Kim and Ikeda followed the chief into his office. The door slammed behind them.

"You two are smart enough to know what this is about."

"Don't worry, chief. I already wrote my letter of resignation." Kim gave his boss a genuinely kind smile.

"Good. Good. I know you both are very good at what you do, top notch professionals. Probably can keep work life and private life separate but protocols are protocols."

"We understand." Ikeda's eyes softened with sympathy. "You couldn't be arsed to stand up for us against the big guys sitting on the top. Keep shining their shoes with your tongue and maybe—"

"Slow down there, Ikeda." Kim placed his hands on her shoulders. "Let's not give the old man a heart attack." He laughed nervously. "You know, I always wanted to be a private consultant. Better hours. Better pay. Glad to leave."

• • • • • • •

"Stay with me... just for a little while longer."

She doesn't move but he can feel the faint beating of her heart.

"You must be cold, baby." He wraps his other arm around her wet body. He brings her head to his chest.

Her whispers is inaudible but he knows what she is asking him.

"No. I didn't know you were the fairy tale killer queen that night. Your eyes didn't show me until we started living together. Such tricksters eyes, you have. When I knew who you were, I knew I had to kill you. But it's funny. I kept putting it off." He chuckles. "Even the knives sitting in the kitchen drawer teased me behind my back. And before I knew it, an attachment formed. All the ups of love and none of its downs. Because of you, I became selfish. I wanted to find my happiness. I wanted to find it and keep it. And I wanted to keep you alive but then, I started losing sight of my bigger purpose in life. The lines were no longer as sharp as they used to be. For the first time, I saw the color grey." He the side of her face. "I know you loved the way I saw things in black and white. It was a perspective you never grasped. You were always living in the grey. Did you lose all hope in me? Were you ever disappointed? I think it's about time I redeemed myself, don't you? It's about time to end it. That attachment... with out my permission, turned to love. You trusted me, baby. I understand that." He gazes down at her wet black hair and feels the flame extinguish in his heart. "My baby is just like her beloved poppies... never withering... beautiful, even in death."

He plants a kiss on her icy forehead. "I will protect that. I will protect you. The world doesn't need to know your true face. I know your reasons... and that is enough."

• • • • • • •

Her big sister, Rin, cried as she begged the big man not to hurt her. The big man didn't listen. He knocked her up against the wall and pulled her down to her feet. He had one hand clenched around her small white neck while the other hand ped his pants. She kicked and clawed but it made no difference. He put his thing inside of her and she screamed a high pitched scream.

Xinling sat on the dirty floor in silence, watching the big man play with her sister like a rag doll. Should she have gone to bite the big man? Should she have yelled and screamed for him to stop? Xinling couldn't move. She couldn't close her eyes. She couldn't close her ears. She just sat there... watching... waiting...

Rin stopped crying. She stopped fighting back. She stopped moving on her own free will. The big man released her and she crumbled to the floor. He took a knife out with a shaky hand. Xinling half expected the big man to stab Rin. No. He jabbed it into his thigh and dropped down onto his knees.

With his fall, Xinling found she could move again. She crawled toward her sister and the big man. As she drew closer, she noticed the big man was crying and mumbling. "It's still inside of me... I can't stop... I'm still hungry... Always so hungry..." He pulled the knife out and stabbed himself again.

She crawled to Rin. Xinling shook her but she didn't wake up. She shook her big sister again but this time a little harder. Still... nothing.

"She's dead!" The big man wailed.

"It's okay. She's just sleeping, big man." Xinling pulled Rin's white dress down to cover most of the bloody mess.

"She is sleeping like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty because Rin is a princess." Xinling's eyes sympathized with the big man. "Don't cry. She is only under a spell."

The big man continued wailing as he stabbed himself again and again in the leg. Xinling crawled over and placed her little hand on his big hand and guided the knife out from his raw flesh.

"That's not where it hurts, is it?" She led his knife holding hand directing to his chest. "That's where it hurts the most. Inside there. We have to make it sleep. Just like Rin. We will make the hurt sleep."

The big man sniffled. His hand trembled violently.

Xinling repeated herself. "We have to make it sleep." She felt her hand sink deeper and deeper without having to make an effort. The knife buried itself in the big man's chest.

Xinling looked up right before she lost consciousness. She saw a boy watching her. He had a grim look on his face... the part that wasn't covered by his disheveled bangs.

Was there anything she could have done for Rin? No, nothing realistic could have been done to change a thing yet she was overflowing with guilt. The guilt that ate away her dreams and robbed her of her sleep. It was like a tumor. She hated it but it was a part of her. So, she nurtured it and went to extremes to justify it. That was how it began, the Fairy Tale Homicides.

• • • • • • •

Why must the innocent feel so guilty?

• • • • • • •

He wraps her in her favorite white sun dress and carries her to the bed.

"May I kiss you softly now?" His disheveled bangs brushes against her eyelashes as he gently kisses her lips... one last time. "Good night, princess."