The Grey Spirited

The Glass Shard of Trust

A young boy with brown hair walks across a town, seeing many markets and small houses. He checks his bag and sighs.

"Looks like I'm out of money again."

"Looks like you're in trouble."

The boy looked up to see a girl with hazel hair in plaits about his age.

"Come on. You can stay at my house if you want."

The boy smiled in gratitude "Sure."

They walk to a big house about the size of a mansion.

"Wow." The boy gasped as he saw great chandeliers and stairs that led up to hundreds of more floors.

He took a tour around the house and the girl notified,

"Oh. Avoid that cranberry pudding stain. It's been there forever. We couldn't remove that for some reason..."

She glanced it on the floor before apparently inspecting everything else.

"Is something troubling you?" the girl pondered.

"Don't worry." The boy assured.

He smiled before introducing himself.

"Saiko."

The girl returned a smile and hand-shook him.

"Alice."

Two tall adult figures approached them.

"These are my parents. This is Sai-" Alice introduced before gasping.

Saiko suddenly reached for his pocket and pulled out a dagger. A bullet was shot towards him, as he blocked it with his dagger just in time. Alice looked to see where the bullet came as she was stunned petrified, to find out it came from her parent's handgun.

"What-" Alice exclaimed.

Saiko said in a serious tone "The moment I set foot in this house, I saw many flaws in the room. A bookcase was put up against a wall with poorly painted gaps. The chandelier had a faint string attached to it. All adds up to a concealed room. Plus there was a hint of 'cranberry pudding' on the floor near there. I'm not stupid enough to know what that really is."

Alice's mother grinned psychotically "Blood. I need to be satisfied with more blood. It's been 3 weeks. 3 weeks!!!"

Saiko muttered "Did you realize the putrid smell of rotting corpses around this house, Alice?"

Alice's face was pale with pure shock.

"You're not going anywhere. I need you hear your screams, begging for mercy. I crave of the sight of blood-"

Saiko darted swiftly towards the mother and ran back to Alice, grabbing her hand.

"Run!" He shouted to a distressed Alice.

The mother realized that her arm was heavily scathed in piercing wounds, gushing out fresh blood ceaselessly.

Saiko muttered "Have a taste of your own blood, scoundrel."

"MY ARM!" she shrieked, kneeling down and cradling her bloody arm in agony.

Before the father was able to act, Saiko muttered a few words. He collapsed as well but with eyes filled with burning anguish.

He muttered "Feel their pain, bastard."

His ears were filled with endless screams. His victims pleading for mercy. His spirit was broken and lifeless.

"Let's go." Saiko said to Alice as she saw her parents suffering eternally.

They came out of the house, panting.

"Are you okay?" Saiko asked.

"I'm...fine." Alice muttered.

"Are you sure?" Saiko asked, seeing Alice quite distressed.

She suddenly grabbed a knife and held Saiko's hand with it to her throat.

She plead "Kill...me."

Saiko muttered, petrified "Alice..."

She shouted "If you want to kill me, then kill me! My parents are murderers. You've seen it. If you think I'm part of their scheme...then kill me!"

"Please..." Alice muttered under her breath.

A silence occurred as Saiko looks down to see her hands shaking and tears coming from her eyes.

Saiko instead sighed "Geez. You don't have to do something if you're too scared to do it. If you're just begging me to kill you then, why would you be guilty?"

Alice gasped.

He continued "So you just want to throw your life away in the hands of some stranger? Look, did you know about your parents or not?"

Alice confessed quietly "No. But-"

Saiko calmly interrupted her "Then you're innocent."

Alice gasped quietly as he slowly pulled away the knife from her neck and threw it on the ground before using a spell to shatter it into floating shards in the air.

Saiko smiled "It's fine. If you're innocent, you're innocent. There's no other reason."

Alice smiled contently. They hugged each other in relief and happiness. Beside them, still remained a single knife shard.

Shiro now holds it, in memory of their everlasting trust.