The room was dark, empty and cold. So much like the rest of this mansion. Silence reigned, as if the mansion had been transported to the deepest recesses of Hades' realm.

A cold wind blew from the small window as I worked diligently in one corner of the small room, my actions by now practiced, smooth and efficient.

This vial goes here, need to weigh 200 milligrams of the crushed plant, put the scientific weighing paper on the weighing machine, reset to zero, carefully pour out 200 mg of the powder, there. All done.

Now all I had to do was to pour this mixture that contained 98% Ricin with 2% dilute ethanol, and I should be all set.

The door opened with a clank, and Yukino chan lumbered into the room, looking fraught and tired at the same time. Ohhhh, she was worried. I'd seen that look on her face before, especially when she would see Hikigaya kun attempt something risky or extreme.

"Nee san, why are you still up this late in the night?"

"Ah, it's morning already Yukino chan. Look out of the window, and you will see the first rays of sunlight slant into the room in just a few minutes. It's vital, essential, that this mixture be treated to sunlight for at least one hour for the mixing to take place. It cannot be any other way…"

"Nee san, go back to bed, you're scaring me. You've been up to this chemistry mumbo jumbo mixing chemicals for more nights than I can count. What's the matter? Why work on it so hard? Can it not wait until the morning? Come…"

I felt my sister's cold light hands try to raise me up.

"Leave me alone for now, Yukino. I'll come to bed and rest when I'm done with all of this."

I knew I should have said that with steel in my voice, but I just couldn't bring myself to raise my voice or be harsh towards her.

"Nee san, at least tell me what you're doing. I'm good at Chemistry. You know that, right? I've always been good with the Sciences, I know I can help you get this work done quicker, and then perhaps you can sleep well…"

I rose up from my plastic chair, pushing it back with a screech, and reached out to her cheek, caressing it gently.

"Just stay with me here, if that's what you like. After all, if you are interested in the work I'm doing, who am I to ask you to go away? But, please, don't disturb me. This is something I have to do. No matter what."

She settled down after that, a sorry look on her face as she watched me continue my work, as I poured the mixture into six separate vials, all semi permeable, needing only a small twitch of a needle to let them pour out.

I assembled all of them into a specialized dispenser that I had ordered from the Pines Scientific company of the U.S. It would greatly facilitate me when work was to be done.

I had to be quick, lest one of the chefs or our butler became suspicious. I only had access to a small window of opportunity-

The door clanked open once more, breaking me out of my reverie. This time, it was Hikigaya kun who entered the room. Oh my God, Yukino chan had grown so bold, inviting Hikigaya kun to our house in the presence of our parents.

It wasn't even a lover's secret rendezvous. This was an open challenge to mother's authority.

"Yukino chan, you really have grown bold. It makes so immensely proud to see you making these kinds of decisions for yourself. Especially after that fall out with mother."

I remembered that fall out as clear as if it had happened yesterday. Mother rampaging through the house, all the balance of the house upset as my lovely little bold sister announced her engagement to Hikigaya kun. That had been one moment I had relished-and would relish for a long time to come.

"Is it really brazen? Announcing that I have liked your sister for so long now?"

"Ara, so he finally admits he likes me. I thought he was so dense, Diamond itself could be no match for him. As dense as a King being ridiculed, as dense as Osmium[1], as dense as even Hachiman himself!"

"Oi, I have a heart, you know."

"One that belongs to me now, I know." Yukino smiled benignly at him, and he seemed to melt in that smile like ice on Sun.

Oh, how I loved my sister conversing like that. So teasing, so full of life, so very much…alive.

If I could, I would thank Hikigaya kun with each and every tear that I had ever possessed. That would never happen though. I had been trained to not show emotions. Then again, I would hug them if I could.

The cold winds startled me back into the present. And with a shock, I noticed the clock. It was already Seven in the morning.

"You really are going to go through with it, aren't you, Nee san?" Yukino had such a sad look on her face.

"I have to. I need to. I promised myself I would do it today. At the meeting."

"Yukinoshita san." A certain formal young man spoke up."Live your life, be happy. Don't look into the past. What is done is done. Is that not what Lady Macbeth said?[2] You cannot undo what has already happened. You will find ways to live with it."

"Live with it? Live with it? How do I live with it! What am I supposed to do? Let it slide? Am I a goat that is slaughtered without second thoughts? You never lived for yourself Hikigaya Hachiman! You always put others before yourself. Yukino chan, Gahama chan. What's the matter with you?"

This was bad, very bad. If someone heard my loud voice, it would bring down the butler, or one of the guards. I needed to control myself.

"What is done is done, yes. But I will do what I can to… make amends… for my inaction. I will take it all. I will…yes, I will take it all away. And I will live how I want to live, or perhaps die trying."

"There are ghosts, Nee san, that never give up on you. That will continue to haunt you for the rest of your life. Do you want to be pursued by such ghosts for eternity?"

"If it gives me peace of mind, yes."

"What use peace of mind, when all you have is nothing." Hikigaya's eyes were so very sad, as he lightly picked Yukino chan's hand and led her out of the room, quietly but determinedly.

"Do it, Nee san, but know this. Your peace of mind will not last long."

With that solitary smile of hers, she faded away into the darkness of the corridor beyond.

.

.

.

"Good Morning, Haruno san." Hayama greeted me, as brightly as the poor little boy could muster.

Oh, he must be terrified, must not he? I had made my contempt for such a sorry excuse of a man clear both to his parents and mine. That they persisted in their course of action was a proof of their absolute idiocy.

What good would a marriage alliance do, if all they had as a daughter in law was a shell of a person who could no longer focus properly?

I bought in the drinks myself. All 300 milliliters of the Krug Clos D'Ambonnay 1995, one of the most expensive champagnes in the world. So fitting, that these people who had lived in the lap of luxury their entire life should be drinking this. Such a fitting end to such a fitting occasion to such a fitting audience.

How would Alexander the Great have felt when he was being poisoned? Or one of the so many other victims of poisonings? I would find out soon enough.

For the first time in at least six months, I felt an indescribable glee, one I can only compare to the time when I had watched my father fall apart when I sided with Yukino chan and threatened to leave for good if her engagement was in any way or shape, opposed by my parents.

"Haruno-san, let me compliment you on your radiant face this morning. You truly look like the most beautiful woman in Japan…" the rest of Hayama's boring pleasantries drifted into the ether as I focused on the tray where drinks were being picked up by the various people in preparation for the toast to come.

Finally done with his mind numbing pleasantries, everyone picked a glass from the tray.

I had decided at the very last moment to not dissolve the solution with my own glass. I still had a thing or two to finish. Maybe living wouldn't be so bad, after all. What was it that Hikigaya kun had said? There is too much beauty to quit[3]. Yeah, that's what he had said yesterday.

I rebuked myself for phasing out at such an important phase of the plan.

And raised my glass.

"To a long and happy relationship, both for the bride and groom, and for the two families."

The bald moron who claimed to be my father said with a smile as fake as a two dollar bill.

"Hear, hear." The others joined. Not me.

I affixed my eyes at my mother, who had just swigged down her glass of champagne.

And watched as everyone clutched their throats in a desperation that, had they emulated in understanding people, would have saved their lives. The very life I watched draining away into whatever awaited them in the hereafter.

Oh, Chemistry was so astonishingly beautiful. It always took my breath away seeing all the principles of Chemistry work to perfection.

I walked to my mother with that same smile I had greeted everyone with upon entering the room.

"Mother dear, dearest mother, admit it won't you?" I had purposefully added 30 mg less of the poison in her drink to make sure the blood clotting mechanism in her blood stream was slower, giving me some time to talk to her.

She looked at me with the eyes of a puppy who had seen her siblings cut down, and was now facing her executioner.

"Come now, will you play the innocent little mother till the end? I saw them. I saw all those emails with the hitman." I could feel the blood rushing through my head.

I threw the file of printouts at her face. Files containing printouts that documented her correspondence with a hitman, one who specialized in 'accidents'.

Her eyes went wider, if possible. "Yuk-…died in car…cident"

"What was that? Speak up, woman. Was that an accident you said it was? Still going to deny it, aren't you…Did you think encrypting them would stop me? Didn't you know I've always liked a challenging puzzle. Your accounts were so easy to hack too."

This woman here was one of the most rotten humans I had ever seen in my entire life, and I'd seen my share of despicable beings.

"You just couldn't stomach your daughter marrying someone other than who you thought was a proper husband, yes? You couldn't just let them live." The last part came out of my already parched throat. I must have been hyperventilating, given the amount of blood I could feel pumping inside me. It wouldn't surprise me if I were shrieking.

Her eyes started streaming water. "Oh, you find it in you to cry alligator's tears now, hmmm? Well, too late, mother."

I stood up, mother still looking at me frantically, as if I could still save her.

"Don't worry, mother, it'll all be over in another…20 seconds." I turned around and walked to the can of gasoline.

Having sprinkled it all over, I was surprised to hear the door open. I raised the silenced 9mm I had bought as a backup just in case someone happened to walk in.

But it was just Yukino chan.

"You did it, didn't you, Nee san…" She said, her eyes heavy with sadness.

I gave her my best smile. "Not just for you, but for me as well. I can now rest knowing I avenged those important to me." Her face broke down at that, and Hikigaya kun walked in, putting his hands around her shoulders, walking her out quietly. His eyes seemed more…dead than usual. Oh, how fitting, I smirked. The two receded away into the corridor beyond as if smoke blown away by a fan.

I tossed the cigarette lighter behind me, and a rush of heated air greeted my back, as I walked away, the room smoldering, alarm bells ringing away. And I felt…empty.

Notes:

[1]: An element. It is the densest element in the world

[2]: For those not acquainted with Shakespeare, this is from Macbeth.

[3]: Reference to 'Stay'

A/N: First of all, I really don't know what I just did. Believe me when I say, I have a small smile on my face that tells me I have absolutely no idea what made me go off the way I did.

If someone read this and feels they have been scarred by it for the rest of their lives, I sincerely apologize.

Having said that, I wish to make clear my intentions as I wrote this fic.

My inspiration for this fic was a small convo I had with one of the reviewers, and we wondered what would happen if (or why) Haruno turned vengeful (you know who you are, mate).

So, in a way, you might take this fic as an anti-thesis to what I'm trying to show with the other fic I'm working on. Which shows a (much) more benevolent side to Haruno.

Nor will I be absolved of my duty if I do not mention some of the earlier darker themed one-shots (as this one is) on this fanfic site, where Hachiman turns out dead, or either of the two girls do.

For those who feel this one went way off, I apologize once again.