The sound of a gun breaks my trance and the redness begins to fade away, clearing my vision.

I'm suddenly aware of myself as the burning numbness evaporates from my bones. Blood is everywhere. Both Oliver's and my own, swirling together in a sticky crimson pool beneath us. The lukewarm fluid drips down my face splashes onto my hands, which are immersed in the gory mess below. Dull aches of pain flare up where my knees had slammed into the wood floor; growing cuts and bruises along my midsection, where he had attempted to fight back, sting against the harsh air with every breath I take. My head and muscles throb. I'm exhausted. It's as if the blazing, euphoric rage has simply disappeared, and left only a hollow emptiness.

I look down at my step-brother and former friend.

His white shirt had been shredded, revealing globs of sliced flesh all around his upper body. The cuts are deep, and the pale whiteness of his ribs and collarbone jut out from the mass of mangled tissue and skin. His left lung is perforated, and lies shrunken and shriveled against his still heart. Greenish bile oozes from his ruptured gallbladder and fuses with the shallow puddles of blood that swell in his abdomen. Bits of intestine poke out of the scraps of skin left clinging. The steady stream of blood from a few punctured arteries is the only thing still moving on the corpse.

There is a bullet lodged in his arm, which holds a syringe of clear fluid. Someone must have shot him and kept him from injecting me with it. I pick up the needle and slip it into my sleeve.

The boyish, childlike face that once smiled up at me is now unrecognizable. Gashes across his cheeks and forehead leave jagged clumps of tissue strewn about his features. A sizable chunk of his petite nose has been torn off and shoved into an open wound by his jawbone. The bandages across his right eye lie tattered, and the rough scars beneath have been completely overturned and pasted back on with the inside facing out. His left eye is still skewered on my knife; the yellow iris cut in half and tinged red. His feathery blond hair is now crusty and matted with blood.

Did I do all this?

Part of me takes pride in the gruesome disfiguration, and perfect and nauseating finale to our rivalry. I have won. Destroyed him. Seized vengeance for his betrayals. A monstrous end to a monster. This ought to be a joyful occasion, followed up with celebration and ecstasy.

My stomach churns and I violently retch a brown, foul-smelling slime onto him. The vomit splashes into the pools of blood and turns into a sickening concoction of sour and metallic goo. I gasp for air and stagger back onto my side.

Then I notice my surroundings.

Rin has managed to hobble up the stairs and leans heavily against the wall, clenching her fingers around her gun so hard that her knuckles are ghastly white. She points it at my sister, who is holding a katana against her throat.

The sun has set and a fiendish smile overtakes Lenka's features. She teasingly pushes the sword a bit harder, and drops of blood dribble down Rin's neck.

"Len..." Rin chokes out my name and pleadingly stares at me.

I have to save her. I vowed that I would kill anything that dares to hurt her, as only I may do so. But Lenka is my sister, the only person in the world who cared for me and loved me when everyone else abandoned me. She alone gave me happiness in the dark and painful days of my childhood. She saved me with her warmth. I want to touch her, feel her gentle hug once more.

Summoning strength that I don't have, I stumble forward and embrace that soft body. "Onee-chan, it's me." I murmur.

"My dear little brother..." She coos. "Just as cute and weak as I remember. Too bad I have to kill you."

I barely have to time to look into her menacing eyes before she raises her katana and swipes down at me.

"Stop!" Rin screams, and pulls the trigger.

The bullet grazes her side, but it is enough to make Lenka drop her weapon and yelp with pain. She clutches her arms and slams back into the wall and falls to her knees, heaving and panting. Her face contorts with varied emotions and beads of sweat form along her forehead.

"Kill...I have to kill all of you. It's what the master wishes." She shrieks, and launches herself at Rin.

As if by instinct, I yank her away from Rin and pin her arms down. Is this her second personality? Or is she simply insane? Her true nature is a mystery to me.

Sharp pain erupts in my shin as she slams her heel into it. I involuntarily release my grip and she darts out, only to throw herself against the wall.

"Get..away...from me...now!" She shrieks with difficulty, trembling and squeezing her eyes shut.

Something's wrong. She seems to be mumbling to herself, swaying back and forth, and digging her nails into her arms hard enough to draw blood. Is she fighting with her other personality? For my sake? I don't understand her. The person standing in front of me may as well be a stranger. She glares with foreign eyes that know nothing of her formerly sweet disposition.

"What should we do?" Rin asks.

For once, I am at a loss.

"Inject me with that shot. Please." Lenka groans, gesturing to the needle in my hand.

"What will it do?" If Oliver planned to use it on me, surely something terrible if not lethal.

A sad smile tugs at my sister's lips. "I love you, Len. But you don't know, you don't know what Oliver has been doing to me all these years, what I have been doing to both myself and others. He's beaten me into an empty shell and corrupted my mind. I no longer feel anything, only a desire to kill. I killed our mother without any remorse, and I will end up killing you as well. Not unless you end me right now while you have the chance."

"No. No! Onee-chan, my onee-chan. Please, let's go home. Let's play. We can have fun now. Father and O-kun aren't here anymore. It can just be us again. We finally have a chance to be together as a family, a loving family. I don't want to hurt anymore! I want to be happy...please...please." I wail, reduced to a child again, desperate for love.

But she shakes her head. "I'm afraid I'm incapable of even that. At least let me die in a moment of sanity, granted to me by the heavens above. Let me die having seen the face of my baby brother after so long, while my mind is clear. I've made my peace with the world, so grant me mercy with a serene death."

I won't. I won't let her die. I'll take her back home. We will live together. It doesn't matter how, but I will find a way. It's okay if her mind is a little broken, so is mine. We can find comfort in each other, slaughter our enemies together.

"No." I growl.

If the injection will kill her, then I'll just smash it to pieces. I raise the syringe and cock my elbow. Then a small hand snatches the syringe from my palm. Rin? What is she doing? She's betraying me, just like Oliver. How dare she. I lunge to get it back, but she easily dodges my slow and fatigued body.

"Len, you have to give your sister the dignity of a choice. It's what Oliver never gave her, what life never gave her. For once, set aside your own desires and do the right thing, even if it's painful." She says.

"But I don't want to." The only response I can offer slips out as a whimper.

Rin crouches down and ruffles my hair. "If you force her to live, you'll lose her forever. Let her leave the world that crippled her, live on in her stead, and immortalize her kindness through your memories. She deserves this."

"Just when did you get so wise?" I reply. It's unbearably difficult, and I feel a lump in my throat. But she's right. I'm...actually yielding to her words. I'm controlling myself.

She only sighs in return and gently slides the needle into Lenka's arm.

"Wait! What about your suicide note, what exactly did you write in it?" I abruptly recall and exclaim.

Was she aware of everything and tried to protect me from herself, like she wrote in the note I found? Or was she simply depressed and lost the will to live? Did she willingly go to Oliver and fake her death, or did Oliver seize and kidnap her? There's still so much I don't know.

She frowned. "What suicide note? All I remember is walking into the kitchen, then waking up in Oliver's arms."

Confusion flashes in my mind. Then who wrote...?

Lenka clasps my hand and gives it a squeeze, then turns to Rin. "Take care of him for me."

No, no this is happening too soon. I don't want her to die. There's so much left undone, so many words left unsaid. It's been years since I last saw her, years spent alone. Her first death destroyed me, drove me to kill and warped my mind into a beast. I don't think I will be able to handle her death again. I don't know what I will become.

I grab her, pull her close to me. Please, let me feel her warmth just one more time. A panicked sob escapes from my throat and I bury my face in her soft, golden hair. After all these years, the faint scent of sweet bananas still wafts in the air. Or maybe it's just my imagination. She's getting colder, limper. I can feel her presence fading away. It's terrifying. For the first time in my life, death is terrifying me.

"Onee-chan..." I whisper.

She smiles, a genuine smile as bright as the sun. "Thank you" were her last words.

As if a gate had been opened, I'm suddenly flooded with uncontrollable grief. Tears pour from my eyes and my chest feels as though a dagger had been wrenched into it. I have felt pain before. I have felt sadness before. But never have I felt such loss. The waves of sorrow engulf me and I drown in the salty depths, burning its way down to my lungs and choking my throat. I can't breath. I can't move. I can only scream and desperately cling to the warmth of Rin's hug.

Please, save me from this agony. You're all I have left.


A/N: Interpret the suicide notes however you like. Len might undergo a personality change after this chapter, still thinking about it.