• ~Ethan~


    "Guilty."
    Great. The one time the corrupt system had to work, and it was with my baby sister as the one on the chopping block. All I could do was watch from the sidelines as they led her through a door in the side. After I had done so much to implicate myself, they still found the truth. I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was raining outside. Nicole was so scared...

    ***


    I opened the stable door and walked inside. Being heir to my late parent’s empire meant that I had very little time to spend with my young adoptive sister, so when my eight o’ clock meeting was canceled, I decided to pick her up from riding practice personally instead of sending a driver like a normally do.
    I was so proud of Nicole. Those riding lessons I had bought for her as a birthday present when she was five had really paid off. She had talent, everyone knew it. I bought her horses, a stable, acres of land to ride in, and I even hired a whole group of staff specifically instructed to answer to Nicole only. If there was ever a princess on this earth, it was my Nicole. I made sure she always had everything she wanted, no matter how large.
    She came walking up to me, a small frown on her face.
    “What’s the matter, Niki?” I asked.
    “I have a small problem,”she replied, “You know Jeremiah, the stable hand?”
    I nodded. Jeremiah was the older one who did most of the cleaning in the horses’ stables. I’d never actually talked to him before, but he seemed nice enough.
    Nicole lowered her eyes and spoke in a small voice.
    “I think I might have killed him."

    ~Nicole~


    I looked up at my brother Ethan expectantly. He would know what do to. He would make the trouble go away; he always did. Jeremiah was just a stable hand anyway, it wasn’t like he was a real person.
    Ethan grabbed me by the shoulders and looked straight into my eyes.
    “Niki, it’s not nice to joke about things like this,”he said.
    Ethan actually looked mad, and at me of all people. I knew the remedy to that.
    “I’m not joking,”I said smiling sweetly.
    The angry lines in his forehead deepened slightly. Oops, wrong response.
    This time a burst into tears, grabbing around his waist and balling.
    “I didn’t mean to, I swear,”I choked out between sobs, “I just hit him with a shovel. I didn’t mean to kill him.”
    “It’s ok, sweet. It’s ok,”Ethan crooned, “I promise I’ll make this better. Tell me exactly what happened."

    ~Ethan~


    Nicole was scared. The poor thing was still crying as she led me to the back of the stable where Jeremiah’s body lay on the ground, still and cold.
    I ran my hand through my hair nervously, wracking my brain for a solution. Jeremiah was definitely dead, and my sister was to blame. How could she have done this? How could a sweet, innocent, twelve year old kill a full grown man? It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know what she was doing. She just didn’t understand. She can’t be held responsible, not my Nicole.
    “How did this happen, Niki?”I asked
    She paused, looking down at the ground. She was hiding something. I could tell.
    “Niki, you’ve got to tell me everything. I can’t help you if I don’t know the truth.”
    “I was cheating,”she said softly, “I needed to win that last competition if I wanted to move on. I thought I could win, I really did, but when I saw the other horses, I got worried. You’ve got to understand how much I wanted this, Ethan. This was everything.”
    Nicole looked up at me with her big blue eyes. In those eyes I saw sincerity.
    “So,”she continued, “I sent into Harry’s room, you know, my driver, and stole his Valium. I ground it up and snuck it into the feed of the top two horses. It worked perfectly. With my main competition out of the way, I won by a huge margin.”
    Nicole paused, eyes glued to her feet.
    “It’s ok, Niki,”I assured her, “I understand. I’ll make sure you don’t get in trouble.”
    She nodded slightly and continued with her story.

    ~Nicole~


    “Today, after training, Jeremiah confronted me. He told me that he had seen me drug the other horses. He was going to turn me in. I would have lost everything, Ethan! He would have destroyed me. I grabbed that shovel and hit him on the head. He fell and didn’t get back up. I didn’t actually mean to kill him...,”I started crying again.
    Ethan hugged me close.
    “It’s ok, I’ll make it better, I promise,” he said softly.
    I believed him, too. He always made things perfect for me. As long as I had him, I could do anything I wanted. Nothing can stop me; nothing and no one.

    ~Ethan~


    I rested my head in my hands, trying not to cry as Nicole, my little princess, was lead away as a convicted murderer.
    “Guilty.”
    The word still rang in my ears. It’s such a final word. Guilty and innocent; black and white. The problem is, we don’t live in a black and white world. Our world is a fog of grey where black and white words do not apply. Who is guilty, what is guilty, and perhaps more importantly...
    ... is anyone innocent?