Blood

All she could smell was blood; it filled the air and sent her stomach turning. Even with her animal-like senses the young girl could smell nothing but blood. What the girl felt was different though. Fear. Fear and Pain, but it wasn't hers, it was as if the heir to the Taiga fortune was accessing another person's feelings.

"Nii-san?" she called to her brother who slept in the bunk above her. No answer, he must already have gone to investigate the strange scent. She tiptoed from her spacious room, touching everything on the walls as she passed by like she always did, like there was nothing to hurry for.

The world stopped, lying in the middle of the floor was the other half of the necklace she always wore, the one her brother gave her when he said they would always be together, no matter what happened. He never took it off; he protected it with his life. Then why, she asked herself, is it lying in the hallway of our house? Maybe he was dead. Shaking the thought away she picked up the broken jewelry and continued past her parent's room and to the front door.

Death wasn't what was making him scared, he had already accepted the fact that he was going to die today, but the fact that his sister, his twin sister would be left alone with these monstrous parents for the rest of her life, she wasn't strong enough to overthrow them, or their clan. He looked up at his father, weren't kids his age supposed look up to the father figure? Maybe even the mother? He felt jealous, of all the kids that he went to school with, they didn't have to train twice as hard only to get beaten. Nor did the kids he longed to play with have a damned curse mark.

No

There, standing only four feet away was his life, his sister. Why did she have to see? Why did she have to smell the blood from the room they shared? He wished it all away, all of the hate, and focused on her face. Her face almost identical to his, her gray eyes peering into his soul like they always did. He knew she would be a great ninja, he had always felt it. He found the last scrap of hope left in his body and smiled at her, smiled and choked out the words 'I love you...' before his very existence seemed to twist and swirl before closing off into a black hole. His last thought was only if she heard him, though petty and not useful, it meant everything to him...

My eyes widened, taking in what was happening in front of me. There was no way I could stop it, he was almost dead anyway.

My brother lay bloody and broken under our parents, and when his eyes, lazy and tired found me they seemed as if they teared up and a choking, gurgling sound came from what appeared to be his mouth. I Love You. Out of all the things he could have said, he chose I Love You. She felt it too; the overwhelming feeling of how much he cared drifting through the air while he took his last breaths.

"Aori...Go back to your room." Her father commanded, breaking her away from the daze she was in.

"You killed him..." I spat out the only thing I could think of before I was dragged back to our room and smacked until I gave up to the pain and was dragged into a blackish haze.

The only hope I had was ripped from my very being, and I cried myself to sleep every night. Ryuu...My brother wanted so much for me, but he could never give me anything, and he paid for his efforts with his life.

I live today because of the sacrifice that he made.

I will find you, brother. I Promise.

I promise...