A disgusting expression

"You know my name…You know who I am, but I don't remember meeting you."

The girl heard Luminia's voice over her head, still not moving. The sinister presence that had been resting on top of her before began moving up her body once again, causing the girl to gasp in pain.

Luminia stared down at her coldly.

"I wonder…which do you fear more, me or that?"

Lumina's voice held a hint of bitterness in it as she uttered the words, but her expression remained unchanged as she watched the girl struggling, lying on the ground, her body being corrupted slowly and painfully. 

The girl felt the icy cold burning pressure reach her face, climbing up it slowly. Her head fell to the ground as she lost the strength to keep it up. She saw Luminia sitting above her, watching. Her expression was empty as she watched her groan in pain, yet the girl couldn't help but feel there was something else lying beneath the indifference her gaze held.

"You'll disappear if this keeps up…you're all but consumed already."

Lumina said coldly.

The girl's vision started to grow hazy as the hand crept over her more and more, her eyes still on Luminia. There weren't any thoughts going through the girl's head. Not thoughts of fear or dread or what would happen to her. All she felt was an emotion…an emotion that couldn't be put into words or thought out. 

She felt tired…not just the physical type but the type that consumed someone's whole being. The type that made it impossible to care about the outcome of life or death. The type of exhaustion that made one simply want to curl over and rest, even if it meant death.

Luminia's indifferent expression shifted for an instant, her eyes widening slightly, an unreadable look lying within the void of her gaze.

"You…", Luminia started her voice dark. "How pathetic…"

Luminia murmured the words out, still staring down at her. Her voice didn't sound disgusted or mocking, but simply sounded as though she were making an observation. The girl couldn't muster up the energy to care; however, as she watched Luminia looking down at her, the presence was all but fully consuming her, already reaching her eyes.

Luminia continued to watch unmoving as the girl rotted in front of her on the brink of… death? The girl's eyes felt heavy, and it grew increasingly difficult to keep them open. An exasperated sigh escaped Luminia's lips before she slowly reached her hand towards the flower that rested by her and plucked it from the ground.

Suddenly, the heavy weight of the shadow that had overwhelmed the girl vanished instantly, the tightening in her chest eased, and her breathing slowly returned to normal. The ash-like grey that was spreading across her body began to diminish.

The girl blinked, feeling instant relief as the pain from before was all but gone, and she slowly raised her head, lifting herself slightly, and stared into Luminia's eyes, the flower beginning to slowly fade away to ash.

"Roxanna…"

Luminia spoke the name softly as though she was remembering a distant memory. Slowly, she lifted her head, crimson eyes locking onto the girl before her.

A hand—cold, unnaturally so—reached forward, fingers brushing against Roxanna's cheek with a touch so light it could have been a phantom's. Yet, the sensation sent a shiver deep into her spine. The moment their eyes met, Roxanna felt as if she were being swallowed whole. The abyss reflected in Lumina's gaze wasn't just dark—it was hollow, endless, like a void that consumed everything it touched.

And yet, as those blood-red irises bore into her, a strange sensation took root in Roxanna's chest.

It felt right.

For a fleeting second, everything aligned—the disorienting weightlessness, the silent hum of the glowing white space, the chill of Lumina's touch against her skin. She should have recoiled. She should have ripped herself away from the villainess in front of her.

But she didn't.

She couldn't.

"Your name… is Roxanna."

Roxanna blinked. How did she know her name?

Lumina's expression flickered—uncertainty, confusion. Her brows furrowed slightly as if trying to grasp onto something slipping through her fingers.

"How do I know your name…?"

The words were barely above a whisper, more a question to herself than anyone else.

Her fingers twitched, lifting to her temple as though steadying something unraveling inside her mind. A shadow of pain twisted her face, her once unreadable expression breaking, strained, vulnerable.

For the first time, Lumina didn't look like the cold, untouchable villainess Roxanna had loathed.

She looked lost.

A strange tightness coiled in Roxanna's chest. The instinct to reach out overtook her before she could stop herself.

"What's wrong?"

She pushed herself up, extending a hesitant hand.

But before she could touch her, Luminia's gaze snapped toward her, dark hair falling messily over her face.

And the look in her eyes—

Disgust.

A deep, visceral repulsion, as though Roxanna's very existence was an offense.

The hatred in those crimson eyes was suffocating.

Roxanna froze, fingers hovering in midair, suspended in the moment that now felt unbearably fragile.

Between them, a flower bloomed—bright, unnatural, glowing in a violet hue so radiant it was almost blinding. It pulsed between them, drawing Roxanna's gaze in awe, yet the weight of Luminia's stare dragged her back.

That look—she had felt it before. A hateful glare cut into her, tearing her apart from the inside.

But this… this was different.

The longer Lumina's gaze held her, the more something sickly and vile slithered into Roxanna's thoughts. Self-loathing seeped through the cracks, invading her mind as though it had always been there, just waiting to be unburied.

A twisting, suffocating urge coiled inside her—a need to rip herself apart from the inside out. A burning shame that made her want to disappear.

Her breath hitched.

She felt the urge to cry.

The glowing flower pulsed again, brighter, its luminescence searing into her vision. Roxanna felt an overwhelming, almost desperate, unexplainable urge to pluck it.

Lumina's breath came unevenly. Her free hand, the one not clutching her head, lifted in a strange, trembling motion, fingers reaching toward Roxanna.

Her touch had been cold before, but now, there was something in those shaky movements—something dangerous, something unreadable beneath the layers of icy hatred.

Roxanna didn't move.

She held her breath as Lumina's delicate, almost beautiful hand inched closer.

Closer.

The flower burned brighter.

Something unexplainable twisted inside Roxanna, something raw, something overwhelming.

Then, just as Lumina's fingers were about to graze her hair—

Roxanna reached for the flower.

The instant her fingers brushed its petals, a blinding light swallowed everything.

Luminia's hand stopped.

And for a split second—before the world was consumed in radiant nothingness—Roxanna caught the expression on Luminia's face as she looked at her.

An expression she didn't know could exist in someone so untouchable.

Not anger.

Not hatred.

But something far, far more twisted.

Sadness.