"There is no great genius, without a mixture of madness."

-Aristotle

━━━━━━━━┓ ? ┏━━━━━━━━

"Lacrimosa, could you unfreeze my brother now? As well as the bullets... perhaps?".

I said it and yet, I really did not know what was I asking that time nor did I know what was I thinking or what I was feeling. Interrupted at my thoughts, a voice suddenly expressed its words for admiration as if it's focusing on a biography of a protagonist on some light-themed novels...

"For a human to be this...fascinating is truly rare," the Goddess said. At some point I looked at her, what I saw first was her eyes glimmering with thoughts of fascination and amazement and her lips are on a "semi-smiley" shape that made her look like a sadist more than a goddess.

"Fascinating?" What part of this is fascinating?... Hmmm. For a goddess, you are rather a demented one, saying that to a minor who just lost his entire family and who is about to be the perpetrator of his brother's death. Don't look into me as if I am some material for your mundane entertainment."

"Right, right" she replied with a little giggle escaping from her lips.

"Is there something to chortle about?" I asked. She shook her head sideways in a sort of disagreement then turned around and went towards my brother who was frozen in time. She laid her arms around him and said...

"Ahem, to the main plot. Once done, it can't be undone. Bare that in mind young Cendrillon."Lacrimosa asserted.

"You know what will happen once I undo the power that I set in your brother's stead right?" She added.

"Of course. Lifeless." I responded with a half-assed face as if it's not my brother I'm referring to. After all, he was also more than willing to turn me into a corpse just minutes ago and not mentioning killing the ones that I consider 'essential' for my happiness....that is now gone.

"His life will be the perfect retribution for all that he has done. An eye for an eye. Life for a life."

"I see. Very well then. For I am a gracious goddess beloved by all who succumbed to sadness. I, for this moment in time, shall demonstrate to you a little of my power and authority. Your brother shall be unfrozen, but the bullets will remain drifting in the air. It can be unfrozen. Yes. But only by you. Once you point a finger to your brother will the bullets be freed from its congeal. " the goddess mentioned.

"I get it, but why are you doing this Lacrimosa, the 'Goddess beloved by many'?" I asked coalesced with a little bit of sarcasm, as I was curious why she would suggest such intent. She then sat at the piano and with a sober expression said...

"Perhaps I want to see your brother beg for his life, worse than how your little sister begged minutes ago for your parents' lives."

"So you were there this entire time? Why did you not help them? With such power you could have had stopped my brother..." with desperation inside my head, I stated those words, but still, with a dead fish's expression.

"Listen. As much as you want to consider us, deities as omnipotent, no we are not. We have our limits, the same as to how we can never surpass the Highest. If no boundaries exist, did you think that I will let this happen?" Lacrimosa replied with a cool-toned voice that if I am to describe, were words of sadness."

"So the God of Disambiguation also gets sad huh..."

"Hmm. Don't underestimate me Jaiden. My sadness and your sadness affects us differently exponentially."

Unable to grasp the meaning of what she is saying ...

"Right. Right," I replied.

"Now back to the main point. You will now have the authority to redo the flow of time in accordance with the bullets. Are you ready to meet your brother...one last time?"

"Yes," I nonchalantly replied.

"Ok then, in a count of three" The goddess, like a high class-trained musician, sat on the edge of the bench, her back, straightened and her arms relaxed with her hands in front of them. She then graciously started playing the instrument while counting backward, one tone at each count...

"3"...

..."2"...

As she was moving closer towards the last, she raised one of her hands looking like, she was preparing to showcase a bit of her authority over nature.

....."1"...

"SNAP!"

What I later heard was her fingers' loud snap that echoed through the living room. And then everything around turned black and white.

In the pitch monochrome scenery, there was utter silence except for a whimsical melody that sounded like the tick-tocks of a clock. And then...there were these loud consecutive chimes.

"BONG!... BONG!... BONG!... BONG..."

At the fourth loud bong, the gray scenery returned to normal and my brother, who was a minute ago, frozen in the chains of time starts gasping for breath desperately as if he was deprived of air being frozen that entire time.

"You well?"

"Cough-cough." He got into his knees and started panting for air. It looked like as if he was strangled by some unseen force that introduced him an inch to death. With heavy sobs and sweat running down his face he got back on to his feet and with difficulty.

" Wha- cough. W- what happened?"

"Oh, don't worry brother. I just got help from someone unexpected. I am alive and well."

"Wha...what are you talking about? " He said, baffled of the situation.

"Now, this is the real face of a devastating confusion" After all, who wouldn't be? I guess anyone who's in the same predicament as this cannibal here, will also react the same.

Moreover, now is the perfect opportunity for the greatest and most satisfying ricochet of the time- frozen bullets.

"Wait, I shot you! How come you-y-..." With unequivocal confusion, he then examined the gun he was holding, supposing that it has some kind of defect as it failed to kill me in its three fired attempts.

"With all honesty, I can testify that the deadly weapon your holding is in fact...working"

"Then you should have died seconds ago!" With desperation, he checked the gun again looking stupid.

I never imagined that my brother was like this. No, not at all. Usually, he would act fit as the next heir of our family. He was excellent in both academics and extracurricular. Everybody expected good and anti-mediocre outputs from him. Yet, looking at him at this angle has proven his admirers wrong. He wore a mask that many of us failed to unravel. A mask of deception and blatant intent of havoc.

Prior, I would consider him as my greatest pedestal of identity. I wanted to be like him, and to surpass him at things he liked doing would be like the greatest achievement of the recent. But today, all I see is a demented animal, let out from the dog yard.

Most hailed man in the Cendrillon Aristocracy, I, Jaiden Cendrillon shall demonstrate to you, the proper art of killing someone, who has unquestionably done you wrong...