HOLD IT! For all of those who have already read the first chapter, there have been two new scenes added to thicken the plot that has yet to be uncovered. You might like to read them.
For all of those who haven't read this story before… ENJOY!
Prologue:
The dark haired man paced around the waiting room anxiously, hands clasping and unclasping behind his back. He was middle aged, his temples crowned with the grey of experience. In all his life he had never felt as panicked as he was now.
Whenever they first entered the hospital, rushed to the maternity ward, the doctors had immediately noticed that there was something unusual about his wife's pregnancy and had rushed her off to the nearest examining room, firmly telling him to stay with the other expecting father's in the ward's waiting room.
And here he was, fretting over his beloved. Was the baby too big? Was it a breech baby? Possibilities swarmed his sleep-lacking mind. Would the baby die? Would his wife die? Or even worse… Both?
A nurse dressed in lighter, cheerful colors, stepped into the entrance that separated those waiting from the ones being tended too. A few men lifted their heads eagerly, some just keeping to themselves, idling reading a magazine.
"Mr. Kamiya." It was a tired voice.
The breath that the man had been holding left his chest in a gusty sigh. The briskly walked to retrieve his fallen jacket before going to the waiting nurse. She nodded her head in a brief introduction before heading off down the hallway. Kamiya followed, anxious to see his wife. She stopped at a door with the name S. Kamiya hanging from the handle.
"Before you go in," The nurse drew back his attention. "You must know that we had to perform an emergency c-section." She continued quickly once she saw the panic fill his eyes. "They are both fine. Just keep in mind that your wife will be very tired." She spoke calmingly, stepping away from the door so he could enter when he wished. "Congratulations." And then she left.
Soothing light met Kamiya's eyes when he first opened the door. A doctor stood in the corner of the room writing notes. He quickly looked up before exiting courteously, a smile on his face. Kamiya walked over to the bed where his wife rested, her eyes currently closed, in her arms, a baby wrapped in swabs lay, fists clenched in her new mother's hospital gown. He stayed back, his face filled with awe.
"Anata."
Dark eyes met tired brown eyes. Kamiya reached out for words but found none. He settled for moving closer to the bed and gently squeezed the hand his wife held out to him. Without breaking the contact, she began to shift in the bed, waking the baby. It let out on gurgle before peering curious blue eyes up at him. His breath was stolen for the second time that night.
"You're daughter, anata." His wife smiled tenderly between her husband and new born. "What shall we name her?" Her voice was soft, serene.
The name came from his mouth before he registered it. "Kaoru."
His hand was squeezed by his wife. "It's a lovely name."
--
Doctors stopped by every once and a while to look in on them, some staying to get a closer look at the baby. The day went by in a flash, and as night came, Kaoru's grandmother walked in, fresh off a plane from Japan, where she and Kamiya hailed from. She wore a simple blouse that was complimented by an even simpler hairstyle. Her hair was grey, and her face pale, but she walked with the grace of someone younger than herself. There was a striking resemblance between the mother and son.
"Mother." Kamiya spoke the word joyfully, his face alight with contentment.
A smile appeared on the older woman's face. "It seems that becoming a parent has done good for you, son." She spoke with a heavy Japanese accent. She walked towards the bed where her daughter-in-law lay, brown eyes crinkled at the corners with her warm smile. She held the baby up.
Gingerly, the grandmother took the infant into her arms. Sensing the shift, the baby groggily opened it's eyes, staring up wondrously at the deep ones that stared back. The grandmother drew in a sharp breath, her shoulders rising. She clutched the baby to her chest, tears forming in her eyes. "Of all things." She cried.
Alarmed, Kamiya went to his mother while his wife watched from the bed with startled eyes at the unexpected reaction.
"What is it, Mother?" He asked, cautiously placing a comforting hand on his mother's arm.
She lashed out, holding the baby protectively in the other arm. "She has their eyes!" She whispered, looking back down at the child's cerulean orbs. "Oh, why this one?" She began to plead, looking up to the heavens for her answer. Kaoru began to cry, becoming distressed by the woman's tears that fell onto her uncapped head.
Kamiya took the baby from his mom's arms, placing her back in his wife's awaiting ones. "Who's eyes does she have, Mother?" His wife asked, concerned for her dear relative.
The grandmother shook her head, tears streaming down her face as she told all that she dared. When she spoke, she resorted back to her natural language. Her answer was brief and cryptic. "Heaven will come too soon for this one."
--
The sky was dark with promised rain. An occasional appearance of lighting between the clouds with the subsequent rumble of thunder only heightened the suspense. Kaoru stared down at her feet as she walked, hardly paying attention to where she was going. Every step she took was calculated, landing on the solid square of each cemented segment of sidewalk. She avoided the cracks.
"Step on a crack," She whispered to herself, "break your mother's back." Another step, another crack evaded.
Just as a particularly loud clap of thunder rolled through the sky, the squeals of children ahead had Kaoru looking up from the ground. Walking up to the bus stop where all the other children were waiting, she sat down on the bench next to a girl dressed in a bright red poncho, already prepared for the rain that was soon to come.
The girl didn't even bother to turn and acknowledge Kaoru's presence, and Kaoru had no intentions of making her presence known. They sat on the bench, silently awaiting the arrival of their bus while kids ran from one another in front of them. Lighting flickered through the air, and as the thunder began to sound, the clouds let go of their content. Rain came down in sheets just as the bus pulled up to the stop. Boys and girls scrambled for their discarded backpacks, trying to get onto the bus and out of the rain as soon as they could. After being elbowed and shoved, Kaoru ended up being the last to get on.
All seats at the front had been taken, but one seat beside a young woman was unoccupied in the back. Moving as quickly as she could, Kaoru made her way towards the seat, her boots slipping on the flat aisle every once and a while. The woman was looking out the window at something in the distance, something that Kaoru or anyone else, could not see.
"Um…"
The woman didn't move.
"Ma'am?" Kaoru asked timidly. "May I sit here?" She pointed at the empty seat.
Ever so slowly, the woman turned. Her eyes were dark, and contrasted sharply against her pale skin. They also were surprised, like she hadn't been expecting Kaoru to speak to her.
"You can see me?" Her voice was very light, but grainy as if in disuse.
"Yes, ma'am."
The woman turned back to the window, a mix of utter confusion and disbelief on her face. "You…" She stopped momentarily before continuing, "May sit here…" She finished, her voice a combination of both sorrow and joy.
Kaoru plopped down in the seat with a sigh of relief. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Please," the woman said with a warm smile, "Just call me by my name, Ayame."
"My mom always said that I shouldn't talk to strangers…" Kaoru murmured, while looking down guiltily at her clasped hands. The woman's expression visibly turned from an uncertain delight, to an unfathomable anguish making the ten year-old's heart constrict inside her chest. "But," Kaoru quickly added, "Since you told me your name and you let me sit beside you, it would be ok to talk, right?" She asked, hoping the woman would agree.
The woman's face warmed up again, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Of course!"
Kaoru smiled, and turned around completely in her seat to be face to face with the new acquaintance. "My name is Kaoru!" She grinned. "I have a question, if you don't mind answering." She stated bluntly, as children often do.
"Ask away."
"Mommy always said that it was polite to call adults by their last name. Why are you letting me call you by your first?" It was an earnest question that had the woman turning and looking out the window again, silently contemplating her response.
"Let's just say," She turned back around, a small, tired smile on her face, "that I haven't been called that in a long time." She intoned, reaching for her left side as she did so, a pained expression on her face.
Concerned, Kaoru reached out a hand towards the woman. "Are you hurting somewhere?"
The woman closed her eyes for a moment, pained wrinkles forming in the corners and on the bridge of her nose as she did so. "No… Not anymore."
"You're weird, Ayame-san!" Kaoru said while laughing.
"Not as much as you, my dear." She replied with a small chuckle of her own.
As the two talked on, much about nothing of real interest, they received odd stares from some of the children who had been at the bus stop with Kaoru and some adults who watched with peculiar expressions on their faces. The woman and Kaoru noticed, but decided to ignore them. Minutes passed, and the bus came to a stop in front of a large school.
Gathering up all of her stuff, Kaoru got up out of her seat and headed to the front of the bus. Before she got off, she turned back around and called out the woman.
"I'll see you tomorrow!"
The woman's voice was sad, but she held a smile on. "I don't think I'll be taking this bus again."
Kaoru would have replied but the bus driver gave a grunt and motioned for her to get off. She stepped onto the wet sidewalk, where several of the girls had waited behind for her. They were hanging back from her, almost like she was going to infect them with some disease.
"Who were you talking to?" A short blonde asked.
"Ayame-san."
"Is she your imaginary friend?" Another girl spoke this time.
"No!" Kaoru laughed.
"I used to have an imaginary friend, so it's alright if you do." The same girl spoke again.
Kaoru was getting irritated. It was her first day of school, and she was already being bullied. "I told you that she wasn't my imaginary friend!" She shouted indignantly. "You could see her just as well as I could!"
Yet another girl spoke this time, her face was just as angry as Kaoru's was. "Hey! Don't yell at us! We just wanted to know why you were talking to yourself!" She crossed her arms over her chest.
A shiver ran up Kaoru's back, and all anger she had felt vanished. "Wait." She frowned. "You didn't see her?"
The first girl, the blonde one, stepped in again. "Who? Your imaginary friend?"
Kaoru turned away from the girls, staring out at the street where she could still see the bus waiting, caught at a red light like a fly caught in a spider's web. She could see into the back window where she and Ayame had been sitting just moments before.
She wasn't there.
--
Everything was dark. The lights had been dimmed, casting shadows over the contents of the room. The curtains, the carpet, and especially the future. Everything was spiraling into a deep, dark foreboding future that Kaoru wanted no part of. People wore black as they moved about the room, whispering in hushed voices, thinking she didn't hear what they were saying about her.
"The poor child."
"All alone…"
"No parents or siblings."
"He didn't have any brothers or sisters?"
"None."
"And the mom?"
"Died from a wasting illness a while back."
"How dreadful."
"Where is she to go?"
"Heavens if I know!"
"Certainly not with me."
Eyes burned into her back as people cast cursory glances her way. Kaoru's eyes burned from tears as she sat silently in a chair in the corner, away from the rest of the congregation. These were people she hadn't known. Why should she have to speak with anyone of them? What were they to her but a bunch of squawking crows surrounding her father's casket?
Sniffling, Kaoru stood up and moved away from the corner and headed towards her dad's casket. The crowds parted, silent as she made her first move of the evening. She wondered what they thought of her, crying silently in the corner of the room, demanding to be left alone at her own father's funeral.
The casket was smooth and cool to the touch. Tears fell from her eyes as Kaoru let out a keen cry, her knees shaking and giving out from underneath her.
"Daddy!" She wailed, her balled fists hitting the ground.
The crowd watched, silent.
"Daddy!" She cried out again, trying to stand up, arms wrapping around the casket as much as they could. "Daddy! Don't leave me!" Her chest hurt. Whether from her crying or her loss, Kaoru was not sure.
A distant friend of the family stepped forward, gently touching Kaoru's elbow. "Let go, honey." He whispered softly, trying to comfort her. "He's gone."
She shook her head ferociously, her bangs tickling her forehead. Shooting him a glare, she held onto the casket with all of her strength. "Leave me alone! I want Daddy!" She screamed. "Not you! Go away!"
"Kaoru." It was a firm reprimand. "Let go."
"No!"
Arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her away from her father. She struggled in the man's arms, fighting to get back to her father. "Stop!" She shouted, fear sinking into her stomach, a sour substance.
The distance between her and the casket grew wider. "Don't!" She began to plead, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "Please!"
A group of men huddled together near the casket, grave looks on their faces. "We should bury him now… The poor thing can't take it anymore." Their voices were soft, but they reached Kaoru's ears. As they began to surround the coffin, each standing by a fancy golden handle, Kaoru stilled in the arms of the man that continued to hold her.
"No…" Her blue eyes widened as her father was hoisted onto the shoulders of the men. They turned in unison, moving towards the double doors, a hearse already waiting for them.
Her father was being taken away from her. "No!"
He was gone before she escaped the iron restraints that held her back. The doors locked, the start to the end of Kaoru's bleak future. Everything was dark. Everything… There was nowhere to turn. No one to talk too.
She sunk to the floor, numb, staring at the doors of death that had stole her father away. It was dark. It hurt… Kaoru closed her eyes, seeing a never-ending darkness.
A flare of color formed within the dark.
Kaoru turned her head towards the corner she had been sitting in earlier. Looking in between the legs of the adults near her, Kaoru saw him. He was bright, even though the clothes he wore were the colors of death, despair, and mourning. His hair was a bright red, contrasting greatly with his shirt. Golden eyes, stared intently at the doors her father's coffin had just passed through.
Someone gasped. As golden eyes swung in her direction, Kaoru realized she had been the one to gasp.
Warmth filled her as he met her eyes, and Kaoru knew. He could help. Strength filled her, allowing her to stand and walk towards him in a sort of stupor. His eyes never left hers as she headed towards him, but widened when she jumped at him, hugging his waist.
"Don't let them take my Daddy away from me!" She begged, burying her tear stained face into her stomach. Muscles tightened under her cheek before a warm hand came down on the back of her hand.
As he spoke, his voice reverberated through her entire frame. "I'm sorry, little one." It was deep, smooth, and smoothed out the patches Kaoru's soul was beginning to miss. "It was his time." The statement was sure, and finalized her father's death, sealing it within a tight, unbreakable bond.
Suddenly tired, Kaoru glanced up into the tawny eyes once more, her own blue ones drooping. "Please…" She murmured, voice sleepy. "Take care of him."
The man bent down and kissed her forehead, his lips almost searing her skin. "Of course, little one."
Sleep fell upon Kaoru in a heavy blanket.
What can I say? It's school. Though, for next year, I signed up for a Creative Writing class… I'm sure it'll make you all happy to know I'll be writing fanfics non-stop in there.
Next chapter coming up!
Luv,
K