey was the exact opposite, she got more and more energy to try to cope with the thoughts. Bouncing around the walls, taking the girls to bed, coming up with wild new ideas for demon hunting, all while training the next generation of hunters basically on her own, ready to let Rumi take over once she passed on. Mira and Rumi weren’t very excited at the idea of Zoey taking on Celine’s role, knowing what a toll it could have on a person, but deep down they knew she was perfect for it. There wasn’t a bone in her body that would bring her to making these new hunters push their feelings and faults aside for the greater good.
They’d disbanded the band a couple years after the whole Saja Boys fiasco. Once the Honmoon was secure enough, and they’d grown older, it chose new hunters for them. They were nothing like Huntr/x, but that’s what made them special. They grew more and more popular, and something within Rumi told her that they would be the ones to seal the Honmoon, not that she ever brought it up, leaving all of that to Zoey.
It was strange to live without making music anymore. Of course they still did in their spare time, but not doing it for a living really changed their view of it. It wasn’t an obligation anymore, which was a welcome change. Now music was their way of showing how much they loved each other. Zoey would write both the other girls new songs for their birthdays, for their anniversary, etc. It never got old. They loved music, and that would never change.
Time started going faster and faster, until it came to a halt when Zoey died.
She was only fifty five.
They say it was a heart attack. That they couldn’t have done anything. It didn’t stop them from hurting though. Nothing could.
Mira started to drift away when they lost her. Leaving Rumi all alone. As she deserved to be. Her voices had gotten louder and louder with time, turning any attempt at joy into scorn and misery. Their penthouse was so empty without the constant energy that came with Zoey, even as she grew older. Rumi couldn’t help but feel guilty. How was it fair that she wouldn’t die while Zoey, who was a much better person, died far too early. She still had so much life to live. But not anymore. That was all gone.
Time still went on, it didn’t stop with Zoey’s heart. They never did recover though. Grief haunted their every breath. Even if it was nearing ten years since the girl left them, they still felt her absence with every step they took. Rumi had to take up the role of trainer for the new hunters, even if they didn’t need her help anymore. They were closer to sealing the Honmoon than Rumi, Mira and Zoey had ever been. So Rumi had nothing else to do but wallow in her grief. Mira wasn’t any help either. She had been affected even more by Zoey's death, the two of them closer to each other than Rumi could ever wish to be.
They got through it though, and eventually started living again. But the moment they thought that something good was happening in their life, the world pulled the rug from under their feet.
This time it was Mira.
She got sick. They say it was cancer.
It was terminal.
Rumi would be alone soon.
Please, this couldn’t be happening. The first time grieving had been hell, she couldn’t go through this again. Mira didn’t seem as bothered. Some part of her knew that she would be able to see Zoey again soon. But Rumi still felt as if she was being abandoned.
Mira died on a summer's day. And Rumi couldn't even speak at the funeral, the ceremony being too public for her to appear. Over the years, some people did believe she just aged very well, but others started to realise that she wasn’t getting older. So she had to stop showing up in public, letting Zoey and Mira be seen together while she remained in the shadows. She regretted it now. She should’ve gone out with her loved ones before they left her. Now she was all alone again.
The world was dull. She had nobody now. Nothing to live for. But she couldn’t die. She had to keep Zoey and Mira's legacy alive. So she did, even if it was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
Eventually however, she’d been alive for so long she couldn’t just pretend to be a normal human being and not part demon. So she faked her death. And began to live an entirely new life. Huntr/x had faded into obscurity. She was nobody now. At 110 years old, still trapped in the body of a 23 year old, she just had to find reasons to keep going. But it was so hard to do so. She travelled, discovered the world, did everything to move on and live for herself. But she couldn’t just forget her soulmates. Literally bonded to her by a divine being. So she could never move on. She was destined to be miserable forever.
120, 130, 140, 150. The years passed on and on. Until she couldn’t live with her grief anymore. She’d been without Zoey for nearly a hundred years and wasn’t even close to feeling any closure or acceptance.
She had to take things into her own hand.
The day was cold and dark against her pale scars. Various people were rushing around to get home after work and she pushed past them to get back to her old home. The Huntr/x penthouse. Nobody lived there anymore, but she still had the keys, stolen from the new hunters. The Honmoon had been gold for a couple years, leaving all demon hunting activities in the past. So nobody stopped her from entering and making her way to their old room. To the balcony.
Nobody stopped her from climbing over the railing.
Nobody stopped her.
Nobody.
She woke up in a field of flowers, Zoey and Mira sitting next to her, arms around each other.
They were finally together again, after a hundred years.
Her heart was healed.
She had finally run out of time.