CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The elder in the grey layer was having a finely bad day. She had been suspected of spreading the posters. All the lower elders who brought the grey-layer children and people had been abruptly killed off, and with the posters that read "Overthrow the Color System", it was unsafe to go out of the headquarters.

The elder looked at their soul-string. It was currently grey, streaked with splotches of black. Originally it had been fully black, but the only way to change the colors of the soul strings was to take those of others, or their black sold would be revealed and everything would be thrown away and out the window. 

Now the elder was pacing in an empty white room that had no furniture. Their hands were tied behind their back. 

"If only I could cut this darn rope…" The elder murmured, and just then, the door opened. There was another elder who stepped in. They were wearing a long black hood that completely covered their head. The elder watched in silence as the stranger pulled back their hood.

Unremarkable short white hair, up to her shoulders, and a nice face if the elder said so herself. But the stunning thing was her eyes - moldy, mildewed grey, like death and corpses and everything in between. They were dead and lifeless. The elder felt their head tingle. 

"I didn't do it." The elder informed the stranger. The stranger smiled - even more startling than those eyes. The smile was cold, cunning, more of a smirk. The elder backed away. Their hands, still tied, hit the wall. "I d-didn't do it, I'm t-telling you-" 

"I know you didn't. Thats because I did. It's also because I want you to do something for me." The stranger said. The elder was now frozen. "you did this?" The elder echoed, and the stranger nodded, not smiling anymore. Now the elder was appalled. Then they said, "I won't." The stranger didn't say anything. They just turned around, as if to say, 'Have fun in prison, dearie!'. The elder thought for a minute, and as the stranger's hand fell on the doorknob, the elder said, in desperation, 

"I'll do it." 

The stranger smiled again.