Part 1: Before
Chapter 1: I Didn't Mean It
A loud bang filled the hallway as Ayano Aishi slammed the front door.
"Ayano!" Came the piercing voice of Ryoba Aishi. "Would you care to go fetch the door from over the street?"
"What?" Ayano's mother had a lot of sayings, and few of them made sense to Ayano.
"The door? You slammed it so hard that it must have flown off its hinges!"
"Whatever, Okaasan."
"Don't you whatever me, young lady. Go back and close it properly."
"Ugh. Fine."
The steaming hot water streamed out of the shower head falling on her skin. She ran her fingers through her soaking hair, parting every small knot. It was so relaxing.
But it had to end. Okaasan would kill her if she was late down for dinner. She turned the knob on the shower head and climbed out of the shower to face the mirror and-
There was a girl. Her skin was a pale shade of blue, her eyes piercing white hollows.
"Kill her first." The girl whispered in a choked voice.
And then she disappeared.
For a moment Ayano couldn't breathe. What the hell had that been?
That- It was-
It was nothing.
Just a figment of her imagination.
When Ayano reached the kitchen, she was met with her mother's disappointed gaze.
"You're late. Your soba is cold." She said in her usual cold tone.
"I was in the shower."
Ayano and her mother sat down opposite one another at the dining table.
Ryoba finished eating first, and sat arms folded, silently waiting for Ayano to finish. It made her uncomfortable, under her mother's watchful eye.
Ayano barely chewed her food desperate to escape her mother's stare.
As she got up to clear the plates, Ryoba grabbed her arm.
"No, Ayano. Sit."
Ayano sat down, wary of what might be coming.
"Your attitude is appalling. Did you know that?" Ryoba had that look in her eyes. A look that scared Ayano half to death.
"I-I'm sorry, Okaasan."
"No you aren't. you said that last time. And now I'm getting calls from school saying you are truanting?" Oh, god.
"I wouldn't call it truanting- I was a few minutes late to school."
"I don't believe you. You're a liar Ayano." No. No, no, no, no, no.
"I'm not! It's true."
"Do you know what happens to liars?"
Ryoba stood up and walked to Ayano's seat. Ayano felt the same fear she always did, remembering the bruise that had just healed.
Ryoba raised her hand to Ayano.
No. No, no, no.
"Kill her first."
And she wasn't in control.
It was another person who picked up the knife.
It was another person who plunged the knife through Ryoba's raised hand, pinning it to the table.
And another person entirely, who tore it out and ripped through her mothers chest.
But it was Ayano who looked at her bloody hands and fainted.
Ayano woke up to find herself sprawled in a pool of blood, beside her mother's corpse. To her surprise, she didn't care. She stood up and looked herself up and down.
She was covered in blood. That was an issue.
And then there was the body. And the knife. How was she supposed to cover this up?
"It's easy." The voice. The voice of that girl. "Start a fire. Put the evidence on it. Simple" Ayano's eyes widened. "Your mother could have taught you that."
And for some reason, be it fear of getting caught, or just delayed shock, Ayano complied.
First on the heap was the body. Ayano hauled it through the house and into the secluded garden, leaving a gruesome red trail.
Then for the knife, which she tossed carelessly onto the corpse.
Finally she mopped up the blood and stripped to her undergarments, throwing both the mop and clothing on the heap.
She doused the evidence in alcohol and flicked a match over her shoulder.
She felt the urge to laugh rising in her throat as she heard the sizzle of burning troubles. And she took it.
She laughed and she laughed. She laughed as she walked up the stairs. She laughed as she scrubbed herself clean of blood. She laughed as she climbed into bed.
And she dreamed of her own cold, dead, laughter.