The warm September sun shone brightly through the tree branches blowing in a gentle breeze to greet the equally bright face of a young girl. The girl, six year old Norita, looked up at the sky with the bright smile of a child ready to play. Her days however, were more than just fun and games. In a clan as small as hers, even the children had chores to do.
Norita's chores were especially important as she was in training to be her clan's next healer. It wasn't going to be an easy road for her to learn everything she needs to know, but it will be worth it when she manages to cure her older brother Pairo's ailments by combining local herbs in a new way.
Despite Norita's insistence on finding a cure for the ailments without leaving the safety of the clan, Pairo intended to go outside to look for the cure and leave her all alone and bored. Her brother was physically weaker than her, and she was only six. Not only that but Pairo's best friend Kurapika actually managed to earn the right to leave in search of medicine. "Don't worry about us, Norita. You don't have to burden yourself. Just have fun playing while you still have the chance," they would always tell her.
Norita couldn't understand why her brother would be willing to just leave her here. She was a big girl now. She even knew how to read without mamma or papa helping her with words. At her age, she truly believed that she could do anything and trusted in everyone. Just Little did anyone know that her childish innocence would set the stage for unspeakable cruelty and despair.
It was one week after Kurapika had left the clan, and Norita was out collecting herbs near the clan village. Her brother, parents, and mentor had made strict rules about what time she had to be back by. Even so, Norita wasn't going to go back until she had all the herbs she could carry. She wasn't about to let anyone cure her brother before her as strong envy lit her eyes scarlet.
Over the years that her brother had been friends with Kurapika, he was spending more and more time with that boy and less time with her, his own sister. That hurtful pattern continued even after it was Kurapika's fault her brother got those ailments falling off some stupid cliff. It was all that boy's fault, so why then did her brother still like him more than her?
Hours passed, the sun about to slip over the horizon as the moon threatened to rise. Norita hadn't collected enough. She needed more. She needed to help her brother. She'd collect everything. Everything! The cure was somewhere, and she'd find it before Kurapika without ever having to leave the village!
Birds fell silent. She pulled too hard on a too stuck herb, leaves snapping, her feet slipping out from under her. Her attention ripped from plants on the ground, she saw something in the distance, in the last rays of daylight.
An outsider! She scrambled to her feet, torn leaves falling to the ground. Outsides could have everything she needed to help Pairo!
Her vision tinted red, scarlet eyes flashing with excitement.
The stranger approached. A man with dark hair, his jacket lined with fur and decorated in crosses. Norita stood, buzzing with excitement. He smiled at her.
"Hello," he greeted, stopping in front of her, crouching to level his grey eyes with her red. "What is such a young girl doing alone in the woods?" He glanced around, adding, "Where are your parents?"
"At home!" She bounced, pointing to her basket piled high with herbs. "I'm collecting lots and lots of herbs for my brother!" Her enthusiasm waned with a pout. "He's sick. He tells me bedtime stories at night, but all day he plays with some stupid boy instead of me. Then he's too tired to play with me." Norita's pout disappeared, determination in its place. "So, I'm going to help get him better before his friend! Then he'll see how smart I am! And he'll play with me instead!" Bouncing again, the stranger's attention captured by her, she shouted, "Can you help me, Mister Outside-person?"
"Of course. However I can." He smiled kindly again, waiting for her to stand still and quiet her victory yell. "Where do you live? I can better help if I can see him myself."
She pointed. "That way! And it's not very far!" She ran towards home, stopping when he didn't follow. "Come on!" she called, stomping her foot when he didn't move.
"There's something I need before I can cure your brother's ailment." He turned his back, upside down cross running the length of his coat. "I will be back later. Until then, wait patiently. And, why not surprise him?"
Nortia ran back to the village. No way! She was telling Pairo right away! Without delay, Norita dashed to the hut she lived in with her parents and brother. "Hey big brother," she cheered excitedly, "I met a man who said he can help you! He said he would see you soon and you will be all better! Isn't that great? Aren't I a really good big sister? You'll play with me just us two again right?" She asked.
Pairo gave her a worried but understanding smile. This whole time he was so caught up in the mystery of the outside world that he didn't really think about how she must feel. Did she feel she wasn't good enough for him or that he didn't love her anymore. Looking at his sister now, she has jealousy written all over her face. "Norita… I'm sorry I didn't realize how you felt. You never said anything to me so I assumed that nothing was wrong. I promise that I will never forget you, ok? Want to hear a bedtime story?" He said with a bittersweet tone. No matter what, he could not tell the elders what she said about the strange and kind man for he knew she would be punished.
Norita smiled at her brother as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Yeah. I'd really like that. Thank you big brother. We'll always be together from now on, right?" She asked in a bell-like voice.
As Pairo nodded his head and prepared to tell his sister a story, the siblings both looked up at the moon, now scarlet just like the color of blood. Perhaps it was a coincidence or perhaps it was an omen of the bloodbath to come. Either way, it's serenity belied the despair and helplessness to strike that night.
Before Pairo could even begin to tell his nightly story, something that seemed much like invisible thread wrapped around Norita's tiny form away from her brother's side and she let out the first scream of the night.
Completely restrained by the invisible force, her eyes turned red from fear and betrayal as the man from earlier approached her defenseless form. As Pairo rushed in an attempt to help his little sister, Norita could barely even see a small shadow zoom by at unbelievable speed, taking Pairo's head clean off with an explosion of blood splatter.
Norita cried out at the top of her lungs, every inch of her voice drenched in shock and grief. "Big brother! Come back big brother…! You promised we would stay together! Get up! I need you!" She screeched loudly. This can't be… why… was all that ran through her mind at the moment. All she knew was that her brother was gone.
The strange man simply continued to smile at her. "Don't worry about your brother. You'll see him soon. I should thank you for those scarlet eyes. To own such a rare and mysterious color intrigues me." He said in a calm voice lacking any emotion.
Shivers raced down Norita's back as the man dangled a sharp metal instrument dangerously close to her left eye. The inner blades were caked in old dried blood and gave off a sickly smell of iron. There was no doubt even in the mind of one as Norita that the events to come would be unimaginably and excruciatingly torturous. Norita panicked, desperation taking over. I can't move. It hurts when I move. Big brother… I want big brother. I'm so scared… help me.
The little bit of skin covering Norita's left eye offered no resistance as the metal, blood covered blade was plunged deep inside, just below her eyeball. Her vision runs as red as her eyes as waves of agony strong enough to cripple an elephant washed over her, triggering primal screams of animalistic torture.
The poor girl felt enough agony jolt through her body each time the metal scraped against her cranium to last a hundred lifetimes. She instinctively tries to move and remove the instrument, but each inch she moved worked the tread trapping her deeper into her skin. This only caused more waves of agony to hit her, creating a vicious and unrelenting cycle of pain.
The sound of metal scraping against her cranium echoed through her mind without mercy. The sound came not from her ears but rang from her skull directly to her brain. There was no way any living being could prepare for this. It was enough suffering to last a billion lifetimes all wrapped up in a single moment. Her pain gets worse with heartbeat while the fear and trauma makes her heart beat faster in another vicious cycle of agony that she couldn't escape. It's not something she could simply either get used to or ignore. The only thing she could do was hope for release when she finally dies, but she was too young to even comprehend that train of thought.
The same hell repeated with Norita still retaining consciousness as her other eye was ripped out the same way. With every scream the pain grew worse until at last both eyes were taken and everything turned black. Even then, she still didn't die immediately. Norita was left there cold on the ground bleeding out from her eyes sockets and countless cuts from the thread in torturous agony. She screamed out in despair and excruciating pain. "Give those back!" She screamed. "It hurts, it hurts! Give my eyes back so it doesn't hurt! Just make it stop!"
This continued for half an hour until she no longer had the strength to cry out. The only noises she made now were wet and bloody gurgling sounds as she suffocated on her own blood and at last stopped breathing.
"Hey big brother…" a gastly voice resembling hers rang out seemingly from the afterlife, "this isn't where our story ends… right? You're still here right? You promised we would be together from now on. Can you finish… our story?"