Prologue!

Dreams.

Everyone knows the deal with dreams. It's something you try your
hardest to obtain, right?

Right.

But sometimes, for some people, that's all they are. Dreams. You watch
them slip through yor fingers throughout your whole life. I can't
entirely say that. We're surrounded by flames. They don't hurt.
Strange. Maybe this is a dream.

That doesn't matter. Let me tell you our story. My story.

She dreamed of becoming a music artist, either a singer or a guitarist,
but thats all the could do. Dream. There is no possible way she could
become someone like that. She would have to be able to hear first.
Thats right. That girl is deaf. She's been deaf ever since the day of her
birth on March 13th, 1995. But she knew she was a good singer. Her father
always told her that in sign language, but the girl never knew to believe
him since she couldn't hear her own voice. But she still wished.

That girl's me. Ichigo, Meiko.

I would take credit for my wonderful performances and strummings, had I
worked for it, but there was something weird. Whenever I knew I couldn't go
on, I always felt an extra boost of power and those who listened swayed and
seemed to be under a spell.

Weird.

None the less, I was done singing in the street for money and turned to
go over to a dry-cleaning store to get change into some black leggings,
a blood red skirt, a white shirt with black bats all over it, and a black
denim jacket.

After nodding in the mirror, satisfied with how looked, I swung my
back pack over my shoulder ready to head home. I sighed heavily.
Home was the last place I enjoyed being. You would figure adults
would have enough tact to not have a bloody war with each other
almost daily- with their fourteen year old daughter present, right?

Not my parents. After my brother enlisted in the military, they've
been at each other's throats. Go figure. They wouldn't try to be civil
around around me. I'm the center of trouble. I've caused scandals,
ones hard to cover up.

How can someone my age cause scandals? Pretty simple. I'm gifted. With
a curse. The most dangerous power ever. I enjoyed it when I was younger,
but after the last few mistakes, not so much. What's a little mistake
huh? Well... It was enough to get me expelled in the third grade.
You see, I have the power to "Create Ice". You can probably imagine what
it does just by it's name, right? Well, if you can't, it allows me to make anything
into ice even when there's no water around.

How can that be so bad you ask? Very simple. The last two mistakes...
I made a student- third grader, mind you- freeze to death and a whole
building get frozen and shatter into tiny little fragments, along with the
people inside.

I slowly shuffled into the house, removing my shoes and sneaking to my
room. Even though I couldn't hear, I could practically feel the house shake
with their yells. I snuck over to the living room door and read the words
off their lips.

"I SAW that woman in your car!" My mother hollered, probably louder than necessary.

"Christine... You're being ridiculous." My father exhaled.

My father was a calm, average business man. His name's Ichigo,
Yukana. He's a kind man.

My mother on the other hand, was a paranoid, abusive woman from
America. She sold cars for a living. Her name is Christine
Lansberry-Ichigo. She donned gorgeous, voloumous blonde hair and cold,
onyx eyes. God knows why my dad married her. When he was gone for long
intervals, she'd hit me. Sometimes with a belt or the crop whip she
used to handle the horses she had when she was a kid.
She always told me to never tell my dad or she'd feed me to pigs.
I never liked her, and with the way she acted, I never intended to try to.

I snapped back to their silent conversation.

"You know you're cheating..." She hissed.

"Christine... I'm not... And if you keep this up, we're not going to
last..." My dad ran a hand through his raven hair, his turqouise eyes
had a tired, weary look. Goodness knows how much of this he heard. I
usually stayed next door at my friend Naomi's house. Naomi never trusted
my mom, so she tried to get me to stay over as much as possible.

"See, you just want to run off with some dirty-"

"Christine! Meiko is here..." He nodded at me, who was standing at the
end of the stairway. I have no idea when I got there. It's like my
feet were controlling me.

"Don't use her to avoid this..." My mom spat. She almost had feral look to her.
Undaunted by her insane attitude, I continued scaling down the stairs,
extending my hands. If my power would have a use, perhaps it could
save this marriage. My left hand held a crystal blue light in it, revealing
my father's face. The other hand revealed a woman with dark brown eyes
and wild red hair. My eyes widened. Sometimes my power can match-make people,
tell who that person likes and pair them together forever with no conditions at
all.

Warm.

Wet.

I don't know when I started crying. I hiccuped as tears freely leaked
from my eyes, now dull and glazed over, sliding down my cheeks. I know
I must've paled, since my body felt cold. The ice levitated above my
palms as my eyes met with the gentle orbs, as if it were staring back
at me from my right hand. I inhaled sharply. "That's... Not... Not
mom..." I muttered as I fell onto my knees, both platforms evaporating.
"Hana is my true love..." My dad's monotonous voice lingered in the
air, echoing in my head. He grabbed his suit jacket and looked back.
"...Not you..." My mother looked on in horror as he stormed out and
slammed the door. The sound must've been earsplitting.

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking- I obviously was
trembling, although I have no idea when I started to. I...I messed
up... Again?
My hair swept the floor as I vehemently shook my head. I
couldn't believe this was happening. A night terror was much more
pleasurable than this situation. "It... Wasn't supposed to..." I
flinched and quickly looked up at my mom. She was STARING at me. Her
glare was icy. She looked fit to MURDER. She began taking strides
toward me and I panicked, scrambling onto my feet. I ran as fast as I
could, up the stairs and down the small hall. I was half way into my
room before I shot back, wincing in pain. My mom had my long hair
clutched in her hands, my icy black hair shimmering in the frosty light. She
then pulled and smashed me against the wall, a vase falling from a
small, round table and breaking to pieces on the floor. I observed it,
it resembling this family right about now, I'd say. The sharp
fragments scatterd about the now wet floor. The tuberose petals were
littered all about. My father had gotten that for her.

Tuberose. Dangerous Pleasures. It certainly fit their relationship.
My face jerked up, now facing the cieling. My cheek throbbed. She
slapped me hard enough to induce whiplash. I gripped my neck, as it
was in massive amount of pain. Her cold, onyx eyes were fixed onto my
turqouise ones. Eyes I inherited from my father... The man who no
longer loved her. Slowly, her cold fingers wrapped around my slender
neck. The grip tightened, not allowing me to breathe. My vision began
to blur as I reached my arm out to push her away. Of course I'd be too
weak. My sight became overlapped by a bright, white light. My
consciousness had been slipping. I fell onto the floor with a thud, a
rough wind picking up, my loose hair swaying wildly. I saw her grab a
dense, ceramic figurine. She looked at me digusted and then raised an
arm, lifting the figurine.

Falling...

Icy coldness...

Everything blanked out...

After sometime, I regained consciousness. I managed to slightly peel
open my eyes, lifting a hand to rub off the crust my dried up tears
caused. I realized I was still laying on the floor. I sat up, looking
around, amazed that I was still alive. I looked at my hands. They were
covered in BLOOD. My lips quivered as I followed the puddle of the
scarlet liquid on the floor. It led to my mother's body, sprawled out.
Her blonde hair was now streaked with red. I reached for the hair
covering her face and pulled it aside, falling back immediately when I
saw the damage. Her neck had a large gash in it, the flesh neatly torn
and the pinkish meat poking out, bubbling beneath. Her blood was still
spilling. I let out a shrill shriek asI ran down the stairs and burst
out the house and onto the street. It was nighttime, but the area was
always lively, so I ran into oncoming traffic, cars honking and
swerving to the side. Certainly I caused quite the commotion, but who
the hell cares.

My mom was DEAD.

Naomi was outside her door step and sprinted towards me. She grabbed my
hand and pulled my towards her house. I was heaving, barely able to
breathe. "Meiko-chan, what's wrong?! I heard you scream, are you..." She
looked at me as I read her lips. I looked away. I was frightened. Frightened that she'd
run away. Slowly, she withdrew her hand from mine and examined her
palm, smeared blood from my own hand having colored hers. "...Meiko..
What happened?"

"...Suicide..." I said in sign language, knowing that she understands it.
"...She...committed suicide..."

She hugged me tightly and didn't let go.

It took a while for the paramedics to arrive. Later my father, then my
brother. It was a tearful reunion. I filled them in with what went on.
They told me to be glad I'm free.

Free?

Did I really have the right to even think that way?

They talked a lot privately. I wasn't allowed to see. So I wouldn't
get frustrated that I couldn't even hear about my own situation, they
let me stay the night with Naomi. I cried silently all night while Naomi
held me close.

It was my fault this all happened, right? If okaa-san didn't deserve to
live, neither did I.

But no one saw it like that.

The following morning, a peculiar man woke up Naomi and I. He had blond
hair that ran up to his shoulders and striking, yet soft violet eyes with
two beauty marks under his left eye. He had a white button down shirt
that allowed for a small fraction of his abdomen to peak out and sleek
black dress pants. He had this refined look to him- an extremely
attractive guy. I blushed as I contined to observe him. He smiled and
chuckled, probably noting me admiring his... Well... Beauty... and
cross-dresser-ness.

"Ms. Ichigo, right?" He pat my head gently while I quirked a brow at
him. "My name is Narumi Anjo." He smiled brightly. He seemed like a
nice guy, relatively trust worthy. I nodded, so he would proceed.
"I'm here to take you to the Alice Academy. Get ready to head out,
okay?"

I blinked. It's all I could manage to do. Wasn't Alice Academy some
prestigeous school only genious kids could get into? I'm smart and
all, but surely not supreme brainiac, right? And aside from that, the
timing just seemed off. After the incident yesterday, something wasn't
right... "B-but..." I said and signed at the same time

"Tut tut!" Narumi lifted a finger to my lips, in order to shush me.
"Your father and brother enrolled you. I'll answer your questions once
we hit the road. Now hurry! We have to get there by morning, you have
to meet your new partner. I'm sure Natsume-Kun will be
absolutely thriled." His last statement probably dripped with sarcasm,
since he rolled his eyes at the same time.

This Natsume must be something else...

Narumi practically slithered out of the room while I sat there on my
spot on the floor, dumbfounded. Naomi tackle-hugged me tightly. I had a
bad feeling, aside from knowing that I probably won't see Naomi in a
long time.

My head was too murky to think straight. Only one thing clearly swam in my head.

It was not supposed to be like this...


Please review if you liked!

-BrokenDreams800