Author's Note: I deeply apologise for the unbelievably long updates on all of my Soul Eater fanfics, I've been suffering from major writer's block and my mind has just been so engrossed on Pokemon lately. ¬_¬ Please don't give up on me~!

Chapter Four - Grief

"What do you mean by that?"

I stared, unblinking at Chrona who seemed to gaze right through me.

"I know what you did, Kid. I saw."

She.. Saw?

My eyes widened in shock and disbelief and I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the class to talk in private.

"Kid's a bad boy, he killed poor, helpless Soul~," she sang in a mocking, tormenting way which rattled me to my very core.

"K-keep your mouth shut."

Damn it, I can't possibly threaten her. That'll make her more likely to tell someone like the authority.. Or Maka. Oh god, not her.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"We're both the same, Kid~," she stated, a slight madness in her voice.

"What?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I have a secret I've been longing to tell you." Having said that, she leaned forward and whispered into my ear, "You know how loads of people have gone missing lately? Kirikou, Jacqueline, Kim, the list goes on. I killed them all, Kid."

What?

"Y-you're kidding.."

She leaned back and smiled menacingly. "You know fully well that I'm not."

I'm dealing with a psycho here. I have to be careful.

"What do you want?" I asked again, making my point clear.

"Let's be partners in crime."

"… Wha-?"

"I can't do it alone, I can't kill everyone by myself. I need your help. In exchange for me keeping my mouth shut."

Damn.

I was cold-blooded, that was true, but to actually kill people I had absolutely nothing against?

I sighed in frustration. "Are you serious?"

"Like hell, I am."

She certainly wasn't what I expected. I guess it was true; the most dangerous people are usually the people you don't suspect. The quiet girl in the corner, the person who always smiles and do as he's told, they're the murderers.

And there it was. I unwillingly signed a death alliance signed with blood.

"Tonight we kill Marie," Chrona stated as if what she was saying was perfectly normal.

"…" I didn't want to do it, I wasn't completely heartless. She was.

"When the clock strikes midnight, you'll sneak into her house and I'll guard the place. You know what to do then, right?"

I slowly nodded and clenched my teeth.

I can't believe I'm doing this.

But there was one question which I desperately needed the answer to.

"Why are you doing this, Chrona?"

She turned her head around to look at me and smiled frighteningly with eyes that seemed to stare right through me as if she threw a pole that pierced through my heart.

"Because it's fun~."

Midnight came so fast that I didn't even have time to contemplate, although there was pretty much nothing left to contemplate. Do it or die, I told myself.

I equipped my pistol and half-heartedly snuck into her house, which was unlocked. It wasn't strange though, Marie was dense and naïve; she was a total klutz.

I silently walked up the stairs and headed into the first room, which happened to be her bedroom. It was dark and the candles were out, but I was able to see Marie's silhouette on her bed; she was fast asleep and as still as a log.

And then the uncontrollable voice in my head talked again.

Do it. Do it now. Kill her.

Kill her!

"I'm sorry, Marie." And with that, I aimed my pistol at her forehead and closed my eyes tightly shut.

Bang!

Birds flew from their nests in shock and slowly opened my eyes. I gasped in surprise and backed away, almost bumping into her night table.

Her eyes were wide open.

She was dead, that's for sure, but her eyes were wide open, her pupils dilated. But the most frightening thing was that she was looking at me; blood dripped down to her nose and created a puddle of scarlet on her pillow, but her eyes remained open.

I made a run for it, that was the only thing I could think of doing at that time.

I rushed down the stairs in terror and exited the door to see Chrona waiting for me with her arms crossed.

"Finished?" she asked.

"I can't do this, Chrona. I can't," I stated alarmingly, tired and panting with every breath.

"You can and you will," she snapped and suddenly grabbed my chin with her hand. "Otherwise I'll tell your beloved Maka. Understand?"

I nodded. I wasn't used to being bossed around, ever since mother died, but I had no choice.

I was going to have nightmares every night.

In fact, every day was probably going to be a nightmare.

I was shrouded with guilt, my conscience was shaken, but my feelings for Maka were stronger and they pushed me to do what Chrona told me to do without saying a word.

Goodbye, heaven.

I probably wasn't going to get accepted there, anyway.

Investigations were made the next day and poor Professor Stein looked so shaken that everyone thought that this was the final push to him crossing the border to insanity, something that was bound to happen one day.

The authority questioned every teacher and student and when they came to me, I simply replied with a 'I don't know, I wasn't close to her'. An unavoidable statement.

Chrona was a perfect actress. I watched in awe as she marvellously acted as if she was so shaken from the situation and nervously sat down in a corner, playing the shy, antisocial girl as usual. I didn't mind, until Maka walked over to her and tried to comfort her.

She's faking it! It's all a lie!

I desperately wanted to shout that out, but I couldn't. It killed me to see her so troubled by the person who'd actually planned all of this out.

To my surprise, Maka then walked over to me and began to talk.

"Kid-kun, you've been hanging around with Chrona a lot lately. Do you have any idea how to get her to stop being so shy?" she asked concernedly.

You're so kind, Maka. You don't deserve to carry this burden.

"Um, no," I replied. "She's easily shaken, though. Marie was also very nice to her so it's only normal that she'd be this upset."

"Yeah, that's true," she agreed and put on a troubled face. "I'm still worried about her, though. Look after her, won't you, Kid-kun?"

I nodded and smiled reassuringly. "Of course."

She smiled back and nodded. "Thank you, you're always so nice." She then brushed past me and headed towards the door.

It seems like the hospital hasn't told her yet.

… Any time now.

I watched as Black Star walked over to Maka with a troubled face and started to talk to her. I then watched as she backed away in disbelief and laughed, unable to accept that he was telling the truth.

First is shock and disbelief.

"W-what? You're kidding right? Haha, that's a good joke, you really had me at it there."

Black Star glumly shook his head and she then realized that he might've not been kidding.

Second is denial.

"NO! That's not true! I won't accept it, I won't! Don't joke around like this, Black Star!" she screamed, causing the rest of the people in the hallway to stop and stare at her, but I was pretty sure she didn't give a damn about them at that moment.

Then comes bargaining.

"No, no, no. Anyone, but him. This isn't possible, w-why?" She fell to her knees and tears overflowed from her eyes. I watched in pain as she yelled, "I could've died! Why wasn't it me instead of him?"

Guilt.

"This is all my fault. I should've stayed there longer, I shouldn't have rushed off. He needed me and I wasn't there. This is all my fault."

Anger.

"An accident? It wasn't an accident! Somebody killed him and I'm going to hunt that person down and kill them! That's right, I'm going to avenge Soul, it's the least that I can do!" Her eyes raged in anger as she trembled in fury and balled her fists.

Acceptance.

"H-he's dead.. I'm alone now.. I bet he's looking down at me now and laughing at how helpless I am without him. Well, I guess I have to show him a thing or two, right?" She forced on a smile, but Black Star and Tsubaki knew fully well how much this was killing her inside.

And finally, hope.

"Maybe, maybe Professor Stein can find a way to bring him back to life, like he did with Sid, right? That's possible. I shouldn't cry, I should smile..! Soul's going to come back, he can't possibly leave me on my own!"

I sighed and hit myself in frustration.

I'm sorry, Maka.

I'm selfish and I didn't even take a second to think about how you'd take this.

I'm so sorry.

"We haven't got time for pity, Kid." Chrona emerged from behind me and whispered chillingly into my ear, "We've got plenty more to kill."

I shut my eyes and tightened the grip I had on the table.

I will never wake up from this endless nightmare.