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          “I was not sorry when my brother died.”

          Her first words to the audience brought everyone within earshot to a stunned silence. They were shocked, not only by the words, but by the sheer cruelty with which they were being shared. The eyes of everyone in the chapel bore into the back of the most unlikely of suspects as she looked into the face of the body in the open casket.

          With her usual and rather well-known attributes, her quiet personality, timid nature, and fragile, doll-like appearance that was only reinforced by her height of exactly 147 cm (4'9 ft), Choi Jiwon wasn’t the type that people would normally accuse of being heartless. And yet here she was at the wake of her older brother, the person formerly known as her only living relative, with little more than a sigh to account for her feelings of loss.

          “Or should I say, I wasn’t sorry when I’d heard?” the lingering question in her tone perplexed the many people that gazed upon her at the podium situated atop the alter.

          “Come on, be brave enough to admit it,” she beckoned toward those with looks of alarm. “You waited patiently for it. All of you, every single one of you, wanted this to happen.”

          The silence that emanated from the pews filled with a variety of neighbors and onlookers, all members of the small town, brought a crazed smile to her face.

          “Don’t act like none of you have ever thought about it, especially after what he did to your children,” she stared each and every one of her neighbors down as she began listing and counting off her slim fingers, the volume of her voice steadily rising the more she spoke. “The kidnappings, the lies, the , the murders, after all of that, do you honestly expect me to believe that none of you had ever considered doing this yourself?!”

          The uncertain silence that filled the air, paired with the anxious glances and low murmurs that settled over the congregation served as a small signal of confirmation and she continued, her eyes now shining brightly with suppressed emotion at the people who had surrounded her her entire life.

          “You all wanted this to happen, so don’t suddenly come up here now and talk about how much of a good person he was, how much fun you remember having with him, how much of a loss this is to the community, or how much you’ll all miss him now that he’s gone.” A small flicker of afternoon sunshine momentarily caught in the stained-glass windows behind her, blinding the crowd and seemingly illuminating her words for a single moment.

          “Don’t lie and pretend to be saints when he’s not here to call out your sins.”

          In the next moment, after the ray of light escaped the borders of the stained-glass, they were all greeted by a softer and gentler smile than before as she regarded the multitude with thoughtful eyes and carefully placed one hand on the podium to help keep her balance. After a few moments, she closed her eyes and released a calm and collected sigh before glancing back at the people she had once considered her ‘extended family’.

          “For what he did, my brother deserved to die,” her soft voice pulled at the group’s emotions for few moments before an eerie atmosphere flooded the room at her next sentence. “My only regret is that I wasn’t the one to kill him.”

          Her smile dropped altogether as her hand, the one that had barely left her pocket throughout the entire service, was suddenly lifted to reveal a single bottle filled with the smallest hints of a mysterious white powder.

          “It was the cyanide that did it.”

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I meant to post this days ago, but got lazy about the timing, lol. Finally found time during one of my study breaks. I've got a Bio Lab Test tomorrow morning. Ack, the horror! So many organisms, so few hours to study them.  TT_TT  Oh well, wish me luck!

Oh &, before I forget, I hope u enjoyed this one shot. Be sure to comment and check out one of my other fics too. I'd really like to know what you all think.

Thanks a bunch & stay safe,

[ - ] DoMeSi

4/11/2012