"Kateri," he says softly, "I love you."

"Love you, too, Gigi," I answer, turning in his arms. I kiss him on the lips and hide my face in his chest, giggling. Life was so good.

We continue walking down the trail to the graveyard. The air is silent, everyone already in bed for the night. He leans down to me, his mouth open and ready to speak, when a dark shadow lunges out of the forest, and knocks me to the ground a few feet away.

Giovanni gives a shout, and moments later, the pressure on me is gone. I look up to see Gio with his whip wrapped around my assailant's ankle. He unwraps it and turns to me. "Kat, are you--"

I don't let him finish his sentence; instead I throw him to the side and punch the attacker in the face with my chain-covered fist. I grab his arm and we run through the dark forest.

"Kat," he breathes, "I think--I think that was a Heartless."

"I know," I answer. "We have to run. That wasn't any ordinary Heartless. We need back-up."

Giovanni takes out his phone to call Dorian, our best friend, but before he can even dial, his phone is knocked out of his hands. We stop abruptly, and look before us to see the Heartless.

"Now, now, Giovanni," it says, "can't have you calling for help, can we?"

I have no idea who the Heartless is, but Giovanni does. He freezes, eyes wide open in shock. "Adr...Adrian?" he whispers disbelievingly.

Adrian...I had only heard of him through Giovanni. His older brother had left the family when Gio was four years old, and nobody had heard from or seen him since. But now...he is here...but he's a Heartless?

"Step aside, little brother," the Heartless Adrian says. I haven't noticed, but Giovanni is now standing in front of me protectively. "It's not you I'm here for."

"All the more reason for me to stay," growls Gio.

The Heartless Adrian eyes us for a moment, and then makes a decision. "Very well, I shall take you both down," he says.

He lunges at us, and I am now forced to make a decision myself. Do I allow Giovanni to protect me, or do I take what has been decided for me and allow him to live? The man I love...versus my own life...the choice was simple, really.

Working faster than he could react, I bind Giovanni's arms with two of my chains and throw him to the side, taking the full force of Adrian's blow, a blow that proved deadly.

He stands over me as I lay gasping, Giovanni screaming in the background. Plunging a darkness filled hand into my chest, he tears my heart out, eliciting a painful scream from me as I resist. With some more force, he rips my heart out, and I feel myself fading, a mere shadow of who I once was.

He disappears from my line of vision, and I faintly hear him unchaining Giovanni. "If you want your revenge," Adrian says quietly, "I will be at the Mansion." And he leaves.

Giovanni crawls over to me. I feel his hot tears on my face, but barely. "Why...why did you...do that?" he manages to stutter out between heaving gasps.

"Had to ...protect," I rasp. "Gio...I will not become what he has become...do you understand?"

Gio nods, but I don't think he realizes what I'm asking.

"Gio...I want...need you to...kill me," I whisper.

"No, no, no," he shouts, shaking his head violently. The hands he smoothes over my face are trembling just as violently. I can feel the darkness beginning to take over my body.

"You...have to," I say, "Whomever...is controlling your brother...wants this...wants me to become...Heartless."

"But...but I can't. I can't. I love you," he says, kissing my cold lips, "I love you, Kat, forever.

"I know," I say, "That is why you must...do this. Please." I can't feel my legs or arms any more. I tilt my head slightly and see the darkness swirling around them.