Shards of the Broken Heart

“Can I come inside the room?”

The meek visitor coming this late knocking at my door was the one who had made a mess of my mind. Her timid expression demanded my attention, and I involuntarily agreed and invited her inside the room.

She was wearing a skimpy nightgown that showed off her slender and smooth legs. In that nightgown, she had a certain seductive charm to her, which even made my throat a little dry. The many days of abstinence of pleasures of flesh had left me vulnerable, and the current Alice had formed a hole in the bulwark.

To not get affected by her any more, after inviting her inside, I left her alone. I went back to the window and looked at the rumbling sky.

Even with the presence of another person in the room, a serene atmosphere resided in the room. It had become a common occurrence for Alice to just stay beside me in silence and do nothing. And I was thinking that it was the same this time, too.

But when I had my eyes outside the window, I felt a tug on my shirt. I turned towards Alice, who was pulling my shirt with her head lowered.

“What do you want?”

I asked coldly, with the impression that she would get affected and stop putting on the docile front. The Alice I remembered from my memories was upbeat with a touch of childish innocence, but these days, she had started acting timidly.

(Was this one of her tricks to bring down my guard so that she could backstab me later?)

Even this slight impression of her craftiness was able to make the favourable impression I had of her vanish in an instant. My eyes were glaring at her in disregard. I was determined to not be swayed by her anymore.

Detecting the change in my mood, Alice let go of my shirt for a bit. But then hurriedly took hold of it and looked directly into my eyes with fire in her eyes - a look of stubbornness or anger perhaps.

“What have I done wrong? I have waited for so long to get an explanation, but you just disregard me every time and act so coldly to me. *sniffle* I cannot wait anymore… It hurts every time you look away from me. I… I cannot stay like this anymore.”

*plip-plop*

In the silent room, the sound of her tears hitting the floor resounded. She tried to wipe them out with her hands but was unable to stop the outburst of the accumulated sorrow and heartbreak over the last few weeks.

Her words greatly affected my heart. It was true that I had never given her any explanation and suddenly became cold to her.

(If I look from her point of view, then I am the only one acting like a douche and hurting her. Maybe she is still the same as Alessa, or perhaps she is not. But I should not judge her due to the actions of her past life.)

It was okay to believe in my sister, Alice. There was no Alessa anymore, so I could give her a chance and trust Alice for the time being.

I extended my arms to hug the sobbing mess of a girl and comfort her. But my mental faculties were overpowered by the ingrained instinct in my soul.

My eyes turned blurry, and the colours of different emotions and facets related to the soul started swirling in front of me. The ability of ‘Color Feel’ was activated, and I saw the soul of Alice. Her soul was dyed primarily by the cheerful colours of ‘love’ and ‘innocence’, with a small tint of ‘grief’ and ‘sadness’. It described the current soul of Alice.

But there was still a murky ball of black in the depths of her core. Though it had gotten smaller, the disgusting shade it radiated overpowered every other colour present and made me remember the brutal betrayal of Alessa.

The hands which were going for an embrace changed their direction to her neck. The desire to kill for ‘her’ betrayal dictated my limbs, which went on to choke ‘her’ to death.

‘She’ looked at me, horrified by my actions and struggled to free herself of the impending doom. The feeling of squashing ‘her’ to death when ‘she’ looked so frightened made me laugh deliriously. I was pretty ecstatic at finally being able to deliver ‘her’ death.

In my maddened state, I didn’t notice that a pair of arms were trying to hold me close. When I finally felt the sensation of the arms, I looked downwards to see the woman I was choking to death embracing me lovingly.

I raised my head only to look at a strained smile of affection adorned on the strangled Alice. She didn’t struggle and generously allowed me to choke her to death.

I quickly came back to my senses and let go of her. The moment I let go, Alice went limp and fell on the floor. I swiftly took hold of her and checked her heartbeat and breathing.

There was none!

I was greatly alarmed. With her heart and lungs stopped working, it can only mean that the brain had stopped working already. And each passing second, the various cells of her brain would die, making her dead in a few seconds.

(Or she may have already died?)

I suppressed the rising panic and guilt inside me and injected my stellar energy into her brain. There were still most of the brain cells present, indicating that she had not been dead yet. She was just in a coma.

The injected stellar energy was able to stop the decay of the brain cells and generate new ones.

With her brain saved, it was an urgent task to bring her back from the coma. Only through her natural metabolism could she be safely out of the near-death state. Otherwise, she would have to live in a comatose state for a long time till she regains her consciousness.

I directed a part of my stellar energy to her heart, lungs and various blood vessels. The damaged organs and cells were immediately healed, and the only thing remaining was to resuscitate Alice.

I laid her on the floor with her back to the ground and pumped her chest to stimulate her heart. I parted open her lips and gave her a small breath. I continued the process while simultaneously injecting my stellar energy.

The time ticked away, and I grew increasingly anxious. Every second felt like an hour, plunging me into the pits of helplessness. But I continued my desperate attempts and…

“Koff-khoff khof-koff”

A miracle happened!

Alice’s body jerked, and she started coughing. Her heart started beating, and she took deep breaths.

I pulled her up on my lap and continued to inject stellar energy. I had done an irredeemable thing, and if she hadn’t woken up, then…

(I don’t want to think about that…)

I wanted to say and ask many things. Her selfless love to ‘die’ in my merciless hands made me sober from my inner demons after a very long time. Thus, I wanted to explain everything to her.

But there was something that should be said first.

“Sorry, big sis.”