Double Face:

Simone’s Notes:

Shame is, variously, an affect, emotion, cognition, state, or condition. The roots of the word shame are thought to derive from an older word meaning to cover; as such, covering oneself, literally or figuratively, is a natural expression of shame. Nineteenth century scientist Charles Darwin, in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, described shame affect as consisting of blushing, confusion of mind, downward cast eyes, slack posture, and lowered head, and he noted observations of shame affect in human populations worldwide. He also noted the sense of warmth or heat occurring in intense shame. A "sense of shame" is the consciousness or awareness of shame as a state or condition. Such shame cognition may occur as a result of the experience of shame affect or, more generally, in any situation of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace, inadequacy, humiliation, or chagrin. A condition or state of shame may also be assigned externally, by others, regardless of the one's own experience or awareness. "To shame" generally means to actively assign or communicate a state of shame to another. Behaviors designed to "uncover" or "expose" others are sometimes used for this purpose, as are utterances like "Shame!" or "Shame on you!" Finally, to "have shame" means to maintain a sense of restraint against offending others while to "have no shame" is to behave without such restraint.

XXXVIII:

Heavy. Alex opened his eyes and looked around. First, he was surprised to find that he could move for once. He strained his ears for a closer listen. Silence. No insides churning. No grinding in his brain. Just silence in his head and all around him. But, that was all the celebration to be had. The lamb looked around him. Wood. Wood as far as the eye could see. The room looked suffocating from his perspective. A doll house to be exact. There seemed to be no ceiling above him. He found himself sitting at a table. That was there was in the room. Alex felt himself go back into nervous mood.

What is this?, he thought. The lamb heard the room shake. He jerked up his head.

“Hello?” he asked. No echo, but no answer. Alex kept scanning the room. There was a door against the far end. A little hope lit up in his eyes.

There’s a door!, he thought. Maybe, he could escape. But, what if this was another trap? Another device used to torment him. It’s not impossible. They have done crap like this before. But, the door was just sitting there. Couldn’t be hard to just leave. If he opened that door, he could escape. The lamb wanted so badly to get out of this prison.

Alex began to weight out his options. The door tempted him so badly. He bit down on his lip. I’m going to go for it! Alex stood up and ran over to the door. He grabbed onto the door knob. The boy turned to open the door and… Nothing. Alex tried again. Still nothing. The lamb didn’t stop trying, however.

After ten minutes, the lamb sank to his knees in defeat. “It’s locked.” He began to chuckle to himself. I should have known.

A girl’s laughter caught his ear. The lamb slowly looked up. She sat in the chair at the table, smiling. Alex backed into a corner. The color drained from his face. She smirked at him like a cat.

“I told you,” she said. “You’re never getting out of here!”

“That’s not true!” Alex yelled. “Let me out! You have to let me out of here!” The malice angel shook her head.

“Uh-uh,” she said. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” he asked. She only laughed at him again.

“Because!”

“Because what?”

The malice angel leapt straight forward. She grabbed hold of him like climbing vine. Alex struggled to get away. The angel grinned at him.

“I want to play with you forever and ever!” she whispered. The malice angel bit down on his ear. Alex struggled as he winced in pain.

“No!” he cried. “I have to get out of here! I can do it! I have to!”

Outside was reaching its climax. Mustang was barely holding together the military in their current state. Stacy Oldman seemed to be the only one helping him. But, even that wasn’t going too well. Now, there were more suicides in Central since Valentine’s Day. Normally, this wouldn’t involve the military’s attention. But since when was this case normal? They already had the other problems to deal with and now this? Easy to see why Mustang and Oldman were going mad trying to stop this.

Last night, the Malice Angel went into another apartment in downtown Central. The victim was a middle-aged woman. You know the type? Lonely woman who can’t seem to get a date. The Malice Angel feeds on those people. Last night was a great time to eat. This game was so easy that it was boring. Just a few bitter words of encouragement.

By morning, Mustang and Oldman were too late. The discovery was just like the others. No note, no evidence, no foul play. However, this one, just like the others, had one serious clue. The victim had a black lipstick kiss card in her hand. Oldman stamped her foot violently.

“Damn it!” she screamed. “We’re too late. We’re always too late!” Mustang patted her on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get to the bottom this, I promise.” Oldman sighed.

“You sure about that?” she whimpered. Mustang nodded.

“We will, trust me,” he muttered. If only he could believe his words. Those that weren’t affected by the guilt noticed something was off about these cases. How come they kept coming to these cases too late? Plus, it was only the ones that Oldman and Mustang were working on. Something just didn’t seem right, but they just couldn’t figure it out yet.

This morning, Oldman got a coded e-mail. Huh?, she thought. The lt. clicked open the message.

I know who’s been driving these people to suicide. Come by the alley behind Club Cherry Bomb. I will tell you everything.

Stacy read over the message many times. Somebody knew who was behind this? She read over the e-mail again. Is this a trap?, the woman thought. She looked around for a moment. Only one way to see. But, she had to do something first. Oldman forward Mustang the e-mail and packed up her things.

Stacy made it out to her car. She felt her head swimming again. The woman tried to catch her breath. They keep getting worse, the lt. thought. Ever since she first came to Central, she kept having sharp mental pains. The woman couldn’t understand it. She went to the doctor for help, but they came up with nothing. Stacy was running out of options to fix the problem. Please not today!, she thought. I just found a new lead! I have to be well in order to pursue it!

Suddenly, the pain faded away. Stacy slowly stood up straight. The lt. breathed out.

“Right,” she mumbled to herself. She unlocked her car door and got in. In a few seconds, she was on her way to the meeting place. Soon, things started to unfold in a bizarre chain of events.

The Malice Angel waited in the alley like Manami took her to. She didn’t get it. Why am I out here?, she thought. And who the hell is this Stacy that I’m supposed to be meeting? The ringing of her cell phone snapped her attention back to reality.

“Hm?” she asked as she looked down. The angel picked it up and answered it.

“Hello?” she asked.

Stacy pulled up at a red light. She sat back and sighed. Why am I doing this?, the woman thought. This could be a trap. She needed a drink. Stacy reached over to her glove compartment and unlocked it open. Her eyes were met with confused shock. Many black kiss cards spilled out onto the floor.

“What?!?” she asked. “The bastard is setting me up!” Stacy slammed her fist against the dashboard in such rage.

While on the phone, the Malice Angel winced in pain as she shook her hand.

“Something wrong?” Envy asked over the phone. Malice shook her head.

“Nothing,” she quickly lied. “I think something bit me. Why am I out here, anyway?” Envy smirked on the other line.

“You’ll be seeing a guest soon,” he said. The angel looked confused.

“What do you mean?” she asked. All she got was a click for hanging up on the other line. The Malice Angel lowered her phone.

“I don’t like the way he has this set-up,” she mumbled.

“Freeze!” a voice yelled. “Get on the ground!” The angel looked up, smirking. Lt. Oldman made her way over to the suspect with her gun drawn out, ready to fire. Malice fully turned to her.

“Well, well, well,” she said. “If it isn’t lt. Barbie!” Stacy sneered at her.

“Put your hands where I can see them!” she shouted. Malice did so with her eyes on her.

“Tell me all you know about the suicides!” Stacy shouted. There was a long pause. Malice snickered at her. The lt. narrowed her eyes at her.

“What the hell is so damn funny?!?” she snapped. The angel grinned at her.

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

The angel shook her head at her. “You don’t know anything.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“It was you! You were the one who led all of those poor souls to suicide!”

“What?!?”

“Oh, don’t you know? You and I are the same being!”

Stacy’s eyes shot wide open. “No! You’re lying!”

Malice shook her head. “Uh-uh. I’m speaking the truth. I will show you.” Malice drew out a gun and pointed it at Stacy. The lt. began to panic.

“Drop your weapon!” she screamed.

“Why?” Malice challenged. Then, she pulled the trigger. Stacy’s last thought was of Mustang and the other black kiss cards.

In the early morning hours, Mustang came into the alley behind the Cherry Bomb. He received Oldman’s e-mail just this morning and got suspicious when she didn’t show up for work.

“Lt. Oldman!” he called. “You around here?” Suddenly, the toe of his boot touched cold flesh. His head inched downwards and his eyes fell into shock. The Malice Angel with Lt. Stacy Oldman’s face lied dead before him with a black kiss card clutched in her right hand.

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