Declaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito

A/N: An entry for the Poirot Cafe Super Short Competition: Fear. Check it out and review please!


In his eyes, Ran had always been beautiful. Fair skin against the black hair endeared her to anyone, her blue eyes filled with warmth and goodness appealed to everyone, making it next to impossible to dislike her. She had a strange elegance mixed with childish innocence that just called out to him, like a siren. She had always been beautiful, but never, not even once, has he though she was perfect.

Mouri Ran, with all her beauty and elegance he so adored, irritated him when she opened her mouth. Someone of her beauty should behave more calmly, should not practice karate, should never threaten to behead people… No, she had never been perfect, and it had bothered him to not end.

Now, however, as he gazed at her limp body, lying softly on the cold kitchen titles, he felt something change.

The beautiful girl´s eyes were open, staring vacantly without seeing, as her hair mixed with the beautiful red that surrounded her gently. She wore the white dress he had once bought her, but it was no longer pure, stained by a flow of red that ran from the knife wound on her chest and sliced throat that he gave her few minutes ago.

Finally, the girl couldn´t talk. Finally, lying, peacefully, like that doll she was born to be, she was exactly how he knew she should be.

Smiling, he lifted her up gently, caressing with his eyes her beautiful face, carrying her towards the cold cave where a bed of white roses awaited her. Soon the red he so adored would stain them, and she would finally be resting in her rightful place.

As he laid down her body, smiling gently, as the petals started to dye red, he felt his heart skip a beat. Yes, this was exactly how he had imagined…

Noticing his blood stained hands, he stared at them for a second, before shrugging and sitting down, gazing at her with warmth.

Finally… Finally, she was perfect.

.

.

Shinichi shot up, eyes widely running through his dark room, his whole body shaking, covered with thick sweat. The ragged breathing could be heard thought all the room, his heart beating violently, but the teen didn´t care, trying to understand what happened as he brought his hands to his face, ignoring the way his stomach rebelled, going in circles.

His hands…! Examining the trembling hands, his mind quickly recalled his latest dream. He… he had killed Ran. With his own hands, he had stabbed her, sliced her throat… God, it had to be a dream, it had to be a dream!

The hands were clean, not a single stain on them, but the detective just couldn´t calm down, stumbling from his bed with shaky movements. In his mind, he repeated that it was all just a dream as if it was a mantra, but nothing seemed to calm him down, the vacant eyes of his best friend too vivid in his mind to be forgotten.

Shinichi wasn´t sure when he had left his room, wearing nothing but his pajama and a pair of sleepers, nor when he started running to Ran´s room, too caught up in his nightmare. He needed to make sure she was alive, to make sure he had not killed her, to make sure it had been just a sick nightmare. Nothing else mattered, nothing else was as important…

"Oi, where do you think you are going?" A voice broke thought his desperate thoughts, startling the detective. "Shinichi? Is something wrong?"

Looking up, he smiled relieved as Ran approached him, her eyes burning with life. It had been just a dream… Nothing more than a cruel nightmare. She was alive, he had not killed her, she was alive…

"Shinichi?" The karate champion frowned, taking notice of his slightly shaking hands, worry already settling in her heart. "Did you have a nightmare? I was going to get hot chocolate, want me to bring you some?"

Nodding, not trusting his voice not to betray him, he smiled at her as he turned around, hurrying to his room. He needed to calm down, now that he made sure she was alive, it would do no good if everyone knew of his nightmares…

Shinichi wondered, not for the last time, when would those nightmares end. For years, ever since he started working as a detective and came face to face with the ugly face of humans, they plagued him ruthlessly. Dreams of killing his friends, family, strangers… killing for the sake of killing, for the rush it gave him in the nightmares… A part of him knew it was his sick imagination, after all he was exposed to murders daily. However, he worried, much more than he would ever admit.

What if he became just like them? Being surrounded by homicide affected him, his heart became colder with every murder, but so far, his humanity remained. But… but if he lost everything, if he became just like them…

Sliding down heavily against the closed door, Shinichi brought his head to his knees, wrapping his arms around them, as the tremors refused to stop.

Becoming a murderer… that was his greatest fear.