Six years earlier...

I was walking next to momma, my right hand holding hers. We were walking around the Hidden Waterfall Village, my home. Momma started humming a soft tune as we walked through the crowd filled by people. As we walked, I noticed everyone around us staring at us. They each held a angry glare, looking directly at me. I heard them whisper to each other and point at me. I heard the words "Useless, brat, and good for nothing." I clutched Momma's hand even harder, afraid that if I even let go for a second, the mean people would hurt me. Momma looked down at me, her light brown hair fell forward a bit. Her hazel brown eyes stared at me, as if they were observing me. All of a sudden, a gentle smile spread across her face. "Don't pay attention to them." She simply said with her soothing voice.

Don't pay attention to them. That's all it took for her to say to get me to calm down . I nodded and did as Momma told me. I ignored everyone in our path and was relieved once we finally got home.

I smiled once my eyes met my house, which was surrounded by a field of lily's and a small lake. "Play outside while I go and start dinner." Momma said heading inside the house. "Okay!" I yelled while running towards the field. "Just be careful!" Momma called out from the house."I will!" I assured her as I ran.

I ran out to my favorite spot. There was a huge old oak tree close by the lake, it held a swing on one of its branches. Papa had made it so I could play on it. I ran toward the swing and leaped on the seat, I quickly reached for the two ropes so I wouldn't fall back. I then, took a seat and started swinging back and forth and enjoying the view, while humming the beautiful melody that my mother had hummed earlier that day while we were walking.

I looked around and noticed a shimmering light across from me. Though, it was hard to tell what it was because of the bright sunlight. I stopped swinging and got up. I walked slowly toward the light. It flew across the darker side of the field where a lot of big trees were, I guess you could call it a mini forest. Out of curiosity, I followed it. Hoping to find out what it was. I ran into the small forest going to the direction where I had last seen the mysterious light.

"Where'd it go?" I asked myself quietly. All of a sudden, the light appreared out of nowhere. It floated around me. "H-hello... My name is Sayuri..." I said. The light twirled around, up and down, side to side. I giggled, "Do you want to play with me?" I asked. Hoping that the answer would be yes. I've never actually played with anyone else but myself. For some odd reason, kids my age always seemed to avoid me. There was a few times when a few of them would agree to play with me but then their parents would come and scold them and I'd never see them again.

The light flew up and down in the air. It seemed like a yes to me. I smiled, "Okay!" I said. "Hm... Now.. What should we play?" I thought out loud as I made a thinking face and put my hand on my chin. "Ah hah! I know! Let's play Hide And Seek!" I said excitingly. The light seemed to agree because it was twirling around me rapidly. "Okay! You count first!" I said. The light flew up and down. "Don't peak!" I yelled as I ran off somewhere in the forest. I wandered aimlessly in the forest trying to find a good spot to hide in. I finally came across a log that was near the lake. I ran toward it and looked inside, it was big enough for me to fit in. I got down and crawled inside.

I smiled boldly to myself, "It'll never find me here!" I thought to myself. I started swiggling my body around, trying to make myself more comfortable. As I did that, I heard a crackling sound. The log started moving a bit. It started slowly moving forward while I was inside. I panicked and tried getting out as fast as I could, only it made things more worse. Everytime I moved, The log would move faster. I screamed as loud as I could, but it didn't come out as loud as I wanted it to be. Since I was inside the log, It was hard to hear my screaming. "Help me!" I screamed repeatably. I managed to move up in the log. I could see a little bit of outside.

My eyes widen. The log was headed into the lake. "I can't swim!" I thought. I kept swiggling, trying to get out, but it was no use. I was stuck. The log came closer to the lake. I closed my eyes tightly. I soon felt the water over me, I held my breath. I could hear my heart beating faster every second. I opened my eyes, I saw little bubbles around me and I could see that I was falling down, deeper into the lake. I was running out of breathe and my eyes were burning. I couldn't take it anymore. I gasped out the last breath of air I had, I couldn't breath anymore. My eyes and lungs were burning. Everything started to become blurry. Right as I was about to close my eyes, I saw a bright light. It was the light from before. I tried keeping my eyes opened as hard as I could. I slowly started reaching toward the light.

The light came closer to me, as if it wanted to help. All of a sudden, my hand started feeling odd. My hand tingled, the feeling started to become stronger the closer my hand got to the light. Soon enough, My hand was surrounded by a blue light, which got brighter every second my hand got closer to the light. The moment my hand touched the light, everything went bizarre. The blue light that was surrounding my hand was now surrounding my whole body, and the light I once knew had an actual form now.

I felt a hand take mine. It pulled me out of the log and took me up into the surface. I coughed out water once I was out of the water. I breathed hard and laid down for awhile, still shocked by everything that happened. "Are you okay?" Said a high pitched voice. I looked at my left, I had forgotten about the person... Or thing that had saved me. There sat a young girl that looked about my age. She was different though.. She looked like a girl... But in a way she was different. She had short black hair and onyx eyes. She was wearing a dark blue kimono with flowers on it. The thing that scared me was that she had scars all over her... "W-who are you?" I asked backing away slowly. "My name is Miyuki, it's nice to meet you Sayuri!" Said Miyuko and gave me a big smile.

"You too!" I said happily. "Do you want to be my friend?" Asked Miyuki. "Y-you..Want to be friends.. With me?" I asked surprised. I never had a friend before nor has anyone asked me if I wanted to be friends. I was completely shocked, but I managed to get back to my old self. "Y-yes! I would love to be friends!" I said. I felt odd, but in a good way. I seemed to like this weird feeling that I had inside of me, "Is this what it feels like to have a friend?" I thought to myself.

"We can keep playing... Or you could just go home if that's what you want." Said Miyuki looking a bit concerned.

"No! I'm fine! Let's keep playing!" I said really fast. I wasn't about to turn down her down. Miyuki, the first girl who' s ever invited me to play. I could never have been happier. Only one thing kept bugging me... Why was she glowing? How was she the light from before. I was really confused. "Miyuki? I'm confused.. Why are you glowing? And why were you a light?" I asked. "You don't know?" Asked Miyuki, looking a bit surprised. I shook my head as a no. "I'm a ghost." Miyuki answered, looking away from me. "Wh-what? Your a g-ghost?" I said shocked. "Hmmhm.." Answered Miyuki while she looked at the lake. "B-but how?" I asked.

Miyuki looked straight at me, looking deeply into my eyes. Her eyes were filled with sadness. I felt terrible for asking. "I was murdered.." She whispered softly. "Wh-what happened?" I asked. "It happened at the annual festival, here. It was really dark outside. I decided to take a walk in the fields and pick flowers. Then.." Miyuki looked down at the ground. "T-then .. There was this man.. He was drunk.. He saw me and tried...t-tried to.. T-to.." Miyuki had tears in her eyes and started sobbing. "H-he did bad things..." She said while crying.

Everything got silent. After awhile, Miyuki finally spoke. "It's already dark outside..You should go back home." Said Miyuki. "B-but what about you?" I asked. "Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Said Miyuki with a confident smile. "Can't you come with me?" I asked. Miyuki thought for a second, "If..That's okay with you." She said. "Of course it's okay!" I said. "Okay!" Said Miyuki while getting up. I got up too. I felt happy that she was coming, now I had a friend to play at home.

It only took us a few mintues to get back home. I saw from the corner of my eye that Miyuko winced when she saw the field of lily's. I felt really bad that she went threw all of that. I was about to say something to Miyuki until Momma came running out of the house. "Sayuri! Where on earth have you've been!" Momma yelled and ran over to me and hugged me. My dad came out of the house as well. He ran over to me. His short, dark, brown hair looked messy and his Light green eyes were filled with concern. "Where were you? And why are you wet?" He asked while hugging me. "I w-was playing in the forest and I ...Uh.. Fell in the lake." I answered. "What! You fell in the lake?" Said Momma. " Y-yes, but a man helped me out" I answered. My parents looked at me surprised. "He helped you?" Asked Papa. "Hmmhm!" I said. "Well, thank goodness he did." Momma said, while keeping me in her arms. "Now let's get you in some dry clothes." Said Momma. I nodded and went inside the house with her. I put on warm clothes, ate, and went straight to bed.

As I laid on my bed I started wondering about things. "Why am I the only one who can see Miyuki?" I thought. "Is something wrong?" Asked Miyuki who was on the other side of the room sitting on a chair and looking out of the window. "No, I was just thinking." I said. "Oh, okay. Well, you should get some sleep, it's been a long day." Said Miyuki. "She's so nice and thoughtful." I thought. As I thought about that, I wondered. Would she have been friends with me if she was still alive? Would she have avoided me like everyone else? Is she only my friend because I'm the only one who can see her? I quickly shook of that possibility and went to sleep.

I was woken up by a shriek. My eyes shot open. I heard my mothers screaming and I heard my dad yelling. My body started to shake. "Wh-what's going on?" I thought. I got out from my bed went across the room to open my door. Momma's screamings kept on going. I left my room and went into the hallway, my parents room was across from my room. With each step I took, momma's screams got louder. I finally got tyo their door. I heisitated on opening the door, but I forced myself to open it. I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out.

There laid momma on the ground with a puddle of blood around her. I looked up and saw papa laid against the wall with blood all over him. I ran over to momma and shook her, she wasn't waking up. I knew she was did but I didn't want to think that. I then ran over to papa, I did the same and shook him. He didn't wake up either. Finally, a scream came out from me. "Momma! Papa!" I screamed with tears rolling down from my eyes. "So your Sayuri, eh?" Said a unknown voice. I quickly turned around and saw a man standing in front of the hands trembled when I saw his bloody hands. "Y-you...Killed my parents.." I whispered. The man had a smug smile on his face. All of a sudden, I was being held against the wall, the man had his hand on my neck, holding it tightly. I was about to scream until the man covered my mouth with his hand. "Shut up!" He yelled while hitting me with his knee. "Sorry, but I need you for something." He said. "Your coming with me." He said while grabbing me. On the back of him, I saw Miyuki carring a lamp. "What the hell are you looking at?" Said the man while turning. "What the hell!" He yelled. Miyuki hit the lamp on his head. The man let go of me and fell back.

I ran across the room. Miyuki grabbed other objects and hit the man with them. I couldn't think straight so I just stood there motionless, staring intensly at my parents with tears rolling down from my eyes. Miyuki finally took care of the man, he was on the ground flew to me really fast. "Are you okay! Are you hurt?" Asked Miyuki. I didn't answer. I just looked down at my parents. Miyuki looked too. She looked sad and immediately back away and left to give me privacy, on the way she left, she whispered "I'm sorry" to me.

I slowly walked over to my parents and kneeled down. Tears dropped on them. "Momma... Papa.." I quietly said.

"Their gone.." I said.

Their gone.

.