She took one glance at the corpses stacked high on the ground, then looked back to him, eyes filled with fear… and the tiniest shred of confidence. Faith.

“I trust you,” she said as his knife pointed to her throat.

Another sob wracked his body. “Why do you still trust me?!” he screamed, voice cracking, “after all I’ve done, why do you still trust me?!”

“I know you won’t hurt me,” she whispered through her tears. “You never have. You’re not that kind of person.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW ME!” he roared, sorrow and rage swirling in his stormy voice.

She flinched at the sound. Never before had he screamed at her, and especially not with a knife to her throat.

His hand trembled, and so did the knife… closer to her throat with every shake. She backed away slowly, not trying to trigger him and wind up… you know, throat slit and dead.

“Don’t move,” he spoke, voice empty, like the laugh that escaped his lips, though there was a rough tremor to his tone.

She froze. _He wouldn’t hurt me…_ she thought, _right?_

“Alright,” she said, defensively, yet calmly raising her hands in the air. “I’m not going to hurt you. And I _trust_ that you won’t hurt me.”

Another empty, lifeless laugh.

The knife drew closer to her throat.

“STOP SAYING YOU TRUST ME!! I KNOW YOU’RE LYING!!” he sobbed, “STOP IT!!”

Her heart wrenched tight at the sight of his tears. Even when holding a knife to her throat, he still was a friend to her. And she trusted him. But, he didn’t believe her.

“I do trust you… I trust our bond. I know that it’s strong enough to prevent you from hurting me. You don’t want to kill me… so put the knife down. Please.” she whispered, reaching out a trembling hand for him to take.

“I-I’m gonna kill you!” he yelled, not angrily, not maliciously, but sorrowfully and with hesitance.

In a fit of blind rage, he swung the knife at her chest. His moves were sloppy, predictable, and she dodged every last one of his attacks.

“STOP MOVING GODDAMNIT!” he screamed through the sobs. “LET ME KILL YOU!!”

She continued to swiftly move around him, his swing wild and disorganized.

“Why do you want to kill me anyways?” she asked in a hushed tone, expression curious and full of pain. “What did I ever do to you?”

“You- you…”

“I what?”

“You made me fall for you.”

Her eyes went wide. Her jaw dropped straight down to hell. “You’re trying to kill me… because you’re in love with me..?”

“Yes…” his voice was hoarse and strained, barely audible. “You were my reason to live… and I want to die. I thought that… if I killed you… I would die without regrets.”

Tears fell.

Not just from her eyes.

From his too.

“I loved you,” he said, “but you never loved me back. The agony was too much… AND IT STILL IS!! SO LET ME KILL YOU!!”

She was speechless. But… not upset.

“I-“ her voice broke. “I did love you. And I still do. And I trust you with my life… so if taking it is what you must do… I have one wish. Make it quick.”

The knife fell to the ground with a metallic clatter, and he collapsed to his knees.

“You love me..?”

“Yes, and I trust you. So, are you going to kill me or not?”

“I-“ he murmured, hushed. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I love you too much… everyone loves you too much… to see you dead would break not just me, but others too… and I won’t do that.”

She smiled weakly, nervously… but warmly. Lovingly. “See? I knew I could trust _you_. I knew I could trust _us_.”

“Y-yeah,” he said with a crackly, hoarse voice. “_Trust…_”

A seemingly empty smile creeped onto his face, though there was warmth.

The warmth of _trust_.

“Can we just,” he sighed. “Put this all behind us?”

She took another glance around the room, at the high stacks of corpses, the blood splattered in every which way, and a dull laugh left her lips.

“I know for a fact I’ll never forget what you did.”

His face fell. All that trust talk… did it mean _anything_ to her after all?

She continued to speak, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t move forward. Now come on, we’ve gotta hide these before any cops come.”

And with that, they dragged the bloody corpses off into the night together, love and the stench of decomposition in the air.