Two sounds interrupted the silence of sleep.

One was my alarm. The other was my screeching, "FIVE MORE MINUTES!" before punching the clock's snooze button.

Sori, Jimin chided in my head, if you don't wake up, you're gonna be late.

I groaned and rolled over. Winter vacation was officially over, and I wasn't ready to go back to school. My skin wasn't ready to suffer again from the stress. Sluggishly but surely, I dragged myself to the bathroom to get ready.

Once I was presentable, I picked up my school bag and headed downstairs, dragging my feet with whiny reluctance. I sat myself down at the table for breakfast and began shoveling the food into my mouth. My mother sat in front of me, her lips pursed, and I knew something was wrong. However, I chose to ignore it. Today was not the day for problems.

"Sori," my mother finally said, spoiling my ignorance, "I have something to talk to you about."

"Mmhm," was my reply through a mouthful of breakfast. I looked up curiously.

"This may come as a shock to you," she said. She glanced at the clock, and upon seeing that she had enough time to say what she wanted, so continued, "It concerns your father's death."

"Oh." My chopsticks were halfway to my mouth, and I set them down. I felt a twinge internally, as I always did upon the mention of his death. It wasn't a fresh wound, but it still hurt.

"I don't know how to tell you any other way, so I'll just put it bluntly," my mom sighed. She pressed her lips together and balled her fists. "I transferred you to your current school for a reason."

Suspicion rose in my stomach. Could it be that my mother knew about the monsters? Something else was nagging in my core, but I refused to acknowledge it. I was vaguely aware that it was a devastating idea, and I didn't let it in.

"What?" I asked, careful to look surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"I sent you there because..." Mom stood up and disappeared into the kitchen. She returned holding an ornate paper box. "You have to kill them. Your classmates."

Before I could register the shock, she pulled off the lid to the box. Inside was a dagger, about the length of my forearm, with a hilt of blood red with golden vines snaking up to the blade, which glittered silver. I stared at my reflection in it. A shocked and confused girl stared back.

"W-What?" I repeated, my voice trembling now. I stood up abruptly, backing away. "You want me to murder?"

A new light shined in my mother's eyes. It was desperate, pleading. It was almost raving mad. My heart thrummed inside my ribcage, and I was suddenly so afraid.

"They killed your father!" she cried. "They're monsters, haven't you realized?"

"They didn't kill him!" I gasped, my hand gripping the back of the chair for support. "They would've been children! How could you say that?"

"Your father was killed by monsters," murmured my mother. "Haven't you figured it out? Their very parents have inflicted pain on this family, and you will avenge us!"

She snatched up the knife from the box and held it up to me, her hand shaking. The blade glinted malevolently in the light of the dining room. I felt the temperature drop, just standing near it. What was this dagger? Just in its presence, I could feel my existence waning. My extremities went cold, and I suddenly felt so numb.

"This," Mom breathed, pressing the hilt into my palm, "is an enchanted dagger, made for monster-slaying. You will use it today to kill them. As many as you can. Don't worry, though. You won't be convicted of murder; monsters don't call emergency services. They can't or their secrets will be discovered."

"Why are you-?"

"Don't you understand?" My mother fumed, forcing my fingers around the knife. "We can finally have revenge!"

I gasped for air, trying to calm myself down with deep breaths. This wasn't supposed to be happening, was it? Flashbacks from my father's murder threatened to surface, and suddenly, it was impossible to deny the nature of his death. His screams of agony ricocheted inside my head, and I felt my eyes fill with tears. No human could make a grown scream in pain like that.

Even so, I couldn't just massacre my classmates. They couldn't help what they were born as, just like me. My mother was asking something so extreme of me, and I couldn't do it.

"I... I need time to think about it!" I cried. "I need to prepare!"

Mother nodded reasonably, a smile on her lips. "Take it with you," she insisted, letting go of the dagger, leaving in my hands. "Put it in this box. You can think about how you'll do it."

I nodded feebly, stuffing the paper box into my bag. My ears were buzzing, and it seemed I couldn't process anything anymore. Without another word, I fled and clambered out onto the streets, sniveling pathetically. I rubbed the tears from my swollen red eyes and stumbled to school. My heart felt like it was cracking, and I didn't know how to handle it. My fingers trembled uncontrollably at my sides, and it was all I could do from bursting into sobs.

Jimin! I cried out mentally. Help me! You heard my mother, didn't you?

Silence.

Where are you? I thought miserably, my bottom lip trembling.

"Sori, are you okay?" I had bumped into someone's back. Looking up, I saw that it was Taehyung. I immediately cast my eyes down so he wouldn't see them.

"I'm fine," I said tightly, aware of the dagger in my backpack that I was supposed to kill him and his friends with.

"No, you're not," he sighed. "I can see you crying, don't lie. Jimin told me, you know."

I glanced up. Jimin had sent Taehyung? Immediately, I started to sob again. Taehyung nodded understandingly and herded me into a corner of the street that was relatively undisturbed, where no one could stare. I balled up my fists as I stared at the ground, my vision blurring with tears.

"What am I supposed to do? I won't be a murderer, but how can I tell my mother that? She'll blame me for my father!" My words became a ragged jumble of gasps and whimpers, and I buried myself in Taehyung's embrace as I choked out my fears. "I didn't know! I didn't know monsters killed him! I didn't know my mother was like this!"

"Surely you can tell her that you don't want to?" He rested his chin on my head as he rubbed my back. "There has to be another way."

I shook my head. "You should've seen her," I whispered. "The look in her eyes... I thought I knew my own mother. How could she be like this?"

It was more than unnerving to wake up and see my mother like this, murderous and raving mad. How could the parent I loved turn out so deranged, asking her own daughter to murder her classmates? My heart wrenched thinking about how broken my family really was, and how the one person I thought I knew turned out to be different.

"And... And my father's death," I stammered, tears still gushing from my eyes. "He was killed by... Why didn't anyone tell me? I don't want to believe it. I can't believe it, can I?"

Monsters killed my father. The truth hit me like a bag of sand, and I wanted to collapse under it. The monsters I saw every day...

I shook myself from my thoughts. That's how my mother was thinking. I couldn't think like that. I couldn't blame them all, could I?

Taehyung made a shushing noise. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he murmured comfortingly. "Your dad didn't deserve that. Don't forget that there are both good and bad monsters, just like humans."

Am I betraying him by seeing Taehyung? The thought flashed across my mind before I could stop it. I looked up at Taehyung. This was how he'd felt. He was the same as me, but he didn't go around slaughtering humans in the name of his parents, did he?

"I won't do it." I drew in a shaky breath. "You're not the same as his killers. I won't do it."