Ever since the first time Raphael is saved by Maria, he almost always come to the orphanage when he is wounded or just had a free time, When I played with the children Maria still watched him with confusion, That confused that she was only able to notice my ambush when I already kissed her Infront of the kids.
Maria is very confused, she already knew this man for weeks if not months, when he was comforting the debt collector, he seems to change, different from himself that is laughing playing with the children, stealing pecks of kisses from Maria's lips, also calling Maria 'Silica', weirdly the debt collector that usually would come back with greater number didn't come back and they seems to avoid meeting Maria ever since then.
No matter how much she had proved herself to be Maria not Silica, he always insisted that she is Silica. The Love and feelings he poured into her also felt because she already knew what it felt to be loved by someone as someone else, yes it was very different from how her father treated her as her mother, as her replacement and eventually as her herself.
It felt as if the love he poured into her is truly directed toward Maria but for some reason he always insisted that she is Silica but that is not the weirdest part of his. Maria also know that people's 'aura' can change depending what they are doing but what changed in Raphael is deeper than just switching modes.
Gradually Maria begin to accept his love, she even sometimes accidentally introduced herself as Silica because of Raphael every time she did that, she would scold Raphael inside her mind.
The condition on the orphanage improved so much because of one person, just his arrival changed that. The leaking rooftop, the food supply, the mental health, the healthiness, every day was filled with happiness just like how she imagined when she first took over this nearly abandoned orphanage.
Just as the condition on the orphanage turned for better, Maria began to hear rumors that into truth that Raphael is a hitman, a very infamous one that is.
After getting to know 'I' and 'Raphael' for months, 'Raphael' finally told Maria who Silica is and what led to him killing her and her gangs, brutalizing her corpses into lump of meat, what led him to the underground world and how he got that infamous that fast even with his skill it would have taken years more if he didn't kill that Drug Lord. 'Raphael' also explained the existence of 'I' and 'Raphael'.
At first before hearing this story after months of observation, she had concluded that Raphael have a Split Personality Mental Disorder but after hearing this story and trying to get to know him, She finally realized that Raphael rejected while also simultaneously accepted the murderer part of him, that's why it never really developed into split personality, 'I' mode of him is just when he avoided acknowledging 'Raphael' and when he is in 'Raphael' mode he just accepted that part of him.
Trough her amateur treatment Raphael gradually recovered? At least that's how Maria saw it, she already recommended him to go to professional psychiatrist but he didn't want that.
It was just like how different your Husband is when he is at home and when he is at work, Oh! My! Did I just say Husband!
*****
To be honest, Raphael was just playing a prank when he called her Silica but then 'I' began to really think her as Silica, the Silica in 'I' memories before that night and she really did fit into that character.
Gradually as 'I' fell in love with her so do Raphael but when she made me acknowledge that 'I' and 'Raphael' is not spit personality like what I would like to think, I began to mix the use of First Person and Third Person way of talking but 'I' still felt like an spilt personality that is connected yet not connected to Raphael.
As Months passed by, I grew more infamous as I killed more of my costumers, yet my costumers grew instead of decreasing. Human is truly a weird creature; it was very obvious they feared Raphael and wanted to eliminate me yet at the same time they didn't which led to this situation.
*****
The situation between Maria and Raphael is just as weird as how it is with Raphael and the underground bosses. They went on dates, they kissed each other, they uttered love at each other, they have sex vigorously, yet they never made their relationship official, not Lover, not a Boyfriend or a Girlfriend, not a couple, not a Husband and Wife, not even a sex-friend yet they manage to attain the relationship as romantically as a newly wed Couple, as Vigorously as teenager.
After Raphael got together with Maria, he began to act more 'normal' in the eyes of his 'collages' who have the same profession as him, his costumer, or his supplier, finally he made some friends along the community.
At one night, Raphael slipped into the separate building from the orphanage after the question directed by an innocent girl to Maria about her moaning, she decisively pressed Raphael to build a separate building.
As usual Maria is still sitting on the sofa waiting for him to come back but when she heard Raphael deliberate footsteps sounds, she shivered but Raphael ignored it as he knew this day would come no matter what. As he steps closer to her, the more she shivered with her head lowered.
"Silica." Hearing the familiar voice and the name that is attached to her Maria shivered more like a leaf on a windstorm.
"Silica, do you want to get married with me, with Raphael." Raphael asked as he sat beside Maria.
Maria lifted her head showing her eyes that is full of tears with her eyes puffed, surprising her before she smiled slightly as always he always have something that will surprise me and made me smile even a little.
"I do, I Want to Marry You Raphael, but why did you have to say it now!" Maria unconsciously raised her voice.
"Ah… if I said I want to imitate one of my favorite anime characters would you slap me." Raphael replied with a smile and as expected Maria did slap him, of course he could have dodged but he didn't.
"I am joking, joking, well no, at least a part of it." Raphael said recovering in an instant and putting a smile on Maria's face before that smile vanished and she cried again leaning on Raphael's chest.
"You are bad, bad guy! You know this would happen right!"
"Of course, Raphael know what I did after all."
"You didn't have to stay here right; you could have lived until you died of old age right!"
"But I wouldn't meet such a wonderful woman as you, Silica."
"Do I really have to do this." Maria whispered.
"Of course, you know why and I know why, it's just fast-forwarding Raphael's fate slightly." Raphael said as he stroked Maria's head, he didn't even notice that his uses of Third Person way of talking decreased replaced by his first-person way of talking.
"Do I really have to do this?" Maria asked again.
"Maria, it's alright, perhaps if you really wanted you could find a successor for the orphanage before going to my place but I prefer if you could live a long healthy live, Ah! Don't go NTR on me okay since I think I will be always watching you." Raphael joked.
"Did you just call my name?" Maria lifted her head in disbelief, Raphael never used her real name just Silica usually.
"Well I think I did?" Raphael said puzzled.
"Again! Say My Name Again, no wait I am going to take my phone to record it!" Maria said as she went back to our bedroom.
Sighing Raphael took out the dagger that he used to murder for the first time out of its sheath. The dagger even though carefully maintained still had its edges chipped and dull, remembering back it was almost always covered in blood, it was only after meeting Maria that I maintained it properly.
Raphael put the dagger on the table waiting for Maria to come back and as soon as she come back, she sat on Raphael's lap before making Raphael whispered sweet nothingness into her ears while she recorded it on her phone, hearing that she curled up and cried again.
"Maria, use that dagger to stab me properly, you remember that dagger right, I already told it's story right." Raphael whispered into Maria's ear before putting her next to him and standing up with his arms wide open.
Maria shakily took the chipped dagger starring at it before looking back at Raphael who encouraged her to do it. Maria closed her eyes and charged forward.
PUCHI.
And the dagger was stabbed into Raphael's stomach but Raphael didn't react to that and he just hugged her before whispering to her " I, Raphael Issaode, take you Maria Alberitus as my wife, to be together for better, for worse, in living, in death, in the next life as long as I remember it, do you agree Maria?" Raphael joked as he coughed blood slightly.
"I… I Agree." Maria said with shaky voice as her tears broke down.
"Then with this bloody kiss of mine as the proof, you shall be mine forever and I shall be yours forever." Raphael said as he kissed Maria with his blood-stained lips.
"Maria, you know there is a high chance that I will survive if you don't pull out the knife letting me bleed would you, so take it out, pull the dagger out." Raphael moved his mouth to her ears to whisper.
Shakily and slowly Maria pulled out the dagger, even if it's not swift and increased his pain, Raphael didn't whimper or shake, the only sign that he is in pain is the cold sweat on his forehead.
Maria let go of the dagger into the collection of blood on the floor reminiscing of the first time it was used. Raphael let his cold forehead touch Maria's. "I Love You Maria, do you love me?"
"I Love you too, Raphael." Despite the cold sweats and the shaking, she has, Maria still tried to answer as steady as she can.
Raphael then knelled down on the floor from the lack of power because of blood loss. Raphael whispered again as his cloudy eyes looked at hers seeming to understand something, "Thank you, Maria, the cracks is no longer there, Ah… the glass is no longer broken."
Raphael slowly lost his consciousness and his head slide from Maria's forehead to her shoulder dropping there motionless and Maria too froze as if becoming a statue.
*****
Outside the house under the shadow that is exposed by the moonlight was corpses of people wearing black camouflages, most of them died with an opened throat wound, not from there another group of dead people equipped with firearms laid there dead with some having the same condition as the black camouflage people, and on some far buildings, groups of two people laid motionless with holes on their head beside a sniper on various buildings.