ippe''s temple, pierced by a bullet, oozing thick, dark blood profusely...

Edith wanted to scream, but her throat seemed to be strangled and no single sound came out. She wanted to run, but her legs felt rooted to the spot, only able to cover her open mouth with both hands and make fits of despairing gasps.

She smelled a strong smell of blood. Was it from her own throat, or from these unfortunate dead?

Neither. She lifted her head to see a guillotine on the square in front of her. The black and red blood kept dripping from the edge of the raised platform, gathering on the ground to form a scarlet stream, flowing towards her feet rapidly as if it had gained life.

However, it was the figure being led to the guillotine that caught the young girl''s eye. He was dressed in a blood-stained white shirt, his blonde curls crudely cut above his neck, fluttering limply in the strong winds.

"Andre!" She rushed madly towards the guillotine, but her legs felt so slow and heavy, as though she were walking through deep water. Her heart pounded violently, mixed with the drumbeats of the execution surrounding the guillotine.

The chopper fell. The executioner lazily picked up the head of her beloved from the basket, grinned provocatively at the girl below, and tossed the head down into her arms.

His lifeless pale-blue eyes still seemed to hold some consciousness, gazing at her with sorrow.

"No!" Edith knelt in the pool of blood that seemed to engulf the entire world, cradling the bloody head to her chest and crying out to the he