My face contorted, caught between a laugh and a scream. I shook my head, retreating until my back pressed against the door. A word stumbled out of my lips as ragged and wounded as my insides felt.

"Why?"

Sin steepled her fingers, leaning forward on the table. Her veil had no creases—no expression hidden behind her red mask. She was a weapon.

"There was a job I needed to finish."

I cackled.

"And instead of finishing it, you took in me and raised me for ten years!"

She gave me a dismissive wave.

"Mrs. Dulldrey and the rest raised you-"

"And you trained me!”

I laughed in disbelief.

“Is that why you haven’t finished my training? Because I’ll be harder for you to kill?! No, I get it now. You're afraid of me, afraid I'll become a threat to you!”

Sin cocked her head.

"YOU... A THREAT...TO ME?! YOU. ARE. NOTHING to me! Not my enemy! Not my ward! Not my son! You're just a scared little boy who couldn't stand on his own."

I raised my arms like an animal making itself bigger.

"Then kill me! Kill me or train me! Make up your mind, Sin!”

"Out. Out! Get out!"

"Make up your mind!"

"GET OUT!"

She balled her left hand into a fist and slammed it through the table. A moment later, cracks spiderwebbed on its surface. The wood splintered and creaked as the table collapsed in on itself.

Spirits below!

She bent forward, still in her chair, scavenging through the debris to find her knife. She picked it up, cradling it in her arms like a child.

"Y-You’re insane!"

She didn't respond, curling into herself on the only chair in the room. That was more unsettling. I expected violence—anger, not this.

I left, walking out of the room in a daze, my new reality swirling around me.

What am I? A weapon? A hunter? A victim? Why would Sin take in and train someone she wanted to kill? Why did she stop training me?

Only one thing was real: the warm rings clenched in my hand.

I walked by Cindra scrubbing the floor.

"Do you know where Cynthia is?"

She looked up at me.

"You too? Mrs. Dulldrey's been on the warpath all morning."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I need to give her something."

I let Mr. Reeves' necklace slip in my fist, the two rings clanked together as they dangled from the chain.

She looked at the necklace for a long hard moment before she went back to scrubbing.

"You know, I thought about stealing that necklace."

"What stopped you?"

"Don't know... I guess even I have a heart."

"Well, aren't you full of surprises?"

I turned my head, looking down both sides of the hallway.

"So, where's Cynthia?"

"I wonder. Does my sister love you or the novelty of you? Since we were little, she would run to what's shiny and new and move on when she got bored."

"Cindra... It could have been you."

She stopped scrubbing, looking up at me with eyes that were almost wide.

"Why wasn't it?"

"I... you're too much like me—broken."

"It figures. People want the Sun, not the shade. I just thought you might be different."

I laughed.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm as boring as everyone else."

"That's doubtful."

A slight smile played on her lips.

"Can you promise me something?" She asked.

"Of course."

"Look after her. Her optimism will get her killed one of these days."

"I promise."

She nodded.

“Cynthia is on the roof."

I got down and slid across the wet floor, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"OK. OK. Just keep your promise."

"I will!"

I walked to an abandoned corner on the third floor and pulled the drawstring to the attic. The accumulated dust of age and negligence covered unused furniture and wooden boxes. Light from a single window illuminated the specs of dust that danced in the air. I walked to the window; it was open. I stuck out my head.

"Cynthia?"

"Up here!"

I stuck my leg out the window and followed it with the rest of my body, scurrying up the roof’s slate tiles on all fours. Cynthia sat straddling the highest peak in her black and white maid's uniform.

"Look..."

She pointed straight ahead, her eyes fixed on the same location. I turned to the horizon. The sunrise peaked over the city's serrated skyline, and rays of light bled the sky orange. It reminded me of the morning I came to the mansion when Sin woke me up on the roof of the building overlooking the bridge.

I turned back to Cynthia, and she smiled down at me, long golden hair fluttering in the gentle wind.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yeah... you are."

She laughed.

"You're silly."

She turned her gaze back to the horizon.

"Imagine it. Looking out at the sunrise in a new place every day. This mansion is too small for us. Not with a whole world out there waiting to be explored."

"And Cindra?"

She shrugged.

"Cindra is Cindra. Open skies… New horizons… They scare her."

"It scares most of us."

I crawled closer, scaling the tiles until my head was next to her knee.

"Alright. Let's do it."

"What?"

"Let's leave and never come back."

I stuck my hand in my pocket, pulling out the necklace that looped through the rings.

I lifted the silver chain high, the two gold rings glittering in the morning light.

She gasped, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Are those-"

I nodded. A wave of calm washed over me. I expected to be nervous or embarrassed, but the joy in her eyes and the broad smile across her face told me the truth.

I made the right choice.

"Cynthia, will you marry me?"