The next morning, Cixi woke up, and her heart felt unbearably heavy from the murder she had witnessed far away in another town, where an entire family had been massacred.
There had been five of them, and one of them had been only two years old.
She stumbled into the washroom and splashed freezing water onto her face. Despite the physical shock of the cold water, her tears refused to stop. After closing the tap, she wiped her cheeks and decided to drink some water.
There were days when waking after witnessing a murder left her shaken for hours. Yes, she had begun growing used to the sight of blood, to victims, to brutal killings, but that did not mean her heart no longer throbbed with pain.
"Why did I have to witness it?" Cixi muttered to her empty apartment. "Couldn't I choose which murders I wanted to see?... I hate this.... Perhaps I should ask the Reaper whether she can make that happen, without involving innocent people..."
