Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight, or any of its characters, except for Sakura Yakuza.
My mother and I walked hand-in-hand, through the Japanese garden we had planted years ago. Unlike the green of the weeds and crops grown in the rural parts of Japan, our garden was flourishing with exquisite shades of plum, pink, rose, and red. Our plot of land was huge, and our garden stretched on and on for miles. When our house was far behind us, my mother released her grip on my hand and elegantly perched herself on a slab of stone, just a little ways of the dirt path. She plucked a flower from a cherry tree, and I wished I had brought a camera, for it would have been a beautiful picture, with her, blossom in hand, legs set to her side like a mermaid. "Sakura," She called to me, and I ever so obediently wandered to her side. "Sakura, do you know what this is?" She asked, offering me the light rose-colored bloom to me. I gently took it from her hands, and lightly pressed it against my face, wanting to remember this moment.
"Yes, mama." I twirled the little bud in my hands, and took in the delightfully fragrant essence of the foliage surrounding us. "It's a pink flower." I nearly whispered. She smiled at me knowingly, and I knew already that I hadn't gotten it right. But she threw her head back and laughed at me, a light-hearted, melodic laugh.
"Yes, dear, it is a pink flower. But do you know what kind of flower it is?" She asked me. She plucked another one from the branched, and tossed it in the air. My eyes followed it as it gently floated to the ground. I shook my head in an ashamed manner. I wanted to know, and it was foolish of me not to.
"No, mama. I don't." I wiped a tear from my eye. She extended her arms, inviting me to come closer. I embraced her, and buried my face in her shoulder. She patted my back, muttering words of encouragement.
"Sakura, it is no shame that you do not know what this flower is. It is a rare plant, unheard of in most places other than Japan." I nodded, urging her on. I wanted to know what this was leading to. "This," she said, tucking the short stem of the flower behind my ear, "Is a cherry blossom. It is called Sakura." I blinked, shocked at the sound of my own name. She caught my puzzled expression and pulled me close to her again. "It is what I named you after. You are a cherry blossom, Sakura." She stood up, and circled the tree once, looking for something. When she found it—a perfect, flawless cherry blossom—she tugged it off of the branch, and pressed it into the palm of my hand, raw and pink from the stinging cold. "When we get home, Sakura, I want you to keep this in a special place, but when you pick a place to put it, tell me, okay?" I nodded respectfully. "It'll be our flower, alright?" I nodded again. She smiled, tossing her long, straight, beautiful black hair over her left shoulder. She reached out to take my hand once more, and I stretched up to place mine in hers.
We walked back to our house, hoping to get there before it grew dark. Dusk was falling, and our home was a mile away. I grew tired about halfway along the walk, so she lifted me into her arms, and I rested my head against her, quelling my lethargy in sleep.
When I awoke later that evening, I was lying in my bed. Instinctively, my hand felt around me, searching for my flower. I couldn't find it. But, a thought came to me, and I pulled the one that rested behind my ear in front of me. My mother had replaced the normal one with the perfect one, and I dangled my feet over the side of my bed, feeling for a sturdy place to put my feet on the floor. I stood up, and turned on the lights. I immediately began looking for a place to put my flower, and then I found it—an elegant glass case, that used to hold my mom's old rose quartz necklace, until she lost it. I put the stem into the hole that was at the bottom of the case, and placed the glass back over it. I hurried out of the room to carry out my promise.
My mother was on the deck, leaning far over the railing, gazing up at the stars. She was a free spirited person, one who loved nature, and took in the mysterious wonders of the world. I began to think that she, if anyone, would know the answers to the questions of the universe. I lightly tapped her ivory, silky-smooth arm, and she spun around, hair twirling behind her. "You're awake, darling." She smiled, and bent down so that we were eye-to-eye. "What is it?
"The flower, mama. I put it in your necklace case." I pointed to my bedroom.
She hugged me, and whispered in my ear, "I knew that you would choose the perfect place for it. You have class, just like me." She giggled, and put me down on my feet again. "If it's ever missing, you keep in mind that I'll have it, okay? It's our flower, after all." I nodded, as I didn't find confidence in my voice much at all. "It's late. Go to bed now, dear."
I skipped off to my room, humming the tune of "Sakura" as I went. I slid beneath the covers, and snuggled up to my pillow. I lay there, awake, for over an hour, just listening to the sound of my own breathing. It calmed me, and I drifted into semi-unconsciousness. I tried to remember the smell of the garden, of the beautiful nectar-heavy fruits. I was an innocent, absent-minded five year old, being pulled closer into the vastness of sleep…
At one point in the night, I heard my bedroom door creak open, and I listened as soft, gentle footsteps crept across the hardwood floor. I heard the glass case being lifted and set aside, and then the light noise of flower petals rustling. A smile swept over my face, for I knew that my mother was taking the flower.
I heard the footsteps again, and then the door creaked closed. I nestled myself in the sheets, trying to find a comfortable position so that I could sleep. I never found it, and instead, rose to m feet and switched on the lamp by my bed. The light blinded me for an instant, but my eyes recovered and adjusted. As I tip-toed to my bookshelf, I couldn't help but think how much less graceful and more clumsy I was than my mother. My feet made a soft clunking sound, as apposed to the light tiff of my mother's footsteps. I climbed on top of my table, and scanned the shelf for a book that I hadn't yet read. It was unfeasible. I hopped onto the floor, and pushed my door open a crack. I snuck into my parents' room, and found my father snoring heavily, but no mother. I looked in three-year old sister's room, but my mother wasn't there, either. When I walked into the kitchen, I found that the sliding glass doors were left open, so I squeezed myself through the crack.
I had found her. When I walked out onto the deck, I could see a beautiful figure, clad in a white gown, dancing through the shrubs and flowers. She was so beautiful, and I watched as she twirled farther and farther away from our house. At one point, she was so far off, that I jumped down the steps and waddled after her. I wanted to call out to her, but even I, being a five year old, had enough sense to know that doing so would only ruin the moment. Instead, I just walked in silence, by myself, in the middle of the night.
Mom as not far ahead of me now, being maybe only three hundred yards or so away. When I had gotten about twenty feet closer, I saw it—the beautiful sakura flower, held close to her heart. I watched her seat herself on a stone—the same one she had sat on earlier in the day—and once again, I thought that she was the most beautiful creature in the world. She tucked the blossom behind her own ear now, and I thought that I had to be the daughter of some princess-goddess who escaped from fairyland.
She leaned back, using her arms as support, and I watched the light from the stellar constellations play across her cheeks. I followed her eyes to look up at the stars, and took in deeply, for the first time, the amazing world of astronomy. It was also the first time I had ever fully appreciated the fact that my mother looked at this every night, and, now that I did, I knew that I should do the same. I stopped running to her, and came to a stop, settling myself on the path. I lay down, closed my eyes, the incredible lights of the night sky etched forever in my mind.
I was stunned out of my peaceful state when I heard the sound of my sister's bawling. She didn't cry much; my mother had named her Yue, the Chinese word for moon. My mother adored the name, but I found it out of our own culture. Yet it suited her; rather than being an extrovert, like the sun, she was definitely more of an introvert, only crying when she was really afraid. I ignored it, because my father would tend to her soon enough.
I lay back, and heard the sound of my sister's crying stop abruptly. The muscles in my body relaxed, and I once again focused on things I wanted to think about, like the stars and my mom. I heard my mother begin to hum a simple tune, one that was all-too familiar, the one she sang me to sleep with when I was younger. I smiled in bliss, for this was my world. This was the land where dreams and reality met, and I was on the brink of unconsciousness…
My father let out a scream. Glass shattered, and I quickly stood up. My mother had not taken notice to the small disturbances; she was still sitting on the rock, holding the flower close to her. She didn't see me. I saw the lights in my house flicker, but, again, my mother paid no attention. The lights of the stars were all she could think about. There were fast-paced footsteps, my father and his opponent trampling up the stairs. The light in the upstairs guestroom shut off, and I could hear a door slam. One last terrifying shriek from my father, and then there was silence.
I zipped down the path, towards the house, towards the danger. All the lights in the house were off; the power had been cut. I tripped over the deck, and stumbled in through the glass doors. "Dadda!" I yelled. I scrambled up the steps into the guestroom.
At first, there seemed to be nothing. Everything seemed ordinary, the bedspread was set perfectly, and the abstract painting was on the wall, just the slightest bit crooked. Yes, everything seemed ordinary, that is, at eye level. When I took another step into the room, I nearly tripped over something—a hand. I crumpled to my knees and picked it up. It was still warm, but I could tell that the person was dying. I lit the bedside candle, and saw that it was my father's hand.
"Dad!" I cried, and hugged him. I wept for a while, and then examined him more closely. He didn't seem to have broken anything, but there was blood trickling down his neck. I gasped. "What happened, dad?" He choked out inaudible words. I used the white sheet to wipe off his blood, and I saw two small, black holes in his throat. Teeth, I thought. Like a vampire's. My father coughed a few times, and I said, "Dad, what happened?"
He wheezed and pointed a feeble, bony finger to something behind me. I turned around. I saw before me a black-cloaked figure, and asked, "Who are you?" He smiled, revealing two sharp, glistening white teeth, dripping crimson blood into a little pool on the carpet. I only had seen him for a few seconds, for then he fled out the door, flying down the steps. I turned back to my father, who seemed to be telling me something. "What is it?" I leaned in close to him so I could hear the answer.
"Sakura…your mother…" He embraced me, and fell back on the carpet, frozen in time, like stone. I stood there for countless moments, trying to make sense out of what he had just told me, but then I realized, Mom! I slid down the banister, feeling a little guilty for leaving my dead father alone. The sliding doors were wide open now, and I let the cool night air greet me as I dashed into our garden.
I saw my mother, gazing peacefully up at the stars, as if nothing had disturbed her at all. I ran out to her, hoping to reach her before the creature did. When I had gone about halfway there, I noticed a black figure, advancing on her quickly. He was five hundred yards away from her, but making great time. What puzzled me was that when he got about fifty feet away, he stopped. I stopped running, too, stunned and confused.
For a few seconds, there seemed to be nothing. There was no noise, and nothing was moving. But then I saw it: a dart, silvery like water, with a dab of green poison on the tip. It was only then that I picked up my speed and started running again, but I was far too late. It had pierced her noiselessly, and my mother had fallen back into the cherry tree, shaking flowers to the ground. I couldn't think anymore, and ran, ran, ran…
A noise erupted from me, "MOM!" I followed the sound, hurling myself through the shrubs to reach her. When I had gotten to her, I saw that the dart was embedded deep in her chest, and that whoever threw it had remarkable aim. Not only had it gotten her right in her heart, but it had pinned the sakura blossom to her body as well. The wound itself could be fixed by some very skilled doctors, but the poison was already working, killing her, tearing her apart from the inside out. I smelled it: acid. It smelled sour, and it was burning her heart. There was no blood, it was a clean wound, but I fell to my knees by her side nevertheless. "Mama!" I shrieked, and hugged her close to me. Her body was cold; she was already half dead.
"Sakura!" She said. Though she was weak, her voice was still strong. "Sakura, look behind you!" I turned, and a wave of unbearable pain overwhelmed me. The thing had me; its teeth were planted in my throat. I could hear whispers as my blood was draining from my body. It smiled deviously, and dropped me to an unforgiving floor, where I wept for the rest of the evening. It bounded off into the night, leaving me there with a dead family.
After I had wiped the blood off my neck with the back of my hand, I crawled back to my mother. She was long gone; her body was still and the heat had disappeared. I used every ounce of energy in my body to take the dart out of her. I held it up to the moon, and saw that it was the most amazing weapon I had ever seen. The acid dripped into the dirt, and it mingled with my blood. I tucked it into the folds of my robe, and curled up on the floor by my mother, hoping it was all just a dream. I let myself be swallowed by oblivion, as I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.