Red

Sha Jien's POV

My mother did not always hate the color red. She owned a red dress, long and dark, that she wore when we went out for groceries. I remember sitting in her lap, seeing how pretty her pale skin was against the dark dress. That was before father died and his half-human bastard came to live with us.

When I first saw Gojyo, he was a ten-year-old brat with fuzzy red hair and eyes the color of rubies. He had this goofy smile just like Dad. I loved him, even if he was only a half-brother, a child of taboo. I knew I would always love him and protect him, just as my father and mother would always love and protect me.

A few months after Gojyo arrived she stopped wearing the red dress. When I asked her about it she said it got dirty and she threw it away. Bit by bit everything red disappeared; the bathroom rug, her garnet earrings, dried carnations.

As the years wore on, even orange and yellow things vanished. The house became muted in blues, grays, blacks, and browns, purged of anything that reminded her of the human woman father slept with. Of everything except Gojyo.

My father told me the bonds of blood are stronger in youkai than in humans. Some humans say we're pack animals, but they're wrong. Humans simply have an easier time shrugging off the same instincts we have.

But father also said the bonds than tie us together can strangle us. It wasn't until later that I understood. It wasn't until I found myself frozen as mother dragged Gojyo across the room by his hair that I understood.

She slashed at Gojyo's face, and then started to strangle him. I do not regret what I did then. The color red was spilling out from her forehead where she fell, draining out of her. I regret it, I do not regret it. No matter what guilt I feel, I cannot shake the sense that with that blow I was saving both of them.